Thu 11 March, 2010
Hugh Pickens writes "When the wind is blowing, it is usually the cheapest peaking power available. However utilities need consistent always-on power from large, cheap coal and nuclear power plants that are the backbone of the electric grid. Wired reports that operators are looking at Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) using abandoned mines and sandstones of the Midwest to store compressed-air. This converts the intermittent motions of the air into a steady power source by using it to run air compressors to pump air into an underground cave where it's stored under pressure. The first CAES plant in the United States actually went online in McIntosh, Alabama in 1991 where engineers created a geological pocket 900 feet long and up to 238 feet wide in a dome by pumping water into it to dissolve the rock salt. When the (briny) water was pumped back out, the salt resealed itself and they had an air-tight container."
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Sportsmail has teamed up with Barclays, sponsor of the Premier League, to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win a pair of tickets for Stoke v Aston Villa on Saturday. ©
Sportsmail has teamed up with Barclays, sponsor of the Premier League, to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win a pair of tickets for Stoke v Aston Villa on Saturday. ©
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Manchester United will be out for revenge when they face Fulham at Old Trafford on Sunday and Sportsmail has teamed up with our pals atBetfair to offer tickets. ©
Manchester United will be out for revenge when they face Fulham at Old Trafford on Sunday and Sportsmail has teamed up with our pals atBetfair to offer tickets. ©
Texas troll two-step
Apple, Research in Motion, and a gaggle of other deep-pocket firms have been slapped with a wide-ranging patent infringment suit by an obscure Texas firm.…
Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn't work
©Wed 10 March, 2010
With Milan's interest in competition at an end, David Beckham wants United to
reclaim a trophy he helped them win in 1999.
©
Sworn declarations on AdMob
The US Federal Trade Commission is likely to oppose Google's acquisition of mobile ad outfit AdMob after requesting sworn declarations from Google competitors and advertisers, according to a report citing people with knowledge of the matter.…
Offloading malware protection to the cloud
©
Pioneer is known to make digital mixers that leave us drooling and wishing for some DJ skills. First they gave us the CDJ-2000 with its beautiful LCD screen, and now they've given us the DJM-2000, a multitouch screen-having per-frequency-mixing beauty. More »
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Cisco blades, minus VMware and EMC
Everybody is talking up the idea of integrated stacks these days, but some customers just won't listen. They think they can just pick and choose any technology they want, like in the old days.…
Offloading malware protection to the cloud
©Acquisition binge continues
Systems software seller CA is shelling out $350m in cash to buy Nimsoft, an outfit that makes monitoring tools for managed service providers - aka cloud providers.…
Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn't work
©itwbennett writes "Niney of the 249 Zeus command-and-control servers were knocked offline overnight when two ISPs, named Troyak and Group 3, were taken offline. Whoever was behind the takedown 'just decided to knock out a large area of cybercrime, and this was probably one of the easiest ways to do it,' said Kevin Stevens, a researcher with SecureWorks. As with the McColo takedown of just over a year ago, Troyak's upstream providers seem to have knocked it off the Internet, Cisco said in a statement. 'The ISP was "De-peered,"' Cisco said. 'Troyak's upstream network providers effectively pulled the plug on Troyak's router, refusing to transmit its traffic.'"
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An anonymous reader writes "'Alien' and 'Star Wars' art director Roger Christian was given £25,000 by George Lucas in 1979 to make a 25-minute medieval B-feature called 'Black Angel.' This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico making 'Lucky Lady.' 'Black Angel' made a huge impression, not least because it shared the dark tone of 'Empire Strikes Back.' John Boorman showed it to the crew of 'Excalibur' as a template for how he wanted his film to look, and 'Black Angel' went on to influence films such as 'Dragonslayer' and 'Legend' throughout the 1980s and beyond. But it has not been seen by anyone since 'Empire' finished its theatrical run. Two weeks ago Roger Christian unearthed a print of a film that was thought lost forever, and in this interview he talks about 'Black Angel,' and provides the only picture from the film that has ever hit the Internet."
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ral writes "The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree."
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HipToday writes "As posted on the OpenBSD Journal, OpenSSH 5.4 has been released: 'Some highlights of this release are the disabling of protocol 1 by default, certificate authentication, a new "netcat mode," many changes on the sftp front (both client and server) and a collection of assorted bugfixes. The new release can already be found on a large number of mirrors and of course on www.openssh.com.'"
