Feed Spy program back in Senate spotlight (com.com)
Blog: Two U.S. senators on Monday reintroduced a proposal designed to rein in government electronic spying activities like a once-secret...
Submission + - Deadly virus transmitted by cell phones
kristinester writes: "Via Reuters
"KARACHI (Reuters) — Mobile service providers in Pakistan have been inundated by calls from subscribers worried by a prank message that they could die of a deadly virus being transmitted via their phones.
The rumor was so effective that some mosques in the country's biggest city, Karachi, made announcements that people were being killed by a mobile virus and they should be aware of God's wrath.
In a prank reminiscent of the plot in the hit Hollywood movie "The Ring" in which people die within a week after watching a video, the prankster warned users that a deadly virus transmitted through phones had killed 20 people.
There are more than 52 million mobile users among 160 million people in Pakistan. Farah Hussain, a spokeswoman for Warid Telecom, said that their customer service centers had been inundated with panicky subscribers inquiring about the so-called virus.
The cellular operators moved to calm down subscribers and said in a joint statement: "These rumors are completely baseless. They do not make any sense in technological terms.""
"KARACHI (Reuters) — Mobile service providers in Pakistan have been inundated by calls from subscribers worried by a prank message that they could die of a deadly virus being transmitted via their phones.
The rumor was so effective that some mosques in the country's biggest city, Karachi, made announcements that people were being killed by a mobile virus and they should be aware of God's wrath.
In a prank reminiscent of the plot in the hit Hollywood movie "The Ring" in which people die within a week after watching a video, the prankster warned users that a deadly virus transmitted through phones had killed 20 people.
There are more than 52 million mobile users among 160 million people in Pakistan. Farah Hussain, a spokeswoman for Warid Telecom, said that their customer service centers had been inundated with panicky subscribers inquiring about the so-called virus.
The cellular operators moved to calm down subscribers and said in a joint statement: "These rumors are completely baseless. They do not make any sense in technological terms.""
Feed Extreme-living bacteria has genome sequenced (pheedo.com)
It survives on a diet so austere it exists on the brink of energetic death, but its genes may reveal how humans can make more hydrogen from waste matter
Feed Chimps 'more evolved' than humans (pheedo.com)
Perhaps humans are not the pinnacle of evolutionary success - chimpanzees are the more evolved species, according to new genetic research
Submission + - Large Hadron Collider setback by accident
Matthew Sparkes writes: "The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the particle smasher being built at CERN, suffered a serious setback when a support structure failed during a test. The component was made by Fermilab, CERN's main rival in Batavia, Illinois. "It wasn't strong enough," says Fermilab's Peter Limon, who is now at CERN. He adds that "people are disappointed, of course, but there are no recriminations". Limon is also concerned about a cryogenic box that feeds power and helium to the magnets, which was near the accident. Limon says the problem may cause short-term delays in the construction of the LHC, but believes it may still be able to open as planned in late 2007."
Submission + - The Wii Weight Loss Plan
An anonymous reader writes: This Iowa man has spent the last 5 weeks on what he's described as the Wii Weight Loss Plan. So far in those 5 weeks he's lost 12 pounds and plans on losing 80 pounds altogether. He's gotten a bit of press coverage so far and has some videos on his site that show him playing the Wii. I saw him recently on the Kansas City news and he really gets into it!
His website is http://wiiweightlossplan.com/
Feed EMI To Sell DRM-Free Tracks Through iTunes Music Store (techdirt.com)
For a while, EMI has been the most progressive of the major record labels, and it had been rumored that the company would start selling DRM-free digital tracks. Today, the company trotted out anti-DRMista Steve Jobs to announce that it would begin selling its digital catalog without DRM through the iTunes Music Store. EMI's songs will be available in the AAC format, and will be encoded at 256kbps, twice the bitrate of standard songs sold through iTMS. They'll also carry a higher price: $1.29 per track in the US, compared to 99 cents for versions encumbered with DRM. While that price difference will certainly elicit some complaints, it does reflect that DRM-free tracks are more valuable than those with pointless and frustrating copy protection. But what's a little more interesting about the higher price is that Steve Jobs has relented from the $1 per song price point, which he's steadfastly maintained despite continual pressure from record labels to raise prices. While we dismissed Jobs' earlier anti-DRM rant as little more than a PR stunt, it appears that now he's using a carrot-and-stick approach with the record labels: drop the DRM, offer consumers a more valuable product, and he'll charge consumers a higher price -- and presumably, pay a higher wholesale one as well. While that's simple and straightforward for most of us, it may still be a hard sell to the music industry, who puts a lot of effort into trying to get consumers to pay more for less.
Feed EMI and Apple say DRM is so yesterday (theregister.com)
Submission + - Near Light Speed Space Ship is Man's Future
nlspropulsion writes: "(Slashdot.com) The future is about to change. The inventor, who wishes to remain anonymous says, "He has created a mankind first based on common day physics used by many." He further states, "The propulsion application is a first and a patent has been filed. There is no information on the World Wide Web or any other source of publication on this future invention. Even my patent application and patent will not be published at my request."
