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[Slashdot] Stories for 2011-08-26

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The Future������and Present������is Virtual
Because virtualization is still a relatively young technology, challenges and opportunities are only now being recognized and addressed. Understand the issues and solutions.
http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sdnl/114/80612187/
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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot
* Michael Mann Vindicated (Again) Over Climategate
* Why Nobody Wants You On OKCupid
* Do You Want Best Buy Opening Your New Laptop?
* Java 7: What's In It For Developers
* Can Google Save Us From Slow Internet
* So Long, CmdrTaco, and Thanks For All The Posts
* Dutch Court Says Android 2.3 Violates Apple Patents
* Linus' First Linux Post, 20 Years Ago Today
* Hurricane Irene Threatens US Northeast; Cover Your Assets
* Is the Quick Death of Failed Tech Products a Good Thing?
* SEC Hit With Data Destruction Complaint
* Massive Diamond Found Orbiting Pulsar
* Entrepreneur Makes Millions Selling Virtual Land
* Controversial Cybercrime Bill Introduced In Australia
* EFF Takes On Cisco's Role In China
* Kickstarter-Like Service For Charities?
* Aaron Seigo On KDE SC 5.0 — and What Getting There Means
* Cybercrime Treaty Pushes Surveillance Worldwide
* Imaging the Molecular Orbitals of Pentacene
* PlayStation Home Transforming Into Social Platform
* Facebook Data Collection Under Fire Again
* Scientific Linux's Troy Dawson Leaves FermiLabs For Red Hat
* MIT Researchers Defend Against Wireless Attacks
* Twitter Turns On SSL Encryption For Some Users

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| Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot
| from the steve-got-front-cutsies dept.
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 25, @09:00 (Slashdot.org)
| with 1347 comments
| https://meta.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1245200/Rob-CmdrTaco-Malda-Resigns-From-Slashdot?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After 14 years and over 15,000 stories posted, it's finally time for me
to say Good-Bye to Slashdot. I created this place with my best friends in
a run down house while still in college. Since then it has grown to be
read by more than a million people, and has served Billions and Billions
of Pages (yes, in my head I hear the voice). During my tenure I have done
my best to keep Slashdot firmly grounded in its origins, but now it's
time for someone else to come aboard and find the *future*. Personally I
don't have any plans, but if you need to get ahold of me for any reason,
you can find me as [0]@cmdrtaco on twitter or [1]Rob Malda on Google+.
You could also update my mail address to be malda at cmdrtaco dot net.
Hit the link below if you want to read some nostalgic saccharine crap
that I need to get out of my system before I sign off for the last time.

This story continues at:
https://meta.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1245200/Rob-CmdrTaco-Malda-Resigns-From-Slashdot?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

Discuss this story at:
https://meta.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1245200/Rob-CmdrTaco-Malda-Resigns-From-Slashdot?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://twitter.com/#!/cmdrtaco
1. http://plus.google.com/105030465637303791249/posts

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| Michael Mann Vindicated (Again) Over Climategate
| from the arguments-that-cannot-be-won dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @12:53 (Earth)
| with 709 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1640224/Michael-Mann-Vindicated-Again-Over-Climategate?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader writes "Michael Mann, a climatologist at Pennsylvania
State University, was one of the central figures involved in [0]the
'Climategate' controversy, which saw many private email conversations
between researchers posted publicly. Now, [1]an investigation (PDF) by
the National Science Foundation has found "[2]no basis to conclude that
the emails were evidence of research misconduct or that they pointed to
such evidence." Phil Plait points out that [3]other investigations have
found similarly that [4]claims of Mann's misconduct took his statements
out of context. 'A big claim by the deniers is that researchers were
using "tricks" to falsify conclusions about global warming, but the NSF
report is pretty clear that's not true. The most damning thing the
investigators could muster was that there was "some concern" over the
statistical methods used, but that's not scandalous at all; there's
always some argument in science over methodology. The vague language of
the report there indicates to me this isn't a big deal, or else they
would've been specific. The big point is that the data were not faked.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1640224/Michael-Mann-Vindicated-Again-Over-Climategate?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://politics.slashdot.org/story/09/11/20/1747257/Climatic-Research-Unit-Hacked-Files-Leaked
1. http://www.nsf.gov/oig/search/A09120086.pdf
2. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-22/climate-change-scientist-cleared-in-u-s-data-altering-inquiry.html
3. http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/07/02/1433246/Climategates-Final-Days
4. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/08/24/case-closed-climategate-was-manufactured/

