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The Internet

ICANN To Allow .brandname Top-Level Domains 300

Posted by Soulskill from the phishers-everywhere-rejoice dept.
AndyAndyAndyAndy sends in this excerpt from a Reuters report: "Brand owners will soon be able to operate their own parts of the Web — such as .apple, .coke or .marlboro — if the biggest shake-up yet in how Internet domains are awarded is approved. After years of preparation and wrangling, ICANN, the body that coordinates Internet names, is expected to approve the move at a special board meeting in Singapore on Monday. ... The move is seen as a big opportunity for brands to gain more control over their online presence and send visitors more directly to parts of their sites — and a danger for those who fail to take advantage."
Medicine

Submission + - Researchers Design Memory-Strengthening Implant (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Antipater
Antipater writes: "Researchers at Wake Forest University have created a brain implant that can imitate signals through the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory retention. Rats implanted with the device were able to remember information even after their hippocampus was shut down, reports the New York Times. Though still in its infancy, this technology could hopefully be used to help treat dementia or stroke victims."
Google

Submission + - What Google's Aging Tech Says About App Engine (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Savio Rodrigues questions whether an enterprise-class version of Google App Engine will ever prove reliable in light of recent comments by an ex-Google Wave engineer about Google's development priorities and aging technology. 'In the case of Google App Engine, a key question to ask is how your enterprise needs will be prioritized against the needs of internal Google developers. Although both user groups will share a set of feature requests, there are undoubtedly features that enterprises will seek but Google developers will not need. With both user groups vying for the next feature on their wish list to be completed, will Google address the needs of its internal developers or of outside enterprises? Keep in mind that revenue from projects that internal developers are working on will far outweigh revenue from outside enterprises through Google App Engine for the foreseeable future.'"
Crime

Submission + - Online poker legalization bill coming next week (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) could introduce his bill to legalize online poker as soon as next week. The bill would legalize the game in all 50 states but sites could only be set up in states where gambling is already legal, so they can be licensed through existing gaming commissions. States could choose to opt-out of the law and ban online poker by referendum or a vote of the state legislature. The bill would also create a federal regulatory body to oversee the game.

Submission + - trend micro constantly 'sampling' your files (self_reporting_no_url.com) 1

Submitted by stenn
stenn writes: software: trend micro titanium internet security
os: windows 7 (yes yes, i know...)
situation:
the issue started while i was 'tail -f' the access_log on a server i'm working with. my system has a simple website and a standalone app that will hit the server via url with a handful of parameters for settings, one of those being a guid.

the problem:
i started noticing log entries for urls coming from the client app, with my guid, but not coming from my ip address. additionally, it was only the requests coming from the client app, not those starting in the browser. the duped requests would come from multiple ip addresses, all starting with 150.70.xx.xx. obviously, this is concerning. i am not going through any cloud services or using any proxies. i traced the ip addresses (ie: 150.70.172.106, 150.70.64.195, 150.70.75.33, etc) and they all pointed to Trend Micro Inc. i do have trend micro installed for anti-virus software, and as far as i could tell.. it was working fine and fairly lightweight. any reporting or proxy settings i have turned off. so i made a call.

after bouncing through a few people, i ended up with a guy trying to explain that they are trying to insure the 'web reputation' of the sites i was visiting. if that were the case, i pointed out, then you would echo the url calls originating from my browser. i can update my browser page and see it in the access_log immediately. no echoes. but when i issue urls from the stand alone client, i see an echo within 90 seconds.

it gets worse:
at this point he said he was going to need to see the screen to confirm what i'm seeing (?!). i asked how he'd do that, he said he'd take a screenshot and it would be sent to his machine (?!). i asked how and he said their software would do it if i allowed him to. obviously, i wasn't happy. that shouldn't even be an option. he backed away from this quickly.

the other shoe:
after another chorus of 'why the hell are you sending my internet traffic to your servers', he said trendmicro routinely samples files on the system and sends them to their malware experts for analysis (?!). he explained that they randomly sample from those files that have changed... bundling them up... and sending them to their servers every 3 hours. he tried to assure me that no 'sensitive' information was being sent from my machine (suuure...), just some random samples so the 'malware experts' can look for malware.

ip theft:
being a software developer, i write code that is copyrighted, at least by me, as i create it. for them to be 'sampling' the files that have changed essentially has them stealing my source code so their 'malware experts' can look through them. yes, i know... that's a lot of files and they aren't watching *my* files... but my name is on the trend micro license. if they wanted to, they could monitor one person's files without an issue.

i might be having a small cow over this issue, but i don't think it's unwarranted. it sure seems like spyware to me. if not, i'd love to know the difference, besides incorporation papers and a phone number.

thoughts?
NASA

Submission + - Historic Pairing: Shuttle Docked to the ISS (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "It's been imaged in artists' renderings, but never before in actual photos: the sight of a space shuttle berthed at the International Space Station. This view of shuttle Endeavour, taken by Italian astronaut Paulo Nespoli from aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on May 23, is the culmination of 36 space shuttle missions to build the outpost over the past 12 years. NASA wanted the shot before it retires the shuttle fleet after one final mission in July."
NASA

Submission + - Edge of Solar System Filled with Bubbles (space.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "The edge of our solar system is filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles, according to new NASA research.

