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Science

Reflectivity Reaches a New Low 166

Posted by Zonk from the engaging-cloaking-device dept.
sporkme writes "A new nanocoating material developed by a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has the lowest level of reflectivity ever seen ... or not seen in this case. The amount of light reflected by the composite of silica nanorods and aluminum nitride is almost the same amount reflected by air. From the article: 'Schubert and his coworkers have created a material with a refractive index of 1.05, which is extremely close to the refractive index of air and the lowest ever reported. Window glass, for comparison, has a refractive index of about 1.45. Using a technique called oblique angle deposition, the researchers deposited silica nanorods at an angle of precisely 45 degrees on top of a thin film of aluminum nitride, which is a semiconducting material used in advanced light-emitting diodes (LEDs). From the side, the films look much like the cross section of a piece of lawn turf with the blades slightly flattened.' Suggested applications include increased efficiency in solar cells, more energy-efficient lighting and advances in quantum mechanics."
Encryption

Submission + - AACS broken for all HD and Blu-ray disks

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Two months after Muslix64 initially publicized his method for getting AACS keys, a user on Doom9 has found the processing key, which is able to decrypt all disks for both formats released thus far. The exploit can even be reused for future keys. This will allow the creation of a one-click backup utility and is a major blow against DRM.
Biotech

Submission + - Big Pharma's Open Source Biology

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Big pharmaceutical companies used to hoard genetic information to themselves. But this Forbes story says that Novartis and Pfizer are now giving genetic info they found away for free, because it is worth more to them to have lots of researchers working on it than to keep it away from competitors.

http://www.forbes.com/business/2007/02/12/novartis -genes-diabetes-research-biz-cz_mh_0212novartis.ht ml

This represents a big change from a decade ago, when companies bought up genetic databases for hundreds of millions of dollars — then found out that they couldn't really use these to invent new medicines.
Microsoft

Microsoft Retracts Patent 182

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the too-hot dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has retracted their recent controversial patent application. The story was first brought to light by Slashdot on Saturday. Today, Jane Prey of Microsoft announced the retraction on the SIGCSE (Special Interest in Computer Science Education) mailing list. 'Many thanks to the members of the community that brought this to my attention — and here's the latest. The patent application was a mistake and one that should not have happened. To fix this, Microsoft will be removing the patent application. Our sincere apologies to Michael Kölling and the BlueJ community.'"
Bug

Submission + - Earth will turn to Venus because of computer bug

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "The story so far: NOAA reports that 2006 growth rate of CO2 concentration is 2.64 ppm/year. This is an increase from 2.42ppm/year in 2005 and 1.65ppm/year 2004, and The Guardian, using this data, reports that Earth will soon turn to Venus because of runaway greenhouse effect. Then NOAA tells the Guardian it ain't so, that the figures are only preliminary and pulls the December data, bringing the value down to 2.05ppm/year. But they tell others that the wrong value was published because of a computer bug.

The way I see it, three things could be happening here
  1. It was a genuine computer bug
  2. They are trying to stop people getting alarmed about Earth atmosphere becoming inhabitable
  3. They are trying to cover up because someone from the top ordered them to do so
"
Businesses

Submission + - Verizon spins off rural lines

Submitted by ffejie
ffejie writes: Verizon has announced that it will be spinning off rural assets to FairPoint Communications. The deal will close sometime in 2007 and is worth $2.7 Billion. 1.6 Million phone lines, 234,000 high speed (DSL) subscribers and 600,000 long distance customers will be moved to FairPoint in an effort for Verizon to shed it's low margin lines in rural areas. The sale has been rumored since at least the summer. With Verizon offering high speed FiOS (FTTP) to only it's local service areas, what will happen to the consumers stuck with a smaller telco like those moving to FairPoint? In the future, will there become an even deeper digital divide between the rural users and the high revenue areas?
The Internet

Submission + - Dear Senator Feinstein: please don't PERFORM

Submitted by
tcahill
tcahill writes: "tcahill thinks Senator Feinstein's new PERFORM act requires some audience participation. The Senator's Website is set up to receive email (1), perhaps slashdot readers might want to send her some appropriate audience feedback. Most politicians are more impressed by individually written letters than mass mailings. For example, here is what tcahill sent:

Regarding the PERFORM Act, it fundamentally offends the principle of free speech that you would contemplate mandating that only certain forms of communication (those using approved DRM) would be permitted for those broadcasting over the Internet. You can only do harm by persisting in seeking to impose controls over — not what information — but how information itself is disseminated. Beyond the constitutional offense inherent in what you contemplate, there are anti-market and anti-innovation assumptions inherent in your assumption that you can dictate exclusively which forms of technology are to be used. Finally, you clearly endanger the principle of fair use by mandating all internet broadcasts must be protected by DRM, which, by law, may not be circumvented. As I know you to be a progressive I am confident you will see the error in your approach and stand down.

Links

1. http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html"
Microsoft

Vista Designed to Make Malware Easy 311

Posted by CmdrTaco from the it-wasn't-that-hard-in-xp-either dept.
SlinkySausage writes "Trojan horses masquerading as 'cracks for Vista' are starting to appear on pirate boards. More worrying though, Microsoft has confirmed that Vista's image-based install process is designed to allow third-party software to be slipstreamed into the installation DVD. Great for corporate deployment of Vista with software pre-installed, but also a huge benefit for malware writers, who can distribute Vista images with deeply-rooted malware."

North Korea Says It Has Conducted Nuclear Test 1623

Posted by Zonk from the troubling dept.
ScentCone writes "North Korea says that it has conducted its first nuclear weapons test and 'brought happiness to its people.' Japan and China earlier issued an unusual joint statement saying that such a test would be 'unacceptable.' As of 11:10PM EST, the USGS says that it has not detected any unusual seismic activity on the Korean peninsula in the last 48 hours." From the article: "The North said last week it would conduct a test, sparking regional concern and frantic diplomatic efforts aimed at dissuading Pyongyang from such a move. North Korea has long claimed to have nuclear weapons, but had never before performed a known test to prove its arsenal. The nuclear test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (0136 GMT) in Hwaderi near Kilju city, Yonhap reported, citing defense officials." Update: 10/09 05:50 GMT by J : The U.S. Geological Survey reports a 4.2 magnitude quake; South Korean news is reporting a 3.58 magnitude event; the White House apparently confirms a nuclear test.

TiVo vs EchoStar - TiVo Wins 256

Posted by CowboyNeal from the set-top-battles dept.
ssuchter writes "A jury just ruled in favor of TiVo in their suit against EchoStar, awarding TiVo $73M of the $87M they asked for. From the article: 'TiVo had sought $87 million in damages from the Dish satellite-TV network in a patent dispute that TiVo lawyers said could be "life or death" for the company that sold the first box for pausing and rewinding live television.'"

Google's CEO Clears the Air 147

Posted by Zonk from the there's-a-lot-of-fog-out-here dept.
prostoalex writes "Google CEO Eric Schmidt sat down with PC Magazine to discuss some of the current issues swirling around Google, such as China and censorship, growth of the video content on the Internet, Microsoft's planned move into online ads, working with AOL and Internet neutrality." From the article: "Schmidt was quick to say that the acquisition of Writely was not meant to create a competitor to Microsoft Office, which he said solves a complicated and important problem of work productivity. Writely is a server-based editing system where you can move your files around, he said, and there are places where a rich text editor is useful in Google."

Treo 700w Review 45

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sprinting-backwards dept.
bart_scriv writes "Business Week has a review of Palm's Treo 700w (the first Palm device to run Windows). Aside from network performance, the reviewer was fairly disappointed. From the article: 'The best Windows Mobile device ever, but a cut below Palm's 650."

Does Using GPL Software Violate Sarbanes-Oxley? 272

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the dispelling-fud dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "eWeek is reporting that The Software Freedom Law Center has published a white paper that dismisses recent publications from embedded systems seller Wasabi Systems. Wasabi recently released statements focusing on alleged GNU General Public License violations in relation to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The white paper, titled "Sarbanes-Oxley and the GPL: No Special Risk," essentially counsels users of the free software license that they have no need to worry."

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