http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/blog ProSPOTLIGHT Recent Posts by Professions http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/draconian-drm-revealed-in-windows-7.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">TechForensics writes "A few days' testing of Windows 7 has already disclosed some draconian DRM, some of it unrelated to media files. A legitimate copy of Photoshop CS4 stopped functioning after we clobbered a nagging registration screen by replacing a DLL with a hacked version. With regard to media files, the days of capturing an audio program on your PC seem to be over (if the program originated on that PC). The inputs of your sound card are severely degraded in software if the card is also playing an audio program (tested here with Grooveshark). This may be the tip of the iceberg. Being in bed with the RIAA is bad enough, but locking your own files away from you is a tactic so outrageous it may kill the OS for many persons. Many users will not want to experiment with a second sound card or computer just to record from online sources, or boot up under a Linux that supports ntfs-3g just to control their files." Read on for more details of this user's findings.<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/2259257&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/2259257"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/2259257&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/f2enY6ZCAhmI1e1nfQvML40Kpb0/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/f2enY6ZCAhmI1e1nfQvML40Kpb0/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/jYmyxeWmK0w" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/draconian-drm-revealed-in-windows-7.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/drug-deletes-fearful-memories.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Al writes "Technology Review has an article about a common drug that seems to 'delete' painful memories related to a fearful experience. Experiments carried out by neuro-scientists at Emory University show that propranolol, a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure, can suppress the emotional part of a fearful memory. The results, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest a new way to treat anxiety disorders. In recent years, scientists have discovered that the simple act of remembering a past experience requires that the memory be consolidated once again. And both animal research and some human studies have shown that during re consolidation, long-term memories &amp;mdash; once thought to be fairly stable &amp;mdash; can be more easily meddled with."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/234238&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/234238"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/234238&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Y7SICuWMz05RI0rhkU5Po2a1Y64/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Y7SICuWMz05RI0rhkU5Po2a1Y64/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/I8b6NPO65tQ" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/drug-deletes-fearful-memories.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/one-broken-router-takes-out-half-the-internet.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Silent Stephus writes "I work for a smallish hosting provider, and this morning we experienced a networking event with one of our upstreams. What is interesting about this, is it's being caused by a mis-configured router in Europe &amp;mdash; and it appears to be affecting a significant portion of the transit providers across the Internet. In other words, a single mis-configured router is apparently able to cause a DOS for a huge chunk of the Net. And people don't believe me when I tell them all this new-fangled technology is held together by duct-tape and bailing wire!"<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/2233207&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/2233207"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/2233207&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/20_o1rcOrd-KHXfuqhXX20J5HgI/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/20_o1rcOrd-KHXfuqhXX20J5HgI/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/_rorb4xj6_8" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/one-broken-router-takes-out-half-the-internet.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/robotic-prostheses-for-human-faces.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports on a patent application that suggests implanting polymer muscles beneath the skin of people suffering paralysis of the face to give them control of their features. The technique has already been used successfully to reanimate the eyelids of human cadavers. Movement could be returned to other facial features and even paralyzed limbs in the same way, the surgeons at University of California Davis say. The full patent application is also available on the WIPO site."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/2122237&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/2122237"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/2122237&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/xbOvxYiOqgvQyol3VKOBzIZU86I/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/xbOvxYiOqgvQyol3VKOBzIZU86I/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/mmJHHUj1kr0" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/robotic-prostheses-for-human-faces.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/eu-commissioner-wants-standard-for-mobile-phone-connectors.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Jantastic writes "European Commissioner G&amp;#252;nter Verheugen wants manufacturers of mobile phones to come up with a standard connector for chargers and microphones. If companies fail to do so, proposed legislation should speed up this process. In theory, this could improve competition, while enabling longer life cycles for these devices."<p><a href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/206213&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/206213"></a></p><p><a href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/206213&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mKNz5yoX5ntiChzdWsIiL-AVBlw/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mKNz5yoX5ntiChzdWsIiL-AVBlw/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/Wj_nyH6zRrM" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/eu-commissioner-wants-standard-for-mobile-phone-connectors.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/does-your-vendor-issue-gag-orders.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Presto Vivace writes to tell us that CIO has an interesting article about customer "gag orders" that some ERP vendors are trying to impose contractually. "The effect: customers will be prevented from working with peers and others in the software company's "ecosystem" to help with technical issues or compare pricing options. 'In addition,' Wang adds, 'the customer now lacks the proper checks and balances in pressuring a vendor to deliver on promised capabilities or address severe security issues, and cannot go to the media as a last resort, if needed.'" What other questionable practices (and potential solutions) have others had to work with?<p><a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1920248&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1920248"></a></p><p><a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1920248&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/cL0brdVVghKKAkNdwCQwhTktcTE/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/cL0brdVVghKKAkNdwCQwhTktcTE/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/iVcjw8Gc28A" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/does-your-vendor-issue-gag-orders.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/pirate-bay-p2p-trial-begins-in-sweden.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Many readers are writing to tell us that The Pirate Bay trial is now in full swing in Sweden. Looking at a possible two years in prison and $150,000 in fines (plus another $14.3 million if the record companies get their way), the battle of infringement is sure to be one of the most watched p2p trials. "The International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) which is representing the case of music and film producers, made a statement about the case on Friday. Stating, For people who make a living out of creativity or in a creative business, there is scarcely anything more important than to have your rights protected by the law. Copyright exists to ensure that everyone in the creative world from the artist to the record label, from the independent film producer to the TV program maker - can choose how their creations are distributed and get fairly rewarded for their work. The operators of The Pirate Bay have violated those rights and, as the evidence in Court will show, they did so to make substantial revenues for themselves. That kind of abuse of the rights of others cannot be allowed to continue, and that is why these criminal proceedings are so important for the health of the creative community."