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Slashdot.org
#51
Aug 26 2009

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Wikipedia To Require Editing Approval
* Air Force & NASA Fire Off Green Rocket
* Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock
* Thanks For the ... Eight-Track, Uncle Alex
* Appeals Court Overturns 2007 Unix Copyright Decision
* Vulnerability, Potential Exploit In Cisco WLAN APs
* Pirate Bay Archive Goes Online
* What Is the Best Way To Track Stolen Gadgets?
* Habitual Multitaskers Do It Badly
* Getting Through the FOSS License Minefield
* IE Should Use Google's Malware List
* British Video Recordings Act 1984 Invalid
* Why Is Linux Notebook Battery Life Still Poor?
* NASA To Team Up With Russia For Future Mars Flight
* FairPort Accused of Faking Network Readiness Test
* Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits
* Behind the 4GB Memory Limit In 32-Bit Windows
* Report That OS X Snow Leopard May Include Antivirus
* South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit
* FCC Declares Intention To Enforce Net Neutrality
* Gaming the App Store
* Making Sense of Revision-Control Systems

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wikipedia To Require Editing Approval |
| from the knock-knock-who's-there-anonymous dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday August 24, @22:00 (The Internet) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/24...g-Approval |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The NY Times reports on an epochal move by Wikipedia — within weeks, the
formerly freewheeling encyclopedia will begin [0]requiring editor
approval for all edits to articles about living people. "The new feature,
called 'flagged revisions,' will require that an experienced volunteer
editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it
can go live. Until the change is approved — or in Wikispeak, flagged — it
will sit invisibly on Wikipedia's servers, and visitors will be directed
to the earlier version. ... The new editing procedures... have been
applied to the entire German-language version of Wikipedia during the
last year... Although Wikipedia has prevented anonymous users from
creating new articles for several years now, the new flagging system
crosses a psychological Rubicon. It will divide Wikipedia's contributors
into two classes — experienced, trusted editors, and everyone else —
altering Wikipedia's implicit notion that everyone has an equal right to
edit entries."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../24/224259

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/techno...artner=rss&emc=rss

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Air Force & NASA Fire Off Green Rocket |
| from the one-of-these-days-alice dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday August 24, @23:57 (NASA) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...reen-Rocke|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "NASA and the Air Force said today they had
successfully launched a 9-ft. rocket 1,300 feet into the sky, [1]powered
by aluminum powder and water ice. This combination of fuel elements,
referred to as ALICE, has the potential to replace some liquid or solid
propellants. The technology is being developed at Purdue University and
Pennsylvania State University. Aside from its environmental benefiits,
ALICE has the advantage that it could be manufactured in far-away places,
such as the moon or Mars, instead of being transported to distant
horizons at great cost, researchers said."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/0113247

Links:
0. mailto:mcooney@nww.com
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/44690

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Open Source Russian Vacuum Fluorescent Tube Clock |
| from the ice-blue dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @02:39 (Hardware Hacking) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...luorescent|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]ptorrone writes "Hacker extraordinaire [1]Ladyada (whose open source
hardware projects we have [2]discussed [3]before) has just published a
complete how-to, with design document, on making your own [4]open source
Russian vacuum fluorescent clock. The vacuum fluorescent tubes aren't as
dangerous as (high-voltage) Nixie tubes, and there seem to be more of
them available in the world. If you're not interested in building a clock
from scratch, you can also pick up a [5]kit version. All the
[6]schematics, source code, and files are available on the project's
page."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...24/2132230

Links:
0. mailto:pt@@@adafruit...com
1. http://www.ladyada.net/
2. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...26/2015229&tid=154
3. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../27/156237&tid=480
4. http://www.ladyada.net/make/icetube/
5. http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_p...oduct_info&cPath=39&products_id=194
6. http://www.ladyada.net/make/icetube/download.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Thanks For the ... Eight-Track, Uncle Alex |
| from the redundancy-and-repetition dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @05:25 (Data Storage) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...Uncle-Alex|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Uncle Alex writes "My niece just turned one year old and her parents
have asked that, instead of the usual gifts, we each contribute something
to a time capsule to be opened on her 17th birthday. Multiple members of
my family want to contribute digital data — text, video, music files.
They came to me (the closest thing to a geek our family has) wondering:
what's the best way to save the data to ensure she'll actually be able to
see it in 16 years? Software might be out of date, hardware may no longer
be used... any suggestions?"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...24/2218223

Links:
0. mailto:khostal@yahoo.com

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Appeals Court Overturns 2007 Unix Copyright Decision |
| from the long-dark-teatime dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @08:09 (The Courts) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/...-Copyright|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]snydeq writes "A federal appeals court has [1]overturned a 2007
decision that Novell owns the Unix code, clearing the way for SCO to
pursue a $1 billion copyright infringement case against IBM. In a
[2]54-page decision (PDF), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said it was
reversing the 2007 summary judgment decision by Judge Dale Kimball of the
US District Court for the District of Utah, which found that Novell was
the owner of Unix and UnixWare copyrights. SCO CEO Darl McBride called
the decision a '[3]huge validation for SCO.'" The case over who owns Unix
will now go to trial in Utah.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/0021246

Links:
0. http://www.infoworld.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/08...ml?hpg1=bn
2. http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/opinions/08/08-4217.pdf
3. http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13193725

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Vulnerability, Potential Exploit In Cisco WLAN APs |
| from the just-wrap-it-in-tin-foil dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @08:37 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/1...-Cisco-WLA|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The AirMagnet Intrusion Research Team has
uncovered a [0]new wireless vulnerability and potential exploit
associated with Cisco wireless LAN infrastructure. The vulnerability
involves Cisco's Over-the-Air-Provisioning (OTAP) feature found in its
wireless access points. The potential exploit, dubbed SkyJack by
AirMagnet, creates a situation whereby control of a Cisco AP can be
obtained, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to gain access to a
customer's wireless LAN."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/25/1228237

Links:
0. http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=7924

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pirate Bay Archive Goes Online |
| from the action-reaction-counterreaction dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @08:54 (The Internet) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...oes-Online |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "With the main Pirate Bay
website experiencing DNS issues, downtime and uncertainty about both the
lawsuits and potential sale to GGF, a [1]Pirate Bay clone has already
gone online. True to their principles, someone at TPB put up a torrent
with a 21.3 GB copy of the site as it exists today. And now that archive
is alive, at BTArena.net. Linus' old adage about backing up everything by
putting it on FTP and letting the world mirror it may need to be updated.
Torrents are much more efficient." "Downtime" may be a nice word for it;
reader [2]Underholdning writes "The Register has a story about a
[3]Swedish court ordering ISPs to disconnect The Pirate Bay or face a
massive daily fine. The reason for the shutdown was an upcoming civil
lawsuit by copyright holders. As usual, [4]Torrentfreak has an updated
story. It seems like the takedown until now has been successful." Believe
what you will; the site itself says they'll be back up "in a few hours."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1224214

Links:
0. http://www.eff.org/support
1. http://torrentfreak.com/torrented-pirate...fe-090820/
2. http://www.underholdning.info/
3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/24/..._down_tpb/
4. http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-t...es-090824/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What Is the Best Way To Track Stolen Gadgets? |
| from the glue-to-foot dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @09:22 (Security) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/...en-Gadgets|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Now that gadgets can determine their location
and phone home, many companies are creating tools for finding lost and
stolen gadgets. It sounds like a simple process, but this NY Times
article describes a number of [0]wildly different approaches. Some report
all of the information back to the owner while others deliberately keep
the owner in the dark to avoid dangerous confrontations. Some start
grabbing pictures from the web cameras and logging keystrokes. Others
just record IP addresses. Some don't do anything but record serial
numbers to make it easier for the police to do their job. Are
sophisticated systems dangerous because the tracking mechanisms could be
misused to violate the privacy of the owner? Are the stakes different
when a company purchases the software and gives the IT manager the
ability to track everyone in the company? What are the best practices
that are emerging? What should I recommend if my boss reads this article
and wants to track our laptops and Blackberries?"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/25/136237

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/techno...asics.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Habitual Multitaskers Do It Badly |
| from the please-pass-the-toast-and-jelly-and-scalpel dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @09:42 (Education) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...o-It-Badly |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

iandoh writes "According to a group of Stanford researchers, people who
frequently multitask don't pay attention, control their memory or switch
from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task
at a time. In other words, [0]multitaskers are bad at multitasking. The
[1]research team is also studying how to design [2]computer voices for
cars that result in safer driving." Reader AliasMarlowe adds "The
comparison involved multitasking with a number of attention or context
related tests. For the study, multitasking was defined as consuming
multiple media sources at once — gaming, TV, IM, email, etc.
Interestingly, the habitual multitaskers were much [3]worse at
multitasking than the single taskers in these relatively straightforward
tests. In self-assessment the multitaskers considered themselves good at
it and the single taskers considered themselves bad at it. An extreme
case of the [4]Dunning-Kruger effect, perhaps, with consequences for
business and society."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1245221

Links:
0. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/augus...82409.html
1. http://chime.stanford.edu/index.html
2. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/may7/...50708.html
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8219212.stm
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Getting Through the FOSS License Minefield |
| from the well-it's-more-like-a-small-blackberry-thicket dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @10:03 (Software) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/09...icense-Min|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]dotancohen writes "Here's an exercise: Write a GPLed server for
solving Freecell that the graphical game would communicate with using
TCP/IP or a different IPC mechanism. Easy, right? Except for that pesky
licensing bit. Our own Shlomi Fish gives [1]an overview of the various
options in picking up a licence for one's FOSS project, and tries to give
some guidelines choosing one."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments....25/1356213

Links:
0. http://dotancohen.com/
1. http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/com...nces-wars/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IE Should Use Google's Malware List |
| from the hey-it's-a-good-pr-opportunity-at-least dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @10:30 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/1...lware-List |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Frequent contributor Bennett Haselton writes with an idea that he thinks
could help keep browsing on Microsoft's browser more secure for users —
and benefit Microsoft as a result. "Tests show that IE's malware filter
performs well against other browsers that use the Safe Browsing blacklist
from Google. But wouldn't IE's filter be even more effective if it used
both filter lists at the same time? And are the political obstacles to
that really so insurmountable?" Read on for the rest of a plan that seems
a lot more than half-baked.

This story continues at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/1...lware-List

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/25/1418210

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| British Video Recordings Act 1984 Invalid |
| from the slight-reprieve dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @11:18 (Censorship) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/...84-Invalid |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

chrb writes "BBC News is reporting that the British [0]Video Recordings
Act 1984 is [1]invalid due to a 25 year old legal blunder. The
[2]Thatcher government of the day failed to officially "notify" the
European Commission about the law, and hence it no longer stands as a
legal Act. There will now be a period of around three months before the
Act can be passed again, during which time it will be entirely legal to
sell any video content without age-rated certifications."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/1453213

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Recordings_Act_1984
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8219438.stm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatcher_government

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Why Is Linux Notebook Battery Life Still Poor? |
| from the have-seen-the-same dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @12:00 (Power) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...-Life-Stil|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Ganty writes "I recently purchased a Lenovo W500 notebook, and after
'downgrading' to XP and creating a dual partition, I found that I had a
battery life of nearly three hours using the long-life battery, at this
point I was a happy camper because it means that I can watch a DVD during
a flight. I then tried various Linux distributions and found the battery
life under FOS to be very disappointing, with an average of 45 minutes
before a warning message. After settling on Ubuntu I then spent three
days trying various hardware tweaks but I only managed to increase the
battery life to one and a half hours. Unwanted services have been
disabled, laptop mode has been enabled, the dual core CPU reduces speed
when idle and the hard drive spins down when not needed. Obviously Apple
with their X86 hardware and BSD based OS have got it right because the
MacBooks last for hours, and a stock install of MS Windows XP gives me
three hours of life. Why is battery life on notebooks so poor when using
Linux? Some have suggested disabling various hardware items such as
bluetooth and running the screen at half brightness but XP doesn't
require me to do this and still gives a reasonable battery life."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../25/157209

Links:
0. mailto:pmgant@gmail.com

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NASA To Team Up With Russia For Future Mars Flight |
| from the you-bring-the-caviar-we'll-bring-the-twinkies dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 25, @12:47 (Mars) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...For-Future-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]xp65 writes "NASA has [1]invited Russia to carry out a joint manned
flight to Mars, the head of NASA's Moscow office said on Tuesday. Russia
is currently planning to send its own expedition to Mars some time in the
future. Marc Bowman told an international aviation and space conference
in Moscow that the Mars mission should take advantage of the achievements
made by the International Space Station and use a multinational crew."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/1614246

Links:
0. http://spacefellowship.com/
1. http://spacefellowship.com/2009/08/25/na...rs-flight/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FairPort Accused of Faking Network Readiness Test |
| from the sufficiently-rigged-demo-is-indistinguishable-from-magic dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @13:35 (Communications) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...rk-Readine|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

wytcld writes "When [0]Verizon spun off its Northern New England lines to
FairPoint, FairPoint leased Verizon's computer network to manage them.
This was costly, so FairPoint readied its own network. To prove its own
network was ready for the switchover [1]a demonstration was prepared for
an outside auditor, Liberty. Now [2]a whistleblower claims: '...when
Liberty was watching what they thought was "flow thru" within a system
and from one system to another, they were really only seeing a small
program that was created to assimilate what they wanted the systems to
do. They were not actually in the systems at the time nor were they in
the test systems. They were in a newly created small program that used
screen shots from the real system to deceive the audience into believing
that they were watching a real demonstration.' How easy is it to find
auditors who can be fooled by such a simple trick? Whether or not the
test was faked, the network has proved so unready that [3]FairPoint is
close to bankruptcy, and may have its licenses to operate revoked in
[4]Maine, New Hampshire and [5]Vermont."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1627259

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/story/07/01/16/19182...ural-Lines
1. http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=278890
2. http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_13196920
3. http://www.vermontbiz.com/article/august...y-possible
4. http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=275981
5. http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/vt...complaints

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits |
| from the watching-the-watchers dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @14:25 (Television) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...rn-Viewing-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

RobotRunAmok writes "The Nielsen Company has been the principal entity
tracking TV shows' popularity, and, by extension, their potential
profitability. But as our media consumption practices change, some
believe that [0]Nielsen's methods have not kept pace. A new consortium
including networks owned by NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp,
Viacom, CBS, Discovery, and Walt Disney — along with major advertisers —
is calling for the creation of a new audience measurement service, and
planning to solicit bids from outside firms by the fourth quarter of this
year. Nielsen says [1]they're not worried about so many of their
customers ganging up on them, having just invested more than a billion
dollars in research to stay modern. Except that [2]today Nielsen
announced they would pointedly not be adding weights to DVR households,
and that adding weights for the presence of a personal computer or
Internet access in under-represented households would provide 'no
significant change or enhancement' to its national TV ratings sample. The
pundits deride Nielsen's [3]'archaic' methodology and '[4]disco-era
tactics,' but others scoff that such a consortium will only '[5]put the
foxes in charge of the henhouse.' Stay tuned..."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1719210

Links:
0. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc04615a-8858-...ck_check=1
1. http://www.marketingvox.com/traditionald...en-044882/
2. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?f...howArticle&art_aid=112183
3. http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=1365
4. http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/05/adali...ailure.php
5. http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/bi...v-ratings/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Behind the 4GB Memory Limit In 32-Bit Windows |
| from the we-can-remember-it-for-you-wholesale dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @15:15 (Windows) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...2-Bit-Wind|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader points us to a very detailed post by Geoff Chappell,
first put up early this year, explaining how the 4GB memory limit
commonly bandied about for 32-bit Windows (he is writing mainly about
Vista) is [0]more of a licensing preference than an architectural limit.
The article outlines how Chappell unlocked his system to use all the
memory that is present, but cautions that such hackery is ill-advised for
several reasons, including legal ones. "If you want [to be able to use
more than 4GB in Vista] without contrivance, then pester Microsoft for an
upgrade of the license data or at least for a credible, detailed
reasoning of its policy for licensing your use of your computer's memory.
... [C]onsider Windows Server 2008. For the loader and kernel in Windows
Vista SP1 (and, by the way, for the overwhelming majority of all
executables), the corresponding executable in Windows Server 2008 is
exactly the same, byte for byte. Yet Microsoft sells 32-bit Windows
Server 2008 for use with as much as 64GB of memory. Does Microsoft really
mean to say that when it re-badges these same executables as Windows
Vista SP1, they suddenly acquire an architectural limit of 4GB? Or is it
that a driver for Windows Server 2008 is safe for using with memory above
4GB as long as you don't let it interact with the identical executables
from Windows Vista SP1?"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1818215

Links:
0. http://www.geoffchappell.com/viewer.htm?...memory.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Report That OS X Snow Leopard May Include Antivirus |
| from the pinch-salt-toss-over-shoulder dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @16:02 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/1...Include-An|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

File this firmly in the "rumor" category for now. [0]the JoshMeister
writes (in the third person) "Mac antivirus company Intego [1]broke the
story this morning that Apple is apparently including antivirus
functionality in its upcoming operating system, Snow Leopard. But which
antivirus engine is Apple using? Security researcher Joshua Long
[2]discusses the likely candidates."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/25/1839246

Links:
0. http://twitter.com/theJoshMeister
1. http://blog.intego.com/2009/08/25/snow-l...antivirus/
2. http://security.thejoshmeister.com/2009/...opard.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit |
| from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @16:49 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...ls-To-Reac|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Matt_dk writes "The first satellite launched by South Korea [1]failed
to reach its designated orbit pattern on Tuesday, the NY Times is
reporting. The two-staged KSLV-1 rocket, built in cooperation with
Russia, failed to deliver the 100-kilogram oceanic and atmospheric
research satellite into its target orbit. The rocket was launched from
the Naro Space Center, 300 miles south of the capital Seoul. 'The failure
to push the satellite into its intended orbit was announced by Ahn
Myong-man, the minister of education, science and technology, at a news
conference. Mr. Ahn gave no further details. But South Korean news
outlets, citing unidentified sources, said the satellite broke away from
the rocket about 22 miles farther from the Earth than had been
intended.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/1859207

Links:
0. http://spacefellowship.com/
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/world/...et.html?hp

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FCC Declares Intention To Enforce Net Neutrality |
| from the play-nice-now dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @17:38 (The Internet) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...e-Net-Neut|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Unequivocal writes "The FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, told
Congress today that the 'Federal Communications Commission plans to
[1]keep the Internet free of increased user fees based on heavy Web
traffic and slow downloads. ...Genachowski... told The Hill that his
agency will support "net neutrality" and go after anyone who violates its
tenets. "One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is
that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation
of net neutrality principles," Genachowski said when asked what he could
do in his position to keep the Internet fair, free and open to all
Americans. The statement by Genachowski comes as the commission remains
locked in litigation with Comcast. The cable provider is appealing a
court decision by challenging the FCC's authority to penalize the company
for limiting Web traffic to its consumers.' It looks like the good guys
are winning, unless the appeals court rules against the FCC."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/2044233

Links:
0. http://www.misuse.org/science
1. http://thehill.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85184&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=70

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gaming the App Store |
| from the burning-your-knees-on-astroturf dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @18:25 (Cellphones) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...-App-Store |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

space_in_your_face writes "Want to boost the popularity of your latest
iPhone app? Ask Reverb Communications! 'When it comes to winning in the
App Store, this PR firm has discovered a dynamite strategy: throw ethics
out the window. Reverb Communications, a PR firm that represents dozens
of game publishers and developers, has managed to find astounding success
on Apple's App Store for its clients. Among its various tactics? It hires
a team of interns to [0]trawl iTunes and other community forums posing as
real users, and has them write positive reviews for their client's
applications. ... Reverb claims that their clients have sold over $2
billion of product under their watch.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...25/1946230

Links:
0. http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/08/22/c...r-clients/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Making Sense of Revision-Control Systems |
| from the only-constant-is-change dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @19:18 (Programming) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...ol-Systems |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

ChelleChelle writes "During the past half-decade there has been an
explosion of creativity in revision-control software, complicating the
task of determining which tool to use to track and manage the complexity
of a project as it evolves. Today, leaders of teams are faced with a
bewildering array of choices ranging from Subversion to the more popular
Git and Mercurial. It is important to keep in mind that whether
distributed or centralized, all revision-control systems come with a
complicated set of trade-offs. Each tool emphasizes a distinct approach
to working and collaboration, which in turn influences how the team
works. This article outlines how to go about [0]finding the best match
between tool and team."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/2126251

Links:
0. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1595636

Reply
#52
Aug 26th 2009

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Banks Urge Businesses To Lock Down Online Banking
* Finalists Chosen In Apps For America 2 Contest
* Microsoft Poland Photoshops Black Guy To White One
* Dirty Coding Tricks To Make a Deadline
* Red Hat Spins Off JBoss 2.x As HornetQ
* Global Warming To Be Put On Trial?
* Offshore Drilling Rigs Vulnerable To Hackers
* Who Will Fix the Internet? No One, Apparently
* Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out
* Sun Plans Security Coprocessor For New Ultrasparc
* Company Laptop, My Data — Can They Co-exist?
* Scientists Get $2M To Predict Space Weather
* Proposed UK File-Sharing Laws May Be Illegal, ISPs Upset
* Legitimate ISP a Cover-up For a Cybercrime Network
* Achron — an RTS With Time Travel
* Fear of Porn URL Exposure Discourages Firefox 3 Upgrade
* Using a House's Concrete Foundation To Cool a PC
* Obesity May Accelerate Brain Aging
* US Fed Gov. Says All Music Downloads Are Theft
* Time Denies Issuing DMCA Over Obama Joker Image
* Replacements For Adobe Creative Suite 3 Apps?
* Steam-Powered Car Breaks Century-Old Speed Record
* Red Hat Releases Windows Virtualization Code

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Banks Urge Businesses To Lock Down Online Banking |
| from the no-social-no-engineering dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @20:14 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/2...-Online-Ba|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

tsu doh nimh writes "Organized cyber-gangs in Eastern Europe are
increasingly [0]preying on small and mid-size companies in the US,
setting off a multimillion-dollar online crime wave that has begun to
worry the nation's largest financial institutions, The Washington Post's
Security Fix blog reports: '"In the past six months, financial
institutions, security companies, the media and law enforcement agencies
are all reporting a significant increase in funds transfer fraud
involving the exploitation of valid banking credentials belonging to
small and medium sized businesses," reads a confidential alert issued by
the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, an
industry group created to share data about critical threats to the
financial sector.' The banking group is urging that commercial bank
customers 'carry out all online banking activity from a standalone,
hardened, and locked-down computer from which e-mail and Web browsing is
not possible.' The story includes interviews with several victim
businesses, and explains that in each case, the fraudsters — thought to
reside in Eastern Europe — are using "'money mules,' unwitting or willing
accomplices in the US hired via Internet job boards. The blog has [1]more
stories and details about these crimes."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/25/2033206

Links:
0. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securit..._urge.html
1. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securit...eport.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Finalists Chosen In Apps For America 2 Contest |
| from the you-paid-for-the-data-might-as-well-mash-it-up dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @22:03 (The Internet) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...rica-2-Con|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Andurin writes "Sunlight Labs has announced three finalists for its
$25,000 [1]Apps for America 2 competition. Forty-seven apps were
submitted, each relying on Data.gov and providing a useful spin on
government data. [2]This We Know compiles federal information on a local
level; [3]govpulse is a searchable version of the Federal Register; and
[4]DataMasher allows simple mashups of government data sets. [5]Voting is
now open to determine the winner in the contest."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1924233

Links:
0. mailto:andurin@gmail.com
1. http://developers.slashdot.org/story/09/05/22/1943244/
2. http://www.thisweknow.org/
3. http://govpulse.us/
4. http://www.datamasher.org/
5. http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/08/24/...finalists/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Poland Photoshops Black Guy To White One |
| from the extreme-localization dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 25, @23:51 (Microsoft) |
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25...k-Guy-To-W|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]wanted writes "If you look at Microsoft's Poland business solutions
Web site, you will probably not notice anything odd about the main
picture. However, when you compare it with the [1]original English
version, you can see that someone decided that showing black people in
Poland is probably not going to be convincing to business. They just
Photoshopped the head of a white guy in for the black one, in an
amateurish way, leaving his hand unchanged. ([2]Here's a mirror in case
something should happen to the original.)" We noted a few months back
that the city of Toronto had [3]done something similar.

Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/2015205

Links:
0. http://wanted.eu.org/
1. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/18264/mspoland.jpg
2. http://pokazywarka.pl/msmurzyn/
3. http://idle.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...15/1650214&tid=21105

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dirty Coding Tricks To Make a Deadline |
| from the it-ain't-pretty-but-it-ain't-crashing dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @02:39 (Programming) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...a-Deadline |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Gamasutra is running an article with a collection of anecdotes from game
developers who had to employ some [0]quick and dirty fixes to get their
products to ship on time. Here's a brief excerpt: "Back at [company X] —
I think it was near the end of [the project] — we had an object in one of
the levels that needed to be hidden. We didn't want to re-export the
level and we did not use checksum names. So right smack in the middle of
the engine code we had something like the following. The game shipped
with this in: if( level == 10 && object == 56 ) {HideObject();} Maybe a
year later, an artist using our engine came to us very frustrated about
why an object in their level was not showing up after exporting to what
resolved to level 10. I wonder why?" Have you ever needed to insert
terrible code to make something work at the last minute?