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adeelarshad82 writes "After eight years of development, remote gaming service OnLive is scheduled to roll out on June 17 for Windows and Mac. The company also announced its service pricing: users will need to pay $14.95 per month, which will allow them access to the service. However, the company did not disclose the price to rent or purchase games. 'It is partnering in this launch with publishers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, 2K Games, THQ and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The games will also include new releases like Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed II, as well as a bunch of other titles. Perlman anticipates anywhere from a dozen to 25 titles to be available at launch time, and more after that, depending on how negotiations with other publishers proceed.'"
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tad001 writes "The Japanese phone giant KDDI has developed a way to track users movements in fine detail. It works by analyzing the movement of accelerometers, found in many handsets. Activities such as walking, climbing stairs, or even cleaning can be identified, the researchers say. The company plans to sell the service to clients such as managers, foremen, and employment agencies."
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52-year-old Anthony Digati was arrested for trying to extort $200,000 from an insurance firm by threatening to spam them with six million emails unless they paid up. Digati said he would use a spam service and his amazing talents as a "huge social networker" to drag the company "through the muddiest waters imaginable" and presumably unfriend everyone. He added that the price would increase to $3 million if they failed to pay up by Monday, according to federal authorities.
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snydeq writes "Google has launched the Google Apps Marketplace, providing a venue for third-party, cloud-based applications to supplement Google's own online applications. The program enables integrations with such applications as Google Gmail, Documents, Sites, and Calendar. All told, the effort begins with 50 vendors participating, including Atlassian, NetSuite, Skytap, and Zoho. Participation in Google Apps Marketplace is open to customers of the Premier, Standard, and Education editions of Google Apps. Applications are linked to the marketplace via REST Web services and APIs including OpenID and OAuth."
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angry tapir writes "A Transportation Security Administration analyst has been indicted with tampering with databases used by the TSA to identify possible terrorists who may be trying to fly in the US. If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison."
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alobar72 writes "I have quite a few old maps (several hundreds; 100+ years old, some are already damaged – so time is not on my side). What I want to do is to digitize them and to apply geo-coordinates to them so I can use them as overlays for openstreetmap data or such. Obviously I cannot put those maps onto my €80 scanner and go. Some of them are really large (1.5m x 1.5m roughly, I believe) and they need to be treated with great care because the paper is partly damaged. So firstly I need a method or service provider that can do the digitizing without damaging them. Secondly I need a hint what the best method is to apply geo coordinates to those maps then. The maps are old and landscape and places have changed, it maybe difficult to identify exact spots. So: are there any experiences or tips I could use?"
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kang327 writes "As Java developers we are used to the familiar file-based user interface that is used by all of the major IDEs. A team at Brown University has developed an IDE for Java called Code Bubbles that makes a fairly radical departure from current IDEs — it is based on fragments instead of files. The idea is that you can see many different pieces of code at once. Fragments can form groups, have automatic layout assistance, wrap long lines based on syntax, and exist in a virtual workspace that you can pan. A video shows reading and editing code, opening different kinds of info such as Javadocs, bug reports and notes, annotating and sharing workspaces, and debugging with bubbles. They report on several user studies that show the system increases performance for the tasks studied, and also that professional developers were enthusiastic about using it. There is also a Beta that you can sign up for."
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Zordak writes "Amazon's infamous '1-click' patent has been in reexamination at the USPTO for almost four years. Patently-O now reports that 'the USPTO confirmed the patentability of original claims 6-10 and amended claims 1-5 and 11-26. The approved-of amendment adds the seeming trivial limitation that the one-click system operates as part of a 'shopping cart model.' Thus, to infringe the new version of the patent, an eCommerce retailer must use a shopping cart model (presumably non-1-click) alongside of the 1-click version. Because most retail eCommerce sites still use the shopping cart model, the added limitation appears to have no practical impact on the patent scope.'" Also covered at TechFlash.
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Barence writes "A debate that crops up time and again is whether it's better to have a dedicated keyboard on your smartphone or whether an on-screen keyboard with text correction is adequate. Some phones with screen-based keyboards have started to provide tactile feedback, either using an ultra-quick spin of their vibration alert or, like the BlackBerry Storm2, using clever piezo-electric technology to simulate the feel of a button press. But which system works best? PC Pro's Paul Ockendon gathered six of the most popular handsets around and put them through a timed typing test to see which proved quickest and most typo-free."
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An anonymous reader writes "We all know about the Mythical Man-Month, the argument that adding more programmers to a software project just makes it later and later. A Linux startup out of MIT claims to have busted the myth, using an MIT holiday month to hire 20 college student interns to get all their work done and quadrupling its productivity."