<p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1831202&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1831202"></a></p><p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1831202&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Gfif45C6BjKTRzzRzJuRXBGriVw/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Gfif45C6BjKTRzzRzJuRXBGriVw/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/7xsk4SnGCBM" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/pirate-bay-p2p-trial-begins-in-sweden.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/spiraling-skyscraper-farms-for-a-future-manhattan.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Mike writes "One of three finalists in this year's Evolo Skyscraper Competition, Eric Vergne's Dystopian Farm project envisions a future New York City interspersed with elegantly spiraling skyscraper farms. The biomorphic structures harness cutting-edge technology to provide the city with its own self-sustaining food source while dynamically altering the fabric of city life."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1719246&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1719246"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1719246&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Ep4dFs24c8RofjK2UrFWG4b1i6w/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Ep4dFs24c8RofjK2UrFWG4b1i6w/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/MquLqGcjDVo" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/spiraling-skyscraper-farms-for-a-future-manhattan.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/microsoft-and-red-hat-team-up-on-virtualization.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">mjasay writes "For years Microsoft has insisted that open-source vendors acknowledge its patent portfolio as a precursor to interoperability discussions. Today, Microsoft shed that charade and announced an interoperability alliance with Red Hat for virtualization. The nuts-and-bolts of the agreement are somewhat pedantic, providing for Red Hat to validate Windows Server guests to be supported on Red Hat Enterprise virtualization technologies, and other technical support details. But the real crux of the agreement is what isn't there: patents. Red Hat has long held that open standards and open APIs are the key to interoperability, even as Microsoft insisted patents play a critical role in working together, and got Novell to buy in. Today, Red Hat's vision seems to have won out with an interoperability deal heavy on technical integration and light on lawyers."<p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1648222&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1648222"></a></p><p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1648222&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/TCHmLzWRhU8MpEh4HJe8wbZ6978/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/TCHmLzWRhU8MpEh4HJe8wbZ6978/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/gF7uFPkOBvk" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/microsoft-and-red-hat-team-up-on-virtualization.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/how-many-open-source-licenses-do-you-need.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">jammag writes "Bruce Perens, who wrote the original licensing rules for Open Source software in 1997, notes that there are a sprawling 73 open source licenses currently in existence. But he identifies an essential four &amp;mdash; well, actually just two &amp;mdash; that developers, companies, and individuals need. In essence, he cuts through the morass and shows developers, in particular, how to protect their work. (And yes, he favors GPL3 over GPL2.) For his own coding work, he's fond of the 'sharing with rules' license, which stays true to the Open Source ethos of shared code yet also enables him to get paid by companies who use it in their commercial products."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1633200&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1633200"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1633200&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/TO395bruQ08sjDOzubyCXIIGfQ8/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/TO395bruQ08sjDOzubyCXIIGfQ8/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/KnxWXRa3TkI" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/how-many-open-source-licenses-do-you-need.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/new-york-wants-to-tax-internet-downloads.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">An anonymous reader writes "NY is considering taxing 'video and music' downloads to offset a burdgeoning budget deficit." How long before we all have meters on our routers? This version is just a 4% tax on movies and songs downloaded from services like iTunes, but I'm sure if they could figure out a bit tax, they would.<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/168211&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/168211"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/168211&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NgRJNtLUYeGycpQJg-urOUvu2eQ/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NgRJNtLUYeGycpQJg-urOUvu2eQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/pZuX8M0yzYE" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/new-york-wants-to-tax-internet-downloads.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/earth-under-threat-from-dark-comets.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">An anonymous reader writes "Comets could be the most significant impact hazard to Earth, with sky surveys underestimating the number that are potentially devastating by a factor of between 10 and 100, UK astrophysicists say."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1524227&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1524227"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1524227&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DvkuDRCiwTJaqDdkwupYVQF2A-0/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DvkuDRCiwTJaqDdkwupYVQF2A-0/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/Y0Gaubj9hOM" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/earth-under-threat-from-dark-comets.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/nuclear-subs-collide-in-ocean.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Jantastic noted a BBC report saying "A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic. It is understood HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash earlier this month. Despite being equipped with sonar, it seems neither vessel spotted the other, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt said."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1349257&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1349257"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1349257&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DdoBhePgyRiyxSTpwNIAD1gUwyI/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DdoBhePgyRiyxSTpwNIAD1gUwyI/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/yquDD9nwm9A" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/nuclear-subs-collide-in-ocean.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/facebook-s-new-terms-of-service.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">An anonymous reader writes "Chris Walters writes about Facebook's new terms of service. 'Facebook's terms of service (TOS) used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore. Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.'" Oh no! Now they'll be able to license your super flair goblin poke 25 tag history!<p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1347230&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/16/1347230"></a></p><p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/1347230&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-_1SgdDkqBr1UnACYeTxu5_y_4E/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-_1SgdDkqBr1UnACYeTxu5_y_4E/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/tKdkl7odabY" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-16/facebook-s-new-terms-of-service.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/collided-satellite-debris-coming-down.