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Medicine

Submission + - AIDS Virus Now Estimated to be 100 Years Old

ChazeFroy writes: A new study estimates that the AIDS virus, HIV, started to circulate in the human population between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908. This is much earlier than the previously-held estimate of 1930. "The new result is 'not a monumental shift, but it means the virus was circulating under our radar even longer than we knew,' says Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, an author of the new work." The article also speculates that HIV first began to spread in Kinshasa, Congo.

Optimus Keyboard Starts Shipping 309

Tom's Hardware is reporting that the Optimus keyboard that everyone was so anxious for (although maybe less so when they saw the price tag) started shipping this week. "According to an announcement made on the Optimus project blog, keyboards are now shipping to customers who pre-ordered the $1564 keyboard nine months ago. Keyboards with passive keys are delayed and will be shipping in about a month, the manufacturer said. [...] Earlier this month, one of the first Optimus Maximus keyboards was sold for $2750 on Ebay." Engadget even got the chance to test one of these expensive toys out.
Security

Boeing 787 May Be Vulnerable to Hacker Attack 332

palegray.net writes "An article posted yesterday on Wired.com notes that 'Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks that could allow passengers to access the plane's control systems, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.' They're already working on solutions to the problem - including placing more physical separation between aircraft networks and implementing more robust software-based firewalls."
Television

Submission + - Tiger Team Pilot Episode Streaming on Court TV

ChazeFroy writes: The pilot episode of Tiger Team is now available on Court TV's website in streaming flash format. Tiger Team (previously mentioned on Slashdot here) follows a group of penetration testers as they attempt to defeat the security of organizations through social engineering, wired and wireless penetration testing, and physically exploiting security weaknesses in an organization's infrastructure. The pilot episode involves testing an exotic car dealership in California that sells Lotuses, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Rolls Royces. You don't have to think too hard about how this episode ends up. It's also great to see Court TV take proactive steps to support new shows by making them available to the masses for free.
Television

Submission + - Tiger Team: Penetration Testing TV Series Dec 25 (courttv.com)

ChazeFroy writes: CourtTV (TruTV) has a new series starting Dec 25 at 11 pm called Tiger Team. It follows a group of elite penetration testers hired to test organizations' security using social engineering, wired/wireless penetration testing, and physically defeating security mechanisms (lock picking, dumpster diving, going through air vents/windows). They do all of this while avoiding the organizations' various security defenses as well as law enforcement. The stars of the show also did a radio spot this morning in Denver, and its MP3 is here.
Space

Comet Unexpectedly Brightens a Millionfold 276

swordgeek writes "Comet 17P/Holmes, a relatively obscure and (until a few days ago) dim object, has suddenly flared to be literally a million times brighter, going from magnitude 18 to 2.8. It is just outside of the constellation Perseus, which puts it high in the sky and ideal for viewing at this time of year. The comet still appears starlike even in binoculars but should grow to several arcminutes across over the next few nights. The comet is now readily visible to the naked eye. This is a completely unexpected once-in-a-lifetime event, so get out your finest optics (even if it's just your eyes) and go comet watching!"
GNU is Not Unix

First US GPL Lawsuit Heads For Quick Settlement 196

DeviceGuru writes to tell us that the first lawsuit centered around the GPL seems to have been quickly resolved outside of the courtroom. Monsoon Multimedia was quick to admit that they had violated the GPLv2 in their modified BusyBox code and will soon be releasing the source to come into full compliance with the license.
Mozilla

Mozilla Quietly Resurrects Eudora 309

Stony Stevenson writes to mention that the Mozilla Foundation has quietly released the first beta version of the revised Eudora email application. This is the first development Eudora has seen since Qualcomm stopped development and turned it over to the open source community in 2006. "Eudora first appeared in 1988 and quickly became one of the first popular email applications, enjoying its heyday in the early 1990s as it developed over the early days of the internet. Use of Eudora began to wane in the mid-1990s as the third-party application was muscled out of the market by web-based services such as Hotmail and bundled applications such as Outlook." Linux.com has a bit more explanation about why many may not consider this simply a new release of Eudora. According to the release page the new Eudora application is not intended to compete with Thunderbird, but instead to complement it.
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Censors Pearl Jam anti-Bush Lyrics on Web

ChazeFroy writes: During Sunday's live webcast of Pearl Jam's Lollapalooza show, AT&T censored anti-Bush lyrics sung by Eddie Vedder. Vedder sang 'George Bush, leave this world alone' and 'George Bush, find yourself another home' to the tune of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall'. AT&T attributed it to a mistake by the webcast vendor. However, net neutrality advocates are citing this as a prime example of how AT&T and other providers can censor whatever they want, even though they say they would never do that. To quote pearljam.com: 'AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media. Most telecommunications companies oppose "net neutrality" and argue that the public can trust them not to censor. What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.'
It's funny.  Laugh.

Top 10 April Fools Stories 234

SlashRating©
10
slashdottit! tm
ddelmonte writes with a link to a brietbart story on the top ten April Fools Day hoaxes, as determined by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes. Two great British examples: "In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home. In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse."
NASA

Astronaut to Run the Boston Marathon From Space 176

BostonBehindTheScenes writes "American astronaut Sunita Williams will run 26.2 miles on a treadmill on Patriot's Day (April 16th for those of you outside of Massachusetts) while runners on the ground will compete in the 111th Boston Marathon, according to this New Scientist article. And yes, she is an actual registered participant who qualified by finishing among the top 100 women in the Houston Marathon in 2006. NASA's press release touts this as yet another space first."
The Courts

IBM Asks Court To Declare Linux Non-Infringing 133

A Cyclic Graph writes "We finally have a redacted version of IBM's Reply Memorandum in Support of Summary Judgment on Counterclaim 10 in SCO v. IBM. In short, IBM is asking the Court to declare that Linux doesn't infringe upon any of SCO's purported intellectual property. This document is the last word on that matter until the Court either declares there to be no doubt that Linux is free of infringement, or decides that that issue has to be decided by the jury. In their brief, IBM points out that SCO puts forth a convoluted set of non-answers referencing each other to disguise it's inability to answer IBM. Their set of cross-references is so complex that Groklaw readers graphed the claims to make what little sense of them they could."
The Courts

Dance Copyright Enforced by DMCA 402

goombah99 writes "The "creator" of the Dance move known as the electric slide has filed a DMCA based takedown notice for videos he deems to infringe and because they show "bad dancing". He is also seeking compensation from the use of the dance move at a wedding celebration shown on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Next up, the Funky Chicken, the moonwalk, and the Hustle? More seriously, does the DMCA have any limit on its scope?"

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