Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Free Software Foundation Campaigning to Stop UEFI SecureBoot

The Free Software Foundation is on an offensive against restricted boot systems and is busy appealing for donations and pledge in the form of signatures in a bid to stop systems such as the UEFI SecureBoot from being adopted on a large-scale basis and becoming a norm in the future.

The FSF, through an appeal on its website, is requesting users to sign a pledge titled "Stand up for your freedom to install free software" that they won’t be purchasing or recommending for purchase any such system that is SecureBoot enabled or some other form of restricted boot techniques. The FSF has managed to receive, as of this writing, over 41,000 signatures. Organizations like the Debian, Edoceo, Zando, Wreathe and many others have also showed their support for the campaign.

The Foundation acknowledges that SecureBoot, if implemented correctly, will help protect systems from malware and other such threats. But, it believes that Microsoft and other hardware manufacturers will implement boot restrictions thus preventing users from installing other operating systems. “...we are concerned that Microsoft and hardware manufacturers will implement these boot restrictions in a way that will prevent users from booting anything other than Windows”,reads the appeal.

Beyond the signatures, FSF is also asking individuals to come forward and donate $50 USD (minimum) for the cause of stopping the SecureBoot. “We need to raise $350,000 by January 31st to help us amplify your voices in 2013. Please, donate today to help us turn up the volume”, notes the campaign page. You can find more information on the campaign here.

SecureBoot has received a lot of criticism from various open source organizations. Promoters of Linux such as the Linux Foundation have already started working towards coming up with ways to make Linux work on UEFI enabled hardware. The Linux Foundation recently released a minimal UEFI SecureBoot preloader that will enable users to install Linux distributions on SecureBoot hardware.

Source: http://paritynews.com/software/item/530-the-free-software-foundation-campaigning-to-stop-uefi-secureboot

Cree Reaches LED Industry Milestone with 200 Lumen-Per-Watt LED

DURHAM, NC -- Two years after breaking the 200 lumens-per-watt (LPW) R&D efficacy barrier, Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) delivers another industry first with the introduction of the Cree XLamp® MK-R LEDs. The new MK-R LEDs leverage the SC³ Technology™ next-generation LED platform to deliver up to 200 lumens-per-watt (at 1 W, 25°C) LEDs.

The new MK-R LEDs make the next generation of 100+ lumens-per-watt system possible for high-lumen applications, including outdoor and indoor directional applications, such as halogen replacement lamps. MK-R LEDs are available in EasyWhite® color temperatures, providing the LED industry’s best color consistency for designs that use only one LED. For systems that use multiple LEDs, MK-R enables manufacturers to use fewer LEDs while still maintaining light output and quality, which translates to lower system cost.

“It’s amazing that Cree is able to achieve a 200 lumens-per-watt LED so quickly,” said Nicola Vendrame, CEO, Linea Light group. “The high efficacy of the MK-R LED means that we can drive the LED harder for more light output without creating heat issues. In addition, the MK-R LED has the right combination of size, color consistency and optical control to enable the next generation of performance in our indoor directional luminaires.”

“Cree’s relentless innovation continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with LED lighting,” said John Edmond, Cree co-founder and director of advanced optoelectronics. “The MK-R LED is another game-changer for the industry. An LED with this level of performance can accelerate the development of high-output lighting applications and could enable applications we haven’t even thought of yet.”

The MK-R LED features a 7 mm x 7 mm footprint with a 6 mm optical source and delivers up to 1600 lumens at 15 W, 85°C. Characterized at 85°C, the MK-R component is available in 2700 K to 7000 K color temperatures and offers minimum CRI options of 70, 80 and 90 (at selected color temperatures). The MK-R LED is the ninth product built on Cree’s SC³ Technology platform. The innovative platform leverages Cree’s advanced silicon-carbide technology, features advancements in LED chip architecture and phosphor and boasts a new package design to deliver the most advanced LED components in the industry.

