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Transportation

Submission + - @sshole Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams (physicscentral.com) 3

Submitted by
BuzzSkyline
BuzzSkyline writes: "Traffic jams are minimized if a significant fraction of drivers break the rules by doing things like passing on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to an intersection. The insight comes from a cellular automata study published this month in the journal Physical Review E. In effect, people who disregard the rules help to break up the groups that form as rule-followers clump together. The risk of jamming is lower if all people obey the rules than if they all disobey them, according to the analysis, but jamming risk is lowest when about 40 percent of people drive like jerks."
Announcements

Submission + - Sun's JRuby developers move to Engine Yard (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The three core JRuby developers (Thomas Enebo, Nick Sieger, and Charles Nutter) quit Sun as the Oracle aquisition approaches. All 3 will join Engine Yard.
Quickies

Submission + - New From Coca-Cola ... Fizzy Milk? (foxnews.com) 3

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Cows may not think it is the real thing, but Coca-Cola is preparing to launch fizzy milk on the world.

The drink contains skim milk mixed with sparkling water, flavored with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar.

Scientists have developed the drink at the firm's laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, ensuring it will not curdle in its 8 oz. aluminium bottle.

Going under the name Vio, Coca-Cola has begun test-marketing the carbonated drink at natural food stores and delis in New York. It sells for about $2.50 a bottle, no chilling required. One of Coke's copywriters claims it tastes "like a birthday party for a polar bear."

It comes in four "natural" flavors — peach mango, berry, citrus and tropical colada — and could even be marketed as a healthy nutritional drink. But it has 26 grams of sugar a bottle, on a par with other non-diet Coca-Cola products, and 1.5 grams of fat.

The drink is part of a wider Coke initiative called Project Life to develop milk-based products. If it is a success in the United States it could be launched globally.

FoxNews : http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534917,00.html
Media

Submission + - Music industry thrives in an era of file sharing (zeropaid.com)

Submitted by
levicivita
levicivita writes: "Zero Paid analyzes a recent study "Adding up the Music Industry for 2008" by "Will Page, the Chief Economist for PRS for Music, a UK-based royalty collecting group for music writers, composers, and publishers" which found that "total music industry revenues are up 4.7% since 2007 [which] corroborates what many studies have shown, that P2P actually increases music consumption." How is that possible? Will reports that "sales of recorded music fell 6% [...], digital was up 50% while physical dropped 10%, but concert ticket sales grew by 13%.""
Enlightenment

Submission + - Reviving the RPG in MMORPG

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: MMORPGs like World of Warcraft are, to the chagrin of consumers and the delight of publishers, entertaining to the point of being addicting. Yet when the definition of RPG is applied in full, most of these MMORPGs either neuter or flat-out ignore the RPG element. Though the notion at first appears to be a pile of semantic nitpicking (especially given the overwhelming success of these games), a slew of recent updates and a few notable examples prove that the inclusion of the RPG element can be beneficial for all involved parties, and that the ability for players to have lasting influence true to the definition of RPG may turn out to be more a necessity than a nicety.
Digital

Submission + - Jeff Bezos: 'Sorry for remotely erasing "1984& (nytimes.com)

Submitted by levicivita
levicivita writes: From the down-but-not-out NYT comes an article (warning login may be required) about user backlash against Kindle's embedded DRM: "Last week, Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, offered an apparently heartfelt and anguished mea culpa to customers whose digital editions of George Orwell's "1984" were remotely deleted from their Kindle reading devices. Though copies of the books were sold by a bookseller that did not have legal rights to the novel, Mr. Bezos wrote on a company forum that Amazon's " 'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles." Jeff's post is here.
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Censors 4chan server 13

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/94pf2/att_is_now_blocking_all_access_to_img4chanorg/ Details how img.4chan.org (home of the notorious /b/ — "Random" image board) is being actively blocked by AT&T. According to the scant details available on 4chan and Reddit there are reports that img.4chan.org has become inaccessible from California to Texas and some reports claim as far east as Connecticut. Supposedly this is to stop a ring of pedophiles, but as one Reddit poster said it best "First the came for the pedophiles and I was not a pedophile..."
Disturbing news indeed.
Google

Submission + - Crowdsourcing the Google Books Settlement (thepublicindex.org)

Submitted by
oliphaunt
oliphaunt writes: "The folks at NY Law have launched The Public Index to explore the proposed settlement agreement that would end all of the various class-action lawsuits that were filed to stop Google from scanning every book in the world. They've republished all the litigation documents and the proposed agreement, and they're inviting world + dog to post commentary. Even if you're not a lawyer, here's your chance to post a comment that might end up in a legal brief.