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Jamie found this Bad Astronomy blog on the many reports beginning about 7 hours ago of one or more fireballs in the sky across Texas. That blog's proprietor first doubted that the phenomena could be due to the satellites that collided in orbit last week, but later left the possibility open. The National Weather Service for Jackson, KY put out an announcement about possible explosions and earthquakes across the area and blamed the defunct satellites. "These pieces of debris have been causing sonic booms...resulting in the vibrations being felt by some residents...as well as flashes of light across the sky. The cloud of debris is likely the result of the recent in orbit collision of two satellites on Tuesday...February 10th when Kosmos 2251 crashed into Iridium 33." An Austin TV station has more reports.<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/2241211&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/2241211"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/2241211&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/6bwc0T4_DK4mQBCq4KQLZ77O9J0/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/6bwc0T4_DK4mQBCq4KQLZ77O9J0/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/w2jE5cMPs1U" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/collided-satellite-debris-coming-down.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/do-we-need-a-new-internet.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Richard.Tao and a number of other readers sent in a NYTimes piece by John Markoff asking whether the Internet is so broken it needs to be replaced. "...[T]here is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over. What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a 'gated community' where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there." A less alarmist reaction to the question was blogged by David Akin: "If you build a new Internet and you want me to get a license to drive on it, sorry. I'm hanging out here in v.1."<p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/2114216&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/2114216"></a></p><p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/2114216&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ufoCIMgYMDberrscds5-5uGgzp0/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ufoCIMgYMDberrscds5-5uGgzp0/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/9YGpzCkcBYs" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/do-we-need-a-new-internet.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/high-tech-misery-in-china.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">theodp writes "Think you've got a bad job? Think again. You could be making keyboards for IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo and HP at Meitai Plastic and Electronics, a Chinese hardware factory. Prompted by the release of High Tech Misery in China by a human-rights group, a self-regulating body set up by tech companies will conduct an audit of working conditions at the factory. In return for take-home pay of 41 cents per hour, workers reportedly sit on hard wooden stools for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Overtime is mandatory, with workers being given on average two days off per month. While on the production line, workers are not allowed to raise their hands or heads, are given 1.1 seconds to snap each key into place, and are encouraged to 'actively monitor each other' to see if any company rules are being transgressed. They are also monitored by guards. Workers are fined if they break the rules, locked in the factory for four days per week, and sleep in crowded dormitories. Okay, it's not all bad news &amp;mdash; they're hiring."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/2020200&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/2020200"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/2020200&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/oVnYFIpFXnXxSYnV3GPzm7IaRDY/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/oVnYFIpFXnXxSYnV3GPzm7IaRDY/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/OHOHj7HBQwc" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/high-tech-misery-in-china.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/sea-sponge-extract-conquers-resistant-bacteria.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Science News has an article on research into a compound found in a particular kind of sea sponge that seems to have the ability to restore antibiotics' effectiveness against resistant bacteria. The hope is that, since the compound is not itself deadly or even harmful to bacteria, it may skew the antibiotic-bacteria arms race in our favor. "Chemical analyses of the sponge's chemical defense factory pointed to a compound called algeferin. Biofilms, communities of bacteria notoriously resistant to antibiotics, dissolved when treated with fragments of the algeferin molecule. And new biofilms did not form. So far, the algeferin offshoot has, in the lab, successfully treated bacteria that cause whooping cough, ear infections, septicemia and food poisoning. The compound also works on... [MRSA] infections, which wreak havoc in hospitals. 'We have yet to find one that doesn't work,' says [one of the researchers]."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1917240&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/1917240"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1917240&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/IZZCiJPL0PTTjp6lDa48NaBpg4M/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/IZZCiJPL0PTTjp6lDa48NaBpg4M/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/Ktu41_eFuQM" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/sea-sponge-extract-conquers-resistant-bacteria.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/canon-tries-to-shut-down-fake-canon-blog.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Thomas Hawk writes "An interesting twist over at the Fake Chuck Westfall Blog. Fake Chuck (like Fake Steve before him) has a blog out parodying Canon's real Technical Information Advisor Chuck Westfall. It seems that Canon and their lawyers over at Loeb &amp;amp; Loeb are none too fond of all the fun that Fake Chuck and DSLR geeks everywhere have been having at their expense and have sent Fake Chuck's blog hosting company, WordPress, a notice to take the blog down. Canon's lawyers cite that Fake Chuck's blog is 'calculated to mislead recipients,' even though the blog has 'fake' in the title, 'fake' in the URL and 'fake' just about everywhere else in the blog. What in the heck is wrong with Canon? Do they really think that trying to shut down a parody blog is going to make their new 5D Mark II ship any faster?" After Fake Chuck removed the Canon logo from his site, WordPress is standing behind him and has rebuffed Canon's demand.<p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1830217&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/1830217"></a></p><p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1830217&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/LONBt1FurmwsQgAGR0P0_Oc0YYo/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/LONBt1FurmwsQgAGR0P0_Oc0YYo/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/7kJYFNuJxls" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/canon-tries-to-shut-down-fake-canon-blog.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/microsaccades-help-to-refresh-your-field-of-view.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Ponca City, We love you writes with news of research from the Salk Institute into small, unconscious eye movements called "microsaccades," the purpose of which has been in question for many years. A recent study showed that those movements were essentially responsible for maintaining a coherent image for interpretation by the brain. They are also the cause of a famous optical illusion in which a still image appears to move. '"Because images on the retina fade from view if they are perfectly stabilized, the active generation of fixational eye movements by the central nervous system allows these movements to constantly shift the scene ever so slightly, thus refreshing the images on our retina and preventing us from going 'blind,'" explains Hafed. "When images begin to fade, the uncertainty about where to look increases the fluctuations in superior colliculus activity, triggering a microsaccade," adds Krauzlis.'"<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1734214&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/1734214"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1734214&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gY7YsdvTt9KoCybgXXVV6ODMdRA/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gY7YsdvTt9KoCybgXXVV6ODMdRA/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/iTqmL20N4RE" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/microsaccades-help-to-refresh-your-field-of-view.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/how-google-decides-to-cancel-a-project.