Comment But the reason why NFC is 'taking off'... (Score 1) 186
... is because it puts the money-making opportunity in the hands of telco's, who can further argue that one needs to upgrade a phone every 2 years?
Submission + - Average gamer is 37 years old (cnet.com)
kolbe writes: "A new study from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) suggests that a majority of gamers today range between the ages of 37 and 41 years old. If true, does this mean that game studio's should be adjusting their demographics accordingly, is Generation X the next "baby boomer" market for the gaming industry?"
Submission + - Historic Pairing: Shuttle Docked to the ISS (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "It's been imaged in artists' renderings, but never before in actual photos: the sight of a space shuttle berthed at the International Space Station. This view of shuttle Endeavour, taken by Italian astronaut Paulo Nespoli from aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on May 23, is the culmination of 36 space shuttle missions to build the outpost over the past 12 years. NASA wanted the shot before it retires the shuttle fleet after one final mission in July."
Comment As an Australian... (Score 5, Informative) 489
As an Australian...
The 4th of July follows the 3rd of July.
Oh, and this year, it falls on a Sunday, so.. yeah...
The Orange Goo That Could Save Your Laptop 285
Barence writes "A British company has patented what can only be described as an orange goo that could save your laptop or iPod after a nasty fall. The amazing material is soft and malleable like putty, but the substance becomes solid instantly after impact. You can punch your fist into a ball of the material sitting on a desk and not feel a thing, according to the staff at PC Pro who have been testing the material, called 3do. It's being used by the military, the US downhill ski team, and motorcycle clothing manufacturers to provide impact protection in the event of a crash. However, it's also appearing in protective cases for laptops and MP3 players."
Submission + - EA Games: ads costs 3 times more than development
G3ckoG33k writes: According to Electronic Arts officer Rich Hilleman, "[...]the price of producing console games has rocketed, with marketing costing up to three times more than the development of a title." Wow, so that gave me yet another excuse to not feel sorry for game producers porting between platforms anymore. The burn-rate comes from the marketing guys. Are these guys really needed? Can't good titles sell on their own anymore?
Submission + - Military Helmet Design Contributes to Brain Damage (physicscentral.com)
BuzzSkyline writes: "Improvements in helmets have helped modern soldiers survive bullets and blasts that would have killed them in past wars. But increasing numbers of soldiers are suffering long lasting brain damage from explosions, partly as a result of what appears to be a flaw in helmet designs. Although the blast itself may not accelerate the brain inside a soldier's head enough to cause injury, shockwaves that make it through the space between a helmet and a soldier's head can cause the skull to flex, leading to ripples in the skull that can create damaging pressures in the brain. Simulations that relied on "code originally designed to simulate how a detonated weapon rattles a building or tank" could lead to new helmets that reduce the traumatic brain injuries that many soldiers suffer as a result of improvised explosive devices and other moderate-sized blasts. The research is due to be published in Physical Review Letters, but a preprint is currently available on the Physics ArXiv."
Submission + - Cancer Breathalyzer
Tiger4 writes: Cancer researchers in the UK have come up with a way to sniff for lung cancer on the breath.
"From the results, the researchers identified 42 "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) present in the breath of 83% of cancer patients but fewer than 83% of healthy volunteers.
Four of the most reliable were used to develop a nine-sensor array made from tiny gold particles coated with reactive chemicals sensitive to the compounds.
Other sources have picked up the story as well. Obviously, this would be a big breakthrough for rapid screening, and early detection significantly improves outcomes.
Submission + - Librarians express concern over Google Books (goodgearguide.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "Many libraries routinely delete borrower information, and organizations such as the American Library Association have fought hard to preserve the privacy of their patrons in the face of laws such as the U.S. Patriot Act. But now, as more and more titles become available in Google Book Search, it's not clear whether digital readers will enjoy the same privacy protections they have at the library."
Submission + - Internet's First Registered Domain Name Sold (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: "Believe it or not, it wasn't iternet.com or dot.com that was purchased when the Internet was "born." Instead, it was the somewhat off-the-wall name of symbolics.com. The Symbolics company was the first
to use an internet domain name to guide Internet viewers to its line of Lisp machines, which were single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. XF.com
Investments, which is a Missouri-based Internet investments firm,
has managed to secure the domain name from its original owner for an undisclosed sum and XF's CEO was quick to proclaim his excitement over the acquisition. It's hard to say why this domain name was the first purchased back on March 15, 1985, but for obvious reasons it holds a special place in history. There has been one original owner for nearly 25 years. Over that time, we've seen the Internet grow to the tune of 180,000,000+ registered domains, and thousands more are being added each and every day."
Submission + - Skype Trojan can log VoIP conversations (pcauthority.com.au) 1
Slatterz writes: Security giant Symantec claims to have found the public release of source code for a Trojan that targets Skype users. Trojan.Peskyspy is spyware which records a voice call and stores it as an MP3 file for later transmission. An infected machine will use the software that handles audio processing within a computer and save the call data as an MP3. The file is then sent over the internet to a predefined server where the attacker can listen to the recorded conversations.
Submission + - Aussie Defence builds $1.7m Linux flight simulator (itnews.com.au)
scrubl writes: The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has revealed its latest flight simulator runs on Suse Linux-based clusters of Opteron servers and uses an open source graphics platform. The Defence Science and Technology Organisation's (DSTO) Air Operations Simulation Centre in Melbourne creates virtual words that allow pilots to experience real-world combat situations without leaving the ground. The visuals software was written in OpenGL, using commercial and open source scene graph engines and making "heavy use of OpenGL Shader Language programs".
Submission + - Cato Institute Critique of Software Patents (cato.org)
binarybits writes: "I've written an article for the free-market Cato Institute about how patents impede innovation in the software industry. It points out that people tend not to realize how vast the software industry is. It's not just Google and Microsoft; virtually every organization has an IT department producing potentially-infringing software. Organizations as diverse as J. Crew and the Green Bay Packers have been sued for patent infringement. It's crazy to expect all these organizations to worry about potential patent infringement. Hopefully the Supreme Court's Bilski decision will lead to new limits on software patents."
First Floating Wind Turbine Buoyed Off Norway 265
MonkeyClicker writes to tell us that the world's first large-scale floating turbine has been installed off the coast of Norway. A combined effort between Siemens and StatoiHydro, this marks the first foray into deeper waters due to restrictions in place that require offshore turbines to be attached to the sea bed. "The turbine in Norway will be 7.4 miles offshore where the water is 721 feet deep. It will be utility-size turbine, with a hub height of about 100 feet, capable of generating 2.3 megawatts of electricity. To address the conditions of the deep sea, the turbine will have a specially designed control system that will seek to dampen the motion from waves."
How Should a Constitution Protect Digital Rights? 151
Bibek Paudel writes "Nepal's Constituent Assembly is drafting a new constitution for the country. We (FOSS Nepal) are interacting with various committees of the Assembly regarding the issues to be included in the new constitution. In particular, the 'Fundamental Rights Determination Committee' is seeking our suggestions in the form of a written document so that they can discuss it in their meeting next week. We have informed them, informally, of our concerns for addressing digital liberties and ensuring them as fundamental rights in the constitution. We'd also like to see the rights to privacy, anonymity, and access to public information regardless of the technology (platforms/software). Whether or not our suggestions will be incorporated depends on public hearings and voting in the assembly later, but the document we submit will be archived for use as reference material in the future when amendments in the constitution will be discussed or new laws will be prepared. How are online rights handled in your country? How would you want to change it?"
Read on for more about Bibek's situation.
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