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ArghBlarg (79067)

ArghBlarg
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http://www.blitter.com/

ArghBlarg (79067)

  Science: Bigelow Aerospace Deploys Genesis 2 Space Module 2007-06-29 03:18

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday June 29 2007, @03:18AM
from the final-frontiers dept.
ThePopeLayton writes "Space.com is reporting that Bigelow Aerospace has successfully launched its Genesis 2 Space Module. This is significant as Bigelow Aerospace is one of a few private groups currently developing space technologies. The module was launched in a compact form and upon achieving a stable orbit will be inflated using compressed air. Bigelow's website is reporting 'the second experimental pathfinder spacecraft has been successfully launched and inserted into orbit.' The module has a variety of things on board: Scorpions, Hissing Cockroaches, Ant colonies, and even a Bingo game."
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 [+] story, science, space, khaaaaaan
Submitted by T-Unit on Wednesday June 06 2007, @01:00AM
T-Unit writes "Wired's Gadget Labs reports that chipset manufacturer Via will be releasing a new Nanobook. The tiny laptop weighs less than two pounds and will retail for under $600USD. It sounds like a deal, even considering that the right half of the display panel is reserved for a large, hideous, 1980's-styled digital clock (probably included to produce the unit with a smaller display, at a lower production cost)."
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/06/nanobook.html
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 [+] submission, hardware, portables
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  Polywell fusion[->] 2007-06-06 00:45 Daniel Bateman, B.S. Physics, Graduate Student, UW

Submitted by Daniel Bateman, B.S. Physics, Graduate Student, UW on Wednesday June 06 2007, @12:45AM
Daniel Bateman, B.S. Physics, Graduate Student, UW writes "Research on the Polywell fusion device, developed by Dr. Robert Bussard (PhD Physics, Princeton) under a contract with the US Navy, was made public in late 2005, shortly after: 1. Navy funding ended, as a result of the Iraq war 2. The last major technical problem was solved 3. Success and a world's record for D-D (deuterium-deuterium) fusion was achieved. Here is a video presentation given to Google by Dr. Bussard: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846 673788606 Here is a site with several relevent links including an illustrated transcript of the video — it contains some technical errors by the transcriber (Mark Duncan, a marketing consultant), but is nicely illustrated. http://www.askmar.com/Fusion.html Here is a link to a new non-profit organization set up by Dr. Bussard, with links to some papers: http://www.emc2fusion.org/ For those knowledgeable of fusion research, please note that the Lawson criterion does not apply here, as we are not dealing with a neutral plasma. Indeed, we are not even dealing a Maxwellian distribution of nuclei. Rather, the Polywell device traps a group of electrons to create a quasishperical negative electrostatic potential well, which can then be used to accelerate nuclei to the required energy for fusion reactions to occur. Here is a video: http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2007/05/iec-fusi on-for-dummies.html Note that the energy of all the nuclei at the bottom of the potential well is SINGULAR- that is, the energy of each nucleus depends upon the depth of the potential well created by the quasi-spherical group of electons), and that, if a fusion reaction does not occur for a given nucleus, the kinetic energy of that nucleus is converted to potential energy for that nucleus inside the electrostatic well."
http://www.emc2fusion.org/
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 [+] submission, science, patents
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  Sun explores parallel universe with Studio 12 2007-06-06 00:35 vuglusk

Submitted by vuglusk on Wednesday June 06 2007, @12:35AM
vuglusk writes "The Register has a nice article on Sun releasing Sun Studio 12 compilers, tools and the IDE now supporting Linux 100% for the first time. It is interesting enough to watch Intel and Sun duke it out with the developer tools aimed at making multithreaded programming easier, but for Sun there's a subtler message here: with Sun Studio 12 migration between Linux and Solaris becomes easier than ever. The million dollar question, of course, is which way will this migration go."
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 [+] submission, developers, sun
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  Best Buy Lawyer Discovered Editing Documents 2007-06-06 00:20 tengu1sd

Submitted by tengu1sd on Wednesday June 06 2007, @12:20AM
tengu1sd writes "A new chapter in the Best Buy Saga. Everyone's favorite vendor may have it's head in a noose. . . . revelations about the actions of Minneapolis attorney Timothy Block do not bode well for the company. The lawsuit, filed in 2003, accuses Best Buy of signing up at least 100,000 customers for trial subscriptions to Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet service from 1999 to 2003, in many cases without their knowledge. Once the trial period ended, the customers began incurring credit card charges they had not approved. He's accused of altering documents during discovery. Is Tim falling on his sword and taking one for the team and is Best Buy trying pull another over us?"
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 [+] submission, yro, business
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  Has via just killed palm? 2007-06-06 00:11 MikShapi

Submitted by MikShapi on Wednesday June 06 2007, @12:11AM
MikShapi writes "Via just released a reference design of its vision of a 600$ clamshell.

Having under its wing the technology to miniaturize a P3-class x86 CPU with 5-10 Watt power consumption and modern feature-equipped motherboards boasting GbE, SATA, DVI and pretty much everything but the kitchen sink for a very low price-point, it seems Palm's Foleo missed its market by a year or five. Not only is it vastly technologically inferior to the Via reference design at a similar price point, its application base will need to compete with Windows XP AND any x86 Linux you care to use.

