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Mars

Curiosity Scrubs a Mars Rock Clean 60

Posted by timothy from the at-a-distance dept.
astroengine writes "NASA's newest rover on Mars has recently used its Dust Removal Tool for the first time, clearing away a patch of rust-colored dust coating its latest target: a slab of rock called "Ekwir_1." The Dust Removal Tool, or DRT (yes, the rover's cleaning instrument is called "dirt") is a motorized brush with stainless steel wire bristles located on Curiosity's multipurpose Robotic Arm turret — a veritable Swiss Army knife of planetary exploration tools." Reader Sez Zero links to a story on the brushing action at the BBC, which adds that "Curiosity is building towards using its hammer-drill, the last major tool yet to be deployed on the mission." So at least we know there's dirt on Mars, even if they chose not to send a dedicated life sensor, too. The Aeon piece is well worth reading, if that decision sounds perverse.
Social Networks

Facebook App Exposes Abject Insecurity 205

Posted by CmdrTaco from the pay-no-attention-to-the-hole-in-my-pants dept.
ewhac writes "Back in June, the American Civil Liberties Union published an article describing Facebook's complete lack of meaningful security on your and your friends' information. The article went virtually unnoticed. Now, a developer has written a Facebook 'Quiz' based on the original article that graphically illustrates all the information a Facebook app can get its grubby little hands on by recursively sweeping through your friends list, pulling all their info and posts, and showing it to you. What's more, apps can get at your information even if you never run the app yourself. Facebook apps run with the access privileges of the user running it, so anything your friend can see, the app they're running can see, too. It is unclear whether the developer of the Facebook app did so 'officially' for the ACLU."
Image

Lawyer Jailed For Contempt Is Freed After 14 Years 408

Posted by samzenpus from the all-we-need-is-a-little-patience dept.
H. Beatty Chadwick has been in a staring match with the judicial system for the past 14 years, and the system just blinked. Chadwick was ordered to pay his ex-wife $2.5 million after their divorce. He refused to pay saying that he couldn't because he lost the money in a series of "bad investments." The judge in the case didn't believe him and sent him to jail for contempt. That was 14 years ago. Last week another judge let Chadwick go saying that "continued imprisonment would be legal only if there was some likelihood that ultimately he would comply with the order; otherwise, the confinement would be merely punitive instead of coercive." Chadwick, now 73, is believed to have served the longest contempt sentence in US history.

Comment Re:Bogus beyond belief (Score 1) 409

by Paul Wolfe (#27832293) Attached to: The Problem With Estimating Linux Desktop Market Share

Both of my parents are using Linux exclusively. I use Linux exclusively at home on all of my machines except for a separate Windows VMware guest image that I only use when I need to work from home. None of my computers boot into anything except Fedora.

I make all of my software and hardware purchase decisions based upon Linux compatibility. That means I'm a much less active gamer than I used to be although in part because although there are some good gaming options available for Linux, such as Quake Wars, the overall Linux gaming market is still limited.

I switched completely to Linux because at some point the dual-boot option becomes really annoying. When you can accomplish 80% of your normal tasks on Linux it just seems much less worthwhile to maintain a separate OS that you need to boot into for that last 20% and eventually I found substitutes for that last 20% as well.

I partially agree with your point that many people who run Linux are also running Windows in their home or at work but I actually think that more people could run just Linux and not lose any functionality. My parents really have no desire to do anything beyond web browsing, e-mail, and basic web media with their computer. But then again they probably aren't the best target group for porting most software to Linux because they probably aren't going to have any need to purchase it (except Quicken).

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