Comment Re:What is a grocery store? (Score 1) 484
Well, In Costco you can get it delivered if you order $500 or more worth of merchandise and fax the order in. This is in Puerto Rico, so it might be a regional thing.
Submission + - Science "can prove the universe is a simulatio
holy_calamity writes: A New Zealand physicist has written a paper saying that physicists should seriously explore the possibility the universe is a giant virtual reality simulation. He says that the existence of quantum phenomena could be due to the underlying digital nature of the simulation and also claims his VR hypothesis can explain relativity, the big bang and more. It should be possible to perform experiments to prove the hypothesis too. He reasons that if reality was to do something that information processing cannot, then it cannot be virtual.
Submission + - Facebook Widget Installs Zango Spyware (net-security.org)
BaCa writes: A malicious Facebook Widget actively spreading on the social networking site ultimately prompts users to install the infamous "Zango" adware/spyware. The tremendous success and lightning fast expansion of Facebook empowered the social networking giant with an impressive user base. Needless to say, in a digital world where web traffic equals money, such a user base attracts spammers, virus/spyware seeders, and other ethic-less online marketers like honey would attract flies.
Headband Gives Wearer "Sixth-Sense" 234
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist reports on a headband developed at the University of Tokyo that allows the wearer to feel their surroundings at a distance — as if they had cats whiskers. Infrared sensors positioned around the headband vibrate to signal when and where an object is close. There are also a few great videos of people using it to dodge stuff while blindfolded."
Submission + - AT&T to Help MPAA Filter the Internet (arstechnica.com)
Save the Internet writes: "Ars Technica is reporting that the MPAA is trying to convince major ISPs to do content filtering. Now, merely wanting it is one thing, but the more important point is that "AT&T has agreed to start filtering content at some mysterious point in the future." We're left to wonder about the legal implications of that, but given that AT&T already has the ability to wiretap everything for the NSA, it was only a matter of time before they found a way to profit from it, too."
Submission + - Weather Balloon My A** 1
xnuandax writes: "A serious blow has been dealt to the conspiracy theory that aliens didn't in fact visit us at Roswell, New Mexico 60 years ago. It appears that late Army Lt. Walter Haut had signed a sealed affidavit prior to his death last year asserting that he had indeed witnessed the wreckage of an egg-shaped craft and its extraterrestrial crew whilst working at the Roswell Army Air Field. This news article reviews how Haut had worked as public relations officer for the Roswell base and was involved in the original "weather balloon" explanation of events at the time. This recent evidence would seem to confirm speculation that egg-shaped saucers are notoriously difficult to fly safely at low altitude."
Submission + - No OLPCs for Cuba. Ever.
An anonymous reader writes: In a move going largely unnoticed by the developers the OLPC project now requires all submissions to the project to be hosted in the RedHat Fedora project.
While not seeming like a big deal, the implications are interesting. First, contributors have to sign the Fedora Project Individual Contributor License Agreement. By being forced to submit contributions to the Fedora repository they automatically fall under the provisions of US export law. So, no OLPC for Cuba, Syria and the likes. Ever.
But at least the OLPC project will build a nice business for RedHat The software borrows from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, with about 95 per cent of the code overlapping.
While not seeming like a big deal, the implications are interesting. First, contributors have to sign the Fedora Project Individual Contributor License Agreement. By being forced to submit contributions to the Fedora repository they automatically fall under the provisions of US export law. So, no OLPC for Cuba, Syria and the likes. Ever.
But at least the OLPC project will build a nice business for RedHat The software borrows from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, with about 95 per cent of the code overlapping.
Submission + - Brain cancer treated with electrical field
amigoro writes: A device that specifically targets rapidly growing cancer cells with intermediate frequency electrical fields — called Tumor-Treating Fields (TTFields) — doubled the survival rates of patients with brain cancer, according to a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal article. The device uses electrical fields to disrupt tumor growth by interfering with cell division of cancerous cells, causing them to stop proliferating and die off instead of dividing and growing. Healthy brain cells rarely divide and have different electrical properties than cancerous brain cells. This allows the device to target cancer cells without affecting the healthy cells. The only device related side effect seen was a mild to moderate contact dermatitis beneath the field delivering electrodes, which responded well to the application of topical cream and periodic electrode relocation.
Submission + - World's smallest hardware firewall?
An anonymous reader writes: An Israeli startup has squeezed a complete hardware firewall into a USB key. The "Yoggie Pico" from Yoggie Systems runs Linux 2.6 along with 13 security applications on a 520MHz PXA270, a powerful Intel processor typically used in high-end smartphones. The Pico works in conjunction with Windows XP or Vista drivers that hijack traffic at network layers 2-3, below the TCP/IP stack, and route it to USB, where the Yoggie analyzes and filters traffic at close-to-100Mbps wireline speeds. The device will hit big-box retailers in the U.S. this month.
Submission + - New Details on Xerox Inkless Printer
Iddo Genuth writes: "Xerox is developing a new printing technology which does not require ink of any kind. The new technology includes reusable paper which can be printed and erased dozens of times and has the potential to revolutionize printing. New details on this upcoming technology, which was first reported on September 2006, are now revealed."
RIAA Appeals Award of Attorneys' Fees 156
Fishing Expedition writes in with a story in Ars reporting that the RIAA has decided to appeal a judge's decision to award attorneys' fees to defendant Debbie Foster in Capitol Records v. Foster. If the award stands, the RIAA could find itself in trouble in numerous other cases, and they know it. Their real fear, more than the attorneys' fees, is the judge's finding that the RIAA's arguments for contributory and vicarious infringement claims in cases like this one are not viable.
Puretracks Music Store Drops DRM 236
khendron writes "The Canadian online music store Puretracks (a store I have generally avoided because of their Microsoft-specific solutions) has announced that it will immediately start selling part of its catalog as DRM-free MP3 files. The site's unprotected catalog, which includes artists such as The Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan, will initially feature only 50,000 of its 1.3 million tracks, but their number will grow weekly. The Globe and Mail says the move will likely profit Puretracks because its DRM-free-music will be playable on iPods. It quotes one industry watcher saying 'We're seeing the death of DRM.'" Essentially Puretracks is relaxing the major-label mandated DRM rules that it had initially applied to all labels, even the indies that wanted no part of DRM.
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The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
