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Space

Submission + - Would a bridge help the space elevator?

Submitted by
FredK
FredK writes: "Start with with well crafted parts for a bridge in circular equatorial earth orbit, say 250-300 miles up. Dangle conductive cables to generate power beamed to earth causing the parts to slow and fit together in a gigantic arch. When the arch has slowed to geosynchronous speed attach cables at various places to anchor it to the earth. Before this rockets on the bridge may be necessary to keep it properly aligned. If compressive force would be too large perhaps this could be combined with the suspension bridge idea by attaching parts of the bridge to large bodies slightly outside their natural geosynchronous orbits. Such bodies would need to drift out from near the location of the bridge as the bridge is slowed. Such a bridge would be "mostly impractical" to build, but is it "totally impractical"?"
Privacy

Submission + - School taking action against Network freedom 1

Submitted by
Tristan Stillwell
Tristan Stillwell writes: "I am a teenage high school student in the municipality of Bunn, North Carolina.
Today I found out I was suspended from school for ten days for possessing programs that were "capable of doing damage to the private school network". The programs were Firefox Portable and VNC viewer, and BlueJ Java Development Environment. I, an 18 year old high school student, was informed through my aunt, who was called about this disciplinary problem ( Isn't this private information?). I have no chance to appeal this suspension and are being forcefully and permanently removed from my Java(c) Computer Science and US government and Politics courses which I was taking through the state. I will most likely receive grades of ZERO (0) for both classes, thus destroying any chance I ever have of getting into a decent college. I am initially receiving a 10 day suspension, and then possibly a longer suspension pending investigation. Note- the school has found nothing I might have done to potentially cause damage to the network, I was suspended for having the programs- nothing else. I plan to contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation for help with this clearly unfair oppression. The only (thought) crime I have committed is one arousing suspicion, not arriving from action. I will provide further information after I officially receive the suspension."
Privacy

Submission + - Was Qwest Punished For Not Spying?

Submitted by Avantare
Avantare writes: QWest did the right thing and rejected the governments request for telephone records. But at what cost? An interesting article from CBS News bringing to light court papers that suggest convicted Exec's rejection of classified project led to loss of goverment business. Makes you wonder what kind of 'rewards' AT&T, Bellsouth and Verizon got from the government.
Security

Submission + - Microsoft Security Evangelist Eschews Antivirus (beskerming.com)

Submitted by
SkiifGeek
SkiifGeek writes: "With October being Cyber Security Awareness Month (recognised here, amongst other places), news that one of Microsoft's chief Security Evangelists intentionally avoids running any Antivirus software is an interesting statement of faith in the capabilities of the Windows Firewall, Vista's UAC, and end user education.

Making such a bold statement is not without it's risks."
Spam

Submission + - Obama, Ospamma 2

Submitted by Moryath
Moryath writes: A couple days ago I submitted the a question in the politics area — I guess maybe it's better as an Ask Slashdot.

My spam traps (email addresses that exist solely to receive spam, for filtration's sake) and my real address have recently seen a ton of mail from the Barack Obama campaign. Their unsubscribe link does not work; email to the campaign asking them to remove my addresses was responded with a form letter thanking me for "joining" the campaign and asking me to donate money; and phone calls have all been hung up on.

Why is this allowed? And what response would Slashdotters suggest for a campaign that is obviously unwilling to respect my request NOT to receive their spam?

The last submission here sat "pending" for 3 days and then was rejected, presumably by a slashdotter who favors Obama. We'll see if this goes any better in this category. I'd really like to see the Obama campaign clean up their act, it's obvious they have bought a spammer list and are using it.
Democrats

Submission + - Democrats blocking permenant ban on Net Tax (technewsworld.com) 1

Submitted by slashkossucks
slashkossucks writes: Net neutrality? How about the ban on taxing internet access? For 10 years now, Americans have enjoyed tax free access to the internet. None of the annoying fees and surcharges that are all-too-familiar with telephone bills are allowed. However, this ban is about to expire, and the consumer is the one who will pay the price if it does. Senator McCain and other Republicans would like to re-instate the ban, making it permanent. But Democrats are blocking this effort. Shame on them. And shame on Slashdot for covering it up.
The Internet

Submission + - FCC asked to mandate 'e-mail address portability' 1

Submitted by nam37
nam37 writes: C|Net has an article up about the Federal Communications Commission being asked to create mandatory "e-mail address portability." The petition to the FCC (warning .PDF) based on the idea that because the U.S. Post Office offers to forward physical mail, and because FCC rules require telephone service providers to offer number portability, the same principle should be extended to e-mail accounts.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Wi-Fi Certified? Does HP care? False Advertising

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wi-Fi certification, for 802.11b/g is supposed to make all our lives easier by ensuring that we are dealing with hardware that conforms to the specification as written. This is to let our individual multi-vendor hardware configurations interoperate properly. What happens when device that sports the Wi-Fi certified logo, is realy not? That's when the trouble begins.

