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Science

Submission + - Higgs signal gains strength (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Today the two main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, submitted the results of their latest analyses. The new papers (here https://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/CMS%20Papers?ln=en and here https://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/ATLAS%20Papers?ln=en) boost the case for December’s announcement of a possible Higgs signal. Physicists working on the In the case of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, have been able to look at another possible kind of Higgs decay, and that allows them to boost their Higgs signal from 2.5 to 3.1. Taken together with data from the other detector, ATLAS, Higgs overall signal now unofficially stands at about 4.3.
Science

Submission + - Public supports geo-engineering (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
Bob the Super Hamste
Bob the Super Hamste writes: "The BBC is reporting that there is strong among the public in the US, UK, and Canada for research into geo-engineering with approximately 72% respondents supporting the research. The survey was focused on solar radiation management. The article also mentions the UK Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project which would inject water particles into the upper atmosphere as a prelude to spraying cooling sulphate. Researchers for the SPICE project calculate that 10-20 balloons could cool the global climate by 2C. Also mentioned in the article is the voluntary moratorium on the procedure by the international Convention on Biological Diversity"
Microsoft

Submission + - .NET Gadgeteer - Microsoft's Arduino killer? (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: .NET Gadgeteer is a new open source platform, from Microsoft Research, based on the use of the .NET Micro Framework. It brings with it lots of hardware modules that are backed by object oriented software. You simply buy the modules you need — switches, GPS, WiFi etc — that you need and plug them together. The software, based on C#, is also open source, and comes with classes that let you use the modules without having to go "low level". It seems like a really easy way to prototype new gadgets (see the videos).
Is this an Arduino killer?

Submission + - Has LHC seen a hint of the Higgs? (nature.com)

Submitted by
gbrumfiel
gbrumfiel writes: "Researchers at two detectors at the Large Hadron Collider are seeing something unusual. The signal is faint, but it could be from the long-sought Higgs particle. The Higgs is part of the mechanism that gives other particles mass, and it also unifies the electromagnetic and electroweak forces. No one is willing to declare it found just yet, but the new data from the CMS and ATLAS detectors are an independent, "tantalizing" hint of what's to come. The results were presented today at HEP-2011 in Grenoble, France."
Music

Submission + - The Loudness Wars May Be Ending

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Mike Barthel writes about a technique called brick-wall limiting, where songs are engineered to seem louder by bringing the quiet parts to the same level as the loud parts and pushing the volume level of the entire song to the highest point possible. "Because of the need to stand out on radio and other platforms, there's a strategic advantage to having a new song sound just a little louder than every other song. As a result, for a period, each new release came out a little louder than the last, and the average level of loudness on CDs crept up (youtube) to such a degree that albums actually sounded distorted, as if they were being played through broken speakers." But the loudness wars may be coming to an end. Taking advantage of the trend towards listening to music from the digital "cloud"—via services like Pandora, Spotify, and Apple's forthcoming iCloud—a proposal by audio engineer Thomas Lund, already adopted as a universal standard (PDF) by the International Telecommunications Union, would institute a volume limit on any songs downloaded from the cloud effectively removing the strategic advantage of loudness. Lund's proposal would do the same thing for any music you could buy. "Once a piece of music is ingested into this system, there is no longer any value in trying to make a recording louder just to stand out," says legendary engineer Bob Ludwig, who has been working with Lund. "There will be nothing to gain from a musical point of view. Louder will no longer be better!""
Data Storage

Submission + - GE To Sample 500GB DVD-size Discs Soon (itproportal.com)

Submitted by siliconbits
siliconbits writes: GE Global Research announced earlier today that it has managed to cram up to 500GB worth of data on a standard DVD-size disc, an increase in storage density of roughly 100x. What's more, the tech arm of conglomerate General Electric Company says that the storage solution will record data at the same speed as Blu-ray disks while increasing storage capacity by 25 times. The Blu-ray Disk Association says that the commonly available 12x speed Blu-ray writers have a maximum writing speed of up to 400Mbps (or 50MBps) which means that in theory, it would take just over three hours to fill that new holographic hard disks. GE has confirmed that its R&D and licensing team will be sampling the media to qualified partners that may be interested in licensing the technology.
Java

Submission + - Windows XP in a browser (jpc2.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: JPC — the pure java PC emulator — has now been upgraded to JPC2, and can run WindowsXP inside the Java Applet sandbox. Online demo is at http://jpc2.com/
Google

Submission + - Google index site removal tool has gaping hole (jamesbreckenridge.co.uk)

Submitted by blowdart
blowdart writes: Google today disabled their webmaster tools after it was discovered that anyone could use the tool to remove any site from the google index.

