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Comment Re:How to do it right. (Score 1) 210

by Tyketto (#50252409) Attached to: Dungeons & Dragons Is Getting a Film Franchise
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong... But wasn't the D&D toon from the 1980s the only time that the roles of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker were reversed? Most of the time when they were together, Cullen was the good guy (Optimus Prime, commander of the Voltron Force) and Welker was the bad guy (Megatron)... In D&D, Cullen was the bad guy (Venger), and Welker was the good 'guy' (he played Uni). Any other time where that happened with them, or that Cullen was the bad guy?

Submission + - US Air Force Selects Boeing 747-8 To Replace Air Force One (reuters.com)

Submitted by Tyketto
Tyketto writes: Following up on a previous story about its replacement, the US Air Force has selected the Boeing 747-8 to replace the aging Presidential fleet of two VC-25s, which are converted B747-200s. With the only other suitable aircraft being the Airbus A380, the USAF cited Boeing's 50-year history of building presidential aircraft as their reason to skip competition and opt directly for the aircraft, which due to dwindling sales and prospects, may be the last 747s to be produced.

Submission + - U.S. Justice Department Using Fake Towers on Planes to Gather Data from Phones

Submitted by Tyketto
Tyketto writes: The US Department of Justice has been using fake communications towers installed in airplanes to acquire cellular phone data for tracking down criminals, reports The Wall Street Journal. Using fix-wing Cessnas outfitted with DRT boxes produced by Boeing, the devices mimic cellular towers, fooling cellphones into reporting "unique registration information" to track down "individuals under investigation." The program, used by the U.S. Marshalls Service, has been in use since 2007 and deployed around at least five major metropolitan areas, with a flying range that can cover most of the US population. As cellphones are designed to connect to the strongest cell tower signal available, the devices identify themselves as the strongest signal, allowing for the gathering of information on thousands of phones during a single flight. Not even having encryption on one's phone, like found in Apple's iPhone 6, prevents this interception.

While the Justice Department would not confirm or deny the existence of such a program, Verizon denies any involvement in this program, and DRT (a subsidiary of Boeing), AT&T, and Sprint have all declined to comment.
Space

Saturn May Have Given Birth To a Baby Moon 71

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the probably-an-alien-spacecraft dept.
astroengine (1577233) writes "NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft has imaged something peculiar on the outermost edge of the gas giant's A-ring. A bright knot, or arc, has been spotted 20 percent brighter than the surrounding ring material and astronomers are interpreting it as a gravitational disturbance caused by a tiny moon. "We have not seen anything like this before," said Carl Murray of Queen Mary University of London. 'We may be looking at the act of birth, where this object is just leaving the rings and heading off to be a moon in its own right.'"

Comment Re:However.. (Score -1) 247

by Tyketto (#46352149) Attached to: The Rescue Plan That Could Have Saved Space Shuttle <em>Columbia</em>
And here is where IMHO, the wrong decision was made. They elected to not take images to see the damage. If they did, and saw the damage, instead of trying to rush Atlantis back into orbit, could they not have:
  1. Docked Columbia at the ISS,
  2. Moved the crew onto the ISS (potentially saving their lives),
  3. Conducted more analysis of the damage there, while
  4. Giving NASA more time to ready Atlantis or Discovery to bring them back, or even have the Russians ready a Soyuz rocket.

That gets the crew somewhere that they would not be in danger of something catastrophic (like what happened to Columbia), at the cost of a bit more space and time in orbit. All could have made it back to Earth alive.

But that's just me, and I may be totally wrong.

Comment Chicago Gaming Console at Costco (Score 1) 322

by Tyketto (#46223951) Attached to: What Are the Weirdest Places You've Spotted Linux?
Not unexpected but a weird place for me was at Costco over the holidays. The Ultimate Gaming Console by Chicago Gaming that they sell for $2499.99 is actually running an embedded version of Linux with MAME. Someone had tripped over the power cord, unplugging it. I saw it boot up after they pulled it back in. I had thought about pulling the trigger on it until I saw that. Then I thought that I could build myself one for cheaper.
Beer

The Archaeology of Beer 89

Posted by timothy from the glog-glog-glog dept.
cold fjord writes with an excerpt from The Atlantic's profile of Dr. Pat McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, who has what sounds like a fascinating job: decoding ancient clues about what (and how) humans in the distant past were brewing and drinking. "'We always start with infrared spectrometry,' he says. 'That gives us an idea of what organic materials are preserved.' From there, it's on to tandem liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, sometimes coupled with ion cyclotron resonance, and solid-phase micro-extraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The end result? A beer recipe. Starting with a few porous clay shards or tiny bits of resin-like residue from a bronze cup, McGovern is able to determine what some ancient Norseman or Etruscan or Shang dynast was drinking." The article points out that McGovern has collaborated with the Dogfish Head brewery to reproduce in modern form six of these ancient recipes.
Internet Explorer

