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Censorship

Submission + - Turkey has imposed an indefinite ban on Google

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: Turkey’s Telecommunications Presidency said it has banned access to many of Google IP addresses without assigning clear reasons. The statement did not confirm if the ban is temporary or permanent. Google’s translation and document sharing sites have also been banned indefinitely along with YouTube and Facebook in the country. Other services such as AppEngine, FeedBurner, Analytics etc have also been reportedly banned.
Security

Submission + - SPAM: Activists worry about a new 'Green Dam' in Vietnam

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Human rights activists are worried that new software mandated by Vietnamese authorities may lead to an Internet clampdown in the country's largest city.

In April, local officials issued new regulations covering Internet cafes and service providers in Hanoi, ostensibly designed to crack down on hacking and other service abuses. Buried in the regulations is a mandate that service providers must add special software to their domain servers, used to authenticate systems on the network.

Nobody quite knows what the software is, but activists in the U.S. worry that it may be used to clamp down on Internet usage in a country that has seen more and more grassroots information-sharing on social networks over the past year. Last year China tried to force PC makers to ship Green Dam censorware with all computers sold in the country, saying the software would help crack down on online pornography. But Chinese authorities — already known for their notorious Great Firewall [spam URL stripped] — eventually backed off from their plans after critics raised a host of privacy, security and system stability concerns, and Chinese Internet users showed no interest in installing the program.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Plotting a coup in the Internet age

Submitted by chrb
chrb writes: The Guardian is reporting on the attempts of an exiled Sheikh to regain power in a bloodless coup. The plot, led by British solicitor Peter Cathcart, involves the use of Washington political lobbyists, PR agencies writing fake blogs and Twitter accounts, and a newspaper advertising campaign in the U.S. The coup attempt is remarkable in its choice of modern communications and political lobbying, rather than the traditional resort to violence.
Handhelds

New Handheld Computer Is 100% Open Source 195

Posted by kdawson from the small-wonder dept.
metasonix writes "While the rest of the industry has been babbling on about the iPad and imitations thereof, Qi Hardware is actually shipping a product that is completely open source and copyleft. Linux News reviews the Ben NanoNote (product page), a handheld computer apparently containing no proprietary technology. It uses a 366 MHz MIPS processor, 32MB RAM, 2 GB flash, a 320x240-pixel color display, and a Qwerty keyboard. No network is built in, though it is said to accept SD-card Wi-Fi or USB Ethernet adapters. Included is a very simple Linux OS based on the OpenWrt distro installed in Linksys routers, with Busybox GUI. It's apparently intended primarily for hardware and software hackers, not as a general-audience handheld. The price is right, though: $99."

Comment Surprise!! (Score 1) 1

by PDoc (#32415726) Attached to: UK the most expensive place to buy an iPad
As a UK resident, part of me gets really annoyed when my suspicions about being screwed-over on electronics are confirmed. But it's no surprise. In fact, a 25% mark-up for the UK market isn't too bad. When I bought a Canon 20D SLR camera in the mid 2000s, a friend that bought the same camera in NYC got the transatlantic flights, hotel for two nights and the camera for the same amount as the UK price. For most cases, I accept that the US price, $xxx will equal the UK price, £xxx - in that xxx will be the same. However, now that the UK has a BestBuy franchise, I'll be interested to see their rationale for the price discrepancy...
Apple

Submission + - UK the most expensive place to buy an iPad (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: Britain is the world's costliest places to buy Apple's new iPad, with prices around a quarter higher than in the US, a new study has found. The CommSec iPad Index compares the prices of iPads from ten different countries, adjusting the exchange rate to provide a like-for-like comparison. An iPad 64GB model with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity cost $829 in the US against $1,010 in Britain and $980 in Germany, France and Italy. "In the UK, Germany, France and Italy an iPad costs 20-25% more than in the U.S," said Craig James, chief economist at the CommSec share trading division of Australia's Commonwealth Bank. "The question is whether Apple has priced its product too high for the European market, or whether the UK pound and euro need to depreciate further to bring global pricing into line."
Science