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si.../26/021253

Links:
0. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/41...tricks.php

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Red Hat Spins Off JBoss 2.x As HornetQ |
| from the strip-mine-rename-and-release dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday August 26, @05:31 (Software) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26...As-HornetQ |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Several sources are reporting that Red Hat has spun off the [0]2.x
release of the JBoss messaging protocol as [1]HornetQ. The 1.x version of
JBoss is still being supported in maintenance mode and will continue to
be known by its original name. "HornetQ is an open source project to
build a multi-protocol, embeddable, high performance, clustered,
asynchronous messaging system. HornetQ is an example of Message Oriented
Middleware. [...] HornetQ is designed with flexibility in mind: It's
elegant POJO based design has minimal third party dependencies: Run
HornetQ as a stand-alone messaging broker, run it in integrated in your
favorite JEE application server, or run it embedded inside your own
application. It's up to you."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...26/0124243

Links:
0. http://www.computerworlduk.com/community...tryid=2461&blogid=14
1. http://jboss.org/hornetq.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Global Warming To Be Put On Trial? |
| from the break-out-the-popcorn dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday August 26, @08:23 (Businesses) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...t-On-Trial |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Mr_Blank writes to mention that the United States' largest business lobby
is pushing for a public trial to examine the [0]evidence of global
warming and have a judge make a ruling on whether human beings are
warming the planet to dangerous effect. "The goal of the chamber, which
represents 3 million large and small businesses, is to fend off potential
emissions regulations by undercutting the scientific consensus over
climate change. If the EPA denies the request, as expected, the chamber
plans to take the fight to federal court. The EPA is having none of it,
calling a hearing a 'waste of time' and saying that a threatened lawsuit
by the chamber would be 'frivolous.' [...] Environmentalists say the
chamber's strategy is an attempt to sow political discord by challenging
settled science — and note that in the famed 1925 Scopes trial, which
pitted lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan in a courtroom
battle over a Tennessee science teacher accused of teaching evolution
illegally, the scientists won in the end."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...26/0117230

Links:
0. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...1567.story

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Offshore Drilling Rigs Vulnerable To Hackers |
| from the what-do-you-mean-software-needs-to-be-updated dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @09:08 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/1...To-Hackers|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Foreign Policy magazine reports that a research
team from the SINTEF Group, an independent Norwegian think tank, has
warned oil companies worldwide that [1]offshore oil rigs are highly
vulnerable to hacking as they shift to unmanned robot platforms where
vital operations — everything from data transmission to drilling to
sophisticated navigation systems that maintain the platform's position
over the wellhead — are controlled via wireless links to onshore
facilities. 'The worst-case scenario, of course, is that a hacker will
break in and take over control of the whole platform,' says Martin Gilje
Jaatun, adding that it hasn't happened yet, but computer viruses have
caused personnel injuries and production losses on North Sea platforms.
The list of potential cyberattackers includes ecowarriors aiming to jack
up an oil firms' production costs, extortionists drawn to oil firms' deep
pockets, and foreign governments engaging in a strategic contest for
ever-more-scarce global oil reserves, says Jeff Vail, a former
counterterrorism and intelligence analyst with the US Interior
Department. 'It's underappreciated how vulnerable some of these systems
are,' says Vail. 'It is possible, if you really understood them, to cause
catastrophic damage by causing safety systems to fail.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/26/1214206

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/20...es_hackers

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Who Will Fix the Internet? No One, Apparently |
| from the internet's-over-folks-pack-your-things dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @09:55 (The Internet) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26...-Apparentl|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]blackbearnh writes "It seems like everyone focuses on the latest and
greatest killer Internet applications, but the underlying infrastructure
that all of them run on is showing its age. That's the claim made by a
recent article in the Christian Science Monitor. IPv4 is relatively
ancient, and even stalled improvements like IPv6 aren't significant
enough to matter, according to some researchers. With no one 'in charge'
of the Internet, it's almost [1]impossible to get any sweeping technical
improvements made, especially since there's [2]no financial incentive on
the part of the ISPs and telecoms to invest in basic infrastructure.
CalTech Professor John Doyle puts it this way: 'To the extent I've been
working in this field for the last 10 years, I've been mostly working on
band-aids. I'm really trying to get out of that business and try to help
the people, the few people, who are really trying to think more
fundamentally about what needs to be done.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...26/1235227

Links:
0. http://www.blackbear.biz/
1. http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation...onna-call/
2. http://slashdot.org/story/09/08/14/22332...d-Stimulus

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Coder of Swiss Wiretapping Trojan Speaks Out |
| from the is-swiss-software-full-of-security-holes dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @10:41 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/1...Speaks-Out |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Lars Sobiraj writes "Ruben Unteregger has worked for a long time as a
software-engineer for the Swiss company ERA IT Solutions. His job there
was to [1]code malware that would invade PCs of private users, and allow
the wiretapping of VoIP calls — in particular, calls made through Skype.
In the German-speaking areas of the country, the Trojans were called
'Bundestrojaner' because the Swiss government was [2]involved with their
development and use. Unfortunately, Unteregger has to remain silent about
the customers of the company. Last night, he [3]published the source code
of his Skype-Trojan under the GPL."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/26/144249

Links:
0. mailto:lars.sobiraj@gmx.net
1. http://www.gulli.com/news/bundestrojaner...009-08-24/
2. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/09/2255234&tid=76
3. http://www.megapanzer.com/2009/08/25/sky...-download/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sun Plans Security Coprocessor For New Ultrasparc |
| from the a-good-processor-knows-how-to-delegate dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @11:06 (Encryption) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...or-For-New-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]angry tapir writes "At the Hot Chips conference at Stanford
University, Sun presented plans for a security accelerator chip that it
said would [1]reduce encryption costs for applications such as VoIP calls
and online banking Web sites. The coprocessor will be included on the
same silicon as Rainbow Falls, the code name for the follow-on to Sun's
multi-threaded Ultrasparc T2 processor."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../26/149214

Links:
0. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/
1. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/316215

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Company Laptop, My Data — Can They Co-exist? |
| from the only-with-a-chore-schedule dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @11:25 (Privacy) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/...They-Co-ex|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "I recently replaced my old laptop. The owner
of my company heard about this and offered to reimburse me for it, since
he knows I have and will continue to do company work on my own hardware.
I'd like the extra $1,250, but I think if I accept his offer that legally
he has the right to any data on it (personal emails, files, blog posts,
etc.). Even if I decide to put my personal stuff on a second drive, I'm
worried that using company property to save and write to separate storage
still gives them the right to it. The apps (Office, etc.) are my own
licenses. We do not have a policy that intellectual property developed
using company assets belongs to the company. But, if I figured out the
One Great Internet Business Idea or write the Great American Novel and
used the company laptop to do it, it's an avenue they could use to claim
they own it. Unlikely, but scary. How many Slashdotters have been in this
situation, and what agreement did you and your management come up with?"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...26/1427240

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Scientists Get $2M To Predict Space Weather |
| from the spock-with-a-goatee dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @11:46 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...Space-Weat|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "Looking to understand better [1]how space weather
affects a variety of everyday consumer technologies, including global
positioning systems, satellites for television reception, and cellular
phones, researchers at Virginia Tech's Space@VT research group got a $2
million grant to build a chain of space weather instrument stations in
Antarctica. The National Science Foundation grant will help the group
build new radar units that will work with the current Super Dual-Auroral
Radar Network — an international collaboration with support provided by
the funding agencies of more than a dozen countries. The radars combine
to give extensive views of the upper atmosphere in both the Arctic and
Antarctic regions."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...26/1448245

Links:
0. http://networkworld.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/44718

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Proposed UK File-Sharing Laws May Be Illegal, ISPs Upset |
| from the don't-tread-on-them dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @12:13 (Government) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26...y-Be-Illeg|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

mindbrane writes "Once in a while, a sidebar will throw a lot of light on
a difficult problem. The BBC has a short piece on [0]British ISPs' anger
over proposed new laws governing file sharing in the UK. The new laws
would include [1]cutting repeat offenders off from the Internet. Early
response suggests such tactics would fail: 'UK ISP Talk Talk said the
recommendations were [2]likely to "breach fundamental rights" and would
not work. ... Virgin said that "persuasion not coercion" was key in the
fight to crack down on the estimated six million file-sharers in the UK.
... Talk Talk's director of regulation Andrew Heaney told the BBC News
the ISP was as keen as anyone to clamp down on illegal file-sharers. ...
"This is best done by making sure there are legal alternatives and
educating people, writing letters to alleged file-sharers and, if
necessary, taking them to court."' The article also mentions a statement
issued by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which
'proposes that internet service providers are obliged to take action
against repeat infringers and suggests that the cost of tracking down
persistent pirates be shared 50:50 between ISPs and rights holders.'
Unsurprisingly, said rights holders are in favor of the idea."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...26/1537237

Links:
0. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8219652.stm
1. http://slashdot.org/story/09/08/17/23492...ownloaders
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/200...n-attacked

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Legitimate ISP a Cover-up For a Cybercrime Network |
| from the e-front-affront dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @13:01 (Networking) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26...Cybercrime|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]ezabi writes "TrendWatch, the malware research arm of TrendMicro, has
posted a white paper titled '[1]A Cybercrime Hub' (PDF, [2]summary here)
describing the activities of an Estonian ISP acting as a cover-up for a
large cybercrime network. It's involved with malware distribution and DNS
hijacking, which leads to credit card fraud. The story's interesting, and
a typical internet user would be exposed in such a situation. What
security measures should be taken to prevent normal users from falling
victim to such malicious bodies? Note that they are represented
legitimately and are offering real services like any other internet
company."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...26/1614206

Links:
0. mailto:elezabi@gmail.com
1. http://us.trendmicro.com/imperia/md/cont...me_hub.pdf
2. http://blog.trendmicro.com/investigation...n-estonia/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Achron — an RTS With Time Travel |
| from the flux-capacitor-not-required dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 26, @13:25 (Real Time Strategy (Games)) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...ime-Travel |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "As much as I'm looking forward to StarCraft 2,
there's a new RTS gaming tech that has me even more enthused. The
Escapist Magazine has posted [0]interviews and footage of the upcoming
'meta-time strategy game' [1] Achron, which was announced at GDC
[2]earlier this year. It's a multiplayer RTS where you can send things
through time. The official site has some [3]gameplay footage as well, and
it looks like their tech is useful [4]outside of gaming."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si.../26/163256

Links:
0. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/v...res-Achron
1. http://achrongame.com/
2. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/...-strategy/
3. http://achrongame.com/videos.html
4. http://achrongame.com/technology.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Fear of Porn URL Exposure Discourages Firefox 3 Upgrade |
| from the porn-mode-incomplete-until-it's-a-separate-browser dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @13:54 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/...ages-Firef|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Barence writes "Mozilla's Security team has disclosed a very
interesting piece of research which suggests people refused to upgrade to
Firefox 3 because they were [1]afraid the browser would expose their porn
collection. Mozilla's research found that the number one reason for not
upgrading was the new location bar, and the fact that it delved into
people's bookmark collections to suggest sites as they typed. 'When we
expanded the capabilities of the location bar to search against all
history and bookmarks in Firefox 3, a lot of people contacted us to say
that they had certain bookmarks they didn't really want to have
displayed,' Firefox's principal designer, Alex Faaborg, tactfully
explains. 'In some cases users had intentionally hidden these bookmarks
in deep hierarchies of folders, somewhat similar to how one might hide a
physical object.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...26/1710216

Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/
1. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/08/26/...firefox-3/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Using a House's Concrete Foundation To Cool a PC |
| from the thinking-deeper-than-built-in-cable-drops dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @14:41 (Hardware Hacking) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...ndation-To-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Agg writes "Well the slab gets poured on Wednesday so I thought I
would sink [1]6 meters of copper pipe in the slab so that I can run my
water loop through it when the house is finished. I hope to have water
year round at about 16deg [about 61F]. No need for radiators or fans with
chilled water coming straight out of the slab!"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...26/1820215

Links:
0. http://www.overclockers.com.au/
1. http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showth...p?t=800958

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Obesity May Accelerate Brain Aging |
| from the to-be-aware-of dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @15:36 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...rain-Aging |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

natehoy writes "According to the US News and World Report, [0]a recent
study has shown a link between obesity and the loss of neurological
tissue. The brains of elderly patients who were obese had on average 8%
less tissue than their trimmer counterparts. Overweight patients had
brains lighter by about 4%. This could have implications for the onset of
dementia illnesses such as Alzheimer's. Just one more risk factor to add
to the growing body (no pun intended) of reasons to try and stay trim."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...26/1845249

Links:
0. http://health.usnews.com/articles/health...hrink.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Fed Gov. Says All Music Downloads Are Theft |
| from the bit-of-a-broad-brush-there dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @16:29 (The Internet) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/...ds-Are-The|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

BenEnglishAtHome writes "Nearly all US government employees and
contractors are subject to [0]mandatory annual information security
briefings. This year the official briefing flatly states that [1]all
downloaded music is stolen. The occasionally breathless tone of the
briefing and the various minor errors contained therein are funny but the
real eye-opener is a 'secure the building' exercise where employees
stumble across security problems and resolve them. According to the
material, the correct response to an employee who is downloading music is
to shout 'That's stealing!' No mention is made of more-free licenses,
public domain works, or any other legitimate download. If this were a
single agency or department that had made a mistake in their training
material it might not be so shocking. But this is a government-wide
training package that's being absorbed by hundreds of thousands of
federal employees, both civilian and military. If you see a co-worker
downloading music, they're stealing. Period. Who woulda thunk it?
Somebody should mirror this. Who wants to bet that copies will become
hard to find if clued-in technogeeks take notice and start making noise?"
Warning: this site gives a whole new meaning to "Flash heavy."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...26/1956201

Links:
0. http://iase.disa.mil/eta/iaav7-3/iaa/index.html
1. http://www.pacom.mil/j65/cbt-ver7/iaa/index.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Time Denies Issuing DMCA Over Obama Joker Image |
| from the just-like-the-beginning-of-the-dark-knight dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @17:22 (Censorship) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/...ma-Joker-I|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Last week Slashdot posted on the Flickr
censorship case where [0]Flickr removed the controversial Obama/Joker
image from their site. A representative from Flickr claimed that they
only removed the image because they [1]received a DMCA takedown notice
over the image and then accused the press and blogosphere of being 'makey
uppey,' subsequently locking the thread where Flickr users were
complaining about the takedown. But now it appears that Time, DC Comics,
and the photographer of the original photograph used to make the parody
image are all [2]denying having issued Flickr a takedown notice. Flickr
was asked who issued the notice by the Los Angeles Times and told the
Times that they were not able to provide that information. The original
artist says Flickr has not told him who filed it either, despite the fact
that Yahoo has in the past provided the information to people when DMCA
takedown requests are issued. So if Time didn't file the DMCA notice, and
DC Comics didn't file the DMCA notice, and the original photographer did
not file the DMCA notice, then [3]who exactly did?"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...26/2113250

Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/19/1...a-as-Joker
1. http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/103784/
2. http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009/08/mystery-...joker.html
3. http://thomashawk.com/2009/08/so-if-time...o-did.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Replacements For Adobe Creative Suite 3 Apps? |
| from the best-of-luck-to-ye dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @18:05 (Graphics) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/...uite-3-App|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Gilmoure writes "With rumors of [1]Adobe not supporting Creative Suite
3 applications on Mac OS X 10.6, I was wondering what Open Source apps
folks would recommend to replace Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and
Dreamweaver? If the apps can work with the native file formats, all the
better but if they provide the same functionality, that's still good. I
have several designer friends that are looking forward to the speed boost
of OS X 10.6 but don't want to go through the Adobe upgrades so soon
after the CS2 to CS3 upgrades. Especially when Adobe's already working on
CS5."

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...26/2118235

Links:
0. mailto:gilmoure@gmai%5B%5Dom%5B'l.c'ingap%5D
1. http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?stor...6091756269

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Steam-Powered Car Breaks Century-Old Speed Record |
| from the we-say-horsepower-but-not-buggywhip-power dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday August 26, @18:11 (Transportation) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26...-Old-Speed|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]mcgrew writes "New Scientist reports that a steam-powered car has
broken the 1906 record of 204 km/hr (127 mph) for the fastest
steam-powered automobile, the Stanley Steamer. The Inspiration [1]made a
top speed of 225 kilometres per hour (140 miles per hour) on August 26.
'The car's engine burns liquid petroleum gas to heat water in 12
suitcase-sized boilers, creating steam heated to 400C. The steam then
drives a two-stage turbine that spins at 13,000 revolutions per minute to
power its wheels.The FIA requires two 1.6-km-long runs to be performed in
opposite directions — to cancel out any effect from wind — within 60
minutes.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...26/2126204

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~mcgrew/journal
1. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17...ecord.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Red Hat Releases Windows Virtualization Code |
| from the show-me-yours-and-I'll-show-you-mine dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 26, @19:21 (Red Hat Software) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...lization-C|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

dan_johns writes "Only one month after [0]Microsoft released Linux code
to improve the performance of Linux guests on Windows, Red Hat has done
the reverse. Red Hat has quietly [1]released a set of drivers to improve
the performance of Windows guests hosted on Linux's Kernel-based Virtual
Machine (KVM) hypervisor. The netkvm driver is a network driver and
viostor is a Storport driver to improve the performance of high-end
storage. This release includes paravirtual block drivers for Windows.
Linux and Windows — virtually coming together at last."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...26/2244255

Links:
0. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/20/1643251
1. http://www.techworld.com.au/article/3162...on_drivers

Reply
#53
Aug 27th 2009

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* NASA Explores the Moon's Water/Oxygen Deposits
* High-Tech Blimps Earning Their Wings
* ACLU Sues For Records On Border Laptop Searches
* Bioreactors Engineer Tissue To Mend Heart Damage
* China Admits Use of Death-Row Organs
* VA Mistakenly Tells Vets They Have Fatal Illness
* FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign
* Nintendo Working On Football Controller
* Nokia Launches Pay-By-Phone Service
* Police 'Steal' From Unlocked Cars
* Drug Vending Machines
* Depression May Provide Cognitive Advantages
* Astrophysicists Find "Impossible" Planet
* Database Records and "In Plain Sight" Searches
* Nokia Releases Linux Handset
* Augmenting Reality With Your Mobile Phone
* TiVo Relaunching As a Patent Troll?
* US Call-Center Jobs — That Pay $100K a Year
* After Canadian Prodding, Facebook To Change Privacy Policy
* WPA Encryption Cracked In 60 Seconds
* Microsoft Drops Xbox 360 Pricing
* "Violent" Video Games To Be Banned In Venezuela
* How an Online-Only TV Series Stays Successful
* Watermelon Juice Makes Great Biofuel
* An End To Unencrypted Digital Cable TV and the HTPC
* Bug Means High School Students' Schedule Errors May Last Days
* Snow Leopard Drops Palm OS Sync
* Pogo-Style Robot Legs Allow 9-Foot Bounces
* Hackers (Or Pen-Testers) Hit Credit Unions With Malware On CD

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NASA Explores the Moon's Water/Oxygen Deposits |
| from the not-a-very-big-pool dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 26, @20:04 (Moon) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...Oxygen-Dep|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]destinyland writes "NASA's LCross mission will now [1]test whether the
moon's hydrogen and oxygen deposits could be converted into air, water,
and even fuel. A dramatic crash by the rocket's upper stage will blast
200 tons of moon rock up 10 kilometers from a dark crater — where its
constitution can be measured by LCross's instruments. (NASA predicts 'a
number of different ways that we'll be able to create water from whatever
form of lunar hydrogen we find' on the moon, noting recent missions have
already confirmed the presence of oxygen in moon rocks, while the sun
delivers a constant stream of hydrogen.) Carrying water to the moon costs
$100,000 a kilogram, so these experiments could be a crucial step to
getting more people on the moon."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...26/2252213

Links:
0. http://www.destinyland.org/
1. http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/air-sp...shing-moon

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| High-Tech Blimps Earning Their Wings |
| from the truly-goodyear dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 26, @20:35 (The Military) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26...heir-Wings |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "The US Army this week showed off its [1]latest
high-tech blimp laden with powerful radar systems capable of detecting
incoming threats 340 miles away. The helium-filled blimps, or aerostats,
are designed to hover over war zones or high-security areas and be on
guard for incoming missiles or other threats. The Army wants them to
reduce some of the need for manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights.
The aerostat demonstrated this week is known as the Joint Land Attack
Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Sensor System (JLENS), which is designed
to fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet. According to
GlobalSecurity.org., the $1.4 billion JLENS is a large, unpowered
elevated sensor moored to the ground by a long cable. From its position
above the battlefield, the elevated sensors will allow incoming cruise
missiles to be detected, tracked, and engaged by surface-based air
defense systems even before the targets can be seen by the systems."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...26/2248204

Links:
0. mailto:mcooney@nww.com
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/44747

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ACLU Sues For Records On Border Laptop Searches |
| from the what-are-you-looking-at dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 26, @22:53 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/...aptop-Sear|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]TechPolitik writes "The ACLU has sued the US Customs and Border
Protection agency under the Freedom of Information Act, aiming to
[1]obtain records on the agency's policy of searching laptops at the
border. Under the policy, the CBP can search through financial records,
photos, and Web site histories, and retain that information for
unspecified periods of time. The ACLU is arguing that the information is
necessary to understand whether the CBP may be violating the Fourth
Amendment, which protects against unreasonable and unwarranted searches.
The agency has so far not responded to requests for comment."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...26/2256252

Links:
0. http://www.techpolitik.com/
1. http://www.techpolitik.com/2009/08/26/ac...-searches/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bioreactors Engineer Tissue To Mend Heart Damage |
| from the make-yourself-better dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 26, @23:08 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...-Mend-Hear|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Heart attacks usually cause irreversible damage
to heart muscle and, because cells lost from the heart do not grow back
naturally, leave the organ in a weakened and vulnerable state that may
cause another serious condition — called heart failure — if the victim
survives. Now a team of scientists led by Tal Dvir from Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva has developed a tissue-engineering
technique, using the body as a 'bioreactor,' to create a [1]'patch' made
from heart muscle that can be used to fix scarring left over from a heart
attack. First, [2]a biodegradable 'scaffold' is seeded with immature
cells taken from the hearts of newborn rats. For 48 hours, the scaffold
is exposed to a cocktail of growth-promoting chemicals in the laboratory
and is then transplanted into a rat's abdomen where it develops a network
of blood vessels and muscle fibers. After seven days the patch is removed
and grafted onto the animal's heart. A month later the patch has
completely integrated itself into the heart, synchronizing its 'beat'
with that of the surrounding tissue. '[3]Using the body as a bioreactor
to engineer cardiac tissue with stable and functional blood vessel
networks represents a significant improvement in cardiac patch
performance over ex vivo (outside the body) methods currently used for
patch production,' write the authors. The technique is also being
developed for livers and bladders."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../26/233206

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8218077.stm
2. http://books.google.com/books?id=kSczI9Sbq9EC&pg=PA503&lpg=PA503&dq=scaffold+bioreactor&source=bl&ots=KVGEiL7QgR&sig=tqmwnsVivV-2OBI_vKrhjQ_KUdQ&hl=en&ei=m1iTSszXJqeltgeK8JBO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#v=onepage&q=scaffold%20bioreactor&f=false
3. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress...XVKwSL5jLw

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| China Admits Use of Death-Row Organs |
| from the you-won't-be-needing-this-anymore dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 27, @02:05 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...Row-Organs |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

h.ross.perot writes "Like a page from Larry Niven's Known Space series,
here is a real [0]report of criminals' organs being harvested for
'profit.' From the article: 'China is trying to move away from the use of
executed prisoners as the major source of organs for transplants.
According to the China Daily newspaper, executed prisoners currently
provide two-thirds of all transplant organs. The government is now
launching a voluntary donation scheme, which it hopes will also curb the
illegal trafficking in organs. But analysts say cultural bias against
removing organs after death will make a voluntary scheme hard to
implement.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../26/239244

Links:
0. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8222732.stm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| VA Mistakenly Tells Vets They Have Fatal Illness |
| from the experiencing-technical-difficulty dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 27, @03:01 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...-Have-Fata|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Thanks to a computer glitch and bad diagnosis
coding, [0]the VA sent a letter to thousands of veterans telling them
they have Lou Gehrig's Disease. Some were right, but many were mistakes.
From the article, 'Recently, the VA determined ALS to be a
service-connected disability and generated automatic letters to all
veterans whose records included the code for the disease. However, since
the coding contained both ALS and undiagnosed neurological disorders,
some of those letters were erroneous.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...26/2316210

Links:
0. http://fcw.com/articles/2009/08/26/va-er...nosis.aspx

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FSF Attacks Windows 7's "Sins" In New Campaign |
| from the a-long-way-to-absolution dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 27, @04:35 (Operating Systems) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27...ew-Campaig|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]CWmike writes "The Free Software Foundation today launched a campaign
against Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, [1]calling
it 'treacherous computing' that stealthily takes away rights from users.
At the Web site Windows7Sins.org, the Boston-based FSF [2]lists the seven
'sins' that proprietary software such as Windows 7 commits against
computer users. They include: Poisoning education, locking in users,
abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), leveraging
monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital
Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies
concerned about movie and music piracy, and invading privacy. 'Windows,
for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from
making copies of digital files,' said executive director Peter Brown. And
if Microsoft's Trusted Computing technology were fully implemented the
way the company would like, the vendor would have 'malicious and really
complete control over your computer.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/0048236

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9...ws_7_sins_
2. http://windows7sins.org/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nintendo Working On Football Controller |
| from the super-madden-brothers-'11 dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 27, @06:15 (Businesses) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...Controller |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Siliconera found patent filings from Nintendo for [0]a football
controller addon that will work with the Wii. After tucking the Wii
Remote into a lateral slot on the football, you slip your hand through a
strap so that your fingers touch the Remote's buttons. Then you mimic
running and throwing, which is interpreted by the accelerometer. 'The
pitch angle and force of the throw determines the trajectory arc of the
throw. Side to side motion determines the yaw angle. Pressing buttons on
the Wii remote can adjust other options.' The device is described as
'squishy,' so your TV is probably safe, but I'd try it at a friend's
house first.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...27/0646254

Links:
0. http://www.siliconera.com/2009/08/24/nin...ontroller/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nokia Launches Pay-By-Phone Service |
| from the easy-financing dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 27, @07:57 (Cellphones) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/08/...ne-Service |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

adeelarshad82 writes "The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said it
would launch [0]a mobile financial service next year targeting consumers,
mainly in emerging markets, with a phone but no banking account. Nokia's
Money service was based on the mobile payment platform of Obopay, a
privately-owned firm that Nokia invested in earlier this year, and it is
now building up a network of agents. Obopay, which uses text messaging
and mobile Internet access, charges users a fee to send money or to top
up their accounts."

