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Comment: Re:Photographic prints! (Score 1) 350

The big box stores are usually a triple-win for cost, convenience, and quality, but there are some things to watch for. Do a preliminary scouting trip and look for:

  1. What machine are they using? Some of the stores have put in new models of photo printers that I don't quite trust. I prefer a machine that's new enough to be in good shape, but old enough to have been evaluated by the archival crowd. The Fuji Frontier machines are generally very good. Whatever they're using, look up light fastness test results on a site like http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com./
  2. What paper are they using? Extra points for Fuji Crystal Archive, though again there are many good and many poor options out there.
  3. How are they handling the prints? Is the tech wearing gloves? Are they super-careful not to bend the corners?

Before you print a big batch of photos, print a couple of test images. Print a really light details on a light background, a dark one, one with lots of blue sky, and one with big areas solid gray tone. Some stores (I don't know about Costco) calibrate their machines only once or twice a year. They may print very well after calibration, but eventually they can drift and produce not-so-good prints.

Finally, if you're keeping your archival copies on DVD or CD, keep in mind that there is a huge difference in longevity depending on the construction of the disc. Be prepared to pay for true archival quality with a gold reflective layer.

Entertainment

Running Apps from the Dashboard: A Good Idea?->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "I guess is was inevitable, now that BMW is letting you view and make tweets from behind the wheel, but is it really a good idea to let people run smartphone apps from their dashboard monitor? I guess for navigation you could run your favorite map-app there, but there is nothing to stop people from running other apps on their dashbaord too. It might be better than texting from the handset, but I'm not sure I want people playing Angry Birds while they drive."
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Security

Symantec: More Malware on Religious Sites Than Porn Sites -> 1

Submitted by
kongshem
kongshem writes "According to Symantec's annual Internet Security Threat Report, religious and ideological websites have far more security threats per infected site than adult/pornographic sites. Why is that? Symantec's theory: "We hypothesize that this is because pornographic Web site owners already make money from the Internet and, as a result, have a vested interested in keeping their sites malware-free — it's not good for repeat business,""
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Android

Android Ported From Java To C#->

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes "When working on how to improve the performance of its tool for Android, development tools vendor Xamarin hit a wall because of performance issues with Dalvik, which is Android's virtual machine, according to a post on the company blog. One idea the Xamarin team had was to translate Android's source code to C#. A few months later skunkworks project XobotOS was born. The result of the project's efforts is that most of Android's layouts and controls have been ported to C#, and the code is available on GitHub, according to the blog post."
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Privacy

Maintain privacy by poisoning the privacy well-> 1

Submitted by Boawk
Boawk writes "Can we protect our privacy by flooding the internet with false information about ourselves?

It’s the last approach that really interests me: Pollution. Poisoning the data stream. Putting out enough false information that the real information becomes unreliable. At that point, anyone wishing to know the truth about me has to come to me directly, allowing me to control access. It’s hardly a perfect option — the untrue things can be permanently connected to you, and it does kind of make you hard to trust online — but it’s the one approach to opacity that’s purely social and extremely difficult to stop.

"
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John McAfee, antivirus pioneer, arrested by Belize police->

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes "McAfee antivirus founder John McAfee is reportedly taking legal advice after a raid on his Belize home by police resulted in the software entrepreneur’s arrest and the death of his pet dog.

The raid in the early morning of 1 May by the country’s armed ‘Gang Suppression Unit’ (GSU) allegedly involved the doors to McAfee’s house being smashed down, his property ransacked, and his dog shot.

After searching the house for drugs and firearms and handcuffing him and his 12 employees, the police detained McAfee for a number of hours before releasing him at 2am the following morning."
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Comment: Re:Laser spectrometry is not new (Score 1) 31

by ColoradoAuthor (#39857331) Attached to: How Lasers Could Help Fingerprint Conflict Minerals

As someone who works with laser spectroscopy, the biggest development here is the prospect of portability. Usually LIBS and LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) systems are as big as a couple of refrigerators, and just as heavy. And that's not counting the supplies of lab-grade argon, helium, and nitrogen needed to run the equipment.

The blurb from Geophysical Research Abstracts says that they're developing a "method." That's a technical term in the field, which means they're developing a reliable, repeatable procedure which specifies exactly how to prepare the samples to avoid contamination and what elements to look for to reliably produce a fingerprint EVERY time without making too many unnecessary measurements. That's routine science, but necessary to getting wide acceptance for the technique.

Microsoft

Microsoft to support ODF 1.2 open document standard in Office 15->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Full OpenDocument (ODF) 1.2 support will be coming in Microsoft Office 15.

Most competing office software has already been updated to support the ODF 1.2 standard that was ratified in September 2011. Supporting the enhanced and stricter 1.2 standard will mean interoperability with many other office solutions will be greatly improved.

The exact motives for Microsoft to jump on the OpenDocument bandwagon are unclear. However, considering an increasing amount of large organisations — particularly national governments- are requiring ODF support from their software vendors, the motive may be purely business."
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Security

Computer Virus Hits US Drone Fleet-> 3

Submitted by Golgafrinchan
Golgafrinchan writes "Quoting from the story:

"A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones. The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.""
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VICARIOUSLY experience some reason to LIVE!!