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Submission + - Voting Machines Hinder French Elections

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The electronic voting machine has claimed another victim. Some French voters have reportedly turned away in disgust after facing up to two hours in lines to use the machines. On top of that, the article reports, "Researchers at Paul Verlaine University in Metz said that trials on two of the three machines used in France showed that four people out of every seven aged over 65 could not get their votes recorded." This article concentrates primarily on usability & efficiency but surprisingly mentions little (aside from user trust issues) about security that the machines implemented or whether it was satisfactory. I think all three aspects are of grave importance to anyone aiming to produce voting machines. The manufacturer of these particular machines is France Élection."
Education

Submission + - Active Denial "non-lethal" RF beam burns a

Submitted by jddj
jddj writes: A USAF airman suffered second-degree burns during a testing exercise for a "non-lethal" weapon in south Georgia (the US state, not the nation) this week. The "Active Denial System" uses a beam of RF energy to make men, women and children in its path feel like they're about to catch fire.

The weapon is designed for crowd control, and is presently planned for use in Afghanistan. Curious minds wonder how long it'll be before the now-emerging western police states begin to use it for dispersal of lawful demonstrations — or even to prevent them by force of intimidation.

(NB: I initially thought this looked like it might go under "Wireless Networking", but thought better and filed under "Education". I'm thinking Pavlov. Are you?)
Programming

Submission + - Master the LAMP Architecture

Submitted by IdaAshley
IdaAshley writes: Applications using the LAMP architecture, such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl, are constantly being developed and deployed. This first article in a series of three covers the LAMP architecture, some measurement techniques, and some basic Linux kernel, disk, and file system tweaks. This series of three articles discusses many of the server configuration items that can make or break an application's performance.

Other Popular Articles
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - How to Compensate for Poor Telecommuting Policy

Submitted by
fistfullast33l
fistfullast33l writes: "Unable to dial into work from home? Don't know enough people to organize a carpool with? No problem! A man on Long Island was ticketed for driving in the HOV lane with a CPR dummy in his front seat wearing black hair, a mustache, and a jacket. According to the article, "The driver of the vehicle said that he was just trying to get to work and he had been doing this since October. Tietjen also had a baseball cap and sunglasses that he sometimes put on the mannequin." Unfortunately they didn't mention if the dummy was wearing any pants..."
Education

Submission + - A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia

Submitted by
odyaws
odyaws writes: "The New York Times has an article about the history department at Middlebury College banning Wikipedia citations as a research source, which came after a professor noticed half a dozen students making the same factual error on an exam. I'm as big a fan of Wikipedia as anyone, but as an academic I find the notion of citing it absurd. Does anyone think Wikipedia (or any encyclopedia) suitable for anything but casual information gathering or as a place to find links to source material?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft: "IBM has 'ulterior' standards age

Submitted by
twofish
twofish writes: "In a somewhat hysterical letter Microsoft has accused IBM of trying to block its attempts to fast-track approval of its XML Office file formats as an international standard. IBM's goal is to deny customers choice by only promoting OpenDocument Format (ODF) as an international standard while also advancing Lotus Notes, Microsoft claimed.

"This campaign to stop even the consideration of Open XML in ISO/IEC JTC1 is a blatant attempt to use the standards process to limit choice in the market place for ulterior commercial motives — without regard for the negative impact on consumer choice and technological innovation," Microsoft says."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - RMS to speak in Cuba on Feb. 14

Submitted by
Peter Link
Peter Link writes: "The www.softwarelibre.cu website lists the program of a free software conference that is running concurrently with a broader Informatics conference in Havana.

Entitled "3er Simposio Internacional de Software Libre Habana 2007", the conference runs for 3 days, with speakers from Latin America and Spain covering a wide range of topics.

