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Space

TheSpaceGame — Design Your Route To Jupiter 76

Posted by Soulskill from the try-the-clarke-kubrick-corridor dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency is celebrating World Space Week (4-10 October 2010) with the release of 'The Space Game,' an online game for interplanetary trajectory design. The Space Game is an online crowdsourcing experiment where you are given the role of a mission designer to seek the best path to travel through space. The interactive game, coded in HTML5, challenges the players to devise fuel-efficient trajectories to various bodies of the Solar System via a user-friendly interface. The aim of the experiment is get people from all ages and backgrounds to come up with better strategies that can help improve the effectiveness of the current computer algorithms. As part of the events organized worldwide for Space Week, the first problem of the game is to reach Jupiter with the lowest amount of propellant. The best scores by 10 October will be displayed on the Advanced Concepts Team website and the three best designs will also receive some ESA prizes."
The Courts

Sparc Sends SparkFun Electronics C&D Letter 219

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the overly-litigious dept.
moogied writes "SparkFun.com, a electronics component provider, has been sent a cease and desist letter by Sparc in response to the lengthy trademark process that SparkFun is participating in. The letter states 'Because the dominant portion of the SparkFun mark, namely, SPARK, is phonetically identical and nearly visually identical to SI's SPARC mark, and because it is used in connection with identical goods, we believe confusion is likely to occur among the relevant purchasing group.' SparkFun.com has provided the entire contents of the letter, with a breakdown of points it feels are most relevant."
Government

Serious Design Failure At USAspending.gov? 207

Posted by Soulskill from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.
theodp writes "Over at Intelligent Enterprise, Seth Grimes declares the Federal Government's USAspending.gov website a travesty, calling it 'almost a parody of a government-transparency site.' Among the faults cited by Grimes is a botched 'Federal Spending FY 2009 YTD' pie chart that graced USAspending.gov's home page. Not only were the sizes of pie segments not in proportion to the percentage labels (due to a Google Chart API error), the colors in the pie chart didn't even match the colors and values in the table immediately below the chart. Lucky for the Feds, Grimes didn't get a chance to look behind the curtain at the Federal IT Dashboard, where they forgot to remove a (commented) reference to a Google spreadsheet that states 'These totals are pretty poor numbers' (Google workbook). Oops!"
Power

Japan Plans $21B Space Power Plant 550

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-can-it-pop-popcorn dept.
Mike writes "Japan has announced plans to send a $21 billion solar power generator into space that will be capable of producing one gigawatt of energy, or enough to power 294,000 homes. The project recently received support from Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp, who are now teaming up in the race to develop new technology within four years that can beam electricity back to Earth without the use of cables. Japan hopes to test a small solar satellite decked out with solar panels by the year 2015."
Earth

Submission + - Ocean Circulation Doesn't Work As Expected (physorg.com)

Submitted by techno-vampire
techno-vampire writes: The familiar model of Atlantic ocean currents that shows a discrete "conveyor belt" of deep, cold water flowing southward from the Labrador Sea is probably all wet. New research led by Duke University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution relied on an armada of sophisticated floats to show that much of this water, originating in the sea between Newfoundland and Greenland, is diverted generally eastward by the time it flows as far south as Massachusetts. From there it disburses to the depths in complex ways that are difficult to follow. A 50-year-old model of ocean currents had shown this southbound subsurface flow of cold water forming a continuous loop with the familiar northbound flow of warm water on the surface, called the Gulf Stream. "Everybody always thought this deep flow operated like a conveyor belt, but what we are saying is that concept doesn't hold anymore," said Duke oceanographer Susan Lozier. "So it's going to be more difficult to measure these climate change signals in the deep ocean."

Comment Re:This should be a lesson... (Score 5, Informative) 780

by coryboehne (#27962073) Attached to: Hacker Destroys Avsim.com, Along With Its Backups

It's actually very difficult to truly destroy data, especially remotely. There is actually a reason the DoD spec. requires physical destruction of the media.

Unless you have overwritten the area on the physical disk that contained the data, multiple times, the data can still be recovered.

The article doesn't lead me to believe that he's tried very hard to get this data back.. Maybe somebody (not me) who cares about this resource, should offer an attempt at data recovery.. Just be sure to hurry, before they do something that will ensure you cannot recover the data.

I've recovered data off of formatted HDD's, off of corrupted file systems, off of compact flash cards and other media (Really useful if you want to keep those photo's that someone thought was deleted, be aware of this people).

It's amazing how most people seem to think deleted means gone.
Security

Hacker Destroys Avsim.com, Along With Its Backups 780

Posted by timothy from the giving-you-the-benefit-of-their-bad-childhoods dept.
el americano writes "Flight Simulator community website Avsim has experienced a total data loss after both of their online servers were hacked. The site's founder, Tom Allensworth, explained why 13 years of community developed terrains, skins, and mods will not be restored from backups: 'Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers between our two servers. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation.'"
Earth

GPS Accuracy Could Start Dropping In 2010 210

Posted by timothy from the how-to-blackmail-for-tax-dollars dept.
adamengst writes "A US Government Accountability Office report raises concerns about the Air Force's ability to modernize and maintain the constellation of satellites necessary to provide GPS services to military and civilian users. TidBITS looks at the situation and possible solutions."

Comment Re:Huh? What? WHAT THE HELL! (Score 2, Funny) 138

by coryboehne (#27958393) Attached to: Daydreaming Is Really Complex Problem-Solving

Talk about sleeping on the job... I didn't even post this in the right story...

Did you say something?

About right..

However, I wonder if the author has looked into writing books for academic purposes...

Anyone who has a degree knows just how much money is made on textbooks, and the frequency with which they are replaced and updated.

If I was a writer looking to make a living at it, especially in a vertical field, I would seriously consider writing university level textbooks.

Comment Re:Huh? What? (Score 0, Offtopic) 138

by coryboehne (#27958357) Attached to: Daydreaming Is Really Complex Problem-Solving

Did you say something?

About right..

However, I wonder if the author has looked into writing books for academic purposes...

Anyone who has a degree knows just how much money is made on textbooks, and the frequency with which they are replaced and updated.

If I was a writer looking to make a living at it, especially in a vertical field, I would seriously consider writing university level textbooks.

Comment Re:Abuse of moderation (Score 1) 311

by coryboehne (#27955115) Attached to: Flash Drive Roundup

Crayons = wax. As a dad I can tell you when a crayon goes through the dryer it is carnage, so if your memory stick threat model includes going through the wash, I would avoid wax.

LOL- No kids.. Didn't think about the crayon factor..

Comment Re:Abuse of moderation (Score 1) 311

by coryboehne (#27954397) Attached to: Flash Drive Roundup

Try alcohol rather than water for washing. It is best if you can get 100% alcohol which may be available from your drug store if you ask for it. It dries quickly and thoroughly with ease whereas water tends to hide and remain moist.

For this application, de-natured alcohol would be a fine product. You can find it at any home construction supply house, and it'll be much cheaper per volume unit than medical grade alcohol.

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