Slashdot Mirror

schwit1 shares a report from Space.com: Some distant objects in our solar system bear the gravitational imprint of a small star's close flyby 70,000 years ago, when modern humans were already walking the Earth, a new study suggests. In 2015, a team of researchers announced that a red dwarf called Scholzs star apparently grazed the solar system 70,000 years ago, coming closer than 1 light-year to the sun. For perspective, the suns nearest stellar neighbor these days, Proxima Centauri, lies about 4.2 light-years away. The astronomers came to this conclusion by measuring the motion and velocity of Scholzs star -- which zooms through space with a smaller companion, a brown dwarf or "failed star" -- and extrapolating backward in time. Scholz's star passed by the solar system at a time when early humans and Neanderthals shared the Earth. The star likely appeared as a faint reddish light to anyone looking up at the time, researchers with the new study said. The study has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

aarondubrow writes: Computer science researchers from the University of Rochester developed an app for health departments that uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to identify likely food poisoning hot spots. Las Vegas health officials recently used the app, called nEmesis, to improve the city's inspection protocols and found it was 63% more effective at identifying problematic venues than the current state of the art. The researchers estimate that if every inspection in Las Vegas became adaptive, it could prevent over 9,000 cases of foodborne illness and 557 hospitalizations annually. The team presented the results at the 30th Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference in February.

Thorfinn.au writes Researchers at the University of Rochester and their collaborators have developed a way to transfer 2.05 bits per photon by using "twisted light." [Abstract here.]This remarkable achievement is possible because the researchers used the orbital angular momentum of the photons to encode information, rather than the more commonly used polarization of light. The new approach doubles the 1 bit per photon that is possible with current systems that rely on light polarization and could help increase the efficiency of quantum cryptography systems.

HughPickens.com writes Rachel Nuwer writes in the NYT that Dr. Sameer Chaudhry's online dating persona was garnering no response from the women he reached out to so he synthesized 86 literature studies on the subject of online dating in the fields of psychology, sociology, and computer, behavioral, and neurocognitive sciences.in hopes of improving his odds. As it turns out, success begins with picking a user name. While men are drawn to names linked to physical traits (e.g., Cutie), the researchers found, women prefer ones that indicate intelligence (e.g., Cultured). Both sexes respond well to playful names (e.g. Fun2bwith) and shy away from ones with negative connotations (e.g., Bugg). User names that begin with letters from the first half of the alphabet do better than those from the latter half. "As human beings, we have a tendency to give things at the top of a pile more value," says Khan. As for your profile photo, pick a photo with a genuine smile, one that crinkles the eyes, and with a slight head tilt (it's linked to attractiveness). And if you're looking for a male partner, go for that photo of you in siren red—a color that enhances men's attraction to women. "For those attracted to browse into the profile, a description of personal traits increased likeability when it: showed who the dater was and what they were looking for in a 70:30 ratio; stayed close to reality; and employed simple language with humor added. Invitations were most successful in obtaining a response from the potential date when they: were short personalized messages addressing a trait in their profile; rhymed with their screen name or headline message; and extended genuine compliments." And finally, don't wait too long before arranging a face to face meeting.

Zothecula writes: Astronomers from the Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, New York, have discovered a massive ring system obscuring the light of the young star J1407b. It is believed that the rings belong to a massive planet or possibly a brown dwarf, with an orbital period of roughly 10 years. The giant planet boasts a ring system around 200 times larger than that of Saturn, the only planet in our solar system hosting a ring system of its own."

BarbaraHudson writes: In a new series of experiments, scientists report (abstract) that neutrinos, notable for how infrequently they interact with matter, can strike a glancing blow on an atom's nucleus, and the side effect is the generation of a new particle out of a vacuum. Professor Kevin McFarland says the creation of the new particle is what shields the nucleus from being blown apart by the collision. "Producing an entirely new particle – in this case a charged pion – requires much more energy than it would take to blast the nucleus apart – which is why the physicists are always surprised that the reaction happens as often as it does. McFarland adds that even painstakingly detailed theoretical calculations for this reaction 'have been all over the map.'"

Rambo Tribble writes: Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a remarkably effective visual cloak using a relatively simple arrangement of optical lenses. The method is unique in that it uses off-the-shelf components and provides cloaking through the visible spectrum. Also, it works in 3-D. As one researcher put it, "This is the first device that we know of that can do three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking, which works for transmitting rays in the visible spectrum." Bonus: The article includes instructions to build your own.

An anonymous reader writes "A new study published in the March edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates that a gamer's experience of a video game and not the content of the game itself can give rise to violent behavior. In other words, 'researchers found it was not the narrative or imagery, but the lack of mastery of the game's controls and the degree of difficulty players had completing the game that led to frustration.' Based on their findings, researchers note that even games like Tetris and Candy Crush can inspire violent behavior more so than games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto if they are poorly designed and difficult to play."

