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Science

Submission + - Humans smell in Stereo (nature.com)

Submitted by
Xemu
Xemu writes: "Humans can locate an odour source thanks to a feature called stereo sniffing, says researchers in an article just published in Nature Communications. To further enhance odorant location capabilties, mammals combine serial sampling with bilateral nasal cues. Much like your average teenager in a dark basement would locate that smelly sock. Blocking one nostril makes it harder."
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone causing headaches on speakerphone. (apple.com)

Submitted by ralfalot
ralfalot writes: I thought it was only me, but I went ahead and Google'd this problem anyway. It seems that there are least a few other people with similar problems.

Specifically, for me, when on speakerphone the iPhone 4S causes a weird resonance in my ear (regardless of volume or person). I can tolerate it for about 30min, but on a longer call it starts to give me a headache in both of my temples.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?
Android

Submission + - Android App infects PCs running older Windows (securelist.com)

Submitted by
tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: "In an interesting turn of events, a couple of apps found the Play Store was found to contain a payload designed to infect the SD card and thus infect any older PC when the Android device was connected in drive mode. It doesn't appear to be designed to infect the Android device itself, just install an old exploit on the SD card that will infect the PC when connected. It relies on AutoRun, which while disabled in all modern versions of Windows, may still be on by default on older versions."
Science

Submission + - Glasses That Cure Colorblindness? (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by
MatthewVD
MatthewVD writes: "In 2006, researcher Mark Changizi came up with a novel theory for why humans evolved with color vision: to detect social cues and emotions in others. He built glasses called 02Amps to enhance perception of blood pooling. Some hospitals have tried using the glasses to see bruising that's not visible unaided, or help nurses find veins. But it turns out now that the glasses might be able to fix some forms of colorblindness, too."

Submission + - Monty has last laugh as distros abandon MySQL (itwire.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When the community GNU/Linux distributions Fedora and openSUSE recently announced that they would be switching their default database management system from MySQL to MariaDB, one man in Finland would have had a very hearty laugh.That man is Ulf Michael Widenius, better known as Monty, one of three founders of the original MySQL company, and the man who created MariaDB as a fork of MySQL back in 2009.
Piracy

Submission + - Russian eBookseller LitRes Gets Competing eBook Apps Booted from Google Play (the-digital-reader.com)

Submitted by Nate the greatest
Nate the greatest writes: The developer of the popular Android app Moon+ Reader was surprised to discover this weekend that he is a filthy stinking pirate. Google informed him via an automated email that Moon+ Reader had been removed from Google Play because the app had switched to using pirate sites as the main sources of ebooks. Or at least, that's what LitRes claims, but when they complained to Google LitRes didn't tell the whole truth. What was really happening is that users of the app are enabling piracy, not the app itself. Thanks to the way Moon+ Reader is designed to let users share links to ebook sources some of the sources are indeed pirate sites (less than your average Google Search). In reality the app was no more a source of pirated content than your average web browser. What do you say when an ebook distributor's anti-piracy plan involves going after app developers rather than pirate sites? Something printable, IMO.

Submission + - SPAM: SCO wants to destroy business records

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: SCO, now calling itself TSG, has just filed a motion [PDF] with the bankruptcy court in Delaware asking it to authorize "the abandonment, disposal, and/or destruction of certain surplus, obsolete, non-core or burdensome, property, including, without limitation, shelving, convention materials, telecommunications and computer equipment, accounting and sales documents, and business records."
Link to Original Source
Java

Submission + - Oracle Responds to Java Security Critics with Massive 50 Flaw Patch Update (esecurityplanet.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Oracle has been slammed a lot in recent months about it's lackluster handling of Java security. Now Oracle is responding as strongly as it can with one of the largest Java security updates in history. 50 flaws in total with the vast majority carrying the highest-possible CVSS score of 10.
Will this finally be the patch that makes Java secure?
Iphone

Submission + - Mars Rover Curiosity: Less Brainpower Than Apple's iPhone 5 (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "To give the Mars Rover Curiosity the brains she needs to operate took 5 million lines of code. And while the Mars Science Laboratory team froze the code a year before the roaming laboratory landed on August 5, they kept sending software updates to the spacecraft during its 253-day, 352 million-mile flight. In its belly, Curiosity has two computers, a primary and a backup. Fun fact: Apple’s iPhone 5 has more processing power than this one-eyed explorer. “You’re carrying more processing power in your pocket than Curiosity,” Ben Cichy, chief flight software engineer, told an audience at this year’s MacWorld."

Submission + - Wolfram Alpha Number-Crunches the Super Bowl (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "Whatever your actual feelings about football and this weekend's Super Bowl, you have to admire Wolfram Alpha's willingness to crunch any dataset and see what it can find. The self-billed “computational knowledge engine” has analyzed the historical data for both teams involved in this Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVII. Its conclusion? The San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens are "annoyingly similar" when it comes to numbers, although some players stand out as potential game changers — if the math plays out right."

Submission + - Bank of America System Down - Debit Cards and Online Banking affected (silverdoctors.com) 1

Submitted by Edgewood_Dirk
Edgewood_Dirk writes: From the article:
'Bank of America’s online banking system has crashed, with reports coming in that BOA debit cards are also not functioning.
Not surprisingly, the reports indicate BOA systems are having no difficulties receiving cash...naturally it’s all outgoing funds that are the problem. '

Of course they are.
Microsoft

Submission + - The Battle Between Microsoft and Apple Could Kill Office for iOS (hothardware.com) 1

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "It has been over six years since Apple introduced the iPhone. Millions of apps have been written for the platform in that time, with collective downloads into the billions. Apple's App Store is a thriving marketplace with a huge amount of software available on virtually any topic you can think of. But not Microsoft Office. There's a version of Office for iOS supposedly in the works, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threw cold water on the idea when asked about upcoming events for the Office suite after launching the new Office 2013 / Office 365 products earlier this week. Revenue sharing is reportedly a major sticking point. Microsoft is trying to push people towards yearly subscriptions with Office 2013 and Office 365, but Apple requires a 30 percent profit share on the sales of any application. Microsoft reportedly isn't thrilled at the idea of sharing that much revenue with Cupertino. It's ironic, really — when Bill Gates agreed to port Office to the Mac nearly 20 years ago, it was seen as a lifeline for the beleaguered manufacturer. Now, Microsoft is knocking on the door of Apple's business — and Cupertino seems disinclined to share."
Government

Submission + - US Energy Secretary Resigns (energy.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, released a letter indicating that he won't continue to hold the job for President Obama's second term. He'll continue until the ARPA-E Summit at the end of February, and then perhaps a bit longer until a replacement is found. MIT's Technology Review sum up his contributions thus: 'Under his leadership, the U.S. Department of Energy has changed the way it does energy research and development. He leaves behind new research organizations that are intently focused on solving specific energy problems, particularly the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy as well as several Innovation Hubs. The latter were modeled closely on Chu’s experience working at the legendary Bell labs, where researchers solving basic problems rubbed shoulders with engineers who knew how to build things. At one Innovation Hub, for example, researchers who are inventing new materials that can absorb sunlight or split water are working together with engineers who are building prototypes that could use those materials to generate fuel from sunlight. Chu also brought an intense focus on addressing climate change through technical innovation, speaking clearly and optimistically about the potential for breakthroughs to change what’s possible.'

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