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Submission + - UK law change to allow digital copying (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Making digital copies of music, films and other copyrighted material for personal use is to be made legal for the first time under government plans.

It has previously been illegal in the UK to rip songs from a CD to a digital player or transfer eBooks, music, films and games from one device to another.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said the move was "not only common sense but good business sense".

"Bringing the law into line with ordinary people's reasonable expectations will boost respect for copyright, on which our creative industries rely," he said.

"We feel we have struck the right balance between improving the way consumers benefit from copyright works they have legitimately paid for, boosting business opportunities and protecting the rights of creators."
Technology

Submission + - New York's taxi authority to vote on use of apps for bookings (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: New York's taxi authority is to vote on whether or not the city's iconic yellow cabs should accept bookings via smartphone apps.

Taxi-hailing apps have been widely adopted in other cities around the world. In New York, where taxi operators are highly regulated, several companies have written to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) calling for plans to allow the use of the apps to be rejected.

Among them are companies who offer pre-booked minicabs, rather than ones hailed from the street. They argue that using a smartphone to hail a cab is in effect a pre-booking, and may take away a large amount of custom.

In the 1980s, New York's yellow cabs could be pre-booked, that many complained meant it was difficult to hail a cab. Some fear that smartphone apps could create a similar problem.
Crime

Submission + - Using mains hum to authenticate audio recordings (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: A hum that comes from mains electricity has allowed forensic scientists to establish whether recordings are genuine.

For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity.

It is an all pervasive hum that we normally cannot hear. But boost it a little, and a metallic and not very pleasant buzz fills the air.

"The power is sent out over the national grid to factories, shops and of course our homes. Normally this frequency, known as the mains frequency, is about 50Hz," explains Dr Alan Cooper, a senior digital forensic practitioner at the Met Police.

Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio.

This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings. But for forensic experts, it has turned out to be an invaluable tool in the fight against crime.

Submission + - Sir Patrick Moore dies aged 89 (bbc.co.uk) 3

Submitted by Tastecicles
Tastecicles writes: Patrick Moore was the monocled surveyor of the sky who awakened in millions of people an interest in galactic goings on.

His love of astronomy began at the age of six and that childhood curiosity developed into a lifelong passion.

It was a passion he shared through his programme, The Sky at Night, which he presented for more than 50 years, only ever missing one episode due to illness.

Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born at Pinner, Middlesex on 4 Mar 1923.

Heart problems meant he spent much of his childhood being educated at home and he became an avid reader.

His mother gave him a copy of GF Chambers' book, The Story of the Solar System, and this sparked his lifelong passion for astronomy.

He was soon publishing papers about the moon's surface, based on observations made with his first three-inch telescope. His 1908 vintage typewriter enabled him to publish more than a thousand books on subjects ranging from astronomy, his first love, to cricket, golf, and music.
Space

Submission + - Death of Sir Patrick Moore (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Coisiche
Coisiche writes: Breaking news on the BBC news site reports the death of Sir Patrick Moore, renowned broadcaster and astronomer who will probably be most familiar to UK readers. He might be known outside of the UK for being the presenter of the long running TV show, "The Sky at Night".



When I was growing up just about every space related news I saw was presented by him. As well some of his books on astronomy I also read a series of fictional books he wrote for a juvenile audience that featured some travels around the solar system.
Bitcoin

Submission + - Bitcoins join global bank network (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Bitcoin-Central, a currency exchange that specialises in virtual cash has won the right to operate as a bank. They got the go-ahead thanks to a deal with French financial firms Aqoba and Credit Mutuel.

The exchange is one of many that swaps bitcoins, computer generated cash, for real world currencies. The change in status makes it easier to use bitcoins and bestows national protections on balances held at the exchange.

Under European laws, the deal means Bitcoin-Central becomes a Payment Services Provider (PSP) that has an International Bank ID number. This puts it on an equal footing with other payment networks such as PayPal and WorldPay. As a PSP it will be able to issue debit cards, carry out real-time transfers to other banks and accept transfers into its own coffers.
Apple

Submission + - Russian iTunes Store shows porn images (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Users accessing Apple's iTunes Store in Russia have been getting porn images when searching for films to rent.

