Slashdot Mirror
Domain: wikipedia.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to wikipedia.org.
Stories · 7,048
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Best Go Resources for a Beginner?
wrinkledshirt asks: "So, as an English teacher stranded in the middle of South Korea, I've learned that Go (or Baduk, as it's called here) is a really popular game with the locals. Unfortunately, it's really difficult to learn how to play it when most people who are good at it don't speak English very well. So, I've turned to the web. There are some okay teaching sites, but often the learning curve beyond simple rules explanation is pretty steep... 'This is a white stone. This is a black stone. They take turns. These are eyes. Ready? Okay, now observe how abandoning the joseki here leads to a gote which needlessly gives white sente...' (Me: 'WTF?!?'). What are the best Go resources for a beginner?" "I've been playing Go on yahoo, but the beginner rooms there don't have all that many beginners. Sensai's Library is pretty good, but laid out a little confusingly. The Go Teaching Ladder has a decent list of commented games, but it's hard to know which ones are instructive for beginners. I've also tried playing both GnuGo and Igowin (playing them against each other head to head seems to suggest that GnuGo has the better engine, although my version has a horrid scoring system), but in the end I'm worried that computers are the wrong way to learn this game. Books in English are hard to come by in my part of the country, but I'm considering ordering them or making the trip up to Seoul if there are titles worth buying." -
Kazaa Betamax Defense, Reports From The Courtroom
The Hobo writes "CBC is reporting that Kazaa, mentioned in a previous Slashdot story has mounted the 'Betamax defence.' The prosecution claims Sharman Networks does not enforce their agreement which stipulates users cannot share copyrighted material." Also following the case, Dan Warne writes "Australia's APC magazine is publishing a daily blog from the Kazaa trial proceedings in Sydney's Federal Court. It has some details not reported elsewhere, like the music industry piracy investigation chief apparently losing a $100 bet on the first day of the trial. More seriously, blogging journalist Garth Montgomery says the court heard evidence that Kazaa's software already had the ability to block copyrighted tracks built in, despite Sharman's protestations to the contrary." -
Adieu to Ken Jennings
IllogicalStudent writes "The Toronto Star is reporting that the episode of Jeopardy where Ken Jennings (a.k.a. 'The Jeopardy Guy') finally loses aired this evening. It came down to a 2-person finish (3rd had -2600 at the end of Double Jeopardy, and was eliminated) between Ken and opponent Nancy Zerg, with the final category being Business & Industry. Ken answered 'Fed Ex' to the question 'Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year,' when the correct answer was 'H&R Block.' Ken finished his record-streak with just over $2.5 Million." -
Batch Converting Between Formats?
Yort asks: "With the Christmas season upon us, it's time to dust off the Yuletide music. However, I'm finding once again this year that I'm needing to re-rip all my CDs to fit the format-of-the-year. Ogg Vorbis for my portable, MP3 for the Tivo, WMA and AAC for sharing with co-workers... Argh! So, I've decided it's time to end the madness: Hard drives are cheap, so I'm going to rip all my music once-and-for-all to a lossless format (I'm choosing FLAC at this point), then just batch convert to whatever format I need. I know I'm hardly the first one to think of this, but I've looked around and haven't found much in the way of good OSS tools for this sort of thing. Any recommendations, or do I have to write one myself?" -
Former Turkish DMOZ Editor Draws 10 Months In Jail
makne writes "H. Ertas, a Turkish editor of the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) has been sentenced to 10 months in prison after being found guilty of editing a category about the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). Ertas's lawyer, Suna Coskun, explained that his client had worked as a voluntary editor at the Open Directory Project during his studies at the Euphrat-University and had been responsible for the Kurdish category. At the same time he became interested in Kurds and undertook his own research into the subject. As a voluntary editor, he had sorted the directory submissions but could not be responsible for their content. Therefore there could be no penalty under international law, according to Coskun. His activities could in no way be understood as 'support for a terrorist organisation' and thus Ertas' release was appropriate. The court sentenced Ertas to 10 months in prison and a fine of 416 million Turkish lire ($293). The sentence is not eligible for probation." (Read on for more.) By email, makne writes "I don't know the editor personally, but the editor was first arrested two years ago, then released on parole until now. Members of the editor community have tried to help him in any way they can, with no apparent success. The editor resigned from the ODP in 2002."Makne also provided this link to a summary (from the Kurdish point of view) of earlier attempts to stifle Kurdish sites, including a campaign to have DMOZ's then-parent company Netscape remove the Kurdish category from DMOZ.
