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Submission + - Local UK councils banned from government database (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: A number of British councils are being banned from accessing the national Vehicle Database system. Whilst sometimes this appears to be due to technical infractions, the banning of some 'permanently' seems to be as a result of more serious misdemeanours. Trust the government? Not a good idea...
Transportation

Submission + - FCC Chief Urges FAA to Ease Airplane Electronics Ban

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "AFP reports that Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski is calling for an easing of the ban on using mobile phones and other electronic devices on airplanes during takeoff and landing saying devices such as smartphones "empower people" and can boost economic productivity. "I write to urge the FAA to enable greater use of tablets, e-readers and other portable electronic devices during flight, consistent with public safety," the FCC chief said in the letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. "They empower people to stay informed and connected with friends and family, and they enable both large and small businesses to be more productive and efficient, helping drive economic growth and boost US competitiveness." The ban is in place based on the assumption that devices could interfere with an airplane's navigation equipment. But a number of news stories have questioned the validity of this claim, and many point out that some people forget to turn off their devices during flights. The FCC studied the question several years ago but found insufficient evidence to support lifting the ban at the time. But not everyone has been forced to put their gadgets away. Earlier this year the FAA approved iPads instead of paper flight manuals in the cockpit for pilots, but the agency still refuses to allow passengers to read Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing."
Businesses

Submission + - How corruption is strangling US Innovation (hbr.org) 1

Submitted by
hype7
hype7 writes: "The Harvard Business Review is running a very interesting piece on how money in politics is having a deleterious effect on US innovation. From the article:

if you were in any doubt how deep inside the political system the system of contributions have allowed incumbents to insert their hands, take a look at what happened when the Republican Study Committee released a paper pointing out some of the problems with current copyright regime. The debate was stifled within 24 hours. And just for good measure, Rep Marsha Blackburn, whose district abuts Nashville and who received more money from the music industry than any other Republican congressional candidate, apparently had the author of the study, Derek Khanna, fired. Sure, debate around policy is important, but it's clearly not as important as raising campaign funds.

"
Government

Submission + - Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns (foxnews.com)

Submitted by
hessian
hessian writes: "In the next few days, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to propose long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders — better known as "black boxes" — in all new cars and light trucks. But the agency is behind the curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years.

Data collected by the recorders is increasingly showing up in lawsuits, criminal cases and high-profile accidents. Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray initially said that he wasn't speeding and that he was wearing his seat belt when he crashed a government-owned car last year. But the Ford Crown Victoria's data recorder told a different story: It showed the car was traveling more than 100 mph and Murray wasn't belted in."

Submission + - Nintendo blocking 18+ Wii U content in Europe (gamespot.com)

Submitted by kc67
kc67 writes: Nintendo of Europe is blocking Wii U content in the region that is rated PEGI 18+ between the hours of 3 a.m. and 11 p.m., according to a Eurogamer report. Under these stipulations, the four-hour window of 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. is the only time users can purchase games like ZombiU or Assassin's Creed III or even view trailers for such games. The story originated from a NeoGAF forum user, which reportedly received an email from Nintendo saying the following:

"Dear customer, we would like to let you know that Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries. We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors (PEGI) to the 11 p.m.- 3 a.m. time window." Eurogamer has since verified the claim. It received a message stating "You cannot view this content" and "The times during which this content can be viewed have been restricted."

Nintendo has yet to comment on the matter.
Games

Submission + - GameSpy's new owners begin disabling multiplayer without warning 1

Submitted by OldTimeRadio
OldTimeRadio writes: Over the last month, both game publishers and gaming communities alike were surprised to find their GameSpy multiplayer support suddenly disabled by GLU Mobile, who purchased GameSpy from IGN this August. Many games, including Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Swat 4, Sniper Elite, Hidden and Dangerous 2, Wings of War, Star Wars: Battlefront are nolonger able to find and in some cases even host multiplayer games. While games like Neverwinter Nights are still able to directly connect to servers if players know the IP address, less-fortunate gamers expressed outrage on GLU Mobile's "Powered by GameSpy" Facebook page. In an open letter to their Sniper Elite gaming community today, UK game developer Rebellion explained it was helpless to change the situation: "A few weeks ago, the online multiplayer servers for Sniper Elite were suddenly switched off by Glu, the third-party service we had been paying to maintain them...This decision by Glu was not taken in consultation with us and was beyond our control. We have been talking to them since to try and get the servers turned back on. We have been informed that in order to do so would cost us tens of thousands of pounds a year — far in excess of how much we were paying previously. We also do not have the option to take the multiplayer to a different provider. Because the game relies on Glu and Gamespy’s middleware, the entire multiplayer aspect of the game would have to be redeveloped by us, again, at the cost of many tens of thousands of pounds."
Apple

