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Submission + - Robotic Kiosk Stores Digital Copies Of Physical Keys

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The New York Daily News reports that a startup company in Manhattan is putting robotic key copying machines in 7-Eleven stores. The machines can automatically create physical copies of common apartment and office keys. What is more interesting is that they allow users to save digital copies of their keys, which can later be created when the original is lost or the user is locked out of their home.
Space

Submission + - Helium White Dwarfs Bear New Quasiparticle (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Helium white dwarf stars are now theorized to produce a new kind of quasiparticle that would explain a known temperature anomaly between helium white dwarfs and vanilla white dwarfs (lumps of charcoal). Since helium can form a Bose-Einstein condensate and there are extra constraints inside such a dense object, a new quasiparticle emerges. Their models claim it 'reduces the specific heat of the white dwarf core by two orders of magnitude compared to a crystalline core.' But even with that figured in, measurements of some nearby ancient helium white dwarfs show that they don't fit the specific temperature curve exactly. So some questions remain with the possible explanation that these stars undergo internal transition late in their age. The heavy reading is available on the prepublication site arxiv.
Linux

Submission + - Linux Kernel Power Bug Is Fixed (phoronix.com) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Linux kernel power bug that caused high power usage for many Intel Linux systems has finally been addressed. Matthew Garrett of Red Hat has devised a solution for the ASPM Linux power problem by mimicking Microsoft Window's power behaviour in the Linux kernel. A patch is on LKML for this solution to finally restore the battery life under Linux.
NASA

Submission + - Manned X37B version suggested at Space 2011 (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by
garymortimer
garymortimer writes: "Many conspiracy theorists already believe this can happen.

London, Oct 11 A Boeing chief has suggested that the company’s mysterious unmanned space-plane, called X-37B, developed for the US Air Force, could be scaled up and modified to carry astronauts.

The company’s X-37B project chief Art Grantz revealed that at least two more versions of the 9-metre long space-plane are under investigation – one of which involves adding a crew to a much-enlarged version of the space drone, New Scientist reported.

If built, the new version would give the US back its ability to shuttle people to the International Space Station."
Software

Submission + - Opera ditches browser scrolling for "pages" (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Opera has unveiled a new Reader system that ditches scrolling on websites in favour of flippable pages. The Norwegian browser maker is looking to remove the side scroll bar for documents or articles in favour of "pages" of a set-size, similar to an ebook. Text can be reflowed into a column layout, and ads will be moved into the right spot in the text, with different ones displayed depending on the orientation of the device. Pages are flipped with gestures on tablets or with mouse clicks on the desktop. It's an “opportunity to rethink the ads on the web and the user interface”, said Hakon Wium Lie, Opera's CTO."
Science

Submission + - Ancient Krakens making self-portraits? (tgdaily.com)

Submitted by Sanoj
Sanoj writes: Strange patterns of ichthyosaur bones have been found on an ancient deep-water seabed. One paleontologist has put forward the theory that these could have been the work of giant cephalopods who were eating the swimming dinosaurs and then arranging the vertebrae to resemble their own tentacles. Sound far-fetched? Apparently, the modern octopus also does this.
Software

Submission + - RMS on Jobs: "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad (latimes.com)

Submitted by Garabito
Garabito writes: Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, has posted on his personal site: "As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, 'I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone.' Nobody deserves to have to die — not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing." His statement has spurred reaction from the community; some even asking to the Free Software movement to find a new voice.
Space

Submission + - Qu8k: Above the Balloons (ddeville.com) 1

Submitted by
darkjohnson
darkjohnson writes: "Lately we've been inundated with 100k' balloon flights and amazing video footage from space — the flights usually taking better than an hour to achieve apogee. Derek Deville took a shortcut to 121k' using a 'home made' Q rocket motor and a ton of engineering genius.

On September 30, 2011 at 11:08am, Qu8k (pronounced "Quake") launched from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to an altitude of 121,000' in 92 seconds before returning safely to earth.

This small documentary on the flight is probably one of the most brilliant Amateur Rocket videos out there right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvDqoxMUroA&feature=share"

Submission + - Mozilla Foundation Releases Mozilla Firefox 7.0 (techspot.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Not sure it's actually news, but Mozilla has released Firefox 7.0. It hasn't actually reduced my memory footprint at first glance, but let's hope that the memory usage doesn't keep growing like it used to. We'll also see if ff crashes less often than once every three days or so.
Biotech

Submission + - Scientists replace a small piece of rat brain (smartplanet.com)

Submitted by V!NCENT
V!NCENT writes: We humans are melding with machines. This is not about using machines to amplify our knowledge (the Internet) but actually embedding chips within our bodies, to amplify our thoughts. The cochlear implant, used to augment hearing, is perhaps the best known brain-computer interface but the last decade has seen great leaps, translating even memories and thoughts into digital code. Now scientists out of Tel-Aviv University have managed to build an artificial cerebellum to restore brain function in injured rats.
Google

Submission + - The Looming Video Codec Fight (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "With both Apple and Microsoft promoting HTML5 standards, you'd think that there would be joy in software freedom land. But instead there's another fight brewing. 'While it is true that HTML5 video is a step in the right direction, we also have to take into consideration the underlying codecs used to deliver the video content,' says blogger Brian Proffitt. The problem, says Proffitt, is that Microsoft and Apple's browsers will be supporting only the proprietary H.264 video codec by default. But Google supports only the WebM (VP8) and Ogg Theora codecs. 'So, basically, if Ogg Theora content starts making a dent in Apple and Microsoft's bottom line, or that of the MPEG LA's, then expect to see a lawsuit or two headed Google's way after 2015,' concludes Proffitt."

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