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...27/0357212

Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352056,00.asp

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Police 'Steal' From Unlocked Cars |
| from the necessary-to-destroy-the-town-in-order-to-save-it dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 27, @08:40 (Security) |
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27...ocked-Cars |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Robadob writes "Police in south-west London have started to [1]remove
items from unlocked cars to protect motorists from thieves. From the
article, 'Supt Jim Davis said no law was being breached but admitted:
"Technically we are entering the vehicle." But a leading lawyer said
police could face civil proceedings for trespass if any items taken by
them were damaged.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/0055217

Links:
0. http://robadob.de/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8220274.stm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Drug Vending Machines |
| from the correct-change-only dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 27, @08:47 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...g-Machines |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "If you guessed San Bernardino County prisons
as the ideal place to put [0]drug vending machines, come claim your
prize. From the article, 'Corrections departments are responsible for so
many burdensome tasks that many of their everyday functions, like
administering prescription drugs to inmates, are afterthoughts for the
public. However, dispensing medication was so laborious and wasteful for
the San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sheriff-Coroner Department that
officials sought a way to streamline the process. The end product was
essentially a vending machine that links to correctional facility
databases and dispenses prescription medications.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../27/014211

Links:
0. http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/714985

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Depression May Provide Cognitive Advantages |
| from the see-it's-an-advantage dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 27, @08:53 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...ive-Advant|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr.
argue in Scientific American that although depression is considered a
mental disorder, [1]depression may in fact be a mental adaptation which
provides real benefits. This is not to say that depression is not a
problem. Depressed people often have trouble performing everyday
activities, they can't concentrate on their work, they tend to socially
isolate themselves, they are lethargic, and they often lose the ability
to take pleasure from such activities such as eating and sex. So what
could be so useful about depression? 'Depressed people often think
intensely about their problems,' write the authors. 'These thoughts are
called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have
difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown
that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a
complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are
considered one at a time.' Various studies have found that people in
depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas and there is
evidence that [2]people who get more depressed while they are working on
complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test
(PDF). 'When one considers all the evidence, depression seems less like a
disorder where the brain is operating in a haphazard way, or
malfunctioning. Instead, depression seems more like the vertebrate eye —
an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a
specific function.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...27/1233251

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...olutionary
2. http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/ep05584604.pdf

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Astrophysicists Find "Impossible" Planet |
| from the just-like-global-warming dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 27, @09:46 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...ble-Planet |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

SpuriousLogic writes "Scientists have [0]discovered a planet that
shouldn't exist. The finding, they say, could alter our understanding of
orbital dynamics, a field considered pretty well settled since the time
of astronomer Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. The planet is known as a
'hot Jupiter,' a gas giant orbiting the star Wasp-18, about 330 light
years from Earth. The planet, Wasp-18b, is so close to the star that it
completes a full orbit (its "year") in less than an Earth day, according
to the research, which was published in the journal Nature. Of the more
than 370 exoplanets — planets orbiting stars other than our sun —
discovered so far, this is just the second with such a close orbit. The
problem is that a planet that close should be consumed by its parent star
in less than a million years, say the authors at Keele University in
England. The star Wasp-18 is believed to be about a billion years old,
and since stars and the planets around them are thought to form at the
same time, Wasp-18b should have been reduced to cinders ages ago."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...27/1237251

Links:
0. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...2308.story

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Database Records and "In Plain Sight" Searches |
| from the but-it's-sitting-right-there dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 27, @10:33 (Government) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27...ght-Search|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

chriswaco writes "A federal appeals court ruled that [0]database records
are not 'in plain sight' when other records in the same database are
subpoenaed. The case involved Major League Baseball drug test results,
but the implications are far wider."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1244247

Links:
0. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/26/steroid...index.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nokia Releases Linux Handset |
| from the where's-my-root-prompt dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 27, @11:15 (Cellphones) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...ux-Handset |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]galaxy writes "Nokia [1]releases their first Linux mobile handset, the
N900 The handset is based on the latest release of Maemo, the Nokia
mobile Linux platform, and includes e.g. GSM and 3G access (with HSPA,
giving datarates of up to 10Mbps downlink and 2Mbps uplink on suitable
networks), WLAN, Bluetooth, camera, assisted GPS and, most importantly, a
touchscreen complemented by a hardware QWERTY under a slider. The beast
is powered by an ARM Cortex-A8 processor at 600 MHz, has PowerVR SGX with
OpenGL ES 2.0 support, 32GB internal memory etc."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...27/1247208

Links:
0. mailtoConfusedamuli@sorvakkoCOW.netminusherbivore
1. http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Augmenting Reality With Your Mobile Phone |
| from the evolve-no-neck dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 27, @12:02 (Displays) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/08/...obile-Phon|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]blackbearnh writes "With the release of the 3.1 iPhone OS, application
developers will finally be able to develop augmented reality (AR) apps.
In other words, [1]Terminator Vision is right around the corner. O'Reilly
Media recently talked to Chetan Damani, one of the founders of
[2]Acrossair, about how they developed their new AR application, Nearest
Tube, which displays the closest London Tube stations over a live video
overlay on an iPhone 3GS. According to Damani, developing AR applications
on the 3GS is dead easy, and the real trick will be developing good
augmented reality apps. 'It's all about who's going to have the most
amount of data and the most valid data. So there's the obvious types of
apps which you're going to launch and those are the find me my nearest
bar, find me my nearest event, find me the nearest tube stop, find me the
nearest ATM. And those sorts of apps are all going to be around. But
they're only going to be useful for when you're trying to look for
things. So if we want to get users to use augmented reality a little bit
more, we have to start introducing other bits of functionality, things
like show me the offers available in a particular high street. Show me
when I'm walking down a high street if there's a table available at a
particular restaurant. And it's that sort of interactivity and providing
that real-time data in this augmented reality view which is going to
start getting people to use it a lot more rather than just for show me
where the nearest area is.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...27/1453213

Links:
0. http://www.oreilly.com/
1. http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/08/aug...the-i.html
2. http://www.acrossair.com/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| TiVo Relaunching As a Patent Troll? |
| from the i-thought-we-could-be-friends dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 27, @13:03 (Media) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27/...tent-Troll |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "TiVo's quarterly call was a bit more dramatic
than usual. While they [0]continue to lose customers and [1]innovate "at
a very unhurried pace," TiVo seeks [2]a repeat DISH Network performance
in [3]going after AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) for infringement. Basically,
TiVo's current business model appears to be [4]ad sales and patent
trolling."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1654231

Links:
0. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/08/26/tiv...ent-112605
1. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/sho...ost7457944
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/08/10/08/0...?art_pos=7
3. http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2009-08/tivo...tt-verizon
4. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...534D46.DTL

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Call-Center Jobs — That Pay $100K a Year |
| from the payment-for-the-gift-of-gab dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @13:50 (United States) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27...Pay-100K-a-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]bheer writes "BusinessWeek profiles a call center company called iQor
which has grown revenues 40% year-on-year by (shock) [1]treating
employees as critical assets. It's done this not by nickel-and-diming,
but by expanding its US operations (13 centers across the US now), giving
employees universal health insurance, and paying salaries and bonuses
that are nearly 50% above industry norms. The article notes that
outsourcing will continue and globalization will continue to change the
world's economic landscape. 'But the US is hardly helpless. With smart
processes and the proper incentives, US companies can keep jobs here in
America, and do so in a way that is actually better for the company and
its employees.' Now if only other companies get a clue as well."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1719234

Links:
0. mailto:rbheer@nOsPaM.gmail.com
1. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/c...655273.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| After Canadian Prodding, Facebook To Change Privacy Policy |
| from the but-it-was-a-polite-prodding dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @14:11 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27/...-To-Change-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Retardical_Sam writes "Facebook has [0]agreed to make changes to protect
users' personal information on the social networking site, including the
way data is accessed by third-party developers, Canada's privacy
commissioner said Thursday. Canadian officials have been negotiating with
Facebook since the Office of the Privacy Commissioner released a report a
month ago that argued the social network breaches Canadian privacy law.
Facebook agreed to make changes dealing with third-party applications
like quizzes and games, deactivation of accounts, the personal
identification of non-users and accounts of users who die."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...27/1753237

Links:
0. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/...ioner.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| WPA Encryption Cracked In 60 Seconds |
| from the nicholas-cage-has-an-alibi dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @14:38 (Wireless Networking) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...60-Seconds |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]carusoj writes "Computer scientists in Japan say they've developed a
way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers [1]in
about one minute. Last November, security researchers first showed how
WPA could be broken, but the Japanese researchers have taken the attack
to a new level. The [2]earlier attack worked on a smaller range of WPA
devices and took between 12 and 15 minutes to work. Both attacks work
only on WPA systems that use the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)
algorithm. They do not work on newer WPA 2 devices or on WPA systems that
use the stronger Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../27/180249

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/08...wi-fi.html
2. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/06/1546245&tid=76

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Drops Xbox 360 Pricing |
| from the more-or-less dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 27, @15:01 (Microsoft) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...60-Pricing |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Kawahee was one of several readers to tip news of [1]a price cut for
the Xbox 360. This comes after Sony [2]dropped PS3 prices and unveiled
the Slim model last week. The 360 Elite will now retail for $299, but
will [3]no longer ship with HD cables. The 360 Pro has been reduced to
$249, but Microsoft is phasing it out. Analysts don't expect this new
price point to be a huge boon for sales because the Elite [4]doesn't
match the PS3's hardware capabilities and is still more expensive than
the Wii. Microsoft has [5]"no plans" for a smaller version of the 360.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...27/1831212

Links:
0. mailto:todd@lanlocked.net
1. http://www.planetxbox360.com/article_761...60_Systems
2. http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/18...e?from=rss
3. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6216343.html
4. http://www.destructoid.com/eedar-xbox-36...6294.phtml
5. http://kotaku.com/5346532/microsoft-conf...360-rumors

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Violent" Video Games To Be Banned In Venezuela |
| from the clearly-the-root-of-their-problems dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 27, @15:22 (Censorship) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...-In-Venezu|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The country that has bought Sukhois, tanks
and 100,000 AK-103's, is planning to build a manufacturing plant of
Russian rifles, and oppresses peaceful marches has [0]decided to ban
'violent' video games because they 'promote violence and can alter the
behavior of children.' The new legislation in Venezuela says, 'The
violence found in video games is translated into the real world.' This
new law affects people who sell, 'use,' produce, import and distribute
these games. Video games as a whole have been labeled as 'a consequence
of savage capitalism' by PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela),
which is the political party led by Hugo Chavez. Days before this law was
approved by the National Assembly, Chavez promoted the use of traditional
toys like the Yo-Yo and Trompo, and suggested that electronic toys like
'the Nintendo' be put aside because they promote 'egoism, individualism
and violence.' Just today the AFP released a report showing Caracas as
the [1]second most violent city on the planet — even more violent than
Baghdad. I guess all those violent gangs in Venezuela are addicted to
video games."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si.../27/182244

Links:
0. http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleM...5R20090826
1. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/art...8o69Ds7auQ

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How an Online-Only TV Series Stays Successful |
| from the roll-enough-dies dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @16:06 (Media) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...ays-Succes|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

ChronoDragon writes "The Wall Street Journal points out that it is
possible to make a [0]successful web series without the backing of a
studio. With the release of a music video, [1]Do you Wanna Date My Avatar,
and the start of Season of 3, the web series [2] The Guild is ready for
even more success. The Guild, created by [3]Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible),
is a low-budget comedy series about a group of MMORPG gamers and their
interactions both online and off. While there are a lot of references
that will be instantly recognized by gamers, the show is still very
accessible to non-gamers."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1936225

Links:
0. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...96794.html
1.
2. http://www.watchtheguild.com/
3. http://feliciaday.net/blog/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Watermelon Juice Makes Great Biofuel |
| from the just-can't-buy-a-decent-watermelon dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @16:28 (Power) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...at-Biofuel |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Mike writes "Watermelons are more than just a tasty summer snack —
researchers at the USDA have determined that the fruit constitutes a
promising and [1]economically viable source of biofuel. It turns out that
the relatively high concentration of directly fermentable sugars in
watermelon juice can be easily converted into ethanol. Rather than grow
fields of the fruit for the purpose, the report suggests that farmers
capitalize on the 20% of each annual watermelon crop that is left in the
field because of surface blemishes or because they are misshapen."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...27/2018203

Links:
0. http://www.inhabitat.com/
1. http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/08/27/wate...-your-car/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| An End To Unencrypted Digital Cable TV and the HTPC |
| from the so-I-can-be-both-ahead-of-and-behind-my-time dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @17:00 (Media) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...l-Cable-TV|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Talinom writes "AnandTech has a writeup on how [0]ClearQAM [1]appears to
be headed for an early death. From the article — 'At this point there's
no reason to believe that cable companies won't deploy Privacy Mode
across their networks, so it's a matter of 'when,' not 'if' this will
happen. It goes without saying that if you're currently enjoying the use
of a ClearQAM tuner to receive EB tier channels, you'll want to enjoy
what time you have left, and look in to other solutions for the
long-haul. At this pace, it looks like cable TV and computers will soon
be divorcing.'" Update: 08/27 23:59 GMT by [2]T : "EB" here stands for
"Expanded Basic (cable service)"; Wikipedia as usual has a time-sucking,
digressive, fascinating explanation about the [3]tiers of cable TV
service in the US.

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...27/2055248

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner
1. http://anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=637
2. http://www.monkey.org/~timothy/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_telev...ted_States

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bug Means High School Students' Schedule Errors May Last Days |
| from the ok-computer-meeting-people-is-easy dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @17:53 (Bug) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27...chedule-Er|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that [1]thousands of
high school students in Prince George's County missed a third day of
classes Wednesday, and school officials said it could take more than a
week to sort out the chaos caused by a computerized class-scheduling
system as students were placed in gyms, auditoriums, cafeterias,
libraries and classes they didn't want or need at high schools across the
county and their parents' fury over the logistical nightmare rose. 'The
school year comes up the same time every year,' said Carolyn Oliver, the
mother of a 16-year-old senior who spent Wednesday in the senior lounge
at Bowie High School. 'When I heard they didn't have schedules, I was
like, "What have they been doing all summer?"' When school opened Monday,
about 8,000 high school students had no class schedules and were sent to
wait in holding spaces while administrators tried to sort things out."
(More below.)

This story continues at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27...-Last-Days

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/2144223

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...01694.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Snow Leopard Drops Palm OS Sync |
| from the exclusivity-demands-it dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @18:47 (Businesses) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...lm-OS-Sync |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

adeelarshad82 writes "It's been just a little over a month since [0]Apple
blocked iTunes sync with Palm Pre, and now Apple takes that strategy one
step further by [1]blocking Snow Leopard sync with Palm-OS powered
smartphones. Even though Palm has officially retired Palm OS and is now
focusing hard on its next-generation WebOS in the Palm Pre, the company
is still selling Palm OS-powered smartphones; two current models are the
Treo Pro on Sprint and the Centro."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...27/2217219

Links:
0. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/07/15...ith-iTunes
1. http://www.appscout.com/2009/08/snow_leo...os_syn.php

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pogo-Style Robot Legs Allow 9-Foot Bounces |
| from the mind-the-parquet dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @19:14 (Robotics) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...9-Foot-Bou|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]destinyland writes "A new pogo stick [1]jumps nine feet using legs
developed for running robots. (It replaces the stick's spring with a
fiber-reinforced 'bow' that was developed at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics
institute.) One scientist even suggests robots could use its 'BowGo'
technology in the low-gravity environment of the moon. 'Hopping many
meters above ground level, the robot would have an excellent view of the
terrain.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...27/2239219

Links:
0. http://www.destinyland.org/
1. http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/to...-pogo-legs

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hackers (Or Pen-Testers) Hit Credit Unions With Malware On CD |
| from the please-avoid-mine dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @19:40 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/27/2...Unions-Wit|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

redsoxh8r writes "Online criminals have taken to a decidedly low-tech
method for distributing the latest batch of targeted malware: [0]mailing
infected CDs to credit unions. The discs have been showing up at credit
unions around the country recently, a throwback to the days when viruses
and Trojans were distributed via floppy disk. The scam is elegant in its
simplicity. The potential thieves are mailing letters that purport to
come from the National Credit Union Administration, the federal agency
that charters and insures credit unions, and including two CDs in the
package. The letter is a fake fraud alert from the NCUA, instructing
recipients to review the training materials contained on the discs.
However, the CDs are loaded with malware rather than training programs."
According to the linked article, the infected CDs were (or at least may
have been) part of a penetration test, rather than an actual attack.

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/27/2331201

Links:
0. http://threatpost.com/blogs/attackers-se...unions-127

Reply
#54
Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* FTC Rules Outlawing Robocalls Go Into Effect Next Week
* Why Is It So Difficult To Allow Cross-Platform Play?
* Big, Beautiful Boxes From Computer History
* Spotify Wins iPhone App Store Approval
* Aion Open Beta Starts September 6th
* FBI Investigating Mystery Laptops Sent To US Governors
* Slackware 13.0 Released
* IBM Images a Single Molecule
* We're In the Midst of a Literacy Revolution
* Entanglement Could Be a Deterministic Phenomenon
* Treasured "Moon Rock" Is Petrified Wood
* Homeland Security Changes Laptop Search Policy
* Apple Faces Inquiries In the EU On iPhone Accidents
* Emergency Government Control of the Internet?
* Swedish Regulators Ban Word "Bank" In Domain Names For Non-Banks
* Publisher Whining Prompts Italian Investigation of Google
* Oracle To Sell Sun's Hardware Business To HP?
* NVIDIA Predicts 570x GPU Performance Boost
* Crime Expert Backs Call For "License To Compute"
* Court of Appeals Rejects FCC's Cable Subscriber Cap
* Making an Open Source Project Press-Friendly

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FTC Rules Outlawing Robocalls Go Into Effect Next Week |
| from the not-a-moment-too-soon dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 27, @22:34 (Communications) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/...Into-Effec|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "Nearly a year after announcing the plan, new
Federal Trade Commission [1]rules prohibiting most robocalls are set to
take effect Tuesday, Sept. 1. With the rules, prerecorded commercial
telemarketing robocalls will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has
obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such
calls. Hopefully the rules will go a long way to helping consumers eat
dinner in peace without being interrupted by amazingly annoying
telemarketer blather or in this case prerecorded blather. The requirement
is part of amendments to the agency's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) that
were announced a year ago. After September 1, sellers and telemarketers
who transmit prerecorded messages to consumers who have not agreed in
writing to accept such messages will face penalties of up to $16,000 per
call."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...28/0114214

Links:
0. mailto:mcooney@nww.com
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/44776

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Why Is It So Difficult To Allow Cross-Platform Play? |
| from the all-about-the-benjamins dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 28, @00:39 (PlayStation (Games)) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...-Cross-Pla|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]cookiej writes "I just got the most recent version of the Madden
franchise ('10) for the PS3. Can somebody explain to me why EA has
separate networks for the different platforms, only allowing players to
compete with people using the same console? Back in the day, there were
large discrepancies between the consoles, but these days it seems like
the Xbox and the PS3 are at least near the same level. After so many
releases for this franchise, they've got to have a fairly standardized
protocol for networking; it seems arbitrary not to let them compete. Or
am I just missing something obvious? Is it just a matter of Xbox Live and
the PlayStation Network not working together?"

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...28/0357227

Links:
0. mailto:cookiej@pobox.com

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Big, Beautiful Boxes From Computer History |
| from the know-your-past dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Friday August 28, @01:42 (Hardware) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...puter-Hist|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Slatterz writes "We might sometimes complain about the limitations of
today's technology, but there's nothing like seeing photos of a 27Kg hard
drive with a capacity of 5MB to put things into perspective. PC Authority
has toured the Computer History Museum in California, and has posted
[0]these fascinating photos, including monster 27Kg and 60Kg drives, and
a SAGE air-defense system. Each SAGE housed an A/N FSQ-7 computer, which
had around 60,000 vacuum tubes. IBM constructed the hardware, and each
computer occupied a huge amount of space. From its completion in 1954 it
analyzed radar data in real-time, to provide a complete picture of US
Airspace during the cold war. Other interesting photos and trivia include
some giant early IBM disc platters, and pics of a curvaceous Cray-1
supercomputer, built in 1972. It was the fastest machine in the world
until 1977 and an icon for decades. It cost a mere $6 million, and could
perform at 160MFLOPS — which your phone can now comfortably manage."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...28/0341209

Links:
0. http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Gallery/15...ive.aspx/1

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Spotify Wins iPhone App Store Approval |
| from the there's-a-cream-for-that dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday August 28, @04:53 (Media (Apple)) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...e-Approval |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]angry tapir writes "Apple has [1]approved a streaming music
application from Spotify for use on the iPhone, even though the program
will compete with Apple's own iTunes service. Spotify is an
advertising-supported music service that lets end-users stream music to
their computers free of charge. The service is available in the U.K. and
by invitation in countries including Sweden, Norway, Finland, France and
Spain. Users can opt to pay for a version of the service without ads."
[2]The BBC also has a story on the app's acceptance.

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...28/0424242

Links:
0. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/
1. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/316550
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8225731.stm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Aion Open Beta Starts September 6th |
| from the gives-you-wings dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 28, @06:17 (Games) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...tember-6th |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

NCSoft announced today that [0]the open beta for upcoming fantasy MMO
Aion will begin on September 6th, extending through to the 13th. The
client is [1]available now. The game launches on September 22nd in the
US, with a two-day head-start given to players who pre-order. NCSoft has
also said they'll be [2]showing off Aion in more detail at the Penny
Arcade Expo, expanding on [3]the information they provided at Gamescom ([4]video).

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...28/0419200

Links:
0. http://na.aiononline.com/en/news/aions-o...grams.html
1. http://na.aiononline.com/en/news/open-be...nload.html
2. http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1018594p1.html
3. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...tory=24915
4. http://www.twitvid.com/D4CF7

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FBI Investigating Mystery Laptops Sent To US Governors |
| from the send-a-few-to-me dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday August 28, @07:59 (Portables) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...ptops-Sent|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]itwbennett writes "The FBI is trying to find out who is [1]sending
laptops to state governors across the US, including the governors of
Wyoming and West Virginia. The West Virginia laptops were [2]delivered to
the governor's office on August 5, according to the Charleston Gazette,
which first reported the story. Kyle Schafer, West Virginia's chief
technology officer, says he doesn't know what's on the laptops, but he
handed them over to the authorities. 'Our expectation is that this is not
a gesture of good will,' he said. 'People don't just send you five
laptops for no good reason.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...28/0210225

Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/government/75885/...-governors
2. http://wvgazette.com/News/politics/200908240818

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Slackware 13.0 Released |
| from the fresh-bits dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 28, @08:49 (Upgrades) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...0-Released |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

willy everlearn and several other readers let us know that [0]Slackware
13.0 is out. 'Wed Aug 26 10:00:38 CDT 2009: Slackware 13.0 x86_64 is
released as stable! Thanks to everyone who helped make this release
possible — see the [1]RELEASE_NOTES for the credits. The ISOs are off to
the replicator. This time it will be a 6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a
dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD. We're taking pre-orders now at
store.slackware.com. Please consider picking up a copy to help support
the project. Once again, thanks to the entire Slackware community for all
the help testing and fixing things and offering suggestions during this
development cycle. As always, have fun and enjoy!'

