Genral Web Comments
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Bigelow's Gamble
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Bigelow's Gamble: "Bigelow's Gamble
PUBLISHED IN AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY
RE-PRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION
Posted: September 27, 2004
It's a high-stakes game to develop commercial inflatable space modules while proposing a $50-million prize for a new piloted spacecraft to service them
BY CRAIG COVAULT/LAS VEGAS
The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company's heavily guarded facilities here."
nintendojo ~ a site to see
nintendojo ~ a site to see
DS Network & Warp Pipe Project
Since the dawn of this week, Chad Paulson and his Warp Pipe team, best known for their work tunneling GameCube games that feature LAN support, have been posting a deluge of cryptic images that hint at a big announcement to come in regards to a Nintendo DS project the team has been working on since early this year.
To get a better sense of what was going on, we conducted a brief interview with Chad this past Monday, though some other sites have since then done the same. Aside from the parties mentioned just below, we were, for a brief period, the only venue with any sort of timeline specifics. And though the cat may be ever so slightly “out of the bag”, we were able to supplement said “buzz” with a bit more than what we had on Monday. Moving right along...
Wired News: MP3 Creator Warns on Format Wars
Wired News: MP3 Creator Warns on Format Wars: "BERLIN -- Rival technologies that baffle consumers will run more companies out of business in the nascent music download market than will head-to-head competition, one of the lead creators of MP3 playback technology warned Wednesday.
'It has slowed the download business for sure, and it's doing the same for the gadget makers,' said Karlheinz Brandenburg, director of electronic media technologies at the Fraunhofer Institut in Ilemenau, Germany."
Wired News: Bush Team Prepares Net Assault
Wired News: Bush Team Prepares Net Assault: "For the millions of television viewers who tune in to the first presidential debate in Miami Thursday night, the event will probably seem scripted, familiar and maybe even cordial. And for good reason. The Republican and Democratic parties worked out detailed ground rules, all but promising that the televised debates will be uneventful.
But both campaigns plan to take off their gloves on the internet. In some respects, the real debate, or a better semblance of one, will take place in cyberspace."
Wired News: Diebold Loses Key Copyright Case
Wired News: Diebold Loses Key Copyright Case: "Students who sued Diebold Election Systems won their case against the voting machine maker on Thursday after a judge ruled that the company had misused the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and ordered the company to pay damages and fees. Lawyers for the students call the move a victory for free speech.
A judge for the California district court ruled that the company knowingly misrepresented that the students had infringed the company's copyright and ordered the company to pay damages and fees to two students and a nonprofit internet service provider, Online Policy Group."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - A page stolen more than 500 years ago from a celebrated Italian book of prayers has finally been recovered, the British Library says.
The illuminated page depicting the occupations of the month of October comes from the Sforza Book of Hours, one of the most lavish books of the Italian Renaissance and a treasured item in the national library's collection."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Britons have little interest in becoming famous or rich, with over half wishing instead for happiness for their children and world peace, according to a survey.
The poll of 1,000 people, commissioned by Disney, concluded that just four percent of Britons would choose fame as one of their top three wishes."
Wired News: Arnold Vetoes Privacy Bill
Wired News: Arnold Vetoes Privacy Bill: "A California bill protecting the privacy of internet and e-mail usage at work met the red veto pen of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday.
The would-be law, SB 1841, would have required the state's employers to provide 'clear and conspicuous' notice before electronically monitoring the e-mail or internet usage of employees. Not doing so would have become a misdemeanor in the California penal code."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that all patients who undergo angioplasty should receive cholesterol-lowering 'statin' drugs, such as Zocor and Lipitor.
The findings, which appear in the medical journal Heart, indicate that such therapy is equally beneficial for patients with stable angina or unstable angina. Both types of angina involve chest pain caused by a temporary drop in blood flow to the heart, but the symptoms are more predictable with the former."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - British and French pharmaceutical companies are racing ahead of their U.S. counterparts to develop new drugs containing marijuana to relieve pain and treat a wide range of illnesses because marijuana is illegal in the United States, scientific researchers said on Wednesday.
'The plant that nature gave us has significant potential therapeutic effects,' said Dr. Donald Abrams, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and a marijuana researcher."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's children are getting fatter and need help from parents, schools, the government, advertisers and the food industry to get back in shape, a panel of experts said Thursday.
The report on childhood obesity from the Institute of Medicine paints a picture of children awash in a society that makes it difficult to exercise and eat right, from suburbs with no sidewalks to schools that sell sugary snacks in vending machines."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drugs in the same category as Merck & Co. Inc.'s withdrawn Vioxx painkiller will get close scrutiny to see if they also can cause heart attacks, U.S. regulators said on Thursday.
Vioxx is a COX-2 inhibitor, part of a family of drugs that were heralded as safer options to older medicines such as aspirin that can cause dangerous stomach bleeding. Some had even dubbed them 'super-aspirin.'"
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Changes to a gene involved in the regulation of body weight may contribute to weight gain in a very small number of obese individuals, new research reports.
Investigators found that people with these changes, or mutations, to the gene encoding the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) were much heavier than people who did not carry a mutation."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "ATLANTA (Reuters) - Most gay and bisexual men infected with HIV in the United States are taking steps to reduce the chances of passing on the deadly virus to their sex partners, according to a federal study released on Thursday.
A survey of 1,923 men who have sex with men found that 31 percent had abstained from sex with men in the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an article in its weekly morbidity and mortality report."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A mutation in the tiny channels that control calcium levels in a cell appears to be responsible for Timothy syndrome -- a rare disorder characterized by irregular heartbeats and autism, new research suggests.
The mutation results in continuous inward flow of calcium, suggesting that it may be possible to treat the syndrome with certain heart drugs that block calcium channels, lead author Dr. Igor Splawski, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues note in the scientific journal Cell."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although NebuChamber, a metal inhaler device, may deliver more aerosolized drug to children with asthma, it is no more effective than Aerochamber, a plastic device, at controlling asthma symptoms, new research shows.
The NebuChamber 'has gained wide acceptance among children with asthma,' Dr. Israel Amirav, of Seiff Hospital Safed, Israel, and colleagues write in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Moreover, NebuChamber has been shown to deliver a 'greater mass of aerosol' to the mouth compared with AeroChamber."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Millions of people take them to stay healthy but scientists said on Friday that vitamin supplements do not protect against stomach and other cancers and may even make them worse.
An analysis of 14 trials of vitamins, or antioxidant, supplements involving more than 170,000 people showed no benefit against cancer of the stomach, esophagus, large bowel and pancreas."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Australian scientists have invented an electronic driver's assistant system, similar to the back-seat driver who forever points out road signs and warns against speeding.
'The Australian invention is part of a global effort to make drivers more aware of road signs, especially those concerned with safety,' New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "SEATTLE (Reuters) - An unusually large toxic bloom of algae, which could poison humans and taint shellfish, has been detected in the ocean off the northwest coast of Washington state, oceanographers said on Wednesday.
The algae, called pseudo-nitzschia, produce domoic acid, which can damage the areas of the brain used for memory and learning, causing permanent short-term memory loss. The toxin is lethal in higher doses."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Charles Darwin would have had to wait decades for his own 'natural selection' as a Nobel prize winner and Stephen Hawking might never get one, if his physics theories are not proved or widely accepted in his lifetime.
Scientists impatient for elevation to the ranks of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein should bear in mind next week, when the Nobel science prizes are announced, that it is often a theory worked out two or three decades earlier that earns the award worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.36 million)."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - An acne-like rash is good news for colon cancer patients because it shows that a targeted therapy for the disease is working, Belgian scientists said on Thursday.
They found that the severity of the rash corresponded to the patient's response to ImClone Systems Inc's drug Erbitux and to the length of their survival."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fossils from extinct dogs show why bigger is not better -- giant meat-eating animals died out because they relied too heavily on hunting other big animals, scientists reported on Thursday.
Smaller, quicker carnivores could vary their diet more, hunting small rodents and mixing in berries, roots and other food sources, said Blaire van Valkenburgh and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "SEATTLE (Reuters) - The number of small earthquakes at Mount St. Helens increased on Thursday while the volcano's lava crust shifted further, government scientists said, keeping the volcano's alert status at the second-highest level.
There is a 70 percent chance of an eruption or explosion of the volcano's lava crust within the next few days, said Willie Scott, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)."
Wired News: ID Rule Exists, But Can't Be Seen
Wired News: ID Rule Exists, But Can't Be Seen: "Government lawyers defending the identification requirement at the nation's airports from a lawsuit by privacy activist John Gilmore admitted in a new filing Wednesday that the requirement exists, but argued it cannot be challenged or seen in full because it is a law enforcement technique, not a law.
The lawsuit revolves around whether a rule exists that says passengers must show their ID to airline agents before boarding a plane. Gilmore is also trying to get the government to state exactly what the rule, if it exists, says. The government has refused to confirm that the requirement exists or show the exact wording. Justice Department lawyers offered in an earlier filing to show the rule to an appeals court judge in secret without Gilmore's lawyers present."
Wired News: Can't We All Just Get Along?
Wired News: Can't We All Just Get Along?: "CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The inventor of the World Wide Web told a technology conference on Wednesday that making the web more useful hinges on a familiar challenge: Getting the players behind the technology to agree on standards governing how computers communicate with one another.
That obstacle, which confronted the initial development of the web, looms large again in the nascent stages of what Tim Berners-Lee calls the 'Semantic Web,' an evolutionary process to make more kinds of data easier for computers to locate and process."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - German Defence Minister Peter Struck has urged his British counterpart Geoffrey Hoon to commit the country to a second tranche of Eurofighter jets, a letter obtained by Reuters shows.
Struck said in the letter to Hoon, dated September 24, that with further delays German budget provisions for project could be lost."
Wired News: Stem Cell Debate Hits Senate
Wired News: Stem Cell Debate Hits Senate: "A U.S. senator tried unsuccessfully Wednesday at a Senate hearing to force a stem cell scientist to define when he believed a human embryo gained moral value.
The exchange came during a Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee hearing called by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) to debate the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research."
Wired News: Bandwidth Glut Lives On
Wired News: Bandwidth Glut Lives On: "For those who thought the excesses of the dot-com boom all got washed away in the subsequent bust, the fiber-optic telecommunications industry has some disappointing news.
Prices for access along the vast expanses of long-haul fiber-optic networks built in the late 1990s and 2000 haven't finished falling to earth."
Wired News: Diebold Rep Now Runs Elections
Wired News: Diebold Rep Now Runs Elections: "An influential employee of voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems left the company recently to take a job as elections manager for a California county.
Deborah Seiler, a sales representative for the beleaguered voting company, was hired a week ago and started Monday in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco in California's wine country. The position puts her second in command of elections in the county, under the registrar of voters."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Women could be faster 100-metre sprinters than men by the 2156 Olympics, according to a study.
By the middle of the next century women may be leaving men in the dust and could, for the first time, beat them in the 100 metres.
If projections by scientists at Oxford University in England are correct, women will close the gender gap by clocking 8.079 seconds in the 100 metres, ahead of the best male time of 8.098 seconds. The current world record stands at 9.78 seconds."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Microsoft has told a judge that the European Commission must be stopped from ordering it to give up secret technology to competitors.
The software giant is seeking the suspension of penalties imposed on it for violating antitrust law by using its Windows operating system monopoly to hurt competitors."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - Overpeer, an anti-piracy technology firm best known for flooding Internet file-sharing networks with bogus music and movie files, is expanding into Europe.
Overpeer said it will begin selling its content-spoofing services to European music companies through a venture with British music technology firm OD2. Overpeer and OD2 were acquired earlier this year by Seattle-based Loudeye."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - DVD recorders are getting cheaper and easier to use, but that may not be enough to spark demand for the sluggish selling devices.
Part of the problem is that customers have not yet been convinced of the value of the devices in relation to products like digital video recorders or even their home computers."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "MILAN (Reuters) - For Italian fashion guru Giorgio Armani, it's no crime for a woman to wear a burka.
