New Hungarian Government OMGs All Gov Sites 59

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday June 01, 2010 @09:40AM from the they-forgot-the-ponies dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The new Hungarian government chose to replace the home pages with a 'disclaimer' page on several governmental websites such as ministries or the Foreign Office. The title and the main message is 'OMG,' which is followed by an explanation that the inherited websites 'lack any kind of uniform structure' and this is 'unworthy of Hungary.' Today is the takeover day in most ministries for the new administration."

Federal Deadline Hobbling eHealth IT Rollout 99

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday March 02, 2010 @01:07PM from the you-can't-hold-servers-together-with-red-tape dept.

Lucas123 writes "A federal deadline that begins next year and requires hospitals to prove they're meaningfully using electronic health records will lead to technical problems and data errors affecting patient care, say politicians and top IT professionals responsible for the deployments. Physicians and hospitals have until the end of 2011 to receive the maximum federal incentive monies to deploy the technology. If not deployed by 2015, they face penalties through cuts in Medicare reimbursements. 'I think we have nontechnology people making decisions about technology,' said Gregg Veltri, CIO at Denver Health. 'I wonder if anybody understands the reality of IT systems and how complex they are, especially when they're integrated together. You're going to sacrifice quality if you increase the speed [of the rollout].'"

Secret Service Runs At "Six Sixes" Availability 248

Posted by timothy on Friday February 26, 2010 @08:56PM from the only-need-half-as-many dept.

PCM2 writes "ABC News is reporting that the US Secret Service is in dire need of server upgrades. 'Currently, 42 mission-oriented applications run on a 1980s IBM mainframe with a 68 percent performance reliability rating,' says one leaked memo. That finding was the result of an NSA study commissioned by the Secret Service to evaluate the severity of their computer problems. Curiously, upgrades to the Service's computers are being championed by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who says he's had 'concern for a while' about the issue."

NHS Should Stop Funding Homeopathy, Says Parliamentary Committee 507

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday February 23, 2010 @02:57PM from the how-am-I-going-to-align-my-chakras-now dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Homeopathic remedies work no better than placebos, and so should no longer be paid for by the UK National Health Service, a committee of British members of parliament has concluded. In preparing its report, the committee, which scrutinizes the evidence behind government policies, took evidence from scientists and homeopaths, and reviewed numerous reports and scientific investigations into homeopathy. It found no evidence that such treatments work beyond providing a placebo effect." Updated 201025 19:40 GMT by timothy: This recommendation has some people up in arms.

Sony Joins the Offensive Against Pre-Owned Games 461

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 19, 2010 @07:11AM from the saddle-up dept.

BanjoTed writes "In a move to counter sales of pre-owned games, EA recently revealed DLC perks for those who buy new copies of Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Now, PlayStation platform holder Sony has jumped on the bandwagon with similar plans for the PSP's SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. '[Players] will need to register their game online before they are able to access the multiplayer component of the title. UMD copies will use a redeemable code while the digital version will authenticate automatically in the background. Furthermore ... anyone buying a pre-owned copy of the game will be forced to cough up $20 to obtain a code to play online."

Why Time Flies By As You Get Older 252

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @11:03PM from the like-a-banana dept.

Ant notes a piece up on WBUR Boston addressing theories to explain the universal human experience that time seems to pass faster as you get older. Here's the 9-minute audio (MP3). Several explanations are tried out: that brains lay down more information for novel experiences; that the "clock" for nerve impulses in aging brains runs slower; and that each interval of time represents a diminishing fraction of life as we age.

Own Your Own Fighter Jet 222

Posted by samzenpus on Saturday January 16, 2010 @03:02PM from the only-one-on-the-block dept.

gimmebeer writes "The Russian Sukhoi SU-27 has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (more than 1,300 mph) and has a thrust to weight ratio greater than 1 to 1. That means it can accelerate while climbing straight up. It was designed to fight against the best the US had to offer, and now it can be yours for the price of a mediocre used business jet."

Tower Switch-Off Embarrasses Electrosensitives 292

Posted by samzenpus on Friday January 15, 2010 @03:03PM from the radiation-placebo dept.

