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Submission + - Voting machines fails tests in Ohio (state.oh.us)

Submitted by l2718 on Friday December 14, 2007 @03:59PM

l2718 writes: The Ohio Secretary of State has just released independent reviews of the voting machines used by the State, manufactured by Hart, ES&S and Premier. In short, every system failed every aspect of the testing. The findings are similar to the last year's reports from California.

Submission + - How-to: Dangerous LEGO projects for this Chrismas (evilmadscientist.com)

Submitted by GSGKT on Friday December 14, 2007 @03:57PM

GSGKT writes: Two former employees of Lego has written a book: "Forbidden LEGO: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against" was published in August by No Starch Press. These authors used to work in LEGO Mindstorms' robotics division (they have that?) and now working for an independent robotic firm. Their work promises ""Try your hand at a toy gun that shoots LEGO plates, a candy catapult, a high voltage LEGO vehicle, a continuous-fire ping-pong ball launcher, and other useless but incredibly fun inventions." This book review is a good place to understand the appeal (and how-to) of giving your childhood toys more firing power. Read the book review on Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, and check out examples of escalating LEGO arm race on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORcytA4BVjQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgiUSEpg8Xc&NR=1

Submission + - Google sings AIM's praises, still won't Talk to MS (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Venotar on Friday December 14, 2007 @10:15AM

Venotar writes: There's been much talk of IM interoperability over the years. The IM Federation's long been a self-proclaimed promoter of XMPP, many prognosticators have promised that google's jabber service would spell the end of non-interoperability, Yahoo IM's long had an interoperability deal with Microsoft that's actually no longer vaporware, and now Google's announced that their long discussed deal with AOL has (finally) bridged the gap between AIM and GTalk (without the use of cheesy client side plugins or buggy third party XMPP agents). Now that Google can Talk to Oscar, is ICQ far behind? And does it really matter: is this really a sign that the walls are breaking down between IM services, or is this just one more front in the not-so-cold war between Google and Microsoft?

Submission + - CompUSA Liquidation Has Started (tvtechguy.com)

Submitted by

Kirk Yuhnke

on Friday December 14, 2007 @10:06AM

Kirk Yuhnke writes: "CompUSA has started liquidating all of it's merchandise. I just stopped at a CompUSA store in Salt Lake City and everything in the store is between 5% to 20% off (iPods not included.) Sure, not an amazing deal (yet) but you can get a discount on those products that aren't typically on sale. Items like video games (no, they didn't have any Wiis.) Personally I didn't see anything that I "had to buy" but it's probably worth a trip for most gadget heads. Anyone find any killer deals at their local CompUSA?"

Submission + - Google knows who's been naughty or nice (blogboing.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14, 2007 @08:01AM

An anonymous reader writes: I know a lot of sites use Google analytics, it's a great service. Google knows our search habits and with analytics Google can track our "none search" activities. The question is "how much do they know?". Turns out Google got a full knowledge of where we go, what we do there, where we go from there, what we search for and what we do after we find it on 40 of the most popular websites. Mega sites that contribute to Google's behavioral knowledge by running Google analytics include: friendster, adult friend finder and even our beloved /.. common guys..

Submission + - Anonymity of Netflix Prize dataset broken (arxivblog.com)

Submitted by

KentuckyFC

on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @09:06AM

KentuckyFC writes: "The anonymity of the Netflix Prize dataset has been broken by a pair of computer scientists from the University of Texas, according to a report from the physics arXivblog. It turns out that an individual's set of ratings and the dates on which they were made are pretty unique, particularly if the ratings involve films outside the most popular 100 movies. So it's straightforward to find a match by comparing the anonymized data against publicly available ratings on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) (abstract on the physics arxiv). The researchers used this method to find how individuals on the IMDb privately rated films on Netflix, in the process working out their political affiliation, sexual preferences and a number of other personal details"

Submission + - Florida Bar Association vs Jack Thompson

Submitted by

Farnite

on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @08:59AM

Farnite writes: "Anti-Violent-Video-Game Lawyer Jack Thompson is finally being brought before the Florida Bar Association today. From the article: "The Florida Bar is pursuing several complaints concerning Thompson's professional conduct in court cases against the video game industry." Is this the start of the end for the constant harassment of video game companies by Jack?"

Submission + - Has GDrive finally arrived ?