From the program:
CONFERENCIA MAGISTRAL: "El movimiento del Software Libre y el sistema operativo GNU/Linux"
Richard Mathew Stallman, Presidente de la Free Software Foundation"
Republicans

Submission + - New Florida Governor Wants E-Voting Paper Trail

Submitted by flanksteak
flanksteak writes: New Florida governor Charlie Crist held a press conference today in which he offered up $32 million to make sure all Florida votes are backed by paper trails by the 2008 election. Election supervisors have the option to retrofit paperless machines if they already have them, but a paper trail will be a requirement.
Announcements

Submission + - Samba 4 Technology Preview 4 now available

Submitted by
horacerumpole
horacerumpole writes: "From http://news.samba.org/releases/4.0.0tp4/:

Samba 4.0.0 TP4 Available for Download

Samba 4 is the ambitious next version of the Samba suite that is being developed in parallel to the stable 3.0 series. The main emphasis in this branch is support for the Active Directory logon protocols used by Windows 2000 and above.

While we welcome your interest in Samba 4, we don't want you to run your network with it quite yet. Please note the WARNINGS in the README and the STATUS file, which aims to document what should and should not work.

With 4 years of development under our belt since Tridge first proposed a new Virtual File System (VFS) layer for Samba3 (a project which eventually lead to our Active Directory efforts), we felt that we should create something we could 'show off' to our users. This is a Technology Preview (TP), aimed at allowing you, our users, managers and developers to see how we have progressed, and to invite your feedback and support.

The uncompressed tarball and patch files have been signed with Jelmer Vernooij's key (ID 1EEF5276). The source code can be downloaded now"
Sony

Submission + - Wii is 'impulse buy', says Sony

Submitted by bigdady92
bigdady92 writes: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 22506

With millions of Wii's sold, every household clammering to have one, sales are still going steady on ebay while PS3's have dropped and are sitting on the floor of retail merchant stores, Sony claims:

"Karraker went on to compare the PS3 and the Wii, suggesting that Sony's console is much more powerful and should therefore be regarded as being in a different category. "Wii could be considered an impulse by more than anything else," he said."

A $250 impulse buy? Who's got that much floating around to do that?
Handhelds

Submission + - Switzerland bans the use of GPS units in cars.

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: If you're traveling with a GPS in your car to Switzerland, be very careful! As of January 10th, the Swiss authorities (ASTRA) have forbid the use of GPS systems in cars. They also banned the selling of car GPS units throughout the country.
The reason is that the software running on these devices reveal the location of traffic radars, through which less people have been fined in the recent years and thus Swiss authorities miss a lot of money. The controversial ban has been created a large commotion inside and outside the country, forcing the authorities to put an official document online [pdf — in Germans], with answers to most frequently asked questions.
GPS devices such as TomTom, Garmin, Mio, Navman, Medion, Route 66, Packard stand Ring, Sony and ViaMichelin are all in the banned list.
Enlightenment

Submission + - University Tuition Being Auctioned on Ebay

Submitted by scvff
scvff writes: Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Oklahoma is auctioning off one years tuition on Ebay. Seriously. Starting February 4, 2007 OWU is opening an Auction on Ebay for tuition, room and board for an academic year at OWU. The winner receives tuition, room, board and applicable fees for next fall and spring at OWU. The winner may take up to 17 credit hours each semester. The person who will attend OWU must meet all admissions standards and apply for all available grants and scholarships. This auction is for tuition, room, and board in the traditional undergraduate program. University Webpage: http://www.okwu.edu/ More Information about the auction: http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=20676
Media

Submission + - Senior PC World Editor Shot to Death

Submitted by
Dekortage
Dekortage writes: "According to CNN this morning, "A senior editor for PC World Magazine was fatally shot in his home in what authorities said Wednesday was a drug-related attack. Rex Farrance, 59, the San Francisco, California-based magazine's senior technical editor, was shot in the chest after four masked men broke into his home Tuesday evening." Farrance's wife was also beaten. Police suggest the Farrances were involved in illegal drugs; Farrance's teenage son grew medical marijuana in the home with his parent's permission and a doctor's prescription."

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"It says he made us all to be just like him. So if we're dumb, then god is dumb, and maybe even a little ugly on the side." -- Frank Zappa

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