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Headline News from Slashdot.org
#1
lots has to do with how the government is fucking us into the ground
How may of YOU want to spend YOUR money to blow a hole in the Moon?
the 'government's' pretext is to search for water
what the fuck for? don't you see enough water on earth?
start cleaning what you've spoiled before you go spoiling what isn't ours!
all this is is exploitation of our hard earned bucks
what is it going to do for Me? not a mother fucking thing!
see the article below ..can't Cure Ocean Acidification

and the one about bulldozing cities .. as if it is going to help us?!
let people live there tax free, if they'll take care of it them selves
No more taxation! YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPEND IT



Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* FDA Says Homeopathic Cure Can Cause Loss of Smell
* 6000-Year-Old Tomb Complex Discovered
* Getting Beyond the Helldesk
* English Market Produces Energy With Kinetic Plates
* UK Tax Breaks For "Culturally British" Games
* Harvard Study Says Weak Copyright Benefits Society
* A Look At the Tech Behind Burnout Paradise
* Satellite Glitch Rekindles GPS Concerns
* Swedish Court Says IP Numbers Privacy Protected
* Why Hard Disk Is a Better Bargain Than SSD
* Comcast To Bring IPv6 To Residential US In 2010
* Opera Unite is a Hail Mary
* BenQ's GP1 LED Projector — Small Package, Good Thing
* Bill Ready To Ban ISP Caps In the US
* Carnegie Researchers Say Geotech Can't Cure Ocean Acidification
* Montana City Requires Workers' Internet Accounts
* US Plans To Bulldoze 50 Shrinking Cities
* Nvidia Lauds Windows CE Over Android For Smartbooks
* iPhone 3.0 Update Delivers Prodigious Patch Batch
* Proposed Canadian Law Would Allow Warrantless Searches
* First Images of Memories Being Made
* Fighting For Downloaders' Hearts and Minds
* In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000
* Univ. of Wisconsin's 30-Year-Old Payroll System Needs a $40 Million Fix

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FDA Says Homeopathic Cure Can Cause Loss of Smell |
| from the make-sure-to-keep-that-poultice-wet dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 17, @21:53 (Medicine) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...17/2225246 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The FDA has advised consumers to stop using
Matrixx Initiatives' Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel marketed
over-the-counter as a cold remedy because it is [1]associated with the
loss of sense of smell (anosmia) that may be long-lasting or permanent.
The FDA says about 130 consumers have reported a loss of smell after
using the homeopathic cure containing zinc, an ingredient scientists say
may damage nerves in the nose needed for smell and health officials say
they have asked Matrixx executives to turn over more than 800 consumer
complaints concerning lost smell that the company has on file. 'Loss of
the sense of smell is potentially life-threatening and may be permanent,'
said Dr. Charles Lee. 'People without the sense of smell may not be able
to detect life-dangerous situations, such as gas leaks or something
burning in the house.' The FDA said the [2]remedy was never formally
approved because it is part of a small group of remedies known as
homeopathic products that are not required to undergo federal review
before launching. The global market for homeopathic drugs is about $200
million per year, according to the American Association of Homeopathic
Pharmacists. Matrixx has settled hundreds of lawsuits connected with
Zicam in recent years, but says it 'will [3]seek a meeting with the FDA
to vigorously defend its scientific data, developed during more than 10
years of experience with the products, demonstrating their safety.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...17/2225246

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/P...167065.htm
2. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31388177/ns/...d_and_flu/
3. http://www.zicam.com/messagetoconsumers


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 6000-Year-Old Tomb Complex Discovered |
| from the nobody-knows-who-they-were-or-what-they-were-doing dept.|
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 17, @23:46 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...17/2359217 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "National Geographic reports that a [0]6000-year-old
tomb complex on 200 hectares (500 acres) has been discovered on the
Salisbury Plain just 24 km (15 miles) from Stonehenge. The site has come
as a surprise to the archaeologists who had thought that the area had
been studied in such depth that few discoveries of such magnitude
remained. The site, fully 1000 years older than Stonehenge, has been
called 'Britain's oldest architecture.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...17/2359217

Links:
0. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...rcles.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Getting Beyond the Helldesk |
| from the through-the-perly-gates dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 18, @00:19 (Education) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/17/2231247 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "I've been working as a helpdesk monkey for
over a year in a small-medium sized law firm of around 200 users and I
don't know if my patience and sanity can last much longer. I'd like to
remain in IT, but in less of a front-line role where I can actually get
some work done without being interrupted every five minutes by a jamming
printer or frozen instance of Outlook. There isn't really any room for
progression at my current employer, and with the weak job market it seems
I can only move sideways into another support role. I've been considering
a full-time Masters degree in a specialized Computer Science area such as
databases or Web development, but I don't know if the financial cost and
the loss of a year's income and experience can justify it. Do any
Slashdotters who have made it beyond the helpdesk have any knowledge or
wisdom to impart? Is formal education a good avenue, or would I better
off moving back home, getting a mindless but low-stress job, and teaching
myself technologies in my free time?"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...17/2231247


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| English Market Produces Energy With Kinetic Plates |
| from the parking-power dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 18, @02:51 (Power) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/004237 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Johnathan Martinez writes "Sainsbury's market in England has installed
[1]'kinetic energy' plates in the parking lot of its store in Gloucester.
The plates are an experiment with a newer energy producing technology.
The plates create as much as 30 kWh of energy as cars drive over them.
The weight of the cars puts pressure on the plates creating kinetic
energy to run a generator. The current is used to power the store and
will lower the energy consumption of the market."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../18/004237

Links:
0. mailtoConfusedupertree0822@gmail.com
1. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-14013...tic-plates


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| UK Tax Breaks For "Culturally British" Games |
| from the spot-o'-tea-with-your-rocket-launcher dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday June 18, @03:58 (Government) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...18/0437234 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes with news of a proposal in the recent Digital
Britain report to [0]set up tax breaks for developing video games that
are "culturally British." Quoting [1]the report (PDF): "In film a system
of cultural tax credits has long helped to sustain a wide range of films
that speak to a British narrative, rather than the cultural perspectives
of Hollywood or multinational collaborations. Other countries such as
Canada, for similar reasons, extend the model of cultural tax relief
beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI,
electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain's
digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of
these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as
film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in
future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film." Conservative
Shadow Arts and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said the government has
[2]ignored the games industry, and he seeks to set up a government
council to promote it. The report also outlined [3]a number of changes to
how games are rated.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...18/0437234

Links:
0. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gam...for-gamers
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pd...ritain.pdf
2. http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/ar...p?id=18140
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gam...videogames


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Harvard Study Says Weak Copyright Benefits Society |
| from the free-is-good dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 18, @04:56 (The Internet) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/0311216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist [0]summarizes an important new
study on file sharing from economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman
Strumpf. The Harvard Business School [1]working paper finds that given
the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access
conclude that 'weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited
society.' The authors point out that file sharing may not result in
reduced incentives to create if the willingness to pay for 'complements'
such as concerts or author speaking tours increases."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...18/0311216

Links:
0. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4062/125/
1. http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-132.pdf


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Look At the Tech Behind Burnout Paradise |
| from the eight-cylinders-of-awesome dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday June 18, @06:33 (The Almighty Buc|
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...18/0518237 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Eurogamer sat down with Richard Parr and Alex Fry of Criterion Games
about [0]the evolution of the technology behind Burnout Paradise , and
how they engineered a complex, open world across multiple platforms.
"Criterion's method of exacting the most performance from the new
architecture isn't so much about threading as such, it's all about
parallelization. Rather than lump different game aspects onto different
threads (where massive latencies can build as each processor waits for
the other to finish its work), game code is highly optimized to make use
of what processors are available at any given moment on whatever target
hardware, and by choosing the all-important balance points, the
experience is like-for-like on all platforms. High-level management code
that is unique to each platform then processes the game code according to
the hardware that is available." The [1]first part of their Q&A session
has also been posted.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...18/0518237

Links:
0. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/tech-r...se-article
1. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-cr...-interview


