Dont miss LinuxCon - a new technical conference providing an unmatched collaboration
and education space covering all matters Linux. September 21-23, 2009 in Portland, OR.
Speakers include Linus Torvalds and Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu.
Register by the early registration deadline of August 15th and attend for US$399.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/linuxcon
======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* NASA's New Telescope Finds Exoplanet Atmosphere
* Neuron Path Discovery May Change Our Conception of Itching
* UK National ID Card Cloned In 12 Minutes
* AOL Picking Up Journalists Shed By Conventional Media
* Nicotine Improves Brain Function In Schizophrenics
* Twitter, Facebook DDoS Attack Targeted One User
* Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken
* Microsoft Denies Windows 7 "Showstopper Bug"
* Prehistoric Gene Reawakened To Battle HIV
* Bjarne Stroustrup On Concepts, C++0x
* Ubuntu's New Firefox Is Watching You
* LHC To Start Back Up In November At Half Power
* Murdoch Demands Kindle Users' Info
* Microsoft Hardware Demos Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard
* Nano Origami for DNA, Complete With Software
* WebGL Standard To Bring 3D Acceleration To Browsers?
* Apple's Schiller Responds To iPhone Dictionary App Fiasco
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NASA's New Telescope Finds Exoplanet Atmosphere |
| from the shhh-they're-sleeping dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 06, @22:40 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/0117221 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
celticryan writes "NASA's new telescope has made a promising discovery.
'As NASA's first exoplanets mission, Kepler has made a dramatic entrance
on the planet-hunting scene,' said Jon Morse, director of the Science
Mission Directorate's Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. '[0]Detecting this planet's atmosphere in just the first 10
days of data is only a taste of things to come. The planet hunt is on!'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/0117221
Links:
0. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/06aug_kepler2.htm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Neuron Path Discovery May Change Our Conception of Itching |
| from the just-please-don't-find-the-tickling-paths dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday August 07, @01:36 (Medicine) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/06/233201 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Historically, many scientists have regarded
itching as just a less intense version of pain, though decades spent
searching for itch-specific nerve cells have been unfruitful. Now, Nature
reports that neuroscientist Zhou-Feng Chen and his colleagues at
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri have found the first
behavioral evidence that [1]there are separate circuits of nerve cells to
convey itchiness and pain, and their studies suggest that itch and pain
signals are transmitted along different pathways in the spinal cord.
'Most people accept that there are specific, highly specialized neurons
for sensations like taste,' says Chen. 'But for pain and itch this is
much more controversial.'" (Continues below.)
This story continues at:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/06/233201
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/06/233201
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090806/full/news.2009.802.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| UK National ID Card Cloned In 12 Minutes |
| from the but-it's-secure-says-so-right-on-the-label dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday August 07, @04:50 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/0335227 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Death Metal writes with this excerpt from Computer Weekly, which casts
some doubt on the security of the UK's proposed personal identification
credential: "The prospective national ID card was [1]broken and cloned in
12 minutes, the Daily Mail revealed this morning. The newspaper hired
computer expert Adam Laurie to test the security that protects the
information embedded in the chip on the card. Using a Nokia mobile phone
and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is
being issued to foreign nationals in minutes."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/0335227
Links:
0. http://www.anus.com/metal
1. http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/06/237215/uk-national-id-card-cloned-in-12-minutes.htm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AOL Picking Up Journalists Shed By Conventional Media |
| from the save-us-aol-kenobi-you're-our-only-hope dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday August 07, @08:09 (The Media) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/029222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "David Weir writes on Bnet that the thousands of
journalists being let go from newspapers, magazines, and television
networks have increasingly [1]been showing up on AOL's payroll ��� over
1,500 in the last eighteen months ��� a number AOL expects to double or
even triple over the coming year. 'Over time, talent is a fixed cost,'
says Marty Moe, Senior Vice-President of AOL Media. 'You can syndicate
it, distribute it as you scale. Furthermore, we are already the largest
branded content company in the US, with an audience of 75 million
domestic uniques. At our size, we can leverage the cost of our publishing
and content management systems along with the talent and make the whole
thing do-able on an advertising model.' Weir writes that [2]AOL's
turnaround started three years ago via the acquisition of Weblogs, Inc.,
and its set of branded verticals, including [3]Engadget in technology,
[4]Autoblog covering the auto industry, and [5]Joystiq covering gaming."
