astrowill - Slashdot User

Submission + - Planck Satellite Releases First Images (wordpress.com)

Submitted by davecl on Thursday September 17, 2009 @07:04AM

davecl writes: The Planck Satellite has released its first images. These are from the 'First Look Survey' and show a strip of the sky scanned at a range of radio and submillimetre wavelengths. The results are already better than what was seen by the previous microwave background satellite, WMAP. ESA's coverage of the results can be found here, with more details and images available in English and French. The Planck Mission Blog contains more details of the project and continuing coverage. I maintain the mission blog but even I am impressed with these first images!

Submission + - France passes harsh anti-P2P three-strikes law (ag (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @06:33AM

suraj.sun writes: The French legislature has passed its controversial anti-P2P "three strikes and you're off the Internet" law for a second time, after a constitutional court found the first version unacceptable.

The French legislature today passed into law a second version of the ultra-controversial HADOPI "three strikes" law that targets illegal Internet file-swappers. The revised proposal does address the concerns of the "Sages" who sit on France's Constitutional Council who objected to the first version of the law, but it does little to mollify critics. Internet disconnections of up to a year can be ordered by a single judge in a "streamlined" proceeding, while Internet users who fail to "secure" their connections can also be punished if other people use those connections to exchange copyrighted material.

The National Assembly passed HADOPI 2 today by a margin of 285-225; the Senate has already passed the legislation.

After HADOPI 1 passed earlier this year, the Constitutional Council objected on the groups that such severe penalties had to be overseen by a judge, not merely the new HADOPI administrative authority. HADOPI 2 addresses these complaints by adopting a quick process overseen by one judge when disconnections become an issue.

ARS Technica : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/france-passes-harsh-anti-p2p-three-strikes-law-again.ars

Submission + - SPAM: Facebook passes 300m user milestone, makes some mo 1

Submitted by dreemteem on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @05:21AM

dreemteem writes: It's been a good day for Facebook.
The social networking giant announced late this afternoon that it had grabbed its 300 millionth user and claimed that it became "cash flow positive" months ahead of expectations.
[spam URL stripped]
Link to Original Source

Submission + - BBC Wants DRM on HD Broadcasts (boingboing.net) 1

Submitted by NickFortune on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @05:09AM

NickFortune writes: Over on BoingBoing, Danny O'Brien has pointed out that, the BBC has asked the regulator for permission to add DRM to their High Definition broadcasts.
Apparently this is at the behest of "content providers".

Offcom, the regulatory body in question, has asked for comments, but the window closes today. So if you don't want DRM added to the Beeb's broadcasts, read the
proposal and explain why this is a bad idea.

Submission + - HIFI Instrument on Herschel Space Telescope has pr

Submitted by davecl on Tuesday September 15, 2009 @12:24PM

davecl writes: One of the three instruments on the Herschel satellite, HIFI, has hit a glitch. Nature is reporting that damage to the power supply for the HIFI instrument's control electronics has forced it to shut down. A possible cause is a hit by a rare very high energy cosmic ray, but investigations are proceeding. The other two Herschel instruments, PACS and SPIRE, are unaffected and are operating normally. Once the problem with HIFI is better understood it can switch over to the backup electronics, but there's only one spare. HIFI is the high resolution spectrometer for Herschel, allowing detailed study, for example, of forming stellar and planetary systems. More news of the Herschel mission can also be found on the mission blog.

Comment Re:FUD FUD FUD and more FUD (Score 3, Insightful) 926

by astrowill on Thursday August 27, 2009 @06:03AM (#29214099) Attached to: FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign

Poisoning education

Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.

not that i'm supporting this campaign, but it would be better if children learn to work with computers in general, not one specific platform or product, so that they can also use whatever will be used in businesses tomorrow. give a man a fish etc.

When I was in school, I learnt "word processing" and "spreadsheets" with very early word processing and spreadsheet packages. However, the standard for formulas in spreadsheets has not changed in the 20 years, right up until Office 2007, where the cell referencing is different by default. So it would be better to teach children to use the standards, and teach companies to adher to standards...

Comment Re:Let's see if any of these guys have a go... (Score 1) 110

by astrowill on Wednesday August 05, 2009 @05:07AM (#28953639) Attached to: Mario AI Competition

True, but TFA states that they are running "with the added benefit of endless random level generation".

Google Announces Chrome OS, For Release Mid-2010 1089

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @08:14AM from the bring-on-the-shiny dept.

Zaiff Urgulbunger writes "After years of speculation, Google has announced Google Chrome OS, which should be available mid-2010. Initially targeting netbooks, its main selling points are speed, simplicity and security — which kind of implies that the current No.1 OS doesn't deliver in these areas! The Chrome OS will run on both x86 and ARM architectures, uses a Linux kernel with a new windowing system. According to Google, 'For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.' Google says that this new OS is separate from Android, as the latter was designed for mobile phones and set-top boxes, whereas Chrome OS is designed 'for people who spend most of their time on the web.'" The New York Times' coverage is worth reading, and there are stories popping up all over the web.

Submission + - Announcing the Google Chrome OS (cnet.com)

Submitted by

TropicalCoder

on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @07:42AM

TropicalCoder writes: "Google announced the Google Chrome Operating System last night in an official blog . "It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be" said Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director in their blog. Google Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks which will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010 from multiple OEMs. It will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and later this year they will open-source its code. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. They're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. Ars technica have confirmed Google's initiative from two sources within and without Google. TechCrunch calls it a "Nuclear Bomb on Microsoft""

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