Why Internet Explorer Still Dominates South Korea. 218

Posted by timothy from the stuck-in-a-rut dept.
New submitter bmurray7 writes "You might think that the country that has the fastest average home internet speeds would be a first adapter of modern browsers. Instead, as the Washington Post reports, a payment processing security standard forces most South Koreans to rely upon Internet Explorer for online shopping. Since the standard uses a unique encryption algorithm, an ActiveX control is required to complete online purchases. As a result, many internet users are in the habit of approving all AtivceX control prompts, potentially exposing them to malware."
Biotech

Dentist Wants To Clone John Lennon Using DNA Extracted From Lennon's Tooth 224

Posted by samzenpus from the with-a-little-help-from-my-molar dept.
dryriver writes "People fantasizing about a Beatles comeback tour might yet see their dream come true, all thanks to Dr. Michael Zuk. This dentist is the proud owner of one of John Lennon's teeth, and hopes to use it to clone the musician. By the looks of it, Dr. Michael Zuk came in possession of the tooth in 2011. At that time, he purchased the molar at an auction organized in the United Kingdom, and paid about $30,000 (€22,424) for it. According to The Inquisitr, the dentist is now working alongside scientists in the United States, who are helping him figure out a way to extract DNA from the tooth without damaging it in the process. This DNA would serve to bring back John Lennon. Apparently, Dr. Michael Zuk hopes that his project will snowball into a scientific and pop-cultural revolution. 'To potentially say I had a small part in bringing back one of Rock's greatest stars would be mind-blowing. I am nervous and excited at the possibility that we will be able to fully sequence John Lennon's DNA, very soon I hope,' the dentist reportedly commented on the importance of his work."

Submission + - Unlocking New Mobile Phones Set to Become Illegal in the US 1

Submitted by Tyketto
Tyketto writes: Referencing the decision outlined in the Federal Register, Tech News Daily has published an article noting that the window to unlock your new mobile phone in the US is closing. "In October 2012, the Library of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would no longer be allowed. But the library provided a 90-day window during which people could still buy a phone and unlock it. That window closes on January 26."

While this doesn't apply to phones purchased before the window closes, this means that after 1/26/13, for any new mobile phone you purchase, you'll have to fulfill your contract, or break the law to unlock it.

Comment Shouldn't the charges be dropped? (Score 1) 620

by Tyketto (#42534981) Attached to: Man Charged With HIPAA Violations For Video Taping Police
Follow the logic here, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong. He was charged with violating HIPAA, based on the evidence confiscated by police during the evidence. Since such evidence doesn't exist (as the police erased it/seems to have gone missing), shouldn't the charges be dropped? For all intents and purposes, the guy was arrested and charged for something that has not happened/did not happen. This would mean that they would either a) have to let the guy go, based on lack of evidence, or b) produce the undoctored evidence, showing the missteps that police took. Either way, the guy walks, or the police gets dinged with evidence tampering.
Bug

Submission + - HP Software Update Cancels Food Stamps (ocregister.com) 1

Submitted by Spy Handler
Spy Handler writes: A software update of the California welfare computer system (CalWIN) caused 37,000 Food Stamp recipients to lose their EBT (a credit card paid for by the government) benefits last weekend. According to the article, Hewlett Packard was responsible for the failed update of CalWIN, but at 8:00 a.m. today Xerox (who administers another state welfare system called CalFresh) issued a patch that reactivated the EBT cards.
Education

Submission + - UC online courses' alarming growth rate (sfgate.com)

Submitted by slew
slew writes: In the shadow of Stanford and Harvard offering free on-line courses, The University of California has been attempting to offer pay-courses for credit. UC online took out a $6.9M loan from UC and spent $4.3M to market these courses. For their efforts, they've been able to quadruple their enrollment year over year.

The first year results: one person paid $1,400 for an online calculus class worth 4 credits. Now 4 people are signed up. Me thinks head will roll on this one...
Science

Giant Squid Filmed In Natural Habitat For the First Time 98

Posted by samzenpus from the I-crush-everything dept.
First time accepted submitter Edgewood_Dirk writes that a giant squid has been filmed in its natural habitat for the first time. "Scientists and broadcasters have captured footage of an elusive giant squid, up to eight meters (26 feet) long that roams the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Japan's National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature in its natural habitat for the first time, working with Japanese public broadcaster NHK and the U.S. Discovery Channel. The massive invertebrate is the stuff of legend, with sightings of a huge ocean-dwelling beast reported by sailors for centuries.'" The first live footage of a giant squid was captured in 2006 by Japan's National Science Museum researcher, Tsunemi Kubodera, after it was hooked and brought to the surface.
Space

Astronomers Find Gas Cloud About To Fall Into Black Hole 94

Posted by samzenpus from the a-light-snack dept.
First time accepted submitter pigrabbitbear writes "Black holes are basically celestial Cookie Monsters, gobbling anything and everything in sight. But because that appetite includes light itself, it's incredibly rare for us to actually see a black hole suck back an interstellar treat. Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have found just that: a mysterious, giant gas cloud that's rapidly been pulled into the maw of a supermassive black hole. The researchers, led by Reinhard Genzel of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, discovered the cloud as part of a now 20-year ESO program tasked with tracking stars as they whirl around the supermassive black hole, known as Sgr A*, at the center of our galaxy."

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