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Security

Submission + - Apple asks security experts to examine OS X Lion (edibleapple.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For as much as Mac OS X has a reputation for being safer than Windows, security researchers won’t hesitate to point out that the opposite is, in fact, true. But Apple's looking to change that.

This past Thursday, Apple doled out a beta of OS X Lion to developers. In conjunction with that, Apple is also reaching out to noted security experts and offering them free previews of OS X 10.7 so that they can take a look at Apple’s new security measures and reach back to Apple with any thoughts and concerns they might have. Indeed, Apple is becoming a lot more security conscious these days, not only in terms of reaching out to security researchers but also in its personnel hires.
Medicine

Submission + - Skin-cell Gun helps heal burns in days instead of (geek.com)

Submitted by 4phun
4phun writes: Feb. 5, 2011 — What looks like a contraption out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Skin-cell Gun is more like an airbrush gun that holds healthy stem cells that were donated from a burn victim’s own healthy skin. Using the device, these healthy stem cells are sprayed onto the burned area of a patient’s body and what happens next is truly amazing. Instead of a burn wound that normally takes weeks to heal, the same wound can be cured in as little as a few days.

Comment This is a great idea. (Score 1) 1

by kinabrew (#35049146) Attached to: NH may adopt approval voting

This would have a significant moderating effect, making it more likely that the candidate most people were okay with would win(as opposed to the current system where the person that the most people think is "electable" wins).

It would also have a majorly detrimental effect for the Republicans and the Democrats, and would drastically increase the possibility of third-party candidates winning. I am surprised it would be supported by anyone from the two main parties.

Submission + - NH may adopt approval voting (state.nh.us) 1

Submitted by Okian Warrior
Okian Warrior writes: The people at FreeKeene report:

Four Republican state representatives have sponsored a bill that would replace first-past-the-post voting with approval voting for all state offices and presidential primaries.

Under this system, voters would select every candidate they approve of (regardless of party), and the candidate with the highest overall vote total wins. This reduces strategic voting, and would often make elections easier for moderate and libertarian candidates.

The bill, HB240, will have a public hearing Tuesday, February 1st, with the House Election Law committee.

You can view specifics of the bill here.
Government

Submission + - End of Free Internet: Senate Committee Approved (activistpost.com) 1

Submitted by Ninpo
Ninpo writes: Today the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act was unanimously approved by the US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday with a 19-0 vote. The COICA has been overwhelmingly viewed by bloggers as a corporate hijacking of the Internet by mega-media cartels. Indeed, its eventual passage will be the end of the free Internet as we now it.

Comment Re:Hours (Score 0) 997

by kinabrew (#34873112) Attached to: Are 10-11 Hour Programming Days Feasible?

Really the question should be to yourself, and it should be exactly the same question that your boss is asking you: Are you the right person for this job?

It's not my concern to find the right employee for my employer. It is the responsibility of the employee to satisfactorily do what is asked of them(provided that what is asked is both possible and reasonable given the job's listed job requirements and pay), and it is the responsibility of the employer to make sure that employment is mutually beneficial. Employers make money by keeping some percentage of the productivity of their employees, and they do have a responsibility to create a positive work environment for said employees.

If an employer creates a hostile work environment, and especially if an employer does things like try to take away employees' personal time(off the clock), it is completely unreasonable to expect said employees to consider said employer's position ahead of their own.

tl;dr: I do my job well and treat employers well. I deserve the same treatment from them, and if they're not willing to treat me well, I'm not willing to be their employee.

Comment Re:Bye-bye! (Score 5, Insightful) 997

by kinabrew (#34872690) Attached to: Are 10-11 Hour Programming Days Feasible?

What *will* happen is that those who can get better jobs(the best workers) will, and the people who will be left will be the worst and least-qualified workers.

If the management are thinking up brilliant ideas like this, it would be a good idea to get your résumé to as many other potential employers as possible.
Government

Submission + - Jerry Brown Confiscates 48,000 Cell Phones

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Sacramento Bee reports that California Governor Jerry Brown, in his first executive order since taking office, has ordered the collection and return of 48,000 state government-paid cell phones — half of those now in use - by June 1. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all state employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cell phones," says Brown in a written statement. "Some state employees, including department and agency executives who are required to be in touch 24 hours a day and seven days a week, may need cell phones, but the current number of phones out there is astounding." Brown's cell phone order directs state agency and department heads to retrieve the cell phones and the governor says he plans to continue reducing cell phone usage in months ahead. "In the face of a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, a cell phone may not seem like a big expense," adds Brown. "But spending $20 million, and perhaps far more than that, on cell phones can't be justified.""
Google

Google Wins Injunction Against Agency Using Microsoft Cloud 187

Posted by samzenpus from the knocked-out-of-the-sky dept.
jfruhlinger writes "A judge has granted an injunction stopping the US Department of the Interior from moving forward with the adoption of Microsoft's cloud services. The injunction was sought by Google, which of course has its own suite of cloud offerings. Google claimed that the Interior Dept. failed to consider other options as required."
Science

