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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Libya SIGINT Jamming Satellites, Towers
* Xerox Opens Virtual Research Lab
* Australian Court Gives Green Light To Disconnect Pirates
* FreeBSD 8.2 Released
* Transparency Required For $37 Billion Aussie Broadband Deal
* <em>King's Quest III</em> Remake Released
* Intel Announces a BIOS Implementation Test Suite
* Australia Bans New <em>Mortal Kombat</em>
* Sony's War On Makers, Hackers, and Innovators
* Scientists Cleared of Misusing Global Warming Data
* Google's Fight Against 'Low-Quality' Sites Continues
* Erdos' Combinatorial Geometry Problem Solved
* The World's First Flexible Organic Microprocessor
* Nokia and Open Source — a Trial By Fire
* Frictionless Superfluid Found In Neutron Star Core
* Does Syfy Really Love Sci-Fi?
* When the Internet Nearly Fractured
* Tiny Transistors Could Be Used To Track Cash
* PayPal Reinstates Fund For WikiLeaker Manning
* Discovery's Final Launch Successful
* First Ever HIPAA Fine Is $4.3M
* AMD's Fusion APU Pitted Against 21 Desktop CPUs
* Activists Seek Repeal of Ban On Incandescent Bulbs
* Canonical To Divert Money From GNOME
* First Two-Legged Robot Marathon is Under Way In Osaka, Japan
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Libya SIGINT Jamming Satellites, Towers
| from the gentlemen-do-not-kill-a-bunch-of-citizens dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday February 24, @19:01 (Censorship)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/2346259/Libya-SIGINT-Jamming-Satellites-Towers?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
h00manist writes "Libya's Gaddafi apparently loves radio hacking. Signal
jamming is being [0]used to disable Thuraya satellite phones. Also being
jammed is satellite TV network provider [1]Arabsat, affecting vast areas
in the Middle East, Gulf, Africa and Europe. Cellphone and internet
transmissions are working only intermittently. Soldiers are confiscating
electronics, too. This has gone on for days, allowing killing to be
carried out largely hidden from the rest of the world, quite different
from what happened in Egypt. The locations of the jamming signals are
known to company executives ��� around the capital, Tripoli ��� but nobody
can do anything. Only POTS is available, and it is monitored. Technically
speaking, could this happen everywhere? Alternatives?"
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/2346259/Libya-SIGINT-Jamming-Satellites-Towers?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE71N2CU20110224
1. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=125205#axzz1Ev3JP000
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Xerox Opens Virtual Research Lab
| from the derriere-duplication-demystified dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday February 24, @19:53 (Software)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/2312224/Xerox-Opens-Virtual-Research-Lab?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]itwbennett writes "It's nothing like the glory days of Xerox PARC, but
still there are some [1]interesting projects in Xerox's new Open Xerox
website. Copyfinder, for example, takes an electronic document and
returns the URLs pointing to it, to different versions of the document,
and to related documents. Trailmeme is a new publishing tool that allows
readers to navigate stories in both Web-like and book-like ways. And the
Arabic Morphological Analyzer accepts modern standard Arabic words and
returns morphological analysis and English notation. As of Thursday, 15
research projects were posted at Open Xerox, and the company has another
70 projects in the pipeline, said Victor Ciriza, lab manager at the Xerox
Research Centre Europe."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/2312224/Xerox-Opens-Virtual-Research-Lab?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/internet/138165/xerox-opens-virtual-research-lab-public
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Australian Court Gives Green Light To Disconnect Pirates
| from the you-win-some-partially-you-lose-some-partially dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday February 24, @22:55 (Australia)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/2119250/Australian-Court-Gives-Green-Light-To-Disconnect-Pirates?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]aesoteric writes "The Full Bench of Australia's Federal Court (three
judges) has [1]dismissed the film industry's appeal against a February
2010 judgment that found ISP iiNet had not authorised copyright
infringement on its network. However, the ruling was a 2-1 majority and
the judges have made several concessions to the Hollywood film studios.
