Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Space

How False Color Astronomy Works 28

Posted by Soulskill from the how-the-pretty-pictures-are-made dept.
StartsWithABang writes: When you look out at the nebulae in the night sky — especially if you're seeing them with your eye through a telescope for the first time — you might be in for a big surprise. These faint, fuzzy, extended objects are far dimmer, sparser and more cloud-like than almost anyone expects. Yet thanks to some incredible image processing, assigning colors to different wavelengths and adjusting the contrast, we can make out detailed structures beyond what even your aided eye could ever hope to perceive. Here's how the magic happens, and what it teaches us.
Crime

UK Authorities Threaten To Storm Ecuadorian Embassy To Arrest Julian Assange 1065

Posted by samzenpus from the long-arm-of-the-law dept.
paulmac84 writes "According to the BBC, the UK have issued a threat to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy to arrest Julian Assange. Under the terms of the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 the UK has the right to revoke the diplomatic immunity of any embassy on UK soil. Ecuador are due to announce their decision on Assange's asylum request on Thursday morning."
AI

Machine Learning Allows Actors To Create Games That Understand Body Language 30

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the i-can't-let-you-do-that-dave dept.
ptresset writes "Goldsmiths college is developing technology with natural responses to human interaction. The technology enables video games characters to move in a more natural way, responding to the player's own body language rather than mathematical rules. The hypothesis is that the actors' artistic understanding of human behavior will bring an individuality, subtlety and nuance to the character that it would be difficult to create in hand-authored models."

Comment Re:Why not? (Score 1) 291

by svanderw (#28704919) Attached to: Canadians Find Traffic Shaping "Reasonable"

I have no problem with Bell slowing down my P2P transfers when there's congestion. However, from experience, Bell throttles based on time and not bandwidth/congestion.
As soon as the throttling times are over, the P2P downloads speed up considerably, so it's obviously not throttled based on congestion on the network.
As for downloading when it's not affecting others. It would only affect you if they were experiencing congestion, not based on time of day; which is what they have implemented.

Bell is artificially slowing down their customers during certain hours of the day because they are unable to implement a correct solution to handle congestion.

Comment Re:Oh, sure. (Score 1) 195

by svanderw (#27122677) Attached to: Packing Algorithms May Save the Planet

wrt airplane fuel:
Actually there are some companies out there that do payload and fuel optimization with knowledge of fuel prices, payload weights, aircraft performance, forecast wind patterns.
There is also a cost in flying with more fuel than you need, as it takes fuel to transport fuel to your destination.
The algorithms for figuring out how much fuel to put on board aren't particularly difficult (at least when I was working on it) it's just _really_ computationally expensive, and also estimations upon estimations, upon estimations, upon predictions.
Another thing to be considered: the way the plane is packed will also adjust the amount of fuel they use. So when you're packing a plane, you've got to deal with weights side to side, and front to back too.
Power

US Corps Want $1B From Gov't For Battery Factory 394

Posted by timothy from the when-you-really-truly-need-some-free-tax-money dept.
tristanreid writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that a consortium of 14 US technology companies will ask the Federal Government for up to $1 billion for a plant to make advanced battery technology, as a part of the broad fiscal stimulus package that Pres. Elect Obama is planning. The story quotes a report by Ralph Brodd, which suggests that while existing battery technology was developed in the US, the lead in development is now held in Asia. From the WSJ story: 'More than four dozen advanced battery factories are being built in China but none, currently, in the US.'"
Space

1.4 Billion Pixel Camera To Watch For Asteroids 138

Posted by timothy from the one-last-hawaiian-vacation dept.
SpaceSlug writes "The world's largest digital camera is to be used to keep an eye out for asteroids heading towards Earth. The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) has been built by researchers at MIT's Lincoln Lab. At its heart is a 1.4 billion pixel (or 1400 megapixel) camera that will scan the night sky looking for rogue near-Earth objects from atop Mount Haleakala in Maui Island, Hawaii. The system uses something called an orthogonal transfer CCD to remove atmospheric blur from images."
Portables (Apple)

Apple Announces New MacBook, Pro, Air 774

Posted by kdawson from the must-have dept.
Steve Jobs just got through announcing new MacBook lines in Cupertino. The MacBook, the Pro, and the Air all got revved. The old line of plastic-body MacBooks drops in price by $100, to $999. The new MacBooks have a metal body and multi-touch trackpad, just like the new Pros. The Pro features two NVidia graphics chips. Quoting Jobs: "With the 9400M, you get 5 hours of battery life, with the 9600M GT you get four hours of battery life. You choose." In summary: "We're building both [MacBook and Pro] in a whole new way. From a slab of aluminum to a notebook. New graphics. New trackpad, the best we've ever built. And LED-backlit displays that are far brighter, instant on, far more environmentally responsible." They are shipping today and should be in stores tomorrow. Oh, and one more thing: Steve's blood pressure is 110/70.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it." -- Alex Schure

Close