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Space

Space Station Marathon Starting This Weekend 61

Posted by timothy from the this-calls-for-a-twitter-mashup dept.
RobGoldsmith writes with this snippet from Space Fellowship: "If you've never seen a spaceship with your own eyes, now's your chance. The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built."
Medicine

You, Too, Can Learn Echolocation 133

Posted by timothy from the and-you-swear-this-isn't-a-joke dept.
The Narrative Fallacy writes "Wired reports that with just a few weeks of training, you can learn to 'see' objects in the dark using echolocation the same way dolphins and bats do. Acoustic expert Juan Antonio Martinez at the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain has developed a system to teach people how to use echolocation, a skill that could be particularly useful for the blind and for people who work under dark or smoky conditions, like firefighters — or cat burglars. 'Two hours per day for a couple of weeks are enough to distinguish whether you have an object in front of you,' says Martinez. 'Within another couple weeks you can tell the difference between trees and pavement.' To master the art of echolocation, you can begin by making the typical 'sh' sound used to make someone be quiet. Moving a pen in front of the mouth can be noticed right away similar to the phenomenon when traveling in a car with the windows down, which makes it possible to 'hear' gaps in the verge of the road. The next level is to learn how to master 'palate clicks,' special clicks with your tongue and palate that are better than other sounds because they can be made in a uniform way, work at a lower intensity, and don't get drowned out by ambient noise. With the palate click you can learn to recognize slight changes in the way the clicks sound depending on what objects are nearby. 'For all of us in general, this would be a new way of perceiving the world,' says Martinez."
Data Storage

Rugged Linux Server For Rural, Tropical Environment? 236

Posted by timothy from the crate-of-netbooks-and-solar-panels dept.
travalas writes "Last year I moved to Rural Bangladesh. My work is pretty diverse, everything from hacking web apps to designing building materials. Increasingly a Linux VM on my MacBook Pro is insufficient due to storage speed/processing constraints and the desire to interface more easily with some sensor packages. There are a few issues that make that make a standard server less than desirable. This server will generally not be running with any sort of climate control and it may need to move to different locations so would also be helpful if it was somewhat portable. The environment here is hot, humid and dusty and brutal on technology and power is very inconsistent so it will often be on a combination of Interruptible Power Supply and solar power. So a UPS is a must and low power consumption desirable, so it strikes me that an Integrated UPS a la Google's servers would be handy. Spec wise it needs to be it needs to be able to handle several VM's and some other processor storage intensive tasks. So 4 cores, 8GB of ram and 3-4 TB of SATA storage seems like a place to start for processing specs. What sort of hardware would you recommend without breaking the bank?"
The Internet

Lobby Groups Launch Full Assault For Canadian DMCA 135

Posted by Soulskill from the sneak-it-through-while-everyone's-watching-playoff-hockey dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Bill C-61, the previous attempt at a Canadian DMCA, may have failed, but it is clear that the music, movie, and business software industries are engaged in putting massive pressure on the Canadian government to bring it back. Lobbying records show several meetings each week with Government Ministers for CRIA, CMPDA, and Microsoft over the past month. Meanwhile, the CRIA is preparing a grassroots campaign in support of new copyright laws, even claiming that the current rules are costing jobs to truck drivers delivering CDs and DVDs."
Games

Valve Provides Details On Left 4 Dead Survival Pack DLC 62

Posted by Soulskill from the a-new-take-on-not-dying dept.
A post on the Left 4 Dead blog shares details of the Survival Pack downloadable content due out next week. It will be free, and available for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game. "Our goals for Survival Mode are to deliver a mode of play distinct from Campaign or Versus, have games that regularly last under ten minutes, and emphasize competition with team play through leaderboards. Survival Mode draws on the planning and communication aspects of a successful Finale or Crescendo event, while taking it to another level. It rapidly hits a fever pitch that only a well coordinated team will be able to successfully survive. ... Given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign."
Space

Space Sails Could Bring Used Rockets Back To Earth 76

Posted by Soulskill from the how-about-a-space-hoover dept.
GordonCopestake writes "An article from New Scientist proposes that all new spacecraft have sails attached to bring them back to earth — a measure that would reduce the amount of garbage in space. From the article: 'The risk to spacecraft from a collision with space debris could be reduced by equipping launchers with a gossamer-thin "sail." The idea is to deploy the sail after the rocket has released its payload to amplify the drag of the last vestiges of the atmosphere, and so force the rocket out of orbit.'" Wired has a related story about the risks faced by the space shuttles as they share orbits with tons of drifting space debris. "... in the 54 missions from STS-50 through STS-114, space junk and meteoroids hit shuttle windows 1,634 times necessitating 92 window replacements. In addition, the shuttle's radiator was hit 317 times, actually causing holes in the radiator's facesheet 53 times."
Politics

Swedish Pirate Party Gains 3000 Members In 7 Hours 410

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the unintended-consequences dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Due to outrage over the verdict in The Pirate Bay trial, the Swedish Pirate Party has gained 3000 members in less than 7 hours. It is now bigger than 3 of the 7 parties represented in the Swedish parliament. 'Ruling means that our political work must now be stepped up. We want to ensure that the Pirate Bay activities — to link people and information — is clearly lawful. And we want to do it for all people in Sweden, Europe and the world, continues Rick Falk Vinge. We want it to be open for ordinary people to disseminate and receive information without fear of imprisonment or astronomical damages.'"
Displays