In particular, they set out a prescriptive path for the film industry to
change the way it identifies alleged copyright infringers. The ruling
says that if the film industry amends the format of its notices of
infringement, pays the ISP to vet the notices and indemnifies the ISP
against any fallout from disconnecting a customer, then [2]disconnection
is a reasonable step the ISPs should take to combat piracy. Essentially,
the ruling gives internet service providers no absolute protection over
the actions of their subscribers."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/2119250/Australian-Court-Gives-Green-Light-To-Disconnect-Pirates?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.itnews.com.au/
1. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/249187,iinet-victorious-as-film-industry-appeal-dismissed.aspx
2. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/249230,iitrial-a-green-light-to-disconnect-pirates.aspx
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| FreeBSD 8.2 Released
| from the free-software-keeps-on-chugging dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday February 24, @23:54 (Operating Systems)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0410242/FreeBSD-82-Released?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
meta coder writes with word of the [0]release of FreeBSD 8.2: "This is
the third release from the 8-STABLE branch which improves on the
functionality of FreeBSD 8.1 and introduces some new features. Some of
the highlights includes improvements in Xen support and various
bugfixes."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0410242/FreeBSD-82-Released?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.2R/announce.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Transparency Required For $37 Billion Aussie Broadband Deal
| from the if-not-free-markets-at-least-a-bit-of-sunshine dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday February 25, @02:02 (Australia)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0354252/Transparency-Required-For-37-Billion-Aussie-Broadband-Deal?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]destinyland writes "Freedom of Information Laws have been successfully
[1]extended to Australia's $37.5 billion broadband internet project ��� a
100 mbps fiber network covering 94% of the Australian population. The
massive National Broadband Network had originally been classified as
exempt from Australia's Freedom of Information laws, which Australia's
goverment [2]argued would impose 'a competitive disadvantage' on its
operating company. The Opposition and Green parties pointed out that
freedom of information was essential, since the NBN Company would be
operating as an internet monopoly."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0354252/Transparency-Required-For-37-Billion-Aussie-Broadband-Deal?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.destinyland.org/
1. http://www.zdnet.com.au/nbn-co-forced-to-open-up-by-greens-deal-339310207.htm
2. http://www.freeaccess.com.au/Structure:%20/2011/01/19/1822/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| <em>King's Quest III</em> Remake Released
| from the never-stop-questing dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @03:23 (Classic Games (Games))
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0639208/Kings-Quest-III-Remake-Released?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Beetle B. writes "Not being content with remaking Sierra's King's
Quest I, King's Quest II and Quest for Glory II, the [1]Anonymous Game
Developers Interactive have [2]released a remake of King's Quest III.
Sure, the graphics may not appeal to the young'uns out there, but it's
the gameplay that matters, right? Last year, after several [3]legal
battles, [4]another game in the King's Quest series made by fans [5]was
released (with more episodes to come). And did I mention that they're all
free? What other remakes of old adventure games are floating around out
there?"
Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0639208/Kings-Quest-III-Remake-Released?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. mailto:beetle_b@ema%5B%5Dcom%5B'il.'ingap%5D
1. http://agdinteractive.com/games/games.html
2. http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq3/
3. http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/03/01/0546238/8-Year-Fan-Made-Game-Project-Shut-Down-By-Activision
4. http://www.tsl-game.com/
5. http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/06/28/2022203/Kings-Quest-Fan-Project-The-Silver-Lining-Is-Back
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Intel Announces a BIOS Implementation Test Suite
| from the gnu-way-to-look-at-things dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday February 25, @05:10 (GNU is Not Unix)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0435232/Intel-Announces-a-BIOS-Implementation-Test-Suite?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josh Triplett writes "Intel [0]announced the release of a [1]BIOS
Implementation Test Suite (BITS), a bootable pre-OS environment based on
GNU GRUB2 that tests how well (or how badly) your BIOS has configured
your platform hardware. BITS also includes Intel's official power
management reference code, so you can override your BIOS's initialization
with a known-good configuration. 'In addition to those changes to GRUB2
itself, BITS includes configuration files which build a menu exposing the
various BITS functionality, including the test suites, hardware
configuration, and exploratory tools. These scripts detect your system's
CPU, and provide menu entries for all the available functionality on your
hardware platform. You can also access all of the new commands we've
added directly via the command line.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0435232/Intel-Announces-a-BIOS-Implementation-Test-Suite?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. https://lwn.net/Articles/429812/
1. http://biosbits.org/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Australia Bans New <em>Mortal Kombat</em>
| from the finish-him dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @06:29 (Censorship)
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0632213/Australia-Bans-New-Mortal-Kombat?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]daria42 writes "Mortal Kombat is one of the oldest video game
franchises around, but it looks as though Australia's classification
board hasn't heard of it. Today the organization confirmed it had
[1]banned the newest version of the game from being sold in Australia,
citing excessive violence, such as 'bloodspray' and 'limb dismemberment.'
In a Mortal Kombat game? Who would have thought?! The ban comes because
Australia does not have an R18+ classification for video games, despite
extensive lobbying efforts by the video game industry and consumers."
Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0632213/Australia-Bans-New-Mortal-Kombat?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.delimiter.com.au/
1. http://delimiter.com.au/2011/02/25/new-mortal-kombat-banned-in-australia/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Sony's War On Makers, Hackers, and Innovators
| from the can-we-play-it-in-the-form-of-a-video-game? dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday February 25, @08:06 (DRM)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0050257/Sonys-War-On-Makers-Hackers-and-Innovators?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]ptorrone writes "MAKE Magazine takes a look at [1]Sony's history of
suing makers, hackers and innovators. Over the last decade Sony has been
targeting legitimate innovation, hobbyists, and competition. From picking
on people who want to program their robot dogs to dance to suing people
who want to run their own software on something they bought. Sony has
made so many mistakes with technology choices (Memory Stick, Magic Gate,
UMD!), perhaps they'll end themselves soon enough, but until then MAKE is
keeping score for Sony's all-out war on tinkerers."
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/0050257/Sonys-War-On-Makers-Hackers-and-Innovators?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. mailto:pt@nOsPAm.adafruit.com
1. http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/sonys-war-on-makers-hackers-and-innovators.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Scientists Cleared of Misusing Global Warming Data
| from the not-that-skeptics-care dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @08:48 (Earth)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1258201/Scientists-Cleared-of-Misusing-Global-Warming-Data?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Hugh Pickens writes writes "The NY Times reports that an inquiry by
the Commerce Department's inspector general has [1]found no evidence that
NOAA scientists manipulated climate data (reg. may be required) to
buttress evidence in support of global warming after climate change
skeptics contended that e-mail messages between climate scientists that
were stolen and circulated on the Internet in late 2009 showed that
scientists were manipulating or withholding information to advance the
theory that the earth is warming as a result of human activity. 'None of
the investigations have found any evidence to question the ethics of our
scientists or raise doubts about NOAA's understanding of climate change
science,' says Mary Glackin, the agency's deputy undersecretary for
operations. The inquiry, requested last May by Senator James M. Inhofe,
Republican of Oklahoma, who has challenged the science underlying
human-induced climate change, comes at a critical moment for NOAA, as
some newly empowered Republican House members [2]seek to rein in the
EPA's plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, often contending that
the science underpinning global warming is flawed. Inhofe says [3]the
report (PDF) was far from a clean bill of health for the agency, and that
contrary to its executive summary, showed that the scientists 'engaged in
data manipulation.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1258201/Scientists-Cleared-of-Misusing-Global-Warming-Data?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/science/earth/25noaa.html
2. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/145937-house-dems-call-for-climate-science-hearings-amid-gop-efforts-to-block-epa-climate-rules
3. http://www.oig.doc.gov/oig/reports/correspondence/2011.02.18_IG_to_%20Inhofe.pdf
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Google's Fight Against 'Low-Quality' Sites Continues
| from the no-more-subsidies-for-content-farmers dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @09:31 (Google)
| https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1346201/Googles-Fight-Against-Low-Quality-Sites-Continues?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
nj_peeps writes "A couple weeks ago, JC Penney made the news for
plummeting in Google rankings for everything from 'area rugs' to 'grommet
top curtains.' Turns out the retail site had a number of [0]suspicious
links pointing at it that could be traced back to a link network intended
to manipulate Google's ranking algorithms. Now, Overstock.com has lost
rankings for another type of link that Google finds to be manipulation of
their algorithms. This situation has led Google to [1]implement a
significant change to their search algorithms, affecting almost 12% of
queries in [2]an effort to cull content farms and other webspam. And in
the midst of all of this, a company with substantial publicity lately for
running a paid link network announces they are getting out of the link
business entirely."
