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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* The Death of Booting Up
* What's the Carbon Footprint of Bicycling?
* Intel To Offer CPU Upgrades Via Software
* CERN Physicist Says Dark Matter May Be an Illusion
* Bing More Effective Than Google?
* Mozilla Firefox 6 Released Ahead of Schedule
* Which Company Is the Largest?
* After Cell-Phone Switch-Off, Anonymous Promises BART Protest
* UN Climate Report Fails To Capture Arctic Ice: MIT
* Hamstersoft Ebook App Rips Off GPL3 Code, Say Calibre Devs
* Space Elevator Conference Prompts Lofty Questions
* Linux Kernel 3.1 RC 2 Released
* Cutting Edge Tech Slated For Next Mars Rover
* Search the World's Smartphone Photos
* Astronaut Photographs Perseid Meteor — From Space
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| The Death of Booting Up
| from the singularity-prequel dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @08:28 (Google)
| with 459 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0110200/The-Death-of-Booting-Up?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
theodp writes " Booting up was a bear,' recalls Slate's Farhad Manjoo,
'something to be avoided at all costs.' But now, he adds, 'It's time to
rejoice, [0]because all that's in the past. Computers these days can go
from completely off to working within 30 seconds, and in some cases much
faster. Apple's MacBook Air loads up in 16 seconds, and machines based on
Google's cloud-based Chrome OS boast boot times of under 10 seconds. Even
Windows computers are fast-with the right set-up, your Windows 7 laptop
can load just as quickly as a MacBook.' Perhaps at home, but how's that
working out for you at work? Have reports of the death of long boot times
been greatly exaggerated?"
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0110200/The-Death-of-Booting-Up?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.slate.com/id/2301414/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| What's the Carbon Footprint of Bicycling?
| from the multiply-by-the-trip-to-burning-man dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @09:31 (Earth)
| with 413 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1326247/Whats-the-Carbon-Footprint-of-Bicycling?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Brian Palmer writes that although none of the
major manufacturers has released data on their energy consumption and how
much greenhouse gas making a bicycle requires, Shreya Dave, a graduate
student at MIT, recently estimated that manufacturing an average bicycle
results in the emission of [1]approximately 530 pounds of greenhouse
gases. Therefor, given a 'typical U.S. diet,' you would have to ride your
bike instead of driving for around 400 miles to cover the bike's initial
carbon footprint. However, calculating the total environmental impact of
a mode of transit involves more than just the easy-to-measure metrics
like mileage per gallon. Using a life-cycle assessment, Dave concluded
that an ordinary sedan's carbon footprint is [2]more than 10 times
greater than a conventional bicycle's (PDF) on a mile-for-mile basis,
assuming each survives 15 years and you ride the bike 2,000 miles per
year. What about other ways to get to work? According to Dave's
life-cycle analysis, the only vehicle that comes close to a bicycle is
the peak-hour bus ��� and it's not really that close. A fully loaded bus is
responsible for 2.6 times the carbon emissions total of a bicycle per
passenger mile while off-peak buses account for more than 20 times as
many greenhouse gases as a bicycle. What about the carbon footprint of
walking? '[3]Walking is not zero emission because we need food energy to
move ourselves from place to place,' says environmentalist Chris Goodall.
'Food production creates carbon emissions.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1326247/Whats-the-Carbon-Footprint-of-Bicycling?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.slate.com/id/2300676/
2. http://www.pietzo.com/storage/downloads/Pietzo_LCAwhitepaper.pdf
3. http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/how-virtuous-is-ed-begley-jr/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Intel To Offer CPU Upgrades Via Software
| from the on-the-other-side-withholding-them-by-silence dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @11:40 (Intel)
| with 396 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1515221/Intel-To-Offer-CPU-Upgrades-Via-Software?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
derGoldstein writes "Intel will again offer CPU upgrades through
software. In the past, the upgrades gave you HyperThreading and more L3
cache. This time [0]upgrades will actually increase CPU frequency: 'Intel
Upgrade Service offers three different upgrades on second generation Core
processors: Intel Core i3-2312M processor, Intel Core i3-2102 processor,
and Intel Pentium G622 processor.' The page provides benchmarks of the 3
upgrade options."
