Mercury - Slashdot User

Submission + - Obama Nominates RIAA Lawyer for Solicitor General (wired.com)

Submitted by Xiph1980 on Tuesday January 25, 2011 @06:24AM

Xiph1980 writes: President Barack Obama on Monday nominated former Recording Industry Association of America lawyer Donald Verrilli Jr. to serve as the nation’s solicitor general.

The solicitor general is charged with defending the government before the Supreme Court, and files friend-of-the court briefs in cases in which the government believes there is a significant legal issue. The office also determines which cases it would bring to the Supreme Court for review.

Verrilli is best known for leading the recording industry’s legal charge against music- and movie-sharing site Grokster. That 2003 case ultimately led to Grokster’s demise when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the RIAA’s verdict.

Submission + - How Chrysler's Battery-Less Hybrid Minivan Works (greencarreports.com)

Submitted by thecarchik on Monday January 24, 2011 @03:55PM

thecarchik writes: Chrysler announced Wednesday that it would partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to build and test prototypes of a different kind of hybrid vehicle , one that accumulates energy not in a battery pack but by compressing a gas hydraulically. The system in question, originally developed at the EPA labs, uses engine overrun torque to capture otherwise wasted energy, as do conventional hybrid-electric vehicles. The engine is Chrysler's standard 2.4-liter four-cylinder, the base engine in its minivan line. But rather than turning a generator, that torque powers a pump that uses hydraulic fluid to increase the pressure inside a 14.4-gallon tank of nitrogen gas, known as a high-pressure accumulator.

Submission + - BBC to dispose of Douglas Adams web-site (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24, 2011 @10:13AM

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has announced an intention to dispose of the h2g2 web-site, the web-site set up by Douglas Adams. One option under discusion is a community buy out.

Submission + - 'Universal' memory aims to replace flash/DRAM (eetimes.com)

Submitted by siliconbits on Monday January 24, 2011 @06:55AM

siliconbits writes: —A single "universal" memory technology that combines the speed of DRAM with the non-volatility and density of flash memory was recently invented at North Carolina State University, according to researchers. The new memory technology, which uses a double floating-gate field-effect-transistor (FET), should enable computers to power down memories not currently being accessed, drastically cutting the energy consumed by computers of all types, from mobile and desktop computers to server farms and data centers, the researchers say.

Submission + - Italian Scientists Demonstrate Cold Fusion? (physorg.com) 2

Submitted by Haffner on Monday January 24, 2011 @06:37AM

Haffner writes: An article on physorg.com details what could be the first cold fusion reactor.

"Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W....when the atomic nuclei of nickel and hydrogen are fused in their reactor, the reaction produces copper and a large amount of energy. The reactor uses less than 1 gram of hydrogen and starts with about 1,000 W of electricity, which is reduced to 400 W after a few minutes. Every minute, the reaction can convert 292 grams of 20C water into dry steam at about 101C. Since raising the temperature of water by 80C and converting it to steam requires about 12,400 W of power, the experiment provides a power gain of 12,400/400 = 31."

Submission + - Chinese Stealth Fighter Jet May Use US Technology

Submitted by

Ponca City

on Monday January 24, 2011 @05:17AM

Ponca City writes: "In 1999 a US F-117 Nighthawk was downed by a Serbian anti-aircraft missile during a bombing raid. It was the first time one of the fighters had been hit, and the Pentagon blamed clever tactics and sheer luck. The pilot ejected and was rescued. Now the Guardian reports that pieces of the wrecked US F-117 stealth fighter ended up in the hands of foreign military attaches. "At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," says Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war. "We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them." Zoran Kusovac says the Serbian regime routinely shared captured western equipment with its Chinese and Russian allies. "The destroyed F-117 topped that wish-list for both the Russians and Chinese," says Kusovac."