Discuss this story at:
https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1346201/Googles-Fight-Against-Low-Quality-Sites-Continues?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://search.slashdot.org/story/11/02/13/1535243/The-Dirty-Little-Secrets-of-Search
1. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html
2. http://searchengineland.com/google-forecloses-on-content-farms-with-farmer-algorithm-update-66071
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Erdos' Combinatorial Geometry Problem Solved
| from the math-that's-way-over-your-head dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @10:11 (Math)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1437215/Erdos-Combinatorial-Geometry-Problem-Solved?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
eldavojohn writes "After 65 years, [0]Paul Erdos' combinatorial problem
has been solved by Indiana University professor Nets Hawk Katz. The
problem involved determining the minimum number of distinct distances
between any finite set of points in a plane and its applications range
from drug development to robot motion planning to computer graphics. You
can find a [1]description of the problem here and [2]the prepublication
of the paper on arXiv. The researchers used the existing work on the
problem and included two new ideas of their own, like using the
polynomial ham sandwich theorem, to reach a solution that warranted at
least half of Erdos' $500 reward posted for solving this problem way back
in 1935."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1437215/Erdos-Combinatorial-Geometry-Problem-Solved?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/17494.html
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s_distinct_distances_problem
2. http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.4105
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| The World's First Flexible Organic Microprocessor
| from the can't-wait-for-free-range-cpus dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @10:53 (Hardware)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1515206/The-Worlds-First-Flexible-Organic-Microprocessor?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "European researchers at Imec recently
announced the development of [0]the world's first flexible organic
microprocessor at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in
San Francisco CA. 'The 4000-transistor, 8-bit logic circuit has the
processing power of only a 1970s-era silicon model, but it has a key
advantage���it can bend. The device���s designers say the chip could lead the
way to cheaper flexible displays and sensors. Wrapped around pipes, for
example, sheets of sensors with these processors could record average
water pressure, and wrapped around food and pharmaceuticals, they might
indicate that your tuna is rancid or that you forgot to take your
pills.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1515206/The-Worlds-First-Flexible-Organic-Microprocessor?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-plastic-processor
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Nokia and Open Source — a Trial By Fire
| from the roadmap-to-desperation dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @11:37 (Cellphones)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1556239/Nokia-and-Open-Source-mdash-a-Trial-By-Fire?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "The H has a damning piece on Nokia's open
source smart phone projects, [0]Maemo and MeeGo, and why they failed.
'They did dumb stuff like re-writing the whole networking stack,
duplicating as they went. So instead of re-using NetworkManager and
improving it, and getting to market fast ��� they re-wrote, got something
that still doesn't work well, failed to push Linux forward, and failed.
Repeat that for every technology pick and you get the idea,' said Andrew
Wafaa. 'The N900 was a great product. Immediately [after] it was launched
it was announced that it was a dead product, ISV-wise. They announced a
Qt re-write/project re-set. Then they merged Maemo into MeeGo, giving
another project re-set. Then, when they were coming up to release in
September 2010, there was another project reset to switch to a different
Qt technology (even the Qt groups in-fight in Nokia). In consequence they
have no shipping product.' At the same time, 'both Nokia and Intel were
working on separate handset UIs using Qt, the former proprietary, the
latter open-source. A better worked example of squandering your
leadership role and wrestling yourself to the ground is hard to see.
Nokia deserve their trial by fire ��� and I hope the people who truly
screwed up the amazing Linux opportunity that was the N900 get shut down
in the process.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1556239/Nokia-and-Open-Source-mdash-a-Trial-By-Fire?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Nokia-and-open-source-a-trial-by-fire-1194928.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Frictionless Superfluid Found In Neutron Star Core
| from the always-in-the-last-place-you-look dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @11:55 (NASA)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1625217/Frictionless-Superfluid-Found-In-Neutron-Star-Core?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
intellitech writes "NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered
[0]the first direct evidence for a superfluid, a bizarre, friction-free
state of matter, [1]at the core of a neutron star ([2]abstract).
