Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Robotics

NASA Performs Zero-G Robot Surgery for Mars, Iraq->

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "With rapid-response surgery needed in Iraq and super-long-distance medicine a far-off necessity for a manned trip to Mars, NASA recently sent eight astronauts, roboticists and surgeons on its "Vomit Comet," pitting real doctors against new robotic ones. As if the prospect of a portable robo-OR deploying to Iraq by 2009 weren't enticing enough, one of the surgeons on board promised this in his flight blog: "So far, surgery by hand is still the most efficient way to get the job done in a mobile, extreme environment. But robots are advancing rapidly... The solution that roboticists are working on now is to CAT scan a patient's entire body and beam the results back to Earth. Then a surgeon could program an operation and beam it back to upload into a robo-surgeon, which could carry out procedures like a player piano.""
Link to Original Source
Security

Windows Users Bitten by Macrovision Zero Day->

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes "Microsoft told customers about a vulnerability present in the Macrovision secdrv.sys driver on supported editions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. The affected product is Macrovision SafeDisc, a copy-protection application written for Windows. The vulnerability can be used by local attackers to gain so-called Ring 0 privileges and take complete control of an affected system. That's bad. The term "Ring" refers to a protection ring of one or more hierarchical levels of privilege, with Ring 0 being the level with the most privileges and interacting the most directly with physical hardware, including the CPU and memory."
Link to Original Source
Space

Exploding comet visible to naked eye

Submitted by
mernil
mernil writes "msnbc.com writes: "A comet that has unexpectedly brightened in the past couple of weeks and now is visible to the naked eye is attracting professional and amateur interest. Paul Lewis, director of astronomy outreach at the University of Tennessee, is drawing students to the roof of Nielsen Physics Building for special viewings of Comet 17P/Holmes. The comet is exploding and its coma, a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the sun, has grown to be bigger than the planet Jupiter."

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event to witness, along the lines of when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter back in 1994," Lewis said."
Space

Intergalactic Missing Mass Missing Again 171

Posted by kdawson
from the yesterday-upon-the-stair dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Researchers at the University Of Alabama In Huntsville have discovered that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of 'warm' gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons — leaving the mass of the universe as much as ten to 20 percent lighter (in terms of its ordinary matter) than previously calculated. In 2002 the same team reported finding large amounts of extra 'soft' (relatively low-energy) x-rays coming from the vast spaces in the middle of galaxy clusters. Their cumulative mass was thought to account for as much as ten percent of the mass and gravity needed to hold together galaxies, galaxy clusters, and perhaps the universe itself. When the team looked at data from a galaxy cluster in the southern sky, however, they found that energy from those additional soft x-rays doesn't look like it should. 'The best, most logical explanation seems to be that a large fraction of the energy comes from electrons smashing into photons instead of from warm atoms and ions, which would have recognizable spectral emission lines,' said Dr. Max Bonamente. The work was published Oct. 20 in the Astrophysical Journal."
Google

WSJ spreads FUD on open source and Google Phone-> 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Ben Worthen at the Wall Street Journal shows a laughable grasp of what "open source" means: 'Here's the first thing that will happen when a phone with Google's operating system hits the market: Information-technology departments will ban employees from connecting phones that run Google's operating system to their computers or the corporate network. The reason is that Google's operating system is open, meaning anyone can write software for it. That includes bad guys, who will doubtlessly develop viruses and other malicious code for these phones, which unsuspecting Google phones owners will download. Employees could spread the malicious code to the rest of the company when they synch their phones to their computers or use it to check email. The way to combat this is to develop anti-virus and anti-malware software for phones and to develop security procedures similar to those that have evolved for PCs over the last several years. But that's going to take time and money — neither of which the average IT department has. So until then, expect Google phones to be persona non grata at companies.'"
Link to Original Source
Privacy

US Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking 228

Posted by kdawson
from the just-pretend-nobody's-watching dept.
Arashtamere writes "A study on consumer perceptions about online privacy, undertaken by the Samuelson Clinic at the University of California and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, found that the average American consumer is largely unaware that every move they make online can be, and often is, tracked by online marketers and advertising networks. Those surveyed showed little knowledge on the extent to which online tracking is happening or how the information obtained can be used. More than half of those surveyed — about 55 percent — falsely assumed that a company's privacy polices prohibited it from sharing their addresses and purchases with affiliated companies. Nearly four out of 10 online shoppers falsely believed that a company's privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals' activities online. And a similar number assumed that an online privacy policy meant that a company they're doing business with wouldn't collect data on their online activities and combine it with other information to create a behavioral profile."
Announcements

Network Neutrality Squad: Users Protecting the Net->

Submitted by
Lauren Weinstein
Lauren Weinstein writes "Announcing the "Network Neutrality Squad" — NNSquad Joining PFIR Co-Founders Peter G. Neumann and I in this announcement are Keith Dawson (Slashdot.org), David J. Farber (Carnegie Mellon University), Bob Frankston, Phil Karn (Qualcomm), David P. Reed, Paul Saffo, and Bruce Schneier (BT Counterpane). The Network Neutrality Squad ("NNSquad") is an open-membership, open-source effort, enlisting the Internet's users to help keep the Internet's operations fair and unhindered from unreasonable restrictions. The project's focus includes detection, analysis, and incident reporting of any anticompetitive, discriminatory, or other restrictive actions on the part of Internet service Providers (ISPs) or affiliated entities, such as the blocking or disruptive manipulation of applications, protocols, transmissions, or bandwidth; or other similar behaviors not specifically requested by their customers. More at the Network Neutrality Squad Home Page. Thanks. — Lauren —"
Link to Original Source
Sun Microsystems

What Sun's OpenSolaris means for open source 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes "While Linux and all of its various incarnations have seen a great deal of breakthrough attention during 2007, another open-source operating system has been slowly gaining ground: OpenSolaris. And now Sun is banking hard on bringing Linux enthusiasts into the Sun fold. Not just to code for Solaris, but to use it the way they'd use Linux as their desktop operating system, and not just something that runs their servers. And, ultimately, it looks like Sun is hoping to use open-source Solaris as a way to get people to buy Sun systems.

Aside from Solaris itself, though, what does Sun have to bring to the open-source table? That can be summed up in three letters: ZFS."

if (argc > 1 && strcmp(argv[1], "-advice") == 0) { printf("Don't Panic!\n"); exit(42); } (Arnold Robbins in the LJ of February '95, describing RCS)