Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Windows 7 God mode (cnet.com)

Submitted by Hellswaters
Hellswaters writes: "Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder. "
Education

Ocean-Crossing Dragonflies Discovered 95

Posted by samzenpus from the incredible-journey dept.
grrlscientist writes "While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world."
Google

Submission + - Nexus One Name Irks Philip K. Dick's Estate (wsj.com) 3

Submitted by RevWaldo
RevWaldo writes: According to the Wall Street Journal , the estate of Philip K. Dick says the name of Google's new smartphone infringes on the famous character name from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" aka "Blade Runner". Isa Dick Hackett, a daughter of Mr. Dick, states Google has its "Android system, and now they are naming a phone 'Nexus One'. It's not lost on the people who are somewhat familiar with this novel... Our legal team is dealing head-on with this." No word on any similar actions being taken on Rob Zombie.

Submission + - Will Robots be the Next Humanitarians? (globalpost.com)

Submitted by LFrank85
LFrank85 writes: Robotic technology has come a long way over the last few years, ranging from the incredibly lifelike to flesh eating robo-fly catchers. While these advancements have paved the way for medical and military fields, a new generation of robots could take on a different course of action, humanitarianism. This new direction has begun in the area of robotic search and rescue, with the development of the Air Robot and the omnitread-4. Helping victims of disaster is only the beginning, hopefully in the near future robots will be driving aid to remote villages and performing relief tasks that are not possible for humans.
Space

Submission + - Faster-Than-Light Pulsar Phenomena (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by Matt_dk
Matt_dk writes: Observational data from nine pulsars, including the Crab pulsar, suggest these rapidly spinning neutron stars emit the electromagnetic equivalent of a sonic boom, and a model created to understand this phenomenon shows that the source of the emissions could be traveling faster than light. The sources could be traveling up to six times light speed, or 1.8 million km per second. However, although the source of the radiation exceeds the speed of light, the emitted radiation travels at normal light speed once it leaves the source. This is not science fiction, and no laws of physics were broken in this model.
NASA

Submission + - Are Astronauts Close to Extinction? (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by TechRev_AL
TechRev_AL writes: An article published by Technology Review discusses whether astronauts may be on the verge of extinction. The retirement of the space shuttle, the likely abandonment of the ISS, and the overall uncertainty over the future of NASA's human spaceflight plans suggest that astronauts days are numbered, says author Jeff Foust, who is also the editor of Space Review. Many of the traditional justifications for human exploration of space (scientific progress, strategic superiority, and international prestige) are no longer relevant, Foust argues, with robotic probes, spacecraft, and rovers taking center stage. The remaining justification, as outlined by the Augustine panel, is exploring beyond the solar system. And Foust says that the most important step in this direction is to simply prolong the life of the ISS.
Power

Submission + - Microscopic Solar Cells Prove Much More Efficient (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by TechRev_AL
TechRev_AL writes: Researchers at Sandia National Labs have developed microscopic solar cells that could be far more efficient when combined with novel optics. Sandia's cells are between 0.25 and one millimeter in diameter and can be made about 10 times thinner than conventional ones lowering manufacturing costs. The resulting cells are about 20 micrometers thick but have the same efficiency as conventional cells, converting about 14.9 percent of sunlight into electrical energy. The Sandia researchers have assembled and tested a single micro solar cell as proof of principle, and they have begun testing functioning solar modules made from multiple tiny cells and are developing techniques for assembling them efficiently.
Education

Submission + - These Dragonflies migrate across oceans! (scienceblogs.com)

Submitted by grrlscientist
grrlscientist writes: While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens , only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world. [video]

Submission + - Plagiarize Or Perish

Submitted by mindbrane
mindbrane writes: The BBC has a sidebar on ghost-written academic papers in mainland China.

"More than $100m (£63m) changes hands in China every year for ghost-written academic papers, according to research by a Chinese university." The extent of the problem seems to be growing and has the well known publish or perish impetus. "The market in buying and selling scientific papers has grown five-fold in the past three years. Critics say part of the problem lies in the official requirement on academic publication for degrees and job promotions." If, as the article points out, "...the root cause lies in the erosion of an academic code of conduct."; then the mainland Chinese are going to have to look to themselves as a people when ".. debating why no scholars from mainland China have won the Nobel Prize..."
Businesses

Journal Journal: Amazon sells more ebooks on x-mas than real books

Journal by ctmurray

Amazon reports for the first time ever they sold more ebooks on one day than real books. Here is the article. My wife is an ebook (only) author and reported her largest single day sales on Christmas day, and December has been her best month ever as well. All those Kindles bought for this season are being seen in ebook sales.
Google

Google Conducts Trial on User-Voted Search Results 110

Posted by Zonk from the wisdom-of-the-what-now dept.
Grim Reaping writes "A feature in testing at Google Labs allows users to not only prioritize their favorite results, but also move, ignore, and add search results to personalized records of their preferences. The experiment features a simple 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' option for each search result; users can also suggest a URL that might be more relevant to their query. 'Other Google users will not be affected by the individual tweaking: instead it will be stored along with the users' own personal information for the next time they search for this word or phrase, so users are required to log in to avail of it.'" The company is also clear on the experiment's page: this feature may never see full release on the site.

Slashdot Top Deals

An Ada exception is when a routine gets in trouble and says 'Beam me up, Scotty'.

Close