Slashdot Mirror

EccentricAnomaly writes "Today, Cassini had its first close encounter with Titan around 8:30AM PDT. Data from the flyby will start coming down around 6:30PM PDT, and you can watch the pictures live on NASA TV. If you want higher resolution or just to stare at one picture for a while, the raw images will be put on the web right away, with pretty press images to follow the next day. And if you want to know about the observations planned for the flyby, you can read this PDF or watch this animation."

jangobongo writes "After a 20 year struggle, the University of Arizona's $120 million Large Binocular Telescope was dedicated last week. This unique telescope will have twin 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) mirrors that sit on a single mount. Using methods similar to a medical CAT scan, a technique of "tomographic" image reconstruction will be used to produce pictures 10 times sharper (example) than the Hubble Space Telescope for a fraction of its $2 billion dollar cost."

jangobongo writes "After a 20 year struggle, the University of Arizona's $120 million Large Binocular Telescope was dedicated last week. This unique telescope will have twin 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) mirrors that sit on a single mount. Using methods similar to a medical CAT scan, a technique of "tomographic" image reconstruction will be used to produce pictures 10 times sharper (example) than the Hubble Space Telescope for a fraction of its $2 billion dollar cost."

jangobongo writes "After a 20 year struggle, the University of Arizona's $120 million Large Binocular Telescope was dedicated last week. This unique telescope will have twin 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) mirrors that sit on a single mount. Using methods similar to a medical CAT scan, a technique of "tomographic" image reconstruction will be used to produce pictures 10 times sharper (example) than the Hubble Space Telescope for a fraction of its $2 billion dollar cost."

mehl writes "I am a professor for social psychology at the University of Arizona and I am looking for help with finding / developing a special program. In my research, I ask participants to carry around a digital voice recorder while they go about their normal lives. The voice recorder then tracks the ambient sounds in their environments and produces an 'acoustic log' of a person's day. We then use these ambient sound recordings as source data for various person perception studies. For privacy reasons, we are required to sample brief snippets of ambient sounds instead of recording an entire day continuously ('Big Brother is listening to you...'). So far, we have achieved this by modifying the hardware of a digital voice recorder (triggering it with an external microchip). With the high turn-over in player models, however, this strategy has turned out to be short-sighted (every half a year we have to build a new chip). I am thinking about switching strategy, recording continuously in the first place (no problem with the current generation of flash memory) and then sampling (random) snippets after the fact from the continous recordings. Does anybody know of an existing program that can randomly (or pseudo-randomly; e.g., 30 sec every 10 min) and automatically sample short sequences from a day-long (18 hours) mp3 recording? What would it entail to develop such a program (for Windows)?."

mehl writes "I am a professor for social psychology at the University of Arizona and I am looking for help with finding / developing a special program. In my research, I ask participants to carry around a digital voice recorder while they go about their normal lives. The voice recorder then tracks the ambient sounds in their environments and produces an 'acoustic log' of a person's day. We then use these ambient sound recordings as source data for various person perception studies. For privacy reasons, we are required to sample brief snippets of ambient sounds instead of recording an entire day continuously ('Big Brother is listening to you...'). So far, we have achieved this by modifying the hardware of a digital voice recorder (triggering it with an external microchip). With the high turn-over in player models, however, this strategy has turned out to be short-sighted (every half a year we have to build a new chip). I am thinking about switching strategy, recording continuously in the first place (no problem with the current generation of flash memory) and then sampling (random) snippets after the fact from the continous recordings. Does anybody know of an existing program that can randomly (or pseudo-randomly; e.g., 30 sec every 10 min) and automatically sample short sequences from a day-long (18 hours) mp3 recording? What would it entail to develop such a program (for Windows)?."

No_Weak_Heart writes "New details and images of Cassini-Huygens' close encounter with Saturn's moon Phoebe have been released. Much of the data seems to confirm the earlier suspicion that Pheobe was formed in the outer reaches of the solar system and was later captured by Saturn's gravity. More coverage at Nature, NY Timesand the BBC. We covered the flyby here."

