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Comment Even more obscure privacy setting (Score 2) 188

by WallaceAndGromit (#41700579) Attached to: User Tracking Back On iOS 6
Here is an even more obscure privacy setting. If you read through the privacy page here...
http://www.apple.com/privacy/
You'll notice about halfway down the page in the "cookies and other technology" section a discussion of interest based advertising, which is basically iAd's targeted at you based on your usage habits. The only way to opt out of this "feature" on an iOS device is to click on the link in that paragraph to http://oo.apple.com/ from Safari on your iOS device, which will bring you to a settings page that will allow you to disable "interest based iAds". I have not found a way to get to this setting page through the settings App (queue up the people who will promptly correct me).
Science

Dolphins Can Sleep One-half of Their Brain At a Time Say Researchers 139

Posted by samzenpus from the we-don't-need-no-stinking-sleep dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Looks like the evolution in multi-core computing is something nature has already figured out. Dolphins will sleep one core while the other remains vigilant, running background tasks necessary for survival. From the article: 'The scientists wrote: "From an anthropomorphic viewpoint, the ability of the dolphin to continuously monitor its environment for days without interruption seems extreme. However, the biological, sensory and cognitive ecology of these animals is relatively unique and demanding. If dolphins sleep like terrestrial animals, they might drown. If dolphins fail to maintain vigilance, they become susceptible to predation. As a result, the apparent 'extreme' capabilities these animals possess are likely to be quite normal, unspectacular, and necessary for survival from the dolphin's perspective."'"

Comment Firefox + gestures + OS X (Score 2) 364

by WallaceAndGromit (#36591664) Attached to: One Week: No Mouse, Just Keyboard
Many may already know this, but I thought I would post anyways... if you want to make greater use of gestures while browsing, and use Firefox, see the article here...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=737074

There are assignable gestures hidden in about:config, and browsing is so much better once you find some customized combinations that you like. Here are the ones that I have altered and find helpful:
Swipe down: new tab
Swipe up: go home
Pinch in: close tab
Pinch out: toggle between full screen/not full screen
Rotate right: reload
Rotate left: undo close tab (for those times you accidentally pinch in)

Comment NASA source footage (Score 5, Informative) 202

by WallaceAndGromit (#36370254) Attached to: Massive Explosion On the Sun
Go here and you can view animations of the sun using all the different telescopes on SDO...

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/aiahmi/rangeform.php

Instructions to view the subject solar flare: select browse by date range, enter 2011-06-07 00:00:00 as the beginning and 2011-06-07 12:00:00 as the end dates, select movie as the display, select resolution 1024x1024, and set nth = 1, submit and enjoy. Also, you can play with the different telescopes.

Comment Re:Public Attention (Score 1) 304

by WallaceAndGromit (#28916883) Attached to: Panel Recommends Space Science, Not Stunts

Hopefully people will realize how important the space program is, but something tells me that it won't be soon, and it won't be until we get something inspiring. Deep space voyages, while important, won't inspire anyone. Landing on the Moon or Mars? That will.

The biggest impediment to that PR vision is keeping the spam in the can alive to both land on the surface of Mars, in particular, and return to earth. Looking over the historical evidence, http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/log/, it does not give a sense that we have a good handle on how to manage risk associated with unmanned science missions to Mars, let alone a manned missions which will require much more complexity. About half of all missions to Mars that have been attempted have failed. Killing people en route or crashing people on the surface of Mars does absolutely no good, and will likely yield the opposite of the desired PR outcome. I, for one, would like to see much better accounting for, and management of, the risk associated with both current unmanned Mars missions before attempting a simple PR stunt involving people. Science for the sake of science has it's place, and one is risk mitigation. And since everyone knows the moon is made of cheese http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/films/granddayout/, so there is no need to go back there :)
Power

$1/Gallon "Green Gasoline" In Sight 740

Posted by kdawson from the happy-earth-day dept.
mattnyc99 writes "We've gotten excited here about the startup that claims it can make $1/gallon ethanol out of anything from trash to tires. But we've also seen how cellulosic ethanol is a better option, and how ethanol demand in general is only adding to the worldwide food crisis. So what about $1/gallon gasoline? NSF-funded researchers at UMass Amherst just completed the first direct conversion from cellulose using a new method of hydrocarbon refining, which they claim can be commercialized within 5-10 years and essentially make fuel out of anything that grows. Quoting: 'We already have the infrastructure in place to distribute liquid fuels. We're using them to power transportation vehicles today, and I think that's what we'll be using in 10 years and in 50 years,' Huber says. 'And if you want a sustainable liquid transportation fuel, biomass is the only way to go.'" The process is running at about 50% efficiency now; the $1/gallon figure is based on getting to 100%.
Science

Beer-Drinking Scientist Debunks Productivity Correlation 130

Posted by kdawson from the sipping-a-magnificent-pacific-northwest-microbrew-porter dept.
austinpoet writes in with a blog post debunking the theory we discussed a few days back that scientists' beer consumption is linearly correlated with the quality of their work. Chris Mack, Gentleman Scientist and beer drinker, has analyzed the paper and found it is severely flawed. From his analysis: "The discovered linear relationship between beer consumption and scientific output had a correlation coefficient (R-squared) of only about 0.5 — not very high by my standards, though I suspect many biologists would be happy to get one that high in their work... Thus, the entire study came down to only one conclusion: the five worst ornithologists in the Czech Republic drank a lot of beer."

Why Aren't More Linux Users Gamers? 693

Posted by Zonk from the all-about-the-games dept.
tops writes "MadPenguin.org wonders why more Linux users aren't gamers and attempts to answer that question. The article suggests, 'As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to a choice. Expect the gaming industry to follow the Linux doctrine or instead, build up a viable, cross platform gaming market that includes us, the Linux users.' The article urges publishers to consider Linux users as a viable market, and requests that game developers target Linux as a platform during the pre-production phase." What do you think are the most important obstacles barring the big game publishers from reaching out to the Linux market more than they already do?

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