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Submission + - Tiny crystal 'revolutionises computer' (hindustantimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have made a tiny crystal which they claim will take quantum computing to the next level, creating one of the world's most powerful computers ever developed.

"Computing technology has taken a huge leap forward using a crystal with just 300 atoms suspended in space," said Michael Biercuk at the University of Sydney, who led an international team.
He added: "The system we have developed has the potential to perform calculations that would require a supercomputer larger than the size of the known universe — and it does it all in a diameter of less than a millimetre.
Space

Submission + - Asteroid mining company? (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by
DrHeasley
DrHeasley writes: "Virtually all of the gold, platinum and other precious metals present in the earth's crust are the results of meteor impacts. According to a press release today, Ross Perot, Google Founders Larry Paige and Eric Schmidt and “visionary” Peter H. Diamandis are forming a new company to explore and harvest asteroid resources."
Communications

Submission + - New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmiss (patexia.com)

Submitted by
danielsmith1214
danielsmith1214 writes: "In the next issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Gregory Wornell, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, Uri Erez at Tel Aviv University in Israel and Mitchell Trott at Google describe a new coding scheme that guarantees the fastest possible delivery of data over fluctuating wireless connections without requiring prior knowledge of noise levels. The scheme works by creating one long codeword for each message, but successively longer chunks of the codeword are themselves good codewords."

Submission + - Google Public Dns Alternative 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Now that google is coming up with a new privacy policy, and many people being uncertain about their intentions, I too am trying to reduce my reliance on google services. I have been using google dns resolver for a while and am quite satisfied with it. But since dns is so intrinsically related to almost everything internet related, i would like to find a safer alternative to google dns.

Which public dns servers does the slashdot community use and love?
Science

Submission + - 101 Reasons Why Evolution is True (ideonexus.com)

Submitted by
ideonexus
ideonexus writes: "Today is Darwin Day. With states continuing to introduce bills to teach creationism alongside the established science, like Indiana did at the beginning of this month, it's important to remember the overwhelming evidence supporting the Theory of Macroevolution through Natural Selection. Here are 101 Facts supporting Darwin's theory, in a creative commons licensed post with 101 accompanying photos."
Government

Submission + - DHS reading your Tweets and Facebook postings. (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by BitterOak
BitterOak writes: Apparently, the DHS is reading your Tweets and looking at your Facebook wall. This may seem reasonable if they're trying to prevent a terrorist attack, but apparently, they're more interested in whether or not you are criticizing them!
China

Submission + - Travel Light to China 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "What may once have sounded like the behavior of a raving paranoid is now considered standard operating procedure for officials at American government agencies, research groups and companies as the NY Times reports how businesses sending representatives to China give them a loaner laptop and cellphone that they wipe clean before they leave and wipe again when they return. “If a company has significant intellectual property that the Chinese and Russians are interested in, and you go over there with mobile devices, your devices will get penetrated,” says Joel F. Brenner, formerly the top counterintelligence official in the office of the director of national intelligence. The scope of the problem is illustrated by an incident at the United States Chamber of Commerce in 2010 when the chamber learned that servers in China were stealing information from four of its Asia policy experts who frequently visited China. After their trips, even the office printer and a thermostat in one of the chamber's corporate offices were communicating with an internet address in China. The chamber did not disclose how hackers had infiltrated its systems, but its first step after the attack was to bar employees from taking devices with them “to certain countries,” notably China. "Everybody knows that if you are doing business in China, in the 21st century, you don’t bring anything with you," says Jacob Olcott, a cybersecurity expert at Good Harbor Consulting. "That’s ‘Business 101’ — at least it should be.”"

Submission + - Brit jailed for downloading explosives recipes (thisislancashire.co.uk)

Submitted by DrHeasley
DrHeasley writes: Asim Kauser, aged 25, of Bardon Close, Halliwell, Bolton, pleaded guilty to four offences under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and was sentenced to two years and three months in prison for downloading files containing recipes for ricin and explosives. Kauser's father gave police a thumb drive containing the files while they were investigating a burglary at his home.
Biotech

Submission + - BT Corn: insects rapidly becoming resistant (msn.com)

Submitted by DrHeasley
DrHeasley writes: BT corn, which contains the DNA for Bacillus thuringensis toxin, was once hailed as the final solution for insect predators on this valuable crop. Now it turns out that insects, and evolution, are smarter than we thought, and the corn that contains the built in pesticide is no longer reliably protected.

Comment Innocent until proven guilty (Score 1) 758

by DrHeasley (#36529204) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do I Scrub Pirated Music From My Collection?
IANAL, but: To convict you, the RIAA must prove that the files you have violate copyright, you don't have to prove that they are legal - that would be Napoleonic law, which is unconstitutional, although the current supreme court might disagree. The RIAA would face the same difficulties being discussed here. If a way cannot be found to prove your music is legal, I doubt that they'd be able to find a way to prove that it's illegal.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Mirror life: Ice 9? (wired.com)

Submitted by DrHeasley
DrHeasley writes: The organic compounds that make up all terrestrial life can exist in either of two forms which are mirror images of each other, either "d" or "l". Yet, all life that we know of is exclusively "d". Can life based on the mirror image "l" compounds exist? A team of scientists is reegineering cells to create a mirror image of life on Earth. Consider the result if a few mirror photosynthetic cyanobacteria made it into the ocean...
The Internet

Submission + - Netscape's Andreesen offers new browser (msn.com)

Submitted by DrHeasley
DrHeasley writes: Rockmelt, available for the first time Monday, is built on the premise that most online activity today revolves around socializing on Facebook, searching on Google, tweeting on Twitter and monitoring a handful of favorite websites. It tries to minimize the need to roam from one website to the next by corralling all vital information and favorite services in panes and drop-down windows.

"This is a chance for us to build a browser all over again," Andreessen said. "These are all things we would have done (at Netscape) if we had known how people were going to use the Web."

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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