EccentricAnomaly writes "NASA has begun to release some pictures from Cassini's Phoebe flyby last Friday. If you look at the thumbnail of this image or if you look at the right of these images, you can see a group of craters that look like a skull just south of the equator and something that looks like George Washington (wearing his wig) near the north pole. Come up with some good names for features, and you can submit your ideas to the IAU. There's a process for naming a newly discovered crater, fossa, or sulcus. By the way, the naming convention for Phoebe is people associated with Phoebe or the Greek islands."

An anonymous reader writes "There's an Astrobiology.net interview up with a Vatican astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, who also curates one of the world's largest meteorite collections. On the possibility of a non-terrestrial lifeform, he says initially 'I don't know', followed by three scenarios. First, he argues: 'We find an intelligent civilization and there's no way in creation we can communicate with them because they're so alien to us. We can't talk to dolphins now. In which case, we'll never know.' Secondly, he suggests: 'We find the intelligent civilization. We can communicate.' As agents of free-will, the aliens are self-aware of good and evil, thus convertible to some terrestrial religion. Thirdly: 'We find a dozen civilizations out there, and a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses go up and convert them all.' The question of whether an alien civilization might convert Earth to their religion, or become a religion unto themselves, is left unconsidered. This compares to the many reasons people give for hosting a SETI@home client, including that ET contact would unite humanity, challenge religion, or all of the above."

ee_moss points out this Washington Post article (via Yahoo!), excerpting "The latest variant of the Netsky worm directing infected computers to launch Web-based attacks against music- and file-trading Web services such as Kazaa, taking down at least one company's Web sites in the process. The worm, the 19th version of a bug that made its debut in February, is also targeting some Web sites that offer computer programs designed to illegally break or bypass copyright controls on software programs."

crem_d_genes writes "Scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have developed an online program that calculates the effects of an asteroid impact that can be customized for several parameters. Results and the frequency of the type of event you have selected are displayed with an explanation of what they mean. A news briefing of the full story is available."

crem_d_genes writes "Scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have developed an online program that calculates the effects of an asteroid impact that can be customized for several parameters. Results and the frequency of the type of event you have selected are displayed with an explanation of what they mean. A news briefing of the full story is available."

jschauma writes "While it's no Indigo Espresso or a VAX Bar (though, of course, there is NetBSD/sgimips and NetBSD/vax), at least you can log in on a Mr. Coffee. And while the JavaStation has been running NetBSD for a while, full support is now completely in-tree: NetBSD's Martin Husemann announced today that he has fixed all outstanding issues with JavaStation support. This means, that you can now run your JavaStation with a stock distribution of NetBSD/sparc. The JavaStation-NC is a network computer class machine built on the microSPARC-IIep processor. More information about the JavaStation can be found in the JavaStation HOWTO, Martin's email to the port-sparc mailing list and Valeriy E. Ushakov's paper 'Porting NetBSD to JavaStation-NC.'"

Andrew Browne writes "Today the European Space Agency received the first photo of Mars from its Mars Express probe. The photo was taken on December 1st and processed by the DLR Institute for Planetary Research and by the Freie Universitat Berlin. Mars Express was launched June 2nd of this year and is due to arrive at the Red planet later this month. The extremely speedy voyage is thanks to our close approach to Mars this summer. Other probes taking advantage of the launch window include NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers. You can track the progress of all the probes heading to Mars with NASA's solar system simulator."

apsmith writes "Continuing the flurry of recent hearings on the future of humans in space, a Senate committee on Thursday heard testimony in favor of a return to the Moon. Former senator and moon-walker Harrison Schmitt and physicist David Criswell see the lunar surface as an immense energy resource, just waiting to be tapped. Astronomer Roger Angel sees the lunar south pole as the ideal astronomical observatory, with locations for telescopes 100 times better than anything we've done so far. And geologist Paul Spudis sees a lot of unfinished business on the Moon, to develop it as the "feedstock of an industrial space infrastructure." TransOrbital also sent written testimony."

UrgleHoth writes "According to a CNN report, the star Gem 37 is the most likely candidate for alien life. Astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull of the University of Arizona in Tuscon has taken a list of most likely habitable planets and stars. Gem 37 topped the list. The deciding factor? 'Gem 37, the 37th brightest star in the constellation of Gemini, came out on top because it looks most like our sun.' This work was done for NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder."

