The Philae lander has detected organic molecules on the surface of its comet, scientists have confirmed.
Carbon-containing "organics" are the basis of life on Earth and may give clues to chemical ingredients delivered to our planet early in its history.
The compounds were picked up by a German-built instrument designed to "sniff" the comet's thin atmosphere.
Other analyses suggest the comet's surface is largely water-ice covered with a thin dust layer.
The European Space Agency (Esa) craft touched down on the Comet 67P on 12 November after a 10-year journey.
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Santas Grotto - Northamptonshire 2014.
Christmas is almost here and there are numerous Santa Grotto in Northamptonshire that prove very popular, here we have compiled local Grottos and compared prices. We'll follow up on this later for value for money in a later post
Poddington Garden Centre:
£7.00
Whilton Locks Garden Village Santa Grotto:
£5.99
BEST BUY
Milton Keynes (Town Centre) Grotto:
£6.50
Plus £1 booking fee online
Plus £2.00 for a Train Ticket
(Adults must pay for Train Ticket too)
Wyevale Northamptonshire:
£7.00 with a £1.50 booking fee online
Wicksteed Park Festive Christmas Train - No Santa but themed Christmas
Adult £7
Child (under 16) £5.50
Blooms Rugby (Warwickshire):
£7.00
Poddington Garden Centre:
£7.00
Whilton Locks Garden Village Santa Grotto:
£5.99
BEST BUY
Milton Keynes (Town Centre) Grotto:
£6.50
Plus £1 booking fee online
Plus £2.00 for a Train Ticket
(Adults must pay for Train Ticket too)
Wyevale Northamptonshire:
£7.00 with a £1.50 booking fee online
Wicksteed Park Festive Christmas Train - No Santa but themed Christmas
Adult £7
Child (under 16) £5.50
Blooms Rugby (Warwickshire):
£7.00
 |
| Santas Grotto at Whilton Locks Garden Village topped our poll of best price. |
Microsoft fixes 19-year-old bug with 'emergency' patch
Microsoft has patched a critical bug in its software that had existed for 19 years.
IBM researchers discovered the flaw, which affects Windows and Office products, in May this year - but worked with Microsoft to fix the problem before going public.
The bug had been present in every version of Windows since 95, IBM said.
Attackers could exploit the bug to remotely control a PC, and so users are being urged to download updates.
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Animators face 4K film technology challenge
The advent of 4K and high frame rate films presents a "huge challenge" for studios using computer-based animation, an expert has said.
Bruno Mahe, technical head at studio Illumination Mac Guff, said the resolution of animated films would have to be increased by about 2.5 times.
The time required to generate such high-resolution images could hit production schedules. It may mean studios having to re-think the way they make movies, Mr Mahe said. Current animated movies are made to be viewed at 24 frames per second (fps) and at resolutions of about 2K. But the advent of technologies such as 4K and frame rates of 48fps and higher means that the resolution of animated films will have to be substantially increased, said Mr Mahe, whose studio was behind films including The Lorax, Despicable Me and Minions. "They are both going to present a huge challenge," Mr Mahe told the BBC. Simply scaling up existing images to bridge the gap would not work. "That just looks horrible, no-one wants that," he said.
Illumination currently has 20,000 computers in a "render farm" that is used by animators to produce the individual images and scenes that eventually become a movie. Shipping high-resolution images back and forth to animators consumes huge amounts of memory, said Mr Mahe. In 2007 the total amount of memory used while Illumination worked on its Dragon Hunters movie peaked at about 12 terabytes, he said. This grew substantially by the time Illumination made Despicable Me 2 when peak memory use hit 680 terabytes.
The time required to generate such high-resolution images could hit production schedules. It may mean studios having to re-think the way they make movies, Mr Mahe said. Current animated movies are made to be viewed at 24 frames per second (fps) and at resolutions of about 2K. But the advent of technologies such as 4K and frame rates of 48fps and higher means that the resolution of animated films will have to be substantially increased, said Mr Mahe, whose studio was behind films including The Lorax, Despicable Me and Minions. "They are both going to present a huge challenge," Mr Mahe told the BBC. Simply scaling up existing images to bridge the gap would not work. "That just looks horrible, no-one wants that," he said.
Illumination currently has 20,000 computers in a "render farm" that is used by animators to produce the individual images and scenes that eventually become a movie. Shipping high-resolution images back and forth to animators consumes huge amounts of memory, said Mr Mahe. In 2007 the total amount of memory used while Illumination worked on its Dragon Hunters movie peaked at about 12 terabytes, he said. This grew substantially by the time Illumination made Despicable Me 2 when peak memory use hit 680 terabytes.
Hackers exploit NFC phone payment technology
Several bugs in Near Field Communication (NFC) payment systems have been found by security experts.
NFC allows people to pay for goods and services by touching their handset to a payment terminal. But the inclusion of the technology on phones has proved useful to hackers seeking a stealthy way to take over a mobile phone. In most cases the bugs would give an attacker complete access to a device's data.
The security experts demonstrated the weaknesses in NFC technology at an event in Tokyo organised by Hewlett Packard. Called Mobile Pwn2Own the competition involves researchers and developers using bugs in an attempt to subvert a series of handsets. A prize pool of $425,000 (£271,000) was available to those who managed to get access to a handset's innards via a bug they had found.
Entrants would get a slice of that cash by taking less than 30 minutes to carry out a successful attack via a previously unknown vulnerability.
NFC allows people to pay for goods and services by touching their handset to a payment terminal. But the inclusion of the technology on phones has proved useful to hackers seeking a stealthy way to take over a mobile phone. In most cases the bugs would give an attacker complete access to a device's data.
The security experts demonstrated the weaknesses in NFC technology at an event in Tokyo organised by Hewlett Packard. Called Mobile Pwn2Own the competition involves researchers and developers using bugs in an attempt to subvert a series of handsets. A prize pool of $425,000 (£271,000) was available to those who managed to get access to a handset's innards via a bug they had found.
Entrants would get a slice of that cash by taking less than 30 minutes to carry out a successful attack via a previously unknown vulnerability.
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Big Brother
US government planes collecting phone data?
Devices that gather data from millions of mobile phones are being flown over the US by the government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The "dirtbox" devices mimic mobile phone tower transmissions, and handsets transmit back their location and unique identity data, the report claims.
While they are used to track specific suspects, all mobile devices in the area will respond to the signal.
The US Justice Department refused to confirm or deny the report.
Monday, 17 November 2014
A Magical Christmas at Whilton Locks Garden Centre
Ice Skating, Christmas Menu, Santa's Grotto, Breakfast with Santa, Reindeer, Decorations (currently 3 for 2), Real Trees, Gifts for People and Pets - A magical Christmas at Whilton Locks Garden Village
http://www.facebook.com/whiltonlocksgardenvillage
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)