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OpenOffice.org Built with KDE and GNOME Support
ks writes "Novell hacker Jan Holesovsky has released a build of OOo 1.1.3 that integrates with either KDE or GNOME depending on the environment it's running in. The build features KDE/GNOME look and feel, KDE/GNOME file dialogs and the Crystal icons. If you're running NLD, you have this already." Update: 11/27 18:13 GMT by T : Also on the OpenOffice.org front, the OO.o front page links to this interview with Debian ARM developer Peter Naulls, who has ported the suite to ARM processors. Hint: they're everywhere. -
Titanic Director to Make Battle Angel Movie
thelizman writes "Director James Cameron, who gave us the Terminator movies (I, II, III) , Aliens, The Abyss, and brought Dark Angel to the small screen will give us a new treat. According to AP, Cameron will direct a live action + cgi movie based on the Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM) book series. Slated for release in 2005-06, the movie will be available in 3D as well as 2D versions. Cameron will be using 3D technology developed for IMAX films to deliver the 3D versions (and on IMAX maybe?). Another twist is that the lead character will be CG, while other roles will be filled by live actors." Update: 11/25 22:42 GMT by T : Sunny Dubey writes "Terminator 3 was *not* directed by James Cameron. It was directed by Jonathan Mostow." -
Best Tools for Machinima?
wrinkledshirt asks: "As a former Creative Writing major with a huge interest in film, I've been thinking about trying to get into Machinima (com, org, and wiki sites -- basically, using game engines to make movies). Probably the most famous use of it for the Slashdot crowd right now is Red vs Blue, which makes use of Halo, but up until recently, most of the other options have involved FPS game engines, which would require a huge investment in time so as to create non-FPS-genre content for non-FPS-genre movies. Now that Sims 2 is here with its video-recording feature (and the promise of more contemporary realism in the expansion packs) and with Pete Molnyeux's The Movies coming out in 2005, is it possible that an amateur writer could make the Machinimatic movies of his or her dreams? Plus, what would the best tools be? What machine would you need? Would any single game engine help you create your own Citizen Kane?" -
CIA Researching Automated IRC Spying
Iphtashu Fitz writes "CNet News is reporting that the CIA has been quietly investing in research programs to automatically monitor Internet chat rooms. In a two year agreement with the National Science Foundation, CIA officials were involved with the selection of recipients for research grants to develop automated chat room monitors. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute received $157,673 from the CIA and NSF for their proposal of 'a system to be deployed in the background of any chat room as a silent listener for eavesdropping ... The proposed system could aid the intelligence community to discover hidden communities and communication patterns in chat rooms without human intervention.' How soon until all IM conversations are monitored by Big Brother? The abstract of the proposal is available on the NFS website." -
Linus, Monty, Rasmus: No Software Patents
Jan Wildeboer writes "The three most famous European authors of open-source software have issued an appeal against software patents on NoSoftwarePatents.com. Linus Torvalds (Linux), Michael "Monty" Widenius (MySQL) and Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP) urge the EU Council, which will convene later in the week, not to adopt a draft directive on software patents that they consider "deceptive, dangerous, and democratically illegitimate". They also call on the Internet community to express solidarity by placing NoSoftwarePatents.com links and banners on many Web sites." -
Futuristic 'Smart' Yarns from Carbon Nanotubes
