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| Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com. |
| NASA to blast comet with copper bullet |
| 1:09:41 am mst / 17 January 2001 found by paul / filed in science / source Reuters News 62 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| NASA scientists are planning shoot a large copper projectile towards a comet in order to expose its interior for scientific analysis. The collision is expected to "cause an explosion capable of destroying a small town". |
| I don't know why they called the project "Deep Impact", unless they decided that it sounded better than "Armageddon". |
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| Robotractor |
| 8:30:24 am mst / 17 January 2001 found by paul / filed in robotics / source Science Notes 60 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Interesting article on a prototype robotic tractor that is guided by GPS technology in order to plow fields without a human rider. |
| The robotics issues for controlling a tractor on uneven ground are more complicated than I thought. |
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| Risque business |
| 9:39:26 am mst / 17 January 2001 found by paul / filed in business / source The Guardian 122 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| With the dot-com downturn, many ambitious students seeking careers in e-commerce may find that they will have to take jobs in the online porn industry -- the only sector that is still consistently making money. |
| The article makes the interesting point that much of online porn's huge commercial success is obscured by the fact that sex sites aren't generally listed in the various "top sites" rankings. |
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| New way to search the net? |
| 10:47:13 am mst / 17 January 2001 found by paul / filed in internet / source National Post 60 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| OpenCola claims to have developed a radically new way to search the internet with their SmartFolders application. Their chief executive explains, "The way it works is simple. Create a folder on your desktop. Drag a file into that folder. The folder automatically fills up with other files that are similar. If you take something out of the folder, it doesn't find stuff like that anymore. You can create as many folders as you want by setting them up yourself or by adopting them from other users." |
| It's not clear if this is just more "peer-to-peer" hype or if they're onto something new. Maybe they'll be the next Google! |
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| Amazon, Microsoft yank ads on terrorist website |
| 11:56:01 am mst / 17 January 2001 found by paul / filed in business / source Reuters News 44 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Amazon and Microsoft have pulled their ads from a Hizbollah website. The Middle Eastern terrorist group (or "liberation" group depending on one's POV) was participating in their affiliates program until researchers from the Simon Wiesenthal center brought this to the two companies' attention. |
| I guess the Hizbollah will have to find another way of raising money. Bake sales, perhaps? |
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| Net worm hobbles Linux servers |
| 11:57:16 am mst / 17 January 2001 found by diana / filed in security / source ZDNet 58 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| Servers running the default installations of RedHat Linux 6.2 and 7.0 are being taken down by an internet worm called "Ramen." Although the worm "doesn't really do anything destructive," it does consume a great deal of bandwidth might give the crackers remote access to the compromised machine. |
| Time to patch those holes! |
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| Me and My Robot Dog |
| 12:19:18 pm mst / 17 January 2001 found by MysteriousStranger / filed in robotics / source Ironminds 91 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Ironminds writes: "Kubrick is special. Women love Kubrick. But is that enough?" |
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| NASA to launch rocket to the sun |
| 1:26:45 pm mst / 17 January 2001 found by paul / filed in science / source New Scientist 67 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| By 2007, NASA scientists hope to launch a rocket to the sun in order to study the solar atmosphere. The article goes into quite a bit of interesting detail on the measures taken to shield the probe from the intense heat. More information is available at the JPL Solar Probe webpage. |
| Maybe they should just launch it at night, when it's cooler! |
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| Microsoft's Non-compete Folly |
| 4:06:39 pm mst / 17 January 2001 found by diana / filed in legal / source ZDNet 77 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| As Microsoft dips its fingers into more and more pies, former employees are running afoul of the non-compete agreements they signed. In this case, 20 former-MS programmer just resigned from Crossgain, which might be competing with MS's .NET. |
| All the more reason never to work for Microsoft! |
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| Has anti-piracy tech gone too far? |
| 6:19:52 pm mst / 17 January 2001 found by diana / filed in legal / source MSNBC 122 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| Microsoft's plans to use "Product Activation" in order to prevent priracy and Content Protection for Recordable Media will soon be on storage devices. Is such technology going too far? |
| Given how often technology fails, how often will we have to re-purchase what we already own in order to regain access? |
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