fiffilinus - Slashdot User

Space Photos Taken From Shed Stun Astronomers 149

Posted by timothy on Saturday January 23, 2010 @04:03AM from the love-the-gold-mylar dept.

krou writes "Amateur astronomer Peter Shah has stunned astronomers around the world with amazing photos of the universe taken from his garden shed. Shah spent £20,000 on the equipment, hooking up a telescope in his shed to his home computer, and the results are being compared to images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 'Most men like to putter about in their garden shed,' said Shah, 'but mine is a bit more high tech than most. I have fitted it with a sliding roof so I can sit in comfort and look at the heavens. I have a very modest set up, but it just goes to show that a window to the universe is there for all of us – even with the smallest budgets. I had to be patient and take the images over a period of several months because the skies in Britain are often clouded over and you need clear conditions.' His images include the Monkey's head nebula, M33 Pinwheel Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and the Flaming Star Nebula, and are being put together for a book."

Submission + - Most Extreme Gamma-ray Blast Yet detected (spacefellowship.com) 4

Submitted by

Matt_dk

on Friday February 20, 2009 @08:01AM

Matt_dk writes: "The first gamma-ray burst to be seen in high-resolution from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one for the record books. The blast had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever seen. Gamma-ray bursts are the universe's most luminous explosions. Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star's core collapses into a black hole, jets of material — powered by processes not yet fully understood — blast outward at nearly the speed of light. The jets bore all the way through the collapsing star and continue into space, where they interact with gas previously shed by the star and generate bright afterglows that fade with time."

Feed The Register: Kurzweil to found 'Singularity Uni' in Silicon Valley (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @09:52AM

In the sense of technogasm, not matter-implosion

Renowned futurologist Ray Kurzweil has teamed up with space promoter Peter Diamandis and Google to set up annual techno/zeitgeist workshops at the famous NASA Ames research centre in Silicon Valley. The discussions will be known as "Singularity University", and will offer courses of varying length to paying customers.

Feed Engadget: Sony's US VAIO P ripped open in search of SIM slot (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @09:52AM

So, does the VAIO P have a SIM card slot? That's the question that the X-ACTO knife wielding crew over at Pocketables sought to answer in their most recent tear down, and the answer is, well... both yes and no (but mainly no). For those unaware, the US version of Sony's flashiest netbook reserves its WWAN for Verizon Wireless, but many have wondered whether a SIM card slot was conspicuously included. Even after ripping out a plastic blockade, it was found that the so-called SIM slot was actually not made for SIM cards, thus crushing any hopes of retroactively hooking one's machine up with AT&T / T-Mobile 3G on-the-go. Hit up the read link for some pretty brutal images of the detective work.

Filed under: Laptops

Sony's US VAIO P ripped open in search of SIM slot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feed New Scientist: Smallest known exoplanet may actually be Earth-mass (newscientist.com)

From feed by nsfeed on Monday January 19, 2009 @07:12AM

A tiny planet found last year might be even smaller than first thought – weighing just 1.4 times as much as Earth

Feed New Scientist: Universities should flag up which websites to trust (newscientist.com)

From feed by nsfeed on Monday January 19, 2009 @07:12AM

The internet is a great learning tool, but we need ways to help students filter the useful information from the dross, says

Submission + - Wikipedia gears up for explosion in digital media (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Tuesday January 13, 2009 @02:25PM

jbrodkin writes: "Wikipedia is gearing up for an explosion in digital content with new servers and storage designed to handle larger photo and video uploads. Until early 2008, the user-generated encyclopedia's primary media file server had just 2TB of total space, which was not enough to hold growing amounts of video, audio and picture files, says CTO Brian Vibber. 'For a long time, we just did not have the capacity [to handle very large media files],' he says. Wikipedia has raised media storage from 2TB to 48TB and the limit on file uploads from 20MB to 100MB. Ultimately, Wikipedia wants to eliminate any practical size limits on uploads, potentially allowing users to post feature length, high-quality videos. 'The limits will get bigger and bigger to where it will be relatively easy for someone who has a legitimate need to upload a two-hour video of good quality,' Vibber says."

Journal Journal: Open Source Music? 1

Journal by nickull on Tuesday January 13, 2009 @02:16PM

MixMatchMusic just announced it has acquired Mix2r.com, a web app that enables electronica artists to upload their music for remixing and for creating derivative works by other electronica artists, fans and music enthusiasts. Mix2r's community of musicians, DJs and fans features more than 6200 songs and music stems.

Sony Teases 3D Playstation 3 171

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 09, 2009 @07:20AM from the next-big-gaming-revolution? dept.