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/029222
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://industry.bnet.com/media/10003600/aols-business-model-high-quality-content-to-scale/
2. http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1114578,00.html
3. http://www.engadget.com/
4. http://www.autoblog.com/
5. http://www.joystiq.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nicotine Improves Brain Function In Schizophrenics |
| from the hallucinations-are-a-drag dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 07, @09:01 (Medicine) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1155225 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader suggests a Cosmos Magazine note that [0]nicotine has
been shown to enhance attention and memory in schizophrenics. Research is
now aimed at developing new treatments that could relieve symptoms and
prevent smoking-related deaths. "A strong link between schizophrenia and
smoking ��� with over three times as many schizophrenics smoking (70 to
90%) as the population at large ��� prompted scientists to investigate the
link. Researchers led by Ruth Barr, a psychiatrist at Queen's University
in Belfast, Northern Ireland, set out to find if the nicotine in
cigarettes was helping patients to overcome their difficulties with
cognitive function, such as planning and memory in social and work
settings."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1155225
Links:
0. http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/2904/full
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Twitter, Facebook DDoS Attack Targeted One User |
| from the widespread-collateral-damage dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 07, @09:54 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1235257 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "[0]A Georgian blogger with accounts on
Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Google's Blogger and YouTube was
targeted in a denial of service attack that led to yesterday's
[1]site-wide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on,
according to a Facebook executive. The blogger, who uses the account name
'Cyxymu' (the name of a town in the Republic of Georgia), had accounts on
all of the different sites that were attacked at the same time, Max
Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook, told CNet News." Here are user
Cyxymu's [2]LiveJournal Google cache and [3]LiveJournal account
(unreachable at this writing). Larry Magid writes on CNet that this
individual [4]blogs about independence of a breakaway region of Georgia.
Macworld has some [5]speculation in other directions on the motivations
behind the DDoS attack.
Update: 08/07 19:52 GMT by [6]KD : Cyber attacks on Cyxymu are not new.
For over a year Evgeny Morozov has been calling attention to him as
[7]the first digital refugee.
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1235257
Links:
0. http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10305200-245.html
1. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/06/1524213&tid=88
2. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:G1LKsOtB-gcJ:cyxymu.livejournal.com/+cyxymu+livejournal&cd=8&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=se&client=firefox-a
3. http://cyxymu.livejournal.com/
4. http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10305287-238.html?tag=readOverlay;readInner
5. http://www.macworld.com/article/142165/2009/08/dosattack.html?lsrc=rss_main
6. http://slashdot.org/~kdawson/
7. http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/08/07/is_cyxymu_the_first_digital_refugee
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken |
| from the bring-down-the-towers dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 07, @10:42 (Cellphones) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1333206 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
PainMeds writes "Apple's stepped-up and [0]controversial rejections are
helping to foster competition in the app store marketplace. According to
an article by Wired, developers aren't taking AppStore rejection lying
down, but are turning to the hacking community's repository system for
the iPhone to launch [1]an app store of their own. The 4-month-old
[2]Cydia store is yielding notably higher sales for a few application
developers than Apple's AppStore, and is reportedly running on over 4
million Apple iPhone devices, with perhaps 350,000 connected at any one
time. In this store, developers are distributing applications they've
written that push the limits of Apple's normal AppStore policies, with
software to add file downloads to Safari, trick applications into
thinking they're on Wi-Fi (for VoIP), and enhance other types
functionality. You'll also find the popular Google Voice application,
which was [3]recently rejected by Apple. Third party application
development has been around since 2007, when the iPhone was originally
introduced, and became so popular that O'Reilly Media [4]published a book
geared toward writing applications before an SDK was available. The Cydia
store acts as both a free package repository and commercial storefront to
third-party developers."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1333206
Links:
0. http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/01/0239247&tid=61
1. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/cydia-app-store/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_(application)
3. http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/07/28/1839241&tid=543
4. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0596155190
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Denies Windows 7 "Showstopper Bug" |
| from the show-must-go-on dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 07, @11:33 (Bug) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/150257 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Barence writes "Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has taken the unusual
step of [1]responding in the comments of a blog posting that claimed
Windows 7 was suffering from a potential 'showstopper bug'. Stories had
been sweeping the Internet that using the chkdsk.exe utility on a second
hard disk would lead to a massive memory leak bringing the operating
system to its knees in seconds. Responding to a blog post titled '[2]Critical
Bug in Windows 7 RTM,' Sinofsky wrote: 'While we appreciate the drama of
"critical bug" and then the pickup of "showstopper" that I've seen, we
might take a step back and realize that this might not have that defcon
level.' He signs off with the words: 'deep breath.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/150257
Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/
1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10304225-56.html
2. http://www.chris123nt.com/2009/08/03/critical-bug-in-windows-7-rtm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Prehistoric Gene Reawakened To Battle HIV |
| from the learning-from-our-distant-cousins dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 07, @12:23 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/134220 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Linuss points out research published in PLoS Biology that demonstrates
the [0]reawakening of latent human cells' ability to manufacture an HIV
defense. A group of scientists led by Nitya Venkataraman began with the
knowledge that Old World monkeys have a built-in immunity to HIV: a
protein that can prevent HIV from entering cell walls and starting an
infection. They examined the human genome for any evidence of a latent
gene that could manufacture such a protein, and found the capability in a
stretch of what has been dismissively termed "junk DNA." "In this work,
we reveal that, upon correction of the premature termination codon in
theta-defensin pseudogenes, human myeloid cells produce cyclic, antiviral
peptides (which we have termed 'retrocyclins'), indicating that the cells
retain the intact machinery to make cyclic peptides. Furthermore, we
exploited the ability of aminoglycoside antibiotics to read-through the
premature termination codon within retrocyclin transcripts to produce
functional peptides that are active against HIV-1. Given that the
endogenous production of retrocyclins could also be restored in human
cervicovaginal tissues, we propose that aminoglycoside-based topical
microbicides might be useful in preventing sexual transmission of HIV-1."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/134220
Links:
0. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000095
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bjarne Stroustrup On Concepts, C++0x |
| from the down-and-out-but-not-over dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 07, @13:15 (Programming)|
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1518205 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Danny Kalev has an interview with Bjarne
Stroustrup about the [0]failure of concepts, the technical issues of
concepts, whether the ISO committee's days are over, and whether C++ is
at a dead-end. 'I don't think that concepts were doomed to fail. Also, I
don't think concepts were trying to fix many things or to transform C++
into an almost new language. They were introduced to do one thing:
provide direct language support to the by-far dominant use of templates:
generic programming. They were intended to allow direct expression of
what people already state in comments, in design documents, and in
documentation. Every well-designed template is written with a notion of
what is required from its arguments. For good code, those requirements
are documented (think of the standard's requirements tables). That is,
today most templates are designed using an informal notion of concepts.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1518205
Links:
0. http://www.devx.com/cplus/Article/42448/0/page/1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ubuntu's New Firefox Is Watching You |
| from the don't-be-sneaky dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 07, @14:02 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1521208 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
sukotto writes "Ubuntu recently released an unannounced and experimental
'multisearch' extension to Firefox alpha 3, apparently in an effort to
improve the default behavior of new tabs and of search. In a response to
[0]one of the initial bug reports the [1]maintainers mentioned that the
extension's other purposes were 'collecting the usage data' and
'generating revenue.' Since this extension installs by itself and offers
no warning about potential privacy violations, quite a few people (myself
included) feel pretty unhappy. The only way to opt out is to disable the
extension manually via Tools > Add-ons." Most posters to [2]this Ubuntu
forum thread are not happy about multisearch.
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1521208
Links:
0. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/402767
1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/402767/comments/24
2. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1219501
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| LHC To Start Back Up In November At Half Power |
| from the no-blackholes-here dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 07, @14:53 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1559240 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]mcgrew writes to mention that the Large Hadron Collider, smasher of
particles, will get [1]another chance to prove itself this November. The
restart will begin with tests at half power, a mere 7 trillion electron
volts (TeV), and ramp up slowly to the designed goal of 14 TeV.
"Measurements indicate that some of the electrical connections could not
safely handle the amount of current needed to run at the full 14 TeV, so
will need to be replaced before dialing up the energy that far. But even
7 TeV is much higher than physicists have ever probed in the laboratory
before. The Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, is the
current record holder, with collisions at 2 TeV."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1559240
Links:
0. http://www.slashdot.org/~mcgrew/journal
1. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17566-large-hadron-collider-to-restart-at-half-its-designed-energy.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Murdoch Demands Kindle Users' Info |
| from the another-in-a-long-line-of-bad-decisions dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 07, @15:45 (The Media) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/168255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
In yet another move to display how antiquated and completely ignorant of
digital culture he is, Rupert Murdoch has started demanding that Amazon
[0]hand over user info for all Kindle users. This demand comes right
after Murdoch just finished negotiating a larger share of revenue from
Amazon sales. At least Amazon hasn't decided to comply with this request
yet. "'As I've said before, the traditional business model has to change
rapidly to ensure that our journalistic businesses can return to their
old margins of profitability,' Murdoch said. 'Quality journalism is not
cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply
cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/168255
Links:
0. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/05/murdochs-ultimatum-to-amazon-give-us-the-names-or-else/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Hardware Demos Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard |
| from the wtb-vi-plugin-for-this-device dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 07, @16:26 (Input Device|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1743212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Krystalo writes to tell us that Microsoft hardware has an interesting
demo of a [0]pressure-sensitive keyboard they have designed. While there
are no currently announced plans to turn this into a shipping product,
there are many cool uses that one could imagine a device like this
providing. "The device will be put to use in the first annual Student
Innovation Contest in Victoria, Canada, where contestants will be
supplied with a keyboard prototype and challenged with developing new
interactions for it. Contestants will demo their creations and attendees
will vote for their favorite at the conference on October 5. $2,000
prizes will be given to the authors of programs deemed as the most
useful, the best implementation, and the most innovative."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1743212
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nano Origami for DNA, Complete With Software |
| from the next-gen-legos dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 07, @17:19 (Robotics) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/1932249 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
wisebabo writes "Some researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen and
Harvard have developed a way to make DNA 'Origami' fold up into all sorts
of desired nanoscale shapes. While this has been done before, there now
seems to be a much greater assortment of shapes they can create. What's
particularly interesting is that they've developed some software that can
be used (presumably with a DNA assembler) that will create what you want;
think of [0]CAD/CAM on a molecular scale! 'The toolbox they have
developed includes a graphical software program that helps to translate
specific design concepts into the DNA programming required to realize
them. Three-dimensional shapes are produced by "tuning" the number,
arrangement, and lengths of helices.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/1932249
Links:
0. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806141524.htm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| WebGL Standard To Bring 3D Acceleration To Browsers? |
| from the need-faster-delivery-of-js-already dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 07, @18:11 (Graphics) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/2013243 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Several sources are reporting that while native audio/video support has
been dropped from the HTML 5 spec, the Khronos Group has released a few
details about their up and coming [0]WebGL 3D acceleration standard. "The
general principle behind WebGL is to offer a JavaScript binding to the
group's OpenGL ES 2.0 system, allowing code run within the browser to
access the graphics hardware directly in the same way as a standalone
application can. As the technology would rely solely on JavaScript to do
the heavy lifting, no browser plugin would be required ��� and it would be
compatible with any browser which supports the scripting language
alongside the HTML 5 'Canvas' element."
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/2013243
Links:
0. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/08/05/webgl-brings-3d-acceleration-to-browsers/1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple's Schiller Responds To iPhone Dictionary App Fiasco |
| from the not-so-sinister-after-all dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 07, @19:04 (Censorship) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/07/2236249 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
beef curtains writes "Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of
worldwide product marketing, [0]responded by e-mail to a blog post
discussing Apple's [1]rejection of a dictionary app. If Schiller's e-mail
is to be believed, it offers an interesting perspective on this whole
issue. He said, 'The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the
Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar
terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that
many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable. ... The
Ninjawords developer then decided to filter some offensive terms in the
Ninjawords application and resubmit it for approval for distribution in
the App Store before parental controls were implemented. Apple did not
ask the developer to censor any content in Ninjawords, the developer
decided to do that themselves in order to get to market faster. ... You
are correct that the Ninjawords application should not have needed to be
censored while also receiving a 17+ rating, but that was a result of the
developers' actions, not Apple's.' PC World has an [2]article summarizing
the drama-to-date, the blog post, and Schiller's response."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/07/2236249
Links:
0. http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/phil_schiller_app_store
1. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/05/2034219/Apple-Balks-Finally-Relents-At-Possible-User-Queries-of-Dictionary-App?from=rss
2. http://www.pcworld.com/article/169772/apples_schiller_responds_to_dictionary_app_controversy.html
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