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Security

Submission + - ImageShack Hacked! (mashable.com) 5

revjtanton writes: "Tonight a group calling themselves "Anti-Sec" hacked ImageShack and replaced many of the site's hosted images with one of their own detailing their manifesto. The group's grievance is against full-disclosure. They simply want the practice in security cirlces to end, and they've promised to cause mayhem and destruction if it doesn't.

These guys/gals are taking direct aim against a sect of the IT industry who is already armed to fight them...but they also already know that. It should be interesting to see how this plays out, whether you agree with them or not."

The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Moves to Keep Revenue Info Secret (blogspot.com) 1

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In the Boston, Massachusetts, case, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Court had ordered the RIAA to produce certain revenue information, which would be relevant to a determination of the 'fair use' defense. The RIAA has now moved for a protective order to keep the information 'confidential'. In the opinion of the undersigned, the fact that the motion is made jointly by four competitors shows that any claim the information is valuable or 'proprietary' would be unfounded, and the sole purpose for making the motion is to keep the information out of the hands of lawyers for other defendants, thus increasing the defense costs in other cases."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Americans do not agree with science (yahoo.com) 2

ZeroSerenity writes: "In a not so stunning article, it is thought by many that science is not something you have to agree with. A survey conducted by Pew Research Center states that "...nearly 9 in 10 scientists accept the idea of evolution by natural selection, but just a third of the public does. And while 84 percent of scientists say the Earth is getting warmer because of human activity, less than half of the public agrees with that." In addition just 27% of the respondents said that the advances of the US in science are its greatest achievement, down from 44% ten years ago. I fear for my own country's progress if people aren't this interested in science."
Input Devices

NYU Researchers Create Cheap, Flexible Pressure-Based Interface 55

Al writes "A super-cheap, thin and flexible touch interface developed by researchers at New York University and could be used to add touch sensing to all sorts of gadgets and devices. It measures a change in electrical resistance when a person or object applies different pressure. The "Inexpensive Multi-Touch Pressure Acquisition Devices (IMPAD)" consists of two sheets of plastic containing parallel lines of electrodes. The sheets are arranged so that the electrodes cross, creating a grid and each intersection acts as a pressure sensor. The sheets are also covered with a layer of force-sensitive resistor (FSR) ink, a type of ink that has microscopic bumps on its surface. So, when something coated in the ink is pressed, the bumps move together and touch, conducting electricity."
The Media

Should Google Be Forced To Pay For News? 322

Barence writes "The Guardian Media group is asking the British government to investigate Google News and other aggregators, claiming they reap the benefit of content from news sites without contributing anything towards their costs. The Guardian claims the old argument that 'search engines and aggregators provide players like guardian.co.uk with traffic in return for the use of our content' doesn't hold water any more, and that it's 'heavily skewed' in Google's favour. It wants the government to explore new models that 'require fair acknowledgement of the value that our content creates, both on our own site (through advertising) and "at the edges" in the world of search and aggregation.'"
Biotech

Scientists Make Artificial Protein Mimic Blood 94

Al writes "Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created a protein that can carry and deliver oxygen — a useful step towards developing artificial blood. This would avoid the problems involved with donor blood — contamination, limited storage, and short supply — and lead to easier and faster blood transfusions on the battlefield and in trauma cases. The Penn researchers used three amino acids to make a four-helix columned protein structure put a smaller structure, called a heme, inside it. The heme is a large flat molecule that has an iron atom at its center, which oxygen binds to. The researchers also made the protein structure flexible, so that it can open to receive the oxygen and close again without letting any water in. They did this by linking together the helical columns with loops to restrict their motions, giving the final structure a candelabra shape."
Software

Ubuntu vs. Windows In OpenOffice.org Benchmark 262

ahziem writes "Ubuntu's Intrepid Ibex and Redmond's Windows XP go head-to-head in an OpenOffice.org 3.0 performance smackdown measuring vanilla OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, Go-oo, and Portable OpenOffice.org 3.0. Each platform and edition does well in different tests. Go-oo is known for its proud slogan "Better, Faster, Freer," but last time with OpenOffice.org 2.4 on Fedora, Go-oo came in fourth place out of four. Slashdot has previously reported Ubuntu beating Vista and Windows 7 in benchmarks, so either XP is faster or this benchmark carries a different weight."
Space

Cold War Standoff Over ISS Toilet 417

Hugh Pickens writes "The International Space Station, once a place where astronauts would share food and facilities, is said to be embroiled in a Cold War-like stand-off after a Russian cosmonaut complained he is no longer allowed to use a US toilet or the US gym machine. Gennady Padalka, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, says that space officials from Russia, the United States and other countries now require cosmonauts and astronauts to eat their own food and follow stringent rules on access to other facilities, including lavatories. Padalka, who will be the station's next commander, says the arguments date back to 2003, when Russia started charging other space agencies for the resources used by their astronauts and other partners in space station responded in kind. 'Cosmonauts are above the ongoing squabble, no matter what officials decide,' says Padalka. 'We are grown-up, well-educated and good-mannered people and can use our own brains to create normal relationship. It's politicians and bureaucrats who can't reach agreement, not us, cosmonauts and astronauts.' While sharing food in the past helped the crew feel like a team, the new rules oblige Russian cosmonauts and US astronauts to eat their own food. 'They also recommend us to only use national toilets,' says Padalka. 'What is going on has an adverse effect on our work.'"
Books

Questions Linger Over Google Book Rights Registry 107

We've discussed the fallout from Google's settlement with the Authors Guild a few times already. Now the issue is made pointed again by a Wall Street Journal editorial claiming that the settlement will ruin a functioning copyright system if it is finally ratified, as expected, in June by a federal court. Reader daretoeatapeach writes: "In the US this will establish a Book Rights Registry where authors can opt-in to 63% of the revenues of each book, the rest going to Google. While previously Amazon had cornered the market on e-books, Google's partnership with Sony will create a serious dent: 500,000 books to Amazon's 250,000. Though Google is currently only releasing the books that are in the public domain, they ultimately plan to sell the 7 million e-books they've scanned (and counting). This raises a lot of questions about the future of publishing: Do we want only one company (e.g. Google) controlling access to information? Should publishers get a cut of the money, at least as long as their book is being scanned? Will broader access to trade journals affect their relationship and reliance on libraries? If, in the future, more authors opt out of the traditional publishing model, when will this hit the 'recession-proof' book industry? And has the publishing industry learned any lessons from MP3s?"
Security

Submission + - Massive hack attack on Swedish sites (aftonbladet.se)

Sobieski writes: "Swedish newspapers are reporting that the night between Friday and Saturday, a mass hacking on Swedish websites occured. The attack is said to have affected almost 4000 sites and according to an article in the newspaper Aftonbladet, the hackers have set up a page to which all hacked sites were redirected. The page supposedly contained a list of all the hacked websites and a taunting message to their "competition" that according to them "only" managed to hack around 1600 sites."
Google

Submission + - Tokyo Demands Youtube Play Fair

eldavojohn writes: "Sometimes I think Google does more negotiating with foreign countries than the United States government. Recently, Tokyo has requested for political speeches to be pulled from the site claiming that it gave certain hopefuls an advantage over others for Sunday's election. You may recall Youtube being in trouble with more than couple countries. Is it fair that some government officials are being viewed more on Youtube than others or is it simply leveling the playing field for anyone with a message since it costs very little to put a video on Youtube? American politics seem to have embraced it either way."

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