Slashdot Mirror
Domain: duke.edu
Stories and comments across the archive that link to duke.edu.
Stories · 111
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Fedora Core Release 3 Released
anyweb writes "Fedora Core Release 3 is out now, Heidelberg, 2.6.9-1.667 kernel, Firefox included ! Gnome 2.8 and more. Here are some screenshots" New release includes Gnome 2.8, KDE 3.3, Kernel 2.6.9, Firefox PR1, Thunderbird 0.8, Ximian Evolution 2.0 and more. Here is a Mirror List and Bit Torrent -
Stem Cells Treat Spinal Injuries and Brain Tumors
Neil Halelamien writes "At the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting this past weekend, some very exciting results (from experiments on rats and mice) were discussed regarding the potential for human embryonic stem cells to treat injured spinal cords, brain tumors, and Parkinson's. Besides the possible health benefits, this adds fuel to the discussions leading up to the US election and the US's current attempts to have the UN ban therapeutic cloning worldwide." -
Fedora Core 3, Test 3 available
Allen Zadr writes "Today, the Fedora team has released Fedora Core 3 - Test 3. Just a little behind schedule. It's available for AMD Opteron and Intel i386, with CD or DVD images. To get it, join the torrent. Core 3, Test 2 was previously discussed." -
Fedora Core 3 Test 2 Available
p0 writes "Fedora Core 3 Test 2 is now available for downloading. The official .torrent tracker is here. It is also interesting that the Fedora Steering Committee has transferred Fedora Core 1 into the Fedora Legacy Project. If you would like to know the proposed development and release schedule for Fedora Core 3, you will find it here." -
The Changing Face Of Campus Tech
SeaDour writes "CNET News has an interesting perspective on the changing face of technology on campus. These days, students are showing more interest in the tech perks that campuses have to offer, and universities are taking notice. Duke University, for example, just gave away free iPods to each of their 1,650 incoming freshman. Penn State offers subsidized access to Napster 2.0 for all students, and many other schools are now considering similar programs with Rhapsody and Cdigix. Perhaps the best offering is wireless internet access, which 90% of campuses now offer in some form. Are we seeing the day when college students make their school of choice not based solely on academics or athletics, but also on tech freebies like these?" -
The Changing Face Of Campus Tech
SeaDour writes "CNET News has an interesting perspective on the changing face of technology on campus. These days, students are showing more interest in the tech perks that campuses have to offer, and universities are taking notice. Duke University, for example, just gave away free iPods to each of their 1,650 incoming freshman. Penn State offers subsidized access to Napster 2.0 for all students, and many other schools are now considering similar programs with Rhapsody and Cdigix. Perhaps the best offering is wireless internet access, which 90% of campuses now offer in some form. Are we seeing the day when college students make their school of choice not based solely on academics or athletics, but also on tech freebies like these?" -
Blogging a Ride on the 'Vomit Comet'
An anonymous reader writes "Four Duke engineering students have launched a weblog to document their preparations and impending ride on NASA's 'vomit comet.' The students will study the effects of microgravity on the shapes of cells and the positions of their organelles, such as the nucleus. The schedule is subject to change, but the students expect to take their 12,000 foot plunges Monday in NASA's KC-135A. They plan to provide photos and video." -
Duke University Giving iPods To 1650 Freshmen
baptiste writes "Duke University has entered into an agreement with Apple to distribute iPods to all of the incoming freshmen this year - that's 1650 iPods! This agreement is part of an initiative to "encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life" The iPods will have audio and text on them including special university content such as "faculty-provided course content, including language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books." Faculty will be assisted in creating new content for these devices by Duke's Center for Instructional Technology And here you thought iPods were just for music!" -
Duke University Giving iPods To 1650 Freshmen