Submitted by thanosk on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @08:41AM

thanosk writes: After years of speculation and wild rumors it seems that Google's
online storage service will be available soon enough according
to The Wall Street Journal

The service could let users access their files via the Internet from
different computers and mobile devices when they sign on with a password,
and share them online with friends, according to the report
But then again Google has been able to surprise the public
with taking a completely different path as it did with the GPhone

Submission + - Ten things holding back tech development (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by

ZDOne

on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @08:39AM

ZDOne writes: "ZDNet UK has put together a list of the main blockers that are preventing technology from achieving its true potential in terms of development and progress. Microsoft's strangle hold on the desktop makes the list as does operator lock-in and controversially the lack of real global wars/disasters. The article claims that these days, warfare still results in misery and death, but the technological benefits are harder to appreciate. There's not much in a stealth fighter or bomb-disposal robot that helps away from the battlefield. The "war on drugs" and the "war on terror" both sound good but have generated little of note, beyond copious government expenditure on ever more inventive ways to annoy their own citizens."

Submission + - Google Ordered To Reveal Blogger's Identity (aviransplace.com)

Submitted by

Aviran

on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @08:03AM

Aviran writes: "Israeli court ordered Google to reveal the identity of a blogger that uses Google's own blogging platform, Blogger.
The blogger accused a Shaarei Tikva comity member of illegal acts all through his blog posts. Google objected to the request claiming freedom of speech, however the court sided with the plaintiff and said that since the plaintiff is a public figure running for reelection, he is allowed to confront his accuser and clear his name."

Submission + - Is Comcast at it again? 3

Submitted by

dreamchaser

on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @08:01AM

dreamchaser writes: "I'm a guitarist and frequently record my music to MP3 via a digital mixer/recorder. Yesterday I tried to share a few of my songs with a friend who happens to have Comcast Cable. We were using ICQ at the time and after I shot my friend a picture or two, I tried sending her a song. The transfer fizzled out at about 200k. Tried it a few more times, no luck. Tried another (large) picture and it worked. Scratching my head, I renamed the MP3's to BIN and they whoosed right through the old Internet tube like they should have in the first place.

In light of the previous news about Comcast throttling P2P apps, it now appears that merely trying to exchange a file of a 'bad' type (MP3 in this case) gets your transfer throttled. I do not have Comcast anymore, having given it up for Verizon's FIOS. My question for Slashdot is can those of you who DO have Comcast test this and see if it consistently like is all over? It's beyond ridiculous that one cannot send legal content to a friend via a direct IM connection wihtout having the filenames (and who knows what else) sniffed out and the transfer killed. Is anyone else seeing this? What can we do about it other than raise awareness?"

Submission + - Microsoft, Autodesk lose patent appeal (nwsource.com)

Submitted by harsha_c on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @05:57AM

harsha_c writes: Z4 Technologies Inc. sued Microsoft and Autodesk Inc., maker of drafting software, in 2004, claiming the technology they used to activate newly installed software and deter piracy infringed on patents created and owned by David Colvin, the owner of privately held z4. Commerce Township, Mich.-based z4 argued that Microsoft's Windows XP and Office 2003 suite of productivity software used its patented method of asking computer users to supply two passwords, or authorization codes, before they could fully use new software.In April 2006, a federal jury in East Texas ordered Microsoft to pay $115 million to z4, plus attorney fees and $25 million for willful patent infringement.The jury also ordered Autodesk to pay $18 million to z4.

Submission + - Google's data storage service defies copyright law (blorge.com)

Submitted by Super Squirrel on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @05:41AM

Super Squirrel writes: Google is looking to both revolutionize and standardize online data storage with a new service that will allow users to store documents and media, and access it remotely from other machines anywhere in the world. However, Google could be directly in the sights of large media corporations for allowing users to share their media through speedy remote data storage access.

Submission + - Vaccine rights for sharing flu samples (newscientist.com)

Submitted by TheLink on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @04:24AM

TheLink writes: Indonesia will not share bird flu virus samples unless richer countries agree to give developing nations control over their use and access to cheap vaccines, a spokeswoman from the nation's health ministry said on Monday (from: New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12961-indonesia-fights-for-rights-to-bird-flu-samples.html ).

Submission + - The fastest processor you can't run

Submitted by

auld_wyrm

on Monday November 19, 2007 @01:48PM

auld_wyrm writes: "Intel is trying to push the news of AMD's Barcelona launch out of the headlines with the release of the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770, a 3.20 GHz CPU that runs on a 1600 MHz front-side bus. It is the fastest consumer level processor that has come out, but don't plan on running it anytime soon. It's ~$1200 price tag, and the lack of any motherboards that support a 1600MHz FSB will stop this unneeded answer to Barcelona from appearing in enthusiast's PCs for Christmas. Still, the benchmarks from this powerful CPU are something awesome to behold."

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