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Open Source

Linux Kernel 2.6.32 Released 195

diegocg writes "Linus Torvalds has officially released the version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel. New features include virtualization memory de-duplication, a rewrite of the writeback code faster and more scalable, many important Btrfs improvements and speedups, ATI R600/R700 3D and KMS support and other graphic improvements, a CFQ low latency mode, tracing improvements including a 'perf timechart' tool that tries to be a better bootchart, soft limits in the memory controller, support for the S+Core architecture, support for Intel Moorestown and its new firmware interface, run-time power management support, and many other improvements and new drivers. See the full changelog for more details."
Input Devices

Brain-Control Gaming Headset Launching Dec. 21 112

An anonymous reader writes "Controlling computers with our minds may sound like science fiction, but one Australian company claims to be able to let you do just that. The Emotiv device has been garnering attention at trade shows and conferences for several years, and now the company says it is set to launch the Emotiv EPOC headset on December 21. PC Authority spoke to co-founder Nam Do about the Emotiv technology and its potential as a mainstream gaming interface." One wonders what kind of adoption they expect with a $299 price tag.

Comment Re:Bide your time (Score 1) 1006

If you have another job lined up and haven't been at this job long, resign your position and drop a dime to the BSA for the reward. Even if you don't have a job lined up, you can resign a job because you've been asked to perform illegal activities and still be eligible for unemployment, but you'll need to document it, so you'll need to tactfully put your concerns in writing and maintain a file before dropping the dime. Leaving a job on bad terms can have repercussions for your career, so if not having this job on your resume leaves a big hole, you need to figure out how you'll compensate, one tactic is maintaining ties to other employees you can use as a reference -- most HR departments will only confirm employment and as soon as your gone you can have a friend at another company send a reference check to see what HR says. Even if you can leave this job off your resume, be prepared to answer questions about the job if you are subject to a background investigation for a future job.

Comment I vote for the WordStar Interface (Score 1) 617

As someone marginally capable of touch typing (and old enough to remember), WordStar had the best interface of a Word Processing Program. I find Word 2007's Ribbon bar absolutely perplexing. Wordstar had home row key-bindings. OpenOffice is a GPL project, so hopefully as a backlash some outraged developers will build a version that supports WordStar keybindings.

Security

'Vanish' Makes Sensitive Data Self-Destruct 171

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports on new software called 'Vanish,' developed by computer scientists at the University of Washington, which makes sensitive electronic messages 'self destruct' after a certain period of time. The researchers say they have struck upon a unique approach that relies on 'shattering' an encryption key that is held by neither party in an e-mail exchange, but is widely scattered across a peer-to-peer file sharing system. 'Our goal was really to come up with a system where, through a property of nature, the message, or the data, disappears,' says Amit Levy, who helped create Vanish. It has been released as a free, open-source tool that works with Firefox. To use Vanish, both the sender and the recipient must have installed the tool. The sender then highlights any sensitive text entered into the browser and presses the 'Vanish' button. The tool encrypts the information with a key unknown even to the sender. That text can be read, for a limited time only, when the recipient highlights the text and presses the 'Vanish' button to unscramble it. After eight hours, the message will be impossible to unscramble and will remain gibberish forever. Tadayoshi Kohno says Vanish makes it possible to control the 'lifetime' of any type of data stored in the cloud, including information on Facebook, Google documents or blogs."
Wireless Networking

802.11n Should Be Finalized By September 104

adeelarshad82 writes "It's probable that the 802.11n standard will finally be approved at a scheduled IEEE meeting this September, ending a contentious round of infighting that has delayed the standard for years. For the 802.11n standard, progress has been agonizingly slow, dating back almost five years to 2004, when 802.11g held sway. It struggled throughout 2005 and 2006, when members supposedly settled on the TGnSync standard, then formed the Enhanced Wireless Consortium in 2006 to speed the process along. A draft version of 802.11n was approved in January 2006, prompting the first wave of routers based on the so-called draft-n standard shortly thereafter."
Image

Powering Restaurants WIth Deep Fried Fuel Screenshot-sm 148

Mike writes "Here's a brilliant idea for biofuels: rather than filtering used fry oil for use in vehicles, why not simplify matters and use it to heat and power the restaurant itself? The VegaWatt turns used vegetable oil into clean heat and energy for restaurants, eliminating the dirty and costly mess of oil disposal while producing 10-25% of the electricity needed to run a small restaurant. It also produces fuel free of chemicals or fossil fuels, unlike standard biodiesel."
Upgrades

Linux 2.6.28 Promises Year-End Presents 305

darthcamaro writes "Little penguins all around the world are waiting for Penguin-Master Linus Torvalds to deliver some Glogg inspired Xmas cheer in the form of the new 2.6.28 kernel. Among the innovations in 2.6.28 are ext4 as stable, wireless USB drivers, better KVM support and the GEM graphic memory management technology. 'We now have a proper memory manager for video memory, the GEM [Graphics Execution Manager] memory manager,' Greg Kroah-Hartman said. 'This gives Linux much better graphics performance than it previously had.'"

