The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[ganbaru]

Hackers sought $50,000 from Symantec for anti-virus blueprint
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8160KB20120207

[Vena]

Getting close to sniffing out that higgs...

http://www.science20.com/quantum_dia..._results-86735

... or some very heavy quarks.

This isn't new information per-say, its refined data from the published prelims back in December. Still interesting if you care about CERN... and not superluminal neutrinos.

[AnimeFan188]

"A team of scientists have published a new way of using heat to store data
magnetically, which could increase the speed of hard drives over a hundredfold."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02...laser_storage/

[AnimeFan188]

"The last time we saw AlphaDog, Darpa’s quadrupedic, autonomous robo-beast
designed to haul military gear, the big lug was scampering around in the lab.
Now, however, AlphaDog’s been let off his leash.

In the video above, released this week by Darpa and Boston Dynamics, the
company behind the ‘bot, AlphaDog can be seen undergoing its first-ever outdoor
assessment."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012...adog-outdoors/

[Ithekro]

Cut back on missions to Mars? No way, backers say
NASA reportedly will slash planetary science to make up for telescope cost overruns

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46334188/

One of the big problems for NASA's science budget is the replacement for the wildly successful HubbleSpaceTelescope. The James Webb Space Telescope, which would be about 100 times more powerful and would gaze farther into the universe than ever before, is now supposed to cost around $8 billion. It was originally estimated to cost $3.5 billion.

NASA has had to deal with cost overruns on other missions as well — including the car-sized Mars Science Laboratory, or MSL, which is currently on its way to an August landing on the Red Planet. The mission was initially budgeted in the range of $1.5 billion, but it ended up costing $2.5 billion.

So they are fighting over $200 million dollars this year...plus potentially backing out of commitments with other nations, and going against the President's Space Policy of going to Mars? I can see the need to replace Hubble...but what if something breaks? We don't have a platform to fix it with this time unless they attach it to the Space Station.

[AnimeFan188]

"After threatening web companies for more than a decade, Michael Doyle and his
patent-holding company Eolas Technologies — named after the Irish word for
knowledge — may be finished.

An eight-member federal jury in East Texas deliberated Thursday for just a few
hours before concluding that all of Eolas’ asserted claims of ownership to technology
allowing access to the interactive web were invalid. That means the three upcoming
trials that were scheduled to rule on infringement and damages, for Google, Yahoo
and other companies, have been canceled. The eight defendant companies who
resisted the lawsuits won’t pay anything to Eolas or its partner, the University of
California, for using the web."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...ve-web-patent/

[AnimeFan188]

"A Japanese-developed robot that mimics the movements of its human controller is
bringing the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" one step closer to reality."

See:

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Ja...robot_999.html



They compare it to "Avatar", but it reminds me more of "Surrogates":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"After threatening web companies for more than a decade, Michael Doyle and his
patent-holding company Eolas Technologies — named after the Irish word for
knowledge — may be finished.

An eight-member federal jury in East Texas deliberated Thursday for just a few
hours before concluding that all of Eolas’ asserted claims of ownership to technology
allowing access to the interactive web were invalid. That means the three upcoming
trials that were scheduled to rule on infringement and damages, for Google, Yahoo
and other companies, have been canceled. The eight defendant companies who
resisted the lawsuits won’t pay anything to Eolas or its partner, the University of
California, for using the web."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...ve-web-patent/

Should have been in the silly news thread. If you will excuse me, I have to prepare a pentagram to resurrect myself while I laugh to death.

[SaintessHeart]

Shutupandtakeallmymoney.

[Ithekro]

You'll need to watch were you put your stuff....and where to rest your hands.


I did see something like that when some college was demoing a touch screen game of some Star Wars based 2D space game. They had a large demo on their huge wall mounted touch screen, but they also showed that the idea came from a table top version of that screen, very much like the one presented here (perhaps even the same one).

The Bodacious Space Pirates anime also has screens like this, though theirs are holographic...the interface is the same style.

