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Communications

Submission + - Hawaiian Moonbounce

Submitted by jrsumm
jrsumm writes: For the first time in more than 25 years an amateur radio operator in Hawaii has successfully bounced a signal off of the moon. Alex Benton, KH6YY, sent a signal from his backyard antenna tower 238,000 miles towards the moon, who had the good grace to send it right back to earth. About a dozen operators from around the world heard it by Saturday. He was planning on operating for several more days to give more amateurs a chance to listen in. The story was picked up by the Honolulu Advertiser.
Space

Submission + - Stephen Hawking Goes ZeroG in NASA's Vomit Comet

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "The trip Slashdot described last month is complete. MSNBC reports that Cosmologist Stephen Hawking has experienced zero gravity: "Zero Gravity co-founder and chief executive officer Peter Diamandis, signaled with his fingers that the world-famous physicist went weightless eight times." Before the flight, Hawking said, "I have been wheelchair-bound for almost four decades, and the chance to float free in zero-G will be wonderful,". The article describes special precautions were taken to ensure his well-being. I thought it might kill him but I'm inspired by his accomplishment."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft profits on Vista sales

Submitted by gnuman99
gnuman99 writes: Microsoft seems to be doing better than analysts expected. In the first quarter of 2007, Microsoft earned almost $5 billion. Higher than expected.

Microsoft Corp. said late Thursday its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 65%, as the company benefitted from initial sales of heavily-marketed new products including its Vista operating system. The world's biggest software maker said it earned a record-high $4.93 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the period ended March 31, compared to $2.98 billion, or 29 cents a share, during the period a year earlier. Meanwhile revenue rose to $14.4 billion from $10.9 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Microsoft to earn 46 cents a share, on revenue of $13.89 billion.

Maybe the anoyance factor cited before is not indicative whether people actually buy Vista?
Wireless Networking

Submission + - 2.6sq/km hotspot opens in London

Submitted by
Liam Cromar
Liam Cromar writes: "The Cloud has opened a ubiquitous wireless mesh network in the City of London. Internet access is available for a reasonable £12/month, or £4.50/hour. A larger network to cover more of London is also planned by The Cloud. No word on connection speeds is provided in the article, however. Still, it will be interesting to see what sort of uptake there is — do people really want ubiquitous Internet?"
The Internet

China's New Internet Plan 259

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-don't-want-to-wash-the-people's-internet dept.
eldavojohn writes "The internet in China is diverging rapidly from the state that the rest of the world enjoys it. Recent news of China's leader, Hu Jintao, has revealed a strategy to distort it even further. Jintao is tackling the issue his Communist party is having with the youth of China that are too young to remember Chairman Mao and the fanaticism the populace had for him. A strategy he is proposing is 'cleaning up' China's internet & lacing it with a little propaganda like the need to 'Consolidate the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological sphere' online. The meeting notes also declared that 'Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance.'"
Security

Submission + - Is Anti-Virus software dead?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: After stumbling over several unanimous recommendations against using viral scans for your email (which somewhat shattered my security world view), I started to notice a bigger and bigger movement which argues against the use of anti-virus software altogether, as it is ineffective against the main threats of malware, counter-productive (as it eats up system resources), and seems to be more of a "good-luck charm" than anything else.

I have to admit that, even though I deal with loads of suspicious software, I can't even remember when I got the last real virus warning.

So — is it time to dump your anti-virus software, go "commando", and free yourself from the shackles of these system drags?

Feed Microwave Your Kitchen Sponge To Keep It Clean (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Every kitchen has at some time or another been home to a sponge, that oh-so-versatile cleaning tool. It wipes up messes on countertops and absorbs liquid droplets quickly. Best of all, it's reusable. Now researchers can tell you two easy ways to keep it clean.

Feed Scientists Create Nano Nose Aimed At Sniffing Out Diseased Cells (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Scientists have created a kind of molecular nose that uses nanoparticle-based sensors to sniff out and identify proteins. The sensors, which can be trained to detect a wide variety of proteins, could eventually serve as a medical diagnostic tool by sniffing out the proteins made by sickly cells.
Books

Submission + - Books, ATF, DEA, Homework Censored by Boston WiFi

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An MIT student reports that the free wifi pilot at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, 'The Cradle of Liberty', uses phrase lists to block public access to many sites on this government-funded network. Among those blocked are Cory Doctorow's book Eastern Standard Tribe , information about lotteries (but not the Massachusetts Lottery site), criminal justice policy sites, the ATF and the DEA.

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