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Technology

Submission + - Wearable Air Filter Transforms CO2 Into Energy (ecouterre.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: Brazilian designers Martina Pagura and Pedro Nakazato Andrade have created an oxygen-filtering breathing device that removes carbon dioxide from the air, stores it in a battery-like device, and then converts it into electricity for later use. Dubbed the W/Air, the mask pumps in fresh oxygen while distilling carbon dioxide from respiration and the environment. It is capable of producing enough energy to power a cellphone or portable music player.
Google

Microsoft Talks Back To Google's Security Claims 528

Kilrah_il writes "Yesterday there was a piece about Google ditching Windows for internal use because of security concerns. Now Microsoft is fighting back, claiming its products are the most secure — more than Google's and Apple's. 'When it comes to security, even hackers admit we're doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it's not just the hackers; third-party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others.'"

Comment Re:New from Gawker Games: Grand Theft iPhone! (Score 1) 1204

How is the LOST iPhone stolen goods? It was lost. The guy who found it reported it to Apple, and they didn't know what to do with it. He then sold it to Gizmodo. The phone wasn't stolen, it wasn't taken at gunpoint from the engineer, it was FOUND on the floor! Now do I agree that selling it was the right thing to do? No, not really. But it's not stolen.

Um read the parent...

property laws that go back to the 1800s that say if you find something worth more than $400 and use it for your own purposes you can be charged with Grand Theft

He found it, did not turn it over to the appropriate place then sold it. He stole it.

Comment Re:A false choice, of course... (Score 1) 2044

And that is why we insure groups of people and not individual people. Yes he may have a $1000 a month health issue, but I generally never go above my deductible. The idea with the bill is to force everyone to buy insurance so that us cheap people balance out the expensive people.

Also, that way we can't just skip getting insurance until something goes wrong with us, so we have to pay into the system during our healthy years.

Math

Why Computers Suck At Math 626

antdude writes "This TechRadar article explains why computers suck at math, and how simple calculations can be a matter of life and death, like in the case of a Patriot defense system failing to take down a Scud missile attack: 'The calculation of where to look for confirmation of an incoming missile requires knowledge of the system time, which is stored as the number of 0.1-second ticks since the system was started up. Unfortunately, 0.1 seconds cannot be expressed accurately as a binary number, so when it's shoehorned into a 24-bit register — as used in the Patriot system — it's out by a tiny amount. But all these tiny amounts add up. At the time of the missile attack, the system had been running for about 100 hours, or 3,600,000 ticks to be more specific. Multiplying this count by the tiny error led to a total error of 0.3433 seconds, during which time the Scud missile would cover 687m. The radar looked in the wrong place to receive a confirmation and saw no target. Accordingly no missile was launched to intercept the incoming Scud — and 28 people paid with their lives.'"
Games

Euro Parliament Wants "Red Button" For Shutting Down Games 167

GamePolitics writes "The European Parliament has actually requested that red, panic-style buttons be set up for use by parents whose children play online games. The buttons would allow the parents to quickly shut the game down should something inappropriate occur. Wouldn't the old-school on-off switch work just as well?" To be fair, the report isn't entirely crazy; it says games "can also be used for educational and medical purposes," and acknowledges that the "presence of violence in video games does not automatically lead to violent behaviour."
Announcements

Gen Con Goes Up For Sale 34

Trask writes "LivingDice has documents indicating that Gen Con LLC is up for sale. Additionally, there is an offer pending which could close by the end of the year. This may finally put an end to the uncertainty caused by Gen Con's chapter 11 filing and the recently dismissed Lucasfilm lawsuit."
Cellphones

iPhone Gaming Continues To Grow 131

1Up reports that the popularity of gaming on smartphones is growing, particularly on the iPhone. In fact, gaming on portable devices is growing even at home, where users presumably have access to more powerful platforms. CNN points out that the developer for Trism, one of the first popular games, has raked in over $250,000 in profits through the App Store. Apple exec Bob Borchers and various game developers recently discussed the future of games on the iPhone. "Patrick Gunn, director of marketing for EA Mobile, showcased Need for Speed Undercover, which will be available next month. Gunn says that EA has 'taken full advantage of all of the unique elements ... like touch, flick, accelerometer, and motion sensitivity' — and graphically, the game appears to be roughly on par with a PSP title."
Programming

(Useful) Stupid Regex Tricks? 516

careysb writes to mention that in the same vein as '*nix tricks' and 'VIM tricks', it would be nice to see one on regular expressions and the programs that use them. What amazingly cool tricks have people discovered with respect to regular expressions in everyday life as a developer or power user?"

Comment Re:People misunderstanding the question... (Score 1) 480

Except in this case $IT_DEPT is being stupid because $USER does not need full disk encryption for NON-HUMAN data on computers that do not leave the facility. If someone has broken into your research lab to steal a hard drive you have other problems. Also, why would you install full disk crypto on servers?

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