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Google Street View Shoots the Same Woman 43 Times 106

Posted by samzenpus
from the get-your-face-out-there dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes "Terry Southgate discovered that his wife Wendy appears on the Google Street View of his neighborhood not once or twice but a whopping 43 times. From the article: 'It seems as if the Street View car simply followed the same route as Wendy and Trixie. However, Wendy was a little suspicious that the car was doing something on the "tricksie" side. Several of the Street View shots show Wendy looking with some concern towards the car that was, well, to put it politely, crawling along the curb. "I didn't know what it was doing. It was just driving round very, very slowly," Wendy told the Sun.' The next best thing to being a movie star — a Street View star!"
Science

Invisibility Cloak Created In 3-D 113

Posted by kdawson
from the can-you-see-me-now dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have created the first device to render an object invisible in three dimensions. The 'cloak,' described in the journal Science (abstract; full text requires login), hid an object from detection using light of wavelengths close to those that are visible to humans. Previous devices have been able to hide objects from light travelling in only one direction; viewed from any other angle, the object would remain visible. This is a very early but significant step towards a true invisibility cloak." The "object" hidden in this work was a bump one micrometer high. The light used was just longer than the wavelengths our eyes detect. To get a visible-light cloak, the features of the cloaking metamaterial would need to be reduced in size from 300 nm to 10 nm.

Comment: Don't trust them (Score 1) 480

by colonslash (#29405463) Attached to: Trust an Insurance Company's "Drive-Cam?"
I worked for an insurance company, and they are out to make money. Where I worked, the rates were regulated by the state, and the company wasn't allowed to discriminate in pricing due to numerous things, such as credit scores (a lower credit score was highly correlated with more accidents). They got around this by advertising in areas with better credit scores, and direct mailing only to those with high credit scores.

My point is that insurance companies will do what they can to save money. Even if you're a safe driver, if there is something else they believe has a high correlation with accidents, such as where you park your car or the areas in which you drive, they may come up with an excuse to cancel (or not renew) your policy.

In addition, they will most likely be reviewing the video of people who do have accidents but got through their net the first time to find other indicators of people likely to get in an accident, and they would (in my opinion) be willing to jump at any correlation if it had a chance to cut their costs - please don't give them the ammunition.

Comment: Re:Raw speed is probably a moot point.... (Score 1) 354

by colonslash (#29342081) Attached to: Chrome 4.0 Vs Opera 10 Vs Firefox 3.5

the author did not put any version of MS internet explorer in the Arena. Now that's understandable, all windows system come with IE installed, so the rationale, as I see it , is that there's no point in benchmarking a program that no one has to choose on its own. I only wonder what will happen if Europe goes forward in forcing MS to sell OEM copies of Win7 without IE installed.

I assumed it was because IE isn't competitive. Including IE would stretch the scale on the various graphs so you wouldn't be able to discern the differences between the browsers from competent software engineers.

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Gardeners Told to Give Exhausted Bees an Energy Drink 200

Posted by samzenpus
from the it's-what-bees-crave dept.
In an effort to help Britain's declining bee population, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is urging gardeners to leave out a homemade energy drink for tired bees. The RSPB says that a mix of two tablespoons of sugar with a tablespoon of water makes a perfect bee-boosting drink. Val Osborne, head of wildlife inquiries at the RSPB, said, "Many people keep seeing bees on the ground and assume they are dead, but chances are they are having a rest. Much like us, a sugary drink could boost their energy levels and a simple sugar and water combination will be a welcome treat."
Windows

Windows 7 Starter Edition — 3 Apps Only 695

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the because-they-can dept.
CrustyFace writes "Cybernit reports that the Starter Edition version of Windows 7 will only allow the user to run 3 applications at once. Targeted at notebooks, this doesn't seem like such a bad limitation, however it is a bold move from Microsoft, and it will be interesting to see how the operating system sells."

Comment: Re:And Futurama (Score 2, Interesting) 753

by colonslash (#27151099) Attached to: What Has Fox Got Against Its Own Sci-Fi Shows?
I watch almost all of my tv through hulu now, so the time slot shuffling isn't much of an issue for me; I like their queue implementation - new episodes of shows I pick automatically get added to my queue, so when I'm looking for something to watch I just check what's available from that.

OTOH, I'm not sure if hulu counts as viewership to the networks, though - I've read that online programming isn't making much money compared to regular tv.

Comment: Re:And I thought Google wasn't evil... (Score 4, Insightful) 55

by colonslash (#27150167) Attached to: Google Straightens Out Its Stance On Paid Apps
I don't think this is evil.

In this case, Google isn't using copy protection out of greed, or to try to control users' behavior - this copy protection is an option for developers.

Just because they're selling guns doesn't mean people have to shoot themselves in the foot.

Creditor, n.: A man who has a better memory than a debtor.

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