56782815
submission
c0lo writes:
Facebook might understand your romantic prospects better than you do.
In a blog post, the company’s team of data scientists announced with hard numbers that hints at budding relationships before the relationships start.
The two people enter a period of courtship, during which timeline posts increase. After the couple makes it official, their posts on each others’ walls decrease—presumably because the happy two are spending more time together (and less on FB?!)
A subsequent blog entry offerrs an insight on break-ups: it is the last of a series of 6 blogposts that ran last week on the "love" theme (if you are un US single, you may be interested in this one for cities with an extreme male/female singles ratio).
53672087
submission
c0lo writes:
A Chinese Long March rocket is scheduled to blast off to the Moon on Sunday evening at about 6pm UTC carrying a small robotic rover that will touch down on to the lunar surface in about two weeks’ time – the first soft landing on the Earth’s only natural satellite since 1976.
China has been methodically and patiently building up the key elements needed for an advanced space programme — from launchers to manned missions in Earth orbit to unmanned planetary craft — and it is investing heavily. After only 10 years since it independently sent its first astronaut into space, China is forging ahead with a bold three-step programme beginning with the robotic exploration of possible landing sites for the first Chinese astronauts to set foot on lunar soil between 2025 and 2030.
Prof Ouyang Ziyuan of the department of lunar and deep space exploration and an adviser to the mission commented on the scale of Chinese thinking about the Moon. He said the forthcoming venture would land in an ancient crater 400km wide called Sinus Iridum, thought to be relatively flat and clear of rocks, and explore its geology. He explained that there were three motivations behind the drive to investigate the Moon.
"First, to develop our technology because lunar exploration requires many types of technology, including communications, computers, all kinds of IT skills and the use of different kinds of materials. This is the key reason," he told BBC News.
"Second, in terms of the science, besides Earth we also need to know our brothers and sisters like the Moon, its origin and evolution and then from that we can know about our Earth.
"Third, in terms of the talents, China needs its own intellectual team who can explore the whole lunar and solar system — that is also our main purpose."
China.org.cn promised live coverage of the event
47379983
submission
c0lo writes:
Kim Dotcom alleges, in an 20 mins interview with the Australian public television, that Megaupload was offered up by the New Zealand's PM "on a silver platter" as part of negotiations with Warner Brothers executives for shooting the Hobbit in New Zealand. He promises that he'll substantiate the claims in court.
He also says that the extradition case the US govt is weak and the reason behind the latest delay in extradition hearing (postponed from August this year to March next year) is an attempt to bleed Dotcom dry of his money
Also interesting, Dotcom says that the latest debacle of the massive scale online online surveillance by US spy agencies has triggered an "explosion" of interest in mega.co.nz, the "cloud storage" site with user generated encryption
Kim Dotcom uploaded yesterday on youtube a footage of the raid, as captured by security cameras in his mansion: helicopters, anti-terror police, silenced rifles fitted with scopes, dogs, already prepared tow trucks for his car collection
44600513
submission
c0lo writes:
The editor-in-chief and entire editorial board of the Journal of Library Administration announced their resignation last week, citing "a crisis of conscience about publishing in a journal that was not open access" in the days after the death of Aaron Swartz.
The board had worked with publisher Taylor & Francis on an open-access compromise in the months since, which would allow the journal to release articles without paywall, but Taylor & Francis' final terms asked contributors to pay $2,995 for each open-access article. As more and more contributors began to object, the board ultimately found the terms unworkable
The ultimate future of the journal is still undetermined, but the next issue appears to be dead in the water. In a statement to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the journal's editor-in-chief said:
And I advise everyone to take a closer look at the text when I said: “The sad truth is that we’ll never see this particular issue of the Journal of Library Administration.” I never said the content was dead, I simply stated that it would never be in JLA.
44315399
submission
c0lo writes:
US federal authorities are examining Microsoft’s involvement with companies and individuals that allegedly paid bribes to overseas government officials in exchange for business.
The United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have both opened preliminary investigations into the bribery allegations involving Microsoft in China, Italy and Romania.
The China allegations were first shared with United States officials last year by an unnamed whistle-blower who had worked with Microsoft in the country, according to the person briefed on the inquiry. The whistle-blower said that a Microsoft official in China directed the whistle-blower to pay bribes to government officials to win business deals.
U.S. government investigators are also reviewing whether Microsoft had a role in allegations that resellers offered bribes to secure software deals with Romania's Ministry of Communications. In Italy Microsoft's dealings with consultants in Italy that specialize in customer-loyalty programs are under scrutiny,with allegations that Microsoft's Italian unit used such consultants as vehicles for lavishing gifts and trips on Italian procurement officials in exchange for government business
In a blog post Tuesday afternoon, John Frank, a vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, said the company could not comment about continuing investigations. Mr. Frank said it was not uncommon for such government reviews to find that the claims were without merit.
