Robotic Camera Extension Takes Gigapixel Photos schliz writes "Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a device that lets a standard digital camera take pictures with a resolution of 1-gigapixel (1,000-megapixels). The Gigapan is a robotic arm that takes multiple pictures of the same scene and blends them into a single image. The resulting picture can be expanded to show incredible detail."
Wikimedia Censors Wikinews An anonymous reader writes "Wikileaks has revealed that the Wikimedia Foundation Board (which controls Wikipedia and Wikinews) has killed off a Wikinews report into the Barbara Bauer vs. Wikimedia Foundation lawsuit. Wikinews is a collaborative news site and is meant to be editorially independent from the WMF. The WMF office also suppressed a Wikinews investigation into child and other pornography on Wikipedia, which was independently covered by ValleyWag and other outlets this week. The US Communications Deceny Act section 230 grants providers of internet services (such as the Wikipedia and Wikinews) immunity from legal action related to their user-generated content provided they do not exercise pre-publication control. In deleting articles critical of the WMF prior to publication, Wikileaks says the Wikimedia Foundation may have set a dangerous precedent that could remove all of its CDA section 230 immunity (at least for Wikinews, where the control was exercised)."
Removing the Big Kernel Lock Corrado writes "There is a big discussion going on over removing a bit of non-preemptable code from the Linux kernel. 'As some of the latency junkies on lkml already know, commit 8e3e076 in v2.6.26-rc2 removed the preemptable BKL feature and made the Big Kernel Lock a spinlock and thus turned it into non-preemptable code again. "This commit returned the BKL code to the 2.6.7 state of affairs in essence," began Ingo Molnar. He noted that this had a very negative effect on the real time kernel efforts, adding that Linux creator Linus Torvalds indicated the only acceptable way forward was to completely remove the BKL.'"
Understanding How CAPTCHA Is Broken An anonymous reader writes "Websense Security Labs explains the spammer Anti-CAPTCHA operations and mass-mailing strategies. Apparently spammers are using combination of different tactics — proper email accounts, visual social engineering, and fast-flux — representing a strategy, explains their resident CAPTCHA expert. It is evident that spammers are working towards defeating anti-spam filters with their tactics."
Mars Harder and Colder Than Previously Thought coondoggie writes "Turns out that the surface of Mars is stiffer and colder than previously thought. New observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that any liquid water that might exist below the planet's surface and any possible organisms living in that water would be located deeper than scientists had suspected. NASA made the discovery while using the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument on the Orbiter, which revealed long, continuous layers stretching up to 600 miles, or about one-fifth the length of the United States. The radar pictures show a smooth, flat border between the ice cap and the rocky Martian crust, NASA said. On Earth, the weight of a similar stack of ice would cause the planet's surface to sag. The fact that the Martian surface is not bending means that its strong outer shell, or lithosphere, a combination of its crust and upper mantle, must be very thick and cold."
Firefox 3 RC1 Out Now Jay writes "Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is out now. If yours didn't auto-update, then get it while it's hot! The release came a bit early, with Computer World noting: 'As recently as last Saturday, Mozilla's chief engineer said that although the company had locked down RC1's code, it was planning to publicly launch the build in "late May."'" My copy just downloaded — restarting after I save this story. God I hope it's better than the last beta.
Unmanned Aircraft Pose US Airspace Problems coondoggie writes to tell us that congressional watchdogs have called on Congress to create a body within the FAA to oversee unmanned aircraft development and integration. The group cited the rapidly growing unmanned aircraft community and is worried about the possible repercussions. "The GAO also called on the FAA to work with the Department of Defense, which has extensive unmanned aircraft experience, to issue its program plan. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assesses the security implications of routine unmanned aircraft access to commercial airspace, the GAO said. Even if all issues are addressed, and there are a number of critical problems, unmanned aircraft may not receive routine access to the national airspace system until 2020, the GAO concluded."
World's Newest, Most Powerful Laser Comes Online deglr6328 writes "The OMEGA EP laser at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics was dedicated today at the Robert L. Sproull Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research. The new laser, which has been in design since ~2002 will, at 1 kilojoule per 1 picosecond pulse, be the highest energy petawatt-scale laser ever created by far. For a fleeting fraction of a second, it will deliver a beam of infrared light at 1054 nm that is more powerful than the total energy consumption of all human activity on the planet, to a tiny spot the size of the head of a pin. Previous petawatt scale lasers such as the one created at Lawrence Livermore labs in the late '90s and (dismantled in 1999) were capable of only several hundred joules per pulse. The new OMEGA EP laser will be able to manifest power densities sufficient to examine Unruh and Hawking radiation-like phenomena in the laboratory and will have the capability to directly produce nuclear reactions through ultra high electric field initiated photodisintegration."
