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Submission + - Half of all research papers published in 2011 already free to read (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Search the Internet for any research article published in 2011, and you have a 50–50 chance of downloading it for free. This claim — made in a report produced for the European Commission — suggests that many more research papers are openly available online than was previously thought. Previous best estimates for the proportion of papers free online run at around 30%.
Peter Suber, director of the Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says the report confirms his optimism. “When researchers hit a paywall online, they turn to Google to search for free copies — and, increasingly, they are finding them,” he says.

Comment Re:Little Intel has growed up (Score 3, Interesting) 122

by zpiro (#38076834) Attached to: Intel Announces Xeon E5 and Knights Corner HPC Chip
At 6Ghz, you are very close to the speed of light in copper, so unless you can break the speed of light... its a "physics limit".
Below this point you have the problem of energy efficiency, i.e. whats the point of spending more energy on cooling than on actually powering the thing?
Intel's 3d-transistors are HUGE because of this, they can push higher clock speed more easily.

Comment Here is the actual press release (Score 1) 351

by zpiro (#37435288) Attached to: Israel To Join CERN As First Non-European Member
In short, Israel is an associate member state for at least 24months, after which they may become a member state.

Israel to become Associate Member State of CERN


Geneva 16 September 2011. CERN Director General Rolf Heuer and Israeli Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office and
other International Organizations in Geneva, H.E. Mr. Aharon Leshno-Yaar today signed a document admitting Israel to CERN Associate Membership, subject to
ratification by the Knesset. Following ratification, Israel will become an Associate Member of CERN for a minimum period of 24 months. Following this period,
CERN Council will decide on the admission of Israel to full Membership, taking into account the recommendations of a task force to be appointed for this purpose.
Israel has a long-standing relationship with CERN, and has been an Observer at the CERN Council since 1991.

“It is a vital part of our mission to build bridges between nations. This agreement enriches us scientifically, and is an important step in that direction,” said CERN
Director General Rolf Heuer. “I am very pleased that CERN’s relationship with Israel is moving to a higher level.”

“I am very happy with this decision,” said Eliezer Rabinovici, Professor and Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
and Israel’s scientific observer to Council. “I view it as recognition of the Israeli contributions, both scientific and technological to CERN over the years. The Israeli
scientific community is looking forward to the continuation of this joint adventure.”


Israel has a strong tradition in both experimental and theoretical particle physics, with a major involvement in the OPAL experiment at CERN’s flagship
accelerator through the 1990s, the Large Electron Positron collider. Israel’s accession to Observer status in 1991 followed an agreement to contribute funds to the
CERN budget to support Israeli scientists, as well as providing equipment to CERN. The Israeli fund also contributed to LEP running, supported LHC construction
and R&D for future accelerators. During its association with CERN, Israel has also supported Palestinian students at CERN,
notably sending mixed Israeli-Palestinian contingents to CERN’s summer student programme.

In 2009, Israel was accepted as a special Observer State, with the right to attend restricted Council sessions for discussions of LHC matters. Israel currently has
a strong involvement in the ATLAS experiment, and participates in a number of other experiments at CERN.

Comment Re:They cannot possibly get it right (Score 1) 264

by zpiro (#36461536) Attached to: Iceland Taps Facebook To Rewrite Its Constitution
Based on how many that disagree with you here.
I'd like to point out something that you statements completely ignore, namely democracy!
Taking into account that Iceland is arguably the first democracy in the world, since the anicent greeks didn't allow women to vote.
Why the US based their system on the British imperialist models i beyound me, but corporations were more than happy to fill the power vacuum left by not having a nobility/upper class and royal family(people who's self interest by extension IS the wealth of the state -- opposed to what the state can do for you, or not do for others) to balance out the dualism, shocking that a crippled bad system doesn't work better then a bad system.

