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Comment Re: too helpful? (Score 1) 270

by stobbard (#34959828) Attached to: Google Fires Back About Search Engine Spam
In some cases, they don't show a "Did you mean ...". It happens that search term are just silently chenged to what Google thinks you really mean. I've seen this depend on the context, the other terms you enter for the same search. On example, for me (using encrypted.google.com, logged in with my account. No idea if that changes anything) if I search for "worf" I get results about Worf the klingon (Wikipedia at #1). But if I search for "keylar worf" (I was trying to find out what the name of that gal was that he boinked on the Holodeck), the terms "keylar" and "word" and "work" are bold in the results but not "worf". Screenshot. There's no notice at all of the change.
Combine that with the problem that nowadays you have to add a "+" in front of half your search terms so they won't get ignored, and you get some seriously irritated users.

Comment Re:Forest Gump was a wise man ... (Score 1) 459

by stobbard (#34900286) Attached to: Facebook Opens Up Home Addresses and Phone Numbers
I think using Facebook from a smartphone is enough to give them your mobile number. At least I don't remember actively entering it. I only noticed that it was on fb, when it suddenly was visible to all my contacts. Removing it completely wasn't that easy either. To hide it from my contacts, setting the privacy options to "visible only to me" was enough, but you can't easily delete it from your profile. I had to enter a fake number.
Now when I looked at Account Settings -> Mobile, there STILL was my real number. As a consequence I logged out from fb mobile, which I actually found quite usefulfor aggregating current (and voluntarily provided - which my private cell number was not) contact information.
Goddammit, Facebook could be really useful if it had sane privacy politics...here's hoping for a better alternative to emerge soon...
Communications

Earliest "Writing" On 60,000-Year-Old Eggshells 214

Posted by kdawson from the beats-walking-on-them dept.
New Scientist reports on research published in PNAS (abstract here) about what may be the earliest writing yet discovered, on eggshells dated to 60,000 years ago. "Since 1999, Pierre-Jean Texier of the University of Bordeaux, France, and his colleagues have uncovered 270 fragments of shell at the Diepkloof Rock Shelter in the Western Cape, South Africa. They show the same symbols are used over and over again, and the team say there are signs that the symbols evolved over 5,000 years. This long-term repetition is a hallmark of symbolic communication and a sign of modern human thinking, say the team. [Another researcher is quoted:] 'Judging from what we know about the evolution of art all over the world, there may have been many [written language] traditions that were born, lasted for some time, and then vanished. This may be one of them, most probably not the first and certainly not the last.'"
Space

Spectrum of Light Captured From Distant World 32

Posted by Soulskill from the what-are-you-made-of dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos: "Astronomers have made the first direct capture of a spectrum of light from a planet outside the Solar System and are deciphering its composition. The light was snared from a giant planet that orbits a bright young star called HR 8799 about 130 light-years from Earth, said the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ... The find is important, because hidden within a light spectrum are clues about the relative amounts of different elements in the planet's atmosphere. 'The features observed in the spectrum are not compatible with current theoretical models,' said co-author Wolfgang Brandner. 'We need to take into account a more detailed description of the atmospheric dust clouds, or accept that the atmosphere has a different chemical composition from that previously assumed.' The result represents a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, said the ESO. Until now, astronomers have been able to get only an indirect light sample from an exoplanet, as worlds beyond our Solar System are called. They do this by measuring the spectrum of a star twice — while an orbiting exoplanet passes near to the front of it, and again while the planet is directly behind it. The planet's spectrum is thus calculated by subtracting one light sample from another."
Space

Herschel Spectroscopy of Future Supernova 21

Posted by Soulskill from the that's-a-big-star dept.
davecl writes "ESA's Herschel Space Telescope has released its first spectroscopic results. These include observations of VYCMa, a star 50 times as massive as the sun and soon to become a supernova, as well as a nearby galaxy, more distant colliding starburst galaxies and a comet in our own solar system. The spectra show more lines than have ever been seen in these objects in the far-infrared and will allow astronomers to work out the detailed chemistry and physics behind star and planet formation as well as the last stages of stellar evolution before VYCMa's eventual collapse into a supernova. More coverage is available at the Herschel Mission Blog, which I run."
Programming

Haskell 2010 Announced 173

Posted by kdawson from the eddie-and-the-beav dept.
paltemalte writes "Simon Marlow has posted an announcement of Haskell 2010, a new revision of the Haskell purely functional programming language. Good news for everyone interested in SMP and concurrency programming."
Biotech