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1515221/Intel-To-Offer-CPU-Upgrades-Via-Software?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. https://retailupgrades.intel.com/Page.aspx?Name=Benefits
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| CERN Physicist Says Dark Matter May Be an Illusion
| from the lunch-dark-matter-doubly-so dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 13, @20:18 (Math)
| with 333 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0011207/CERN-Physicist-Says-Dark-Matter-May-Be-an-Illusion?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anonymousNR writes "A CERN physicist has a new theory explaining the
rotational curves of galaxies. 'The key message of my paper is that
[0]dark matter may not exist and that phenomena attributed to dark matter
may be explained by the gravitational polarization of the quantum
vacuum,' Hajdukovic told PhysOrg.com. 'The future experiments and
observations will reveal if my results are only (surprising) numerical
coincidences or an embryo of a new scientific revolution.' Given the many
theories around explaining various observations in recent times, there
seems to be a breakthrough is on its way in our understanding of the
cosmos."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0011207/CERN-Physicist-Says-Dark-Matter-May-Be-an-Illusion?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-dark-illusion-quantum-vacuum.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bing More Effective Than Google?
| from the bing-your-own-name-to-compare dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @05:25 (Google)
| with 327 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0419213/Bing-More-Effective-Than-Google?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xiph1980 writes "Experian Hitwise claims Bing and Bing-powered search to
be [0]more effective than Google. The success rate for Bing searches in
the U.S. in July was 80.04%, compared to 67.56% for Google. The market
watcher defines 'success rate' as the percentage of search queries that
result in a visit to a website. Searches made through sites owned by
Yahoo, which farmed out search to Bing under a deal struck in 2009, were
also more efficient than Google. Those searches yielded a success rate of
81.36%. The claims of Hitwise don't explain why I keep finding things
like Microsoft service pack download pages better through google than
through bing."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0419213/Bing-More-Effective-Than-Google?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/231400134
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mozilla Firefox 6 Released Ahead of Schedule
| from the great-to-see-browsers-war dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @12:43 (Firefox)
| with 303 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1534259/Mozilla-Firefox-6-Released-Ahead-of-Schedule?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]BogenDorpher writes "Mozilla is currently on schedule to release
Firefox 6 on August 16th but it looks like the final version has already
been signed off and is [1]unofficially available on Mozilla's servers."
Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1534259/Mozilla-Firefox-6-Released-Ahead-of-Schedule?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.winbeta.org/
1. ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/6.0/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Which Company Is the Largest?
| from the it-isn't-robin's-merry-men dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @13:50 (Businesses)
| with 284 comments
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1626240/Which-Company-Is-the-Largest?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fudge Factor 3000 writes "Apple and Exxon are fighting it out to be the
company with the largest market cap. Tuesday, [0]Apple pulled ahead. It
is hard to believe a tech company can beat out an oil giant, but is the
market cap really the measure of the size/influence of a company? It is
certainly the simplest metric to consider. Ars is running an excellent
article on [1]how to measure the size of a company. They discuss
different metrics such as cash balance, revenue, number of employees,
etc."
Discuss this story at:
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1626240/Which-Company-Is-the-Largest?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/08/10/1928206/Wall-Street-Software-More-Valuable-Than-Oil
1. http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2011/08/does-this-metric-make-my-company-look-big.ars/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| After Cell-Phone Switch-Off, Anonymous Promises BART Protest
| from the foolproof-plan dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @02:20 (Communications)
| with 242 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0334231/After-Cell-Phone-Switch-Off-Anonymous-Promises-BART-Protest?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the San Francisco Appeal, the [0]cellphone service shut-down
that the BART system imposed Thursday (by disabling transponders which
allow cellphone communications in the underground portion of the system),
besides [1]drawing [2]rebukes from various civil liberties groups, has
[3]generated plans for a protest Monday [4]organized by Anonymous.
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0334231/After-Cell-Phone-Switch-Off-Anonymous-Promises-BART-Protest?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/12/2315209/BART-Disables-Cell-Service-To-Disrupt-Protests
1. http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/cell-phone-censorship-san-francisco
2. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/bart-pulls-mubarak-san-francisco
3. http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/08/bart-braces-for-anonymous-organized-protest-monday.php
4. http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/8850132926/this-is-a-message-from-anonymous-to-the-bay-area-rapid
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| UN Climate Report Fails To Capture Arctic Ice: MIT
| from the models-in-collision dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @18:31 (Earth)
| with 198 comments
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/2231258/UN-Climate-Report-Fails-To-Capture-Arctic-Ice-MIT?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "The United Nations' most recent global
climate report 'fails to capture trends in Arctic sea-ice thinning and
drift, and in some cases [0]substantially underestimates these trends,'
says a new research from MIT. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007, forecasts an
ice-free Arctic summer by the year 2100. However, the Arctic sea ice may
be thinning four times faster than predicted, according to Pierre Rampal
and his research team of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and
Planetary Sciences (EAPS)."
