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Unix

Submission + - OpenMotif 2.3 Released (motifzone.net)

Submitted by
joeljkp
joeljkp writes: "OpenMotif 2.3 has been released, marking the first major release to the venerable toolkit since 2000. Major features include anti-aliased fonts, UTF-8 support, and native support for PNG and JPEG images, among other things. OpenMotif is the open source counterpart to the Motif toolkit, which, according to the site, "is the leading user interface toolkit for the UNIX based operating system.""
Software

Submission + - AI behind smart car wheels

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Scientists at the University of Portsmouth, UK, have developed an artificial intelligence system to build the world's first thinking car wheel. The steering wheels use microcomputers which perform 4,000 calculations per second and communicate with each other. Then the wheels use AI to learn as the car is being driven, making calculations and adjustments according to travelling speed and road conditions. These intelligent tires mark the first time AI has replaced fundamental mechanics within a motor vehicle. This means that we might some day ride safer and driver cars. But don't panic! If the system doesn't work properly, the driver remains in control of the car. But read more for additional details about these smart car wheels."
Privacy

Submission + - British break global, web-based, pedophile ring

Submitted by
westlake
westlake writes: "In a breaking news story, the AP is reporting that the British police with the help of U.S. and Canadian investigators, have broken a web-based global pedophile ring, with 700 arrests world-wide. The ring was traced to an Internet chat room called "Kids the Light of Our Lives" that featured images of children being subjected to horrific sexual abuse including streaming live videos. Police rescued 31 children, some of them only a few months old. More than 15 of the children were in the United Kingdom. Authorities said they used surveillance tactics normally used against terrorism suspects and drug traffickers to infiltrate the ring at its highest level. The host of the chat room, Timothy David Martyn Cox, 27, of Buxhall, who used the online identity "Son of God," admitted to nine counts of possessing and distributing indecent images. Cox was given an indeterminate jail sentence Monday at a court in eastern England. That means he will remain in prison until authorities determine he is no longer a threat to children. 700 held as pedophile ring smashed, Police Smash Global Pedophile Ring"
Businesses

Submission + - The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer (nytimes.com)

Submitted by The-Bus
The-Bus writes: Julian Dibbell has written a great article for the New York Times Magazine on the life of Chinese gold farmers. It's a great read and has a lot of very interesting tidbits, from comparing the potential size of the economy of MMO games and the GDP of Bolivia, to a Stanford scholar who found similarities between contemporary anti-gold-farmer rhetoric and 19th-century U.S. literature on immigrant Chinese laundry workers.
Linux Business

Submission + - Ubuntu's Shuttleworth rejects Microsoft deal

Submitted by
e5rebel
e5rebel writes: "Mark Shuttleworth chief executive of Ubuntu has made it clear that he is not interested in forming a deal with Microsoft along the lines of those recently reached by Linspire, Xandros and Novell. "We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements," he said http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/operatin g-systems/nix/news/index.cfm?newsid=3544"
Censorship

Submission + - France Bans People from Recording Violence

Submitted by DrEnter
DrEnter writes: According to this PC World story found on Yahoo!, the French government has made it illegal for anyone except a professional journalist to film or broadcast an act of violence. Civil liberties groups warn that the law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who record acts of police violence, or the operators of web sites that publish them. The government is also discussing a method of government "certification" of web sites, blog hosters, mobile phone operators, and ISPs if they adhere to certain rules.
Privacy

Submission + - MySpace to offer spyware for parents

Submitted by mrspin
mrspin writes: Following continuing pressure from politicians (and parts of the media), MySpace is planning to offer parents the chance to download software which will monitor aspects of their children's activities on the social networking site. From a business point of view, the move appears to be a highly risky one. The young users of social networking sites are notorious for their lack of loyalty — and history suggests that a change like this could tempt many to abandon MySpace for the 'next cool thing'.
Space

Submission + - Google to Parner in Large Synoptic Telescope

Submitted by
Max Fomitchev
Max Fomitchev writes: "Google has struck a partnership with scientific community to build 8.4 meter synoptic survey telescope in Chile. Apparently Google will offer its search and storage prowess for processing of 30 terabytes of data that the telescope would acquire daily in exchange for public (searchable?) access to the acquired space image data."
Microsoft

Submission + - Evidence that MS violated 2002 judgement surfaces

Submitted by whoever57
whoever57 writes: In the Comes Vs. Microsoft case, the plaintiffs believe they have found evidence that Microsoft has failed to fully disclose APIs to competitors. If true, this would mean that Microsoft has violated the 2002 judgement. Once again, Groklaw has the scoop. This information has become avaialble since the plaintiffs have obtained an order allowing them to disclose Microsoft's alleged mis-behavior to the DOJ ("appropriate enforcement and compliance authorities").
Security

Submission + - Image Spam Becoming a Growing Challenge

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Image spam is a serious and growing problem, not least because of its ability to circumvent traditional email spam filters to clog servers and inboxes. In just half a year, the problem of image spam has become general enough to be representative of 35 per cent of all junk mail. Not only this, but image spam is taking up 70 per cent of the bandwidth bulge on account of the large file sizes every single one represents.
Space

How a Pulsar Gets Its Spin 63

Posted by Zonk from the how-the-pulsar-got-its-spin-back dept.
brian0918 writes "Until now, the assumption has been that the rapid spin of a pulsar comes from the spin of the original star. The problem was that this only explained the fastest observed pulsars. Now, researchers at Oak Ridge have shown that the spin of a pulsar is determined by the shock wave created when the star's massive iron core collapses. From the article: 'That shock wave is inherently unstable, and eventually becomes cigar-shaped instead of spherical. The instability creates two rotating flows — one in one direction directly below the shock wave and another, inner flow, that travels in the opposite direction and spins up the core. The asymmetrical flows establish a 'sloshing' motion that accounts for the pulsars' observed spin velocities from once every 15 to 300 milliseconds.'"
United States

Submission + - Dropping the Ax on Pro-Union Workers

Submitted by ratfink
ratfink writes: Illegal firings of pro-union workers are on the rise, Business Week and the Associated Press report. The numbers come from a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which notes that about one-fifth of union organizers in the US are fired illegally for their activism. The authors suggest that the rise in this employer tactic may be one reason why the share of unionized workers in the US has fallen from 33% to 13% over the last sixty years.
Google

Submission + - A Tour of the Google Blacklist

Submitted by WienerPizza
WienerPizza writes: Michael Sutton takes us on a tour of the Google blacklist, a list of suspected phishing sites. He finds that eBay, PayPal and Bank of America combined account for 63% of the active phishing sites. Amusingly, he also reveals that Yahoo! has a nasty habit of hosting phishing sites that harvest...you guessed it...Yahoo! credentials!
Space

Submission + - Mystery Rock Crashes Through House

Submitted by
silic0nsilence
silic0nsilence writes: "According to CNN, a rock suspected to be a small piece of a meteor crashed through the roof of a house into a bathroom, crushing the tile. Police are baffled, but have said it is not radioactive. The FAA also added that it is not a piece of aircraft."
Security

Submission + - Money Laundering Via MMO's

Submitted by Anonymous
Anonymous writes: Apparently, it is rather easy to move illicit funds through virtual economies such as Second Life (among many others) via currency conversion from real cash to virtual cash, followed by transferring that to another player, who then converts it back to real cash. Although the author of this posting gives a simple scenario, it is quite plausible that motivated criminals can be capable of much more robust schemes. http://www.world-check.com/articles/2007/01/02/vir tual-money-laundering-now-available-world-wide-/

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