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The Courts

Palin E-mail Hacker Indicted 846

Posted by CmdrTaco from the very-stealthy dept.
doomsdaywire writes "A University of Tennessee student who is the son of a Memphis legislator has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of hacking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail. [...] If convicted, [David C.] Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release. A trial date has not been set."

Comment Re:I'm already a victim of these tactics (Score 1) 942

by p_trekkie (#25291393) Attached to: Election Dirty Tricks About To Begin
Most of what you say I agree with. I do realize that lots of the information is available offline (I can think of two sources which it could easily have come from). The fact that the GOP (and/or henchman) is searching either of those sources is what bothers me.

What I am somewhat concerned about is that you state that this business information could be used to look up my SSN. Most universities have similar information posted for all graduate students, researchers, and professors. Is it true that anyone could then lookup SSNs, or only someone who is in a position of trust (in your case, managing pensions). A quick search online showed sources whereby it might be possible, but they required additional documentation to prove the looker-upper had the right to access that information.
Space

First Images of Russian-European Manned Spacecraft 191

Posted by timothy from the space-porn dept.
oliderid writes "The first official image of a Russian-European manned spacecraft has been unveiled. It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation.The reusable ship was conceived to carry four people towards the Moon, rivaling the US Ares/Orion system. This project is the Plan A for the European Space agency. The plan B is an evolution of the ATV proposed by a consortium of European companies led by Astrium."
Power

Eric Lerner's Focus Fusion Device Gets Funded 367

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the race-for-the-power-finish-line dept.
pln2bz writes "Eric Lerner, author of The Big Bang Never Happened, has received $600k in funding, and a promise of phased payments of $10 million if scientific feasibility can be demonstrated to productize Lerner's focus fusion energy production device. Unlike the Tokamak, focus fusion does not require the plasma to be stable, does not produce significant amounts of dangerous radiation, directly injects electrons into the power grid without the need for turbines and would only cost around $300k to manufacture a generator. Lerner's inspiration for the technology is based upon an interpretation for astrophysical Herbig-Haro jets that agrees with the Electric Universe explanation."
The Internet

Submission + - Tv-Links: The Second Chapter (debeasi.com)

Submitted by
tuxeater123
tuxeater123 writes: "According to a blog post Tv-Links may be back within the month. In a brief interview conducted with one of the head members at Tv-Links, they are preparing to come back better than they were before. If you visit their page, you get a mysterious "Something here soon", indicating they will be back in the near future. The interview also mentions that Tv-Links' servers are now going to be located in Sweden to prevent being shut down as they were last time. The article also speculates whether or not Tv-Links will be able to make a comeback with sites such as surfthechannel.com already above Tv-Links in terms of users and videos. Is it too late for Tv-Links; has their time passed?"
Communications

Cell Phone Sommeliers on the Way? 159

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the aged-vintages-not-quite-so-popular-for-some-reason dept.
Japan is reportedly toying with the idea of educating and licensing "sommeliers" to help potential buyers wade through the vast sea of options available for a new cellphone purchase. "Japan's communication ministry is looking to the private sector to manage the potential nightmare exam and certification process, with children's online safety highlighted as an important part of the plan. Mobile sommelier sounds like a pretty sweet title, we can totally feel how an HTC TyTN II might be paired with an earthy unlimited plan followed by the soft nutty finish of a 200-minute a month daytime calling package."
Patents

Ford Claims Ownership Of Your Pictures 739

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the like-a-child-shouting-MINE dept.
Mike Rogers writes "In a move that can only be described as 'Copyright Insanity', Ford Motor Company now claims that they hold the rights to any image of a Ford vehicle, even if it's a picture you took of your own car. The Black Mustang Club wanted to put together a calendar featuring member's cars and print it through CafePress, but an attorney from Ford nixed the project, stating that the calendar pics and 'anything with one of (member's) cars in it infringes on Ford's trademarks which include the use of images of their vehicles.' Does Ford have the right to prevent you from printing images of a car you own?"
Censorship