First time accepted submitter kraken9 writes "New research shows that online chatter can help you avoid food poisoning. Leveraging a statistical language model of Twitter users' online communication, nEmesis finds individuals who are likely suffering from a foodborne illness. People's visits to restaurants are modeled by matching GPS data embedded in the messages with restaurant addresses. As a result, each venue is assigned a health score based on the proportion of customers that fell ill shortly after visiting it. The paper shows that this score correlates with the official inspection data from the Department of Health, and argues that 'nEmesis offers an inexpensive way to enhance current methods to monitor food safety (e.g., adaptive inspections) and identify potentially problematic venues in near-real time.' Similar techniques have been used before to predict the spread of flu from GPS-tagged social data."

First time accepted submitter kraken9 writes "New research shows that online chatter can help you avoid food poisoning. Leveraging a statistical language model of Twitter users' online communication, nEmesis finds individuals who are likely suffering from a foodborne illness. People's visits to restaurants are modeled by matching GPS data embedded in the messages with restaurant addresses. As a result, each venue is assigned a health score based on the proportion of customers that fell ill shortly after visiting it. The paper shows that this score correlates with the official inspection data from the Department of Health, and argues that 'nEmesis offers an inexpensive way to enhance current methods to monitor food safety (e.g., adaptive inspections) and identify potentially problematic venues in near-real time.' Similar techniques have been used before to predict the spread of flu from GPS-tagged social data."

First time accepted submitter kraken9 writes "New research shows that online chatter can help you avoid food poisoning. Leveraging a statistical language model of Twitter users' online communication, nEmesis finds individuals who are likely suffering from a foodborne illness. People's visits to restaurants are modeled by matching GPS data embedded in the messages with restaurant addresses. As a result, each venue is assigned a health score based on the proportion of customers that fell ill shortly after visiting it. The paper shows that this score correlates with the official inspection data from the Department of Health, and argues that 'nEmesis offers an inexpensive way to enhance current methods to monitor food safety (e.g., adaptive inspections) and identify potentially problematic venues in near-real time.' Similar techniques have been used before to predict the spread of flu from GPS-tagged social data."

New submitter trendspotter writes "Scientists at the University of Rochester found a unique way to measure high IQ and IQ of the brain in general just by studying individuals and their abilities to filter out noise in images (abstract). The results of a visual test where people were told to quickly detect movements showed similar IQ results as a classic intelligence test. 'The relationship between IQ and motion suppression points to the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence, the authors write. The brain is bombarded by an overwhelming amount of sensory information, and its efficiency is built not only on how quickly our neural networks process these signals, but also on how good they are at suppressing less meaningful information. ... The researchers point out that this vision test could remove some of the limitations associated with standard IQ tests, which have been criticized for cultural bias.'"

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Alex Knapp reports that research by a team at the Rochester Medical Center suggests that exposure to the radiation of outer space could accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease in astronauts. 'Galactic cosmic radiation poses a significant threat to future astronauts... Exposure to ... equivalent to a mission to Mars could produce cognitive problems and speed up changes in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer's disease' says M. Kerry O'Banio. Researchers exposed mice with known timeframes for developing Alzheimer's to the type of low-level radiation that astronauts would be exposed to over time on a long space journey. The mice were then put through tests that measured their memory and cognitive ability and the mice exposed to radiation showed significant cognitive impairment. It's not going to be an easy problem to solve, either. The radiation the researchers used in their testing is composed of highly charged iron particles, which are relatively common in space. 'Because iron particles pack a bigger wallop it is extremely difficult from an engineering perspective to effectively shield against them,' says O'Banion. 'One would have to essentially wrap a spacecraft in a six-foot block of lead or concrete.'"

New submitter garthsundem writes with this tale of digital love: "A newly published meta-analysis of over 400 studies of online dating (PDF) shows both its popularity (second only to meeting through friends) and its impact. More online daters report seeking a 'soulmate' online, and do so by searching through the wealth of available profiles. Unfortunately soul-searchers focus on faults, both in viewing profiles and then also once dating in person, leading to quick exits when relationships inevitably get complicated."

Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers at the University of Rochester believe that a 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean in a million years or so, connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Using newly gathered seismic data, researchers have reconstructed how the rift tore open along its entire 35-mile length in just days. Dabbahu, a volcano at the northern end of the rift, erupted first, then magma pushed up through the middle of the rift area and began 'unzipping' the rift in both directions. 'We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift, but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this,' says Cindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester. The results show that highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates may suddenly break apart in large sections, instead of in bits, as the leading theory had previously held. The sudden large-scale events pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events."

anglico sends news of research out of the University of Rochester that has identified a gene that "cancer-proofs" cells in rodents. "Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumors of any kind — and now biologists at the University of Rochester think they know why. The findings, presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the mole rat's cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells 'claustrophobic,' stopping the cells' proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumor, the cells' growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous."