[Endless Soul]

Reminds me of Dillinger's desk in Tron. This is much more advanced, of course.

Endless "User" Soul

[Ithekro]

Well that too. A lot more uses for it rather than buttons and a multiple windows interface (before there was such a thing as Windows if I recall correctly....as that was 1982)

[Ithekro]

NASA considers outpost beyond moon's far side
Crewed mini-station in deep space would control robots on lunar surface


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46354336

Well at least that is something of an idea.

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value of a "human-tended waypoint" near the far side of the moon — one that would embrace international partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation, Space.com has learned.

According to a Feb. 3 memo from William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, a team is being formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a spot in space known as the Earth-moon libration point 2 (EML-2).

Libration points, also known as Lagrangian points, are places in space where the combined gravitational pull of two large masses roughly balance each other out, allowing spacecraft to essentially "park" there.....

[Dhomochevsky]

Meh... I still don't understand why we are back to moon landings now.
This is so boring and unmotivating.

[Ithekro]

One needs an infrustructure if one wants a stable economy in and beyond Earth orbit.

Building roads, gas stations, and setting up telephone poles is boring too.

[Dhomochevsky]

This looks more like a one shot project. One that was already done before.
If the aim was to set up infrastructure for anything space related, that's cool, but I still don't see how landing on the moon is related to that.

[Ithekro]

It is a long article. I only put up the start of it.

EML-2 could serve as a gateway for capability-driven exploration of multiple destinations, such as near-lunar space, asteroids, the moon, the moons of Mars and ultimately Mars itself, according to NASA officials.

They aren't landing on the moon. They are planning to send a manned craft to the other side of the moon to park in a spot where the gravities are balanced. A Lagrangian point. Mainly to see if it works, but also to test the Orion's systems and radiation shielding for long range missions to Mars and the like. If it works they can set up for multiple things. A radio telescope at that point were it will be free on any Earth bound interference. A potental contruction point for long range missions.

Also they have a plan for using this point for robotic research on the lunar surface...on the Far side of the moon were we cannot operate remotes presently due to line of sight issues. Part of this would be to investigate the older craters on the Moon to also find out about the beginnings of they system. But also what there moon rocks be used to build structures on the Moon should it be needed to have an actual base of operations there for other ventures deeper into space.

[aohige]

It's been long overdue to be honest.
Back when I was a child we dreamed we'd have these stations set up on the moon by year 2000, merely decade and a half later.

[Ithekro]

While growing up, the space shuttle was just starting. "Space Camp" a fictional promotional-like film about NASA (sort of) came out. We still were in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. There were plans for a space station and some thoughts to having it be a joint operated station in the Apollo-Soyuz method. There was also talk of expanding on Reagan's Star Wars project and I had a book (from I think 1980) about Space Wars if the Americans and Soviets started to militarize space. This was mostly before Challenger exploded.

We also had 2010: Odyssey Two, the sequal to 2001. We had sent spaceships to Jupiter. We had bases on the Moon. We has orbital hotels and comercial passager service to them. We likely had something on Mars too, but I don't recall if it came up during the books. I wanted that future...at least the space development parts of it. Not these small three to seven man spacecraft...and something more advanced than the Space Shuttle. And cetainly something larger and more useful than the ISS.

There has to be something out there to get industry interesting. The military is limited to what it can do by international law. Commercial interests so far have been in satelite technologies. Only the scientists have interests beyond Earth orbit. We have to go beyond that. This year is the year private spacecraft will start servicing the ISS form the United States. Soon after that they will be used to move people around. Add to this Virgin Galactic and a few other companies that are interested in Tourism and potentially building something like that hotel in space from 2001.

But we are behind...I think...to where we thought we would be. And it is sort of depressing.

[Endless Soul]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

But we are behind...I think...to where we thought we would be. And it is sort of depressing.

Well, look at the bright side. At least we haven't blown the Moon out of it's orbit due to a nuclear waste dump overload.

Endless "Silver Lining" Soul