Ars Technica has a brief report from CES, where Sony demonstrated the work they've done to bring 3D technology to the PS3. Quoting: "The idea was just to show the technology to people, to see if they would be interested in sitting at home, wearing a dorky set of black glasses, watching content in 3D. I couldn't pry details about how the 3D affect was achieved, or if the display could turn any source into 3D, but what's clear is that, glasses or no, the 3D affect is amazing. Sony showed off Wipeout HD running in true 3D, and I was ready to whip out my credit card right there. Frank and I both agreed, this was one of the best demos of 3D technology we have ever seen."

Submission + - Rare venomous mammal filmed

Submitted by

Smivs

on Friday January 09, 2009 @07:17AM

Smivs writes: "The BBC are reporting that footage of one of the world's most strange and elusive mammals has been captured by scientists. Large, and with a long, thin snout, the Hispaniolan solenodon resembles an overgrown shrew. It can inject passing prey with a venom-loaded bite. Dr Sam Turvey, a ZSL (Zoological Society of London) researcher involved with the programme, told BBC News: "It is an amazing creature — it is one of the most evolutionary distinct mammals in the world. "Along with the other species of solenodon, which is found in Cuba (Solenodon cubanus), it is the only living mammal that can actually inject venom into their prey through specialised teeth. Little is known about the creature, which is found in the Caribbean, but it is under threat from deforestation, hunting and introduced species. Researchers say conservation efforts are now needed. The mammal was filmed in the summer of 2008 during a month-long expedition to the Dominican Republic — one of only two countries where this nocturnal, insect-eating animal (Solenodon paradoxus) can be found (the other is Haiti). The researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Ornithological Society of Hispaniola were able to take measurements and DNA from the creature before it was released."

Submission + - Google researchers warn of "merging social gra

Submitted by holy_calamity on Friday January 09, 2009 @07:14AM

holy_calamity writes: Researchers from Google have written a paper about how social networks can undermine privacy. The most interesting scenario they discuss is "merging social graphs" — when correlating multiple social networks makes it possible to reveal connections that a person has intentionally kept secret. For example, it may be possible to work out that a certain LinkedIn user is the same person as a MySpace user, despite their attempting to keep their profiles separate. The Google solution is to develop software that screens new data added to a social network, attempting to find out if it could be fodder to such data mining. Full paper pdf.

Aussies Hit the Streets Over Gov't Internet Filters 224

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday December 03, 2008 @10:43AM from the thinking-of-the-children dept.

mask.of.sanity writes "Outraged aussies will hold simultaneous protests across Australia in opposition to the government's plans for mandatory ISP internet content filtering. The plan will introduce nation-wide filtered internet using blacklists operated by a government agency, away from public scrutiny. Politicians and ISPs will join protesters in the streets to voice their opposition to the government's plan, which has ploughed ahead, despite intense criticism that the technology will crippled internet speeds and infringe on free speech. Opponents said the most accurate filter chosen by the government will incorrectly block up to 10,000 Web pages out of 1 million."

Evolving Rocks 172

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 26, 2008 @09:02AM from the survival-of-the-firmest dept.

SpaceAdmiral notes a new study making the claim that rocks have been evolving throughout Earth's history. "'Mineral evolution is obviously different from Darwinian evolution — minerals don't mutate, reproduce or compete like living organisms,' said Hazen in a statement announcing the study's findings. 'But we found both the variety and relative abundances of minerals have changed dramatically over more than 4.5 billion years of Earth's history. For at least 2.5 billion years, and possibly since the emergence of life, Earth's mineralogy has evolved in parallel with biology,' Hazen added. 'One implication of this finding is that remote observations of the mineralogy of other moons and planets may provide crucial evidence for biological influences beyond Earth.'"

Triple-Engine Browser Released As Alpha 181

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 25, 2008 @04:37PM from the three-engines-no-waiting dept.

jcasman passes along a heads-up on Lunascape, a Japanese browser company that is releasing its first English version of its Lunascape 5 triple-engine browser. It's for XP and Vista only. There are reviews up at CNET, OStatic (quoted below), and Lifehacker. Both the reviews and comments point out that, in its current alpha state, the browser is buggy and not very fast; but it might be one to watch. "How many web browsers do you run? If you're like me, you regularly use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. Each of those browsers, of course, has its own underlying rendering engine: Gecko (in Firefox), Trident (in Internet Explorer), and Webkit (in Chrome and Safari). Today, a Japanese startup called Lunascape has released an alpha version of its Lunascape browser ... that allows you to switch between all three of these prominent rendering engines. The company says that the Japanese version of Lunascape has been downloaded 10 million times and touts it as the fastest browser available."

Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction 399

Posted by kdawson on Friday November 14, 2008 @01:37PM from the doing-the-numbers dept.

wiredog sends in a study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Center For Biosecurity, assessing risks of human extinction and the costs of preventing it. "In this century a number of events could extinguish humanity. The probability of these events may be very low, but the expected value of preventing them could be high, as it represents the value of all future human lives."

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