guruevi writes with news that a process using an ultra-powerful laser can crank up the efficiency of everyday incandescent light bulbs. Using the same laser process covered several years ago, the tungsten filament has an array of nano- and micro-scale structures formed on the surface making the resulting light as bright as a 100-watt bulb while consuming less electricity than a 60-watt bulb and remaining much cheaper to produce. "The key to creating the super-filament is an ultra-brief, ultra-intense beam of light called a femtosecond laser pulse. The laser burst lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second. To get a grasp of that kind of speed, consider that a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire grid of North America onto a spot the size of a needle point. That intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nanostructures and microstructures that dramatically alter how efficiently light can radiate from the filament."

deglr6328 writes "The OMEGA EP laser at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics was dedicated today at the Robert L. Sproull Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research. The new laser, which has been in design since ~2002 will, at 1 kilojoule per 1 picosecond pulse, be the highest energy petawatt-scale laser ever created by far. For a fleeting fraction of a second, it will deliver a beam of infrared light at 1054 nm that is more powerful than the total energy consumption of all human activity on the planet, to a tiny spot the size of the head of a pin. Previous petawatt scale lasers such as the one created at Lawrence Livermore labs in the late '90s and (dismantled in 1999) were capable of only several hundred joules per pulse. The new OMEGA EP laser will be able to manifest power densities sufficient to examine Unruh and Hawking radiation-like phenomena in the laboratory and will have the capability to directly produce nuclear reactions through ultra high electric field initiated photodisintegration."

slyyy writes "The Universtiy of Rochester has discovered the complete genome of a bacterial parasite inside the genome of the host species. This opens the possibility of exchanging DNA between unrelated species and changing our understanding of the evolutionary process. From the article: 'Before this study, geneticists knew of examples where genes from a parasite had crossed into the host, but such an event was considered a rare anomaly except in very simple organisms. Bacterial DNA is very conspicuous in its structure, so if scientists sequencing a nematode genome, for example, come across bacterial DNA, they would likely discard it, reasonably assuming that it was merely contamination--perhaps a bit of bacteria in the gut of the animal, or on its skin. But those genes may not be contamination. They may very well be in the host's own genome. This is exactly what happened with the original sequencing of the genome of the anannassae fruitfly--the huge Wolbachia insert was discarded from the final assembly, despite the fact that it is part of the fly's genome.'"

Via GameSpot, the news on the University of Rochester site is that playing videogames can actually improve your vision. Games, especially action shooters, actually change the way your brain looks at the world. According to the findings of researchers Daphne Bavelier and Shawn Green, visual processing is enhanced through consistent play of complex graphical titles. Simple orientation tests were much easier for a group that played UT, compared to a group that only played Tetris.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the University of Rochester have found a way to change the properties of almost any metal by using a femtosecond laser pulse. This ultra-intense laser blast creates true 'black metal' from copper, gold or zinc by forming nanostructures at the surface of the metal. As these nanostructures capture radiation, the metals turn black. And as the process needs surprisingly low power, it could soon be used for a variety of applications, such as stealth planes, black jewels or car paintings. But read more for additional references and a picture of this femtosecond laser system."

brendotroy writes "After decades of work by the physics and computer science communities, scientists at the University of Rochester have finally created a mathematical model that will allow scientists to simulate and understand phase changes. This discovery 'could have an impact on everything from decaffeinating coffee to improving fuel cell efficiency in automobiles of the future.'"

nazarijo writes "You can usually tell someone who's been writing a lot of code by how they write code. That may sound like a tautology, but it's got a deeper meaning than that. What editor they use, what idioms they use to avoid common pitfalls, and what organization patterns they employ all tell you what kind of programmer you're meeting. When you first start writing code, so many things are inconsistent and just plain wrong that it's almost embarrassing. I know that when I look over older code that I've written I feel sheepish about it. But how do you grow as a programmer, and what really makes a good programmer beyond language familiarity?" Read on for Nazario's review of Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective, a book which attempts to instill deeper knowledge about programming than just "knowing how." Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective author Diomidis Spinellis pages 499 publisher Addison-Weslet Longman rating 7 reviewer Jose Nazario ISBN 0201799405 summary A tour of large-scale development projects from code to organization

A few books are tackling this subject, including Coder to Developer and Programming Language Pragmatics. These books don't teach you much about a particular language in the way that an introductory text would. Instead, you grow as a skilled developer by studying them and learning from them. That's one of the key things that people are talking about lately, that to be a strong developer requires more than a working knowledge of a language. It requires a familiarity with the strengths, weaknesses, and core features of a language and the base libraries to be efficient.

Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective is one of these books in this small but growing library. In it, Diomidis Spinellis takes you through a large body of code and focuses on several languages, techniques, and facets of development that differentiate strong developers from weak ones. What I like about this book is how much it covers, how practical the information is, and how much Spinellis teaches you. You wont learn a language, which is the complaint of some people who read this book, but if you know one or two you'll be a better programmer.