Movies without images have been linking to xxx.xxx web address. The intention might have been to link to a placeholder, said one IT expert, but addresses ending in .xxx are real websites with explicit content.
AI

Submission + - Teaching robots to lie - what could possible go wrong... (geekosystem.com) 2

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Disappointed that your Roomba can't clean your house while also telling you that you that shirt your girlfriend hates looks great on you? Researchers at Georgia Tech are working hard to solve that problem by teaching robots to lie, and they’re taking lessons in lying from some of nature’s most deceptive animals — squirrels. Because hey, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?

Deception is not something that comes very naturally to today’s artificial intelligence programs. For most robots, it's hard enough to navigate the world the way it is without introducing fantasies about the way it's not into the equation. So to help robots get the hang of misleading others, the team has turned to the squirrel, or "forest liar", to give robots the tools they need to learn the subtle arts of deception.
Hardware

Submission + - "self-healing" NAND flash memory that can survive over 100 million cycles (phys.org)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Taiwan-based Macronix has found a solution for a weakness in flash memory fadeout. A limitation of flash memory is simply that eventually it cannot be used; the more cells in the memory chips are erased, the less useful to store data. The write-erase cycles degrade insulation; eventually the cell fails. "Flash wears out after being programmed and erased about 10,000 times," said the IEEE Spectrum. Engineers at Macronix have a solution that moves flash memory over to a new life. They propose a "self-healing" NAND flash memory solution that can survive over 100 million cycles.
Education

Submission + - Teaching evolution key to free school funding deal (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Any attempt to present as fact the view that God made the world could lead to new free schools losing their funding under UK government changes.

The new rules state that from 2013, all free schools in England must teach evolution as a "comprehensive and coherent scientific theory".

The move follows scientists' concerns that free schools run by creationists might avoid teaching evolution.

Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said it was "delighted". Sir Paul told BBC News the previous rules on free schools and the teaching of evolution versus creationism had been "not tight enough".

He said that although the previous rules had confined creationism to religious education lessons, "the Royal Society identified a potential issue that schools could have avoided teaching evolution by natural selection in science lessons or dealt with it in a such a perfunctory way, that the main experience for students was the creationist myth".
Privacy

Submission + - Austrian police raid privacy network over child porn (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Austrian police have seized servers that were part of a global anonymous browsing system, after images showing child sex abuse were found passing through them.

Police raided the home of William Weber, who ran the servers, and charged him with distributing illegal images.

Mr Weber denied the charges and said he had no knowledge of what people did via the servers, which supported Tor.

Mr Weber operated part of the Tor network known as an "exit node". These act as a link between the wider net and the cloud of computers forming the core of the Tor network.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook and Zynga cut their ties (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Facebook and Zynga have amended an agreement that gave the games developer strong access to the social network's one billion users.

Zynga is the developer behind Farmville, a game once mostly played on Facebook, which at its peak attracted 82 million players a month.

Zynga now has its own games platform, but players will no longer be able to share their progress on Facebook.

Zynga's share price fell by 13% in after-hours trading following the news. It is the latest blow for the company, which last month announced job cuts and studio closures.

The change, which will take place from 31 March 2013, ends Zynga's ability to promote its Zynga.com platform on Facebook.
Blackberry

Submission + - Nokia seeks Blackberry sales bans after patent dispute (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Nokia has asked courts in the US, UK and Canada to block sales of rival Blackberry smartphones.

It follows a patent dispute between the Finnish company and Blackberry's parent, Research In Motion (RIM).

Nokia says an earlier ruling means RIM is not allowed to produce devices that offer a common type of wi-fi connectivity until it agrees to pay licence fees.

All current Blackberries would be affected. RIM had no comment. It is the latest legal distraction for the Canadian company as it prepares to launch an operating system that could determine its survival.
Canada

Submission + - Canada Creates Cap on Liability for File Sharing Lawsuits (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Over the past couple of days, there have been reports about the return of file sharing lawsuits to Canada, with fears that thousands of Canadians could be targeted. While it is possible that many will receive demand letters, Michael Geist has posted a detailed primer on liability in Canada that notes that recent changes to Canadian copyright law limit liability in non-commercial cases to a maximum of $5,000 for all infringement claims. In fact, it is likely that a court would award far less — perhaps as little as $100 — if the case went to court as even the government's FAQ on the recent copyright reform bill provided assurances that Canadians "will not face disproportionate penalties for minor infringements of copyright by distinguishing between commercial and non-commercial infringement."

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