baptiste writes "Duke University has entered into an agreement with Apple to distribute iPods to all of the incoming freshmen this year - that's 1650 iPods! This agreement is part of an initiative to "encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life" The iPods will have audio and text on them including special university content such as "faculty-provided course content, including language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books." Faculty will be assisted in creating new content for these devices by Duke's Center for Instructional Technology And here you thought iPods were just for music!" -
OpenDarwin 7.2.1 Released
Ed Waldmire writes "I am pleased to annouce to the /. community that the OpenDarwin community has released OpenDarwin 7.2.1. This release corresponds to Mac OS X 10.3.2 and includes many bugfixes and additions. Most notable are ncutil, YUM, and a tulip NIC driver." -
Fedora Core 3 Test 1 Released
Gudlyf writes "Notice just went out to the Fedora Announce List about the availability of Fedora Core 3 Test 1. Things expected in FC3 include Linux kernel 2.6.7, GCC 3.4, GNOME 2.8, KDE 3.3, and Evolution 2.0. As always, you can get Fedora Core test releases at redhat.com, specifically here and (for a torrent) here." -
Fedora Core 2 Officially Available
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Whale Flippers Make Better Airplane Wings
phreakmonkey writes "The bumpy, ridged surface on humpback whale flippers provide more lift, less drag, and exhibit better stall characteristics than traditional aircraft wing designs, according to Duke University, West Chester University, and the U.S. Naval Academy. This could help improve the design of airfoils used on everything from aircraft wings to underwater vehicles. The results were published in the May 2004 issue of Physics of Fluids and reported on Innovations Report." -
Fedora Core 2 Test 2 Released
Kalak writes "Fedora Core 2 Test 2, part of the project's goal to 'work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software', has just been released - this test release 'is specifically designed for SELinux testing, as well as testing the 2.6 kernel, GNOME 2.5, and KDE 3.2.1.' Get a copy from one of the mirrors or grab a copy via BitTorrent. You probably want the binary only Torrent." -
Fedora Core 2 Test 2 Released
Kalak writes "Fedora Core 2 Test 2, part of the project's goal to 'work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software', has just been released - this test release 'is specifically designed for SELinux testing, as well as testing the 2.6 kernel, GNOME 2.5, and KDE 3.2.1.' Get a copy from one of the mirrors or grab a copy via BitTorrent. You probably want the binary only Torrent." -
Smarter Children Through Food Supplements
An anonymous reader writes "Baby rats (mmm...baby rats) fed a little extra choline in utero popped out with brain cells dramatically bigger and faster than pups who didn't receive the supplement. Duke University researchers say the implications are profound for humans and the future of learning." -
Philips Develops Fluid Lenses
Lars T. writes "Digital Photography Review has a short report indicating: 'Philips Research at the CeBIT exhibition is demonstrating a unique variable-focus lens system that has no mechanical moving parts. Suited to a wide range of optical imaging applications, including digital cameras.' Here is Philips' press release and the Heise News article (in German) where I first heard about it. The latter also mentions that Philips has recently used the same electrowetting effect in an 'ePaper' display prototype." -
Fedora Core 2 test1 Released
GerritHoll writes "A test release of Fedora Core 2 is now available from Red Hat and at distinguished mirror sites near you, and is also available in the torrent. Fedora Core has expanded in this release to four binary ISO images and four source ISO images. This test release is specifically designed for testing the 2.6 kernel, GNOME 2.5, and KDE 3.2. Please file bugs via Bugzilla, Product Fedora Core, Version test1, Architecture i386 so that they are noticed and appropriately classified. Discuss this test release on fedora-test-list." -
Fedora Core 1 For AMD64 test1 Available
DrFishstik writes "From the Fedora Project Page: "A test release of Fedora Core 1 for AMD64 is now available from Red Hat and at distinguished mirror sites near you, and is also available in the torrent. Like the original x86 architecture release, the AMD64 architecture has three binary ISO images and three source ISO images. This is a single (we hope and intend) test release specifically to check hardware support; the package set is the same versions as an updated Fedora Core 1 for x86 system will have."" -
Increasing Video Detail Using Super-Resolution?
