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Australia

Submission + - CSIRO Develops 10 Gbps Microwave Backhaul (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes: James Hutchinson of iTnews writes, 'CSIRO has begun talks with global manufacturers to commercialise microwave technology it says can provide at least 10 Gbps symmetric backhaul services to mobile towers. The project, funded out of the Science and Industry Endowment Fund and a year in planning, could provide a ten-fold increase in the speed of point-to-point microwave transmission systems within two years, according to project manager, Dr Jay Guo. Microwave transmission is used to link mobile towers back to a carrier’s network where it is physically difficult or economically unviable to run fibre to the tower. Where current technology has an upper limit of a gigabit per second to multiple towers over backhaul, the government organisation said it could provide the 10 Gbps symmetric speeds over ranges of up to 50 kilometres.'
KDE

KDE 4.5 Released 302

Posted by Soulskill from the newer-and-shinier dept.
An anonymous reader writes "KDE 4.5.0 has been released to the world. See the release announcement for details. Highlights include a Webkit browser rendering option for Konqueror, a new caching mechanism for a faster experience and a re-worked notification system. Another new feature is Perl bindings, in addition to Python, Ruby and JavaScript support. The Phonon multimedia library now integrates with PulseAudio. See this interview with KDE developer and spokesperson Sebastian Kugler on how KDE can continue to be innovative in the KDE4 age. Packages should be available for most Linux distributions in the coming days. More than 16000 bug fixes were committed since 4.4."
Math

Possible Issues With the P != NP Proof 147

Posted by Soulskill from the intuitively-obvious-to-the-most-casual-observer dept.
An anonymous reader writes "We previously discussed news that Vinay Deolalikar, a Principal Research Scientist at HP Labs, wrote a paper that claimed to prove P is not equal to NP. Dick Lipton, a Professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech, analyzed the idea of the proof on his blog. In a recent post, he explains that there have been many serious objections raised about the proof. The post summarizes the issues that need to be answered in any subsequent development, and additional concerns are raised in the comment section."
Biotech

First 'Malaria-Proof' Mosquito Created 261

Posted by timothy from the what-about-a-really-good-egg-cream dept.
Gisg writes "The University of Arizona team reported that their genetically modified mosquitoes are immune to the malaria-causing parasite, a single-cell organism called Plasmodium. Riehle and his colleagues tested their genetically-altered mosquitoes by feeding them malaria-infested blood. Not even one mosquito became infected with the malaria parasite."
Earth

$1 Trillion In Minerals Found In Afghanistan 688

Posted by timothy from the troops-home-by-christmas dept.
a user writes "American geologists working with the Pentagon have discovered deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium of incredible bounty, amounting to nearly $1 trillion. In fact, the lithium deposits are so vast, an internal Pentagon memo has stated that Afghanistan could become the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium.' The wealth of the deposits completely flattens the current GDP of Afghanistan, estimated at about $12 billion. Mining would completely transform the economy of Afghanistan, which presently is propped up by the opium trade and foreign aid. However, it could take decades for extraction to reach its full potential due to the war, the lack of heavy industry in the country, and a corrupt national government."

Comment Re:Living in the past (Score 1) 256

by evohe80 (#27920767) Attached to: Apple Freezes Snow Leopard APIs
I didn't mean that Optical Drives should be banned... I meant external drives should be the way to go, specially in laptops under 15". Few netbooks have an optical drive, and they sell like hotcakes, which I think proves my point.

Certainly some people watch DVDs on their laptops, but they are not that many (from my sample, only about 1 in 10), specially in small ones. There are also legal stores where you can buy movies online (iTunes, Amazon, ...).
Many users don't ever install an OS, anyway, and the ones that do, don't usually install it but once every few months. All other components on my laptops are used constantly, or are phisically small (say DVI output), but not the optical drive is most of the time is just additional weight.

Comment Re:An unfair fight is the point of war (Score 1) 644

by evohe80 (#27488509) Attached to: Konami Announces a Game Based On a 2004 Battle In Fallujah

I'd put this to you - if civilians understood that they would get killed in wars too, they might be a lot less likely to build, finance and cheer on the armies to fight them.

Actually, aren't armies supposed to defend countries and the civilian population? By your reasoning, American citizens should stop supporting their own army, as they may get killed in the even of a war. Fortunately for you, there has been no war on US soil for more than a century.

And yes, there are rules in war. They are international law. They are made to protect civilians and human rights as a whole, in all situations. If you don't like them it may be because you are on the winning side, and you don't suffer the massacres.

Comment Re:No legislation required.... (Score 1) 363

by evohe80 (#26889373) Attached to: Handset Vendors Plug Micro-USB Charge Ports
I suppose you're kidding, right?

I'm sure the handset makers are deeply saddened by this. Clearly, this unwelcome meddling by government will hurt consumers by ending competition in this vital technical matter.

Vital techinical matter? It's just the charger. They could use additional ports if they want to. And it may be financially wise for the companies: they will charge you the same for the phone, and they won't have to give you another charger. I guess not that many people loose their chargers and have to buy additional units.

This could cost consumers literally incalculable amounts of synergy and innovation. Why won't the government just let capitalism work?

Mixing capitalism with a "standard" charge port doesn't make any sense. And I don't see any great amount of innovation coming from the charge port.
Technology (Apple)

Toxic Fumes From Mac Pros? 267

Posted by CmdrTaco from the that-might-explain-john-hodgmen dept.
Fanboi Killa writes "Apple is investigating damning claims, published in a leading French newspaper, that its computers emit a toxic odor containing chemicals including the cancer-causing benzene. Apple has not denied the accusations. Its spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld the company had not found any evidence to support the claim but Apple would continue to investigate. Posts on Apple's own discussion boards suggest the Mac maker knew about potentially toxic odors being linked to its computers as early as December last year."

Comment Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score 0) 558

by evohe80 (#24756945) Attached to: Scientists Discover Cows Point North
Mod parent up. +5 insightful.

Anyway, what's the point of having an integrated compass for a cow? It's great for migratory animals, but not so much for a cow. Nature is usually very economic with the systems it puts inside living creatures, if it isn't an advantage of any kind, it consumes energy, and becomes a disadvantage.
The Military

Submission + - Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
gollum123
gollum123 writes: "From the NyTimes, Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity of military analysts on the major networks, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin ) The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air. several dozen of the military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks. Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access. So much for objectivity in the media."
Mozilla

Hotmail Doesn't Work With Linux Firefox 2.0 396

Posted by kdawson from the whoa-there-big-feller dept.
An anonymous reader tips a column up at freesoftwaremagazine.com in which the writer discovers that the latest UI enhancements that Hotmail has recently introduced don't work with Firefox 2.0 under Linux. The writer concludes that the webmail interface has been artificially limited by basic user-agent sniffing. The solution is simple enough — spoofing the User Agent that Firefox reports.

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