neutron_p writes "Scientists at The UTD NanoTech Institute achieved a major technological breakthrough by spinning multi-walled carbon nanotube yarns that are strong, tough and extremely flexible, and are both electrically and thermally conducting. Among other things, the futuristic yarns could result in 'smart' clothing that stores electricity, provides ballistic protection and adjusts temperature and porosity to provide greater comfort. The breakthrough, made possible by, in effect, downsizing ancient technology used for wool and cotton spinning to the nanoscale, resulted from an unusual collaboration involving nanotechnologists and experts in wool spinning." -
The Wiki Game
Dan Smith writes "A new nerdy Internet activity recently popped up at Amherst College called the "Wiki Game". It works off of Wikimedia's amazingly popular electronic encyclopedia, Wikipedia. The Wiki Game is simple, doesn't require any registrations and gives your brain a thorough workout. Although the instructions suggest at least two people to play it, it's very easy to play solo. The instruction "manual" is (naturally) posted on Wikipedia: The Wiki Game." -
HP Backs Blu-ray Disc Technology
neutron_p writes "Finally HP announced plans to include Blu-ray Disc drives across many of its product lines, including select consumer desktop and notebook PCs, personal workstations and digital entertainment centers. They will start selling PCs equipped with Blu-ray Disc drives in late 2005. An optical disc technology, Blu-ray Disc is poised to replace current DVD technology and become the next standard for personal computing data storage and viewing high-definition movies. More than 70 of the world's leading technology and entertainment companies have committed to the Blu-ray Disc format. Recently, Sharp unveiled Blu-ray disc recorder with Hard Drive/DVD which will be introduced on the Japanese market in December." -
Humans in America 25,000 Years Ago?
Ephboy writes "A researcher in South Carolina has found stones that appear to be man-made stone tools that date from 25,000 years ago, about twice as old as the best documented evidence of human settlement in North America." -
Microsoft and SBC Team Up on IPTV
rdurell writes "Microsoft is once again trying to get into the television market. This time they are teaming up with SBC Communications in a $400M deal to deliver television via IPTV through SBC's network. According to the article, Microsoft has spent $20B in its attempts to break into the market." -
Nanoloop: GameBoy Advance Hard Disk Recording
parasew writes "Nanoloop 2.0 for GameBoy Advance is Out! The GBA-Cartridge features a 8-voice Synthesizer an 8-Track Sequencer, a Song Editor and a HD-Recording Option, rendering the GBA one of the most cool digital gadgets for musicians that travel a lot. Extra-gear is a GameBoy-MIDI-Adapter and a Lowpass Filter Cable. Some Reviews of Nanoloop are available in the Web from samplepoolz, HarmonyCentral, nanoloop.de and a German one from Parasew. Demo sounds in MP3 format can be downloaded from the site." -
Students Tracked By RFID
TheMeuge writes "The New York Times is reporting a new development in the unrelenting progress of the RFID juggernaut. The school district of Spring, Texas has adopted RFID as a way to track students' arrival and departure. Upon being scanned, the data are transmitted to both the school administrators, as well as city police. I guess cutting class is no longer an option." -
IBM Sponsors Humanitarian Grid Computing Project
BrianWCarver writes "Reuters reports that IBM and top scientific research organizations are joining forces in a humanitarian effort to tap the unused power of millions of computers and help solve complex social problems. Following the example of SETI@home, the project, dubbed The World Community Grid, will seek to tap the vast underutilized power of computers belonging to individuals and businesses worldwide and channel it into selected medical and environmental research programs. The first project to benefit will be Human Proteome Folding, an effort to identify the genetic structure of proteins that can cause diseases. The client is currently available for Windows XP, 2000, ME, and 98." -
Patrick Volkerding Battles Mystery Illness
sethadam1 writes "Calling all Slashdoctors! Pat Volkerding, maintainer of Slackware Linux, needs your help. This morning, he posted his very detailed account (mirror) of his battle with Actinomyces here on the Slackware FTP server. Patrick has given his blood, sweat, and tears to the open source community for years in Slackware, one of the oldest surviving Linux distributions. If you can, please help!" -