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| Why Nobody Wants You On OKCupid
| from the resemble-that-remark dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @08:11 (Social Networks)
| with 420 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0513227/Why-Nobody-Wants-You-On-OKCupid?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Social awkwardness has the most opportunity to
shine in [1]your very first message to a potential sweetheart, write
Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich at CNN. Bartz and Ehrlich enumerate and
humorously describe seven types of message senders: the generalizer, the
autobiographer, the 'eccentric,' the creeper, the gusher, and the
wordless wonder. Our favorite: the generalizer, whose typical first
message may be 'hey, wuts up?' Why does no one want the generalizer?
'You're probably stupid. Or possibly illiterate,' write Bartz and
Ehrilich. According to OKTrends, [2]bad grammar and bad spelling are huge
turn-offs in a first message. 'Our negative correlation list is a fool's
lexicon: ur, u, wat, wont, and so on. These all make a terrible first
impression. In fact, if you count hit (and we do!) the worst 6 words you
can use in a first message are all stupid slang.' Other tips from
OKTrends' analysis of successful keywords and phrases from over 500,000
first contacts on OKCupid: Avoid physical compliments, bring up specific
interests, and [3]if you're a guy, be self-effacing."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0513227/Why-Nobody-Wants-You-On-OKCupid?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/08/24/online.dating.messages.netiquette/
2. http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/online-dating-advice-exactly-what-to-say-in-a-first-message/
3. http://www.uknetguide.co.uk/Lifestyle_and_Leisure/Article/Self_effacing_men_have_higher_success_rates-104745.html

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| Do You Want Best Buy Opening Your New Laptop?
| from the no-you-do-not dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @16:22 (Hardware)
| with 388 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2010214/Do-You-Want-Best-Buy-Opening-Your-New-Laptop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader writes "I went to Best Buy the other day to get a new
laptop for a client. I didn't realize till I got it home that they had
[0]broken the seal and opened the box. They put a sticker on the box that
said, 'Inspected by Best Buy.' I found they had created the user profile,
recovery disks, and installed a trial of Trend Antivirus. Seems to me
this is more of a marketing agenda than inspection."

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2010214/Do-You-Want-Best-Buy-Opening-Your-New-Laptop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://consumerist.com/2009/09/best-buy-that-laptop-isnt-open-its-just-optimized.html

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| Java 7: What's In It For Developers
| from the take-a-look-under-the-hood dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 24, @22:44 (Java)
| with 308 comments
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0054258/Java-7-Whats-In-It-For-Developers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]GMGruman writes "After five years of a torturous political process and
now under the new ownership of Oracle, Java SE 7 is finally out (and its
initial bugs patched in the Update 1 release). So what does it actually
offer? Paul Krill [1]surveys the new capabilities that matter most for
Java developers, from dynamic language support to an improved file
system."

Discuss this story at:
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0054258/Java-7-Whats-In-It-For-Developers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.infoworld.com/
1. http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/java-7-whats-in-it-developers-170636

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| Can Google Save Us From Slow Internet
| from the quicken-my-pipes dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 24, @20:39 (Google)
| with 233 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0021247/Can-Google-Save-Us-From-Slow-Internet?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]CoveredTrax writes "As part of the beta test of their new gigabit
fiber network, [1]Google has provided Stanford University with
mouthwateringly high-speed Internet. Since the program was announced, the
service, which is now being provided free to students and faculty in the
Palo Alto area, has got a lot of people to asking ([2]sometimes begging)
that their city be next on Google's list for communication salvation. But
can Google save us all from inferior web access? And more importantly, is
it a good idea to let them?"