Ink Breakthrough Heralds Bendy PC Screens 140

Posted by timothy from the 1001-positions-for-computing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers claim to have developed a type of soluble semiconductor ink which could help to make bendable computer screens a reality. Developed at Polyera and BASF Future Business, the ink carries an N-Type negative charge. Previously, semiconductor inks have only been able to carry a positive charge. The new ink can be printed onto any flexible material, including plastic and paper, using only a modified ink-jet printer."
Security

A Hacker's Audacious Plan To Rule the Underground 313

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the ambition-can-carry-you-just-so-far dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Wired has the inside story of Max Butler, a former white hat hacker who joined the underground following a jail stint for hacking the Pentagon. His most ambitious hack was a hostile takeover of the major underground carding boards where stolen credit card and identity data are bought and sold. The attack made his own site, CardersMarket, the largest crime forum in the world, with 6,000 users. But it also made the feds determined to catch him, since one of the sites he hacked, DarkMarket.ws, was secretly a sting operation run by the FBI."
Music

WSJ Confirms RIAA Fired MediaSentry 158

Posted by kdawson from the meet-the-new-boss dept.
newtley writes "Two days ago we discussed the earlier p2pnet report that the RIAA had fired MediaSentry (now called SafeNet). Now the Wall Street Journal is confirming this report. MediaSentry has been 'invading the privacy of people,' the WSJ quotes Ray Beckerman; 'They've been doing very sloppy work.' Beckerman cites MediaSentry's practice of 'looking for available songs in people's filesharing folders, uploading them, and using those uploads in court as evidence of copyright violations.' MediaSentry 'couldn't prove defendants had shared their files with anyone other than MediaSentry investigators.' The WSJ notes, 'In place of MediaSentry, the RIAA says it will use Copenhagen-based DtecNet Software ApS. The music industry had worked with DtecNet previously both in the US and overseas, and liked its technology...' "
The Internet

China Defines Internet Addiction 201

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the one-more-addiction-to-the-list dept.
narramissic writes "Three years after the first clinic dedicated to Internet addiction opened in Beijing, Chinese doctors have now officially defined it as an ailment. Those afflicted with this ailment spend six or more hours a day online and exhibit at least one of the following symptoms: difficulty sleeping or concentrating, yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress. Do you meet the criteria? You're in good company: About 10 percent of China's 253 million Internet users exhibit some form of addiction to the medium, and 70 percent of those people are young men, an official Xinhua News Agency report said."
User Journal

Journal Journal: [Linux] Fedora 8 2

Journal by ak3ldama

I mentioned in a previous journal entry that linux hates my machine. Well I tried again, and failed. I installed Fedora 8. It went well. Then it started crashing as before with Ubuntu. I installed kmod-nvidia and the crashes stopped - for the most part. I still experienced a freak crash several minutes into operation while doing typical things so I suppose I will give up installing Linux on this machine. I really wish there was
Role Playing (Games)

Crime Wave Thwarted in Second Life 183

Posted by Zonk from the watch-what-you-walk-near dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Mercury News reports that a vulnerability in the way Second Life protects a user's money has been identified. Risks for users are reportedly limited because the researchers say the flaw can be quickly patched. The flaw exploits a known problem with Apple's QuickTime - when a virtual character passes by an infected object planted by hackers, the Second Life software activates QuickTime so it can play the video or picture. Hackers can direct the Second Life software to a malicious Web site that then allows them to 'take over the user's avatar and force it to hand over its Linden cash. Second Life is recommending that users disable streaming video playback in the Second Life viewer except when you are attending a known and trusted venue.' The hack raises tough questions for operators of virtual worlds. Should they be as secure as banks and guarantee the safety of money and property that characters in the world possess?"

Comment Re:Wrong way to compare (Score 1) 585

by BuBu_ (#18438991) Attached to: Gifted Children Find Heavy Metal Comforting
http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2007/01/07/2006-genr e-album-sales-report/

shows some sales figures from 2006. Of the youth-dominated genres we get something along the lines of:
Alternative+Rock: 280Mil
Metal:62Mil
R&B+Rap:176Mil

The part in bold is the problem with what you said. From the original parent post, this isn't talking about youth-dominated genres of the entire music market, rather it's talking about one specific institute. The population there happens to be 120,000. Given that 6% are into metal, so the obvious answer there is only 7200 out of 120,000 are into metal. That really is quite a few given the number of people the the specific population of the institute in question.

So really, Swift Kick is right. A few people are into metal. That doesn't prove that the vast majority of gifted students (at least ones belonging to this institution anyways) are into metal at all.

That all being said, comparing nation wide ratings to a very specific survey is apples to oranges. Of course nation wide data wouldn't apply to a specific set of date.

And on top of that, Swift Kick is probably right, they probably do annoy family and friends and act like total douche bags and listen to metal to cope with their own insecurities. I know I did when I was a teen, and I was a total fucking douche bag.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Letter

Journal by c0degirl
Today I wrote a nice letter to a newspaper published in my city, The Houston Press. Now the Houston Press is known for being off the wall and reporting what no one else wants to report. So that gave me an idea to write them a letter about the DMCA and inquired why they haven't reported on such an important issue. So hopefully it may spark a thought.

In other news, well there really isn't any other news. Its Friday and I just want to get home.

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