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It doesn't matter if the machine you are using is a massive crane or a tiny smartphone: You will always curse in the same way when it crashes. The deafening noise, however, won't be the same. More »
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Chipmaker introduces its first desktop chip packing that many processing cores for gaming boxes. ©
Activist investor group urges companies to track their use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow. ©
It's hard for a lot of us to relate to what goes on in fashion, but Alexander McQueen, recently deceased, strode across some familiar territory in his final works. Shots like this are as sci-fi as they are high-fashion. [BoingBoing] More »
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You really have to suck a whole lot of Lego Star Wars minifigs to do what this girl is doing: Identify the characters by putting them inside your mouth. Somehow, I find all this strangely arousing. [Youtube via Boing Boing] More »
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Sony unveils their first motion controller for the Playstation 3. ©
Earlier this week, IBM researchers announced a discovery that could lead to plastics made from plants instead of petroleum. The new plastics will be more energy efficient, more versatile, and infinitely recyclable (until we move to our space colony). More »
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Once upon a time being alone meant you were unable to play a decent game of rock-paper-scissors, but now you can finally amuse yourself with just your own hand. Granted you'll have to actually make a glove like this first. More »
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Game AI, when done right, means it's closer to acting and reacting like humans. Find out what some developers are doing to shake things up. ©
roundup This week's Game Developers Conference brings together designers, programmers, publishers, and others for the latest from the world of video play. ©
After feedback from its Twitter followers, the tax-preparation software company decides to remove its advertising from the show hosted by Fox's most entertaining presenter. ©
That's not the sun. But for a brief period, in a small Arctic town in Canada, in the dead of winter, it was the next-best thing. More »
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What's more terrifying than a call coming from inside the house? The call coming from inside the theater. That's the thought behind Last Call, an interactive horror film in which the main character calls a random audience member for help. More »
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Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has admitted a blame culture has crept into his side's play and vowed to eradicate it before it further effects confidence within the Anfield outfit. ©
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has admitted a blame culture has crept into his side's play and vowed to eradicate it before it further effects confidence within the Anfield outfit. ©
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There were protests and there were prizes. A gold star for Rooney; a green and gold scarf for Beckham. And yet another appearance in the Champions League quarter-finals. ©
There were protests and there were prizes. A gold star for Rooney; a green and gold scarf for Beckham. And yet another appearance in the Champions League quarter-finals. ©
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Denilson is ready to welcome Brazilian starlet Wellington Silva to Arsenal - but the forward's club Fluminense are pleading to keep the 17-year-old till 2012. ©
Denilson is ready to welcome Brazilian starlet Wellington Silva to Arsenal - but the forward's club Fluminense are pleading to keep the 17-year-old till 2012. ©
Hand models have it pretty good, don't they? Show up, hold something for a few hours, collect checks, repeat. It's such a sweet gig, there's gotta be something wrong with them, right? Wait... they're all attractive, too? Well nuts. More »
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Sony's finally put a name to their motion controller, and it's called PlayStation Move. Updated with hands on. More »
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Newcastle players will be asked to take a pay cut if the club wins promotion after owner Mike Ashley was forced to pumped £10m into the club to get them through the season. ©
Newcastle players will be asked to take a pay cut if the club wins promotion after owner Mike Ashley was forced to pumped £10m into the club to get them through the season. ©
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On the night Manchester United cruised into the quarter-finals without Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid, who broke the bank to buy him in the summer, crashed out. ©
On the night Manchester United cruised into the quarter-finals without Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid, who broke the bank to buy him in the summer, crashed out. ©
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The England team hotel was infiltrated by two of Britain's most notorious pranksters last week, Sportsmail can reveal, leading to concerns about the effectiveness of the FA's security arrangements. ©
The England team hotel was infiltrated by two of Britain's most notorious pranksters last week, Sportsmail can reveal, leading to concerns about the effectiveness of the FA's security arrangements. ©
Neat little clipping and saving service works on Web and iPhone. ©
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Robbie Savage ended up in goal on the night his former Manchester United youth team-mate David Beckham returned to Old Trafford. ©
Robbie Savage ended up in goal on the night his former Manchester United youth team-mate David Beckham returned to Old Trafford. ©
It's one thing to shoot an entire short film on a Canon flatbed computer scanner. It's another to do it well. With Memoirs of a Scanner, Mindfruit Films pretty much nailed it. More »
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Notorious as a malware ghetto, LimeWire takes its first steps to integrate authoritative threat protection by signing on AVG to provide premium users with download scanning and blocking. ©