Discuss this story at:
https://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/2231258/UN-Climate-Report-Fails-To-Capture-Arctic-Ice-MIT?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hamstersoft Ebook App Rips Off GPL3 Code, Say Calibre Devs
| from the permission-to-spindle-and-maim dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @14:53 (Piracy)
| with 181 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1715244/Hamstersoft-Ebook-App-Rips-Off-GPL3-Code-Say-Calibre-Devs?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nate the greatest submits news of a claim that a recently released ebook
application from Hamstersoft is actually built from code lifted from
[0]calibre, the ebook library app. He writes "It turns out that one
calibre contributor is now reporting that his code was pirated for
Hamstersoft. You can find the [1]full details over on John Schember's
blog. It's technically complicated and quite long. You can also find a
[2]non-technical summary. The short-short version is that Hamstersoft
needs to give away a complete source code for the Hamstersoft Ebook
Converter because that app uses parts of calibre, which is licensed under
GPL v3. John gave Hamstersoft a month to comply and they did not. Now
that app is clearly a GPL violation."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1715244/Hamstersoft-Ebook-App-Rips-Off-GPL3-Code-Say-Calibre-Devs?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://calibre-ebook.com/
1. http://john.nachtimwald.com/2011/08/13/dealing-with-copyright-infringement-calibre-being-ripped-off/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dealing-with-copyright-infringement-calibre-being-ripped-off
2. http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2011/08/13/hamstersoft-ebook-converter-rips-off-calibre/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Space Elevator Conference Prompts Lofty Questions
| from the put-the-new-toys-on-the-credit-card dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 13, @23:22 (NASA)
| with 177 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0114242/Space-Elevator-Conference-Prompts-Lofty-Questions?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]itwbennett writes "Even the most ardent enthusiasts gathered at the
annual [1]Space Elevator Conference on Friday don't expect it to be built
anytime soon, but that doesn't stop them from dreaming, planning, and
trying to solve some of the more vexing problems. One of the trickiest
questions is who's going to pay for the operational costs when an
elevator is eventually built. 'It's been nine years we've been looking
for someone' to study that, said Bryan Laubscher, one of the leading
space elevator enthusiasts and principle at Odysseus Technologies, a
company working on high-strength materials."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/0114242/Space-Elevator-Conference-Prompts-Lofty-Questions?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/193309/space-elevator-enthusiasts-face-unanswered-questions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Linux Kernel 3.1 RC 2 Released
| from the thank-you-linus dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @19:44 (Operating Systems)
| with 102 comments
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/2345247/Linux-Kernel-31-RC-2-Released?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sfcrazy writes "Linus Torvalds has announced the [0]release of Linux
kernel 3.1 rc2. He said '300+ commits for -rc2 is good, but please make
me even happier for -rc3 by ONLY sending me real fixes. Think of it as
"fairly late in the -rc series," because I really want to compensate for
the merge window being fairly chaotic.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/2345247/Linux-Kernel-31-RC-2-Released?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/8/14/281
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Cutting Edge Tech Slated For Next Mars Rover
| from the seems-like-a-good-place-to-start dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @15:55 (NASA)
| with 89 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1846200/Cutting-Edge-Tech-Slated-For-Next-Mars-Rover?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
oxide7 writes "NASA is pushing the boundaries of technology as it readies
its next mission to Mars, loading up its 4th Mars Rover with nearly [0]a
dozen instruments and deploying an innovative but risky landing procedure.
Scientists and engineers were piecing together some of the final
components to the new rover, dubbed Curiosity, on Saturday as it ramps up
for a high-stakes launch in November."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1846200/Cutting-Edge-Tech-Slated-For-Next-Mars-Rover?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Search the World's Smartphone Photos
| from the you-are-where dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @10:34 (Cellphones)
| with 57 comments
| https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1347219/Search-the-Worlds-Smartphone-Photos?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mikejuk writes "Researchers have devised and tested a system called Theia
that can perform an [0]efficient parallel search of mobile phones to
track down a target photo. It could be used to perform a realtime search
for a missing child accidently caught in a photo you have just taken or
the location of a criminal or political activist. You might think that
the security and privacy aspects were so terrible that you just wouldn't
install the app. However exceptional photos of a sporting or news
incidents are worth money and the profit motive might be enough for you
to install it."
Discuss this story at:
https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/1347219/Search-the-Worlds-Smartphone-Photos?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.i-programmer.info/news/149-security/2888-search-the-worlds-smartphone-photos.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Astronaut Photographs Perseid Meteor — From Space
| from the best-place-for-it-really dept.
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 14, @17:13 (ISS)
| with 46 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/2113235/Astronaut-Photographs-Perseid-Meteor-mdash-From-Space?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]astroengine writes "As the Perseid meteor shower begins to subside,
there is one observer who was perfectly positioned to take a photograph
where the skies are guaranteed to be clear from cloud. NASA astronaut Ron
Garan ��� who is currently living aboard the International Space Station
(ISS) as part of Expedition 27 ��� [1]captured this stunning photograph of
a Perseid out of the ISS window."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/14/2113235/Astronaut-Photographs-Perseid-Meteor-mdash-From-Space?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.astroengine.com/
1. http://news.discovery.com/space/astronaut-photographs-perseid-meteor-from-space-110814.html
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