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Submission + - SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Florida

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After two months of delays, SpaceX was successful today with its launch of six Orbcomm telecommunications satellites. All six satellites have been successfully deployed in orbit. The 375-pound satellites will offer two-way data links to help customers track, monitor and control transportation and logistics assets, heavy equipment, oil and gas infrastructure, ships and buoys, and government-owned equipment. From the article: "SpaceX plans to use Monday’s launch to test a landing system it is developing to fly its rockets back to the launch site for refurbishment and reuse. During Falcon 9’s last flight in April, the first stage successfully restarted some of its engines as it careened toward the ocean, slowing its descent. The rocket also was able to deploy stabilizing landing legs before toppling over in the water. The booster, however, was destroyed by rough seas before it could be retrieved by recovery ships. Monday’s launch was the 10th flight of Falcon 9 rocket, all of which have been successful."

Submission + - Home Depot Begins Retail Store Pilot Program To Sell MakerBot 3-D Printers

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: Looking for a 3-D printer to help you out with a home project or two? If you're in one of the 12 pilot program areas here in the U.S., stop into Home Depot to take a look at and purchase a MakerBot 3-D Replicator printer. "MakerBot printers have been available on Home Depot's website for about a month, and sales have exceeded expectations, said Mr. Pettis. The stores will put up specially-designed kiosks where shoppers can see the machines in 3-D action. Trained MakerBot retail staff will also be on-site for the indefinite future in order to put the machines through their paces."

Comment I Wasn't Entitle-d (Score 1) 164

by ClockEndGooner (#47019507) Attached to: Adobe Creative Cloud Services Offline (Again?)
For a company of Adobe's size, technical resources and experience, and for their tremendous investment in the cloud, I was quite surprised that they didn't have any failover capability with their Web services, and that it took as long as it did to analyze and correct the problem, er, "maintenance issue". During this time, I wasn't able to download my monthly eBooks from Entitle, as their catalog of titles are all protected with Adobe's DRM and their eBook Reader applications connect directly to Adobe for authentication.

Granted, not being able to access some recreational reading material was no great loss or inconvenience, but for those whose independent businesses and livelihoods depend on a robust, well maintained and well managed and set of high availability of Web services, it must have been excruciating. But this also makes me wonder that for other online vendors that are so dependent on Web Services, how well are contracted service levels and availabilities thought out by both businesses, how would Adobe price out these services, and do they have any type of services protection or insurance for loss of business and to reimburse other vendors?

Submission + - Cygnus ISS Launch Delayed Due To Sun's Coronal Mass Ejection

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: A giant coronal mass ejection from the Sun yesterday has resulted in a higher than normal level of radioactivity, and in turn, forced Orbital Sciences to postpone their first mission launch of the Cygnus space truck to the International Space Station. Citing concerns of the increased level of space radiation may have on the Antares launcher and Cygnus avionics, the NASA and Orbital launch team is now evaluating if conditions will improve for a launch on Thursday with Cygnus arriving at the ISS on Sunday morning.

Submission + - A Bit of Cream & Zeppelin May Increase Efficiency of Solar Panels (clickgreen.org.uk)

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: Local solar panel farms in your area might be able to take music requests in the near future, as researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London found that playing loud pop and rock music improves the performance of solar cells. According to the researchers, "The high frequencies and pitch found in pop and rock music cause vibrations that enhanced energy generation in solar cells containing a cluster of 'nanorods', leading to a 40 per cent increase in efficiency of the solar cells."
ISS

Submission + - SpaceX's Dragon Experiences Thruster Problem (space.com) 1

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: The launch of the latest Dragon supply capsule to the ISS took place earlier today, and this time there were no issues with the Falcon 9 boosters. However, there’s a thruster problem with the Dragon itself that is keeping the craft from deploying its solar panels. Let’s hope the SpaceX team can correct this soon and still dock with the ISS.

Comment What Apps Does Your Sister Want To Run? (Score 2) 732

by ClockEndGooner (#40125901) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Shop For a Laptop?
There are some interesting ideas and recommendations on hardware, but what surprises me is that there is no mention whatsoever on what your sister wants or needs to run in terms of applications. Personally, I would make sure I understood what she wanted to run in terms of applications, and coupled with her own preferences and experiences with other hardware, then make a recommendation on which type of notebook to buy. It could very well be the case that the type of applications she needs to run are only available on one platform. Typical users spend time running applications, and in the end, pay little attention to the subtle variations in CPU speeds. In terms of the hardware itself, make sure that the display is suitable to her needs and expectations, and that she is comfortable in the feedback of the keyboard when running the applications she'll be spending most of her time using, and then that, along with budget, will help narrow down the choice in hardware.
NASA

