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Comment Re:Nanodiamonds (Score 2, Funny) 101

I worked with a guy in the 80's who had a side business making diamond grinding compounds for customers in the bay area - he would pre-load his secret mixture into grease-guns he bought at Sears. They were single use, he told me. I don't remember why, something about screwing up the seals, or maybe a used grease gun put contaminates in the grinding goop... anyhow he made really good money at it for some reason, there must have been more to it than meets the eye. He was a retired nuclear physicist, so he knew what he was doing, when it came to small particles.
Dude! I know this guy, you and I have so totally worked in the same meth lab!
Censorship

Submission + - UK - 'Extreme' porn proposals spark row

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports on the row over proposals by the UK Government to criminalise possession of "extreme" porn. The bill, published last week, would include fictional depictions of violence and images of acts between consenting adults. The law would also apply to screenshots taken from a legal film, if the screenshot was made for erotic purposes. Backlash opposes the law.

The bill follows from plans initially announced last August.
Space

Submission + - Mars Global Surveyor died from single bad command

wattsup writes: "The LA Times reports that a single wrong command sent to the wrong computer address caused a cascade of events that led to the loss of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft last November, NASA investigators reported Friday.

A command that oriented the spacecraft's main communications antenna was sent to the wrong address. The mistake caused a problem with the positioning of the solar power panels, this in turned caused one of the batteries to overheat, shutting down the solar power system and the batteries drained in 12 hours."
Censorship

Submission + - AMD's New DRM

DefectiveByDesign writes: "Remember how AMD said they'd make use of ATI's GPU technology to make better technology? Well, not all change is progress. InfoWorld is reporting that AMD plans to block access to the framebuffer in hardware to help enforce DRM schemes, such as allowing more restricted playback of Sony Blu-Ray disks. They can pry my print screen key out of my cold, dead hands."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Beef Up Your Wireless Router

Doctor High writes: "Josh Kuo's article Beef Up Your Wireless Router talks about the OpenWRT embedded Linux distro for the the Linksys WRT series wireless routers (and more). The article lays out some of the amazing things you can do with your Linux-enabled wireless router such as using it as a VoIP gateway, a wireless hotspot, or even an encrypted layer 2 tunnel endpoint for remote troubleshooting."
Robotics

Submission + - Diodes could drive swimming micro-robots

finisterre writes: Diodes can be made to 'swim' through salt water by hitting them with an alternating electric field. The applied field induces a current that sets up a field between the diode's electrical contacts and creates a propulsive force. The abstract of the paper in Nature Materials is freely available. New Scientist has videos of the swimming diodes in action.
Privacy

Submission + - Google to remove identifying data from search logs

darkuncle writes: "Via techdirt: a couple of Google lawyers have announced via the Google Blog that Google will begin removing identifying data from search logs after 18-24 months in an effort to make logs "much more anonymous". This is particularly interesting in light of recent stories about search log data being used in trials. One wonders (as noted by TechLiberation) how data can be made "more anonymous" — either it is, or it isn't. In any case, law enforcement (especially the U.S. government) will probably be less than thrilled with this development (witness pending legislation and general calls by law enforcement for mandatory data retention, both in the U.S. and abroad)."
The Internet

Submission + - Web censorship on the increase

mid-devonian writes: Following on from the temporary blocking of YouTube by a Turkish judge for including postings insulting to Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, a group of academics has published research showing that Web censorship is on the increase worldwide. As many as two dozen countries are blocking content using a variety of techniques.

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