Perhaps one of the most telling things about the book is that it draws heavily from NetBSD source code, and features over 600 examples to make the point. Examples are often annotated using NetBSD as a reference. This makes sense, because NetBSD is a large project that's relatively stable and mature. Everything from how to define a C structure consistently and sanely to UML diagrams and build systems are covered, making this truly a developer's book. However, even Windows and Mac OS X developers will benefit, despite the BSD focus.

Chapter 1 introduces some of the basic tenets of the book, namely that code is literature and should be read as such. All too often people only read code when they have a specific problem to solve or want to get an example of an API. Instead, if you read code frequently you'll always be learning things and improving your skills. Also, Spinellis discusses the lifecycle of code (including its genesis, maintenance, and reuse), which simply must be taken into account if code is to be good. Poorly skilled developers forget these things and just slap it together, never thinking ahead.

In Chapter 2, a number of concepts basic to any programming language are covered, including the basic flow-control units common to many languages. The book focuses on C, with additional coverage given using C++, Java, and a few other things thrown in for good measure. As such, these chapters -- in fact the whole book -- focuses on concepts common to these languages but absent in some other languages, like Scheme or LISP. One neat section is called "refactoring in the small." It illustrates the real value of the book nicely, in showing you various ways to organize your code and your thoughts for various effects. Oftentimes a book will only teach you one way (which doesn't always suit your needs), and Spinellis' examples do a nice job of escaping that trap, not just here but throughout the book.

Chapter 3, "Advanced C Data Types," focuses on some language-specific matters. These are pointers, structures, unions and dynamic memory allocation, things that most people who code in C may use but only some truly understand well. Again, a somewhat basic chapter, but useful nonetheless. Make sure you read it; chances are you'll learn a thing or two.

In Chapter 4, some basic data structures (vectors, matrices, stacks, queues, maps and hash tables, sets, lists, trees and graphs) are covered. This is an important chapter since it helps you see these structure in real-world use and also helps you understand when to chose one structure over another. While Knuth, CLRS, or other algorithms and data structures texts cover these, they often do so in isolation and at a theoretical level. While their coverage is short, it's to the point and usable by anyone with a modest understanding of C.

Chapter 5, "Advanced Control Flow," the last chapter that deals with actual programming information, is another useful one. Again, short but to the point, this chapter covers things like recursion, exceptions, parallelism, and signals, all topics that have warranted their own books (or major sections in other books) but which are covered in a single chapter here. Still, seeing them side-by-side and in the context of each other and in real-world use provides some justification for the compact presentation.

The remaining chapters of the book go well beyond a normal programming book and focus on projects. These chapters complement the first bunch nicely by focusing on the organization of your code and projects. Chapter 6 deals specifically with many of the commonly identified (but rarely taught) things like design techniques, project organization, build processes, revision control, and testing. A number of things that aren't covered include defining and managing requirements for a release and their specifications, basics on how to use autoconf and automake, and instead rips through a whole slew of topics quite quickly.

Chapter 7 is sure to be controversial for some people: it covers "Coding Standards and Conventions." Some people seem to be big fans of the "if it feels good, do it" style of programming, and instead of writing sane, usable code, what they produce is buggy and messy. This chapter teaches you tried and tested methods of naming files, indentation (and how to do so consistently using your editor to help), formatting, naming conventions (for variables, functions, and classes), as well as standards and processes. The style and standards are (as you would expect) based on NetBSD, which differ slightly from GNU and Linux standards, as well as commonly found Windows practices. However, I think you'll agree that the style is readable with minimal effort, and that goal, coupled to consistency, is paramount in any standard.

Chapter 8 introduces you to documentation, including the use of man pages, Doxygen, revision histories, and the like. Also included are hints at using diagrams for added value. One thing I don't like about this chapter is the opening quote, which sets a bad precedent. It blithely suggests that bad documentation is better than none, which is highly questionable. Misleading docs can be worse than no docs at all, since someone without docs will have to dig through the code in front of them to understand it. Someone with bad docs will rely on the docs and wonder what's broken when things go awry.

Chapter 9 focuses on code architecture, such as class hierarchies, module organization, and even core features like frameworks to chose. This chapter covers a lot of material, and is, despite its size, simply too terse on many of these subjects. It serves as a decent introduction, but doesn't go very far in some places, considering the importance of the material. However, like much of the book, it's a good introduction to the topics at hand.

Chapter 10 also features a lot of good things to know. Granted, you could pick them all up with a lot of hard work and scouring for information, but it's easier to have them presented to you in a cohesive format. The chapter discusses code reading tools, things that you use to help you dig around a large body of code. One you get over a few source files, even if you have well-organized code and interfaces, many changes can require that you inspect the data path. You can do this manually, or you can be assisted with tools. Tools like regular expressions, grep, your editor -- Spinellis shows you how to make use of all of them when you write code. A lot of tools I've never used (but have heard about) are featured, and their use is demonstrated, but of course many tools are simply ignored, focusing on popular ones that will work for most people.