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Satellite Glitch Rekindles GPS Concerns |
| from the close-enough dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 18, @07:57 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s.../18/034230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "News today that the Air Force is investigating
signal problems with its latest Global Positioning System satellite is
likely to rekindle the flames of a congressional report last month that
said the current [1]GPS coverage may not be so ubiquitous in the future.
The Air Force stated that routine early orbit checkout procedures
determined that the signals from the Lockheed-built GPS IIR-2 (M), which
was launched in March, were inconsistent with the performance of other
GPS IIR-M satellites. The Air Force said it has identified several
parameters in the GPS IIR-20 (M)'s navigation message that can be
corrected to bring the satellite into compliance with current GPS
Performance Standards."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?.../18/034230

Links:
0. mailto:mcooney@nww.com
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/42767


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Swedish Court Says IP Numbers Privacy Protected |
| from the then-how-can-i-ping-you dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday June 18, @08:49 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/1230258 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]oh2 writes "The highest applicable Swedish court, Regeringsrätten, has
ruled that [1]IP numbers are protected (in Swedish) since they can be
traced to individuals. This means that only government agencies are
allowed to track and store IP addresses, leaving 'anti-piracy' advocates
with no legal way to find possible copyright infringers." Update: 06/18
14:42 GMT by [2]KD : The original linked article had been pulled due to
factual errors and a [1]new article has been posted (link replaced
above). Here is a [3]Google translation. The new article makes clear that
the ruling does not affect the anti-piracy efforts of rights-holders.
Update: 06/18 15:08 GMT by [2]KD : Behind the link below is a summary in
English of the article sent in by the submitter, [0]oh2.

This story continues at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/1230258

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...18/1230258

Links:
0. mailto:peter.svedman@gmail.com
1. http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/nyheter/ny-...n-1.894500
2. http://slashdot.org/~kdawson/
3. http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dn.se%2Fkultur-noje%2Fnyheter%2Fny-dom-paverkar-inte-ipredlagen-1.894500&sl=sv&tl=en&history_state0=


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Why Hard Disk Is a Better Bargain Than SSD |
| from the did-this-really-need-saying dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday June 18, @09:43 (Data Storage) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...18/1333230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Lucas123 writes "While solid state disk may be all the rage, what's
often being overlooked in the current consumer market hype is that fact
that hard disk drive prices are at an all-time low — offering users good
performance and massive amounts of capacity for 10 to 30 cents a
gigabyte. And in a [1]side by side comparison of overall performance of
consumer SSDs and HDDs, it's hard to justify spending 10 times as much
for a little more speed."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...18/1333230

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9111089


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Comcast To Bring IPv6 To Residential US In 2010 |
| from the more-ips-to-rate-limit dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday June 18, @10:35 (The Internet) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...18/1417201 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

darthcamaro writes "We all know that [0]IPv4 address space is almost gone
— but we also know that no major US carrier has yet migrated its consumer
base, either. Comcast is now upping the ante a bit and has now said that
they are seriously [1]gearing up for IPv6 residential broadband
deployment soon. 'Comcast plans to enter into broadband IPv6 technical
trials later this year and into 2010,' Barry Tishgart, VP of Internet
Services for Comcast said. 'Planning for general deployment is
underway.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...18/1417201

Links:
0. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/24/2225218&tid=95
1. http://www.internetnews.com/infra/articl...s+IPv6.htm


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Opera Unite is a Hail Mary |
| from the go-long-opera dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday June 18, @11:18 (The Internet) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...18/1419227 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]snydeq writes "Rather than view it as a game-changer, Fatal
Exception's Neil McAllister sees Opera Unite as a [1]Hail Mary bid for
Opera to stay in the game. After all, in an era when even [2]vending
machines have Web servers on them, a [3]Web server on the Web browser
isn't really that groundbreaking. What Opera is attempting is to
'reintermediate' the Internet — 'directly linking people's personal
computers together' by making them sign up for an account on Opera's
servers and ensuring all of their exchanges pass through Opera's servers
first. 'That's an effective way to get around technical difficulties like
NAT firewalls, but more important, it makes Opera the intermediary in
your social interactions — not Facebook, not MySpace, but Opera,'
McAllister writes. In other words, Opera hopes to use social networking
as a Trojan horse to put traditional apps back in charge."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...18/1419227

Links:
0. http://www.infoworld.com/
1. http://infoworld.com/d/developer-world/o...-again-902
2. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries...8/08/14742
3. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/16/...?art_pos=1


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BenQ's GP1 LED Projector — Small Package, Good Thing |
| from the add-a-toilet-and-dilberitos dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @12:00 (Displays) |
| http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...18/0951259 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

The first projector I remember seeing in person had three great big glass
eyes (for red, green, and blue lamps) and BNC connectors. It probably
weighed more than 100 pounds, and had to be carefully calibrated to align
the lenses. Now, I've got a projector above my head that weighs less than
a Neal Stephenson novel and has a sharper, brighter image than that
monster. I've been [0]looking into LED projectors for a few years now; in
that time, I've been waiting for them to come down in price and bump up
in lumens. So I was very curious about [1]BenQ's GP1 LED projector (also
known, somewhat oddly, as "Joybee"), and was happy to get a sample for
review. It may seem retrograde to bother with an 800x600, 100 lumen (no
missing zero there: one-hundred lumen) projector in 2009 A.D., but for
the past four weeks, I've used it as my primary display, and come out
happy. It has some drawbacks, but it's an impressive little device for
its $499 pricetag, and I hope a harbinger of even better things to come.
Read on for my take on what BenQ got right, and what rough spots stick
out.

This story continues at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...18/0951259

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...18/0951259

Links:
0. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...09/2116258&tid=196
1. http://www.benq.us/page/?pageId=309&click=showcases%7Cscid%7C391


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bill Ready To Ban ISP Caps In the US |
| from the yeah-that'll-happen dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday June 18, @12:40 (The Internet) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...18/1521237 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

xclr8r writes "Eric Massa, a congressman representing a district in
western New York, [0]has a bill ready that would start [1]treating
Internet providers like a utility and stop the use of caps. Nearby
locales have been used as test beds for the new caps, so this may have
made the constituents raise the issue with their representative."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...18/1521237

Links:
0. http://massa.house.gov/uploads/Broadband...essAct.pdf
1. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/...e-caps.ars


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Carnegie Researchers Say Geotech Can't Cure Ocean Acidification |
| from the take-it-with-a-ton-of-salt dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @13:34 (Earth) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...18/1728218 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]CarnegieScience writes "Plans to stop global warming by
'geoengineering' the planet by putting aerosols in the atmosphere to
block sunlight are controversial, to say the least. Scientists are now
pointing out that even if it keeps the planet cool, it will do [1]almost
nothing to stop another major problem — ocean acidification. The ocean
will keep on absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (making
carbonic acid) and the water's pH will get too low for corals and other
marine life to secrete skeletons. So this is another strike against a
quick fix of our climate problems."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...18/1728218

Links:
0. http://twitter.com/carnegiescience
1. http://www.ciw.edu/news/global_sunscreen...ave_corals


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Montana City Requires Workers' Internet Accounts |
| from the are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @14:17 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/1736257 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

justinlindh writes "Bozeman, Montana is now [0]requiring all applicants
for city jobs to furnish Internet account information for 'background
checking.' A portion of the application reads, "Please list any and all,
current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any
Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not
limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.' The
article goes on to mention, 'There are then three lines where applicants
can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their
passwords.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...18/1736257

Links:
0. http://montanasnewsstation.com/Global/st...S=10551414


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Plans To Bulldoze 50 Shrinking Cities |
| from the out-of-the-rubble-and-into-the-future dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 18, @14:45 (United States) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/130212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

chrb writes "Two days ago Slashdot discussed [0]broke counties grinding
their tarmac roads into gravel. Now the Telegraph reveals plans to
[1]raze huge sections of at least 50 US cities to the ground. The
resulting smaller cities will be more economical to run, and the
recovered land will be returned to nature."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../18/130212