The World's Spookiest Weapons DesScorp writes "Popular Science has a piece on some outrageous ideas for weapons; some came to fruition, and others didn't. And while some of the weapons (atom bombs, chemical weapons, bats with bombs strapped to them that seek out homes and buildings at night) are truly frightening, some of them are also kind of silly, such as the Gay Bomb, and the Frisbee bomb that was labeled the 'Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition.'"
NSF Research Reveals Chain Letter Travel Patterns alphadogg writes to tell us that the NSF is researching chain letters and how they travel. The results aren't quite what one might expect, showing a pattern of more selective and circuitous travel. "One surprising finding was that messages often took meandering routes between people who knew each other, often through as many as 100 intermediaries. Many email users also received copies from multiple social groups. The researchers concluded that because messages come from many directions, there's ample opportunity for the messages to be edited along the way."
US Senate Asks for National Security Letter Explanation A group of U.S. Senators are asking the FBI to explain a recent controversial National Security Letter sent to the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive was able to defeat the request with help from the EFF and the ACLU this past April. "The Internet Archive's case is only the third known legal challenge to NSLs, despite the fact that the the FBI issues tens of thousands a year -- more than 100,000 such letters were issued in 2004 and 2005 combined. But despite the lack of legal challenges from recipients at ISPs, telephone companies and credit bureaus, successive scathing reports from the Justice Department's Inspector General have found illegal letters and a willy-nilly culture within the bureau towards tracking their usage."
A Baseball Hat That Reads Your Mind esocid writes to tell us that researchers from Taiwan have created a new baseball cap complete with embedded bio-signal monitoring system. The purpose was to give a neural interface that could be useful in everyday life. "The cap contains five embedded dry electrodes on the wearer's forehead, and one electrode behind the left ear, that acquire EEG signals. Then, the EEG signals are wirelessly transmitted to a data receiver, where they are processed in real-time by a dual-core processor. The BCI system includes Bluetooth transmission for distances of 10m or less (e.g., for driving applications), as well as RF transmission for distances up to 600m (e.g., for potential sports applications). Next, the processed signals are transmitted back to the cap, where the data can be stored, displayed in real-time on a screen, or be used to trigger an audio warning, if necessary."
Amputee Sprinter Wins Olympic Appeal to Compete Dr. Eggman writes "Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old South African double-amputee sprinter, has won his appeal filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This overturns a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations, and allows Mr. Pistorius the chance to compete against other able-bodied athletes for a chance at a place on the South African team for the Beijing Olympics. He currently holds the 400-meter Paralympic world sprinting record, but must improve on his time by 1.01 seconds to meet the Olympic qualification standard. However, even if Pistorius fails to get the qualifying time, South African selectors could add Oscar to the Olympic 1,600-meter relay squad."
$100 Laptop Platform Moves On The BBC is reporting that Sugar Labs is planning on taking "Sugar," the XO laptop's innovative interface, to the next level and distribute to a broader audience. "Sugar is a user interface that allows children to collaborate even when working on different machines. For example, they can write documents or make music together. The open source software also contains a journal and automatically saves and backs up all data. [...] Sugar Labs will work closely with developers from the open source community to develop the user interface for other computers and operating systems. It has already been bundled with the most recent releases of the Ubuntu and Fedora Linux operating systems."
Lockheed Martin Awarded GPS III D Ninja writes "Yesterday, Lockheed Martin was awarded the $1.4 billion Air Force contract to build the next-generation global positioning satellite system. This occurred after a series of delays as the Air Force decided between Lockheed and the competing bidding contractor, Boeing Co. 'GPS III, will give new navigation warfare (NAVWAR) capabilities to shut off GPS service to a limited geographical location while providing GPS to US and allied forces. GPS III will offer significant improvements in navigation capabilities by improving interoperability and jam resistance. The procurement of the GPS III system is planned for multiple blocks, with the GPS IIIA portion currently underway. GPS IIIA includes all of the GPS IIF capability plus up to a ten-fold increase in signal power, a new civil signal compatible with the European Union's Galileo system, and a new spacecraft bus that will allow a growth path to future blocks.'"
