Comment *** The clear winner (Score 1) 581
CylonCo - Manufacturers of biped-based combat chassis and countertop kitchen appliances for over 40 Years!
Building the Interplanetary Internet 334
sighted writes "Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, now a Google VP, is leading a NASA effort to create a permanent network link to Mars within the next two years. As Cerf outlined in a recent talk, the 'InterPlaNet' protocol is designed to handle the delay caused by interplanetary distances. A signal traveling between the Earth and Mars can take up to 20 minutes."
Submission + - What's missing from Vista's "official apps"
PetManimal writes: "Microsoft has just released a list of 800 applications it says are "officially supported" on Windows Vista. What's special about this list, however, are the programs that are not included:
Another area in which Vista has found to be lacking is gaming, as discussed earlier on Slashdot."Popular Windows software that is conspicuously missing from Microsoft's list includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s entire line of graphics and multimedia software, Symantec Corp.'s security products, as well as the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox Web browser, Skype Ltd.'s free voice-over-IP software and the OpenOffice.org alternative to Microsoft Office
Submission + - NY Times Trashes Open Source
An anonymous reader writes: From http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/business/smallbu siness/20hack.html?pagewanted=2&ref=smallbusiness
In a NY Times article about small businesses and network security : "Many use open-source software, which is free on the Internet...Some of that software, because it is written by relatively unskilled programmers, has a poor security record." It goes on to discuss the 'threat' of PHP and Ajax.
In a NY Times article about small businesses and network security : "Many use open-source software, which is free on the Internet...Some of that software, because it is written by relatively unskilled programmers, has a poor security record." It goes on to discuss the 'threat' of PHP and Ajax.
Submission + - Nifty shell tricks for new UNIX users
BlueVoodoo writes: "The objective of this tutorial is to show new users how to use and implement many of the shell's methods for providing automation at various levels. It demonstrates these methods by giving tricks and tips for special situations, and it also presents a rundown of useful shell one-liners for common tasks."
Submission + - 67 Kilowatt Laser Unveiled
s31523 writes: "We all remember the scene from the movie Real Genius where the nerdy guys get a laser to fire which burns a hole through everything for miles. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has announced they have a Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) that averages 67kW working in their lab. Developed for the military, Dr. Yamamoto claims this to be a record and is quoted as saying, "I know of no other solid state laser that has achieved 67kW of average output power". The potential uses for this bad boy go well beyond turning a professor's house into Jiffy Pop. Here is what a 40w laser can do, now imagine 67000 watts. Although many lasers have peaked at higher capacities, getting the average sustained power to remain high seems to be the tricky part."
Submission + - Jump into JUnit 4
BlueVoodoo writes: "This tutorial guides you step-by-step through the fundamental concepts of JUnit 4, with emphasis on the new Java 5 annotations. At the conclusion of this one-hour tutorial, you will understand the major changes to JUnit 4, as well as being familiar with features such as exception testing, parametric testing, and the new flexible fixture model."
Submission + - Can wild grass produce clean fuel?
Roland Piquepaille writes: "As many other countries, the U.S. want to reduce their dependency on oil by increasing the production of renewable and alternative fuels. Today, the main source of biofuel is ethanol distilled from kernels of corn, with a production of 5 billion gallons a year. As current targets for biofuels have been pushed to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 and 35 in 2017, using corn ethanol alone would require to convert the combined size of Kansas and Iowa into farmland. But researchers have studied other solutions. And the best one could be to use cellulosic ethanol as the fuel of the future. The main advantage of using a wild grass named miscanthus is that you can produce ethanol from the whole plant body as opposed to corn where you can only use the grains. The other one is that you would need to grow this plant only on an area of the size of Massachusetts — an area 18 times smaller. But will farmers follow this advice? Time will tell. In the mean time, read more for additional details and a chart comparing the respective profits you could expect from the utilization of corn, switchgrass and miscanthus to produce ethanol."
Longhorn Server Will Stress Virtualization 101
Rob writes in with an article from CBROnline based on an interview with Microsoft's UK server director. He says the timing of the release of the next version of Microsoft's server OS, dubbed Longhorn, depends on the company getting virtualization ready to go. Microsoft has apparently decided to embed its hypervisor technology into Windows, an OS-centric approach to virtualization shared by XenSource Inc., its open-source rival and partner. This contrasts with the model of virtualizing the hardware layer being pursued by VMWare. The Microsoft spokesman is coy about a release date for Longhorn, saying it could be earlier or it could be later (but it should be in 2007).
Submission + - Google: "Screw PC's...Cell phones are the next
rnjonjo writes: "Bangalore, India — Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist Vinton Cerf predicted that cellphones, not PCs, will fuel growth of the Net as countries like India snap up millions of handsets monthly.
