robbityca - Slashdot User

Comment Other methods can be successful (Score 1) 319

by robbityca on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @02:39PM (#45540721) Attached to: NY Police Get Tall SUVs To Combat Texting While Driving

The police here in Ottawa, Canada have tried a number of different tactics to watch for drivers texting. One tactic involved officers dressed up as "can I wash your windshield?" bums. It's an instinct to avoid eye contact with such. They can get right up to cars stopped at a red light without alerting drivers. (note that it's illegal here for a driver to text while at a stop sign/light).

Submission + - Boeing 787s to create half a terabyte of data per flight (computerworlduk.com) 1

Submitted by Qedward on Wednesday March 06, 2013 @01:27PM

Qedward writes: Virgin Atlantic is preparing for a significant increase in data as it embraces the Internet of Things, with a new fleet of highly connected planes each expected to create over half a terabyte of data per flight.

IT director David Bulman said: "The latest planes we are getting, the Boeing 787s, are incredibly connected. Literally every piece of that plane has an internet connection, from the engines, to the flaps, to the landing gear.

"If there is a problem with one of the engines we will know before it lands to make sure that we have the parts there. It is getting to the point where each different part of the plane is telling us what it is doing as the flight is going on.

"We can get upwards of half a terabyte of data from a single flight from all of the different devices which are internet connected."

Submission + - The Future of Auto Theft (autosec.org)

Submitted by NicknamesAreStupid on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @02:38PM

NicknamesAreStupid writes: Over the past twenty years, car theft has declined as new models incorporated electronic security methods that thwarted simple hot-wiring. The tide may now be turning, as cars become the next Windows PC. The Center for Automobile Embedded Systems Security has posted an interesting paper from UCSD and UW that describes how modern cars can be cracked. Unlike the old days of window jimmies, these exploits range from attacks through the CD or iPod port to cellular attacks that take inventory of thousands of cars and offer roaming thieves Yelp-like choices ("our favorite is mint green with leather") with unlocked doors and running engines.

Researchers Warn of Possible BitTorrent Meltdown 294

Posted by kdawson on Friday February 13, 2009 @10:45AM from the domino-effect dept.

secmartin writes "Researchers at Delft University warn that large parts of the BitTorrent network might collapse if The Pirate Bay is forced to shut down. A large part of the available torrents use The Pirate Bay as tracker, and other available trackers will probably be overloaded if all traffic is shifted there. TPB is currently using eight servers for their trackers. According to the researchers, even trackerless torrents using the DHT protocol will face problems: 'One bug in a DHT sorting routine ensures that it can only "stumble upon success", meaning torrent downloads will not start in seconds or minutes if Pirate Bay goes down in flames.'"

Submission + - Earth's Evil Twin (esa.int)

Submitted by

Riding with Robots

on Wednesday November 28, 2007 @04:08PM

Riding with Robots writes: "For the past two years, Europe's Venus Express orbiter has been studying Earth's planetary neighbor up close. Today, mission scientists have released a new collection of findings and amazing images. They include evidence of lightning and other results that flesh out a portrait of a planet that is in many ways like ours, and in many ways hellishly different, such as surface temperatures over 400C and air pressure a hundred times that on Earth."

Submission + - RIAA ordered to divulge expenses-per-download

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer on Monday November 26, 2007 @03:43PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: The Court has ordered UMG Recordings, Warner Bros. Records, Interscope Records, Motown, and SONY BMG to disclose their expenses-per-download to the defendant's lawyers, in UMG v. Lindor, a case pending in Brooklyn. The Court held that the expense figures are relevant to the issue of whether the RIAA's attempt to recover damages of $750 or more per 99-cent song file, is an unconstitutional violation of due process.

Submission + - Riding Shotgun with the Google Street View Beetle (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by

longacre

on Monday November 19, 2007 @03:40PM

longacre writes: "Popular Mechanics takes a ride in an Immersive Media VW Beetle, one of the six cars that drives around America shooting images for Google Maps Street View. Mounted on the roof is the $45,000 Dodeca 2360 video camera, whose 11 lenses record a 360 degree field of view at 30 frames per second, sucking up as many as 200 miles of city scenes per day. The setup takes up the whole back seat and part of the front passenger seat, and is all controlled with an off-the-shelf Logitech game controller. Includes a cool interactive raw video of a drive through Manhattan."

Comment Re:Nothing new here (Score 1) 503

by robbityca on Thursday September 13, 2007 @11:54AM (#20589185) Attached to: "Lifesaver Bottle" Filters Viruses Out of Water

There's a big difference between the 200 nm filter used by MSR/Katadyne/etc products and the 15 nm filter of the "Lifesaver Bottle".

FTFA:

Conventional filters can cut out bacteria measuring more than 200 nanometres but not viruses, which typically are 25 nanometres long.