Sockatume writes "Residents in Craigavon, South Africa complained of '[h]eadaches, nausea, tinnitus, dry burning itchy skins, gastric imbalances and totally disrupted sleep patterns' after an iBurst communications tower was put up in a local park. Symptoms subsided when the residents left the area, often to stay with family and thus evade their suffering. At a public meeting with the afflicted locals, the tower's owners pledged to switch off the mast immediately to assess whether it was responsible for their ailments. One problem: the mast had already been switched off for six weeks. Lawyers representing the locals say their case against iBurst will continue on other grounds."

Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles 81

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 14, 2010 @04:19PM from the insert-overlaid-part-a-into-slot-b dept.

kkleiner writes "ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process. Published in IEEE, and recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret, ARMAR can cut maintenance times in half by guiding users to the damaged area and displaying 3D animations to demonstrate the appropriate tools and techniques."

Air Canada Ordered To Provide Nut-Free Zone 643

Posted by samzenpus on Friday January 08, 2010 @07:09PM from the no-nuts dept.

JamJam writes "Air Canada has been told to create a special 'buffer zone' on flights for people who are allergic to nuts. The Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled that passengers who have nut allergies should be considered disabled and accommodated by the airline. Air Canada has a month to come up with an appropriate section of seats where passengers with nut allergies would be seated. The ruling involved a complaint from Sophia Huyer, who has a severe nut allergy and travels frequently. Ms. Huyer once spent 40 minutes in the washroom during a flight while snacks were being served."

Whatever Happened To Second Life? 209

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 05, 2010 @07:30AM from the i-blame-ralph dept.

Barence writes "It's desolate, dirty, and sex is outcast to a separate island. In this article, PC Pro's Barry Collins returns to Second Life to find out what went wrong, and why it's raking in more cash than ever before. It's a follow-up to a feature written three years ago, in which Collins spent a week living inside Second Life to see what the huge fuss at the time was all about. The difference three years can make is eye-opening."

Best Man Rigs Newlyweds' Bed To Tweet During Sex 272

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 17, 2009 @09:40PM from the nice-feed dept.

When an UK man was asked to be the best man at a friend's wedding he agreed that he would not pull any pranks before or during the ceremony. Now the groom wishes he had extended the agreement to after the blessed occasion as well. The best man snuck into the newlyweds' house while they were away on their honeymoon and placed a pressure-sensitive device under their mattress. The device now automatically tweets when the couple have sex. The updates include the length of activity and how vigorous the act was on a scale of 1-10.

Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus 205

Posted by timothy on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @02:40PM from the concealed-carry-in-australian-waters dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. ... 'I was gobsmacked,' said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. 'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"

Comment Universities with parental workload relief (Score 1) 616

by leonia on Sunday March 15, 2009 @10:52AM (#27199899) Attached to: Women Skip Math/Science Careers To Have Families

Some universities do offer assistance to primary care givers. For example, Columbia University has "parental workload relief" programs (http://worklife.columbia.edu/parental-leave-policies-resources) that provide faculty with a semester of no-teaching and a delayed tenure clock. Still does not make it easy to combine kids and faculty careers. The policy is gender-neutral and there's a small fraction of new fathers who have used the program.

Comment Mandatory competition (Score 1) 647

by leonia on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @02:37PM (#26800725) Attached to: WSJ Says Gov't Money Injection Won't Help Broadband

The article fails to mention that in both Korea and Japan, the government played a major role: In Japan, by forcing the incumbent to allow multiple IP operators to use the fiber at very low rates and in Korea, by construction subsidies. This isn't really technology competition as the article calls for - all the countries with cheap broadband use fiber-to-the-home or fiber-to-the-apartment-complex, with CATV playing a relatively small role. (There's very limited WiBro, the local version of WiMax, deployment in Korea, which plays almost no role.) And, as far as I know, all those countries have deployed such cheaper and more advanced infrastructure without violating network neutrality.

The argument about population density might explain the absence of DSL and fiber in Montana, but doesn't exactly explain the high cost of FiOS in New Jersey (or its limited availability). The population density of New Jersey is very similar to that of Korea, at around 400-500 people/sq km.