kiehlster writes "I'm a software developer, and I know that most software has bugs, but how much trust can we put in the many lines of code found in our automobiles? I have a 2009 Camry that is involved in both of the recent Toyota recalls. As part of the floor-mat issue, they're offering to install a software update that would cause 'the brake pedal to take precedence over the gas pedal if both were pressed' or, as their latest notice states, 'would cut power to the engine if both pedals were pressed.' In the computer world, we're all taught to install firmware updates only if there is a real problem because a large percentage of firmware updates actually brick the hardware or cause other unforeseen consequences. On a base of 100 million lines of code, can I really trust a software update to work safely when it is delivered in a three-month development cycle? My driving habits don't cause the floor mat to slide much, so I see the update as overkill. What do you think? If it doesn't void the warranty, should I tell them to skip the update?"

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Schiphol writes of a long-lost letter by René Descartes to Marin Mersenne that has come to light at Haverford College, in Pennsylvania, where it had lain buried in the archives for more than a century. The discovery could revolutionize our view of one of the 17th-century French philosopher's major works. "[T]housands of treasured documents... vanished from the Institut de France in the mid-1800s, stolen by an Italian mathematician. Among them were 72 letters by René Descartes... Now one of those purloined letters has turned up at a small private college in eastern Pennsylvania... The letter, dated May 27, 1641, concerns the publication of Meditations on First Philosophy, a celebrated work whose use of reason and scientific methods helped to ignite a revolution in thought."

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superglaze writes "The European Commission is 'not supporting and will not accept' any attempt to have ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) force countries to disconnect people for downloading copyrighted material, a spokesman for the new EU trade commissioner has said. All the signs are that the new commission, which took office earlier this month, intends to take a hard-line stance against US proposals for a filesharing-related disconnection system. 'Three strikes' is allowed in EU countries, but not mandated by the European government itself, and it looks like the new administration wants to keep it that way. From trade commission spokesman John Clancy, quoted in ZDNet UK's article: '[Ac ta] has never been about pursuing infringements by an individual who has a couple of pirated songs on their music player. For several years, the debate has been about what is "commercial scale" [piracy]. EU legislation has left it to each country to define what a commercial scale is and this flexibility should be kept in ACTA.'"

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The GNOME community's design and usability experts gathered for a week-long hackfest hosted by Canonical in the UK to shape the next major iteration of the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME 3, which is tentatively scheduled for release in September, will introduce new user interface paradigms and include an upgraded desktop shell environment.

The participants at the hackfest are aiming to improve the usability of existing applications, enhance the look and feel of the desktop with new theming concepts, and brainstorm ideas for extending the functionality of the new shell. They are actively publishing mockups, design documentation, usability notes, and other materials that provide insight into their vision for the future of GNOME. By reading all of this material, I was able to get an understanding of their goals and plans.

You may wonder how exactly Compete gets its numbers? It appears, that some sketchy tactics are (or at least were) employed, as well.

Tiger Woods has sunk his claws into an animal rights group -- scaring PETA into pulling a series of controversial billboards featuring the golfer's image. ...

President Obama sparred with his 2008 presidential campaign adversary Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) at Thursday's bipartisan health care summit, reminding him that the election is behind them.

jitendraharlalka sends news of a claimed algorithmic breakthrough by IBM, though from the scant technical detail provided it's hard to tell exactly how important the development might be. IBM apparently presented its results yesterday at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics conference in Seattle. The breathless press release begins: "IBM Research today unveiled a breakthrough method based on a mathematical algorithm that reduces the computational complexity, costs, and energy usage for analyzing the quality of massive amounts of data by two orders of magnitude. This new method will greatly help enterprises extract and use the data more quickly and efficiently to develop more accurate and predictive models. In a record-breaking experiment, IBM researchers used the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world... to validate nine terabytes of data... in less than 20 minutes, without compromising accuracy. Ordinarily, using the same system, this would take more than a day. Additionally, the process used just one percent of the energy that would typically be required."

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Software company had forced closure of Cryptome website for publishing guide that explains how to access millions of pieces of private data

From the first unsolicited email sent in May 1978, something like 9 out of every 10 emails are now unsolicited. Spammers have been dealt a few blows in recent years, but as long as there is money to be made they are unlikely to go away anytime soon. [infographic]

This appears to be Chuck Liddell and his girlfriend, Heidi Northcott, working out naked, presumably in his home.

The lawn dart is back—albeit as the Sky Dart, a cushy, weighted projectile that barely compares to the dangerous, but fun game from the '70s and '80s. In honor of this toy's comeback, here are the most dangerous toys of all time.

gjt writes "For the couch-potato geek, one name typically comes to mind: TiVo — the company that invented the DVR, and with it, timeshifting. TiVo has been around for more than 10 years now. And TiVo fans (like myself) tend to love TiVo. Yet, despite being well-loved and despite having been around longer than the Apple iPod, TiVo comes nowhere close to the iPod/iPhone's success. Apple sells more iPod and iPhone products in a single quarter than TiVo has sold in the entire lifetime of the company. At its peak, TiVo had only 4.4 million active users — that was over three years ago. Now TiVo the number is about 2.7 million. So I wanted to find out why TiVo hasn't been more successful — especially with a seeming lack of competition on store shelves. I did some research and posted my finding about TiVo's past, present, and future. The key takeaway seems to be that TiVo is a victim of cable industry collusion, loopholes in FCC regulations, and, of course, plenty of their own mistakes."

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Don't blame health care companies, they are doing what they are supposed to do (make a profit). The American government is to blame for letting this go on for decades without reform or regulation.

Supreme Commander was a strategy game that got a great many things right, and it earned a ton of critical acclaim. As a result, the game's soon-to-be-released sequel, Supreme Commander 2, has some high standards to measure up against. Gas Powered Games' founder and CEO Chris Taylor is not only planning meet these expectations, he's certain that his studio will exceed them without a problem.

Though the original game was published in 2007, it only had one expansion before the sequel was announced in November 2008. The announcement took many fans by surprise, as plans for another expansion, Supreme Commander: Experimentals, had been mentioned; but these expansion plans were never seen through to completion. When Ars asked Taylor about what happened, he explained, "we were very hopeful about that expansion as well, but with the economy shifting under our feet, we instead chose to focus on the projects further along in development." However, based on what Taylor's revealed about Supreme Commander 2, it sounds like it will have been worth the wait for fans of the series.

Considered by many to be one of the ultimate manifestations of competitive strategic thinking, its no surprise that the game of chess would find its way into the mythologies that have helped shape modern nerdom

The self-proclaimed Miss Beverly Hills 2010, Lauren Ashley, recently made headlines with her strong (and dumb) views on homosexuality. But as we know, she's not the first beauty queen to say dumb things. At this point, "Say Something Dumb" should actually be a part of the pageant. Right between talent and evening wear. These gals would obviously sc

This guy has found an great way to make bongs that will bounce off the ground, or not.

The small plane that crashed last week, killing all three Tesla Motors engineers onboard, clipped an electrical transmission tower just 50 feet above the ground before slamming into a residential neighborhood, according to a preliminary report issued today.

The federal dragnet that led to the arrest and guilty plea of Najibullah Zazi in a plot to set off bombs in New York's subway system has resulted in two more suspects being charged.