jrubens - Slashdot User

SpaceX Launch Failure Due To Timing Problem 244

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 07, 2008 @08:37AM from the ironically-he's-an-atheist dept.

FleaPlus writes "Private orbital spaceflight company SpaceX recently announced that last weekend's Falcon 1 rocket launch failure was caused by a collision between the first and second stage of their rocket. This was due to a timing problem, when their brand-new engine design produced residual thrust for 1.5 seconds longer than expected; they're currently working to fix the problem and launch again, perhaps as early as next month. In a recent interview with Wired, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk remarked on their efforts: "Optimism, pessimism, f-ck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.""

Chipped Passport Cloned In Minutes 326

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 07, 2008 @07:57AM from the unsafe-at-any-customs-counter dept.

Death Metal Maniac writes "New microchip passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft failed the test when a researcher was able to manipulate one in minutes. The cloned passports were accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports. According to the article: 'A computer researcher cloned the chips on two British passports and implanted digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. The altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports.'"

Google Earth Used To Predict Electrical Problems 91

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 07, 2008 @12:05AM from the what-can't-it-do dept.

coondoggie writes "What do you get when you combine images from Google Earth and the brainpower from researchers at Oak Ridge National Labs? Well in this case you get a tool that enables real-time status of the national electric grid that federal state and local agencies can use to coordinate and respond to major problems such as wide-area power outages, natural disasters and other catastrophic events. The Visualizing Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth (VERDE) system, announced this week, mashes together images and stats of everything from real-time status of the electric grid and weather information to power grid behavior modeling and simulation."

Viruses Infected By Viruses 341

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 06, 2008 @10:09PM from the hoist-with-its-own-petard dept.

SpaceAdmiral writes "Scientists have discovered a virus that can infect another virus. The fact that viruses can essentially get sick may change the debate over whether they are alive or not. Check out Nature for a slightly more technical article about the 'virophage.'"

$12 MIT Computer Based On NES, Not Apple II 308

Posted by timothy on Wednesday August 06, 2008 @04:33PM from the different-can-different-beans dept.

ericatcw writes "The $12 computer that a bunch of designers and grad students are talking up at an MIT conference this month as a potential, cheaper alternative to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) for Third World students is actually a knockoff of the original Nintendo Entertainment System gaming console released in the mid-1980s, reports Computerworld, and confirmed in a comment by the project's spokesman, Derek Lomas. According to Lomas' account and pictures, the Victor-70 is an 8-bit NES clone that accepts its cartridges and is wholly contained in the keyboard. It is also likely to be an unlicensed clone made in China, according to Lomas, though he notes that may not matter patent-wise in the US, due to the length of time that has passed."

Comment alignment (Score 0, Troll) 188

by jrubens on Sunday July 27, 2008 @10:18AM (#24357665) Attached to: FCC Votes To Punish Comcast

So whose side is the FCC on? they seem pretty two-faced to me.

Opening Quantum Computing To the Public 191

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday July 27, 2008 @09:15AM from the take-two-they're-small dept.

director_mr writes "Tom's Hardware is running a story with an interesting description of a 28-qubit quantum computer that was developed by D-Wave Systems. They intend to open up use of their quantum computer to the public. It is particularly good at pattern recognition, it operates at 10 milliKelvin, and it is shielded to limit electromagnetic interference to one nanotesla in three dimensions across the whole chip. Could this be the first successful commercial quantum computer?"

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