kidsizedcoffin - Slashdot User

Dad Delivers Baby Using Wiki 249

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @05:29PM from the 9cm-edited dept.

sonamchauhan writes "A Londoner helped his wife deliver their baby by Googling 'how to deliver a baby' on his mobile phone. From the article: 'Today proud Mr Smith said: "The midwife had checked Emma earlier in the day but contractions started up again at about 8pm so we called the midwife to come back. But then everything happened so quickly I realized Emma was going to give birth. I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I just looked up the instructions on the internet using my BlackBerry."'"

Cell Phone Searches Require Warrant 161

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @03:27PM from the don't-search-me-bro dept.

schleprock63 writes "The Ohio state supreme court has decided that a cell phone found on a suspect cannot be searched without a warrant. The majority based this decision on a federal case that deemed a cell phone not to be a 'closed container,' and therefore not searchable without a warrant. The argument of the majority contended that a cell phone does not contain physical objects and therefore is not a container. One dissenting judge argued that a cell phone is a container that simply contains data. He argued that the other judges were 'needlessly theorizing' about the contents of a cell phone. He compared the data contained within an address book that would be searchable." The article notes that this was apparently the first time the question has come up before any state supreme court.

Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus 205

Posted by timothy on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @02:40PM from the concealed-carry-in-australian-waters dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. ... 'I was gobsmacked,' said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. 'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"

Comment Consent (Score 2, Interesting) 176

by kidsizedcoffin on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @12:51PM (#29825003) Attached to: 100,000 Californians To Be Gene Sequenced

I didn't see it in the article, but was consent obtained from each of these patients to use their DNA in this study? Or is this one of those OPT-OUT programs that companies think consumers like?

Middle-School Strip Search Ruled Unconstitutional 528

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 25, 2009 @04:34PM from the moment-of-claritin dept.

yuna49 writes "The US Supreme Court today ruled 8-1 that the strip search of a 13-year-old girl by officials in an Arizona middle school was unconstitutional. However, by a vote of 7-2, the Court also ruled that the individual school officials could not be held personally liable. A suit for damages against the school district itself is still going forward. We discussed this case at length back in March when the Court decided to hear the case on appeal."

Nielsen Recommends Not Masking Passwords 849

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 25, 2009 @03:47PM from the *****-****-**-******** dept.

Mark writes "Usability expert and columnist Jakob Nielsen wants to abolish password masking: 'Usability suffers when users type in passwords and the only feedback they get is a row of bullets. Typically, masking passwords doesn't even increase security, but it does cost you business due to login failures.' I've never been impressed by the argument that 'I can't think why we need this (standard) security measure, so let's drop it.' It usually indicates a lack of imagination of the speaker. But in this case, does usability outweigh security?"

Australian Web Filter To Censor Downloaded Games 200

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 25, 2009 @03:03PM from the we've-already-got-these-cool-filters-in-place dept.

Xiroth writes "The Australian Federal Communications Ministry has confirmed that they intend to use the planned filter to block the download of games that have been refused by Australia's classification authority, the OFLC. As an Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesman noted, 'This is confirmation that the scope of the mandatory censorship scheme will keep on creeping.'"

Comment Re:Not happening to me (Score 1) 527

by kidsizedcoffin on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @08:50PM (#28273739) Attached to: Comcast Intercepts and Redirects Port 53 Traffic

Not too helpful, but you can disable the RR redirect. The option was either on the redirect page or on their page. I turned it off the day it was added, so it has been a while.

Comment Mozilla Foundation's Choice (Score 4, Insightful) 911

by kidsizedcoffin on Tuesday February 24, 2009 @12:45AM (#26965803) Attached to: EU Says MS Must Offer Other Browsers; Now What?

Hasn't Mozilla said that they do not want to be bundled with Windows.

Oldest Human Hair Discovered In Fossilized Poop 50

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @06:54PM from the near-the-top-of-the-food-chain dept.

goran72 writes "A new study has suggested that strands discovered in fossil hyena poop found in a South African cave could be the oldest-known human hairs. According to a report in National Geographic News, researchers discovered the rock-hard hyena dung near the Sterkfontein caves, where many early human ancestor fossils have been found."

President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar 555

Posted by kdawson on Monday October 13, 2008 @08:07PM from the ip-con dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "President Bush has signed the EIPRA (AKA the PRO-IP Act) and created a cabinet-level post of 'Copyright Czar,' on par with the current 'Drug Czar,' in spite of prior misgivings about the bill. They did at least get rid of provisions that would have had the DOJ take over the RIAA's unpopular litigation campaign. Still, the final legislation (PDF) creates new classes of felony criminal copyright infringement, adds civil forfeiture provisions that incorporate by reference parts of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and directs the Copyright Czar to lobby foreign governments to adopt stronger IP laws. At this point, our best hope would appear to be to hope that someone sensible like Laurence Lessig or William Patry gets appointed."

Comment Answer =! Question. (Score 4, Funny) 252

by kidsizedcoffin on Tuesday May 20, 2008 @04:53AM (#23472580) Attached to: Breaking the Fermilab Code

I got an answer of 42.

The Century's Top Engineering Challenges 290

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday February 21, 2008 @12:15AM from the I-want-talking-fruit dept.

coondoggie writes "The National Science Foundation announced today 14 grand engineering challenges for the 21st century that, if met, would greatly improve how we live. The final choices fall into four themes that are essential for humanity to flourish — sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability, and joy of living. The committee did not attempt to include every important challenge, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting those selected. Rather than focusing on predictions or gee-whiz gadgets, the goal was to identify what needs to be done to help people and the planet thrive, the group said. A diverse committee of engineers and scientists — including Larry Page, Robert Langer, and Robert Socolow — came up with the list but did not rank the challenges. Rather, the National Academy of Engineering is offering the public an opportunity to vote on which one they think is most important."

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