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Inventor Creates Flotation Device Bazooka 144

Posted by samzenpus from the point-shoot-and-save dept.
Australian inventor Sam Adeloju has won the £20,000 ($32,000) James Dyson Award for inventing the coolest piece of life-saving equipment ever. The Longreach is a modified bazooka which can fire an expanding flotation device up to 150m to a person in distress. From the article: "Mr Adeloju told NEWS.com.au that the Longreach was inspired by a grenade-launch training session with the Army Reserves. Weighing just 3.5kg, it shoots the rescue device 150m in a manner similar to the way the army uses a grenade launcher to deliver flares and aerial observation devices. Hitting the water activates an expanding foam unit in the Longreach rescue unit, which also incorporates LED illumination and a vortex air whistle."

Submission + - Public employee to face hearing over personal blog (cnn.com) 2

Submitted by BitterOak
BitterOak writes: In another attack on online freedom of speech, Michigan deputy attorney general Andrew Shirvell is facing a disciplinary hearing over a personal blog he created on personal time using personal resources. In the blog (which unfortunately seems now to be invitation only) he is critical of University of Michigan student body president Chris Armstrong for a variety of peculiar reasons including "promoting a homosexual lifestyle". Although rather childish, his blog is not related in any way to his job with the state, and in fact, he doesn't mention his employer anywhere on his blog. Should civil servants give up their First Amendment rights as a condition of employment?
Music

Submission + - Anti-piracy lawyers caught pirating each other (myce.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We would like to think that the lawyers that are prosecuting alleged copyright infringers are practicing what they preach, but it looks like one of the most high profile firms involved in such cases are just as guilty of stealing other’s work as those who are downloading illegal media.

Comment Re:Call me dense, but... (Score 1) 77

by njko (#33748140) Attached to: Inside Facebook's Infrastructure
Well tactically you sholud allways use the right tool for the problem. but strategically you should be aligned with long term goals and the vision of the CTO/CIO and other nonTechnical factors. Vendor independence may be one of the neccesaries key items to achieve the vision.
Image

One Quarter of Germans Happy To Have Chip Implants 170

Posted by samzenpus from the identified-coward dept.
justice4all writes "If it means shorter lines at the supermarket, a quarter of Germans would be happy to have a chip implanted under their skin. The head of Germany's main IT trade body told the audience at the opening ceremony of the CeBIT technology exhibition that one in four of his countrymen are happy to have a microchip inserted for ID purposes."

Comment Re:I want... (Score 1) 596

by njko (#27214949) Attached to: What to Fight Over After Megapixels?

I want the following from a digital camera...

1. Small phyiscal size (I wanna slip it in my pocket).

2. Good image quality

3. Good telephoto lens.

4. ???

5. Profit (sorry, couldn't resist)

Currently I use a Canon G9, but I'm sure they can do better!

Pick 2...and small physical size isn't an option yet

i pick ??? and profit
The Internet

Submission + - Interview with Google on Next-Generation Search

Submitted by
ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb writes: "Richard MacManus interviews Google's Matt Cutts on the topic of Next-Generation Search. Matt discusses what Google is working on in regards to next-gen search — including personalized search and semantic technologies. He says some search engines that claim to be semantic won't do a good job in delivering the right results, whereas Google can do a very good job due to the sheer amount of data it has. He says that Google has "a pragmatic approach and we don't necessarily place all our bets on one particular way of doing things. We are exploring a lot of different things all at once."

Also discussed in the interview is SearchMash (Google's "fun playground" for experimenting with new features), Google Base and using structured data, vertical search, fighting web spam, and how Google is going about indexing video."
Movies

Submission + - Dogs Used to Tackle Movie, Music Piracy

Submitted by
WMD_88
WMD_88 writes: "The Associated Press is reporting that the MPAA has trained dogs to sniff out pirated optical discs, and two of them are being used at an international airport in Malaysia. From the article: "On Tuesday, the dogs found discs hidden among more than 50 boxes scattered around the cargo complex, eventually uncovering a pirated box set of the long-running TV sitcom 'Friends,' among others, in less than 10 minutes. After Lucky and Flo's stint, Malaysia will evaluate whether to employ its own dogs. Shafie said the demonstration showed the dogs were cost- effective and faster at detecting the contraband than enforcement officers.""
Censorship

Submission + - Egyptian blogger sentenced to 4 years in prison

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: 22-year old Egyptian blogger and former law student Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman (aka Kareem Amer) was sentenced by an Egyptian court on Thursday to 4 years in prison, three years for "disparaging religion" and a fourth one added for "defaming the president." Amer, whose blog is still online, has become a cause celebre for human rights activists in Egypt and around the Arab world, who have set up a "Free Kareem!" campaign calling for his release online. Amer's case is interesting in that almost everything, from the crime itself to those rallying to Amer's aid, has been conducted in large part over the Internet. At one point, the legal defense team even tried to force the court to bring in a computer expert who could testify that the blog was hosted outside of Egypt and therefore out of the court's jurisdiction. While for an increasing number of individuals like Amer, blogging has become another form of regulated expression, it is also "an essential communication strategy for many frustrated Arabs who use blogging as a tool to promote democratization," as this editorial by one of the leaders of the "Free Kareem!" campaign claims.

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