iTunes Expands In Europe
jawtheshark writes "I found just out today that Apple launched the iTunes store in serveral more European countries. Countries include : Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Apparently it launched 26 october 2004, making this a late submission. Articles at cdfreaks.com and AppleInsider " -
Linux With A National Spanish Newspaper
Aloriel writes "This weekend the Spanish newspaper El Mundo is distributing a CD with the Linux distribution Guadalinex, the official distribution of Andalusia. There are other official distributions likeLinex, MAX, LLIUREX that in a few will replace nearly all Microsfot software and create new projects in order to use only Free Software in schools, hospitals and administration." -
NeXTSTEP To Mac OS X
*no comment* writes "the folks over at OSviews have a nicely done article that explains the evolution of NeXTSTEP into Mac OS X. 'With the beginning of 1996, Apple realized that with the next generation PC's running Windows NT to be released within the decade, they would need a new, modern operating system to run on their machines. ... Amongst Apple's other options were to license Solaris from Sun, NT from Microsoft, or to purchase a small net services company called NeXT. Apple chose the latter.'" OSNews had another nice Mac-oriented look at NeXTSTEP last year; the Wikipedia entry is also worth looking through. -
NASA Attempts to Break Record with Mach 10 Flight
starannihilator writes "Wired News is reporting that NASA is planning on using its new SCRAMJET to break the aircraft speed record (on Earth, anyway) at Mach 10 (7,000 mph or 10-times the speed of sound). Using the hypersonic X-43A, NASA hopes to break the record on Monday, November 15th." -
Combined Gasoline/Hydrogen Fuel Station Opens
98neon writes "This story from Yahoo! News tells of a Shell hydrogen refilling station that has opened in Washington D.C. Six minivans will be the only vehicles refuelling anytime soon. Apparently some of the neighbors are concerned about having a large tank of hydrogen near their homes. Oh come on, what is there to worry about?" -
I Love Bees Anthology DVD Legally Available Online
celerityfm writes "In case you missed some or all of the I Love Bees alternate reality game promoting Halo 2, Elan Lee (one of the creators of I Love Bees) recently announced the approval of electronic distribution of the I Love Bees anthology DVD that was originally given away to the most hard-core I Love Bees game players at the end of the game! The DVD contains very interesting stuff for any I Love Bees or Halo fans out there as it contains the entire 5+ hour audio story plus behind the scenes looks and other extras. So with that in mind: Gentlemen, start your bittorrents!" -
Speakeasy Will Test IEEE 802.16 In Downtown Seattle
An anonymous reader writes "Speakeasy will be testing a WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) network in downtown Seattle. If successful, plans to roll out similar networks in other cities will follow." -
The Battle Over Candidates' Wikipedia Entries
MrByte420 writes "The New York Times today has a story (stupid reg required) about the particpants of Wikipedia editing Bush and Kerry's entries in the days leading up to the U.S. Elections. With admins locked in philosophical debate over whether to lock the page down, others asked, "Could someone get rid of the middle-finger screen cap that's replaced the image above 'The Bush family watches tee-ball on the White House lawn'?"" -
The Battle Over Candidates' Wikipedia Entries
MrByte420 writes "The New York Times today has a story (stupid reg required) about the particpants of Wikipedia editing Bush and Kerry's entries in the days leading up to the U.S. Elections. With admins locked in philosophical debate over whether to lock the page down, others asked, "Could someone get rid of the middle-finger screen cap that's replaced the image above 'The Bush family watches tee-ball on the White House lawn'?"" -
Do Honeybees Defy Dinosaur Extinction Theories?