The exploit was pretty simple, all anyone had to do was to have a google webmasters tool account and edit a query string parameter on a valid removal to point to a domain they didn't own/
Microsoft

Submission + - Linux receives 20th birthday video from Microsoft

Submitted by
moonbender
moonbender writes: "The Linux kernel has received birthday wishes from an unexpected direction — a video animation from Microsoft. Quoting The H: The video picks up on the strained relationship between Microsoft and Linux by displaying the phrase "Microsoft Vs. Linux" and then showing Tux, the Linux mascot, turning his back on the offer of a birthday cake from Microsoft. After a brief outline of the history between Microsoft and Linux, the video ends with a conciliatory gesture: Tux accepts the birthday cake in his igloo and the video ends with "Happy Birthday" and the editing of the initial phrase to "Microsoft and Linux?". The Linux Foundation has more stuff celebrating the kernel's 20th birthday."
Security

Submission + - Microsoft: One in 14 downloads is malicious (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: About one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users turns out to be malicious, Microsoft said Tuesday. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/05/17/smartscreen-174-application-reputation-in-ie9.aspx And even though Microsoft has a feature in its Internet Explorer browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially untrustworthy software, about 5% of users ignore the warnings and download malicious Trojan horse programs anyway. IE also warns users when they're being tricked into visiting malicious websites, another way that social-engineering hackers can infect computer users. In the past two years, IE's SmartScreen has blocked more than 1.5 billion Web and download attacks, according to Jeb Haber, program manager lead for SmartScreen.
Security

Submission + - McAfee's website full of security holes (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by
Julie188
Julie188 writes: "The McAfee.com website is full of security mistakes that could lead to cross-site scripting and other attacks, researchers said in a post on the Full Disclosure site on Monday. The holes with the site were found by the YGN Ethical Hacker Group, and reported to McAfee on Feb. 10, YGN says, before they were publicly disclosed to the security/hacking mailing list. Embarrassing? Yes, especially given that the company aggressively markets its own McAfee Secure service that is supposed to assure consumers that McAfee has scanned a website and found it to be safe."
Security

Submission + - Network card rootkit proof of concept developed (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by KindMind
KindMind writes: The Register has a story on a researcher that has developed a network card firmware based rootkit. From the story: Guillaume Delugré, a reverse engineer at French security firm Sogeti ESEC, was able to develop proof-of-concept code after studying the firmware from Broadcom Ethernet NetExtreme PCI Ethernet cards ... Using the knowledge gained from this process, Delugré was able to develop custom firmware code and flash the device so that his proof-of-concept code ran on the CPU of the network card. You can read more on his blog.
The Military

Submission + - US Army Develops tooth cleaning gum (cosmeticsdesign.com) 1

Submitted by pryoplasm
pryoplasm writes: To help deal with some of the hygenine issues on the battlefield, the US Army worked on a gum to take the place of brushing your teeth. This might be eventually released and marketed to the public. While there are many gums out there which aren't as detrimental to your teeth, this one promises to actually help them out.
Security

Submission + - "Free" password for all public open WiFi proposed (sophos.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the wake of concerns about FireSheep sniffing credentials from people using unencrypted public WiFi hotspots, a security researcher has proposed that the problem does not just like with big websites like Facebook, but also with those who provide free wireless internet access.

Chet Wisniewski, a researcher at security firm Sophos, proposes that all free WiFi hotspots should be encrypted — with the password "free".

'I propose standard adoption of WPA2 and a default password of "free". Whenever you wish to connect to complimentary WiFi, you select "Courtyard Marriott" or "Starbucks" like you always have, but you are then prompted for a password.'

'Just type "free". It's not hard. In fact, operating system vendors could even program your PC to automatically try the password "free" before prompting you for a password on the assumption that you might be selecting a free service.'

Comment Re:Lessig on what plex is really important (Score 2, Insightful) 106

by csdahlberg (#30614396) Attached to: Codeplex 100 Day Deadline Passes Unremarked
I have always seen the diversity of OSS as both its biggest strength and the most significant reason it isn't more widely adopted. As you point out, it would be possible for anyone to modify existing software to add or modify features, which ought to be a good thing. However, it also means it would be possible to use "linux" at ten different jobs and have ten completely different experiences. A big advantage of Microsoft products is that they CAN'T be changed by everyone and a user's experience with, for example, Windows 7 will be damn near the same anywhere they go.

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