Comment Re:NO NOT MATH (Score 1) 417
You keep deluding yourself then...
TI vs. Calculator Hobbyists, Again 417
Deep Thought writes "Texas Instruments, already infamous thanks to the signing key controversy last year, is trying a new trick to lock down its graphing calculators, this time directed toward its newest TI-Nspire line. The TI-Nspires were already the most controlled of TI's various calculator models, and no third-party development of any kind (except for its very limited form of TI-BASIC) was allowed until the release of the independent tool Ndless. Since its release, TI has been determined to prevent the large calculator programming community from using it. Its latest released operating system for the Nspire family (version 2.1) now prevents the calculators from downgrading to OS 1.1, needed to run Ndless. This is TI's second major attack on Ndless, as the company has already demanded that websites posting the required OS 1.1 remove it from public download [PDF, in French], obviously to prevent use of the tool. Once again, TI is preventing calculator hobbyists from running their own software on calculators they bought and paid for."
Doctor Invents 'Zero Gravity' Radiation Suit 83
DrFrasierCrane writes "You think you feel weighed down when your dentist lays that lead apron on you to take X-rays: how about the doctors who deal with radiation treatments and have to wear those aprons all day long? A Dallas, Texas, doctor has created a 'zero gravity' radiation suit for just that problem. From the article: 'Physicians are supposed to wear a lead apron during those procedures. It is back-breakingly heavy and doesn't cover the body completely. The zero gravity suit eliminates the weight and the exposed openings.'"
Comment Titanic Failiure more like (Score 1) 1
Not gonna work. Sorry
Comment Re:Without content protection, we would not ... (Score 2, Interesting) 426
Eeew.
the worst thing is that I click it and it WITHOUT PERMISSION gets information from my PayPal account. I only use paypal with throaway debit cards, but it should not have that kind of information!
Submission + - Cancer Cells Detected Using $400 Digital Camera (gizmag.com)
fergus07 writes: Researchers have detected oral cancer cells using a fiber-optic cable and an off-the-shelf Olympus E-330 camera worth $400. The work by Rice University biomedical engineers and researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center could improve access to diagnostic imaging tools in many parts of the world where these expensive resources are scarce. In the tests, a common fluorescent dye was used to make cell nuclei glow brightly and images taken using tip of the fiber-optic bundle attached to the camera. The distorted nuclei which indicate cancerous and pre-cancerous cells could then be distinguished on the camera's LCD monitor.
Submission + - Xprize Wants AI Physician On Every Smartphone (singularityhub.com)
kkleiner writes: One of the exciting ideas being tossed around recently at the Xprize Foundation is the creation of an Artificial Intelligence physician that you could access from your smartphone. Want to know if that rash on your leg is poison ivy or smallpox? Take a photo of it with your phone and ask the AI! The possibilities are enormous. Especially for the billion plus people around the world who live more than a few hours walk or drive from the nearest doctor, the AI physician would represent a revolution in health care.
Submission + - Why video calling is a wasted feature in the UK
An anonymous reader writes: Technology affects the way we live but sociocultural influences also dictate what technology we absorb into our day to day lives. Take video calling on the iPhone 4 for example: it was pitched as an impressive feature but will people adopt it? According to one british writer, the UK is unlikely to start making lots of video calls because it's awkward and, well, not very British. "It's not the way we look when we say them, but the way we say them in order to inject the most bile into a negative statement. Or, on our more enthusiastic days, finding the most wryly witty way to say something while indicating that you couldn’t really care less about it. This is the reason we’ve taken so well to Twitter and are better at watching than creating YouTube videos, to put it in sweepingly generic Internet terms."
Submission + - Researchers create Social Engineering IRC Bot (irc-junkie.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers of the Vienna University of Technology developed an IRC bot that acts as a "Man in the middle" between two unsuspecting users, modifies URLs passed between them and also is capable of steering the direction the conversation goes. Not only this works surprisingly well on IRC — 76,1% click rate at maximum — also 4 out of 10 persons clicked on links on Facebook Chat after complete strangers befriended them. This would have worked even better if the bot were to clone existing friends profiles and submitting friend requests from those, say researchers.