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...28/1057219

Links:
0. http://www.slackware.com/announce/13.0.php
1. http://www.slackware.com/releasenotes/13.0.php

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IBM Images a Single Molecule |
| from the blow-it-up dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 28, @09:39 (IBM) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...e-Molecule |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

chrb writes "New Scientist is reporting that researchers at IBM Zurich
have managed to [0]image a single molecule in detail for the first time.
In the images of a [1]pentacene molecule, the bonds between the carbon
atoms are visible as [2]five linked rings."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...28/1119203

Links:
0. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17...-last.html
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentacene
2. http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/...-1_300.jpg

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| We're In the Midst of a Literacy Revolution |
| from the write-on dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 28, @10:30 (Social Networks) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...cy-Revolut|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Mike Sauter sends in a piece from Wired profiling research by Andrea
Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford, from which she
concludes that we don't need to worry about computers and the Internet
causing a decline in general literacy. "[Lunsford] has organized a
mammoth project called the Stanford Study of Writing to scrutinize
college students' prose. From 2001 to 2006, she collected 14,672 student
writing samples — everything from in-class assignments, formal essays,
and journal entries to emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. Her
conclusions are stirring. 'I think we're in the midst of a literacy
revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization,'
she says. For Lunsford, [1]technology isn't killing our ability to write.
It's reviving it — and pushing our literacy in bold new directions."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...28/1147215

Links:
0. mailto:mikesauter@dartmouth.edu
1. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/maga...t_thompson

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Entanglement Could Be a Deterministic Phenomenon |
| from the playing-dice dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 28, @11:04 (Science) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...ministic-P|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]KentuckyFC writes "Nobel prize-winning physicist [1]Gerard 't Hooft
has joined the likes of computer scientists Stephen Wolfram and Ed
Fredkin in claiming that the universe can be accurately modeled by
[2]cellular automata. The novel aspect of 't Hooft's model is that it
allows quantum mechanics and, in particular, the spooky action at a
distance known as [3]entanglement to be deterministic. The idea that
quantum mechanics is fundamentally deterministic is known as hidden
variable theory but has been widely discounted by physicists because
numerous experiments have shown its predictions to be wrong. But 't Hooft
says his cellular automaton model is a new class of hidden variable
theory that falls outside the remit of previous tests. However, he
readily admits that the new model has serious shortcomings — it lacks
some of the basic symmetries that our universe enjoys, such as rotational
symmetry. However, 't Hooft adds that he is working on modifications that
will make the model more realistic ([4]abstract)."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...28/1335203

Links:
0. http://arxivblog.technologyreview.com/
1. http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton
3. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24044/
4. http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.3408

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Treasured "Moon Rock" Is Petrified Wood |
| from the keep-yer-hands-off-my-treasure dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Friday August 28, @11:11 (It's funny. Laugh.) |
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28...ified-Wood |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that a treasured piece at the Dutch
national museum — a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar
landing given to former Prime Minister Willem Drees during a goodwill
tour by the three Apollo-11 astronauts shortly after their moon mission
in 1969 — has [1]been revealed as nothing more than petrified wood,
curators say. A jagged fist-size stone with reddish tints, it was mounted
and placed above a plaque that said, 'With the compliments of the
Ambassador of the United States of America... to commemorate the visit to
The Netherlands of the Apollo-11 astronauts.' The plaque does not specify
that the rock came from the moon's surface. Researchers from Amsterdam's
Free University said they could see at a glance [2]the rock was probably
not from the moon. They followed the initial appraisal up with extensive
testing. 'It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone,' wrote
Geologist Frank Beunk in an article published by the museum. Beunk says
the rock, which the museum at one point insured for more than half a
million dollars, was worth no more than $70. The 'rock' had originally
been been vetted through a phone call to NASA. As the US Embassy in the
Hague said it was investigating the matter, the Rijksmuseum says it will
keep the piece as a curiosity."

Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../28/143242

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8226075.stm
2. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti...gD9AB9TC81

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Homeland Security Changes Laptop Search Policy |
| from the beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 28, @12:13 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/...Search-Pol|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]IronicToo writes "The US Government has [1]updated its policy on the
search and seizure of laptops at border crossing. 'The long-criticized
practice of searching travelers' electronic devices will continue, but a
supervisor now would need to approve holding a device for more than five
days. Any copies of information taken from travelers' machines would be
destroyed within days if there were no legal reason to hold the
information.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...28/1216200

Links:
0. http://www.samuelbarnes.net/
1. http://www.physorg.com/news170619757.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Faces Inquiries In the EU On iPhone Accidents |
| from the or-are-you-just-glad-to-see-me dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday August 28, @13:03 (Handhelds) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...-On-iPhone|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

o'reor writes "As [0]more cases of iPhone screen explosions emerge in the
news on this side of the pond, Apple is now [1]facing official inquiries
and lawsuits in France. This situation has forced Apple finally to break
silence and acknowledge the incidents: 'We are aware of these reports and
we are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers. Until we have
the full details, we don't have anything further to add.' Following those
reports, the [2]European Commission had already decided last week to step
in, while Apple tried to dismiss the problem as 'isolated incidents.'
Meanwhile, [3]iPhone explosion-related sites are now popping up on the
Internet, releasing games such as [4]iPop to chill out and relax on the
subject, but also giving users advice on preventing iPhone accidents, or
[5]detecting imminent explosions."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...28/1535243

Links:
0. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/26592/an...ted-france
1. http://livenews.com.au/geek/apple-forced.../27/217487
2. http://www.thedigitalnewsroom.com/en/New...ussels.htm
3. http://www.makeipodsafe.com/exploding_ipod.html
4. http://www.makeipodsafe.com/
5. http://www.makeipodsafe.com/get_to_know_...plode.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Emergency Government Control of the Internet? |
| from the big-brother-bigger-than-ever dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 28, @13:58 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/...he-Interne|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

TheZid writes "A newly proposed bill would give Uncle Sam the power to
disconnect private sector computers from the internet in the event of a '[0]cyber
security emergency.' As usual, our government is trying to take away our
privacy by citing security. What actually counts as a 'Cyber-Security
Emergency?' Does the president now have the option of disconnecting
people when they disagree with his policies? How about disconnecting
bloggers that criticize his health care reform? What counts as an
emergency? Can political opponents be deemed a cyber-security emergency?"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...28/1659257

Links:
0. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Swedish Regulators Ban Word "Bank" In Domain Names For Non-Banks |
| from the nanny-state-to-the-rescue dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 28, @14:42 (Censorship) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/...-In-Domain-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

It seems that Swedish regulators have decided to extend the requirement
of not calling yourself a bank to the registration of domain names. Now
anyone that tries to register a .SE domain name with the word "bank" in
it will need to [0]prove they are a legitimate bank. Hopefully there are
no blood banks or anyone with the last name of "Banks" that might want a
.SE domain. Here is a Google translation of the [1]demand issued by the
authorities to the .SE registry.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...28/1541200

Links:
0. http://techdirt.com/articles/20090827/1929016027.shtml
1. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pts.se%2Fupload%2FBeslut%2FInternet%2F2009%2F09-6818-underrattelse-se-090827.pdf

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Publisher Whining Prompts Italian Investigation of Google |
| from the sounds-like-pure-unadulterated-greed-to-me dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 28, @15:33 (Google) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/...Investigat|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Complaints about "lack of transparency" from publishers have prompted
Italian competition authorities to begin an [0]investigation of Google's
search and news services. I'm sure their motives are completely
altruistic. "Because Google does not disclose the criteria for ranking
news articles or search results, he said, newspapers are unable to hone
their content to try to earn more revenue from online advertising. Ad
revenue on the Web is directly proportional to the size of the audience,
which is heavily influenced by search or Google News rankings."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/28/156238

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/techno....html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Oracle To Sell Sun's Hardware Business To HP? |
| from the playing-hard-to-get dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 28, @16:25 (Businesses) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...Business-T|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Underholdning writes "With the [1]DOJ approving Oracle's Sun buyout
the question arises what Oracle might want to do with Sun's hardware
business. It's no secret that what Oracle wanted was the software part.
Now The Inquirer is running a story claiming that [2]Oracle will sell the
hardware business of Sun to HP. This will give Oracle a juicy check while
HP can increase its services. Larry Ellison denies that it will take
place, but a source for CNN claims otherwise."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../28/180244

Links:
0. http://www.underholdning.info/
1. http://developers.slashdot.org/story/09/...To-Buy-Sun
2. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news...siiness-hp

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA Predicts 570x GPU Performance Boost |
| from the lets-talk-about-diminishing-returns dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 28, @17:17 (Graphics) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...formance-B|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Gianna Borgnine writes "NVIDIA is predicting that GPU performance is
going to increase a whopping [1]570-fold in the next six years. According
to TG Daily, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the prediction at this year's
Hot Chips symposium. Huang claimed that while the performance of GPU
silicon is heading for a monumental increase in the next six years —
making it 570 times faster than the products available today — CPU
technology will find itself lagging behind, increasing to a mere 3 times
current performance levels. 'Huang also discussed a number of
"real-world" GPU applications, including energy exploration, interactive
ray tracing and CGI simulations.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...28/1821207

Links:
0. mailto:gianna@changingworldsbuildingdreams.com
1. http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43745/135/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Crime Expert Backs Call For "License To Compute" |
| from the natural-selection-working-just-fine dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday August 28, @18:08 (Security) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28...nse-To-Com|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The Cable Guy writes to mention that Russel Smith, one of Australia's
principal criminologists, is pushing for first-time computer users to be
required to [0]earn a license to browse the web. "The Australian Computer
Society launched computer driver's licenses in 1999. It aimed to give
users a basic level of competency before they started using PCs. But the
growth in cybercrime has led to IT security experts such as Eugene
Kaspersky to call for more formalized recognition of a user's identity so
they can travel the net safely. Last week Dr. Smith sat in front of a
Federal Government Inquiry into cybercrime and advised Australia's senior
politicians on initiatives in train to fight cybercrime. He said that
education was secondary to better technology solutions."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...28/1952211

Links:
0. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/154129,cri...mpute.aspx

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Court of Appeals Rejects FCC's Cable Subscriber Cap |
| from the pack-'em-in dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 28, @18:59 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/...le-Subscri|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

olsmeister writes "The US Court of Appeals Friday [0]threw out the FCC's
cap on the number of cable subscribers one operator can serve, saying the
FCC was 'derelict' in not giving DBS its due as a legitimate competitor.
'We agree with Comcast that the 30% subscriber limit is arbitrary and
capricious. We therefore grant the petition and vacate the Rule,' said
the court, which concluded that there was ample evidence of an
increasingly competitive communications marketplace and that cable did
not have undue control on the programming pipeline. The [1]FCC
commissioner's statement (PDF) is available online."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...28/2213208

Links:
0. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article...er_Cap.php
1. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/at...3152A1.pdf

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Making an Open Source Project Press-Friendly |
| from the spreading-the-word dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 28, @19:57 (Software) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28...ess-Friend|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]blackbearnh writes "Corporations know that part of launching a
successful project is projecting the right image to the media. But a lot
of open source projects seem to treat the press as an annoyance, if they
think about it at all. For a reporter, even finding someone on a project
who's willing to talk about it can be a challenge. Esther Schindler over
at IT World has a summary of a roundtable discussion that was held at
OSCON with pointers about [1]how open source projects can be more
reporter-accessible. 'Recognize that we are on deadline, which for most
news journalists means posting the article within a couple of hours and
for feature authors within a couple of days. If we ask for input, or a
quote, or anything to which your project spokesperson (you do have one?
yes? please say yes) might want to respond, it generally does mean, "Drop
everything and answer us now." If the journalist doesn't give you a
deadline ("I need to know by 2pm"), it's okay to ask how long you can
take to reach the right developer in Poland, but err on the side of
"emergency response." It's unreasonable, I know, but so are our
deadlines.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...28/2311243

Links:
0. http://www.blackbear.biz/
1. http://www.itworld.com/open-source/76011...ling-press

Reply
#55
Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Solar Roadways Get DoT Funding
* A New Look At Brain Control
* Developer Explains Clone/Transhumanist RPG
* Is "Good Enough" the Future of Technology?
* Virtual Bank Woes
* Highly-Paid Developers As ScrumMasters?
* Microsoft Holding 'Screw Google' Meetings In DC
* Utah Law Punishes Texters As Much As Drunks In Driving Fatalities
* Apple Kicks HDD Marketing Debate Into High Gear
* Security Test Prompts Federal Fraud Alert
* ESA Sent Takedown Notices For 45 Million Infringements In Fiscal 2009
* Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Worries Researchers
* James Murdoch Criticizes BBC For Providing "Free News"
* Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical Purpose
* Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite
* Dell Says Re-Imaging HDs a Burden If Word Banned
* Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASA

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Solar Roadways Get DoT Funding |
| from the technology-that-wouldn't-work-in-michigan dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 28, @21:59 (Power) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...oT-Funding |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

mikee805 writes "Solar Roadways, a project to replace over 25,000 square
miles of road in the US with solar panels you can drive on, just
[0]received $100,000 in funding from the Department of Transportation for
the first 12ft-by-12ft prototype panel. Each panel consists of three
layers: a base layer with data and power cables running through it, an
electronics layer with an array of LEDs, solar collectors and capacitors,
and finally the glass road surface. With data and power cables, the solar
roadway has the potential to replace some of our aging infrastructure.
With only 15% efficiency, 25,000 square miles of solar roadways could
[1]produce three times what the US uses annually in energy. The building
costs are estimated to be competitive with traditional roads, and the
solar roads would [2]heat themselves in the winter to keep snow from
accumulating."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...29/0018256

Links:
0. http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/28/sol...-from-dot/
1. http://www.solarroadways.com/The%20Numbers.htm
2. http://www.solarroadways.com/Introduction.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A New Look At Brain Control |
| from the can-we-do-it-at-a-distance-yet dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @00:02 (Biotech) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...in-Control |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

one_neuron_two_neuron writes "Researchers at Harvard have taken a new
look at [0]how electricity can make neurons fire in the brain. The
scientists found some surprising things: if you stick an electrode in the
brain and apply current, you don't just make a small group of neurons
fire — many neurons fire a long way away from the electrode. That's
probably because instead of activating the cell bodies of the neurons,
their axons fire. Those axons are the wiring of the brain. Your cerebral
cortex is something like a big pile of unwound yo-yos — if you stick an
electrode into the cortex, you're much more likely to hit the strings
(the axons), and the yo-yo connected to the string can be really far
away. So, how will you ever hook up a computer to your brain? This data
shows that we need to rethink how to do that with electrical current. If
you stick an electrode in one place, neurons in a totally different place
will fire. New [1]optogenetic methods (e.g. using viral delivery of
proteins) might work. Or possibly we will figure out how to make the
brain learn to interpret these sparse, widespread electrical patterns.
New optical techniques have made a dramatic impact on neuroscience
recently, and this study uses pulsed-laser-scanning microscopy
(two-photon microscopy) to take pictures of neurons deep inside the
living brain. The [2]academic paper (PDF) is available on the author's
site."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../29/023229

Links:
0. http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/fo...y-believed
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channelrhodopsin
2. http://web.mit.edu/histed/share/histed_b...ta-MH1.pdf

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Developer Explains Clone/Transhumanist RPG |
| from the gamers-don't-like-words-that-big dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @00:57 (Role Playing (Games)) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...manist-RPG|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]destinyland writes "How much would you use technology to change
yourself if humanity faced extinction? In this interview, the two
creators behind Eclipse Phase [1]explain their bizarre role-playing game,
which 'expands the transhuman conversation.' All the characters can be
identical clones, and when you switch bodies, it affects your core
characteristics while damaging your sanity. But its spookiest concept is
close to reality today: the idea of universal surveillance in which
'everything is networked and equipped with sensors and all meshed
together.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...29/0211220

Links:
0. http://www.destinyland.org/
1. http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/to...ipse-phase

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Is "Good Enough" the Future of Technology? |
| from the seems-to-work-for-the-movie-industry dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @02:08 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...Technology|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

himitsu writes "In an article titled '[0]The Good Enough Revolution: When
Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine,' Wired claims that the future of
technology, warfare and medicine will be filled with 'good enough'
solutions; situations where feature-rich and expensive products are
replaced with bare-bones infrastructures and solutions. 'We now favor
flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and
dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important
than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're
actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as
"high-quality."'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...29/0449206

Links:
0. http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneo...ntPage=all

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Virtual Bank Woes |
| from the all-about-the-iskamins dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @03:20 (The Almighty Buck) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...-Bank-Woes |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

bobmorning writes "EVE Online's largest player-controlled virtual bank,
Ebank, just can't seem to catch a break these days. A few months after it
was revealed that the company had been defrauded of a staggering amount
of virtual cash, it turns out that the institution's digital vaults are
far more barren than many realized, [0]leading to an in-game freezing of
accounts for any individual or organization that happened to have
invested any InterStellar Kredits (ISK) with the bank. Early this summer,
it came to light that a veteran EVE player (known only as 'Ricdic') had
[1]embezzled — and then sold in the real world — over 200 billion ISK
from Ebank, causing a run on the virtual financial institution. However,
this was just the beginning of the problems for the player-owned bank.
Recently-installed Ebank Chairman Ray McCormack admitted that the bank
had been mismanaged, and rules, safeguards, and controls were not
enforced. As a result, it's been revealed that [2]Ebank is 380 billion
ISK poorer thanks to a number of defaulted loans. Because of the
aforementioned mismanagement, it apparently took the bank's new officers
a while to figure out just how far in the red their institution is."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si.../29/050246

Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/...eficit.ars
1. http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/04...EVE-Online
2. http://www.massively.com/2009/08/26/eve-...d-freezes/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Highly-Paid Developers As ScrumMasters? |
| from the madness-to-our-method dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @05:10 (Programming) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/...rumMasters |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes 'At my company, our mis-implementation of
Agile includes the employment of some of our most highly-paid, principal
engineers as ScrumMasters. This has effectively resulted in a loss of
those engineering functions as these engineers now dedicate their time to
ScrumMastery. Furthermore, the ScrumMasters either cannot or do not
separate their roles as Team Leads with those of ScrumMastery and — worse
— seem to be completely unaware that this poor implementation of Agile
development is harmful to our velocity. To date, I have chalked this up
to poor leadership, a general lack of understanding of Agile, and an
inability to change from traditional roles left over from the waterfall
development mode. In addition, I have contended that, for a given Scrum
Team, the role of ScrumMaster should be filled by someone of lower
impact, such as an intern brought in specifically for that purpose. But I
would like to put the questions to Slashdotters as to whether they have
seen these same transitional difficulties, what the results have been at
their respective companies, or whether they just plain disagree with my
assertion that principal engineers should not be relegated to the roles
of ScrumMasters.'

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...29/0228215

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Holding 'Screw Google' Meetings In DC |
| from the or-perhaps-screwgle dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @08:15 (Google) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29...eetings-In-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Runaway1956 writes "Microsoft's chief Washington lobbyist has been
convening regular meetings, attended by the company's outside
consultants, that have become [1]known by some beltway insiders as 'screw
Google' meetings, DailyFinance has learned. The meetings are part of an
ongoing campaign by Microsoft, other Google opponents, and hired third
parties to discredit the Web search leader, according to multiple sources
with knowledge of the matter. 'Microsoft is at the center of a group of
companies who see Google as a threat to them in some combination of
business and policy,' said a source who requested anonymity to avoid
retribution. 'The effort is designed to make Google look like the big
high-tech bad guy here.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../29/030223

Links:
0. mailto:runaway1956@gmail.com
1. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/28/m...gs-in-d-c/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Utah Law Punishes Texters As Much As Drunks In Driving Fatalities |
| from the g2g-ran-ovr-sum-guy dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @09:17 (Communications) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/...-As-Drunks|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The NY Times reports on legislation in Utah which [0]harshly penalizes
people who cause fatal car accidents while texting. Instead of merely
facing a fine, offenders may now get up to 15 years in jail — the same as
drunk drivers. "In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist
is no longer considered an 'accident' like one caused by a driver who,
say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead,
such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless. 'It's a willful
act,' said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter
of the new measure. 'If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to
text and drive, you're assuming the same risk.' The Utah law represents a
concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the
country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking
behind the wheel — a topic to be discussed at a national conference about
the dangers of distracted driving that is being organized by the
Transportation Department for this fall."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...29/1224250

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/techno...technology&pagewanted=all

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Kicks HDD Marketing Debate Into High Gear |
| from the foot-pounds-per-league dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @10:20 (Data Storage) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...ebate-Into-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

quacking duck writes "With the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard,
Apple has [0]updated a support document describing how their new
operating system reports capacities of hard drives and other media. It
has sided with hard drive makers, who for years have advertised
capacities as '1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes' instead of the traditional
computer science definition, and in so doing has kicked the debate
between marketing and computer science into high gear. [1]Binary prefixes
for binary units (e.g. GiB for 'gibibyte') have been promoted by the
International Electrotechnical Commission and endorsed by IEEE and other
standards organizations, but to date there's been limited acceptance
(though manufacturers have wholeheartedly accepted the 'new' definitions
for GB and TB). Is Apple's move the first major step in forcing computer
science to adopt the more awkward binary prefixes, breaking decades of
accepted (if technically inaccurate) usage of SI prefixes?"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...29/1321253

Links:
0. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Security Test Prompts Federal Fraud Alert |
| from the in-the-not-so-wild dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @11:21 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1...raud-Alert |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]itwbennett writes "Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the
SANS Institute, took great interest in a National Credit Union
Administration (NCUA) warning issued earlier this week, thinking,
'Finally this is in the wild, because I've only seen it in pen tests
before.' Unfortunately for Mr. Ullrich, the letter and 2 CDs that caused
the kerfuffle were part of [1]a sanctioned security test of a bank's
computer systems conducted by Ohio-based security company MicroSolved.
'It was a part of some social engineering we were doing in a fully
sanctioned penetration test,' said MicroSolved CEO Brent Huston. For his
part, NCUA spokesman John McKechnie did not have much to say about [2]his
organization's alert, except that 'at this point, it appears that this is
an isolated event.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1346235

Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/security/75938/se...raud-alert
2. http://www.ncua.gov/news/press_releases/...-0825a.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ESA Sent Takedown Notices For 45 Million Infringements In Fiscal 2009 |
| from the can't-say-they-aren't-trying dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @12:24 (Announcements) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...45-Million-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

eldavojohn writes "The Entertainment Software Association has [0]released
this year's fiscal report (PDF), putting out their numbers to level the
finger at new targets. Following up on [1]last year's published report,
this one has a whole bunch of new numbers to ponder. The top five P2P
game piracy countries this year are: Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and
Poland. The ESA's anti-piracy program notes, 'Chief among this year's
actions were five separate law enforcement raids against game pirates in
California, resulting in the seizure of several thousand games and dozens
of modded consoles, and the arrests of five individuals.' But don't
worry, they've expanded to other countries. 'The ESA sent takedown
notices to ISPs covering more than 45 million instances of infringement
of member company games in more than 100 countries worldwide.' They also
strive to show they are actually doing things, like endorsing 43 bills
aimed at regulating content or controlling access to video games — with
not a single one of them making it into law. They did put some into
effect at the state level; mostly making it a crime to sell mature games
to minors. You can also find their activities localized to you, as this
report has sections arranged by state and country. Conspicuously absent
this year are any global numbers of what piracy cost the entertainment
industry, so unfortunately Ars Technica will have to [2]find someone else
to audit, although [3]Venture Beat has a good breakdown."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...29/1514203

Links:
0. http://www.theesa.com/about/ESA_2009_AR.pdf
1. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...31/1730236&tid=84
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/09/1745220&tid=84
3. http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/08/27/...game-laws/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Worries Researchers |
| from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-boat dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @13:26 (Biotech) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...orries-Res|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

NeverVotedBush writes with an update to a story we [0]discussed early
this month about an enormous accumulation of garbage and plastic debris
in the Pacific Ocean, a thousand miles off the coast of California. The
team of scientists has now returned from their expedition to examine the
area and say they "[1]found much more debris than they expected." The
team will start running tests on the samples they retrieved, and they are
preparing to visit another section of ocean they suspect will be full of
trash. "The Scripps team hopes the samples they gathered during the trip
nail down answers to questions of the trash's environmental impact. Does
eating plastic poison plankton? Is the ecosystem in trouble when new sea
creatures hitchhike on the side of a water bottle? Plastics have
entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish, and one paper cited
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 100,000
marine mammals die trash-related deaths each year. The scientists hope
their data gives clues as to the density and extent of marine debris,
especially since the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may have company in the
Southern Hemisphere, where scientists say the gyre is four times bigger.
'We're afraid at what we're going to find in the South Gyre, but we've
got to go there,' said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...29/1624215

Links:
0. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/05/...tic-Island
1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090828/ap_o...ocean_junk

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| James Murdoch Criticizes BBC For Providing "Free News" |
| from the you-dont'-trust-the-gov't-to-report-news-fairly? dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @14:30 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/...-Providing-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "News Corporation's James Murdoch says that a
'dominant' BBC threatens independent journalism in the UK and that
[1]free news on the web provided by the BBC made it 'incredibly
difficult' for private news organizations to ask people to pay for their
news. 'It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism
that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,' says
Murdoch. 'The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the
plurality and independence of news provision.' In common with the public
broadcasting organizations of many other European countries, the [2]BBC
is funded by a television license fee charged to all households owning a
television capable of receiving broadcasts. [3]Murdoch's News
Corporation, one of the world's largest media conglomerates, owns the
Times, the Sunday Times and Sun newspapers and pay TV provider BSkyB in
the UK and the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News TV in the
US." Note that James Murdoch is the son of Rupert Murdoch.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...29/1750259

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8227915.stm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_...ed_Kingdom
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical Purpose |
| from the fly-away-little-one dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @15:37 (It's funny. Laugh.) |
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story...-Practical|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Selanit writes "Since David Waitzman wrote his tongue-in-cheek
[0]Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, there
have been occasional attempts to actually transmit information via
pigeon. One group back in 2001 successfully [1]sent a PING command. But
now there's a practical use for pigeon-based communications:
photographers working for the white-water rafting company Rocky Mountain
Adventures [2]send memory sticks full of digital photos via homing pigeon
so the photos will be ready when the rafters finish up. The company has
[3]details on how the pigeons are trained and equipped. It may not be a
full implementation of the Pigeon Protocol, but it works in narrow
canyons far off the beaten path — and just as David Waitzman presciently
predicted, they occasionally suffer [4]packet loss due to hawks and
ospreys."