Superfluids created in laboratories on Earth exhibit remarkable
properties, such as the ability to climb upward and escape airtight
containers. The finding has important implications for understanding
nuclear interactions in matter at the highest known densities."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1625217/Frictionless-Superfluid-Found-In-Neutron-Star-Core?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/11_releases/press_022311.html
1. http://physics.aps.org/viewpoint-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.081101
2. http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v106/i8/e081101
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Does Syfy Really Love Sci-Fi?
| from the but-they-had-this-awesome-movie-about-a-ferret-monster dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @12:20 (Sci-Fi)
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/171224/Does-Syfy-Really-Love-Sci-Fi?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]brumgrunt writes "Has Syfy [1]fallen out with science fiction
altogether? A look at its latest scheduling shows that it's further away
from its roots than ever. 'There's still a lot of the older sci-fi
content on the airwaves, but it's slowly being phased out, and forget
about original programming. After all, this is the programming crew who
ruined Caprica by stuffing it into the Friday night death slot and
splitting the season into two parts. These are the geniuses who killed
off Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. These are the people who
wrecked Farscape, one of the most inventive and fun sci-fi shows to ever
be on television. They also ended Mystery Science Theater 3000, only the
greatest show ever invented by robots in space.' Is this now as good as
it gets?"
Discuss this story at:
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/171224/Does-Syfy-Really-Love-Sci-Fi?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. mailto:simonbrew@hotmail.com
1. http://www.denofgeek.com/television/784179/does_syfy_really_love_scifi.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| When the Internet Nearly Fractured
| from the you-broke-it-you-bought-it dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @13:04 (The Internet)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1740234/When-the-Internet-Nearly-Fractured?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "The Atlantic has a fascinating, if lengthy,
story about a man named Eugene Kashpureff who '[0]ignited a battle over
the future of the global network' by launching a rogue DNS registry in
the late '90s. Here's an excerpt: 'He opted to go a step beyond simply
registering sites on alternative top-level domains, and hijacked traffic
intended for InterNIC.net. He pointed the domain to his own site, where
he lodged a note of protest over how the domain name space was being
controlled, and then offered visitors the option of continuing on to
Network Solution's site. This was, you'll recall, at about the same
moment that the federal government was attempting to make the case to the
business community, to the world, that this Internet thing was no digital
Wild West.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1740234/When-the-Internet-Nearly-Fractured?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/when-the-internet-nearly-fractured-and-how-it-could-happen-again/71662/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Tiny Transistors Could Be Used To Track Cash
| from the transitional-form-of-currency dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @13:45 (The Almighty Buck)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1830244/Tiny-Transistors-Could-Be-Used-To-Track-Cash?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]disco_tracy writes "Banks have long considered placing silicon
transistors on currency for security purposes, but the technology was too
chunky and intensive for paper bills. Now, tiny low-power organic
transistors developed by German scientists [1]could make it possible to
really follow the money."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1830244/Tiny-Transistors-Could-Be-Used-To-Track-Cash?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. mailto:tracy.staedter@gmail.com
1. http://news.discovery.com/tech/money-tracker-cash-transistor-110224.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PayPal Reinstates Fund For WikiLeaker Manning
| from the saw-which-way-the-wind-was-blowing dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @14:29 (Censorship)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1838243/PayPal-Reinstates-Fund-For-WikiLeaker-Manning?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]itwbennett writes "PayPal has [1]lifted a temporary restriction placed
on [2]the account of Courage to Resist, a group raising funds to support
the legal defense of US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was arrested for
allegedly downloading classified information and providing it to
WikiLeaks. As you may recall, PayPal was embroiled in controversy late
last year when it [3]shuttered an account for WikiLeaks amid the
controversy over the expose of US State Department documents. PayPal
communications director Anuj Nayar said in a blog posting that the
decision '[4]had nothing to do with WikiLeaks.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1838243/PayPal-Reinstates-Fund-For-WikiLeaker-Manning?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/internet/138218/paypal-reinstates-fund-meant-help-us-armys-manning
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/205208/PayPal-Freezes-Support-Account-For-Bradley-Manning
3. http://slashdot.org/story/10/12/04/144238/PayPal-Withdraws-WikiLeaks-Donation-Service
4. https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/02/paypal-statement-on-courage-to-resist-situation/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Discovery's Final Launch Successful
| from the make-it-count dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @15:09 (NASA)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1934259/Discoverys-Final-Launch-Successful?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Phoghat writes "Overcoming a down-to-the-last-second problem, space
shuttle Discovery made history yesterday, [1]launching on its final
mission to orbit. The most-traveled orbiter is carrying a crew of six
astronauts and one human-like [2]Robonaut, along with a new permanent
storeroom and supplies for the International Space Station." The launch
itself went as planned; a few pieces of [3]foam insulation broke free of
the external fuel tank on the way up, but it's not expected to be a
safety concern, and they're planning an inspection to make sure. NASA has
videos of [4]yesterday's launch and a [5]Discovery retrospective, and the
Atlantic has a great [6]collection of pictures involving the shuttle.