Submission + - How To Destroy A Black Hole (technologyreview.com) 1
KentuckyFC writes: The critical concept that makes a Black Hole black is the event horizon: a theoretical boundary in space through which light and other objects can pass in one direction but not the other. Since light cannot escape the event horizon, it must be black. The event horizon is a nuisance to astrophysicists because it hides the interesting new physics that must go on inside a black hole. What they would like is a way to get rid of the event horizon so that they can see what goes on behind it. It turns out that just such a thing may be possible, say physicists. According to the mathematics of general relativity, the event horizon should disappear if a black hole were fed enough charge and angular momentum relative to its mass. However the calculations are so fiendish that nobody knows whether the black hole would shed this extra angular momentum and charge before it could settle into a stable 'naked' state. However, the possibility that the event horizon could be destroyed raises the question of what astrophysicists would see behind this veil. According to some, black holes are regions of spacetime with infinite curvature called singularities. Many believe that 'naked' singularites cannot exist in nature. And yet there are enough questions marks to suggest that this mystery is far from settled.
Submission + - The Beginnings of Encrypted Computing on the Cloud (technologyreview.com)
eldavojohn writes: A method of computing from a 2009 paper allows computing data without ever decrypting it. With cloud computing on the rise, this may be the holy grail of keeping private data private on the cloud. It's called Fully Homomorphic Encryption and if you've got the computer science/mathematics chops you can read the PDF thesis here. After reworking it and simplifying it, researchers have moved it away from being true fully homomorphic encryption but it is now a little closer to being ready for cloud usage. The problem is that the more operations performed on your encrypted data, the more likely it has become 'dirty' or corrupted. To combat this, Gentry developed a way to periodically clean the data by making it self correcting. The article notes that although this isn't prepared for usage in reliable systems, it is a quick jump to implementation in just one year after the paper was published — earlier encryption papers would take as much as half a decade until they were implemented at all.
Submission + - The Matrix for Businesses (xconomy.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The idea of using virtual reality and gaming technologies to create training exercises and business simulations has been around for years. But recent advances in computer graphics, interfaces, and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games have made it commercially viable to pursue simulations in the business world. Novel, a venture-backed startup company, is about to launch a new MMO role-playing game, called Empire & State, with an unusual goal: to use the technology and the lessons it learns from the game to create simulations for big companies that want to improve their human resources and hiring efficiencies. Imagine assessing employees’ leadership and teamwork skills by jacking them into a virtual, multiplayer business scenario. That’s the goal, but Novel will face challenges of all sorts---business, social, and technical---in its efforts to sell MMO technologies to the corporate world.
Mysterious Radio Station UVB-76 Goes Offline 336
leathered writes "Tinfoil hatters around the world are abuzz that UVB-76, the Russian shortwave radio station that has been broadcasting its monotonous tone almost uninterrupted since 1982, has suddenly gone offline. Of course no one knows what the significance of this is, but best brush up on your drills just in case."
Submission + - $11 Mistake Costs Couple Slot Machine Jackpot (kdvr.com)
ainandil writes: Engineering mistakes, while frustrating, seldom definitively alter the end user's life. Not so in Cripple Creek Colorado — MaryAnn and Jim McMahon thought their money troubles were over when they hit an $11 million jackpot at a casino Tuesday. Before paying the jackpot, the Wildwood Casino turned the machine over to the Colorado Gaming Division for inspection. A glitch was found, aha! The Wildwood Casino blamed a slot machine malfunction for the $11 million jackpot. Total actually won by the McMahons? $1627.82. ...and you thought you had a bad day.
Submission + - Adobe Warns of Flash, PDF Zero-Day Attacks
InfosecWarrior writes: Adobe issued an alert late Friday night to warn about zero-day attacks against an unpatched vulnerability in its Reader and Flash Player software products. The vulnerability, described as critical, affects Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems. It also affects the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems