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0021247/Can-Google-Save-Us-From-Slow-Internet?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://motherboard.tv/
1. http://motherboard.tv/2011/8/24/stanford-gets-blessed-with-high-speed-fiber-how-about-the-rest-of-us
2. http://www.businessinsider.com/topeka-changes-its-name-to-google-to-beg-for-super-fast-fiber-network-2010-3

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| So Long, CmdrTaco, and Thanks For All The Posts
| from the gonna-let-you-finish-but dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @14:17 (Slashdot.org)
| with 199 comments
| https://meta.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1528205/So-Long-CmdrTaco-and-Thanks-For-All-The-Posts?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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With CmdrTaco moving on to his temporary retirement home, the Slashdot
editors who will continue to poke and prod at reader submissions (the
heart and soul of this site: without readers, there'd be nothing to talk
about as well as no one to talk about it) would like to offer an extended
'Thank You' to Rob, and offer some thoughts on the years so far, as well
as what comes next. (Of late, though, we're lucky to have the growing
contributions of Clinton Ebadi, aka Unknown Lamer, who got an [0]oddball
start on the Slashdot page a long time back.) Read on for a few words
from Samzenpus, timothy, and Soulskill.

This story continues at:
https://meta.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1528205/So-Long-CmdrTaco-and-Thanks-For-All-The-Posts?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

Discuss this story at:
https://meta.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1528205/So-Long-CmdrTaco-and-Thanks-For-All-The-Posts?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://linux.slashdot.org/story/00/12/29/140210/The-Ordinary-Slashdot-User-Answers

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| Dutch Court Says Android 2.3 Violates Apple Patents
| from the glad-that's-cleared-up dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 25, @05:35 (Android)
| with 186 comments
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0250205/Dutch-Court-Says-Android-23-Violates-Apple-Patents?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]jfruhlinger writes "A Dutch court came to some [1]interesting
conclusions in the Apple-Samsung patent case raging there. The court
rejected claims that Samsung stole intellectual copyrights, or that it
slavishly copied Apple's iPad and iPhone. It did decide that Android 2.3
violated an Apple photo management patent ��� but said that Samsung could
get around this simply by upgrading its phones to Android 3.0."

Discuss this story at:
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0250205/Dutch-Court-Says-Android-23-Violates-Apple-Patents?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://joshreads.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/196877/apple-defeats-samsung-dutch-court-samsung-galaxy-s-banned-europe

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| Linus' First Linux Post, 20 Years Ago Today
| from the know-the-score dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @12:08 (Open Source)
| with 166 comments
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1535255/Linus-First-Linux-Post-20-Years-Ago-Today?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]jrepin writes "One midsummer's night, a student at the University of
Helsinki [1]posted a query to the newsgroup comp.os.minix asking, 'What
would you like to see most in minix?' The student's name was Linus
Torvalds, and that Usenet post was the beginning of the Linux operating
system. The date was 25 August 1991, [2]exactly 20 years ago today. In
1991 Unix had existed for about 20 years, Apple had come out with its Mac
OS in 1984, and Microsoft had been flogging Windows since 1985. Torvalds'
ambitions for his 'new (free) operating system' were modest. It was to be
'just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu' for IBM PC
'386(486) AT clones.' He wanted to call his OS kernel 'Freax,' but a
friend who ran the FTP server that hosted the software named Torvalds'
source code download directory 'linux' and the name stuck."

Discuss this story at:
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1535255/Linus-First-Linux-Post-20-Years-Ago-Today?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~jrepin
1. http://www.thelinuxdaily.com/2010/04/the-first-linux-announcement-from-linus-torvalds/
2. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2103890/linux

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| Hurricane Irene Threatens US Northeast; Cover Your Assets
| from the oh-she's-always-theatening-people dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @14:58 (Data Storage)
| with 166 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1748242/Hurricane-Irene-Threatens-US-Northeast-Cover-Your-Assets?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]jfruhlinger writes "Hurricane Irene is [1]bearing down on the heavily
populated U.S. Northeast Corridor. If you work in IT, you know that there
are few things that are worse for electronics than water; so, what's your
plan? Tom Henderson has [2]come up with a checklist, which sensibly
includes backing everything up, twice; not that you have time for it now,
but for future reference you might want to consider just moving your
whole data center to a location that's been conveniently pre-hardened,
like a [3]water tower or a [4]boiler room." Note that Irene has been no
joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern
infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power.

