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Iphone

Apple Reportedly Heading Off iPhone 'Glassgate' 255

Posted by Soulskill from the you're-just-not-holding-it-right dept.
alphadogg writes "Apple is reportedly working behind the scenes to address scratching and cracking of the iPhone's glass back panel by certain third-party cases. This 'Glassgate' story got rolling with a report in the gdgt newsletter by Ryan Block, who says he spoke with sources inside and outside of Apple about this issue, but was unable to get an official Apple comment. Block writes: 'Apple has apparently found that non-bumper style cases — specifically those that slide onto the iPhone 4, which are occasionally prone to particulate matter getting caught between the rear of the phone and the case — can cause unexpected scratching that could quickly develop into full-on cracking or even much larger fracturing of the entire rear pane of glass. To put it another way: Apple is afraid you might buy a standard slide-on iPhone case, put it on your phone, and then discover the next time you take it off that the entire back of your device has been shattered by no fault of your own.' Apple is said to be taking it seriously, looking to avoid the sort of backlash it got when reports surfaced over the summer that the iPhone 4's antennas didn't work correctly when users gripped the phones in a certain (and quite natural) way."
Image

In Case of Emergency, Please Remove Your Bra 123

Posted by samzenpus from the breathing-easy dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Caught in a disaster with harmful airborne particles? You'd better hope you're wearing the Emergency Bra. Simply unsnap the bright red bra, separate the cups, and slip it over your head — one cup for you, and one for your friend. Dr. Elena Bodnar won an Ig Nobel Award for the invention last year, an annual tribute to scientific research that on the surface seems goofy but is often surprisingly practical. And now Bodnar has brought the eBra to the public; purchase one online for just $29.95."
Programming

Can rev="canonical" Replace URL-Shortening Services? 354

Posted by Soulskill from the snds-lk-a-pln dept.
Chris Shiflett writes "There's a new proposal ('URL shortening that doesn't hurt the Internet') floating around for using rev="canonical" to help put a stop to the URL-shortening madness. In order to avoid the great linkrot apocalypse, we can opt to specify short URLs for our own pages, so that compliant services (adoption is still low, because the idea is pretty fresh) will use our short URLs instead of TinyURL.com (or some other third-party alternative) replacements."
Space

Submission + - NASA To Announce New Space Station Module Name (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by
Matt_dk
Matt_dk writes: "NASA's newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name on April 14. The agency plans to make the announcement with the help of Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The program will air at 11:30 p.m. EDT. The name, which will not be publicly released until the program airs. "I certainly hope NASA does the right thing," said Colbert. "Just kidding, I hope they name it after me.""
Power

Altered Organism Triples Solar Cell Efficiency 158

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the shiny-happy-algae dept.
An anonymous reader writes "By harnessing the shells of living organisms in the sea, microscopic algae called diatoms, engineers have tripled the efficiency of experimental dye-sensitized solar cells. The diatoms were fed a diet of titanium dioxide, the main ingredient for thin film solar cells, instead of their usual meal which is silica (silicon dioxide). As a result, their shells became photovoltaic when coated with dyes. The result is a thin-film dye-sensitized solar cell that is three times more efficient than those without the diatoms."
Earth

Submission + - Climate engineering as U.S. policy? (google.com)

Submitted by EricTheGreen
EricTheGreen writes: Brief Associated Press article featuring Obama administration science advisor John Holdren discussing potential climate engineering responses to global warming. Among the possible approaches? His own version of Operation Dark Storm--shooting micro-particulate pollution high into the atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. I'm sure the rest of the world would have no issue with that at all, of course. Yikes...
Linux Business

"We're Linux" Finalists Announced 133

Posted by timothy from the penguin-suits-get-all-the-hot-girls dept.
Last month, we mentioned the Linux Foundation's contest asking people to illustrate the idea "We're Linux"; Now, ruphus13 writes "Over 90 entries were received, and the finalists are now out. From the article, 'The contest was spawned from the idea that other software companies were paying millions of dollars to celebrities for endorsements, while Linux was promoted and shared by enthusiastic, passionate, actual users. Contestants were given a simple directive: tell the Linux Foundation what Linux is for you, why you use it, and why you'd encourage others to do the same. Humor and professional production quality weren't required — it just had to be genuine.' Details on the finalists can be found on the Linux Foundation Video site here."
Earth

Submission + - Scientist Forced to Remove Earthquake Prediction 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "An Italian scientist who predicted a major earthquake near L'Aquila a few weeks ago was forced to remove warnings from the internet after being reported to the police. Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher at the National Physical Laboratory of Gran Sasso, based his forecast on emissions of radon gas coming from the ground in seismically active areas. Giuliani's warnings drew criticism from the city's mayor, and following complaints to the police, Giuliani was forced to take down warnings he had posted on the internet. The researcher had said that a "disastrous" earthquake would strike on March 29, but when it didn't, Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, last week officially denounced Giuliani in court for "false alarm." "These imbeciles enjoy spreading false news," Bertalaso was quoted as saying. "Everyone knows that you can't predict earthquakes." Giuliani, it turns out, was partially right. A much smaller seismic shift struck on the day he said it would, with the truly disastrous one arriving just one week later. "Someone owes me an apology," said Giuliani, who is also a resident of L'Aquila. "The situation here is dramatic. I am devastated, but also angry.""
Mozilla

Command Lines and the Future of Firefox 360

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wouldn't-that-be-nice dept.
Barence writes "Mozilla has revealed how it plans to integrate plain text commands directly into future versions of Firefox. Dubbed Taskfox, the move sees Mozilla's Ubiquity project become part of the browser itself, allowing users to type commands directly into the address bar. You can, for example, type 'map cleveland street london' to bring up a Google Map of that location, or 'amazon-search the great gatsby' to find that book on Amazon, without visiting the website directly. 'The basic idea behind Taskfox is simple: take the time-saving ideas behind Ubiquity, and put them into Firefox,' the Taskfox wiki claims. 'That means allowing users to quickly access information and perform tasks that would normally take several steps to complete.'"

Is That "Sexting" Pic Illegal? A Scientific Test 711

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-like-the-testing-part dept.
Frequent Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes " Amid the latest 'sexting' controversy, here is a proposal for a scientifically objective method to determine whether a picture constitutes child pornography. This is a harder problem than it seems, but not for the reasons you'd think. And it raises questions about how the same scientific principles could be applied to other matters of law." Hit the link below to read the sextiest story on Slashdot today.

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