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EU

Submission + - Graphene and brain research to get around one billion euro in funding - each (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: The European Commission has announced two Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships that could each receive funding of a staggering one billion euro (US$1.3 billion) over a period of ten years. The “Graphene Flagship” and the “Human Brain Project” are large-scale, science-driven research initiatives designed to “fuel revolutionary discoveries” and provide major benefits for European society – hopefully creating new jobs and providing economic growth along the way.

The Graphene Flagship aims to get graphene out of the lab and into real world products and applications, while the Human Brain Project will attempt to gain a better understanding of our least understood organ so as to develop new treatments for brain diseases, build new computing technologies inspired by the architecture of the brain, and provide insights into what makes us human.
Bug

Submission + - Halo4 Xbox update Microsoft disables controllers (youtube.com)

Submitted by Stonefish
Stonefish writes: I have two xboxes, 5 controllers and recently purchased Halo4 for my childs birthday present, unfortunately Microsoft forces you to update the xbox firmware to play Halo4 so this was done. Afterwards I noticed that one of the MS controllers stopped working with this xbox however it still worked with the other xbox. Later the other xbox was updated with the new firmware and another controller, plus the one from the first xbox stopped working (now only 3 controllers work). I tried contracted xbox support and after a lot of being bounced around (wouldn't allow me to escallate) they finally gave me a references number of 1193769642 and told me to download the latest firmware and apply that to the xbox. I haven't done this because they said that they were unaware of any problem and I think there is a risk that the other controllers will stop working. The serial number on the controllers that stopped is the same x801769-707 75580276592599. Someone posted a URL demonstrating the same problem so it doesn't appear to be an isolated incident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VtjL2bg7wWs. I also found out that MS included functionality in the update to block third party controllers however my controllers areMS branded. I only noticed this because I have two xboxes, has anyone else been bent over by microsofts mission to stop third party controller and assumed that the controller died?
Privacy

Submission + - Whonix: Building an anonymous operating system (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Whonix is an attempt to build an open source operating system that puts a premium on privacy. It's based on Debian and Tor, but uses a novel virtual dual machine setup to sandbox applications so that even if there is an IP leak (either intentional or unintentional) a user's 'real' IP address should still be safe (with all the caveats that using Tor implies). I caught up with its creator Adrelanos to talk about how the project works and his future plans for the OS."
Encryption

Submission + - Crypto collisions crash major hashes (scmagazine.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: Flaws have been found in cryptographic systems underpinning host of web applications including those offered by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and those based on Java among scores of others.

The attacks target weaknesses in the hash algorithms that permit multiple hash collisions to take place.
Ruby On Rails, Mozilla and others have moved to a new hash built by the researchers who found the hole. Java has not.
Government

Submission + - Putting biotech threats in context (sagepub.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Great anecdote: " In 1998, President Bill Clinton read a novel about biological warfare that deeply disturbed him. In fact, the story reportedly kept him up all night. It’s one of the reasons that Clinton became personally invested in protecting the United States from bioterrorism threats." Article goes on to describe the two trajectories of bioweapons threats, and puts them both in perspective. A must-read for anyone, like Bill Clinton, who's ever spent a sleepless night after reading one of the many bioterrorism novels
Technology

Submission + - Turning SF's Bay Bridge into a Giant LED Display (xconomy.com)

Submitted by
waderoush
waderoush writes: "It may be the biggest art hack ever: a project to install 25,000 individually addressable LED lights on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. New York-based 'light sculptor' Leo Villareal was in San Francisco last week to test the vast 'Bay Lights' art installation, which will officially debut on March 5 and last for two years; Xconomy has photos and video of Villareal running the light show from his laptop. To optimize his algorithms and figure out which patterns would be most interesting or arresting, Villareal needed to experiment on the bridge itself, says Bay Lights director Ben Davis, who has raised $5.8 million for the project so far. 'This has never been done before in history — literally debugging software 500 feet in the air, in front of a million people,' says Davis."
Science

Submission + - Purported Relativity Paradox Resolved (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: A purported conflict between the century-old theory of classical electrodynamics and Einstein's theory of special relativity doesn't exist, a chorus of physicists says. Last April, an electrical engineer claimed that the equation that determines the force exerted on an electrically charged particle by electric and magnetic fields—the Lorentz force law—clashes with relativity, the theory that centers on how observers moving at a constant speed relative to one another will view the same events. To prove it, he concocted a simple "thought experiment" in which the Lorentz force law seemed to lead to a paradox. Now, four physicists independently say that they have resolved the paradox.
Businesses

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Job Search or More Education?

