29964319
submission
dtmos writes:
The world's tallest free-standing broadcast tower has been completed, in Tokyo. Rising to 634.0 metres (2,080 ft), it is the second-tallest structure in the world, after the Burj Khalifa. Completion was delayed two months due to the effects of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
23327572
submission
dtmos writes:
This summer, 'Starcraft II' has become the newest barroom spectator sport. Fans organize so-called Barcraft events, taking over pubs and bistros from Honolulu to Florida and switching big-screen TV sets to Internet broadcasts of professional game matches.
As they root for their on-screen superstars, "Starcraft" enthusiasts can sow confusion among regular patrons ... But for sports-bar owners, "Starcraft" viewers represent a key new source of revenue from a demographic—self-described geeks—they hadn't attracted before.
23207692
submission
dtmos writes:
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that its Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) flight on Thursday, 11 August, "experienced a flight anomaly post perigee and into the vehicle’s climb. The anomaly prompted the vehicle’s autonomous flight safety system to use the craft’s aerodynamic systems to make a controlled descent and splash down into the ocean."
“According to a preliminary review of the data collected prior to the anomaly encountered by the HTV-2 during its second test flight,” said DARPA Director Regina Dugan, “HTV-2 demonstrated stable aerodynamically controlled Mach 20 hypersonic flight for approximately three minutes. It appears that the engineering changes put into place following the vehicle’s first flight test in April 2010 were effective. We do not yet know the cause of the anomaly for Flight 2.”
22013558
submission
dtmos writes:
Robert Morris, a major contributor to the Unix password and security features while at Bell Labs, has passed at the age of 78. His interesting life was made even more interesting by his son, Robert Tappan Morris, who invented the computer worm.
8423470
submission
dtmos writes:
The 768-bit, 232-digit number RSA-768 has been factored. From the introduction:The number RSA-768 was taken from the now obsolete RSA Challenge list as a representative 768-bit RSA modulus. This result is a record for factoring general integers. Factoring a 1024-bit RSA modulus would be about a thousand times harder, and a 768-bit RSA modulus is several thousands times harder to factor than a 512-bit one. Because the first factorization of a 512-bit RSA modulus was reported only a decade ago it is not unreasonable to expect that 1024-bit RSA moduli can be factored well within the next decade by an academic effort such as ours . . . . Thus, it would be prudent to phase out usage of 1024-bit RSA within the next three to four years.
8304310
submission
dtmos writes:
The Burj Dubai ("Dubai Tower" in Arabic) is scheduled to open to the public on Monday. Its height, claimed to be 824.55m (2 705.2 feet), but believed to be 818m (2 684 feet) — either way, more than half a mile — makes it far taller than Taiwan's Taipei 101, which had been the world's tallest skyscraper at 509m (1,670 feet).
7687444
submission
dtmos writes:
Tired of seeing poor-quality patents issue? Have a great way to solve the problem? Well, here's your chance to be part of the solution. The USPTO has issued a Request for Comments on Enhancement in the Quality of Patents [pdf], seeking public comment on ways to improve "the process for obtaining the best prior art, preparation of the initial application, and examination and prosecution of the application." Comments should be sent to patent_quality_comments@uspto.gov by February 8, 2010.
