Comment Re:Does the plugin actually *do* anything? (Score 1) 307
This is the best comment in the history of the internet.
Comment Re:Instead of auditing, monitoring, and transparen (Score 1) 385
Title X dollars do not go to abortion clinics. They fund STD testing, contraceptives, lab work, etc. The funding of abortions is expressly prohibited by the act. In a time when roughly half of our annual pregnancies are unplanned, cutting Title X dollars will actually INCREASE abortions due to reducing the availability of contraceptives. Duh.
Comment Re:A worthy effort (Score 1) 295
It's fun and it's a challenge. What else do you need?
Comment Slime molds (Score 3, Interesting) 108
Reminds me of this: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/slime-mold-grows-network-just-like-tokyo-rail-system/
Some researchers placed food sources in the same configuration as Tokyo Rail stations and then introduced a slime mold. From TFA
Initially, the slime mold dispersed evenly around the oat flakes, exploring its new territory. But within hours, the slime mold began to refine its pattern, strengthening the tunnels between oat flakes while the other links gradually disappeared. After about a day, the slime mold had constructed a network of interconnected nutrient-ferrying tubes. Its design looked almost identical to that of the rail system surrounding Tokyo, with a larger number of strong, resilient tunnels connecting centrally located oats. “There is a remarkable degree of overlap between the two systems,” Fricker says.
Some researchers placed food sources in the same configuration as Tokyo Rail stations and then introduced a slime mold. From TFA
Initially, the slime mold dispersed evenly around the oat flakes, exploring its new territory. But within hours, the slime mold began to refine its pattern, strengthening the tunnels between oat flakes while the other links gradually disappeared. After about a day, the slime mold had constructed a network of interconnected nutrient-ferrying tubes. Its design looked almost identical to that of the rail system surrounding Tokyo, with a larger number of strong, resilient tunnels connecting centrally located oats. “There is a remarkable degree of overlap between the two systems,” Fricker says.
Comment Re:The price of easy and automatic (Score 1) 274
create a udev rule
Comment Re:Surprised they weren't doing *any* filtering (Score 1) 573
My old roommate and I once hacked up a remote starter for his car using an old cell phone. To avoid exactly this problem, I just used the phone's ability to only ring/vibrate for specific contacts.
Comment Re:Baby talk? I swear at my computer! (Score 1) 170
Babies are a good example of this, but I think that the human brain is just good at teaching itself stuff. Why can't we build a mechanism without always solving the perceived problem? Our brain has evolved to learn and use stuff, so we shouldn't always forget about the simple decisions. And stuff.
Is it my imagination, or do people focus on the side effects of their perceived area of interest a little too often? There's always a simpler and more useful way to get something done while simultaneously making future decisions easier. In a strategic sense, of course. Not that I have an opinion about anything...
Carry on.
Is it my imagination, or do people focus on the side effects of their perceived area of interest a little too often? There's always a simpler and more useful way to get something done while simultaneously making future decisions easier. In a strategic sense, of course. Not that I have an opinion about anything...
Carry on.
Did We Really Need Seven New Wonders? 324
freakxx writes "Seven new 'wonders of the world' have been announced today in a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal. People throughout the world have voted actively to elect the new 7 out of 21 finalists.
The final lineup is: Chichen Itza, Mexico; Christ Redeemer, Brazil; The Great Wall, China; Machu Picchu, Peru; Petra, Jordan; The Roman Colosseum, Italy; and The Taj Mahal, India. The Pyramids of Giza was the only candidate that used to be among the original seven wonders. Did we really need seven new wonders of the world? Why was this decided via a website poll (pdf) and SMS messages?"
RIAA Claims Ownership of All Artist Royalties For Internet Radio 458
ISurfTooMuch writes "With the furor over the impending rate hike for Internet radio stations, wouldn't a good solution be for streaming internet stations to simply not play RIAA-affiliated labels' music and focus on independent artists? Sounds good, except that the RIAA's affiliate organization SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. 'SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free ... So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.'"
Submission + - IE7 and FF 2.0 share vulnerability
hcmtnbiker writes: Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0 share a logic flaw. The issue is actually more severe, as the two versions of the Microsoft and Mozilla browsers are not the only ones affected. The vulnerability impacts Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, and Firefox 1.5.0.9.
"In all modern browsers, form fields (used to upload user-specified files to a remote server) enjoy some added protection meant to prevent scripts from arbitrarily choosing local files to be sent, and automatically submitting the form without user knowledge. For example, ".value" parameter cannot be set or changed, and any changes to .type reset the contents of the field," said Michal Zalewski, the person that discovered the IE7 flaw.
There are Proof of concepts for both IE7 and firefox
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt 804
An anonymous reader writes "An ad campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force featuring the Mooninites Ignignot and Err caused major security concerns in Boston, MA when magnetic light displays were mistaken for possible bombs. The displays included one of Ignignot flipping the bird (as hard as he could), but Gov. Deval Patrick was not amused."
Cancer Drug May Not Get A Chance Due to Lack of Patent 471
theshowmecanuck writes to mention that in a recent study, researchers at the University of Alberta Department of Medicine have shown that an existing small, relatively non-toxic molecule, dichloroacetate (DCA), causes regression in several different cancers. From the article: "But there's a catch: the drug isn't patented, and pharmaceutical companies may not be interested in funding further research if the treatment won't make them a profit. In findings that 'astounded' the researchers, the molecule known as DCA was shown to shrink lung, breast and brain tumors in both animal and human tissue experiments."
Jailtime For Leeching Wireless? 587
jginspace writes "A 17-year-old from Singapore is is facing three years' jailtime for accessing his neighbor's wireless network.
His neighbor complained and now the unfortunate Tan Jia Luo is facing charges under the computer misuse act and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday."
New Stephen Hawking Movie in the Works 135
Simon Behler writes "The Sunday Times is reporting that Stephen Hawking is making a new movie. FTA: 'Professor Stephen Hawking, Britain's world-renowned physicist, is to switch from theories of multidimensional space to the three dimensions of the Imax cinema by starring in a film that sets out his ideas on the origins and fate of the universe. The film, Beyond the Horizon, will tackle some of the most daunting theories espoused by Hawking and other cosmologists, from the idea that space has up to 11 dimensions to the cause of the big bang itself.'"
Another 150,000 Years of CO2 Data 809
An anonymous reader writes, "We've known since 2004 that the past 440,000 years have shown atmospheric carbon dioxide levels varying between about 200 and 300 ppmv, the difference in extremes being the difference between advancing ice sheets and our current clime. In 2005 the data were analyzed back to 650,000 years and were found to be much the same — Al Gore was proud to be able to show that then-new analysis in his 2006 movie An Inconvenient Truth. Now all 800,000 years of the ice column have been analyzed, and the data show much the same pattern, according to the researcher: 'When carbon dioxide changed there was always an accompanying climate change. Over the last 200 years human activity has increased carbon dioxide to well outside the natural range' — to 380 ppmv."
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To err is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the Operating System.
