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Wikipedia

Submission + - The 10 biggest hoaxes in Wikipedia's first decade (networkworld.com)

Submitted by jbrodkin
jbrodkin writes: Wikipedia will celebrate its 10th birthday on Saturday, with founder Jimmy Wales having built the site from nothing to one of the most influential destinations on the Internet. Wikipedia's goal may be to compile the sum total of all human knowledge, but it's also, perhaps, the best tool in existence for perpetuating Internet hoaxes. Top hoaxes include a student who fooled the entire world's media with a fake obituary quote, Rush Limbaugh spouting inaccurate facts lifted from Wikipedia, the incorrect declaration of Sinbad's death, Stephen Colbert's African elephant prank, Hitler posters on the bedroom wall of a teenage Tony Blair, and several fake historical figures invented out of thin air. Wales has taken steps to head off vandalism including preventing unregistered editors from creating new pages and temporarily protecting controversial articles, but Wikipedia's very nature makes it susceptible to the hoaxes described in this story.
Australia

Submission + - Vodafone dealer-logins given to organised crime? (abc.net.au) 1

Submitted by
beaverdownunder
beaverdownunder writes: ""Vodafone has confirmed it believes its secure customer database has been breached by an employee or dealer who has shared the access password, revealing the personal details of millions of customers...According to Fairfax newspapers, criminal groups are paying for the private information of some customers including home addresses and credit card details.""
Idle

Submission + - Weaponized model aircraft, shots down balloons (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: The model flying discipline of First Person View continues to court controversy. Before Christmas we had a flight over New York city and the Statue of Liberty. Now a weaponized model aircraft shooting at flying targets.
Government

Submission + - US Government Strategy To Prevent Leaks, Is Leaked 1

Submitted by Jake
Jake writes: The US government's 11-page document on how to get various US government agencies to prevent future leaks has been leaked. It doesn't get any more ironic than that. After the various leaks made by WikiLeaks, the US government understandably wants to limit the number of potential leaks, but their strategy apparently isn't implemented yet. It's clear that the Obama administration is telling federal agencies to take aggressive steps to prevent further leaks. According to the document, these steps include figuring out which employees might be most inclined to leak classified documents, by using psychiatrists and sociologists to assess their trustworthiness. The memo also suggests that agencies require all their employees to report any contacts with members of the news media they may have.

Submission + - Inertial sensor enabled football (kokes.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hello, Long time reader, infrequent submitter... I would like to submit a football enabled with inertial sensors and Bluetooth! The Nerf football contains a 3 axis gyro, a 3 axis accelerometer and a 3 axis compass, all which help accurately describe the motion of the ball when kicked, thrown or carried. The Bluetooth module transmits the sensor data to a PC for analysis. In addition to the transmitted data, the football is equipped with 32 bi-color LEDs to indicate the speed of the football spiral; Green for slow, orange for mid-range, and Red for super star spiral speed. You can see/play with the football at the current CES show in Las Vegas at the InvenSense booth South 2 — MP25370.
The Media

Submission + - Some Wikileaks Contributions to Public Discourse 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "EFF reports that regardless of the heated debate over the propriety of Wikileaks actions, some of the cables have contributed significantly to public and political conversations around the world. The Guardian reported on a cable describing an incident in Afghanistan in which employees of DynCorp, a US military contractor, hired a "dancing boy," an underaged boy dressed as women, who dance for gatherings of men and is then prostituted — an incident that contributed important information to the debate over the use of private military contractors. A cable released by Wikileaks showed that Pfizer allegedly sought to blackmail a Nigerian regulator to stop a lawsuit against drug trials on children. A Wikileaks revelation that the United States used bullying tactics to attempt to push Spain into adopting copyright laws even more stringent than those in the US came just in time to save Spain from the kind of misguided copyright laws that cripple innovation and facilitate online censorship. An article by the New York Times analyzed cables released which indicated the US is having difficulties in fulfilling Obama's promise to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and is now considering incentives in return for accepting detainees, including a one-on-one meeting with Obama or assistance obtaining IMF assistance. "These examples make clear that Wikileaks has brought much-needed light to government operations and private actions," writes Rainey Reitman, "which, while veiled in secrecy, profoundly affect the lives of people around the world and can play an important role in a democracy that chooses its leaders.""

