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Encryption

Submission + - First use of RIPA to demand encryption keys (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by kylehase
kylehase writes: The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) is being used for the first time to force an animal activist to reveal encryption keys for encrypted files she claims to have no knowledge of. According to the article, she could face up to two years if she doesn't comply.
The Internet

Submission + - The online search for Steve Fossett: worth it? (wired.com)

Submitted by Jeian
Jeian writes: Wired.com wonders — was the Mechanical Turk search for Steve Fossett effective? As one "Turker" put it, "I don't see any downsides to it, so long as people don't pester the professional search-and-rescue teams with poor leads." Unfortunately, Maj. Cynthia Ryan of the Civil Air Patrol says that's exactly what happened: "The crowdsourcing thing added a level of complexity that we didn't need, because 99.9999 percent of the people who were doing it didn't have the faintest idea what they're looking for."
Biotech

Submission + - Ham Radio Operator Finds Cure For Cancer (latimes.com) 5

Submitted by
CirReal
CirReal writes: "John Kanzius, K3TUP, himself suffering from cancer with nine months to live, used nanotechnology and a radio transmitter to kill cancer cells. "Kanzius did not have a medical background, not even a bachelor's degree, but he knew radios. He had built and fixed them since he was a child, collecting transmitters, transceivers, antennas and amplifiers, earning an amateur radio operator license. Kanzius knew how to send radio wave signals around the world. If he could transmit them into cancer cells, he wondered, could he then direct the radio waves to destroy tumors, while leaving healthy cells intact?" Reseachers "recently killed 100% of cancer cells grown in the livers of rabbits, using Kanzius' method.""
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook under Fire over Breastfeeding Photos (breastfeeding123.com) 4

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "Facebook continues to struggle with when to enforce its own terms of service. While the 78,240 group members who want Facebook to shut down the F*** Islam group are still frustrated, those concerned with photos of breastfeeding mothers can rest more easily. The site has recently come under fire for removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers, and banning users on the grounds that they'd uploaded "obscene content" to their profiles. Says Facebook, "Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our Terms and are removed." In response, more than 33,431 concerned Facebook users have created the "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" group. Apparently, scantily clad college co-eds, fine and dandy."
Democrats

Submission + - Democrats: Colleges must police copyright, or else (news.com) 1

Submitted by
Brian Knotts
Brian Knotts writes: "News.com reports that congressional Democrats have introduced a bill creating a new corporate welfare program, which would force colleges into subscribing to music services, or else lose $100 billion of federal financial aid programs.

Unsurprisingly, the MPAA is on board with the bill.



"We very much support the language in the bill, which requires universities to provide evidence that they have a plan for implementing a technology to address illegal file sharing," said Angela Martinez, a spokeswoman for the MPAA.
"
Google

Submission + - WSJ spreads FUD on open source and Google Phone (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ben Worthen at the Wall Street Journal shows a laughable grasp of what "open source" means: 'Here's the first thing that will happen when a phone with Google's operating system hits the market: Information-technology departments will ban employees from connecting phones that run Google's operating system to their computers or the corporate network. The reason is that Google's operating system is open, meaning anyone can write software for it. That includes bad guys, who will doubtlessly develop viruses and other malicious code for these phones, which unsuspecting Google phones owners will download. Employees could spread the malicious code to the rest of the company when they synch their phones to their computers or use it to check email. The way to combat this is to develop anti-virus and anti-malware software for phones and to develop security procedures similar to those that have evolved for PCs over the last several years. But that's going to take time and money — neither of which the average IT department has. So until then, expect Google phones to be persona non grata at companies.'
Supercomputing

Submission + - Aussies advance on silicon-based quantum computer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Australian researchers have taken another step towards creating a silicon-based quantum computer, according to a ZDNet report.

