Summary: Slashdot
News for nerds, stuff that matters
i_want_you_to_throw_ writes "The legal woes will soon be over
for Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs Group computer
programmer who had been convicted of stealing part of the Wall
Street bank's high-frequency trading code. A federal appeals court
overturned his conviction and recommended acquittal. We previously
discussed this story when he was sentenced to 97 months in prison.
It will be interesting to see their reasoning (an opinion is to be
released) as well as what this may mean for other programmers
developing high frequency trading code."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 11:00 am
MrSeb writes "With the grandiose bluster that only an aging
juggernaut can pull off, Microsoft has detailed the Internet
Explorer Performance Lab and its extraordinary efforts to ensure
IE9 is competitive and IE10 is the fastest browser in the world.
Here are a few bullet points: 128 test computers, 20,000 tests per
day, over 850 metrics analyzed, 480GB of runtime data per day, and
a granularity of just 100 nanoseconds. The data is reported to 11
server-class (16-core, 16GB of RAM) computers, and the data is
stored on a 24-core, 64GB SQL server. The 'mini internet' has
content servers, DNS servers, and network emulators (to model
various different latencies, throughputs, packet loss)."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 10:19 am
D___Breath writes "The lawsuit SCO started years ago against
IBM (but really against Linux) is back on again. SCO first filed
this clue-challenged lawsuit in March 2003. SCO claimed Linux was
contaminated with code IBM stole from UNIX and that it was
impossible to remove the infringement. Therefore, said SCO, all
Linux users owe SCO a license fee of $1399 per cpu — but since SCO
are such great guys, for a limited time, you can pay only $699 per
CPU for your dirty, infringing copy of Linux. Of course, Novell
claimed and later proved in court that SCO doesn't even own the
copyrights on UNIX that it is suing over. IBM claims there is no
infringing code in Linux. SCO never provided evidence of the
massive infringement it claimed existed. The court ordered SCO
three times to produce its evidence, twice extending the deadline,
until it set a 'final' deadline of Dec 22, 2005 — which came and
went — with SCO producing nothing but a lot of hand waving. In the
meantime, SCO filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2007
because it was being beaten up in court so badly with the court
going against SCO."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 9:36 am
cylonlover writes "This year is a historic one for nuclear
power, with the first reactors winning U.S. government approval for
construction since 1978. Some have seen the green lighting of two
Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to be built in Georgia as the start of
a revival of nuclear power in the West, but this may be a false
dawn because of the problems besetting conventional reactors. It
may be that when a new boom in nuclear power comes, it won't be led
by giant gigawatt installations, but by batteries of small modular
reactors (SMRs) with very different principles from those of
previous generations. However, while it's a technology of great
diversity and potential, many obstacles stand in its path. This
article takes an in-depth look at the many forms of SMRs, their
advantages, and the challenges they must overcome."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 8:54 am
DJRumpy points out an article (based on a possibly paywalled
WSJ report) describing how Google and other ad networks wrote code
that would bypass the privacy settings of Apple's Safari web
browser. 'The default settings of Safari block cookies "from third
parties and advertisers," a setting that is supposed to only allow
sites that the user is directly interacting with to save a cookie
(client side data that remote web servers can later access in
subsequent visits). ... The report notes that "Google added coding
to some of its ads that made Safari think that a person was
submitting an invisible form to Google. Safari would then let
Google install a cookie on the phone or computer.' Google says this
mischaracterizes what the code does, claiming it simply enables
'features for signed-in Google users on Safari who had opted to see
personalized ads and other content — such as the ability to “+1”
things that interest them.' Google adds that the data transferred
between Safari and Google's servers was anonymized. John Battelle
writes that the WSJ's story is sensationalist, but that it raises
good questions about the practices of ad networks as well as
Apple's efforts to stymie industry-standard practices.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 8:11 am
ananyo writes "DNA origami, a technique for making structures
from DNA, has been used to build devices that can seek out and
potentially destroy cancer cells. The nanorobots use a similar
system to cells in the immune system to engage with receptors on
the outside of cells. The barrel-shaped devices, each about 35
nanometers in diameter, contain 12 sites on the inside for
attaching payload molecules and two positions on the outside for
attaching aptamers, short nucleotide strands with special sequences
for recognizing molecules on the target cell (abstract). The
aptamers act as clasps: once both have found their target, they
spring open the device to release the payload. The researchers
tested six combinations of aptamer locks, each of which were
designed to target different types of cancer cells in culture.
Those designed to hit a leukemia cell could pick that cell out of a
mixture of cell types, then release their payload — in this case,
an antibody — to stop the cells from growing. The researchers
designed the structure of the nanorobots using open-source
software, called Cadnano."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 7:30 am
Griller_GT writes with news that Nevada has become the first
U.S. state to approve regulations for allowing self-driving cars on
its roads. "Autonomous test vehicles will display a red license
plate, Nevada officials said. If and when the technology is
approved for public use, the cars will carry a green license plate.
