Comment The Timing Is Not a Coincidence (Score 1) 413
Russian computer technology is so outdated, they thought the Olympics were in Atlanta this year.
Submission + - Harry Potter publisher supposedly hacked 1
akahige writes: Monsters & Critics (and other sites) are reporting that hackers used milw0rm exploits to penetrate Bloomsbury Publishing and obtain a digital copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a month before it is scheduled to hit bookstores. A hacker known as gabriel posted supposed spoilers to the Full Disclosure list. While the veracity of spoilers (or the breach itself) have not been acknowledged by the publishers, fans have expressed great disgust with the reports. Naturally, this raises serious concerns about network security and the fallibility of those both designing and using it — even moreso when the climax of a multi-billion dollar franchise is on the line.
Submission + - Lawrence Lessig to leave copyright sphere (lessig.org)
brandonY writes: The founder of Creative Commons, the Stanford lawyer behind the "Eldred v. Ashcroft" case, and the author of "Code" has spent the last 10 years working tirelessly on behalf of limited copyright terms, net neutrality, and the public domain. Tuesday, Lawrence Lessig announced on his blog that he has "decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism" from fighting the good fight for the public domain to fighting the good fight against corruption and the influence of big money's effects on legislation in general.
Submission + - Warrant Now Required For Email Searches By Feds
nnkx00 writes: Courtesy of the EFF:
"The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls...the government has routinely used the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service providers without a warrant."
Full Ruling here.
Submission + - Google Gets Political with Public Policy Blog (toptechnews.com)
Raver32 writes: "One sure sign of Google's growing importance in Washington is the fact that the Googleplex — Google's Mountain View, California campus — is becoming a popular stop on the campaign trail. Several candidates and potential candidates have stopped by to discuss technology policy.
Now Google is throwing open the doors to the internal debates that have helped shape the company's public policy stances. On Monday morning, Andrew McLaughlin, Google's Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs, announced the official launch of the company's "Public Policy Blog," and invited the public to join in the discussion by posting comments."
Submission + - T-Mobile UK blocking mobile VoIP start-up
wjamesau writes: "The war between telecoms and VOIP heats up: according to Om Malik, T-Mobile UK is refusing to interconnect with mobile VoIP provider Truphone, a UK start-up with a mobile VoIP client that enables calls cheaper than mobile. Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP competitors like this?"
Submission + - Fun With Redistricting! (nationaljournal.com)
CrabbMan writes: ""The Redistricting Game" was developed at the University of Southern California to help teach voters that "mapmakers" can have more control over an election outcome than candidates or issues. Politically engineered redistricting, which can protect incumbents and party dominance even if voters are inclined differently, was most recently a hot topic in a Supreme Court decision last year and in the political fall of former GOP top dog Tom DeLay. Lawmakers concerned "the system is out of whack" invited the game's developers to the Hill yesterday."
Submission + - Text Messaging Used To Help People's Health
Bobtom writes: According to CNet, doctors are sending text messages with important infomation, such as appointment reminders, directly to their patients cell phones. According to the article, the system can also be used to help people remember when to renew their prescriptions or anything else the doctor feels necessary to communicate.
Submission + - EU Considering Regulating Sale of Violent Games (lawbean.com)
Spamicles writes: "European Union justice ministers met today in order to discuss the regulation of sales of violent video games to minors. Europeans were riled up last year when a German gunman shot several people before taking his life at a secondary school. A European Union Commissioner is taking advantage of the shootings last year called for stricter regulations in the video game industry. A motion introduced last month calls for legislators to "put in place all necessary measures to ban the sale of particularly violent and cruel video games.""
Submission + - Ubuntu and the Unions (ericlee.info)
Eric Lee writes: "Linux Today is reporting on the question of whether Ubuntu Linux has a special significance for trade unions, which are not usually thought of as being on the cutting edge of information technology use. The founding editor of LabourStart, the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement, argues that it does, and makes the case for unions to adopt open source software."
Submission + - computer failures disrupt East Coast air traffic
jcgam69 writes: A cascading computer failure in the nation's air-traffic control system caused severe flight delays and some cancellations along the East Coast yesterday.
A computer system in Atlanta that processes pilots' flight plans and sends them to air-traffic controllers failed early yesterday, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said.
In response, the agency rerouted the system's functions to another computer in Salt Lake City, which overloaded under the increased volume of data, magnifying the problem.
Submission + - Partner choice 'shaped by father'
gollum123 writes: "Much as she might hate to admit it, a woman's choice of partner may depend a lot on her own father ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6745121.stm ). Scientists have found women who were treated well by their dad during childhood are attracted to men who resemble their father facially. But the link is lost on women who did not have good relationships with their fathers. Women in the study were asked to rate pictures of men's faces for attractiveness, and assess their relationship with their fathers. They found in women who reported more positive relationships with their fathers, there was a link between the faces the women found most attractive and their father's faces. The study was the first of its kind to use facial measurements to assess the similarity of the faces."
Submission + - AT&T to Block Content For RIAA/MPAA
Nom du Keyboard writes: Several sources are reporting an agreement between AT&T and the RIAA/MPAA alliance to block copyrighted material on their network. And as has been pointed out, AT&T has a lot of network, meaning most packets traverse a piece of it at some point. Money quote: "As AT&T has begun selling pay-television services, the company has realized that its interests are more closely aligned with Hollywood." Nice to know that their interests aren't aligned with their paying customers any longer.
Submission + - Plants 'recognize' their siblings (pressesc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Biologists have discovered that just like humans, plants can also recognize their relatives. Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings.
Submission + - Google Teams Up With Salesforce.com
pazu13 writes: The Economist is reporting on a new partnership between Google and Salesforce.com, an online CRM database system for businesses. As noted in the article, "[After a user clicks on an AdWord] Salesforce's service kicks in, collecting information about the user which then pops up on the Salesforce page of the advertiser's sales team, allowing them to follow up and sell something." (Salesforce discusses it here.) I recognize that business is business, and AdWords is a huge seller, but I wonder how this ties into not being evil, especially in light of Google's recent privacy rating.