I purchased a wireless printer last night that was Wi-Fi certified. I purchased the HP Photsmart C4385 all in one (PSC). I purchased HP because I'm a little biased. I chose this printer over the equivalent pricepoint Lexmark X6370 Wi-Fi certified Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax. Specifically because it was HP and I was expecting the stnadards compliance to be more normalized.

When I got the printer home, I went through the install instructions, and got to the wireless portion. Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch. Until I had to type in my WPA-PSK. I copied it directly from my WRT54G configuration page. And that's when things stopped working.

The error message was "Error while saving settings to the device". Nothing more descriptive. Nothing more detailed. So at first I thought it might have been the spaces in my WPA-PSK. So I tried the key w/o the spaces, just to see. Still the same error. I finally gave up after a half hour and called HP. After a short wait, I got an individual whose first language was not English, who kept insisting that I re-type the WEP key. (No matter how many times I explained that I was using WPA and the printer had correctly detected this.) Finally he decided I should stop after repeatedly having me enter different combinations.

They scheduled a callback (after much prompting) for 10p. At 10:15p, I called back. Got a tech who explained that "due to heavy call volume", they were going to call me back tomorrow morning to work with me to fix the issue. As if I was going to be sitting at home waiting to fix a printer and not go to my day job. I explained that this would not work. He then escalated to his supervisor. Who STILL did not have English as a first language. After repeating my problem to her for an hour, and teaching her the difference between WPA and WEP, she started on the "Let us call you tomorrow. We will escalate this to a case manager". She did ask one useful question — she asked about special characters in the WPA key (she finally got it right).

Meanwhile, for the prior 1h nothing had been done. I insisted that we at least attempt to install the printer one more time. This time, when we got to the WPA-PSK entry, she asked me to try the WPA password but to remove the spaces and dashes.

THE PRINTER ACCEPTED THE WPA-PSK. But it would not accept any password with dashes or spaces. This is not Wi-Fi 802.11g standards compliant. Spaces, dashes and other printable characters are what makes WPA worth having by allowing you to have a strong password.

I actually had to change all my other wireless devices JUST to use the printer with the dummied down password.

Has anyone else encountered problems like this? I keep thinking that I should report this somewhere as false advertising, and inappropriate use of the Wi-Fi certification logo by HP on this printer.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Security

Submission + - New scam or just a really bad work policy? 4

Submitted by greymond
greymond writes: I recently received an email from a recruiting company for a Graphic Design / Desktop Publishing position. While I have my resume available online as well as pieces of my portfolio I didn't find it at all strange to receive this initial email. I hadn't responded by the afternoon when I received a call from a lady named Pyra who asked me to send her my latest resume because they were very interested in hiring me. I asked about the positions pay since the job title and position seemed like it would be a lot lower pay grade than my current Art Director position I now hold. She said she would inquire about it, but to please send my resume.

Now here is where it gets strange...I sent my resume off (note: my resume has only my name, number and email listed in it — no address) I then received this email asking for my Social Security Number. I found this to be VERY odd as no one ever has asked me for that, save the human resource manager of a company who has already hired me. When I told her I would wait until the interview to give it to them, I was then sent this email which had this letter attached to it. I responded with the same response and needless to say I haven't heard back from them.

