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Comment Re:Bad US Army Intel. (Score 1) 320

The reasoning behind this is that otherwise semi-private communication, such as email and encryption, reveals the existence of a conversation, and hence a relationship. The idea of using a social networking tool like Twitter is to hide both the conversation as well as proof of the relationship. Using something like lexical steganography, two malicious parties can communicate with each other in plain sight, without any connection linking them together. This is paramount when you're talking about building isolated terrorist cells; if one cell goes down, the bad guys don't want the government being able to connect it to other cells. Something like Twitter, which is mostly anonymous, is ideal for this kind of operation.
Space

Submission + - A Star That Bursts, Blinks and Disappears (spacefellowship.com)

Matt_dk writes: "Astronomers are reporting on a strange case where one of the littlest of stars "twinkled" with gamma rays, X-rays, and light — and then vanished.

The story began on June 6, 2007. That's when a spike of gamma-rays lasting less than five seconds washed over NASA's Swift satellite. But this high-energy flash wasn't a gamma-ray burst — the birth cry of a black hole far across the universe. It was something much closer to home."

Amiga

Submission + - AmigaOS 4.1 reviewed and Ready to ship (hyperion-entertainment.biz)

*no comment* writes: "Hyperion Entertainment and PowerPC motherboard makers Acube have announced that you will soon be able to run the AmigaOS 4.1 on the sam440 line of PPC motherboards through an OEM deal that was reached. Acube says in their press release that users wishing to beta test the 4.1 release will be provided with the full version. Amiga OS 4.1 was recently reviewed over at Are Technica."
Software

Submission + - SPAM: Software improves airdrops by 70%

coondoggie writes: "When it comes to airdropping tons of water on a huge forest fire or loads of food to flood survivors, dropping things from an airplane to a precise spot on the ground in the face of wind and nasty weather can be a black art. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists have developed wind-forecast software that promise to improve aircraft airdrop target accuracy up to 70%. The US Air Force is already using they system for dropping Army cargo and paratroopers into Iraq and Afghanistan, but the package can be used for releasing almost any cargo from an airplane into a target area: water over a blazing wildfire, food to a famine-stricken population, or supplies, tanks, and Humvees into a war zone, NOAA said. [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - App Store Bans iPhone App. Developer Goes Beta (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: "A week after Apple Inc. rejected his iPhone application and barred it from selling on the App Store, developer Alex Sokirynsky has turned to a little-known, but still Apple Inc.-approved, distribution channel — its beta test mechanism — to sell his Podcaster app. He was miffed: "I was very surprised," Sokirynsky said. He cited several examples of similar overlap — calculator applications, for example, as well as other music-playing applications — where Apple has allowed third-party developers to sell their wares on the App Store. But not as much as other iPhone developers. One said he was through with Apple. "You have to wonder if Apple wants the App Store to be a museum of poorly designed nibware written by dilettante Mac OS X/iPhone OS switcher-developers and hobbyist students," Fraser Speirs said. "That's what will happen if companies who intend to invest serious resources in bringing an original idea to the App Store are denied a reasonable level of confidence in their expectation of profit.""

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