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Earth

Humans Will Need Two Earths By 2030 738

Posted by samzenpus from the so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-petroleum dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A recent report warns that humans are overusing the resources of the planet and will need two Earths by the year 2030. The Living Planet Report tells that the demands on natural resources have doubled in the past 50 years and are now outstripping what the Earth can provide by more than half."

Comment Just setup a VPN in the UAE for voice.... (Score 1) 215

by AsnFkr (#33482890) Attached to: Dubai's Police Chief Calls BlackBerry a Spy Tool
Hilariously, I'm in the UAE at the moment and wanted to call my Dad (who is in the states) from my Skype account to his cell phone. Unfortunately, the UAE blocks Skype -> phone (oddly Skype -> Skype works fine) calls so I just used logmein to connect to a XP box I have in the states, flip on the VPN setting, forward the ports on the router and then connect to it from my win7 box here in the UAE thus mading the call with no troubles. Took 5 minutes total, and I had never once made a VPN before...so if they are trying to stop terrorist activity or whatever they are going to need to try harder.

Comment Moon walker desktop (Score 2, Interesting) 384

by AsnFkr (#33405374) Attached to: Icons on my (computer) desktop:
So, A few years ago I went and saw Jack Schmitt ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Schmitt )give a presentation. When he was setting up, he hooked his personal laptop to a projector and fired it up, when it booted we saw this: http://www.adventure-today.com/pix/1170376382.jpeg It's a damn mystery we ever made it to the moon, that's for certain.
Image

Kids Who Watch Popeye Cartoons Eat More Vegetables 119

Posted by samzenpus from the I-yam-what-I-yam dept.
markmark57 writes "Popeye cartoons, tasting parties and junior cooking classes can help increase vegetable intake in kindergarten children, according to new research published in the journal Nutrition & Dietetics. Researchers at Mahidol University in Bangkok found the type and amount of vegetables children ate improved after they took part in a program using multimedia and role models to promote healthy food. Twenty six kindergarten children aged four to five participated in the eight-week study. The researchers recorded the kinds and amounts of fruit and vegetables eaten by the children before and after the program."

Comment No TV competition (Score 0) 397

by Caez (#32325320) Attached to: Revenge of the Cable Customer
The cable company is dumping all the small towns in our area. That leaves only DSL, WiMAX, 3G or WildBlue internet for our customers. Dish Network is a good TV provider and DirecTV being 2nd because they don't have locals over the dish. The main reason the cable companies were surviving was the internet.
Science

Invisibility Cloak Created In 3-D 113

Posted by kdawson from the can-you-see-me-now dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have created the first device to render an object invisible in three dimensions. The 'cloak,' described in the journal Science (abstract; full text requires login), hid an object from detection using light of wavelengths close to those that are visible to humans. Previous devices have been able to hide objects from light travelling in only one direction; viewed from any other angle, the object would remain visible. This is a very early but significant step towards a true invisibility cloak." The "object" hidden in this work was a bump one micrometer high. The light used was just longer than the wavelengths our eyes detect. To get a visible-light cloak, the features of the cloaking metamaterial would need to be reduced in size from 300 nm to 10 nm.
Math

7 of the Best Free Linux Calculators 289

Posted by timothy from the open-in-tabs dept.
An anonymous reader writes "One of the basic utilities supplied with any operating system is a desktop calculator. These are often simple utilities that are perfectly adequate for basic use. They typically include trigonometric functions, logarithms, factorials, parentheses and a memory function. However, the calculators featured in this article are significantly more sophisticated with the ability to process difficult mathematical functions, to plot graphs in 2D and 3D, and much more. Occasionally, the calculator tool provided with an operating system did not engender any confidence. The classic example being the calculator shipped with Windows 3.1 which could not even reliably subtract two numbers. Rest assured, the calculators listed below are of precision quality."
Networking