Links:
0. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/15/...-To-Gravel
1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/finan...rvive.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nvidia Lauds Windows CE Over Android For Smartbooks |
| from the this-is-2009-ce-after-all dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @15:06 (Handhelds) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...18/1848234 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

ericatcw writes "Google's Android may enjoy the hype, but an increasing
number of key industry players say the mobile OS isn't ready for ARM
netbooks, aka smartbooks. Nvidia is the most recent to [0]declare Android
unfit for duty, stating its preference for Microsoft's Windows CE, which
an Nvidia exec praised for having a "low footprint" and being "rock
solid." Nvidia is busy optimizing its multimedia-savvy Tegra
system-on-chip for Windows CE. Such improvements won't arrive for at
least a year to Android, which has an inflexible UI and poor graphics
support for devices larger than a smartphone, says Nvidia. Other [1]firms
echoing [2]similar criticism include ARM and Asustek."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...18/1848234

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9134522
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9133989
2. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9133813


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| iPhone 3.0 Update Delivers Prodigious Patch Batch |
| from the switched-housemate's-iphone-to-danish dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @16:00 (Portables (Apple))|
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...18/1948230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]CWmike writes "Apple [1]patched 46 security vulnerabilities in the
iPhone and iPod Touch, half of them in the Safari browser and its WebKit
rendering engine, as it [2]released iPhone OS 3.0 on Wednesday. One of
the patched WebKit vulnerabilities stands out because of the attention it
received in March, when a German college student, Nils, [3]walked away
with a $5,000 cash prize for hacking Safari at the Pwn2Own challenge.
Nils used a bug in WebKit's handling of SVGList objects to crack Safari."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...18/1948230

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9134548
2. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9134494
3. http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9130074


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Proposed Canadian Law Would Allow Warrantless Searches |
| from the rifling-through-america's-storage-unit dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @16:58 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/2043242 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "A bill introduced by Canada's Minister of
Public Safety [0]will allow police to (warrantlessly) force ISPs to
provide access to any requested digital traffic records, reports News
1130. Police lobbied for the bill as means of 'combatting gangsters,
pedophiles, or terrorists,' but apparently they find the legal principles
of judicial review and probable cause, as well as a [1]constitutional
provision against 'unreasonable search or seizure', to be too much of a
hassle, and would rather be able to search anyone's web or e-mail traffic
at their own discretion and without any oversight. All in the name of
public safety, of course."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...18/2043242

Links:
0. http://www.news1130.com/more.jsp?content...13536_8084
1. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#codese:8


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Images of Memories Being Made |
| from the from-the-brain-side-that-is dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @17:20 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...18/2053216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]TheSync writes Eurekalert reports that researchers at the Montreal
Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill and UCLA have [1]captured the
first image of protein translation that underlies long-term memory
formation. A fluorescent protein showed the increased local protein
synthesis during memory formation, which requires cooperation between the
pre and post-synaptic compartments of the two neurons that meet at the
synapse."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...18/2053216

Links:
0. http://www.t11s.com/
1. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2...061809.php


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Fighting For Downloaders' Hearts and Minds |
| from the dude-pirate-is-not-the-prefered-nomenclature dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @17:50 (The Almighty Buck)|
| http://entertainment.slashdot.org/articl...18/2111209|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

iateyourcookies writes "As opposed to enforcement which usually makes the
headlines, The BBC is running an article called [0]Inside A Downloader's
Head which looks at the film and music industries' attempts to prevent
copyright infringement. It details some of the campaigns, their
rationale, controversy surrounding them and notes that 'there are plenty,
even among the young, who can be eloquent about why they believe illegal
downloading is not wrong. These can include everything from what they see
as the unacceptable "control freakery" of DRM and regional coding, to
overcharging and exploitation of the very artists the music industry
claims to protect.' However, PR company for the industry Blue Rubicon
attests that 'campaigns can change hearts and minds... If you do them
right you can make a material impact on people's behaviour.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/commen...18/2111209

Links:
0. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8106805.stm


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000 |
| from the there-go-some-hearts-and-minds dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @18:35 (The Courts) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/227219 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Well the price went up from $9250 per
song file to $80,000 per song file, as the jury [1]awarded the RIAA
statutory damages of $1,920,000.00 for infringement of 24 MP3s, in
[2]Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. In this trial, although the
defendant had an expert witness of her own, she never called him to
testify, and her attorneys never challenged the technical evidence
offered by the RIAA's MediaSentry and Doug Jacobson. Also, neither the
[3]special verdict form nor the [4]jury instructions spelled out what the
elements of a 'distribution' are, or what needed to be established by the
plaintiffs in order to recover statutory — as opposed to actual —
damages. No doubt there will now have to be a third trial, and no doubt
the unreasonableness of the verdict will lend support to those arguing
that the RIAA's statutory damages theory is unconstitutional." Update:
06/19 01:39 GMT by [5]T : Lots [6]more detail at Ars Technica, too.

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../18/227219

Links:
0. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/
1. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspo...2128294747
2. http://beckermanlegal.com/pdf/?file=/Documents.htm&s=Virgin_v_Thomas
3. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspo...8574176340
4. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspo...0954533061
5. http://www.monkey.org/~timothy/
6. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/...erdict.ars


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Univ. of Wisconsin's 30-Year-Old Payroll System Needs a $40 Million|
| from the too-big-to-not-fail dept. |
| posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, @19:28 (Bug) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/18/2310211 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

jaroslav writes "The University of Wisconsin is attempting to update a
payroll system they have had in place since 1975, but spent $28.4 million
in a 2004 attempt with no results, and now is experiencing new overruns
in cost and time after 'not hav[ing] the full picture of how complex this
project would be.' The current estimate of the redesign is [0]$12 million
and years of further work on top of the money already spent."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/06/18/2310211

Links:
0. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-a...7575.story

Reply
#2
Kodak Kills Kodachrome [attachment=476]

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* How the Obama Copyright Policies Might Unfold
* Where Does a Geek Find a Social Life?
* Indian CEO Says Most US Tech Grads "Unemployable"
* SSN Required To Buy Palm Pre
* Ultra-Thin Laptops To Be Next Intel-AMD Battleground
* Siemens, Nokia Helped Provide Iran's Censoring Tech
* Blu-ray Adoption Soft, More Still Own HD DVD
* Mass Arrests of Journalists Follow Iran Elections
* Tracking Thieves With 'Find my iPhone'
* FTC To Monitor Blogs For Paid Claims & Reviews
* US Military Blocks Data On Incoming Meteors
* Intel Demos Wireless "Resonant" Recharging
* Concrete Comparisons of Theora Vs. Mpeg-4
* Robotic Ferret Used To Fight Smugglers
* Crowdsourcing Big Brother In Lancaster, PA
* Firefox 3.5RC2 Performance In Windows Vs. Linux
* Kodak Kills Kodachrome
* Minn. Supreme Court Upholds City's Right To Build Own Network
* Print Subscribers Cry Foul Over WP's Online-Only Story
* Best eSATA JBOD?
* ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings
* NIH Spends $400K To Figure Out Why Men Don't Like Condoms
* Wind Could Provide 100% of World Energy Needs

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How the Obama Copyright Policies Might Unfold |
| from the pragmatic-is-as-pragmatic-does dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday June 21, @20:43 (Democrats) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/21/2327214 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader points out a column by James Boyle, who knows a thing
or two about copyright, analyzing the Obama Administration's [0]policy
choices about intellectual property and high tech. "Traditionally,
Democratic administrations take their copyright policy direct from
Hollywood and the recording industry. Unfortunately, so do Republican
administrations. The capture of regulators by the industry they regulate
is nothing new, of course, but in intellectual property there is the
added benefit that incumbents can frequently squelch competing
technologies and business methods before they ever come into existence.
... The Obama administration's warm embrace of Silicon Valley, and
Silicon Valley's checkbook, had given some hope that this pattern would
change — and I think it will. Now, instead of taking copyright policy
direct from the media conglomerates (who, after all, have a very
legitimate point of view — even if not the only point of view) it is
quite likely that the administration will construct it as a contract
between content companies and high-technology companies such as Google.
In some places, citizens and consumers will probably benefit, simply
because optimizing for the interests of two economic blocs rather than
one is likely to give us a slightly more balanced, and less
technology-phobic, set of rules. And perhaps the administration will go
further. But recent actions make me doubt that this is the case."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...21/2327214