Submission + - Comcast to face BitTorrent Filtering Lawsuits

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's been widely reported that Comcast is engaged in a sneaky form of Internet filtering. The company is terminating its customers' BitTorrent sessions by sending misleading data onto the network. The end result is that instead of targeting key heavy users, Comcast is instead engaged in an all out war against P2P protocols. In an interview with CNET, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann states that Comcast is "throwing a spanner in the works of the Internet, hoping that this will somehow reduce bandwidth usage overall." Other lawyers seem to have smelled blood, and are circling in the water. Lohmann reveals that "[The EFF has] already been contacted by attorneys who are considering legal action against Comcast." Could Comcast be facing a class-action? Where do I sign up?
Space

Astronomers Again Baffled by Solar Observations 299

Posted by CowboyNeal from the back-to-the-drawing-board dept.
SteakNShake writes "Once again professional astronomers are struggling to understand observations of the sun. ScienceDaily reports that a team from Saint Andrew's University announced that the sun's magnetic fields dominate the behavior of the corona via a mechanism dubbed the 'solar skeleton.' Computer models continue to be built to mimic the observed behavior of the sun in terms of magnetic fields but apparently the ball is still being dropped; no mention in the announcement is made of the electric fields that must be the cause of the observed magnetic fields. Also conspicuously absent from the press releases is the conclusion that the sun's corona is so-dominated by electric and magnetic fields because it is a plasma. In light of past and present research revealing the electrical nature of the universe, this kind of crippling ignorance among professional astrophysicists is astonishing."
Businesses

Submission + - Jack Valenti, Dead at 85

Submitted by saforrest
saforrest writes: Jack Valenti, a man whose influence in both Washington and Hollywood was profound, died today at age 85. He first became famous as special assistant to Lyndon Johnson: he can even be seen in the famous photo aboard Air Force One; he later recounted some of his experiences with the Johnson administration. In 1966, he quit this job to become what Slashdotters will undoubtedly know him best for: the staunchest promoter of copyright powers in America, as the longtime president of the MPAA, from 1966 to 2004.
Movies

Submission + - Jack Valenti has passed away

Submitted by norminator
norminator writes: Jack Valenti, head of the MPAA for 38 years, passed away this afternoon in his home. Valenti is known among the Slashdot community as a man who did not believe in fair use, including backing up your digital media. From a Slashdot article four years ago: "In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless."
The Internet

Submission + - The Story behind funky, ad-laden domains

Submitted by Dollaz
Dollaz writes: Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of a five-day grace period to sample millions of domain names, keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying. It's akin to buying new clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a big party.

The grace period was originally designed to rectify legitimate mistakes, such as registrants mistyping the domain name they are about to buy. But with computer automation and a burgeoning online advertising market, entrepreneurs have turned the return policy into a loophole for generating big bucks. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070219/domain-en trepreneurs-sampling.htm
Microsoft

Submission + - JetBlue's Windows Infrastructure Crashes

Submitted by hawks5999
hawks5999 writes: JetBlue's reservation and communication systems have been down for 5 days leaving thousands of passengers stranded and stockholders seeing red. It was almost exactly 4 years ago that JetBlue trumpeted it's reliance on Windows to help it see black. From a 2003 news.com article:

So we marched down the road of the Windows platform. We don't have any Unix; we don't have an AS/400; we don't have any mainframes — we don't have anything outside of Windows. There has been tremendous cost savings. ...everything's Windows. Every technician that works on a server works on a Windows server. Every technician working on a desktop works on a Windows desktop. That's quite a bit easier than other flavors of desktops or OS/2 or whatever else is out there.
I guess they didn't look at redundancy or reliability in their cost equation...
Operating Systems

BBC To Host Multi-OS Debate 344

Posted by samzenpus from the get-ready-to-rumble dept.
Bananatree3 writes "BBC is currently seeking submissions from all you Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux devotees "in 100 words or less, why you are such a supporter of your chosen operating system and what features you love about it". They will then select one user of each platform to go head to head in a debate that will be part of the BBC's Microsoft Vista launch coverage on January 30th."
Announcements

Submission + - Inventor of instant noodles dies.

Submitted by solitas
solitas writes: The BBC has posted a short obituary for Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin and the inventor of instant noodles.

In all seriousness, who among us hasn't been grateful at one time or another for his cheap-yet-filling product in college, and/or when financial times were tough? I can remember many a long study night (and short times between classes and appointments) when there was nothing else (so inexpensive, convenient, and not-requiring-refrigeration) available.

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