Privatizing government is such a ridiculously bad idea, that there really are no words.
There is a reason for dividing power, between government, court of law, and law enforcement -- arguably there should be more such divisions.
What happens when you circumvent this by allowing corporations to do the tasks of government, or even allowing the state to outsource its responsbilities.
You can no longer brag about having a democracy at all, since essentially, you have a power system that is more powerfull then the state.
Namely, financial systems excert control over society.

It's no longer about the wealth of nations, its about the wealth of multinational corporations!
I for one don't agree with this 'democracy'.
If the sate can't provide for a countries infrastrcture, and whats of national interest for the people -- whats the point?
Also, I find it worrysome that multinational corporations can cut of supplies to armies, and in addition have their own 'armies' (security firms).

I don't recognize this so called anti state monopoly that you refer to, as anything other then capitalism; it resembles more feudal kingdoms in the middle ages then a democracy.

Comment Re:LDAP and Kerberos (Score 1) 124

by zpiro (#36245508) Attached to: Fedora 16 Will Number UIDs From 1000
Don't ever switch filesystems, AFS locks you in for life!
AFS volume based backup *shudder*.

AFS is great as long as you don't need performance.
However, there is some interesting developments in AFS+OSD, but this is also mostly for those who painted themselves into a corner.
Personally I'd much rather "suffer" and use something like GlusterFS (which suffers in small file I/O), but not big files.
Only AFS and NFS does CacheFS.

Comment Re:Also deep wells (Score 1) 179

by zpiro (#36035562) Attached to: New Rechargeable Battery Uses Water
From reading the article, you add fresh water first;
then salt water -- the saltier the better -- this stage giving you the power

Then you start the cycle over again, cleaning out and adding fresh water.

No desalination of water involved, unless creating more brackish water is what you want.

Bad news for those without excessive access to fresh water near the coast.

But would be interesting to know how clean the water needs to be -- tolerance for pollutants.
Networking

Submission + - Sony sued for PlayStation Network data breach (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Like clockwork, the first lawsuit resulting from the security breach of the personal data of more than 75 million Sony PlayStation Network customers has been filed.

The suit was filed today on behalf of Kristopher Johns, 36, of Birmingham, Ala., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Johns accuses Sony of not taking "reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data of its users."

He also believes Sony took too long to notify him and other customers that their personal information had been exposed. Because of that, the complaint alleges, Sony did not allow its customers "to make an informed decision as to whether to change credit card numbers, close the exposed accounts, check their credit reports, or take other mitigating actions."

CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20057921-260.html
Space

Submission + - China Plans Space Station By 2020 (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by RedEaredSlider
RedEaredSlider writes: China unveiled plans for its own space station, to be completed by 2020, along with a cargo ship to ferry supplies to and from orbit.

The fact that the country is proposing one is a sign of the Chinese government's ambitions in space. China is the third nation to launch its own manned rockets into space, sending its first astronaut into orbit in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou 5 rocket. Since then two other manned missions have been launched.

Submission + - Astronomy Without A Telescope (universetoday.com)

Submitted by
Phoghat
Phoghat writes: "In what is starting to become a familiar theme, researchers have speculated on what types of observational data from distant planetary systems might indicate the presence of an alien civilization, in this case asteroid mining
it’s thought that indicators of the presence of an alien civilization might include:
Atmospheric pollutants, like chlorofluorocarbons – which, unlike methane or molecular oxygen, are clearly manufactured rather than just biogenically produced
Propulsion signatures – remember how the Vulcans detected humanity in Star Trek: First Contact
  Stellar engineering – where a star’s lifetime is artificially extended to maintain the habitable zone of its planetary system"

Submission + - EC2 outage shows how much the Net relies on Amazon

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Much has been written about the recent EC2/EBS outage but Keir Thomas at PC World has a different take: it's shown how much cutting-edge Internet infrastructure relies on Amazon, and we should be grateful. FTA: "Amazon is a personification of the spirit of the Internet, which is one of true democracy, access to the means of distribution, and rapid evolution."

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