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">The New York Times is running a story about the criteria involved when Google scraps one of their projects. While a project's popularity among users is important, Google also examines whether they can get enough employees interested in it, and whether it has a large enough scope &amp;mdash; they prefer not to waste time solving minor problems. The article takes a look at the specific reasons behind the recent cancellation of several products. "Dennis Crowley, one of two co-founders who sold Dodgeball to Google in 2005 and stayed on, said that he had trouble competing for the attention of other Google engineers to expand the service. 'If you're a product manager, you have to recruit people and their "20 percent time."' ... [Jeff Huber, the company's senior vice president of engineering] said that Google eventually concluded that Dodgeball's vision was too narrow. ... Still, Google found the concepts behind Dodgeball intriguing, and early this month, it released Google Latitude, an add-on to Google Maps that allows people to share their location with friends and family members. It's more sophisticated than Dodgeball, with automatic location tracking and more options for privacy and communication."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1532210&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/1532210"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1532210&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/KTdO_BlPXk7j8Wd22VIrnF4AbBo/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/KTdO_BlPXk7j8Wd22VIrnF4AbBo/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/54IuLIEOwFA" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/how-google-decides-to-cancel-a-project.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/gamers-eff-speak-out-against-drm.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Last month, we discussed news that the FTC would be examining DRM to see if it needs regulation. They set up a town hall meeting for late March, and part of that effort involved requesting comments from potential panelists and the general public. Ars Technica reports that responses to the request have been overwhelmingly against DRM, and primarily from gamers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also took the opportunity to speak out strongly against DRM, saying flat out that "DRM does not prevent piracy," and suggesting that its intended purpose is "giving some industry leaders unprecedented power to influence the pace and nature of innovation and upsetting the traditional balance between the interests of copyright owners and the interests of the public." Their full public comments (PDF) describe several past legal situations supporting that point, such as Sony's fight against mod chips, Blizzard's DMCA lawsuit against an alternative to battle.net, and Sony's XCP rootkit.<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/145252&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/145252"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/145252&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/rAllyUh6VUKPxFDvqOknWFsfY6c/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/rAllyUh6VUKPxFDvqOknWFsfY6c/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/oZ44pSmkyT4" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/gamers-eff-speak-out-against-drm.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/s3-graphics-fails-at-delivering-linux-driver.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Ashmash writes "Phoronix is running a story about S3 Graphics failing to provide Linux support for their Chrome 500 products even though they have announced in press releases going back months that there is Linux support. S3 Graphics has gone as far as advertising OpenGL 3.0 support for Linux and one of their representatives had promised a driver by last December. This situation has been going on for months, but there is no Linux driver at all for the Chrome 500 series."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1337218&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/1337218"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/1337218&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/JFjVYa_As74opfW2KqjlkMjJqiQ/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/JFjVYa_As74opfW2KqjlkMjJqiQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/PXNZAC5zHp8" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/s3-graphics-fails-at-delivering-linux-driver.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/internet-killed-the-satellite-radio-star.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">theodp writes "As Sirius XM faces bankruptcy, Slate's Farhad Manjoo reports that the company has bigger problems than just the end of cheap credit. While it has what seems like a pretty great service &amp;mdash; the world's best radio programming for just a small monthly fee &amp;mdash; Sirius XM has been eclipsed by something far cheaper and more convenient: the Internet. Load up Pandora or the Public Radio Tuner on your iPhone, and you've got access to a wider stream of music than you'll ever get through satellite. So forget the satellites, the special radios, and the huge customer acquisition costs, advises Manjoo, and instead focus on getting Howard Stern, Oprah, the NFL, and MLB on every Internet-connected device on the market at very low prices."<p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/0027251&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/15/0027251"></a></p><p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/15/0027251&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/OvWYkykLFtx_TwYcsVPDVbzmKD0/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/OvWYkykLFtx_TwYcsVPDVbzmKD0/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/_VDglaR5D50" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/internet-killed-the-satellite-radio-star.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/debian-gnu-linux-5-0-lenny-released.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Alexander "Tolimar" Reichle-Schmehl writes "The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed Lenny) after 22 months of constant development. With 12 supported computer architectures, more than 23,000 packages built from over 12,000 source packages and 63 languages for the new graphical installer, this release sets new records, once again. Software available in 5.0 includes Linux 2.6.26, KDE 3.5.10, Gnome 2.22.2, X.Org 7.3, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, GIMP 2.4.7, Iceweasel 3.0.6, Apache 2.2.9, Xen 3.2.1 and GCC 4.3.2. Other notable features are X autoconfiguring itself, full read-write support for NTFS, Java programs in the main repository and a single Blu-Ray disc installation media. You can get the ISOs via bittorrent. The Debian Project also wishes to announce that this release is dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a Debian Developer who died on December 26th, 2008 in a tragic car accident. As a valuable member of the Debian Project, he will be sorely missed."<p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1952222&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/1952222"></a></p><p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1952222&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/_OdNssMHbFZzFLnql9QwgQ0t9eA/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/_OdNssMHbFZzFLnql9QwgQ0t9eA/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/7Uc5U9HxfSY" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/debian-gnu-linux-5-0-lenny-released.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/the-pirate-bay-is-making-a-spectrial-of-it.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">IDOXLR8 writes "The Harvard Law students defending accused file-swapper Joel Tenenbaum are doing their best to turn his upcoming trial into a media event. But when it comes to pure spectacle, they have nothing on The Pirate Bay. TPB is referring to the event as a 'spectrial,' a cross between a spectacle and a trial. They have set up a site where you can track their current location, complete with journal entries. The trial begins next Monday and features a live audio feed and Twitter translations."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2317250&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/2317250"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2317250&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ikpGsWZFKGqp8hOgaTTelpmL9FY/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ikpGsWZFKGqp8hOgaTTelpmL9FY/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/eZHInb3JmH8" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/the-pirate-bay-is-making-a-spectrial-of-it.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/a-software-license-that-s-libre-but-not-gratis.