neutron_p writes "The humble tropical honeybee may challenge the idea that a post-asteroid impact "nuclear winter" was a big player in the decimation of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Somehow the tropical honeybee, Cretotrigona prisca, survived the end-Cretaceous extinction event, despite what many researchers believe was a years-long period of darkness and frigid temperatures caused by sunlight-blocking dust and smoke from the asteroid impact at Chicxulub." -
Understanding Earth's Magnetic Field
neutron_p writes "Researchers from the University of Maryland's nonlinear dynamics and chaos research group are seeking to solve a major scientific mystery: How is the Earth's magnetic field formed and what causes changes in the field? To find answers, they are recreating on a small scale the forces that produce Earth's own magnetic field. Scientists have constructed a series of "geodynamos" - metal spheres filled with liquid sodium that emulate conditions of the Earth's spinning, churning molten iron core. This project involves more than 14 tons of sodium metal and a 10-foot stainless steel sphere." -
Underwater Robots for Everyone
Dirak writes "A small 112-pound ocean glider named Spray is the first autonomous underwater vehicle to cross the Gulf Stream underwater. Launched September 11, 2004, it has been slowly making 12 miles per day measuring various properties of the ocean. Spray spent 15 minutes three times a day on the surface to relay its position and information about ocean conditions and then glided back down to 3,300-feet depth ." And reader RoboFreak writes "Two Computer Science students at Brigham Young University-Hawaii have developed a Low Cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. The students also entered their robot, LUV, in the AUVSI and ONR's 7th International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition at San Diego, CA and competed against top Ivy-League teams. Their robot received recognition in the form of an award at this competition. This robot was designed with a budget of only about $600 and seems to be the cheapest AUV around. One of the AUV designers' interview conducted by Amit Kr Chanda of The Times of India is available here." -
JIT vs AOT Compilation
jg21 writes "This article on "Penguin-Driven" JVMs takes a look the performance of Java GUI applications based on the JFC/Swing API, and contends that the JIT-powered JVMs can't match a JVM with an ahead-of-time compiler ported to the Linux/x86 platform. With AOT compilation, says the CTO who has written this piece, real-world Swing applications performed perceivably faster. One is left wondering, will we now see the 'microbenchmark war' carried into the Linux camp?" -
Origin of Cosmic Rays Revealed
neutron_p writes "An international team of astronomers has produced the first ever image of an astronomical object using high energy gamma rays, helping to solve a 100 year old mystery - an origin of cosmic rays. The astronomers studied the remnant of a supernova that exploded some 1,000 years ago, leaving behind an expanding shell of debris which, seen from the Earth, is twice the diameter of the Moon. Cosmic rays are extremely energetic particles that continually bombard the Earth, thousands of them passing through our bodies every day." -
How has the USA PATRIOT Act Affected You?
wetdogjp asks: "October 26th, 2004 marked the third anniversary of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (or USA PATRIOT Act, as it is more commonly known). While the Slashdot crowd can certainly muster the enthusiasm to debate its pro's and con's, I'd like to know: How has the USA PATRIOT Act affected you, personally? How has it interfered with your personal and professional life? Has this act influenced your Presidential vote?" -
Solutions to Ease the DDOS Trickle-Down Effect?
dealsites asks: "Recently, The Electorial Vote website run by Andrew Tanenbaum was hit with a triple-threat. Not only was it Slashdotted, it was hit with a DDOS attack in conjunction with the busiest normal traffic day, due to the election. Netcraft has an article detailing the steps taken to mitigate the traffic. Andrew's host provider is also the provider of my site. I'm sure were are on separate servers, him a dedicated server and semi-dedicated hardware for myself, but I noticed dramatic slowdowns of my site during this triple-threat traffic onslaught to Andrew's site. Are there any techniques other than throwing more CPUs and bandwidth at the problem to remedy this type of situation? I'm sure I can't be the only one that has noticed this. Any comments on other similar stories?" -
RC4 Code Achieves 319 MB/s On AMD64 Opteron
Marc Bevand writes "This recent paper is about optimizing RC4 for AMD64 processors. A working implementation is provided. Its encryption/decryption throughput reaches 319 MB/s on a single AMD Opteron x44 processor running at 1.8 GHz. This makes it, as of today, the world's fastest RC4 symmetric cipher implementation for general purpose CPUs. As the author of this work, I would like to point out that many CPU-hungry applications have not been optimized for AMD64 yet. In other words: such speedups can be expected in other areas." An anonymous reader adds some figures for the old implementation: "Opteron 244 1.8 GHz (32-bit) 163 MB/s; Opteron 244 1.8 GHz (64-bit) 135 MB/s." -
RC4 Code Achieves 319 MB/s On AMD64 Opteron
Marc Bevand writes "This recent paper is about optimizing RC4 for AMD64 processors. A working implementation is provided. Its encryption/decryption throughput reaches 319 MB/s on a single AMD Opteron x44 processor running at 1.8 GHz. This makes it, as of today, the world's fastest RC4 symmetric cipher implementation for general purpose CPUs. As the author of this work, I would like to point out that many CPU-hungry applications have not been optimized for AMD64 yet. In other words: such speedups can be expected in other areas." An anonymous reader adds some figures for the old implementation: "Opteron 244 1.8 GHz (32-bit) 163 MB/s; Opteron 244 1.8 GHz (64-bit) 135 MB/s." -
Where To Find Ambitious Business Partners?
