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Iphone

Submission + - Apple Readies Verizon iPhone (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by techinsider
techinsider writes: AT&T Inc. is about to lose its lock on the iPhone. Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year, according to people familiar with the matter, ending an exclusive deal with AT&T and sharpening the competition with Google Inc.-based phones.
Privacy

Submission + - Facebook privacy changes - a missed opportunity? (sophos.com)

Submitted by xsee
xsee writes: Mark Zuckerberg hosted an "event" Wednesday morning to announce the latest makeover to the world's largest social network. He announced several changes that will allow users more control over who they share content with, and arguably the opportunity to protect their privacy to a greater extent. Sophos blogger Paul Ducklin makes the case that Facebook should be leading the way on privacy by defaulting to an opt-in only strategy. He argues that the power Facebook has over our online habits is an opportunity for them to show the world the right way to manage people's personal data. Can Facebook attract more users by respecting privacy rather than pushing us off a cliff?
Wikipedia

Submission + - Prosecutor Loses Case for Citing Wikipedia (inquirer.net) 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Phillipine Daily Inquirer reports on a recent case where the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) lost an appeal after seeking to impeach the testimony of a defendant's expert witness by citing an article from Wikipedia. In her brief, the defendant said "the authority, alluded to by oppositor-appellant, the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders DSM-IV-TR,' was taken from an Internet website commonly known as Wikipedia" and argued that Wikipedia itself contains a disclaimer saying that it "makes no guarantee of validity." The court in finding for the defendant said in its decision that it found "incredible ... if not a haphazard attempt, on the part of the (OSG) to impeach an expert witness, with, as pointed out by (the defendant) unreliable information. This is certainly unacceptable evidence, nothing short of a mere allegation totally unsupported by authority.""

Submission + - Pinball Being Played for $10,000 (tiltwarning.com)

Submitted by siobHan
siobHan writes: The PAPA World Pinball Championships recently concluded in Scott, PA (near Pittsburgh), as covered on Slashdot already. The organizers recorded full 1080p/60 HD video of the playfield during the final games, and have uploaded the entirety of the crucial deciding game, with commentary. The winner of this game received $10,000 for his skillful play. Direct link to just the video can be found here.
Australia

Australia Gets Its First Female Prime Minister 419

Posted by samzenpus from the sheila-in-chief dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Julia Gillard has been elected unopposed to the Labor leadership, seizing power in a bloodless Parliament House coup after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd decided not to contest this morning's leadership ballot. Ms. Gillard will now be sworn in as Australia's first female prime minister. Emerging from this morning's meeting, she said she felt 'very honored' and said she would be making a statement shortly. Treasurer Wayne Swan now steps up as deputy prime minister. He was also elected unopposed."

Submission + - DIY Synthetic Aperture Radar (makezine.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Here is a tutorial on how to build a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from a bunch of junk found at swap meets, a garage door opener and a cordless drill. This system is capable of high resolution imaging of pins and model aircraft. Wonder why you were pulled over? build one of these then measure the radar reflectivity of your car.
Australia

Submission + - Australian internet in safe hands (news.com.au)

Submitted by
smash
smash writes: "Senator Conroy, Australia's minister for communications recently demonstrated his fine understanding of internet service delivery and his powerful command of the english language in a recent communique to the Australian people. Australia LOL'd."

Submission + - Google tries to kill nacent Cloud Computing Standa (aqueousvapor.com)

Submitted by Aqueous Vapor
Aqueous Vapor writes: A battle has been brewing in the Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) group within the Open Grid Forum (OGF) over the past months and came to a head today with the announcement that Google is not only withdrawing from the group, but is also taking it's contributions with it.

Google employee Sam Johnston wrote in a blog post, his side of the story that he has single handedly been pushing the OGF organization to open up its copyright policy to allow him to fork the standard in new directions.

The OGF has a clear policy on contributions, however, and was not about to be held hostage, thus they removed him from a leadership role in the organization. In retaliation, Sam has now sent a message revoking his copyright grant to his specifications and has instituted a fork under Creative Commons.

What this means for the standard that already has several implementations under way is anyone's guess, but it could come down to who has more lawyers: Google or an underfunded non-profit. If you are thinking that this is all a bit childish, you would not be alone. This kind of public spat is quite rare (thankfully) in a standards organization that usually only has participants working toward a common goal of a solid, widely implemented specification.

Submission + - Increasing Solar Efficiency to 66% 3

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: Scientists at the University of Texas have discovered a way to up solar cell's efficiency to about 66%. Using quantum dot technology the scientists can capture the sun's energy that is transmitted as heat, which could dramatically change solar technology.
Encryption

Submission + - The HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension (eff.org)

Submitted by Peter Eckersley
Peter Eckersley writes: EFF and Tor have announced a public beta of HTTPS Everywhere, a Firefox plugin that automatically encrypts your Google searches as well as requests to several other sites, including Wikipedia, Twitter, Identica, Facebook, some major newspapers, and a number of smaller search engines. This plugin makes it much easier to use encryption with sites that support it, but not by default.

For us, this is part of an ongoing campaign to turn the unencrypted web of the past into the encrypted web of tomorrow.
Hardware

Submission + - Hadron Collider Spurs Use of Superconductive Cable (earthandindustry.com)

Submitted by sprinkletown
sprinkletown writes: They used over 7600 km of this superconductive cable in the LHC, weighing only about 1200 tons. The total length of the filaments used if laid end to end would stretch "5 times to the sun and back with enough left over for a few trips to the moon."

On top of material efficiency, these highly advanced super-conductive cables offer tremendous gains in energy efficiency, which will play a critical role in the greening of our energy grid.

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