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Digital

Submission + - DVD CCA Challenges DVD Ripping in Court Monday

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Kaleidescape will finally have its day in court Monday to fight the DVD CCA. The licensor of the CSS encryption scheme for DVDs is suing the manufacturer of video servers, claiming that its products enable the unauthorized copying of protected DVDs. In a twist, the DVD CCA — commonly known as the voice of Hollywood — wants the trial closed to the public, claiming that CSS, which was broken in 1999 by a 15-year-old and spread widely on the Internet, is still a trade secret.
Privacy

Submission + - Online privacy invasion by Adobe Inc.

Submitted by
Rafael Quawrells Sr.
Rafael Quawrells Sr. writes: "Dear Editor, I am an assistant network administrator whom is employed by a south-central Nebraska Internet Service Provider. I got off work today at 5pm and followed my normal routine, I arrived at home, I sat down to my personal computer on my private home network and began checking email. As I was performing my normal daily activities, my pc was idle, yet I notice my DSL modem passing a huge amount of traffic from the Internet. Being that I have quite an extensive knowledge of the Internet and it's associated protocols, I began with searching my private network's firewall. The first thing I noticed was over 7000 connections from a popular company known as Adobe Inc. As you can imagine I was very concerned as to why Adobe would need over 7000 connections to my private home network. I was able to pin down the IP address subnet of the device on Adobe's network. All of the connections were coming from 2 IP's within Adobe's subnet. The IP range is 192.150.18.0/24 which allows 256 addresses minus 2, 1 for the network and 1 for broadcast. The devices that had connections were coming from 192.150.18.118 and 192.150.18.60. Once I had aquired this bit of information, I picked up the phone and contacted Adobe's technical support. Of course I played the waiting game on hold for a grand total of 1.25 hrs. I spoke with a technician in this department named Caitlin who quickly assured me that Adobe does not scan private networks for anything without the consent of the owner of the network. I begged to differ. I explained to Caitlin that I have detailed firewall logs that indicate multiple devices on Adobe's network that was invading my privacy. She quickly suggested that I speak to another technician and I was once again playing the waiting game on hold. After the lengthy hold, I now had a gentleman by the name of Mike on the phone who also assured me that Adobe does not scan private networks for any reason. I was beginning to become upset. The technical support department of Adobe is basically calling me a liar, when I have the firewall logs right before my eyes. Mike was very rude, finalizing the conversation by hanging up in my face. I then turned to Jim Fitzgerald whom is this IP range's technical contact. I left a message on his voicemail, and have yet to receive an return call. Is it typical practice of Adobe Inc. to illegally invade individual's privacy and scan their private networks? And if so, what was Adobe Inc. looking for? I at no time gave Adobe or any sub-division within, any consent to scan my private home network for anything. Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Confused and somewhat violated in Grand Island, Nebraska"
NASA

NASA Optimistic About Fuel Tank Repairs 104

Posted by CowboyNeal from the good-to-go dept.
DarkNemesis618 writes "NASA is now optimistic Atlantis' fuel tank will be able to be repaired in Florida. Due to a freak hail storm February 26 that had golf-sized hail chunks raining down on the launchpad put several thousand dings in the foam covering the external fuel tank as well as damaging 28 tiles on Atlantis' wing. 20 of the 28 tiles have been repaired and workers have started sanding down the damaged area of the tank itself. After it was decided that Atlantis needed to return to the VAB, NASA was unsure as to whether or not the tank could be repaired. But after bringing it back and doing more extensive inspections, the tank appeared to be in good enough shape that repairs could be done on the spot and a replacement was not necessary. This will allow for Atlantis to be launched late April for its construction mission to the ISS as well as not interfering with the remaining 4 launches planned this year. If the tank needed to be replaced, Atlantis would not have launched until June at the earliest."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Coolest Use Of Citywide Wireless Network Contest

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "There is an interesting contest being run by Tropos Network for the "Coolest Use Of Citywide Wi-Fi". The contest is interestingly unique and the prizes are catchy!
The prizes are 1 17-inch Apple Mac Book Pro and 12 Sony Mylos!!
I don't know if slashdotters have been paying attention to citywide wireless networks but they are becoming common place (Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, St Cloud, Corpus Christy, Anaheim, Philly, Portland, Tucson... the list goes on and on).
The contestants need to submit a picture that shows some cool way of using the Citywide wi-fi network. Details are on http://www.tropos.com/contest
[Couldn't find an appropriate section for this. Moderators, please correct if the post fits better to some other section.]"
Privacy

Submission + - New teeny tiny RFID chips

Submitted by
paltemalte
paltemalte writes: "Hitachi has just come out with a new crop of RFID tags, measuring only 0.05 x 0.05 millimeters. Compare that with the previously smallest chips at 0.4 x 0.4 millimeters. The new chips width is slightly smaller than the width of a human hair. These new chips could put an end to shoplifting forever, but they could also be used by a government or other entity to 'dust' crowds or areas, easily tagging anyone present without their knowledge or consent. Think easy tracking of dissenters or demonstrators. Will someone come up with a surefire way of neutralizing chips that may be on your body or in your clothing?"
The Internet

Submission + - Canadian ISPs Send Thousands of Copyright Notices

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The CBC reports that Canadian Internet service providers are passing along thousands of copyright infringement notifications from U.S. copyright lobby groups such as the Business Sofware Alliance to subscribers under a system called notice and notice. Michael Geist comments that unlike the U.S. takedown approach, the Canadian system is proving effective while protecting privacy and free speech.
Microsoft

Submission + - hotmail bouncing forwards

Submitted by
hakonhaugnes
hakonhaugnes writes: "It appears that Hotmail has yesterday changed a policy in the system, now seemingly classifying every email forwarded in as "Obscene" or blocked for "policy reasons".

Here is what Hotmail returns when receiving an email forwarded from another address:

xxxxxx at hotmail.com: Connected to 65.54.244.232 but sender was rejected. Remote host said: 550 Your e-mail was rejected for policy reasons on this gateway. Reasons for rejection may be related to content such as obscene language, graphics, or spam-like characteristics (or) other reputation problems. For sender troubleshooting information, please go to http://postmaster.msn.com./ Please note: if you are an end-user please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for assistance.

Does anyone know why this was implemented and how to reach Hotmail on this?

If anyone from Hotmail is reading this, please contact me on info at nic dot name. It's a big issue for our users, and right now we can only encourage them to use another email like Yahoo or Gmail.."
Biotech

Cancer Drug Found; Scientist Annoyed 349

Posted by kdawson from the serendipity dept.
sporkme writes "A scientist was frustrated when the compound she was working with (called PPAR-gamma) destroyed her sample of cancer cells. Further research revealed that the substance was surprisingly well suited as a cancer treatment. Lab test results on mice resulted in the destruction of colon tumors without making the mice sick." Quoting: "'I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died,' Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. 'The co-author on my paper said, "Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?" I said "Oh," and took a closer look.' ... [They found that the compound killed] 'pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen.'" Update: 02/15 17:27 GMT by KD : As reader CorporalKlinger pointed out, PPAR-gamma is a cellular receptor, not a compound; and this news is not particularly new.

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Thus spake the master programmer: "After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

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