Comment Oops - that was me. Forgot to log in (Score 1) 127
The comment above was mine.
Comment Re:Ehhh Meh (Score 0) 127
They need this machine to sort through all the data the NSA has been collecting, which must be doubling every year.
Comment Gives me an idea... (Score 2) 81
Step 1.) Put a motor on the crank.
Step 2.) Read the output into your computer with an optical mouse in place of the pen.
Step 3.) Figure out a way to automate programming of the input.
Step 4.) Sell it as a coprocessor!
Step 5.) Profit!
Submission + - Fuel-Less Gravity Powered Flight - Crackpot or Visionary? (fuellessflight.com) 1
TropicalCoder writes: When I first read about this on gizmag.com, "Gravity powered aircraft flies with no fuel!", it was startling, but hard to make sense of it until I went to the web site of Robert D Hunt – Founder/Chairman of Hunt Aviation. I quickly grasped the concept and had a vision of a world filled with these aircraft.
The concept is simple — a glider that can be made buoyant like a helium balloon, then lose that buoyancy to dive like a swallow, gain acceleration, and glide for miles before once again repeating the cycle. At the same time it can gain energy from wind and temperature differences for onboard power.
As I considered it further, however, it began to strike me as too easy, like it was yet another perpetual motion machine. I couldn't put my finger on it though. I noted the extremely amateurish website, the lo-res Windows Media video with so much compression in the audio that it sounded like a radio station experiencing cross-talk from another nearby station. The narration sounded credible until it mentioned something about how it would be difficult for terrorists to sabotage this aircraft. What to think?
I knew one thing — the people at Slashdot are quick to suss-out things like this, so I present this to you. Is it a crackpot idea or the dawn of a revolution in aviation?
The concept is simple — a glider that can be made buoyant like a helium balloon, then lose that buoyancy to dive like a swallow, gain acceleration, and glide for miles before once again repeating the cycle. At the same time it can gain energy from wind and temperature differences for onboard power.
As I considered it further, however, it began to strike me as too easy, like it was yet another perpetual motion machine. I couldn't put my finger on it though. I noted the extremely amateurish website, the lo-res Windows Media video with so much compression in the audio that it sounded like a radio station experiencing cross-talk from another nearby station. The narration sounded credible until it mentioned something about how it would be difficult for terrorists to sabotage this aircraft. What to think?
I knew one thing — the people at Slashdot are quick to suss-out things like this, so I present this to you. Is it a crackpot idea or the dawn of a revolution in aviation?
Submission + - Followup: Ultraviolet Vision after Cataract Surgery (komar.org)
xmas2003 writes: "Several months ago, I posted to /. about being able to see ultraviolet light after cataract surgery. While a lot of the discussion whimsically discussed the best way for "Captain UV" or "UltraMan" to use this "super-power", there were some people who were skeptical or (incorrectly) said this is Tetrachromatic vision. I've subsequently done more testing using an Oriel Instruments MS257 Monochromator and was able to see color down to 350nm — below the usual ~400nm limit of the visual spectrum. It's also easily demonstrable with a pair of 400nm and 365nm UV flashlights.
Some /.'ers who also have UV vision commented this can be quite annoying at black-lit Disney Rides, Halloween Haunted Houses, etc. Fortunately for me, it's just an interesting oddity so far. Along those lines, some interesting related stories about using UV vision during World War II and Star Gazing. Finally, many/most people end up getting vision debilitating cataracts, so my experience having a Crystalens implanted after cataract surgery may be informative."
Some
Journal Journal: I see the natives are restless again ...
More noise about how "evil" it is to replace busybox with MIT/BSD-licensed code. http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2012/02/index.html
The fact is that what the SFC was doing - requiring the source for ALL software, not must modified busybox - was illegal (thanks to Barnes and Noble vs Microsoft for reminding us that you cannot do this sort of "tying").
Submission + - ESA's Vega Launcher Has Successful Maiden Flight (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: The European Space Agency's (ESA) new Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata — or Vega — launch vehicle lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 10 a.m. GMT on February 13 on its maiden flight. Designed for launching small payloads, Vega is intended to complement Europe's existing family of launchers that includes the Ariane 5 heavy-lifter and Soyuz medium-class launchers. The qualification flight, designated VV01, saw the first Vega successfully carry nine satellites into orbit.
