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Media

Submission + - Why do movies still have closing credits?

Submitted by Subm
Subm writes: Closing credits now commonly stretch for ten minutes. Early movies had closing credits of ten people. Why do we still have them? The typical answer is to credit the people who contributed, but that method seems ineffective: one name out of thousands is nearly invisible, it's only visible while watching the movie, and they're unsearchable. Meanwhile, every movie has a web page but those pages rarely list the full closing credits. If the goal of closing credits is to credit the people who contributed, won't posting them online serve that goal better? If the goal is to give time to show bloopers, why not just show the bloopers? (The same goes for tv shows)

Submission + - Debt Consolidation Loans- Debt Settlement US- Debt (debt-free-today.net)

Submitted by robert2hunt
robert2hunt writes: Do you need help to get out of debt? Debt free today has arranged an exclusive range of loan deals like debt settlement US, debt settlement loans, debt consolidation loans and debt consolidation loans bad credit for the people residing in the US.
Games

Submission + - Split screen co-op is dying (goozernation.com)

Submitted by kube00
kube00 writes: Split screen co-op and local multiplayer are becoming something from the past. Games like the Halo series and Rock Band 3 sort of fill that void. What happened to cramming a bunch of gamers into a room with two TVs and doing a system link match in Halo? Where have the all night Goldeneye matches gone? Like the arcades of gamers' youth, local multiplayer and co-op bonding experience has been replaced with individual gamers and a network
Security

Submission + - 70% TSA Failure Rate at Some Airports (go.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nearing the height of last year's Christmas travel season, TSA screeners at Bush Intercontinental Airport somehow missed a loaded pistol, one that was tucked away inside a carry-on computer bag.

"I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif said. "It's a .40 caliber gun."

Seif says it was an accident which he didn't realize until he arrived at his destination. He says he carries the glock for protection but forgot to remove it from his bag. He reported the incident as soon as he landed, shocked at the security lapse.

"There's nothing else in there. How can you miss it? You cannot miss it," Seif said.

Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret. Experts say every year since the September 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.

A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.

Submission + - US Gov Pressuring Manning to Implicate Assange (salon.com)

Submitted by frank_adrian314159
frank_adrian314159 writes: In his Salon article today, Glenn Greenwald tells of the government's plan to prosecute Julian Assange. In short, the government believes that, if they can get Bradley Manning (the source of the leaked information) to testify that Assange convinced him to leak, they can prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act. As a means to this end, they have been holding Manning in isolation and subjecting him to other inhumane treatment, offering him better treatment should he would be willing to testify. That this would endanger with prosecution any investigative journalist who got information from a military informant has not passed unnoticed.
Space

Submission + - Geminid meteor shower TONIGHT! (nationalgeographic.com)

Submitted by digitaldc
digitaldc writes: For sky-watchers willing to brave frosty winter temperatures, more than a hundred meteors an hour may fall overnight on December 13 and 14, the peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower.

"The quarter moon will obscure the first part of the show, but once it sets after midnight [your local time], the conditions should be ideal," said Geza Gyuk, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.

"If you can't stay up that late, then after 10 p.m. is okay too, but the later the better."

The missed sleep may be worth it: The Geminids have been rising in intensity and brightness, and the upcoming show may outshine the more famous August Persieds as the best meteor shower of 2010.
Privacy

Submission + - Ex-Google Engineer Combats 3rd Party Data Tracking (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: After 2,686 days at Google, software engineer Brian Kennish has left the search giant to focus on “Disconnect,” an open source browser extension designed to stop third parties and search engines from tracking Web pages you visit and searches you do.
Politics

Submission + - WikiLeaks: Cables Will Continue Unabated (bryanhealey.com)

Submitted by healeyb
healeyb writes: According to reports from CNN.com, the deluge of classified information that has streamed from whistle-blower group WikiLeaks in recent weeks is but a mere fraction of the total information gathered from PFC Bradley Manning, who has been held at Quantico since July. The sum of the documents released, according to WikiLeaks, is...
Government

Submission + - WikiLeaks 'Dead Man Switch' Contingency? (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Paul Venezia speculates on a possible WikiLeaks contingency plan based around a dead man switch and the 1.4GB AES0-encrypted file WikiLeaks released previously on various BitTorrent sites. 'If I was planning this out, that big encrypted archive would contain several smaller encrypted archives,' Venezia writes, adding that each encrypted archive would have a different key, the release of which would be suppressed by a dead man switch in the form of an email or specific URL visit every 24 hours. 'As long as those signals are received, nothing happens. But if one is missed, the first decryption key would automatically be posted to Twitter and submitted to Reddit or any number of other public venues. As the primary system releases a key, it stops sending and responding to the heartbeats, which triggers timers in the other systems, and they begin releasing their keys every 24, 48, or 72 hours. It would be like a series of political time bombs located all over the Earth, with no way to find them.'"
Power

