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Medicine

How to cure diseases before they even evolve->

Submitted by caveman
caveman writes "Researchers at Functional Genetics are developing an entirely new approach to fighting viral diseases. Rather then develop specific drugs for each virus, which become ineffective if the virus mutates even slightly, they are focusing on attacking the human cell processes which viruses exploit to reproduce within the cell. If the virus can't reproduce, it's dead in the water. If this technique lives up to it's potential, it will be on par with the discover on penicillin. Nobel prize winning stuff."
Link to Original Source

Comment: 16385 - Suspicious number (Score 5, Funny) 341

by caveman (#28789473) Attached to: Windows 7 Hits RTM At Build 7600.16385

Anyone worth half a karma point here will recognise 16384 as a power of two.

In my years of software development, numbers like this jump out at you, usually while debugging something that has crashed due to overwriting something, and suspicious powers of two just scream 'BUG' at me.

Perhaps this move to manufacturing has simply been caused by microsoft not allocating enough bits in the build number, and one more recompile has tripped the manufacturing release...

struct BuildNumber
{
    int IncrementalVersion : 14;
    int ReleaseToManufacturing : 1;
    int FinallyBugFree : 1;
}

(and if this really is the source code, we'll have to wait until release 32768 for a bug free version, assuming we don't hit -32768 first)

Mozilla

New Firefox Project Could Mean Multi-Processor Support 300

Posted by timothy
from the but-should-a-browser-need-multi-processors dept.
suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Mozilla Links "Mozilla has started a new project to make Firefox split in several processes at a time: one running the main user interface (chrome), and another or several others running the web content in each tab. Like Chrome or Internet Explorer 8 which have implemented this behavior to some degree, the main benefit would be the increase of stability: a single tab crash would not take down the whole session with it, as well as performance improvements in multiprocessor systems that are progressively becoming the norm. The project, which lacks a catchy name like other Mozilla projects (like TaskFox, Ubiquity, or Chocolate Factory) is coordinated by long time Mozillian, Benjamin Smedberg; and also integrated by Joe Drew, Jason Duell, Ben Turner, and Boris Zbarsky in the core team. According to the loose roadmap published, a simple implementation that works with a single tab (not sessions support, no secure connections, either on Linux or Windows, probably not even based on Firefox) should be reached around mid-July."
NASA

NASA Running Low On Fuel For Space Exploration 282

Posted by timothy
from the let's-explore-earth-for-more dept.
smooth wombat writes "With the end of the Cold War came warmer relations with old adversaries, increased trade and a world less worried about nuclear war. It also brought with it an unexpected downside: lack of nuclear fuel to power deep space probes. Without this fuel, probes beyond Jupiter won't work because there isn't enough sunlight to use solar panels, which probes closer to the sun use. The fuel NASA relies on to power deep space probes is plutonium-238. This isotope is the result of nuclear weaponry, and since the United States has not made a nuclear device in 20 years, the supply has run out. For now, NASA is using Soviet supplies, but they too are almost exhausted. It is estimated it will cost at least $150 million to resume making the 11 pounds per year that is needed for space probes."
Space

NASA running low on fuel for space exploration->

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes "With the end of the Cold War came warmer relations with old adversaries, increased trade and a world less worried about nuclear war. It also brought with it an unexpected downside: lack of nuclear fuel to power deep space probes. Without this fuel, probes beyond Jupiter won't work because there isn't enough sunlight to use solar panels which probes closer to the sun use.

The fuel NASA relies on to power deep space probes is plutonium-238. This isotope is the result of nuclear weaponry and since the United States has not made a nuclear device in 20 years, the supply has run out. For now, NASA is using Soviet supplies but they too are almost exhausted.

It is estimated it will cost at least $150 million to resume making the 11 pounds per year that is needed for space probes."
Link to Original Source
Communications

Mobile phones last only two years says Nokia

Submitted by superswede
superswede writes "The Swedish Dagens Nyheter and Norwegian VG Nett reports on a court case in Norway between mobile phone maker Nokia and Norwegian insurance group Forbrukerforsikring ("Consumer insurances"). Whereas Forbrukerforsikring claims that consumers have, by law, the right to make a complaint on products up to five years after buying the product, Nokia defends itself and claims that its phones should not be expected to last longer than two years. The background to this story is a Nokia 6100 phone where the keyboard broke after two years and three months and Nokia denied the customer any service. Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson were heard and both said that there phone last at most three to four years. They said that today's mobile phone are used much more than an few years ago; they are not only used for making calls, but also for text messaging, as a camera and a music player."
Music

UK Report Suggests "Modernizing" Copyright

Submitted by
danpsmith
danpsmith writes "The BBC has an article about a government report which proposes new powers against copyright infringement. Interestingly, however, it also: "says private users should be allowed to copy music from a CD to their MP3 player" and further "recommends the 50-year copyright protection for recorded music should not be extended," saying, "The ideal IP system creates incentives for innovation, without unduly limiting access for consumers and follow-on innovators."

While satisfied with most of the report, The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) says, "it would continue to press for the copyright extension.""

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