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Australia

Submission + - Ultimate Christmas Lights (vimeo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Most computerised Christmas Lights displays have in the 10s or 100s of channels. For our first-ever display, we decided to go all out and we built a 1,110 channel display using custom hardware and software running on Linux. Since it's now after Christmas, we have synchronised the lights to The Black Eyed Peas — I Gotta Feeling.

Submission + - Anonymous Attackers Not So Untraceable (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: Researchers at the University of Twente are warning that the LOIC DDoS tool used by Anonymous is easily traceable.

The tool of choice in the ongoing pro-WikiLeaks DDoS attacks by digital vigilante group Anonymous may leave its users open to prosecution, failing as it does to adequately protect their identity.

That's the claim of the Design and Analysis of Communication Systems Group at the University of Twente, which recently released a report into the Low-Orbit Ion Cannon, or LOIC, distributed denial of service tool favoured by Anonymous for attacking corporate websites by which it feels aggrieved.

In the report, the researchers claim that "even though the group behind the attacks claims to be anonymous, the tools they provide do not offer any security services, such as anonymisation. As a consequence, a hacktivist that volunteers to take part in such attacks, can be traced back easily" — and that means a possible prosecution under local computer crime laws.
Science

Submission + - LHC prepares marathon Higgs hunt (nature.com) 1

Submitted by gbrumfiel
gbrumfiel writes: Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider are preparing to run the collider until the end of 2012 in the hopes of finding the Higgs particle, part of the mechanism that endows other particles with mass. The machine was originally supposed to stop in 2011 for a year long upgrade, but scientists now think they can find the Higgs if they run for longer. “If we stop the machine with 3,000 people apiece in the experiments waiting for data, there is no way we could get home at night without having slashed tyres on our cars," says Sergio Bertolucci, CERN's director for research and computing.
Canada

The Binary Code In Canada's Gov-Gen Coat of Arms 486

Posted by samzenpus from the always-drink-your-ovaltine dept.
Lev13than writes "Dr. David Johnston, formerly the president of the University of Waterloo, was installed as Canada's new Governor-General on Friday. As de facto head of state and the Queen's representative in Canada he is required to design a personal coat of arms. One modern detail has attracted particular attention - a 33-digit palindromic binary stream at the base. Efforts to decode the meaning of the number using ASCII, Morse, grouping by 3/11 and other theories has so far come up empty (right now it's a toss up between random, the phone number 683-077-0643 and Morse code for 'send help - trapped in a coat of arms factory.') Is 110010111001001010100100111010011 the combination to his luggage, or just a random stream of digits?"

Comment Re:Oncoming Traffic Re:For serious? (Score 1) 699

by Docasman (#32412416) Attached to: Pedestrian Follows Google Map, Gets Run Over, Sues
Actually I was thinking of vegetation or something else that would make walking there unconfortable and/or difficult. Most roads around here don't have 3 meter tall brick walls flanking the lanes... And the effing summary has the word "rural" describing the road... But hey, just stand there waiting for the hit if that suits your joke. BTW, I did find it funny. I just think that facing traffic _and_ being alert can save your life.

Comment Re:Oncoming Traffic Re:For serious? (Score 1) 699

by Docasman (#32411386) Attached to: Pedestrian Follows Google Map, Gets Run Over, Sues

and that there's very little a pedestrian can do, but that argument is a wash.

I guess I always walk facing traffic because at least that way, if I get creamed by a semi, I'll get to take one last big shit before I die.

What about, errr... jumping out of the way? Or maybe take a preventive step to the side if you're not sure the driver has seen you?
Earth

Birth of a New African Ocean 261

Posted by kdawson from the interesting-times-interesting-places dept.
Khemisty writes "Formation of an ocean is a rare event, one no scientist has ever witnessed. Yet this geophysical nativity is unfolding today in one of the hottest and most inhospitable corners of the globe. Africa is splitting apart at the seams. From the southern tip of the Red Sea southward through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique, the continent is coming unstitched along a zone called the East African Rift." This stretching of the earth's crust has been going on for 20 million years, and within another 10 million the Red Sea will have broken through to create a new sea.
Books

Journal SPAM: Digital Astrophotography - Review

Journal by stoolpigeon

In the 80's there were a series of commercials for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups that revolved around the theme of accidental meetings between chocolate and peanut butter. The individuals would realize that the two tastes that they loved separately were even better together. Two great loves for many card carrying geeks are digital photography and astronomy. "
Microsoft

Submission + - Office 2003SP3: Old file formats, now unavailable! 3

Submitted by
time961
time961 writes: "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft has disabled support for many older file formats, so if you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are "less secure", which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source.

Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward "Do you really want to do this?" dialog boxes to click through. And, of course, because these are, after all, old file formats, many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives.

One of the better aspects of Office is its extensive compatibility mechanisms for old file formats. At least the support isn't completely gone—it's just really hard to use. Security is important, but there are better ways to fulfill this goal.

This was also covered by the Windows Secrets newsletter, although I can't find a story URL for it."

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