Comment Collectible? (Score 1) 191
I have a pristine unopened box in my garage. I figure it'll be worth something someday. Anyone want to make me an offer? :)
Submission + - 90% of the Universe found hiding in plain view (discovermagazine.com) 2
The Bad Astronomer writes: "As much as 90% of previously hidden galaxies in the distant Universe have been found by astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Previous surveys had looked for distant (10 billion light years away) galaxies by searching in a wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms — distant young galaxies should be blasting out this light, but very few were detected. The problem is that the ultraviolet light never gets out of the galaxies, so we never see them. In this new study, astronomers searched a different wavelength emitted by hydrogen, and voila, ten times as many galaxies could be seen, meaning 90% of them had been missed before."
Submission + - Windows Live Writer 2010 review (einsthemes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: I’ve currently using Windows Live Writer 2010 beta for writing blogs and it’s really awesome.
Now we will see what are the new features that comes with this latest 2010 version of Windows Live Writer.
Now we will see what are the new features that comes with this latest 2010 version of Windows Live Writer.
Submission + - Europe calls for ACTA treaty to be made public (techworld.com)
superapecommando writes: The European Commission has promised to propose a motion calling for the opening up of the secretive anticounterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) at the next meeting mid-April in New Zealand, an official said during a conference.
Eva Lichtenberger, a Green Party member of the European Parliament who attended the conference, said that if the effort to open up the ACTA process to public scrutiny fails, then Europe should walk out.
Eva Lichtenberger, a Green Party member of the European Parliament who attended the conference, said that if the effort to open up the ACTA process to public scrutiny fails, then Europe should walk out.
Submission + - A Recorded Case of Airport Body Scanner Abuse
lourd_baltimore writes: A British Airports Authority (BAA) employee has been issued a warning for harassment in what may be the first recorded instance of airport body scanner abuse. The incident occurred at London Heathrow Airport and involved a male BAA employee who allegedly scanned images of a female colleague when she inadvertently passed through the scanner. The female employee is reported as being traumatized by the event. While it is apparent that there is a process in place for BAA personnel to report scanner misuse, it is not immediately clear what recourse passengers have other than telling the Pope. This event, coupled with the earlier revelation that scanners could possibly store and transmit images will not do much to assuage the rising privacy concerns by human rights advocates.
Submission + - How Pattern Recognition Unraveled an Assassination
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Seattle Times reports that a team of 20 investigators pored over 648 hours of surveillance videos using facial recognition software to sketch out a picture of 27 suspects involved in the murder of a 50-year-old Hamas commander wanted by Israel in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers. In the end, a mixture of high-tech razzle-dazzle and old-fashioned investigative work cracked the case. "Dubai police are very good at piecing together crimes," says Theodore Karasik, a security analyst at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Affairs. "I've seen it before when you had robberies or murders occur and you'll forget about the story and then six months later the guys are arrested via Interpol brought back here and then they disappear into the system." The case has generated what most analysts consider unwelcome fallout for Israel, which many suspect of being behind the attack but if Mossad agents were involved, the operation blew the identities of 27 agents and may have exposed Israel's operational intelligence methods or at least presented them openly for scrutiny. "Now we know their tradecraft," says Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Center,. "We know how they operate.""
Submission + - Math Skills For Programmers - Necessary Or Not? (skorks.com) 2
An anonymous reader writes: Currently the nature of most programming work is such that you don't really need math skills to get by or even to do well, after all linear algebra is no help when building database driven websites. However, Skorks contends that if you want to do truly interesting work in the software development field, math skills are essential and furthermore, will become increasingly important as we are forced to work with ever larger data sets (making math-intensive algorithm analysis skills a priority).
Submission + - High Fructose Corn Syrup And Obesity (sciencedaily.com)
clm1970 writes: Princeton University Researchers have determined that given the same caloric intake lab rats gained significantly more weight when given high fructose corn syrup in their diet. The story is detailed here. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100322121115.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+(ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News
Submission + - Google warns Australia over 'Net filters (arstechnica.com)
Tyler Too writes: A day after redirecting google.cn to Hong Kong servers, Google has come out in opposition to Australia's Internet filtering system. 'Google is unlikely to come right out and compare Australia to China, but the implication is obvious—and has been made explicit by other groups. Reporters Without Borders said recently that Australia would "be joining an Internet censors' club that includes such countries as China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia."'