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1748242/Hurricane-Irene-Threatens-US-Northeast-Cover-Your-Assets?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://joshreads.com/
1. http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/article/tropical-depression-nine-storm-hurricane-irene_2011-08-20
2. http://www.itworld.com/security/197223/hurricane-irene-checklist-protecting-your-technology
3. http://www.itworld.com/data-centerservers/196529/come-irene-her-way-your-data-center-ready
4. http://www.itworld.com/data-centerservers/197101/data-center-boiler-room-cool-no

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| Is the Quick Death of Failed Tech Products a Good Thing?
| from the first-impressions-are-everything dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @10:01 (Handhelds)
| with 161 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1243208/Is-the-Quick-Death-of-Failed-Tech-Products-a-Good-Thing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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Joining the ranks of accepted submitters, HumanEmulator writes "The NY
Times reports on how the Hollywood summer-movie business model is being
applied to tech products: 'Every release needs to be a blockbuster, and
[0]the only measure of success is the opening-weekend gross. There is
little to no room for the sleeper indie hit that builds good word of
mouth to become a solid performer over time.' New products are being
pulled from shelves only weeks after a lackluster release. What if the
TouchPad, the Microsoft Kin, or even Google Wave had had more time on the
market? Is this blockbuster-or-bust model a good thing for consumers, or
for the industry in general?"

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1243208/Is-the-Quick-Death-of-Failed-Tech-Products-a-Good-Thing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/technology/technology-devices-either-sell-big-or-die-fast.html?_r=1

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| SEC Hit With Data Destruction Complaint
| from the stop-playing-plinko-with-your-backup-tapes dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @11:27 (Government)
| with 142 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1510214/SEC-Hit-With-Data-Destruction-Complaint?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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DMandPenfold writes "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US
financial regulator, has been accused of [0]destroying thousands of data
files on high profile inquiries including an early-stage investigation
into convicted Ponzi scheme fraudster Bernard Madoff. The allegations,
raised by former SEC employee Darcy Flynn, have prompted the US Senate
Judiciary Committee to write to SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro to demand an
immediate explanation. The SEC exists to set a tough example on corporate
governance, and it fines banks heavily for both lax practice and
deliberate malpractice. Questions over any involvement it may have in
sensitive document destruction are not likely to sit comfortably with
some in the industry. The SEC insists it has kept records in accordance
with the law on its computer system."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1510214/SEC-Hit-With-Data-Destruction-Complaint?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3299043/sec-facing-damaging-data-destruction-allegations/

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| Massive Diamond Found Orbiting Pulsar
| from the think-of-the-street-value-of-this-mountain dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @17:03 (Space)
| with 141 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2042248/Massive-Diamond-Found-Orbiting-Pulsar?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]HairyNevus writes "A recent survey of pulsars has revealed a
fascinating discovery of a millisecond pulsar in system PSR J17191438
that has stripped a nearby white dwarf star down to its very core.
Although no longer visible, is still has the mass of Jupiter. The
remaining core rotates its neutron star companion with a period of just
under 2 hours, indicating extremely close proximity. Given this distance,
scientists have calculated that the substance of the core must be very
compact, and, without building up the point, [1]they conclude it is made
of diamond. One thing I found misleading about the article is that it
refers to the core as having 'the size of Jupiter' and 'the mass of
Jupiter.' Given their different densities (diamond vs. mostly helium), it
would seem clear that their size (i.e. volume) differs."

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2042248/Massive-Diamond-Found-Orbiting-Pulsar?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. mailto:hairynevus@gmail.com
1. http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/08/neutron-star-has-turned-its-companion-into-a-planet-of-diamond.ars

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| Entrepreneur Makes Millions Selling Virtual Land
| from the expensive-patterns-of-electrons dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @02:16 (It's funny. Laugh.)
| with 133 comments
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0449218/Entrepreneur-Makes-Millions-Selling-Virtual-Land?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]kkleiner writes "How much would you pay for a piece of imaginary real
estate? [1]Anshe Chung has made millions renting it. Today, Anshe Chung
Studios has 80+ employees managing thousands of rental properties,
helping design new 3D virtual chat rooms, and making tons of money on
virtual to real currency exchanges. Anshe was the first person whose
virtual property exceeded a real world value of 1 million dollars, and
Anshe Chung Studios is perhaps the single largest third party developer
of virtual property ever."

Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0449218/Entrepreneur-Makes-Millions-Selling-Virtual-Land?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://singularityhub.com/
1. http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/23/entrepreneur-anshe-chung-makes-millions-selling-virtual-land-banking-and-fashion/

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| Controversial Cybercrime Bill Introduced In Australia
| from the good-enough-for-me-and-you dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 25, @03:28 (Australia)
| with 85 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0245228/Controversial-Cybercrime-Bill-Introduced-In-Australia?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader writes "The Australian government instructed a
committee to investigate required changes to cybercrime legislation.
Having received the report, [0]the government decide to ignore it and
give the federal police almost everything it wants on a plate. From the
article: 'The Australian Greens have questioned the decision of the
Government and Opposition to pass the Cybercrime Bill unchanged through
the House of Representatives despite recommendations by their own members
of parliament to fix serious flaws. Greens communications spokesperson
Senator Scott Ludlam said the Cyber Safety Committee had tabled a highly
critical unanimous report on the bill, proposing a series of amendments
and requests for clarification which were not addressed in the House.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0245228/Controversial-Cybercrime-Bill-Introduced-In-Australia?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/labor-and-coalition-pass-flawed-cybercrime-bill-despite-report-their-own-commi

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| EFF Takes On Cisco's Role In China
| from the technolegal-quagmires dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @10:43 (China)
| with 80 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1414237/EFF-Takes-On-Ciscos-Role-In-China?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]decora writes "Several years ago, writer Du Daobin posted several
essays on the internet, protesting such things as unfair taxes and the
corruption of the media. He was then charged with 'inciting subversion of
state power,' arrested, and after many legal twists and turns, tortured
in prison. Daobin, along with several other dissidents with similar
stories, decided to [1]sue Cisco Systems (PDF) earlier this year under
the legal theory that it aided and abetted China's violation of the
[2]Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. As the case moves forward, the
Chinese Ministry of Public Security has stepped up its [3]surveillance,
harassment, and interrogation of Daobin and the others. The Electronic
Frontier Foundation has now joined the Laogai Research Foundation to draw
attention to the case. As part of its opening move, it has [4]asked Cisco
to make public statements in support of human rights, hoping that the
company's influence with the Chinese government will provide some modicum
of protection for the threatened dissidents."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1414237/EFF-Takes-On-Ciscos-Role-In-China?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. mailto:decorat@mail.com
1. https://www.eff.org/files/Du-Cisco-Complaint.pdf
2. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20715#axzz1VwJPd3Ao
3. https://wardward.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/daobin-v-cisco-daobin-interrogated-by-ministry-of-public-security/
4. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/cisco-and-abuses-human-rights-china-part-1

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| Kickstarter-Like Service For Charities?
| from the sounds-like-a-business-plan dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @13:35 (Education)
| with 80 comments
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1719218/Kickstarter-Like-Service-For-Charities?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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First time accepted submitter chefmayhem writes "I'm one of a number of
volunteer alumni trying to revive a high school summer science enrichment
program, [0]PGSS, cut unceremoniously by Pennsylvania in 2009 due to
budget issues. Our [1]alumni association has become a 501(c)3 non-profit
and we're raising money through [2]donations (over $100K from over 300
donors so far) to try to fund the program in 2012. The idea is that
running the program this summer will give us momentum, and something to
show off to potential corporate, philanthropic, and other funding
sources. Trouble is, some potential donors are concerned that we won't
raise enough to run the program this coming summer, and are hesitant to
donate, even though the money will ([3]one way or another) go to science
education, even if we can't restore the program. Is there a web-based
fundraising service, like kickstarter.com, but for charities, which will
take pledges (and deal with credit card info, etc) but only charge donors
if the goal is reached? It would also be important that non-donor sources
(like some support from the state) can also count towards our fundraising
goals. This could be a powerful tool for us, as well as other non-profits
looking to make a dream come true."