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/commen...29/1934251

Links:
0. http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html
1. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-257064.html
2. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6209735
3. http://www.shoprma.com/pigeon_story.htm
4. http://www.9news.com/life/programming/sh...yid=120407&catid=510

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite |
| from the that's-a-shame dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @16:48 (Moon) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...n-Moon-Sat|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]stoolpigeon writes "[1]All communication links with the only Indian
satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says.
Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early
on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization
(ISRO)."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...29/2047237

Links:
0. mailto:bittercode@gmail
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8228371.stm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dell Says Re-Imaging HDs a Burden If Word Banned |
| from the what-you're-used-to dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @18:31 (Microsoft) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/...-If-Word-B|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

N!NJA writes "In an amicus curiae brief filed on Aug. 24, Dell asked the
judge overseeing the Eastern District Court of Texas to reconsider its
order blocking sales of Word, part of the original ruling in favor of
Canadian software developer i4i. In the worst case, the brief argued, the
injunction should be delayed by 120 days. 'The District Court's
injunction of Microsoft Word will have an impact far beyond Microsoft,'
Dell and HP wrote. 'Microsoft Word is ubiquitous among word processing
software and is included on [redacted] computers sold by Dell.' 'If
Microsoft is required to ship a revised version of Word in Dell's
computers, a change would need to be made to Dell's images,' Dell wrote.
'Making such a change [0]would require extensive time- and resource-
consuming testing.' An addendum to the brief notes that it was authored
in Microsoft Word, part of Office 2003."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...29/2159221

Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352077,00.asp

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASA |
| from the but-it's-a-revolving-door-in-space dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @19:33 (NASA) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...ns-From-NA|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

FleaPlus writes "Steve Cook, project manager for the Ares I-X, Ares I,
and Ares V rockets, [0]announced that he will resign from [1]NASA MSFC
after 19 years at the agency, [2]leaving for an executive position at
Dynetics, Inc. This raises doubts about the future of the Ares program,
which has been plagued with [3]development problems and massive
cost/schedule overruns since its inception. Steve Cook also oversaw the ([4]since
discredited) 2005 ESAS study which scrapped NASA's prior plans to adapt
already-existing commercial rockets for human/beyond-LEO exploration in
favor of internally developing the Ares rockets."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...29/2310211

Links:
0. http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/l...153720.xml&coll=1
1. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html
2. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32169
3. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shorts...s-roc.html
4. http://selenianboondocks.com/2009/05/mor...dix-flaws/


Reply
#56
Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months
* A Breathalyzer For Cancer
* The Orange Goo That Could Save Your Laptop
* Librarians Express Concern Over Google Books
* Alan Turing Apology Campaign Grows
* EA Spends 3x More On Marketing Than Development
* Disney Buys Marvel For $4B
* Apple Blames 'External Forces' For Exploding iPhones
* AMD Packs Six-Core Opteron Inside 40 Watts
* Woman Fired For Using Uppercase In Email
* Dad Builds 700 Pound Cannon for Son's Birthday
* Texting Toddlers, How Young is Too Young?
* Robotic Mold
* The Myths of Security
* Military Helmet Design Contributes To Brain Damage
* OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10
* Scientists Deliver Bee Toxin To Tumors Via "Nanobees"
* Xbox 360 Version of Champions Online Being Held Back By MS
* British Company Takes Lead To Stop Asteroids

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| India's First Stealth Fighter To Fly In 4 Months |
| from the but-now-everyone-knows-about-it dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @22:36 (The Military) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31...Fly-In-4-M|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

xmpcray writes "Less than four months from now, [0]India's first stealth
fighter will fly for the first time. It is called the Fifth Generation
Fighter Aircraft, or FGFA, and is being developed in Russia by Sukhoi.
Several of the technologies being developed for the stealth fighter have
evolved from those used in the Sukhoi 30 MKI. Considered the most
maneuverable fighter in the world, the Sukhoi 30 MKI uses thrust vectored
engines, which deflect the exhaust from its engines to extreme angles,
enabling the jet to pull off violent maneuvers like a flat spin — where
the jet literally spins around on its axis."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...31/0024228

Links:
0. http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/indias_fi...y_soon.php

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Breathalyzer For Cancer |
| from the your-breath-smells-like-carcinoma dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday August 31, @01:40 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...For-Cancer |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Tiger4 writes "Cancer researchers in the UK have come up with a way to
[0]sniff for lung cancer on the breath. 'From the results, the
researchers identified 42 "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) present in
the breath of 83% of cancer patients but fewer than 83% of healthy
volunteers. Four of the most reliable were used to develop a nine-sensor
array made from tiny gold particles coated with reactive chemicals
sensitive to the compounds.' [1]Other sources have [2]picked up the story
as well. Obviously, this would be a big breakthrough for rapid screening,
and early detection significantly improves outcomes."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../31/032250

Links:
0. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress...vfAA_8dg6g
1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/61072...ancer.html
2. http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40263

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Orange Goo That Could Save Your Laptop |
| from the non-newtonian-novelty dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday August 31, @04:51 (Technology) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31...our-Laptop|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Barence writes "A British company has patented what can only be
described as an [1]orange goo that could save your laptop or iPod after a
nasty fall. The amazing material is soft and malleable like putty, but
the substance becomes solid instantly after impact. You can punch your
fist into a ball of the material sitting on a desk and not feel a thing,
according to the staff at PC Pro who have been testing the material,
called 3do. It's being used by the military, the US downhill ski team,
and motorcycle clothing manufacturers to provide impact protection in the
event of a crash. However, it's also appearing in protective cases for
laptops and MP3 players."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...31/0627236

Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/
1. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/08/27/...range-goo/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Librarians Express Concern Over Google Books |
| from the pesky-librarians dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday August 31, @08:08 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31/...ogle-Books|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]angry tapir writes "Many libraries routinely delete borrower
information, and organizations such as the American Library Association
have fought hard to preserve the privacy of their patrons in the face of
laws such as the US Patriot Act. But now, as more and more titles become
available in Google Book Search, [1]it's not clear whether digital
readers will enjoy the same privacy protections they have at the
library."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/31/064225

Links:
0. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/
1. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/316704

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Alan Turing Apology Campaign Grows |
| from the he-only-invented-modern-computer-science dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 31, @08:59 (Government) |
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/09/0...aign-Grows |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

chrb writes "[0]Several [1]British [2]news [3]sources have recently
reported on the growing campaign that calls for [4]an apology to Alan
Turing for his persecution by the British government. The petition to the
Prime Minister was started by [5]John Graham-Cumming, who has also
written to the Queen requesting a Knighthood for Turing, but admits that
a pardon is 'unlikely,' saying, 'The most important thing to me is that
people hear about [6]Alan Turing and realize his incredible impact on the
modern world, and how terrible the impact of prejudice was on him.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl...31/1230243

Links:
0. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thi...73480.html
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8226509.stm
2. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk...ng/3315187
3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/18/..._campaign/
4. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Graham-Cumming
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_turing

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| EA Spends 3x More On Marketing Than Development |
| from the hey-i-know-one-of-their-marketroids dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 31, @09:44 (PlayStation (Games)) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...Than-Devel|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

G3ckoG33k writes "According to Electronic Arts officer Rich Hilleman,
'the price of producing console games has rocketed, with [0]marketing
costing up to three times more than the development of a title.'" Sounds
pretty insane, but does anyone know how this compares to the film
industry?

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...31/1246219

Links:
0. http://www.gamersdailynews.com/story-131...-2to1.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Disney Buys Marvel For $4B |
| from the wolverine-with-mouse-ears dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 31, @10:27 (Media) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31...vel-For-4B |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

whisper_jeff writes "[0]Disney has announced they will be purchasing
Marvel. 'Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content
to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire
Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies
announced today.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...31/1359216

Links:
0. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-...08-31-9050

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Blames 'External Forces' For Exploding iPhones |
| from the don't-keep-it-in-your-pocket dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 31, @11:10 (Cellphones) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...r-Explodin|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Shome writes "Apple has stated that there is [1]no evidence that
recent iPhone explosions reported by users are connected to overheating
of batteries. It may be stated that French consumer affairs authorities
have started [2]their own investigation on the reported explosions, some
of which have caused minor injuries to the users, and are studying the
phone's safety features. The Inquirer runs a piece that [3]blames Apple
for blaming its customers. 'This mysterious force is not God, or a rival
religion, nor does it require any metaphysics to understand. An "external
force" is just Apple's term for the black shirted people who believe that
everything that Apple makes is wonderful. It is what other companies call
their "customers," writes Nick Farrell.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...31/1353205

Links:
0. mailtoConfusedhome.sengupta@gmail.com
1. http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobil...-f4g1.html
2. http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/a...g-iphones/
3. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news...ng-devices

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AMD Packs Six-Core Opteron Inside 40 Watts |
| from the not-a-power-of-two dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 31, @11:59 (AMD) |
| https://slashdot.org/story/09/08/31/1419...e-40-Watts |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

adeelarshad82 writes "Advanced Micro Devices has [0]launched a low-power
version of its six-core Opteron processor in time for VMworld, a key
virtualization show that opens on Monday. The six-core AMD Opteron EE
consumes 40 watts, and is designed for 2P servers, among the most popular
in the virtualized server space."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/31/1419235

Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352212,00.asp

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Woman Fired For Using Uppercase In Email |
| from the don't-type-angry dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday August 31, @12:49 (Communications) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31/...e-In-Email |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]tomachi writes "An accountant in NZ has been awarded $17,000 NZD for
unfair dismissal after her boss [1]fired her without warning for using
uppercase letters in a single email to co-workers. The email, which
advises her team how to fill out staff claim forms, specifies a time and
date highlighted in bold red, and a sentence written in capitals and
highlighted in bold blue. It reads: 'To ensure your staff claim is
processed and paid, please do follow the below checklist.' Her boss
deemed the capital letters too confrontational for her co-workers to read
after they woke up from naptime."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...31/1515239

Links:
0. http://www.funk.co.nz/
1. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10594014

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dad Builds 700 Pound Cannon for Son's Birthday |
| from the targets-only-no-shooting-birds dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday August 31, @13:19 (Toys) |
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story...nnon-for-S|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The Charleston Daily Mail reports that
[1]machinist Mike Daugherty built his son a working cannon for his
birthday — not a model — a real working cannon. 'It looks like something
right out of the battle at Gettysburg,' says Daugherty. The 700 pound
cast iron and steel howitzer, designed to use comparatively small
explosive charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories
with a steep angle of descent, has a 4-inch gun barrel that is 36 inches
long mounted on a wooden gun carriage with two 36- inch diameter wheels
and took Daugherty about two weeks to build at a cost of about $6,000.
'I've always been interested in the Civil War and cannons, so I thought
it would be a good gift,' says Daugherty's 11-year old son Logan.
Daugherty said he is not worried about the federal government coming to
get his son's cannon because he spoke to the federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and found it is legal to own such a
cannon because it does not use a firing pin and is muzzle loaded so the
government does not consider the weapon a threat. Two days after the
family celebrated Logan's 11th birthday, father and son offered a
[2]field demonstration of the new cannon on top of a grassy hill
overlooking Fairmont, West Virginia and on the third try, the blank
inside the barrel went boom and a cannon was born. For a followup they
popped a golf ball into the gun barrel, lit the fuse, and watched the
golf ball split the sky and land about 600 yards away. 'Any rebels
charging up this hill would be in trouble with a cannon like this at the
top,' Logan says."

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/commen...31/1635223

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.dailymail.com/foodandliving/200908290180
2. http://www.dailymail.com/foodandliving/200908290188

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Texting Toddlers, How Young is Too Young? |
| from the combine-with-powerwheels-for-ultimate-satisfaction dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @13:37 (Communications) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/08/...-Too-Young |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]theodp writes "[1]Toddlers don't need to be texting, concedes the
NYT's Lisa Belkinbut, but since they have always had toy typewriters and
toy telephones, why not toy Blackberrys? If your little tyke is itching
to text, the NYT has a [2]round-up of texting devices aimed at children
as young as three who want to talk with their thumbs. The question of,
'when is a child is old enough for their own cell phone' has been
replaced with the question of, 'what type of texting gadget is
appropriate for which age group.' But don't forget to lay down the law:
'Our 13-year-old got a phone with an unlimited plan as a reward for good
grades,' says HiTechMommy.com blogger Cat Schwartz. 'Each night he is
required to turn the phone in at 10 p.m. and then gets it back first
thing in the morning.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...31/1526237

Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/...-toddlers/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/techno....html?_r=1&hpw

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Robotic Mold |
| from the he-slimed-me dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @14:28 (Robotics) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...botic-Mold |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Canis Lupus writes to mention that researchers from the University of
West England are designing the world's first biological robot,
[0]constructed from mold. The robot, "Plasmobot," will be created using
vegetative slime mold called plasmodium (Physarum polycephalum) that is
commonly found in forests, gardens, and most damp places in the UK. "This
new plasmodium robot, called plasmobot, will sense objects, span them in
the shortest and best way possible, and transport tiny objects along
pre-programmed directions. The robots will have parallel inputs and
outputs, a network of sensors and the number crunching power of super
computers. The plasmobot will be controlled by spatial gradients of
light, electro-magnetic fields and the characteristics of the substrate
on which it is placed. It will be a fully controllable and programmable
amorphous intelligent robot with an embedded massively parallel
computer."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...31/1623214

Links:
0. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...073256.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Myths of Security |
| from the read-all-about-it dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday August 31, @15:19 (Security) |
| https://books.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...f-Security |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]brothke writes "The Myths of Security: What the Computer Security
Industry Doesn't Want You to Know is an interesting and thought-provoking
book. Ultimately, the state of information security can be summed up in
the book's final three sentences, in which John Viega writes that 'real,
timely improvement is possible, but it requires people to care a lot more
[about security] than they do. I'm not sure that's going to happen
anytime soon. But I hope it does.'" Read on for the rest of Ben's review.

This story continues at:
https://books.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...f-Security

Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...31/1358227

Links:
0. mailto:ben@rothke.com

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Military Helmet Design Contributes To Brain Damage |
| from the minor-oversights dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @16:05 (The Military) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...utes-To-Br|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]BuzzSkyline writes "Improvements in helmets have helped modern
soldiers survive bullets and blasts that would have killed them in past
wars. But increasing numbers of soldiers are suffering long lasting brain
damage from explosions, partly as a result of what appears to be a
[1]flaw in helmet designs. Although the blast itself may not accelerate
the brain inside a soldier's head enough to cause injury, shockwaves that
make it through the space between a helmet and a soldier's head can cause
the skull to flex, leading to ripples in the skull that can create
damaging pressures in the brain. Simulations that relied on 'code
originally designed to simulate how a detonated weapon rattles a building
or tank' could lead to new helmets that reduce the traumatic brain
injuries that many soldiers suffer as a result of improvised explosive
devices and other moderate-sized blasts. The research is due to be
published in Physical Review Letters, but a [2]pre-print of the entire
article is currently available on the Physics ArXiv."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../31/188228

Links:
0. mailto:buzzskyline@gmail.com
1. http://www.physicscentral.com/buzz/blog/...3768708113
2. http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3468

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10 |
| from the but-how-do-they-run-as-vms dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @16:57 (Operating Systems) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/31...rd-Windows-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

BeckySharp writes "With the nearly simultaneous release of Apple's Mac OS
X 10.6 'Snow Leopard' (available right now) and Microsoft's Windows 7
(available Oct. 22), you get the inevitable debate: Which is the better
operating system, [0]Windows 7 or Snow Leopard? To help determine that,
Computerworld's Preston Gralla put both operating systems through their
paces, selected categories for a head-to-head competition, and then chose
a winner in each category." Relatedly, Phoronix has posted [1]Snow
Leopard vs. Ubuntu 9.10 benchmarks. They ran tests from ray tracing to 3D
gaming to compilation. Their tests show Ubuntu 9.10 winning a number of
the tests, but there are some slowdowns in performance and still multiple
wins in favor of Snow Leopard, so the end result is mixed.

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...31/1916238

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9..._Windows_7
1. http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=14158

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Scientists Deliver Bee Toxin To Tumors Via "Nanobees" |
| from the stop-calling-everything-nano dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @17:48 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...-To-Tumors-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

ScienceDaily is reporting that Washington University School of Medicine
researchers have found a way to [0]deliver bee toxin to tumors using
nano-spheres they call "nanobees." The results in mice showed a cessation
of growth or even shrinkage of tumors while the surrounding tissue was
protected from the toxin. "The core of the nanobees is composed of
perfluorocarbon, an inert compound used in artificial blood. The research
group developed perfluorocarbon nanoparticles several years ago and have
been studying their use in various medical applications, including
diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis and cancer. About six
millionths of an inch in diameter, the nanoparticles are large enough to
carry thousands of active compounds, yet small enough to pass readily
through the bloodstream and to attach to cell membranes."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...31/2016211

Links:
0. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...174226.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Xbox 360 Version of Champions Online Being Held Back By MS |
| from the ready-set-wait dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Monday August 31, @18:39 (Microsoft) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...nline-Bein|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Tomorrow marks the launch of Cryptic Studios' new superhero MMO,
Champions Online. It was developed for the PC and the Xbox 360, but the
console version will be much delayed, according to Cryptic CCO Jack
Emmert, because [0]Microsoft is holding things up. "Microsoft's a big
company, and they have to work out all the various issues related to
MMOs. It just takes time for the big beast known as Microsoft to get
moving. I really have no explanation other than that, because it's as
baffling to developers as it is to everyone else," he said during [1]an
interview with VG247. The game itself is apparently finished, but Emmert
isn't sure it'll even go live for the 360 by the end of this year. Square
Enix developers made [2]similar comments earlier this month regarding
Final Fantasy XIV, which will be available first on the PS3 largely
because it's taking a long time to work out how the game will interact
with Xbox Live.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...31/2036239

Links:
0. http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/28/ms-foot-...ptic-boss/
1. http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/28/vg247-po...-gamescom/
2. http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/20/ffxiv-di...0-version/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| British Company Takes Lead To Stop Asteroids |
| from the prepare-to-take-the-money-and-run dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @19:23 (NASA) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...-Stop-Aste|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that following the news of
[0]NASA's budget cuts impacting their ability to do things like watch the
sky for asteroids, a British company has decided to create a "gravity
tractor" ship that could [1]divert asteroids away from Earth if the need
should arise. Of course, a gravity tractor certainly [2]isn't a new idea.
"Dr. Cordey said the company had worked with a number of space
authorities on other methods of protecting the Earth from asteroids, but
this one would be able to target a wider range. He said: 'We have done
quite a lot of design work on this with the European Space Agency and we
believe this would work just as well on a big solid iron asteroid as well
as other types.' But the high cost implications mean that before the
device could be made, it would have to be commissioned by a government or
a group of governments working together."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...31/2040203

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/story/09/08/14/15102...p-In-Doubt
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8230138.stm
2. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...04/1612239&tid=146


:newscoffee:
Reply
#57
Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Chinese Censor-Beating Software Resembles Malware, But Isn't
* The Story of a Simple and Dangerous OS X Kernel Bug
* Nokia Makes LGPL Version of PyQt
* Lori Drew Cyberbullying Case Dismissed
* Spammers Use Holes In Democrats.org Security
* Musician Lobby Terms Balanced Copyright "Disgusting"
* Chinese Game Operator Used DDoS Attacks On Rivals
* Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
* Personalized In-Game Advertising In Upcoming Titles
* Laughing Gas Is Major Threat To Ozone Layer
* Wind Farms Can Interfere With Doppler Radar
* Cato Institute Critique of Software Patents
* Australian Defence Force Builds $1.7m Linux-Based Flight Simulator
* TwIP - An IP Stack In a Tweet
* Skype Trojan Can Log VoIP Conversations

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Chinese Censor-Beating Software Resembles Malware, But Isn't |
| from the good-to-know dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @22:49 (Censorship) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30/...sembles-Ma|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "Software designed to beat Chinese censorship may
behave in ways that seem suspect, but it is [1]all part of the
application's strategy to fool the Great Firewall of China, according to
one programmer of the software. 'There are many built-in tricks that do
all kinds of things to confuse the firewall,' says David Tian, a
scientist for NASA who works spare-time on UltraSurf, the free software
designed to promote unrestricted Internet access for citizens of China
persecuted for being members of Falun Gang, the religious group the
Chinese government is trying to suppress."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/30/028203

Links:
0. http://networkworld.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/08...ml?hpg1=bn

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Story of a Simple and Dangerous OS X Kernel Bug |
| from the chink-in-the-armor dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @01:39 (Bug) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/09...-Dangerous-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]RazvanM writes "At the beginning of this month the Mac OS X 10.5.8
closed a [1]kernel vulnerability that lasted more than 4 years, covering
all the 10.4 and (almost all) 10.5 Mac OS X releases. This article
presents some [2]twitter-size [3]programs that trigger the bug. The
mechanics are so simple that can be easily explained to anybody
possessing some minimal knowledge about how operating systems works.
Beside being a good educational example this is also a scary proof that
very mature code can still be vulnerable in rather unsophisticated ways."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments....30/0424248

Links:
0. http://razvan.musaloiu.com/
1. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/05...r-Download
2. http://twitter.com/razvanm/status/3152648774
3. http://butnotyet.tumblr.com/post/1751325...kernel-bug

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nokia Makes LGPL Version of PyQt |
| from the if-not-one-way-then-another dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @04:43 (Programming) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/09...on-of-PyQt |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

EtaCarinae writes "Nokia didn't succeed in convincing [0]Riverbank to
change its licensing terms on [1]PyQt, and so decided to create their own
LGPL'ed version of it. From the FAQ at [2]the PySide site: 'Nokia's
initial research into Python bindings for Qt involved speaking with
Riverbank Computing, the makers of PyQt. We had several discussions with
them to see if it was possible to use PyQt to achieve our goals.
Unfortunately, a common agreement could not be found , so in the end we
decided to proceed with PySide.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments....30/0823206

Links:
0. http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyqt
2. http://www.pyside.org/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Lori Drew Cyberbullying Case Dismissed |
| from the neither-vindication-nor-absolution dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @08:01 (The Courts) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30/...-Dismissed |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Trepidity writes "About seven weeks after the judge [1]tentatively
overturned Lori Drew's guilty verdict for 'cyberbullying' following her
online harassment of a teenager that was linked to [2]the teenager's
suicide, the case was finally [3]officially dismissed. In a [4]32-page
opinion [PDF], the court avoided a minefield of possible [5]follow-on
effects that civil-liberties groups had warned of by holding that merely
violating a website's Terms of Service cannot constitute 'unauthorized
access' for the purposes of the [6]Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18
U.S.C. 1030)."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...30/0448217

