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Censorship

Facebook Tells India It Won't Help Censor the Web 168

Posted by samzenpus from the censor-it-yourself dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Indian Communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal yesterday announced a proposal to have technology companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Twitter pre-screen user generated content so that community sentiments are not hurt. Social media platforms are being asked to censor whatever politicians deem objectionable and too offensive for the Internet. Sibal called a news conference when the story broke, and following it, Facebook responded to say that it can't help in the effort."
Movies

Digital Face-Swapping Getting Cheaper 62

Posted by Soulskill from the video-evidence-soon-to-be-inadmissible dept.
Zothecula writes "If you've seen the film The Social Network, then you might have wondered about the identical Winklevoss twins — were a real-life pair of twins cast for the roles, or was it a bit of Hollywood magic? Well, it was magic. Although two different actors' bodies were used, their faces both belonged to actor Armie Hammer. After the movie was shot, the body double's face was digitally replaced with Armie's. While such computer-enabled face-swapping trickery has so far been available only to feature film-makers with deep pockets, that could be about to change, thanks to research being conducted at Harvard University (PDF)."
Education

Submission + - Kids with High IQs More Likely to Take Drugs

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Time Magazine reports that based on the 1970 British Cohort Study, a large ongoing population based study of just under 8000 people, which looks at lifetime drug use, socioeconomic factors, and educational attainment, people with high IQs are more likely to smoke marijuana and take other illegal drugs, compared with those who score lower on intelligence tests. Men with the highest IQs were nearly 50% more likely to have taken amphetamines and 65% more likely to have taken ecstasy and the results held even when researchers controlled for factors like socioeconomic status and psychological distress, which are also correlated with rates of drug use. "It's counterintuitive," says lead author James White. "It's not what we thought we would find." So why might smarter kids be more likely to try drugs? "People with high IQs are more likely to score high on personality scales of openness to experience," says White. "They may be more willing to experiment and seek out novel experiences." The high IQ group also isn't likely to see occasional drug use as particularly harmful, says White, both because there is little data to suggest great risk of harm from such use and because evidence of harm is rare among their peers. "With smoking, the evidence [about its dangers] is overwhelming," says White, "whereas when you look at things like cannabis use, since they are more likely to associate with people who are similar to them, they are likely to see that smoking cannabis relatively infrequently doesn't have huge impact.""
Android

Submission + - How much of your mobile data is yours? (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Concerned about the security of your mobile data? It's being logged, processed, and possibly sold. This article explains how it works with Android devices and what you can do abou it. From the article, "Data is sent, stored, and used by these companies at every level of your user experience. The carriers, manufacturers, ad companies, law enforcement, all have access to this information. You do not have the ability to turn it off, and once they have the information they store it for as long as they determine it is relevant, which is likely forever."
Technology

Submission + - Raspberry Pi PCB layout and scale model available (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday, the final Raspberry Pi printed circuit board (PCB) layout was revealed. The word “packed” comes to mind as this is one very complicated looking board. The reason for that is just how much Raspberry Pi has strived to save money on the machine by using complex routing to keep things small and cheap.

The Raspberry Pi team don’t believe the design is going to change again unless they missed something. With that in mind, they revealed the final board is exactly the same size as a credit card, measuring 85.65 x 53.98mm.

Raspberry Pi has a very active community on its forums, and it didn’t take long for someone to print a 1:1 scale copy of the final design on a sheet of card. The images below give you a good idea of just how small this PC is going to be. Although once the ports have been added the thickness is obviously going to increase.
Technology

Submission + - True 3D Display Draws Pixels In Space (diginfo.tv)

Submitted by Lokitoth
Lokitoth writes: Burton demonstrated a technology to draw animated 3D images in space, rather than on a 2D screen, by exciting oxygen and nitrogen in the air to give off light. The developers say: "This system can create about 50,000 dots per second, and its frame rate is currently about 10-15 fps. But we're working to improve the frame rate to 24-30 fps." Maybe the Japanese proposal to project 3D players to soccer fields world-wide is not so far-fetched.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Steve Jobs eyed building Wi-Fi network (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Steve Jobs initially hoped to create his own network with the unlicensed spectrum that Wi-Fi uses rather than work with the mobile operators, said wireless industry legend John Stanton. Currently chairman at venture capital firm Trilogy Partners, Stanton said at a seminar in Seattle that Jobs "wanted to replace carriers... He and I spent a lot of time talking about whether synthetically you could create a carrier using Wi-Fi spectrum. That was part of his vision."
Facebook