Links:
0. http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2009/06/1...yberspace/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Where Does a Geek Find a Social Life? |
| from the meet-space dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday June 21, @22:57 (Social Networks) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...21/1954215 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]JustShootMe writes "I have a question for my fellow Slashdotters, and
yes, I realize I am entering the lion's den covered in tasty
meat-flavored sauce. I have never been a very social person, preferring
to throw myself into technology; therefore, I've been spectacularly
unsuccessful in developing any meaningful interpersonal relationships.
Lately I have begun to feel that this situation is not tenable, and I
would like to fix it. But I really don't know how and haven't the
faintest idea where to start. I know that I am in the minority and that
there are many different kinds of Slashdot readers, most of whom have
more experience in this realm than I do. So please tell me: how, and more
importantly, where do you meet fellow geeks — preferably including some
of the opposite gender — in meatspace?"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...21/1954215

Links:
0. mailto:rmiller@duskglow.com


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Indian CEO Says Most US Tech Grads "Unemployable" |
| from the you-stereotype-i-draw-distinctions dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @02:01 (Education) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/0019233 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]theodp writes "When questioned about his firm's US hiring, Information
Week reports that Vineet Nayar, the CEO of the Indian outsourcing giant
HCL Technologies, showed he can [1]stereotype with the best of them,
telling an audience in NYC that [2]most American tech grads are
'unemployable.' Explaining that Americans are far less willing than
students from developing economies like India, China, and Brazil to
master the 'boring' details of tech process and methodology, the HCL
chief added that most Americans are just too expensive to train. HCL,
which was reportedly [3]awarded a secretive $170 million outsourcing
contract by Microsoft last April, gets a [4]personal thumbs-up from Steve
Ballmer for 'walking the extra mile.' Ballmer was busy last week
[5]pitching more H-1B visas as the cure for America's job ills at The
National Summit."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/0019233

Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://www.informationweek.com/news/glob...=218100222
2. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main...n_ceo.html
3. http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Repor...92492.html
4. http://www.hcltech.com/microsoft/executive-speak/
5. http://www.freep.com/article/20090618/CO...+in+Canada


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| SSN Required To Buy Palm Pre |
| from the credit-you-said-it dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @05:05 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/21/2359255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

UltraOne writes "Sprint requires your Social Security number in order to
run a credit check before they will allow you to open an account,
according to a store manager in Silver Spring, MD. Since Sprint is the
exclusive carrier for the [0]Palm Pre, if you are not willing to provide
an SSN, you can't buy this product. I believe a full credit check for
this level of consumer purchase is a clear example of overkill. I have
supplied an SSN when buying a house and renting an apartment, but never
for any other consumer purchase. I have purchased my cars with cash so
far, so I don't have first-hand experience, but a car loan also seems to
be an appropriate place to require an SSN for a credit check. At the very
least, Sprint should have an alternative for people who don't want to
give out their SSN. I also found the entire experience a powerful
argument against [1]exclusive license agreements." Read below for details
of this reader's experience.

This story continues at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/21/2359255

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...21/2359255

Links:
0. http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/
1. http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/06/1...bile-Deals


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ultra-Thin Laptops To Be Next Intel-AMD Battleground |
| from the can't-be-too-rich-either dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @08:10 (Intel) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../22/019229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

FinalAnkleHealer sends along an IBTimes article proposing that [0]$500
ultra-thin laptops, capable of multitasking and editing multimedia
content, could be the next market contested by Intel and AMD. "AMD
partnered with Hewlett-Packard Co. in January to launch the Pavilion dv2.
Intel launched its rival CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) chip this
month and Acer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc were among those that
demonstrated laptops based on the new technology at the Computex trade
show in Taipei. ... With more people gravitating toward mobile and
wireless technology, consumers want smaller laptops — and most of those
people would prefer doing more than surfing the Web, which the no-frills
netbooks now excel at. ... Acer, the first company to introduce a cheap
Intel-powered CULV laptop, expects revenue from that segment to account
for 15 percent of its total sales by the end of 2009. Asustek, which
pioneered the netbook in 2007, plans to launch five consumer-priced
ultra-thins this year."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl.../22/019229

Links:
0. http://www.ibtimes.com/services/pop_print.htm?id=280016&tb=bh


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Siemens, Nokia Helped Provide Iran's Censoring Tech |
| from the well-that's-not-very-nice dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, @09:00 (Politics) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/1245205 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The Wall Street Journal has an article about
[0]Nokia and Siemens selling the censoring technology to Iran's
government. Do you believe that the public relations damage to these
companies can persuade them from selling this kind of technology to other
dictatorial regimes?" I don't believe there will *be* any PR Damage, and
that makes me a little sad.

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/1245205

Links:
0. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12456266...ts_news_us


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Blu-ray Adoption Soft, More Still Own HD DVD |
| from the this-is-still-going dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, @09:48 (Movies) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/1339213 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]MojoKid writes "A new study by Harris Interactive notes that
currently, [1]one in ten Americans (10%) own an HD DVD player, while just
7% own a Blu-ray player. Crazy, right? [1]More Americans own HD DVD right
now than the 'winning' format, Blu-ray. If you think about it, that
statistic isn't that shocking. When HD DVD was around, it was far and
away the 'budget' format for high-def. The players were cheaper, the
films were cheaper. In other words, it was a format more ready to thrive
in a down economy. Blu-ray was always viewed as a niche format for those
absorbed in A/V, not the common man's format. The survey also found that
on average, consumers purchased approximately six standard format DVDs in
the last six months, compared with one in HD DVD format."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/06/22/1339213

Links:
0. http://hothardware.com/
1. http://hothardware.com/News/Bluray-Adopt...-Sales-Up/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Mass Arrests of Journalists Follow Iran Elections |
| from the it's-a-sheikh-down dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, @10:36 (Censorship) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/1347228 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Reporters Without
Borders is alarmed by the fact that no less than [1]23 journalists have
been arrested in Iran in the week following the elections, making Iran
one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Online
activists are trying to counter this trend by giving [2]advice for
helping Iranian protesters. One problem is that Iranian leaders are
trying to delegitimize the reform movement by pretending that the
reformers are puppets of foreign powers, so special discretion is
required for anyone wanting to help the Iranian people."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...22/1347228

Links:
0. http://www.eff.org/support
1. http://www.rsf.org/Repression-stepped-up...in-as.html
2. http://boingboing.net/2009/06/16/cyberwa...for-i.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tracking Thieves With 'Find my iPhone' |
| from the because-you-can dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, @11:11 (Portables (Apple)) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...22/1412234 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader wrote in to say "A friend of mine who just got an
iPhone 3GS and has Mobile Me just used the "Find my iPhone" feature to
track down his lost and subsequently stolen iPhone. This story involves
three nerds wandering sketchy streets with a MacBook, and ends with [0]a
confrontation at a bus stop."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...22/1412234

Links:
0. http://happywaffle.livejournal.com/5890.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FTC To Monitor Blogs For Paid Claims & Reviews |
| from the they're-gonna-need-a-bigger-boat dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, @11:56 (The Almighty Buck) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/1447208 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]PL/SQL Guy writes "Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free
laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars
for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if
they do so at all. But now [1]the Federal Trade Commission is paying
attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with
possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after
bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false
claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest. Bloggers complain
that with FTC oversight, they'd be too worried about innocent posts
getting them in trouble, because the common practice of posting a
graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and possibly getting
commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger
oversight."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/1447208

Links:
0. http://psoug.org/
1. http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090621/a...isclosures


