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Power

Submission + - Burning Salt Water - Your next source of Hydrogen (yahoo.com)

Submitted by EskimoJoe
EskimoJoe writes: An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century. John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. AP article at Yahoo.
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia blocks Overstock.com from editing 1

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: Known for having a media director that obsessively stalks critics, Overstock.com's IP address range has now been banned from editing on Wikipedia. Longtime Wikipedia staffer, David Gerard, posted this on the Administrators' Noticeboard Tuesday afternoon: "I've just blocked 65.116.112.0/21, which is an IP range (a) owned by Overstock.com (b) widely used by them for spamming, COI editing and attempted intimidation of administrators dealing with them. I strongly suggest against unblocking this range under any circumstances"
Security

Submission + - Storm Worm botnet - most powerful supercomputer (zdnet.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nearly nine months after it was first discovered, the Storm Worm Trojan continues to surge, building what experts believe could be the world's most powerful supercomputer. By New Zealand computer scientist Peter Gutman's calculations, the Storm Worm botnet "may be the first time that a top 10 supercomputer has been controlled not by a government or mega-corporation but by criminals." Now, according to Finjan security researcher Aviv Raff, the group has started to target tech-savvy computer users. The page displays a legitimate looking download page for the Tor (The Onion Router) network anonymity proxy and a "download now" image that points to a malicious "tor.exe" file.
Announcements

Submission + - BBC iPlayer to be cross platform (pm.gov.uk)

Submitted by
ddrichardson
ddrichardson writes: "The BBC iPlayer service is no longer to be tied to Windows only. Following a scucessful online government petition, the BBC trust in conjunction with Ofcom have decided to make the system cross-platform. From the Government response:

The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible."
Censorship

Submission + - School board unanimouly votes for censorship (wausaudailyherald.com)

Submitted by flathom
flathom writes: Students and teachers in the Merrill Area School District this year could face discipline at school for on-line communications that came from the privacy of their homes. Disciplinary action for students ranges from a warning to expulsion until the age of 21. Employees can be fired for violating district policy.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft managed to buy the vote of Sweden in ISO (domain.name)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: It seems like Microsoft rigged todays SIS meeting in Sweden by bringing in about 20+ new members, all voting Yes to Microsofts OOXML document standard proposal. To be a voting member they had to pay 17 000 SEK, about $2500, which they for sure will be reimbursed by Microsoft for their services. Several previous members, for example IBM, left the meeting in disgust.

Read more here: http://stupid.domain.name/node/382
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - US money getting high-tech facelift (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Spending your hard earned cash will never be the same — and perhaps never be as secure. The US Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing will next month unroll new $5 bills and is working to revamp $100 bills in the coming months. The government is pushing hard to counteract some $118.1 million in counterfeit U.S. currency that was reported in 2006, an increase of almost 4% from 2005, largely due to advanced digital counterfeiting. The $100 bill is next in line for a face-lift — it hasn't had one I in $60 years. The Associated Press is reporting that a new security thread has been approved for the $100 bill. The new look is part of an effort to thwart counterfeiters who are armed with ever-more sophisticated computers, scanners and color copiers. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18781"
Data Storage

Submission + - Mempile - Terabyte on a CD (tfot.info)

Submitted by
tfot
tfot writes: "YEARS AFTER THE cd a new optical-storage technology currently under development by an Israeli company will allow the equivalent of 250,000 high-quality MP3s or more than 115 DVD-quality movies or about 40 HD movies on a single CD-size medium. At 200 layers a disc, future versions of the technology will make it possible to store up to 5TB of data on one disc — the only question is, when will we find the time to watch all this content?"
Data Storage

Submission + - Laptop/Server data synchronization 1

Submitted by gbr
gbr writes: I've been trying to automatically synchronize data between a laptop and a server. When the laptop is connected to the network, I want all writes to automatically propagate across to the server. When the laptop is disconnected I want the laptop user to continue working with the local data. When the laptop is reconnected, I want the data to automatically re-sync.

The issue is, the data on the server may have changed as well, which needs to propagate back to the laptop. The data doesn't contain anything too special, no database tables etc. It does contain binary data such as executables and word processing documents. I've looked at ChironFS, Unison file sync, and drbd. ChironFS needs a manual rebuild if a connection fails, and the user needs to know which machine contains the correct data. Unison requires the user to initiate the synchronization process manually every time, and drbd is just not meant for the job at hand.

How do you automatically, and invisibly to the user (except in the case of conflicts), synchronize between a laptop and a server?
Quickies

Submission + - Sleepy?Spend less time on the internet/watching TV (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "The Daily Mail reports people, who spend time on the internet or watching television before they go to bed, are more likely to feel like they don't get enough sleep. Even though they sleep almost as long as people who spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a computer or television screen, they will stil feel tired according to a new survey... Seen on Digg."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple laptops drive 'transformation' in PC sales

Submitted by Dak RIT
Dak RIT writes: New research indicates that Apple laptop sales have soared to new highs on the back of a new halo effect for the company's products generated by clamour surrounding iPhone, while at the same time Dell's market share is taking a huge hit. Apple is also far ahead of rivals in customer satisfaction, with 86 percent of those polled who bought a Mac in the last 90 days reporting being "Very Satisfied."
Security

Submission + - Monster attack of Monster.com (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
Polar Star
Polar Star writes: "US job website Monster.com has suffered an online attack with the personal data of hundreds of thousands of users stolen, says a security firm. A computer program was used to access the employers' section of the website using stolen log-in credentials. Symantec said the log-ins were used to harvest user names, e-mail addresses, home addresses and phone numbers, which were uploaded to a remote web server"
Education

Submission + - Free tuition for Math, Science, and Engineering? (billingsgazette.net)

Submitted by Gibbs-Duhem
Gibbs-Duhem writes: Sen. Max Baucus (Dem from MT) wants free college tuition for US math, science, and engineering majors conditional upon working or teaching in the field for at least four years.

It's difficult to see anything that pumps money into education as a bad thing, but is this the best way to help the country create a more stable, educated workforce to compete with India, China, and Canada? It certainly seems that the "trickle-down" effect could help high school education as well, as more graduates look to teaching as a way to repay their debt to society.

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