Links:
0. http://www.pfstuff.com/
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/07/02/2017217&tid=61
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Megan_Meier
3. http://volokh.com/posts/1251601962.shtml
4. http://volokh.com/files/LoriDrew.pdf
5. http://www.eff.org/cases/united-states-v-drew
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fr..._Abuse_Act

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Spammers Use Holes In Democrats.org Security |
| from the hello-sir-madam dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 30, @09:17 (Democrats) |
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/09/0...tsorg-Secu|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Attila Dimedici writes "According to Cloudmark, [0]419 spammers are
[1]using the democrats.org website to relay email and bypass spam filters.
'The abuse, which dates back at least to the beginning of this month,
helps evade filters that internet service providers employ to block the
messages. ... The messages were sent courtesy of [2]this page, which
allows anyone with an internet connection to send emails. The PHP script
employs no CAPTCHA or other measure to help ensure there is a real human
being behind each email that gets funneled through the service. The
service allows messages to be sent to 10 addresses at a time and even
provides a way for people to import contacts they have stored in their
address book.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../30/126259

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_419_spam
1. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/28/...419_abuse/
2. http://www.democrats.org/page/invite

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Musician Lobby Terms Balanced Copyright "Disgusting" |
| from the less-than-impressed dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 30, @10:35 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30/...yright-Dis|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "While most of the attention at Thursday's
Canadian copyright town hall was on the recording industry's strategy to
[0]pack the room and exclude alternate voices, the most controversial
activity took place outside the hall. It has now been revealed that
[1]security guards threatened students and a Member of Parliament for
distributing leaflets, and the American Federation of Musicians termed
the MP's leaflet, which called for balanced copyright, 'disgusting' and
[2]demanded a retraction and apology. At this point, such an admission
[3]seems unlikely."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...30/1332243

Links:
0. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4329/125/
1. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4332/125/
2. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4334/125/
3. http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/29/ame...ght-l.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Chinese Game Operator Used DDoS Attacks On Rivals |
| from the world-of-latencycraft dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 30, @10:58 (Networking) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...-Attacks-O|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]carusoj writes "An attack by a Chinese online game provider meant to
cripple the servers of its rivals [1]ballooned to cause an Internet
outage in much of the country in May, according to police. The escalation
began with a distributed denial-of-service attack on a domain registrar
that serves many small gaming companies. While the national scale of the
effects was unusual, such attacks are common among some small Internet
businesses competing to draw customers in China, security researchers
say. Police have arrested four people involved in the attack."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...30/1351253

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/08...ivals.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs? |
| from the i'm-guessing-china dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 30, @11:51 (Businesses) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...-Bell-Labs |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]theodp writes "Name an industry that can produce 1 million new,
high-paying jobs over the next three years, challenges BusinessWeek. You
can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem. So what's the
answer? [1]Basic research can repair the broken US business model, argues
BW, saying it's the key to new, high-quality job creation. Scientific
research legends like Bell Labs, Sarnoff Corp, and Xerox PARC are
essentially gone, or shadows of their former selves. And while IBM,
Microsoft, and HP collectively spend [2]$17B a year on R&D, only [3]3%-5%
of that is for basic science. In a post-9/11 world, DARPA's mission has
shifted from science to tactical projects with short-term military
applications. Cutting back on investment in basic science research may
make great sense in the short term, but as corporations and government
make the same decision to free-ride off the investments of others,
society suffers the 'tragedy of the commons,' wherein multiple actors
operating in their self-interest do harm to the overall public good.
We've reached that point, says BW, and we're just beginning to see the
consequences. The cycle needs to be reversed, and it needs to be done
quickly."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...30/1512213

Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazi...681619.htm
2. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/con...687973.htm
3. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazi...683083.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Personalized In-Game Advertising In Upcoming Titles |
| from the brought-to-you-by-frungy-the-sport-of-kings dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 30, @13:08 (Privacy) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...g-In-Upcom|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Scythal writes "In-game advertising provider Massive Inc., [0]acquired by
Microsoft in 2006, has [1]signed up or renewed contracts with several
publishers, notably EA, Blizzard Entertainment, THQ, and Activision.
Eagerly anticipated games like Need for Speed: Shift will feature the
technology that continuously collects 'anonymous' information about
users, sends them to the Massive database for analysis, and downloads
advertisements to be shown in the game. All that happens insidiously,
without the users' explicit consent and out of their control, which
raises further concerns about privacy, security and quite frankly,
customer abuse. Would you feel concerned about software that collects
personal information and sends it so that you get more personalized ads
in a game you paid for?" (More, below.)

This story continues at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/3...ing-Titles

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...30/1618218

Links:
0. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press...IncPR.mspx
1. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...tory=25055

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Laughing Gas Is Major Threat To Ozone Layer |
| from the damn-you-street-racers-damn-you dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @14:06 (Earth) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...o-Ozone-La|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that
according to new research, [1]nitrous oxide, the colorless,
sweet-smelling gas with a long history as a medical and dental anesthetic
is the [2]next big threat to Earth's protective ozone layer. Its role in
destroying ozone has long been recognized, as well as its role as a
heat-trapping greenhouse gas but the new study puts nitrous oxide's
ability to deplete ozone into numbers comparable to those used for other
[3]ozone-depleting gases covered by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The
researchers note that the health of the ozone layer has been improving
since the adoption of the protocol and that nitrous oxide looms large
today as an artificial destroyer of the ozone layer, in part because the
emissions of other harmful chemicals have been so sharply reduced."
(Continues.)

This story continues at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08...zone-Layer

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../30/180225

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide
2. http://features.csmonitor.com/environmen...ous-oxide/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wind Farms Can Interfere With Doppler Radar |
| from the whiteout-on-the-right-parts-of-the-screen dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @15:10 (Power) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/0...-Doppler-R|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]T Murphy writes "Wind farms [1]can appear like storms or tornadoes on
Doppler radar when placed too close to the radar. Tornado alley is a good
area for wind farms, and good terrain for the turbines is also ideal for
Doppler radar. With many new farms being constructed, the problem is
growing. A false tornado warning was issued in Kansas by a computer,
although canceled by a meteorologist aware of the problem- there are
fears that false positives will grow. Worse would be a tornado ignored as
a wind turbine. While meteorologists are trying to work with wind farm
owners to shut off the turbines during bad weather, they have no control
over the placement or operation of the turbines. Efforts are being made
to improve detection technology to avoid further problems."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../30/193227

Links:
0. mailto:murph89@gmail.com
1. http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=316752

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cato Institute Critique of Software Patents |
| from the oprah-favre dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @16:16 (Patents) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30/...re-Patents|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]binarybits writes "I've written an article for the free-market Cato
Institute about how patents impede innovation in the software industry.
It points out that people tend not to realize how vast the software
industry is. It's not just Google and Microsoft; [1]virtually every
organization has an IT department producing potentially-infringing
software. Organizations as diverse as J. Crew and the Green Bay Packers
have been sued for patent infringement. It's crazy to expect all these
organizations to worry about potential patent infringement. Hopefully the
Supreme Court's Bilski decision will lead to new limits on software
patents."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...30/1948206

Links:
0. http://timothyblee.com/
1. http://www.cato.org/tech/tk/090828-tk.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Australian Defence Force Builds $1.7m Linux-Based Flight Simulator |
| from the send-some-love-to-flightgear dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @17:15 (The Military) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30...7m-Linux-B|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

scrubl writes "The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has revealed its latest
flight simulator [0]runs on SUSE Linux-based clusters of Opteron servers
and uses an open source graphics platform. The Defence Science and
Technology Organisation's (DSTO) Air Operations Simulation Centre in
Melbourne creates virtual words that allow pilots to experience
real-world combat situations without leaving the ground. The visuals
software was written in OpenGL, using commercial and open source scene
graph engines and making 'heavy use of OpenGL Shader Language programs.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../30/214236

Links:
0. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/154262,def...lator.aspx

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| TwIP - An IP Stack In a Tweet |
| from the small-is-good dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @18:21 (Networking) |
| https://bsd.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30/...In-a-Tweet |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Adam Dunkels writes "Inspired by the Twitter-sized program that
[1]crashes Mac OS X, I just wrote a really, really rudimentary IP stack
called twIP, small enough to fit in a [2]Twitter tweet. Although twIP is
very far away from a [3]real [4]IP [5]stack, it can do the first task of
any IP stack: respond to pings. The entire source code can be found [2]in
this 128-character-long tweet. For those who are interested in low-level
network programming, a [6]code walkthrough with instructions on how to
run the code under FreeBSD is available here. The FAQ: Q: why? A: for
fun."

Discuss this story at:
http://bsd.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...30/2212238

Links:
0. http://www.sics.se/~adam/
1. http://developers.slashdot.org/story/09/...Kernel-Bug
2. http://twitter.com/adunk/statuses/3646637058
3. http://www.sics.se/~adam/uip/
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LwIP
5. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...15/1839209&tid=94
6. http://www.sics.se/~adam/twip.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Skype Trojan Can Log VoIP Conversations |
| from the sans-malice-would-be-a-useful-thing dept. |
| posted by timothy on Sunday August 30, @19:24 (Communications) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/30...versations |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Slatterz writes "Security giant Symantec claims to have found the public
release of source code for a Trojan that targets Skype users.
Trojan.Peskyspy is spyware which [0]records a voice call and stores it as
an MP3 file for later transmission. An infected machine will use the
software that handles audio processing within a computer and save the
call data as an MP3. The file is then sent over the internet to a
predefined server where the attacker can listen to the recorded
conversations."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../30/238249

Links:
0. http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/15440...tions.aspx

Reply
#58

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* First Anti-Cancer Nanoparticle Trial on Humans a Success
* ISS To Get Man Cave
* The Helium Rains of Jupiter
* New Ancient Human Identified
* Iron Alloy Could Create Earthquake-Proof Buildings
* Math Skills For Programmers - Necessary Or Not?
* Google Wants To Be Your Electricity Meter
* YouTube Is Down
* Tracking Pedophiles By Their Typing Habits
* Millions Continue To Click On Spam
* Will Your Answers To the Census Stay Private?
* De Icaza Says Microsoft Has Shot .NET Ecosystem In Foot
* US Not Training Enough Cyber Security Experts
* Facebook Leads To Increase In STDs in Britain
* How the Nintendo 3DS Might Handle 3D Display
* Drunk History Presents Nikola Tesla *NSFW*
* Obama's Twitter Account "Hacked"
* Beware the King of the Patent Trolls
* How the TSA Plans On Inspecting Your Monkey
* Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos
* BC Prof Suggests Young Children Need Less Formal Math, Not More
* Netflix Streaming Arrives For the Wii
* 90% of the Universe Found Hiding In Plain View
* Dell To Leave China For India
* International Longest Tweet Contest Seeks Entries
* IE8, Safari, iPhone All Fall At Pwn2Own Contest
* How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection?
* Venezuela's Last Opposition TV Owner Arrested

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Anti-Cancer Nanoparticle Trial on Humans a Success |
| from the smallest-medicine dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 24, @20:16 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...e-Trial-on|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "[0]Nanoparticles have been able to disable
cancerous cells in living human bodies for the first time. The results
are perfect so far, killing tumors with no side effects whatsoever. Mark
Davis, [1]project leader at CalTech, says that 'it sneaks in, evades the
immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit
out.' Truly amazing."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...24/2232241

Links:
0. http://gizmodo.com/5501103/this-is-the-f...nst-cancer
1. http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13334

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ISS To Get Man Cave |
| from the floating-cheese-curls dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 24, @22:32 (Robotics) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/0...t-Man-Cave |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Nancy_A writes "There might be a new favorite hang-out for astronauts
aboard the International Space Station later this year. The Leonardo
Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) will become a permanent module on
the station, and will be brought up on the STS-133 mission, scheduled for
September 2010. The new module might provide [0]a haven for astronauts to
get away from it all. '"The thought is, the PMM might become sort of a
'man cave,'" said Mike Kinslow, the Boeing payload manager at the Kennedy
Space Center. "It won't have all the background noise of fans, computers
and other equipment running like in the laboratories, so it will be a
quieter atmosphere that might appeal to the astronauts during their
off-duty hours."' Plus, NASA's Robonaut 2, or R2 will be brought up on
the same flight. Any chance R2 could be programmed to serve drinks or
bring food into the man cave?"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...24/2255257

Links:
0. http://www.universetoday.com/2010/03/24/...ot-butler/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Helium Rains of Jupiter |
| from the gonna-wash-that-helium-right-out-of-the-air dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 24, @22:33 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...of-Jupiter |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

coondoggie writes "In the strange and mysterious world of Jupiter,
scientists were looking for an explanation for why the massive orb's
atmosphere contained little neon, a common gas found on many planets. Now
researching say they have found solved the mystery: Helium rain. In the
interior of Jupiter conditions are so strange that, according to
predictions by University of California, Berkeley scientists, [0]helium
condenses into droplets and falls like rain. On Jupiter the scientists
explain the only way neon could be removed from the upper atmosphere is
to have it fall out with helium, since neon and helium mix easily, like
alcohol and water."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...24/2246229

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/58861

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| New Ancient Human Identified |
| from the welcom-to-the-family dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @00:58 (Science) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...Identified |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

krou writes "Working on a finger-bone that was discovered in the Denisova
Cave of Siberia's Altai mountains in 2008, Johannes Krause from the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues managed to
extract mitochondrial DNA. They compared it to the genetic code of modern
humans and other known Neanderthals and discovered [0]a new type of
hominin that lived in Central Asia between 48,000 and 30,000 years ago.
Professor Chris Stringer, human origins researcher at London's Natural
History Museum, said, 'This new DNA work provides an entirely new way of
looking at the still poorly-understood evolution of humans in central and
eastern Asia.' The last common ancestor of the hominid (dubbed
'X-Woman'), humans and Neanderthals seems to have been about one million
years ago."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/0054235

Links:
0. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8583254.stm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Iron Alloy Could Create Earthquake-Proof Buildings |
| from the shake-all-you-want dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @01:37 (Science) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...quake-Proo|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

separsons writes "Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University designed a
[0]new shape memory metal alloy. The super elastic iron alloy can endure
serious stretching and still return to its original shape. The scientists
say that once optimized, the material could be used in everything from
braces to medical stents to earthquake-proof buildings!"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...24/2249222

Links:
0. http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/23/elas...buildings/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Math Skills For Programmers - Necessary Or Not? |
| from the who-needs-theory-when-you-have-practice dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @03:56 (Math) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...-Necessary|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Currently the nature of most programming work
is such that you don't really need math skills to get by or even to do
well, after all linear algebra is no help when building database driven
websites. However, Skorks contends that if you want to do truly
interesting work in the software development field, [0]math skills are
essential and furthermore, will become increasingly important as we are
forced to work with ever larger data sets (making math-intensive
algorithm analysis skills a priority)."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/0312233

Links:
0. http://www.skorks.com/2010/03/you-dont-n...great-one/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Wants To Be Your Electricity Meter |
| from the google-watt-hours dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @07:57 (Google) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/0...tricity-Me|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Google has teamed up with a microcontroller
maker Microchip to develop an API for a piece of software called Google
PowerMeter, according this EE Times story. Why? Because Google wants to
[0]host all the details of the electricity and other energy consumption
of people's homes. It wants to do this so that it can show people on
their iGoogle homepages when and where they are consuming energy so that
they can start to reduce their power consumption. The good news is that
it is an opt-in service and free so you don't have to make Google your
energy-monitor if you dont't want to do so."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...25/0318219

Links:
0. http://www.eetimes.com/224200147

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| YouTube Is Down |
| from the what-it's-2012-already dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @08:38 (Youtube) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25...be-Is-Down |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

A number of readers have noted that YouTube is currently giving back 400
and 502 http errors, and has apparently been doing so for an hour or
more. I suggest you use this window of opportunity to get something done:
the dancing kitties will still be there when you're done.

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1229229

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tracking Pedophiles By Their Typing Habits |
| from the you-gotta-be-kidding dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @09:18 (Science) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...Typing-Hab|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Pedophiles using the internet to target
youngsters could be tracked down — by [0]the way they use a keyboard.
Researchers are investigating ways to use technology which can determine
a typist's age, sex and culture within ten keystrokes by monitoring their
speed and rhythm." Since [1]Phrenology hasn't exactly panned out, they
gotta try something new.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/1240200

Links:
0. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...nline.html
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Millions Continue To Click On Spam |
| from the no-seriously-knock-it-off dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @09:58 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/1...ck-On-Spam |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Even though over 80% of email users are aware
of the existence of bots, [0]tens of millions respond to spam in ways
that could leave them vulnerable to a malware infection, according to a
Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) survey. In the survey, half of
users said they had opened spam, clicked on a link in spam, opened a spam
attachment, replied or forwarded it – activities that leave consumers
susceptible to fraud, phishing, identity theft and infection. While most
consumers said they were aware of the existence of bots, only one-third
believed they were vulnerable to an infection."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/03/25/1243241

Links:
0. http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9063

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Will Your Answers To the Census Stay Private? |
| from the depends-how-you-define-private dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @10:46 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/...tay-Privat|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "James Bovard writes in the Christian Science
Monitor that Americans are told that information gathered in the census
will never be used against them and the House of Representatives, in a
Census Awareness Month resolution passed March 3, proclaimed that 'the
data obtained from the census are protected under United States privacy
laws.' Unfortunately, thousands of [1]Americans who trusted the Census
Bureau in the past lost their freedom as a result. In the 1940 Census,
the Census Bureau loudly assured people that their responses would be
kept confidential. Within four days of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the
Census Bureau had produced a report listing the Japanese-American
population in each county on the West Coast. The Census Bureau's report
[2]helped the US Army round up more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans for
concentration camps (later renamed 'internment centers'). In 2003-04, the
Census Bureau provided the Department of Homeland Security with a massive
cache of information on [3]how many Arab Americans lived in each ZIP Code
around the nation, and which country they originated from — information
that could have made it far easier to carry out the type of mass roundup
that some conservatives advocated. 'Instead of viewing census critics as
conspiracy theorists, the nation's political leaders should recognize how
their policies have undermined public faith in government,' writes
Bovard. 'All the census really needs to know is how many people live at
each address. Citizens should refuse to answer any census question except
for the number of residents.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/1326257

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opin...ay-private
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Am...internment
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/politi...ensus.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| De Icaza Says Microsoft Has Shot .NET Ecosystem In Foot |
| from the starting-with-the-name dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @11:20 (Microsoft) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/...NET-Ecosys|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has [0]shot the .NET ecosystem in
the foot because of the constant threat of patent infringement that it
has cast on the system, Novell vice-president and Microsoft MVP, Miguel
de Icaza, is quoted as telling the website, Software Development Times,
recently."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/1331255

Links:
0. http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analys...t-de-icaza

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Not Training Enough Cyber Security Experts |
| from the just-pay-them-more dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @12:01 (Education) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/...rity-Exper|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

graychase writes "Homeland Security's cybersecurity director, Richard
Marshall, warns that universities [0]aren't turning out enough
cybersecurity experts and urges greater scholarship funding. 'Look at all
the great football and basketball programs. They're all on scholarships.
They're not playing for fun — they're playing for money.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/1442237

Links:
0. http://www.esecurityplanet.com/features/...cation.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Facebook Leads To Increase In STDs in Britain |
| from the friends-and-really-good-friends dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @12:12 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...-STDs-in-B|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

ectotherm writes "According to Professor Peter Kelly, a director of
Public Health in Great Britain: 'There has been [0]a four-fold increase
in the number of syphilis cases detected, with more young women being
affected.' Why the increase? People meeting up for casual sex through
Facebook. According to the article 'Social networking sites are making it
easier for people to meet up for casual sex. There is a rise in syphilis
because people are having more sexual partners than 20 years ago and
often do not use condoms."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/1525208

Links:
0. http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/hea...eport.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How the Nintendo 3DS Might Handle 3D Display |
| from the i-can-see-my-hand dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @12:43 (Displays) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/0...andle-3D-D|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

itwbennett writes "Blogger Peter Smith weighs in with some possibilities
for how the new Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system will provide [0]3D
gaming without the need for 3D glasses. The DSi has cameras, which means
the 3DS will have to have them too if it's going to be backwards
compatible. We've also heard rumors that the 'next DS' [1]will have
tilt-sensors better than the iPhone. With either the camera or
tilt-sensors either of these 'faux 3D' systems would work. But since
we've seen the DSi do this already, it doesn't seem likely that the new
hardware will rely on the same old trick. Enter our friends at Engadget,
who [2]uncovered some details from Japanese newspapers. If they're right,
the Nintendo 3DS will incorporate [3]parallax barrier LCD screens from
Sharp (see also [4]this explanation of dynamic parallax barrier screens).
This is the same technology used in a few '3D Laptops.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...25/1524220

Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech/102...ut-glasses
1. http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/10/02/17/....features/
2. http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/ninte...n-and-sha/
3. http://www.techjapan.com/Article1070.html
4. http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=4&type=1&indi=315

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Drunk History Presents Nikola Tesla *NSFW* |
| from the putting-on-your-history-goggles dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @13:14 (Idle) |
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25...Tesla-NSFW |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Amazingly accurate for someone so plastered. I think all history should
be taught at this level of intoxication.

Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1646246

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Obama's Twitter Account "Hacked" |
| from the well-not-exactly dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @13:30 (Security) |
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/0...unt-Hacked |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Oxford_Comma_Lover writes "A 24-year-old living with his mother in France
was [0]arrested for 'hacking' into Obama's twitter accounts. (Warning:
WSJ does obnoxious paywall things. Your miles may vary.) Apparently he
guesses the answer to a question related to password recovery in order to
break into the accounts of famous people; he has no computer science
training or financial motive. He posted screenshots to a few boards and
twitter found out within a few hours, either from a tip or from noticing
when someone from France logs onto twitter as the President of the United
States. (He did not actually tweet as POTUS, but just wanted to show he
could break into the account.)"

