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Comment: Re:Never used iTunes (Score 2) 317

by NotSanguine (#45624415) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best FLOSS iTunes Replacement In 2013?

I've never used iTunes. I just use folders and store everything by /Artist/Album. It's easy enough to right click the folder and select "play in VLC".

I do the same. I'm old so I actually own CDs and started ripping them all back in the '90s. I used CDex for that and it works really nicely. I use WinAmp to play my music and it works quite nicely as well.

I tried using iTunes on some of my relatives' devices and it sucks really badly. I would say that just about anything would be better than iTunes.

+ - Copyright Takedown Requests to Google Have Doubled Since Last Year->

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Last month, a company working on behalf of the publisher Random House, asked Google to remove links to a free copy of Stephen King’s Carrie from search results. Google complied for three out of the four requested links, but didn’t remove Kim Dotcom’s new website Mega.co.nz as requested—for even if Mega is hosting pirated copies of Carrie, they sure aren’t on the homepage.

But leaving that link up was an exception to the rule. More and more, copyright owners and the organizations they employ are cutting off where the websites and the public meet—the search engine. Google’s transparency reports show that requests to remove links to copyrighted material rose steadily in 2013. The search giant received 6.5 million requests during the week of November 18, 2013, which is over twice as many as the same week a year ago. Google said it complies with 97 percent of requests."
Link to Original Source

+ - Harvesting Power When Freshwater Meets Salty->

Submitted by ckwu
ckwu writes "As a way to generate renewable electricity, researchers have designed methods that harvest the energy released when fresh and saline water mix, such as when a river meets the sea. One such method is called pressure-retarded osmosis, where two streams of water, one saline and one fresh, meet in a cell divided by a semipermeable membrane. Osmosis drives the freshwater across the membrane to the saltier side, increasing the pressure in the saline solution. The system keeps this salty water pressurized and then releases the pressure to spin a turbine to generate electricity. Now a team at Yale University has created a prototype device that increases the power output of pressure-retarded osmosis by an order of magnitude. At a full-scale facility, the estimated cost of the electricity generated by such a system could be 20 to 30 cents per kWh, approaching the cost of other conventional renewable energy technologies."
Link to Original Source

+ - Isis2: A New Open Platform For Data Replication In The Cloud

Submitted by rjmarvin
rjmarvin writes "Cornell computer science professor Ken Birman has created a distributed open-source system called Isis2 http://sdt.bz/66375, a data replicator built to run services on cloud platforms like Eucalyptus and Amazon EC2. Isis2 is based on Birman's original idea: to create the ultimate library for distributed computing that's as easy to use as the GUI builders his students use in their first course on object-oriented programming. In contrast to NoSQL and Amazon Web Services, Isis2 is a library with a strong ACID consistency model, and as such can enable reliable, secure replication of data even in the highly elastic first tier of the cloud."

+ - Forensic Genetics And The Law->

Submitted by NotSanguine
NotSanguine writes "C-SPAN Covered the 2013 10th Circuit Bench And Bar Conference in Colorado Springs, CO. While this isn't new (from August, 2013), the topics and issues covered were both interesting and pertinent to many discussions about how DNA technology can be used in legal contexts.

From the site description:

Panelists talked about genetics, forensics, and their use in the criminal justice system and society.They discussed the DNA evidence routinely used in criminal cases as well as in investigations of mass graves, missing persons, and for identification.After the break, Nita Farahany talked about how behavior sciences impact the legal system, and Hank Greely talked about whole genome sequencing, the implications of pre-natal genetic testing, and the privacy and ethical issues raised when everyone’s genomes are known and stored.Speakers used PowerPoint during their presentations.Images included skeletons, mass graves, and DNA sources.Panelists responded to questions from members of the audience after their individual presentations and as a group.

"
Link to Original Source
Security

D-Link Patches Critical Vulnerability In Older Routers 54

Posted by samzenpus
from the protect-ya-neck dept.
An anonymous reader writes "D-Link has released firmware patches for a number of its older routers sporting a critical authentication security bypass vulnerability discovered in October. The flaw was discovered and its exploitability proved with a PoC by Tactical Network Solutions' security researcher Craig Heffner. D-Link confirmed the existence of the problem a few weeks later."
NASA

Solar Pressure May Help Kepler Return To Planet-Hunting Duties 46

Posted by samzenpus
from the back-to-the-search dept.
Zothecula writes "Last August, it looked as if NASA's Kepler space telescope was as good as scrap due to the failure of its attitude control system. Now the space agency proposes what it calls the K2 mission concept, which may fix the problem by using the Sun to regain attitude control and allow Kepler to resume its search for extrasolar planets."

+ - WinAMP's long, strange journey may lead to Redmond->

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes "Last week, it announced WinAMP would be shut down in December. Merry Christmas.