Cree Reaches LED Industry Milestone with 200 Lumen-Per-Watt LED

Obama Administration: We Can and Will Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith | CNS News

(CNSNews.com) - In a legal argument formally presented in federal court in the case of Hobby Lobby v. Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama administration is claiming that the First Amendment—which expressly denies the government the authority to prohibit the “free exercise” of religion—nonetheless allows it to force Christians to directly violate their religious beliefs even on a matter that involves the life and death of innocent human beings.

Because federal judges—including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor—have refused to grant an injunction protecting the owners of Hobby Lobby from being forced to act against their Christian faith, those owners will be subject to federal fines of up to $1.3 million per day starting Tuesday for refusing to include abortion-inducing drugs in their employee health plan.

The Obama administration is making a two-fold argument for why it can force Christians to act against their faith in complying with the regulation it has issued under the Obamacare law that requires virtually all health care plans to cover, without co-pay, sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs.

Obama Administration: We Can and Will Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith | CNS News

Japan whaling fleet leaves port for Antarctica

Japan's whaling research ship 'Nisshin Maru' is seen leaving from Innoshima island port in Hiroshima prefecture, western Japan, on December 28, 2012. Japanese whaling vessels left port bound for the Southern Ocean on their annual hunt for the huge marine mammals, according to a media report and Greenpeace. Japanese whaling vessels left port Friday bound for the Southern Ocean on their annual hunt for the huge marine mammals, a media report and Greenpeace said.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-12-japan-whaling-fleet-port-antarctica.html#jCp

Saturday, December 29, 2012

MK802 II Mini PC Now Costs as Much as Raspberry Pi Model B. Let’s Compare Them!

MK802 mini PC quickly went viral as it launched in May 2012 for $74 US, and since then many Chinese manufacturers have jumped into the market bringing both new faster devices, and the price down. AllWinner A10s, a low cost version of AllWinner A10 used in MK802, was also launched specifically for this market to bring costs even lower. Today, I’ve been informed an HDMI TV dongle based on AllWinner A10s that sells for $36.55 on Tinydeal.com which is a very good price, but decided to check on Aliexpress to look for comparable deals, and found one shop selling MK802 II for $34.91 including shipping via China Post, which makes it cheaper than the Raspberry Pi model B selling for $35 excluding shipping.

Read more: http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/12/26/mk802-ii-mini-pc-now-costs-as-much-as-raspberry-pi-model-b-lets-compare-them/#ixzz2GN0CBDhy

Screen management got magic

"As you may know Dan Vrátil and I are working in a brand new screen manager that will solve most of the issues that we currently have on the desktop, making the configuration of monitors either auto-magical or super simple.

We are trying be as smart as possible adapting the behavior of it to each use case making the configuration of monitors as simple as plugging them to your computer."

Source: http://www.afiestas.org/screen-management-got-magic/

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

2012 Delhi gang rape case

A female physiotherapy^[1] student was gang raped in Delhi on 16 December 2012.^[2]^[3] The woman, whose name has not been disclosed, is referred to as Damini (after the 1993 Hindi film Damini), Nirbhaya and Amanat by the Indian public and media.^[4]^[5] The victim, with a male companion, boarded a bus in South Delhi around 9:30 pm^[1]after watching a film (movie). They both were assaulted by a group of six males already on board the bus, who raped the woman.^[6] The young woman is being treated atSafdarjang Hospital, where she has been on ventilator support for five days.^[7]^[8]

The incident has generated public protests and international coverage,^[2]^[6]^[9] being condemned by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, who called on the Government of India and the Government of Delhi “to do everything in their power to take up radical reforms, ensure justice and reach out with robust public services to make women’s lives more safe and secure”.^[10]

At the suggestion of Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Chief Minister, five fast track courts were approved to try the rape cases.^[11] The Parliament’s Standing Committee on Home Affairs meets on 27 December 2012 to discuss the issue, with summonses for Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.^[12] On 21 December 2012, the government promised to file the charge sheet “quickly” and seek the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the perpetrators.^[13]

Read more @wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Delhi_gang_rape_case

Monday, December 24, 2012

Hitchhikers Guide to the BeagleBone (and ARMv7a)

The amazing post: Hitchhikers Guide to the BeagleBone (and ARMv7a)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Court rejects plea to block taping of police

The Supreme Court has rejected an Illinois prosecutor's plea to allow enforcement of a law aimed at stopping people from recording police officers on the job.