Finally, all of the above is brought together in Chapter 11, "A Complete Example." A small tour of a large, complex piece of code is taken (34,000 lines of Java) as the author makes changes. It's unfortunately in Java, when so much of the book focused on C (why couldn't they have been consistent examples?), but it works. The example itself could have covered a few more things, such as a proper JUnit example, but overall I'm pleased with it.

Overall, Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective is ambitious and worthwhile, both as a complement to a bookshelf of study that includes The Practice of Programming and Design Patterns, and to someone who is growing tired of books on learning a language. At times it feels like the author promised more than he wound up delivering, but it serves as an introduction to a large number of topics. You wont learn a language, and you wont be able to get as much out of the book if you don't engage it with practice, but it's a useful book to get started on the road from being someone who knows a language or two to someone who is a developer, ready to contribute to a team and work on large projects. Never underestimate the skills required to be a good developer, because they go well beyond knowing how to use a language.

You can purchase Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

neutron_p writes "Researchers from the University of Rochester located a potential planet around another star so young that it defied theorists' explanations and another team of Rochester planet-formation specialists are backing up the original conclusions, saying they've confirmed that the hole formed in the star's dusty disk could very well have been formed by a new planet. The findings have implications for gaining insight into how our own solar system came to be, as well as finding other possibly habitable planetary systems throughout our galaxy."

deglr6328 writes "Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's "l'OASIS" group have, for the first time, discovered a way to create high quality monochromatic beams of relativistic electrons using a 10 terawatt laser pulse focused on a specially formed plasma channel. The work is considered a landmark in new accelerator physics due to the fact that they are theoretically capable of creating extraordinarily high field accelerating gradients in the 100's of GeV per meter range; much higher than what's possible with the current gradients created by microwave frequency accelerators. The discovery could therefore open the door to far more efficient and compact staged particle accelerators utilizing next generation petawatt power lasers to achieve TeV scale particle energies and at lower energies, allow things like proton beam cancer therapy to be made affordable and widely available."

Mithix writes "Gizmodo is reporting that the popular (and free) SSH client PuTTY is now in beta for Symbian OS, the OS of choice for the Nokia Series 60, the Nokia 9200 Communicator Series, and the N-Gage. Finally, something redeeming for the N-Gage?"

extra88 writes "Following in Penn State's footsteps, the University of Rochester has struck a deal to provide access to Napster's premium service for dormitory residents. From the press release: 'In addition, Napster and the University's prestigious Eastman School of Music will be developing ways in which Napster can begin to provide original content from Eastman students and faculty to service members across the entire Napster network.' What does this mean? Perhaps not coincidentally, the university is also hosting a panel discussion about P2P file sharing on Feb. 16. Cary Sherman from the RIAA, university administrators and others will be on the panel and there is to be a live audio stream of the event."

extra88 writes "Following in Penn State's footsteps, the University of Rochester has struck a deal to provide access to Napster's premium service for dormitory residents. From the press release: 'In addition, Napster and the University's prestigious Eastman School of Music will be developing ways in which Napster can begin to provide original content from Eastman students and faculty to service members across the entire Napster network.' What does this mean? Perhaps not coincidentally, the university is also hosting a panel discussion about P2P file sharing on Feb. 16. Cary Sherman from the RIAA, university administrators and others will be on the panel and there is to be a live audio stream of the event."

extra88 writes "Following in Penn State's footsteps, the University of Rochester has struck a deal to provide access to Napster's premium service for dormitory residents. From the press release: 'In addition, Napster and the University's prestigious Eastman School of Music will be developing ways in which Napster can begin to provide original content from Eastman students and faculty to service members across the entire Napster network.' What does this mean? Perhaps not coincidentally, the university is also hosting a panel discussion about P2P file sharing on Feb. 16. Cary Sherman from the RIAA, university administrators and others will be on the panel and there is to be a live audio stream of the event."

extra88 writes "Following in Penn State's footsteps, the University of Rochester has struck a deal to provide access to Napster's premium service for dormitory residents. From the press release: 'In addition, Napster and the University's prestigious Eastman School of Music will be developing ways in which Napster can begin to provide original content from Eastman students and faculty to service members across the entire Napster network.' What does this mean? Perhaps not coincidentally, the university is also hosting a panel discussion about P2P file sharing on Feb. 16. Cary Sherman from the RIAA, university administrators and others will be on the panel and there is to be a live audio stream of the event."

It wouldn't be Halloween without a linux jack-o-lantern like the one submitted by h0mee, who writes "Just an amusing little Halloween set of pics. If you're curious about making your own, Buddy Moore provides us with a mini howto. For some spooky, fleener notes that the University of Texas at Austin's Digital Morphology Library provides X-Ray CT views of living and extinct vertebrates, like this full skeleton of a fruit bat or just its gnashing skull. Other spine-chilling notables include: the veiled chameleon, scaleless dragonfish, black cat, and the fearful pineapple. Lastly, BrGaribaldi noticed that Ridley Scott has re-edited Alien and is releasing it on Halloween in some lucky theaters. Not very many movies are scarier than that." Updated!

