11012120
submission
labr!nth writes:
Linguist Eugene Chan has "successfully collected basic numeral systems and data from about 4,000 languages in the world." He gives a summary of many of these on his website. All sorts of interesting systems are used including various bases (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, and 12), body-part tallying, and languages that only distinguish between one and many (c.f. various wikipedia articles on Everett and the Piraha language). The site is ugly and difficult to navigate, but summary boxes at the bottom of specific language pages are informative. Especially interesting are those from indigenous languages from remote areas (c.f. pages for Bella Coola or Kwadi).
11011962
submission
jolypip writes:
A new mobile application, called SafeBox, has been launched to let users send and receive private text messages, invisible to anyone taking their phone. The application combines the popularity and mobility of texting with the privacy and security of modern cryptography to give some privacy to the SMS communications.
Stories of intercepted and incriminating SMS texts make the celebrity gossip headlines regularly, whether a prince, a footballer, an actor, a musician, a politician or a golfer, the examples are many where the SafeBox application could have kept those texts private and protected from curious intruders, paparazzi, stalkers and other prying eyes.
Privacy in general has become increasingly important, but especially so in the mobile space, as incidents of SMS spoofing and interception multiply.
SafeBox is a privacy tool that is simple to use, available to everyone around the world, and free to download. The first version has been released with J2ME for Java and Symbian phones and can be used in 7 languages.
Besides text messages, the SafeBox application, also offers other features such as a hidden private contact list, and confidential notes. The application is PIN-protected preventing its content to be seen from the outside without knowledge of the PIN. If the phone is lost, stolen or just gets in the wrong hands for a while, nobody can read the messages sent or received or even see whom they were written to.
For more information about SafeBox or to download the application for free, visit the www.safebox.mobi website from a mobile phone browser or from the web.
11009976
submission
Lucas123 writes:
The FCC is considering a request by the healthcare industry to allocate radio bandwidth for the creation of body area networks, which would use small, disposable monitors in the form of patches or bracelets to collect physiological data on critically and chronically ill patients, such as temperature, pulse, blood glucose level, blood pressure and respiratory health. The body area networks would transmit the data to electronic medical records, which could be remotely monitored by care givers and could not only head off heart attacks and strokes but reduce staph infections in hospitals, which kill 200,000 people annually in the U.S.
430158
story
eldavojohn writes
"A ZDNet blog reports stats from Secunia showing OSX averaged 20.25 vulnerabilities per month while XP & Vista combined averaged 3.67/month. Is this report card's implication accurate, or is this a symptom of one company turning a blind eye while the other concentrates on timely bugfixes? 'While Windows Vista shows fewer flaws than Windows XP and has more mitigating factors against exploitation, the addition of Windows Defender and Sidebar added 4 highly critical flaws to Vista that weren't present in Windows XP. Sidebar accounted for three of those additional vulnerabilities and it's something I am glad I don't use. The lone Defender critical vulnerability that was supposed to defend Windows Vista was ironically the first critical vulnerability for Windows Vista.'"
430032
submission
DrJenny writes:
C|net has an interesting piece running at the moment about why Apple developed their own lossless codec, and more importantly that iTunes will become a download store for lossless audio, potentially from all the major labels. This would be a massively positive move for people who spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on hi-fi gear, but refuse to give money to stores that only offer compressed music. It's a big FLAC, DRM, ALAC and GB discussion, but it's a very exciting perspective, and surely one that'll pan out meaning audiophiles will finally be able to take advantage of legal digital downloads.
