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United States

Maryland Scraps Diebold Voting System 209

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the long-overdue dept.
beadfulthings writes "After eight years and some $65 million, the state of Maryland is taking its first steps to return to an accountable, paper-ballot based voting system. Governor Martin O'Malley has announced an initial outlay of $6.5 million towards the $20 million cost of an optical system which will scan and tally the votes while the paper ballots are retained as a backup. The new (or old) system is expected to be in place by 2010 — or four years before the state finishes paying off the bill for the touch-screen system."
Biotech

Submission + - New Plastic Strong as Steel

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Individual nano-size building blocks such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods are ultrastrong but scientists have had difficulty transferring the strength of individual nanosheets to the entire material. Now researchers at the University of Michigan have created a new composite plastic made of layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer with a machine they developed that builds materials layer by layer like mother of pearl, one of the toughest natural mineral-based materials. The layers are stacked like bricks, in an alternating pattern. "When you have a brick-and-mortar structure, any cracks are blunted by each interface," explained Nicholas Kotov adding that further development could lead to lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles and could also be used in microelectromechanical devices, microfluidics, biomedical sensors and valves and unmanned aircraft."
Communications

Wal-Mart's Faltering RFID Initiative 130

Posted by Zonk from the under-chipped dept.
itphobe writes "Baseline magazine has up an in-depth look at Wal-Mart's years-old RFID initiative. Things apparently haven't gone so well for the retail giant. 'The lack of any obvious concrete gains has raised questions as to whether Wal-Mart should delay or freeze its RFID plans. For now, however, Wal-Mart says it will stay the course ... By January 2006 the company hoped to have as many as 12 of its roughly 130 distribution centers fully outfitted with RFID. That effort stalled at just five distribution centers. Instead, the company is now focusing on implementing RFID in stores fed by those five distribution centers so it can gain a bigger window into its supply chain.' Overall the article focuses on the original intentions of the RFID project vs. their implementation. It also discusses several of the technical elements required to adapt RFID for the US juggernaut."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Transparent Aluminium -- Is it finally here? (thenorth.com)

Submitted by
CFD339
CFD339 writes: "New Material is extremely strong — and Transparent

The stuff is really strong, really stiff, and lasts a long time. It isn't porn though, it is a polymer.

From TFA: "Science Daily — By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent."

TFA: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071004143114.htm"
Security

Submission + - The top 10 reasons Web sites get hacked (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
Big Papi
Big Papi writes: "Web security is at the top of customers' minds after many well-publicized personal data breaches, but the people who actually build Web applications aren't paying much attention to security, experts say. Web applications are simply littered with vulnerabilities that can be exposed by hackers. Here are the top ten reasons Web sites get hacked: 1. Cross site scripting 2. Injection flaws 3. Malicious file execution 4. Insecure direct object reference 5. Cross site request forgery 6. Information leakage and improper error handling 7. Broken authentication and session management 8. Insecure cryptographic storage 9. Insecure communications 10. Failure to restrict URL access"
Space

Submission + - Interview with Sputnik's constructor (xs4all.nl)

Submitted by
Bruno van Wayenburg
Bruno van Wayenburg writes: "Today fifty years ago, the first satellite Sputnik was launched, shocking the world and sparking off the space race, all amid great Soviet secrecy. Here, veteran engineer Oleg Ivanovsky, who oversaw Sputnik's building, testing and launch, tells about blunders, indifferent politicians, hostile generals, crazy deadlines, and -hand it to them- astounding successes of the early Soviet space program."
Portables

Submission + - ARM to develop open mobile Linux platform (blorge.com)

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: UK-based ARM has announced that it and six companies will work together to develop a Linux-based open source platform for next-generation mobile applications. The collaboration, which includes Marvell, MontaVista, Movial, Mozilla, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, will focus on the development of an open source platform based on Linux, Gnome Mobile and Mozilla Firefox that runs on ARM Partners' advanced systems on chip (SoCs).
Censorship

Submission + - Burma Shuts Down Internet 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "MIT Technology Review reports that in the aftermath of pro-democracy protests, Burma's military rulers have physically disconnected their country from the internet:

Last week — after images of the beatings of Buddhist monks and the killing of a Japanese photographer leaked out via the Internet — Burma's military rulers took the ultimate step, apparently physically disconnecting primary telecommunications cables in two major cities, in a drastic effort to stop the flow of information from Burma to the rest of the world. It didn't completely work: some bloggers apparently used satellite links or cellular phone services to get information outside the country.
One Burmese blogger reported last week that "Myanmar main ISP has been shut down by so-called "maintenance reasons" and most of the telecommunication services have been cut off or tapped. ""
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Demonoid Back Up But Blocking Canadians

Submitted by Cedon
Cedon writes: Looks like the Canadian Recording Industry rumors were true in regards to Demonoid's shut down. The site is back up, confirming they have been threatened by CRIA and as a result are now blocking access to the site from Canadian IPs. Their latest news item states:

We received a letter from a lawyer represeting the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and we need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience.
Looks like Canadian users will have to start using international proxy servers.
Censorship

Submission + - Bloggers who risked all to reveal Junta in Burma 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause. Since last month Ko Latt, 28, his friends Arca, Eye, Sun and Superman, and scores of others like them have been the third pillar of Burma's Saffron Revolution. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2563937.ece
Privacy

Submission + - One-Click-Submission to German terror watchlist (www.bka.de) 5

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As the German daily Der Tagesspiegel reported today, the German federal criminal agency has a new strategy to catch terrorists: they put up an informational web page about the terrorist group "militante Gruppe" ("militant group") and now look at their web logs. If someone clicks on that link, his IP address will be investigated and he will be put on the terror watchlist. It would be utter madness of us to ask you to click on THIS LINK to put a billion people on their list so we are not even going to mention the URL. In case you find it, do not click on it! Thank you.
Space

Submission + - Sputnik at 50: An improvised triumph (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
caffiend666
caffiend666 writes: "According to an AP News article, "When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph. But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West." "At that moment we couldn't fully understand what we had done," Chertok recalled. "We felt ecstatic about it only later, when the entire world ran amok. Only four or five days later did we realize that it was a turning point in the history of civilization." "And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket...""
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Class-Action Lawsuit Over iPhone Locking?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe reports that some iPhone users are mad as heck at Apple for bricking up their device in response to non-Apple-authorized software downloaded., and they're talking about filing a class action lawsuit. In a discussion thread on Apple's own iPhone forum, one user posts that he's "Seeking respondents for possible class action lawsuit against Apple Inc. relating to refusal to service iPhones and related accessories under warranty." He's talking about users who've had their phones bricked up by Apple after they've unlocked them or installed third-party apps. Some who've replied to the post agree that Apple is being unbelievably arrogant and is ripe for legal action. But others say Cupertino is well within its rights to control its own device. What do you think? Does this mean if you don't like what Apple does you're forced to buy a Treo?

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