'It's a question of respect for the convictions and culture of others. We need to live with these ideas, we need to learn how to do it,' Armani was quoted as saying by Italian newspapers on Tuesday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BEIJING (Reuters) - Paternity tests are becoming increasingly common in China along with casual sex as suspicious husbands check on their wives' fidelity, a news agency says.
Applications for the DNA test, which in the West can cost hundreds of dollars, had risen 20 percent a year in one Beijing hospital, the state-run China News Service said."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "SPRING GREEN, Wisconsin (Reuters) - When it comes to presidential debates, it seems size does matter.
John Kerry, a 6-foot-4-inch Democrat, poked fun on Monday at George W. Bush, the 5-foot-11-inch Republican president for reportedly insisting that podiums be set far apart to offset his opponent's five-inch height advantage."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's state railway PKP is claiming compensation from a man who caused delays to its services by being run over by a train -- but said it may forgive the debt after learning the man's house had burned down.
'We are acting in accordance with article 415 of the Civil Code, seeking damages from a person who caused delays in rail traffic,' PKP spokesman Krzysztof Lancucki said on Monday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Living in the suburbs may have once been part of the American dream but it can lead to nightmares such as high blood pressure, arthritis and headaches, researchers have reported."
The Daily Press - Ashland, Wisconsin
The Daily Press - Ashland, Wisconsin: "The U.S. Navy has announced that it will shut down the controversial Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Communications System on September 30, ending operations at the Two ELF transmitter facilities located near Clam Lake and Michigan's Escanaba State Forest.
The announcement came Friday afternoon in a news release from the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va. "
Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News
Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News: "Chicago (IL) - And you thought Google's 1-GByte Gmail was big: Hellacious Riders, an online motorcycle magazine, announced that it launched a 100-GByte Email service to its users. The firm extended its offer with a challenge to THG readers for a 1000 GByte account."
XYZ Computing- Slashdot Edition
XYZ Computing- Slashdot Edition: "In retrospect, this letter should be of no surprise to you. For years now I have stood by you despite the terrible things people have said. We have always managed to work through our serious problems but too many things have been swept under the table. I do not think I can stand (idly) by you any longer. "(PDF)
Welcome to Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg
Welcome to Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg: "Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts) on the Internet. Our collection of more than 12.000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use (for complete details, see the license page)."
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Filmfodder: Mel Brooks: Spaceballs Will Return
Filmfodder: Mel Brooks: Spaceballs Will Return: "It's been 17 years since 'Spaceballs' took aim at 'Star Wars,' but the Schwarts is still strong with writer/director Mel Brooks. Strong enough, in fact, that Brooks is penning a 'Spaceballs' sequel."
Filmfodder: Mel Brooks: Spaceballs Will Return
Filmfodder: Mel Brooks: Spaceballs Will Return: "It's been 17 years since 'Spaceballs' took aim at 'Star Wars,' but the Schwarts is still strong with writer/director Mel Brooks. Strong enough, in fact, that Brooks is penning a 'Spaceballs' sequel."
Monday, September 27, 2004
Technology Review: Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Technology Review: Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Creating the world wide web didn’t make Tim Berners-Lee instantly rich or famous. In part, that’s because the Web sprang from relatively humble technologies. Berners-Lee’s invention was based on an information retrieval program called Enquire (named after a Victorian book, Enquire Within upon Everything), which he wrote in 1980 as a contract programmer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. In part, it’s because Berners-Lee did the unthinkable when, more than a decade later, he finished writing the tools that defined the Web’s basic structure: he gave them away, with CERN’s blessing, no strings attached. While others made millions off his invention, the soft-spoken programmer went on to found the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at MIT, which he still directs, to promote global Web standards and development.
USATODAY.com - Spy imagery agency watching inside U.S.
USATODAY.com - Spy imagery agency watching inside U.S.
BETHESDA, Md. — In the name of homeland security, America's spy imagery agency is keeping a close eye, close to home. It's watching America. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, about 100 employees of a little-known branch of the Defense Department called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — and some of the country's most sophisticated aerial imaging equipment — have focused on observing what's going on in the United States.
Telegraph | News | British firm finds the nuclear industry's 'holy grail'
Telegraph | News | British firm finds the nuclear industry's 'holy grail': "A British company claims to have found the 'holy grail' of the nuclear energy industry - a solution to the problem of radioactive waste disposal.
Travel
Amec, the London company that cleaned up Ground Zero in New York and rebuilt the Pentagon after the September 11 attacks, says that its latest process will enable nuclear waste to be stored safely for 200,000 years - longer than the radioactivity will last."
The Case for Open Source/Closed Standards
The Case for Open Source/Closed Standards: "There's been some debate recently on the license-discuss list hosted by the OSI on how to release code as open source while still requiring that it be compatible with a test suite that must be distributed as part of the code."
Sunday, September 26, 2004
The View From Symantec's Security Central (washingtonpost.com)
The View From Symantec's Security Central (washingtonpost.com): "The View From Symantec's Security Central
By Leslie Walker
Thursday, January 9, 2003; Page E01
An ordinary office building on Route 1 in Alexandria offers a rare window into the Internet hacker wars and a few clues to why Uncle Sam wants more monitoring capabilities in cyberspace."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Suddenly the darkened room seemed intensely cold, some people felt a sense of presence and others were so terrified they had to leave.
But then, nothing.
Four reconstructions of Victorian era seances, with people sitting around a table holding hands in the dark, at the Dana Centre of the Science Museum failed to produce a single paranormal experience, a leading psychologist said on Friday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Foreign prostitutes in the Netherlands are to be excluded from new rules that allow foreigners who are specialists in their fields to work in the country without a permit, the government says."
NSLU2
: "In my previous article, I showed how to get a command prompt on the NSLU2 by using a hidden option and editing the password file in an external system. In this article, we'll continue exploring the box with the goal of adding new functions to make it even more useful."
TomsNetworking
TomsNetworking: "When I first read the review of the new Linksys Network Storage Unit device (NSLU2) I was definitely interested. It looked to be small, silent, inexpensive and flexible enough to provide backup and file storage to my network."
Linksys: NSLU2 - Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives
Linksys: NSLU2 - Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives: "Now you can quickly and easily add gigabytes of storage space onto your network with the Network Storage Link from Linksys. This tiny network appliance connects USB 2.0 hard drives directly to your Ethernet network. You can connect up to two stand-alone USB disk drives of any size, and access them from anywhere on your network. You can even plug a USB flash disk into the Network Storage Link, for a convenient way of accessing your portable data files. The Network Storage Link can also be set up so that your storage devices are accessible from the Internet -- files can be easily downloaded via your web browser. Your files can be available publicly, or create password-protected accounts for authorized users."
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail: "Air cooled by the frigid waters deep in Lake Ontario started bringing relief to buildings in downtown Toronto on Tuesday after the valves were symbolically opened on the multi-million-dollar project.
The project, which is believed to the first of its kind in North America, could be cooling significant parts of the downtown by the time the heat and humidity hits Toronto next summer."
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail: "Air cooled by the frigid waters deep in Lake Ontario started bringing relief to buildings in downtown Toronto on Tuesday after the valves were symbolically opened on the multi-million-dollar project.
The project, which is believed to the first of its kind in North America, could be cooling significant parts of the downtown by the time the heat and humidity hits Toronto next summer."
GPSTk, the GPS Toolkit
GPSTk, the GPS Toolkit: "The GPSTk provides both fundamental and advanced GPS processing algorithms to the open source community. A wide array of functions are provided by the GPSTk library, notably: RINEX I/O, ephemeris calculation, atmospheric refraction models, and positioning algorithms. GPSTk applications provided more concrete benefits to the user, including: cycle slip detection and removal, calculation of the Total Electron Content (TEC) of the ionosphere, and RINEX file manipulation."
Yahoo clamps down on Claria adware | CNET News.com
Yahoo clamps down on Claria adware | CNET News.com: "Yahoo strengthened its new anti-spyware application to detect pop-up advertising software, including that of its longtime partner Claria, formerly known as Gator."
Bloom Filters - the math
Bloom Filters - the math: "A Bloom filter is a method for representing a set $A = \{a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_n\}$ of n elements (also called keys) to support membership queries. It was invented by Burton Bloom in 1970 [6] and was proposed for use in the web context by Marais and Bharat [37] as a mechani sm for identifying which pages have associated comments stored within a CommonKnowledge server."
The New York Times> Search> Abstract
The New York Times> Search> Abstract: "DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF WORDS - At 89, Paul A. Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, still seems to have plenty of intellectual edge and the ability to antagonize and amuse. ... His dissent from the mainstream economic consensus about outsourcing and globalization will appear later this month..."
TomsNetworking
TomsNetworking: "In my previous article, I showed how to get a command prompt on the NSLU2 by using a hidden option and editing the password file in an external system. In this article, we'll continue exploring the box with the goal of adding new functions to make it even more useful."
Deep Lake Water Cooling System
Deep Lake Water Cooling System
Enwave and the City of Toronto have created an innovative cooling system that brings an alternative to conventional air conditioning to cool Toronto's downtown core — one that is clean, price competitive and energy efficient. A permanent layer of icy-cold (4°C) water 83 meters below the surface of Lake Ontario provides naturally cold water. This water is the renewable source of energy that Enwave's leading-edge technology uses to cool office towers, sports & entertainment complexes and proposed waterfront developments.
Linux on the NSLU2
Linux on the NSLU2: "I'm using this page is to collect information on the Linksys NSLU2. It's a tiny Linux-based network storage device that can be had for less than $100. This device appears to have a lot more potential than the stock firmware allows. Let's see what we can do with it."
RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work
RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work: "I'd like to invite members of this list to try out my new hashcash-based server, rpow.net. This system receives hashcash as a Proof of Work (POW) token, and in exchange creates RSA-signed tokens which I call Reusable Proof of Work (RPOW) tokens. RPOWs can then be transferred from person to person and exchanged for new RPOWs at each step. Each RPOW or POW token can only be used once but since it gives birth to a new one, it is as though the same token can be handed from person to person."
ELEVATOR PITCH
ELEVATOR PITCH: "LOAF is a simple extension to email that lets you append your entire address book to outgoing mail message without compromising your privacy. Correspondents can use this information to prioritize their mail, and learn more about their social networks. The LOAF home page is at http://loaf.cantbedone.org."
ELEVATOR PITCH
ELEVATOR PITCH: "LOAF is a simple extension to email that lets you append your entire address book to outgoing mail message without compromising your privacy. Correspondents can use this information to prioritize their mail, and learn more about their social networks. The LOAF home page is at http://loaf.cantbedone.org."
Black Magic - Americas Cup 2003
Black Magic - Americas Cup 2003: "
BlackMagic
The BlackMagic experience is a virtual reality history lesson that comes to life out of the pages of real book. When users look at book pages through a handheld display they see virtual yachting content that tells the America's Cup story. New technology is used so that computer graphics can appear overlaid on video of the real world. As the picture below shows users can see virtual boats popping out of real book pages in front of them."
The New York Times > Magazine > Going Way Off-Road
The New York Times > Magazine > Going Way Off-Road: "The world has never been kind to flying-car dreamers like Henry Smolinski, who died in 1973 when his Ford Pinto with the welded-on Cessna wings crashed; or Paul Moller, who balances work on his multiengine Batmobile with life-extension experiments so he will still be alive when Skycars fill the skies over Los Angeles; or Rafi Yoeli, who built CityHawk in the living room of his second-floor apartment and had to remove a wall to get it out."
Saturday, September 25, 2004
PhysicsWeb - News - Law-breaking liquid defies the rules (September 2004)
PhysicsWeb - News - Law-breaking liquid defies the rules (September 2004): "Physicists in France have discovered a liquid that 'freezes' when it is heated. Marie Plazanet and colleagues at the Universit� Joseph Fourier and the Institut Laue-Langevin, both in Grenoble, found that a simple solution composed of two organic compounds becomes a solid when it is heated to temperatures between 45 and 75�C, and becomes a liquid when cooled again. The team says that hydrogen bonds are responsible for this novel behaviour (M Plazanet et al. 2004 J. Chem. Phys 121 5031)."