Submission + - Hypersonic Radio Black-Out Problem Solved (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: Russian physicists have come up with a new way to communicate with hypersonic vehicles surrounded by a sheath of plasma. Ordinarily, this plasma absorbs and reflects radio waves at communications frequencies leading to a few tense minutes during the re-entry of manned vehicles such as the shuttle. However, the problem is even more acute for military vehicles such as ballistic missiles and hypersonic planes. Radio black out prevents these vehicles from accessing GPS signals for navigation and does not allow them to be re-targeted or disarmed at the last minute. But a group of Russian physicists say they can get around this problem by turning the entire plasma sheath into a radio antenna. They point out that any incoming signal is both reflected and absorbed by the plasma. The reflected signal is lost but the absorbed energy sets up a resonating electric field at a certain depth within the plasma. In effect, this layer within the plasma acts like a radio antenna, receiving the signal. However, the signal cannot travel further through the plasma to the spacecraft. Their new idea is to zap this layer with radio waves generated from within the spacecraft. These waves will be both absorbed by the plasma and reflected back inside the spacecraft. However, the key point is that the reflected waves ought to be modulated by any changes in the electric field within the plasma. In other words, the reflected waves should carry a kind of imprint of the original external radio signal. That would allow the craft to receive external signals from GPs satellites or ground control. And the same process in reverse allows the spacecraft to broadcast signals too.
Businesses

Submission + - Chinese IP Acquisition Tactics Exposed (sina.com.cn)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: In an interview published in Sina.com.cn (here is the google translation,) Chinese rail engineers gave a detailed account of the history, motivation, technologies of Chinese high-speed rail system. More interestingly, they blatantly revealed the strategies and tactics used in acquiring high-speed rail techs from foreign companies. Here is the summary and paraphrase. At the beginning, China developed its own high-speed rail system known as the Chinese Star which achieved a test speed of 320km/h; but the system was considered not reliable or stable enough for operation. So China decided to import the technologies. The superior (leaders) instructed, "The goal of the project is to boost our economy, not theirs." A key strategy employed is divide-and-conquer: by dividing up the technologies of the system and importing multiple different techs across different companies, it ensures no single country or company has total control. "What we do is to exchange market for technologies. The negotiation was led by the Ministry of Railway [against industry alliances of the exporting countries]. This uniform executive power gave China huge advantage in negotiations," said Wu Junrong, "If we don't give in, they have no choice. They all want a piece of our huge high speed rail project." For example, [Chinese locomotive train] CRH2 is based on Japanese tech, CRH3 on German tech, and CRH5 on French tech, all retrofit for Chinese rail standards. Another strategy is buy-to-build. The first three trains were imported as a whole; the second three were assembled with imported parts; subsequent trains contains more and more Chinese made parts. "Some exporters were reluctant to transfer technologies. But we have explicitly requested such from the beginning. They cooperate eventually because they find profits in this huge project. This is business. There is no stealing [of technologies]." In conclusion, Wu boasted that now there are a dozen countries, including the US, are interested in Chinese high-speed rail techs, because they know more than any other single company and the Chinese version is cheaper too.

Submission + - U.S. Rare Earth Mine Resumes Active Mining (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Colorado-based Molycorp resumed active mining of the rare earth metal facility at Mountain Pass, California last week. The site had been shut down in 2002 amid environmental concerns and the low costs for rare earth metals provided by mining operations based in China. But now, apparently, the greater concern is offsetting China's control of the unique group of materials necessary to build tech gadgets like smart phones and laptops.
Earth

Submission + - End the Ethanol Insanity

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: It's now conceivable, says BusinessWeek's Ed Wallace, that the myth of ethanol as the salvation for America's energy problem is coming to an end. Curiously, the alternative fuel may be done in by an unlikely collection of foes. Fervidly pro-ethanol in the last decade of his political career, former VP Al Gore reversed course in late November and apologized for supporting ethanol, which apparently was more about ingratiating himself to farmers. A week later, Energy Secretary Steven Chu piled on, saying: 'The future of transportation fuels shouldn't involve ethanol.' And in December, a group of small-engine manufacturers, automakers, and boat manufacturers filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals to vacate the EPA's October ruling that using a 15% blend of ethanol in fuel supplies would not harm 2007 and newer vehicles. Despite all of this, the newly-elected Congress has extended the 45 cent-per-gallon ethanol blending tax credit that was due to expire, a move that is expected to reduce revenue by $6.25 billion in 2011. 'The ethanol insanity,' longtime-critic Wallace laments, 'will continue until so many cars and motors are damaged by this fuel additive that the public outcry can no longer be ignored. Adding an expensive, harmful, useless filler to gasoline just to win farmers' gratitude is not remotely the same as having a legitimate national energy policy.'

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