Mike Coats, pilot of Discovery's first mission in 1984, spoke in an
interview about [7]his connection to the orbiter. Discovery comes back to
Earth on March 7th.
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/1934259/Discoverys-Final-Launch-Successful?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. mailto:tjsobieski@gmail.com
1. http://www.universetoday.com/83529/sts-133-launches-on-historic-final-mission-for-shuttle-discovery/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robonaut#Robonaut_2_.28R2.29
3. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2011/02/after-launch-discovery-turns-attention-to-safety-before-meeting-up-with-iss.html
4. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=66333901
5. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=21356981
6. http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/02/space-shuttle-discoverys-final-launch/100015/
7. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/25/following-discovery-launch-shuttles-pilot-describes-mission-number-1/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| First Ever HIPAA Fine Is $4.3M
| from the why-rush-things dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @15:53 (Medicine)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2021232/First-Ever-HIPAA-Fine-Is-43M?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trailrunner7 writes "The health care industry's toothless tiger finally
bared its teeth, as the US Department of Health and Human Services
[0]issued a $4.3M fine to a Maryland health care provider for violations
of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The action is the first monetary fine issued
since the Act was passed in 1996. The US Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) issued a Notice of Final Determination to Cignet Health
care of Temple Hills, Maryland on February 4. The notice followed a
finding by HHS's Office of Civil Rights that Cignet failed to provide 41
patients with copies of their medical records and for failing to respond
to requests from HHS's Office of Civil Rights for information related to
the complaints."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2021232/First-Ever-HIPAA-Fine-Is-43M?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/hipaa-bares-its-teeth-43m-fine-privacy-violation-022311
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| AMD's Fusion APU Pitted Against 21 Desktop CPUs
| from the apples-and-slow-oranges dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @16:38 (AMD)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2115216/AMDs-Fusion-APU-Pitted-Against-21-Desktop-CPUs?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
crookedvulture writes "When AMD unveiled the Bobcat CPU architecture
behind its first Fusion APUs, the company claimed its Atom-killer would
achieve 90% of the performance of mainstream desktop processors. But does
it? This article [0]compares the AMD E-350's performance to more than 20
desktop CPUs between $87 and $999 to find out, and the results aren't
particularly encouraging. Although Fusion offers much better integrated
graphics than Intel's latest Atom, neither stands much chance of keeping
up with even low-end desktop CPUs. The E-350 does offer [1]very low power
consumption and impressive platform integration, making it a good choice
for home-theater PCs and mobile systems. Desktop users are better off
waiting for Llano, a Fusion iteration due out this spring."
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2115216/AMDs-Fusion-APU-Pitted-Against-21-Desktop-CPUs?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://techreport.com/articles.x/20401
1. http://techreport.com/articles.x/20401/5
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Activists Seek Repeal of Ban On Incandescent Bulbs
| from the wouldn't-want-to-accidentally-get-something-done dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @17:21 (Earth)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2145205/Activists-Seek-Repeal-of-Ban-On-Incandescent-Bulbs?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Hugh Pickens writes writes "Daniel Sayani reports in New American that
Senator Mike Enzi plans to [1]introduce legislation to reverse the ban on
incandescent light bulbs which is scheduled to go into effect January 1,
2014. 'CFLs are more expensive, many contain mercury which can be harmful
even in the smallest amounts, and [2]most are manufactured overseas in
places like China,' says Enzi. 'If left alone, the best bulb will win its
rightful standing in the marketplace. Government doesn't need to be in
the business of telling people what light bulb they have to use.' Faced
with a phaseout, [3]some consumers are stockpiling incandescent bulbs,
although a poll by USA Today indicates most Americans support the US law
that begins phasing out traditional light bulbs next year. Despite some
consumer grumbling, they're satisfied with more efficient alternatives.
