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Science

Israeli Scientists Freeze Water By Warming It 165

ccktech writes "As reported by NPR and Chemistry world, the journal Science has a paper by David Ehre, Etay Lavert, Meir Lahav, and Igor Lubomirsky [note: abstract online; payment required to read the full paper] of Israel's Weizmann Institute, who have figured out a way to freeze pure water by warming it up. The trick is that pure water has different freezing points depending on the electrical charge of the surface it resides on. They found out that a negatively charged surface causes water to freeze at a lower temperature than a positively charged surface. By putting water on the pyroelectric material Lithium Tantalate, which has a negative charge when cooler but a positive change when warmer; water would remain a liquid down to -17 degrees C., and then freeze when the substrate and water were warmed up and the charge changed to positive, where water freezes at -7 degrees C."
Software

The Final Release of Apache HTTP Server 1.3 104

Kyle Hamilton writes "The Apache Software Foundation and the Apache HTTP Server Project are pleased to announce the release of version 1.3.42 of the Apache HTTP Server ('Apache'). This release is intended as the final release of version 1.3 of the Apache HTTP Server, which has reached end of life status There will be no more full releases of Apache HTTP Server 1.3. However, critical security updates may be made available."
Science

Submission + - GPS Receiver Noise Can Be Used to Detect Snow Dept (sciencemag.org)

cremeglace writes: "Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have found a use for GPS besides finding restaurants or the occasional road-that-doesn't-exist: it can be used to measure snow depth. The new technique, which takes advantage of distortions of the GPS signal after it reflects off the snowpack, may potentially improve weather forecasts by allowing meteorologists to track snowfall patterns. ScienceNOW has the story, which one geophysicist describes as "a classical case of one person's noise becoming another person's signal.""
First Person Shooters (Games)

Re-Examining the Immersion Factor For First-Person Shooters 130

An opinion piece on Gamasutra looks into the common perception that a first-person view provides a much more immersive experience in shooters. The author argues that this concept needs to be reconsidered, as immersion nowadays is more dependent on what you see, rather than how you see it. The question is further complicated by ever-improving technology and new control schemes. "It's important to realize that making a first-person game almost necessarily means making a game for the dedicated gamer. Innovations on the interface side could help lower the casual block, perhaps through the Wii, Project Natal, or the PS3's new motion controller. Regardless, it will take a lot of work and concerted effort to penetrate the casual audience with a first-person camera. The question is whether we even need to, when there are so many camera systems that games have yet to fully explore."

Comment Re:What is your definition of "robust"? (Score 1) 162

While trying to be a little less mean than your other respondent - the tone of your reply is rather unfortunate. The OP question indicates that they did a fair (unusual?) amount of due diligence for a first-time contributor. How about giving them some credit for that BEFORE you shift into curmudgeon mode - and not assuming in advance that the answers to your questions will be negative?

Comment Re:Business or Accounting (Score 2, Insightful) 372

Now YOU'VE moved the goalposts. His original assertion was that it's very, very, difficult. And, quite frankly, he's right. I don't know if he's quite "Disney movie" right, but the sample size of people who do what he was talking about is VERY small. And what he was talking about is precisely what he re-iterated - moving from a less theoretical, academically rigorous, background to doing something like a Math/Physics/Comp Sci postgraduate degree.

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