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Military Blocks Data On Incoming Meteors |
| from the summon-bruce-willis dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, @12:34 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...22/1625254 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Nature reports that the US military has abruptly
[1]ended an informal arrangement that allowed scientists access to data
on incoming meteors from classified surveillance satellites, dealing a
blow to the astronomers and planetary scientists who used the information
to track space rocks. 'These systems are extremely useful,' says
astronomer Peter Brown, at the University of Western Ontario. 'I think
the scientific community benefited enormously.' Meteor data came from the
[2]Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite network consisting of infrared
satellites in geosynchronous orbit to monitor the globe for missile
launches or atmospheric nuclear blasts, forming the principal component
of the United States' ballistic missile early-warning system. The
satellites' effectiveness was demonstrated during Desert Storm, when
[3]DSP detected the launch of Iraqi Scud missiles and provided warning to
civilian populations and coalition forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia. As
a side benefit, the satellites could also precisely detect the time,
position, altitude and brightness of meteors as they entered Earth's
atmosphere, information the military didn't consider particularly useful,
or classified. 'It was being dropped on the floor,' says former Air Force
captain Brian Weeden. Although the reason for ending the arrangement
remains unclear, Weeden notes that it coincides with the launch of a new
generation of surveillance satellites and speculates that the Pentagon
may not want details of the new satellites' capabilities to be made
public, or it may simply lack the expensive software needed to handle
classified and declassified data simultaneously. 'The decision may have
been made that it was perhaps too difficult to disclose just these
data.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...22/1625254

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090612/f...9897a.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Support_Program
3. http://books.google.com/books?id=DVQ-k6caVD0C&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=dsp+scud&source=bl&ots=yDTMreqfKJ&sig=Fn9F8ArX3nhCCF9aW4Nm3NEVo1c&hl=en&ei=2KA_SuKXBsintgeO1KgB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intel Demos Wireless "Resonant" Recharging |
| from the really-strikes-a-chord dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @13:26 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...22/1714202 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Al writes "Last Thursday researchers from Intel demonstrated [1]a way
to recharge electronics from about meter away using a 'resonant' magnetic
field. At an event held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View,
the researchers showed off a pair of iPod speakers connected to a
30-centimeter-wide copper coil that received power from a similar, but
larger, copper coil about a meter away. The recharging technique relies
on a phenomenon called resonant coupling, in which objects can exchange
energy when tuned to resonate at the same frequency. A similar approach
was [2]developed by researchers at MIT in 2007, and spun off into a
company called [3]WiTricity. This company has already developed a few
products that use resonant coupling to recharge, including a car
battery."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...22/1714202

Links:
0. http://www.technologyreview.com/
1. http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22906/
2. http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/18836/page1/
3. http://www.witricity.com/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Concrete Comparisons of Theora Vs. Mpeg-4 |
| from the good-use-for-that-beta-you-downloaded dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @14:11 (Graphics) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/1747220 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]icknay writes "With the upcoming Firefox 3.5 and HTML5 video, there's
natural interest in Theora vs. Mpeg-4, but without much evidence either
way. Here's [1]clips encoded at various rates to provide concrete
comparison between Theora and Mpeg-4. Theora performs decently, but
requires more bandwidth than Mpeg-4 (although this is a 1.1alpha release
of Theora and Theora has a much better license than Mpeg-4). The quality
comparisons are very subjective, but you can try the clips yourself and
see how it breaks down. There was an [2]earlier discussion about this,
but it lacked much concrete evidence. (Disclosure: it's my page.)"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/1747220

Links:
0. http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~nick/
1. http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~nick/theora-soccer/
2. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/14/...ith-Theora


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Robotic Ferret Used To Fight Smugglers |
| from the robotic-voles-beware dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday June 22, @14:19 (Robotics) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...22/1634244 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have created a device dubbed
the "[0]cargo-screening ferret" that is able to detect drugs, weapons,
and even illegal immigrants concealed in cargo containers. The 30cm-long
robot is equipped with tiny sensors that are more sensitive than any
currently employed in conventional cargo scanners. The ferret will attach
itself magnetically to the inside of a cargo container and sweep it for
contraband, while sending a steady stream of information back to its
controller. Project leader Dr Tony Dodd said, "It's essential we develop
something which is simple to operate and which border agents can have
total confidence in. The ferret will be able to drop small probes down
through the cargo and so pinpoint exactly where contraband is concealed."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...22/1634244

Links:
0. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...glers.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Crowdsourcing Big Brother In Lancaster, PA |
| from the nerd-campers-running-amok-at-the-market dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @14:58 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/1846250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]sehlat writes "From the Los Angeles Times comes word that in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, [1]165 public surveillance cameras are being set
up to be monitored by a 'non profit coalition' of volunteers. The usual
suspects, including 'the innocent have nothing to fear' are being trotted
out to justify this, and the following quote at the end of the article
deserves mention: 'But Jack Bauer, owner of the city's largest beer and
soft drink distributor, calls the network "a great thing." His store
hasn't been robbed, he said, since four cameras went up nearby. "There's
nothing wrong with instilling fear," he said.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...22/1846250

Links:
0. mailtoConfusedehlat@berkeley.edu
1. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...1451.story


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Firefox 3.5RC2 Performance In Windows Vs. Linux |
| from the tradeoffs-and-tradeoffs dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @15:21 (Mozilla) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/1854258 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]pizzutz writes "[1]Andy Lawrence has posted a [2]Javascript speed
comparison for the recently released [3]Firefox 3.5RC2 between Linux
(Ubuntu 9.04) and Windows(XP SP3) using the [4]SunSpider benchmark test.
Firefox 3.5 will include the new [5]Tracemonkey Javascript engine. The
Windows build edges out Linux by just under 15%, though the Linux build
is still twice as fast as the current 3.0.11 version which ships with
Jaunty."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/1854258

Links:
0. http://www.michaeldavidlutz.com/
1. http://www.andrewmlawrence.com/
2. http://www.andrewmlawrence.com/node/8
3. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html
4. http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0....pider.html
5. https://wiki.mozilla.org/J‌avaScript:TraceMonkey


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kodak Kills Kodachrome |
| from the and-try-to-find-tri-x-pan dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @15:41 (Media) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/1921210 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

eldavojohn writes "Another sign that digital cameras are slowly phasing
out analog comes with [0]Kodak's announcement to discontinue Kodachrome
film. This should come as no surprise as [1]Polaroid film was phased out
long ago. At least the analog photography industry knows how to change
with the times."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/1921210

Links:
0. http://www.reuters.com/article/technolog...edType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
1. http://entertainment.slashdot.org/articl...26/1727240&tid=159


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Minn. Supreme Court Upholds City's Right To Build Own Network |
| from the looking-forward-to-state-run-gun-stores dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @16:30 (The Courts) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/2019252 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

BcNexus writes with news from Minnesota that may have significance for
cities around the US where municipal networks are either in place or
planned: "Here's the latest development in a [0]fight pitting a
telecommunication company against government competition. The telco, TDS,
took its fight [1]all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court because it
thought the city had no right to serve people's internet, voice and
television needs with its own network, [2]but has failed." Also from
Minnesota today, BcNexus writes "The [3]State of Minnesota was the first
to blink and chose to avoid a court showdown when it dropped [4]its
attempt to block online gambling sites."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/2019252

Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/08/11/08/1...-Optic-Win
1. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/...ic-win.ars
2. http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_12652086
3. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display..._gambling/
4. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/04/29/...ling-Sites


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Print Subscribers Cry Foul Over WP's Online-Only Story |
| from the wonder-how-they-feel-about-online-coupons dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @17:24 (The Media) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...22/2119228 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The decision by the Washington Post to publish an
article exclusively online has [1]angered many readers who still pay for
the print edition of the newspaper and highlighted the thorny issues
newspaper editors still face in serving both print and online audiences.
[2]The 7,000 word story about the slaying in 2006 of Robert Wone, a young
lawyer who was found stabbed to death in a luxurious townhouse in the
Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington where a 'polyamorous family' of
three men lived, is the sort of long-form reporting that newspaper
editors say still justifies print in the digital age and many editors
agree that print is still the place to publish deep investigative
reporting, in part to give certain readers a reason to keep paying for
news. 'If you're doing long form, you should do it in print,' said
newspaper consultant Mark Potts. 'This just felt like a nice two-part
series that they didn't have the room to put in the paper, so they just
threw it on the Web.' Editors at The Post say they considered publishing
the article in print, but they concluded it was too long at a time when
the paper, like most others, was in dire financial straits and trying to
scale back newsprint costs. 'Newspapers are going broke in part because
news can be read, free of charge, on the Internet,' wrote one reader in a
letter to the editor. 'As a nearly lifelong reader of The Post, I could
not read this article in the paper I pay for and subscribe to; instead I
came on it accidentally while scrolling online for business reasons.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...22/2119228

