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Earth

Submission + - NASA finds family of habitable planets (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA's star-gazing space telescope continues to find amazing proof that there are tons of habitable planets in space and we have only scratched the surface of what's out there. The space agency said today its Kepler space telescope spotted what it called its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in what it considers to be the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system.
Hardware

Submission + - Stephen Fry and DVD Jon back USB Sniffer Project (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: bushing and pytey of the iPhone DevTeam and Team Twiizers have created a Kickstarter project to fund the build of an open-source/open-hardware high-speed USB protocol analyzer. The board features a high-speed USB 2.0 sniffer that will help with the reverse engineering of proprietary USB hardware, the project has gained the backing from two high-profile individuals Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon) and Actor and Comedian Stephen Fry

Submission + - How do you organize your experimental data?

Submitted by digitalderbs
digitalderbs writes: As a researcher in the physical sciences, I have generated thousands of experimental datasets that need to be sorted and organized--a problem which many of you have had to deal with as well, no doubt. I've sorted my data with an elaborate system of directories and symbolic links to directories that sort my data by sample, pH, experimental type, and other qualifiers, but I've found that through the years, I've needed to move, rename, and reorganize these directories and links, which have left me with thousands of dangling links and a heterogeneous naming scheme. What have you done to organize, tag and add metadata to your data, and how have you dealt with redirecting thousands of symbolic links at a time?
Linux

Submission + - Damn Vulnerable Linux most vulnerable Linux ever (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Usually, when installing a new operating system the hope is that it’s as up-to-date as possible. After installation there’s bound to be a few updates required, but no more than a few megabytes. Damn Vulnerable Linux is different, it’s shipped in as vulnerable a state as possible. As the DVL website explains: "Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is everything a good Linux distribution isn’t. Its developers have spent hours stuffing it with broken, ill-configured, outdated, and exploitable software that makes it vulnerable to attacks. DVL isn’t built to run on your desktop – it’s a learning tool for security students."

Submission + - First halophile potatoes harvested.

Submitted by Razgorov Prikazka
Razgorov Prikazka writes: A Dutch based company from Groningen is trying to create a potato race that is able to survive in a saline environment. The first test-batch is just lifted on the island Texel and seem to be in good shape. The company states that rising sea-levels will create a demand for halophile crops.

TFA in Dutch: http://www.rtvnoord.nl/nieuws/nieuws.asp?pid=93291

Googletranslation: http://translate.google.nl/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rtvnoord.nl%2Fnieuws%2Fnieuws.asp%3Fpid%3D93291&sl=nl&tl=en

The company (only in Dutch): http://www.dbiemondbv.nl/home.html

I do wonder if one still has to put salt on ones potatoes when they are grown in salt water...
The Military

Submission + - US deploys "heat-ray" in Afghanistan (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Koreantoast
Koreantoast writes: The United States military has deployed Raytheon's newly developed Active Denial System (ADS), a millimeter-wave, "non-lethal" heat-ray to Afghanistan. The weapon generates a "burning sensation" that is supposedly harmless, with the military claiming that the chance of injury is at less than 0.1%; numerous volunteers including reporters over the last several years have experienced its effects during various trials and demonstrations. While US military spokesperson Lt. Col. John Dorrian states that the weapon has not yet been operationally used, the tense situation in theater will ensure its usage soon enough. Proponents of ADS believe the system may help limit civilian deaths in counterinsurgency operations and provide new, safer ways to disperse crowds and control riots, but opponents fear that the system's long-term effects are not fully known and that the device may even be used for torture. Regardless, if ADS is successful in the field, we'll probably see this mobile microwave at your next local protest or riot.
Wine

Wine 1.2 Released 427

Posted by Soulskill from the pop-the-cork dept.
David Gerard writes "Stuck with that one Windows app you can't get rid of? Rejoice — Wine 1.2 is officially released! Apart from running pretty much any Windows application on Unix better than 1.0 (from 2008), major new features include 64-bit support, bi-directional text, and translation into thirty languages. And, of course, DirectX 9 is well-supported and DirectX 10 is getting better. Packages should hit the distros over the weekend, or you can get the source now."
Politics

Submission + - Indian Gov threatens BlackBerry, Skype with ban 1

Submitted by gauharjk
gauharjk writes: India's Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has been asked by the government to serve a notice to Skype and Research In Motion (RIM) to ensure that their email and other data services comply with formats that can be read by security and intelligence agencies, or face a ban in India if they do not comply within 15 days. A similar notice is also being sent to Google asking it to provide access to content on Gmail in a readable format.

