http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl News for nerds, stuff that matters en-us Copyright 1997-2009, Geeknet, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2009-12-22T05:53:04+00:00 Geeknet, Inc. help@slashdot.org Technology hourly 1 1970-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicslashdot.gif http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl //slashdot.org/submission/1136772/Insurgent-Attacks-Follow-Mathematical-Pattern?from=rss Nature reports that data collected on the timing of attacks and number of casualties from more than 54,000 events across nine insurgent wars, including those fought in Iraq between 2003 and 2008 and in Sierra Leone between 1994 and 2003 suggests that insurgencies have a common underlying pattern that may allow the timing of attacks and the number of casualties to be predicted. By plotting the distribution of the frequency and size of events, the team found that insurgent wars follow an approximate power law, in which the frequency of attacks decreases with increasing attack size to the power of 2.5. That means that for any insurgent war, an attack with 10 casualties is 316 times more likely to occur than one with 100 casualties (316 is 10 to the power of 2.5). "We found that the way in which humans do insurgent wars — that is, the number of casualties and the timing of events — is universal," says team leader Neil Johnson, a physicist at the University of Miami in Florida. "This changes the way we think insurgency works." To explain what was driving this common pattern, the researchers created a mathematical model that assumes that insurgent groups form and fragment when they sense danger, and strike in well-timed bursts to maximize their media exposure. Johnson is now working to predict how the insurgency in Afghanistan might respond to the influx of foreign troops recently announced by US President Barack Obama. "We do observe a complicated pattern that has to do with the way humans do violence in some collective way," adds Johnson. pickens 2009-12-18T20:42:23+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137140/Climategate-spreads-to-Wikipedia?from=rss Some catnip to those who have long argued about administrator bias and groupthink in Wikipedia.Canada's National Post reports here and here that one of the objectives of those promoting Climate alarm was to control Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003 U.K. scientist and Green Party activist William Connolley, one of nine Realclimate.org team members, rewrote Wikipedia'½Â½Â(TM)s articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling as well as working to erase the Little Ice Age, the Medieval Warm Period and infamous hockey stick graph. He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the team.According to the article Connolly created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles, removed more than 500 articles as an administrator and barred over 2000 Wikipedia contributors while rewarding those who supported his views. "In these ways, Connolley turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement." sparkydevil 2009-12-19T16:51:55+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1135488/BBC-Lowers-HDTV-bitrate-users-notice?from=rss According to an article on the bbc website, BBC HD lowered the bitrate of their broadcasts by almost 50% and are surprised that users noticed. From the article: "The replacement encoders work at a bitrate of 9.7Mbps (megabits per second), while their predecessors worked at 16Mbps, the standard for other broadcasters". The BBC claims "We did extensive testing on the new encoders which showed that they could produce pictures at the same or even better quality than the old encoders..." I got a good laugh off of this, but is it really possible to get better quality from a lower bitrate? aws910 2009-12-17T00:21:50+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137134/Colliding-Auroras-Produce-Explosions-of?from=rss Another neat discovery from the lab of Larry Lyons at UCLA. As reported earlier on Slashdot, Lyons' group studies the dynamics of auroras. Their most recent discovery reveals for the first time the sequence of events leading to dramatic space-weather disturbances. Using a network of cameras deployed around the Arctic in support of NASA's THEMIS mission, they recorded over 200 instances of aurora's colliding, causing brillant displays of northern lights (See time 8:22 for such an example). elyons 2009-12-19T16:17:42+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1138240/The-nuking-of-Duke-Nukem?from=rss How Duke got Nuked. Duke Nukem Forever, the game that has been in development for 12 long years was finally cancelled in May. With too much runway, both in time and cash, development demonstrated its gas-like properties by expanding to fill all available space. Co-owner and project head George Broussard lead the team from when he was 34 years old until May 6th, 2009, when he was 46, w/o ever shipping a working game. He may have said it himself when he stated “It’s our time and our money we are spending on the game. So either we’re absolutely stupid and clueless, or we believe in what we are working on.”, or maybe both, as it turns out. Although the shutdown was previously reported on Slashdot, this new Wired article goes in depth behind the scenes to paint a picture of a mushroom cloud sized implosion. Developers spending a decade in a career holding pattern for below market salary with "profit sharing" incentives, no real project deadlines, a motion capture room apparently used to capture the motion of strippers (the new game was to take place in a strip club, owned by Duke, that gets attacked by aliens), and countless crestfallen fans. *Sniff*, I would have played that game. Rick Bentley 2009-12-22T04:33:20+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1136934/Carriers-amp-Manufacturers-Are-Strangling-Androi?from=rss The Google Phone could be a ploy to upset the wireless industry, or it could be an expensive niche device. Either way, it'd be a bid to take Android back from the companies that seem hell-bent on destroying it. Read on to see how the Android's fragmented model is harming it and how Google could save it. loconet 2009-12-19T05:17:11+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1134760/Judge-orders-permanent-injunction-against-Psystar?from=rss It appears to be the end of the road for infamous Mac-clone maker Psystar, as a federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against the company, banning it from selling its OS X-based hardware products, following November's ruling that Psystar was guilty of copyright infringement under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Specifically, Judge William Alsup's ruling prevents Psystar from "copying, selling, offering to sell, distributing or creating derivative works of Mac OS X without authorization from Apple; circumventing any technological measure that effectively controls access Mac OS X; or doing anything to circumvent the rights held by Apple under the Copyright Act with respect to Mac OS X". The ruling does not include Psystar's Rebel EFI software, which (in theory) allows users to boot OS X onto any computer, but Alsup said that too would be unlikely to stand up in court if Apple decides to make a formal challenge. AdmiralXyz 2009-12-16T01:49:09+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137170/Where-are-the-Cheap-Thin-Clients?from=rss I am compelled by many aspects of desktop virtualization with one exception: the cost of the thin clients, which typically exceed that of a traditional box. I understand all of the benefits of desktop virtualization (and the downsides, thanks) but I'm very hung up on spending more for less. While there are some sub-$200 products out there, they all seem to cut corners (give me non-vaporware that will drive a 22" LCD at full resolution). I can PXE boot a home brew Atom-based thin client for $130 but I'd prefer to be able to buy something assembled. Am I missing something here? Anonymous Coward 2009-12-19T19:17:13+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1136222/Ten-years-of-NET---did-Microsoft-deliver?from=rss Interesting snippet from this article from The Register: "If the goal of .NET was to see off Java, it was at least partially successful. Java did not die, but enterprise Java became mired in complexity, making .NET an easy sell as a more productive alternative. C# has steadily grown in popularity, and is now the first choice for most Windows development. ASP.NET has been a popular business web framework. The common language runtime has proved robust and flexible." The article also continues: "Job trend figures here show steadily increasing demand for C#, which is now mentioned in around 32 per cent of UK IT programming vacancies, ahead of Java at 26 per cent." cyclocommuter 2009-12-18T01:17:32+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1136914/Chase-rips-off-charities-in-Facebook-Contest?from=rss As reported in the New York Times: Chase Community Giving of Chase Bank recently held a contest on Facebook in which users were encouraged to vote for their favorite charities. At the end of the contest, the 100 charities with the most votes would win $25,000 and advance to the next round to have a chance to win $1 million. Initially, the vote counts for each organization were made public, but two days before voting ended they were hidden, and the final totals have still not been released. While Chase had no official leader board during the voting, several organizations were keeping track of projected winners. Those projections were almost identical to the final results, yet several organizations including Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Marijuana Policy Project and several anti-abortion groups were not finalists. They had been performing very well (some within the top 20) until the vote counters were removed. Chase Bank has so far refused to discuss the issue with the organizations. SSDP has released a press release here and is calling for a boycott. ssv03 