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">duncan bayne writes "My company is developing some software using Ruby. It's proprietary software &amp;mdash; decidedly not free-as-in-beer &amp;mdash; but I don't want to tie my customers down with the usual prohibitions on reverse engineering, modification, etc. After all, they're licensing the product from us, so I think they should be able to use it as they see fit. Does anyone know of an existing license that could be used in this case? Something that gives the customer the freedom to modify the product as they want, but prohibits them from creating derivative works, or redistributing it in any fashion?"<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2225213&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/2225213"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2225213&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/_ISmLRq3_cOSi7oQlMEpLD9xkXU/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/_ISmLRq3_cOSi7oQlMEpLD9xkXU/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/oCDaH5E5Yhw" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/a-software-license-that-s-libre-but-not-gratis.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/russia-aims-towards-mars.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Iddo Genuth writes "Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has announced its intentions to build a low-orbit space station which, according to the agency, will support future exploration of the moon and Mars. There's also a suggestion to extend the operational lifespan of the International Space Station by five more years, resetting its retirement date to 2020. The project proposal is already on its way for review by the Russian government. Some Russian sources also reportedly proposed the (rather ludicrous) idea of converting the ISS into some kind of an interplanetary transport vehicle, which would serve as the 'ultimate mother ship' in manned planetary missions to the moon or even Mars."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/222229&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/222229"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/222229&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/B36UWSCFqolPb2HlXIJKlBNHziI/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/B36UWSCFqolPb2HlXIJKlBNHziI/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/FelLALd1Yg0" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-15/russia-aims-towards-mars.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/liquid-wood-a-contender-to-replace-plastic.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Ostracus recommends a Christian Science Monitor piece on the 40-year quest to find a replacement for non-biodegradable plastic. One candidate, written off 20 years back but now developed to the point of practicality, is a formulation based on the lignin found in wood. And it turns out there is another strong environmental reason to put lignin to use in this way: burning it, which is its common fate today, releases the carbon dioxide that trees had sequestered. "Almost 40 years ago, American scientists took their first steps in a quest to break the world's dependence on plastics. But in those four decades, plastic products have become so cheap and durable that not even the forces of nature seem able to stop them. A soupy expanse of plastic waste &amp;mdash; too tough for bacteria to break down &amp;mdash; now covers an estimated 1 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. ...[R]esearchers started hunting for a substitute for plastic's main ingredient, petroleum. They wanted something renewable, biodegradable, and abundant enough to be inexpensive."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2058246&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/2058246"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2058246&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Lu0E4ienZCVAbW8b1ECM4JHM2EA/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Lu0E4ienZCVAbW8b1ECM4JHM2EA/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/1vl4mInHxTs" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/liquid-wood-a-contender-to-replace-plastic.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/web-scam-bilks-state-of-utah-out-of-2-5m.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">KitB sends in a story in the Salt Lake Tribune that tells of a Web-based scam, resembling some used by Nigerian gangs, that snared the state of Utah. $2.5M was sent to a bank account in Texas before the bank raised a question and then froze $1.8M in the account. "Thieves apparently used a Nigerian-based scam to steal $2.5 million from the Utah treasury, covering their tracks by using intermediaries and a church address. A Salt Lake Tribune review of the names listed in a search warrant as receiving or transferring money [found] names of African origin or connections to that continent. Michael Kessler, ... a forensic accounting [investigator] in New York City, said the thieves appear to have used a simple scam that originated in Nigeria about five years ago. The Utah theft is the first time he's seen a government victimized. 'Their IT people should have known better,' Kessler said after reviewing a copy of the search warrant Thursday. 'It sounds like any kid could have done this.'"<p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2047214&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/2047214"></a></p><p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2047214&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/EcG1ioU63gEFQt5LyFDZ_ZfGVIw/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/EcG1ioU63gEFQt5LyFDZ_ZfGVIw/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/ydLOz7bUIno" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/web-scam-bilks-state-of-utah-out-of-2-5m.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/rabbit-ears-to-stage-a-comeback-thanks-to-dtv.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Jeffrey Breen writes "Like Monty Python's Killer Rabbit, cheap indoor antennas seem harmless to satellite and cable providers. But with the digital TV transition in the US, rabbit ears can suddenly provide digital-perfect pictures, many more channels, and even on-screen program guides. Already feeling pressure as suddenly budget-conscious consumers shed premium channels, providers must now get creative to protect their low-end as well."<p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2025245&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/2025245"></a></p><p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/2025245&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/liib8BnTErQcKzU3HxG2hW2aRvs/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/liib8BnTErQcKzU3HxG2hW2aRvs/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/5nl1oVq0FJM" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/rabbit-ears-to-stage-a-comeback-thanks-to-dtv.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/net-neutrality-still-lives.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">BuhDuh writes "Despite previous reports, and as subsequently discussed here, it appears that Sen. Feinstein's amendment (PDF) did not make it into the approved 'HR1' version of the stimulus bill (PDF). Of course, I cannot aver to having read all 680 pages, but searching for the terms Ms. Feinstein used came up blank, so it looks like we can breathe a collective sigh of relief until someone tries to bury similar proposals in the next wide-ranging, must-pass piece of legislation."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/205246&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/205246"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/205246&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ZlngdPS0ib5AX_9itePtFO6LYLI/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ZlngdPS0ib5AX_9itePtFO6LYLI/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/wHk4CMIa9c0" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/net-neutrality-still-lives.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/abraham-lincoln-the-early-adopter.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Hugh Pickens writes "On the 200th anniversary of his birth, President Abraham Lincoln's popular image as a log-splitting bumpkin is being re-assessed as historians have discovered that Lincoln had an avid interest in cutting-edge technology and its applications. During the war, Lincoln haunted the telegraph office (which provided the instant-messaging of its day) for the latest news from the front; he encouraged weapons development and even tested some new rifles himself on the White House lawn; and he is the only US president to hold a patent (No. 6469, granted May 22, 1849). It was for a device to lift riverboats over shoals. 