Oh and in case my bandwidth gets blown up, the recruiting company was Agneto and the company they were hiring for was supposedly AT&T. So, is this really just a new elaborate scam or just a really bad new business policy?
Networking

Submission + - FCC working to revise 700 MHz open-access (rcrnews.com)

Submitted by imamac
imamac writes: "Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is aggressively pushing for prompt revisions to the 700 MHz open-access rule — even before the agency completes a review of the various regulatory challenges to the full 700 MHz decision, according to industry sources who suggest the behind-the-scenes activity is tied to Verizon Wireless' lobbying."
The Courts

Submission + - NY State AG Taking Heat for Secret Porn Plan (wired.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Wired is reporting that defense lawyers have become a bit wary of NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's plan to engage MediaDefender to help track down child-porn and its users on the internet. They are worried that the partnership could lead to favoritism in the AG's office later on if MediaDefender were to violate NY state law in the future. There is also concern that such a contract would lead to the incentive to "get results," leading to a host of legal problems. There is also the question of privacy, given the recent hack of MediaDefender's email system that led to the agreement coming to light. "Generally it is not looked upon favorably when a prosecutor engages a private company to collect evidence in a case or to ... partner with in a criminal case," says San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi."
Enlightenment

Submission + - Ahmadinejad Cites Slashdot as Source of Peace (azstarnet.com)

Submitted by Dekortage
Dekortage writes: Well, not really. But the Iranian president's speech at Columbia University yesterday, which drew many protesters, made frequent reference to science and technology: "Science is a light. It is a discovery of reality, and only a pure scholar and researcher, free from wrong ideologies, superstitions, selfishness and material trappings, can discover the reality." If Slashdot has members from Iran, I'd be curious to hear about the state of computer technology, the Internet, web design, video games, scientific research, and other Slashdot-related topics, from an inside perspective.
Biotech

Submission + - The nation's largest labeling project gives hope (seedsofdeception.com)

Submitted by
NJ
NJ writes: "A Powerful New Protection The nation's largest labeling project gives hope to consumers wanting to know what is in their food. YouTube Tag — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJVohOfhybE — Watch Jeffrey's Presidential Candidate Question on YouTube (August 13, 2007, Los Angeles CA.)- Jeffrey Smith hopes the new science that proves genetic engineering is unsafe will force manufacturers to remove genetically engineered ingredients from thousands of consumer food products. Documented results from a ten-year research investigation, published last month in the online world forum for Smith's new book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, provides direct links from Genetically Engineered Foods to multiple health disorders, which affect approximately 70% of the food eaten by humans in the United States. The findings, based on exhaustive data analysis from hundreds of studies and expert sources, are significant because they come from the Genetic Roulette Food Project (GRFP), a food safety network representing over 50 countries. This unified pool of research has dramatically increased Smith's ability to quantify genetic engineering risk factors. Jeffrey Smith, the world's leading expert on the health risks of genetically engineered foods, and the executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, will support the natural and organic food industries' new labeling movement, with a media-driven consumer education campaign, the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America (CHEA), due to launch early next year. Smith hopes to reach every consumer in America with the message: Healthy Eating Means No-GMOs. According to Smith, "The Institute started funding research in 2003, and, as the links to human health risks from GE foods increased, leaders from the natural food industry began funding our research as well. Currently, I'm the chief research adviser and executive director for the Institute. I moderate the new GRFP Expert Exchange Forum at www.geneticroulette.com, to insure the latest findings about GE health risks are integrated and promulgated to governments, researchers and scientists around the world, and that this increasingly alarming information is presented to consumers as quickly as possible through the media". When asked why genetically engineered food labeling hasn't been done before, Smith replied, "Ostensibly, the FDA allows for-profit corporations to do the writing of safety-policy for their products. Consequently, no safety testing is done, and no problems are found. If it wasn't so deadly serious, I might describe it as the proverbial fox in the hen house. The natural and organic industries' new Non-GMO self-regulation-initiative is an outgrowth of Institute's education effort. We plan to help natural and organic food industry CEOs reach the public through our consumer and school education campaigns scheduled for early next year. Former Chief of the Section, National Institutes of Health, Candace Pert PhD says, "Jeffrey Smith is the leading world expert in the understanding and communication of the health issues surrounding genetically modified foods. Genetic Roulette, which brings in original contributions by eminent scientists worldwide, makes it crystal clear that the American FDA should not be so cavalier about the potential dangers of these procedures." when Smith describes his new GRFP Expert Exchange Forum as crowd sourcing for scientists worldwide. He says, " The GRFP Expert Exchange Forum reaches out to every individual and group in the world with an expertise in genetic engineering food safety. It's coordinated by the Institute. I travel around the world continually to meet, combine reports and prepare strategies. Collaborative efforts such as ours help genetic engineering food safety stakeholders recognize the most alarming patterns and solve problems. Smith has coordinated direct links with stores and retailers, and describes what drew so many diverse CEOs to respond to the GE threat, "Once they had the evidence of how widespread GE contamination had become, they took control to fund the independent technical standards and product testing necessary to create a reliable Non-GMO Label. We hope a vote in Congress to ban GE food is not far away. Currently, GE food ingredients are found in high fructose corn syrup, and the genetically engineered varieties of soy lecithin, canola and vegetable oils, for example. It is important to note, that our present crops are at risk from GE contamination whether by wind or just everyday human error; and once airborne, GE contaminates cannot be recalled". When asked if all consumers, especially those with kids, need to change their grocery-buying habits, Smith replied, "Consumers should review the www.responsibletechnology.org website which presents all the basic information they need to make an informed decision about whether they want to eat genetically engineered foods and food ingredients. The IRT website has free excerpts from my latest book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, as well as a free monthly newsletter, school advocacy materials, videos and other resources. From my standpoint, this is necessary because over the last ten years, a very high proportion of processed and non-organic food products deliver daily doses of unwanted GE ingredients. Our goal is to help consumers avoid the diseases that can ruin lives". Smith recently testified at the EPA about GMOs, and visited Senator John Tester to discuss the problem. Senator Tester says, "Unlabeled GMOs in our food works against what I have learned in my 30 years as a family farmer. Agriculture should be sustainable, food should be healthy and safe, and people deserve to know what they're eating." When asked if Smith believes his new CHEA campaign is his best hope for informing the public, Smith says, "The answer at the retail level is yes, although we have a documentary team in place, and numerous other consumer media strategies underway, and in development. The Non-GMO Seal of Approval will be ready early next year; and the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America will coordinate the in-store installation of consumer education centers across the nation. The Institute will produce free Non-GMO consumer shopping guides for these centers customers can consult while shopping. We will continue our in-store efforts until corporations feel the economic pinch and agree to remove all GE ingredients from their products, the same way they did in Europe in 1999". Alan Green MD, a pediatrician and author who has the popular health website www.DrGreen.com, is very concerned about the largely unknown effects of GMOs. "When my 12 year old was born, GM foods weren't a part of the American diet. Today, about 30% of our cropland is planted with GMOs. Most Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of eating GM foods and yet eat them every day without knowing. It's time we made a choice! We ought either to satisfy ourselves with solid scientific answers to the concerns clearly laid out in Genetic Roulette — or we should change the way we eat. When shoppers in Europe and Japan acted on their convictions, GM foods were largely eliminated from stores." Asked how he would differentiate, a Non-GMO Food from a GE-Free Food, Smith explained, "Ah, that can be confusing. Thank you for mentioning it. GE-Free and Non-GMO are interchangeable terms. GMO stands for, genetically modified organism, which scientifically may be a little more specific than, genetically engineered consumer foods and animal food crops, but really they mean the same thing: untested, unsafe, genetically engineered foods, reaching your dinner table". ###"
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple May Track IPod Thieves & You (msn.com)