UrgleHoth writes "According to a CNN report, the star Gem 37 is the most likely candidate for alien life. Astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull of the University of Arizona in Tuscon has taken a list of most likely habitable planets and stars. Gem 37 topped the list. The deciding factor? 'Gem 37, the 37th brightest star in the constellation of Gemini, came out on top because it looks most like our sun.' This work was done for NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder."

jschuur writes "After narrowing down the selections to 4 finalists, NASA has chosen the Phoenix Mars lander design for its 2007 Scout Mission to the planet Mars. Phoenix, a joint project between the University of Arizona and Planetary Laboratory was designed after the doomed 1999 Mars Polar Lander and recycles much of its design and instrument ideas. A staggering $325 million grant was awarded to the University of Arizona for the project, which will also include Canadian participation. Phoenix is scheduled to land on Mars in May of 2008."

the_pooh_experience writes "Microsoft has decided to beef up their security group by adding a code cleaning group according to Infoworld. As the director of MS security engineering says: 'Microsoft is a long way from its ultimate goal where users can take security for granted in its products...the majority of viruses written attack Microsoft products.'" The new group is called Security Engineering Strategy and while it may seem long overdue to many, it's still a step in the right direction for the folks in Redmond.

minesweeper writes "Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii recently monitored the largest volcanic eruption ever observed on Jupiter's moon Io. The eruption took place in February 2001, though image analysis was only recently completed by a team of University of California, Berkeley, astronomers. More info is available from the Berkeley press release, and an image is available here."

tekvov asks: "When Linus Torvalds decided to use BitKeeper as the version control system for Linux there seemed to be a lot of controversy and many challenges to create a better system than CVS. My question is exactly what would this 'better system' look like? How is the subversion project, Tigris, doing at creating a new version control system? Basically, does the Open Source Community need new tools in this aspect of development? And if so, how should these new tools look?"

Total Recall writes: "The Mars Odyssey spacecraft is finding large amounts of hydrogen in the southern hemisphere of Mars. This strongly indicates the presence of water ice (since H2O is both common and very stable). The data samples about the upper meter or so of the Martian surface. This apparently extends from the south polar cap up to about 60 south latitude. It suggests a permafrost of mixed ice and dirt."

Atomic Snarl writes: "The ASTROVIRTEL project is mining a 7 Terabyte archive from NASA, ESA, and others for all things astronomical. One recent discovery is a new Kupier Belt object larger than asteroid Ceres. APOD story here, ESO press release here. They're looking for more research projects, too. Just the thing for all those spare cycles on your G4 Cube... ;-)"

schussat writes: "This brief AP article describes a lawsuit that alleges that syncing a Palm Pilot "damages or destroys the motherboards on certain PC brands." Does anyone know more or have experience with this? Is it even possible to cause damage? The article is not very detailed."

Alien54 writes "As reported in Wired Magazine, the first Quantum Mechanics Symposium is being held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Topics to be discussed include Quantum Computing. Also to be discussed will be Atomic Lasers, a technology involving a coherent and tightly focused beam of atoms that was first developed by MIT researchers in 1997. One of the things that they could lead to is making a 3-D matter hologram using atom lasers. [not just make a 3-D image, but an actual replicate object]. Missing will be a talk by Stuart Hameroff, associate director of the University of Arizona's Center for Consciousness Studies, who recently had to cancel his appearance at the conference for personal reasons."

Alien54 writes "As reported in Wired Magazine, the first Quantum Mechanics Symposium is being held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Topics to be discussed include Quantum Computing. Also to be discussed will be Atomic Lasers, a technology involving a coherent and tightly focused beam of atoms that was first developed by MIT researchers in 1997. One of the things that they could lead to is making a 3-D matter hologram using atom lasers. [not just make a 3-D image, but an actual replicate object]. Missing will be a talk by Stuart Hameroff, associate director of the University of Arizona's Center for Consciousness Studies, who recently had to cancel his appearance at the conference for personal reasons."

mirko writes: "Here's a link to some weird projects that consist of recycling old servers. You have the SGI Fridge, but also the VAXbar, the SGI Espresso Machine, the VaxTap2000Pro and the SGI HiFi-Miniset. Now that you recycled the case, you can get inspiration from this project in order to recycle their inside components..." We've linked to some of these before, but a couple of them are new (to me, anyway).

