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Businesses

Submission + - Strategic incompetence

Submitted by ezekieldas
ezekieldas writes: Is it simply incompetence or absent mindedness, or is it with cunning calculation one chooses to avoid or fail the easy tasks? Early on in my IT career I was sympathetic to those who could not or would not operate office equipment, then it gradually became annoying. This article helps explain the behavior of failing the simple things — a refreshing explanation. "Strategic incompetence isn't about having a strategy that fails, but a failure that succeeds. It almost always works to deflect work one doesn't want to do..."
Security

Submission + - Bot on Bot Action

Submitted by Dausha
Dausha writes: The Tech Web news site reports a story about Botnet turf wars. Botnets have been around for a while, and are increasing in severity. The latest innovation finds Bots capturing and securing host computers from other bots. Security includes installing software patches, shutting down ports, etc.

Paint Provides Network Protection 262

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-much-for-foil-hats dept.
thefickler writes "Forget WEP and WPA; I'm switching over to the EM-SEC Coating System, a recently announced paint developed by EM-SEC Technologies that acts as an electromagnetic fortress, allowing a wireless network to be contained within painted walls without fear of someone tapping in or hacking wireless networks. The EM-SEC Coating System is clearly the most secure option aside from stringing out the CAT5, and can be safely used to protect wireless networks in business and government facilities."
Power

Is Daylight Saving Shift Really Worth It? 652

Posted by Hemos from the questioning-the-wisdom dept.
Krishna Dagli writes "Two Ph.D. students at the University of California at Berkeley say that Daylight Saving Shift will not do any good or create any energy savings. We are already spending money for software upgrades in the name of saving energy and after reading following article I wonder has congress really studied the impact of DST shift? " I also read some back story on the concept; OTOH, I found TiVo's suggestions that I manually change everything on my Series 1 device to be somewhat...insulting.
XBox (Games)

More Advertising in Your Next Xbox Game 278

Posted by samzenpus from the this-level-boss-brought-to-you-by-coke dept.
ejwong writes "TheGameFeed is reporting on Microsoft's plans to offset Xbox360 game costs with more in game advertising under its subsidiary, Massive. In-game ads are gaining popularity and the wave isn't going to stop. Publishers see this as a huge potential for increased game revenues to help offset the rising development costs for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. The question is how far will they go, and how much are gamers willing to take?." From the article: "If you plan on picking up an Xbox 360 title this month, then you're probably picking up one with Massive's in-game ads. Titles such as Crackdown, Def Jam: Icon, MLB 2K7, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 are all part of the Massive network showing off ads from Dell, Intel, Discovery Channel, Intel, NBC, Verizon and even the Navy among others. "
Google

Submission + - Google's emering role in South Korea

Submitted by
Michael
Michael writes: "http://lunapark6.com/?p=2825 Article discusses about how Google is buying their way into the Korean text ad marketplace. They recently partnered with the #2 internet portal in Korea and reportedly has agreed to guarantee $70 million per year on top of any shared revenue to Daum."
Media

Canada Responsible for 50% of Movie Piracy 459

Posted by Zonk from the should-we-blame-the-government-or-blame-society dept.
westcoaster004 writes "Hollywood is blaming Canada as being the source for at least 50% of of the world's pirated movies. According to an investigation by Twentieth Century Fox, most of the recording is taking place in Montreal theatres where films are released in both English and French. This has led to consideration of delaying movie releases in Canada. Their problem is that the Canadian Copyright Act, as well as the policies of local police forces, makes it difficult to come down especially hard on perpetrators. Convicting someone is apparently rather difficult, almost requiring a law officer to have a 'smoking camcorder' in the hands of the accused. Hence, the consideration of more drastic measures."
Editorial

Submission + - Many Eyes on Cereal Nutrition and Fertility Rates

Submitted by Adi Lane
Adi Lane writes: Share and contribute interesting findings, ask questions, and more with Many Eyes service, a set of interactive visualizations providing insight into topics varying from cereal nutrition data to fertility rates of countries worldwide. In addition, visitors are able to upload new data sets and create their own visualizations.
Robotics