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/busine...2post.html
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...02510.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Best eSATA JBOD? |
| from the throwing-it-out-there dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @17:44 (Data Storage) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/2134225 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]redlandmover writes "I already have an HP Media Server (upgraded
processor, and memory) that has already been upgraded internally to
3.5TB. I'm sure everyone already has their favorite backup solution
(RAID, [1]WHS, a billion external hard drives, etc). My question is: what
is the best JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives), eSATA-connected, external hard
drive enclosure? (Preferably, at least 4 drives.)"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...22/2134225

Links:
0. mailto:redlandmover@gmail.com
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings |
| from the don't-even-think-about-whistling-the-beatles dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @18:20 (The Courts) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/225207 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

gerddie notes a piece up on the EFF site outlining the [0]fairly
outlandish legal theories ASCAP is trying out in their court fight with
AT&T. "[1]ASCAP (the same folks who went after [2]Girl Scouts for singing
around a campfire) appears to believe that every time your musical
ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by 'publicly
performing' it without a license. At least that's the import of a
[3]brief (PDF, 2.5 MB) it filed in ASCAP's court battle with mobile phone
giant AT&T."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../22/225207

Links:
0. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/asc...ts-be-paid-
1. http://www.ascap.com/
2. http://www.brandnamebullies.com/excerpts.html
3. http://www.eff.org/files/(Redacted)%20AS...%20to%20AT&T's%20MSJ%20Ringtones.pdf


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NIH Spends $400K To Figure Out Why Men Don't Like Condoms |
| from the as-obvious-as-the-rubber-nose-on-your-face dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday June 22, @18:59 (Medicine) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...22/1616239 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

The National Institutes of Health has given $423,500 to researchers at
Indiana University's Kinsey Institute to [0]figure out why men don't like
to wear condoms. The institute will also study why men have trouble using
condoms and investigate "penile erection and sensitivity during condom
application." "The project aims to understand the relationship between
condom application and loss of erections and decreased sensation,
including the role of condom skills and performance anxiety, and to find
new ways to improve condom use among those who experience such problems,"
reads the abstract from Drs. Erick Janssen and Stephanie Sanders, both of
the Kinsey Institute.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...22/1616239

Links:
0. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/...e-condoms/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wind Could Provide 100% of World Energy Needs |
| from the lotta-towers dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 22, @19:13 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?...22/2244222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Damien1972 sends in a report on a study published in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Science, which finds that [0]wind power could
provide for the entire world's current and future energy needs. "To
estimate the earth's capacity for wind power, the researchers first
sectioned the globe into areas of approximately 3,300 square kilometers
(2,050 square miles) and surveyed local wind speeds every six hours. They
imagined 2.5 megawatt turbines crisscrossing the terrestrial globe,
excluding 'areas classified as forested, areas occupied by permanent snow
or ice, areas covered by water, and areas identified as either developed
or urban,' according to the paper. They also included the possibility of
3.6 megawatt offshore wind turbines, but restricted them to 50 nautical
miles off the coast and to oceans depths less than 200 meters. Using
[these] criteria the researchers found that wind energy could not only
supply all of the world's energy requirements, but it could provide over
forty times the world's current electrical consumption and over five
times the global use of total energy needs."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl...22/2244222

Links:
0. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0622-hance..._wind.html


Reply
#3

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Netflix Prize May Have Been Achieved
* Milky Way's Spiral Arms Could Not Have Caused Climate Change
* AT&T's Bad Math Strikes MythBusters' Savage
* Square Enix Facing Class Action Suit Over FFXI "Hidden Fees"
* Emigrating To a Freer Country?
* The State of Video Game Physics
* Alternative Energy Policies a Boon For Inflatable Electric Car
* The Internet Helps Iran Silence Activists
* Researchers Discover That Sand Behaves Like Water
* The Battle Between Google and Facebook
* The Path From Hacker To Security Consultant
* Ulysses Space Mission Finally Coming To An End
* Richard Stallman Says No To Mono
* Microsoft To Offer Windows 7 On USB Thumb Drives?
* The Video Bay, Now In Beta
* DARPA Wants a 19" Super-Efficient Supercomputer
* Hackable In-Car GPS Unit?
* EPA Quashed Report Skeptical of Global Warming

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Netflix Prize May Have Been Achieved |
| from the universal-exclusion-of-pauly-shore-did-the-trick dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday June 26, @20:10 (Announcements) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/26/234247 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

MadAnalyst writes "The long-running $1,000,000 competition to improve on
the Netflix Cinematch recommendation system by 10% (in terms of the RMSE)
may have finally been won. [0]Recent results show a 10.05% improvement
from the team called [1]BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos, a [2]merger between
some of the teams who were [3]getting close to the contest's goal. We've
[4]discussed this competition in the past."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid.../26/234247

Links:
0. http://www.netflixprize.com//leaderboard
1. http://www.research.att.com/~volinsky/netflix/bpc.html
2. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/w...lix-prize/
3. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/1...-taste-it/
4. http://science.slashdot.org/story/08/11/...ompetition


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Milky Way's Spiral Arms Could Not Have Caused Climate Change |
| from the it-was-the-one-armed-galaxy dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday June 26, @21:08 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...26/2331213 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]KentuckyFC writes "One of the puzzles of Earth's climate history is an
apparent [1]140-million-year cycle in the climate record. Various
astronomers think this can be explained by the passage of the Sun through
the spiral arms of the Milky Way, which also seems to have had a period
of about 140 million years. The thinking is that in regions of denser
star populations, supernovas would have been more common, bathing the
Earth in cosmic rays more often. These cosmic rays would then have seeded
the formation of clouds that cool the planet. But in recent years,
astronomers have mapped out the structure of the galaxy in much more
detail. And now a pair of US astronomers have reanalyzed this climate
change idea in light of the new evidence. Their conclusion is that [2]the
climate change cycle cannot possibly have coincided with the movement of
the Sun through the spiral arms. So whatever caused the 140-million-year
climate change cycle on Earth, it wasn't the Sun's passage through the
galaxy."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...26/2331213

Links:
0. http://arxivblog.technologyreview.com/
1. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P...Change.png
2. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23763/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AT&T's Bad Math Strikes MythBusters' Savage |
| from the do-they-know-he-has-explosives dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday June 26, @22:05 (Cellphones) |
| http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...26/2356216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]etherlad writes "MythBusters' Adam Savage [1]got a bill charging him
$11,000 for 'a few hours' of Web surfing while in Canada, using his AT&T
USB Mercury modem. AT&T gave him a quote on the data rate: '.015 cents,
or a penny and a half, per kb.' Looks like AT&T didn't learn from
[2]Verizon's inability to do math. AT&T is also claiming Savage
downloaded over 9 GB, which he calls 'frakking impossible.' Savage's huge
following on twitter [3]got him a speedy response by AT&T."

