Tech & Science

__NOTOC__ NASA cancelled a media briefing on its Stardust mission, expected to provide an update about analysis of both the "Comet Wild 2" particles and interstellar particles gathered during the nearly seven year mission. In "MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-016," issued earlier today, the space agency announced postponement of the briefing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, January 24, 1 p.m. EST. No announcement has been made about when the briefing will be re-scheduled. NASA's stated reason for delay was to, "allow the Stardust science team addition

On Thursday, Syria said that it supports Iran's nuclear stance and said it "has a right to atomic technology," and said Western objections to Tehran's nuclear ambitions were "not persuasive." It comes in the wake of demands by US and European countries for Iran to halt its nuclear fuel enrichment activities. Iran notes that its nuclear program is civilian and consistent with Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which establishes the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuc

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has been investigating allegations surrounding Livedoor's acquisition strategies and stock sales. Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the company may have made 4 billion yen ($35 million) in profits by following illegal takeover practices. Livedoor has been known to use acquisitions to support its rapid growth. It currently owns about 50 technology companies providing financial services and other software over the internet. Recent investigations have centered around the acquisitions of t

Earlier today, an Atlas V rocket carrying the New Horizons unmanned spacecraft probe lifted off from Pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station bound for the last unexplored planet in the solar system, Pluto, at 11 am EST, after two scrubbed liftoffs the past two days because of bad weather. The probe will take a nine-year, 3-billion-mile (5-billion-km) journey to Pluto, the ninth and final planet in the solar system. It is expected to take photos of the planet that are of the highest resolution ever, since current photos of Pluto are not

Quaero is being termed eurozone's response to the US-based internet search giants such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. The project includes the French and German governments along with a host of European technology companies such as Thomson, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. It is scheduled to be submitted to France's Agency of Industrial Innovation later this month. The agency which has a budget of €2 billion ($2.41 billion) hasn't specified how much of this money will be spent on Quaero. President Jacques Chirac announced the launch of Quaero

Sharp declines in technology bellwethers Intel and Yahoo dragged down the tech laden Nasdaq Composite Index Wednesday. The index finished at 2279.64, a drop of 23.05 points or 1 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index ended the day with losses of 0.38 percent and 0.39 percent to end at 10,854.86 and 1277.93 respectively. The world's largest chipmaker fell nearly $3 or 11 percent to $22.60. Internet software giant Yahoo was down nearly $5 to close at $35.18 a loss of nearly 12 percent. Analysts blamed disappointing sales for

Iran has "barred" Time Warner Inc.'s, CNN, from working in the country "until further notice" due to mistranslating comments made by Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a press conference Saturday January 14, 2006. In his speech Saturday, Ahmadinejad defended Iran's right to continue nuclear research. State Media complained to CNN that they had used the translation "nuclear weapons" instead of "nuclear technology". The ban by the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry was read in a statement on state-run television saying, "due to mi

The Free Software Foundation released the first draft for the next version of the GNU General Public License at the International Public Conference for GPLv3 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, today. The revisions mark the first changes to the GPL since the second version was released in 1991. According to Richard M. Stallman, the president of the Free Software Foundation, the most significant change to the license are changes to allow GPLv3 to be compatible with other popular free software licenses, notably the Apache Software License 2.0 and

"All stations, we have touchdown," an announcer declared. Stardust, a capsule carrying dust from Comet Wild 2, has landed safely in the Utah desert. It also is the first time in history that a space mission has brought back such material. "The tiny particles that the Stardust mission is bringing back are the most scientifically exciting and technically challenging material that we have ever had the opportunity to study," said Monica Grady of the Planetary and Space Science Research Institute (PSSRI). When the landing was complete, it drew ch

In a communique issued by the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Madrid as response to the barring of Spain's sale of military planes to Venezuela, and then made public by the chancellor’s office, Venezuela has claimed that the reason why the United States government vetoes the selling of Spanish planes to Venezuela is because Washington wants to continue imposing the flight of American anti-drug patrols dean nations. If the US did so it would violate Venezuela's sovereignty he said. Spain says it will keep its promise and will

Symantec, owner of the security software Norton SystemWorks admits the existence of a security flaw that can be exploited by malwares. The flaw is of the "rootkit" type. A "rootkit" is a set of tools capable of concealing processes, files and other information preventing the detection of malwares such as virus, spywares and invasion programs. In Norton, the "rootkit" works as the following: a folder named NProtect keeps all the files deleted by the user. It allows files to be undeleted. The problem is that Norton (as a "rootkit") hides the

NASA is awaiting the arrival of very precious cargo from space. The Stardust Spacecraft is scheduled to land at around 5:12am (eastern time) on Sunday January 15, 2006. Onboard are dust particles that have been collected from the comet Wild 2. When the capsule gets to Earth and enters the atmosphere, at about 5am (eastern time), it is expected to put on quite a light show for folks in Northern California, Oregon, Nevada, and Utah. The capsule will look much like a shooting star going across the sky. The capsule will be traveling at about 12.