Discuss this story at:
https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1719218/Kickstarter-Like-Service-For-Charities?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Governor's_School_for_the_Sciences
1. http://www.pgssalumni.org/
2. http://www.pgssalumni.org/donate
3. http://www.pgssalumni.org/faq

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Aaron Seigo On KDE SC 5.0 — and What Getting There Means
| from the slow-and-steady dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @18:31 (KDE)
| with 65 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2139218/Aaron-Seigo-On-KDE-SC-50-mdash-and-What-Getting-There-Means?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "After years of focusing on further improving
KDE4 two weeks ago the developers of the free desktop announced the next
big step for their project: KDE Frameworks 5.0. But as long-time
developer ��� and Plasma team leader ��� Aaron Seigo points out in an
[0]interview with derStandard.at/web, the source-incompatible changes
shall be held to a minimum. Also calls Frameworks 5.0 only the 'first
step,' new Applications and Workspace releases are to follow later, Seigo
goes on to talk about the chances in the mobile market with Plasma Active
and further areas of collaboration with the other big free desktop:
GNOME."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2139218/Aaron-Seigo-On-KDE-SC-50-mdash-and-What-Getting-There-Means?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://derstandard.at/1313025130807/Interview-Aaron-Seigo-talks-about-the-KDE-SC-50---and-more

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Cybercrime Treaty Pushes Surveillance Worldwide
| from the man-v-state dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @17:46 (Censorship)
| with 64 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2130259/Cybercrime-Treaty-Pushes-Surveillance-Worldwide?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bs0d3 writes "As part of an emerging international trend to try to
'civilize the Internet', one of the world's worst Internet law treaties ���
the highly controversial Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Cybercrime
��� is back on the agenda. Canada and Australia are using the Treaty to
introduce new invasive, online surveillance laws, many of which go far
beyond the Convention's intended levels of intrusiveness. Negotiated over
a decade ago, only 31 of its 47 signatories have ratified it. Many
considered the Treaty to be dormant but in recent years a number of
[0]countries have been modeling national laws based on the flawed Treaty.
Leaving out constitutional safeguards, gag orders in place of oversight,
and forcing service providers to retain your data may all be coming
soon."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2130259/Cybercrime-Treaty-Pushes-Surveillance-Worldwide?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://activepolitic.com:82/blog/2011-08-25a/Dangerous_Cybercrime_Treaty_Pushes_Surveillance_and_Secrecy_Worldwide.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Imaging the Molecular Orbitals of Pentacene
| from the didn't-keats-write-an-ode-about-that? dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @15:41 (United Kingdom)
| with 61 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1743218/Imaging-the-Molecular-Orbitals-of-Pentacene?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

eparker05 writes "Researchers at University of Liverpool have used a
scanning tunneling microscope to image the aromatic molecule [0]pentacene
([1]Abstract). Not unexpectedly, [2]the resulting images showed an
astonishingly close correlation to the theoretically predicted molecular
orbitals. This incredible set of images reminds me of the group that
[3]imaged a single carbon atom in 2009."

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1743218/Imaging-the-Molecular-Orbitals-of-Pentacene?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentacene
1. http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i8/e086101
2. http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/08/molecules-imaged-most-intimately.html
3. http://www.insidescience.org/research/1.917

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PlayStation Home Transforming Into Social Platform
| from the you-got-your-myspace-in-my-vidya-game dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 25, @04:58 (PlayStation (Games))
| with 53 comments
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0452229/PlayStation-Home-Transforming-Into-Social-Platform?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

