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Crime

Geologists Might Be Charged For Not Predicting Quake 375

mmmscience writes "In 2009, a series of small earthquakes shook the region of L'Aquila, Italy. Seismologists investigated the tremors, but concluded that there was no direct indication of a big quake on the horizon. Less than a month later, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed more than 300 people. Now, the chief prosecutor of L'Aquila is looking to charge the scientists with gross negligent manslaughter for not predicting the quake."
Image

Snails On Methamphetamine 93

sciencehabit writes "Science answers the question: What happens when you put a snail on speed? From the article: 'The results suggest that meth improves memory, something that has been previously observed in creatures with large, complex brains like rats and humans. But since the snails store their memories in a simple, three-neuron network, the team hopes that studying the meth effect in these gastropods will help pinpoint how the drug's memory magnification powers work.'"

Comment Its odd ABC did it (Score 2, Insightful) 202

I was having this conversation just yesterday. ABC was able to release a IPad app that played the same video they have on Hulu.. the Advertising looks the same.. it looks like they just made hulu play a different format for the IPad. This also brings up a point, why has Adobe not made a player for flash like Apple did with YouTube? it may launch the video in its own player. This would not help for Flash games or it may work the same.. I don't know I do know that Adobe would get more support from me if they created a real app and was denied than just crying about how Apple did not let them. and for Hulu, they have proven to me that they are not really interested in going outside of what they already offer, so its no real surprise that they have not made an app or worked on making the site more compatible with other devices. for me it matters little as Comcast is either filtering and giving less bandwidth to Hulu to make everything I watch pause 3 or 4 times during a show, and Verizon DSL.. Forget it .. not worth the bother if its not the internet than I would go with Hulu can not keep up with streaming video.. but people on FIOS do not have the same issues. so I am sticking with its the fault of the internet provider. I am of the opinion, That content providers talk about streaming media, but still do not see the market.

Comment war of the worlds? (Score 1) 464

Was Independence Day just a remaking of war of the worlds.. Aliens come to earth, kill everyone with not a word of why Aliens are unstoppable until they are infected with germs (virus in ID) from earth.. So will this be a remake of the war of the worlds TV show? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(TV_series)
Open Source

OpenNMS Celebrates 10 Years 37

mjhuot writes "Quite often is it claimed that pure open source projects can't survive, much less grow and create robust code. One counter example of this is OpenNMS, the world's first enterprise-grade network management application platform developed under the open source model. Registered on 30 March 2000 as project 4141 on Sourceforge, today the gang threw a little party, with members virtually attending from around the world. With the right business savvy and a great community, it is possible to both remain 100% free and open source while creating enough value to make a good living at it."
Patents

Submission + - red hat joins the elite... by getting sued (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Red Hat has been sued by Software Tree, which claims JBoss (distributed by Red Hat) infringes a patent. They didn't go after previous infringers since they see Red Hat as having more money. Sigh.

Comment Re:Bill's Sponsor Also Ex-Microsoft Employee (Score 0, Redundant) 406

hmmm.. you have not proven any sources.. except .. well your mouth.. (or typing.. ) halaberton made 3.7 billion off the Iraq contract and 2.2 off Bosnia. Bosnia lasted 8 months.. with support for two years. Iraq has lasted over 7 years.. which one did they make more profit off of?? Simple math. Who did they pay... oh US citizens.. booting the local economy of the people working for them. Any one who has done Government contracting would be able to let you know that no bid contracts by them selves is not a bad thing. Contracts are regulated by the amount of profit a company can make and what fees can be charged. While civilian contract have no such limitation. my who point was that the Clinton administration did approve no bid contracts.. as the response I was responding to stated "Yes, but they were not getting no-bid contracts under Clinton" so stay with the conversation Troll..(karma to burn)

Comment Re:Bill's Sponsor Also Ex-Microsoft Employee (Score 5, Informative) 406

ahhh.. no Halliburton Received No-Bid Contracts During Clinton Administration For Work In Bosnia And Kosovo. “Halliburton has also gotten some no-bid jobs in Iraq, just as it did in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, and for the same reason: Not a lot of other firms have similar expertise in supplying the U.S. military, and with a war on there’s no time to stage a lengthy bidding process.” (Max Boot, Op-Ed, “Don’t Blame Halliburton,” Los Angeles Times, 4/22/04) During Clinton Administration, Halliburton Received $2.2 Billion From US Government For Work In Kosovo. “Between 1995 and 2000, while Democrat Bill Clinton ran the country and Republican Dick Cheney ran Halliburton, there was no talk of favoritism or political ties as the Houston-based company billed the government $2.2 billion for its work in Kosovo.” (James Rosen, “Is Iraq’s Reconstruction Rigged?” The [Raleigh] News & Observer, 10/5/03) Halliburton’s Performance Praised By Former Vice President Al Gore’s “National Performance Review.” “[V]ice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review mentioned Halliburton’s performance in its Report on Reinventing the Department of Defense, issued in September 1996. In a section titled ‘Outsourcing of Logistics Allows Combat Troops to Stick to Basics,’ Gore’s reinventing-government team favorably mentioned LOGCAP, the cost-plus-award system, and Brown & Root, which the report said provided ‘basic life support services – food, water, sanitation, shelter, and laundry; and the full realm of logistics services – transportation, electrical, hazardous materials collection and disposal, fuel delivery, airfield and seaport operations, and road maintenance.’” (Byron York, “All Smoke, No Fire: The Administration’s Critics Are Wrong,” National Review, 7/14/03)

Comment Hexapawn logic (Score 1) 113

a book released a book in the 1970's where they had a simple chess like game in basic that had a 3 x 3 array. The computer would make a random legal move.. if the computer did not lose after the move.. it saved the move for next time. if it lost after the move it would remove it from memory or more advanced was to block that move if the board had the same set up. so while he is making a robot learn to walk by its self (cool) the logic process in programing is not new at all.. This was based on a math question from 1962 http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/ http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=83

Comment Re:Extra things you'll need (Score 1) 1713

Please post where I can buy a touch screen tablet (not pen) for that price (I have been searching and it may change my mind) and does Pages, Keynote and numbers not count. Can not do blue prints as I assume they are Auto CAD.. but hay .. but can any non windows device can do that.. so I think for the majority of business people, as most do not need Auto CAD, could get around nicely with this.. also the multi-touch interface is the killer for me over standard tablets.. rotate, stretch and zoom.. as for 3G, I am not sure its needed by me.. as most of my work on this would be at home, or on the Plane. I could tether it to my Phone if its Bluetooth supports DUN, but I am not holding my breath.. from work I already get free internet from WIFI from most providers.. my complaint.. no built in ISight..

Comment Re:intellagence gathering.. (Score 2) 292

a lot of top secret projects are not so until they go from research to production. sounds stupid but I know of a few, the people working on them do not know they are for a DoD customer. But if you really look at what they are doing.. While the US does have policy not allowing foreign nationals to work on SCI projects.. TS, no problem. just have to have a clean nose. Let alone secret or unclass but sensitive. http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20050519_1.htm

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