Submission + - Falcon 9 Launch Aborted At Last Minute (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: Sadly, SpaceX had to abort its launch of the Falcon 9 to the International Space Station this morning due to higher than expected pressure levels in one of its engine chambers. NASA and SpaceX have another launch window scheduled for early next week. "Billionaire rocket designer Elon Musk “Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days,” he tweeted".
Science

Submission + - Can Toads Help In Predicting Earthquakes? (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: The BBC is reporting that a team led by Dr. Friedemann Freund from NASA and Dr. Rachel Grant from the UK's Open University have found that “animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur when an earthquake is about to strike.” Just prior to the quake that struck L'Aquila, Italy in 2009, Grant observed a mass toad exodus from a colony she was monitoring as part of her PhD project, and her published results prompted NASA to contact her as they found that highly stressed tectonic plates released a greater amount of positively charged ions that affected the water quality, which was sensed by the toads. According to NASA’s Freund, "Once we understand how all of these signals are connected, if we see four of five signals all pointing in [the same] direction, we can say, 'ok, something is about to happen'."
Science

Submission + - Hummingbirds Can Withstand Self-Generated 34g Head (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: Scientists have discovered that most species of Hummingbirds can rid themseleves of wet feathers with an in-flight head shake that "it can reach a g-force of 34." As quoted in an article, with video footage on on-line from the BBC, UCAL Berkeley Professor Robert Dudleysaid: "It is the extreme mobility — its head is going through 180 degrees in a 10th of a second or less — it is just extraordinary." Possible applications for this discovery are more robust micro air surveillance vehicles, and washing machines with improved drying spin cycles.

Submission + - Publishers & Public Libraries At Odds Over eBo (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: "TheNew York Times (registration required) has an interesting article on how book publishers and public libraries are at odds over the costs associated with making eBooks available to patrons. As many towns, cities, counties and states are cutting funds for libraries to maintain and add to their collections, publishers are looking into new purchase and licensing plans that may make the cost of acquiring eBooks higher than printed books, as publishers are concerned about lost revenue and more than one "reader" accessing a "book" during a given loan period."

Comment Is This Really AI & Developed By Eugene Varsha (Score 1) 206

by ClockEndGooner (#34836764) Attached to: Google Goggles Solves Sudoku
I think the question at the end of the post, "... AI is getting just a little bit too commonplace?" isn't relevant to using AI to solve a Sudoku puzzle. I thought part of the definition of AI was the ability for a system and/or application to dynamically adapt and learn and apply new rules based on previous input criteria and patterns where no known patterns exist? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence). Since each valid Sudoku puzzle should have one and only one solution, there are different well defined algorithms and or approaches to solve a Sudoku puzzle solely on the correct application of logical rules, does this really count as AI?

Nonetheless, I wonder if the Google Goggle Sudoku Solver was implemented by Eugene Varshavsky? ( Fraud Suspected At Sudoku Championship: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114215648) {:-)

Submission + - Songbird Development Survival Guide Released

Submitted by ClockEndGooner
ClockEndGooner writes: Georges Auberger, the lead developer behind Songbird, continues his policy of open and transparent development.

"Today we’re taking a step further by publishing our Development Survival Guide. This presentation is an internal step-by-step guide that we take new engineers thru during their orientation. It’s a good summary of what to expect on a day-to-day basis as an engineer working at Songbird (other than daily Fussball tournament and unfettered access to the beer stocked mini-fridge). It’s your opportunity to take a peek from within."

Georges is also using this as a recruiting tool, by asking and then listing the current job openings.
Science

Israeli Scientists Freeze Water By Warming It 165

Posted by timothy from the you-must-become-the-frozen-water dept.
ccktech writes "As reported by NPR and Chemistry world, the journal Science has a paper by David Ehre, Etay Lavert, Meir Lahav, and Igor Lubomirsky [note: abstract online; payment required to read the full paper] of Israel's Weizmann Institute, who have figured out a way to freeze pure water by warming it up. The trick is that pure water has different freezing points depending on the electrical charge of the surface it resides on. They found out that a negatively charged surface causes water to freeze at a lower temperature than a positively charged surface. By putting water on the pyroelectric material Lithium Tantalate, which has a negative charge when cooler but a positive change when warmer; water would remain a liquid down to -17 degrees C., and then freeze when the substrate and water were warmed up and the charge changed to positive, where water freezes at -7 degrees C."
Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

Posted by samzenpus from the duck-and-cover dept.
garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"

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