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl...25/1728248

Links:
0. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...lenews_wsj

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Beware the King of the Patent Trolls |
| from the lotta-fresh-air-under-the-bridge dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @14:11 (Patents) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/...ent-Trolls |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

superapecommando writes "If you haven't heard of Intellectual Ventures,
you may want to check this out. Set up by ex-Microsoftie Nathan Myhrvold,
with investments from Microsoft among others, it is basically [0]a
patenting machine – filing and buying them in huge quantities. Note that
it doesn't actually use these patents – except to threaten people with.
In other words, Intellectual Ventures is a patent troll – or, rather the
King of the Patent Trolls. So I was interested to come across this
[1]extremely positive blog post on the company. That it is so positive is
hardly surprising, since the blog is called 'Tangible IP,' and subtitled
'ipVA's blog on adding value through intellectual property.' Nonetheless,
it provides valuable insights into the mindset of fans of intellectual
monopolies. Here's what it says about Intellectual Ventures: 'They are an
invention house, and have adopted and reinvented leading edge patent
strategies to create a portfolio of their own IP which, in its own, would
be of high high worth.' They don't invent anything in the proper, deep
sense of the word; they merely file and buy patents – with no intent of
ever making stuff or solving real-life problems."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/1733229

Links:
0. http://www.computerworlduk.com/community...tryid=2863
1. http://www.tangible-ip.com/2010/economis...-on-iv.htm

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How the TSA Plans On Inspecting Your Monkey |
| from the I'm-gonna-need-to-check-your-monkey dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, @14:27 (Transportation) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25...Your-Monke|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The uncertainty of what might happen to your [0]service monkey at an
airport security checkpoint won't keep you awake at night anymore, thanks
to the TSA. They have issued an easy to follow list of how they will
ensure your helper monkey won't go all Planet of the Apes on your flight.
Some of the security techniques used to make sure your primate is not a
terrorist include: "Security Officers will conduct a visual inspection on
the service monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey
during the visual inspection. The inspection process may require that the
handler to take off the monkey's diaper as part of the visual
inspection."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...25/1547249

Links:
0. http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/s...056.shtm#2

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos |
| from the i-can-see-my-house-from-here dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 25, @14:55 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...-Great-Spa|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

krou writes "With a budget of £500, Robert Harrison used [0]cheap parts,
a weather balloon, some duct tape, a digital camera, and a GPS device to
capture some great [1]photos of the earth from space that resulted in
NASA calling him to find out how he had done it. 'A guy phoned up who
worked for Nasa who was interested in how we took the pictures," said Mr
Harrison. 'He wanted to know how the hell we did it. He thought we used a
rocket. They said it would have cost them millions of dollars.' The
details of his balloon are as follows: he used 'an ordinary Canon camera
mounted on a weather balloon', 'free software' that 'reprogrammed the
camera to wake up every five minutes and take eight photographs and a
video before switching off for a rest.' He also ensured the camera was
'wrapped in loft insulation' to make sure it could operate at the cold
temperatures. The GPS device allowed him to pinpoint the balloon's
location, and retrieve the camera when it fell down to earth attached to
a small parachute."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/1736252

Links:
0. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/sc...074839.ece
1. http://www.robertharrison.org/icarus/wor...?page_id=2

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BC Prof Suggests Young Children Need Less Formal Math, Not More |
| from the all-in-favor-say-pi dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @15:37 (Education) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...en-Need-Le|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]DesScorp writes "Professor Peter Gray, a developmental psychologist
and researcher at Boston College, recounts an experiment done in New
Hampshire schools in 1929, where [1]math was completely taken out of the
curriculum of the poorest schools from the area until the sixth grade.
The results were surprising; with just one year of math under their
belts, the poor students did as well or better than students from better
schools by the end of the sixth grade year, despite the fact that the
better schools had math in their curriculum all throughout elementary
school. Professor Gray thinks children are not mentally wired for the
kind of formal math instruction that is taught in schools, and that we'd
be better served by putting off the teaching of theory until the seventh
grade. He scoffs at the notion that if children are failing with current
levels of math instructions then we should double down and make them do
more math in school."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...25/1755231

Links:
0. mailtoBig GrinesScorp.Gmail@com
1. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/free...in-schools

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Netflix Streaming Arrives For the Wii |
| from the hopping-on-the-bandwagon dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday March 25, @15:59 (Movies) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/10/03/2...or-the-Wii |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Grant,thompson writes "As [0]announced in January and mentioned here on
Slashdot, Netflix is sending out discs today to [1]enable streaming on
the Nintendo Wii. 'Netflix has sent out emails to customers who
pre-ordered the Wii's instant streaming disc, indicating that the disc
will arrive in mailboxes tomorrow, and that the service will likely start
within the next day.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...25/1953204

Links:
0. http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/01/13...-Streaming
1. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/03...cs-to.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 90% of the Universe Found Hiding In Plain View |
| from the that-tricky-universe dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @16:20 (Space) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03...g-In-Plain|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]The Bad Astronomer writes "As much as 90% of previously hidden
galaxies in the distant Universe [1]have been found by astronomers using
the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Previous surveys had looked for
distant (10 billion light years away) galaxies by searching in a
wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms — distant young
galaxies should be blasting out this light, but very few were detected.
The problem is that the ultraviolet light never gets out of the galaxies,
so we never see them. In this new study, astronomers searched a different
wavelength emitted by hydrogen, and voila, ten times as many galaxies
could be seen, meaning 90% of them had been missed before."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../25/200209

Links:
0. mailto:thebadastronomerNO@SPAMgmail.com
1. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badast...-universe/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dell To Leave China For India |
| from the in-these-troubled-economic-times dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @17:00 (Government) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/0...-For-India |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

halfEvilTech writes "India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, told the
Indian press that Dell chairman Michael Dell assured him that Dell was
[0]moving $25 billion in factories from China to India. Original motives
were cited for environmental concerns. But later details come up as to
dell wanting a 'safer environment conductive to enterprise.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...25/2054238

Links:
0. http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/03/24/dell...ing-china/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| International Longest Tweet Contest Seeks Entries |
| from the shannon-sighs dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @17:43 (It's funny. Laugh.) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/10...et-Contest-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The [0]1st International Longest Tweet
Contest is open for submissions until April 12. It looks to be a take-off
of the famous [1]Obfuscated C Contest. So far the record is [2]4.2
kilobits encoded per tweet, based on exploiting the fact that Twitter
actually passes the full 31 bits of [3]ISO 10646 (the international
standard that Unicode is based on), not the roughly 20.08 bits/character
of [4]Unicode itself."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments....25/2134228

Links:
0. http://blog.ksplice.com/2010/03/longest-tweet/
1. http://www.ioccc.org/
2. http://blog.ksplice.com/wp-content/uploa...t-send.txt
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Character_Set
4. http://www.unicode.org/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IE8, Safari, iPhone All Fall At Pwn2Own Contest |
| from the sucks-to-be-everyone dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @18:27 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/2...Own-Contes|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

SpuriousLogic writes "The annual Pwn2Own contest at CanSecWest is
underway, and on the first day Web browsers fell to attack. Internet
Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6.2 on 64-bit Windows 7 and Safari on OS X
[0]all were forced to run exploit code. To add insult to injury, an
iPhone was cracked and the SMS database lifted from it." Updated 22:40
GMT by timothy: CWmike adds this interesting bit: "The only researcher to
three-peat at the Pwn2Own hacking contest said on Thursday that security
is such a 'broken record' that [1]he won't hand over 20 vulnerabilities
he's found in Apple's, Adobe's and Microsoft's software. Instead Charlie
Miller will show the vendors how to find the bugs themselves."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/03/25/2227231

Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361810,00.asp
1. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9...r_own_bugs

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection? |
| from the high-quality-tin-can dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @19:09 (Cellphones) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/...Connection |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]ganjadude writes "So I am moving to a location where the cell signal
is very poor (I don't get signal inside my house), and I have been
looking at wireless extenders such as the ones that Sprint and Verizon
have. I am brought down by the cost (Sprint charges monthly, Verizon $250
up front, AT&T.... well they are AT&T). Being that this is Slashdot, and
a lot of us live in basements (I kid!), I assume that some of the crowd
has had this issue in the past. What have you done, or what alternatives
are available to someone in such a situation?"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...25/2236230

Links:
0. mailto:pmalloy4391@@@aol...com

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Venezuela's Last Opposition TV Owner Arrested |
| from the or-in-this-case-on-air dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday March 25, @19:30 (Censorship) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/25/...r-Arrested|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

WrongSizeGlass writes "AP is reporting the owner of Venezuela's only
remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against President Hugo
Chavez [0]was arrested Thursday. 'Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of
Globovision, was arrested on a warrant for remarks that were deemed
"offensive" to the president,' Attorney General Luisa Ortega said. This
comes on the heels of last week's story titled [1]Venezuela's Chavez To
Limit Internet Freedom."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/03/25/231232

Links:
0. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/L...NEWS_MEDIA
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/14/1...et-Freedom


Copyright 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.. All rights reserved.


======================================================================
Reply
#59
Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* NASA Mars Rover Spots Its Ultimate Destination
* Black Market May Develop For IPv4 Addresses
* Gene Therapy Restores Sight To Blind
* Texas Tells Cape Wind "You're Not First Yet"
* Judge Closes Online Access To Info On Civil Case
* BlackBerry Predicted a Century Ago By Nikola Tesla
* Moore's Law Will Die Without GPUs
* Top 10 Things Hollywood Thinks Computers Can Do
* Salad Spinner Made Into Life-Saving Centrifuge
* "Digital Universe" Enters the Zettabyte Era
* Martian Gullies Explained By... Sand
* State Senator Caught Looking At Porn On Senate Floor
* Intel Shows Off First Light Peak Laptop
* US Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie
* Microsoft .Net Libraries Not Acting "Open Source"
* Metasploit As Case Study In Selling a FOSS Project
* RFID Checks Student Attendance in Arizona
* The Humble Indie Bundle
* Oracle Restricts Access To Sun Firmware Downloads
* Mac OS X Problem Puts Up a Block To IPv6
* Foxit One-Ups Adobe In Blocking PDF Attack Tactics
* Intel Turbo Boost vs. AMD Turbo Core Explained
* Total Victory For Open Source In a Patent Case

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NASA Mars Rover Spots Its Ultimate Destination |
| from the know-the-place-for-the-first-time dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday May 03, @21:44 (Mars) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...imate-Dest|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

coondoggie writes "It has been years in the making but NASA said its Mars
Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured a new view of the rim of the
planet's Endeavour crater, [0]perhaps the rover's ultimate destination.
The Mars rover set out for Endeavour in September 2008 after spending two
years exploring the Victoria crater. NASA says Endeavour is 13 miles
across, some 25 times wider than Victoria crater, and could offer
scientists more insight into the red planet's makeup."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...03/2258219

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/60779

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Black Market May Develop For IPv4 Addresses |
| from the step-into-this-alleyway dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday May 03, @23:37 (The Almighty Buck) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/03...4-Addresse|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

GMGruman writes "Everyone knows that we're [0]running out of traditional
IPv4 Internet addresses and that switching to IPv6 is the answer — yet
foot-dragging by IT departments and vendors means the problem is still on
the back burner. IPv4/IPv6 coexistence is now expected to last for 5
years. In this article, Mel Beckman explains how this is all leading to a
[1]black market in traditional IPv4 addresses that will catch many people
off-guard, and boost Internet access prices sky-high."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...03/2315259

Links:
0. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/01/24/...-Allocated
1. http://www.infoworld.com/print/121729

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gene Therapy Restores Sight To Blind |
| from the falling-scales dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @02:31 (Biotech) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...t-To-Blind |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like we have found a cure for genetic
blindness ([0]clinical trial — [1]abstract — [2]paper [PDF] — [3]ABC News
video). This gene therapy treatment increases both cone and rod
photoreceptor-based vision. These engineered viruses are implanted to do
our bidding to restore vision. Clinical trials on 6 children and young
people proved the therapy and didn't find any notable side effects." Any
blind person, especially any adapted and competent one, who wants to gain
the sense of sight would be well advised to study Oliver Sachs's classic
piece "[4]To See and Not See."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...03/2341209

Links:
0. http://nejm.highwire.org/cgi/content/abs...a0802268v1
1. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/39/15112.abstract
2. http://www.pnas.org/content/102/17/6177.full.pdf
3. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4738923
4. http://web.archive.org/web/2006083112422..._archive01

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Texas Tells Cape Wind "You're Not First Yet" |
| from the y'all-come dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @05:21 (Earth) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/03...-First-Yet |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

longacre writes "Cape Wind is making headlines for for being the [0]first
offshore wind farm to earn federal approval, but it still has plenty of
legal hoops to jump through before groundbreaking. Texas, on the other
hand, [1]requires no review — state, federal, or otherwise — to build
wind farms off its shore. Texas energy expert and Popular Mechanics
senior editor Jennifer Bogo talks to Texan energy leaders who are
confident they will beat Cape Wind to the punch for the distinction of
having the first functional US offshore wind farm. 'I was about to write
a press release to congratulate Cape Wind for getting their approval,'
says Jim Suydam, press secretary of the Texas General Land Office, 'and
let them know when they're done jumping through hoops up there they can
come build off the Texas Coast.' Despite its reputation as an
oil-addicted, non-environmentally-friendly, conservative state, Texas's
existing land-based wind farms actually [2]produce four times more
electricity than California's."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...03/2356214

Links:
0. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/04...-Wind-Farm
1. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/...-cape-wind
2. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technolo...ws/4338280

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Judge Closes Online Access To Info On Civil Case |
| from the need-not-to-know dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @08:10 (Censorship) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/...o-On-Civil|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Ponca City, We love you writes "The Tulsa World reports that Judge
Linda Morrissey has ordered online access to information about a civil
case [1]locked up on the court website for the duration of a retrial out
of concern that jurors might access earlier trial information and be
prejudiced. The first trial, which focused on a death amid allegations of
negligent medical care, wound up in a mistrial because jurors did not
reach a verdict. Lawyers involved in the second trial agreed to the order
because they were concerned that jurors could be influenced by getting
information from a record of events in a case filed in February 2007 that
could be inadmissible as trial evidence. Morrissey routinely gives strong
admonitions to jurors that they not search the Internet for information
about a case being tried. But not everyone agrees with the judge's
closing of court records. The lawyers involved in the trial 'don't
represent the public's interest in those records,' says Joey Senat, an
associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University who writes
for FOI Oklahoma, adding that what might be convenient to trial
participants does not outweigh 'the public's right or need to know.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...04/0155213

Links:
0. http://poncacityweloveyou.com/
1. http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.a...bjectid=14&articleid=20100503_14_A1_Inasig174831&allcom=1

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BlackBerry Predicted a Century Ago By Nikola Tesla |
| from the and-he-looks-like-david-bowie dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @08:53 (Communications) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04...go-By-Niko|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

andylim writes "According to the Telegraph, the BlackBerry was [0]first
predicted more than a century ago, by Nikola Tesla, the electrical
engineer. Seth Porges, Popular Mechanics' current technology editor,
disclosed Tesla's prediction at a presentation, titled '108 Years of
Futurism,' to industry figures recently in New York. Recombu.com has
[1]published the original Popular Mechanics article in which Tesla
predicts a mobile phone revolution."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...04/1223243

Links:
0. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/bl...Tesla.html
1. http://recombu.com/news/nikola-tesla-pre...11683.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Moore's Law Will Die Without GPUs |
| from the i've-heard-this-song-before dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @09:35 (Hardware) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/0...thout-GPUs |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Stoobalou writes "Nvidia's chief scientist, Bill Daly, has warned that
the long-established Moore's Law is in danger of joining phlogiston
theory on the list of superseded laws, unless the CPU business
[0]embraces parallel processing on a much broader scale."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...04/1315257

Links:
0. http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/5/4/nvi...hout-gpus/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Top 10 Things Hollywood Thinks Computers Can Do |
| from the upload-a-virus-and-win dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @10:15 (Movies) |
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story...-Thinks-Co|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "From blowing up your keyboards to developing
a malignant sentience, Expert Reviews rounds up the things that [0]movie
makers believe computers can do, even though they use the same technology
every day to write scripts." I like the summary of how you crack a
password in movies. I hate that this page splits into multiple pages.
Very lame.

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/commen...04/1357215

Links:
0. http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/2...ers-can-do

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Salad Spinner Made Into Life-Saving Centrifuge |
| from the kitchen-and-lab-equipment dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Tuesday May 04, @10:49 (Medicine) |
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04...ng-Centrif|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

lucidkoan writes "Two Rice University students have transformed a simple
salad spinner into an [0]electricity-free centrifuge that can be used to
diagnose diseases on the cheap. Created by Lauren Theis and Lila Kerr,
the ingenious DIY centrifuge is cobbled together using a salad spinner,
some plastic lids, combs, yogurt containers, and a hot glue gun. The
simple and easily-replicated design could be an invaluable tool for
clinics the developing world, enabling them to separate blood to detect
diseases like anemia without electricity."

Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../04/140256

Links:
0. http://inhabitat.com/2010/05/03/salad-sp...-diseases/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Digital Universe" Enters the Zettabyte Era |
| from the less-than-half-porn dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @11:00 (Data Storage) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/0...-Zettabyte-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

miller60 writes "In 2010 the volume of digital information created and
duplicated in a year will reach 1.2 zettabytes, according to [0]new data
from IDC and EMC. The annual [1]Digital Universe report is an effort to
visualize the enormous amount of data being generated by our increasingly
digital lives. The report's big numbers — a zettabyte is roughly a
million petabytes — pose interesting questions about how the IT community
will store and manage this firehose of data. Perhaps the biggest
challenge isn't how much data we're creating — it's all the copies of it.
Seventy-five percent of all the data in the Digital Universe is a copy,
according to IDC. See additional analysis from [2]TG Daily, [3]The
Guardian, and [4]Search Storage."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...04/1418255

Links:
0. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archi...zettabyte/
1. http://www.emc.com/digital_universe
2. http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features...-of-memory
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/201...-zettabyte
4. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com.au/n...ted-in-2-2-

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Martian Gullies Explained By... Sand |
| from the well-thats-not-as-much-fun dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @11:53 (Mars) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...ed-By-Sand |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

eldavojohn writes "There's a lot of evidence that [0]a very long time ago
some fluid once flowed on Mars, but the primary evidence of water today —
gullies inside craters — is [1]explainable by a much less exotic reason:
flowing dust and sand. It would now seem that the news from [2]2006 that
NASA had found definitive evidence of flowing water on today's Mars needs
to be comprehensively reexamined. The Bad Astronomer [3]lays claim that
flowing sand and dust doesn't explain all recent hi-res imagery from the
red planet, but it certainly does seem more plausible, considering what
we know about Mars."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...04/1514224

Links:
0. http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/06/...ke-On-Mars
1. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25141/
2. http://science.slashdot.org/story/06/12/...er-on-Mars
3. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badast...r-on-mars/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| State Senator Caught Looking At Porn On Senate Floor |
| from the lets-vote-on-this-instead dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Tuesday May 04, @12:02 (United States) |
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/0...-At-Porn-O|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Everyone knows how boring a debate on a controversial abortion bill can
get on the Senate floor. So it's no wonder that Florida State Sen. Mike
Bennett took the time to [0]look at a little porn and a video of a dog
running out of the water and shaking itself off. From the article:
"Ironically, as Bennett is viewing the material, you can hear a Senator
Dan Gelber's voice in the background debating a controversial abortion
bill. 'I'm against this bill,' said Gelber, 'because it disrespects too
many women in the state of Florida.' Bennett defended his actions,
telling Sunshine State News it was an email sent to him by a woman 'who
happens to be a former court administrator.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl...04/1414201

Links:
0. http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/s...nate-floor

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intel Shows Off First Light Peak Laptop |
| from the more-bits-please dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @12:38 (Intel) |
| https://slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/1539...eak-Laptop |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Barence writes "Intel has provided the first [0]hands-on demonstration of
a laptop running its Light Peak technology — an optical interconnect that
can transfer data at 10Gbit/sec in both directions — at the company's
inaugural European research showcase here in Brussels. Intel has fitted
Light Peak into a regular USB cable, with optical fibres running
alongside the electrical cabling. Intel provided a visual demonstration
of how data is passed through the cable by shining a torch into one end
of the cable, with two little dots of light visible to the naked eye at
the other end. The demonstration laptop was sending two separate HD video
streams to a nearby television screen without any visible lag. The laptop
includes a 12mm square chip that converts the optical light into
electrical data that the computer understands."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/05/04/1539206

Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/357688/intel...eak-laptop

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie |
| from the thats-one-big-twinkie dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 04, @13:27 (The Military) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...Flying-Twi|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Spectrummag writes "One of the most secretive US Air Force spaceflights
in decades, launched this month, is keeping aficionados guessing as to
the nature of the secret. The 6000-kilogram, 8-meter X-37B, [0]nicknamed
the flying Twinkie because of its stubby-winged shape, is supposed to
orbit Earth for several weeks, maneuver in orbit, then glide home. What's
it for? Space expert James Oberg tracks the possibilities."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...04/1559209

Links:
0. http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/space...ng-twinkie

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft .Net Libraries Not Acting "Open Source" |
| from the promises-broken-or-forgotten dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @14:14 (Microsoft) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/10...-Acting-Op|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

figleaf writes "Three years ago, with [0]much fanfare, Microsoft
announced it would make some of the [1].Net libraries open source using
the Microsoft Reference License. Since then Microsoft has reneged on its
promise. The [2]reference code site is dead, the [3]blog hasn't been
updated in a year and a half, and no one from Microsoft responds to
questions on the [4]forum."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments..../04/179248

Links:
0. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2...aries.aspx
1. http://developers.slashdot.org/story/07/...pen-Source
2. http://referencesource.microsoft.com/
3. http://blogs.msdn.com/rscc/
4. http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/...r/threads/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Metasploit As Case Study In Selling a FOSS Project |
| from the keeping-it-real dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @14:59 (Open Source) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04...ing-a-FOSS|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

coondoggie sends in a Network World [0]interview with HD Moore on the
occasion of the commercial release of Metasploit by Rapid7, the company
that [1]bought it half a year ago. The pseudonomous author uses the
occasion to explore the question of what happens to a vital open source
project once it is sold commercially. "Metasploit might become one of the
first examples of how a completely FOSS project grows up to be
successful. It is the venture capital model without the startup money
(though VCs are funding plenty of OS startups these days, too). Build it.
They will come. Someone will buy it. And if you want them to stay, the
FOSS project better remain as well supported as the eventual commercial
version. This isn't the first open source project to have been bought by
a big guy. And the jury is still out on on most of them. I could argue
that Metasploit is a bit unique in that it didn't have a commercial arm
when Rapid7 acquired it. That could not be said about SUSE or MySQL or
even Gluecode (bought by IBM), etc."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...04/1846253

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/60804
1. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/10/21/...-To-Rapid7

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| RFID Checks Student Attendance in Arizona |
| from the present-and-accounted-for dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @15:40 (Education) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/...in-Arizona |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The student newspaper at UW-Madison is running a piece about the [0]use
of RFID to check lecture attendance at Northern Arizona University. One
poster to an email discussion list suggested that [1]getting around this
system would be simple if "all one has to do is walk into a classroom
with 10 RFID-enabled cards in their pocket." "The new system will use
sensors to detect students' university identification cards when they
enter classrooms, according to NAU spokesperson Tom Bauer. The data will
be recorded and available for professors to examine. ... [The spokesman]
added the sensors, paid for by federal stimulus money, initially would
only be installed in large freshmen and sophomore classes with more than
50 students. NAU Student Body President Kathleen Templin said most
students seem to be against the new system. She added students have
started Facebook groups and petitions against the sensor system. ... One
of the most popular Facebook groups ... has more than 1,400 members."
What are the odds that the use of tracking RFID will expand over time on
that campus?

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...04/1929208

Links:
0. http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/05/04/...o_posi.php
1. http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/24...79ABF5714/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Humble Indie Bundle |
| from the now-how-much-would-you-pay dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @16:27 (Businesses) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/10/05/0...die-Bundle |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

supersloshy writes "Last year, 2D Boy, the developers of the popular
independent game World of Goo, had a [0]pay-what-you-want birthday sale
with [1]curious results. For the next seven days, Wolfire Games is
attempting the same kind of sale, but with some new twists. Wolfire
Games' [2]Humble Indie Bundle contains five independent games (World of
Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra) with no DRM and they are all
cross-platform. In addition to directly supporting the developers of
these five games, part of the money also goes to the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and the Child's Play Charity. No matter how much you spend,
you also get to choose who your money goes to (charity only, developers
only, evenly, or custom)."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...04/1942206

Links:
0. http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/21...Experiment
1. http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/28...al-Wrap-up
2. http://www.wolfire.com/humble

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Oracle Restricts Access To Sun Firmware Downloads |
| from the where-the-bits-did-once-freely-roam dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @17:08 (Oracle) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/10...Sun-Firmwa|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

boer lee writes with the news that you can [0]expect trouble in
downloading firmware updates for your Sun server if you purchased it
before March 16, 2010. "In a somewhat surprising move (and without any
notification to customers), Oracle shut down public access to firmware
downloads. I learned this the hard way when I contacted Oracle customer
service almost two weeks ago. Yes, it took 13 days for me to get access
to the firmware download for systems under the standard warranty (i.e.
less than a year old)."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments..../04/203229

Links:
0. http://techbert.tumblr.com/post/56972683...-downloads

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Mac OS X Problem Puts Up a Block To IPv6 |
| from the twenty-five-or-six-to-four dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @17:50 (OS X) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/05/0...ck-To-IPv6 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader lets us know of an experiment conducted in Norway to
determine [0]real-world problems in using IPv6 today (Google translation;
[1]Norwegian original). "According to a Norwegian article in digi.no,
Redpill Linpro did an experiment with regard to IPv6 on one of the
largest online newspapers there (www.vg.no). They added a hidden iframe
that pointed to an IPv6-enabled domain to test real-life problems about
the reported IPv6 holes. The result was that mainly Mac OS X, older
versions of Opera, and a few Linux distributions exhibited problems. For
Mac OS X it took 75 seconds to time out before failing back to IPv4."
From the [2]consultant's report: "Mac OS X has a problem in that it will
prefer 6to4-based IPv6 over IPv4-based connectivity, at least if its
local IPv4 address is an RFC 1918-based private address as commonly found
in NAT-ed home network environments. This is unfortunate, as 6to4 has
shown itself to be much less reliable than IPv4."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...04/2029255

Links:
0. http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digi.no%2F841728%2Fvg-og-a-pressen-over-paa-ipv6&sl=no&tl=en
1. http://www.digi.no/841728/vg-og-a-pressen-over-paa-ipv6
2. http://fud.no/ipv6/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Foxit One-Ups Adobe In Blocking PDF Attack Tactics |
| from the can't-fox-us dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @18:38 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/2...F-Attack-T|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

CWmike writes "Foxit Software, the developer of a rival PDF viewer to
Adobe's vulnerability-plagued Reader, released an update on Tuesday that
[0]blocks some attacks with a 'safe mode' that's switched on by default.
Foxit Reader 3.3 for Windows' 'Trust Manager' blocks all external
commands that may be tucked into a PDF document. 'The Foxit Reader 3.3
enables users to allow or deny unauthorized actions and data
transmission, including URL connection, attachment PDF actions, and
JavaScript functions,' the update's accompanying text explains. Last
week, several security companies [1]warned of a major malware campaign
that tried to dupe users into opening rigged PDFs that exploited an
unpatched design flaw in the PDF format, one attackers could use to
infect users of Adobe's and Foxit's software. That [2]flaw in the PDF
specification's '/Launch' function was disclosed in late March by Belgium
security researcher Didier Stevens, who demonstrated how he could abuse
the feature to run malware embedded in a PDF document. He also reported
he had figured out how to change Adobe Reader's warning to enhance the
scam."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/05/04/2147247

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9...ack_tactic
1. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9...d_PDF_flaw
2. http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/14...e-Exploits

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intel Turbo Boost vs. AMD Turbo Core Explained |
| from the highly-pressurized-gas dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @19:26 (AMD) |
| https://slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/2237...-Explained |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader recommends a PC Authority article explaining the whys
and wherefores of [0]Intel Turbo Boost and AMD Turbo Core approaches to
wringing more apparent performance out of multi-core CPUs. "Gordon Moore
has a lot to answer for. His prediction in the now seminal 'Cramming more
components onto integrated circuits' article from 1965 evolved into
Intel's corporate philosophy and have driven the semiconductor industry
forward for 45 years. This prediction was that the number of transistors
on a CPU would double every 18 months and has driven CPU design into the
realm of multicore. But the thing is, even now there are few applications
that take full advantage of multicore processers. What this has led to is
the rise of CPU technology designed to speed up single core performance
when an application doesn't use the other cores. Intel's version of the
technology is called Turbo Boost, while AMD's is called Turbo Core. This
article neatly explains how these speed up your PC, and the difference
between the two approaches. Interesting reading if you're choosing
between Intel and AMD for your next build."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/05/04/2237255

Links:
0. http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/17...-core.aspx

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Total Victory For Open Source In a Patent Case |
| from the troll-low-low-low dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 04, @19:26 (Patents) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/04/...a-Patent-C|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

AndGodSed writes "A really great article on a May 3rd [0]jury victory by
Red Hat and Novell. Even more delightful, the jury verdict was returned
in the patent trolls' favorite haven, East Texas. 'The jury verdict last
Friday in favor of Red Hat and Novell in a case based on bad software
patents owned by "non-practicing entities" is an important victory for
the open source community... we know that attacks on open source based on
FUD will not stand up when subjected to the light of truth.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...04/2158240

Links:
0. http://opensource.com/law/10/5/total-vic...are?sms_ss

Reply
#60

In this issue:
* Car Hits Utility Pole, Takes Out EC2 Datacenter
* What the Mobile Patent Fight Is All About
* BT Gets Exclusive Rights To OnLive In the UK
* Beautifully Rendered Music Notation With HTML5
* Hacking Automotive Systems
* NIST Releases Updated Handbook of Math Functions
* Cherrypal Mini-Laptop Now Runs Android
* HTML Web App Development Still Has a Ways To Go
* Shall We Call It "Curated Computing?"
* In Argentina, Law Against Plagiarism Plagiarized
* Life-size Eva Unit 01 Being Built In Japan
* "Murdered" Chinese Man Reappears After 10 Years
* Too Many College Graduates?
* Ukrainian Arrested In India For TJX Data Theft
* Acer To Launch Chrome OS Netbook Next Month
* No HTML5 Hulu Anytime Soon
* Apple Is Nintendo's "Enemy of the Future"
* Atlantis Blasts Off On Final Mission
* The Futurama of Physics
* Btrfs Could Be the Default File System In Ubuntu Meerkat
* 'Cyber-Roach' Forces Rethink On Animal Movement
* Judge Orders Gizmodo Search Warrant Unsealed
* Google Says It Mistakenly Collected Wi-Fi Data While Mapping
* Best Solutions For Massive Home Hard Drive Storage?