The Public Index is a project of the Public-Interest Book Search Initiative and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. We are a group of professors, students, and volunteers who believe that the Google Book Search lawsuit and settlement deserve a full, careful, and thoughtful public discussion. The Public Index is a site for people from all points of view to learn from each other about the settlement and join together to make their voices heard in the public debate.

"
Idle

Submission + - A bear who's smarter than the average engineer

Submitted by gyrogeerloose
gyrogeerloose writes: The San Diego Union-Tribune reports in a New York Times wire service story that a black bear known as "Yellow-Yellow" (named for the two yellow ear tags she sports) has solved the problem of opening a food container that was previously thought to be bear-proof. The container, known as The Bear Vault, was constructed in a manner similar to a child-proof pill bottle and had passed tests at zoos where bears were given a certain time to break in. The only bears able to open it were grizzlies large and strong enough to rip the lid off using brute force--up several years ago, when campers in the High Peaks region of New York's Adirondack Mountains started reporting successful break-ins. A redesigned canister was introduced last year; Yellow-Yellow, a relatively petite 120-pound black bear, figured that one out too. The manufacturer is working on a new design expected to be released next year. New York state officials have agreed to test it by filling it with food and placing it in Yellow-Yellow's territory.
Social Networks

Submission + - University Faces Student Revolt on Facebook

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada has just recently been faced with a surprisingly strong revolt from its students-- on Facebook. Within days of a leak of the University's proposed logo change (existing logo, new logo), students set up a Facebook group violently opposing the new logo's unprofessional visual appeal as well as the lack of student involvement in the process of changing the University's marketing image. Within 36 hours, over 6,000 students (almost a quarter of the total student population) joined the Facebook group, posting dissent, images ridiculing the proposed logo, and expressing their violent aversion to the design and spirit of the new logo. University officials met with the Facebook group creators, unprepared for the quick online mobilization. Yet despite the public outcry, the University seems not to give much credence to the pleas of their students asking for involvement and transparency, viewing the online mobilization as more a curiosity than serious action. The new logo, looking a bit too much like that of W Hotels, is set to roll out beginning September 2009, with little to no warning or consultation with students.
Handhelds

Submission + - Palm Pre iTunes syncing back with WebOS 1.1 update (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Things just got a little more heated between Palm and Apple. On Thursday, Palm released WebOS 1.1 for the Palm Pre, which, among other things, brings back iTunes syncing even with version 8.2.1, which disabled the feature. The news was posted on Palm's blog where it listed the new features and enhancements of the software update and nonchalantly added at the end:

        "Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. That's right--you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1)."

Bold move, Palm. Bold move. It'll be interesting to see how Apple responds, and do you suppose the use of the phrase "one more thing," a phrase that Apple CEO Steve Jobs often uses to introduce a new product at the end of his keynotes, was intentional or am I just reading too much into this?

Aside from the media syncing features, WebOS 1.1 also delivers more enterprise-friendly features, including more additions to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. The Pre now offers remote, PIN/password requirements, inactivity timeout, improved certificate handling, and more.

CNET News : http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10294633-1.html
Security

Submission + - America's 10 most wanted botnets (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
bednarz
bednarz writes: "Network World ranks America's 10 most wanted botnets, based on an estimate by security firm Damballa of botnet size and activity in the United States. The leader is Zeus, with 3.6 million compromised PCs so far. The Zeus Trojan uses key-logging techniques to steal user names, passwords, account numbers and credit card numbers, and it injects fake HTML forms into online banking login pages to steal user data. At the bottom of the list is Conficker, which despite its celebrity status has compromised just 210,000 U.S. computers so far."
The Internet

Submission + - Twitter Co-founder's House Is Up For Sale (sergiomayorga.com)

Submitted by
tjsermay
tjsermay writes: "Biz Stone co-founder of the world's new super power microblog, Twitter, has announced that he plans to sell his house, as announced as saleable on a Tweet posted by Stone himself.

The mid-century, modern-style cottage, designed by architect William Wurster, is "peaceful and stylistic," reads the listing. Biz Stone is demanding $575,000 for the house.

Source here."

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