LostInTranslation asks: "If I were an MBA looking to make a fantastic new dotcom company, I would look around places like /. to try and net some technical wizards to do my bidding. Sites like this collect that kind of tech genius. But the problem is that I already am a technical wizard, and what I need is someone who is driven to sell wizardry. Where does one find that kind of person? Is there some kind of newsgroup they frequent? I've done a few searches, but nothing of value came up. How does a geek find a suit that wants to be exploited?" "I should clarify: I've run at least two quasi-successful companies in the past ten years, bootstrapping and innovating along. I don't want to run my own business anymore. It's tiring, it takes me away from the front lines, and I don't have the right personality for it. I am looking for a business partner who can turn my good ideas into success stories. I've got angel investors waiting for something to spend on, I've got a massive number of satellite resources to make any idea shine, but I'm missing someone with that je ne sais quoi ... that chutzpah, that integrity in the face of adversity. And I'm not gambling anyone's money on my ideas when I'm fully aware I don't want to run the show.
Someone out there in Slash-land must know where these people collect. They all seem too buzzword-aware to not be on the web somewhere. So give it up: where are they hiding?" -
Where To Find Ambitious Business Partners?
LostInTranslation asks: "If I were an MBA looking to make a fantastic new dotcom company, I would look around places like /. to try and net some technical wizards to do my bidding. Sites like this collect that kind of tech genius. But the problem is that I already am a technical wizard, and what I need is someone who is driven to sell wizardry. Where does one find that kind of person? Is there some kind of newsgroup they frequent? I've done a few searches, but nothing of value came up. How does a geek find a suit that wants to be exploited?" "I should clarify: I've run at least two quasi-successful companies in the past ten years, bootstrapping and innovating along. I don't want to run my own business anymore. It's tiring, it takes me away from the front lines, and I don't have the right personality for it. I am looking for a business partner who can turn my good ideas into success stories. I've got angel investors waiting for something to spend on, I've got a massive number of satellite resources to make any idea shine, but I'm missing someone with that je ne sais quoi ... that chutzpah, that integrity in the face of adversity. And I'm not gambling anyone's money on my ideas when I'm fully aware I don't want to run the show.
Someone out there in Slash-land must know where these people collect. They all seem too buzzword-aware to not be on the web somewhere. So give it up: where are they hiding?" -
Where To Find Ambitious Business Partners?
LostInTranslation asks: "If I were an MBA looking to make a fantastic new dotcom company, I would look around places like /. to try and net some technical wizards to do my bidding. Sites like this collect that kind of tech genius. But the problem is that I already am a technical wizard, and what I need is someone who is driven to sell wizardry. Where does one find that kind of person? Is there some kind of newsgroup they frequent? I've done a few searches, but nothing of value came up. How does a geek find a suit that wants to be exploited?" "I should clarify: I've run at least two quasi-successful companies in the past ten years, bootstrapping and innovating along. I don't want to run my own business anymore. It's tiring, it takes me away from the front lines, and I don't have the right personality for it. I am looking for a business partner who can turn my good ideas into success stories. I've got angel investors waiting for something to spend on, I've got a massive number of satellite resources to make any idea shine, but I'm missing someone with that je ne sais quoi ... that chutzpah, that integrity in the face of adversity. And I'm not gambling anyone's money on my ideas when I'm fully aware I don't want to run the show.