By embedding phosphorus atoms in pure silicon, the Centre for Quantum Computing hopes to build transistors on the scale of a single atom — helping to extend Moore's Law well into the future. The organisation has used silicon to create a single quantum bit, or "qubit", which earned them a nomination for this year's Australian Museum Eureka Science Prize.
Windows

Submission + - Dutch parliament questions windows pre-install

Submitted by spatialguy
spatialguy writes: Dutch members of parliament are questioning the minister of economic affairs of the pre-install of windows on all commercially available personal computers. The Socialist party says this is bad for the free choice of consumers and that other OSes have a economical disadvantage. They stipulate it is hard to get a cash refund when people do not want to use the pre-installed OS. Microsoft reacted with a statement that there is a procedure to get a cash refund. The member of parliament Arde Gerkens states that a better option would be if Windows is available as a separate option. People buying computers in non-specialized shops, like supermarkets, will have a very difficult time to obtain a refund in the case the do not use the pre-installed OS. The article is in a dutch: http://www.nu.nl/news/1299808/52/SP_stelt_kamervragen_over_meeleveren_Windows.html
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Low budget open source VGA compatible video card (mveas.com) 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Seeing how the Open Graphics Project is only making slow progress, a new card is being developed by a few students to get a fast, simple and above all cheap video card out the door. Started just two months ago, they're already nearing completion of the circuit board. It sports a reasonably sized reprogrammable FPGA which should kickstart development of a full-fledged open source video card in the future, and the design currently only costs about a hundred euro.
Movies

Submission + - Will Cameron's Avatar spark a 3D revolution? (sffmedia.com)

Submitted by bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: This one's looking better and better! 3D technology/film details about Cameron's new $US200 million 3D SF epic Avatar. Asks the question whether 3D will now become mainstream and if Avatar is just the movie to do it. Extensive Cameron quotes and Avatar links.
Robotics

Submission + - The Top 10 real life Star Trek inventions (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "In the past few months a number of technologies and products that invoke the Star Trek name have been rolled out. MIT was the latest with a tractor beam-like device, but all manner of other new stuff from Star Trek funeral products to healthcare items are also out there. We've gathered up some of the more recent products so you can have a quick look-see. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21418"
Security

Submission + - Bullets Bounce Off New Nanotube Material

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Engineers at the Centre for Advanced Materials Technology at the University of Sydney have found a way to use the elasticity of carbon nanotubes to make a material that will not only stop bullets penetrating material but actually rebound their force. Most bullet-proof jackets are currently made of multiple layers of Kevlar, Twaron or Dyneema fibres which stop bullets by absorbing and dispersing the impact energy to successive layers to prevent the bullet from penetrating. However, the dissipating forces can still cause non-penetrating injuries known as blunt force trauma that can damage critical organs. The investigation showed that nanotubes with larger radii can withstand higher bullet speeds (pdf) and estimates that body armor made from six layers of 100 micrometer nanotube yarns could bounce off a bullet with a muzzle energy of 320 Joules. "The dynamic properties of the materials we have found means that a bullet can be repelled with minimum or no damage to the wearer of a bullet proof vest.""
NASA

Submission + - NASA Faces International Space Station Crisis

Submitted by cybrpnk2
cybrpnk2 writes: NASA is currently (if you'll pardon the pun) faced with a major crisis on the STS-120 flight to the International Space Station. At ISS, one new solar array has metal shavings from an unknown source jamming up the 10-foot diameter rotary gear that enables solar tracking. Meanwhile, a seperate older solar array that was partially re-extended in a new location has ripped and lacks the structural integrity for solar tracking either. An upcoming emergency spacewalk will have an astronaut at the end of a shaky boom applying a metal brace to the fully charged ripped array which he dares not touch directly at risk of electrocution to him or destruction to it. Failure threatens a scheduling trainwreck on upcoming flights to deliver power-hungry European and Japanese laboratory modules before President Bush's mandated 2010 Shuttle retirement.
Announcements

Submission + - Switch back and forth to DST has lasting effects (slate.com)

Submitted by ShiningSomething
ShiningSomething writes: German scientists have found that our circadian rhythm becomes divorced from natural cues when switching to Daylight Saving Time

Drawing from a database of 55,000 Central European subjects who submitted daily sleep records, they showed that the normal correlation between dawn and the sleep cycle becomes disrupted during the transition to daylight-saving time.
The article links to the and speculates on potential consequences.

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