Submitted by Matt Steelblade
Matt Steelblade writes: I've been in love with computers since my early teens. I took out books from the library and just started messing around until I had learned QBasic, then Visual Basic 5, and how to take apart a computer. Fast forward 10 years. I'm a very recent college graduate with a BA in philosophy (because of seminary, which I recently left). I want to get into IT work, but am not sure where to start. I have about four years experience working at a grade/high school (about 350 computers) in which I did a lot of desktop maintenance and some work on their AD and website. At college (Loyola University Chicago) I tried to get my hands on whatever computer courses I could. I ended up taking an a python course, a C# course, and data structures (with python). I received either perfect scores or higher in these courses. I feel comfortable in what I know about computers, and know all to well what I don't. I think my greatest strength is in troubleshooting. With that being said, do I need more schooling? If so, should I try for an associates degree (I have easy access to a Gateway technical college) or should I go for an undergraduate (I think my best bet there would be UW-Madison). If not, should I try to get certified with CompTIA, or someone else? Or, would the best bet be to try to find a job or an internship? Thanks for the help, I've been a lurker for years.
Ubuntu

Submission + - Valve Releases Half-Life (Beta) For Linux (linuxgamecast.com)

Submitted by
Athens101
Athens101 writes: "Yesterday Valve released Half-Life (beta) for the Steam Linux client. "We have released Half-Life 1 in Beta form on Linux (and OS X). Please report any issues you see on our github issues page. "

About:
Half-Life is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation, the company’s debut product and the first in the Half-Life series. First released in 1998 by Sierra Studios for Windows PCs, the game was also released for the PlayStation 2.[2] In Half-Life, players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of a secret underground research facility whose research and experiments into teleportation technology have gone disastrously wrong."
Piracy

Submission + - Antigua applies to WTO for permission to run 'pirate' website (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Antigua is seeking permission to run a website that sells music, movies and software — but ignores copyright law. The Caribbean island is due to appear before the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 28 January seeking permission to run the site.

The decision to set up the site is the end point of a long-running dispute with the US over gambling. The US has objected to Antigua's plan saying it amounted to official "piracy" of intellectual property.

Antigua went to the WTO after the US moved to stop American citizens using gambling services, including web-based betting shops and casinos, run from the Caribbean country. Antigua claims that action deprived it of billions of dollars in revenue.

The WTO agreed with Antigua and dismissed a US appeal against its ruling. However, because the US took no action to lift the controls on cross-border gambling Antigua filed an application to recoup its lost cash by other means.

It sought permission to sell movies, music, games and software via a store that would be able to ignore global agreements on copyright and trademark controls, reports filesharing news site TorrentFreak. It wanted to be able to sell up to $3.4bn of those goods before having to make copyright payments.

The WTO rejected that figure, but said Antigua could sell $21m annually via the store before it had to consider paying copyright fees. The US is believed to have offered to pay Antigua $500,000 annually as compensation for the lost revenue.

Submission + - Steve Jobs movie clip historically inaccurate, says Woz (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday saw the first clip from the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak. The full film will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival later today and is set for a wider theatrical release in April.

After seeing the clip, Woz chimed in and noted that the event depicted therein was completely false and never happened.

"Totally wrong. Personalities and where the ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs. They inspired me and were widely spoken at the Homebrew Computer Club. Steve came back from Oregon and came to a club meeting and didn't start talking about this great social impact. His idea was to make a $20 PC board and sell it for $40 to help people at the club build the computer I'd given away. Steve came from selling surplus parts at HalTed he always saw a way to make a quick buck off my designs (this was the 5th time).

The lofty talk came much further down the line.

I never looked like a professional. We were both kids. Our relationship was so different than what was portrayed. I'm embarrassed but if the movie is fun and entertaining, all the better. Anyone who reads my book iWoz can get a clearer picture."
Google

Submission + - Thousands of Publicly Addressable Printers Searchable on Google (port3000.co.uk)

Submitted by Jeremiah Cornelius
Jeremiah Cornelius writes: Blogger Adam Howard, at Port3000, has a post about Google's exposure of thousands of publicly accessible printers. "A quick, well crafted Google search returns "About 86,800 results" for publically accessible HP printers." He continues, "There's something interesting about being able to print to a random location around the world, with no idea of the consequence." He also warns about these printers as a possible beachhead for deeper network intrusion and exploitation. With many of the HP printers in question containing a web listener and a highly vulnerable and unpatched JVM, I agree that this is not an exotic idea. In the meanwhile? I have an important memo for all Starbucks employees. ;-)
Microsoft

Submission + - Does Microsoft have the best app store for open source developers? (infoworld.com) 2

Submitted by
WebMink
WebMink writes: "Microsoft seems to have been in combat against the GNU GPL throughout the history of free and open source software. But that may be changing. They have recently updated the terms of use for software developers in their Windows Phone app store to allow any OSI-approved open source license — even the GPL. They include extraordinarily broad language that gives the open source license priority over their own license terms, saying:

if your Application or In-App Product includes FOSS, your license terms may conflict with the limitations set forth in Section 3 of the Standard Application License Terms, but only to the extent required by the FOSS that you use

Could it be that the most open source friendly app stores will be the ones run my Microsoft?"
GNOME

Submission + - Fedora proposal to support FreeBSD kernel and Cinnamon by default (fedoraproject.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following the controversial changes pushed by the Red Hat backed Gnome Foundation and the systemd project on Fedora, some members of the community decided to rebel against it by proposing 2 changes to bring back the stability and productivity to users. The first one is about using Cinnamon by default, a Gnome 3 fork aiming at providing a more productive desktop environment, based on the Gnome stack. Cinnamon is already offered by Mint, one of of the most used and popular Linux desktop distribution and is present since Fedora 17 as a option. But the 2nd proposal is much more controversial. based on the rise of Debian, Gentoo or Arch Linux port on Freebsd, a group of developers propose to port the user space of Fedora to FreeBSD, and offer FreeBSD kernel as a option, citing features like ZFS as a justification. Of course, this also bring into questions the limitation of systemd and many others tools.

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