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Communications

Submission + - It Takes a Cyber Village to Catch an Auto Thief

Submitted by COredneck
COredneck writes: An auto dealer lends a car for a test drive — a 1991 Nissan Skyline GT-R but the test driver and another person didn't return the car. The deal then calls the police, files a police report and does an additional item. He posted a message on Beyond.ca. Many people who read the board kept their eyes out and found the car. Also facebook.com was used to find the suspect and his H.S and Google Maps was used to pinpoint the thief's location.

The article with the pictures. If you want to bypass the ads and having to go through several pages, do the Print Version.

With it being the NY Times, unfortunately, registration might be required. Use the username : bypass3, password : bypass to bypass the registration process.
Supercomputing

Submission + - Enhanced Seti@Home on the horizon

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: It appears as though setting is doing another callout for more computing power... I just received an email with the following: "SETI@home needs your help. The SETI@home team has accomplished much in the past 6 months. We have successfully deployed the "enhanced" version of SETI@home. The new seven beam data recorder has been installed at Arecibo and is recording the data that will be analyzed in the next phase of SETI@home. Server components required for the analysis of this data are being beta tested. Changes to the SETI@home application to improve the analysis of this data will be released soon. With this new data recorder, we have the ability to look at seven places in the sky simultaneously while recording fourteen times as much data as before. This means we will need more volunteers like you to help us process this data. So please, tell a friend about SETI@home (See: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ffmail_form.php). But there is still far more to be done. Although we are pleased with the success of our spring funding drive, and grateful for the generosity of our donors, we could not afford to do everything we had hoped. In spite of the progress we have made, we would like to be able to sift through the results returned by your computers in order to identify candidates more rapidly so we can re-observe them. This rapid response validation system would also give you the ability to see the results your computers have/has returned in more detail. (For more information see: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_plans.php.) To keep SETI@home operating for the next year, and to provide these new capabilities, will require approximately $540,000. Currently SETI@home is entirely funded by donations from people like you. We hope that you will consider making a donation to SETI@home at this time. You can make a secure donation by credit card on our website (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php). Instructions for donation by check or money order are there as well. Unless you specify otherwise, your donation will be noted by a star icon next to your username on the SETI@home pages and your username will appear on our list of donors. If you do not wish to have this recognition you may indicate that as well. Please be assured that regardless of whether or not you choose to have your donation be anonymous, SETI@home will not share your address with other organizations. You can check on our fundraising progress by visiting our main site at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu./ Thank You, Sir Arthur C. Clarke (Author and Futurist) Dan Werthimer (Chief Scientist, SETI@home) For more information about how to donate: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php "
Censorship

Submission + - Gracenote Founder Rewriting History at Wikipedia

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Gracenote founder Steve Scherf is busy again in his attempts to rewrite history after his recent interview at Wired. This time he around he is aggressively deleting or seeking removal of any content on Wikipedia which discuss the controversy behind the commercialization of the formerly GPL'd cddb. Slashdotters may remember when joined the Bad Patent Club back in 2000. It followed up by starting lawsuits against its customers for trying to switch to freedb and for alleged patent violations. Are there any Slashdotters out there who know the facts about Gracenote — its history, its business practices, its lawsuits? Wikipedia needs your help.
Censorship

Submission + - Bill & Monica prosecutor now targets free spee

Submitted by
Virchull
Virchull writes: "The Supreme Court has accepted a free-speech dispute involving a high school student suspended over a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner. The justices accepted an appeal from a school board in Juneau, Alaska, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit by the family of Joseph Frederick to proceed. Frederick was suspended in 2002 after he unfurled the 14-foot-long banner — a reference to marijuana use — just outside school grounds. Attorney Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor who investigated President Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, is representing the school board. More at http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/12/01/scotus.bonghits/ index.html"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - How to handle code developed in spare time

Submitted by
GyrosGeier
GyrosGeier writes: "Over the years, I've been working on some toy projects that are theoretically GPLed, but in practice noone cares about them, so I still own all the rights to the code. There are some interesting bits in there though, when I split out some functionality into a helper class or function, and I reuse these bits frequently because they make my life a lot easier. However, as I wrote them on my spare time, I don't feel that I would be justly compensated if I just dropped them into a project at my workplace; at the same time I don't see any point in rewriting the code just for the sake of it.