Thursday, September 23, 2004
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > From Storage, a New Fashion
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > From Storage, a New Fashion: "TOWARD the end of the latest Tom Cruise thriller, 'Collateral,' the story's action turns on the performance of a player new to most movie audiences. For a suspense-charged moment Mr. Cruise and his co-star, Jamie Foxx, are upstaged by a silvery finger of portable storage technology."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Some Mexican churches are using state-of-the-art technology developed by Israeli electronic warfare experts to silence cell phones that ring during mass, church officials said on Tuesday.
Four churches in the northern city of Monterrey, which lies some two hours by car south of the Texas border, are using equipment made by Israeli telecoms equipment firm Netline Communications Technologies to block incoming calls during services."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's Option OPIN.BR said on Wednesday it would launch a new wireless data card targeted at the U.S. market in November.
Option, whose products allow laptop computers to connect to the Internet through mobile telephone networks, said the new card accessed EDGE/GPRS networks common in the United States."
Wired News: Hack Attack Gums Up Authorize.Net
Wired News: Hack Attack Gums Up Authorize.Net: "Hackers have crippled one of the internet's biggest credit card processors, and tens of thousands of online merchants are losing business while the company struggles to recover.
Since last Wednesday, Authorize.Net has been relentlessly pounded by distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks. The massive, coordinated waves of internet traffic have repeatedly overwhelmed the company's servers. Authorize.Net's customers have had to improvise: Some are confirming their credit card orders over the phone, others have gone with little or no sales for nearly a week."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off Antarctica are now sliding off into the sea -- and they are going fast, scientists said on Tuesday.
Two separate studies from climate researchers and the space agency NASA show the glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea, freed by the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Australian scientists have discovered how a naturally morphine-free poppy blocks production of the narcotic, in a finding that could lead to the development of more effective drugs.
The opium poppy is the source of codeine, morphine and other analgesics, as well as opium and heroin. But the mutant poppy known as top1 produces neither morphine nor codeine."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - A German telecommunications company says it is developing the first mobile phone that will alert users when their breath is bad or if they are giving off offensive smells.
The phone will use a tiny chip measuring less than one millimetre to detect unpleasant odours, a spokeswoman for Siemens Mobile said on Tuesday. A research team in the southern city of Munich is developing the device using new sensor technology."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Sniffer rescue dogs trained to find explosives or earthquake survivors buried in rubble may soon have some competition -- rats.
The rodents can crawl into the tiniest spaces and have a strong sense of smell.
'This combination makes them ideal candidates for sniffing out buried survivors,' New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - Trains on a busy German route were delayed for four hours after a train driver hit the emergency brake fearing a man next to the tracks was trying to kill himself -- but he was only picking blackberries."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "One of Britain's leading psychologists will be recreating Victorian-era seances on Thursday in a bid to unlock the secrets of the physic world.
Members of the public can participate in the event at the Dana Centre at the Science Museum in London and decide for themselves if it is based on fear, trickery or if a real contact with the spirit world is made."
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
IBM Research | Resources | News | IBM scientists demonstrate single-atom magnetic measurements
IBM Research | Resources | News | IBM scientists demonstrate single-atom magnetic measurements: "SAN JOSE, Calif. (Sept. 9, 2004) -- IBM scientists have measured a fundamental magnetic property of a single atom -- the energy required to flip its magnetic orientation. This is the first result by a promising new technique they developed to study the properties of nanometer-scale magnetic structures that are expected to revolutionize future information technologies."
MP3 Insider: The Secret Behind the iPod's Scrollwheel
MP3 Insider: The Secret Behind the iPod's Scrollwheel: "There are many reasons to like the iPod, but to me, the most compelling one is the scrollwheel. There's never been anything better for negotiating the prodigious amounts of music that we're lucky enough to be able to fit into our pockets these days. The scrollwheel has been through three iterations. The first one actually rotated; then there was the touch-sensitive one; and finally there's the clickable one found on the iPod Mini and fourth-generation iPod. I'd always assumed that this bit of design genius sprung from Apple's R&D labs, but, in fact, I discovered that a company called Synaptics, which primarily makes touchpads for laptops, actually perfected this little piece of navigational heaven, in accordance with Apple's stringent design requirements."
BBspot - Which OS Are You?
BBspot - Which OS Are You?: "Take this quiz to find out which OS most matches your personality. You need to answer all the questions to get an accurate result."
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Wired News: Quick Read on Your Genetics
Wired News: Quick Read on Your Genetics
TAGCTAAGTCGGATT … the readout tells the story of your genetic makeup, and it will soon tell you what genes you carry, what mutations there are and whether you should be worried. Right now, you’re worried.
Each letter represents one of the genetic bases -– adenine (A), thymine (T) cytosine (C) and guanine (G). Add the letters together and, eventually, you get the story of your genetic life. You can’t skip to the last chapter to find out how it ends, but this test will give you a peek at some of the characters -- the genes -- that may play a role.
Monday, September 20, 2004
Wired News: What to Eat on the Way to Mars
Wired News: What to Eat on the Way to Mars: "Thirty-five years ago on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin busted open one small meal for man -- foil packets containing roasted turkey and all the trimmings -- while kids at home slurped Tang in solidarity.
That mission lasted only nine days. Now, food scientists are working out ways to feed astronauts on a mission to Mars that will last years."
Wired News: TB May Be Global Threat Again
Wired News: TB May Be Global Threat Again: "WASHINGTON -- Super drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are at the tipping point of a global epidemic, and only small changes are needed to help them spread quickly, U.S. researchers predicted Sunday.
Two separate studies show that multiple-drug-resistant TB, which can only be cured with a carefully monitored cocktail of drugs taken for months on end, could easily start spreading more commonly."
Wired News: Back to School and Gaming, Kids
Wired News: Back to School and Gaming, Kids: "LOS ANGELES -- Back to school for many kids means 'back to internet access' in classes where the best of filtering software is not foolproof, particularly against seemingly harmless websites used for invasive marketing.
Internet-ready schools generally provide an 'acceptable use policy' to parents and students that outlines net etiquette and safeguards against access to inappropriate websites. But little is formally being done to shield kids in school or at home from 'immersive advertising' or corporate-sponsored 'advergames' such as the Neopets website, which contains loads of embedded advertising messages and links to merchandise."
Wired News: Nothing Robotic About Robo-Art
Wired News: Nothing Robotic About Robo-Art: "NEW YORK -- For 18 hours, robots invaded Harlem, but they came in peace.
The third annual ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show was held in New York City this past weekend, and showcased some of the best and most creative applications of modern robotics that make or are themselves art."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Police said on Monday they have arrested a 20-year-old British man on suspicion of stealing Cisco Systems CSCO.O source code, the basic instructions for the machines that direct Internet traffic across the globe.
The man, who was not identified, was arrested on Sept. 3 following raids on two houses in the Greater Manchester region and Derbyshire in central England, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said on Monday.
"
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - Video game giant Electronic Arts expects to sell 2 million units of the 'Sims 2' video game this year in Europe, proving skeptics wrong that you can't build a market around female gamers.
EA's head of European publishing, Gerhard Florin, told Reuters on Monday that it sold 25 percent of the 1.3 million 'Sims 2' units it started shipping in Europe last week, with supplies available to meet expected strong demand this Christmas season."
Wired News: Papers Defend Classified Turf
Wired News: Papers Defend Classified Turf: "Last year, more than $24 billion in goods were sold on eBay. While that signifies that more people have an easy way to sell all manner of goods, newspapers are watching their classifieds business get slowly eaten away."
Wired News: Papers Defend Classified Turf
Wired News: Papers Defend Classified Turf: "Last year, more than $24 billion in goods were sold on eBay. While that signifies that more people have an easy way to sell all manner of goods, newspapers are watching their classifieds business get slowly eaten away."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "PARIS (Reuters) - French director Claude Lelouch says he is 150,000 euros (102,000 pounds) out of pocket after footing the bill for an evening of free screenings of his latest film.
But he said on Monday the film had won standing ovations and that he had achieved the aim he set when agreeing to pay for anyone across France who went to watch 'Les Parisiens' (The Parisians) last Friday -- proving wrong critics who have panned the film."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - The creator of one of the world's most famous guns, the AK-47 assault rifle, has launched another weapon -- Kalashnikov vodka."
Make Home Page
Make Home Page: "Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will."
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Old computers good as new in Linux labs - The Honolulu Advertiser - Hawaii's Newspaper
Old computers good as new in Linux labs - The Honolulu Advertiser - Hawaii's Newspaper: "As pressure mounts to meet state-mandated educational technology standards, some Hawai'i schools with limited budgets are getting updated computer labs at a fraction of the typical costs. "
Technology can help fight the growing cyberextortion threat, but experts say not enough companies are prepared
It's the kind of E-mail that grabs you by the collar and doesn't let go. On a Saturday afternoon last January, a message hit the in-box of BetCBSports.com, threatening to knock the online gambling site offline in prime sports-betting season if the company didn't pay up.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Wired News: Five Fired at Los Alamos Lab
Wired News: Five Fired at Los Alamos Lab: "ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Five workers have been fired for their roles in a security and safety scandal at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lab's director said Wednesday.
The fired workers were among 23 suspended this summer after two computer disks containing classified information went missing. The discovery July 7 prompted a virtual shutdown of the nuclear lab, idling roughly 12,000 workers."
Wired News: Don't Mess With Librarians
Wired News: Don't Mess With Librarians: "Jessamyn West is a 36-year-old librarian living in central Vermont. But she's not your stereotypical bespectacled research maven toiling behind a reference desk and offering expert advice on microfiche.
She's a 'radical librarian' who has embraced the hacker credo that 'information wants to be free.' As a result, West and many of her colleagues are on the front lines in battling the USA Patriot Act, which a harried Congress passed a month after 9/11 even though most representatives hadn't even read the 300-page bill. It gave the government sweeping powers to pursue the 'war on terror' but at a price: the loss of certain types of privacy we have long taken for granted."
Wired News: Another Patch Job From Microsoft
Wired News: Another Patch Job From Microsoft: "SEATTLE -- Microsoft released a patch for its latest 'critical' rated security flaw affecting its Windows, Office and developer tools software programs, the company said Tuesday.
Separately, the world's largest software maker was dealt a setback after the Internet Engineering Task Force decided not to adopt Microsoft's e-mail sender ID standard that would make it easier for internet service providers to block unwanted junk e-mail."
Wired News: Pentagon Revives Memory Project
Wired News: Pentagon Revives Memory Project: "It's been seven months since the Pentagon pulled the plug on LifeLog, its controversial project to archive almost everything about a person. But now, the Defense Department seems ready to revive large portions of the program under a new name.
Using a series of sensors embedded in a GI's gear, the Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology, or ASSIST, project aims to collect what a soldier sees, says and does in a combat zone -- and then to weave those events into digital memories, so commanders can have a better sense of how the fight unfolded."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "OSLO (Reuters) - The world should crack down further on the use of the pesticide methyl bromide which is damaging the ozone layer, the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said on Thursday.
UNEP chief Klaus Toepfer said in a statement that there were 'significant knowledge gaps' on the worldwide usage of methyl bromide, which is meant to be phased out in farming under a U.N. pact to help repair the ozone layer."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "OSLO (Reuters) - Mussels have been found growing on the seabed just 800 miles from the North Pole in a likely sign of global warming, scientists said on Friday.
The blue mussels, which normally favor warmer waters like off France or the eastern United States, were discovered last month off Norway's Svalbard archipelago in waters that are covered with ice most of the year."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deaf children thrown together in a school in Nicaragua without any type of formal instruction invented their own sign language -- a sophisticated system that has evolved and grown, researchers reported on Friday.