'He not only created his own invention but had ideas for other inventions, such as an agricultural steam plow and a naval steam ram, [and] was fascinated by patent cases as an attorney and also by new innovations during the Civil War,' says Jason Emerson, author of Lincoln the Inventor. But Lincoln's greatest contribution to the war effort was his use of the telegraph. When Lincoln took office the White House had no telegraph connection. Lincoln 'developed the modern electronic leadership model, says Tom Wheeler, author of Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph To Win the Civil War. At a time when electricity was a vague scientific concept and sending signals through wires was 'mind boggling,' Lincoln was fascinated by the telegraph and developed it into a political and military tool that allowed him to project himself to the front to monitor and track what was going on. 'If he were alive today, we'd call him an early adopter,' says Wheeler."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1937205&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/1937205"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1937205&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/V-u9jhHKMeJsc-Gfdk-3qALYbnQ/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/V-u9jhHKMeJsc-Gfdk-3qALYbnQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/cLbFOQ3PJjI" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/abraham-lincoln-the-early-adopter.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/open-source-study-included-in-us-stimulus-package.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">gclef writes "Buried deep in the details of the US stimulus package is an interesting provision that might go a long way toward helping Open Source software break into the medical area. It says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should study the availability of open source health technology systems (PDF, page 488), compare their TCO against proprietary systems and report on what they find no later than Oct 1, 2010. Slashdotters may also be interested in the language that starts on page 553 of that PDF to see just what the final package says about broadband." The stimulus plan was approved by the Senate on Friday and is expected to be signed by President Obama by Monday.<p><a href="http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1723225&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/1723225"></a></p><p><a href="http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1723225&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/iPEYDOJQ5PjMTFJ8G5paulLbkoc/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/iPEYDOJQ5PjMTFJ8G5paulLbkoc/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/LXFERuPW79k" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/open-source-study-included-in-us-stimulus-package.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/automation-may-make-toll-roads-more-common.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">bfwebster writes "Here in Denver, we have E-470, a toll section of the 470 beltway, that uses the usual transponder attached to your windshield. Fair enough, and I make use of it, particularly in driving to the airport. But they've just implemented new technology on E-470 that allows anyone to drive through the automated toll gates. If you don't have a transponder, it takes a photo of your license plate and sends a monthly bill to your house. As a result, the company that runs E-470 plans to close all human-staffed toll booths by mid-summer. And as an article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News&amp;gt; notes, 'Such a system could be deployed on other roads, including some that motorists now use free. The result: a new source of money for highways and bridges badly in need of repair.' You can bet that legislators, mayors, and city councilpersons everywhere will see this as an even-better source of income than red-light cameras. You've been warned."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1620242&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/1620242"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1620242&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/U_aDTex7UjmMDnSMPDj_0aSGWYw/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/U_aDTex7UjmMDnSMPDj_0aSGWYw/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/16CuXnGWHbw" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/automation-may-make-toll-roads-more-common.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/reverse-engineering-a-missile-launcher-toy-s-interface.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">nitro writes "A fairly in-depth technical report by the security researchers at TippingPoint was released on how to reverse engineer the proprietary protocol for controlling a USB missile-launching toy system. They develop an iPhone application to control the device. 'The hardware is coupled with a simple GUI controller written in Delphi (MissileLauncher.exe) and a USB Human Interface Device (HID) interface written in C (USBHID.dll). The toys lost their allure within minutes of harassing my team with a barrage of soft missile shots. That same night I thought I would be able to extend the fun factor by coding up a programmatic interface to the launchers in Python. ... One interesting thing is that we have a lot more granular control of the turret movement now than we did with the original GUI. I wrote two simple loops to count the number of possible horizontal and vertical ticks and the results were 947 horizontal and 91 vertical versus 54 and 10 from the original GUI respectively. Granular control allows you to slowly and quietly reposition the turret for stealthy attacks.'"<p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1514210&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/1514210"></a></p><p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1514210&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/89We4yqVkd7RdY8E-QgOKGbA-NE/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/89We4yqVkd7RdY8E-QgOKGbA-NE/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/L0UieqPqd-w" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/reverse-engineering-a-missile-launcher-toy-s-interface.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/new-bill-would-repeal-nih-open-access-policy.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">pigah writes "The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act has been reintroduced into Congress. The bill will ban open access policies in federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These policies require scientists to provide public access to their work if it has been funded with money from an agency with an open access policy. Such policies ensure that the public has access to read the results of research that it has funded. It appears that Representative John Conyers (D-MI), the author of the bill, is doing the bidding of publishing companies who do not want to lose control of this valuable information that they sell for exorbitant fees thereby restricting access by the general public to an essentially public good."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1319259&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/1319259"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/1319259&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gBQlCe007SVZRxv19ohKUDpjwQA/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gBQlCe007SVZRxv19ohKUDpjwQA/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/mjkSaxsE4U8" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/new-bill-would-repeal-nih-open-access-policy.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/red-hat-enlists-community-help-to-fight-patent-trolls.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Stickster writes "Back in 2007, IP Innovation filed a lawsuit against Red Hat and Novell. IP Innovation is a subsidiary of Acacia Technologies. You may have heard of them &amp;mdash; they're reported to be the most litigious patent troll in the USA, meaning they produce nothing of value other than money from those whom they sue (or threaten to sue) over patent issues. They're alleging infringement of patents on a user interface that has multiple workspaces. Hard to say just what they mean (which is often a problem in software patents), but it sounds a lot like functionality that pretty much all programmers and consumers use. That patent was filed back on March 25, 1987 by some folks at Xerox/PARC, which means that prior art dated before then is helpful &amp;mdash; and art dated before March 25, 1986 is the most useful. (That means art found in a Linux distribution may not help, seeing as how Linus Torvalds first began the Linux kernel in 1991.) Red Hat has invited the community to join in the fight against the patent trolls by identifying prior art. They are coordinating efforts through the Post Issue Peer to Patent site, which is administered by the Center for Patent Innovations at the New York Law School, in conjunction with the US Patent and Trademark Office."