Someone out there in Slash-land must know where these people collect. They all seem too buzzword-aware to not be on the web somewhere. So give it up: where are they hiding?" -
The Eye: Evolution versus Creationism
Sox2 writes "SciScoop is running a story about researchers in Germany who claim to have solved the "mystery" surrounding the evolution of the mamalian eye. The work, published in Science, goes some way to answering the issues raised in the "intelligent design" debate that has become the mainstay of creationist thinking." -
Interview with Natalie Jeremijenko
cynical writes "From releasing packs of Feral Robot Dogs that sniff out chemical contamination, to teaching Yale engineering students socially responsible design, to co-authoring Biotech Hobbyist Magazine, Natalie Jeremijenko's work merges engineering, biology, politics and art. Enviro-tech blog WorldChanging has an exclusive interview with Jeremijenko where she discusses how art and technology mix, garage biotech, and being the "Q" (from James Bond) of the activist community." -
New Bin Laden Tape Surfaces
An anonymous submitter writes "Osama bin Laden delivered a new videotaped message in which he told Americans their security does not depend on the president they elect, but on U.S. policy. 'Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda.'" -
Mother Nature Does Nuclear Power
wjwlsn writes "Back in the day (2 billion years ago), even before the time of iron men and wooden reactors, Mother Nature had mastered nuclear power. She built a passively safe system at Oklo that had fully automatic control and built-in waste containment, and operated it safely for about 150 million years. Now researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have deduced the operational characteristics by examining the isotopic composition of xenon contained in rock samples taken from the reactor site. More details at Eurekalert." -
Are we Headed for a Wiki World?
Wikipedian writes "BusinessWeek asks are we headed for a Wiki World?. With US-based SocialText using their wiki to leverage just $600K in capital, and European competitor Team Notepad, not to mention freeware alternatives like TWiki and MoinMoin is the whole world going to be using wikis instead of the proprietary dinosaurs like Lotus Notes?" -
Are we Headed for a Wiki World?
Wikipedian writes "BusinessWeek asks are we headed for a Wiki World?. With US-based SocialText using their wiki to leverage just $600K in capital, and European competitor Team Notepad, not to mention freeware alternatives like TWiki and MoinMoin is the whole world going to be using wikis instead of the proprietary dinosaurs like Lotus Notes?" -
Nuclear Rockets Moving Along
AKAImBatman writes "Bruce Behrhorst of NuclearSpace.com recently stumbled across a new engine from everyone's favorite Jet Engine maker, Pratt & Whitney. Unlike P&W's previous engines, however, this engine is not a jet, and is powered by Nuclear Fission. It seems that P&W has responded to the need for Mars transportation by inventing the first commercially viable nuclear thermal rocket. They have heavily improved upon the NERVA NRX design from the 60's, and have even solved the graphite ablation problem! With this new engine, it seems that an inexpensive trip to Mars is now firmly within our grasp. Will we rise to the challenge?" -
Nissan Exhibits IEEE 1394-Compatible Car
Dirak writes "High-speed IEEE 1394 optical fiber networks have gone off-road with new Nissan's prototype vehicle demonstrated this year's at 11th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. The prototype is equipped with 7 cameras on the body and a 12-inch LCD monitor in the front and another in the rear seat area. Thanks to the in-vehicle IEEE 1394 LAN, which is capable of high-speed communications at 400Mbps via optical cable, the front and the rear seat monitors can display various information simultaneously, for example. The application of optical fiber also means that the weight of the cables can be reduced to about one-half the weight of a conventional wiring harness." -
On-CPU Peltiers From AMD?
Hack Jandy writes "Remember those people who lived on the edge and put peltiers between their CPU and heatsink (or your favorite beverage)? A peltier is a devices that gets cold on one side and warm on the other when an electrical current passes through it. It looks like there is talk that AMD will actually incorporate some of these devices on the CPU according to Xbitlabs. AMD already incorporates some degree of the peltier effect with it's Silicon on Insulator." -
Shatner Aims for Real 'Star Trek'
swight1701 writes "William Shatner wants to boldly go where he's only pretended to go so far. The 'Star Trek' star is among more than 7,000 people who have told Richard Branson they would gladly pay him $210,000 (£115,000) for a trip aboard his planned spacecraft. In all, more than $1.45 billion (£800 million) has been pledged -- years before the Virgin Galactic spaceship is even built, Branson said. I wonder did Shatner sign up because the first ship will be the VSS Enterprise?"