Submission + - Microsoft: Don't Cry For Linux Lawsuit, Argentina (eweekeurope.co.uk)
judgecorp writes: Microsoft is facing a legal challenge in Argentina from an open source company which alleges the software giant used its cut-down Windows XP Starter Edition to unfairly dominate the country’s operating system market. Microsoft, which has been accused of dominating software markets in Switzerland, Hungary and other countries, is dismissive: "We believe the complaint is baseless. We offer Windows at competitive prices and the complainant, Pixart, is upset about this competition on the merits and wants an order that requires Microsoft to set its prices higher in order to help their sales.”
Submission + - Yahoo Releases 'Sketch-a-Search' App (pcmag.com)
adeelarshad82 writes: Yahoo's latest app now downloadable on Apple iTunes App Store, Sketch-a-Search allows a user to search for a nearby place of interest, such as a restaurant. Most search engines offer this. What's interesting about Sketch-a-Search is that it then allows the user to "lasso" a specific region, and confine search results to it. Yahoo demonstrated this in the context of searching for waterfront restaurants. Searching for "restaurants near the water" might also work, but it would also seem to depend on how the restaurant itself subjectively viewed its proximity. Sketch-a-Search defaults to the user's location. Restaurant searches can be filtered by cuisine, ambiance, and star rating. A restaurant can also be called from within the app itself. However, that's also the catch; the Sketch-a-Search feature works just for restaurants at the moment, and is also restricted to U.S. users.
Submission + - Apple Selling Contract-Free iPhones in U.S. (gizmodo.com) 4
gyrogeerloose writes: According to Gizmondo, a leaked internal Apple corporate document states that iPhones are now available for purchase without proof of an existing AT&T contract. While his makes it possible for users to unlock their phones for use on Verizon's network, AT&T remains the only U.S. carrier that will support all of the iPhone's features, such as visual voice mail.
Submission + - Laptops Computers Detect and Monitor Earthquakes
Pickens writes: "Live Science reports that 1,000 people from 61 countries have signed up with the Quake-Catcher Network to take advantage of built-in accelerometers in newer laptops that transmit data about earthquakes to researchers at UC Irvine and Stanford University. "It's providing additional data that can be fed into the seismic networks," says Elizabeth Cochran, a UC Irvine geoscientist. "It also allows us to record earthquakes at a scale that we haven't been able to before because of the cost." Cochran came up with the idea for the Quake-Catcher Network when she learned that most new laptops come equipped with accelerometers designed to switch off the hard drive if the laptop is dropped. "I figured that we could easily tap into this data and use it to record earthquakes." While traditional seismic monitors can detect earthquakes of magnitude 1.0 or less, the lowest magnitude the Quake-Catcher Network can detect is about 4.0, a moderate quake much like the one that hit LA on March 16. But what the network lacks in sensitivity, it makes up for in price as traditional seismic sensors cost $5,000 to $10,000 apiece. "Ideally we would have seismometers in every building, or at least on every block. And in tall buildings, we'd have multiple sensors [on different floors]," says Cochran. "That way, we would be able to actually get much higher detail, images of how the ground shakes during an earthquake.""
Submission + - Helium rain on Jupiter makes for strange days (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: In the strange and mysterious world of Jupiter, scientists were looking for an explanation for why the massive orb's atmosphere contained little neon, a common gas found on many planets. Now researching say they have found solved the mystery: Helium rain. In the interior of Jupiter conditions are so strange that, according to predictions by University of California, Berkeley scientists, helium condenses into droplets and falls like rain. On Jupiter the scientists explain the only way neon could be removed from the upper atmosphere is to have it fall out with helium, since neon and helium mix easily, like alcohol and water.
Submission + - Pirate Party: file-sharing good for record labels (pcpro.co.uk)
Barence writes: In an interview with PC Pro, UK Pirate Party leader Andrew Robinson has outlined its newly launched manifesto — with radical proposals to legalise file-sharing, cut back copyright to ten years and set free BBC content. When asked whether legalisation would increase file-sharing, his response was unequivocal: "Of course more people will do it if it’s legalised. We think an increase in file-sharing is a good thing for the culture industries. If you are not one of the few people who are lucky enough to be signed to a big record label then it’s virtually impossible to advertise yourself in the same way." He also spoke of the party's plans to gain seats in upcoming elections, aiming to win "as many as we can afford, really. We have two so far with eight more in the pipeline, but we’ve still got to find funding for a couple of the last ones."
