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Government

US Relaxes Control Over ICANN 230

Posted by Soulskill from the icann't-believe-it dept.
An anonymous reader tips news that the US Dept. of Commerce has signed an agreement with ICANN to end their current oversight responsibilities and allow more input from the global community. "The move comes after European regulators and other critics have said the US government could wield too much influence over a system used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Those critics have complained, among other things, about the slow rollout of Internet addresses entirely in languages other than English." The US will still be involved; every three years, ICANN's work will be evaluated by a committee, one member of which will be from the Dept. of Commerce.

Comment Re:Those questions seem more like trivial pursuit (Score 2, Interesting) 1038

by Vadim Grinshpun (#27180657) Attached to: US Adults Fail Basic Science Literacy

Understanding what a "year" is is pretty basic (how else can one interpret the fact that people don't know how long it takes the earth to go around the sun?). I wouldn't put that in the 'trivia' category.
Knowing the land to water ratio is marginally more trivia-like; I think the range they accepted as 'reasonably right' is a tad too narrow--but not by much. Anyone who's ever seen a map should be able to know it's well over 50%, but that there's still quite a lot of land -- at which point 70% would be pretty easy to guesstimate. Of course this reqiures (1) having seen (and understood to some extent) the map of the world, and (2) knowing what "percent" means. Sadly, too many people in the US would have trouble with at least one of these.
Privacy

Interpol Pushing World Facial Recognition Database 171

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the here's-lookin-at-you dept.
The Register is reporting that according to some reports, Interpol will soon be pushing for a world-wide facial recognition database at the borders of all member nations. "The UK already has airport gates equipped with such technology, intended to remove the need for a human border guard to check that a passenger's face matches the one recorded in his or her passport. According to the Guardian, Interpol database chief Mark Branchflower believes that his organization should set up a database of facial-recognition records to operate alongside its existing photo, fingerprint and DNA files."
Software

Faster P2P By Matching Similiar Files? 222

Posted by CmdrTaco from the something-doesn't-jive-here dept.
Andreaskem writes "A Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist says transferring large data files, such as movies and music, over the Internet could be sped up significantly if peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services were configured to share not only identical files, but also similar files. "SET speeds up data transfers by simultaneously downloading different chunks of a desired data file from multiple sources, rather than downloading an entire file from one slow source. Even then, downloads can be slow because these networks can't find enough sources to use all of a receiver's download bandwidth. That's why SET takes the additional step of identifying files that are similar to the desired file... No one knows the degree of similarity between data files stored in computers around the world, but analyses suggest the types of files most commonly shared are likely to contain a number of similar elements. Many music files, for instance, may differ only in the artist-and-title headers, but are otherwise 99 percent similar.""
Media

Submission + - An iTunes for Music Licensing?

Submitted by
kimberlyholmes113
kimberlyholmes113 writes: "There's an interesting analysis of the EMI shift to DRM-free music, posted on Media 3.0. It's written by Shelly Palmer (a composer and media analyst), so it offers a somewhat unique perspective. He doesn't think DRM-free will give the industry any boost, since DRM-free already exists (via CD and file-sharing). What the industry needs, according to Palmer, is to find a new business model that embraces current (and future) user activity. This includes a new, easy-to-use licensing system that will allow users to pay a small licensing fee for using music in user-generated videos. The industry needs an iTunes for licensing: DRM-Free iTunes — Did We Miss the Memo?"
Power

Journal Journal: Georgia Tech Unveils Prototype Nanogenerator 208

Journal by Randolpho
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a working prototype nanogenerator capable of generating as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter of continuous direct current. The generators are green (to use), drawing power from natural motion in the surrounding environment. They are based on non-toxic chemicals and should be safe for use in biomechanical implants, but that's not their only potential use. From the artic

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