Submission + - Amazon Blocks Video Streaming on BlackBerry Tablet, Blames Apple (cio.com)
AZA43 writes: "Amazon.com has blocked its Instant Video streaming service on BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, in an apparent effort to make its Kindle Fire device more attractive to tablet buyers. And it says Apple is the reason why it blocked the service. But the company hasn't blocked comparable Android tablets from streaming Instant Video, and Android tablets hold a much larger portion of the overall tablet market than PlayBooks. Amazon will likely succeed only in alienating customer with PlayBooks who have already purchased lots of streaming video content."
Submission + - Xbox 360 Patching Costs $40,000 (itproportal.com)
hypnosec writes: It costs developers a total of $40,000 to release a single patch on Xbox live, making it a difficult platform for smaller developers to grow on. This revelation was made by Tim Shafer of Double Fine Studios — which recently drew a lot of charitable donations as part of a campaign to create a contemporary point and click game. He went on to say that this is just too high a fee for smaller developers to pay, making it hard for them to do well on the platform. This makes sense, since requiring just one patch could massively cut into the profits for a company. More than that and potentially a game could become a big cash drain for an indi developer.
Submission + - Mozilla Plans Metro Firefox For Windows 8 (i-programmer.info)
mikejuk writes: Mozilla is already working on a version of Firefox for Windows 8 Metro that will be focused on touch interaction. It hopes to have a proof-of-concept version available in the second quarter of this year. However, even as a Metro app, the new version of Firefox would be fighting with one hand tied behind its back against the "MetroTop" version of IE.
To quote Mozilla:
"On Windows 8, IE10 is both a metro app and a regular desktop application. When run as a metro app it does things that are known to be off-limits for metro applications."
So Mozilla is looking to Microsoft to provide it with the same privileges as Internet Explorer has. Put another way, Firefox needs to run as a Medium level integrity process with full use of the Win32 API.
Mozilla explains:
"In general, browser vendors would prefer access to the system similar to that of Internet Explorer 10. From all outward appearances IE is currently able to bypass security restrictions of the Metro sandbox by running as a medium integrity process, effectively running as a standard Windows desktop application with additional extensions which allow it to latch into the Metro interface.
Vendors feel changes should be made to the current restrictions which will facilitate the ability of 3rd parties to compete with Microsoft's products in this new environment."
Of course this is not just a problem for Mozilla — both Google and Opera are going to want equal treatment, as are the makers of any other type of app that Microsoft decided to include as a MetroTop app.
What if Microsoft says no?
To quote Mozilla:
"On Windows 8, IE10 is both a metro app and a regular desktop application. When run as a metro app it does things that are known to be off-limits for metro applications."
So Mozilla is looking to Microsoft to provide it with the same privileges as Internet Explorer has. Put another way, Firefox needs to run as a Medium level integrity process with full use of the Win32 API.
Mozilla explains:
"In general, browser vendors would prefer access to the system similar to that of Internet Explorer 10. From all outward appearances IE is currently able to bypass security restrictions of the Metro sandbox by running as a medium integrity process, effectively running as a standard Windows desktop application with additional extensions which allow it to latch into the Metro interface.
Vendors feel changes should be made to the current restrictions which will facilitate the ability of 3rd parties to compete with Microsoft's products in this new environment."
Of course this is not just a problem for Mozilla — both Google and Opera are going to want equal treatment, as are the makers of any other type of app that Microsoft decided to include as a MetroTop app.
What if Microsoft says no?
Submission + - Data sharing aids the fight against malaria (nature.com)
ananyo writes: Two years ago, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced that it would release details of about 13,500 molecules that had already been shown to inhibit the malaria-causing Plasmodium falciparum parasite to some degree (http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/26/2233236/glaxo-open-sources-malaria-drug-search-data). The molecular structures were published in May 2010, along with similar data from Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, and the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Researchers were encouraged to test the combined library of more than 20,000 compounds to pinpoint potential drugs, and then find out how they work so that the molecules could be tweaked to enhance their activity. Such 'open innovation' efforts have since been launched, including an effort unveiled last month which will see 11 companies sharing their intellectual property (http://www.nature.com/news/road-map-unveiled-to-tackle-neglected-diseases-1.9938). But are such efforts working? The answer, judging by the GSK effort, seems to be a cautious 'yes'.