71% of US adults say they have replaced standard light bulbs in their
home over the past few years with compact fluorescent lamps or LEDs and
[4]84% say they are 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with CFLs and LEDs."
Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2145205/Activists-Seek-Repeal-of-Ban-On-Incandescent-Bulbs?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/slashdot/
1. http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/6392-republicans-seek-repeal-of-incandescent-bulb-ban
2. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/09/11/171200/GE-Closes-Last-US-Light-Bulb-Factory
3. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2011-02-07-lightbulbs_N.htm
4. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2011/02/poll-americans-ok-newer-light-bulbs/1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Canonical To Divert Money From GNOME
| from the and-now-nobody's-happy dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday February 25, @18:01 (GNOME)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2230207/Canonical-To-Divert-Money-From-GNOME?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Julie188 writes "Canonical has [1]reacted to backlash over its insane
deal with Banshee by establishing a marginally better new deal. Banshee
is a media/music player for Linux (and Windows and Mac) that supports
music purchases via Amazon MP3. It will ship with Ubuntu 11.04. Amazon
pays 10% to its affiliates ��� websites and software that send it business.
Banshee had been donating its Amazon affiliate proceeds to GNOME. But
Amazon's MP3 store competes with Canonical's MP3 store, Ubuntu One. So
Canonical thought that it should help itself to 75% of the affiliate
money from Banshee/Amazon sales and leave 25% for GNOME. The Banshee
group said [2]no thanks, we'll disable Amazon for Ubuntu users. Canonical
is refusing to let Banshee disable Amazon. It has instead said it will
contribute some money from Ubuntu One to GNOME but it still intends on
keeping the lion's share for itself."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2230207/Canonical-To-Divert-Money-From-GNOME?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/subnets/opensource/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/canonical-alters-banshee-agreement
2. http://www.networkworld.com/community/banshee-amazon-store-disabled-by-canonical-in-ubuntu
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| First Two-Legged Robot Marathon is Under Way In Osaka, Japan
| from the four-legs-good-two-legs-bad dept.
| posted by Roblimo on Friday February 25, @18:48 (Robotics)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2316247/First-Two-Legged-Robot-Marathon-is-Under-Way-In-Osaka-Japan?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gregg writes "Five knee-high androids have crossed the starting line in
the [0]world's first marathon for two-legged robots.The contestants are
expected to take four days to complete the course, which involves 423
laps of an indoor track." The [1]live robot marathon video feed will make
you realize that not all robots are worthy of fear. Or even worth
watching for more than a few minutes.
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/25/2316247/First-Two-Legged-Robot-Marathon-is-Under-Way-In-Osaka-Japan?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12565909
1. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/%E3%82%8D%E3%81%BC%E3%81%BE%E3%82%89%E3%83%95%E3%83%AB-%E4%B8%AD%E7%B6%99
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According to some sources, Serbian military pilots took part in the bombings of the Libyan protesters. Sasa Milosevic translates a few Serbian netizens' reactions to this allegation.
No Somos Hormigas (We Are Not Ants) is a book and online platform; a Spanish-language project devoted to "educated optimism." Global Voices is mentioned in the book and online as an example of a project of social innovation.
The Macedonian government's campaign for "explaining the consequences of abortion," re-started during the winter holidays, incited reactions by bloggers and civil society organizations, which mainly interpret it as an attempt to take Macedonia back to the Middle Ages.
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The idea of citizens contributing towards this in the form of taxes is still a new/alien concept in Bhutan. The Bhutanese twitter-sphere broke the news of the verdict in favor of the Opposition who protested against the legality of imposing vehicle tax in the country.