This is what is known. Present day Oberth technology used by NASA and others can be classified as an antiquated propulsion technology which hits ~ 25k miles/hr. max (.00378 % of c, c=186,000 miles/sec) and has a very limited travel distance. Space travelers using Oberth technology would see the time needed to travel to Alpha Centauri our closest neighboring galaxy taking hundreds if not thousands of years.
The inventor says, "Even if my propulsion hits 50 % of light speed that is ~ 330,000,000 miles/hr. there is plenty of room to learn and grow towards 99.9 % the speed of light (c=670,616,629.384 mile per hour). This would mean travel to Mars in weeks not years and travel to Alpha Centauri in 5 to 10 years. The possibility for space colonization, space mining, and space travel would be limitless. Forget about the low earth orbit joy trips now being offered by space tourism companies. Mankind could find itself doing what it does best, exploring. There will be many new Columbus and Lewis and Clarks types blazing trails discovering new worlds determining mankind's existence".
The cost of such disruptive technology must be out of this world. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cost per pound for current Chemical Rocket technology is $ 2,000 to $ 10,000 dollars per launch. This generally runs into hundreds of millions of dollars per launch as verified by NASA. The launch cost per pound for components of the NLS Spaceship to Low Earth Orbit would have the same current or lower cost. The NLS components launched to LEO would used to build the spaceship. Something like the TV program Star Trek's Enterprise.
The NLS propulsion technology has been peer reviewed by several physicists as being valid technology following Newton's and Einstein's laws using invariant mass propulsion.
Present Day Solid Rocket Exhaust is 1,000 to 4,000 m/s with 10^3 to 10^7 N thrust and a firing duration of minutes.
The Proposed NLS Propulsion Exhaust is 300,000,000 m/s with 10^3 to 10^9 N thrust and a firing duration of years — decades.
Estimated cost for Space Shuttle is hundreds of billions of dollars with $ 500 million per launch and $ 50 million per month to maintain the shuttle program ending around 2012.
Estimated cost for NLS Space Ship is hundreds of millions of dollars with $ 200 million per launch and $ 2 million per month with no program termination in man's existence.
Forward thinking aerospace companies who are interested in the future of space travel may contact the inventor. A trade secret agreement will be required of all parties interested.
CONTACT INFORMATION
the inventor
NLS Propulsion
nlspropulsion@pacbell.net"
This is what is known. Present day Oberth technology used by NASA and others can be classified as an antiquated propulsion technology which hits ~ 25k miles/hr. max (.00378 % of c, c=186,000 miles/sec) and has a very limited travel distance. Space travelers using Oberth technology would see the time needed to travel to Alpha Centauri our closest neighboring galaxy taking hundreds if not thousands of years.
The inventor says, "Even if my propulsion hits 50 % of light speed that is ~ 330,000,000 miles/hr. there is plenty of room to learn and grow towards 99.9 % the speed of light (c=670,616,629.384 mile per hour). This would mean travel to Mars in weeks not years and travel to Alpha Centauri in 5 to 10 years. The possibility for space colonization, space mining, and space travel would be limitless. Forget about the low earth orbit joy trips now being offered by space tourism companies. Mankind could find itself doing what it does best, exploring. There will be many new Columbus and Lewis and Clarks types blazing trails discovering new worlds determining mankind's existence".
The cost of such disruptive technology must be out of this world. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cost per pound for current Chemical Rocket technology is $ 2,000 to $ 10,000 dollars per launch. This generally runs into hundreds of millions of dollars per launch as verified by NASA. The launch cost per pound for components of the NLS Spaceship to Low Earth Orbit would have the same current or lower cost. The NLS components launched to LEO would used to build the spaceship. Something like the TV program Star Trek's Enterprise.
The NLS propulsion technology has been peer reviewed by several physicists as being valid technology following Newton's and Einstein's laws using invariant mass propulsion.
Present Day Solid Rocket Exhaust is 1,000 to 4,000 m/s with 10^3 to 10^7 N thrust and a firing duration of minutes.
The Proposed NLS Propulsion Exhaust is 300,000,000 m/s with 10^3 to 10^9 N thrust and a firing duration of years — decades.
Estimated cost for Space Shuttle is hundreds of billions of dollars with $ 500 million per launch and $ 50 million per month to maintain the shuttle program ending around 2012.
Estimated cost for NLS Space Ship is hundreds of millions of dollars with $ 200 million per launch and $ 2 million per month with no program termination in man's existence.
Forward thinking aerospace companies who are interested in the future of space travel may contact the inventor. A trade secret agreement will be required of all parties interested.
CONTACT INFORMATION
the inventor
NLS Propulsion
nlspropulsion@pacbell.net"
Submission + - Five ways to boost PC performance
Lucas123 writes: "There's a story in Computerworld that gives simple advice on how to speed up your PC by using techniques such as tweaking your processor settings, upgrading your graphics card and getting rid of unecessary programs that steal CPU cycles."
