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Submission + - Taking Telecommuting to the Next Level - The RV (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I have been telecommuting as a software architect for a major corporation since 2007. It has allowed me to live a quality rural lifestyle. Never content, am now considering living on the road for several years. Due to the proliferation of 4G and wireless hotspots, I see no reason I could not do this from a 5th-wheel trailer. Have any slashdotters truly cut the cord in this manner? Any advice or warnings?
Space

Submission + - How to catch a tumbling, aging satellite (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "How do you catch a speeding, tumbling, aging satellite? Very carefully. Levity aside, the question is central to the plan scientists at DARPA have for catching up to and grabbing old satellites in an effort to ultimately refurbish and reuse the systems. Scientists at DARPA say there are some 1,300 satellites worth over $300B sitting out in Earth's geostationary orbit (GEO) that could be retrofitted or harvested for new communications roles and it designed a program called Phoenix which it says would use a squadron "satlets" and a larger tender craft to grab out-of-commission satellites and retrofit or retrieve them for parts or reuse."
Education

Submission + - Gamma-Ray Photon Observations Indicate Space-Time is Smooth (space.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Seven billion light years away seven billion years ago, a gamma-ray burst occurred. The observation of four Fermi-detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has led physicists to speculate that space-time is indeed smooth (a prepublication PDF can be found here). Three such photons were observed to arrive very close together and the observers believe that these are from the same burst which means that there was nothing diffracting their paths from the gamma-ray burst to Earth. This observation doesn't prove that space-time is infinitesimally smooth like Einstein predicted but does give a nod that it is for a range of parameters. Before we can totally discount the theory that space-time is comprised of Planck-scale pixels, we must now establish that the proposed pixels don't disrupt the photons in ways independent of their wavelengths. For example, this observation did not disprove the possibility that the pixels exert a subtler "quadratic" influence over the photons nor could it determine the presence of birefringence — an effect that depends on the polarization of the light particles.
Crime

Submission + - The Case Against DNA

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Thanks to fast-paced television crime shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, we have come to regard DNA evidence as uncontestable. But BBC reports that David Butler has every right to be cynical about the use of DNA evidence by the police. Butler spent eight months in prison, on remand, facing murder charges after his DNA was allegedly found on the victim. ""I think in the current climate [DNA] has made police lazy," says Butler. "It doesn't matter how many times someone like me writes to them, imploring they look at the evidence... they put every hope they had in the DNA result."" The police had accused Butler of murdering a woman, Anne Marie Foy, in 2005 — his DNA sample was on record after he had willingly given it to them as part of an investigation into a burglary at his mother's home some years earlier. But Butler has a rare skin condition, which means he sheds flakes of skin, leaving behind much larger traces of DNA than the average person and Butler worked as a taxi driver, and so it was possible for his DNA to be transferred from his taxi via money or another person, onto the murder victim. The case eventually went to trial and Butler was acquitted after CCTV evidence allegedly placing Butler in the area where the murder took place was disproved. Professor Allan Jamieson, head of the Glasgow-based Forensic Institute, has become a familiar thorn in the side of prosecutors seeking to rely on DNA evidence and has appeared as an expert witness for the defense in several important DNA-centered trials, most notably that of Sean Hoey, who was cleared of carrying out the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 people. Jamieson’s main concern about the growing use of DNA in court cases is that a number of important factors -human error, contamination, simple accident — can suggest guilt where there is none. “Does anyone realize how easy it is to leave a couple of cells of your DNA somewhere?” says Jamieson. “You could shake my hand and I could put that hand down hundreds of miles away and leave your cells behind. In many cases, the question is not ‘Is it my DNA?’, but ‘How did it get there?’”"
United Kingdom

Submission + - BBC Keeps Android Flash Alive In The UK (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "Although Adobe wants to can mobile Flash, the Android Flash app has returned to the Google Play store in the UK after disappearing earlier this month. It has come back because of pressure from large organisations, in particular the BBC, whose popular iPlayer video on demand service uses Flash. The Android app is back, apparently or as long as it takes the BBC to move to HTML5"
Television

Submission + - Move over 3D, it's time for 4K UHDTV (extremetech.com) 3

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "After five years of trying to convince us that 3D TVs are the future, it seems TV makers are finally ready to move on — to 4K UHDTV. At the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Sony, Toshiba, and LG are all showing off 84-inch 4K (3840×2160) TVs. These aren’t just vaporware, either: LG’s TV is on sale now in Korea (and later this month in the US), Sony’s is due later this year, and Toshiba will follow in the new year. Be warned, though: all three will cost more than $20,000 when they go on sale in the US — oh, and there's still no 4K Blu-ray spec, and no such thing as 4K broadcast TV.