Submission + - Video shows why recharging kills batteries (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: You may not give a lot of thought to what happens inside the battery of your laptop or cell phone, but to judge from this video, it's not a dull place. The battery in question is a miniature rechargeable lithium-ion device, and the clip shows what happens when it is charged. As lithium ions flow from the positively charged cathode into the 200-nanometre diameter wires of tin oxide that make up the negatively charged anode, the nanowires writhe and bulge, causing them to expand up to 2.5 fold. The wires also change structure from a neatly ordered crystal to a disordered glassy material. These distortions may explain why such batteries ultimately wear down. Knowing more about the process may help researchers develop longer lasting, and perhaps much smaller, batteries in the future.
Software

Submission + - BitTorrent client offers truly decentralized P2P

Submitted by Shiwei
Shiwei writes: While BitTorrent is the most popular P2P protocol, it still relies on several centralized points for users to find the files they are looking. There have been several attempts at making BitTorrent more decentralized, and the latest Tribler 5.3 client is the first to offer the BitTorrent experience without requiring central trackers or search engines. Tribler offers some very interesting technologies; the latest version enables users to search and download files from inside the client. Plenty of other clients offer search features, including the ever-popular Torrent, but Tribler's results come from other peers rather than from a dedicated search engine. Users can search and download content without a server ever getting involved; everything is done among peers, without the need of a BitTorrent tracker or search indexer.
Firefox

Submission + - Firefox auto-disables Bing bar toolbar- for safety (imageshack.us) 3

Submitted by jr0dy
jr0dy writes: I just launched Firefox for the first time today, and was greeted with the add-on dialog which informed me that the Bing Bar had been installed, but that it had been "Disabled for [my] protection." This is awesome. Anyone else have this happen to them? Is Mozilla actually taking action on Microsoft's evilness?

This is just a few days following Mozilla exec Asa Dotzler's calling out of Microsoft for this very practice: http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/11/29/1539257/Apple-Microsoft-Google-Attacked-For-Evil-Plugins

[Follow original source link to ImageShack-hosted screenshot of my Firefox add-ons window]

http://www.discoverbing.com/toolbar/

Submission + - Peter Sunde, Alternate DNS, Non-ICANN Domains (dashworlds.com)

Submitted by DASHWORLDS
DASHWORLDS writes: As Peter Sunde of Pirate Bay Speaks on Alternatives to ICANN and the DNS, Dashworlds.com Opens the First New Public Domain Name System via the DashCom Registry

Peter Sunde believes the DNS can change. Peter Sunde is right. The proof comes as a brand new Internet and DNS system opens to the general public. The newly formed DNS is not connected, reliant or even answerable to ICANN. Operating on Dashcom (not Dotcom) protocols, this new DNS is also completely free.

With the launch of a brand new Domain Name System, Internet users begin to access the next Internet Universe. Offering the ability to register previously unheard of domain names such as sports-com and to publish previously unheard of websites as "travel-net" the World Wide Web has changed forever.

A transformation in the DNS structure means that DOTCOM has become DASHCOM. Simply select any two words and separate them with a dash. For example, take "music" and "com" to create the website "music-com" (you no longer need "www"). Try any combination (in any language). Use "foot" and "ball" to create the website "foot-ball".

DASHCOM websites are springing up all over the world. An extra dimension has been added to the Internet that anyone can use virtually without restriction. This really is not ICANN, instead think of a Private Global Network fully integrated into the current system. These new domain names offer almost unlimited possibilities for all those wanting personalization and easy-to-remember options. Dashworlds.com, who are currently giving away these domains free, have been inundated as Internet users continue to grab the most memorable, distinctive and potentially valuable names.

After today, anything is possible. Create your own TLDs (top level domains) in any language or text (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish to name just a few). The new DASHCOM domains are available free at ISPs like Dashworlds.com.

Dashworlds.com also provides free URL, IP and DNS forwarding for all. A personalised control panel is provided to enable users to publish their websites immediately. Coming soon, other free features such as Dashcom email, instant email, website design, upgraded website hosting as well as data storage

About Dashworlds

Dashworlds Ltd is a UK company that specializes in providing the widest range of fully personalized Internet domain names through its global infrastructure.

For further details, please see website http://dashworlds.com/ .

(also available on www.dotnote.com and www.spoiltcow.com)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=KT7F0EP9vJ4

DASHWORLDS has now linked up with other ISPs such as DOTNOTE.com and SPOILTCOW.com (Also accessible via DOTWORLDS.net) to offer the newly released "DASHCOM domains to the public totally free
United Kingdom

Submission + - Wikileaks Shows US Spurned PM's McKinnon Plea (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by krou
krou writes: Wikileaks' leaked cables show that then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a personal request in August 2009 to the US to allow Gary McKinnon to plead guilty in the UK and serve a sentence there, but was ignored. In a face to face meeting with US ambassador Louis Susman, Gordon Brown "proposed a deal: that McKinnon plead guilty, make a statement of contrition, but serve any sentence of incarceration in the UK. Brown cited deep public concern that McKinnon, with his medical condition, would commit suicide or suffer injury if imprisoned in a US facility." The cable of the meeting was sent to Hillary Clinton, but appears to have been ignored. The Guardian suggests this may have been because of outrage (revealed in other cable traffic at the time) regarding the proposed release of the Lockerbie Bomber, Ali Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

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