Comment Put the Consumer Back in Charge of Healthcare. (Score 1) 1270

The core of the problem with the U.S. Healthcare System is that we Americans don't purchase our own Health Care and Coverage, someone else does, and costs are then heavily shifted to those who cannot get someone else to cover them. The U.S. is already subsidizing Healthcare, besides Medicare and Medicaid, there is a huge tax break to affluent and middle class Americans derived from Employer Provided Healthcare. The very structure of this subsidy is sick, the affluent are subsidized while working people who don't have good employers pay through the nose.

I do not believe that either Barrack Obama or John McCain is going to do a good job, other than that the system is so screwed right now (by the Government, not just in its crazy subsidy schemes but by the imposition of the Medicare reimbursement system and the requirement that the lowest rates go to Medicare instead of Payment at Time of Service Customers) that it is nearly impossible to make it worse.

The best choice for fixing Healthcare is Bob Barr. He will push for a return to a real Free Market System which will improve choice and efficiency. The Democratic Congress will insist on a subsidy for the poor. You'll choose your own Health Insurance and your own Providers. If your response is Bob Barr can't win, well neither can John McCain at this point. I've never considered McCain or Obama an option. The Libertarian Party Candidate (Barr) getting %5 of the popular vote is the best option we have.

Data Storage

Tips For Taking Your Laptop Into and Out of the US? 940

casualsax3 writes "I'm going to be taking a week long round trip from NYC to Puerto Vallarta Mexico sometime next month, and I was planning on taking my laptop with me. I'll probably want to rip a few movies and albums to the drive in order to keep busy on the flight. More important though, is that I'm also going to be taking pictures while I'm there, and storing them on the laptop. With everything in the news, I'm concerned that I'll have to show someone around the internals of my laptop coming back into the US. The pictures are potentially what upsets me the most, as I feel it's an incredible violation of my privacy. Do I actually need to worry about this? If so, should I go about hiding everything? I've heard good things about Truecrypt. Is it worth looking into or am I being overly paranoid?"
Businesses

Ars Examines Outlandish "Lost To Piracy" Claims and Figures 380

Nom du Keyboard writes "For years the figures of $200 billion and 750,000 jobs lost to intellectual property piracy have been bandied about, usually as a cudgel to demand ever more overbearing copyright laws with the intent of diminishing of both Fair Use and the Public Domain. Now ARS Technica takes a look into origin and validity these figures and finds far less than the proponents of them might wish."
Media

Submission + - Third Party Watch

brainbuz writes: While the Mainstream Media keep the tired drama between Hillary and Barrack alive, and maybe occasionally mention Ralph Nader, this November is shaping up to be the most Competitive in Decades. There is a strong possibility of all three Large Third Parties nominating former Federal Office Holders in the Persons of Representatiove Bob Barr (Libertarian Party Draft Favorite), Ambassador Alan Keyes (who switches his Presidential Campaign to the Constitution Party on Tax Day), and Representative Cynthia McKinney in pursuit of the Green Nomination. Only one site, Third Party Watch is covering the Drama of Mike Gravel endorsing Jesse Johnson for the Green Nomination, and then taking his own campaign to the Libertarian Party, where his plans for a National Sales Tax guarantee he'll have a tough time finding 10 delegates to place his name in nomination. With Bob Barr not officially in the race yet, the Libertarian front runners are a Las Vegas Oddsmaker and Obama Classmate from Columbia, Wayne Allyn Root, and Author Dr. Mary J. Ruwart. If McKinney, Keyes, and Obama all get their party's nominations, voters in most states will have a choice of three African American Candidates.
Censorship

Submission + - Hotmail bans the word "Tibet" (live.com)

Black Market Baby writes: Try making a hotmail or live.com email address containing the word "tibet". You can't. "Tibet" is banned along with offensive words such as "fuck". "Shit" is allowed and "shit_666@live.com" is currently available if you want it. How can a country's name be deemed offensive?
Television

Submission + - User generated political ads on TV

Dagowolf writes: A software company in San Francisco has launched a program that aims to democratize political advertising, just in time for this year's presidential race. The idea is that users can create their own ads or choose from pre-loaded ads, send in their money, and the ads will appear on television. VoterVoter is a subsidiary of WideOrbit.

From the VoterVoter press release: "the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Congressional Campaign Finance rules allow American citizens to contribute up to $4600 to each candidate annually. The vast majority of political contribution money goes to candidates who in turn purchase advertising (primarily TV advertising). An individual, however, is not limited by the FEC from spending any amount of money on purchasing advertising independently and promoting whatever candidate or cause they are passionate about. Historically and in practice, hardly anyone exercised this constitutional freedom of speech right. This is because it was too hard for an individual to create a television ad and purchase advertising time to promote their favorite candidates.

VoterVoter.com will make it very easy to select a pre-prepared television ad and purchase the TV time to promote the candidate of choice. If someone wishes to create their own TV ad and use VoterVoter.com to purchase the TV time, that will work too. In the near future, we will also be working with Radio and Cable media outlets. VoterVoter is non-partisan and will accept advertising from any person. We are planning to start doing publicity for VoterVoter.com on March 27th. The site can be reached at www.VoterVoter.com."
Government

Submission + - DC Door to Door Gun Grab (nbc4.com)

An anonymous reader writes: D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier is pushing her "safe homes initiative", which is nothing more than a door-to-door attempt at hoping you give up your rights. Regardless of whether handguns are banned or not in the district, this type of tactic is heavy-handed at best, and much more at worst. http://www.nbc4.com/news/15688264/detail.html?rss=dc&psp=news

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