The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that found that the state's anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against people who tape law enforcement officers. The law sets out a maximum prison term of 15 years.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in 2010 against Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places, one of the group's long-standing monitoring missions.

Opponents of the law say the right to record police is vital to guard against abuses.

From: http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20121126/0816a204-ad36-4679-bc8b-6824052c4452

Dotcom: We've hit the jackpot

A fresh legal bid to throw out the case against Kim Dotcom in the United States is being made after claims of an FBI double-cross.

Evidence has emerged showing the Department of Homeland Security served a search warrant on Mr Dotcom's file-sharing company Megaupload in 2010 which he claims forced it to preserve pirated movies found in an unrelated piracy investigation.

The 39 files were identified during an investigation into the NinjaVideo website, which had used Megaupload's cloud storage to store pirated movies.

When the FBI applied to seize the Megaupload site in 2012, it said the company had failed to delete pirated content and cited the earlier search warrant against the continued existence of 36 of the same 39 files.

The details emerged after the US District Court in East Virginia allowed partial access to the FBI application which led to the shutdown of the Mega family of websites.

Other information from the case to emerge this week includes a collection of photographs from the day of the raid at Mr Dotcom's Coatesville property on January 20 this year. The High Court released the material after applications from the Herald.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Updated news of US President Barack Obama's visit to Myanmar

Friday, November 16, 2012

PSA: Transition to CyanogenMod.org

We at CM are very trusting of our members, showed by both respect and permissions granted to those people we consider part of the team. Last month, this trust was violated in a substantial way. In the spirit of openness, here is what happened.

CM’s history is well established, with Cyanogen releasing his original ROM for the G1 on XDA forums. Back then, there was no “CyanogenMod” in terms of the organization and structure that we have today. The builds were hosted on Steve’s personal machine, the original server was a donation of spare kit from Phaseburn. And due to the small size (and lack of funds), the CyanogenMod.com domain was bought by a third-party back in 2009 and donated to CM, when CM was a much smaller project and had no online presence besides XDA.

Read full article: http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org

Ocean still suffering from Fukushima fallout

Radioactivity is persisting in the ocean waters close to Japan's ruined nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi.

New data presented at a conference held on 12–13 November at the University of Tokyo show that levels of radioactivity in the sea around the plant remain stable, rather than falling as expected. Researchers believe that run-off from rivers, as well as continued leaks from the plant, may be partially to blame. But contaminated sediment and marine organisms also seem to be involved.

The level of contamination is not likely to pose a significant health risk to humans. But it could have long-term economic consequences for fishermen along Japan's east coast.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Earthquakes In Myanmar(Burma) 2012-11-11

3 killed, 29 injured in Myanmar earthquake in northern part: state TV

SAGAING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed, 29 injured and four went missing in Sunday morning's 6.8-magnitude strong earthquake that struck northern part of Myanmar, state TV said in a breaking news in the afternoon.

Of the three victims, two are from Kyauk Myaung in Sagaing region and one is from Singu in Mandalay region.

Strong quake strikes Myanmar, at least 12 feared dead

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A strong earthquake struck Myanmar, also known as Burma, on Sunday, collapsing a bridge and a gold mine, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving as many as 12 people feared dead.

No casualties or major damage were reported in the nearest major population center, Myanmar's second-biggest city of Mandalay, about 72 miles south of the quake's epicenter near the town of Shwebo.

Myanmar Earthquake 2012: 6.8 Magnitude Quake Kills At Least 12

YANGON, Myanmar — A strong earthquake of magnitude-6.8 struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, collapsing a bridge and a gold mine, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving as many as 12 people feared dead.

A slow release of official information left the actual extent of the damage unclear after Sunday morning's strong quake. Myanmar has a poor official disaster response system, despite having lost upwards of 140,000 people to a devastating cyclone in 2008.