Their observations show that children, not adults, are key to the evolution and development of language, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NARRABRI Australia (Reuters) - Australia has started battling its biggest plague of locusts in decades as billions of the insects hatch along a wide front covering much of the country's central east region.
Ground spraying will be stepped up from next week as dusty, scrubby fields crawl with the quarter-inch hopping baby insects, New South Wales Plague Locust Commissioner Graeme Eggleston told Reuters."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said on Friday they have invented an antenna that captures visible light in much the same way that radio antennas capture radio waves.
They say the device, using tiny carbon nanotubes, might serve as the basis for an optical television or for converting solar energy into electricity once properly developed."
http://www.aip.org/png/2004/221.htm
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish man tried to have his wife charged with domestic abuse because she refused to have sex with him on five consecutive days, Spanish newspaper El Sur has reported.
The middle-aged man from Seville -- the city of Don Juan and Carmen -- said her refusals amounted to 'degrading treatment' and domestic abuse, a term used more often to describe wife-battering."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "
LONDON (Reuters) - Whether it's ice cream and chips, garlic on crackers or brown sauce on everything, nearly 60 percent of pregnant women admit to having weird cravings.
Nothing is too bizarre or unusual for some mothers-to-be, according to a survey of 200 British women by a leading baby food company."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lucrative Los Angeles porn film industry is reeling from news that two production companies had been slapped with the first fines for allowing actors to perform without condoms.
California's state health and safety board fined Evasive Angles and TTB Productions $30,560 (17,057 pounds) each for making porn movies which it said exposed three actors to HIV infections."
Friday, September 17, 2004
Microsoft: Can we check your software license? | Tech News on ZDNet
Microsoft: Can we check your software license? | Tech News on ZDNet: "The software maker has launched a pilot program in which some visitors to the main Windows download page are being asked to let the software maker check to see whether their copy of the operating system is licensed."
Q&A: Microsoft's Linux strategist Martin Taylor - Computerworld
Q&A: Microsoft's Linux strategist Martin Taylor - Computerworld: "SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Martin Taylor recently marked his one-year anniversary as Microsoft Corp.'s chief Linux strategist. Taylor, whose official title is general manager of platform strategy, recently spoke with Computerworld about his first year in that job. This is Part 1 of that interview.
What are some of the lessons you learned? A year ago, we had a pretty direct strategy. We really [wanted] to go dial down the emotion, dial down the rhetoric, have a more fact-oriented approach and dial up the pragmatic analysis of solutions. ... I initially thought that people were really lining up Windows and Linux side by side, and they'd say, 'Hey, Linux gives us better TCO [total cost of ownership].' Actually, it's less about that. What they know is, 'Hey, we can save money getting off Unix or off of RISC.' So the question is, 'Do we go to Linux or do we go to Windows?' That's where more of the comparison comes from. When I talk to customers and they say, 'Hey, we can get better TCO with Linux,' they're not always saying better than Windows. They're saying better than Unix."
PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column
PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column: "Following last week's column about Baxter, my idea for a distributed kinda sorta peer-to-peer Internet data back-up scheme, I expected this week to write about all the problems readers found with the idea, and all the existing Baxter-like services none of us had heard about. Well, things change, and I'll be doing that column next week, leaving this space to describe how Microsoft is planning a preemptive strike against Linux using its control of the PC hardware standard."
SourceForge.net: Project Info - webbot
SourceForge.net: Project Info - webbot: "WebBot is a flexible IRC bot written in C capable of extracting information from a custom list of websites, including searchable ones, using regular expression patterns. HTTP GET and POST methods supported as well as HTTP redirects."
The New York Times > New York Region > The Pen Is Mightier Than the Lock
The New York Times > New York Region > The Pen Is Mightier Than the Lock: "The cunning bicycle thieves of New York City always seem to be one step ahead of lockmakers. Design a more sophisticated lock and the thieves make a better pick. Make a sturdier chain and they get bigger bolt cutters. And if all else fails, they just dig up the parking meter or stop sign to unshackle the bike from it. But to open some of the toughest locks on the market, a thief needs only to flick his Bic pen."
Your brand new U-Lock is not safe!
Your brand new U-Lock is not safe!: "As you guys might remember, I recently had the nicest set of wheels I've ever had stolen from me. Today I was hanging out with a friend and we got to talking about that - he said his friend showed him just recently how to open a U-Lock with a ball point pen."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BOSTON (Reuters) - Rembrandt, the 17th-century Dutch master known for his skill in using light to carry perspective, may have been wall-eyed, a U.S. researcher has proposed."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - 'Belle de Jour,' the writer of an online journal describing her life as a London call girl, is quitting the website that launched fevered speculation about her true identity and landed her a book deal."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "SYDNEY (Reuters) - A top Australian rower faces disciplinary action for slapping a team mate who collapsed mid-race at the Athens Olympics during an official welcome-home dinner.
Catriona Oliver, a member of the women's eights, was ordered to appear before a disciplinary committee next week after hitting Sally Robbins at a formal reception in Sydney."
Wired News: Twist a Pen, Open a Lock
Wired News: Twist a Pen, Open a Lock: "A 50-year-old lock design was rendered useless last week when a brief post to an internet forum revealed the lock can be popped open with a cheap plastic pen."
Wired News: Sex Drive With Gina Lynn
Wired News: Sex Drive With Gina Lynn: "First things first. I am not Gina Lynn the actress. I have never been involved with any of Ms. Lynn's films, nor are we related in any way other than sharing the same name. (Assuming, of course, that Gina Lynn is her real name. It's on my birth certificate. Has anyone seen hers?)
I'm Gina Lynn the columnist, and if you followed me here from TechTV, may the kisses of a thousand internet lovers adorn your IM window. Wired News has graciously offered me a new home for Sex Drive With Gina Lynn, and I'm moving in tout de suite -- sense of humor, and sense of proportion, intact."
Wired News: Attack of the Radio Clones
Wired News: Attack of the Radio Clones: "Generic mouthwashes claim to be just as good as Listerine, and store-brand paper towels invite consumers to compare them to Bounty. This kind of marketing doesn't raise many eyebrows. But what if an online radio station says it's just 'like' New York City's Z100 or L.A.'s KROQ, and manages to sound pretty much the same?"
New Zealand News - Technology - Kiwi helping build browser
New Zealand News - Technology - Kiwi helping build browser: "The web browser wars are over and Microsoft won, right?
Well someone's forgotten to tell Ben Goodger and his team at the Mozilla Foundation because this Kiwi software engineer is taking market share from Internet Explorer (IE) with Firefox, the browser that's smaller yet smarter than anything else available."
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 2003
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 2003: "Accidents and Security Incidents
On August 14 at 4:00 PM, the power went out in New York City and across much of the Northeast. As many as 50 million people were without power, some for days. Although there were some initial rumors of terrorism -- only a few, thankfully -- it was an accident. "
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 2003
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 2003: "Benevolent Worms
A week after Blaster infected computers across the Internet, a 'benevolent' worm started spreading in its wake. Called Blast.D or Nachi, it infects computers through the same vulnerability that Blaster did. When it infects a computer, it finds and deletes Blaster, and then applies the Microsoft patch to the computer so that the vulnerability is closed and Blaster cannot reinfect. It then scans the network for other infected machines and repairs them, too."
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 2000
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 2000: "Full Disclosure and the Window of Exposure
Every season yields a bumper crop of computer security stories: break-ins, new vulnerabilities, new products. But this season has also given us a crop of stories about computer security philosophy. There has been a resurgence in opposition to the full disclosure movement: the theory that states that publishing vulnerabilities is the best way to fix them. In response, defenders of the movement have published their rebuttals. And even more experts have weighed in with opinions on the DeCSS case, where a New York judge ruled that distributing an attack tool is illegal."
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 1999
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 1999: "Factoring a 512-bit Number
A factoring record was broken last month, on 22 August. A group led by Herman te Riele of CWI in Amsterdam factored a 512-bit (155-digit) hard number. By 'hard,' I mean that it was the product of two 78-digit primes...the kind of numbers used by the RSA algorithm."
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 1999
Crypto-Gram: September 15, 1999: "The Doghouse: E*Trade
E*Trade's password security isn't. They limit the logon password to a maximum of 6 characters, and the only choices are letters (upper and lower case are distinguished), numbers, $, and _. Whose portfolio do you want to trade today?"
Endoacustica: spy phone, spyphone, spy telephone, spy cellphone, gsm spy, telephone monitoring, spyphone shop, gsm inteception
Endoacustica: spy phone, spyphone, spy telephone, spy cellphone, gsm spy, telephone monitoring, spyphone shop, gsm inteception: "Protect your kids from drugs and bad companies with our spy cellphones."
The Man in the Snow White Cell
The Man in the Snow White Cell: "The war on terror is frustrating and confusing. It is a war of shifting targets and uncertain methods, a war that is unconventional in every sense of the word. One of the most difficult parts of the war for the average American to understand is the trouble we have had in obtaining information from some of the captured terrorists being held at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other locations around the world."(PDF)
: "The pipe-shaped metal device that Brian Teasley took with him to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport set off alarms when baggage screeners spotted it in a terminal Thursday.
The cylindrical object, which has threaded caps and wires, is not dangerous, federal authorities determined. It is a custom-built microphone Mr. Teasley and his bandmates with the Dallas-based Polyphonic Spree have used in performances, including a recent visit to The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.
Mr. Teasley, who recently made his first national TV appearance as the band's percussionist, used a clip from that show to prove to four federal agents who visited his home in Birmingham, Ala., that he was a musician, not a terrorist."
Self-Checkout Security a Balancing Act
Self-Checkout Security a Balancing Act
Putting control of checkout into the hands of the consumer is nightmarishly frightening for many retail executives—including that part where the consumers figure out how much money they are going to give the retailer.
Know your enemy: the author of Netsky/Sasser speaks
Know your enemy: the author of Netsky/Sasser speaks: "I'm often asked who writes computer viruses. The stereotype is of an antisocial, unathletic male loner sitting in a basement late at night. But Sarah Gordon, virus writer profiler for Symantec Corporation, has written that the typical teenage virus writer is more than likely to be the typical boy next door, with a girlfriend and often on good terms with his parents. There have also been several female virus writers. A recent profile in the New York Times Magazine sheds further light on the once-secret daily lives of a diverse gang of virus writers."
Chinese finger 'exam cheat' virus | The Register
Chinese finger 'exam cheat' virus | The Register: "In brief A computer virus specifically designed to steal files with names such as 'exam' or 'test questions' has reportedly been discovered by a Chinese Internet security firm.
The 'exam theft' virus is capable of infecting Microsoft Word and Excel files and uploading targeted documents onto the Net, the Shanghai Daily News reports. The paper reports that there is a thriving trade in black-market exam papers and implies this might have motivated the creation of the virus."
BBC NEWS | Technology | A glimpse inside the virus writer
BBC NEWS | Technology | A glimpse inside the virus writer: "When most people catch a computer virus it usually makes them much more diligent and update their anti-virus software more often."
collision detection: My article on virus-writers in the New York Times Magazine
collision detection: My article on virus-writers in the New York Times Magazine: "The Virus Underground Philet0ast3r, Second Part to Hell, Vorgon and guys like them around the world spend their Saturday nights writing fiendishly contagious computer viruses and worms. Are they artists, pranksters or techo-saboteurs?
By Clive Thompson
This is how easy it has become.
Mario stubs out his cigarette and sits down at the desk in his bedroom. He pops into his laptop the CD of Iron Maiden's ''Number of the Beast,'' his latest favorite album. ''I really like it,'' he says. ''My girlfriend bought it for me.'' He gestures to the 15-year-old girl with straight dark hair lounging on his neatly made bed, and she throws back a shy smile. Mario, 16, is a secondary-school student in a small town in the foothills of southern Austria. (He didn't want me to use his last name.) His shiny shoulder-length hair covers half his face and his sleepy green eyes, making him look like a very young, languid Mick Jagger. On his wall he has an enormous poster of Anna Kournikova -- which, he admits sheepishly, his girlfriend is not thrilled about. Downstairs, his mother is cleaning up after dinner. She isn't thrilled these days, either. But what bothers her isn't Mario's poster. It's his hobby."