Submission + - Caterpillars Seen as Model for Better Robots

Submitted by anthemaniac
anthemaniac writes: Barry Trimmer at Tufts University heads a project to develop softer and more flexible robots by using new materials and different paradigms. They're studying the neural circuitry that allows caterpillars to be nimble and flexible with such simple minds. From the story: 'Developing robots with more fluid movements would allow them to climb textured surfaces, crawl along wires, or burrow into confined spaces.' Applications seen in medicine and space, among others.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Can Game Companies Be Held Liable For Bad Updates?

Submitted by
SoccerClaus
SoccerClaus writes: "Yesterday, I read in a Half-Life 2 forum that the owner of a large game server hosting company was considering legal action against Valve Software, following a Steam update that essentially made his customer's abilities to manage their HL2 servers impossible, and resulted in customers cancelling their hosting service. The proposed suit centers around a newly-introduced CVAR, "cl_restrict_server_commands", which was pushed by Valve to game clients without prior warning. Jokes about Valve's propensity for pushing updates that break clients aside, it raises an interesting question — Should game companies like Valve be on the hook for damages incurred by updates that may disrupt game hosting services? What differentiates a legitimate (but detrimental) software update from a DoS attack, if the net result (losing business, money, etc.) is the same?"
Biotech

Submission + - Shiny nanoparticles for new sensors

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Every other week, some scientists say that they have found the perfect sensors to be used to detect environmental pollution or contamination of food products. Today, researchers at UC Davis say they have created luminescent nanoparticles that could also be used for medical diagnostics. These nanoparticles are coated in a shell of europium which emits red light at a very specific wavelength when stimulated with a laser. These nanoparticles, which are inexpensive to make, can also be manipulated with magnets and detected by fluorescence. Read more for additional details and images."
Security

Submission + - Complete windows XP lockdown? Can it be done?

Submitted by
stretch80
stretch80 writes: "I am working on a project to make Windows XP systems 100% locked down. What I mean is that I wish to disable all communications methods in XP, dis-allow any external devices (ie: usb nics, wireless, etc.), no networking, no support for USB, serial and parallel devices, no Internet Explorer, MSN, etc... The computers should allow authorized users to install software off CD, but for all other users, they get to use whatever software the admin has made available. That is all. Has anyone been successful in this level of security??? Am I safe to assume that windows XP Pro is more suited for this than XP home? I look forward to your observations!"
Education

The Best Graphing Calculator on the Market? 724

Posted by Cliff from the better-than-a-TI? dept.
aaronbeekay asks: "I'm a sophomore in high school taking an honors chem course. I'm being forced to buy something handheld for a calculator (I've been using Qalculate! and GraphMonkey on my Thinkpad until now). I see people all around me with TIs and think 'there could be something so much better'. The low-res, monochrome display just isn't appealing to me for $100-150, and I'd like for it to last through college. Is there something I can use close to the same price range with better screen, more usable, and more powerful? Which high-tech calculators do you guys use?"
Censorship

Science Journal Publishers Wary of Free Information 293

Posted by Zonk from the keeping-the-truth-under-your-hat dept.
Billosaur writes "Nature.com is reporting that the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which includes the companies that publish scientific journals, is becoming concerned with the free-information movement. A meeting was arranged with PR professional Eric Dezenhall to discuss the problem. Dezenhall's firm has worked with the likes of ExxonMobil 'to criticize the environmental group Greenpeace', among other campaigns. The publishers are worried that the free exchange of scientific information may be bad for the bottom line, as it might cause the money from subscriptions to their journals to dry up. Among the recommendations: 'The consultant advised them to focus on simple messages, such as "Public access equals government censorship". He hinted that the publishers should attempt to equate traditional publishing models with peer review, and "paint a picture of what the world would look like without peer-reviewed articles.' The AAP is trying to counter messages from groups such as the Public Library of Science (PLoS), an open-access publisher and prominent advocate of free access to information, or the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) PubMed Central."

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