Myanmar's second-biggest city of Mandalay reported no casualties or major damage as the nearest major population center to the main quake Mandalay lies about 117 kilometers (72 miles) south of the quake's epicenter near the town of Shwebo.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Performance tuning : Swappiness

I got my linux pc was slowing down because of swap. Then, I checked in htop, oh, my main memmory was about 1.5 GB left (totally 4 GB). Why swap was allocated util main memory was 85 or 90%? I ask a help from my senior. He said to google "Swappiness". I found one of the solutions and did as they said. Now, I am ok. I set vm.swappiness = 10 and rebooted. Check detail: http://unixfoo.blogspot.com/2007/11/linux-performance-tuning.html

Over a dozen dead, over 5 million without power as Sandy pummels the East Coast

Monster Storm Sandy slammed into the East Coast Monday, killing at least 14 people, hurling a record-breaking 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City and knocking out power to an estimated 5.7 million people.

The massive storm was downgraded from a hurricane after it barged ashore in southern New Jersey, bringing more than 85-mph winds and a roiling wall of seawater as it moved through New York City. It sent water surging into two major commuter tunnels and into subway stations and tracks. It was unclear how much water had come in.

The 14 deaths were reported in New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Some of the victims were killed by falling trees. Police in Toronto said a woman was killed by a falling sign as high winds closed in on Canada's largest city.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Warning: Stroms, 2012-10-29 (UTC+6:30)

Full Map: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

61,000 National Guard troops prep for Hurricane Sandy

ARLINGTON, Va. (10/27/12) – National Guard members and residents along the East Coast prepared today for Hurricane Sandy, which gained strength as it churned toward the eastern seaboard.

The storm was barreling north from the Caribbean and was expected to make landfall early Tuesday near the Delaware coast, then hit two winter weather systems while moving inland, creating the potential for a monster storm, according to the Associated Press.

At least 61,000 National Guard members are on hand, Guard officials said today.

As of 1:30 p.m. EDT today, governors in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia and the mayor of Washington D.C., have declared states of emergency.

GNUs trick-or-treat at Windows 8 launch

Yesterday morning, the Free Software Foundation crashed the Windows 8 launch event in New York City. A cheerful GNU and her team handed out DVDs loaded with Trisquel, FSF stickers, and information about our new pledge, which asks Windows users to upgrade not to Windows 8, but to GNU/Linux.

Check out these great photos of the fun, and don't forget to sign our pledge!

Why Coding Style Matters

When I was studying computer science in college, I had one extremely tough professor. His name was Dr. Maxey and he taught the more complicated courses like data structures and computer architecture. He was a wonderful teacher with a talent for articulating difficult concepts, but also an extremely tough grader. Not only would he look over your code to make sure that it worked, he would take off points for stylistic issues.

If you were missing appropriate comments, or even if you misspelled a word or two in your comments, he would deduct points. If your code was “messy” (by his standards), he would deduct points. The message was clear: the quality of your code is not just in its execution but also in its appearance. That was my first experience with coding style.

B.C. teen arrested for photographing mall takedown

Lawyer says guards and police have no right to demand people's cameras

Security guards pin a man at Metrotown mall in an incident that led to a confrontation with the photographer. (Jakub Markiewicz)

A B.C. teen who aspires to be a journalist says his rights were violated when he was set upon by security guards and then arrested by police after photographing an incident at Metrotown shopping mall in Burnaby, B.C.

Jakub Markiewicz ,16, said he was in the mall in September and took a picture of what he thought was a newsworthy event — a man being arrested by security guards.

But Markiewicz said the guards quickly turned on him, demanding he delete the photo, which he couldn’t do because he was shooting on a film camera.

Markiewicz said he turned to leave the mall and then snapped a second shot as RCMP arrived.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Burma to Myanmar and Back? | GulfNews.com

In ways big and small, Asia is still living with the tainted legacy of imperialism. Consider the debate now underway in Myanmar – or Burma to some. Because the imperial tongue found it difficult to pronounce “Myanmar”, the country’s no-nonsense British masters renamed it “Burma” (redrawing its borders as well for good measure).

The new name stuck until the military regime that ruled the country for decades restored the original one in 1989. Ironically, however, the newly empowered democratic opposition would like to bring back the name Burma, viewing “Myanmar” as emblematic of the dictatorship that they wish to leave behind.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Boycott Sony : Why are we asking you to take action against Sony?