Cecil Esquivel asks: "I'm looking for ways to increase the quality of video by using super-resolution algorithms which use the visual information across multiple frames of video to increase the resolution of individual frames. I have found very little on the web that can do this effectively for the entire length of video. There is commercial software, VideoFOCUS, which produces hi-res stills from video, but doesn't seem to have a product for producing hi-res video from video. There is a thesis from Duke U. which is 6 years old, monochrome only and is mostly proof of concept.) Anybody out there have more information or is willing to help me develop some software that can do this? Darwin/Mac OS X solution that can work with QuickTime DV, preferred." Typically, super-resolution uses image samples generated from low-resolution and high-resolution samples of the same source, which is then converted into source independent information that can be used to increase detail for other low resolution sources. Has anyone seen programs that use super-resolution techniques for increasing the resolution of your typical digital video clip? -
Designing Proteins In Silico
Fluorophore writes "In a recent issue of the scientific journal Nature, scientists in the lab of Homme Hellinga at Duke University reported designing proteins using a cluster of 20 computers. These proteins were then tested in the lab and shown to bind their intended targets including TNT, serotonin and lactate. This is a tremendous step for computational biology, nicely reviewed in C&E News' top story. Designer proteins such as this can be developed for bioremediation of weapons dump sites (TNT) and sensitive sensors of drugs/contaminants that can easily be grown in bacteria." -
RIAA vs The Economy
thumbtack writes "Boycott-RIAA.com is running an analysis of the RIAA sales vs a number of other large corporations. It was compiled by Justin Moore at Duke University. It is really quite interesting, showing the the RIAA sales are pretty much consistent with the rest of the economy. From the analysis: I would assert, however that it does make the case in cold, hard numbers that the RIAA's claim of digital piracy ravaging their sales must be taken with a rather large grain of salt. The CEOs of Eastman-Kodak are in a nearly identical economic situation as the RIAA, yet do not have the luxury of blaming digital piracy." -
Tolerating Viruses In Order To Ignore Them
Tammy writes "This article discusses how a new approach to computer security focuses on allowing computers to function even when infected with a virus or worm. This relatively new approach contrasts with traditional, preventitive security that has been sucseptible to numerous attacks." -
Vision is a 'Reflex'
kernkopje writes "A recently publicized book by two neurobiologists at Duke University introduces an interesting emperical theory on vision. Rather than postulating a visual system that generates a picture of what actually exists in front of the viewer, they theorize that evolution, as well as life experience, has created a visual system in which perceptions represent what a given visual stimulus has typically signified in the past. Admiring the view from a high building, staring at a beautiful woman, shapes, colors, textures, it's basically all the same knee-jerk response... The news release is here, read more about the concept here. Their lab work & results can be found here." -
Vision is a 'Reflex'
kernkopje writes "A recently publicized book by two neurobiologists at Duke University introduces an interesting emperical theory on vision. Rather than postulating a visual system that generates a picture of what actually exists in front of the viewer, they theorize that evolution, as well as life experience, has created a visual system in which perceptions represent what a given visual stimulus has typically signified in the past. Admiring the view from a high building, staring at a beautiful woman, shapes, colors, textures, it's basically all the same knee-jerk response... The news release is here, read more about the concept here. Their lab work & results can be found here." -
Vision is a 'Reflex'
kernkopje writes "A recently publicized book by two neurobiologists at Duke University introduces an interesting emperical theory on vision. Rather than postulating a visual system that generates a picture of what actually exists in front of the viewer, they theorize that evolution, as well as life experience, has created a visual system in which perceptions represent what a given visual stimulus has typically signified in the past. Admiring the view from a high building, staring at a beautiful woman, shapes, colors, textures, it's basically all the same knee-jerk response... The news release is here, read more about the concept here. Their lab work & results can be found here." -
The Fermionic Version of Bose-Einstein Condensates