<p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0456258&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/0456258"></a></p><p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0456258&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/r98b8OuKTGgAGmzl8DOJXpE-LlM/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/r98b8OuKTGgAGmzl8DOJXpE-LlM/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/o8HL7DUwn5I" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/red-hat-enlists-community-help-to-fight-patent-trolls.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/competition-for-the-app-store-is-mounting.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">MojoKid writes "Right now the only real 'competition' to Apple's App Store is the Android Market. Presently, anyone using an Android-based phone can download applications from the Android Market, which first started offering free applications in October '08. A drawback to Android application developers, however, is the fact that the potential Android Market user base is fairly small right now, as there is presently only one Android phone available, the T-Mobile G1. However, in the coming months we're also going to see more app stores come online for additional smartphone platforms. Nokia will officially launch an app store for its Symbian OS-based smartphones at Mobile World Congress on Monday. Microsoft is also getting in the game for smartphones that run the Windows Mobile OS, with Steve Ballmer delivering the keynote speech at Mobile World Congress as well."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0839210&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/0839210"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0839210&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/bVs0LMDCD4QRnYEjGoAeqB1wsvs/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/bVs0LMDCD4QRnYEjGoAeqB1wsvs/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/IGOGGWxlDFU" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/competition-for-the-app-store-is-mounting.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/ibm-files-patent-for-bullet_dodging-bionic-armor.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">An anonymous reader writes with news that IBM has filed a patent for "Bionic body armor" that would protect a wearer from long-range gunfire by detecting the incoming bullets and administering small shocks to the appropriate muscles required for moving out of the way. Quoting the patent: "When a marksman (such as a sniper) is attempting to fire a projectile from a firearm, the marksman typically prefers to be as far away from the target as possible, thus giving him or her a head start for the escape after the firing. As an example, the longest reported sniper hit was from a distance of about 2500 meters, resulting in a time of flight of about 4 seconds for the projectile/bullet. Had the target been aware of the inbound projectile, avoiding it by simply walking away would have been possible." After detecting the projectile, the armor would calculate the trajectory and "stimulate the target to move in a predefined manner ... sufficient to avoid any contact with the approaching projectile."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0437224&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/0437224"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0437224&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8ZIYWzlZXm40sVlGDH89BSQndqc/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8ZIYWzlZXm40sVlGDH89BSQndqc/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/9JnCwGsb0VQ" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/ibm-files-patent-for-bullet_dodging-bionic-armor.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/canadian-federal-government-mulling-open-source.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">An anonymous reader points out a CBC report discussing a request from the Canadian government for information about open source software and free proprietary software. Evan Leibovitch, an advocate for open source, says the government's interest was spurred by a desire to reduce expenditures during the recession. "...Leibovitch said he hopes the request will lead to government policies that give 'a level playing field' to vendors of open-source software services, who provide technical and administrative support to companies that use open-source programs. He alleges these service providers currently face barriers when competing with proprietary software vendors in the government procurement process. ... When the government purchases software, it often assumes that it will have to pay for a licence and asks software vendors to bid for the contract, McOrmond said. Vendors of open source software services don't respond to that initial call for tender because they have no licences to sell. But then, the government might ask for a separate round of bids for providing support services for the software, which open-source vendors could provide."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0249216&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/0249216"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/0249216&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Ng6aJRuUlGAfOMzwLCj2vo-VLAg/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Ng6aJRuUlGAfOMzwLCj2vo-VLAg/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/jNGnok0lBJ0" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/canadian-federal-government-mulling-open-source.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/long_term-performance-analysis-of-intel-ssds.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Vigile writes "When the Intel X25-M series of solid state drives hit the market last year, there was little debate that they were easily the best performing MLC (multi-level cell) offerings to date. The one area in which they blew away the competition was with write speeds &amp;mdash; initial reviews showed consistent 80MB/s results. However, a new article over at PC Perspective that looks at Intel X25-M performance over a period of time shows that write speeds are dramatically reduced from everyday usage patterns. Average write speeds are shown to drop to half (40MB/s) or less in the worst cases, though the author does describe ways that users can recover some of the original drive speed using standard HDD testing tools." Reader MojoKid contributes related SSD news that researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a new power supply system which will significantly reduce power consumption for NAND Flash memory.<p><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2337258&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/2337258"></a></p><p><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2337258&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4WAboOpjk7YJEAe2vc-mCG8FeMs/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4WAboOpjk7YJEAe2vc-mCG8FeMs/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/vvq7NW5BolE" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-14/long_term-performance-analysis-of-intel-ssds.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/study-finds-gamers-prefer-control-competence-over-violence.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Science News reports on a new study which found that the violence in video games was not a significant contributing factor to players' enjoyment. Instead, the feelings of control and competence the games engendered were closely linked to how fun the players found it. Quoting: "... the researchers extensively modified a popular first-person shooter video game called Half-Life 2 to have less gore. Half the people in a group of 36 male and 65 female college students were instructed to dispatch adversaries as the original game intended, 'in a thoroughly bloody manner,' says Ryan. The other half was instructed to tag enemies with a marker. 'Instead of exploding in blood and dismemberment, they floated gently into the air and went back to base,' Ryan describes. An extensive survey of the two groups showed that the exclusion of violence didn't diminish players' enjoyment of the game."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/018246&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/14/018246"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/14/018246&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/G5W1sSvj-cESA75I7FMvrE1GYto/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/G5W1sSvj-cESA75I7FMvrE1GYto/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/NgwuzqKmiAw" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/study-finds-gamers-prefer-control-competence-over-violence.