Somehow, given how the OOXML became a standard, it wouldn't surprise me to be an actual fire that caused this smoke.
40003999
submission
c0lo writes:
Engineers from Google's Books team have released the design plans for a comparatively reasonably priced (about $1500) book scanner on Google Code.
Built using a scanner, a vacuum cleaner and various other components, the Linear Book Scanner was developed by engineers during the "20 percent time" that Google allocates for personal projects.
The license is highly permissive, thus it's possible the design and building costs can be improved. Any takers?
39941829
submission
c0lo writes:
Severely brain-injured Scott Routley hasn’t spoken in 12 years. None of his physical assessments since then have shown any sign of awareness, or ability to communicate, thus being diagnosed as vegetative (vegetative patients emerge from a coma into a condition where they have periods awake, with their eyes open, but have no perception of themselves or the outside world).
Scott Routley was asked questions while having his brain activity scanned in an fMRI machine. British neuroscientist Prof Adrian Owen said Mr Routley was clearly not vegetative.
"Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and where he is."
As a consequence, medical textbooks would need to be updated to include Prof Owen's techniques, because only observational assessments (as opposed to using mind-readers) of Mr Routley have continued to suggest he is vegetative.
The professor in an earlier interview functional MRI machines are expensive (up to $2 million), but it’s quite possible that a portable high-end EEG machine, costing about $75,000, can be used at a patient’s bedside.
Phillip K Dick's world is one step closer.
36306013
submission
c0lo writes:
The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization's Broadcasting Treaty is back. This is the treaty that EFF and its colleagues killed five years ago, but Big Content won't let it die.
Under the treaty, broadcasters would have rights over the material they transmitted, separate from copyright, meaning that if you recorded something from TV, the Internet, cable or satellite, you'd need to get permission from the creator and the broadcaster to re-use it. And unlike copyright, the "broadcast right" doesn't expire, so even video that is in the public domain can't be used without permission from the broadcaster
24040310
submission
c0lo writes:
In apparent retaliation to its U.S. rival's continual patent suits against it in global markets, Samsung Electronics is seeking a complete ban on the sales of the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 in Korea.
Most recently opened (by Samsung) fronts in the patent world wars: Apple is sued in France on 3 technical patents and counter-sued in Australia over 7 technical patents (after an Apple "offensive" temporarily blocked Galaxy Tab for Australian market).
21757366
submission
c0lo writes:
After a brief spat where the notorious Anonymous hacking collective sniped at Lulzsec, the 'upstart' hacking collective, for crowing about low-rent Denial of Service attacks on the CIA and 4chan websites, the two groups have apparently teamed up in operation Anti-Sec.
The operation's: "Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood."
We can only predict that the following will be unpredictable: store canned food and flash batteries, change your eBanking password daily.
21492270
submission
c0lo writes:
Now might be a good time to check your Facebook privacy settings as many Facebook users are reporting that the site has enabled the face recognition in the last few days without giving users any notice.
Once again, Facebook seems to be sharing personal information by default, instead on users having to 'opt-in'.
Some other comments and an interesting reaction from Google and how to get around/disable it .
21163474
submission
c0lo writes:
Among other risks caused by the low understanding of police and gub agencies on what BitCoin is, the high amount of electricity needed to create a single bitcoin bills can lead to marijuana busts.
The Canadian town of Mission, BC has a bylaw that allows the town's Public Safety Inspection Team to search people's homes for grow ops if they are using more than 93 kWh of electricity per day. There have allegedly been reports floating in IRC of two different cases of police showing up at a bitcoin miner's residence with a search warrant.
Ohio police and the DEA file at least 60 subpoenas each month for energy-use records of people suspected of running an indoor pot growing operation. DEA Agent Anthony Marotta said high electricity usage does not always mean the residence is an indoor pot farm and has surprised federal agents. "We thought it was a major grow operation ... but this guy had some kind of business involving computers. I don't know how many computer servers we found in his home."
19984614
submission
c0lo writes:
Hot on the heels of rumors that Google is preparing to challenge Apple's iTunes service with a digital music store of its own, Amazon has announced that it's entering the market with a cloud-based music service of its own.
19530598
submission
c0lo writes:
A Marion County judge has ruled, for the first time in Indiana, that news media outlets can be ordered by the court to reveal identifying information about posters to their online forums.
If you think that this will affect only posting on /. or the like, think again: according to TFA, under threat seems to be no less than the right of the media outlets to protect the identity of their sources.
19282614
submission
c0lo writes:
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni will outline what the bureau is calling the "Going Dark" problem, meaning that police can be thwarted when conducting court-authorized eavesdropping because Internet companies aren't required to build in back doors in advance, or because technology doesn't permit it.