Chameleon-Like Behavior of Neutrino Confirmed 191

Posted by Soulskill from the yes,-neutrinos-eat-bugs dept.
Anonymous Apcoheur writes "Scientists from CERN and INFN of the OPERA Collaboration have announced the first direct observation of a muon neutrino turning into a tau neutrino. 'The OPERA result follows seven years of preparation and over three years of beam provided by CERN. During that time, billions of billions of muon-neutrinos have been sent from CERN to Gran Sasso, taking just 2.4 milliseconds to make the trip. The rarity of neutrino oscillation, coupled with the fact that neutrinos interact very weakly with matter, makes this kind of experiment extremely subtle to conduct. ... While closing a chapter on understanding the nature of neutrinos, the observation of neutrino oscillations is strong evidence for new physics. The Standard Model of fundamental particles posits no mass for the neutrino. For them to be able to oscillate, however, they must have mass.'"
Education

Submission + - Australian Aboriginal Rock Art May Depict Giant Bi (scienceblogs.com)

Submitted by grrlscientist
grrlscientist writes: An Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. The red ochre drawing was first discovered two years ago, but archaeologists were only able to confirm the finding two weeks ago, when they first visited the remote site on the Arnhem Land plateau in north Australia.
Science

Submission + - First-ever neutrino "appearance" seen by OPERA (edgeofphysics.com)

Submitted by edgeofphysics
edgeofphysics writes: That neutrinos change from one form to another has been well-known for some time now. But the evidence for this has always come from the "disappearance" of neutrinos. For the first time ever, the OPERA experiment in Italy has evidence of neutrino oscillations via the "appearance" of neutrinos. This is a big deal in the search for new physics
Technology

Submission + - Porn industry ramps up 3D output (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Th'Inquisitor
Th'Inquisitor writes: The sex entertainment industry is often considered to be in the vanguard of technological advancement. So it should come as no surprise that the porn industry is licking its lips over this year's latest much-hyped fad, 3D.

One hotly-anticipated forthcoming attraction is a 3D version of the Kama Sutra, from French director Marc Dorcel.

In an interview at at the Cannes Film Festival, transcribed and translated at THINQ.co.uk, the director's son and spokesman, Gregory Dorcel, said he sees "fantastic potential" in 3D porn and is investing "multiple million Euros" in the format

"By July, we'll have around a hundred programmes available", he said. "It's always pretty cool," he adds, "to see that we independent, X-rated film producers often find ourselves out in front, both technically and at the conceptual level, in relation to the big studios."

Comment Re:Start of something (Score 1) 80

by PDoc (#32359062) Attached to: Glaxo Open Sources Malaria Drug Search Data
I hate to agree with this (as a cheaper-than-a-robot-scientist within pharma), but it's probably true. GSK have had a load of bad press in the UK over the last few years, mostly due to enormous lay-offs and site closures, so a bit of good PR is appealing. However, their competitors could have done likewise with malaria or other programmes and didn't - they'd rather sit on the (fairly useless) data, so I'm actually fairly impressed. The interesting bit is to follow, though; if a university or NFP institute find something useful, will GSK assist in any way?

Comment Re:Start of something (Score 3, Interesting) 80

by PDoc (#32359028) Attached to: Glaxo Open Sources Malaria Drug Search Data
Speaking from the inside of a large pharma company, I can tell you that there is currently *a lot* of interest in Dengue. Several of the biggest drug-companies are beginning programmes aimed at Dengue, and funding bodies are proposing collaborative efforts. It's a (very) long way from a viable treatment, but the people at the top can see the money now... which helps.
Movies

Mass Effect To Invade the Big Screen 142

Posted by Soulskill from the seth-green-seems-like-a-lock dept.
UgLyPuNk writes "This could be a good thing or a bad thing: EA has just confirmed that it's making Mass Effect into a movie. The franchise has been acquired by Legendary Pictures, which is best known for its co-productions of The Dark Knight, Clash of the Titans, 300, Watchmen, and, um, The Hangover, as part of a co-financing agreement with Warner Bros."

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