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Moon

Microwave Map of Entire Moon Revealed 82

Zothecula writes "The first complete microwave image of the Moon taken by Chinese lunar satellite Chang'E-1 has been revealed. Chang'E-1 is China's first scientific mission to explore planetary bodies beyond Earth and the on-board Lunar Microwave Radiometer has made it possible for the first time to globally map the Moon in microwave frequencies. Radar observations of the Moon are unable to provide thermal information, and microwave observations taken from Earth cannot reach the far side of the moon. So Chang'E-1's (CE-1) orbit was conducted at an altitude of 200km (124 miles) and allowed it to observe every location of the moon with a nadir view and at high spatial resolution."
Debian

Happy 17th Birthday, Debian! 225

An anonymous reader writes "Debian turns 17 today. Yes it has really come a long way from being Murdock's pet project back in 1993 to being the distribution on which the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, is now based."
Earth

Nuclear Energy Now More Expensive Than Solar 635

js_sebastian writes "According to an article on the New York Times, a historical cross-over has occurred because of the declining costs of solar vs. the increasing costs of nuclear energy: solar, hardly the cheapest of renewable technologies, is now cheaper than nuclear, at around 16 cents per kilowatt hour. Furthermore, the NY Times reports that financial markets will not finance the construction of nuclear power plants unless the risk of default (which is historically as high as 50 percent for the nuclear industry) is externalized to someone else through federal loan guarantees or ratepayer funding. The bottom line seems to be that nuclear is simply not competitive, and the push from the US government to subsidize it seems to be forcing the wrong choice on the market."
Firefox

Firefox 4.0 Beta Candidate Available 366

An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla quietly posted the first beta build of its Firefox 4 browser early this morning. The 'Chromified' browser leaves a solid first impression with a few minor hiccups, but no surprises. If you have been using a previous version of Firefox 3.7, which now officially becomes Firefox 4.0, you should already feel comfortable with this new version. Mozilla has not posted detailed release notes yet, but there seem to be no major changes from Firefox 3.7a6-pre, with the exception that the browser is running more smoothly and with fewer crashes." Update: 06/29 18:40 GMT by S : Mozilla's Asa Dotzler writes, "Mozilla has not shipped Firefox 4 beta yet. We are in the process of making and testing the final set of changes, but we're not quite there yet." Changed headline to reflect this.
Wii

New Wii Menu Update Targets Homebrew Again 258

Nintendo has tried to block homebrew during firmware updates in the past, often unsuccessfully. Now, as it rolls out version 4.3 of the Wii System Menu, stopping homebrew modifications once again seems to be its primary goal. From Nintendo's support site: "Because unauthorized channels or firmware may impair game play or the Wii console, updating to Wii Menu version 4.3 will check for and automatically remove such unauthorized files." Since it's hard to bill that as an upgrade, they vaguely add, "In addition, there are some behind the scenes enhancements that do not affect any prominently-used features or menus but will improve system performance."
Google

Google Introduces Command-Line Tool For Linux 210

Lomegor writes "'Ever wanted to upload a folder full of photos to Picasa from a command prompt?' Google introduced today a new project, Google CL, that lets you do that and much more. It's a new command line tool for Linux that acts as an interface with Google services; you can upload videos to YouTube or maybe post a new blog post in Blogger in just one line."
Cellphones

HTC Android Smartphone Stores Browsing Screenshots 179

Mad Hamster writes "Boy Genius Report points out that the HTC Droid Incredible, using the Sense UI, 'will periodically store screenshots of the contents of your web browser.' These shots are stored in such a way that they are not easily deleted. 'They remain when the current browser session is closed, they remain after you clear the browser history, and they remain after a full factory reset,' though there is a way to delete them manually."
Google

Submission + - Google introduces Google Command Line Tool (blogspot.com)

Lomegor writes: "Ever wanted to upload a folder full of photos to Picasa from a command prompt?" Google introduced today a new project, Google CL, that lets you do that and much more. It's a new command line tool for linux that acts as an interface with Google services; you can upload videos to youtube or maybe post a new blogpost in blogger in just one line.

Submission + - HTC Android Smartphone stores browsing screenshots (boygeniusreport.com)

Mad Hamster writes: Boy Genius Report has a story that the HTC DROID Incredible "with Sense UI, will periodically store screenshots of the contents of your web browser". These screenies are stored such that they are not deleted by resetting the device, thus offering opportunities for identity thieves et al. The matter has also been covered by Engadget and Huffington Post.
Technology

Submission + - Afghan Tech Minerals -- Cure, Curse, or Hype? (theoildrum.com)

Gooseygoose writes:

The Pentagon revealed last week that Afghanistan has as much as $1 trillion in mineral wealth, a potential game changer in the ongoing conflict there. Many news outlets have picked up this story, with some simply repeating the official talking points, while others raise serious concerns. Is this ‘discovery’ just hype, or will this truly alter the landscape of the Afghan war? Perhaps more importantly, can this mineral wealth (whether real or illusory) pave the way to a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan, or is it more likely to drive geopolitical feedback loops that plunge the region further into turmoil? Below the fold is a quick look at the as-of-yet unasked questions about Afghanistan’s buried treasure.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6607

Iphone

Submission + - Phantom Data Sent By Sleeping iPhones (thinq.co.uk)

Stoobalou writes: Now that just about every airtime provider is rethinking its mobile data plans, with most putting an end to unlimited contracts, it looks like iPhone users are paying more attention to their bills, and in particular how much data they are using.

A large number of users in the USA and here in the UK have discovered that their iPhones are apparently sending large chunks of data during the wee small hours using the 3G network.

NASA

Submission + - Obama will tap Charles Bolden to lead NASA (latimes.com)

viyh writes: "President Obama will name former astronaut Charles F. Bolden Jr. as NASA administrator, according to three congressional sources. If confirmed by the Senate, the retired Marine Corps general would be the first African American to head the agency.

The timing, the sources said, is keyed to the landing of the shuttle Atlantis, which remained in orbit Friday because of bad weather but will return today or Sunday. The sources were called Friday and briefed by the White House, which would not comment for this article.

The president will also announce that his campaign space advisor, Lori Garver, will be Bolden's deputy, the sources said."

Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 7 sets direction of low power CPU market (pcper.com) 1

Vigile writes: News is circulating today about Microsoft setting hardware limits for the Windows 7 Starter Edition rather than sticking to the 3 application limit. With just a few simple specifications Microsoft has set the tech world spinning though — not only is Microsoft deciding that a netbook is now defined as having a 10.2 inch or smaller screen but by setting a 15 watt limit to CPU thermal dissipation they may have inadvertently set the direction of CPU technology for years to come. If Microsoft sticks to that licensing spec, AMD, Intel, VIA and maybe even NVIDIA (who might be building an x86 CPU) will no doubt put a new focus on power efficiency in order to cash in on the lucrative netbook market.

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