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Comment Fulfill our destiny! (Score 5, Interesting) 973

What's wrong with dying? We all do it sooner or later as individuals. Why should the race last forever?

Because we may be the only chance for life on earth to spread to other planets, ... ever.

If we botch it this time, life may not have enough time to evolve another space faring civilisation. Think about it. Though doing nothing we may seal the fate for all of life.

We are part of a much larger ecosystem, without which we cannot survive. If we travel to the stars, so does life - which will continue to evolve.

If there is some great project humanity should try to tackle, it would be this.

Comment Herd instict (Score 5, Insightful) 734

If you are going to be deterred from coming to the US over the requirement that you register online and cough up some fingerprints I suppose you really didn't care that much about coming in the first place anyway, did you?

Afaik, no state on this planet has my fingerprints yet, and I do not plan on handing them over any time soon. If that means not to travel to foreign countries where I would love to go to, so be it. I'll watch documentaries instead.

I have my principles, and a change of law will not change them!

Comment Re:How I would do it... (Score 1) 291

Yes he may. Though if he uses of-the-shelf VPN routers the number of ipsec tunnels may be limited (via license or something else) and if he has only 10 shops he would already need 24 tunnels, which have to be configured at either end. So that makes 48 configuration entries. A lot of work and a lot to maintain.

Google

Submission + - WSJ spreads FUD on open source and Google Phone (wsj.com) 2

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.'
Robotics

Submission + - Carnegie Mellon wins DARPA Urban Challenge

angio writes: "Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing team won the DARPA Grand Challenge, narrowly beating out competitors Stanford and Virginia Tech in a closely-watched race. Eleven finalists started the race on Saturday, with six finishing. The top three winners received $2 million, $1 million, and $500 thousand, respectively. Blow-by blow blogging of the event was covered by the register, Wired, and Popular Mechanics."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Low budget open source VGA compatible video card (mveas.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Seeing how the Open Graphics Project is only making slow progress, a new card is being developed by a few students to get a fast, simple and above all cheap video card out the door. Started just two months ago, they're already nearing completion of the circuit board. It sports a reasonably sized reprogrammable FPGA which should kickstart development of a full-fledged open source video card in the future, and the design currently only costs about a hundred euro.
Security

Submission + - MSFT and NSA have backdoored your phone ... (securiteam.com)

isbeen writes: According to a recent post on Bugtraq, researchers have posted information regarding an agreement between the NSA and MSFT which provides backdoors to microsoft products, including phones running the windows mobile platform, where they can apparently tap and monitor phones.

From the original post:

"According to the post National Security Agency has access both stand-alone systems and networks running Microsoft products.

The post states the following: "This includes wireless wiretapping of "smart phones" running Microsoft Mobile. Microsoft remote administrative privileges allow "backdooring" into Microsoft operating systems via IP/TCP ports 1024 through 1030.

According to the Cryptome's source this is typically triggered when devices visit Microsoft Update servers.

Cryptome.org: http://cryptome.org/nsa-ip-update11.htm

SecuriTeam Blogs: http://blogs.securiteam.com/?p=1028

Security

DNS Root Servers Attacked 311

liquidat and others wrote in with the news that the DNS Root Servers were attacked overnight. It looks like the F, I, and M servers felt the attack and recovered, whereas G (US Department of Defense) and L (ICANN) did less well. Some new botnet flexing its muscle perhaps? AP coverage is here.
Biotech

Submission + - Concussions, brain degeneration and neuropathology

danglia writes: "On the heels of the SuperBowl, here's a NYTimes article detailing the degenerative effects football players face from multiple concussions. After more than 15 concussions, former Eagles star Andre Waters, 44, committed suicide. Autopsies revealed that his brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man.

From the Article:

"The Waters discovery began solely on the hunch of Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player and professional wrestler whose repeated concussions ended his career, left him with severe migraines and depression, and compelled him to expose the effects of contact-sport brain trauma. After hearing of the suicide, Mr. Nowinski phoned Mr. Waters's sister Sandra Pinkney with a ghoulish request: to borrow the remains of her brother's brain.""
User Journal

Journal SPAM: The EFF Cracks Secret FBI Printer Tracking Codes 2

Almost all printers secretly print dots without your consent, which are invisible to the naked eye. Apparently Xerox (Docucolor series), and possibly others, have included this technology. This is being used by the FBI to keep an eye on groups such as Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. As an effort of their Machine Identification Code Technology project, the EFF has cracked the code, and provided a

Red Hat Software

Submission + - Red Hat dismisses threat posed by Oracle and MS

Rob writes: Red Hat Inc's executive vice president of worldwide sales, Alex Pinchev, has dismissed the impact that Oracle Corp's entry into the Linux support business could have on Red Hat, insisting Oracle does not really know what it is doing. Pinchev also described Microsoft's recent interoperability and patent peace deal with Novell Inc as a "non-event" and dismissed the suggestion that Linux users are at risk of a patent infringement lawsuit from Redmond.
Google

Submission + - Get Your Text Message Answered By Google

match22 writes: "Who doesn't love Google? They have grown at an astonishing pace and have developed technology that has enriched our lives by bringing millions of pieces of information to our fingertips. Everyone communicates via texts these days so let me run you through how to get answers from Google via text messaging (SMS) them."

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