3986631
submission
farker haiku writes:
Qualcomm, with its newly developed convergence program, seeks to create the first truly ubiquitous digital network so that everyone, everywhere, can find themselves connected.
Convergent Innovation
In order to provide the most expansive coverage possible, the convergence program has implanted tiny base stations into thousands of pigeons. "These birds thrive in diverse habitats, from dense cities to unpopulated regions," says Peter Rauber, director of engineering. "They carry with them a dynamic network as they flock and migrate." But the birds needed certain improvements to ensure goals were met and safeguarded. According to Rauber, this is where true convergence enters the equation.
662720
submission
farker haiku writes:
According to this story at physorg, a "new game, named Foldit, turns protein folding into a competitive sport. Introductory levels teach the rules, which are the same laws of physics by which protein strands curl and twist into three-dimensional shapes — key for biological mysteries ranging from Alzheimer's to vaccines.
FTA:
"Our ultimate goal is to have ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize" said Popovic. Eventually, the researchers hope to advance science by discovering protein-folding prodigies who have natural abilities to see proteins in 3-D.
The game can be found here
285723
submission
farker haiku writes:
Scientific American is reporting that 'A new method for analyzing fossilized shells confirms link between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and warmer oceans'. The article goes on to say that "The finding adds yet more weight to the contention that greenhouse gases drive climate change, and bode ill for the present increases in atmospheric concentrations of such gases. "It supports the notion," Eiler says, "that you can use simple radiative balance arguments — that is, the greenhouse effect to relate atmospheric chemistry to global temperature."
230133
submission
farker haiku writes:
The "first drop" of source is available for Iron Ruby, the Microsoft .NET version of Ruby. It's a very early version, but since it's being released under the Microsoft Permissive License, it's going to be very close to open source. This might finally stop some of the most common complaints regarding Ruby: namely that there is no "mature" GUI toolkits. Being able to use WinForms might further help out newbie programmers who are looking to write simple apps to show off. John Lam's blog post on the article is here. They are also currently accepting source code contributions.
204805
submission
farker haiku writes:
John Lam has a story on his blog about how Steve Yegge has ported Rails to JavaScript.
FTA: In an effort to increase developer productivity at Google, Steve tried to convince the company to adopt Rails (and consequently Ruby) as a programming language. When that fell on deaf ears (Google really does not want to increase the number of languages that must be supported by their infrastructure), Steve decided to do what any other frustrated programmer would do: he ported Rails to JavaScript. Line by line. In 6 months.
As a programmer who has been trying to convince my company to adopt Rails, I know just how hard it is to get a large company to increase the number of languages supported. Does this mean that we can finally see some widespread Rails adoption?
156357
submission
farker haiku writes:
Just a quick reminder that it's Free Comic Book Day in the US and Canada. Here is a list of the comics available for free, and you can find a local participating comic book store here. What is Free Comic Book Day? From their press kit:
As the name implies, Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world are giving away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores.
12451
submission
farker haiku writes:
Gadi Evron has posted about a vulnerability being exploited in the wild to bugtraq. In it he says that it is "so massively exploited that it makes VML look cute." Exploit code is available here. You can test if your browser is affected here.
The fix is available here.
929
submission
farker haiku writes:
Brian Krebs of the Washington Post claims that he's seen the blackhat attack work on a macbook — without any third party devices. FTA:
Indeed, as I reported earlier, in his hotel room on the eve of that presentation, Maynor showed me a live demo of him exploiting the built-in Macbook drivers to break into the machine from another laptop — without a third party card plugged in.
