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Disposable Toilet To Change the World Screenshot-sm 413

Posted by samzenpus from the sunshine-in-a-bag dept.
captn ecks writes "A biodegradable and self-sterilizing bag for people of the toilet-disenfranchised world (40% of humankind) to dispose of their bodily waste and turn it into safe fertilizer has been created by a Swedish entrepreneur. It's a dead simple and brilliant solution to a vexing problem. From the article: 'Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces. The bag, called the Peepoo, is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and professor in Stockholm. “Not only is it sanitary,” said Mr. Wilhelmson, who has patented the bag, “they can reuse this to grow crops.”'"
Power

MIT Produces Electricity Using Thermopower Waves 157

Posted by Soulskill from the set-on-fire-to-begin-current-flow dept.
MikeChino writes "MIT scientists have discovered a never-before-known phenomenon wherein carbon nanotubes can be used to harness energy from 'thermopower waves.' To do this they coated the nanotubes with a reactive fuel and then lit one end, causing a fast-moving thermal wave to speed down the length of the tube. The heat from the fuel rises to a temperature of 3,000 kelvins, and can speed along the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The heat also pushes electrons down the tube, which creates a substantial electrical current. The system can output energy (in proportion to its weight) about 100x greater than an equivalent weight lithium-ion battery, and according to MIT the discovery 'opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare.'"
Security

Submission + - Another Botnet Beheaded (ap.org)

Submitted by northernboy
northernboy writes: Defense Intelligence of Ottawa working with ISPs and Spanish authorities have taken down yet another > 12 megaPC botnet. The three top-level operators are in custody, but remain anonymous under Spanish law (how quaint: apparently in Spain, the accused have some right to privacy?). AP is claiming that the botnet included systems in roughly half of the Fortune 1000 companies, scattered over 190 countries.

There are a number of interesting details: none of the three principals has a prior criminal record. Although apparently hardworking, they are not uber-hackers, but rather had connections to the Spanish mafia that apparently helped equip them. At the time of arrest, they were not showing signs of their significant new income level.

From the article:
Chris Davis, CEO of Ottawa-based Defence Intelligence, said he noticed the infections when they appeared on networks of some of his firm's clients, including pharmaceutical companies and banks.

It wasn't until several months later that he realized the infections were part of something much bigger.

After seeing that some of the servers used to control computers in the botnet were located in Spain, Davis and researchers from the Georgia Tech Information Security Center joined with software firm Panda Security, which is headquartered in Bilbao, Spain.

The investigators caught a few lucky breaks. For one, the suspects used Internet services that wound up cooperating with investigators. That isn't always the case.

Comment Re:Am I the only one? (Score 1) 121

by shivamib (#31338590) Attached to: Netflix Gauging Interest In an iPhone App
My thoughts exactly.

I used to have a Creative Zen Vision which had a pretty decent video quality and the only thing I ever watched was some Heroes episodes on a bus trip. And that was before high-definition.

Maybe some people don't care about quality, but I like my movies on a 1080p kickass flat screen and a trusty HTPC.

What we really need is more bandwidth.
Businesses

Submission + - Novell on the block? $2B unsolicited offer. (ostatic.com)

Submitted by ruphus13
ruphus13 writes: The mighty public FOSS companies are falling... Sun's gone, after a rough courtship and dance with IBM, Oracle and the EU. Red Hat may be the last man standing, with Novell receiving an unsolicited bid of $2B for Novell. According to the post, "After the close of trading in U.S. stock markets on Tuesday, Elliott Associates, L.P., a hedge fund with a significant position in shares of Novell, placed an unsolicited offer to buy the company for $2 billion. Its offer of $5.75 per share in cash is well above Novell's closing price today of $4.75 per share, and caused Novell's shares to rise above $6 in after hours trading. The offer places a high valuation on Novell, and the troubled company will have to consider it very carefully."
Programming

Submission + - What's a good programming languange for kids? 3

Submitted by chr0m4k3y
chr0m4k3y writes: I was talking to my peers today about my first coding experience when I was eight. My dad got a Tandy Color Computer 2 for my big sister when she turned 15. I remember going through the book it came with twice and I got BASIC down pretty quick. I even remember messing with the graphical screen and the joystick it came with. When I got to high school I also took a computer class that also was in BASIC. Being a Computer Engineer it really helped me a lot when I went to college having that BASIC experience. Everything was pretty straight forward. Now my son is about to turn 10 and I'm thinking what language could I start teaching him so he has the same background I had back then with BASIC. But, modern programming languages like Java, C/C++, C# have too much overhead with the object oriented stuff and imports, namespaces, all the typical stuff you need to even do a 'Hello World' as compared to the 1 liner you did back in BASIC days. What's your opinion on which language could I choose to start teaching my kid so he doesn't get frustrated with all the overhead and he can do some typical 'little programs' to get him started?
Iphone

Netflix Gauging Interest In an iPhone App 121

Posted by kdawson from the coming-to-a-small-screen-near-you dept.
gollum123 writes "A new survey sent out to Netflix subscribers indicates that the iPhone might be the next device that its streaming service rolls out on in the coming months. (The NY Times credits Hacking Netflix for the tip.) According to a tip sent to Hacking Netflix, the subscription video company is now asking users how likely they would be to use an iPhone app to view movies via its online streaming service. According to the survey, an iPhone app would give users all the same functionality that they have when streaming on a PC or other device, including all the same movies and TV shows without advertisements or trailers. If the app is rolled out, the ability to watch on the Apple mobile device would be offered at no additional charge to existing Netflix subscribers. There is good news for AT&T implied in the survey questions: it appears that the app would require users to be connected to a Wi-Fi network."
Crime

Submission + - Man swallows flash drive; obstruction of justice? (thesmokinggun.com) 2

Submitted by langelgjm
langelgjm writes: In an incident that is ripe for puns, Florin Necula, a New York City man, swallowed a flash drive in an attempt to deny investigators access to its contents. The ploy worked — at least temporarily. After four days, Necula agreed to allow doctors to remove the drive. Necula is being charged with obstruction of justice; he and three others are suspects are believed to have installed ATM skimmers on several machines in an attempt to obtain bank account information. Should've used TrueCrypt.
Government

Submission + - Terry Childs' Slow Road to Justice? (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Deep End's Paul Venezia provides an update on the City of San Francisco's trial against IT admin Terry Childs, which — at eight weeks and counting — hasn't even seen the defense begin to present its case. The main spotlight thus far has been on the testimony of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. 'Many articles about this case have pounced on the fact that after Childs gave the passwords to the mayor, they couldn't immediately be used. Most of these pieces chalk this up to some kind of secondary infraction on Childs' part,' Venezia writes. 'Just because you give someone a password doesn't mean that person knows how to use it. Childs' security measures would have included access lists that blocked attempted logins from non-specified IP addresses or subnets. In short, it was nothing out of the ordinary if you know anything about network security.' But while the lack of technical expertise in the case is troubling, encouraging is the fact that the San Francisco Chronicle's 'breathless piece reporting on the mayor's testimony' drew comments 10-to-1 in Childs' favor, which may indicate that 'public opinion of this case has tilted in favor of the defense,' Venezia writes. Of course, 'if [the trial] drags into summer, Childs will have the dubious honor of being held in jail for two full years' This for a man who 'ultimately protected the [City's] network until the bitter end.'"

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