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Government

Submission + - Did Customs and Border Protection find nukes? (10news.com)

schwit1 writes: 10News was granted access to San Diego's seaport for a firsthand look at how Customs and Border Protection officers safeguard against weapons of mass effect.
"Given the open waterways and the access to the Navy fleet here, I'd say, absolutely, San Diego is a target," said Al Hallor, who is the assistant port director and an officer with Customs and Border Protection.
10News investigative reporter Mitch Blacher asked, "Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponized device?"
"At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things," said Hallor.
Customs and Border Protection officers clear 80 percent of all cargo before it enters the United States. Congress has mandated that they clear 100 percent of cargo imports by 2012. In San Diego, every cargo container is driven through a radiation detector before leaving San Diego's seaport.
"So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device?" asked Blacher.
"Correct. Weapons of mass effect," Hallor said.
"You ever found one?" asked Blacher.
"Not at this location," Hallor said.
"But they have found them?" asked Blacher.
"Yes," said Hallor.
"You never found one in San Diego though?" Blacher asked.
"I would say at the port of San Diego we have not," Hallor said.
"Have you found one in San Diego?" Blacher asked.
The interview was interrupted before Hallor was able to answer the question.

The Internet

Submission + - Internet shut down in Algeria (blogtechnical.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: Just 3 weeks ago, the war raged on in Egypt but now revolution has come to Algeria as its country’s citizens also fight for freedom from President Abdelaziz Boutifleka’s rule. The government has gone ahead and shut down the Internet and even had many activists Facebook accounts deleted.
The Military

Submission + - USA to get first drone test pilot (suasnews.com)

garymortimer writes: U.S. Air Force Capt. Nicholas “Hammer” Helms is in line to be the next aviator to make history at Edwards. But he won’t be breaking any speed records or risking his life to push the limits of what aircraft can do.

Instead, he’ll do his test-flying from a computer workstation, safely on the ground. Helms is being trained to be the nation’s first drone test pilot.

“Flying at 9 Gs is a lot more fun than sitting in a locked room, I’ll tell you that,” said Helms, 29. “I never expected to be flying anything other than an F-16. But now I’m here.”

Youtube

Submission + - How major film studios manipulate YouTube users (shadowlocked.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: A year before the major movie companies were offered the chance by YouTube to 'block, monetize or track' uploaded copyrighted material, studios such as Disney were already commissioning PR companies to create bogus YouTube users — complete with authentically 'trendy' semi-literate user-profiles, on accounts that appeared to be set up by young and 'edgy' teenagers. These faux 'users' were able to post high-definition videos from copyrighted movies without being penalised or impeded by YouTube's Content ID algorithms, and their posts, deliberately crammed with piracy-related search terms and timed (even to the day, in one case) to coincide with related DVD and Blu-ray releases, sometimes accrue a million and a half hits or more, whilst those of genuine YouTube uploaders fall at the site's Content ID firewall.

This article looks at how the major studios have reacted to YouTube in the last four years, and also examines in-depth three such examples of apparent 'astroturfing' involving the theatrical or disc releases of 'Toy Story 2', 'Speed Racer' and 'Spider-Man 3'.

Space

Submission + - America updates its space-security policy (economist.com)

PolygamousRanchKid writes: The Economist has an interesting article about the risk that the US now faces in space:

A strategy document* published on February 4th by the country’s Department of Defence (DOD) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reveals interlopers. Around 60 countries now have satellites orbiting the Earth. Along with those satellites—which number more than 1,000—there are 22,000 man-made objects large enough to track by radar and hundreds of thousands of bits of debris too small to detect. Space is a congested, contested and competitive place, and one in which America is merely first among equals. Satellites, vital for both military and economic security, face a range of threats, including accidental collisions, anti-satellite missiles, lasers, electronic jamming and even the hacking of their software.

Apple

Submission + - iPad in enterprise: Apple's game to lose

Toe, The writes: Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes follows up on a conference call with Forrester Research by concluding that the iPad is “running far ahead of its tablet competition and its their game to lose." He also notes that Apple is the "½Â½Âoewinner in the consumerization of IT," with hoards of enterprise workers bringing their Apple devices into work. He predicts Apple will claim over 70% of 47 million tablets sold in 2011. Recently, Apple announced that over 80% of Fortune 100 are already deploying or testing the iPad.
Piracy

Submission + - Piracy whistleblowers paid $57K in 2010 (networkworld.com)

alphadogg writes: In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy. Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500.

The profile of sources reporting software piracy indicates that most reports come from former IT staff – these are the people who typically witness the illegal use of software. 75% of all reports come from IT staff or managers, 11% from the company’s senior management and 4% from outside consultants. More than 59% of those reporting are no longer employed by the target company. In fact, many of SIIA's sources report that their primary reason for leaving the target company was the company’s lack of ethical behavior related to software compliance.

Android

Submission + - Android gets touch (haptic) feedback (i-programmer.info) 1

mikejuk writes: A new SDK bring touch feedback to the Android platform using standard hardware — the vibration motor. You can select touch themes like rubber ball, typewriter, butterfly and so on and application developers can use it to bring users closer to their creations.
The idea of achieving different feedback effects by modulating the vibration motor is clearly a fairly crude form of feedback, but it could be that custom vibrate "ringtones" are the next big thing.

Submission + - Swedish supreme court protect file sharers (google.se)

flote writes: The Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta Domstolen) has decided that several laws concerning file sharing and the identity of the file sharer overlap and are contradictory. "The issue of [whether] Ephone get[s to] share the information is so complicated that it is necessary to ask the EU Court in Luxembourg for advice. And European Court usually takes plenty of time. It's probably about one to two, at worst, up to five years of treatment. .. This means that file-sharers will be protected if the record label or film company requires the identification information, until the European Court of Justice puts the foot down."

Original article in swedish: http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/hogsta-domstolen-skyddar-fildelare_5399687.svd

Space

Submission + - Support Team FREDNET

flote writes: "Given the 40-year-moon-anniversary-hype I was checking out the progress on google lunar x prize and one of the competitors, team FREDNET who are doing the entire moon landing mission as an open source project. What surprised me was that only nine people had donated to their project (at least only nine people had used the donate widget on their site, they probably have other channels as well). Imagine the good press it would give the open source community if these guys were the winning team. Maybe through the power of the slashdotters we can facilitate their task a little. I, for one, think this is such an awesome idea which deserves a little more attention and <3."

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