Scientists made the discovery by using a new computer model, which is based on data from NASA's twin Voyager probes. The unmanned Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which launched in 1977, are plying the outer reaches of our solar system, a region known as the heliosheath.

The new discovery suggests that researchers will need to revise their views about the solar system's edge, NASA officials said. A more detailed picture of this region is key to our understanding of how fast-moving particles known as cosmic rays are spawned, and how they reach near-Earth space."
Government

Submission + - Internet Access is a Human Right, UN Report Says (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by purkinje
purkinje writes: Disconnecting people from the internet is a violation of human rights and is against international law, says a UN report released yesterday. The report comes just after several governments in the Middle East restricted internet access during unrest there, and a year after France and the UK passed three-strikes laws to disconnect users illegally sharing files. People have a right to both dimensions of internet access, the report says: unfettered access to content and the technology and infrastructure needed to get online in the first place.
Image

Chinese iPad Factory Staff Forced To Sign 'No Suicide' Pledge Screenshot-sm 537

Posted by samzenpus from the and-you-thought-your-job-was-tedious dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Employees at Foxconn facilities in China, used to manufacture the iPhone and iPad, were forced to sign a pledge not to commit suicide after over a dozen staff killed themselves over the last 16 months. The revelation is the latest in a series of findings about the treatment of workers at Foxconn plants, where staff often work six 12-hour shifts a week, 98 hours of overtime in a month, and live in dormitories that look and feel like prison blocks."
Wireless Networking

Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Leave My Router Open? 520

Posted by timothy from the tomayto-tomahto-ddwrt dept.
generalhavok writes "I read the story on Slashdot earlier about the EFF encouraging people to leave their WiFi open to share the internet. I would like to do this! I don't mind sharing my connection and letting my neighbors check their email or browse the web. However, when I used to leave it open, I quickly found my limited bandwidth dissappearing, as my neighbors started using it heavily by streaming videos, downloading large files, and torrenting. What is an easy way I can share my internet, while enforcing some limits so there is enough bandwidth left for me? What about separating the neighbors from my internal home network? Can this be done with consumer-grade routers? If the average consumer wants to share, what's the easiest and safest way to do it?"
Businesses

Facebook To Be 'Biggest Bank' By 2015 301

Posted by CmdrTaco from the farmville-for-real-bucks dept.
angry tapir writes "The explosion of social networking commerce will lead to the unlikely candidate of Facebook becoming the world's biggest bank by the middle of the decade, according to a technology observer and entrepreneur. People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them says founder and president of Metal International, Ken Rutkowski."

Comment I've used 10% of the Armenian internet bandwidth! (Score 1) 282

by Honken (#35749928) Attached to: Elderly Georgian Woman Cuts Armenian Internet

I spent a couple of weeks in Armenia 6-7 years ago, at which point the ENTIRE country had a total bandwidth of something like 6mbit. There was only one state-run ISP (no competition was allowed at that time, that has changed it seems), and the company I worked for had somehow managed to get a 640kbit line from them, so we had roughly 10% of the entire country's bandwidth (for 2-300 people). At one point I stupidly did a apt-get upgrade which started downloading Evolution and lots of Gnome stuff, which in turn chocked the entire office's internet access. When I stopped the download it was running at roughly 600kbit, so at that point I was using 10% of the entire nation's bandwidth :)

The state communication monopoly also meant that I couldn't use my phone, since my provider did not have a roaming agreement. If you got really close to the Turkish border it did work though, if you could connect to a Turkish provider.

This said Armenia was incredibly beautiful, with very friendly people and great food, and I would really encourage anyone to go there!
Japan

Nuclear Crisis Stopped Time In Japan 188

Posted by timothy from the now-ramen-twists-the-other-way dept.
angry tapir writes "The problems at Japan's Fukushima-1 nuclear plant have had an unexpected impact on the country's ability to keep time: a transmitter that sends the national time signal to many thousands of clocks and watches has been forced offline making the timepieces a little less reliable than usual."
Handhelds

Nokia - No More Symbian Phones After 2012 234

Posted by samzenpus from the end-of-the-line dept.
mikejuk writes "After the decision to go with Windows Phone 7 it has been obvious that the fate of the Symbian Phone — the phone that sold more than iPhone or Android — wasn't good. However where there is life there is hope and some developers and users clung to the hope that there might be more Symbian phones in the future. Perhaps they could coexist with Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices. Now, in a open letter to developers Nokia have made it clear that they will create no more Symbian phones after 2012 and they will just wait for the old phones to fade way while trying to sell Windows Phones to the existing users."
Power

Artificial Clouds To Cool Qatar World Cup Stadiums 154

Posted by samzenpus from the synthetic-rain dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In anticipation of extreme heat during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, scientists and engineers at Qatar University have developed a solar-powered gas-filled cloud that will shade spectators and athletes from the intense sun. The $500,000 artificial clouds can be positioned over any of the stadiums in Qatar and can be maneuvered with a remote control from the ground to keep the passing sun off the field."

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