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wjousts writes 'Up until now, most work with humanoid robotics has focused on keeping them upright and balanced, but in the real world, falling down is inevitable. So now researcher in Chile are looking at teaching their Soccerbots how to fall down gracefully to minimize damage and allow for a quick recovery. According to a New Scientist article, 'They found that one of the main ways to minimise damage is for the robot to fold its legs underneath it. Among other things, that means the robot is much less likely to hit its head on the ground. Another good strategy is to use a fall sequence consisting of several movements, so the falling body has several points of contact with the ground, spreading the energy of the impact over a large number of joints, rather than taking it all in one disastrous crunch.'' of this story at Slashdot.

The Skyfire browser works on Windows and Symbian phones and runs Flash video.

A security researcher has released a proof of concept exploit leveraging a Java flaw affecting Mac OS X. The flaw can be exploited via drive-by attacks to gain control of a vulnerable user's system. Apple officials say they are working on a fix. - Its time for Apple to close a security hole opened by vulnerable Java Applets. Thats the message from security researcher and former Apple engineer Landon Fuller, who posted a proof of concept exploit that takes advantage of a Java flaw that was fixed by Sun Microsystems months ago. The vulnerabil...

CWmike writes 'An external hard drive that's believed to contain nearly 1TB of data from the Clinton Administration is missing from the U.S. National Archives and Recording Administration (NARA). The drive includes more than 100,000 Social Security numbers and home addresses of people who visited or worked at the White House. Among those whose information is on the list is one of then-Vice President Al Gore's three daughters. The drive also contained details on the security procedures used by the Secret service at the White House, as well as event logs, social gathering logs, political records and other information from the Clinton administration. Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) said the Archives was in the process of converting information from the drive to a digital records system when it apparently disappeared. The hard drive was apparently removed from a secure storage area to a workplace where at least 100 'badge-holders' had access to it, Issa noted.' of this story at Slas

An employee of General Motors' German unit Opel works on an Opel Corsa at the Opel plant in the Eastern German town of Eisenach on May 4. At least three bids were submitted Wednesday from suitors interested in acquiring or taking a stake in GM's ailing unit Adam Opel GmbH, a GM Europe spokesman said.

Capturing the carbon dioxide that wafts up the smokestack after burning coal (or any other fossil fuel) has been identified by everyone from President Obama to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a critical technology to help keep the lights on while combating climate change. And now there has been yet another successful demonstration that the technology to capture that CO2 from flue gas might actually work: chilled ammonia can capture more than 88 percent of the greenhouse gas before it goes up the smokestack. [More]

Philip writes 'Three years ago I was appointed as a network manager to a barely functioning MS-based network. Since then I've managed to get it up and running — even thriving — but have been guilty of being too busy with the doing of it to document the changes and systems that were put in place. Now as I look back, I'm worried that I am the only one who will ever know how this network works. If I get hit by a bus or throw in the towel for any reason, I'd be leaving behind a network that requires some significant expertise to run. Ultimately, this won't be a good reference for me if they are trying to work out technical details for years to come. It looks like I'm going to have to document the network with all sorts of details that outside consultants could understand too (no, I don't want to be the outside consultant), especially since it's likely that my replacement will have less technical expertise (read 'cheaper'). Are there any good templates out there for documenting

The plucky carrier Virgin America is first airline with full-fleet Internet access: Virgin America said today that all its aircraft have Aircell's Gogo Inflight Internet service installed. That's marvelous, because you can now book and expect (short equipment problems) to have Wi-Fi on any flight. This is a key moment, despite the size of VA's fleet, as I have been saying for years and years that without an airline offering the expectation that every mainline (non-regional) plane they fly having Internet service, passengers won't adjust their expectations and plans to work (or play) with net access onboard. On the fleet size issue, VA has 28 planes in service according to a couple of sources I checked, and fly 100 routes a day. This makes them one of the smallest national carriers. Delta, by contrast, has over 300 mainline planes in its Delta contingent, and hundreds more under the Northwest banner. Delta says its about halfway through its efforts, and will be finished in a few months

(Telecompaper) HP and microsoft have announced a four-year global initiative to deliver an end-to-end unified communications and collaboration product. As part of their Frontline Partnership, the two companies expect to invest up to an additional USD 180 million in product development, professional services, as well as joint sales and marketing. The end-to-end product, which is planned to span software, hardware, networking and services, is expected to enable customers to improve business output and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs by streamlining communications across messaging, video and voice with connected applications and devices. The two companies also announced that they will form joint teams to collaborate on products and services development across microsoft office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Communications Server, as well as HP ProCurve networking products. HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for the

Russound has announced RNET Touchpoint, an interface for the iphone and iPod touch that works in conjunction with the TCHS1 access point. The Touchpoint system is used control the company's multiroom audio systems from the mobile device. The router connects to any IP-based wireless LAN, providing customized interface screens that can be viewed in Safari. Users can enter the IP address of the TCH1S...