Sargent1 writes "According to Science magazine's web page, a group of physicists at Duke University have managed to cool fermions to the point that they may be seeing superfluidity in a fermi gas. If they are seeing fermionic superfluidity, their work is to fermions what Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is to bosons, and the creation of BEC won some folks the Nobel prize in 2001. Beyond that, they've got the fermions interacting so strongly that they're a good analog of fermions in white dwarfs and neutron stars. This gives experimenters the chance to investigate neutron stars without having to have one parked out back in the lab." -
The Fermionic Version of Bose-Einstein Condensates
Sargent1 writes "According to Science magazine's web page, a group of physicists at Duke University have managed to cool fermions to the point that they may be seeing superfluidity in a fermi gas. If they are seeing fermionic superfluidity, their work is to fermions what Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is to bosons, and the creation of BEC won some folks the Nobel prize in 2001. Beyond that, they've got the fermions interacting so strongly that they're a good analog of fermions in white dwarfs and neutron stars. This gives experimenters the chance to investigate neutron stars without having to have one parked out back in the lab." -
Nanotech Paints For Military
pmacwill wrote to us with a recent article on Pennet in regards to the U.S. military's proposed use of nanotech paints. Actually, it goes beyond proposal -- and beyond paint, as it would allow vehicles to change camo patterns very easily, and would also repair micro-cracks and fractures without the need for service. -
Ask Donald Becker
This is a "needs no introduction" introduction, because Donald Becker is one of the people who has been most influential in making GNU/Linux a usable operating system, and is also one of the "fathers" of Beowulf and commodity supercomputing clusters in general. Usual Slashdot interview rules apply, plus a special one for this interview only: "What if we made a Beowulf cluster of these?" is not an appropriate question. -
'Sticky Mittens' Give Babies A Head Start
Tammy Tieu writes "Duke University psychologists have discovered that fitting infants with Velcro-covered 'sticky mittens' gives them a developmental jump start in learning to explore objects. The researchers placed the mittens on infants too young to actually grasp objects, but the mittens allowed the infants to snag Velcro-fitted toys merely by swiping at them. In comparisons with infants who hadn't used the mittens, found the psychologists, those who had used the mitten subsequently showed more sophisticated abilities to explore objects." -
'Sticky Mittens' Give Babies A Head Start
Tammy Tieu writes "Duke University psychologists have discovered that fitting infants with Velcro-covered 'sticky mittens' gives them a developmental jump start in learning to explore objects. The researchers placed the mittens on infants too young to actually grasp objects, but the mittens allowed the infants to snag Velcro-fitted toys merely by swiping at them. In comparisons with infants who hadn't used the mittens, found the psychologists, those who had used the mitten subsequently showed more sophisticated abilities to explore objects." -
Digital Microfluidics
herrd0kt0r writes "A brilliant team of researches at Duke University have been working on digital microfluidics, with potential applications in biotech labs-on-a-chip, optical routers/switches, wavelength division multiplexers and the like. Essentially, this team has developed a solid state device capable of moving very small drops of fluid over very small distances with very little power. From their website they remark that "[m]icrofluidic processing is performed on unit-sized packets of fluid which are transported, stored, mixed, reacted, or analyzed in a discrete manner using a standard set of basic instructions." Their site includes eight .mpgs demonstrating their microfluidics tech in real-time. Be sure to take a gander at this video showing programmable flow of droplets as well as this one showing droplet splitting and formation." -
Digital Microfluidics
herrd0kt0r writes "A brilliant team of researches at Duke University have been working on digital microfluidics, with potential applications in biotech labs-on-a-chip, optical routers/switches, wavelength division multiplexers and the like. Essentially, this team has developed a solid state device capable of moving very small drops of fluid over very small distances with very little power. From their website they remark that "[m]icrofluidic processing is performed on unit-sized packets of fluid which are transported, stored, mixed, reacted, or analyzed in a discrete manner using a standard set of basic instructions." Their site includes eight .mpgs demonstrating their microfluidics tech in real-time. Be sure to take a gander at this video showing programmable flow of droplets as well as this one showing droplet splitting and formation." -
