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Idle

Study Finds Most Would Become Supervillians If Given Powers 419

It probably comes as no surprise, but researchers have found that most of us would gladly put on a mask and fight do-gooders if given super powers. From the article: "But power also acts like strong cologne that affects both the wearer and those within smelling distance, Galinsky noted. The person gains an enhanced sense of their importance, and other people may regard them with greater respect as well as extend leniency toward their actions. That combination makes for an easy slide into corruption."
IBM

IBM's Plans For the Cell Processor 124

angry tapir writes "Development around the original Cell processor hasn't stalled, and IBM will continue to develop chips and supply hardware for future gaming consoles, a company executive said. IBM is working with gaming machine vendors including Nintendo and Sony, said Jai Menon, CTO of IBM's Systems and Technology Group, during an interview Thursday. 'We want to stay in the business, we intend to stay in the business,' he said. IBM confirmed in a statement that it continues to manufacture the Cell processor for use by Sony in its PlayStation 3. IBM also will continue to invest in Cell as part of its hybrid and multicore chip strategy, Menon said."
Image

Australian Politician Caught Viewing Porn 150

destinyland writes "An Australian Parliament member has resigned after admitting he'd used government computers to access porn and gambling sites. McLeay 'gave an uncomfortable press conference outside Parliament House,' notes one technology site, 'during which he admitted he had acted in a standard not expected of cabinet ministers.' Paul McLeay was also the Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources as well as the Minister for Ports and Waterways. In resigning, he apologized to his constituents and parliamentary colleagues, as well as to his wife and family."
Medicine

Three Ground-Breaking Miniature Biosensors 18

kkleiner writes "Over the past few years, several research teams have developed increasingly smaller and cheaper biosensors with improved detection capabilities and faster turnaround times. Whether you are a doctor diagnosing patients in the rural areas of Africa or a Homeland Security agent working to thwart an act of bioterrorism, one of these little devices should be your sidekick."
Education

Gulf Oil Spill Disaster — Spawn of the Living Dead 228

grrlscientist writes "A recently published study, intended to provide data to commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico so they maximize their catch of Yellowfin Tuna, Thunnus albacares, whilst avoiding bycatch of critically endangered Atlantic (Northern) Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus, suggests that the Deepwater Horizon oil leak may devastate the endangered Atlantic bluefin population, causing it to completely collapse or possibly go extinct."
Idle

Iron Baby 139

When Iron Baby wants O's, Iron Baby gets O's.

Comment Re:Interesting! (Score 1) 161

I wonder if it can resolve individual dendrite connections in the brain. If so, we've just developed our first brain scanner capable of mapping a living brain's circuitry.

Stop right there, ATFM (atomic force microscopy of which this is a variant) is done in a vacuum chamber, it has to be because thermal noise would swamp the signal otherwise. This technique cannot image in vivo, regardless of any temporal resolution issues.

The Courts

Submission + - Germans reject file-sharing paranoia (arstechnica.com)

athloi writes: "German prosecutors have begun denying requests to force ISPs to identify the subscribers behind IP addresses, saying that the alleged file-sharing was a "petty offense." According to German-language Heise Online, the court said that the labels did not explain how a "criminally relevant damage" could have arisen from the alleged file-sharing. Unlike the US legal system, German law has no provision allowing for civil proceedings to obtain ISP subscriber info.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070802-file -sharing-is-a-petty-offense-say-german-prosecutors .html"

Novell

De Icaza Pleads For Mono/.Net Cooperation 262

suka writes "In a recent interview with the online edition of an Austrian newspaper, Mono project-lead Miguel de Icaza pleads for cooperation between Mono and Microsoft's .Net: 'I think that the deal should include a technical Mono/.NET collaboration, and even go as far as Microsoft recommending Mono for all of their developers looking at migration'. The whole interview has some other interesting bits, like de Icaza's thoughts on open sourced Java and information about upcoming versions of Mono."
Announcements

Submission + - Reintroducing the Metasploit Framework

hdm writes: "After nearly two years of development, the Metasploit team is happy to announce the immediate availability of version 3.0 of the Metasploit Framework. The Metasploit Framework is a development platform for creating security tools and exploits. Version 3.0 contains 177 exploits, 104 payloads, 17 encoders, and 3 nop modules. Additionally, 30 auxiliary modules are included that perform a wide range of tasks, including host discovery, protocol fuzzing, and denial of service testing. Metasploit runs on all modern operating systems, including Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, and most flavors of BSD. Users can access Metasploit using the tab-completing console interface, the command line scripting interface, or the AJAX-enabled web interface. With over 100,000 lines of code, Metasploit is one of the largest Ruby projects in existence. Security Focus has published an interview with one of the lead developers. ZDNet, Heise, Dark Reading, InfoWorld, and many other news sources are covering this release."
Windows

Submission + - Vista Sales Numbers Don't Add Up

Overly Critical Guy writes: Vista's sales numbers don't add up according to Joe Wilcox of Microsoft-Watch. Going through the numbers and citing NPD, Gartner, and IDC, Wilcox describes the difference between licenses sold to manufacturers and actual consumer purchases, noting that there haven't been 20 million PCs sold since Jan. 30, contrary to Microsoft's numbers. In fact, only 3 million PCs have been sold since the start of the year.
Security

Submission + - Government's quantum science push moves forward

coondoggie writes: "The government's interest in all things related to Quantum Information Science continued this week with a couple contracts awarded to BBN Technologies and HRL Laboratories. First, BBN, was awarded an almost $3.5 million increment of a $14 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to continue work on military applications of quantum information science. The applications and/or contract is expected to be completed in May 2010. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1298 6"
Software

Submission + - Collaboration Equals Knowledge Gain

jamesrayge writes: How do social networks fit within the corporate structure? At first glance it might seem that communities like MySpace, designed to bring strangers together en masse, are inappropriate for the cloistered life of the enterprise worker. But the laboratory of the Web, as so often, shows the way with a new kind of social network... http://blogs.dovetailsoftware.com/blogs/main/archi ve/2007/03/27/collaboration-equals-knowledge-gain. aspx
Television

Submission + - Former USDTV Subscribers Gouged for Linux USB Keys

Former USDTV Subscriber writes: A few weeks ago, Salt Lake City-based USDTV discontinued their service. USDTV used the Hisense DB2010 as subscriber boxes, with Linux based firmware. USDTV should have released the source and binaries as required by the GPL, in order for customers to create a USB key to convert their DB2010s to FTA HDTV boxes. Instead, they chose to hand the keys to former USDTV subcontractors. Cable Communications is coming to subscribers houses and updating the boxes, but not leaving a USB key. ProServ is selling USB keys. But "Due to copyright laws you are only allowed to purchase one of these keys if you have proof of being a current or previous subscriber to USDTV." USDTV customers are being charged $30 for a service and/or files that should be freely available to anyone who has a DB2010 in their possession. There is a thread on the AVS Forum detailing the whole debacle.

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