donniebaseball23 writes "Sony's virtual world, PlayStation Home, has seen
over 23 million users since launching in December 2008, and now the
service is about to undergo its biggest change yet. Jack Buser, director
of PlayStation Home, says Sony is planning a '[0]total redesign of the
heart of PlayStation Home' for this Fall. The idea is to put games
(particularly free-to-play games) front and center on Home, utilizing a
central Hub with a theme park design. The Hub will 'integrate games,
quests, community events and user-generated content, while providing
players with additional navigation, shopping, socialization and
entertainment options.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0452229/PlayStation-Home-Transforming-Into-Social-Platform?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.industrygamers.com/news/playstation-home-getting-complete-redesign-transforming-into-social-games-platform/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Facebook Data Collection Under Fire Again
| from the das-ist-streng-verboten dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 25, @01:09 (Facebook)
| with 48 comments
| https://slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0233201/Facebook-Data-Collection-Under-Fire-Again?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]JohnBert writes "A German privacy protection authority is calling on
organizations there to close their Facebook fan pages and [1]remove the
social networking site's 'Like' button from their websites, arguing that
Facebook harvests data in violation of German and European Union law. The
Independent Centre for Privacy Protection (ULD), the privacy protection
agency for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, issued a news release
on Friday saying Facebook builds a broad, individualized profile for
people who view Facebook content on third-party websites. Data is sent
back to Facebook's servers in the U.S., which the agency alleges violates
the German Telemedia Act, the German Federal Data Protection Act and the
Data Protection Act of Schleswig-Holstein. The agency alleges the data is
held by Facebook for two years, and wants website owners in the state to
remove links to Facebook by the end of next month or possibly face a
fine."

Discuss this story at:
https://slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/0233201/Facebook-Data-Collection-Under-Fire-Again?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. mailto:jbertoli@batblue.com
1. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219406/Facebook_data_collection_under_fire_again?taxonomyId=17

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Scientific Linux's Troy Dawson Leaves FermiLabs For Red Hat
| from the long-way-around dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @17:22 (Red Hat Software)
| with 31 comments
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2058228/Scientific-Linuxs-Troy-Dawson-Leaves-FermiLabs-For-Red-Hat?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First time accepted submitter EponymousCustard writes "On a day of big
resignations, we also hear that Troy Dawson of the Scientific Linux
project is joining Red Hat, and will no longer be working on Scientific
Linux. It will be a big loss. thanks to Troy for all the great work!"

Discuss this story at:
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/2058228/Scientific-Linuxs-Troy-Dawson-Leaves-FermiLabs-For-Red-Hat?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| MIT Researchers Defend Against Wireless Attacks
| from the just-kill-anyone-in-any-sort-of-middle dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @19:20 (Security)
| with 28 comments
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/234243/MIT-Researchers-Defend-Against-Wireless-Attacks?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

alphadogg writes "MIT researchers have devised a [0]protocol to flummox
man-in-the-middle attacks against wireless networks. The all-software
solution lets wireless radios automatically pair without the use of
passwords and without relying on out-of-band techniques such as infrared
or video channels. Dubbed Tamper-evident pairing, or TEP, the technique
is based on understanding how man-in-the-middle attacks tamper with
wireless messages, and then detects and in some cases blocks the
tampering. The researchers suggest that TEP could have detected the
reported but still unconfirmed cellular man-in-the-middle attack that
unfolded at the Defcon conference earlier this month in Las Vegas."

Discuss this story at:
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/234243/MIT-Researchers-Defend-Against-Wireless-Attacks?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/082411-mit-tep-250077.html?hpg1=bn

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Twitter Turns On SSL Encryption For Some Users
| from the 140-chars-of-nothin'-there dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday August 25, @16:02 (Encryption)
| with 26 comments
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1959234/Twitter-Turns-On-SSL-Encryption-For-Some-Users?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[0]JohnBert writes with this news from ComputerWorld, which reports that
"Twitter is slowly [1]turning on automatic encryption on its website, a
move following other major providers of web-based services to thwart
account hijacking over wireless networks. Twitter has offered an option
for users to turn on SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, but said on
Tuesday that it will turn the feature on by default for some users. It
did not indicate when the option would be turned on by default for all
users."

Discuss this story at:
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/08/25/1959234/Twitter-Turns-On-SSL-Encryption-For-Some-Users?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. mailto:jbertoli@batblue.com
1. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219453/Twitter_turns_on_SSL_encryption_for_some_users?taxonomyId=17


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