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Submission + - AT&T's Net neutrality doublethink (infoworld.com)

GMGruman writes: George Orwell would be proud of AT&T, as Bill Snyder explains in this blog, for saying it supports Net neutrality when in fact it is working actively to scuttle proposed FCC rules that would clearly ban discriminatory practices against different types of data, such as video streaming or VoIP. It's also trying to get government subsidies to build a substandard broadband network for the underserved areas of the U.S. If it and its carrier partners win, "Internet freedom" will mean freedom for carriers to be the 21st century's robber barons.
Space

Submission + - Virgin Galactic Spaceship the Tip of The Iceberg (popularmechanics.com)

YIAAL writes: The Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two rollout got a fair amount of attention, but Rand Simberg, writing in Popular Mechanics, says it's just the beginning:

Despite all of the Virgin-focused hoopla, there is a lot more going on in Mojave these days than just Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites. And even for those two companies, there is more to space going on in Mojave than suborbital tourism. . . . XCOR Aerospace, located next door to one of Scaled's hangars, continues to develop its own suborbital tourist vehicle, the Lynx. While it won't initially get all the way to the 62-mile altitude considered to be the threshold of space, it will still allow long weightless periods for its passenger and a smaller experiment, with the opportunity to go higher and longer with follow-on versions. Meanwhile, just a couple of blocks down the road, Masten Space Systems, fresh off its recent surprise win over Texas' Armadillo Aerospace in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Landing Challenge, plans to start flying to altitudes far beyond the meager few hundred feet needed to win that prize. According to business development manager Michael Mealling, "about half of next year's flights will be in the 1500- to 10,000-foot range. Toward the end of the year we'll be breaking through the 100,000-foot [about 20 miles, or about a third of the altitude needed for official spaceflight] barrier."

Are we seeing a critical mass of innovative space companies, something like the explosion of computer companies in the mid-1970s? Let's hope it's similarly fruitful.

Submission + - It's Official: Sun Debuts Java EE 6, (developer.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Ten years after the first big J2EE release, Sun is now out with the latest J2EE specification. New profiles, dependency injection, annotations and RESTful Web Services are among the key new features. Fundamentally though it's about speed for development.

Tom Kincaid, executive director of Sun's Application Platform organization, added call that the key items that Java EE 6 enables are developer productivity, ease of application development, flexibility and extensibility. As an example, Kincaid said that a coding task that would take over 20 lines of code spread across several source files can now be done with two lines of code in a single source file.


Submission + - International Talk Like Sean Connery Day! (geekngamer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Don't forget kids, this Saturday is International Talk Like Sean Connery Day! From the site: "International Talk Like Sean Connery Day, October 17th, is a chance for all of us for just one day a year to talk like the big man himself – the man whose amazing speech enhancement has seen him through some of the greatest performances drama has ever seen. Who could forget the Russian sub commander, with the Scottish lisp in Hunt For Red October, the Irish cop from the Untouchables (with a Scottish lisp), the eastern warrior in Highlander (who was actually an alien but had a Scottish lisp anyway) and his breathtaking cameo as Richard the Lionheart of England – WITH A SCOTTISH LISP." Get involved with the Facebook groups etc. all linked on the site! YESH.
Businesses

Submission + - Aggressive Trend of Selling Rogueware (net-security.org)

An anonymous reader writes: PandaLabs has identified a new, more aggressive trend for selling fake antivirus programs or rogueware. Until now, when a computer was infected by this type of malware, users would typically see a series of warnings prompting them to buy a pay version of the program. Now, these technologies are being combined with ransomware, hijacking the computer and rendering it useless until victims complete the purchase. Firstly, users are tricked into paying money simply in order to use their computers; and secondly, these same users may believe that they have a genuine antivirus installed on the computer, thereby leaving the system unprotected.

Submission + - Modern man a wimp says anthropologist (reuters.com) 3

GenThrift writes: An interesting article that boldly states and proves why "If you're reading this then you — or the male you have bought it for — are the worst man in history.

"No ifs, no buts — the worst man, period...As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."

LONDON (Reuters) — Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

Submission + - $5 Per Month Music Streaming Not Possible in US (wired.com)

CodeBuster writes: The social music network MOG has signed deals with all four major labels and indie aggregators to launch an unlimited on-demand streaming service that will cost $5 per month starting Thanksgiving Day, November 26. We first caught wind of this plan last December, when the company’s CEO David Hyman gave us a sneak preview. Back then, the plan was to offer this as a free, ad-supported service, but Hyman says that is not possible due to the high cost of licensing on-demand music for the United States.
Businesses

Submission + - Netflix Delivered (mgmtnow.com)

Term00 writes: Read a great article from Wired.com on Netflix's success. In the face of so many mounting business pressures in the early 2000's who could have anticipated that they would achieve this level of success.

Submission + - A modest Saudi proposal (nytimes.com) 1

imhennessy writes: Perhaps I'm reading too much TechDirt, but this seems vaguely familiar:

Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft: The Blight of PC Gaming (couchcampus.com)

Phaethon360 writes: Microsoft may not seem averse to PC gaming to the casual observer. However on a deeper look it is clear the software giant means to expand its console market by reducing lasting content to its platform faithfuls.
Cellphones

Submission + - Why Dell Should Buy Palm (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: "Palm needs money to survive. Dell needs a handset business to compete. Dell should acquire Palm immediately, writes Mike Elgan. The union would benefit both companies, as well as investors, the industry and, most of all, users. As part of Dell, Palm could continue its trajectory with the Pre, the now-threatened Pixie project (which is a low-cost candy bar phone that runs Palm's WebOS and could sell for $99 or less) and the WebOS itself, which has enormous potential. Palm needs the time to cultivate a developer community and ecosystem around the WebOS. It needs power and influence over Asian parts manufacturers and U.S. retail stores. Above all, Palm needs somebody to pay the salaries and electric bill until the new direction can bear fruit. So what's in it for Dell? Dell is the world's only major PC and laptop manufacturer to not offer a cell phone of any kind. Back in January, rumors were flying that Dell would launch a new Android-based handset at Mobile World Congress. In late March, reports surfaced that carriers and others who saw the prototype were disappointed."
Government

Submission + - California wants open source ebook textbooks (go.com)

Death Metal writes: "By next fall, Governor Schwarzenegger intends to make free, open-source digital textbooks available for high school math and science classes throughout California, a move that he says will help reduce the more than $350 million the state spends annually on educational materials."
The Internet

Submission + - That next ad you click may be a virus (wsj.com)

Jay writes: "The Wall Street Journal has an article about ad networks unintentionally selling empty space to malware loaders. "EWeek.com, a technology news site owned by Ziff Davis Enterprise, in February displayed an ad on its homepage masquerading as a promotion for LaCoste, the shirt maker. The retailer hadn't placed the ad — a hacker had, to direct users to a Web site where harmful programs would be downloaded to their computers, says Stephen Wellman, director of community and content for Ziff Davis." The labeling of the fake ad sellers as hackers is kind of funny; there's no hacking involved. Simply sign up for one of these networks, create your fake site, put up another company's creative, and you're good to go."
The Internet

New Zealand Halts Internet Copyright Law Changes 216

phobonetik writes "The New Zealand Prime Minister announced his Government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again. The proposed law changes contained 'guilty upon accusation, without appeal' clauses and heavy compliance costs to ISPs and businesses. The changes were hours away from being signed but a series of online protests, a petition on Government grounds, as well as public rebuttal by a large ISP and by Google contributed to the Government changing course and respecting the wishes of the IT industry."

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