Submission + - Twitter Hit with Scareware Scam using Google URLs (blorge.com)

Submitted by destinyland on Sunday January 23, 2011 @02:34PM

destinyland writes: Security firm Kaspersky is warning Twitter users about a scareware scam which uses links made with Google's URL shortening service. The Goo.gl links are redirected three times, once through a Ukranian site, before presenting a bogus security warning which attempts to install malware. "It automatically translates most of the text that appears...into whichever language the operating system is set to," reports one technology site, "thus presumably widening the potential audience of victims. It also uses a trick of encrypting and then decrypting the code used in the bogus security software site, which may help it get past some legitimate security scanners." Twitter's head of trust and safety also confirms the attack, saying he believes the hackers are using accounts that were previously been compromised in a phishing attack.

Submission + - UK authorities accused of inciting illegal protest (schnews.org.uk)

Submitted by jarran on Sunday January 23, 2011 @02:27PM

jarran writes: Questions are being asked about the tactics being employed by UK authorities to monitor and control protest groups. Schnews reports on evidence that government IP addresses are posting messages to sites like Indymedia, attempting to provoke activists into taking illegal direct action. Evidence has emerged recently that the police consider sex to be a legitimate tool for extracting information from targets, and senior police have been accused of lying to parliament about the deployment of undercover agents at protests.

Submission + - IRS Nails CPA for Copying Steve Jobs, Google Execs 1

Submitted by theodp on Saturday January 22, 2011 @06:14PM

theodp writes: Silly rabbit, $1 salaries are for super-wealthy tech execs! The WSJ reports that CPA David Watson incurred the wrath of the IRS by only paying himself $24,000 a year and declaring the rest of his take profit. It's a common tax-cutting maneuver that most computer consultants working through an S Corporation have probably considered. Unlike profit distributions, all salary is subject to a 2.9% Medicare tax and the first $106,800 is subject to a 12.4% Social Security tax (FICA). By reducing his salary, Watson didn't save any income taxes on the $379k in profit distributions he received in 2002 and 2003, but he did save nearly $20,000 in payroll taxes for the two years, the IRS argued, pegging Watson's true pay at $91,044 for each year. Judge Robert W. Pratt agreed that Watson's salary was too low, ruling that the CPA owed the extra tax plus interest and penalties. So why, you ask, don't members of the much-ballyhooed $1 Executive club like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt get in hot water for their low-ball salaries? After all, how inequitable would it be if billionaires working full-time didn't have to kick in more than 15 cents into the Medicare and Social Security kitty? Sorry kids, the rich are different, and the New Global Elite have much better tax advisors than you!

Submission + - New TV Show May Violate Child Pornography Laws 3

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Saturday January 22, 2011 @01:18AM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The Contra Costa Times reports that executives at MTV are concerned that some scenes from the provocative new show "Skins" may violate child pornography statutes defined by the federal government as any visual depiction of someone under 18 engaged in sexually explicit conduct. "Skins" is an import from Britain, a country that has historically displayed a higher tolerance for TV eroticism and episodes there included simulated masturbation, implied sexual assault, and teenagers disrobing and getting into bed together. The early episodes for MTV, including the third one, are virtually identical to the source material. The Parents Television Council, a TV watchdog group, has labeled "Skins" the "most dangerous program that has ever been foisted on your children" and has asked Congress and the Justice Department to investigate because unlike "Glee" and other TV shows depicting sexually active teenagers, the actors in "Skins" are still teenagers, rather than actors in their 20s. However MTV says the show addresses real-world issues confronting teens in a frank way. "We also have taken numerous steps to alert viewers to the strong subject matter so that they can choose for themselves whether it is appropriate.""

Submission + - Google Submits VP8 Draft to the IETF (cnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 22, 2011 @12:19AM

An anonymous reader writes: Google has submitted an Internet Draft covering the bitstream format and decoding of VP8 video to the Internet Engineering Task Force. CNET's Stephen Shankland writes, 'Google representatives published the "VP8 Data Format and Decoding Guide" at the IETF earlier this month, but that doesn't signal standardization, the company said in a statement. The document details the VP8 bitstream--the actual sequence of bytes into which video is encoded. "We submitted the VP8 bitstream reference as an IETF Independent RFC [request for comments] to create a canonical public reference for the document," Google said. "This is independent from a standards track."'