New York Post Online Edition: business
New York Post Online Edition: business
August 15, 2004 -- With little fanfare, the Federal Reserve will begin transferring the nation's money supply over an Internet-based system this month — a move critics say could open the U.S.'s banking system to cyber threats.
SSRN-A Model for When Disclosure Helps Security: What is Different About Computer and Network Security? by Peter Swire
SSRN-A Model for When Disclosure Helps Security: What is Different About Computer and Network Security? by Peter Swire: "This Article asks the question: When does disclosure actually help security? The discussion begins with a paradox. Most experts in computer and network security are familiar with the slogan that there is no security through obscurity. The Open Source and encryption view is that revealing the details of a system will actually tend to improve security, notably due to peer review. In sharp contrast, a famous World War II slogan says loose lips sink ships. Most experts in the military and intelligence areas believe that secrecy is a critical tool for maintaining security. Both cannot be right - disclosure cannot both help and hurt security. "
Paper (PDF)
SSRN-A Model for When Disclosure Helps Security: What is Different About Computer and Network Security? by Peter Swire
SSRN-A Model for When Disclosure Helps Security: What is Different About Computer and Network Security? by Peter Swire: "This Article asks the question: When does disclosure actually help security? The discussion begins with a paradox. Most experts in computer and network security are familiar with the slogan that there is no security through obscurity. The Open Source and encryption view is that revealing the details of a system will actually tend to improve security, notably due to peer review. In sharp contrast, a famous World War II slogan says loose lips sink ships. Most experts in the military and intelligence areas believe that secrecy is a critical tool for maintaining security. Both cannot be right - disclosure cannot both help and hurt security. "
DOD reveals viral infection
DOD reveals viral infection
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A virus infected two computers managed by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command operating on the Defense Department's classified Internet recently, according to Lt. Gen Larry Dodgen, head of the command.
....Linton Wells, acting secretary of networks and information integration also emphasized information security in his presentation. "Security is not an appliqué," or add-on in the era of network-centric warfare, Wells said. Security attributes must be built into systems from the start, he said, adding that the "most stupid thing" the military could do is build a "ubiquitous, global network that is insecure."(PDF)
urbanmyth.org: Intel Microcode Update Utility for Linux
urbanmyth.org: Intel Microcode Update Utility for Linux: "Intel Microcode Update Utility for Linux
The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian
* it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, PIII, Pentium 4, Celeron, Xeon etc - all P6 and above, which does NOT include pentium classics)
* it signals the kernel driver to release any buffers it may hold
The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, reboot and it reverts back to the old microcode."
American Indians - Code Talker Dictionary
American Indians - Code Talker Dictionary: "REVISED AS OF 15 JUNE 1945
(DECLASSIFIED UNDER DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DIRECTIVE 5200.9)"
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog
Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog: "I'm watching with amusement as IBM prepares to stub its toe with their new, curiously named 'OpenPower' low-end boxes.
Now, I will freely admit I am entirely confused by what they're doing. Why on earth would you ship a proprietary computer that doesn't run your own operating system (AIX)? If I were trying to freak out my installed base, that's exactly what I'd do."
EEProductCenter.com :: RF module requires no configuration, offers 40-mile line-of-sight range
EEProductCenter.com :: RF module requires no configuration, offers 40-mile line-of-sight range: "MaxStream, Inc. introduces the 9XTend OEM RF Module that provides unprecedented performance in a low cost radio modem. The 9XTend is MaxStream's longest range (up to 40 miles in RF line-of-sight), low power OEM RF module. This affordable RF module is smaller than a credit card and allows for robust performance in North America, Australia and Israel."
SourceForge.net: Project Info - Debian Hardened - Assured,Trustworthy
SourceForge.net: Project Info - Debian Hardened - Assured,Trustworthy: "Debian Hardened is a project to brought to you a complete hardened (secured) tree of debian packages & kernels for the stable release, giving you a chance to easily get working a hardened (almost 100% secure) Debian GNU/Linux powered machine."
Wired News: Aural Heaven: IPod and Analog
Wired News: Aural Heaven: IPod and Analog: "In the back streets of Tokyo's upscale Aoyama district, there's a little antique store quite unlike all the others in the neighborhood.
Located on the second floor of an old apartment building, And Up specializes in selling antique radios and, of all things, iPods."
Excite News
Excite News: "TOKYO (AP) - The therapeutic power of flowers takes on new meaning with a Japanese gadget that turns plants into audio speakers, making the petals and leaves tremble with good vibrations."
Firefox to become the top browser?! - The Jason Calacanis Weblog - calacanis.weblogsinc.com
Firefox to become the top browser?! - The Jason Calacanis Weblog - calacanis.weblogsinc.com: "Like may people I hate IE For about five years I used Opera for 80% of my surfing, and like many I gave started using Firefox this year."
MetroWest Daily News - Local News Coverage
MetroWest Daily News - Local News Coverage: "CAMBRIDGE -- It's a hacker's nightmare but a dream for bankers and spies: A computer network so secure that even the simplest attempts to eavesdrop will interrupt the flow of data and alert administrators to the snooping.
"
Monday, September 13, 2004
Transitive Corporation: Technology Overview
Transitive Corporation: Technology Overview
QuickTransit allows software that has been compiled for one processor/operating system to be run on another processor/operating system without any source code or binary changes. To do this, QuickTransit provides a hardware virtualization technology that consists of four key components. First, an integration “FUSE” allows QuickTransit to be easily integrated into the target system. Second, a dynamic binary translator tackles the challenge of moving from one instruction set architecture to another. Third, an operating system mapper translates operating system calls from the source system to the target system in situations where the source and target operating systems are different. Finally, a graphics subsystem mapper translates graphics system calls from the source to the target system in situations where the source and target graphics systems are different.
USATODAY.com - 'Star Wars' emerges from darkness
USATODAY.com - 'Star Wars' emerges from darkness: "Now John Lowry is the unseen force behind the sparkling new DVD versions of George Lucas' Star Wars films, which arrive Sept. 21 in a four-disc $70 box set."
Forbes.com: "Beware of the End of the World (Wide Web)," Says Intel
Forbes.com: "Beware of the End of the World (Wide Web)," Says Intel: "'Beware of the End of the World (Wide Web),' Says Intel
, 09.10.04, 12:04 PM ET
Sep 10, 2004 (financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- (FinancialWire) Remember those 'End of the World' signs? Well, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) says it may be nearer than we think. Except the sign says 'End of the World Wide Web.' "
[print version] Speech code from IBM to become open source | CNET News.com
[print version] Speech code from IBM to become open source | CNET News.com: "
IBM plans to announce Monday that it will contribute some of its speech-recognition software to two open-source software groups.
The move is a tactical step by IBM to accelerate the development of speech applications and to outmaneuver rivals, especially Microsoft, in a market that is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years with increased use in customer-service call centers, cars and elsewhere. To do this, IBM is again using the strategy of placing some of its proprietary software in open-source projects, making it available for other programmers to improve."
EducationGuardian.co.uk | Higher | Space probes feel cosmic tug of bizarre forces
EducationGuardian.co.uk | Higher | Space probes feel cosmic tug of bizarre forces: "Something strange is tugging at America's oldest spacecraft. As the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes head towards distant stars, scientists have discovered that the craft - launched more than 30 years ago - appear to be in the grip of a mysterious force that is holding them back as they sweep out of the solar system."
Wired News: Public Fiber Tough to Swallow
Wired News: Public Fiber Tough to Swallow: "Across the United States, towns and cities dissatisfied with data services provided by the private sector are now delivering high-speed connectivity to the doorstep, often at lower prices.
In the process, however, municipalities are facing increasingly fierce opposition from cable operators and telecommunications companies unhappy with the competition. In some cases, cable companies and telcos are fighting to bar utilities entirely from providing broadband in the future."
Wired News: Step Toward Universal Computing
Wired News: Step Toward Universal Computing: "A Silicon Valley startup claims to have cracked one of most elusive goals of the software industry: a near-universal emulator that allows software developed for one platform to run on any other, with almost no performance hit.
Transitive Corp. of Los Gatos, California, claims its QuickTransit software allows applications to run 'transparently' on multiple hardware platforms, including Macs, PCs, and numerous servers and mainframes."
moongroup.com
moongroup.com: "Okay folks... you heard it here first! The last call results from the MARID co-chairs is in! Here it is:
To: IETF MARID WG
From: Andrew Newton
Subject: co-chair judgment of consensus related to last call period of 23-Aug-2004 to 10-Sept-2004
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 13:59:06 -0400
The following is the judgment of the co-chairs relating to consensus within the MARID working group during the last call period of 23-August-2004 through 10-September-2004."
InfoWorld: IBM delivers Power-based servers with Linux: September 13, 2004: By Ed Scannell : PLATFORMS
InfoWorld: IBM delivers Power-based servers with Linux: September 13, 2004: By Ed Scannell : PLATFORMS: "IBM will push its Power5 line of servers down into the low end of the market, taking Linux with it, when it unwraps an aggressively priced series of Linux-only systems on Monday that will go up against the offerings of Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard."
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Herald.com | 09/12/2004 | Low-carb leader will get my vote
Herald.com | 09/12/2004 | Low-carb leader will get my vote: "Pretty soon you, the American voter, will enter the sacred sanctity of the voting booth and cast your ballot for the next U.S. president. Or, not. It's also possible that your ballot will go back in time and participate in the election of 1848, or wind up in a distant galaxy, helping to elect an alien being with 73 eyeballs (slogan: ``A Being of Vision'')."
The Subterranean Fortress
The Subterranean Fortress: "This tri-level house sits on top of a camouflaged 4-story deep Subterranean Fortress designed to handle virtually any disaster."
Article: Cannabis truly helps multiple sclerosis sufferers�| New Scientist
Article: Cannabis truly helps multiple sclerosis sufferers�| New Scientist: "Cannabis may loosen the stiff and spastic muscles of multiple sclerosis sufferers, and not just their minds, a follow-up study has found."
Yahoo! News - Blast, Mushroom Cloud Reported in N. Korea
Yahoo! News - Blast, Mushroom Cloud Reported in N. Korea: "SEOUL, South Korea - A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea (news - web sites), sending a huge mushroom cloud into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency reported Sunday."(PDF)
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Coral: The New York University Distribution Network
Coral: The New York University Distribution Network: "Are you tired of clicking on some link from a web portal, only to find that the website is temporarily off-line because thousands or millions of other users are also trying to access it? Does your network have a really low-bandwidth connection, such that everyone, even accessing the same web pages, suffers from slow downloads? Have you ever run a website, only to find that suddenly you get hit with a spike of thousands of requests, overloading your server and possibly causing high monthly bills? If so, Coral might be your free solution for these problems!"
Wired News: Drivers Want Code to Their Cars
Wired News: Drivers Want Code to Their Cars: "Rachel Seymour, a college student from Portland, Oregon, has had her 2002 Kia Spectra serviced 12 times for a Check Engine light problem. Each time, she's forced to take it to a Kia dealership, where a technician hooks her car up to a computer, runs a battery of tests and charges her $120 to diagnose and repair the same problem: a loose gas cap."
Wired News: Car Dealers Feel Net Effect
Wired News: Car Dealers Feel Net Effect: "Savvy online shoppers are schooling car salespeople in the art of the deal. Car buyers who mine the Web for detailed vehicle information are saving hundreds while depriving hucksters of their greatest weapon -- consumer ignorance."