Digital Microfluidics
herrd0kt0r writes "A brilliant team of researches at Duke University have been working on digital microfluidics, with potential applications in biotech labs-on-a-chip, optical routers/switches, wavelength division multiplexers and the like. Essentially, this team has developed a solid state device capable of moving very small drops of fluid over very small distances with very little power. From their website they remark that "[m]icrofluidic processing is performed on unit-sized packets of fluid which are transported, stored, mixed, reacted, or analyzed in a discrete manner using a standard set of basic instructions." Their site includes eight .mpgs demonstrating their microfluidics tech in real-time. Be sure to take a gander at this video showing programmable flow of droplets as well as this one showing droplet splitting and formation." -
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition
krugg234 writes "Today [ed. note: well, a few days ago] marks the start of the Fifth Annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition. This year's competition involves completely autonomous robots locating and reading bar codes at various depths underwater at a naval base in San Diego. There are some good links on the site to individual competitors' websites to see how different schools tackled the same problem." -
Economics and Open Source Projects
david_christie writes "Dan Gillmor has a piece on the economist Yochai Benkler's paper "Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm" which examines open source projects asan example of an emerging general model of economic behavior that is neither market nor company based. A previous version of the paper was noted in slashdot back in October, but it's been revised for upcoming publication in the Yale Law Review and is well worth a second look. Benkler attempts to explain why open source projects succeed, without falling back on theories about the special nature of software projects or hacker culture. He suggests that more general economic principles are at work, which are displacing the traditional motivations (market prices and employee relationships) that economists use to quantify individual behavior. If he's right the open source model could spread to other forms of creative work where the output is information or culture (music production comes to mind). The author thinks deeply about the information flows characterizing collaborative projects like free software development ("commons-based peer production"). That distinguishes this paper from the usual economist mumbo-jumbo about price points and such. Like Larry Lessig on the legal side of things, this is a guy who gets it and has thought deeply about how his field relates to it." -
Public Software Fund's First Project
Russ Nelson writes "The Public Software Fund's first project has been funded for two months worth of development. Tom Jennings (of Fidonet fame) will be writing software to do peer-to-peer file sharing of free software RPM packages, improving the existing free software packages up2date, /current/, and BitTorrent. This will keep new distro releases from being slashdotted." -
Nitroglycerin Mystery Solved
Amon Hobbes writes "It seems that some scientists at Duke University have unravelled the mysteries of How Nitroglycerin works [the heart medication]." -
Nitroglycerin Mystery Solved
Amon Hobbes writes "It seems that some scientists at Duke University have unravelled the mysteries of How Nitroglycerin works [the heart medication]." -
Shakedown: How the Business Software Alliance Operates
An anonymous source writes: "I'm a faculty member at a public university which the Business Software Alliance contacted in a bulk mailing last Fall. Stupidly, our IT department invited them in to 'explain' licensing to us, and now we are trying to fend off an audit on our computers (public and private). Two questions: what kind of leverage does the BSA actually have against us? And does anyone have war stories, successful or otherwise, of their encounters with the BSA?" Although Slashdot is running this story as from an anonymous reader, we have contacted the source and believe the story is factual and the appeal for help is real. Consider this Slashdot's contribution to National Copyright Awareness Week.The source continues: "The report that the BSA gave to our administration was filled with scary stories about other schools who tried to resist, so unless there's some hard evidence to the contrary I suspect our university will just roll over. We were told that:
- auditing software *will* be installed on every campus machine;
- the license for every program, on every machine, must be produced upon demand;
- failure to produce licenses for all commercial or shareware software will constitute prima facie evidence of illegal possession, with penalties that could range from the confiscation of the machine to the firing of the user;
- and this includes computers *personally* owned by faculty."