BodyCount07 writes: "CNN has this article on the sea-based launch of a geosynchronous satellite that will provide US citizens with a coast-to-coast radio network. The network will provide news and entertainment channels to its subscribers. More information is available at XM Radio's official site." Well, it's interesting. But broadcast radio is free. Will people pay for radio that still has ads? I suppose if you live in the large country-music-only zone in the U.S., you might be willing to pay for something different...

Shooter6947 writes: "The European planet hunting team, including Mayor and Queloz who first found 51 Pegasus b in 1995, have just announced the discovery of 11 new extrasolar planets. The new list includes 2 multiple planet systems, one planet with an orbital eccentricity of .93, and another in a nearly circular orbit near its star's habitable zone. Kickass!"

dcshoes writes: "Nonlinear Atom Optics uses laser light to cool atoms to one millionth a degree Kalvin. At this low temperature, atom wavelengths are elongated, making the wave nature of atoms more easy to observe, and enable scientists to focus, reflect, defract, etc, atom beams. Atom lasers could lead to advances in, among other things, Nanolithography and Holography. Cool. Literally."

Dr. Zowie writes "The Cassini probe, despite predictions of doom on launch and on its Earth flyby, appears to be working just fine as it wends its way outward toward Saturn. It's currently flying by Jupiter for an additional gravity assist. Today, the imaging team released their first high ('better than Hubble') resolution color images of Jupiter. I can't wait to write a Jovian screensaver..." Halfway down that last page is a sweet movie (GIF or QT) showing time-lapse clouds around the Great Red Spot on successive rotations of our largest planet.

Dr. Zowie writes "The Cassini probe, despite predictions of doom on launch and on its Earth flyby, appears to be working just fine as it wends its way outward toward Saturn. It's currently flying by Jupiter for an additional gravity assist. Today, the imaging team released their first high ('better than Hubble') resolution color images of Jupiter. I can't wait to write a Jovian screensaver..." Halfway down that last page is a sweet movie (GIF or QT) showing time-lapse clouds around the Great Red Spot on successive rotations of our largest planet.

You don't hear much about xanim anymore, but it's certainly an old stand by (FAQ: Yes, you can use it to play cinepak encoded movies if you have a few closed source modules). But are you curious about what's happening with old faithful? rsk noted that the next generation xanim featurelist is online. It's not ready yet, but it's nice to see an update.

Mr. GuySmiley writes: "Astronomers of the SpaceWatch Project have discovered a another moon orbiting Jupiter. It has been over 25 years since the last discovery of an outer Jovian satellite (Voyager found three inner moons in 1979). The moon has been designated S/1999 J 1. This brings the total number of moons orbiting Jupiter to 17. Hail the King of the Planets!"

SEWilco writes: "This Discovery.com item points out a new estimate of 900 asteroids in orbits closer than Mars. Cornell University's William Bottke did a new study of The Spacewatch Project's small-object search. This estimate says that we've found 40% of the nearby asteroids. Well, I'm glad that we've started looking before a disaster, unlike 'Rendezvous With Rama'." Or "Lucifer's Hammer."

Bowie J. Poag asks: "I'd like to start another project, but I don't want my work hosted on SourceForge due to security concerns. Specifically, I'm looking for someplace I can develop ideas with a small team of people in complete privacy without having details of our development process on display to the general public. Are there other project hosting services available to the community?"

Bowie J. Poag writes "I'll keep this short and sweet-- Due to the lack of upkeep on the site (read: The guy I gave control of the site to didn't do anything to keep it going like he promised..) I've decided its time for Propaganda to close its doors for good.. I'm not going to pursue the idea of finding a replacement, or going back to doing it solo. For now, the site will remain up for those who still care to visit. I've finally managed to locate a site where I can move my work to, in order to cut any remaining ties with VA Linux Systems. The work will remain publically available elsewhere, but no further additions will be made to the collection. The last two less-than-stellar volumes will also be removed. Myself, the people I worked with, and my project have been through a great number of ups and downs in the last year or so..Some of which I really enjoyed, but most of which i'd honestly like to forget. To me, I'd rather see the project come to a respectful end than to see it continue to languish. I accomplished what I originally set out to do in '98, so, I guess we won in the end. (A note to the Slashdot staff: Just to repeat, this isn't an April Fools joke. My decision was made a few days ago. Sorry for the bad timing.) " I'm sorry to see the Project go - but you can be sure I'll treasure the Volumes that remain.