Boycott Sony

Why are we asking you to take action against Sony?

Sony is using legal actions to harass and intimidate individuals who are modifying their own PS3 systems. Defective by Design supporters are boycotting Sony. Here's the full story:

Sony sold the PlayStation 3 as a general purpose computer, capable of running the GNU/Linux operating system, but running in a restrictive mode that didn't allow complete access to the powerful hardware.
Sony stated, "It was fully intended that you, a PS3 owner, could play games, watch movies, view photos, listen to music, and run a full-featured operating system that transforms your PS3 into a home computer." In return, George Hotz (known in programming circles as geohot) announced his efforts to give PS3 owners complete access to their machine's powerful hardware.
Sony then proceeded to betray their customers by removing the ability to run custom operating systems at all, "due to security concerns."
In January 2011, Hotz released the cryptographic keys needed to reverse Sony's restrictions and run custom software on the PlayStation 3.
Sony promptly brought a lawsuit against Hotz.
Then, another PS3 hacker, Alexander Egorenkov (graf_chokolo) had his home raided by the police and sued him for €1 million. Sony followed-up by confiscating his equipment.

JHV movie created 2012 10 25 19 37 12

Monday, October 22, 2012

TSA Moving X-ray Body Scanners To Smaller Airports

The Transportation Security Administration has been quietly removing its X-ray body scanners from major airports over the last few weeks and replacing them with machines thatradiation experts believe are safer.

The TSA says it made the decision not because of safety concerns but to speed up checkpoints at busier airports. It means, though, that far fewer passengers will be exposed to radiation because the X-ray scanners are being moved to smaller airports.

Ref: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/10/19/182231/tsa-moving-x-ray-body-scanners-to-smaller-airports

Minnesota Gives Coursera the Boot, Citing a Decades-Old Law

Coursera offers free, online courses to people around the world, but if you live in Minnesota, company officials are urging you to log off or head for the border.

The state’s Office of Higher Education has informed the popular provider of massive open online courses, or MOOC’s, that Coursera is unwelcome in the state because it never got permission to operate there. It’s unclear how the law could be enforced when the content is freely available on the Web, but Coursera updated its Terms of Service to include the following caution:

Notice for Minnesota Users:

Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.

Tricia Grimes, a policy analyst for the state’s Office of Higher Education, said letters had been sent to all postsecondary institutions known to be offering courses in Minnesota. She said she did not know specifically whether letters had been sent to other MOOC providers like edX and Udacity, and officials there did not immediately respond to questions from The Chronicle.

Read more: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/minnesota-gives-coursera-the-boot-citing-a-decades-old-law/40542

Ref: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/10/19/1245221/free-online-education-unwelcome-in-minnesota

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Ready for war: Turkey tanks and battleships at ready over Syria threat

War edged closer last night as Turkey lined up warships and tanks against neighbouring Syria.

Turkish forces were on yellow alert, one step away from military engagement, as naval destroyers moved in to protect their Mediterranean coast and a brigade of tanks rolled up to the 560-mile Syrian border.

The desperate military escalation came as the Turkish government warned it will smash President Assad’s forces if they dare to bombard towns north of their boundary again.

Syrian refugees fled for Turkey. And the UN stood reeling from the Turkish Prime Minister’s accusations of inaction against Syria’s shelling.

His artillery has hit back a dozen times in the past two weeks, killing 12 Syrian troops but fears are growing that fresh cross-border shelling will lead to war.

Meteor Shower Spawned By Halley’s Comet Will Peak Over The Weekend

A big celestial light show is underway as the Orionid meteor shower will reach its peak over the weekend. The Orionids are named after their source of origin in the constellation Orion (The Hunter). Historically, the Orinoid meteor shower has produced an average of 20 meteors per hour at its peak but it has been especially active in recent years.

The Orinoid meteor shower is one of two annual celestial events produced by pieces of the tail of Halley’s Comet. The other meteor shower from this source is called the Eta Aquarids and peaks every spring. Halley’s Comet returns to our solar system every 75 and is one of the largest–and certainly most famous–comets in existence. Halley’s comet last appeared in the mid 1980′s and is expected to return in 2061. Halley’s Comet is named after English astronomer Edmond Halley who originally spotted it and determined the timetable for its return. When it returned on schedule it was named ‘Halley’s comet’ as a posthumous honor.

