Porag_Spliffing - Slashdot User

Submission + - Dark Matter may not exist after all (universetoday.com) 2

Submitted by elsurexiste on Monday December 05, 2011 @01:07PM

elsurexiste writes: An Italian Physicist came up with a strange way to explain anomalous galactic rotations without dark matter. As usual, these are extraordinary claims that divert from the consensus, so keep a healthy skepticism. Link to arxiv here.

The Big Technical Mistakes of History 244

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 27, 2010 @05:19AM from the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dept.

An anonymous reader tips a PC Authority review of some of the biggest technical goofs of all time. "As any computer programmer will tell you, some of the most confusing and complex issues can stem from the simplest of errors. This article looking back at history's big technical mistakes includes some interesting trivia, such as NASA's failure to convert measurements to metric, resulting in the Mars Climate Orbiter being torn apart by the Martian atmosphere. Then there is the infamous Intel Pentium floating point fiasco, which cost the company $450m in direct costs, a battering on the world's stock exchanges, and a huge black mark on its reputation. Also on the list is Iridium, the global satellite phone network that promised to make phones work anywhere on the planet, but required 77 satellites to be launched into space."

Submission + - Ogg Vorbis gaining industry support

Submitted by on Tuesday February 06, 2007 @07:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: While Ogg Vorbis format has not seen much popularity in music sales and portable players, it is not an unsupported format in the industry. Toy manufacturers (e.g. speaking dolls), voice warning systems and reactive audio devices exploit Ogg Vorbis for its good quality at small bitrates. As a sign of this, VLSI Solution Oy has just announced VS1000, the first 16 bits DSP device for playing Ogg Vorbis on low power and high volume products. Earlier Ogg Vorbis chips use 32 bits for decoding which consumes more energy than a 16 bit device does. This enables high volume manufacturing of small Ogg Vorbis devices. A list of Ogg Vorbis chips can be found from the Xiph wiki page.

Submission + - Firefox popup blocker can allow access to local FS

Submitted by cj on Tuesday February 06, 2007 @05:21AM

cj writes: Whitedust has an interesting article where it appears that Michal Zalewski has unearthed a potentially dangerous vulnerability in the stock behaviour of Firefox's popup blocking element — when used in conjunction with another 'little trick' the vulnerability can apparently allow a malicious user to read files from an effected system and potentially gain access to sensitive information there on.

DNA to Test Theory of Roman Village in China 203

Posted by Zonk on Monday February 05, 2007 @06:38AM from the now-that-is-lost dept.

Reverse Gear writes "Many of the inhabitants of a lonely village in north western China seems to have distinctive western features. An old theory from the 50s suggests that a Roman legion lost in what is now Iran in the year 53BC lost their commanding officer. They traveled east, so the legend goes, working as mercenaries until they were caught by the Chinese 17 years later. The Chinese described them as using a 'fish-scale formation', which could be a reference to the well-known Roman phalanx technique called the 'tortoise'. The remainder of the legion, it is suggested, may have intermarried with the villagers in Liqian. Scientists are now trying to verify the fascinating theory by testing the DNA of the inhabitants of the Chinese village."

Journal SPAM: U.S. website: Mossad killed Iranian nuclear physicist

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Sunday February 04, 2007 @06:38PM

Last update - 13:55 04/02/2007
U.S. website: Mossad killed Iranian nuclear physicist
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

A senior nuclear physicist involved in Iran's nuclear program who died under mysterious circumstances two weeks ago was killed by the Mossad, according to a report released in a U.S. website this weekend.

Submission + - Become the 5th Space Tourist

Submitted by

MattSparkes

on Thursday February 01, 2007 @06:25AM

MattSparkes writes: "There have been four space tourists so far. You could become the 5th — even if you aren't a dot com millionaire. New Scientist are running a competition to send one person into orbit, 62 miles above the Earth. All you have to do is write 250 words on what the best ever patented invention is. Personally I think it ahs to be the Levitationarium."

MySQL Prepares To Go Public 150

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday January 31, 2007 @12:16AM from the bring-it-on dept.

prostoalex writes "MySQL CEO Marten Mickos told Computer Business Review the company plans to go public: 'Now entering its twelfth year, the company has built up just less than 10,000 paying customers, and an installed base estimated to be close to 10 million... When it does go public, MySQL will be one of only a handful of open source vendors to do so. Red Hat, VA Linux (now VA Software), and Caldera (now SCO Group) led the way in 1999 and 2000...'"

Journal Journal: Synthetic Biology Could Be Used To Turn Sugar Into Diesel 355

Journal by Slithe on Tuesday January 30, 2007 @11:17PM

ABCTech has an interesting article about an Emeryville-base tech startup, Amyris Biotechnologies , that is planning to use microbes to turn sugar into diesel. Ethanol is made by adding sugar to yeast, but Amyris believes that it can reprogram the microbes to make something closer to gasoline. The company was initially given a $43 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to attempt to research the appl

Slashdot Top Deals