ubermiester - Slashdot User

Submission + - Astronomers Find Earth 2.0 (Alpha)

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ubermiester

on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @08:29PM

ubermiester writes: "The Science Times reports that a team of astronomers from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Geneva may have discovered "the smallest and potentially most Earth-like extra-solar planet yet." FTA: "Fives times as massive as Earth, it orbits a relatively cool star at a distance that would provide earthly temperatures as well, signaling the possibility of liquid water. The separation between the planet and its star is just right for having liquid water at its surface. That's why we are a bit excited.""

Submission + - Silicon Valley Works to Find Missing Colleague

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ubermiester

on Saturday February 03, 2007 @05:14PM

ubermiester writes: "The NY Times is reporting on the massive effort among Silicon Valley's "best and brightest" to aid in the search for missing MS researcher James Gray, who went missing on Sunday while sailing the Pacific on his private boat, "Tenacious". The Coast Guard suspended its search of more than 100,000 square miles of ocean on Thursday, but "dozens of Dr. Gray's colleagues, friends and former students [continued the search] with the tool they know best: computer technology... A veritable Who's Who of computer scientists from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, NASA and universities across the country spent sleepless nights writing ad hoc software, creating a blog and reconfiguring satellite images so that dozens of volunteers could pore over them, searching for a speck of red hull and white deck among a sea of gray pixels." One Coast Guard official noted, "This is the largest strictly civilian, privately sponsored search effort I have ever seen". Go geeks go!"

Submission + - Vista to be Downloadable (Legally)

Submitted by

ubermiester

on Thursday January 18, 2007 @01:15PM

ubermiester writes: "According to various sources, Windows Vista will be available for legal download as of January 30th — the same day it will be available in retail stores. MS-NBC Online notes that, "a relatively low number of computer users are likely to get Vista by downloading it from the Internet, but the mere availability indicates that Microsoft is fiddling with distribution methods for the extremely profitable franchise at the core of its business." It will be available via the MS Marketplace site in conjunction with a Circuit City offering. And for users who eventually realize that the version of Vista they purchased is just not doing the job, they can simply activate the features they want by unlocking them via online activation."

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