India has never really grown out of the communist-fascist bureaucratic culture where the government has ultimate power.
Space

Submission + - ESA's GOCE Satellite Provides Gravity Map of Earth (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by kaulike
kaulike writes: The European Space Agency's GOCE satellite, launched March 2009, has provided a spectacular highly detailed map of our favorite gravity well [BBC]. This map shows the normalized surface of the earth as defined by gravity, by showing the relative altitude differences from the average for each surveyed point. The article provides the helpful metaphor that a ball resting on this surface would not roll anywhere even though there would be visual slopes, as gravity is equalized across the globe. There is a fascinating deep area in the Indian ocean (-100M) and a high area near Iceland (+80M), proving conclusively that our world is not homogenous in terms of density (or practically any other measure). Does anyone know whether these anomalies correspond to any other known geographic phenomena? Deposits of heavy metals perhaps, or hotspots where the mantle is thinner? I know little about geodetic stuff, but I'm curious about reasons for wrinkles in the data set.
Science

Submission + - Video: "Programmable Origami" (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Science reports: Researchers have created flat sheets of composite material that can fold themselves into toy boats, tents, and even paper airplanes. Based on the ancient art of origami, the sheets are edged by foil actuators--thin, solid-state motors--that contract or expand when they receive an electric current from flexible electronic circuits embedded in the sheets. After they achieve their preprogrammed shape, the sheets are held in place by tiny magnets on the edges of the fold joints. Researchers say the technology could be scaled up to create ultra-portable tripods or even cups that automatically adjust to the size of liquid being poured into them.
Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla Updates Firefox to Appease Farmville Users (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Just three days after adding plug-in crash protection to Firefox, Mozilla rushed out another release because people playing Farmville on Facebook complained that their browser was shutting down the game. Although complaints about Firefox's quick killing of hung plug-ins were not limited to Farmville, that game was the squeaky wheel that got the update grease. 'A lot of people play Farmville. To ignore those people for any length of time could have a significant effect on Firefox's share of browser users,' said Firefox user Jeff Rivett on Bugzilla Sunday. 'The problem already existed, but the perceived impact suddenly changed, giving it a much higher priority.'
Education

Submission + - Science Historian Deciphers Plato's Code (manchester.ac.uk)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Some two thousand pages of Plato's works have now been uncovered to have a hidden meaning. According to the research, he hid a complex musical code to match his writings inside his works. From the article, 'Dr Kennedy spent five years studying Plato's writing and found that in his best-known work the Republic he placed clusters of words related to music after each twelfth of the text — at one-twelfth, two-twelfths, etc. This regular pattern represented the twelve notes of a Greek musical scale. Some notes were harmonic, others dissonant. At the locations of the harmonic notes he described sounds associated with love or laughter, while the locations of dissonant notes were marked with screeching sounds or war or death. This musical code was key to cracking Plato's entire symbolic system.' Thousands of years later, we continue to learn from Plato (PDF).
Government

Submission + - Gov App Contests Cool, But Are They Useful?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In 2008, Washington, DC, launched one of the hotter trends in public-sector technology: the 'apps contest'. But even as more jurisdictions jump on the bandwagon, the contests are reportedly producing uneven results, and the city that started it all is jumping off the bandwagon. 'I don't think we're going to be running any more Apps for Democracy competitions quite in that way,' says Bryan Sivak, who became the District's CTO in 2009. Sivak calls Apps for Democracy a 'great idea' for getting citizen software developers involved with government, but he also hints that the applications spun up by these contests tend to be more 'cool' than useful to the average city resident. 'If you look at the applications developed in both of the contests we ran, and actually in many of the contests being run in other states and localities,' Sivak says, 'you get a lot of applications that are designed for smartphones, that are designed for devices that aren't necessarily used by the large populations that might need to interact with these services on a regular basis.' Sivak also cited maintenance of the new apps over the long term as a concern.
Books

Submission + - Why Beatrix Potter would love a digital reader (wordpress.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: In 1906, children's book author Beatrix Potter tried creating her own new, non-book format for delivering her famous fairy tales. "Intended for babies and tots, the story was originally published on a strip of paper that was folded into a wallet, closed with a flap, and tied with a ribbon." This article includes a link to actual images from one of Potter's strange wallet-sized stories — "The Story of A Fierce, Bad Rabbit" — plus an image showing you exactly what Beatrix Potter thought "a fierce, bad rabbit" would look like! Four different Beatrix Potter stories have already turned up in the top 20 of Amazon's list of best-selling (free) children's books, but one user complains that "Instead of including the illustrations (which the Kindle can handle beautifully), there's text, and then it'll say [illustration] [illustration]. Really awful. No wonder it's free..."

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