But now Microsoft is reportedly in talks to pick up WinAMP from AOL and rescue it from the tech graveyard. Now, Microsoft's track record when it comes to music isn't exactly ideal, but at least Microsoft has tried. Zune was a failure but it wasn't a bad idea, and some of its better parts live on in the Windows Phone music app. Microsoft is investing heavily in Xbox Live as a media center, and it could use a competitor to Pandora or iHeartRadio.

If Microsoft doesn't save it, WinAMP supporters are hoping AOL will turn the player over to the open source world. A petition has begun begging AOL to open source all of the WinAMP/ShoutCast code."
Link to Original Source

Comment: TFA Is short On Facts (Score 0) 260

by NotSanguine (#45570931) Attached to: A Review of the "Mental Illness" Definition Might Prevent Crime

Both the author and the cited "expert" make a number of assertions which aren't supported by any facts or even coherent logical arguments. This is a screed designed to provoke controversy (with the likely goal of driving page views) without any scientific or even common-sense basis. Sigh.

+ - Detecting Chemicals Through Bone->

Submitted by MTorrice
MTorrice writes "To understand the brain and its chemical complexities, researchers would like to peer inside the skull and measure neurotransmitters levels as the brain at work. Unfortunately, research methods to measure levels of chemicals in the brain require drilling holes in the skull, and noninvasive imaging techniques, such as MRI, can’t detect specific molecules. Now, as a first step toward a new imaging tool, chemists report they can detect molecules hidden behind 3- to 8-mm-thick bone."
Link to Original Source

+ - Imagining the Post-Antibiotic Future

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Health authorities have been struggling to convince the public that the threat of totally drug-resistant bacteria is a crisis. Earlier this year, British chief medical officer Sally Davies described resistance to antibiotics as a "catastrophic global threat" that should be ranked alongside terrorism. In September, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a blunt warning: “If we’re not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era. For some patients and some microbes, we are already there.” Now Maryn McKenna writes that we are on the verge of entering a new era in history and asks us to imagine what our lives would be like if we really lost antibiotics to advancing drug resistance. We'll not just lose the ability to treat infectious disease; that’s obvious. But also: The ability to treat cancer, and to transplant organs, because doing those successfully relies on suppressing the immune system and willingly making ourselves vulnerable to infection. We'll lose any treatment that relies on a permanent port into the bloodstream — for instance, kidney dialysis. We'd lose any major open-cavity surgery, on the heart, the lungs, the abdomen. We'd lose implantable devices: new hips, new knees, new heart valves. We’d lose the ability to treat people after traumatic accidents, as major as crashing your car and as minor as your kid falling out of a tree. We’d lose the safety of modern childbirth. We’d lose a good portion of our cheap modern food supply because most of the meat we eat in the industrialized world is raised with the routine use of antibiotics, to fatten livestock and protect them from the conditions in which the animals are raised. "And it wouldn’t be just meat. Antibiotics are used in plant agriculture as well, especially on fruit. Right now, a drug-resistant version of the bacterial disease fire blight is attacking American apple crops," writes McKenna. "There’s currently one drug left to fight it.""

+ - ISS Astronauts Fire-Up Awesome 'Cubesat Cannon'->

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes "As if the International Space Station couldn’t get any cooler, the Japanese segment of the orbiting outpost has launched a barrage of small satellites — known as “cubesats” — from their very own Cubesat Cannon! Of course, the real name of the cubesat deployment system isn’t quite as dramatic, but the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) adds a certain sci-fi flair to space station science."
Link to Original Source

+ - Mars Rover Suffers Glitch, Operations On Hold->

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes "On Nov. 17, Curiosity’s 456th day (or sol) on Mars, mission managers were alerted to a “voltage change” between the rover’s chassis and 32-volt power bus that distributes electricity to systems throughout the rover. Although the problem is significant enough to warrant close inspection by engineers, this isn’t the first time the rover has suffered a glitch of this nature nor did it trigger an automatic “safe-mode.” Also, there is no indication to suggest that this event has any connection to Curiosity’s safe-mode that was triggered by a computer re-boot earlier this month. Engineers are confident that the suspected "soft short" will have a limited impact on the rover, but the voltage drop from 11 to 4 volts has caused concern for Curiosity's future power change tolerance should another soft short occur later in the mission."
Link to Original Source

+ - Google To Pay $17 Million To Settle Privacy Case->

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes "The New York Times reports, "Google agreed on Monday to pay $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia ... The case involved Google’s bypassing of privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser to use cookies to track users and show them advertisements in 2011 and 2012. Google has said it discontinued circumventing the settings early last year, after the practice was publicly reported, and stopped tracking Safari users and showing them personalized ads. ... the case is one of a growing pile of government investigations, lawsuits and punishments related to privacy matters at the company. They include cases involving a social networking tool called Buzz, illegal data collection by Street View vehicles and accusations of wiretapping to show personalized ads in Gmail. ""
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"What if" is a trademark of Hewlett Packard, so stop using it in your sentences without permission, or risk being sued.

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