Documenting a Network? 528

Posted by kdawson from the what-matters dept.
Philip writes "Three years ago I was appointed as a network manager to a barely functioning MS-based network. Since then I've managed to get it up and running — even thriving — but have been guilty of being too busy with the doing of it to document the changes and systems that were put in place. Now as I look back, I'm worried that I am the only one who will ever know how this network works. If I get hit by a bus or throw in the towel for any reason, I'd be leaving behind a network that requires some significant expertise to run. Ultimately, this won't be a good reference for me if they are trying to work out technical details for years to come. It looks like I'm going to have to document the network with all sorts of details that outside consultants could understand too (no, I don't want to be the outside consultant), especially since it's likely that my replacement will have less technical expertise (read 'cheaper'). Are there any good templates out there for documenting networks? Is anyone who has done it before willing to share some experiences? What did you wish your predecessor had written down about a network that you inherited?"
Earth

Were Neanderthals Devoured By Humans? 502

Posted by timothy from the subsumed-or-consumed dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that a Neanderthal jawbone covered in cut marks similar to those left behind when flesh is stripped from deer provides crucial evidence that humans attacked Neanderthals, and sometimes killed them, bringing back their bodies to caves to eat or to use their skulls or teeth as trophies. 'For years, people have tried to hide away from the evidence of cannibalism, but I think we have to accept it took place,' says Fernando Rozzi, of Paris's Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique. According to Rozzi, a discovery at Les Rois in south-west France provides compelling support for that argument. Previous excavations revealed bones that were thought to be exclusively human. But Rozzi's team re-examined them and found one they concluded was Neanderthal." (Continued, below.)
Portables

Does Dell Know What Women Want In a Laptop? 669

Posted by kdawson from the fashion-don't dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Finding the right approach for gender-specific marketing can be really tricky, said Andrea Learned, a marketing expert and author of Don't Think Pink — What Really Makes Women Buy. So when Dell recently took the wraps off a new Web site called Della, geared toward women, featuring tech 'tips' that recommended calorie counting, finding recipes, and watching cooking videos as ways for women to get the most from a laptop, a backlash erupted online, as both women and men described the Web site as 'ridiculous' and 'gimmicky.' Della's heavy emphasis on colors, computer accessories, dieting tips, and even the inclusion of a video about vintage shopping 'seems condescending to women consumers,' says Learned. Instead, Dell should have emphasized function and figured out ways to sell the netbooks that weren't clichéd and reliant on gender stereotypes. 'Some brands go too far with the girlie stuff,' Learned says. 'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'"
Image

FEMA Removes 9/11 Coloring Book For Children From Website 324

Posted by samzenpus from the everbody-dies-jimmy dept.
FEMA has decided to pull a children's coloring book entitled, "A Scary Thing Happened" from their website. The coloring book contained three images of the twin towers on fire for children to color. Rose Olmsted, the coordinator behind the book said, "I stand firm that it was a very well thought-out and useful resource for kids, but it's obviously being misinterpreted by a lot of people." Since people are so upset about the coloring book, I can only assume FEMA's plan for a human remains concentration game will be put on hold.
Operating Systems

A Secure OS For the Dalai Lama? 470

Posted by timothy from the one-that-works-only-at-high-altitudes dept.
Jamyang (Greg Walton) writes "I am editor of the Infowar Monitor and co-author of the recent report, Tracking Ghostnet. I have been asked by the Office of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (OHHDL) and the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) to offer some policy recommendations in light of the ongoing targeted malware attacks directed at the Tibetan community worldwide. Some of the recommendations are relatively straightforward. For example, I will suggest that OHHDL convene an international Board of Advisers, bringing together some of the brightest minds in computer and international security to advise the Tibetans, and that the new Tibetan university stands up a Certified Ethical Hacking course. However, one of the more controversial moves being actively debated by Tibetans on the Dharamsala IT Group [DITG] list, is a mass migration of the exile community (including the government) to Linux, particularly since all of the samples of targeted malware collected exploit vulnerabilities in Windows. I would be very interested to hear Slashdot readers opinions on this debate here." (More below.)

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