Wired News: Clean Cars Lean on Dirty Old Gas
Wired News: Clean Cars Lean on Dirty Old Gas: "Some would-be architects of the clean-energy future want you to fuel up on hydrogen produced from a rather familiar source: gasoline.
Working in labs in Russia and Canada, both major oil producers, the scientists say they have developed a catalyst that converts gasoline into hydrogen in a series of emissions-free reactions that can power a fuel-cell car for up to 500 kilometers. After that a cartridge containing the catalyst (in one possible scenario) would have to be removed from the vehicle to be refilled with hydrogen."
Wired News: Breeding Race Cars to Win
Wired News: Breeding Race Cars to Win: "A technology that allows robots to rebuild themselves and computer programs to evolve and become better on their own is now being used to breed super-fast Formula One race cars."
Wired News: Speedy, Tiny and Troublesome
Wired News: Speedy, Tiny and Troublesome: "SAN FRANCISCO -- Whizzing down the street just inches from the pavement, Vincent Walstra looks like a big kid getting away with his little brother's pint-size bike. Arms and legs straddling the shiny yellow two-wheeler, Walstra knows he looks silly, but he's having fun on his new toy -- a shrunken-down motorcycle commonly referred to as a 'pocket bike.'"
Wired News: Teched-Out Cars Bug Drivers
Wired News: Teched-Out Cars Bug Drivers: "The complex technology that automakers pack into their cars -- navigation systems, throttle controls, pressure sensors and the like -- are designed to make life on the road easier, but many buyers are being driven crazy instead."
Wired News: Greens Greasing Political Wheels
Wired News: Greens Greasing Political Wheels: "BOSTON -- The Democratic Party this week promised 'to end America's dependence on Mideast oil' through such measures as tax credits for biomass, solar and wind power, and by developing the Alaska natural gas pipeline."
Wired News: Spot-On Solution for Car Thefts
Wired News: Spot-On Solution for Car Thefts: "Australia has implemented a tiny solution to reduce its big car-theft problem: plastering thousands of plastic microdots on late-model vehicles.
As small as grains of sand, up to 10,000 DataDots are laser-etched with vehicle identification numbers and spray-glued on the engine and most other parts, making it very difficult to 're-birth' cars or sell cannibalized parts. The dots glow under a black light for easy spotting and can be read with a 30-power magnifying glass."
Wired News: Driver Watching DVD: Not Guilty
Wired News: Driver Watching DVD: Not Guilty: "KENAI, Alaska -- A man was acquitted Tuesday of charges he caused a fatal crash by taking his eyes off the road while watching a movie on a DVD player mounted on his truck dashboard."
Wired News: Secure Flight Gets Wary Welcome
Wired News: Secure Flight Gets Wary Welcome: "Feeling the heat from Congress's embrace of the 9/11 commission's report, homeland security officials unveiled a new program on Thursday that will check 2 million airline passengers a day against a centralized terrorist watch list beginning early next year."
Wired News: Flight ID Rules Fuel Fresh Furor
Wired News: Flight ID Rules Fuel Fresh Furor: "Lawyers for privacy advocate John Gilmore, who is pursuing a lawsuit challenging the government's alleged requirement that airlines ask passengers for identification, filed a motion late Tuesday seeking to keep the case open to public scrutiny."
Wired News: Bill Seeks Civil Liberties Board
Wired News: Bill Seeks Civil Liberties Board: "A sprawling intelligence reform bill introduced Tuesday in Congress to implement all of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations would create an executive-level civil liberties board with wide oversight and investigative powers."
Wired News: Judge Dumps Child Porn Law
Wired News: Judge Dumps Child Porn Law: "A federal judge threw out on Friday a Pennsylvania law requiring internet service providers to block websites containing child pornography, saying the tools to do so also cause 'massive suppression' of constitutionally protected speech."
Wired News: U.S. Open Puts Serve in Server
Wired News: U.S. Open Puts Serve in Server: "NEW YORK -- Winding your way beneath the stands of Louis Armstrong Stadium at the U.S. Tennis Association's National Tennis Center, you'll eventually come to a fluorescent-lit room dubbed 'mission control' by IBM staff. Inside the sparsely decorated and, thankfully, air-conditioned room sits a bank of more than 35 IBM ThinkPads, flat-screen TVs, Blade servers and a dozen technicians.
"
Friday, September 10, 2004
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Making the genetic codes of dangerous pathogens a secret will not save anyone from bioterrorism and may make the population vulnerable to attacks from Mother Nature, scientists said on Thursday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "EXETER, England (Reuters) - Decaying pig corpses deposited in secret locations around London are providing scientists with forensic information that may help them solve crimes."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "MADRID (Reuters) - The last few tons of sticky toxic fuel oil have been sucked out of the wreck of the Prestige tanker, Spain said on Friday, almost two years after the ship went down in the country's worst environmental disaster."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A stroke that robbed a woman of her dreams may help pinpoint where and how dreams are born in the brain, scientists said on Friday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "OSLO (Reuters) - Aluminum could be an unusual savior for Atlantic salmon in prized Scandinavian and Russian fishing rivers because it kills a voracious parasite, researchers said on Friday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - The mushy remains of a tomato thrown at a prominent member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats has posed a legal dilemma for authorities trying to assess how to punish the thrower."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - What's a big cud-chewing Scottish cow have to do with preserving public decency?
According to the mayor of a small Dutch town, allowing Highland heifers to graze in a nearby nature reserve will help deter couples who have scandalised the upright citizens of Spaarnwoude with their open-air sex antics."
The New York Times > Health > Sick of Work: Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some
The New York Times > Health > Sick of Work: Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some: "For Michael Jones, an architect at a top-tier firm in New York, juggling multiple projects and running on four hours of sleep is business as usual. Mr. Jones has adjusted, he says, to a rapid pace and the constant pressure that leads his colleagues to 'blow up' from time to time."
But I wore the juice!
But I wore the juice!: "I promised more on the estimation quiz, and here it is -- better late than never, I hope. (This probably won't make much sense unless you read the first bit published on Saturday. Ignore the bit where I promised that this article would be published last Sunday.)"
The weirdness of crowds
The weirdness of crowds: "So, many thanks to the thousands of people who have now completed my Estimation Quiz. Special thanks to Michael Williams, who posted a link to del.icio.us, Dave Weeden, Chris Bertram of Crooked Timber, Nick Barlow, Chris Brooke, and many others for linking to the site, including a user of Metafilter -- which link drove most of the traffic. (I was expecting to have to wait months for enough people to complete the thing for the results to be interesting, as with my Political Survey. Instead it took two days. That should probably tell you as much as you need to know about my ability at estimating things.)"
Yahoo! News - Engineer Builds Robot That Walks on Water
Yahoo! News - Engineer Builds Robot That Walks on Water
Thursday, September 09, 2004
MSNBC - Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power
MSNBC - Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power: "LONDON - British scientists are developing a robot that will generate its own power by eating flies."
The New York Times > Business > World Business > An Elder Challenges Outsourcing's Orthodoxy
The New York Times > Business > World Business > An Elder Challenges Outsourcing's Orthodoxy: "At 89, Paul A. Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, still seems to have plenty of intellectual edge and the ability to antagonize and amuse."
Introduction to IPv6: The *New* Internet Protocol
Introduction to IPv6: The *New* Internet Protocol: " If you have heard of 'IPv6', you are probably asking what it is and you are not alone. The curiosity surrounding IPv6 is growing now that it is being discussed more often and more publicly. I'm here to shed some light on to what 'IPv6' is and how it will affect your future internet experiences both positively and negatively; hopefully, more positively than anything else. First, to understand how we got to IPv6, we have to understand where things started. In the years between the late 1960's and early 1970's, UCLA and a group of other colleges got together and came up with a way to link their computers together over what became the archetype of the internet, later known as Arpanet. The theoretical foundation of this early incarnation was laid upon several memos written by an MIT employee named J.C.R. Licklider. Seeing its potential, the US Government began expanding and developing Arpanet to provide the military with an effective, redundant, scalable, and durable communication medium during wartime. But as time went on and the early internet grew, the framework and protocol system of ArpaNet just did not cut it anymore, hence TCP/IP was born and with it IPv1. Obviously, they weren't born at the same time, but one led to the other and eventually even these were outgrown."(PDF)
Longhorn to put squeeze on gadgets | Tech News on ZDNet
Longhorn to put squeeze on gadgets | Tech News on ZDNet: "SAN FRANCISCO--Windows makes it easy to quickly download files to iPods and other portable storage devices--a little too easy in the minds of many IT managers."
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD
Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD: "Thank you for your interest in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD. Microsoft will ship the CD to you free of charge. This CD includes the same Service Pack 2 software that is available for download from Windows Update."
875355 - How to use the Automatic Recovery feature to recover your computer if the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Setup program is not completed successful
875355 - How to use the Automatic Recovery feature to recover your computer if the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Setup program is not completed successfully: "This article discusses how to use the Automatic Recovery feature to restore your computer to its previous configuration if the installation of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is not completed successfully and you cannot start your computer. Follow these steps if your computer does not start correctly after you try to upgrade your computer from Windows XP to Windows XP SP2. This article also discusses how to collect information about the Windows XP SP2 installation and about your computer to help troubleshoot issue. The Windows XP SP2 Setup logs, the System Information tool, and the event logs contain information that can help a Microsoft Product Support Services professional who may be working with you to diagnose the issue."
Someone to watch over the 'Net
Someone to watch over the 'Net: "A behind-the-scenes look as the Internet Storm Center's Johannes Ullrich battles the MyDoom-O virus."
Yahoo! News - Floppy Disk Becoming Relic of the Past
Yahoo! News - Floppy Disk Becoming Relic of the Past: "ATLANTA - Long the most common way to store letters, homework and other computer files, the floppy disk is going the way of the horse upon the arrival of the car: it'll hang around but never hold the same relevance in everyday life."
CNN.com - Government�wants ID�arguments secret - Sep 6, 2004
CNN.com - Government�wants ID�arguments secret - Sep 6, 2004: "SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Justice has asked an appellate court to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an airplane."
Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. Government for 9/11
Project Censored 2005 - Story #9
Ellen Mariani lost her husband, Louis Neil Mariani, on 9/11 and is refusing the government’s million-dollar settlement offer. Louis Neil Mariani, a passenger, died when United Air Lines flight 175 was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Secrets of Cheney's Energy Task Force Come to Light
Project Censored 2005 - Story #8
Documents turned over in the summer of 2003 by the Commerce Department as a result of the Sierra Club’s and Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents, dated March 2001, also feature maps of Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the project’s costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date.
High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
Project Censored 2005 - Story #4
Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States’ use of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries are bound to feel the effects as well.
Monday, September 06, 2004
DMX Homepage
DMX Homepage: "Typical X servers provide multi-head support for multiple displays attached to the same machine. When Xinerama is in use, these multiple displays are presented to the user as a single unified screen.
Xdmx is proxy X server that provides multi-head support for multiple displays attached to different machines (each of which is running a typical X server). When Xinerama is used with Xdmx, the multiple displays on multiple machines are presented to the user as a single unified screen.
A simple application for Xdmx would be to provide multi-head support using two desktop machines, each of which has a single display device attached to it.
A complex application for Xdmx would be to unify a 4 by 4 grid of 1280x1024 displays (each attached to one of 16 computers) into a unified 5120x4096 display."
