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Power

Submission + - Ammonia: The Fuel Technology Of The Future? (allcartech.com)

Submitted by thecarchik
thecarchik writes: Ammonia: Useful in fertilizers, cleaning products and fairly unpleasant in direct human contact. Used as a fuel for vehicles? Certainly not impossible.

Rather than using hydrogen to power fuel cells and the associated high-pressure storage problems associated with this, we could would use water to produce hydrogen from electrolysis, and this is then combined with nitrogen from the air to produce ammonia.

The ammonia itself would then be burned in an internal combustion engine, but the burning process only releases water vapor and nitrogen, rather than the unburned hydrocarbons and other pollutants that internal combustion is normally associated with.

In theory, the ammonia is also simple and cheap to produce — enough so that it could be sold at 20 cents per gallon. As long as researchers keep working on radical ideas such as Ammonia powered cars or "urine powered cars", they are bound to one day to hit on the formula that can be widely adopted.
Privacy

Submission + - Are Some CAs Too Big to Fail? (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: In the wake of this weekend's revelations of the seriousness of the attack on certificate authority DigiNotar, security experts have renewed criticism of the Internet's digital certificate infrastructure, with some wondering if larger certificate authorities (CAs) might be too big to fail.

Would Mozilla and Microsoft and Google have revoked trust in root certificates from VeriSign or Thawte had they been compromised? Unlikely.

"It's not a simple matter of removing certificates from a database, because they're not in any databases," says researcher Moxie Marlinspike, who presented an alternative approach to the current SSL infrastructure last month at DEFCON. "We may never track them all down."

Submission + - Fans boycott Star Wars on Blu-ray (deadline.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: FTFA: "LucasFilm has confirmed some very controversial changes in its upcoming 9-disc Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga with 40 hours of extras. (...) The Ewoks’ eyes have been CGI’ed and now blink. Yoda’s not quite the same Yoda of yore because of digitalized alterations. (...) [T]here are widespread online campaigns cropping up to boycott this new Blu-ray collection when it goes on sale September 16th."

Submission + - TSA Groper Files SLAPP Suit Against Blogger (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TSA employee Theldala Magee has filed a lawsuit against a blogger demanding $500k in damages for alleging a particularly invasive search involving multiple incursions of a finger into the passenger's vagina. The passenger, who likened the feeling to being raped, is being sued for defamation for supposedly sullying the otherwise good name of a checkpoint smurf.
Science

Submission + - Satellite Spots Burning Man Festival from Space (discovery.com)

Submitted by
MikeCapone
MikeCapone writes: "A European Space Agency (ESA) satellite has captured what has become one of modern society's most hedonistic adventures--Burning Man. Taken about 400 miles up, the picture shows Black Rock City in full swing along with all of its 50,000-something attendees. ESA compiled the photograph using four photos, each with a resolution of about 16 feet. The perfect tribute as Burning Man just entered its 25th year. The festival started at San Francisco's Ocean Beach back in 1986 and relocated 120 miles north of Reno in 1990."

Submission + - New Superconductor Wires Could Give Renewable Ener (talkingpointsmemo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists in Israel have used technology created at a US-funded national research lab to created a new kind of wire that is a vastly better conductor than traditional copper wires. The research could have profound implications for renewable energy since much of the generation is in remote locations. It could help bring more electricty from renewable sources to cities.

Submission + - CS Majors do badly in the jobs market (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: British CS majors do badly in the job market — with, four years after graduation, a higher than average (for college graduates) unemployment rate and fewer returning to higher education. The only good news is that a higher propertion than average are in employment. Brit CS majors also do badly immediately after graduation. No similar US figures exist reports the Computing Education Blog.
Privacy

Submission + - Court Orders Gov't to Disclose GPS Tracking Data (readwriteweb.com)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "United States law enforcement officials have been utilizing data provided by global positioning satellite systems to track down individual suspects, without having to demonstrate probable cause before a judge first — that much is known. Rights groups such as the ACLU have wondered, just how much of that goes on?

The rights group's investigation of this practice has inadvertently triggered a renewal of the debate over privacy policy versus public disclosure, and whether it's possible for an agency or other entity to reveal data that could lead to further revelation of personally identifiable data (PID), without officially violating privacy. The final outcome could set a new precedent for privacy policy, not just by the government but for enterprises as well."
Movies

Submission + - Netflix Cracks Down on Concurrent Streaming (stopthecap.com)

Submitted by milbournosphere
milbournosphere writes: Over the Labor Day Holiday, Netflix has started to crack down on concurrent streaming. Unless you have a plan that allows for 2+ DVDs out at a time, you will be limited to watching only one movie at a time:
"Some membership plans allow you to watch simultaneously on more than one personal computer or Netflix ready device at the same time. If you are on the 1 disc out at-a-time plan [or stream-only plan], you may watch only one device at a time. If you are on the 2 discs out at-a-time plan, you may watch on up to two devices at the same time. Members on the 3 disc plan can watch on up to three devices. The maximum is four devices simultaneously, and that is available for members on the 4 or greater discs out at-a-time plans."
It looks like this text has always been in effect, and that Netflix is just now getting around to enforcing it.
Encryption

Submission + - GlobalSign Halts Cert Issuance After Claim of Hack (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: GlobalSign, a major certificate authority that was named by the hacker who has claimed credit for the DigiNotar hack as another CA he has compromised, has stopped issuing certificates for the time being while it investigates the claims and determines whether its network has in fact been compromised. It also has hired Fox-IT, the same company that investigated the attack at DigiNotar, to perform the audit of its systems.

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