From 50 million in 1997, the number of people who have logged onto the Internet has exploded to nearly 1.1 billion, Cerf, who is considered one of the founding fathers of the Internet, said.
Yet, the Internet only reaches a sixth of the world's population, Cerf told reporters during a visit to this southern city, known as India's Silicon Valley, where Google has a research and development facility.
"You will get those other 5.5 billion people only when affordability increases and the cost of communication goes down," said Cerf, 63, who joined Google in 2005. "The mobile phone has become an important factor in the Internet revolution."
The silver-bearded scientist, dressed in a three-piece suit for a presentation on the Internet, is hearing-impaired and had to read the lips of reporters who asked him questions.
Cerf, a winner of the Alexander Graham Bell award, said one of the reasons he started working on the Internet project was to give the hearing impaired an instant tool to communicate.
Worldwide there are 2.5 billion cellphone users, whose numbers are growing rapidly in developing countries led by China and India, the world's most populous countries, Cerf said in his presentation.
India, a country of 1.1 billion people, alone is adding seven million cellphone users a month, a powerful enough lure for British telecom giant Vodafone to pay $11.1
billion for a controlling stake in local mobile firm Hutch-Essar this month.
Handset manufacturers and mobile-phone companies are offering an array of Internet-enabled features and services including payment and navigation systems while dropping charges under the pressure of growing competition that will bring many of the new subscribers to the Internet, Cerf said.
"There are an enormous number of applications available on mobiles," said Cerf, who's responsible for identifying new technologies and applications on the Internet for Google.
Google has rapidly expanded its research and service offices in the country at the cities of Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai besides Bangalore, but Cerf said he has been visiting India since the early 1990s to understand its tech scene.
The company wants to tap the talent of Indian engineers to innovate technologies and widen its range of services, said Cerf.
India is estimated to have 40 million people online, a meager 3.5 percent of its vast population, he said, adding Google will focus on local languages, culture, content and delivery of new business models to widen the reach of the Internet.
Cerf was the co-designer with Robert Kahn of the basic architecture of the Internet.
In 2005, they both received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which recognized that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet has put them "at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication and entertainment."
The Internet has brought access to the world's information to users, introduced new business models, education services, ushered in a new advertising medium and enabled consumers to become producers, Cerf said.
It also has brought spam mail, computer viruses and worms, misinformation, fraud and social abuse, he conceded in his presentation.
"This is a mirror to the population that uses it," the scientist said.
But Cerf's interests aren't limited to the Internet. He enjoys fine wine, gourmet cooking and science fiction, said Prasad Ram, who heads Google's Indian research facility."
Submission + - When IT security gets physical
ancientribe writes: A social engineering firm is forced to actually steal the laptop of a technology-savvy suspected employee-gone-bad to investigate his actions for a large corporate client, and things get physical — literally, as they wrestle over the machine, according to this column in Dark Reading. Steve Stasiukonis, vice president and founder of Secure Network Technologies, recounts the sting operation that led to a scuffle, as well as getting the goods on the culprit.
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=117 531&WT.svl=tease3_2
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=11
Submission + - Scientist make quantum encryption breakthrough
Madas writes: "Scientists working in Cambridge, England have managed to make quantum encryption completely secure by
putting decoy pulses in the key transmission stream. According to the story this paves the way for safe, encrypted high-speed data links. Could this allow completely private transmission of data away from snooping eyes and ears? Or will it mean film studios can stop movies from being copied when travelling on the internet?"
Submission + - HD DVD Cracking Software Released
fattmatt writes: "Newsfactor.com reporting on commercial HD cracking software now available from Slysoft for the masses... Blue Ray on the way..."
Australia Outlaws Incandescent Light Bulb 944
passthecrackpipe writes "The Australian Government is planning on making the incandescent light bulb a thing of the past. In three years time, standard light bulbs will no longer be available for sale in the shops in Australia (expect a roaring grey market) and everybody will be forced to switch to more energy efficient Fluorescent bulbs. In this move to try and curb emissions, the incandescent bulb — which converts the majority of used energy to heat rather then light — will be phased out. Environmental groups have given this plan a lukewarm reception. They feel Australia should sign on to the Kyoto protocol first. A similar plan was created together with Phillips, one of the worlds largest lighting manufacturers."
Submission + - Australia to phase out incandescent light bulbs
rblancarte writes: Citing a reduction in greenhouse gases, the Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country. 'Federal Government figures suggest energy used for household lighting in Australia contributes up to 12 per cent of coal-energy greenhouse gas emissions and around 25 per cent of emissions from commercial and public lighting.' While a small percentage in Australia's goal in greenhouse gas reduction, it is one of the first major steps taken to reduce greenhouse gases by any national government. The incandescent bulb is a 125 year-old technology with few changes made in the last century.