Update: 10/31 19:30 GMT by C : Barry sent in this one for you Apple lovers: "I saw your Linux jack-o-lantern, but how about this? The guys over at iPodHacks.com have actually carved an iPod into a pumpkin, creating the world's only iPod-o-Lantern. That's 7000 songs in your...pumpkin. Thought you might want to update the Halloween posting, as this is an ideal fit."

Also, David Clubb submits this achievement for your consideration: "Since it's Halloween, we at the University of Rochester's Computer Interest Floor decided to build a web server out of a pumpkin. We dissembled a 100MHz PII and placed it into a 54 lbs. pumpkin. It runs Gentoo and can be accessed here. Please don't Slashdot it too badly!"

And it just wouldn't be Halloween without the following, from a nameless submittor: "To quote the site, 'Extreme Halloween Fright.' A fairly comprehensive guide to making your pumpkin a bit more hi-tech using power tools, and perhaps the definitive pumpkin trepanning site." Pumpkins and powertools. How can you go wrong?

It wouldn't be Halloween without a linux jack-o-lantern like the one submitted by h0mee, who writes "Just an amusing little Halloween set of pics. If you're curious about making your own, Buddy Moore provides us with a mini howto. For some spooky, fleener notes that the University of Texas at Austin's Digital Morphology Library provides X-Ray CT views of living and extinct vertebrates, like this full skeleton of a fruit bat or just its gnashing skull. Other spine-chilling notables include: the veiled chameleon, scaleless dragonfish, black cat, and the fearful pineapple. Lastly, BrGaribaldi noticed that Ridley Scott has re-edited Alien and is releasing it on Halloween in some lucky theaters. Not very many movies are scarier than that." Updated!

Update: 10/31 19:30 GMT by C : Barry sent in this one for you Apple lovers: "I saw your Linux jack-o-lantern, but how about this? The guys over at iPodHacks.com have actually carved an iPod into a pumpkin, creating the world's only iPod-o-Lantern. That's 7000 songs in your...pumpkin. Thought you might want to update the Halloween posting, as this is an ideal fit."

Also, David Clubb submits this achievement for your consideration: "Since it's Halloween, we at the University of Rochester's Computer Interest Floor decided to build a web server out of a pumpkin. We dissembled a 100MHz PII and placed it into a 54 lbs. pumpkin. It runs Gentoo and can be accessed here. Please don't Slashdot it too badly!"

And it just wouldn't be Halloween without the following, from a nameless submittor: "To quote the site, 'Extreme Halloween Fright.' A fairly comprehensive guide to making your pumpkin a bit more hi-tech using power tools, and perhaps the definitive pumpkin trepanning site." Pumpkins and powertools. How can you go wrong?

It wouldn't be Halloween without a linux jack-o-lantern like the one submitted by h0mee, who writes "Just an amusing little Halloween set of pics. If you're curious about making your own, Buddy Moore provides us with a mini howto. For some spooky, fleener notes that the University of Texas at Austin's Digital Morphology Library provides X-Ray CT views of living and extinct vertebrates, like this full skeleton of a fruit bat or just its gnashing skull. Other spine-chilling notables include: the veiled chameleon, scaleless dragonfish, black cat, and the fearful pineapple. Lastly, BrGaribaldi noticed that Ridley Scott has re-edited Alien and is releasing it on Halloween in some lucky theaters. Not very many movies are scarier than that." Updated!

Update: 10/31 19:30 GMT by C : Barry sent in this one for you Apple lovers: "I saw your Linux jack-o-lantern, but how about this? The guys over at iPodHacks.com have actually carved an iPod into a pumpkin, creating the world's only iPod-o-Lantern. That's 7000 songs in your...pumpkin. Thought you might want to update the Halloween posting, as this is an ideal fit."

Also, David Clubb submits this achievement for your consideration: "Since it's Halloween, we at the University of Rochester's Computer Interest Floor decided to build a web server out of a pumpkin. We dissembled a 100MHz PII and placed it into a 54 lbs. pumpkin. It runs Gentoo and can be accessed here. Please don't Slashdot it too badly!"

And it just wouldn't be Halloween without the following, from a nameless submittor: "To quote the site, 'Extreme Halloween Fright.' A fairly comprehensive guide to making your pumpkin a bit more hi-tech using power tools, and perhaps the definitive pumpkin trepanning site." Pumpkins and powertools. How can you go wrong?

Freddles writes "This is an interesting paper (PDF) describing the design approach to Google's file system. The design had to take account of requirements for huge file sizes, a highly responsive infrastructure and an assumption that hardware components will always fail."

mattlary writes "The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that the University of Rochester plans on building the world's most powerful laser. The plans include upgrading the University's Omega laser with a pair of petawatt lasers. Sounds a lot like Real Genius to me."

Jojo writes "After American Greetings got some lawyers to bring down a Penny Arcade strip (M i r r o r) last week, PA is now striking back.. IANAL, but I fear their latest strip might get them into real trouble this time." As always, PA cracks me up, but these are scary events. The banned strip is clearly a work of parody, which I believe is still legal in this country, unless that too changed recently.

