August 11, 2008 | 6:29 pm

Shooting stars over Hollywood tonight

The annual summer Perseid meteor shower will start tonight, Monday evening. Prime viewing is at 1:57 a.m., when the moon sets, until about 4:45 a.m. But unless you’re outside of the city limits, don’t expect to see much because of light pollution, says Anthony Cook on the Griffith Observatory’s Sky Report:

The numbers of meteors that you can see depends on the quality of your observing conditions, and the greatest number, between one and two per minute, are only expected from wilderness sites free of urban light pollution. The best way to watch is by reclining in a sleeping bag (and coat) on a deck chair. Aim your gaze high overhead, in the east or northeast direction. Perseids can appear anywhere in the sky, but seem to come from the direction of the constellation Perseus, the Superhero.

If you need some tips on the best places to check out the Perseid shower, check out the L.A. Times’ recommendations.

And if you miss this one, don’t sweat it. There’s always the Orionid meteor shower in October or Geminids in December.

Posted by Adam Wills in 0 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: meteor shower, meteor shower 2008, meteorite shower, perseid meteor shower, perseid meteor showers

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb

August 11, 2008 | 11:06 am

BlizzCon tickets go live

Tickets went on sale today for BlizzCon 2008, video game maker Blizzard’s third con, to be held Oct. 10–11 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The ticket price is $100, and you can purchase tickets here.

Within the first few hours, Kotaku reported problems completing ticket sales and Blizzard had taken the site down for maintenance.

The fan expo—which starts the day after Yom Kippur, but falls on Shabbat—gathers together gamers from around the world, allowing people who engage in the MMORPG game “World of Warcraft” and multiplayer games like “Starcraft” and “Diablo” to meet face to face. There’s also a chance to game for cash prizes, a cosplay costume contest, an original song contest, a dance contest, etc. The past two conventions featured performances by The Offspring and comedian Jay Mohr. Blizzard has yet to announce this year’s entertainment.

Mike Morhaime, president and a co-founder of Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, is not only a game enthusiast but also a bit of a mensch. He’s been actively involved with the Jewish Federation Orange County’s Young Leadership Division.

And since I can’t think about WOW or Blizzard without flashing on the “South Park” episode, “Make Love, Not Warcraft” check it out here.

Also, be sure to watch the trailer for “Second Skin,” which we can only hope will screen in the Southland during or around the time of the con.

Posted by Adam Wills in 0 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: blizzard, blizzard store, blizzcon, blizzcon 2008, blizzcon 2008 tickets, blizzcon tickets, blizzcon.com

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb

August 8, 2008 | 6:31 am

Israel becoming biometric Big Brother

A national biometrics database bill, which is wending its way through Knesset committees, would require embedding biometric data, such as fingerprints and computerized tags of facial features, in Israeli IDs and passports; as well as for the establishment of a database which would include biometric data on all Israeli citizens, Ynet reports.

The Ministry of the Interior wants to create the forgery-proof IDs, but ministers critical of Sunday’s motion, which carried, say the database would impinge on the right to privacy, among other civil rights.

The Israeli Bar Association sent Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann a letter to that effect last week, in which it asked him to postpone the decision on the bill, pending the Bar’s further studying of the subject.

“Forming such a database would harm the citizens’ basic right to privacy,” read the letter; adding that such a database would be at constant risk of being hacked into by hostile elements, and would make “potential criminals out of every law-abiding citizen.”

The existence of such a database – which includes every citizen – has yet to be sanctioned in any Western country, added the Bar. The Israeli Association for the Protection of Privacy and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel have also expressed their objection to the bill. (YNet)

Posted by Adam Wills in 0 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: biometrics, civil rights, facial recognition, fingerprints, israel, israeli bar association

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb

August 7, 2008 | 11:32 pm

Best Israeli high-tech employer named

Business Data Israel Coface Ltd announced that Intel Israel is the best high-tech company for the second year in a row, followed by Google Israel, IBM, Microsoft and SAP, according to The JPost.

The BDICoface survey was conducted among more than 12,000 high-tech workers around Israel.

Intel, with 7,350 workers, ranks not only as the best high-tech company to work for in Israel, but the best company in Israel overall, based on a BDI survey last May.

Other favored companies include Google Israel, which advanced most in the ranking jumping to second place from eleventh in the 2007 survey.

In third place in the high-tech survey, after Google Israel, was IBM Israel, which generated an estimated NIS 2.2 billion in revenue in 2007 and employs 1,700 people.

Microsoft Israel dropped from second-best company to work for to fourth place this year, with an estimated NIS 891 million in revenue in 2007 and 700 employees. SAP Israel was ranked in fifth place among high-tech companies in 2008, the same ranking as in 2007. The company had NIS 562.4m. in revenue in 2007 and employs 700 workers.

Cisco Systems Israel was in sixth place, unchanged from last year. The software provider company had an estimated NIS 400m. in revenue in 2007 and 930 employees.

Posted by Adam Wills in 0 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: bdicoface, business data israel coface ltd., google israel, high-tech, ibm, intel, microsoft, sap

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb

August 6, 2008 | 9:00 am

Genesis vindicated—snakes once walked

Snakes used to have legs, much as described in Genesis 3:14, in which God kicks them out from under our scaly friends: “Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” These much-maligned creatures lost legs as part of slow evolutionary changes that began some 140 million years ago, according to “Evolutionary origin and development of snake fangs” (Nature), which sought to explain the origin of the snake’s fangs.

Dr. Ram Reshef, with Technion’s biology faculty in Haifa, worked with 16 scientists from the United States, the Netherlands and Australia on the study.

The disappearance of the limbs caused the snakes’ bodies to sprout fangs and glands, some of which produce toxic venom, to protect the animal and improve its hunting abilities.

