Good afternoon, geeks! Here are your daily headlines (I'll add more as I find them!):

Scientists are smart, no doubt, but they can do dumb things -- like tell the whole world how criminals can guess social security numbers with over 80% accuracy using public info. Sheesh, let's keep stuff like that on the DL, k?!

The tech world is buzzing over the introduction of Google's new Chrome OS for netbooks, but I just can't get excited about it. Here's a story on the feud if you want to check it out.

Millions streamed the Jackson memorial service yesterday -- were you one of them?

Labels: Google Chrome, Michael Jackson

Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! I think the 5 million people who live up in New England with me drove away the rain in the forecast with sheer stubborn will!

Now, for a light day after a holiday, here are some headlines to peruse!

Are you a business traveler looking to capitalize on sweet technology? Turns out hotels around the country are investing in video conferencing rooms to bring more people in on a face-to-face meeting. Which begs the question ... why are people even traveling anymore to the hotel if they can just video conference? Seems like that would save lots on airfare to me.

UGH -- there are some seriously annoying things on the internets these days. Here's a story that really gets at the heart of the worst offenders. My own list includes pop-unders and automatic video players. Grrr...

I wasn't aware of the contentious, bitter history naming elements on the periodic table have had...

In case you ever really wanted to know what's behind those 'secret' recipes Coke and KFC claim to keep so close to the vest, Bad Science columnist Ben Radford reports on a new book outing the companies and their shady 'secret' practices.

This is an interesting article on the evolution of keyboards and the tough time companies have in changing their layouts. I didn't know people were so touchy about it, but I guess when somethings are really ingrained, they tend to stick ...

Remember when Mi-6 was all over Facebook? Well, the new chief has smartened up.

USAToday's Ed Baig takes on the Google vs. Bing debate -- and without really saying anything new, praises Bing quite nicely. Make that change!

Labels: Bing; Mi-6; secret recipes, kayboards

There I was, eating my potato-and-cheese reheated lunch and browsing the news, when this headline caught my eye: "BYU lifts campus blockage of YouTube."

!!!

Are you trying to tell me that people all around the US are crying foul over China's directive insisting its citizens install the Green Dam program to block unfit content from their screens, but a US university acted *the same way*?

Readers -- feel free to chime in on this one. An institute of higher learning located on US soil has been blocking YouTube, the iconic poster child of free speech in America. I mean, sure, they are taking it back and saying sorry now, but *they did it*.

I'm fuming over this one, folks. Apparently it "will hold students at the Mormon university morally responsible for how they use the video-sharing website," according to our friends at USAToday.com.

And what, pray tell, is the problem with YouTube? I won't lie, I rarely use it, if ever, but I have no problem with it. Let's see what the experts have to say:

"We do block other sites (and have) filters as many institutions and companies do," university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said. "They wouldn't provide any educational value. They would be in violation of the honor code as well."

Talk about blaming the orchard for a few bad apples.

Look, BYU -- I know you are very proud of being at the bottom of the annual list of party colleges, but I don't think sheltering your students from the evils of music-video knock-offs and silly parodies is really doing the student body any good. Assuming, of course, that the education you are giving them is top-notch, then you must also assume that, should these virtuous students want to bypass your filters and find all that evil Internet porn, they could.

And, no, it's not the same thing as a business censoring sites off employees computers to stop goofing off and unfulfilled productivity at work. Your students are not getting paychecks. Nor can you could every waking (and sleeping) moment they are within your hallowed halls as paid time they must use toward every productive means they can. In fact, since you are the ones collecting the exorbitant tuition paychecks, you should be ashamed for not serving your cash cows better than this!

Censorship is never the right answer. Must I reference Star Wars for a nugget of Princess Leia insight? "The more you tighten your grasp, the more star systems slip through your fingers."

Amen, girlfriend. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm going to finish my cold lunch in peace.

Labels: BYU, censorship, YouTube

When NASA gets things right, it gets them *very* right.

In 1990, the space agency launched the solar probe Ulysses from the space shuttle Discovery. Ulysses was supposed to last 5 years, sending back valuable data on our favorite star plus reporting on the solar storms shooting nuclear energy bursts our way.

*19 YEARS LATER* the probe has gone 5.8 billion mile and is running, even after reports that it is freezing and about to shut itself down. (Funny, right, that a sun probe would freeze? OK, back on topic...)

Alas, Ulysses isn't invincible and is beginning to show some wear and tear in the antennae, so NASA is officially shutting off the probe's transmitter. In fact, depending on when you're reading this, it may have already happened: Tuesday, June 30, NASA pulls the plug.

News of the shutdown comes on the heels (relatively speaking) of Spirit and Opportunity, two Mars rovers launched in 2004, blowing my little scientific mind: The rovers were supposed to last 90 sols (or Martian days) -- and they are still running to this day!

Amid the ever-expanding expectations of the little rovers that could, there is some bad news out of NASA on Spirit: On May 6, the rover roved into loose sand in the Mars region known as Troy and got stuck up to the hub of its wheels. So far, all efforts to bust it out of the dune have failed.

Could this be the end of a long and incredibly impressive run? If the public outpouring of affection for the robot has been any indication, NASA would have a PR nightmare on their hands if they didn't at least try to free Spirit ...

Wait a second, what's that you say? Free Spirit??

In an event that probably transpired something like that, NASA decided to launch the 'Free Spirit' website to publicize its efforts to free the stuck rover. As of today, those efforts include creating a 'sandbox' (stop laughing, you programming geeks) on Earth to simulate actual conditions in the Martian sand.

As for Opportunity, all reports indicate the rover is still going strong and checking stuff out on the Martian surface.

Engineers, take note: *This* is how you build your rockets and rovers of the future -- where they outlast even the best of every one's expectations while still delivering important data back to Earth.

Well done, NASA. And thanks.

Labels: Mars rovers, NASA, Oppurtunity, solar probe, Spirit, Ulysses

Labels: Michael Jackson