A High-Res 3D Video of the Embryonic Heartbeat 207

Posted by timothy from the cool-imaging-tech dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Houston, TX, adapted an imaging technique called optical coherence tomography to capture 3D video of the mammalian heart as it forms. They used the method to image a mouse embryo just 8.5 days past conception and about a day after it starts to form. In the remarkable video a normal heartbeat is visible. Normally optical coherence tomography is used for clinical imaging of the retina. Having such a high-resolution, non-invasive way to image the developing heart could perhaps help doctors treat congenital heart disorders in human babies."
Biotech

Electro-Scalpel "Sniffs Out" Tumors 43

Posted by samzenpus from the smells-like-health dept.
TechReviewAl writes "Researchers in Germany have developed a surgical tool that uses chemical analysis to identify cancerous tissue as a surgeon cuts. The instrument uses a modified mass spectrometer — a device that uses ionized molecules to perform very accurate chemical analysis — to pinpoint tumors so that surgeons can make sure they remove everything. Mass spectrometry has been used to study biopsied biological samples before, but never used in-situ. The key was to harness ionized gas already produced by the electro-scalpel."
Social Networks

The Sims 3 To Mesh With Social Networks 25

Posted by Soulskill from the linked-sim-book-space dept.
Electronic Arts has released a good bit of information about the online aspects of The Sims 3, which is due for release in early June. The game will have downloadable content available on launch day that includes a second, separate town called Riverview. They'll also be revamping the game's website to allow the sharing of content and integration with social media. In addition, EA mentioned that the game will make use of micro-transactions, which players can use to buy things like furniture, clothing, and other items.
Windows

UAC Whitelist Hole In Windows 7 496

Posted by Soulskill from the time-for-some-creative-rebranding dept.
David Gerard writes "Microsoft tried to make Vista secure with User Access Control (UAC). They relaxed it a bit in Windows 7 because it was such a pain in the backside. Unfortunately, one way they did this (the third way so far found around UAC in Windows 7) was to give certain Microsoft files the power to just ... bypass UAC. Even more unfortunately, one of the DLLs they whitelisted was RUNDLL32.EXE. The exploit is simply to copy (or inject) part of its own code into the memory of another running process and then telling that target process to run the code, using standard, non-privileged APIs such as WriteProcessMemory and CreateRemoteThread. Ars Technica writes up the issue, proclaiming Windows 7 UAC 'a broken mess; mend it or end it.'"
Space

Submission + - First Earth-Size Exoplanet Already Found? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Adam Korbitz
Adam Korbitz writes: "

New Scientist is reporting the extrasolar planet MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb — whose discovery was announced just last summer — may actually be the first truly Earth-sized exoplanet to be identified.

According to New Scientist, a new analysis suggests the planet weighs less than half the original estimate of 3.3 Earth masses. The new estimate — which scientists hope to confirm with more observations in the near future — peg the planet's size at 1.4 Earth masses.

The new estimate is the result of recent observations suggesting the planet's host star is more massive than originally thought, meaning the planet must be smaller than scientists originally estimated. Astronomers first thought the host star was a tiny brown dwarf , but now realize it is actually a red dwarf.

The planet orbits a small red dwarf star some 3,000 light-years distant and orbits its host star at a distance of 0.62 astronomical units (an astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, or about 93 million miles) — about the same distance as Venus from our Sun. One significance of the planet's discovery is that it points to the probable ubiquity of smaller terrestrial planets in somewhat Earth-like orbits — at least when it comes to red dwarf stars, the oldest and most numerous stars in the galaxy. Scientists don't think MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb is likely to harbor life but concede it may be habitable due to a probably thick atmosphere and possible oceans.

Astronomers first discovered the planet using a technique called gravitational microlensing, a technique that may be sensitive enough to detect planets with masses one-tenth that of Earth.

"
Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8 Delayed Until 2009 204

Posted by Soulskill from the ready-when-it's-ready dept.
Barence writes "Microsoft has confirmed that Internet Explorer 8 will not be officially released until 2009. According to a blog posting on the Internet Explorer 8 development site, a release candidate of the browser will be released in the first quarter of next year, to be followed by a final release at an unspecified date. This news comes on the same day that Google is considering bundling its Chrome browser with new PCs. Will the IE delay and Google's tactics help to steer users in Chrome's direction?"

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