Disney Buys Lucasfilm

From The Verge:  Disney buys Lucasfilm, plans to release 'Star Wars: Episode 7' in 2015.

The Ultimate Original Series Star Trek Poster

RT @GuyKawasaki

In the fandom hall of fame, a special place is held by Star Trek devotees and Dusty Abel has earned himself a seat at the right hand of Spock for this incredible poster that includes an element for every episode of the original series.

California Meteorite Update

From Bad Astronomy.   It's a meteorite, no it's not, yes it is.

No real change in the 00z NAM

RT @spann 

 Hit on the NJ coast after midnight Mon night. Effects begin much earlier #sandy pic.twitter.com/IXEMPbaO

Nice loop but scary scenario

of the NAM4 model for #Sandy. RT @wxbrad.

http://weatherbellmodels.com/weather/hires_uv900_slp_east_anim.gif

Fireball - Meteorite Hits House in California

From Space.com.

Homeowner Lisa Webber, …found the space rock Saturday (Oct. 20)…. She recalled hearing a sound on her roof the night the meteor was reported and went searching behind her house, where she found a 2.2 ounce (63 grams) stone.

Amazon Glacier

Archival Storage for One Penny Per GB Per Month

D-Wave uses quantum method to solve protein folding problem

RT @physorg_com

Report by Lisa Zyga

The study, “Finding low-energy conformations of lattice protein models by quantum annealing,” is published in a recent issue of Nature’s Scientific Reports. The computer used quantum annealing to find the lowest-energy protein configuration by solving for the configuration as an optimization problem, where the optimal state was the lowest-energy state. Proteins can be folded in a large number of ways because they’re made up of many chains of amino acids. Yet somehow, proteins almost always manage to fold themselves in the correct configuration (when they don’t fold correctly, they can cause misfolded-protein diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's). Scientists think that proteins fold themselves correctly because the correct configuration is also the state of lowest energy, the state at which the protein becomes stable.

How One Person was Hacked via iCloud

Via @thatdrew

Mat Honan tells a detailed story of how someone got into his accounts.

“someone gained entry to my iCloud account, used it to remote wipe all of my devices, and get entry into other accounts too.”

Trouble with OAuth 2.0

RT @newsycombinator

Eran Hammer writes about resigning from the OAuth working group as the lead author and editor of the standard.

Why I Have My Own Web Site

RT @kevinmarks @xtof_fr


Focusing on the Positives, from One Big Fluke.

Ubuntu Releases, Versions, and Names

I suppose it's time to post an update on the current Ubuntu zoo.  Apparently it was 2008 when I last did this.

http://releases.ubuntu.com/

• 8.04.4 LTS (Hardy Heron)
• 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

• 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
• 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

• 10.04.4 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
• 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

• 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)
• 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

• 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Previous Post

Google Colossus File System

via Wired.

But Google no longer uses GFS. Two years ago, the company moved its search to a new software foundation based on a revamped file system known as Colossus, and Urs Hölzle — the man who oversees Google’s worldwide network of data centers — tells Wired that Colossus now underpins virtually all of Google’s web services, from Gmail, Google Docs, and YouTube to the Google Cloud Storage service the company offers to third-party developers.

Google Compute Engine

via Wired.

Gigaom's Four Part Series on North Carolina Data Centers

RT @gigaom

Article by Katie Fehrenbacher.

 Apple, Google, Facebook and other Internet giants have chosen a several hundred-mile stretch of land north of Charlotte, North Carolina to build their mega east coast data centers. These are some of the largest data centers in the world for some of the most powerful Internet and tech companies on the planet. Why here? Will this continue in the future? And what’s been the affect on the local communities? Check out the 4-part series I published this week on North Carolina’s mega data center cluster, the resources that go into these things, and why one, in particular, is betting on clean power.

Yahoo Passwords Leak

I've found it really difficult to find good, responsible news reports on this event.  I'm sure Steve Gibson (grc.com) will report on it on this week's upcoming Security Now.

Here's a pretty good article on this event at Cnet.

In this case, you're password would only have been compromised if you'd logged into the Yahoo Contributor Network, apparently also known as Yahoo Voices, and previous to Yahoo,  Associated Content which Yahoo acquired.

Here's the main, important advice which has been true for a long time, maybe always.  Please don't use the same password for more than one site.  I like the recommendation to use LastPass at lastpass.com.  It gives you a secure way to keep up with and use your passwords.

The only reason you need to change your password on other sites than Yahoo is if you (ever) used the same passwords on them.

Pournelle Quote

From Jerry Pournelle's new site (via pournelle.com)


“I have always been a generalist meaning I know less and less about more and more until eventually at the limit I know nothing at all about everything.”

What Is SPDY?

RT @hackernewsbot

from Lincoln Loop posted by Graham King.

The 50 Greatest Matte Drawings of all Time

RT @ebertchicago: … And glory be! *Not* a slide show!

Beyond The Rule of Thirds: Advanced Composition With David Brommer

In this B&H Event Space seminar, David Brommer takes you “Beyond The Rule of Thirds” by discussing many different aspects of photographic composition. The entire seminar will take about two hours to watch from start to finish, but the information Brommer covers — from positive and negative space,...

via Flipboard