Submission + - Despite Audit, Facebook Holds Back Personal Data (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Facebook has reduced the amount of personal data it releases to users as required by European Union law. Due to the volume of requests since Europe v. Facebook began its campaign, Facebook is no longer sending CDs to people. Facebook said in a statement that the CD mailout 'contains a level of detail that is less useful for the average user — it is a much rawer collection of data.' Instead, users are now directed to a page where they can download their personal 'archive,' which according to Facebook is a copy of 'all of the personal information you've shared on Facebook.' But rather than the 57 categories of data early data requesters received, the new tool downloads just 22 categories."
Crime

Submission + - Why Law Enforcement Can't Stop Hackers (cio.com)

Submitted by bdcny7927
bdcny7927 writes: The threat that criminal hackers pose to corporate and government information systems has spiked in the past five years, according to the FBI, and shows no signs of abating. The worst part: Law enforcement is virtually powerless in cracking down on cybercrime. CIO.com investigates the challenges law enforcement officials face in investigating and prosecuting hackers.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft alleged anticompetitive practices agains (groklaw.net)

Submitted by andydread
andydread writes: We discussed the accusation against Microsoft by Barnes and Noble about their patent attacks on Android. The details are out on the extent that Microsoft has gone to make open source undesirable in the marketplace. Barnes and Noble says that this is not just about Android. According to B&N Its about all open source in general and they have filed a detailed complaint (PDF) with the ITC spelling out what they call "extortive practices" on the part of Microsoft against open source. Now we have a list of the actual patents in question and B&N explaining how each one of these patents are invalid.
Businesses

Submission + - Tech Site Sues Ex-Employee, Claiming Rights To His (forbes.com)

Submitted by nonprofiteer
nonprofiteer writes: Noah Kravitz worked as a mobile phone reviewer for a tech website called Phonedog for four and a half years. While there, he started a Twitter account (of his own volition) with the handle @PhoneDog_Noah to tweet his stories and videos for the site as well as personal stuff about sports, food, music, etc. When he left Phonedog, he had approximately 17,000 followers and changed his Twitter handle to @noahkravitz.

This summer, Phonedog started barking that it wanted the Twitter account back, and sued Kravitz, valuing the account at $340,000 (!), or $2.50 per follower per month. Kravitz claims the Twitter account was his own property. A California judge ruled that the case can proceed and theoretically go to trial. Meanwhile, Kravitz continues to tweet.
Science

Submission + - Deep-sea camouflage tactics revealed (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Honken
Honken writes: A recent study by scientists at Duke University has found that transparent deep-sea octopuses turn red when exposed to blue light similar to what predators emit, allowing them to hide using both transparency and by absorbing the wavelengths of the blueish light emitted by deep-sea predators. The Register quickly made the not-so-obvious connection to Kindles and squid video playback, whereas Discovery News reports of slightly more useful yet exotic applications such as fishing nets that are invisible only to the species that it intends to catch.
Apple

Submission + - Siri Protocol Cracked (applidium.com)

Submitted by jisom
jisom writes: Today, we managed to crack open Siri’s protocol. As a result, we are able to use Siri’s recognition engine from any device. Yes, that means anyone could now write an Android app that uses the real Siri! Or use Siri on an iPad! And we’re goign to share this know-how with you.
Classic Games (Games)

Submission + - PETA Slams Super Mario with Tanooki Fur Game (gameinformer.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: In Super Mario Bros 3, gamers saw Mario and Luigi don a suit of a raccoon dog called a 'tanuki' that is native to Japan. Wag the tail and you could fly. Pretty innocent and magical, right? Well, PETA has hopped on this fresh new video game title and recently released a game where a 'player directs a bloody, skinned raccoon dog as he chases a tanuki fur-suited Mario through a surreal fur farm where raccoon dogs are routinely skinned alive for their fur. Quick reflexes and jumping skills will allow Tanooki to capture Mario and reclaim his skin.' That's from their press release, you can play the game here. Much ado about nothing, you say? Not according to PETA who aver that 'Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur. We created our game to help inform people that in real life, Mario would be wearing the skin of an animal who was beaten, strangled or electrocuted, and it wouldn't give him any special powers other than the power of self-deception.' Evidently in anything-goes-China, farms of Tanukis have resulted in footage of handlers slamming raccoon dogs against the ground to kill them so they can skin them after a life of less than desirable conditions drive the poor creatures to insanity. Still, it's difficult to connect such an act to a couple of plumbers. After countless hours, I've managed to resist the urge to pounce atop a shelled animal in order to then use it as a weapon let alone brain a tanuki in order to gain its fur and non-existent flying powers.

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