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Submission + - McDonald's Denies Prof's Claim Staff Attacked Him For Wearing Computer Eyepiece (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: In an update to a story posted on Slashdot earlier this week, McDonald's has responded to the claims of Steve Mann, a University of Toronto professor and augmented reality pioneer who says McDonald's staff in Paris assaulted him tried to pull off a computer eyepiece he's worn for decades, then threw him out of the restaurant. McDonald's confirms that Mann was ejected from the premises, but denies that there was a "physical altercation" with staff or that they destroyed any of his property. That last claim is especially dubious, since Mann has posted photos taken from his eyepiece that show McDonald's staff ripping up a doctor's note that he showed them to explain his need to wear the device.

The company still hasn't explained why Mann was removed from the restaurant, but Mann has speculated that it has a policy against recording.
Open Source

Submission + - Great Open Source Map Tools For Web Developers (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner surveys the rich ecosystem of free maps, free data, and free libraries that give developers excellent alternatives to Google Maps. 'The options are expanding quickly as companies are building their own databases for holding geographical data, their own rendering tools for building maps, and their own software for embedding the maps in websites. ... Working with these tools can be a bit more complex than working with a big provider like Google. Some of these companies make JavaScript tools for displaying the maps, and others just deliver the raw tiles that the browsers use to assemble the maps. Working with the code means making decisions about how you want to assemble the pieces — now within your control. You can stick with one simple library or combine someone else's library with tiles you produce yourself.'"
Security

Submission + - EPIC Files Motion About Ignored Body Scanner Ruling (epic.org)

Submitted by OverTheGeicoE
OverTheGeicoE writes: The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a motion in court yesterday regarding the court's ignored year-old ruling on EPIC vs. DHS. EPIC is asking the court to require DHS to start taking public comment within 60 days or, as an alternative, forbid DHS from using body scanners in primary airport screening altogether. If the court orders the latter, that would give EPIC what it originally sought in its lawsuit. Meanwhile, for what it's worth, the related petition on whitehouse.gov has a little more than half the signatures it needs to get an official 'response.' The signing period ends on August 9.

Submission + - Trolling Al Qaeda... for peace? (wired.com)

Submitted by The Mister Purple
The Mister Purple writes: There is a small initiative underway to combat Islamic militant recruiting on the Internet... by trolling them. According to this article:

The program, called Viral Peace, seeks to occupy the virtual space that extremists fill, one thread or Twitter exchange at a time. Shahed Amanullah, a senior technology adviser to the State Department and Viral Peace’s creator, tells Danger Room he wants to use “logic, humor, satire, [and] religious arguments, not just to confront [extremists], but to undermine and demoralize them.” Think of it as strategic trolling, in pursuit of geopolitical pwnage.

So does this mean that I'm promoting peace when I post YouTube comments?
The Courts

Submission + - Apple Must Publicly Post That Samsung Did Not Copy iPad (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by microcars
microcars writes: A Judge in the U.K. has ordered Apple to post a notice on its website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t copy designs for the iPad. This is the same Judge that ruled earlier that Samsung's Galaxy Tab was Not As Cool as Apple's iPad.
Cloud

Submission + - codebender.cc brings Arduino programming on the cloud (codebender.cc) 2

Submitted by
M4rkellos
M4rkellos writes: "A group of 5 students from Greece have developed [url="http://codebender.cc"]codebender[/url], an open-source web-based platform for hackers and makers, in an attempt to make Arduino and electronics development more accessible to people that have no previous experience with hardware and programming.

