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Microsoft

Bill Gates Knows What You Did Last Summer 303

Posted by samzenpus
from the tell-us-everything dept.
theodp writes "Give Bill Gates your 'pictures, videos, documents, e-mail, instant messages, addresses, calendar dates/scheduling information (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, appointments), voice mail, phone logs, RSS feeds, subscriptions, bookmarks, mail lists, project management features, computing device data, tasks and location data,' and he'll improve your 'quality of life.' That's the promise behind a patent issued Thursday to Bill Gates and his 20 co-inventors for 'Personal Data Mining', which Microsoft notes 'can include a monetization component' that 'could initiate an auction to sell information to the highest bidder.'"
Space

ESA Conducts Mars Terraforming Experiments On ISS 181

Posted by samzenpus
from the give-those-people-air dept.
geegel writes "Space is a hostile environment for living things, but small organisms on the Expose-E experiment unit outside Europe's Columbus ISS laboratory module have resisted the solar UV radiation, cosmic rays, vacuum and varying temperatures for 18 months. A certain lichen seems to be particularly happy in open space."

Comment: Re:All in my head, baby -- all in my head... (Score 1) 414

by CronicBurn (#30851976) Attached to: I keep track of my passwords ...

I keep several passwords in my head and just modify them slightly every 6-18 months depending on when I feel like it.

They are usually based on something like a phrase and skewed significantly enough to pass strong password requirements and to keep my brain from overloading trying to remember a 14+ character password.

Yahoo!

Microsoft to hire at least 400 Yahoo workers->

Submitted by Santosh
Santosh writes "Microsoft Corp. will hire at least 400 workers from Yahoo Inc. if government regulators approve the companies' proposed Internet search partnership, and Yahoo will receive $150 million to cover any unexpected costs during the switch to new technology.
As it is, transferring 400 workers to Microsoft would prune Yahoo's current payroll by about 3 percent. Yahoo will lay off some workers if the Microsoft deal goes through, Bartz said last week. Tuesday's filing didn't provide any layoff projections.
To keep Yahoo happy, Microsoft will have to produce ad revenue per search that is within a certain percentage of Google's industry-leading rate. If Microsoft doesn't hit the target, Yahoo can abandon the partnership before the contract expires. Tuesday's filing didn't specify how close Microsoft has to come to Google's revenue per search. Microsoft estimates that Google gets 7 cents in ad revenue for every search, while Yahoo gets 4.3 cents and Microsoft gets 3.9 cents, according to a PowerPoint slide Microsoft mistakenly posted online."
Link to Original Source
Transportation

Cash For Clunkers: The Data On Why It's Working->

Submitted by
thecarchik
thecarchik writes "As enacted, the Clunkers program had two goals that weren't always aligned: It had to increase the average gas mileage of cars on the road, but also encourage new car sales, period. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that as of yesterday at 4 pm, almost 134,000 vehicles had been traded in, earning rebates of $564 million. That's an average rebate of more than $4,200--meaning that the mileage increases were far higher than the minimum necessary to earn the base rebate of $3,500."
Link to Original Source
Earth

3D Images Reconstructed of 300M Year Old Spiders

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes "Scientists at Imperial College London have created detailed 3D computer models of two fossilized specimens of ancient creatures called Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestvicii, closely related to modern-day spiders. The researchers created their images by using a CT scanning device, which enabled them to take 3,000 x-rays of each fossil then compile them into precise 3D models, using custom-designed software. Both spiders roamed the Earth before the dinnosaurs during the Carboniferous period, 359 — 299 million years ago when life was emerging from the oceans to live on land. C. hindi's front pair of legs were angled toward the front, suggesting they were used to grapple with prey, an "ambush predator" like the modern-day crab spider, lying in wait for prey to come close. Another finding from the models is that E. prestivicii had hard spikes along its back, probably as a defensive measure making it less palatable to the amphibians that would have hunted it. "Our models almost bring these ancient creatures back to life and it's really exciting to be able to look at them in such detail," says researcher Russel Garwood adding that the technique could be used to return to fossils that have previously been analyzed by conventional means. "Our study helps build a picture of what was happening during this period early in the history of life on land.""
Space

NASA Begins Commercial Crew Initiative-> 4

Submitted by FleaPlus
FleaPlus writes "NASA is using an initial $50M to 'stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop and demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities.' NASA originally planned to use $150M, which was blocked by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) until it was largely redirected to the ~$35B Ares rocket program based at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO) will reward multiple competitive contracts, with the goals of promoting job growth, lowering the cost of spaceflight, and helping reduce the post-Shuttle gap in US human spaceflight capability."
Link to Original Source

Oh, I get it!! "The BEACH goes on", huh, SONNY??