Submission + - A U.S. Apple factory may be robot city (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Apple's planned investment of $100 million next year in a U.S. manufacturing facility is relatively small, but still important. A 2009 Apple video of its unibody manufacturing process has glimpses of highly automated robotic systems shaping the metal. In it, Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design, described it. "Machining enables a level of precision that is just completely unheard of in this industry," he said. Apple has had three years to improve its manufacturing technology, and will likely rely heavily on automation to hold down labor costs, say analysts and manufacturers. Larry Sweet, the CTO of Symbotic, which makes autonomous mobile robots for use in warehouse distribution, described a possible scenario for Apple’s U.S. factory. First, a robot loads the aluminum block into the robo-machine that has a range of tools for cutting and drilling shapes to produce the complex chassis as a single precision part. A robot then unloads the chassis and sends it down a production line where a series of small, high-precision, high-speed robots insert parts, secured either with snap fit, adhesive bonds, solder, and a few fasteners, such as screws. At the end, layers, such as the display and glass, are added on top and sealed in another automated operation. Finally, the product is packaged and packed into cases for shipping, again with robots. "One of the potentially significant things about the Apple announcement is it could send a message to American companies — you can do this — you can make this work here," said Robert Atkinson, president of The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
Google

Submission + - Python creator Guido van Rossum leaving Google for Dropbox (dropbox.com)

Submitted by
mrvan
mrvan writes: "Guido van Rossum, the proclaimed python Benevolent Dictator For Life, is leaving Google in january to work for Dropbox. He is currently employed by Google, where he spends half his time developing the Python language. In their announcement, DropBox state that they relied heavily on python from the beginning, citing a mix of simplicity, flexibility, and elegance, and are excited to have GvR on the team. While this is without a doubt good news for DropBox, the big question is what this will mean for python (and for google)."
United Kingdom

Submission + - UK organisation set up to encourage IPv6 adoption, closes (6uk.org.uk)

Submitted by Sesostris III
Sesostris III writes: In April 2010, with £20,000 of government money, 6uk was set up to encourage the adoption of the IPv6 protocol in the UK. In December 2012 the board resigned en-masse in protest at official indifference to its work.

"The biggest organisation we needed to join 6UK was the government" the former director, Philip Sheldrake, is quoted as saying. Without government support "There's no material incentive for any organisation to go for IPv6". Government interest can be gauged by the fact that no government website currently sat on an IPv6 address.

The UK is among the nations that have done the least to move to IPv6, and lags behind other nations in adopting the new protocol. In contrast, governments like that in the US are encouraging adoption of the new protocol by mandating IPv6 compliance in contracts.
Iphone

Submission + - Steve Jobs patent on iPhone declared invalid (fosspatents.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apple's most famous multitouch software patents are increasingly coming under invalidation pressure. First the rubber-banding patent and now a patent that Apple's own lawyers planned to introduce to a Chicago jury as 'the Jobs patent'. U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949 covers a method for distinguishing vertical and horizontal gestures from diagonal movements based on an initial angle of movement. For example, everything up to a slant of 27 degrees would be considered vertical or horizontal, and everything else diagonal. The patent office now seems to think that Apple didn't invent the concept of 'heuristics' after all.
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone Finally Coming to T-Mobile in 2013 (go.com)

Submitted by kc67
kc67 writes: Are you a T-Mobile customer? Been waiting to get an iPhone? Five years after the iPhone originally launched in 2007, T-Mobile will finally start carrying it.

It might not be as buzz worthy as when Verizon finally got the iPhone back in 2011, but it's going to be a pretty big deal for T-Mobile subscribers next year, when the carrier starts selling Apple products.

"T-Mobile has entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market together next year. Additional details will be made available at a later date," T-Mobile spokesperson told ABC News.

T-Mobile wouldn't elaborate on the exact products to ABC News, but T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere said while speaking at the Deutsche Telekom conference Thursday that it will carry the iPhone and will offer it in a different way.