In other display-related news, Panasonic is showing off a humongous 145-inch 8K (7680x4320) plasma TV, and some cute 20-inch 4K displays — but unfortunately neither are likely to find their way to your living room or office in the near future."
Android

Submission + - Russia's New Secure Android Tablet Keeps Data From Google (securityweek.com) 1

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: It seems Russia's defense ministry doesn't trust Google's tablet computers: a new Android device presented to a top Russian government official boasts encryption and works with software and a global positioning system made in Russia, the AFP reports.

The OS has all the functional capabilities of an Android operating system but none of its hidden features that send users' private data to Google, addressing concerns that data stored by Google could slip into the hands of the US government and expose some of their most secret and sensitive communications.

Two versions of the tablet will supposedly be made — one for consumers and one for defense needs.
Twitter

Submission + - Twitter jokes: free speech on trial (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On 6 January 2010, Paul Chambers typed a flippant tweet that would turn his life upside-down for the next two and a half years. As the courts repeatedly showed a lack of common sense and an ignorance of technology, for a long time it looked as though our right to free speech was under very real threat. Now it's over, we can step back and take a detailed look at how such an insane case even came to trial. This feature delves deep into the the Twitter Joke Trial: how it happened, what it means, and the epic struggle to balance civility and civil liberties.
Government

Submission + - FinSpy Commercial Spyware Abused By Governments

Submitted by plover
plover writes: The NY Times has this story about FinSpy, a commercial spyware package sold "only for law enforcement purposes" being used by governments to spy on dissidents, journalists, and others, and how two U.S. computer experts, Morgan Marquis-Boire from Google, and Bill Marczak, a PhD student in Computer Science, have been tracking it down around the world.
Facebook

Submission + - Europeans Can Ask to Be Forgotten (frontwave.eu)

Submitted by Full_Privacy
Full_Privacy writes: "A 'right to be forgotten' will help people better manage data-protection risks online. When they no longer want their data to be processed and there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it, the data will be deleted." Anyone in the EU will be able to ask any service provider or company for complete details of the data they hold about them, and request the complete erasure of the information, except the one that companies need to keep required by law.

Facebook has already received hundreds of requests from users that want to erase all data in the service
Science

Submission + - DNA analysis shows ancient humans interbred with Denisovans (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Tens of thousands of years ago modern humans crossed paths with the group of hominins known as the Neandertals. Researchers now think they also met another, less-known group called the Denisovans. The only trace that we have found, however, is a single finger bone and two teeth, but those fragments have been enough to cradle wisps of Denisovan DNA across thousands of years inside a Siberian cave. Now a team of scientists has been able to reconstruct their entire genome from these meager fragments. The analysis supports the idea that Neandertals and Denisovans were more closely related to one another than either was to modern humans and also suggests new ways that early humans may have spread across the globe.
Beer

Submission + - Drinking Too Much? Blame Your Glass (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Before you down that pint, check the shape of your glass—you might be drinking more beer than you realize. According to a new study of British beer drinkers, an optical illusion caused by the shape of a curved glass can dramatically increase the speed at which we swill. The researchers recruited 160 Brits, and asked them to watch a nature documentary while they drank beer from straight or curved glasses. The group drinking a full glass of lager out of curved flute glasses drank significantly faster than the other group--possibly because the curved glasses impaired their ability to pace themselves while drinking.
Security

Submission + - Frankenstein - Stitching Code Bodies Together To Hide Malware (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: A recent research technique manages to hide malware by stitching together bits of program that are already installed in the system to create the functionality required. Although the Frankenstein system is only a proof of concept, and the code created just did some simple tasks, sorting and XORing, without having the ability to replicate, computer scientists from University of Texas, Dallas, have proved that the method is viable.
What it does is to scan the machine’s disk for fragments of code, gadgets, that do simple standard tasks. Each task can have multiple gadgets that can be used to implement it and each gadget does a lot of irrelevant things as well as the main task. The code that you get when you stitch a collection of gadgets together is never the same and this makes it difficult to detect the malware using a signature. Compared to the existing techniques of hiding malware the Frankenstein approach has lots of advantages — the question is, is it already in use?