Bowie J. Poag was one of the folks who wrote to us about the domain name controversy regarding OpenSSH. (I've included the full letter below). They're in the interesting situation of /having/ to be a .com, because a squatter has taken the openssh.org domain name. Read the letter below - it's a stickier situation than the other squatting issues we've talked about. Update: 03/07 04:58 by E : Alex de Joode has written his own response here. I hope this can be resolved amicably.

Please be advised that OpenSSH.ORG is NOT the official domain name for OpenSSH development. The name was taken by a someone not affiliated with the OpenSSH development team when news of OpenSSH was first leaked to the community. The correct Web and e-mail address for the OpenSSH development effort is OpenSSH.COM instead of .ORG.

The OpenSSH developers wanted to register under the .ORG top level domain, traditionally meant for non-profit organisations such as OpenSSH, but the name had already been taken. They settled for the .COM in the interim.

The .ORG name is currently held by Mr. Alex de Joode <adejoode@zedz.net>, a proponent of open source cryptography who runs his own free crypto portal hosted by xs4all.nl, a well-known and respected Dutch ISP. Mr. de Joode has repeatedly refused requests to sell or turn the .ORG name over to the OpenSSH developers. This leaves us no choice but to issue this advisory.

The OpenSSH.ORG Web site currently is a blank page with a link to the official site. Please do not visit the .ORG site, nor send e-mail to anybody at the .ORG address. This is more than just a request to boycott: there could be privacy issues, possibly data mining or building a mailing list of security conscious users. We simply don't know Mr. de Joode's motives, and we recommend caution.

Any help or suggestions in breaking the deadlock are appreciated.

Regards

For the OpenSSH developers, Louis Bertrand <louis@openbsd.org>

Slackrat writes "This article in the Arizona Daily Wildcat details the efforts of Rep. Jean McGrath, R-Glendale, to restrict dormitory visitation, require the installation of Internet filters, and allow students to to use campus Internet connections only for a "specific educational purpose" on all Arizona university campuses. And you thought banning Napster was rough." It goes beyond Internet access; opposite-sex dormroom visitation is on the block, too.

Conan Albrecht asks: "A lot of hype is being made about Corel's new Linux file manager (and its Windows look). Can those of us on other distributions try it out without installing Corel? Corel's site seems to expect users to burn an install CD. Is there another way? What comments do Corel Linux users have about the new file manager. How does it compare with KDE, GNOME, or others?"

A reader from the University of Arizona wrote in with a twenty-nine page report on Quantum Computation in Brain Microtubules. The piece is quite intensive, but if you've got a sufficent background in the area, makes very interesting reading.

Hal-9001 writes "I saw this link over at Ars Technica; apparently, the G4 has a bug that keeps it from running at 500 MHz or above. The story is over at MacWeek. "

Bowie J. Poag writes "First it was "The eligibility profile will have no bearing on your ability to participate." Then, it was "Sorry! you failed the eligibility profile since you dont have half a million in the bank and 20 years trading experience. Bye." Now we've come full circle, thanks to a great deal of flames from the community.. E-Trade is backing down and letting us in. "

An anonymous reader noted an amusing story where we learn that Jar Jar will make space fun for children with attention spans destoryed by MTV, and senses of humor rendered disfunctional by years of Sitcoms. It might be better if it was hosted by Darth Darth Binks (thanks SissyLaLa) Point_Blank Sent us a really interesting site that has a history of GUIs. Its just interesting to watch the evolution of those clicky interfaces that we've been using for so long. John Hebert noted that there are New Dune Novels coming out. Tim Macinta sent us a super hilarious Microsoft Advocacy HOWTO. Worth the read. $Bob was the first to tell us that the new obfuscated Perl challange is up (no I'm not entering Slash ;) Bowie J. Poag has concocted an epic poem known asTuxowolf: ..A retelling of the classic Beowulf legend in more familliar prose. Gorak sent us a great 3D image gallery at Mastering 3D Graphics that is laden with bit streams that fulfil Rob's Art Axiom (Art is better when it is a desktop image) And finally, the most disturbing bit was sent by an anonymous reader. Ever want to augment your cats the hi tech way. Check it out. Update: 07/29 12:05 by CT : Shaheen reminded me that I'm going to be on The Wednesday Night Wireside net radio thingee tonight at 9:30 EDT.

