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The Internet

Submission + - Evolution of the 'Captcha' (nytimes.com)

Submitted by FireballX301
FireballX301 writes: The New York Times is running an article about the small word puzzles various sites use in order to defeat automated script registration while still letting humans through. It seems many people can't actually solve them anymore, so new alternatives (image recognition) are being created. This, of course, seems breakable as well — is there a feasible alternative to the captcha, or are we stuck jumping through more and more hoops to register at places?
Media

Submission + - Blender Open Movie 2 and an Open Game announced (blender.org)

Submitted by
LetterRip
LetterRip writes: "The Blender Foundation has announced 'Peach' a second open movie project, their first open movie project was 'Project Orange' that resulted in Elephants Dream. Peach is planned to be a funny movie in contrast to the dark and surreal nature of Elephants Dream. A second exciting announcement is that in cooperation with Crystal Space and NLGD Conference ( the "Nederlandse Game Dagen" the annual conference for the Netherlands game industry) an open game (Project Apricot) will be developed. Lastly the Blender Foundation announced the establishment of the Blender Institute that will be a studio dedicated to hosting these and future projects. Also the Blender Foundation has put out a new manual 'Essential Blender' to make it easier to learn Blender. For those unfamiliar with Blender it is a free 3d animation suite."
The Courts

Submission + - International gambling experts testify in congress (theregister.com)

Submitted by
rocketgoldstar1962
rocketgoldstar1962 writes: "International experts from countries with well-regulated internet gambling environments testified in Congress Friday in support of revising American online gambling law. Experts from payment processing institutions, credit card compliance officers, and even compulsive gambling support groups debunk the myth that internet gambling is inherently evil, and argue that it is time for a rational revision of American internet gambling legislation."
United States

Submission + - Politicians want IT to solve US Healthcare Crisis?

Submitted by muhan
muhan writes: Looking back at the recent New Hampshire Democratic and Republican presidential debates, I see a recurring theme amongst most of the candidates that they will use and fund Information Technology to drastically reduce the cost of healthcare in America. They seem to believe that electronic records and prescriptions, patient ownership of their medical records etc. will help drive down costs in the healthcare system. The only things I've heard and read about in respect to these types of IT projects in healthcare is that it's a big money pit. Prime example: The current IT modernization program in England called the National Programme for IT in the NHS. The link states that it is behind schedule and being constantly revised in real time.

Are there any examples of IT in healthcare for things like electronic records that has actually been successfully implemented on a large scale? Is the massive use of IT to drive down healthcare costs a pipe dream and simply an easy political sound bite for these politicians?
Software

Submission + - Microsoft, Sony clash over Vista Turbo Memory

Submitted by Anonymous
Anonymous writes: Sony is claiming that the current release of Vista does not support Intel's Turbo Memory technology, but Microsoft has dismissed the allegation. If Microsoft is telling the truth then all is well. But if Sony is right, Microsoft has opened itself to being sued for deceptive marketing practices.
Biotech

Submission + - Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Growing

Submitted by Bayoudegradeable
Bayoudegradeable writes: What are some of the costs of increased ethanol production? The Times Picayune in New Orleans is reporting on the massive, and growing Dead Zone that forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico. Farm runoff, fertilizers and the such are the direct cause and the increased corn production to fuel the ethanol craze is making things worse. Sounds like more bad news for an area still struggling to rebound from Katrina.
Security

Submission + - Federal security systems get help (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Securing Federal information systems is obviously a large and challenging enterprise. Just last week a study said despite improved efforts data on Federal PCs and laptops is still vulnerable to theft or loss a year after the officials in the face of the Veteran's Administration laptop loss scandal promised improvements. But more help is on the way. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today issued a new version of a draft guide for assessing the effectiveness of security controls in federal information systems. The content of the new guide is expected to be incorporated into automated tools that support the information security programs of federal agencies. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1606 7"
Space

Submission + - Jupiter moon pukes into space: probe movie

Submitted by Tablizer
Tablizer writes: The New Horizons probe caught the moon Io in the act of barfing into space. "This five-frame sequence of New Horizons images captures the giant plume from Io's Tvashtar volcano. Snapped by the probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter earlier this year, this first-ever "movie" of an Io plume clearly shows motion in the cloud of volcanic debris, which extends 330 kilometers (200 miles) above the moon's surface...The appearance and motion of the plume is remarkably similar to an ornamental fountain on Earth, replicated on a gigantic scale."
Moon

Submission + - Suggestions for Linux-friendly digital camcorder?

Submitted by stoomart
stoomart writes: I've never had a camcorder before but now that my wife and I have a new baby girl, I want to start capturing her life in digital videos along with the mass of digital pictures we already have.

Here are the only criteria I'm looking for.

- Able to directly connect via USB or Firewire (preferably USB but not required)
- Use non-optical storage (flash or hard drive)
- Be compatible with Linux/OSS
- I would like to stay around or under $300

For everything else, I'm up for suggestions.

Thanks, Stoo
Software

Submission + - How Apple will convert HFS to ZFS (storagemojo.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The biggest problem with a new file system like ZFS is the conversion. Backup and restore? I don't think so. StorageMojo has a quick overview of the recent Apple patent application "Converting file-systems that organize and store data for computing systems". You don't move the files, you just change out the file system underneath them. Very neat.

The money quote:

The converter reads the existing file system to find out where all the files are on disk. Then it creates a new set of data structures, such as a catalog and file extents, for the new file system. After verifying the new data structures, the converter can then replace the first file system by modifying the disk's partition map and and overwriting the volume headers of the first file system.
The patent talks about embedding the converter in iTunes, but StorageMojo speculates Apple may be playing a deeper game to ultimately challenge Windows on non-Apple hardware.
Businesses

Submission + - Virtual Land Dispute Moves to Real-life Courtroom (gamepolitics.com)

Submitted by
Sidepocket_Pro
Sidepocket_Pro writes: "Bragg (a attorney who exploited a URL quirk to grab several plots of virtual land for cheap in the popular MMO Second Life and violating the game's Terms of Service) filed suit in a Pennsylvania court, claiming he was the rightful owner of the virtual real estate and that the game's flawed auction system didn't negate the sale legally. Bragg also laid claim to his virtual cash in Lindens, worth about $3,200 USD. Linden Labs officially supports a Linden-to-dollar exchange, and promotes the idea that players own their virtual property. According to Ars Technica, Linden Labs has filed two motions to dismiss Bragg's suit, arguing that the attorney acquired the land through "wrongful" means. The judge tossed both motions."

Linux beats Windows to Intel iMac 537

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
Ctrl+Alt+De1337 writes "The Mactel-Linux folks have now successfully booted Linux on a 17" Core Duo iMac. They used the elilo bootloader, a modified kernel, and a hacked vesafb to boot from a USB drive. No GUI pictures for now, just white text on a black background. The distro of choice was Gentoo, and instructions and patches are promised this weekend."

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