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Submission + - Google, meet Uncle Sam

Submitted by

InternetVoting

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @03:00PM

InternetVoting writes: "Looks like Google is trying to increase its stake in government and military operations. At a meeting of about 200 federal contractors, engineers and uniformed military members Google pitched enhanced versions of Google Earth; search engines that can be used internally by agencies; and the new Google Apps. From the article:
"Google has ramped up its sales force in the Washington area in the past year to adapt its technology products to the needs of the military, civilian agencies and the intelligence community. Already, agencies use enhanced versions of Google's 3-D mapping product, Google Earth, to display information for the military on the ground in Iraq and to track airplanes that fight forest fires across the country.""

Submission + - DOT gets Between Airline Passangers and Doom

Submitted by

JonLesser

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @02:55PM

JonLesser writes: "On Dec. 8, 2005, Virgin America filed an application with the DOT to provide air service in the US. Shortly after the application was filed, Continental, American, United, and Delta filed the first of a wave of opposition briefs and legal motions to try to stop or slow down the DOT approval process.

VA set up a website in an effort to mobilize a grass-roots campaign to support their application. A key selling point for the public is the linux-based in-flight entertainment system. In a video on the website Charles Ogilvie, Director of In-Flight Entertainment and Partnerships, demos Doom and claims VA is planning to reach out to Linux game developers in search of more games for the system."

Submission + - C-SPAN Takedown Notice to U.S. Congress

Submitted by

Carl Malamud

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @02:28PM

Carl Malamud writes: "The New York Times reported on a dustup between C-SPAN and the new Speaker of the House. Speaker Pelosi placed a minute of a congressional hearing on her blog, and C-SPAN sent her a takedown notice. Pelosi caved in and removed the offending video. I think she should have asserted her rights to fair use and told C-SPAN to f*ck off.

The issue of congressional hearings on-line is an important one. Many of the committees, as a matter of policy, refuse to provide archives and everything is streaming-only, low resolution, proprietary. As a partial solution, I've started ripping those streams and uploading them to Google Video and the Internet Archive. (BoingBoing story)

As to C-SPAN, I think they're wrong, and I sent a letter to Brian Lamb yesterday offering to purchase all 6,251 DVDs in his collection that are congressional hearings, and pointed him to >1 minute of C-SPAN video which I have on-line and asserted fair use. Here's my letter to Brian. He hasn't answered my offer, but if he does, I'll then be faced with a $1,059,544 question. :)"

Submission + - Electrical charge helps re-grow body part

Submitted by

MattSparkes

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @10:21AM

MattSparkes writes: "Tadpoles can regenerate their tails thanks to a technique that alters the electrical properties of their cells, a new study shows. The build-up of electrical charge at the site of amputation helps guide tissue regeneration. They speculate that doctors might one day be able to regenerate tissue in patients — such as those who have suffered spinal cord injury, or even those who have lost fingers — by altering the flow of positively charged molecules out of cells."

Submission + - Boycott the RIAA in March

Submitted by Barrien on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @08:50AM

Barrien writes: The guys over at Gizmodo have declared a boycott of the RIAA during the month of March. They are not advocating piracy, instead they suggest buying non-signed artist's music, or music that is available online. The full scoop can be found on their webpage, or here's a direct link to their plan. This is how we make our stand against the monster that is the RIAA.

Journal Journal: Charging $419 Dollars To Replace A Hard Drive 1

Journal by Alien54 on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @12:08AM

A sad tale in which Geek Squad charged $419 to replace a harddrive, and also made the customer retrieve his own data.

Submission + - Firefox 3.0 Opens Door to Web Apps, Mozilla Says

Submitted by MilwaukeeCharlie on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @09:01PM

MilwaukeeCharlie writes: CIO Magazine is reporting some buzz about Firefox 3.0, due to be released later this year.

Some of the likely new features include:

Offline support for web apps

New paradigm for "bookmarks" and "history"

Built-in database (SQL Lite), used for full-text indexing of the cache

Support for Javascript 2

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