Comment I hate to be a stickler, but... (Score 0) 4
"one of the number one causes" doesn't make a lot of sense.
Comment Facebook strips EXIF (Score 0) 1
Actually, in a surprising show of privacy concern, Facebook strips all EXIF data from uploaded photos.
Or maybe it's to help those people with "myspace shots" from having the original thumbnail visible.
Or maybe it's to help those people with "myspace shots" from having the original thumbnail visible.
Submission + - Hypersonic Radio Black-Out Problem Solved (technologyreview.com)
KentuckyFC writes: Russian physicists have come up with a new way to communicate with hypersonic vehicles surrounded by a sheath of plasma. Ordinarily, this plasma absorbs and reflects radio waves at communications frequencies leading to a few tense minutes during the re-entry of manned vehicles such as the shuttle. However, the problem is even more acute for military vehicles such as ballistic missiles and hypersonic planes. Radio black out prevents these vehicles from accessing GPS signals for navigation and does not allow them to be re-targeted or disarmed at the last minute. But a group of Russian physicists say they can get around this problem by turning the entire plasma sheath into a radio antenna. They point out that any incoming signal is both reflected and absorbed by the plasma. The reflected signal is lost but the absorbed energy sets up a resonating electric field at a certain depth within the plasma. In effect, this layer within the plasma acts like a radio antenna, receiving the signal. However, the signal cannot travel further through the plasma to the spacecraft. Their new idea is to zap this layer with radio waves generated from within the spacecraft. These waves will be both absorbed by the plasma and reflected back inside the spacecraft. However, the key point is that the reflected waves ought to be modulated by any changes in the electric field within the plasma. In other words, the reflected waves should carry a kind of imprint of the original external radio signal. That would allow the craft to receive external signals from GPs satellites or ground control. And the same process in reverse allows the spacecraft to broadcast signals too.
Submission + - Mono for Android beta now open for all (i-programmer.info)
mikejuk writes: The Mono for Android or MonoDroid beta is now open for anyone who wants to use it and provides a way for any .NET programmer to create Android apps without having to learn Java. This could be the route to phone apps that .NET programmers have been waiting for and it gives them a much more certain market than Windows Phone 7. This said the big problem is that MonDroid, even though it uses open source Mono, is going to be a commercial product.
Submission + - Nursing Students Expelled Over Facebook Pictures (kansascity.com)
clone52431 writes: In a strange twist on the usual story, four nursing students have been expelled from the Johnson County Community College over some pictures that apparently made someone at the college cringe. No, they didn’t pose nude, or with beer, hookers, or underage children – they were posing with a human placenta during a visit to the Olathe Medical Center for one of their lab classes. According to JCCC director of nursing, Jeanne Walsh, “Your demeanor and lack of professional behavior surrounding this event was considered a disruption to the learning environment and did not exemplify the professional behavior that we expect in the nursing program,” (in a letter to one of the expelled students) and a college dean is calling this “a lesson hard learned.” Now, I’m not one for shirking consequences, but what exactly are the consequences of posing with a placenta? I don’t think it’s illegal, and I don’t think the placenta’s HIPPA rights were violated... so why did they get kicked out of school over it? My guess: Cooties.
Comment Re:typos galore (Score 0) 4
Damn, satellites are more complicated than I thought!
Comment typos galore (Score 0) 4
- wreaking, not reeking
- ensuring, not insuring
- rogue, not rouge
Submission + - IBM Makes A Super Memory Breakthrough 3
adeelarshad82 writes: IBM says they have made a significant leap forward in the viability of "Racetrack memory," a new technology design which has the potential to exponentially increase computing power. This new tech could give devices the ability to store as much as 100 times more information than they do now, which would be accessed at far greater speeds while utilizing "much less" energy than today's designs. In the future, a single portable device might be able to hold as much memory as today's business-class servers and run on a single battery charge for weeks at a time. Racetrack memory works by storing data as magnetic regions (also called domains), which would be transported along nanowire "racetracks." Instead of forcing a computer to seek out the data it needs, as traditional computing systems do, the information would automatically slide along the racetrack to where it could be used.
Submission + - Using LED ceiling lights for digital communication (yahoo.com)
PatPending writes: A Minnesota start-up company, LVX, is developing products under several patents and about a dozen pending applications, e.g., "Building illumination apparatus with integrated communications, security and energy management", that puts clusters of LEDs in a standard-sized ceiling light fixture. The LEDs are in optical communication with special modems attached to office computers. The first generation of the LVX system will transmit data at speeds of about three megabits per second, roughly as fast as a residential DSL line. LVX Chief Executive Officer John Pederson said a second-generation system that will roll out in about a year will permit speeds on par with commercial Wi-Fi networks. It will also permit lights that can be programmed to change intensity and color. Pederson said the next generation of the system should get even more efficient as fixtures become "smart" so the lights would dim when bright sunlight is coming through a window or when a conference room or hallway is empty. Hurdles: speed and installation costs. No word on the reliability and security of this system.
Comment Re:Every other person who commented is dumb (Score 0) 280
Good ol' Bugs Bunny. Where has he gone?
Albuquerque, if I'm not mistaken.
Submission + - Shtetl-Optimized  Blog Archive  QCut (scottaaronson.com)
jamie writes: "As some of you may have heard, the incoming Republican majority in Congress has a new initiative called YouCut, which lets ordinary Americans like me propose government programs for termination. So imagine how excited I was to learn that YouCut’s first target — yes, its first target — was that notoriously bloated white elephant, the National Science Foundation."
Submission + - Nike Sues Customer For Buying Fake Nikes (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Nike has apparently taken a page out of the playbook of the RIAA. When a bunch of counterfeit Nike trainers were shipped to the UK, rather than go after those who made the shoes or sold the shoes, Nike decided to sue the customers who bought the shoes. Most caved and settled, but one of them fought back only to lose in court. He pointed out that all he did was buy what he thought were a legitimate pair of Nike shoes. He had no idea they were fakes... The court's response? They said it doesn't matter and sided with Nike on summary judgment. The lesson implicit in all of this? Don't buy Nike shoes as the company might just sue you.
Submission + - An update on Google Fiber (tekgoblin.com)
tekgoblin writes: Earlier this year Google had widened our eyes when they announced that they were going to provide Fiber connections to our homes. Google has been silent about their Fiber project until today. Google has announced today that due to the overwhelming response of over 1,100 communities they need more time to select the right ones for this project. So Google has delayed their announcement till early 2011 so we will have to sit tight till then.
Comment typo (Score 0) 1
According to Google not only didn't the report use Chrome 6 for the tests where as the current version is Chrome 8
I think "didn't" needs to be changed to "did". That sentence threw me for a loop.
Submission + - Patient cured of Aids using Stem Cell Therapy (hematologylibrary.org)
mrsportacus writes: A patient in Germany undergoing Stem Cell Therapy for leukemia appears to have been cured of AIDS. The stem cells replaced the dormant AIDS cells with healthy cells. The virus did not resurface after they stopped the anti-viral meds. This is the paper published by the researchers.
