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The Courts

Submission + - Britain to expand 'talking CCTV' scheme nationally

Submitted by
Jack Dietrich
Jack Dietrich writes: "After a successful trial of CCTV cameras which allow operators to shout at the surveilled masses via speakers attached to the cameras, the British Home Secretary John Reid has announced that he plans to provide £500,000 ($980,000) in funding to twenty areas to establish similar schemes. Competitions are to be held in schools in many of the areas for children to become the "voice" of the cameras. The word Orwellian seems utterly inadequate."
Quickies

Submission + - Gorgeous Photos of a Transonic F-22A Fighter Jet!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor pilot wasn't fooling around on 1 April 2007 during the 42nd Naval Base Ventura County Air Show held at Point Mugu, California, USA. When the F-22A fighter jet reached the transonic flight regime, nature responded with vapor galore — stunning and spectacular Prandtl-Glauert (P-G) clouds. Associated Press photographer Richard Vogel was there and snapped these gorgeous pictures of the F-22A's P-G clouds.
Television

Submission + - Is iTunes changing the way 20-somethings watch TV?

Submitted by Handsome B. Wonderful
Handsome B. Wonderful writes: http://macenstein.com/default/archives/573

A quick look at the top TV programs sold on iTunes shows quite a disparity between America's top shows according to Nielsen and what the average iTunes user is watching. For instance, the TV show LOST, once a media darling, has struggled this season, and often does not make it into the top 20 shows of the week. However, LOST does consistently well in the iTunes rankings, and this week occupies slots 1, 4, and 17 as of this writing. Battlestar Galactica (iTunes ranked 3, and 11) and South Park (iTunes ranked 7, 8, and 12) both fail to crack the Top 20 cable shows each week, and consistently lose out to shows such as The Fairly Odd Parents and reruns of House and Spongebob Squarepants. The FOX shows 24 (iTunes ranked 2, and 10) and Prison Break (iTunes ranked 6) do not appear in Nielsen's Top 10 either.

So why are these shows huge hits on iTunes at $1.99 an episode when many of these shows can't attract viewers for FREE on broadcast TV? Simple. Younger viewers, college students, largely, are finding iTunes' "On-Demand" style of television viewing fits their hectic schedule better than appointment television.
America Online

Submission + - AOL To Start Revealing AIM Users Locations

Submitted by
Velorium
Velorium writes: ""AOL is offering users of its AIM instant messaging service new capabilities to see where people on their buddy lists are physically located. The first phase of this push is with an unusual software plug-in developed by Skyhook Wireless, whose backers include Intel Corp. Skyhook tracks locations by using the continuous wireless pulses emitted by all Wi-Fi transmitters and Wi-Fi-enabled computers, rather than more common satellite-based approach." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17689221/"
Space

Submission + - NASA Confirms Solar Storm near 2012

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: `This week researchers announced that a storm is coming — the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.`

`Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.`

Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - A Blogger gets an "Un-Cease and disist" no

Submitted by AlphaLop
AlphaLop writes: A blogger who wrote a somewhat Derogatory article about the online "Game" Second Life and created a link on his blog inviting lawsuits got an unexpected response from Linden Lab...



Too bad the RIAA and MPAA don't think this way.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_hi_te/se cond_life_parody Sorry for not embedding the link but I don't know HTML yet.
Announcements

Submission + - GeoMonkey Beta: Web 2.0 Mapping Social Network

Submitted by
Adam
Adam writes: "GeoMonkey is a social networking website that aims to build an online community around the creation, sharing, and discussion of customized maps. ( http://www.geomonkey.com/ )

GeoMonkey allows users to geo-locate their own content, such as photos, videos, documents, website links and custom routes. It enables users to create their own customized maps, save them to their own user profile, and share them with others or with the general public.

For example, users can share pictures and video from a vacation to San Francisco, directions to their house, plans for a trip to Hawaii or wedding planning details. Users can also password protect their custom maps so only those who are authorized can view their private maps."
User Journal

Submission + - Where to go after a lifetime in the IT field?

Submitted by
Pikoro
Pikoro writes: "I have been working in the IT field for the past 20 years or so, and after getting hired by the largest financial company in the world, I thought I might have finally found a place to retire from.

However, after working here for about 6 months, I find myself, not exactly burnt out, but longing for a complete career field change.

It's not that doing IT related tasks aren't fun anymore, but they have become more "work" than "play" over the last few years.

Since all of my experience has been IT related, I'm not sure where I could go from here.

What would slashdot readers consider doing for a living after being in a single field for so long?"
Media

Submission + - Pope Declares Violent Video Games a Perversion

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: According to the Associated Press Pope Benedict XVI has declared "Any trend to produce programmes and products — including animated films and video games — which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behaviour or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion." However, rather than call for action against violent video games and other media, the Pope has opted instead to ask the media "How could one explain this entertainment to the countless innocent young people who actually suffer violence, exploitation and abuse?" and to instead assist parents in instilling children with good values and "the positive achievements and goals of humanity."
Mandriva

Submission + - Next Mandriva to include Metisse 3D desktop

Submitted by
dBera
dBera writes: "Mandriva Spring 2007 is going to include the 3D Matisse desktop from the In Site project. Right now a live CD based on Mandriva 2007.0 and GNOME is available for download. One has to see the screencasts to believe what can be done with linux desktop; all I can say is copy-paste, window and workspace management was never this interesting."
Censorship

Submission + - Seclists.org Suspended By Domain Registrar

Submitted by
makomk
makomk writes: "I noticed that seclists.org, the well-known archive of security related mailing lists run by nmap's Fyodor, was down and not resolving. The whois information revealed that it had, in fact, been suspended by GoDaddy.com for abuse. This probably has something to do with recent attempts by a malicious individual to shut the site down. Looks like this time they succeeded..."
Red Hat Software

Journal Journal: "Street kids raid poverty summit" 1

Journal by Otter
A funny story, if the kids don't wind up facing nasty retribution from the police, which they probably will...

You know that "World Social Forum" that runs as an anti-capitalist World Economic Forum? We usually get a story or two about it every year, about how Stallman gave a speech about how free software is good and Microsoft is bad and people who don't say "GNU/Linux" are even worse, and then responded to questions by pretending he doesn't know what "open source" is.
Handhelds

Submission + - Switzerland bans the use of GPS units in cars.

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: If you're traveling with a GPS in your car to Switzerland, be very careful! As of January 10th, the Swiss authorities (ASTRA) have forbid the use of GPS systems in cars. They also banned the selling of car GPS units throughout the country.
The reason is that the software running on these devices reveal the location of traffic radars, through which less people have been fined in the recent years and thus Swiss authorities miss a lot of money. The controversial ban has been created a large commotion inside and outside the country, forcing the authorities to put an official document online [pdf — in Germans], with answers to most frequently asked questions.
GPS devices such as TomTom, Garmin, Mio, Navman, Medion, Route 66, Packard stand Ring, Sony and ViaMichelin are all in the banned list.

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Somebody ought to cross ball point pens with coat hangers so that the pens will multiply instead of disappear.

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