Submission + - Hyperspectral Cameras Used to Uncover Ancient Mysteries (americanphotomag.com)

Submitted by cynop
cynop writes: Hyperspectral cameras are those that can capture information in the electromagnetic spectrum, far beyond what the human eye — and consumer cameras — can see. American Photo Magazine has a fascinating feature that tells of how researchers around the world are using the cameras to uncover century and millennium-old mysteries:

The historic discoveries are just getting started. No one yet knows how much researchers and scholars will find with this new generation of hyperspectral technology. More than a hundred years ago, in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, archeologists found piles of illegible papyrus. Recently, University of Oxford researchers found that they contained fragments of a lost tragedy by the ancient author Sophocles, of whose plays only seven were known to have survived. New imaging methods have also found portions of a poem by Archilochus that reveal new details about the genesis of the Trojan War. The research at St. Catherine’s could settle long-standing debates over the origins and foundation of some of the world’s major religions.

Submission + - Hacker Posts British Police Logins Online (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: A hacker, going by the name ‘0x00x00’, has posted credentials of what seems to be login credentials of police officers from two constabularies in the UK — Hertfordshire and Nottinghamshire. The hacker posted the information on Pastebin yesterday and the top of the post contains the banner 'OpFreeAssange'. The hacker however has stressed that he/she is not a member of the notorious hacktivist group Anonymous. There are a total of 5 posts that start with the name #OpFreeAssange.
Biotech

Submission + - Stop worrying about embryonic stem cells – they may not be needed any more (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: There are ongoing moral and ethical battles concerning the farming and application of human embryonic stem cells in medical research and applications. Without judging any of the viewpoints represented in the fracas, it is clear that the stem cell world would be a friendlier place if the harvesting of embryonic stem cells were not necessary. Toward this goal, Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body.
Games

Submission + - Bethesda: We can't make Dawnguard work on PS3 (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: PS3 gamers may now never get access to the content in Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC. That’s the news coming out of Bethesda via their forums. Administrator and global community lead Gstaff posted an update on the state of PS3 DLC for the game, and it’s not looking great. Gstaff explains that releasing sizeable DLC is a complex issue, and it seems like for the PS3 it might be just a bit too complex.

No detail is given as to what the specific problem/s is, but Bethesda is preparing PS3 gamers for the reality that Dawnguard, and for that matter any other Skyrim DLC, may never reach the platform.

I’d like to know what the exact problem is they can’t overcome, but I’d also like to know if this is a failing on Bethesda’s part or a shortcoming of the PS3 architecture. Maybe Sony should pay Bethesda a visit and see what’s going on.

Submission + - Cooled Tech Bag?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I live in the Middle East. Summer temperatures occasionally reach 60C/140F, well over the operating specs for most consumer tech. Quite a number of work and residential compounds are secured, prohibiting everything from computers to cameras to phones to USB sticks to car remote controls. When I know that I'm visiting one of those compounds, I end up leaving all the tech I can at home or in the office, and only bringing a cell phone, and leaving it in my car. However, "only a cell phone" has quickly morphed into "only two cell phones, a car MP3 player and remote, and .... ooh, shiny... a new tablet... and an electric razor just in case I have to touch up before a party in a compound." I'm wondering what kind of technologies we have for keeping all this tech cool for four hours in the car. Overnight events might last longer, but won't be as hot.

Submission + - Funky Flying Wing Rotates 90degrees to go Supersonic (space.com)

Submitted by
Big Hairy Ian
Big Hairy Ian writes: "An aircraft that resembles a four-point ninja star could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair. The unusual "flying wing" concept has won $100,000 in NASA funding to trying becoming a reality for future passenger jet travel.

The supersonic, bidirectional flying wing idea comes from a team headed by Ge-Chen Zha, an aerospace engineer at Florida State University. He said the fuel-efficient aircraft could reach supersonic speeds without the thunderclap sound produced by a sonic boom — a major factor that previously limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses."

Submission + - New technique sequences ancient DNA 99.9%

Submitted by wombatmobile
wombatmobile writes: Ancient DNA has proven difficult to sequence or clone, because it is fragmentary, and most of it breaks down into single strands after it is extracted from bone.

However, a new technique developed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, sequences single stranded DNA. Scientists just announced they used the technique to fully sequence Denisovan DNA from a bone fragment found in a cave in Siberia. They're going to go back to sequence their library of hundreds of Neanderthal DNA specimens.

How long before they make Dolly Denisovan?

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