Read more http://maboot.com/meteor-shower-spawned-by-halleys-comet-will-peak-over-the-weekend/

Monday, October 15, 2012

FBI Warns of 'Skyfall' Attack

WASHINGTON -- In a brief but dramatic statement, the FBI warned Thursday that Americans should expect additional terrorist attacks.

A two-sentence press release on FBI.gov said there "may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days."

The content was disturbing enough, but even stranger was the Web address of the press release: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/skyfall.htm. The link was pulled about a half an hour after it was put up.

Felix Baumgartner encounters UFO just before jump [video]

UFO WITNESS DECLARATION

Read more Here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/110033910/UFO-Witness-Declaration

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Curiosity discovers unidentified, metallic object on Mars

A few hundred million miles away on the surface of the Red Planet, Mars rover Curiosity has discovered… an unidentified, shiny, metallic object.

Now, before you get too excited, the most likely explanation is that bright object is part of the rover that has fallen off — or perhaps some debris from MSL Curiosity’s landing on Mars, nine weeks ago.

There is the distinct possibility, however, that this object is actually native to Mars, which would be far more exciting. It could be the tip of a larger object, or perhaps some kind of exotic, metallic Martian pebble (a piece of metal ore, perhaps).

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

UFOs in Ancient and Medieval Art [Video]

Sunday, October 7, 2012

NASA discovers new black hole in Milky Way

Washington: NASA's Swift satellite has found evidence of the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole in our Milky Way galaxy.

Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the centre of our galaxy towards the constellation Sagittarius, NASA said.

While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the galaxy's inner region.

Helix Nebula Photo: Giant 'Eye' In Space Spotted By NASA Telescopes

A pair of NASA space telescopes have captured a spectacular new photo of the Helix Nebula, a glowing celestial vision that resembles a giant cosmic eye.

The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293) represents a dying star known as aplanetary nebula. The new picture, released Wednesday (Oct. 3), combines data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which observes in long-wavelength infrared light, and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which picked out the short-wavelength ultraviolet light coming from the object.

The Helix Nebula is located about 650 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It provides a sneak peak at the future of our own sun, which is expected to turn into a planetary nebula in about 5 billion years.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Human-Sized Bat Discovered in Peru

Yes, a human child-sized bat has been discovered in Peru. Reports from the area "state that this animal attacked several people walking through the jungle and elsewhere in Latin America." Continue reading for a video on how bats hunt for their prey and more information on this human-sized bat.

Source: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/human-sized-bat-discovered-in-peru

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Noah Kagan's publishes his story of why he got fired from Facebook

Read the story >>> Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson)

Link from: http://slashdot.org/submission/2284293/noah-kagans-publishes-his-story-of-why-he-got-fired-from-facebook

Highly charged – the US Navy's electromagnetic railgun programme

Railguns consist of two parallel metal rails, between which a projectile held in an armature is loaded, completing a circuit between them. A massive electrical current of the order of one million amperes is applied, creating an electromagnetic field, which in turn produces a force that accelerates the projectile along the rails.

A railgun offers a number of potential advantages over traditional explosive projectile weapons. The accelerating force is applied to the projectile for the entire time the projectile is between the rails of the launch device, as opposed to explosive forces which, however powerful, have a limited duration.

TypeScript - Microsoft's Replacement For JavaScript

Microsoft has just announced a new programming language - TypeScript. It's targeted at replacing JavaScript by being more maintainable in large projects. Do we need yet another JavaScript replacement?

Everyone seems to have a replacement for JavaScript - Google even has two. Now Microsoft has revealed that Anders Hejlsberg has been working on a replacement and it has released a preview of TypeScript.

Washington confirms Chinese hack attack on White House computer

clam666 writes"White House sources partly confirmed an alarming report that U.S. government computers — reportedly including systems used by the military for nuclear commands — were breached by Chinese hackers.

