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Space

Tickets On Sale In Sweden For Space Tourism, Starting In 2012 66

think_nix writes "The local.se is reporting that, for around 200,000 USD, tickets for eager space tourists looking for that outer space adventure will be purchasable from the Sweden's Ice Hotel in Kiruna. The flights are planned to be run by Virgin Galactic, also allowing flights to be taken from New Mexico. The article further states that already around 300 tickets have been purchased."

Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 217

The DMCA notices I've seen only swear to be authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf, and/or that there is an exclusive license which the alleged file sharer doesn't have. The details about IP addresses, protocols, and timestamps are (at best) represented as a "good faith belief." It's never been clear to me if those sending the notices are making any claim that the

Do you have a reference for your claim that the entire notice must be filed under penalty of perjury? I have some that are completely implausible, and others that for which I have some doubt. If this were indeed perjury, that would probably be interesting to lawyers defending clients from similar evidence.

Google

EPIC Urges FTC To Investigate Google Services 111

snydeq writes "The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a 15-page complaint asking the FTC to force Google to stop offering online services that collect data until the presence of adequate privacy safeguards is verified. The EPIC also wants Google to disclose all data loss or breach incidents, citing several incidents where data held by Google was at risk, the most recent of which occurred earlier this month with its Google Docs. The EPIC complaint [PDF] also listed other security flaws in Gmail and Google Desktop, a desktop indexing program, and urged Google to donate $5 million to a public fund that will support research into technologies such as encryption, data anonymization and mobile location privacy." EPIC has raised privacy concerns about Google before, and about Windows XP as well.
Image

Robot Love Goes Bad Screenshot-sm 101

hundredrabh writes "Ever had a super needy girlfriend that demanded all your love and attention and would freak whenever you would leave her alone? Irritating, right? Now imagine the same situation, only with an asexual third-generation humanoid robot with 100kg arms. Such was the torture subjected upon Japanese researchers recently when their most advanced robot, capable of simulating human emotions, ditched its puppy love programming and switched over into stalker mode. Eventually the researchers had to decommission the robot, with a hope of bringing it back to life again."

Comment Whatever window is open... (Score 1) 776

I use whatever window is open, and that's generally a lot of them. pgsl is very good at dates, but one can select almost anything you really need, too. bc -l works from almost any shell. google is smart enough for easy stuff.

Of course, someone will probably say they just PM CowboyNeal in IRC, but I actually prefer to do the easier calculations myself.

Comment Re:hydrogen cars (Score 1) 769

Since hydrogen has, at a theoretical best, a 1.0 eROI, it should never be considered an energy source.

Modern batteries (or even flywheels) are better at storing energy than stored hydrogen. The electric grids transmit energy more efficiently than hydrogen can be transported (except to exotic places where installing power lines is difficult. Like on a launching space shuttle.)

Security

Google NativeClient Security Contest 175

An anonymous reader writes "You may remember Google's NativeClient project, discussed here last December. Don't be fooled into calling this ActiveX 2.0 — rather than a model of trust and authentication, NaCl is designed to make dangerous code impossible by enforcing a set of a rules at load time that guarantee hostile code simply cannot execute (PDF). NaCl is still in heavy development, but the developers want to encourage low-level security experts to take a look at their design and code. To this end Google has opened the NativeClient Security Contest, and will award prizes topping out at $2^13 to top bug submitters. If you're familiar with low level security, memory segmentation, accurate disassembly of hostile code, code alignment, and related topics, do take a look. Mac, Linux, and Windows are all supported."
Robotics

Small Robots Could Build Landing Site For Moon Base 199

A new NASA-sponsored study suggests that small lawnmower-sized robots could be used to build a landing site for a moon outpost. In order to be efficient a landing pad would have to be close to any structures created, but without an atmosphere to slow down the lunar sand it would sandblast the outpost, creating the need for some sort of protection. By using small robots to either build protective berms or collect rocks to "pave" a landing pad, NASA hopes to provide protection against the sand-blasting effects of a landing on the moon.
Space

NASA Contest To Name ISS Module 197

Solarch writes "NASA is holding a contest to name ISS Node 3. Being a Browncoat myself, I should hope that the choice of names would be obvious. As of the 7:30 PM EST on 2/25, the name Serenity has over 80% of the vote. From the site: 'Node 3 will connect to the port side of the Unity Node and will provide room for many of the station's life support systems, in the form of eight refrigerator-sized racks. After Node 3 is installed, the station's crew will transfer over many of the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) currently stored in various places around the station.'"
Communications

Google Blames Gmail Troubles On Maintenance Goof 109

Slatterz writes "Google has apologised for the two-and-a-half-hour Gmail outage on Tuesday morning, and admitted that the cause was down to data center maintenance. 'Lots of people around the world who rely on Gmail were disrupted during their waking and working hours, and we are very sorry. We did everything we could to restore access as soon as possible, and the issue is now resolved,' said Gmail site reliability manager Acacio Cruz in a blog post. Google had been testing new code designed to keep data geographically closer to its owner, which brought about disruption when maintenance in one data center caused another facility to be overloaded. This had a cascade effect, according to Google, and it took the company an hour to get it back under control."
Image

Joomla! Web Security Screenshot-sm 78

Stephen Brandon writes "It used to be that to set up a database-backed web site required at least a server guy, a database administrator, a programmer, and a designer. Joomla! and other modern CMS systems have opened the door to allow non-administrators to be able to set up complete e-commerce or informational sites, using great free software and easy-to-find commercial hosting. What then of security? A new book by Tom Canavan, Joomla Web Security, aims to bridge the knowledge gap, introducing Joomla! admins to a set of security tools, and skills sometimes found lacking in the Joomla! community." Read on for the rest of Stephen's review.

Comment Re:Can't believe I'm first, second, and third (Score 1) 534

I think you can get that with a single spinning design. You can run in the same direction as the rotation (basically, faster rotation) and get a good workout. Or, you can leap in the opposite direction, and get around the rim pretty quick. Or you can just hang out in the "hub" and let the station turn around you.
Image

Dutch City Fears Loss of Pornography Archive Screenshot-sm 61

The Dutch city of Leeuwarden has lost the municipal pornography archive and officials fear it may be gone forever. A spokesman for the city said the collection may have been taken home "accidentally" by an employee or visitor. "We're hoping that someone will say 'Hey, I have that in my attic' and bring it back," he said Thursday. "No questions asked." Leeuwarden shouldn't be too upset. I've found it a good practice to get rid of your porn archive and rebuild every 6 months or so.
GUI

Windows 7 Taskbar Not So Similar To OS X Dock After All 545

cremou brulee writes "Redmond's photocopiers have been unusually busy for the last couple of years, with the result that Windows 7 copies a lots of Mac OS X features. First and foremost among these is the Dock, which has been unceremoniously ripped off in Windows 7's new Taskbar. Or has it? Ars Technica has taken an in-depth look at the history and evolution of the Taskbar, and shows just how MS arrived at the Windows 7 'Superbar.' The differences between the Superbar and the Dock are analyzed in detail. The surprising conclusion? 'Ultimately, the new Taskbar is not Mac-like in any important way, and only the most facile of analyses would claim that it is.'"

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