Reshef and his colleagues noted that as snakes evolved into limbless creatures, their bodies lengthened and they gained access to subterranean “niches” of sustenance not utilized by other animals. But the loss of their limbs made it very difficult for snakes to catch prey and hold it in their mouths. (JPost)

The study ends a long debate on the source of fangs in rattlesnakes, pythons and cobras. In addition to contributing to understanding embryonic development of snakes native to Israel, Reshef also covered how fangs were tied to the SHh gene – I kid you not – the Sonic hedgehog gene.)

Posted by Adam Wills in 0 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: bible, book of genisis, evolution, garden of eden, snakes, snakes had legs, technion

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb

August 6, 2008 | 7:24 am

Geekgirl teacher finds ‘Cosmic Ghost’

Hanny's Voorwerp and spiral galaxy IC 2497. Photo by Dan Smith, Peter Herbert, Matt Jarvis & the ING

Hanny van Arkel, a 25-year-old Dutch schoolteacher who volunteers for Galaxy Zoo – an Oxford volunteer project that allows the public to join astronomy research online—has found a strange, unique gaseous green blob that’s being dubbed a “cosmic ghost.”

The object became more officially known as Hanny’s Voorwerp (Dutch for “object") after van Arkel posted an image to Galaxy Zoo’s forum. Astronomers soon realized it was a new astronomical find.

“At first, we had no idea what it was. It could have been in our solar system, or at the edge of the universe,” said [Yale astrophysicist Kevin] Schawinski, a member and co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo team.

Scientists working at telescopes around the world and with satellites in space were asked to take a look at the mysterious Voorwerp. “What we saw was really a mystery,” said Schawinski. “The Voorwerp didn’t contain any stars.” Rather, it was made entirely of gas so hot — about 10,000 Celsius — that the astronomers felt it had to be illuminated by something powerful. They will soon use the Hubble Space Telescope to get a closer look.

Since there was no obvious source at hand in the Voorwerp itself, the team looked to find the source of illumination around the Voorwerp, and soon turned to the nearby galaxy IC 2497.

“We think that in the recent past the galaxy IC 2497 hosted an enormously bright quasar,” Schawinski explains. “Because of the vast scale of the galaxy and the Voorwerp, light from that past still lights up the nearby Voorwerp even though the quasar shut down sometime in the past 100,000 years, and the galaxy’s black hole itself has gone quiet.” (Science Daily)

If the quasar was still active, astronomers believe it would be visible from Earth with binoculars. Light given off by the quasar took thousands of years to reach the Voorwerp’s gas, which exists now as a kind of light echo. While similar echoes have been encountered, this is the first finding of this scale. To get a feel for its size, the Voorwerp’s hole is more than 16,000 light years across.

Van Arkel has no background in astronomy. She told the BBC that her interest in music had led her to the book “Bang! The Complete History of the Universe,” co-written by Queen guitarist Brian May.

Posted by Adam Wills in 1 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: galaxy zoo, hanny van arkel, l aura, netradio, oxford, queen, radio pingvin, radio streaming

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb

August 5, 2008 | 6:13 pm

Webcam peeping toms jailed

A Gainesville, Fl., and a Cyprus man are both in jail after using women’s Webcams to shoot video and photos of them without their knowledge. 

The Gainesville Sun reports that Craig Matthew Feigin, a 23-year-old Los Angeles native, is being charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services. Feigin is accused of installing software on a woman’s computer, and then using the software to remotely control the camera to shoot video of the woman and her friends without their knowledge.

Ars Technica identifies the woman as Marisel Garcia and reports that she had left her malfunctioning computer with Feigin, a University of Florida student, for repairs on July 4.

After she got the machine back, Garcia noticed problems – reduced battery life and a light that indicated her build-in camera was on each time she got near the computer. A friend with IT experience found the software.

According to Gainesvill police, Feigin – who was reportedly shocked and surprised to have been arrested—shot videos that were used to create more than 20,000 photographs of Garcia in various stages of undress, which were sent to an Eastern European server.

[Gainesville Police Detective Joseph] Mayo said Feigin admitted installing the programs on the woman’s computer, viewing photographs of the woman on the server and controlling the woman’s computer remotely over the Internet. Further, Mayo said, Feigin admitted to having done the same things to another woman’s computer.

“We have eight or nine more potential victims that we know of now,” Mayo said Friday. “We believe some of them may be students at UF or at Santa Fe (College).”

Mayo said Feigin had ties to a Web site that appears to repackage and market the freeware for $8.88 as a tool to catch cheating spouses and other domestic activities like drinking babysitters. Detectives estimated Feigin made fewer than 10 sales. (The Gainesville Sun)

In a related story, Sophos is reporting that a 47-year-old computer technician in Cyprus has been jailed for four years after he hacked a teenage girl’s Webcam through a Trojan horse virus (which he’d e-mailed to her), took compromising photos of her and then blackmailed the girl by threatening to send the photos to all of her e-mail contacts unless she agreed to pose nude for him.

The girl refused and went to the police. The man was arrested in 2005, but was only sentenced this week.

“Most spyware is designed to steal your identity, your passwords, your banking information—but it is just as easy to program a Trojan horse to take over your webcam,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “This case highlights that as well as malware being used for financial gain, it can also be used by voyeurs. Everyone needs to treat computer security as paramount importance to ensure they do not fall victim to an internet blackmailer or peeping tom.”

Posted by Adam Wills in 0 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: gainesville sun, maricel garcia, marisel garcia, marisel garcia photos, marisel garcia webcam, nude web cam, nude webcam, photos, sophos, web cam hacker, webcam hacker, webcam peeping tom, webcam spy hacker

Share this post: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Bookmarks Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati YahooMyWeb