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Crime

Mom Arrested After Son Makes Dry Ice "Bombs" 571

formfeed writes "Police were called to a house in Omaha where a 14-year-old made some 'dry ice bombs' (dry ice in soda bottles). Since his mom knew about it, she is now facing felony charges for child endangment and possession of a destructive device. From the article: 'Assistant Douglas County Attorney Eric Wells said the boy admitted to making the bomb and that his mother knew he was doing so. The boy was set to appear Tuesday afternoon in juvenile court, accused of possessing a destructive device.'" She's lucky they didn't find the baking soda volcano in the basement.
PlayStation (Games)

US Air Force To Suffer From PS3 Update 349

tlhIngan writes "The US Air Force, having purchased PS3s for supercomputing research, is now the latest victim of Sony's removal of the Install Other OS feature. It turns out that while their PS3s don't need the firmware update, it will be impossible to replace PS3s that fail. PS3s with the Other OS feature are no longer produced since the Slim was introduced, so replacements will have to come from the existing stock of used PS3s. However, as most gamers have probably updated their PS3s, that used stock is no longer suitable for the USAF's research. In addition, smaller educational clusters using PS3s will share the same fate — unable to replace machines that die in their clusters." In related news, Sony has been hit with two more lawsuits over this issue.
Image

Japanese Astronaut Gets Designer "Space Suit" Screenshot-sm 110

Naoko Yamazaki knows you have to look good at work even if your work is in outer space. Japanese fashion designer Tae Ashida has created a designer suit for the female astronaut to wear during her stay on the International Space Station. "As a female designer, I chose a design and colour with a sense of grace ... so that she can feel at ease as she carries out a tough mission in a male-dominated, bleak atmosphere. It's like a dream come true to see my clothes worn in space," said Ashida. "I'm looking forward to seeing her wear my design."
Ubuntu

Ubuntu Will Switch To Base-10 File Size Units In Future Release 984

CyberDragon777 writes "Ubuntu's future 10.10 operating system is going to make a small, but contentious change to how file sizes are represented. Like most other operating systems using binary prefixes, Ubuntu currently represents 1 kB (kilobyte) as 1024 bytes (base-2). But starting with 10.10, a switch to SI prefixes (base-10) will denote 1 kB as 1000 bytes, 1 MB as 1000 kB, 1 GB as 1000 MB, and so on."

Comment Not short sighted really... (Score 4, Interesting) 121

Not really. Since an app has to go through Apple's approval process, Hello World apps that don't actually do what the submitter indicates should not make it into the store. Of course, given the opaque approval process and the number of fart apps that made it in to the store, the approval process is not a guaranteed firewall.

Apple could them flush the "empty" apps that do not have approved binaries, or at least binaries in the approval process, if they have been empty for more than 3 months or so.

This is just another thing that Apple, and the Android and Palm folks, will have to deal with. The real fun will be when apps are available on multiple platforms, but have different names because of conflicting approvals processes, squatters, and other things that have not yet surfaced.

Comment Sounds like Software by Rudy Rucker (Score 0, Offtopic) 161

in the book, AI evolves as competing programs in a computing environment through natural selection. it was a pretty good book published in the 80's. the robots wind up on the moon (i don't remember how they got there in the first place) and eventually overthrow the humans there. here's an Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/Software-Rudy-Rucker/dp/0380701774/
Nintendo

Nintendo Blocks Homebrew Installation 251

ElementC writes "Sometime yesterday Nintendo uploaded the latest Wii system update. This update quietly patches a few bugs that allowed the installation of both homebrew and warez apps. Currently installed apps such as the Homebrew Channel and the video DVD library, DVDX, are reportedly not affected. Those not installing this update are blocked out of the Wii Shop channel and in the future may be blocked out of certain games. Team Twiizers cracked the last update within about eight hours. They're already on the case. Readers familiar with the architecture of the Wii will find the list of currently discovered changes interesting."
Google

Submission + - Google forbids turn-by-turn nav apps on Andriod

l3iggs writes: Google's Andriod SDK License Agreement (http://code.google.com/android/download.html) links to their Google Maps API Terms of Service (http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html) which has the following words in it:

"...You may not use the Service with...real time route guidance (including without limitation, turn-by-turn route guidance and other routing that is enabled through the use of a sensor)..."

This seems to fly in the face of everything that Andriod stands for and everything that makes it worth while. How can they tout this as an open platform if they prohibit development of (in my opinion) the most useful applications?
By the way, I believe Apple has a similar clause in their iPhone SDK paperwork.

I'm sure the underlying reason for this restriction is patent related. How annoying.
Intel

Submission + - SPAM: Intel Repudiates Execs Criticism of the iPhone

narramissic writes: "Earlier this week, ZDNet Australia reported that Intel executives Shane Wall and Pankaj Kedia described the iPhone as slow and said the popular handset wasn't able to run the 'full Internet' because it uses an Arm processor, instead of an Intel chip. Naturally, these comments caused great consternation in Intel's PR ranks and the company has posted a statement on its Chip Shots Web site, saying 'Apple's iPhone offering is an extremely innovative product that enables new and exciting market opportunities. The statements made in Taiwan were inappropriate, and Intel representatives should not have been commenting on specific customer designs.'"
Link to Original Source
Robotics

Submission + - T-1000 - Coming to a Battlefield Near You (computerworld.com)

Numbah One writes: "
Creative scientists have until next week to submit proposals for creating a shape-shifting military robot that can shrink and then reconfigure itself to normal height and shape. The description of the robot, at a high level, is somewhat reminiscent of the villainous liquid-state cyborg of the sci-fi movie Terminator 2 — except that this robot would be dispatched to save lives on the battlefield. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is accepting proposals for building the so-called Chemical Robot (ChemBot) from researchers until July 2.
"

Biotech

T. Rex Protein Analysis Supports Dinosaur-Bird Link 242

LanMan04 writes "For the first time, researchers have read the biological signature of a Tyrannosaur — a signature that confirms the increasingly accepted view that modern birds are the descendants of dinosaurs. Analyzing the organic material (collagen protein) found inside the unique fossil linked the collagen to several extant species. The bottom line is that the T. rex's biological signature was most like a bird's, at least based on the first fragmentary data. "It looks like chicken may be the closest among all species that are present in today's databases for proteins and genomes," one of the scientists interviewed said."

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