Project Censored 2005 - Story #8
Project Censored 2005 - Story #8
Documents turned over in the summer of 2003 by the Commerce Department as a result of the Sierra Club’s and Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents, dated March 2001, also feature maps of Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the project’s costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #7
Project Censored 2005 - Story #7
In 2001 George W. Bush eliminated the longstanding role of the American Bar Association (ABA) in the evaluation of prospective federal judges. ABA’s judicial ratings had long kept extremists from the right and left, off the bench. In its place, Bush has been using The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies—a national organization whose mission is to advance a conservative agenda by moving the country’s legal system to the right.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #6
Project Censored 2005 - Story #6
Conflicts of interest exist between the largest suppliers of electronic voting machines in the United States and key leaders of the Republican Party. While the technical problems with the voting machines themselves have received a certain amount of coverage in the mainstream media, the political conflicts of interest, though well documented, have received almost none. Election analysts on both sides of the fence are charging that while particular industries have traditionally formed alliances with one or another of the parties, political affiliations within the voting machine industry are inappropriate— and have dangerous implications for our democratic process.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #5
Project Censored 2005 - Story #5
Not since the McKinley era of the late 1800s has there been such a drastic move to scale back preservation of the environment. In 1896 President William McKinley was extremely pro-industry in terms of forests and mining interest giveaways. Mark Hanna, McKinley’s partner against American populist William Jennings Bryan, raised more than $4 million in campaign contributions stating that only a government that catered first to the needs of corporate interests could serve the needs of the people.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #4
Project Censored 2005 - Story #4
Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States’ use of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries are bound to feel the effects as well.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #3
Project Censored 2005 - Story #3
Critics charge that the Bush Administration is purging, censoring, and manipulating scientific information in order to push forward its pro-business, anti-environmental agenda. In Washington, D.C. more than 60 of the nation’s top scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, and former federal agency directors, issued a statement on February 18, 2004 accusing the Bush Administration of deliberately distorting scientific results for political ends and calling for regulatory and legislative action to restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #2
Project Censored 2005 - Story #2
Attorney General John Ashcroft is seeking to strike down one of the world’s oldest human rights laws, the Alien Torts Claim Act (ATCA) which holds government leaders, corporations, and senior military officials liable for human rights abuses taking place in foreign countries. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) vehemently oppose the removal of this law, as it is one of the few legal defenses victims of human rights violations can claim against powerful organizations such as governments or multinational corporations. The attempt to dismiss the law comes less than a year after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Unocal Corporation could be held liable for human rights abuses committed against Burmese peasants near a pipeline the company was building. By attempting to throw out this law, the Bush Administration is effectively opening the door for human rights abuses to continue under the veil of foreign relations.
Project Censored 2005 - Story #1
Project Censored 2005 - Story #1
In the late 1700s, issues of fairness and equality were topics of great debate—
equality under the law, equality of opportunity, etc. Considered by the framers of the Constitution to be one of the most important aspects of a democratic system, the word “equality” is featured prominently throughout the document. In the 200+ years since, most industrialized nations have succeeded in decreasing the gap between rich and poor.
Flexbeta - A Guide To Firefox Extensions - Page 1
Flexbeta - A Guide To Firefox Extensions - Page 1: "The Mozilla FireFox browser is gaining popularity among web surfers all around the world. Tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and the lack of spyware are just some of the reasons many people are turning to FireFox. One of the most interesting features of the Mozilla Firefox browser is the user's ability to add functionality and features to the browser through 'extensions'."
Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures
Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures: "Chips holding 10 terabits of data? Copper as strong as steel? Ceramics tough enough to be used in car engines? All this will be true in five years, thanks to two new methods to create self-assembling 3D nanostructures. These methods used pulsed laser deposition to create layers of nanodots organized in a matrix. These arrays of nanodots are consistent in shape and size -- 7 nanometers with nickel for example. But the real beauty of these methods is that they can be applied to almost any material, like nickel for data storage or aluminum oxide for ceramics. These methods also reduce drastically imperfections, leading to future superstrong materials. Read more..."
Triangle Tech Journal - Technology news and jobs in Research Triangle Park/RTP
Triangle Tech Journal - Technology news and jobs in Research Triangle Park/RTP: "Nanotechnology promises to revolutionize modern life. From energy-efficient lighting that lasts for 50 years, to greater data storage capacity, to stronger metals and ceramics, the improvements attributed to the development of nanostructures seem limitless. So far, the greatest impediment to developing these advances has been creating usable nanostructures that self-assemble. Engineers at North Carolina State University recently received a patent for two processes that help break that barrier."
Onne Gorter - Home/projects/dbfs/
Onne Gorter - Home/projects/dbfs/
Database File System; It is a new type of file system that does away with places where you store your files. Actually do not think of it as a file system, instead think of it as a document system. And while being precise, it is not database system either, it is a faceted system↑. It is a file system geared toward serving the user and is meant to make your live easier. It supports 'locating' files the way you think about them.
Curmudgeon Gamer - 10 Points to Consider Before Buying Cedega
Curmudgeon Gamer - 10 Points to Consider Before Buying Cedega: "Dan 'theoddone33' Olson has put together a list of ten critical observations that every potential Linux gamer should consider before buying Transgaming's WINE-based product Cedega (formerly WineX). With Dan's permission, as this is a potentially more appropriate forum, it is mirrored below. Perhaps Dan's even tone will be more appealing than a certain more shrill curmudgeoning."
XFree 4.x
XFree 4.x: "Section 'ServerLayout' Identifier 'XFree86 Configured' Screen 0 'Screen0' 0 0 InputDevice 'Mouse0' 'CorePointer' InputDevice 'Mouse1' 'AlwaysCore' InputDevice 'Keyboard0' 'CoreKeyboard' EndSection"
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Wired News: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Login
Wired News: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Login: "While many online newspaper readers are used to the idea of registering to read free content online, some news buffs are supporting and creating sites that help them beat the system with fake or shared login information that helps keep their personal information under wraps.
"
Wired News: Changing the Face of Web Surfing
Wired News: Changing the Face of Web Surfing: "CARDIFF, Wales -- 'If you want a job done properly, do it yourself,' the saying goes. Web users frustrated by poorly designed sites are increasingly applying that logic to the Net."
Wired News: Virus Writer Pleads Guilty
Wired News: Virus Writer Pleads Guilty: "A Minnesota high-school senior pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to unleashing a variant of the Blaster Internet worm that crippled thousands of computers last summer."
Wired News: Feds Wrap Up Online-Crime Dragnet
Wired News: Feds Wrap Up Online-Crime Dragnet: "A summer-long effort targeting internet crime has resulted in dozens of arrests and convictions on charges including use of 'spam' e-mail to steal credit card numbers, computer hacking and online fraud, Justice Department officials said Thursday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming is set to accelerate in the Arctic and bring drastic change for people and wildlife in coming decades, according to a draft report that has opened cracks among nations in the region about how to slow the thaw."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Locusts in West Africa are devouring crops and breeding at such a rate they are expected to create a substantial number of new swarms across the region in September, two reports said."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The clock is running out on a highly publicized prediction that a major earthquake will rip through Southern California by Sunday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian environmental officials on Sunday investigated a spill of toxic heavy metals into a river in the north of the country that has reportedly caused neighboring Ukraine to cut water supplies to five towns."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "MILAN (Reuters) - The passionate and previously secret love letters of one of Italy's best known novelists have taken centre stage in a court battle as his widow and heirs sue the nation's leading newspaper for publishing extracts."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's El Al Airlines has a message for its religious Jewish passengers who may disturb other people by flooding the aisles to pray during long-haul flights: It's no sin to sit down."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "TEHRAN (Reuters) - About 500 hardline vigilantes have taken to the streets in Tehran, demanding authorities crack down on women who wear colourful headscarves and figure-hugging coats which they denounce as 'prostitution'."
Wired News: HD PC: Cheaper Than High-Def TV
Wired News: HD PC: Cheaper Than High-Def TV: "SAN FRANCISCO -- High-definition television can show the sweat beading on an athlete's brow, but the cost of all the necessary electronic equipment can get a shopper's own pulse racing.
Instead of dropping more than $1,000 for a new TV, set-top box and antenna to bring in the signals that dramatically improve TV picture quality, look not in the living room, but in the home office. A $200 upgrade can turn a personal computer into a 'starter' high-definition television."
Wired News: Catch a Falling Space Capsule
Wired News: Catch a Falling Space Capsule: "SALT LAKE CITY -- In a harrowing feat high over the Utah desert Wednesday, two helicopter stunt pilots will try to snatch a floating space capsule that holds 'a piece of the sun' and bring it safely down."
Wired News: Strange Bedfellows in E-Mail Case
Wired News: Strange Bedfellows in E-Mail Case: "Civil liberties groups made common cause today with the Justice Department, a traditional target of their lawsuits, by filing court papers supporting the government's appeal of a court ruling that said internet service providers are allowed to snoop on their customers."
Wired News: X-Prize Long Shots Still in Play
Wired News: X-Prize Long Shots Still in Play: "For the small pack chasing the leaders in the $10 million Ansari X Prize space race, offered to the first team that can fly a three-person ship to an altitude of 100 kilometers twice within two weeks, the contest is over, done with, finished. Unless it's not."
V I P E R L A I R .com - ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0, Page 1/2
V I P E R L A I R .com - ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0, Page 1/2: "For PC television fans, up until now the only viable choice for TV viewing on the computer has been with an addon PCI or AGP (in the case of the All-In-Wonders) card. There have been USB breakout devices, but they have not been the perfect solution at the time. The slower USB 1.1 interface was one factor in the poor performance, and these breakout boxes often lacked some of the more advanced features found in dedicated TV cards."
How Authoritative is Wikipedia
How Authoritative is Wikipedia: "Wikipedia is a free, collaborative online encyclopedia written and edited through the volunteer efforts of literally thousands of people. The unique feature of Wikipedia (or any wiki) is that anyone can contribute or edit the content. Software features make it easy to identify gross acts of vandalism and revert articles to earlier, known good, states. The result is an amazing resource, in the depth and breadth of the content."
Librarian: Don't use Wikipedia as source
Librarian: Don't use Wikipedia as source: "In a column published a few weeks ago by my companion Dr. Gizmo, readers were urged to go to the Wikipedia Web site at www.wikipedia. org/wiki/Main Page , an online encyclopedia, for more information on computer history. The doctor and I had figured Wikipedia was a good independent source."
Genesis : Search for Origins | JPL | NASA
Genesis : Search for Origins | JPL | NASA: "On Sept. 8, NASA's Genesis mission is returning to Earth, bearing samples of the Sun. In a well-rehearsed midair maneuver, a helicopter will hook the spacecraft's return capsule and bring it gently and safely to the ground. The capsule's contents of solar wind may help scientists understand the origins of our solar system. The event, which takes place in the skies over Utah, will be broadcast live on NASA TV and the Internet."
USATODAY.com - Genesis space capsule to return with secrets of solar system
USATODAY.com - Genesis space capsule to return with secrets of solar system
SALT LAKE CITY — In a harrowing feat high over the Utah desert, two helicopter stunt pilots will try to snatch a floating space capsule that holds "a piece of the sun" and bring it safely down.
CNN.com - Man accused of stalking with GPS - Sep 4, 2004
CNN.com - Man accused of stalking with GPS - Sep 4, 2004: "GLENDALE, California (AP) -- Police arrested a man they said tracked his ex-girlfriend's whereabouts by attaching a global positioning system to her car."
Wal-Mart Gift cards get hacked - Engadget - www.engadget.com
Wal-Mart Gift cards get hacked - Engadget - www.engadget.com
BMI posts record year, despite music industry doom and gloom
BMI posts record year, despite music industry doom and gloom: "Everyone knows that piracy can affect an artist's bottom line, and very few people would argue that artists, programmers, and the like, should work for free in all instances. Indeed, while there is a lot of hostility to lobbying groups like the RIAA, most folks do want to support the bands and songwriters that they like. That's why the RIAA (and sister organization, the MPAA) often use the notion of the starving artist to justify their attacks on piracy-it plays at the heart strings and gives a sense of imminent doom. The groups routinely claim that their business is not just suffering, but even eroding on account of piracy. One result, we're told, is that artists are suffering everywhere, and this could have dire effects on the entire industry."
