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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 25 declined, 10 accepted (35 total, 28.57% accepted)

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Sci-Fi

Submission + - Science Fiction-Themed Brothel Opening Soon (cbslocal.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "The important details regarding the working women are still being hashed out, such as whether or not to paint the women green to resemble Orion Slave Girl characters from Star Trek.

However Hof tells CBS Las Vegas that for the clients he is reaching out “to everyone, all the Star Wars fans and Trekkies,” and cater to all flavors of geek fantasy.

Hof also hopes to collaborate with science fiction icons such as William Shatner – known better to his prospective clients as “Captain Kirk.”"

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Someone is licensing code I wrote un 5

Submitted by cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: I am a developer and released some code at one point under GPLv2. It's nothing huge, a small Drupal module that integrates a Drupal e-commerce system (ie. Ubercart) with multiple Authorize.net accounts, very useful for non-profits. Earlier today I discovered that a Drupal user was selling the module from their website for $49 and claiming it was their custom-made module. IANAL but my perspective is this violates both the spirit and law of GPLv2, most specifically clause 2-b:

You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

Am I correct in my understanding of GPLv2? Do I have any recourse, and related, should I do anything about this? I don't care about money, I just don't want someone selling stuff that I released for free. How do most developers/organizations deal with licensing infringements of this type?

Wireless Networking

Submission + - Scientists develop system that can shut down your (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "A team at Stevens Institute of Technology and Rutgers in New Jersey have created a system which shuts down a driver's phone without affecting other people in the vehicle.

It utilises a phone's Bluetooth connection and a vehicle's speakers to detect if the driver is using their mobile phone while driving, reports CNET.

The system measures the acoustic signals emitted from the stereo and the proximity of the phone to the Bluetooth receiver, essentially pinging both systems toto determine where the phone is being operated."
NASA

Submission + - Huge Defunct Satellite to Plunge to Earth Soon (space.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "The huge Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in an uncontrolled fall in late September or early October. Much of the spacecraft is expected to burn up during re-entry, but some pieces are expected to make it intact to the ground, NASA officials said.

The U.S. space agency will be taking measures to inform the public about the pieces of the spacecraft that are expected to survive re-entry."
Idle

Submission + - Computer to Marry Texas Couple (nbcdfw.com) 1

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "When Miguel Hanson and his fiancee, Diana Wesley, get married on Saturday, a computer program Hanson wrote will serve as the minister. During the wedding, to be held in the Houston home of Hanson's parents, the couple will stand before a 30-inch monitor in the backyard. In a robotic voice, the computer will greet the guests, say how the couple met and go through the ceremony."
Biotech

Submission + - South Korean scientists create glowing dog (reuters.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said.

The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog's food.

"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.

He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005."
China

Submission + - China building EMP weapons for use against U.S. (washingtontimes.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "China's military is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons that Beijing plans to use against U.S. aircraft carriers in any future conflict over Taiwan, according to an intelligence report made public on Thursday.

Portions of a National Ground Intelligence Centerstudy on the lethal effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons revealed that the arms are part of China’s so-called “assassin’s mace” arsenal — weapons that allow a technologically inferior China to defeat U.S. military forces.

EMP weapons mimic the gamma-ray pulse caused by a nuclear blast that knocks out all electronics, including computers and automobiles, over wide areas. The phenomenon was discovered in 1962 after an aboveground nuclear test in the Pacific disabled electronics in Hawaii."
Crime

Submission + - Law enforcement to begin iPhone iris scans (reuters.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.

The smartphone-based scanner, named Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, is made by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and can be deployed by officers out on the beat or back at the station.

An iris scan, which detects unique patterns in a person's eyes, can reduce to seconds the time it takes to identify a suspect in custody. This technique also is significantly more accurate than results from other fingerprinting technology long in use by police, BI2 says.

When attached to an iPhone, MORIS can photograph a person's face and run the image through software that hunts for a match in a BI2-managed database of U.S. criminal records. Each unit costs about $3,000."
Censorship

Submission + - Facebook Blocking Anonymous Video

Submitted by cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: I recently saw the new What Are We Capable Of video posted by Anonymous and felt compelled to share on Facebook. However, when posting, FB gives the following message:

This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.

I did a little research and found others reporting the same problem, including claims that comments with "05 What Is The Plan?" are deleted. I would normally rely on analysis from blogs and online news journals to get more info and help form my opinions, but since it hasn't been picked up by any blogs and/or mainstream media, I'm at a loss. So I'm curious Slashdot, is this a case of censorship? Are people filing phony abuse complaints? Legitimate complaints? Is there important information that I haven't come across?

Submission + - Secret agents raid Apple store webcam 'artist' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "The US Secret Service has raided the home of an artist who collected images from webcams in a New York Apple store.

Kyle McDonald is said to have installed software that photographed people looking at laptops then uploaded the pictures to a website.

Mr McDonald said he had obtained permission from a security guard to take photos inside the store.

Apple declined to comment. However, the Secret Service confirmed that its electronic crime division was involved."
Government

Submission + - TSA "Mischaracterized" Safety Of Body Scanners (infowars.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "Newly released internal government documents, obtained via the Freedom Of Information Act, reveal that the TSA, and specifically the head of the Department of Homeland Security, “publicly mischaracterized” the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in stating that NIST had positively confirmed the safety of full body scanners in tests.

In the private email response, NIST stated that the Institute had not, in fact, tested full body scanners at all for safety, and that the Institute does not even undertake product testing.

Another document obtained by EPIC even shows that, far from affirming their safety, NIST warned that airport screeners should avoid standing next to full body scanners in order to keep exposure to harmful radiation “as low as reasonably achievable.”

However, another document obtained by EPIC shows that a growing number of TSA workers diagnosed with cancers are voicing concern that the full body scanners and x-ray machines are indeed to blame for their illnesses."
Education

Submission + - How the Internet Works for web design class? 3

Submitted by cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: I am teaching an Intro to Web Design class this next fall at a local college that specializes in arts and design. This is the most "technical" class required for their major (other than the Adobe suite of software) and I'm looking for papers and resources that describe "how the internet works". Subjects I want to cover (during the course of 3 hours) include LAMP, TCP/IP & related protocols, DNS, principles of OSS, and why you should love your system admin. I'm searching for resources, preferably under a Creative Commons license, to distribute and share with students. Any recommendations?
NASA

Submission + - Edge of Solar System Filled with Bubbles (space.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "The edge of our solar system is filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles, according to new NASA research.

Scientists made the discovery by using a new computer model, which is based on data from NASA's twin Voyager probes. The unmanned Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which launched in 1977, are plying the outer reaches of our solar system, a region known as the heliosheath.

The new discovery suggests that researchers will need to revise their views about the solar system's edge, NASA officials said. A more detailed picture of this region is key to our understanding of how fast-moving particles known as cosmic rays are spawned, and how they reach near-Earth space."
Privacy

Submission + - Checkpoint of the future coming soon to airports (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
cultiv8
cultiv8 writes: "Eye scanners and futuristic security tunnels may be standard in airports soon as the airline industry seeks to maintain safety while reducing the hassles of boarding a plane that deter some people from flying.

The International Air Transport Association unveiled a mock-up Tuesday in Singapore of what it dubbed the "Checkpoint of the Future," where passengers separated by security risk would walk through one of three high-tech, 20-foot-long (6.1-meters-long) tunnels that can quickly scan shoes and carry-on luggage and check for liquids and explosives.

In the IATA prototype, passengers would be categorized based on the results of a government risk assessment that is put into a chip in a passenger's passport or other identification. An eye scan would then match the passenger to the passport."

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