"What was missing? A certain number of customers wouldn't come to the store if we didn't have the iPhone," Legere said. "We worked very, very hard for a deal that made sense for us."
Ubuntu

Submission + - Ubuntu Community Manager Says Stallman and EFF Spreading FUD (jonobacon.org) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon comes to the defense of Ubuntu and Canonical in his latest blog post in which he asserts that the FSF's Richard Stallman and EFF are spreading FUD over the Unity Shopping Lenses Feature that has concerned many users.
Bitcoin

Submission + - Bitcoin-Central Gets French Approval to Operate as a Bank (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Bitcoin is set to make an entry into the world of real currency and Bitcoin-Central is going to be the first exchange of this virtual currency that will operate as a real bank in France. The exchange managed to gain the status of a real bank after it received new approvals from French regulators. User will be able to make deposits in euros, convert them to Bitcoins and vice versa, and their accounts will be tied with the French banking system. They will also receive debit cards through which they will be able to spend Bitcoins at retail establishments. Bitcoin-Central along with France based payment processor Aqoba and bank Credit Mutuel has created the payment system based on Bitcoins. The deposits made by customers will be insured by Garantie des depots.
Open Source

Submission + - For Riot Games, Big Data Is Serious Business (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "Riot Games created the very successful League of Legends gaming franchise, which hosts millions of monthly users. Gamer activity generates more than 500 GB of structured data and over four TB of operational logs every day. Barry Livingston, director of engineering for the company's Big Data group, talks about how Riot Games scaled up to deal with that enormous data load. Riot Games has also posted 60 open-source Chef and Opscode recipes, among other code samples."
Space

Submission + - SpaceX gets its first military contract (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ars reports that commercial space company SpaceX has gotten its first launch contracts from a military organization. The United States Air Force has hired SpaceX to launch the NASA DSCOVR satellite aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, and several other satellites aboard the Falcon Heavy (The Heavy isn't finished yet, and SpaceX currently has no place to launch it, but the contract gives them three years to do so.) 'According to the mission requirements, the Falcon Heavy must carry its payload up to an orbit of 720 km and deploy a COSMIC-2 weather- and atmospheric-monitoring satellite, up to six auxiliary payloads (probably microsats), and up to eight P-POD CubeSat deployers. The rocket should then restart and continue all the way up to a 6,000 x 12,000 km orbit and deploy the ballast, more science experiments and more microsats.'
Ubuntu

Submission + - Valve Begins Listing Linux Requirements for Certain Games on Steam (techgage.com)

Submitted by
Deathspawner
Deathspawner writes: "Perhaps hinting at the fact that the official Steam for Linux launch isn’t too far off, Valve has begun updating some game pages to include Linux system requirements. That in itself isn't too interesting. What is, is the fact that some games don't list only Ubuntu as the main supported distro, with some listing Linux Mint and Fedora as well. A common theme is that Valve recommends you always use a "fully updated" OS, regardless of which distro you use. And based on the system requirements laid out so far, it's safe to say that Serious Sam 3: BFE will undoubtedly be the most system-intensive game released at launch."
Media

Submission + - All of Your Devices Are Bumming You Out (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "A new study from Michigan State University shows that media multitasking exhibits a strong correlation with social anxiety and depression/a.

Importantly, the direction of causality remains to be seen: Does multi-tasking make us more anxious and depressed? Or, as the study’s leader, Mark W. Becker, an assistant professor of psychology, put it in an email, “are depressed and anxious [people] turning toward media multitasking as a form of distraction?”

The results of this study aren’t conclusive in that regard, he says. But they’re an important step. “While that question will not be easy to answer, it is worth pursing because the practical implications of the findings depend on the causal direction,” he said."
Power

Submission + - The first flexible, fiber-optic solar cell that can be woven into clothes (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "An international team of engineers, physicists, and chemists have created the first fiber-optic solar cell. These fibers are thinner than human hair, flexible, and yet they produce electricity, just like a normal solar cell. The US military is already interested in weaving these threads into clothing, to provide a wearable power source for soldiers. In essence, the research team started with optical fibers made from glass — and then, using high-pressure chemical vapor deposition, injected n-, i-, and p-type silicon into the fiber, turning it into a solar cell. Functionally, these silicon-doped fiber-optic threads are identical to conventional solar cells, generating electricity from the photovoltaic effect. Whereas almost every solar cell on the market is crafted out of 2D, planar amorphous silicon on a rigid/brittle glass substrate, though, these fiber-optic solar cells have a 3D cross-section and retain the glass fiber’s intrinsic flexibility. The lead researcher, John Badding of Penn State University, says the team has already produced “meters-long fiber,” and that their new technique could be used to create “bendable silicon solar-cell fibers of over 10 meters in length.” From there, it’s simply a matter of weaving the thread into a fabric."

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