Things are not looking very grim for palm."
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 [+] submission, hardware, portables
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  AT&T CEO says to hell with network neutrality 2007-06-05 22:11 Verteiron

Submitted by Verteiron on Tuesday June 05 2007, @10:11PM
Verteiron writes "The former CEO of AT&T, Ed Whitacre, had some interesting remarks to make about Net Neutrality during his parting speech. Choice quotes include his plans for getting anti-neutrality legislation through: "Will Congress let us do it?" Whitacre asks his colleagues. "You bet they will — cuz we don't call it cashin' in. We call it 'deregulation.' "

More information on AT&T's attitude problem and a video of the speech are available here. There's no sign that his replacement is any better."
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 [+] submission, internet
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  Don't call it "Cashing In," Call it "D[->] 2007-06-05 21:09 [Complain Here]

Submitted by [Complain Here] on Tuesday June 05 2007, @09:09PM
[Complain Here] writes "In what might have been an unremarkable speech, AT&T chief Ed Whitacre gave a farewell address before he handed power to his replacement Randall Stephenson last Monday in which he said: "There's a problem. It's called Net Neutrality. Well, frankly, we say to hell with that. We're gonna put up some toll booths and start charging admission." He went on to boast, "Will Congress let us do it? You bet they will — 'cuz we don't call it cashin' in. We call it 'deregulation'.""
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/05/theres-a-problem-its-called-net-neutrality/
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 [+] submission, networking
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  The $200 Laptop - Asus - eee PC[->] 2007-06-05 18:57 fatgadget

Submitted by fatgadget on Tuesday June 05 2007, @06:57PM
fatgadget writes "Asus has announced the eee PC. 'eee' stands for 'Easy to learn, work, play'; 'Excellent internet experience' and 'Excellent mobile computing experience'. It is reported to have a battery life of 3 hours, and the base model will go one sale for about $200 (about £100) with the top model costing $500 (about £250), if the prices are right, this will be serious competition, for UMPC's and Palm's new Foleo. The eee features a 7 display and weighs just 0.8kg, with an Intel Mobile CPU, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Intel UMA graphics, and up to a 16GB Flash drive. It also features a webcam and intergrated speakers. For that price, its a bargain. http://www.gadgettastic.com/"
http://www.gadgettastic.com/2007/06/05/eee-asuss-new-laptop-pc/
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 [+] submission, hardware, portables
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  DOJ calls copyright infringer's terrorists 2007-06-05 13:11 shaggester

Submitted by shaggester on Tuesday June 05 2007, @01:11PM
shaggester writes "A recent article from Businessweek.com confirms the RIAA & MPAA (as many already know) have overwhelming policy making clout in Washington, D.C, and the DOJ recently confirmed it. So you thought terrorists were a threat, the DOJ insist you think again. Because if you even attempt to download that mp3, image, or video you might as well be rubbing shoulders with the likes of those who have been accused of, "bribing officials, taking hostages, and unlawful use of explosives," according to business week. To add insult to injury after your arraignment for "suspected copyright infringement" officials can confiscate any hardware or other device which was used in any manner to commit the infringement."
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 [+] submission, yro, software
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  CompUSA Sales Empty Box[->] 2007-06-05 12:14 bblboy54

Submitted by bblboy54 on Tuesday June 05 2007, @12:14PM
bblboy54 writes "CompUSA recently sold a customer an empty box and is refusing to refund the money because the item was a clearance and, according to CompUSA, all sales are final — even if the sale is of an empty box. The CEO's office goes as far as to blame the buyer for not inspecting the box."
http://www.lostremote.com/2007/06/03/compusa-sells-heaton-empty-box-wont-refund-blames-him/
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 [+] submission, digital
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  Vulgar language, if Pres. can do it so can you 2007-06-04 22:48 Anonymous Coward

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2007, @10:48PM
An anonymous reader writes "The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a fascinating decision today in a case pitting the television networks against the government over indecency rules involving expletives. Our colleague Stephen Labaton captures it this way in his lead paragraphs: If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can use vulgar language, then the government cannot punish others for doing the same thing on television. That, in essence, was the decision on Monday, when a federal appeals court struck down the government policy of fining stations and networks that broadcast shows containing profanities. Both network executives and top officials at the commission said that if the opinion is not reversed on appeal, it would gut the commission's ability to regulate any speech on television or radio. Kevin J. Martin, the chairman of the commission, said the agency was now considering whether to seek an appeal before all the members of the appeals court or to take the matter directly to the Supreme Court. The decision, by a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, was a sharp rebuke for the Federal Communications Commission and for the Bush administration. For the four television networks that filed the lawsuit, Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, it was a major victory in a legal and cultural battle being waged between them and the commission and its supporters."
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 [+] submission, yro, media
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  Long Range Eye Tracking for Advertisers 2007-05-09 20:19

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 09 2007, @08:19PM
from the The-unseen-mechanized-eye dept.
holy_calamity writes "A Canadian firm has launched a device that can track the gaze of multiple people from up to 10 metres away. Originally developed at Queen's University, Ontario, they hope to sell it to advertisers to allow them to monitor how many people look at their ads. Admittedly they are trying more benign stuff too like better hearing aids, but I doubt that will make up for movie posters that make a song and dance whenever you glance their way."

  Lucas To Make New Live Action Star Wars Films 2007-05-09 19:08

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 09 2007, @07:08PM
from the please-stop-killing-the-franchise dept.
DrNASA writes "George Lucas says that he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era. "But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said."
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 [+] story, movies, deadhorse, nooooo, starwars, jarjar

  NTFS-3G Version 1.0 Released 2007-02-21 04:28 Anonymous Coward

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2007, @04:28AM
An anonymous reader writes "NTFS-3G is a free open source NTFS read/write driver. It's already available for over 60 Linux distributions and systems like FreeBSD, BeOS, Haiku and Mac OS X, to big-endian and 64-bit computer architectures, and to new CPU's like AMD64, ARM and MIPS."
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 [+] submission, linux, software
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