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Exercise Pill for Couch Potatoes?
cravey writes "CNN is running a story about how scientists at Duke University have discovered ..."the chemical pathways that muscle cells use to build strength and endurance." which may lead to the development of an exercise pill." -
Fed Raids Software Pirates in 27 Cities
akiaki007 was among many who wrote in to say: "Check out this article on the New York Times (free reg, blah blah) site. The Feds have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include MIT, UCLA, Purdue, Duke, UofO. Their main target was the group DrinkOrDie. 'This is a new frontier for crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide my burned Linux CD's. They might think it's some weird hacking tool." -
Student Researcher Wins Patent Dispute
Matthew writes: "For years, student researchers at universities have alleged that the hierarchical system in academic research allows supervising PhDs to steal and patent inventions that were rightfully discovered by students. The Federal Circuit finally addressed these concerns by interpreting the law in a way that strictly protects the rights of student researchers. As such, student researchers will now be able to sue their supervising PhDs for any actions that are not in the best interests of the student researcher or the patent rights of the student researcher." -
Public Domain Conference Papers Online.
bwoodard writes "Over the weekend Duke University Law school held a conference on the public domain which included many well known Free Software advocates such as Lawrence Lessig and Eben Moglen. The papers (in PDF) are presented were quite thought provoking and well worth a read." Timothy brought this conference to our attention on scary halloween. -
Public Domain Conference Papers Online.
bwoodard writes "Over the weekend Duke University Law school held a conference on the public domain which included many well known Free Software advocates such as Lawrence Lessig and Eben Moglen. The papers (in PDF) are presented were quite thought provoking and well worth a read." Timothy brought this conference to our attention on scary halloween. -
Conference On Public Domain and Intellectual Property
jonnystiles2 writes: "Duke University and the Center for the Public Domain are holding a conference from November 9 to 11 on intellectual property and the the public domain. The conference has a web-site with the papers to be delivered. There is also a discussion board about the conference. You will need to create an account to access the boards. Or, you can view them read-only. Of particular interest to readers of this site will be a paper by Yochai Benkler titled "Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm." The people at the conference are some of the leading legal minds in the field of intellectual property. If you are interested in the different debates concerning the ecology of networks, meanings of the First Amendment as related to the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and more, definitely check this out. While this is an legal and academic conference, most of papers require only a rudimentary familiarity with the issues and arguments regarding intellectual property." -
Conference On Public Domain and Intellectual Property
jonnystiles2 writes: "Duke University and the Center for the Public Domain are holding a conference from November 9 to 11 on intellectual property and the the public domain. The conference has a web-site with the papers to be delivered. There is also a discussion board about the conference. You will need to create an account to access the boards. Or, you can view them read-only. Of particular interest to readers of this site will be a paper by Yochai Benkler titled "Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm." The people at the conference are some of the leading legal minds in the field of intellectual property. If you are interested in the different debates concerning the ecology of networks, meanings of the First Amendment as related to the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and more, definitely check this out. While this is an legal and academic conference, most of papers require only a rudimentary familiarity with the issues and arguments regarding intellectual property." -
Conference On Public Domain and Intellectual Property
jonnystiles2 writes: "Duke University and the Center for the Public Domain are holding a conference from November 9 to 11 on intellectual property and the the public domain. The conference has a web-site with the papers to be delivered. There is also a discussion board about the conference. You will need to create an account to access the boards. Or, you can view them read-only. Of particular interest to readers of this site will be a paper by Yochai Benkler titled "Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm." The people at the conference are some of the leading legal minds in the field of intellectual property. If you are interested in the different debates concerning the ecology of networks, meanings of the First Amendment as related to the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and more, definitely check this out. While this is an legal and academic conference, most of papers require only a rudimentary familiarity with the issues and arguments regarding intellectual property." -
Conference On Public Domain and Intellectual Property
jonnystiles2 writes: "Duke University and the Center for the Public Domain are holding a conference from November 9 to 11 on intellectual property and the the public domain. The conference has a web-site with the papers to be delivered. There is also a discussion board about the conference. You will need to create an account to access the boards. Or, you can view them read-only. Of particular interest to readers of this site will be a paper by Yochai Benkler titled "Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm." The people at the conference are some of the leading legal minds in the field of intellectual property. If you are interested in the different debates concerning the ecology of networks, meanings of the First Amendment as related to the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and more, definitely check this out. While this is an legal and academic conference, most of papers require only a rudimentary familiarity with the issues and arguments regarding intellectual property."