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Car Hits Utility Pole, Takes Out EC2 Datacenter |
| from the nothing-can-go-wr dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday May 13, @22:47 (The Internet) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14...C2-Datacen|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

1sockchuck writes "An Amazon cloud computing data center lost power
Tuesday when a vehicle [0]struck a nearby utility pole. When utility
power was lost, a transfer switch in the data center failed to properly
manage the shift to backup power. Amazon said a "small number" of EC2
customers lost service for about an hour, but the downtime followed
[1]three power outages last week at data centers supporting EC2
customers. Tuesday's incident is reminiscent of a [2]2007 outage at a
Dallas data center when a truck crash took out a power transformer."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../14/019238

Links:
0. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archi...er-outage/
1. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archi...r-outages/
2. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/07/11...ace-Outage

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What the Mobile Patent Fight Is All About |
| from the want-to-touch-you-here-and-here-and-here dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday May 14, @01:57 (Patents) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/...-All-About |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

GMGruman writes "Nokia, Apple, and HTC are all [0]suing each other over
mobile patents. Google and Microsoft are also in the game. InfoWorld's
Paul Krill explains [1]what the fight is all about: control over
multitouch, the technology that enables gesture interfaces on iPads,
iPhones, and other smartphones. And he explains the chances that the
companies will settle their dispute as they jockey for advantage, why
Apple has been playing hardball, and why competitors are fighting back
just as hard."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...14/0054200

Links:
0. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/05/13...gle-vs-HTC
1. http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/what...-about-117

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BT Gets Exclusive Rights To OnLive In the UK |
| from the stick-with-myst-in-the-sticks dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday May 14, @05:07 (The Internet) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/10/05/1...ive-In-the-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

arcticstoat writes "UK telecoms firm BT has signed a deal with
cloud-gaming firm OnLive, which gives BT exclusive UK rights to bundle
the OnLive Game Service with its broadband packages. Although OnLive will
also offer its service directly in the UK, BT (and PlusNet, which is also
owned by BT) will be the only ISP allowed to offer the service. UK gamers
will need a connection that can cope with the bandwidth demands too,
which is a concern when so many UK homes don't have access to fast
broadband. Speaking to Thinq, BT's Les King said that we're looking at
[0]1.5Mb/sec for standard definition gaming, and 5Mb/sec for full 1080p
HD resolution gaming. This will effectively rule out the use of the HD
service in areas of the country that can only get a 2Mb/sec connection.
BT plans to start trials of the system in the UK later this year, and
plans to launch the service in 2011 or 2012."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si.../14/043214

Links:
0. http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/5/13/bt...ive-in-uk/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Beautifully Rendered Music Notation With HTML5 |
| from the pretty-printing-for-piano dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday May 14, @08:09 (Music) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14...on-With-HT|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "This is incredible. This guy has built a
[0]music notation engraver entirely in JavaScript, allowing for real-time
music editing right in the browser. [1]Here's a demo. The library has no
external dependencies, and all the glyphs, scores, beams, ties, etc. are
positioned and rendered entirely in JavaScript."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../14/066220

Links:
0. http://0xfe.blogspot.com/2010/05/music-n...anvas.html
1. http://0xfe.muthanna.com/jsnotation/demo.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hacking Automotive Systems |
| from the one-hundred-twenty-while-in-park dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @08:55 (Security) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14...ve-Systems |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

alphadogg writes "University researchers have taken a close look at the
computer systems used to run today's cars and discovered new ways to hack
into them, sometimes with frightening results. In a paper set to be
presented at a security conference in Oakland, California, next week, the
researchers say that by connecting to a standard diagnostic computer port
included in late-model cars, they were able to do some nasty things, such
as [0]turning off the brakes, changing the speedometer reading, blasting
hot air or music on the radio, and locking passengers in the car. The
point of the research isn't to scare a nation of drivers, already made
nervous by stories of software glitches, faulty brakes, and massive
automotive recalls. It's to warn the car industry that it needs to keep
security in mind as it develops more sophisticated automotive computer
systems. Other experts describe the real-world risk of any of the
described attacks as low." Here is [1]the researchers' site, and an image
that could stand as a [2]summary of the work.

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...14/1225256

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mail...rakes.html&pageurl=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/051410-car-hackers-can-kill-brakes.html&site=printpage
1. http://www.autosec.org/
2. http://twitpic.com/1nm3ig

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NIST Releases Updated Handbook of Math Functions |
| from the essential-reference dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @09:43 (Math) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...ok-of-Math-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "NIST [0]announced the publishing of the NIST
Handbook of Mathematical Functions reference text (967 pp), also
available in digital form at the [1]Digital Library of Mathematical
Functions. Access it with a MathML-enabled browser (Firefox or IE+plugin)
to view equations as scalable text rather than bitmaps; the 3-D graphs
can also be viewed with a VRML plugin for local rotating / zooming." The
original Handbook of Mathematical Functions was published 46 years ago;
the revision has been in the works for a decade.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...14/1257235

Links:
0. http://www.nist.gov/itl/math/math_051110.cfm
1. http://dlmf.nist.gov/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cherrypal Mini-Laptop Now Runs Android |
| from the what-you-can-actually-build-for-a-hundred-bucks dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @10:26 (Portables) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/05/...ns-Android |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

kriston writes in about a new development with the Cherrypal mini laptop,
which we [0]discussed last December. "The Cherrypal Asia laptop is [1]now
shipping with Google Android installed ([2]product page). This replaces
the older Cherrypal Asia mini laptops that were running either Windows CE
or a custom Linux. The $148 version has a 1024x600 screen while the
sub-$100 model runs 800x480. Both laptops run the ARM9-based VIA 8505
SoIC platform at 533 MHz with 256 megabytes of RAM and 2 gigabytes of
NAND flash. I'm looking forward to seeing how Android can squeeze more
throughput out of the VIA 8505, since Windows CE didn't do such a great
job on the original Cherrypal Asia."

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...14/1352211

Links:
0. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/12...ts-Netbook
1. http://www.myce.com/news/the-99-netbook-...oid-29663/
2. http://www.cherrypal.com/secure/product_...ucts_id=13&osCsid=ba6112969f11dae8aad4179a9311843a

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| HTML Web App Development Still Has a Ways To Go |
| from the walled-gardens-keep-the-wind-out dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @11:07 (Programming) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/10...till-Has-a|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

GMGruman writes "Neil McAllister was helping out a friend whose web
developer disappeared. Neil's journey into his friend's website ended up
being an archaeological dig through unstable remains, as layers of code
in different languages easily broke when touched. Neil realized in that
experience that [0]the ever-growing jumble of standards, frameworks, and
tools makes web application development harder than it needs to be.
Although the Web is all about open standards where anyone can create
variations for their specific needs and wants, Neil's experience reminded
him that a tightly controlled ecosystem backed by a major vendor does
make it easier to define best practices, set development targets, and
deliver results with a minimum of chaos. There's something to be said for
that."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments....14/1443216

Links:
0. http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-wor...ked-be-591

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Shall We Call It "Curated Computing?" |
| from the art-it's-not dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @11:53 (GUI) |
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/05/...-Computing |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

medcalf writes "Ars Technica has an opinion piece by Sarah Rotman Epps on
the iPad and other potential tablets as a new paradigm that they are
calling '[0]curated computing,' where third parties make a lot of choices
to simplify things for the end user, reducing user choice but improving
reliability and efficiency for a defined set of tasks. The idea is that
this does not replace, but supplements, general-purpose computers. It's
possible — if the common denominator between iPads, Android and/or Chrome
tablets, WebOS tablets, and the like is a more server-centric web
experience — that they could be right, and that a more competitive
computing market could be the result. But I wonder, too: would that then
provide an incentive for manufacturers to try to lock down the personal
computing desktop experience as well?" And even if not, an emphasis on
"curated computing" could rob resources from old-skool computer
development, as is already evident at Apple.

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...14/1429242

Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010...-world.ars

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| In Argentina, Law Against Plagiarism Plagiarized |
| from the send-yourself-to-jail dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @12:35 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/...sm-Plagiar|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "An Argentinian politician who introduced a
law to send plagiarists to jail for three to eight years appears to have
[0]plagiarized the explanation of his bill directly from Wikipedia. The
bulk of his explanation is three paragraphs that are taken, verbatim,
from Wikipedia, without acknowledgment."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...14/1559234

Links:
0. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2010051...9425.shtml

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Life-size Eva Unit 01 Being Built In Japan |
| from the summon-godzilla dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Friday May 14, @13:03 (Anime) |
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story...eing-Built|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

JoshuaInNippon writes "Japan has gone life-size anime model crazy. Last
year there was the robotic 1:1 Gundam model that guarded Tokyo for a few
months in the summer to mark the series' 30th anniversary, and then there
was the giant Gigantor moment that opened in Kobe in the fall in honor of
the city's rejuvenation from the devastating 1995 earthquake. Now, an
amusement park near Mt. Fuji named [0]Fuji-Q Highland is building an Eva
Unit 01 from the popular Neon Genesis Evangelion series, or at least a
bust of it, in conjunction with the series' recent movies. The bust will
sit in a replica hanger, and reportedly stand around 9 meters tall.
Visitors will have the chance, for a little extra money, to have their
photo taken in the unit's cockpit, where the series' protagonist-of-sorts
Shinji Ikari normally sits. The attraction is set to a cost of over
US$1.6 million to build, and open on July 23 of this year. It will also
undoubtedly be swamped by crazed fans looking the opportunity to bring
their anime dreams to life."

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/commen...14/1614205

Links:
0. http://www.examiner.com/x-10430-Japan-Tr...g-to-Japan

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Murdered" Chinese Man Reappears After 10 Years |
| from the neat-trick dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Friday May 14, @13:09 (Crime) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14...fter-10-Ye|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

semmelbroesel writes "I hope none of you ever have to take a trip to this
province in China where a confession (even when forced by violence) seems
to weigh more than hard evidence. The alleged murderer Zhao Zuohai spent
10 years out of a 29-year sentence in prison before [0]his alleged victim
showed up looking for welfare support. From the article: 'The imprisoned
Zhao's brother told the local Dahe Newspaper that police had forced him
to drink chili water and set off fireworks over his head to force the
confession. The imprisoned Zhao narrowly escaped being executed for the
crime. His sentence was commuted from a death penalty with two years'
reprieve."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...14/1632220

Links:
0. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64A2XS20100511

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Too Many College Graduates? |
| from the expectation-inflation dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @13:17 (Education) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14...-Graduates |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The AP reports on a growing sense among policy wonks that [0]too many
Americans are going to four-year colleges, to the detriment of society as
a whole: "The more money states spend on higher education, the less the
economy grows." "The notion that a four-year degree is essential for real
success is being challenged by a growing number of economists, policy
analysts, and academics. They say more Americans should consider other
options, such as technical training or two-year schools, which have been
embraced in Europe for decades. As evidence, experts cite rising student
debt, stagnant graduation rates, and a struggling job market flooded with
overqualified degree-holders. ... The average student debt load in 2008
was $23,200 — a nearly $5,000 increase over five years. Two-thirds of
students graduating from four-year schools owe money on student loans.
... [A university economist said,] 'If people want to go out and get a
master's degree in history and then cut down trees for a living, that's
fine. But I don't think the public should be subsidizing it.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...14/1647239

Links:
0. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/College-fo...4.html?x=0

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ukrainian Arrested In India For TJX Data Theft |
| from the long-long-arm dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Friday May 14, @13:44 (Crime) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/...JX-Data-Th|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

ComputerWorld reports "A [0]Ukrainian national has been arrested in India
in connection with the most notorious hacking incident in US history."
"Sergey Valeryevich Storchark was one of 11 men charged in August 2008
with hacking into nine US retailers and selling tens of millions of
credit card numbers. He was arrested in India earlier this week,
according to a spokesman with India's Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI). In a statement, the CBI said they'd arrested Storchark in New
Delhi on the night of May 8, as he deplaned from a flight from Goa, for
layover before a flight to Turkey. US authorities had asked for his
extradition via diplomatic channels. ... 'His extradition and prosecution
would have been very unlikely had he reached his final destination of
Ukraine,' the CBI said."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...14/1659209

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9...onomyId=17

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Acer To Launch Chrome OS Netbook Next Month |
| from the what-a-short-strange-road-it's-been dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @13:59 (GUI) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/05/1...-Next-Mont|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Barence writes "Acer is [0]preparing to launch devices based on Google's
Chrome OS at next month's Computex trade show, according to reports.
Multiple sources have apparently told VentureBeat that the company will
[1]show off devices at the Taipei show at the beginning of June. It
doesn't specify what the devices are, although given that Chrome OS is
primarily designed for low-powered laptops and Acer's status as the
world's second biggest PC maker, it seems inconceivable that the devices
won't be netbooks. Meanwhile, Google is [2]considering implementing a
Coverflow interface into Chrome OS. One design adheres fairly closely to
Apple's template, and allows users to flip through applications and web
pages with 'hotkeys and swiping gestures.' Favicons will be displayed
beneath the pages, allowing users to click these and head straight to the
application."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si.../14/177204

Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/357949/acer-...next-month
1. http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/13/acer-t...two-weeks/
2. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/357946/cover...-chrome-os

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| No HTML5 Hulu Anytime Soon |
| from the give-the-people-what-you-want dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @14:43 (Media) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14...ytime-Soon |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes "The Hulu website [0]briefly commented the
other day about why they [1]would not be implementing HTML5 video for
their service: 'We continue to monitor developments on HTML5, but as of
now it doesn't yet meet all of our customers' needs. Our player doesn't
just simply stream video, it must also secure the content, handle
reporting for our advertisers, render the video using a high performance
codec to ensure premium visual quality, communicate back with the server
to determine how long to buffer and what bitrate to stream, and dozens of
other things that aren't necessarily visible to the end user.' They plan
to release a dedicated application for the iPad and iPhone instead,
likely a paid subscription service. Perhaps this is a good sign for
Web-based television, as it will move more users away from the single,
locked down channel from the networks and to more diverse options less
interested in extracting subscription fees (like YouTube)."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../14/180241

Links:
0. http://blog.hulu.com/2010/05/13/pardon-our-dust/
1. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/...html5.html

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Is Nintendo's "Enemy of the Future" |
| from the blue-hedgehogs-are-old-hat dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @15:25 (Businesses) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/10/05/1...the-Future |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Pickens writes "The San Francisco Chronicle reports that video game
industry revenue [1]fell by 26 percent in April, adding more concerns
about the health of the industry in the worst year-over-year decline
since July 2009. But the big news is that the decline in portable sales
makes up 61 percent of the overall monthly decline, suggesting that the
Nintendo DS platform is losing steam but also reflecting the growing
clout of the iPhone platform as the iPhone and iPod Touch continue to
draw in more casual gamers, the iPad offers a bigger screen experience,
and [2]Apple announces the 'Game Center' — a social gaming hub with
console-like online gaming features. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata is
understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the
battle with Sony as a victory already won and to [3]treat Apple, and its
iPhone and iPad devices, as the 'enemy of the future.' 'If Nintendo's
future mobile platforms are to be any kind of success, the company will
have to figure out how to [4]take on the ease of use afforded by the App
Store,' writes Nicholas Deleon. A large part of Nintendo's faith in
reviving its efforts hinge on the 3DS, which may ship in the fall, the
first truly major handheld introduction for Nintendo since the original
DS in 2004. He adds, 'Maybe Nintendo should just release a phone?'"

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...14/1826233

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?&entry_id=63544
2. http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/...s_killer_/
3. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/bu...118570.ece
4. http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/05/07/app...t-problem/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Atlantis Blasts Off On Final Mission |
| from the to-boldly-go dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @16:08 (NASA) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...al-Mission |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

shuz writes "Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off today on its STS-132
mission to the International Space Station — [0]the final flight for the
venerable vehicle. The mission involves [1]three spacewalks over 12 days
(PDF), during which the team will replace six batteries on the port truss
which store energy from solar panels on that truss, bolt on a spare
space-to-ground Ku-band antenna, and attach a new tool platform to
Canada's Dextre robotic arm." NASA has [2]video of the historic launch
and reader janek78 adds this quote from the mission summary: "Atlantis
lifted off on its maiden voyage on Oct. 3, 1985, on mission 51-J. Later
missions included the launch of the Magellan probe to Venus on STS-30 in
May 1989, Galileo interplanetary probe to Jupiter on STS-34 in October
1989, the first shuttle docking to the Mir Space Station on STS-71 in
June1995, and the final Hubble servicing mission on STS-125 in May 2009."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...14/1912224

Links:
0. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14/...is_launch/
1. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/446577main_sts132-summary.pdf
2. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogall...d=13894434

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Futurama of Physics |
| from the good-news-everyone dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @16:49 (Math) |
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story...of-Physics |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

MasaMuneCyrus writes "I was surprised to notice an article about Futurama
in my latest American Physical Society news. Titled, 'Profiles in
Versatility: The Futurama of Physics with David X. Cohen,' Cohen talks a
little bit about his life and his love for physics, and he goes on to
describe how he regularly [0]injects graduate-level physics jokes into
the script of Futurama. He also talks a little bit about the upcoming
season of Futurama: 'in the 10th episode of the upcoming season,
tentatively entitled "The Prisoner of Benda," a theorem based on group
theory was specifically written (and proven!) by staffer/PhD
mathematician Ken Keeler to explain a plot twist.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/commen...14/2022249

Links:
0. http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/...ofiles.cfm

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| Btrfs Could Be the Default File System In Ubuntu Meerkat |
| from the shake-things-up dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @17:32 (Ubuntu) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/05/1...-System-In|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The EXT family of file systems (ext2, ext3,
ext4) have ruled many Linux distributions for a long time, and Ubuntu has
been no exception. But things may no longer be the same for Ubuntu 10.10
Maverick Meerkat. Scott James Remnant of the Ubuntu Foundations team said
in a blog post that plans are on for doing work to [0]have btrfs as an
installation option, and that the possibility of [1]making it the default
file system in Ubuntu 10.10 has not been ruled out."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...14/2055257

Links:
0. http://digitizor.com/2010/05/15/breaking...ntu-10-10/
1. http://www.netsplit.com/2010/05/14/btrfs...-maverick/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 'Cyber-Roach' Forces Rethink On Animal Movement |
| from the living-under-your-cyber-fridge dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @17:57 (Biotech) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05...-Animal-Mo|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Lanxon writes "A team of researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in
London has built a 'cyber-cockroach' (a cockroach wearing an
accelerometer in a tiny backpack) to try and better understand the
movements of many-legged animals. They found that unlike bipedal
creatures, animals with more than two legs [0]don't adjust their
movements when walking over a softer surface." The [1]academic paper is
available from the Journal of Experimental Biology. This research will be
helpful in finding better ways for multi-legged robots to navigate
difficult terrain.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...14/2138251

Links:
0. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010...yber-roach
1. http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/fu...7833f13b19

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Judge Orders Gizmodo Search Warrant Unsealed |
| from the plot-thickens dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday May 14, @18:15 (Crime) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/05/1...rant-Unsea|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

gyrogeerloose writes "The same judge who issued the warrant to search
Gizmodo editor [0]Jason Chen's apartment has [1]now ordered it unsealed,
ruling against the San Mateo County district attorney's office which had
argued that unsealing the documents may compromise the investigation."
You can [2]read the entire affidavit here (PDF). It has a detailed
description of the police investigation that led to the seizure of Chen's
computers. It turns out Steve Jobs personally requested that the phone be
returned, prompting Gizmodo's Brian Lam to try [3]negotiating for a
public acknowledgment that the phone was real. Apple was [4]tipped off to
the man who found/stole the prototype by his roommate.

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...14/2122254

Links:
0. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/26...odo-Editor
1. http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-0...rules.html
2. http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threat...idavit.pdf
3. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20005042-37.html
4. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05...te-iphone/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Says It Mistakenly Collected Wi-Fi Data While Mapping |
| from the just-accidentally-of-course dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday May 14, @19:08 (Google) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/...ed-Wi-Fi-D|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Even if Google says there's [0]nothing to worry about, newviewmedia.com
writes, the company "said it would stop collecting Wi-Fi network data
from its StreetView cars, after an internal investigation it conducted
found it was accidentally collecting data about websites people were
visiting over the hotspots. From the WSJ article: 'It's now clear that we
have been [1]mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open
[i.e. non-password-protected] Wi-Fi networks, even though we never used
that data in any Google products.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...14/2259204

Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/23/0...-Addresses
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...TopStories

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Best Solutions For Massive Home Hard Drive Storage? |
| from the watch-and-release dept. |
| posted by timothy on Friday May 14, @19:59 (Data Storage) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/...Hard-Drive-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

i_ate_god writes "I download a lot of 720/1080p videos, and I also
produce a lot of raw uncompressed video. I have run out of slots to put
in hard drives across two computers. I need (read: want) access to my
files at all times (over a network is fine), especially since I maintain
a library of what I've got on the TV computer. I don't want to have
swappable USB drives, I want all hard drives available all the time on my
network. I'm assuming that, since it's on a network, I won't need 16,000
RPM drives and thus I'm hoping a solution exists that can be moderately
quiet and/or hidden away somewhere and still keep somewhat cool. So
Slashdot, what have you done?"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...14/2355207

Reply
#61
Domestic Use of Aerial Drones By Law Enforcement -

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/24/0...=headlines
"Aerial drones are now used by the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, Colorado; the Miami-Dade County, Florida, Police Department; and the Department of Homeland Security. But what about privacy concerns? 'Drones raise the prospect of much more pervasive surveillance,' said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. 'We are not against them, absolutely. They can be a valuable tool in certain kinds of operations. But what we don't want to see is their pervasive use to watch over the American people.'"
slashdot privacy yro bigbrother technology surveillance story
*
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