I mostly submitted it because I just loved the phrase "The attack originated in the form of a spear phish, which involves a spoofed inbound email with either a link to a malicious website or a weaponized document attachment such as a .pdf, Microsoft Excel file or Word document"

Damn those weaponized Excel files."
Source: http://slashdot.org/submission/2285681/washington-confirms-chinese-hack-attack-on-white-house-computer

Sun Shock Waves: New Theory Could Predict When Planets Form

Our solar system's planets may have formed at differing times, determined by shock waves flowing from the young sun, one astronomer suggests.

This theory posits that Earth is one of the youngest planets in the solar system, along with Mercury, Venus and Mars.

In a new paper, Tagir Abdylmyanov, an associate professor from Kazan State Power Engineering University in Russia, describes his idea and suggests it presents a possible new way of predicting where planets will form in young star systems.

Why Facebook Suddenly Likes Russia (FB)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in Russia and just visited with Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev is the official widely viewed as a figurehead who swaps jobs with Russian president Vladimir Putin to help Putin get around term limits. But he's also been taking the lead on technology initiatives. He recently toured Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, for example.

US Military Designates Julian Assange an "Enemy of State"

First time accepted submitter Cute and Cuddly writes in with some new Julian Assange news."The U.S. military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States — the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency. Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with 'communicating with the enemy.'"
Source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/27/0020227/us-military-designates-julian-assange-an-enemy-of-state

Monday, October 1, 2012

Bangladesh vows to protect Buddhists after Facebook photo attacks

Hundreds of Buddhists who fled their southern Bangladesh villages in the wake of attacks by Muslims started returning home Monday amid heightened security and more than 160 arrests.

The Buddhists moved to safety after an overnight weekend attack in which thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims burned at least 10 Buddhist temples and 40 homes in anger over a Facebook photo of a burned Quran.

Army soldiers, paramilitary border guards and police were deployed, and the government has banned all public gatherings in the troubled areas near the southern border with Myanmar, said Lt. Col. Jaed Hossain, a military commander who was helping to install tents for displaced Buddhists.

"They are coming back. We are giving them protection," Hossain said at Merunglua village in the coastal district of Cox's Bazar on Monday.

Vesa Linja-ahon blogi: A group of Finnish math teachers write an open tex...

Vesa Linja-ahon blogi: A group of Finnish math teachers write an open tex...: A group of Finnish mathematics researchers, teachers and students write an upper secondary mathematics textbook in a booksprint. The event s...

Link from: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/09/29/2158225/teachers-write-an-open-textbook-in-a-weekend-hackathon

Friday, September 28, 2012

Blue LED Cube

The amazing article :).

This is exactly what it sounds like, an awesome flashing cube of LED's. After seeing a 512 LED cube on hackaday I decided that I needed one for myself and went right to ebay to find some cheap LED's. Although 512 LED's seems like a daunting number it only took one weekend to make the control circuit and construct the cube, the code and animations though took a few weeks, maybe coding isn't my thing. I will go through some of the steps and theory here and you can see the results in the video at the end.

Read more full article here: http://www.hownottoengineer.com/projects/lc.html

Filmmaker of anti-Islam video arrested in Los Angeles

ABC has reported that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula the producer of anti Islamic movie which led to the violent protest all over the world has been arrest by the police.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office says that Nakoula was questioned at the begining of this month and this time has been detained. The US Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said “I can confirm he’s in custody, scheduled to make a court appearance as we speak, in federal court in downtown LA’‘.

The nature of arrest is yet vague as the court documents have been sealed and also the filmmaker has been involved in an other criminal activity and this arrest could be related to his previous offence.

In February 2009, Nakoula was accused of fraud, obtaining the identities and social security numbers of customers at several banks in Californiaand withdrawing $860 from them. As reported by ABC.

The Anti-Islamic movie has already done enough damage around the globe, death of US ambassador, arrest ofBrazil’s Google CEO, violent protests, killings of 19 protesters in Pakistan and cyber-attacks on United States government websites are few examples of anger among the Muslim world against the movie.

Source and Original: http://www.hackread.com/filmmaker-of-anti-islam-video-arrested-in-los-angeles/