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Comment Re:Here is why and how (Score 1) 289

by cblack (#27783143) Attached to: Hospital Equipment Infected With Conficker

Some good points about controlled/validated systems. I would like to point out, however, that over two years ago the FDA released a special directive making it clear that OS-level security patches did NOT require full re-validation. Some vendors are likely slow on the uptake on this or are still hiding behind the old rules/misconceptions. To re-iterate: FDA says security patches are fine and don't need all the ISO/FDA change control procedures necessary for other software changes.
Data Storage

Windows Home Directory Encryption? 121

Posted by timothy from the we-see-you-anonymous-reader dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Home directory encryption has been available on Linux for a while now, and it is definitely a smart, useful feature as it is not usually necessary to encrypt the entire drive, just the private documents and software profiles in the home directory. Windows is getting better about keeping everything that needs to be private in the user's home folder. Is there a similar solution for Windows to securely, and preferably transparently, encrypt the home directory only? (Preferably open source so that the code is available for peer review)."
Education

Video Game Teaches Kenyan Youth HIV-Safety 75

Posted by Soulskill from the we-already-knew-video-games-slowed-spreading-of-stds dept.
QuackenDuck writes "The latest video-game headlines are all about virtual sex, violence, and taxes. Here's a story that turns the 'Think of the Children' battle-cry against games on its head. VOA News reports on how the video game medium is being used to educate Kenyan youths about risky behaviors that lead to HIV infection: 'Kenya has an HIV prevalence rate of about five percent, with young women among the most vulnerable to new infection. Now, the US government and a private entertainment company have teamed up to produce and distribute a video game that teaches Kenyan youth how to avoid contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.' Many parts of the world are gritty, violent and dangerous, and this game designer is using gritty, violent and dangerous content to teach the children of Kenya."

Comment Bare/Single quark? (Score 3, Interesting) 194

by cblack (#27128251) Attached to: Fermilab Not Dead Yet, Discovers Rare Single Top Quark

Just to be clear, this isn't a single/bare quark w/o a partner is it? As I thought isolating quarks outside of a hadron (w/ 1 or 2 other quarks) was not possible due to the nature of the strong force. Is what they are really saying is that they got an event to force just one top quark to decay once released from a hadron rather than 2 or more at once?
Businesses

Sega To Close Arcades, Cancel Games, Lay Off Employees 66

Posted by Soulskill from the not-enough-tokens dept.
slugo writes with this excerpt from Wired: "The house that Sonic built is getting significantly smaller. Sega's Japanese main branch said Tuesday that it will close 110 arcades, cancel some games in development and seek to lay off 18 percent of its staff. ... Sega says it will chop 20 percent off its research-and-development budget for arcade and consumer games. The company plans to do this by 'consolidating titles to be developed' and 'enhancing the self-manufacture ratio.'"
Space

Fly Me To Which Moon? 183

Posted by kdawson from the life-don't-talk-to-me-about-life dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "NASA and the European Space Agency are expected later this week to settle an ongoing debate on whether to send a robotic mission to Jupiter's moon Europa or Saturn's moon Titan. Both are difficult places to get to — a mission to either would cost several billion dollars/euros to build and execute — and both have become alluring targets in the quest to learn whether Earth alone supports life. On the one hand, Europa is believed to have liquid oceans beneath its frozen crust which (on Earth at least) are a source of life-supporting chemistry. Scientists would like to scan Europa's surface for bits of material that may have seeped up from beneath the ice. 'Imagine if there were microbes entrained in material that has exuded onto the surface of Europa and they've been sitting there for maybe three million years,' says planetary scientist Dr. Brad Dalton. On the other hand, Titan has two enticing features in the search for life: liquids on the surface, and a thick atmosphere that can be used to slow down a spacecraft and help put it into orbit. Titan's surface water is locked into the crust as ice, but scientists suspect there may be a subsurface ocean where water mingles with ammonia. The mission will not get to the launch pad before 2020. 'It's unfortunate that there has to be a decision,' says NASA/JPL astrobiologist Dr. Kevin Hand. 'It's important to go to both. They are both such amazing and tantalizing worlds in terms of finding life.'"
Intel

Intel Moves Up 32nm Production, Cuts 45nm 193

Posted by kdawson from the seven-billion-dollar-bet dept.
Vigile writes "Intel recently announced that it was moving up the production of 32nm processors in place of many 45nm CPUs that have been on the company's roadmap for some time. Though spun as good news (and sure to be tough on AMD), the fact is that the current economy is forcing Intel's hand as they are unwilling to invest much more in 45nm technologies that will surely be outdated by the time the market cycles back up and consumers and businesses start buying PCs again. By focusing on 32nm products, like Westmere, the first CPU with integrated graphics, Intel is basically putting a $7 billion bet on a turnaround in the economy for 2010."
Medicine

Increasing Stem Cell Production For Faster Healing 67

Posted by Soulskill from the just-get-me-some-nanites-already dept.
Wandering Wombat tips a BBC story about researchers from Imperial College London who were able to stimulate stem cell production by a factor of 100 in the bone marrow of mice. Such stem cells are released by the marrow to help with the regeneration of damaged bone and tissue. "Techniques already exist to increase the numbers of blood cell producing stem cells from the bone marrow, but the study focuses on two other types — endothelial, which produce the cells which make up our blood vessels, and mesenchymal, which can become bone or cartilage cells." The scientists hope that the increased production rate could be used to greatly speed tissue repair and to allow recovery from wounds that would otherwise be too severe. "There are also hopes that the technique could help damp down autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, where the body's immune system attacks its own tissues. Mesenchymal stem cells are known to have the ability to damp down the immune system." The full research paper is available at Cell Stem Cell.

Comment Re:XFS was (and is) pretty nice (Score 1) 319

by cblack (#25934227) Attached to: On the State of Linux File Systems

Agreed. Some thoughts from the large-filesystem end: XFS has consistently supported larger "single filesystems" (4/8/16TB+) for the past few years. We run these on top of hardware raid and LVM. XFS makes it easy to have these large filesystems and extend them online.
I have used zfs as well and love the way it combines the LVM and filesystem layers. I would love to have something like that in linux. Hopefully the btrfs people keep the lvm bits in mind as well.

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