Makarand writes "Although slowing down a light beam is as simple as passing it through a window pane, slowing down light dramatically has always involved extremely low temperatures and rooms full of complex equipment. A new small device developed at the University of Rochester can now slow light down to 127 mph without using the room-filling mechanisms previously required. The new technique uses a laser beam to create a hole in the absorption spectrum of a common ruby at room temperatures that can allow a second laser beam, with a frequency slightly different than the first laser, to shine through that hole at a greatly reduced speed. This light slowing device might find applications in the telecommunications industry."

extra88 writes "Bush has signed the Do-Not-Call Registry into law. The registry will be run by the FTC and funded by fees collected from telemarketers. Telemarketers can be fined up to $11K for calling someone on the list. Politicians, surveys (loophole?) and charities are exempt from using the list. The FCC oversees certain industries (airlines, banks and phone companies) and will have to "buy in" to the registry for it to affect those industries. Slashdot covered this story when the bill went through House of Representatives."

sp00 writes "Researchers at the University of Rochester have created the highest resolution optical image ever, revealing structures as small as carbon nanotubes just a few billionths of an inch across. The new method should open the door to previously inaccessible chemical and structural information in samples as small as the proteins embedded in a cell's membrane. The research appears in today's issue of Physical Review Letters."

gmaestro writes "The Turn-Key Linux Audio project at the Eastman Computer Music Center has released it's first instant linux audio workstation package. Simply download onto your Mandrake workstation, untar and type # ./install.sh."

gmaestro writes "The Turn-Key Linux Audio project at the Eastman Computer Music Center has released it's first instant linux audio workstation package. Simply download onto your Mandrake workstation, untar and type # ./install.sh."

gmaestro writes "The Turn-Key Linux Audio project at the Eastman Computer Music Center has released it's first instant linux audio workstation package. Simply download onto your Mandrake workstation, untar and type # ./install.sh."

Pete (big-pete) writes "Scienceblog carries a copy of an article which describes some unexpected results found when Physicists started slamming gold atoms together at high speeds. The resulting temperature was tens of thousands of times hotter than the cores of the hottest stars, but the resulting stream of particles did not behave as predicted. The original article is also available from the University of Rochester's news site here."

Slashback tonight (read on below) has updates on next-generation aircraft, KDE user-interface improvements and suggestions, a special warning for those obsessed with Milton's stapler from Office Space, SmartFilter's attitude toward SourceForge, and more.

You've got to admit it's getting better all the time. Gentu writes: "In parallel to the KDE 3.1-alpha release today, OSNews published an interesting article discussing a number of User Interface issues found on KDE 3. The article suggests a number of changes, some small, some pretty drastic. Towards the end of the two-part article, the author discusses the 'integration' problem found in today's X11 desktop environments, and how fixing this issue would bring Unix closer to average Joe's desktop."

Yes, you're allowed to have more than one friend. A NuKeFaN writes: "Following the article titled Are you a Friend of GNOME I wanted to point you out that the most used GPL'd software for the Web, PHP-Nuke, also has a similar page/system for their friends. It's a Club (MandrakeClub like) where you can be a member for a little monthly fee and you can get some extra benefits. You can access the Club area to know more about it. This can be, maybe, another example of how to get some money to fund a free software project, the matter is if we, as users, will support those project's developers this way? I think we can."

Wait, the scam was to take just a few pennies from everyone! MrBlue VT writes "In reference to the previous Slashdot article about the red Swingline Staplers, I click on the add to cart button on the Swingline website, and it pops open an ordering window with a 4 staplers added to the shopping cart. Ok, I think it's a little strange, but change the quantity back to 1, and hit continue to checkout. Next thing I know, I'm looking at an order form with all the text boxes filled out with somebody else's personal information. He's from Bellvue, WA apparently (I'm in Virginia). It also has his credit card number and expiration date!

This has to be the worst security I've ever seen in an online shopping site. The company who apparently provides the online shopping service for Swingline appears to be an outfit called SureSource.

I just wanted to let anyone who happened to order from them know about this. Your credit card info could very well be compromised."

Please fasten your belts. hondo77 submitted this follow-up to this article about next-generation aircraft, writing "Boeing says that their blended-wing aircraft will be ready for test flights in 2006. The article also has a picture of a 3% scale model. See, it doesn't look like the B-2 at all."

But thanks anyhow. flonker writes "Smartfilter no longer lists sourceforge.net! Link for those who want to see for themselves."

Great at stealing them, too. MrDingusMcGee writes "After the recent posting about a study suggesting that video games decrease brain activity, I thought it would be interesting to read the results of another study which has shown that video game players score better on a range of attention tasks (mirror here)done by Shawn Green at the University of Rochester Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, and that this could possibly rate video game players as better drivers. Worth seeing the other side of the argument and having some validation for those hours of gaming."