Submission + - Comics Code dead (comicsbeat.com)

Submitted by tverbeek on Friday January 21, 2011 @10:32PM

tverbeek writes: After more than half a century of stifling the comic book industry, the Comics Code Authority is effectively dead. Created in response to Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, one of the early think-of-the-children censorship campaigns, and Congressional hearings, the Code laid out a checklist of requirements and restrictions for comics to be distributed to newsstand vendors, effectively ensuring that in North America, only simplistic stories for children would be told using the medium of sequential art. It gradually lost many of its teeth, and an increasing number of publishers gave up on newsstand distribution and ignored the Code, but at the turn of the century the US's largest comics publishers still participated. Marvel quit it in 2001, in favor of self-applied ratings styled after the MPAA's and ESRB's. Last year Bongo (publishers of the Simpsons comics) quietly dropped out. Now DC and Archie, the last publishers willingly subjecting their books to approval, have announced that they're discontinuing their use of the CCA, with DC following Marvel's example, and Archie (which recently introduced an openly gay supporting character, something flatly forbidden by the original Code) carrying on under their own standards. The Code's cousins: the MPAA and ESRB ratings, the RIAA parental advisory, and the mishmash of warnings on TV shows still live on, but at least North American comics publishers are no longer subject to external censorship.

Submission + - Last Days For Central IP Address Pool (potaroo.net)

Submitted by jibjibjib on Friday January 21, 2011 @10:16PM

jibjibjib writes: According to projections by APNIC Chief Scientist Geoff Huston, IANA's central IPv4 address pool is expected to run out any day now, leaving the internet with a very limited remaining supply of addresses.

APNIC will probably request two /8s (33 million addresses) within the next few weeks. This will leave five /8s available, which will be immediately distributed to the five Regional Internet Registries in accordance with IANA policy.

It's expected that APNIC's own address pool will run low during 2011, making ISPs and businesses in the Asia-Pacific region the first to feel the effects of IPv4 exhaustion.

The long-term solution to IP address exhaustion is provided by IPv6, the next version of the Internet Protocol. IPv6 has been an internet standard for over a decade, but is still unsupported on many networks and makes up an almost negligible fraction of Internet traffic.

Unless ISPs dramatically accelerate the pace of IPv6 deployment, users in some regions will be stuck on IPv4-only connections while ISPs in other regions run out of public IPv4 addresses, leading to a fragmented Internet without the universal connectivity we've previously taken for granted.

Submission + - The End of Scarce Oil and Atmospheric CO2 Problems (theglobeandmail.com) 1

Submitted by Saysys on Friday January 21, 2011 @08:59PM

Saysys writes: n September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company named Joule Unlimited received a patent for “a proprietary organism” – a genetically engineered cyanobacterium that produces liquid hydrocarbons: diesel fuel, jet fuel and gasoline. This breakthrough technology, the company says, will deliver renewable supplies of liquid fossil fuel almost anywhere on Earth, in essentially unlimited quantity and at an energy-cost equivalent of $30 (U.S.) a barrel of crude oil. It will deliver, the company says, “fossil fuels on demand.”

oule says it now has “a library” of fossil-fuel organisms at work in its Massachusetts labs, each engineered to produce a different fuel. It has “proven the process,” has produced ethanol (for example) at a rate equivalent to 10,000 U.S. gallons an acre a year. It anticipates that this yield could hit 25,000 gallons an acre a year when scaled for commercial production, equivalent to roughly 800 barrels of crude an acre a year.

Submission + - Best Buy sells 2TB drive box with 60Gig inside 1

Submitted by fdisk3hs on Friday January 21, 2011 @07:18PM

fdisk3hs writes: I posted today to the Best Buy forums about my recent hard drive purchase at one of their local stores. My wife bought a 2TB Seagate SATA drive for me as a gift. Today I took the day off work while our new furnace was being installed at the house, and thought it was a good time to install my new drive. I cut the cellophane and the circular sticker off of the flap of the box, and opened it. Inside was an anti-static bag with a sticker across the opening. I tore the sticker and pulled out — a 60GB IDE drive with an Apple logo on it. Somewhere in the world a G4 iMac is missing it's drive.
I took the receipt and everything back to the store, where the manager said that he had never seen that before, and that he was not going to exchange or refund it. He suggested that I call Seagate or 888-Best-Buy.
Apparently I am just another statistic.

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