Discuss this story at:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?s...26/2356216

Links:
0. mailto:ianwatson@nOspAm.wolf-spoor.org
1. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/26/myt...crn.ch_4kP&utm_campaign=techcrunch&utm_content=techcrunch-autopost&utm_medium=tcrn.ch-twitter&utm_source=direct-tcrn.ch
2. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...09/0625245&tid=228
3. http://twitter.com/donttrythis


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Square Enix Facing Class Action Suit Over FFXI "Hidden Fee|
| from the maybe-read-the-box dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday June 26, @23:01 (Games) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...27/0255229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

A class action lawsuit has been initiated against Square Enix over [0]the
fees they charge for subscription-based MMO Final Fantasy XI. The court
filing alleges "deceptive advertising, unfair practices, and fraudulent
concealment" of information about the game's pricing model, essentially
saying Square Enix doesn't clearly advertise that there is a monthly fee,
and that failure to pay can result in late fees and account termination.
The plaintiff is seeking a settlement in excess of $5,000,000 and
including "all persons who purchased or played the online games four
years prior to the filing of this lawsuit."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...27/0255229

Links:
0. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...tory=24202


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Emigrating To a Freer Country? |
| from the all-my-recommendations-require-time-machines dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @00:09 (Privacy) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/27/0152216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

puroresu writes "I currently reside in the UK. In recent years I've seen
[0]privacy, free expression and [1]civil liberties steadily eroded, and I
can't see anything changing for the better any time soon. With people
being [2]banned from the UK for expressing (admittedly reprehensible)
opinions, the continuing efforts to implement [3]mandatory ID cards and
the prospect of a Conservative government in the near future, I'm
seriously considering emigrating to a less restrictive country. Which
countries would you recommend in terms of freedom and privacy? Distance
is not an issue, though a reasonable level of stability and provision of
public services would be a bonus."

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...27/0152216

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_...s_Act_2000
1. http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/i...ndex.shtml
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8033060.stm
3. http://www.no2id.co.uk/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The State of Video Game Physics |
| from the god-does-not-play-fallout-with-universe dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @02:10 (Games) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...27/0329207 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

The Guardian's games blog convened a panel of engineers and other experts
to talk about the current state of video game physics. A great deal of
research is currently going on [0]to make better use of multiple cores so
that advanced physics tools and engines can take advantage of all the
processing power available in modern computers. Many of those tools are
being put to work these days to [1]find more realistic ways of breaking
things, and game developers are trying to wrap their heads around
destructible environments. Mike Enoch, lead coder at Ruffian Games, said,
"This idea of simulating interactions and constructing the game world
similar to how you would construct the real world generates more emergent
gameplay, where the game plays out in a unique way for each player, and
the player can come up with solutions to problems that the designer might
not have thought of." Another area that still sees a lot of attention is
[2]making game characters more human, in terms of moving and looking as
realistic as possible, as well as [3]how a game's AI perceives what's
happening. "The problem is not necessarily in having the most advanced
path-finding technique with large-scale awareness; we need to have more
micro behaviors, with a proper physics awareness of the environment,"
said software engineer George Torres.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?si...27/0329207

Links:
0. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gam...es-physics
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gam...es-physics
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gam...s-physics1
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gam...ameculture


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Alternative Energy Policies a Boon For Inflatable Electric Car |
| from the inflatable-submersible-still-struggling dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @05:13 (Transportation) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...27/0230218 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Brian Stretch writes with a story about the Mini Utility Vehicle
prototype from XP Vehicles, [0]an electric car that is partly inflatable.
The recent struggles of the auto industry and a political climate that
supports the development of alternative energy vehicles have given the
car a better chance at actually hitting the market. Quoting: "Building a
car takes many years and tens to hundreds of millions of dollars
traditionally. XP is able to cut a lot of the costs and timeframe because
its car has 70 percent less parts than a regular car, and the company is
using novel materials that require simpler factory devices, and
production and manufacturing processes that lower the cost to deploy. ...
The seat is inflatable, the dashboard is inflatable, and the internal
structure and carrying racks are inflatable, or a mesh suspension.
Instead of requiring six-axis robots, XP uses radio frequency welders
that look like giant waffle irons. The factory equipment is much less
expensive and the car simply has less parts that could fail. The motors
are built into the rear wheels in most XP prototypes. The first cars to
reach the market will have two rear hub motors and a motor controller,
that's it."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/0230218

Links:
0. http://www.pddnet.com/article-the-inflat...ar-062509/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Internet Helps Iran Silence Activists |
| from the alternative-views dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @08:16 (Censorship) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/27/0344230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Over the last couple of weeks, those who believe
in the transformative power of technology to battle an oppressive state
have pointed to Iran as a test case. However, as Farhad Manjoo writes on
Slate, the real conclusion about news now coming out of Iran is that for
regimes bent on survival, [1]electronic dissent is easier to suppress
than organizing methods of the past. Using a system installed last year,
[2]built in part by Nokia and Siemens, the government routes all digital
traffic in the country through a single choke point, using the
capabilities of deep packet inspection to monitor every e-mail, tweet,
blog post, and possibly even every phone call placed in Iran. 'Compare
that with East Germany, in which the Stasi managed to tap, at most, about
100,000 phone lines — a gargantuan task that required 2,000 full-time
technicians to monitor the calls,' writes Manjoo. The effects of this
control have been seen over the past couple days, with only a few
harrowing pictures and videos getting through Iran's closed net. For most
citizens, posting videos and even tweeting eyewitness accounts remains
fraught with peril, and the same tools that activists use can be used by
the government to spread disinformation. The government is also using
crowdsourcing by posting pictures of protesters and [3]asking citizens
for help in identifying the activists. 'If you think about it, that's no
surprise,' writes Manjoo. 'Who said that only the good guys get to use
the power of the Web to their advantage?'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...27/0344230

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://www.slate.com/id/2221397
2. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/22/...oring-Tech
3. http://iran.whyweprotest.net/off-topic/2...407-a.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Researchers Discover That Sand Behaves Like Water |
| from the not-in-your-stomach dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @09:34 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...27/1141242 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Xeger writes "University of Chicago researchers have found that
[1]streams of sand can behave in a similar manner to liquids, forming
water-like droplets when poured from a funnel. To obtain these results,
they dropped their expensive high-speed camera from a height of several
meters and observed the sand forming into droplets — something that
shouldn't happen without surface tension. These findings suggest that
conventional engineering wisdom about sand, dirt and other grainy
materials needs to be rethought, and that it might be possible to apply
fluid dynamics to some solids problems."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...27/1141242

Links:
0. mailtoConfusedlashdot@tracker.xeger.net
1. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/sandgrains/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Battle Between Google and Facebook |
| from the friend-request-denied dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @10:52 (The Internet) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...27/1411242 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

A story at Wired delves into [0]the ongoing struggle between Google and
Facebook to establish their competing visions for the future of the
internet. "For the last decade or so, the Web has been defined by
Google's algorithms — rigorous and efficient equations that parse
practically every byte of online activity to build a dispassionate atlas
of the online world. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions a more
personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues,
peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is
offline. In Zuckerberg's vision, users will query this 'social graph' to
find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire — rather than tapping
the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of
how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the
center. In other words, right where Google is now." A related article at
ReadWriteWeb suggests that while Facebook's member base is enormous, the
company [1]hasn't taken advantage of its influence as well as it should
have, though the capability for it to do so still exists.

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1411242

Links:
0. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine...ntPage=all
1. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/fac...llions.php


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Path From Hacker To Security Consultant |
| from the curiosity-killed-the-cracker dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @12:10 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/27/160232 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

CNet has a series of interviews with former hackers who ran afoul of the
law in their youth, but later turned their skills toward a profession in
security consulting. Adrian Lamo discusses taking "normal every day
information resources and [arranging] them in improbable ways,"
describing a time when he broke into Excite@Home's system and ended up
[0]answering help desk questions from their users. Kevin Mitnick, famous
for gaining access to many high-profile systems, [1]warns today's young
hackers not to follow in his footsteps, saying, "A lot of pen testers
today have done unethical things in their past during their learning
process, especially the older ones because there was no opportunity to
learn about security. Back in the '70s and '80s, it was all self-taught.
So a lot of the old-school hackers really learned on other people's
systems. And at the time, I couldn't even afford my own computer." Mark
Abene explains how he got interested in phone phreaking, and how it
[2]led to a prison term and a career in computer security. Like Mitnick,
he says that easy access to powerful modern computers removes part of the
motivation for breaking into other systems.

