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Google

Researchers Use Google's Search Algorithms To Fight Cancer 52

MatthewVD writes "German scientists have modified Google's PageRank algorithm to scan tumors and learn more about how cancers progress. PageRank orders results based on how other web pages are connected to them via hyperlinks; the modified algorithm, NetRank, scans how genes and proteins in a cell are similarly connected through a network of interactions with their neighbors. This approach could also yield new therapies to help combat tumors."

Comment Well, yeah. (Score 3, Interesting) 133

If you're still listening to anything Facebook says, I don't know what else to tell you. This is hardly the first time they've lied about something like this. They say things that are so implausible that they aren't worth listening to. They want every piece of data. Period. They will do whatever they can to get more data on people. Any time they say something to the contrary, they are lying.

Comment Re:I highly doubt this (Score 1) 449

While everyone can agree that this story is a bit silly all around, I can't believe this comment got modded +5. Am I to believe that the real reason this is silly is because people need a PC to play WoW or Starcraft? Or because people like to upgrade their hardware with new CPUs and graphics cards? The fact that the commenter doesn't even know what it is like to buy a pre-built PC should make us pretty skeptical that his/her experience can be generalized to the entire population...

Also, we better not opine about what it is like to write college theses if we can't spell thesis correctly.

Comment Terrible summary (Score 1) 911

Boeing's use of hydraulics instead of fly-by-wire technology has nothing to do with American individualism. And Airbus's use of electronics isn't due to Europeans' greater trust in computers. It's because Airbus's only popular designs are newer than most of Boeing's. Newer technology really is better here, sorry. Remember that American jet that landed safely in the Hudson river recently? It was a lot easier to pull that one off due to its flight controls.

Here's an entertaining and actually informative take on that incident: http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/06/us_airways200906

Feel free to get off any Airbus jet you don't trust, but as someone learning to fly pretty old planes, I'll ride the new ones, thanks.

Comment Re:What's the story here? (Score 1) 199

Yeah, basically. It's noteworthy that twitter is useful for this kind of thing. This was not some sort of foregone conclusion. When you first heard that people were twittering about all the inane stuff they do every 5 minutes, would you have thought it would also be useful for this? It would be noteworthy if 10 other hard-to-control tools sprang up, too, which they probably will in time. The more communication tools people can use to carry out tactics against governments that try to cut off access to those tools, the better. I bet there are some other students in some other country struggling for democracy who think this is pretty noteworthy indeed, and will try to organize this way now.
Communications

Data Center Raid About Unpaid Telco Fees 174

craig writes "CBS11 News reports that the raid on Core IP networks is in the result of an investigation into unpaid telco access fees paid by CLECs and VoIP carriers to terminate calls on their networks. They also report that this raid is linked to the March 12th raid on Crydon Technology's datacenter, which also hosted VOIP providers. Anyone in the telco business will tell you access fees to other carriers are a total mess and lots of carriers have unpaid balances out there. It gives you the feeling that the FBI is acting as a collection agency for AT&T and Verizon."

Comment Re:Only Meta-Data was damaged (Score 1) 231

And it's not a problem when that happens. The blank section is error-corrected around, and the disc works fine.

Here's one I did, with a huge oily fingerprint purposely put on a DVD before recording, it was burned, and the 'shadow' of the fingerprint shows up as a huge unburnt patch after the original print has been wiped off.

The disc worked fine afterwards, and worked fine for quite a while until I lost it.

Music

Watermarking to Replace DRM? 365

An anonymous reader writes "News.com has an article on the announcement of Microsoft and Universal to introduce watermarking technology into audio files. The technology could serve several purposes including tracking file sharing statistics and inserting advertisements into audio tracks. The article goes on to suggest that watermarking could possibly replace DRM in the near future."

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