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Australia

Submission + - Optus loses second battle in Aussie TV-timeshifting battle (abc.net.au)

Submitted by beaverdownunder
beaverdownunder writes: After winning an initial legal battle to continue its mobile TV Now terrestrial-television re-broadcasting service, Optus has lost a second battle in Australian Federal court. The Optus system 'time-shifted' broadcast signals by two minutes, and then streamed them to customers' mobile phones.

In the previous ruling, the judge sided with Optus' argument that since the customer requested the service, they were the ones recording the signal, and thus was fair-use under Australian copyright law. However, the new ruling had declared Optus to be the true entity recording and re-distributing the broadcasts, and thus is in violation of the law.

There has been no word yet on whether Optus will appeal the decision, but as they could be retroactively liable for a great deal of damages, it is almost certain that they will.

Submission + - Any Hotmail account could be hacked by just sending a specific string (whitec0de.com) 2

Submitted by fxbar
fxbar writes: Any hotmail account could be taken over by sending "+++)-" to the server. The problem is fixed now. Hackers sold accounts for 20$. Here more techinical detail: http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/get_content.php?id=529

The article speculates about rumors that "... there exists another critical vulnerability but it’s knowledge is limited to only the hackers who frequent the dark web."

Maybe this explains: http://idle.slashdot.org/story/12/04/25/2055225/microsofts-hotmail-challenge-backfires
News

Submission + - Taxing junk food: A new public health campaign against obesity (patexia.com) 2

Submitted by
ericjones12398
ericjones12398 writes: "Today, many developed and developing countries including European Union nations, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and Vietnam apply excise taxes on unhealthy products. Research has shown that both for tobacco and alcohol, excise taxes are an effective way of reducing consumption. With respect to tobacco, a 10 percent price increase in cigarettes is shown to reduce demand by 4 percent in high-income countries and by 8 percent in low-middle income countries. Taxes imposed on cigarettes have not only prevented people from starting to smoke, but have also reduced rates of relapse for those who recently quit smoking."
Displays

Submission + - MIT Researchers Invent 'Super Glass' (ibtimes.com) 1

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "On Thursday, researchers at MIT announced a breakthrough in glass-making technology, which basically involves a new way to create surface textures on glass to eliminate all of the drawbacks of glass, including unwanted reflections and glare. The research team wanted to build glass that could be adaptable to any environment: Their "multifunctional" glass is not only crystal clear, but it also causes water droplets to bounce right off its surface, "like tiny rubber balls." The glass is self-cleaning, anti-reflective, and superhydrophobic. The invention has countless applications, including TV screens, as well as smartphone and tablet displays that benefit from the self-cleaning ability of the glass by resisting moisture and contamination by sweat."
Ubuntu

Submission + - Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) released! (linuxstall.com)

Submitted by
Chankey Pathak
Chankey Pathak writes: "The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.

Codenamed “Precise Pangolin”, 12.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing a few new features and improving quality control."

Submission + - Is the Bloom Box our solution to Energy Independence? (energysave123.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just one Bloom Box with enough energy cells can fuel a home, part of an educational campus or even a business. Enthusiasts are anticipating that the Bloom Box will be the wave of the future for green energy generation for residential and commercial properties.

Originally designed for living on Mars, the Bloom Box was modified for use on Earth by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy is located in Sunnyvale, California led by CEO KR Sridhar, former Director of the Space Technology Laboratories at the University of Arizona. Their original model was intended to be used on Mars. However, when the Mars space programs were cancelled, the company modified the Bloom Box to be used on Earth for both residential and commercial energy generation.
Government

Submission + - 'Big brother' black boxes to soon be mandatory in all new cars (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Beginning in 2015, all new cars in the United States will likely need to be fitted with data-recording “black boxes” very similar to the devices currently used in aircraft. The U.S. Senate has already passed a bill that will make the devices a requirement, and the House is expected to approve the bill as well. Section 31406 of Senate Bill 1813 states that mandatory event data recorders must in installed in all cars starting in 2015, and it outlines civil penalties that will be levied against violators...
Music

Submission + - Anonymous creates service to share apple ipods (anontune.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It may be a crude interface, ugly even, but Anonymous are delivering on their promise to create a music platform. With a simple player built already and a few services to play music the platform positions itself in an unusual position.

Recently Anonymous unveiled a new feature to allow users to import the contents of their Apple ipod. The software works by scanning for ipods and then uploading the contents of the music database to Anontune. The song titles then show up on a profile page and can be played through the Anontune Music Engine.

Pretty neat.
Music

Submission + - Sony Entertainment sued by... "Wierd" Al? (msn.com)

Submitted by KDEnut
KDEnut writes: "Weird Al" Yankovic says that Sony Music Entertainment owes him to the tune of $5 million.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New York, the "Eat It" musical parodist claims that Sony has shortchanged him on royalties with a variety of improper accounting practices. He is seeking a judgment somewhere north of $5 million.

Comment Re:WTF? (Score 1) 1127

by KDEnut (#39108569) Attached to: Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group
The opposite of a live pigeon shoot is a clay pigeon shoot.

Having been on a few, They were probably a bunch of father/son teams out tromping around, and as usual making too much noise to flush anything in range. Especially if they were running around on quads like the article hinted at. Pigeons are remarkably stupid birds though.

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