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/06/27/160232

Links:
0. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10271162-83.html
1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10269348-83.html
2. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10270582-83.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ulysses Space Mission Finally Coming To An End |
| from the four-more-year-four-more-years dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 27, @13:27 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...27/1641214 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Dusty writes "After several false alarms, [0]the Ulysses Mission is
finally ending. According to the Spacecraft Operations Manager's latest
status report, [1]the last track will be on 30th June 2009 from 15:25
until 20:20 UTC. 'We've tried to bolster our dwindling tracking
allocation with some success by grabbing antenna time released on short
notice (mostly by the Spitzer Project). However, weekly data return
figures are now typically 10% or less. And soon, even 512 bps from 70m
antennas will be a thing of the past.' Further details about [2]Ulysses'
18-year mission are [3]available from NASA and the ESA. We discussed the
failing spacecraft last summer when it looked like [4]its fuel was going
to freeze, but through clever engineering, experts [5]managed to squeeze
out another year.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?...27/1641214

Links:
0. http://www.physorg.com/news165233546.html
1. http://ulysses-ops.jpl.esa.int/ulsfct/th...es.html#12
2. http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120395_index_0_m.html
3. http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov/
4. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?s.../14/201250&tid=236
5. http://science.slashdot.org/story/08/07/...t-Dead-Yet


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Richard Stallman Says No To Mono |
| from the therefore-not-a-monomaniac dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday June 27, @14:30 (GNU is Not Unix) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...27/1759255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]twitter writes "There's been a lot of fuss about mono lately. After
SCO and MS suing over FAT patents, you would think avoiding anything MS
would be a matter of common sense. RMS now [1]steps into the fray to warn
against a serious mistake: 'Debian's decision to include Mono in the
default installation, for the sake of Tomboy which is an application
written in C#, leads the community in a risky direction. It is dangerous
to depend on C#, so we need to discourage its use. .... This is not to
say that implementing C# is a bad thing. ... [writing and using
applications in mono] is taking a gratuitous risk.'" Update: 06/27 20:22
GMT by [2]T : Read on below for one Mono-eschewing attempt at getting the
(excellent) Tomboy's functionality, via a similar program called Gnote.
Update: 06/27 21:07 GMT by T: On the other side of the coin, reader
im_thatoneguy writes "Jo Shields, a Mono Developer, has published an
article on '[3]Why Mono Doesn't Suck,' why it is not a threat to FOSS,
why it is desirable to developers and why it should be included in Ubuntu
by default."

This story continues at:
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...27/1759255

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1759255

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~twitter/journal/217907
1. http://www.fsf.org/news/dont-depend-on-mono
2. http://www.monkey.org/~timothy/
3. http://www2.apebox.org/wordpress/rants/124/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft To Offer Windows 7 On USB Thumb Drives? |
| from the please-send-me-your-repurposable-drives dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday June 27, @15:34 (Media) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...27/1919221 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Barence writes "Microsoft is reportedly considering offering
[1]Windows 7 on USB thumb drives to allow netbook owners to upgrade their
machines. Windows has, until now, only been distributed on DVDs or via
download. However, netbooks don't have optical drives and the Windows 7
ISO weighs in at 2.3GB, which would take several hours to download on an
average broadband connection and potentially do serious damage to a
customer's broadband data cap."

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid...27/1919221

Links:
0. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/
1. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/258811/micro...rives.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Video Bay, Now In Beta |
| from the morally-neutral dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday June 27, @16:36 (The Internet) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...27/2018242 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

poundhard writes "Some two years ago, it was [0]mentioned on TorrentFreak
[1]and Slashdot that [2]The Pirate Bay team were working on a YouTube
competitor. At the oral proceedings of the [3]Spectrial, I believe it was
Peter Sunde, aka Brokep, who said to the prosecutor that it was one of
those side projects that failed. A few days ago though, he [4]appeared
over Skype at the [5]Open Video Conference in New York, and apparently
said that they were about to launch something new. It has been
[6]speculated in Norway that it will be the [7]IPREDator. But I checked
out [8]The Video Bay, and hey, it is about to go live! This is what they
write: 'To stay in the spirit on which TPB was founded and using the
Latest Technology, TVB aims to use the new HTML5 features, more
specificly the
Reply
#4

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| In Canada, No Expectation of Privacy On the Net |
| from the if-you're-not-doing-anything-wrong dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 30, @16:23 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/30/1840247 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]The_AV8R writes "In a recent interview, Peter Van Loan, the new
Canadian Public Safety minister, says [1]ISPs should be able to provide
private user information without a warrant. (The only example he gave was
cases of child pornography; the interviewer pointed out that in these
cases ISPs are already at liberty to divulge customer information without
a warrant, but that the proposed rules would make that mandatory whenever
the police ask.) He was adamant that in regard to IP addresses, names,
cell phone numbers, and email addresses: '...that is not the kind of
information about which Canadians have a legitimate expectation of
privacy.' The minister denied — even when presented with an audio clip
proving otherwise — that his predecessor had promised never to allow the
police to wiretap the Internet without a warrant."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...30/1840247

Links:
0. http://www.andrewshouts.com/
1. http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda...?page_id=3&action=blog&subaction=viewpost&blog_id=81&post_id=10544

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ranchers Have Beef With USDA Program To ID Cattle |
| from the chipping-in dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 30, @17:57 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/30/1917212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Ponca City, We Love You writes "The NY Times reports that farmers and
ranchers oppose a [1]government program to identify livestock with
microchip tags that would allow the computerized recording of livestock
movements from birth to the slaughterhouse. Proponents of the [2]USDA's
National Animal Identification System say that computer records of cattle
movements mean that when a cow is discovered with bovine tuberculosis or
mad cow disease, its prior contacts can be swiftly traced. Ranchers say
the extra cost of the electronic tags places an onerous burden on a
teetering industry. Small groups of cattle are often rounded up in
distant spots and herded into a truck by a single person who could not
simultaneously wield the hand-held scanner needed to record individual
animal identities. The ranchers also note that there is no Internet
connection on many ranches for filing to a regional database. 'Lobbyists
from corporate mega-agribusiness designed this program to destroy
traditional small sustainable agriculture,' says Genell Pridgen, an owner
of Rainbow Meadow Farms. The notion of centralized data banks, even for
animals, has also [3]set off alarms among libertarians who oppose NAIS.
One group has issued a bumper sticker that reads, 'Tracking cattle now,
tracking you soon.' 'They can't comprehend the vastness of a ranch like
this,' says Jay Platt, the third-generation owner of a 22,000 acre New
Mexico ranch. 'This plan is expensive, it's intrusive, and there's no
need for it.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=...30/1917212

Links:
0. http://poncacityweloveyou.com/
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/us/28livestock.html
2. http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/
3. http://www.lpmo.org/media/releases/2009/...6-01.shtml


Reply
#5
Sweden Imports European Garbage To Power the Nation

"http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/10/30/0648201/sweden-imports-european-garbage-to-power-the-nation

Hugh Pickens writes "NPR reports that Sweden's program of generating energy from garbage is wildly successful, but recently its success has also generated a surprising issue: There is simply not enough trash. Sweden has recently begun to import about eight hundred thousand tons of trash from the rest of Europe per year to use in its power plants. Sweden already brings trash from Norway and hopes to get garbage from Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic countries. Sweden creates energy for around 250,000 homes and powers one-fifth of the district heating system. Its incineration plants offer a look into the future where countries could potentially make money off of their trash instead of dumping. Landfilling of organic materials – a highly inefficient and environmentally degrading system (PDF) — has been forbidden in Sweden since 2005 and emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from landfills has fallen dramatically (PDF). 'I hope that we instead will get the waste from Italy or from Romania or Bulgaria or the Baltic countries because they landfill a lot in these countries,' says Catarina Ostlund, a senior advisor for the country's environmental protection agency. 'They don't have any incineration plants or recycling plants, so they need to find a solution for their waste.'"
"



http://clicks.slashdot.org/ct.html?ufl=e&rtr=on&s=x8pb08,18ipd,10sc,comk,d9tj,kopa,j9ga

From the quick-everybody-become-more-wasteful department
Hugh Pickens writes "NPR reports that Sweden's program of generating energy from garbage is wildly successful, but recently its success has also generated a surprising issue: There is simply not enough trash. Sweden has recently begun to import...
Read More http://clicks.slashdot.org/ct.html?ufl=e&rtr=on&s=x8pb08,18ipd,10sc,comk,d9tj,kopa,j9ga
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