Trevor Johnson writes "New Scientist reports that physicists from the NuTev collaboration at Fermilab have announced a result on their Web page. Bombarding iron nuclei with high-energy neutrinos, they found a 99.75% chance that neutrinos interact slightly differently from the way the Standard Model (the reigning theory which describes the strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces, but not gravity) says they should. Even though the discrepancy is small, it is likely to be significant. There is no theory to explain the difference, but it could indicate a hitherto unknown force. NuTev has submitted a "Physical Review Letter" paper. There is a press release from Fermilab and a plain English version."

Trevor Johnson writes "New Scientist reports that physicists from the NuTev collaboration at Fermilab have announced a result on their Web page. Bombarding iron nuclei with high-energy neutrinos, they found a 99.75% chance that neutrinos interact slightly differently from the way the Standard Model (the reigning theory which describes the strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces, but not gravity) says they should. Even though the discrepancy is small, it is likely to be significant. There is no theory to explain the difference, but it could indicate a hitherto unknown force. NuTev has submitted a "Physical Review Letter" paper. There is a press release from Fermilab and a plain English version."

Trevor Johnson writes "New Scientist reports that physicists from the NuTev collaboration at Fermilab have announced a result on their Web page. Bombarding iron nuclei with high-energy neutrinos, they found a 99.75% chance that neutrinos interact slightly differently from the way the Standard Model (the reigning theory which describes the strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces, but not gravity) says they should. Even though the discrepancy is small, it is likely to be significant. There is no theory to explain the difference, but it could indicate a hitherto unknown force. NuTev has submitted a "Physical Review Letter" paper. There is a press release from Fermilab and a plain English version."

I'm trying to get stuff together, and post an update: The Pentagon, which evidently has partly collapsed with a chasm 200-300 feet across, and fires on six stories, has ordered the USS JFK and George Washington into NYC. PLEASE GIVE BLOOD. Over 200 firemen are reported missing, and reports of 50,000 dead in the WTC collapse are being bandied about. Dick Cheney has assumed control of the White House, and is in the situation room there. GWB is not returning to the White House until things have calmed down -- and has gone evidently to an undisclosed location. The [CDC] in Atlanta has largely evacuated but has activated their bioterrorism units. American Airlines flight 11, the first to crash into the WTC, was going from BOS -> LAX. There are rumors of Akamai's founder being onboard on Flight 11, As well, the rumor is that the pilot of United Flight 193 flew it in into the ground, outside Pittsburgh, rather then fly into the USX building, which if true, makes him a better person then I -- but there are also rumors that it was shot down by a F-16. United Flight 175 also crashed into the WTC, according to Boston.com, and originated from Boston -- so the WTC was both Boston flights. Reports of a car bomb that was supposed to have gone off int front the State Department have been denied. In a statement, the Taliban government of Afghanistan has denied any involvement, and Yassar Arafat has denounced the attack. Remember: No one knows who did this yet, so don't make any assumptions -- remember what people first thought about the OKC attack. In other news, the US - Mexico/Canada borders are being heavily screened; all air traffic has been grounded; nationwide federal buildings are being evacuated; NATO personnel in Brussells have been sent home, Israeli embassies worldwide have been evacuated, all U.S. Disney parks shut down; major parts of European cities, Britain in particular, are being shut down; stock trading is shut down in all major European and American exchanges. There are 50 flights still in the air, with 2 international flights that have yet to respond. F16s from the US Air Force has been instructed to shoot down flights in a no fly zone over NYC & DC - an AVI of the WTC plane or mpeg here. More as we know.Update: 09/11 18:10 PM GMT by H :I've heard on NPR that all flights and planes are now accounted for -- but that a fifth crash has occurred in an undisclosed location. As well, a car bomb did go off in front of the State Department, and there was a crash near Camp David. There's a well done timeline - we also had a report from someone who lives 3 miles away from the PA crash. Evidently the plane veered several times, and then smashed into an abandoned strip mine - which was luckily not near any people or anything.

smirkleton writes "The San Jose Mercury News has a story about the current struggles of CueCat manufacturer DigitalConvergence. One of several interesting factoids within the article: CueCat is trying to procure product endorsements from Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and Lisa Simpson. Mr. Groening, for the love of Flanders, don't do it! 'The Simpsons' once dissed on Apple's Newton (hilariously)- and it had an actual purpose and loyal following. Endorsing this utterly useless and universally despised advertising toy would constitute a sellout of Dilbertian proportions."

lsy writes "A group of University of Rochester students staged a protest during the university's Sesquicentennial weekend on the occasion of Jack Valenti's appearance to moderate a panel of Hollywood insiders. The students handed out pamphlets, wore DeCSS t-shirts donated by Copyleft, and demonstrated a DVD being played under linux. After the event, the group had a chance to speak with Valenti for over an hour. They've received some press from the Hollywood Insider [yahoo version], and the group's web site claims that it will have photographs online of the students with Valenti "soon"."