Henry Pang writes "The New York Times has this interesting article. It seems like people of China will not be able to buy Playstation 2 next year. " It's The Times, so you need a free account to read it, but it talks about the Playstation being a supercomputer by US standards. Also notes that within 12 months, a $1200 Merced based PC would also be illegal.

Kris Kersey wrote in to mention that CompHardware.Com and running the Linux Hardware Database. Roast Beef wrote in to comment that AntiOnline's new AntiCode looks Strangely Familiar. Richard Finney sent us a nice picture of IO Transitioning Jupiter that has officially met Rob's First Law of Art (all art is better once it becomes my background image). Next up, a trio of Star Wars related stories: PhoneMonkey wrote in with proof that everyone has Star Wars fever over at The Onion. Danse writes wrote in to send us The Phantom Menace Revealed from the Brunching Shuttlecocks. Lars Westergren sent us Mr Cranky's top 10 reasons why you should be worried about the new "Star Wars" movie. [null] created the terribly flawed Slashdot Quota (he gives more points to quickee submittors than feature & book review writers, plus failed to give a million bonus points to anyone named CmdrTaco). An anonymous reader linked us to a suspended Linux server. Link wrote in to send us a little web slideshow that I can't explain, but its so odd that I had to share it. The Dude wrote in to tell us about the ideal use for that VAX 11/780 that you lying around. And finally for the paranoid, Cabby sent us a website which (I kid you not) is Everything Women need to know about Y2k. Sit in slack jawed amazement.

cyril sent this cartoon over with an interesting take on world domination, while no-s sent an interesting picture high-lighting some of the problems with X Proliferation. President John F. Kennedy has announced volume 1 of PROPAGANDA-check it out for Desktop enhancements. It also appears that X11.org needs some assistance with news updating. If you can help out send mail to xteam@x11.org. Finally, I got one of the most interesting pleas from Eric Savage. If you are living in the Boston area, and want high-bandwidth living, click below for his plea. ...Two, our apartment has a dual T1 connection because we run several ISP' s (www.jerky.net and www.hotpop.com). This makes it pretty appealing to most nerdy types. We're looking for two roommates.

Its in Boston (Mission Hill) and the rent is $420/month.

I understand if you can't help, but we would be grateful if you could.

Thanks

Eric Savage
esavage@hotpop.com

cyril sent this cartoon over with an interesting take on world domination, while no-s sent an interesting picture high-lighting some of the problems with X Proliferation. President John F. Kennedy has announced volume 1 of PROPAGANDA-check it out for Desktop enhancements. It also appears that X11.org needs some assistance with news updating. If you can help out send mail to xteam@x11.org. Finally, I got one of the most interesting pleas from Eric Savage. If you are living in the Boston area, and want high-bandwidth living, click below for his plea. ...Two, our apartment has a dual T1 connection because we run several ISP' s (www.jerky.net and www.hotpop.com). This makes it pretty appealing to most nerdy types. We're looking for two roommates.

Its in Boston (Mission Hill) and the rent is $420/month.

I understand if you can't help, but we would be grateful if you could.

Thanks

Eric Savage
esavage@hotpop.com

Continuing in what appears to be a long trend of "Whats the Best Hardware for Linux" Ask Slashdot questions, Zak wrote in to ask us what UPSs people are comfortable with under Linux. What brands work, what don't, what features to look for etc.

Conor writes "It seems the Linux Advocacy HOWTO may be working, Columnist Mark Tebbe at infoworld was forced to reconsider his dismissal of Linux as a 'Renegade OS' when he heard about the number of large corporations relying on it for large parts os their IT infrastructure. See his article for more details. "