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United States

Submission + - Is America still free?

Submitted by chameleon3
chameleon3 writes: Slashdotters are wont to bemoan the slow erosion of personal freedoms in the United States, and I am not inclined to disagree. My question is: how will you know that America is no longer the Land of the Free? What event would be necessary for you to declare Freedom officially dead in America? Or, if you believe it has already occurred, what event caused it?
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - The Great Eyeglasses Scam

Submitted by NiteBird
NiteBird writes: Is poor distance vision (myopia) really not genetic after all? Are eye doctors getting us hooked on ever stronger prescription glasses and contact lenses? Don Rehm of the International Myopia Prevention Association thinks so. Online journalist Fintan Dunne interviews Don, and explains how too much close focusing (e.g. reading and computer work) gives you myopia in the first place, and how glasses prescribed for myopia make your vision worse in the second place, but also, how you can turn the laws of optics to your advantage and use reading glasses (the kind you can buy at the pharmacy) to help you keep or possibly restore your clear distant vision!
Supercomputing

Submission + - Folding@home killing the planet

Submitted by
Drakaal
Drakaal writes: "Folding@Home is Killing the planet

Folding@Home costs nearly $70million, uses 584gigawatt hours of power, and produces 730 kilotons of Carbon dioxide. Is fighting mad cow worth it? This article weighs the cost benefit of donating electricity and CPU Cycles, VS. the Real Cost of the project."
Power

Submission + - Motorless Solar Tracker

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: EcoGeek.org has a piece about a system for tracking the sun with a solar photovoltaic panel without using electricity. Photovoltaic panels are most efficient at generating electricity when they are oriented perpendicular to the sun, but motorized systems can be expensive and draw off a significant portion of the power the panel is generating. These are especially useful for small, remote locations where only a single PV panel is available, and for portable installations where more uniform power is needed throughout the day.
United States

Submission + - Daylight Saving Shift Shows Little Impact

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "A report from ZDNet News would indicate that the recent change in the onset of Daylight Savings Time in the United States, from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March, has had little effect on power consumption. "That may come as no surprise to the Energy Department, which last year predicted only modest energy savings because the benefits of the later daylight hour would be offset." Lights that were not being used in the evening due to the expanded daylight hours in the evening, would be used in the dark of the morning instead."
Software

New Algorithms Improve Image Search 111

Posted by kdawson from the where's-waldo dept.
bc90021 writes "Electrical engineers from UC San Diego are making progress on an image search engine that analyzes the images themselves. At the core of this Supervised Multiclass Labeling system is a set of simple yet powerful algorithms developed at UCSD. Once you train the system (the 'supervised' part), you can set it loose on a database of unlabeled images. The system calculates the probability that various objects it has been trained to recognize are present, and labels the images accordingly. After labeling, images can be retrieved via keyword searches. Accuracy of the UCSD system has outpaced that of other content-based image labeling and retrieval systems in the literature. One of the co-authors works at Google, where the researchers have access to image collections at the largest of scales."
Privacy

Submission + - Judge denies Diebold request to block ES&S pac

Submitted by
beetle496
beetle496 writes: "Computer World reports that Judge denies Diebold request to block ES&S pact with Massachusetts. This is a follow-up to earlier /. story that Vendor [Diebold] contends state erred in selecting AutoMark voting machines of rival. From TFA: "The suit is still there, but they went zero for three yesterday," the spokesman said. No further hearings have been scheduled yet, he said. The actual accessibility concerns have been discussed over at the TEITAC ListServ, including a few telling observations from experts familar with accessible voting and at least one state insider."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Slashdot goes over the top for April Fools day

Submitted by
driverman
driverman writes: "Slashdot probably has the highest pranks per pixel (ppp) ratio of any news-related website out there. Many users have counted at least five unique april fools pranks on the main index of the site, and not all of them are limited to stories. One of the pranks is masquerading as a feature, and two (1, 2) of the pranks can be attributed to Google. No Microsoft pranks have been sighted as of yet (Vista doesn't count as an early one, either)."
Censorship

Submission + - Digg Violates its Own Terms of Service

Submitted by
derami
derami writes: "Digg.com administrators refused to remove a plagiarized submission about a highly humorous and bizarre new Google Maps feature, then banned the original author for reporting the issue. The copied version was posted by the well-read Consumerist.com blog and linked to Digg a matter of hours after the original Allsux.com post was listed on Digg. When the Allsux blogger alerted Digg administrators about this clear case of plagiarism, his Digg account was promptly suspended without notice or explanation. So, not only is Digg ignoring their own policy against plagiarism but they also censored a valid complainant without just cause."
The Courts

Submission + - Kaleidescape Beats DVD CCA Re: DVD Server

Submitted by Ripper
Ripper writes: Video server manufacturer Kaleidescape has beaten the DVD CCA, the group that licenses DVD decryption/encryption technology to every manufacturer of legitimate DVD players. The group had argued that Kaleidescape breached a licensing agreement by making a product that enables (indeed encourages) users to rip copy-protected DVDs onto a hard drive. Kaleidescape argued that nothing in the contract says anything about prohibiting such functionality. The judge agreed. The broader copyright issues that could have emerged during the non-jury trial, in fact did not, so the case has little implication for those who want to rush out and rip their DVDs, or make products that do so. The judge also stopped short of agreeing that, in fact, the DVD CCA is an innovation-stifling cartel.
Intel

Submission + - Intel Users Have Lower IQs Than AMD

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a recent survey conducted by Moritech RAD, a study of over 5,000 computer users concluded that people who use Intel powered computers have a lower IQ than their AMD counterparts. The study took place over a six month period and involved computer users with Intel and AMD powered computers of various specifications. The test subjects were asked to complete a series of written and hands on tests covering basic computer skills up to more advanced tasks. The survey found that over 69% of people with Intel powered computers had greater learning difficulties and found computer related tasks more difficult compared with 31% of AMD. http://www.maxitmag.com/loose-wires/articles/intel -users-less-intelligent-than-amd.html
Security

Submission + - Fortune 1000 Companies Sending Spam, Phishing

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TheRegister takes a look at spam touting everything from Viagra to phishing sites being blasted out of Fortune 1000 networks. Oracle was found to have a machine pushing out a PayPal phishing scam, and BestBuy had a system sending thousands of spams a month. The Washington Post's Security Fix blog also is tracking this story, finding stock spam being pumped from ExxonMobile and from American Electric Power, among others. Another machine at IndyMac Bank was the source of spam touting generic prescription drugs. From the story: "...an IT engineer with American Electric Power, said the stock spam came from a bot-infected computer belonging to a contractor at one of its power generator plants."
Software

Submission + - Finding a market for a new software idea

Submitted by Aretsu
Aretsu writes: A question for all Slashdot readers. Assume you had the best software idea ever, and had even worked out all the details. Now assume you don't want to start your own company or deal with venture capitalists. How do you find the right companies and people within those companies to express your ideas to? Obvious answers like "look in the industry you're targeting" are not appreciated. How do you get to the people who can make the decision to take your project on? Can it be done without already having an "inside track", or someone already working for the company?
Spam

Submission + - Spammer that sued Spamhaus now sued for spamming

Submitted by Dave Q. Lintard
Dave Q. Lintard writes: e360 Insight, the Illinois-based mass mailer suing Spamhaus for calling it a spammer, is being sued in California for spamming. David Linhardt, individually, and his firm e360 Insight are among the defendants in a lawsuit brought by William Silverstein, an aggrieved spam recipient. Bargaindepot.net, a firm which shares offices with e360 Insight, is also named in the suit.

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