Submitted by
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway writes: "Apple may begin implementing software in its I-Tunes suite to track serial numbers of I-Pods and compare them to a stolen I-Pod database. Due to the worlds most successful and popular product being on the #1 most stolen items list. This may alert the local police to come knocking on your door, if "Your" I-Pod is in question. Weather it be stolen or legit, people are not taking this to heart kindly at all. With the right to privacy walls closing in on us ever so fast, this seems to be another push to take our privacy rights away even more, or is it? Those who have had their I-Pods stolen love the idea. Others are not so happy about the idea. Some privacy right advocates have suggested implementing I-Pods or I-Phones with owner ID verification, such as a password or other forms of verification that must be entered into the devices before they will take a charge or allow you to place songs on the device. Or offer a service that is apart of Apple iCare, which allows users who feel they may become a victim of theft, to join this database, to further protect them in the even their I-Pod is stolen."
Music

Submission + - The sad state of sound in Linux (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by Wertigon
Wertigon writes: Looks like atleast one coder has been driven insane by the aggravating difficulties of getting sound to work properly in his 'nix application. Coming from his blog:

All this shows me is that ALSA is truly garbage, and a very bad idea from the ground up. If you want good sound support under Linux, the best, and sometime the only feasible option is to install the closed source OSS. With this, you always get mixing (even using the hardware mixer which ALSA doesn't always do), support for a dozen UNIX OSs, and finely tuned controls.
Perhaps it's time to go back to OSS, now that it has become Open Source again?

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