2009-12-19T03:59:32+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1136998/Verizon-Defends-Doubling-of-Early-Termination-Fee?from=rss Verizon is defending its decision to double its Early Termination Fee from $175 to $350, after being called to account by the FCC. They claim that it's because it allows them to offer more expensive phones with a lower up-front cost and that, because they prorate the fee depending on how much of your contract is left, they still lose money. Apparently doing something about the Verizon customer service horror stories isn't as good a way to retain customers as telling them that they have to pay several hundred dollars to leave. Anonymous Coward 2009-12-19T08:30:36+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137182/NASA-Flight-Tests-Unique-Jumbo-Jet?from=rss As reported by Planenews, NASA tested a jumbo jet that will help scientists unlock the origins of the universe. Infrared observations reached a milestone Friday when doors covering the plane’s telescope were fully opened in flight. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified 747 jet known as SOFIA, flew for one hour and 19 minutes, which included two minutes with the telescope’s doors fully opened. gilgsn 2009-12-19T20:12:46+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1135446/Russians-Claim-More-Climate-Data-Was-Manipulated?from=rss On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) claimed that the Hadley Center for Climate Change had probably tampered with Russian-climate data. The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations. The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley CRU survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century. DustyShadow 2009-12-16T22:27:24+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137390/When-Developers-Work-Late-Should-Manager-Stay?from=rss A veteran developer looks back — in irritation — at those times he had to work late, and his unskilled manager stayed too, just to look over his shoulder and add worry and fret to the process. Now that same developer, lo and behold, is a manager himself — and recently stayed late to ride herd over late-working developers. "And guess what? Yep, I hadnâât coded in years and never in the language he had to work with." Yet now he understood: his own butt was on the line so he was staying put. Still, does it really help developers to have management hovering in late evening, even if the boss handles pizza delivery? jammag 2009-12-20T15:59:33+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137142/Vimeo-sued-no-more-lip-dub-for-you?from=rss Music label EMI has sued Vimeo in federal court, charging that the site's emphasis on "original works" only extends to videos, and that it songs are widely used without a license. It also says that Vimeo staffers must know about the infringement... since they've been doing it themselves. USS_Natas 2009-12-19T16:59:13+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137350/Prosecutors-Want-Open-Source-AIG-Investigation?from=rss As you may recall, the citizens of the US shelled out about $85 billion to bail out AIG and its creditors (Goldman Sachs in particular) last year. But as 80% owners of AIG, we still don't know what happened exactly. That may change. In an NYTimes Op-Ed, former prosecutors (including former NY governor Eliot Spitzer) are calling for the US Treasury to force to AIG release its treasure-trove of emails to the public before allowing AIG to "break free" of our control. As the prosecutors put it, "By putting the evidence online, the government could establish a new form of "open source" investigation. Once the documents are available for everyone to inspect, a thousand journalistic flowers can bloom, as reporters, victims and angry citizens have a chance to piece together the story." Good idea? VValdo 2009-12-20T11:42:34+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1135686/Mozilla-Firefox-Mobile-will-kill-app-stores?from=rss Mozilla claims that its new Firefox Mobile browser could be the beginning of the end for the hugely popular app stores created by Apple and its ilk. Mozilla claims Firefox Mobile will have the fastest Javascript engine of any mobile browser, and that will allow developers to write apps once for the web, instead of multiple versions for the different mobile platforms. "As developers get more frustrated with quality assurance, the amount of handsets they have to buy, whether their security updates will get past the iPhone approval process... I think they'll move to the web," Mozilla's mobile VP, Jay Sullivan, told PC Pro. "In the interim period, apps will be very successful. Over time, the web will win because it always does." Barence 2009-12-17T08:12:28+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1136248/Obama-Backs-New-Launcher-and-Bigger-NASA-Budget?from=rss President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft. coop0030 2009-12-18T02:26:38+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1134800/New-Zealand-Re-introduces-3-Strikes-Law?from=rss