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Submission + - Web spamming by academic journals (fusor.net) 1

Submitted by smilodon
smilodon writes: A forum for a blog on fusion via Eureka: Science Journal Watch (wiki) via Not Even Wrong (blog), not that site link paths are relevant these days, has documented journal publishers in the act of presenting text to Google Scholar that does not exist for other website visitors. The forum poster wrote, "IEEE appeared to have stopped Web spamming, if ever so briefly, in the days after my previous post targeting them."
United States

Submission + - Boeing virtual fence: $30 billion failure (zdnet.com)

Submitted by He who cares
He who cares writes: The Department of Homeland Security "virtual fence" project, being built by Boeing, is in big, big trouble. The virtual fence is a high-tech network of cameras, lighting, sensors, and technology designed to intercept illegal border crossings.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The government's plans for monitoring as much as 6,000 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders hinge on towers such as these working properly. If they prove ineffective, officials could be forced to spend billions of dollars for more traditional security measures, such as fences and more officers. The Homeland Security Department currently estimates that the virtual fence will cost about $8 billion through 2013, although the agency's inspector general wrote last November that the cost could balloon to $30 billion.

From Nation Institute:

At Congressional hearings, Boeing vice president and SBInet program manager, Jerry McElwee, took heat from Congressman William Lacy Clay who demanded information about the ballooning costs and the extension of the contract period. "You bid on these contracts and then you come back and say, 'Oh we need more time. It costs more than twice as much.' Are you gaming the taxpayers here? Or gaming DHS?" the Missouri Democrat asked.

This failure has the potential to eventually rival the UK National Health Service disaster, known affectionately as the "greatest IT disaster in history." It also brings back memories of the Airbus failure, in which multiple project segments failed to work when brought together as a finished unit. The level of planning and coordination required to complete a project like this on time and budget almost defies human capability. Why don't they break it down into smaller, simpler components, increasing the likelihood the thing can actually be built?
United States

Submission + - Why No High-MPG Diesels For The U.S.?

Submitted by
gbulmash
gbulmash writes: "While looking for a high-MPG minivan, wagon, or SUV, I've been finding that the pickings in the U.S. are pretty slim, but that there are plenty of fuel-efficient diesel models in Europe that get even better mileage than some of the larger hybrids for sale in the U.S. With the U.S. having so many people driving so many miles, it seems ridiculous that even Ford is offering highly fuel efficient diesels in Europe that they don't/won't offer here. Is there an actual plausible reason why these models aren't being brought to American markets aside from "marketing objectives"?"
Portables

Submission + - India overtakes U.S. as Nokia's No.2 Market

Submitted by alphakappa
alphakappa writes: Nokia today announced that India has overtaken the U.S. to become its second largest market by sales, coming up behind China. In the past 18 months, Nokia has shipped 60 million cellphones from its Chennai factory, and they expected it to become the second largest (volume) by 2010.
Quoting from the story, "India has quickly become one of the largest markets," he told reporters in New Delhi, adding he expects demand will not be limited to cheaper phones. "India is not a low-end market. It is a very versatile market in all price points, in all segments," he said. The story also reports that "India had 185 million mobile customers at the end of July, with more than 6 million new customers signing every month, lured by call rates as low as 1 U.S. cent a minute" Nokia has a design studio and a factory in India.
Space

Submission + - Study: Martian Soil Has Signs of Life (geoffrobinson.net)

Submitted by
geoffrobinson
geoffrobinson writes: "Reuters is reporting that a scientist from Germany believes Viking probe data shows signs of life. From the article: "But Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, said on Friday the spacecraft may in fact have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface. His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin." Houtkooper adds

We will have to find confirmatory evidence and see what kind of microbes these are and whether they are related to terrestrial microbes. It is a possibility that life has been transported from Earth to Mars or vice versa a long time ago.
"
Privacy

Submission + - US Government Confirms Illegal wiretapping Program (msn.com)

Submitted by uctechdude
uctechdude writes: National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled the curtain back on previously classified details of government surveillance and of a secretive court whose recent rulings created new hurdles for the Bush administration as it tries to prevent terrorism.