Obama's Cash Machine, Built in Silicon Valley
For Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, Barack Obama's youth and relatively short resume is a plus. That's the premise of a feature article by Joshua Green, author of an article in The Atlantic titled "The Amazing Money Machine: How Silicon Valley Made Barack Obama This Year's Hottest Start-Up." Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 19:40:00 -0400
Updating the Patriots' Spygate Scandal
A former Pats' employee told the NFL commissioner and a senator a lot more than had previously been reported. FoxSports.com columnist Peter Schrager explains why, after those meetings, one said the case is closed, but the other called for an investigation. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 08:31:00 -0400
CBS to Acquire Tech News Provider CNET
CBS is the latest old media organization to acquire a major network of Internet properties. It announced a deal to acquire CNET, a San Francisco-based network that includes popular Web sites like News.com and Download.com. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400
Study: Digital Video Recorder Users Don't Skip Ads
You would think that technology like TiVo would make it easy for people to skip commercials to get back to the programming they love. A study by Advertising Age suggests otherwise. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400
Investor Icahn Urges Yahoo-Microsoft Merger
After Microsoft withdrew its bid for Yahoo, it's been reported that billionaire Carl Icahn bought 50 million shares of Yahoo. Apparently, he wants to see the two companies merge, and he has even launched a proxy contest to get rid of Yahoo's entire board of directors. Read More >>
Thu, 15 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400
Gaming Your Way to Fitness
Video games designed to provide a workout are becoming big business. But do these games — such as the Wii Fit, which hits stores Monday — deliver on their fitness promises? Read More >>
Thu, 15 May 2008 01:36:00 -0400
Study: Number of Wireless-Only U.S. Homes Grows
More Americans are cancelling their landlines and using only wireless phones, according to a new study from the National Center for Health Statistics. In the last half of 2007, the number of homes without landlines — 16 percent — had more than doubled from the same period in 2004. Read More >>
Wed, 14 May 2008 11:45:00 -0400
Phones Faltering, Quake Survivors Rely on Texting
The first word about the massive earthquake in China did not come from the news media. In China, some 600 million people have cell phones, and when the quake hit, many reached for them — but not to talk. Instead, they used the nation's most popular form of communication — text messaging. Read More >>
Wed, 14 May 2008 09:09:00 -0400
Robot Conducts the Detroit Symphony
Detroit's Orchestra Hall was like a scene out of the Jetsons on Tuesday night. A robot designed by Honda conducted the Detroit Symphony. ASIMO, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, led musicians during a performance of The Impossible Dream. Read More >>
Wed, 14 May 2008 08:14:00 -0400
Earthlink to End Philadelphia WiFi Network
Earthlink notified Philadelphia subscribers that it will dismantle its WiFi network in the city on June 12. Negotiations to transfer the network to another operator broke down. Earthlink is giving subscribers 30 days to find other paths to the Internet. Read More >>
Tue, 13 May 2008 16:00:00 -0400
Huge Music-Sharing Award May Be Overturned
Judge who oversaw trial in which Jammie Thomas ordered to pay record companies $222,000 now says instructions to jury were wrong, cites earlier cases. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 11:44:16 EST
Video-Game Sales Take Big Leap in April
Americans bought more Wiis than Xbox 360s, PlayStation 3s combined; industry's overall sales up 47 percent from year earlier. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 11:27:40 EST
'$100 laptop' platform moves on
An independent effort to develop the software originally designed for the $100 laptop is launched. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 15:59:52 GMT
Yahoo rebuffs plan to oust board
The net portal fires back at a billionaire investor who wants to oust the present board of directors at Yahoo. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 09:10:01 GMT
OECD warns on net address change
Delays in implementing the net's new addressing scheme could slow growth of the net economy, warns the OECD. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 11:50:44 GMT
US game sales lifted by GTA
US sales of video game consoles and software were up 47% in April from a year ago, a research firm says. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 10:16:46 GMT
US 'cyber-bully' mother indicted
A US woman who allegedly bullied a girl on MySpace who later committed suicide is indicted by a Grand Jury. Read More >>
Fri, 16 May 2008 02:15:25 GMT
NHS IT 'at least four years late'
It will be at least 2014 before the NHS in England has a single electronic records system, say auditors. Read More >>
Thu, 15 May 2008 23:05:52 GMT
Two internets
Bill Thompson on how to be safe and keep risk alive online Read More >>
Wed, 14 May 2008 10:11:08 GMT
Annual brochure outlines Sandia’s impact to economy WebWire (press release), GA - May 16, 2008 ALBUQUERQUE, NM —While Sandia National Laboratories spends a large portion of its funding within New Mexico, its economic footprint is thought to be much ...
British dignitaries to honor Sen.Domenici's dedication to ... EurekAlert (press release), DC - May 16, 2008 At the May 30 event, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will rename the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Array Operations Center as the ...
Residents urged to back tax Alamogordo Daily News, NM - May 16, 2008 ... of New Mexico owns the spaceport, not Branson. As a tenant, Branson's company will be paying for a lease, as well as investing money in technology. ...
Bethany College elects new board members McPherson Sentinel, KS - May 16, 2008 She holds a bachelor’s degree from Bethany College and an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. ...
US weighs aid to stem killings south of border El Paso Times, TX - 13 hours ago Better technology at border ports to prevent corruption that allows the drug flow to continue would help, too, said New Mexico State University government ...
Bringing Wireless to Rural Areas Wi-Fi Planet, CT - 23 hours ago That area includes parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, where Stelera has the largest number of licenses, many contiguous or almost contiguous; ...
Holloman airmen train with futuristic aircraft KOB.com, NM - 21 hours ago The F-22 Raptor has been called the most advanced attack aircraft in the sky, and soon, personnel from New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base will be flying ...
