Kotaku just released a tidbit about an upcoming book about children and violent video games. It's noted that this book details studies that contradicts what Jack Thompson and many others try to claim: that violent video games turn children in violent, killing machines. As quoted:

Until now, the most-publicized studies came from a small group of experimental psychologists, studying college students playing nonviolent or violent games for 15 minutes. It's debatable whether those studies are relevant to real children, playing self-selected games for their own reasons (not for cash or extra credit!), in social settings, over many years. But media reports and political rhetoric often ignore that distinction.

 It's going to be interesting to see if this gets any publicity and how those with opposing views are going to react to this. and how they respond.

The Violent Gaming Book to Buy Your Parents [kotaku.com]

Tags: thoughts, news, links

The Economist has an interesting article predicting that open-source adoption will rise in 2008. They are crediting a lot of this to Ubuntu and rightfully so. While there are many other great distributions of Linux out there (Slackware, SUSE, Fedora, Gentoo, etc.), Ubuntu's relative ease of setup and install has helped many become more aware of Linux and the perks of open-source software. I can state from experience that I was monkeying around with Linux using such distributions as Fedora and Slackware, it wasn't until I tried Ubuntu that I really became hooked on Linux and open-source. To me starting out, Ubuntu was great. Ease of use, easy to install, and gave me a good feel for how Linux works, now allowing me to move on to other distributions should I choose, but at this point, I'll still be sticking with Ubuntu. While Windows and OS X are here to stay as many tend to be just too used to them to consider otherwise, it'd be nice to see more people make the switch to Linux.

The Economist: Ubuntu is the source of Linux's rise [blogs.cnet.com]

Technology in 2008 [economist.com]

Tags: linux, opensource, links, ubuntu

A United States Representative is proposing that NASA keep the shuttle fleet flying past its scheduled 2010 retirement date. After the Columbia tragedy back in 2003, the review board recommended that the shuttle fleet be retired in 2010 unless the fleet was re-certified. Being that the shuttle fleet is getting old, this recommendation did not seem too out of place. Two proposals, one would see the Space Shuttles flying until 2013 cutting the gap between the STS program and the Orion program, and the second would see the Space Shuttles flying until 2015 when the first manned Orion missions are scheduled to be launched. NASA currently has an exemption until 2011 allowing them to purchase Russian Soyuz Rockets despite the ban on the purchasing of Soyuz rockets designed to slow Iran from nuclear weapons technology, since Russia is accused of helping Iran in such endeavors. NASA's second option, should the shuttle fleet be retired would fall on the private sector, but the private sector doesn't yet seem ready for the task.

Keeping the shuttle fleet flying past 2010 could be counterproductive though as NASA administrator Michael Griffin said last month:

The argument could also be made that NASA and the US should keep their presence in space, and a few more years with the shuttle could help do just that. I would like to see the shuttle go past 2010, it is, despite its downfalls, a very capable machine and its already proven itself to be quite robust in its capabilities. Only time will tell if congress will give NASA the money it needs to either bring the timetable for Orion forward, or extend the life of the shuttles.

U.S. urged to keep space shuttle flying past 2010 [news.yahoo.com]

Tags: nasa, shuttle, spaceshuttle, news, links

Microsoft has been having antitrust issues with the European Union for a while now and has paid some pretty hefty fines. Now they may have more issues coming. Opera, makers of the Opera Web Browser have filed an antitrust compaint with the EU against Microsoft complaining about Internet Explorer. As many know, every Windows installation comes with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE6 with XP and IE7 with Vista). Opera is complaining that by bundling IE with Windows, Microsoft is hindering the ability for consumers to choose what browser to use. At the very least, Opera wants Microsoft to include other browsers into Windows. Opera also complains about Internet Explorer's lack of following standards causes undue hardship for web development.

Asking the EU to pressure Microsoft to unbundle IE from Windows does not come without precedent. The EU has already forced Microsoft to provide a version of Windows that does not include Windows Media Player. The version was called Windows XP Edition N. Despite the antitrust ruling and the release of Edition N, it didn't really sell well as the version of XP with WMP was the same price. Technically, taking Windows Media Player out of Windows is seemingly simpler than taking IE off. IE is tied in closely with XP as many applications within Windows seem to use it as well. Windows, Microsoft, and Office Update all require Internet Explorer to function, so unbundling IE from Windows seems to be trickier than simply removing it from the install. So that would pretty much leave installing alternative browsers with XP. For those tech-savvy enough, that might work, but I'm sure if Microsoft does that, then they will probably make IE the default browser which would probably mean the non-tech people probably won't realize the difference and only use the default browser, which in this case would be IE.

Opera's second complaint though is definitely a valid one. If anyone has done any real web development, they probably know how difficult making a website look the same across the browsers can be. While Safari, Firefox, and Opera tend to be pretty easy, Internet Explorer really becomes hardball. I can say from personal experience that making my website show up properly across the browsers tended to be a headache.  I remember the first version of my site, it looked fine in all but IE. Forcing Microsoft to follow the web standards would be a good idea, but sadly, I don't see it happening anytime soon which sucks.

In the end, I don't know how much Opera and the EU are going to be able to accomplish.  I want to see them succeed, but the reality of the situation is much more complicated than it should have to be.

Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU [opera.com]

Tags: opera, eu, microsoft, links, antitrust, news

NASA's THEMIS satellite, launched less than 8 months ago has discovered some interesting findings regarding the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. The energy traveled twice as fast as anyone previously thought, traveling about 400 miles in a minute.  I wish I could move that fast.  THEMIS also discovered that the Earth's magnetic field appears to be linked to the sun by what appear to be magnetic ropes.  These ropes seem to originating in the Magnetosphere and are seemingly almost as wide as Earth itself.

I have been fortunate and have seen the Northern Lights at two points in my life.  Both times canoeing up in the wilderness of Canada. The sight is nothing short of breathtaking.  The pictures you see can't even begin to grasp how beautiful they are.  Sadly for me, living right outside Philadelphia, it is seemingly impossible to see the Northern Lights from here.  On a clear night up there though, I could see thousands upon thousands of stars, the Milky Way, and of course the Northern Lights.

Northern Lights Race Across the Sky [Space.com]

Tags: astronomy, nasa, northernlights, news, links