GeekSpeak for April 12, 2008
Tech News of the Week
GeekNews: NASA science website, 99$ Computer, College Board drops CS AP test, commercial free YouTube for politics, instant backup band, speed of hurricanes by sound, and even more news. Plus, the Geeks take calls with questions and comments about technology.
[ Audio 25.2 MB ogg ] [ Audio 24.7 MB mp3 ]GeekNews
NASA Launches a New Science Site
NASA is hosting a science education site covering planetary science and astronomy.
Shuttles new $99 KPC low cost computer
Shuttle's Korporate Perfect Cube (KPC) is new sleek low power, low cost, low profile computer that comes with Foresight Linux and works great with Windows XP. Its integrated graphics chipset will even run Vista's new Aero interface.
College Board cancels AP Computer Science AB Test
The College Board is cancelling the AP Computer Science AB test after the 08/09 year. There are currently two types of AP CS test: The A test, and the AB. The AB test includes all of the material in the A test, as well as more abstract topics.
Free Campaign Access to Congress
YouTube is making a commercial-free zone on their popular video sharing site so that members of Congress can produce their messages cheaply while not breaking the prohibition against redirecting constituents to a commercial site.
MySong: Get Your Song Ideas Down Without a Band
Technology developed by Microsoft's research lab in conjunction with University of Washington allows singers who do not play music to get their song ideas down quickly and easily.
MIT Develops Way To Measure Hurricanes By Sound
Using underwater microphones and a bit of MIT smarts, a new low cost method of determining the speed of determining the speed of hurricanes.
Network Solutions Now Parks on Subdomains
After the long-standing practice of placing ad pages up for domains without an active web site, Network Solutions has upped the ante by doing the same to subdomains. Luckily, they allow an opt out for NS clients.
Cities Tampering with Traffic Lights for Revenue
One of the best ways to reduce accidents in intersections is to lengthen the duration of the yellow light. However, several cities have been caught illegally decreasing the duration of the yellow light instead, to increase traffic violations, thus increasing revenue.
Kraken botnet self modifies binary code to evade AV scanners
A new family of virus delivered trojan botnets called Kraken is estimated to have infected 50 of the Fortune 500 companies and has a poor detection rate by conventional anti virus software.
Links
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We support net neutrality and there is an FCC hearing at Stanford on Thursday. Go ahead and drop by. Tell the FCC that you want the net to be equal for all parties.
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iPod copy software can help you move music off of an iPod onto a computer that you do not sync with using iTunes.
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Super Composer allows you to make a new song at a push of a button.