And yet I use a Katadyne when I go canoe-camping (50,000L through a 200 nm filter). I simply don't need anything better.

Submission + - US kills controversial anti-terror database (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @01:57PM

coondoggie writes: "Long criticized for keeping track of regular everyday citizens, the government's anti-terror database will officially close Sept. 17. The Threat and Local Observation Notices or TALON, was established in 2002 by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz as a way to collect and evaluate information about possible threats to U.S. servicemembers and defense civilians all over the world. Congress and others protested its apparent use as an unauthorized citizen tracking database. The TALON system came under fire in 2005 for improperly storing information about some civilian individuals and non-government-affiliated groups on its database. The Air Force developed TALON, or the Threat and Local Observation Notice system in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a way to gather data on possible terrorist threats. Anti-war groups and other organizations, protested after it was revealed last year that the military had monitored anti-war activities, organizations and individuals who attended peace rallies. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18609"

Submission + - Bigelow Aerospace Fast-Tracks Manned Spacecraft (space.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @01:20PM

Raver32 writes: "Following the successful launch and deployment of two inflatable space modules, on Monday the owner and founder of Bigelow Aerospace announced plans to move ahead with the launch of its first human habitable spacecraft, the Sundancer. The decision to fast-track Sundancer was made in part to rising launch costs as well as the ability to test some systems on the ground, company CEO Robert Bigelow said in a press statement. "As anyone associated with the aerospace industry is aware, global launch costs have been rising rapidly over the course of the past few years," Bigelow is quoted as saying. "These price hikes have been most acute in Russia due to a number of factors including inflation, previous artificially low launch costs and the falling value of the U.S. dollar.""

Submission + - DNA vaccine may treat multiple sclerosis (www.ctv.ca)

Submitted by

GSASoftware

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @01:18PM

GSASoftware writes: "Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a serious, as-yet incurable neurological disease which causes blindness, paralysis and other serious symptoms. In a new development, a neuroimmunology researcher in Montreal has developed a therapeutic DNA vaccine. The cause of the disease is not fully understood, but it appears to be auto-immune. If a DNA vaccine can be an effective therapy for this auto-immune disease, is it possible that DNA vaccines could treat other auto-immune diseases like Crohn's, eczema, and others?"

Submission + - Privacy and the "Nothing to Hide" Argument 1

Submitted by privacyprof on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @03:50PM

privacyprof writes: One of the most common responses of those unconcerned about government surveillance or privacy invasions is "I've got nothing to hide." According to the "nothing to hide" argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The "nothing to hide" argument is quite prevalent. Is there a way to respond to the "nothing to hide" argument that would really register with people in the general public? In a short essay, "I've Got Nothing to Hide" and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy, Professor Daniel Solove takes on the "nothing to hide" argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings.

Submission + - Citizens Given Video Cameras to Monitor Police (foxnews.com)

Submitted by atommota on Thursday June 21, 2007 @11:14AM

atommota writes: After years of complaints of police misconduct, some residents of high-crime neighborhoods in St. Louis are being given free video cameras to help them monitor officers. The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri launched the project Wednesday after television crews last year broadcast video of officers punching and kicking a suspect who led police on a car chase. "The idea here is to level the playing field, so it's not just your word against the police's word," said Brenda Jones, executive director of the ACLU chapter.
This is in stark contrast to a report out of PA (and seen on Slashdot), where someone was arrested for felony wiretapping for doing the same thing.

Submission + - Private Funds For Time Travel (nwsource.com)

Submitted by

WED Fan

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:47AM

WED Fan writes: "A University of Washington researcher who couldn't find funds the old fashioned way, from the Government, has raised funds from private parties to continue with his back in time studies.

He is studying the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox. Basically, using spooky action, he wants to be able to use entangled pairs to send messages, not only through space, but also in time.

As the evidence for this has accumulated, several fairly contorted and unsatisfying efforts have been aimed at solving the puzzle. Cramer has proposed an explanation that doesn't violate the speed of light but does kind of mess with the traditional concept of time.

Question: How do you know where to find and "listen" to the right entangled particle to receive a message from the future? Or, in that vast amount of noise, if you don't know someone is sending a message, how do you know its there?"

Feed New Agent To Fight Genetic Disorders Found (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Monday April 30, 2007 @01:53PM

A new agent, "Zorro-LNA," may stop some genetic disorders in their tracks. A recent article describes how researchers developed Zorro-LNA to bind with both strands of a gene's DNA, effectively disabling it. This has clinical implications for virtually every condition caused or worsened by dominant defective genes, such as: Huntington's disease, familial high cholesterol, polycystic kidney disease, some instances of glaucoma and colorectal cancer, and neurofibromatosis, among others.

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