Among the disclosures:
McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation. "Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies," McConnell said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help.
Space

Submission + - Life on Mars uses hydrogen peroxide as anti-freeze

Submitted by
mrraven
mrraven writes: "According to an article on CNN a new interpretation of 30 year old data by Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen of from Mars Viking lander data indicates a possibility that Martian soil may be .1 percent of biological origin:

"Houtkooper believes their presence would account for unexplained rises in oxygen and carbon dioxide when NASA's Viking landers incubated Martian soil. He bases his calculation of the biomass of Martian soil on the assumption that these gases were produced during the breakdown of organic material." Article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/08/23/mars.soil .life.reut/index.html?iref=mpstoryview"
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Sun changes stock symbol to JAVA

Submitted by _damnit_
_damnit_ writes: The wounded ship that was once SUNW is now JAVA. CEO Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog that they will change their NASDAQ stock symbol to try and capitalize on the success (?) of Java. For a long time people have been waiting for Sun to monetize Java. Having JAVA as one of NASDAQ's most active doesn't really address that issue but Jonathan is thinking outside the box I guess. Now if they could just gain revenue they could stop laying off staff.
Privacy

Submission + - Comcast Caches Web Pages 1

Submitted by
not-admin
not-admin writes: "A little over five years ago, Comcast received some major consumer backlash for their policy of caching web pages that users requested, along with the IP address of the requesting user. It appears now that this policy has been reinstated, at least for personal customers. While this does make practical sense for an ISP, it is unpractical in many cases where site content is generated on-demand. In situations like that a cache can cause problems, making a site cumbersome or even useless. In the evolving "Web 2.0" world of today, is caching a practical solution for ISPs or just another hassle for the consumer?"
Privacy

Submission + - A word means whatever we want it to mean (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recent article in the New York Times (courtesy BugMeNot link) lists some of the evidence against accused I'm-not-sure-what-exactly-he's-supposed-to-have-do ne-anymore Jose Padilla, and much of the prosecution's evidence seems to hinge on innocent words being code for something else. For example, "Playing football" meant engaging in jihad, prosecutors said, "the dogs" meant the United States government, and "zucchini" meant weapons. Where does that leave the rest of us though? What will the spooks make of "pwned" or "l33t"? Is there anything you can do to protect yourself from having your facebook "I think I'll go have a coffee" turn up at your trial as "Well Your Honor, when we replace the word coffee with 'weapon of mass destruction' we see this man is clearly a terrorist!", or is the only defence total silence?

And remember, anything you say really can and will be used against you now.
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T censors pearl jam webcast

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the "Blue Room" Live Lollapalooza Webcast. When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them. During the performance of "Daughter" the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but were cut from the webcast: — "George Bush, leave this world alone." (the second time it was sung); and — "George Bush find yourself another home." This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media. More Here: http://pearljam.com/news/index.php?what=News#195
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Practices Political Censorship (pearljam.com)

Submitted by
grcumb
grcumb writes: "Pearl Jam reports that their live webcast from Lollapalooza was censored by AT&T. The statement on the band's website outlines their concerns in the context of the ongoing Net Neutrality 'debate':

"AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.

"Aspects of censorship, consolidation, and preferential treatment of the internet are now being debated under the umbrella of "NetNeutrality." Check out The Future of Music or Save the Internet for more information on this issue.


It's refreshing to see that at least some of our media darlings have a clue about what this debate is about,"
Software

Submission + - TopCoder Community Builds Its Own UML Tool

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Today TopCoder unveiled a new UML Tool: an easy to use, consistent modeling tool for use in Design and Development competitions. The new tool was built to model sequence, class, use case, and activity diagrams. Though this project was to follow the standard TopCoder component methodology, it was unique in one important respect. Rather than TopCoder staff leading the effort, everything — including project management and architecture, from soup to nuts — was to be done by TopCoder members. Full story at http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=Static&d1=dev&d2 =umltool&d3=description
The Internet

Submission + - Study: Only 1-in-5 will download video again

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: It appears that the days of the local video store may not be numbered after all, with few consumers in the US satisfied with the videos they download from the Internet, according to a new study by Parks Associates. The study reveals that consumers are not impressed with the selection of videos available nor the price; just 16% said the selection of videos available online is good, and only 13% said video downloads are sold at a reasonable price. And what must really worry online movie distributors is that only one in five consumers plan to download videos again in the future.

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