skade88 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Manned Mars Mission gets First Funding (spaceindustrynews.com)

Submitted by littlesparkvt on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @12:15PM

littlesparkvt writes: In the first half of 2013, Mars One will award the Conceptual Design studies to industry suppliers. These are sophisticated engineering bids, technical plans which lay the foundation for the major components such as the transport vehicles, space suits, life support systems and living modules on Mars. These will substantiate the Mission plan with real-world engineering designs and data.

Submission + - WTO Approves Antigua's Pirate Website (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by hydrofix on Monday January 28, 2013 @08:09PM

hydrofix writes: On Thursday TorrentFreak broke the story (verified by BBC) that the government of Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny island nation on the Caribbean, was planning to launch a legal "pirate" website selling movies, music and software without paying a penny to U.S. copyright holders. Now, the World Trade Organization has given its final approval for the Antigua government to launch the website. The decision follows from long-running trade dispute between the countries, related to online gambling, which was ruled in Antigua's favor in 2005. After the United States refused to compensate, the WTO granted Antigua the right to "suspend" U.S. copyrights for up to $21 million annually.

Submission + - Apple has a new porn problem (theverge.com)

Submitted by adeelarshad82 on Monday January 28, 2013 @05:13PM

adeelarshad82 writes: Twitter's new iOS-only app, Vine, was prominently featured by Apple as an "Editor's Pick" in its App Store the day it launched. However, given Apple's policies for adult content, they may have rushed the whole thing since this past Sunday, a number of news outlets ran stories covering the rise of easily-accessible pornography on the new video sharing app. As Joshua Topolsky explains, the situation draws even more attention to the vague and sometimes confusing rules of Apple's App Store guidelines, and more clearly showcases the sporadic and often unusual criteria the iPhone-maker uses to decide the fates of applications. So it will be interesting to see how Apple handles this given that they've never been shy about banning similarly racy apps in the past.

Submission + - Unseen, All-Out Cyber War On The U.S. Has Begun (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday January 28, 2013 @02:00PM

snydeq writes: "Security pros and government officials warn of a possible cyber 9/11 involving banks, utilities, other companies, or the Internet, InfoWorld reports. 'A cyber war has been brewing for at least the past year, and although you might view this battle as governments going head to head in a shadow fight, security experts say the battleground is shifting from government entities to the private sector, to civilian targets that provide many essential services to U.S. citizens. The cyber war has seen various attacks around the world, with incidents such as Stuxnet, Flame, and Red October garnering attention. Some attacks have been against government systems, but increasingly likely to attack civilian entities. U.S. banks and utilities have already been hit.'"

Submission + - Curiosity Commences Drilling on Mars (lews-garage.org)

Submitted by

jomama717

on Monday January 28, 2013 @01:40PM

jomama717 writes: "Although there is no official word yet from NASA it appears that drilling has commenced, based on evidence detailed here. Curiosity has been officially searching for drilling sites in the "Yellowknife Bay" area for nearly two weeks."

Submission + - Would you support National Space Society videos on the importance of space? (kickstarter.com) 1

Submitted by

garyebickford

on Monday January 28, 2013 @01:29PM

garyebickford writes: "I didn't know where to put this (it's not really science, where most space stuff goes), but I think it's important so I'm asking Slashdot: how important is space development in your opinion? How would you tell people about it? National Space Society wants to produce several videos about the importance, and the potential, of commercial space development.

I think space development could be the most important subject today. The potential of space industry for relieving various resource issues on Earth (including even possible 'climate change' and other ecological concerns) could make many of the contentious issues of the day moot. Just as the 'discovery' of the New World and sudden availability of large amounts of various resources disrupted the economic and political systems of the entire world, so also space could completely change the game on Earth again. I think this is not only overall a good thing, I think it is inevitable and we should be planning for it"

Submission + - Poor Sleep Prevents Brain From Storing Memories (techzwn.com) 2

Submitted by jjp9999 on Monday January 28, 2013 @03:15AM

jjp9999 writes: Recent findigns published on Jan. 27 in the journal Nature Neuroscience may inspire you to get some proper sleep. Researchers at UC Berkley found that REM sleep plays a key role in moving short term memories from the hippocampus (where short-term memories are stored) to the prefrontal cortex (where long-term memories are stored), and that degeneration of the frontal lobe as we grow older may play a key role in forgetfulness. "What we have discovered is a dysfunctional pathway that helps explain the relationship between brain deterioration, sleep disruption and memory loss as we get older – and with that, a potentially new treatment avenue," said UC Berkeley sleep researcher Matthew Walker.

