Comment replying to cancel accidental mod (Score 0, Offtopic) 898
replying to cancel accidental mod
Indian Moon Mission Launched 305
hackerdownunder writes "India's maiden lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1) got off to a flying start today. Describing the launch as 'perfect and precise,' the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), G Madhavan Nair, said that it would be 14 days before the satellite would enter into lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan carries eleven payloads: five designed and developed in India, three from the European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from NASA."
Comment How is this new? (Score 4, Informative) 164
Mercury had a PCI-e cell expansion card for over a year now.
Unlike the leadtek one, the mercury version has the full version of the cell processor, with 8SPEs. Dont think it comes with any prebuilt codecs though.
Submission + - Historical Univeristy Grades
An anonymous reader writes: When I was in college, choosing professors was pretty much luck of the draw. But now it looks like it doesn't have to be: students at the University of Colorado have put together a website that takes much of the guesswork out of finding the right professors. Students can write reviews of their professors, but more importantly, they can see the grades that the professors have given in the past (apparently from data coerced out of public universities from state laws equivalent to the federal freedom of information act), and then decide who to take. Not really a new idea, but they appear to be the only ones doing it for free. Does this provide useful information to students who wish to exceed, or just make it easier for slackers to skate through college?
What are the Best Cell Phone Services in the US? 239
James Hewfanger asks: "Cnet.co.uk has run an article on the five best cell phone services in the UK. These include a text-based service that gets you the number of a licensed cab company in London, Google Maps and Gmail on your phone, a service that can tell what artist and song you're listening to, an online service that backs up all your cell phone contacts and a text-based service that answers any question you can throw at it. What, however, are the five best cell phone services in the US?" Wirefly's cell phone plan comparison tool gives a good up-to-date look of all cell phone plans on the market.
Feed Palm Responds to the iPhone (nytimes.com)
The maker of hand-held computers has hired a top software designer to respond to the challenge posed by Apple’s new iPhone.
Submission + - Nanotechnology, ocean creatures and electronics
hakaii writes: The three-dimensional shells of tiny ocean creatures could provide the foundation for novel electronic devices, including gas sensors able to detect pollution faster and more efficiently than conventional devices. More: http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=1591.php
SEC Halts Trading on Spam Driven Stocks 139
goombah99 writes "The SEC has taken action to halt transactions on spam-touted stocks. Presumably this opens an opportunity for denial of service attacks on stocks. However, to be effective spam generally must target penny stocks with historically low volumes and thus the actual capitalized market impact or effect on the companies for a temporary shutdown can be expected to be negligible and transient. One example was given of a touted apparel stock jumping from 6 cents to 45 cents over a period of days before settling down to ten cents a share and near 65,000 or about $6500 in transactions (an eighth of the peak share volume, and a 50th of the peak transaction value). In other words, the market distortion of a brief shutdown, even if it were a DOS attack, would be massively less than the integrated spam surge. The thing I found surprising was that for this to be an effective measure with human oversight then the number of such events must be relatively small in number. From the amount of spam I get I'd have guessed it was a tidal wave."
Submission + - Dell is taking Vista surveys...
NIN1385 writes: I thought the readers might be interested to know that Dell is taking surveys on why people don't want Windows Vista. I called Dell earlier today because I was planning on purchasing a new Dell notebook and wanted to find out if I could get either Windows XP or no OS pre-installed on it, but the sales associate proceeded to inform me that the only way they were able to sell the new systems was with Windows Vista pre-installed on them. I then asked if I could get Linux pre-installed just for you know whats and giggles, but they told me they weren't offering that either.
The next thing out of his mouth was: "I am being instructed to ask some brief questions about why users don't want Windows Vista, would you mind answering a few questions?". I of course agreed and told him how I have read numerous horror stories about installing the new version and how none of the devices on the market right now are currently supported. I also told him what I'm sure he already knew which was that it's never a good idea to buy any new operating system, Windows or otherwise, before at least a year after the initial release date. After a few minutes of listing problems off I eventually told the guy, who was actually very professional about the whole thing, that I would more than likely be looking at other notebook vendors.
I will miss Dell's business, but if they improve I may go back.
Anti-Matter's Potential in Treating Cancer 216
eldavojohn writes "The BBC is taking a look at how atomic physicists are developing cancer treatments. A step past radiotherapy, the CERN institute is publishing interesting results: 'Cancer cells were successfully targeted with anti-matter subatomic particles, causing intense biological damage leading to cell death.' The press release from last year is finally sparking interest in the medical community."