Submission + - Diablo 3 release imminent (amazon.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Diablo 3's on pre-order on Amazon. For the PC and Mac. Yay.
Microsoft

Submission + - Notes from Microsoft Keynote at CES 2011 (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: To start off the Microsoft Keynote speech Steve Ballmer talked about Microsoft’s gaming achievements. With this subject in the air Ballmer talks about how the Xbox 360 integrates social networks and your media collection.

Ballmer moves on to when the Kinect for the Xbox 360 was released. He explains how you are the controller and how you can control the UI of the Xbox 360.

Ron Forbes a Program Manager at Microsoft shows us how the Xbox Kinect can control the UI of the Xbox 360 and the Zune interface on the Xbox 360 with full 1080p functionality.

Ron states that “This spring Xbox Kinect will bring Netflix and later in the spring Hulu plus will be released for the Xbox Kinect.” .....
The Internet

Submission + - Vodafone private customer details on net (smh.com.au)

Submitted by AHuxley
AHuxley writes: The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that details about millions of Vodafone customers have been made publicly available on the internet (ie not intranet).
Thousands of people may have the secure web portal logins that can be used to gain full access to the accounts of about 4 million Vodafone customers. Personal details ie names, home addresses, driver's licence numbers and credit card details where accessible.
Full access could look up a customer's bills and make changes to accounts. Limited access allows searching by name.
Passwords would be reset, and training and other procedures would be reviewed.
After http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_telephone_tapping_case_2004–2005 lets hope the switch software is safe.
News

Submission + - Internet Profile of AZ Shooter Jared Lee Loughner (praetorianprefect.com)

Submitted by danielkennedy74
danielkennedy74 writes: A shooting earlier near a Tucson Arizona grocery store (Safeway) that killed six people and wounded twelve including U.S. Congressman Gabrielle Giffords is dominating every news channel as new details emerge. One of the aspects of modern attacks by in this case what appears to be a lone mentally disturbed individual, is that the thoughts of these individuals are usually available online.

The 22 year old shooter in custody, Jared Lee Loughner, is no exception. He had a MySpace profile and a Youtube channel, revealing both what he looks like, some biographical details, and a bizarre personal philosophy mentioning grammar, the timeline of man, and currency creation.

Submission + - Create your own unique speakers from Ammo Box (instructables.com)

Submitted by hammer_gaidin
hammer_gaidin writes: i3 Detroit, a growing hacker space community, as created a great How-to for creating a creative speaker box setup using surplus Army ammo crates. Not only is this system creative but completely functional.

"This instructable will demonstrate how to turn a .50 caliber ammunition box into a sweet set of speakers that can be used with your mp3 player, laptop, or any other portable device.

This set of speakers is rugged, compact, easy to take on the go, and LOUD! The whole project will cost about $50.00 usd. and can be completed in an afternoon."

Submission + - Aussie solar car smashes land speed record

Submitted by snowdon
snowdon writes: A record which has stood for 22 years, set by General Motors, has been broken by a university team. The land speed record for a solar powered car was 78km/h and now stands at 88km/h despite the cloudy conditions... If only Doc Brown had used the metric system!
Apple

Submission + - iCade: Dream into Reality (ionaudio.com)

Submitted by schmidt349
schmidt349 writes: The iCade has now become a reality, thanks to a partnership between ION Audio and ThinkGeek. The subject of ThinkGeek's April Fools shenanigans last year, the iCade is an arcade cabinet dock for your iPad that provides controls and some serious geek chic for your favorite Atari oldies. No word yet on whether the bundle will still include Super Steve Bros.
Government

Submission + - Social Security Information Systems Near Collapse (informationweek.com)

Submitted by matty619
matty619 writes: An Information Week article warns that the computer systems that run the Social Security Administration which were deployed in 1979 may collapse by 2012 due to increased workload, and a half $Billion upgrade which won't be ready until 2015.
One of the biggest problems is the agency's transition to a new data center, according to the report. The IG has characterized the replacement of the SSA's National Computer Center (NCC) — built in 1979 — as the SSA's "primary IT investment" in the next few years.
The agency has received more than $500 million so far to replace the outdated center, which is now so severely strained by an expanded workload over its time of operation that it may not be able to function by 2012, according to the report.

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