Charging half of the time spent actually writing the code is not a real solution, as it leaves the code with a pretty questionable legal status. Now, what would be a good solution for everybody?"
Privacy

Ten Best, Worst, and Craziest Uses of RFID 126

Posted by CowboyNeal from the track-this dept.
An anonymous reader writes "This top 10 rounds up what it calls 'the best, worst and craziest' uses of RFID out there — including chipped kids at Legoland, smart pub tables that let you order drinks, smartcards for sports fans, and chipped airline passengers. The craziest use of the tech surely has to be RFID chips for Marks & Spencer suits — you couldn't pay most people to wear one of them."
Windows

Submission + - Deploying Windows Remotely with Unattended

Submitted by leftcase
leftcase writes: In a flash of inspiration my colleague 'I heart ET' suggested that we investigate remote deployment of Windows instead of re-ghosting them via multicast and Norton ghost. Always happy to make my life easier, I readily agree, and the boss doesn't mind as long as it costs nowt!
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Elgato EyeTV Diversity Review

Submitted by
Anthony Agius
Anthony Agius writes: "MacTalk reviews Elgato's latest product — the EyeTV Diversity, which brings a unique dual tuner solution that can either stabilise a weak signal using a special DSP system, or give you dual tuner benefits such as picture in picture and the ability to watch TV whilst recording or recording two channels at once. Take a read of the review at: http://forums.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=2549 6"
Privacy

FBI Taps Cell Phone Microphones in Mafia Case 274

Posted by Zonk from the lots-of-conversations-about-merchandise dept.
cnet-declan writes "We already knew the FBI can secretly listen in to car conversations by activating microphones of systems like OnStar. A new Mafia court case suggests that the FBI can do the same thing to cell phones. The judge's opinion and some background information [pdf] are available for reading online. The most disturbing thing? According to the judge, the bug worked even if the phone appeared to be 'powered off.' Anyone up for an open-source handset already?" From the article: "This week, Judge Kaplan in the southern district of New York concluded that the 'roving bugs' were legally permitted to capture hundreds of hours of conversations because the FBI had obtained a court order and alternatives probably wouldn't work. The FBI's 'applications made a sufficient case for electronic surveillance,' Kaplan wrote. 'They indicated that alternative methods of investigation either had failed or were unlikely to produce results, in part because the subjects deliberately avoided government surveillance.'"
Privacy

Submission + - A terror code?

Submitted by
Anonymous MadCoe
Anonymous MadCoe writes: "From the article:
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned an unprecedented new program for generating terrorist ratings on tens of millions of travelers, including American citizens, maintaining those ratings for 40 years, and making them available throughout the government.

So in other words some code will be used to decide if youre likely to be a terrorist. This will be used and kept.

I feel this is too far, the US people really should worry about these kind of things.

The artice http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/27579prs20061201.h tml"
Sci-Fi

Journal Journal: UFO crash in Russia 1

Journal by October_30th
Cool!

KRASNOYARSK. Dec 1 (Interfax) - An unidentified flying object has reportedly crashed between the towns of Yeniseisk and Lesosibirsk in the Yenisei district of the Krasnoyarsk territory. Local residents say they observed the crash at about
Microsoft

Submission + - Gates Foundation to spend all its assets

Submitted by El Lobo
El Lobo writes: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has said it will spend all its assets within 50 years of them both dying ( http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Gates_foundation _to_spend_all_assets_1201.html ).

The foundation focuses on improving health and economic development globally, and improving education and increasing access to technology. It also focuses on fighting diseases such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

The Seattle-based foundation plans to increase spending to about $3.5 billion a year beginning in 2009 and continuing through the next decade, up from about $1.75 billion this year.
Privacy

Submission + - MPAA Kills Anti-Pretexting Bill

Submitted by Lawst
Lawst writes: Wired is reporting how a "tough California bill that would have prohibited companies and individuals from using deceptive "pretexting" ruses to steal private information about consumers was killed after determined lobbying by the motion picture industry."

The bill won, which approval in three committees and sailed through the state Senate with a 30-0 vote encountered unexpected, last-minute resistance from the Motion Picture Association of America.

From the article: "The MPAA has a tremendous amount of clout and they told legislators, 'We need to pose as someone other than who we are to stop illegal downloading'"
User Journal

Journal Journal: The college bowl system is a crime against humanity.

Journal by Luke727

Ohio State vs Michigan, a game some people might consider the national championship (especially if USC loses bad), was played November 18. Ohio State will not play again until the championship game on January 8. That's an incredible 51 days; nearly two full months. Michigan will play again on January 1, 2, or 3.

There are 32 bowls and 119 teams, so 64 out of 119 teams will get to finish in a bowl game.
Data Storage

Submission + - USB Drives - Recovery

Submitted by
pipingguy
pipingguy writes: "Now that "thumb drives" are so inexpensive (a 1GB SD card c/w USB housing/adapter costs about CAN$29), which programs are recommended for system recovery or need-to-have software? Additionally, I'd like to get some input on the durability of these newish adapter devices, as some of them seem to be pretty flimsy (but very useful/flexible as opposed to the old fixed-capacity NAND devices)."

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