RAM apparently keeps its data for a few seconds after power is shut off. This allows for a tricky way to hack into a computer: plug in a bootable USB key, reboot the computer and tell the BIOS to skip the memory test and then boot from the USB key. The USB key has a program that copies the contents of memory (from before the reboot) to the USB key ( Read more... )

A few days ago I was awoken at 8am by thunder. What's a thunderstorm doing in January?

A photographer discussing ways in which Creative Commons image licensing doesn't work as well in practice as in theory: http://danheller.blogspot.com/2008_01_06_archive.html .

Don't teach Java to freshmen. Teach them Ada instead! http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/CrossTalk/2008/01/0801DewarSchonberg.html

Politicians like to push sexy-sounding but technolgoically dubious low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen and corn-based ethanol. Here are some practical technologies that already exist.

1) Insulate your house well. This is by far the most important way to reduce heating costs. Doubling insulation roughly halves heating costs!

2) Florescent lights ( Read more... )

Someone claiming to be a high school science teacher made some videos discussing the big picture of climate change. They seem well thought out and the speaker has an entertaining style.  See http://www.manpollo.org/ .

P.S. My officemate made the website containing the video

Here are excerpts from an interesting article on K-12 education that was apparently published in Dædalus, the prestigious journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (Source: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/education/ed0188.html ; I have no knowledge of nor endorse anything else that appears on that site.)

The bias panel also ( Read more... )

The best science planned for the international space space was cut to save money: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120100760.html?hpid=sec-nation

MD5 cryptographic hash is broken:
http://www.win.tue.nl/hashclash/Nostradamus/

Children perform better if they believe effort is the key to success rather than innate ( Read more... )

http://www.ex-parrot.com/pete/upside-down-ternet.html

Paragraph 6 of a lawsuit filed by NetApp against Sun:

NetApp is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business at 495 E. Java Drive, Sunnyvale, California 94089.

Sun's official response to that paragraph:

Sun lacks sufficient knowledge or information to admit or deny the allegations of paragraph 6 of the Complaint, and, on that basis, ( Read more... )

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6626464599825291409