... Nevada said it worked with Google, automobile manufacturers,
testing professionals, insurance companies, universities and law
enforcement to develop the regulations. Other states also have
similar bills that will be voted upon to determine if they, too,
can follow suit."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 6:48 am
Hugh Pickens writes "Time Magazine reports that hidden deep
inside in the White House's $3.8 trillion, 2,000-page budget that
was sent to Congress this week is a proposal to make pennies and
nickels cheaper to produce. Why? Because it currently costs the
federal government 2.4 cents to make a penny and 11.2 cents for
every nickel. If passed, the budget would allow the Treasury
Department to 'change the composition of coins to more
cost-effective materials' resulting in changes that could save more
than $100 million a year. Since 1982, our copper-looking pennies
have been merely coppery. In the 1970s, the price of copper soared,
so President Nixon proposed changing the penny's composition to a
cheaper aluminum. Today, only 2.5% of a penny is copper (which
makes up the coin's coating) while 97.5% is zinc. The mint did make
steel pennies for one year — in 1943 — when copper was needed for
the war effort and steel might be a cheaper alternative this time.
What about the bill introduced in 2006 that the US abandon pennies
altogether.? At the time, fifty-five percent of respondents
considered the penny useful compared to 43 percent who agreed it
should be eliminated. More telling, 76 percent of respondents said
they would pick up a penny if they saw it on the ground."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 6:06 am
Zothecula writes "Inspired by origami and children's pop-up
books, Harvard engineers have pioneered a means of mass-producing
bee-sized flying microrobots. The breakthrough mechanizes the
already state-of-the art process of making Harvard's Mobee robots
by hand, by mass producing flat assemblies by the sheet which can
be folded and assembled in a single movement. The technique, which
cunningly exploits existing machinery for making printed circuit
boards, can theoretically be applied to a multitude of
electromechanical machines."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 3:23 am
An anonymous reader writes "The pair of documentarians behind
An Honest Man — The Story of the Amazing James Randi will not only
talk to the likes of like Adam Savage, Bill Nye, Richard Dawkins,
Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Penn and Teller about the life of the
famous magician/skeptic, but they'll also follow Randi's latest
operation as he assembles 'an Ocean's Eleven-type team for a
carefully orchestrated exposure of a fraudulent religious
organization.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 1:58 am
superglaze writes "Following its takedown earlier this week of
the music blog RnBXclusive, the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency
(SOCA) has claimed that "a number of site users have deleted their
download histories" in response. Given that the site didn't host
copyright-infringing files itself, how do they know? We've asked,
but SOCA refuses to discuss its methods. A security expert has
pointed out that, if they were hacking using Trojans, the police
would themselves have been breaking the law. Added fun fact: SOCA
readily admits that the scare message it showed visitors to the
taken-down site was written 'with input from industry.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 1:03 am
An anonymous reader writes "The idea is simple — load up a
microchip with a whole pharmacy of drugs that are dispensed as
needed automatically. The devil has been in the details, since
mistakes could kill the patient if, say, a leak developed dumping
dangerous cocktails into the bloodstream. This MIT sponsored
company, however, claims to have perfected wireless control of a
pharmacy-on-a-chip and has just completed the clinical trials to
prove it. The test microchip has just 20 doses of a single drug,
but their new prototype will house thousands of pin-prick sized
drug reservoirs, after which they will seek FDA approval. The
elderly (who have complicated drug regime) and soldiers could both
benefit from these smart pharmacies-on-a-chip, since drugs can be
dispensed even if the patient is unconscious."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 16, 2012 - 10:35 pm
Phurge pointed out a story about a man with a fleet of remote
control toys and a lot of patience. "Excavating a basement using
professional machinery is nothing new but doing it with radio
controlled (RC) scaled models is something unheard of. Welcome to
the little big world of Joe, from Saskatchewan, Canada. For the
past 7 years, Joe has been digging out his basement at an average
annual rate of 8 to 9 cubic feet using nothing more than RC
tractors and trucks. And we're talking about the whole nine yards
here — he starts by transporting the excavator on an RC truck to
the basement, unloads it, digs and uses other trucks to transfer
the dirt up to the ground through a spiral ramp! He even has a
miniature rock crusher! 'I feel quite fortunate to have stumbled
onto this basement excavation idea, it's been a great past time to
date dreaming up new ideas to tackle different projects along the
way,' Joe wrote on the Scale4x4rc forums where he also posted
pictures and videos of his feat"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 16, 2012 - 9:02 pm
MrSeb writes "Two doctors at Penn State University have
developed Caffeine Zone, a free iOS app that tells you the perfect
time to take a coffee break to maintain an optimal amount of
caffeine in your blood — and, perhaps more importantly, it also
tells you when to stop drinking tea and coffee, so that caffeine
doesn't interrupt your sleep. By reading through lots of
peer-reviewed studies, doctors Frank E. Ritter and Kuo-Chuan Yeh
found that a caffeine level of between 200 and 400mg in your
bloodstream provides optimal mental alertness, and that you should
be below 100mg when you try to sleep. Caffeine Zone plots your
caffeination level after you consume caffeine, and warns you if
that big afternoon coffee will keep you up at night. It also lets
you change the 'optimal' and 'sleep' values if you're particularly
resistant or weak to caffeine."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 16, 2012 - 8:02 pm
First time accepted submitter chadenright writes "A university
study asserts that the problems caused by the gas extraction
process known as hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' arise because
drilling operations aren't doing it right. The process itself isn't
to blame, according to the study, released today by the Energy
Institute at the University of Texas at Austin."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Date Published: Feb 16, 2012 - 6:06 pm