Submission + - Bram Cohen Demoes BitTorrent Live: Cheap, Real-Time P2P Video Streaming (techcrunch.com)
suraj.sun writes: At the SF MusicTech Summit, Bram Cohen, the author of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer sharing protocol, demoed his latest creation BitTorrent Live( http://live.bittorrent.com/ ). BitTorrent Live lets any content owner or publisher stream video to millions of people at good quality and with just a few seconds of latencyfor free or cheap. Sports, news events, simulcast TV shows, education, video conferencing, or uncensored war zone broadcasts — this technology will power the future of video.
“My goal is to kill off television” Cohen said during the SF MusicTech demo session I hosted. Afterwards he explained to me in rhyme, “Television’s physical infrastructure is inevitably going to go away, but TV as a mode of content consumption is here to stay.” Essentially, people love what they see on television, but want it accessible from the web.
Techcrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/13/bittorrent-live/
“My goal is to kill off television” Cohen said during the SF MusicTech demo session I hosted. Afterwards he explained to me in rhyme, “Television’s physical infrastructure is inevitably going to go away, but TV as a mode of content consumption is here to stay.” Essentially, people love what they see on television, but want it accessible from the web.
Techcrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/13/bittorrent-live/
Submission + - Chinese Hackers Suspected in Nortel Breach (wsj.com) 1
wiredmikey writes: Reports of yet another significant incident of international corporate espionage surfaced this morning, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that for nearly a decade, hackers had widespread access to the corporate computer network of former telecom giant Nortel Networks Ltd.
According to the Wall Street Journal, using just seven passwords taken from Nortel executives, including that of their CEO, the hackers penetrated Nortel's systems at least as far back as 2000.
The hackers also embedded malicious spyware so deeply on some systems that it took years to realize the extensiveness of the problem, according documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. They "had access to everything," an investigator told the Journal. "They had plenty of time. All they had to do was figure out what they wanted."
According to the Wall Street Journal, using just seven passwords taken from Nortel executives, including that of their CEO, the hackers penetrated Nortel's systems at least as far back as 2000.
The hackers also embedded malicious spyware so deeply on some systems that it took years to realize the extensiveness of the problem, according documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. They "had access to everything," an investigator told the Journal. "They had plenty of time. All they had to do was figure out what they wanted."
Submission + - Moon Base Supporters Struggle to Justify the Project (examiner.com)
MarkWhittington writes: "Newt Gingrich's speech in Florida when he proposed the now much maligned and much debated upon lunar base did not actually articulate the reasons for creating such a facility, aside from the vague notion that it would be an expression of American greatness.
The question of why spend money to create a lunar base is not a frivolous one, considering the reaction Gingrich's proposal has gotten. It is a question that has been a struggle for proponents to articulate clearly.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Moon Base Supporters Struggle to Justify the Project — Houston Space news | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/space-news-in-houston/moon-base-supporters-struggle-to-justify-the-project#ixzz1mM2gfIFR"
The question of why spend money to create a lunar base is not a frivolous one, considering the reaction Gingrich's proposal has gotten. It is a question that has been a struggle for proponents to articulate clearly.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Moon Base Supporters Struggle to Justify the Project — Houston Space news | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/space-news-in-houston/moon-base-supporters-struggle-to-justify-the-project#ixzz1mM2gfIFR"
Submission + - Did life emerge in ponds rather than ocean vents? (nature.com)
ananyo writes: The prevailing scientific view holds that life began in hydrothermal vents in the deep sea. But a controversial study (abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/02/08/1117774109) suggests that inland pools of condensed and cooled geothermal vapour have the ideal characteristics for the origin of life. The study hinges on the observation that the composition of the cytoplasm of modern cells is very different to that of seawater. On the other hand, the mix of metal ions in cytoplasm is (almost exclusively) found where where hot hydrothermal fluid brings the ions to the surface — places such as geysers and mud pots. There are a number of problems with the study, however — for instance, a lack of land 4 billion years ago would have made it difficult for life to start in such pools.