The New Zealand government has reintroduced a newly rewritten addition to the Copyright Act which will allow rights' holders to send copyright notices to ISPs, and force them to pass them on to account holders. Section 92A of the Copyright Act will allow rights holders to take people who they have identified as infrigners more than three times to be heard in front of the Copyright Tribunal. This law will allow the Copyright Tribunal to hand down either a $15,000 fine or six months internet disconnection. The law specifies that the account holder himself is responsible for what is downloaded via the account, and doesn't make allowances for identifying the actual copyright infringer if there are multiple computers tied to an account. Anonymous Coward 2009-12-16T04:21:44+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1137474/Killing-in-the-Name-UK-No-1-thanks-to-Facebook?from=rss Due to a 900,000+ Facebook campaign, 90's rap metal group Rage Against the Machine are this year's Christmas number 1, beating out Simon Cowell's X-Factor contestant Joe McElderry to the top spot, making 'Killing in the Name' the first ever UK download-only Christmas number 1. The popular 90's rock song had support from celebrities and the BBC, who got in trouble earlier in the week for allowing five 'fucks' to slip through the censor on a live performance. Josh04 2009-12-20T22:42:01+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1136210/Netflix-sued-for-privacy-invasion?from=rss An in-the-closet lesbian mother is suing Netflix for privacy invasion, alleging the movie rental company made it possible for her to be outed when it disclosed insufficiently anonymous information about nearly half-a-million customers as part of its $1 million contest to improve its recommendation system. For instance, if a data set reveals a person’s ZIP code, birthdate and gender, there’s an 87 percent chance that the person can be uniquely identified. azoblue 2009-12-18T00:24:29+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1138220/Apple-Planning-a-Subscription-Based-TV-Service?from=rss Apple may be planning a subscription-based service, according to TechCrunch. From the article: Apple may be on the verge of gaining two key television network agreements, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, CBS and Walt Disney (which runs ABC) are said to be considering a proposal by Apple to offer a subscription-based TV service over the Internet. Presumably, this would work through iTunes like all of Apple-based content, but also presumably it would work over Apple’s Apple TV device (though maybe a new version of it) to bring this content into the living room, where people are used to consuming it. awyeah 2009-12-22T03:48:51+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1134970/ASCAP-Seeks-Licensing-Fees-for-Guitar-Hero-Arcade?from=rss According to a post on the Arcade-Museum forums, ASCAP is demanding an annual $800 licensing fee from at least one operator of a Guitar Hero Arcade machine, citing ASCAP licensing regulations regarding jukeboxes. An ASCAP representative allegedly told the operator that she viewed the Guitar Hero machine as a jukebox of sorts. The operator told ASCAP to contact Raw Thrills, the company that sells the arcade units. The case is ongoing and GamePolitics is currently seeking clarification of the story from ASCAP. Self Bias Resistor 2009-12-16T09:12:43+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1135408/Scientists-crack-entire-genetic-code-of-cancer?from=rss From the article: "Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers — skin and lung — a move they say could revolutionise cancer care.Not only will the cancer maps pave the way for blood tests to spot tumours far earlier, they will also yield new drug targets, say the Wellcome Trust team. The scientists found the DNA code for a skin cancer called melanoma contained more than 30,000 errors almost entirely caused by too much sun exposure.The lung cancer DNA code had more than 23,000 errors largely triggered by cigarette smoke exposure.From this, the experts estimate a typical smoker acquires one new mutation for every 15 cigarettes they smoke.Although many of these mutations will be harmless, some will trigger cancer."Yet another step towards curing cancer. Though it will probably take many years to study so many mutations. My moneys still on viruses as the cure for cancer. Entropy98 2009-12-16T21:18:10+00:00 //slashdot.org/submission/1135818/DRM-prevented-3D-showings-of-Avatar-in-Germany?from=rss according to German IT news site heise.de (German, google translation), yesterday several 3D-showings of "Avatar" couldn't take place, because the movies were DRM protected in a way, that there had to be a key per copy of the film, per film projector and per movie server in the theater. The keys supplier by the name Deluxe was apparently unable to provide a sufficient number of valid keys in time.Moviegoers were offered to get a refund or view an analogue 2D showing instead. Fraggy_the_undead 2009-12-17T12:31:23+00:00