Codebender eliminates the problems a first-time Arduino user faces, such as the hassle of installing, managing and updating software, tools and [url="http://codebender.cc/libraries"]external libraries[/url], and keeping them in sync across multiple devices. Having a web-based IDE also means that all your projects are safely stored on the cloud making them available 24/7 and enabling you to program your Arduino even if you are away from your computer. You can even [url="http://codebender.cc/misc/about"]program an internet-enabled Arduino remotely[/url] through the network, straight from the browser.

codebender’s goal is to help the maker community, so the team behind codebender is determined to keep the service free of charge and open to everyone. To cover their hosting fees, [url="http://www.indiegogo.com/codebender?a=806420"]they ask for support through their IndieGoGo campaign[/url] in order to keep the site running."
Businesses

Submission + - Natural Gas Fracking Causes Plunge in CO2 Emissions (examiner.com) 2

Submitted by
MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: "Natural gas fracking, in which fluids are injected in a shale formation to force natural gas to the surface, has caused an economic boom in places such as the Eagle Ford formation in south Texas, according to CNBC. The natural gas fracking boom seems also to have fixed a situation that has vexed environmentalists, according to Investor’s Business Daily. The natural gas fracking boom has caused a plunge in CO2 output, down to 1990s levels."
Portables

Submission + - Dell To Offer Ubuntu Laptops Again (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TechCrunch reports that Dell will be officially re-entering the Linux laptop market. Beginning this fall, it will sell a 'developer edition' of one of its Ultrabooks that comes pre-loaded with Ubuntu 12.04. Dell first started offering computers with Linux installed in 2007, but they dropped the products in 2010. This spring, a skunkworks effort called Project Skunkworks was announced, and now, after the completion of a short beta test, the Ubuntu laptops have been given a green light for commercial sale. Canonical has been working alongside Dell to help make this happen.
The Internet

Submission + - Sale of IPv4 Addresses Hindering IPv6 adoption (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by hal9000(jr)
hal9000(jr) writes: While IPv6 day was a successful marketing campaign, is anyone really moving to IPv6? On World Launch Day, Arbor Networks noted a peak of only .2% of ipv6 network traffic. It appears that IPv4 addresses are still valuable and are driving hosting acquistions. Windows 8 will actually prefer IPv6 over IPv4. If you want IPv6, here's what to do about it.
Youtube

Submission + - YouTube adds facial blurring to protect the innocent (or the guilty) (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
kaizendojo
kaizendojo writes: "YouTube has added another feature to its enhancements tool, allowing you to automate the process of blurring out people's faces in your photos. Its makers are quick to add that it's still an emerging technology, and that it may still miss out on faces depending on lighting obstructions and video quality. YouTube cites footage from human rights issues for bringing the idea forward, where identification of those involved could prove dangerous. You'll be able to preview how it looks, and if you choose to include the blurred option, a new copy is made to avoid losing the unedited original."
Earth

Submission + - Police close Climategate investigation (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: The Norfolk Constabulary has closed its investigation into the November 2009 release of private emails between researchers at the Climatic Research CentreLink text at the University of East Anglia in Norwich after failing to identify those responsible. Despite not being able to prosecute any offenders, the police have confirmedLink text that the data breach “was the result of a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack on the CRU’s data files, carried out remotely via the internet”. The investigation has also cleared anyone working at or associated with UEA from involvement in the crime.
The hacking resulted in the release of more than 1,000 emails and shook the public’s trust in climate science, though independent investigations after the breach cleared the scientists of wrongdoing.
Government

Submission + - Judge steps down over US 'enemy' comment in Megaupload case (gigaom.com)

Submitted by
vu1986
vu1986 writes: ""On Tuesday, the chief judge of the New Zealand district court that must decide if Dotcom can be extradited announced that Judge David Harvey had surrendered the case and would be replaced. The move comes after reports that Harvey said ”We have met the enemy and he is [the] U.S.” at a recent conference in relation to the current state of copyright law.""
Google

Submission + - Google Fiber to launch next week (gigaom.com)

Submitted by
vu1986
vu1986 writes: ""Google announced plans to build the gigabit network back in February of 2010 and thousands of municipalities competed to be the future home of the planned network. In March, it selected Kanas City as the first location for Google Fiber.