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/microsoft-sued-over-vista_to_xp-downgrade-fees.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Krojack writes with this excerpt from Computerworld: "Los Angeles resident Emma Alvarado charged Microsoft with multiple violations of Washington state's unfair business practices and consumer protection laws over its policy of barring computer makers from continuing to offer XP on new PCs after Vista's early-2007 launch. Alvarado is seeking compensatory damages and wants the case declared a class-action suit. ... Irked at having to pay a fee for downgrading a new Lenovo notebook to XP, Alvarado said that Microsoft had used its position as the dominant operating system maker to 'require consumers to purchase computers pre-installed with the Vista operating system and to pay additional sums to "downgrade" to the Windows XP operating system.'"<p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2345232&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/2345232"></a></p><p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2345232&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/6bDkej-Je8orhIn34usHyHkRDSQ/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/6bDkej-Je8orhIn34usHyHkRDSQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/7M7xs6kKbpY" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/microsoft-sued-over-vista_to_xp-downgrade-fees.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/1-234-567-890-seconds-since-unix-time-began.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">os2man was one of many readers to let us know that later on today, at 23:31:30 UTC (30 seconds after this story went live), the number of seconds since January 1st 1970 will be exactly 1234567890. January 1st, 1970 marks the start of the clock for the Unix operating system and many other operating systems. Here is a list of celebrations of the moment around the world.<p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1534240&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/1534240"></a></p><p><a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1534240&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NgOpU3NOSN_MaesipLKJZ4Na20s/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NgOpU3NOSN_MaesipLKJZ4Na20s/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/-remCjreUzc" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/1-234-567-890-seconds-since-unix-time-began.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/samsung-releases-solar_powered-phone.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Mike writes to tell us that Samsung has released their latest green gadget, a solar-powered mobile phone. The "Blue Earth" phone has the entire reverse side covered with a solar panel, and the body of the phone is made from recycled water bottles. "The device is set to be energy efficient, with a new user interface making it easy to activate the phone's energy saving mode. It also includes a pedometer, and CO2 emissions calculator, and Samsung is aiming for minimal packaging made entirely from recycled paper. Samsung is clearly throwing the gauntlet to all phone manufacturers, and we hope to see solar cells integrated throughout the rest of their line. The phone will be unveiled on February 16th at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona."<p><a href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2215210&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/2215210"></a></p><p><a href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2215210&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mo9BGnD1qxvu6sI0ntQzDA124bM/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mo9BGnD1qxvu6sI0ntQzDA124bM/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/BrRFf853Cmg" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/samsung-releases-solar_powered-phone.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/twisted-radio-beams-could-untangle-the-airwaves.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">Urchin writes "The radio frequency spectrum available for wireless communication is becoming increasingly crowded thanks to new wireless technology. A solution to the shrinking space might be to put a spin on radio beams during their transmission, to produce a twisted beam, according to Swedish physicists. In theory, huge amounts of data could be sent in the pitch of the twist, which is distinct from the amplitude and frequency of radio waves &amp;mdash; the features used at the moment to send information."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2039222&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/2039222"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2039222&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/KyZ-tT370Qf4DLbcx9v62vU0Sk8/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/KyZ-tT370Qf4DLbcx9v62vU0Sk8/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/MnQ3_2Ro3Sc" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/twisted-radio-beams-could-untangle-the-airwaves.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/is-the-relational-database-doomed.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">DB Guy writes "There's an article over on Read Write Web about what the future of relational databases looks like when faced with new challenges to its dominance from key/value stores, such as SimpleDB, CouchDB, Project Voldemort and BigTable. The conclusion suggests that relational databases and key value stores aren't really mutually exclusive and instead are different tools for different requirements."<p><a href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2026227&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/2026227"></a></p><p><a href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/2026227&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/6ppt4v63415dcFMoctON_yLvhyA/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/6ppt4v63415dcFMoctON_yLvhyA/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/UzMScwcUw2A" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/is-the-relational-database-doomed.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/how-to-encourage-workers-to-suggest-innovation.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">An anonymous reader writes "The software company where I work has an Innovation and Knowledge program that encourages workers to provide ideas for new products and suggestions to improve the work place, productivity or welfare. The ideas and suggestions are evaluated by a board that decides whether they should be implemented or not. The group of workers with more ideas participates in a raffle to receive a prize. I would like to know what other programs people have seen like this and how they differ. What is the best way to encourage workers to suggest new products to be made / researched by the company?"<p><a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1917232&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/1917232"></a></p><p><a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1917232&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/qNuhbKDxyeFAYcARTEtRp8eUVWk/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/qNuhbKDxyeFAYcARTEtRp8eUVWk/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/5wNtG4UXlWM" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/how-to-encourage-workers-to-suggest-innovation.html http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/uc-berkeley-lab-examines-cloud-computing-obstacles.html <div class="feed_post_wrap">alphadogg writes "UC Berkeley researchers have outlined their view of cloud computing, which they say has great opportunity to exploit unprecedented IT resources if vendors can overcome a litany of obstacles. 'We argue that the construction and operation of extremely large-scale, commodity-computer data centers at low-cost locations was the key necessary enabler of Cloud Computing,' The paper outlines 10 obstacles to cloud computing [PDF]."<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1852241&amp;amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;amp;op=image&amp;amp;style=h0&amp;amp;sid=09/02/13/1852241"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1852241&amp;amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/7-y4Vd3nsvVwBRHSljYHfUvBADs/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/7-y4Vd3nsvVwBRHSljYHfUvBADs/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/JuNi5-UUGPE" height="1" width="1"/></div> http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/twinpeakstechnology/post/2009-02-13/uc-berkeley-lab-examines-cloud-computing-obstacles.html