Submission + - The mathematics of the lifespan of species (npr.org)

Submitted by skade88 on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @03:24PM

skade88 writes: NPR is reporting on a study in which the author claims to have found the formula to predict the average life span of members of a species. It does not apply to specific individuals of that species, only to the average life span of members of the species as a whole.

Comment Link it from /. (Score 1) 2

by skade88 on Tuesday January 22, 2013 @05:31PM (#42661445) Attached to: What can I do with spam traffic?

A great idea would be to post a link to your site in a slashdot story that gets to the front page so you get lots of traffic.

Submission + - Why you'll pay for Netflix -- even if you don't subscribe to Netflix (foxnews.com) 1

Submitted by Velcroman1 on Tuesday January 22, 2013 @01:54PM

Velcroman1 writes: At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix announced Super HD, an immersive theatrical video format that looks more lifelike than any Web stream, even competing with Blu-Ray discs. But there’s a costly catch. To watch the high-definition, 1080p movies when they debut later this year, you’ll need a specific Internet Service Provider (or ISP). Those on Cablevision or Google Fiber are in; those served by Time Warner or a host of smaller providers will be out of luck. But regardless of whether you subscribe to Netflix, you may end up paying for it, said Fred Campbell, a former FCC legal adviser who now heads The Communications Liberty & Innovation Project think tank. “Instead of raising the price of its own service to cover the additional costs, Netflix wants to offload its additional costs onto all Internet consumers,” Campbell said. “That’s good for Netflix and bad for everyone else in the Internet economy.”

Submission + - Nexus Q No Longer Available For Sale (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy on Friday January 18, 2013 @04:56PM

sfcrazy writes: Nexus Q, the social media streaming holo-themed ball from Google has finished its life after only 8 months since it was announced in June 2012 after an interesting rumour buildup. Its status on Google Play has changed from "not for sale at this time" to "no longer available for sale", marking the somewhat expected end of this device.

Submission + - NCycle, a skinny concept foldable electric bike (vividtimes.com)

Submitted by

vividtimes

on Friday January 18, 2013 @04:49PM

vividtimes writes: "Despite being around for over a century, bicycles are ideally suited to meet today’s urban transport needs – even if issues remain in the form of theft-prevention, storage, and safety. Designers Skyrill and Marin Myftiu have covered its fair share of bike designs which aim to tackle these problems, and nCycle is the latest such concept to hit our collective radar, sporting a modern design and some high-tech features to match."

Submission + - AAPL tracks MSFT peak for peak (zerohedge.com)

Submitted by dave562 on Friday January 18, 2013 @03:35PM

dave562 writes: The more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1999, Microsoft had a run up to what proved to be the company's highest market capitalization ever. Now in 2013, Apple reached similar highs. The jury is still out as to whether or not AAPL has peaked, but this article from ZeroHedge provides an overlay of the market caps of these two tech titans, and makes some suggestions about where AAPL is heading.

So Slashdot, is Apple really that different? Or does the market have a limited pool of capital to allocate to technology companies, no matter how sought after their products are?

Submission + - Tom's Hardware: This Is Why Oculus Rift Will Change Your Gaming World (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by skade88 on Friday January 18, 2013 @02:25PM

skade88 writes: The guys at Tom's Hardware got to demo the Oculus Rift running Epic's Citadel demo. They describe the experience being as big of a game changing event in their lives as was OpenGL and Hardware acceleration was to Quake 1 and gaming beyond. If the Rift really does put gamers in such an immersive environment that they feel like they can stick out their tongues and catch digital snow flakes on it, then this really could be the game changer we all keep hearing about.

Submission + - Reull Vallis: A River Ran Through It (esa.int)

Submitted by Press2ToContinue on Friday January 18, 2013 @01:22PM

Press2ToContinue writes: ESA’s Mars Express imaged the striking upper part of the Reull Vallis region of Mars with its high-resolution stereo camera last year.

Reull Vallis, the river-like structure in these images, is believed to have formed when running water flowed in the distant martian past, cutting a steep-sided channel through the Promethei Terra Highlands before running on towards the floor of the vast Hellas basin.

This sinuous structure, which stretches for almost 1500 km across the martian landscape, is flanked by numerous tributaries, one of which can be clearly seen cutting in to the main valley towards the upper (north) side.

Slashdot Top Deals