But Microsoft is telling game developers to concentrate on the phones. ©
The PlayStation maker gives those gathered at a press conference during the Game Developers Conference a sneak peek at its motion-sensitive controller. ©
The most fuel efficient hybrid for sale in the US gets 51 MPG, but a startup called Transonic Combustion claims they can improve that. They claim their fuel-injection system will get 64 MPG. More »
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ICM Registry is again urging ICANN to allow adult sites to add .xxx to their names, creating what some have called a red-light district in cyberspace. ©
In our next interview for CNET Conversations, we'll ask FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about everything from free broadband to exclusive wireless agreements to the NBC-Comcast deal. What's your question? ©
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Hodgson says he isn't a dreamer, but even the most optimistic of managers could not have hoped to see Fulham play Juventus in the biggest match in the club's recent history. ©
Hodgson says he isn't a dreamer, but even the most optimistic of managers could not have hoped to see Fulham play Juventus in the biggest match in the club's recent history. ©
Google CEO expects a resolution on censorship in China soon, WhitePages.com drops its malware-tainted ad network, and a real-life jetpack for commuters. ©
Despite the easy-peasy development nature of the iPhone, there are some big legal strings attached to getting an app out into the wild, especially for those trying to take their app out of the U.S. ©
Secret negotiations over a once-obscure draft treaty called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement prompted an unusual rebuke from the European Parliament. ©
10-year-old shows her age
Mozilla is updating its open source license after more than 10 years of use.…
The power of collaboration within unified communications
©The FTC is asking Google competitors to weigh in on its proposed $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob, according to a report. ©
Next time someone complains about your habit of using a cellphone in the movie theater, just casually tell him this story of a man who got stabbed with a meat thermometer after making a similar complaint. More »
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Sir Alex Ferguson has challenged Wayne Rooney to eclipse Cristiano Ronaldo's
42-goal return during the 2007-08 campaign.
©
One quarter of C&C channels vanish
At least a quarter of the command and control servers linked to Zeus-related botnets have suddenly gone quiet, continuing a recent trend of takedowns hitting some of the world's most nefarious cyber operations.…
The power of collaboration within unified communications
©At campfire-themed developer meet-up, Google introduces its Google App Marketplace, where users can buy third-party applications to run atop the Google Apps suite. ©
A woman appeals to the highest court in Germany to get the Large Hadron Collider stopped. The court decides she has no proof of any impending doom. ©
In yet more research funded by Bill and Melinda Gates (and Intellectual Ventures), Stanford University's Ken Caldeira explores a mechanically simple ocean pump that could significantly diminish the power of a hurricane. More »
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Target claims it's the first major retail chain to launch mobile coupons nationwide for eager bargain hunters. ©
The mad scientists at Google Labs have unleashed their latest concoction: Google Reader Play, a new way to look at your feeds one Google-suggested site at a time. It's actually pretty neat! And would be perfect for the iPad. More »
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While Real Madrid crash out, United sail through. Has Ronaldo made the biggest
mistake of his career? Join the debate.
©
England's options are thinner than Man Utd's and, if Gary Neville has a career
swansong, it could be for country and not club.
©
It's not that Brizzly's perfect, or that it does justice to its source material (the unassailably pretty, wonderfully lean Birdfeed)—it's that it comes close enough, and it's free. More »
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David Beckham left pitch wearing a green-and-gold scarf as Avram Glazer sat
through sustained chants against hiis ownership.
©
ASUS calls the Cine5 "the world's most compact five-channel speaker," but who cares about that when the thing actually looks good and supposedly provides ultra-realistic surround sound? Sadly we don't know when it'll be available or for how much. [Asus] More »
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Stand-in goalkeeper Robbie Savage unable to prevent Reading from continuing
their winng ways.
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Real Madrid's massive summer spending proved in vain as they were eliminated
at last 16 stage for the sixth successive season.
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The UN secretary general asks the world's leading science academies to review the UN's climate science body. ©
It took Burnley 33 years to return to the top-tier and they are not ready to
surrender their place amongst the elite without a fight.
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The software maker says it is ready with a version of its Outlook Social Connector that links the e-mail program with the youth-oriented social network. ©
AC Milan ran into the perfect storm as Manchester United cruised into the
quarter-finals of the Champions League.
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Sportsmail listened in as Fabio Capello discussed England's World Cup hopes. Speaking at the Laureus Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi, here's what the England coach had to say... ©
Sportsmail listened in as Fabio Capello discussed England's World Cup hopes. Speaking at the Laureus Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi, here's what the England coach had to say... ©
EU nations decide to support a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna until stocks recover. ©
Arsenal striker not the butt of critics' jokes anymore after firing in first
senior hat-trick against Porto in Champions League.
©