Google said it wanted to build out the network so it could see what people might do with a full gigabit connection, but I also think this is Google’s answer to the ISP’s continued whining about how much networks cost to operate and how providers like Google or Netflix should pay them for delivering traffic across the ISP’s networks."
http://gigaom.com/2012/07/18/google-fiber-to-launch-next-week/"
Cloud

Submission + - VMware, EMC Shakeup Hints At Data Center's Future (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
gManZboy
gManZboy writes: "What's really behind the leadership switch that will see Paul Maritz become EMC chief strategist and Pat Gelsinger become VMware CEO? It's EMC's need to push its vision for the software-defined data center.

The EMC/VMware vision for a "software-defined data center" takes a conservative approach. Think of it as pulling existing legacy systems into one management console without worrying about the IT changes a cloud environment demands, like letting employees self-provision their computing capacity or imposing a strict environment limited to x86 servers. The software-defined data center message lets EMC/VMware cater to both legacy and newly built, cloud-oriented, applications without VMware or EMC needing to tell customers which camp they should be in. Here's a close look at the pieces that EMC and VMware need to work closely on together, to make such a data center a reality."
Censorship

Submission + - How Close Is America to a Closed Internet? (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "Three years after Facebook-friendly dissidents took to the streets of Tehran and made techno-optimists giddy about the Internet’s liberating potential, things have gotten bleak. Once again, the mullahs are taking on democracy-minded netizens — but nowadays, the government is the one getting creative with technology. And they’re winning, doing things to Internet access that makes China’s “Great Firewall” seem tame."
Science

Submission + - Higgs data offers joy and pain for particle physicists (nature.com)

Submitted by scibri
scibri writes: So now that we've pretty much found the Higgs Boson, what's next? Well:

“There’s going to be a huge massacre of theoretical ideas in the next couple of years,” predicts Joe Lykken, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab. The data has shored up the standard model, but technicolor is dead and supersymmetry is starting to look pretty ropey now. Theorists are now poking at the mathematical chinks in the standard theory in the hopes of being the first to find a deeper truth about how the Universe works.
Businesses

Submission + - What Happened To Secrecy At Apple? (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the AllThingsD Conference and promised fans that Apple would do better at plugging its leaks. Two months later, Apple's product pipeline couldn't be more transparent. Photos of iPhone and iPad components are constantly springing up, and we even know details about the specifications and features of these future devices. With the ubiquity of smartphones and the Internet, will Apple ever truly surprise us with a left-field product ever again?"
Security

Submission + - Kaspersky Lab Defeats Patent Troll (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: A patent suit filed in 2009 by IPAT (Information Protection and Authentication of Texas) targeted nearly every security vendor you can imagine. The list included Kaspersky Lab, along with Microsoft, AVG, Check Point, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, Symantec, McAfee, PC Tools, Sophos, Trend Micro, Webroot, and several others.

The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, a haven for patent trolls looking to make a quick buck via legal extortion. The lawsuit alleged that they were infringing on IPAT’s patents by, "...making, using, providing, offering to sell, and selling (directly or through intermediaries), in this district [Eastern Texas] and elsewhere in the United States, hardware and/or software for protecting and/or authenticating information."

What's interesting is that while many chose to settle and pay licensing fees, Kaspersky held its ground. "Back in 2008 I said to our lawyers that there would be no backing down – we would go to court and fight it out with them," Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky said.

The firm, much smaller and with fewer resources than giants including Symantec, Microsoft, Check Point, and others, put up a strong fight and came out victorious following a three-year court battle.

"It was our first experience of a patent legal battle and we decided to stand our ground and stand up for our rights," Kaspersky said. "Now we are mulling over ideas to strike back at the trolls. Not only are they extorting money, more importantly they are endangering technological progress."
Linux

Submission + - Raspberry Pi adds Raspbian Linux OS (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by asavin
asavin writes: The creators of the Raspberry Pi credit card-sized computer have added a new version of the Linux operating system.

The Raspbian OS is a free operating system based on Debian Linux software.

The dedicated Raspbian OS has been in development since March 2012 and is now available for download.

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