Simulating the Whole Universe
Simulating the Whole Universe: "An international group of cosmologists, the Virgo Consortium, has realized the first simulation of the entire universe, starting 380,000 years after the Big Bang and going up to now. In 'Computing the Cosmos,' IEEE Spectrum writes that the scientists used a 4.2 teraflops system at the Max Planck Society's Computing Center in Garching, Germany, to do the computations. The whole universe was simulated by ten billion particles, each having a mass a billion times that of our sun. As it was necessary to compute the gravitational interactions between each of the ten billion mass points and all the others, a task that needed 60,000 years, the computer scientists devised a couple of tricks to reduce the amount of computations. And in June 2004, the first simulation of our universe was completed. The resulting data, which represents about 20 terabytes, will be available to everyone in the months to come, at least to people with a high-bandwidth connection. Read more...
"
Browser Statistics
Browser Statistics: "Browser trends is important information. What you can read from the statistics below, is that Internet Explorer 6 is the dominating browser, XP is the most popular operating system, and most users are using a display with 800x600 pixels or more, with a color depth of at least 65K colors."
The New York Times > Health > Sick of Work: Always on the Job, Employees Pay With Health
The New York Times > Health > Sick of Work: Always on the Job, Employees Pay With Health: "American workers are stressed out, and in an unforgiving economy, they are becoming more so every day.
Sixty-two percent say their workload has increased over the last six months; 53 percent say work leaves them 'overtired and overwhelmed.'"
Friday, September 03, 2004
BionicFX - Music that's out of sight
BionicFX - Music that's out of sight: "BionicFX announces the invention of a technology to process real-time digital audio effects using your 3D video card."
news@nature.com�-�Inflatable spaceship set for test flight
news@nature.com�-�Inflatable spaceship set for test flight: "An inflatable lifeboat could one day ferry stranded astronauts back to Earth, if a prototype's test flights are successful next month."
Scientists Set Internet2 Speed Record
Scientists Set Internet2 Speed Record: "Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) set a new land-speed record for Internet2, a second-generation network serving universities and research institutes."
CNN.com - Big Brother watches Britain - Aug 31, 2004
CNN.com - Big Brother watches Britain - Aug 31, 2004: "LONDON, England (AP) -- The teenagers who stabbed wealthy Joao Da Costa Mitendele to death before burgling his home were careful to conceal the crime. They used a pretty girl to gain access to his apartment, where they wore rubber gloves while committing their crimes."
Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News
Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News: "Cambridge (MA) - Nvidia's graphic cards may have much more to offer than simply drawing pixels on the screen: A startup company has found a way to translate audio signals into graphics, run them through the graphics card and overcome a common issue of limited audio effect processing performance in computers."
Wired News: Fans Keep Newton in Motion
Wired News: Fans Keep Newton in Motion: "This weekend, fans of Apple's long-discontinued Newton will gather in Paris to celebrate the PDA that will never ever die."
Wired News: Cleaning Up After Ourselves
Wired News: Cleaning Up After Ourselves: "SAN FRANCISCO -- Most people try to ward off disease by exercising and eating well. Dr. Dick Luthy is trying to do it by standing ankle-deep in toxic mud."
Wired News: Mac Keeps Lead on Linux
Wired News: Mac Keeps Lead on Linux: "With the release of its first Linux laptop last week, Hewlett-Packard predicts this year the free operating system will unseat the Mac as the No. 2 desktop operating system behind Windows.
"
Wired News: Open Supercomputing Hits Big 1-0
Wired News: Open Supercomputing Hits Big 1-0: "Who's afraid of the big bad Beowulf?
No one now, but 10 years ago the scientific community greeted the first Beowulf supercomputer cluster with fear and loathing. 'The initial reaction of the supercomputer-oriented scientific community to the Beowulf project was very negative,' says Donald Becker, co-founder of the original Beowulf project."
Wired News: Why Trust Registration Data?
Wired News: Why Trust Registration Data?: "Kerry plagiarizes Microsoft? A reader, Christopher McLaughlin, pointed out that if you flip back and forth between John Kerry's homepage and MSN, you'll see that the two sites are almost identical in layout and color choices. According to Richard M. Smith, John Kerry's homepage runs on a Red Hat Linux box, while the Bush website is hosted on a Microsoft server.
So let me get this straight. Kerry runs Linux while Bush uses Microsoft, but Kerry's site is a blatant rip off of Microsoft's?
I know that Microsoft donates to both campaigns, but...."
Wired News: Mini Supercomputers, Power Misers
Wired News: Mini Supercomputers, Power Misers: "Lower electrical power consumption, not just greater data-processing oomph, will help a new class of desktop supercomputers unveiled on Monday turn conventional industry logic on its head, its designers say."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Seas Only Hope for World Water Supply, Says Spain
Thu 2 September, 2004 15:51
MADRID (Reuters) - The world's fast-growing thirst for water can only be met by purifying sea water as rivers and reservoirs become unable to meet demand, Spain said on Thursday unveiling a major program to fight its own chronic shortages."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "
Hair Stem Cells May Offer Baldness, Burn Treatments
Thu 2 September, 2004 19:46
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Master cells found deep inside hair follicles might offer a new way to treat baldness and burn victims, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A chimp-sized human ancestor walked upright 6 million years ago, far earlier than anyone had been able to show before, researchers reported on Thursday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New insect repellents may work by stopping pesky mosquitoes and flies from sniffing out their prey, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - The results of one of the stranger environmental surveys to be conducted in Britain are in -- and there's a surprise."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "LONDON (Reuters) - One of the world's most bizarre scientific collections has gone on show."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - A repentant thief has returned a laptop he stole from a computer shop after a salesman stumbled and broke his arm while chasing the bandit in the western town of Koblenz, police say."
Wired News: Permanent Lenses in Sight
Wired News: Permanent Lenses in Sight: "A permanent, implantable contact lens that can dramatically improve vision in patients with severe nearsightedness is expected to receive FDA approval by the end of this year."
Wired News: Feds Hunt Source of GOP Data
Wired News: Feds Hunt Source of GOP Data: "The Department of Justice has backed down from its demand that the internet access provider for several Indymedia websites give grand jury testimony on who posted the names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and New York City hotel locations of Republican National Convention delegates on the NYC Indymedia Open Newswire."
Wired News: Hydrogen Fuel Closer to Fruition
Wired News: Hydrogen Fuel Closer to Fruition: "The raw materials -- water and sunlight -- are free. The only waste, oxygen, is nonpolluting. And the product is hailed as the mean, green, fuel of the future. Welcome to the hydrogen economy."
Thursday, September 02, 2004
TuxMobil: Trademark Trouble: Obelix versus MobiliX
TuxMobil: Trademark Trouble: Obelix versus MobiliX: "Trademark Trouble: Obelix versus MobiliX
Unless you are as powerful as Disney, Coca-Cola, or the Olympic Committee, worldwide and universal trademarks don't exist; the same name can often be used in trade for completely different things.
-- Dennis Ritchie"
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "BERLIN (Reuters) - A man caught having sex with a blow-up doll in a busy public shopping arcade had to be physically parted from his rubber lover and escorted away, police in Stuttgart say."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - At first glance it looked like the real thing, so store clerk Kathryn Miller was happy to accept the $200 bill as payment -- and even make change.
"
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "Reuters news and television is now available through the Reuters RSS service. With Reuters RSS you can take Reuters world class news and television headlines, free of charge, and incorporate them into your preferred newsreaders and web logs. We hope you enjoy this new service from Reuters.co.uk."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - IBM said on Thursday it will recall about 553,000 AC power adapters worldwide for several models of its laptop computers because of potential fire and electrical shock hazards."
Wired News: RSS Feeds
Wired News: RSS Feeds: "Wired News can now be syndicated quickly and easily using our new lineup of Really Simple Syndication feeds."
A P R E S S . C O M | Books for Professionals, by Professionals ...
A P R E S S . C O M | Books for Professionals, by Professionals ...: "This book looks at the Internet from a sordid and entertaining perspective. The line between truth and fiction is blurred on the Net, just as it is in Hollywood, and so are the scandals involving well-known movie and TV personalities, politicians, and the Internet's own brand of celebrities. The battle between illusion and reality is every bit as intense on the Internet as on the celluloid screen. Going beyond sites that glorify the seamier side to life, Internet Babylon is a guide to the unique sites that appeal to selective sensibilities."
Patent office to re-examine Eolas patent | CNET News.com
Patent office to re-examine Eolas patent | CNET News.com: "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has stepped squarely into a fight roiling the Web by agreeing to re-examine the Eolas patent for a browser plug-in, a development likely to bring cheer to Microsoft and software patent foes alike."
InfoWorld: Ballmer bullish on future, bearish on Linux: September 01, 2004: By
InfoWorld: Ballmer bullish on future, bearish on Linux: September 01, 2004: By: "BOSTON -- Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer addressed a gathering of software industry leaders here on Wednesday, touting his company's vision for a bright future, while casting doubt on alternatives to his company's Windows operating system, in particular Linux."
HOW THE PEBBLE BED MODULAR REACTOR WORKS
HOW THE PEBBLE BED MODULAR REACTOR WORKS: "The main power system of the PBMR consists of two main parts. These are the reactor, where thermal energy is generated by a nuclear reaction, and the power conversion unit, where the thermal energy is converted to mechanical work and then to electrical energy by means of a thermodynamic cycle and a generator. The functioning of these two main units is described below."
Wired 12.09: Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom
Wired 12.09: Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom: "China is staring at the dark side of double-digit growth. Blackouts roll and factory lights flicker, the grid sucked dry by a decade of breakneck industrialization. Oil and natural gas are running low, and belching power plants are burning through coal faster than creaky old railroads can deliver it. Global warming? The most populous nation on earth ranks number two in the world - at least the Kyoto treaty isn't binding in developing countries. Air pollution? The World Bank says the People's Republic is home to 16 of the planet's 20 worst cities. Wind, solar, biomass - the country is grasping at every energy alternative within reach, even flooding a million people out of their ancestral homes with the world's biggest hydroelectric project. Meanwhile, the government's plan for holding onto power boils down to a car for every bicycle and air-conditioning for a billion-odd potential dissidents."
The Science of Word Recognition
The Science of Word Recognition
Evidence from the last 20 years of work in cognitive psychology indicates that we use the letters within a word to recognize a word. Many typographers and other text enthusiasts I’ve met insist that words are recognized by the outline made around the word shape. Some have used the term bouma as a synonym for word shape, though I was unfamiliar with the term. The term bouma appears in Paul Saenger’s 1997 book Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. There I learned to my chagrin that we recognize words from their word shape and that “Modern psychologists call this image the ‘Bouma shape.’”
Internet News Article | Reuters.com
Internet News Article | Reuters.com: "LONDON (Reuters) - For Rainer Kinnunen, life has been a bit of a blur since he signed up for a superhigh-speed Internet service three years ago."
BW Online | September 6, 2004 | Commentary: Behind In Broadband
BW Online | September 6, 2004 | Commentary: Behind In Broadband: "Love. Tears. Romance. Like millions of other Japanese, Midori Kato has been transfixed by the Korean soap opera Winter Sonata. But the 42-year-old freelance editor started watching the weekly drama even before it became available on broadcast television in April. Instead of watching on her TV, she logged on to the Web over a blazing 100-megabit-per-second broadband link. The video is just as crisp as her TV screen, right down to the tears on heroine Choi Ji Woo's cheeks. 'I'm hooked,' Kato says."
broadband � News � Broadband Envy - Fixing American broadband
broadband � News � Broadband Envy - Fixing American broadband: "Bombarded with tales of South Koreans and Swedes watching high-definition soap-operas via 100Mbps connections, the media has apparently developed a nasty case of broadband envy. This Reuters article suggests the US has 'missed the high speed revolution', while last week Business Week dubbed America a 'broadband backwater'. "
InformationWeek > Server Blades > IBM And Intel To Open Access To BladeCenter Specs > September 2, 2004
InformationWeek > Server Blades > IBM And Intel To Open Access To BladeCenter Specs > September 2, 2004: "The move will make it easier for third-party hardware and software providers to create BladeCenter-compatible products, giving the server-blade market a boost."
