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United States

Submission + - Pentagon admits breach but won't say who did it (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The rattling of cyber swords could be heard today as the Pentagon confirmed computer hackers had gained access to an unclassified e-mail system in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but then declined to say that the Chinese army was responsible for it. The Financial Times this week quoted current and former U.S. officials as saying that Chinese People's Liberation Army hackers broke into a Defense Department network in June and removed data. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that an attack did occur in June but declined to identify the origin of the threat. It is often difficult to pinpoint the true origin of an intrusion into computer systems and even more difficult to tie the intrusion to a specific nation or government, he said. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19041"
Businesses

Submission + - New e-cycling Laws (stateline.org)

Submitted by
InternetVoting
InternetVoting writes: "A trend is growing in the United States with state legislatures enacting new tougher electronic recycling laws to handle e-waste and the hazards of lead, mercury and fire-retardant plastics in electronic devices.
From the article:
Five state legislatures took steps this year to curb the threat of toxic waste created by the proliferation of discarded computer gear and other digital junk, making 2007 a banner year for passage of electronic recycling laws.
Leading the pack, Minnesota enacted the nation's strongest "e-cycling" law. It requires manufacturers of electronic goods to recycle 60 percent of the volume of their products sold in the state. Less stringent recycling laws were signed into law in Connecticut, Oregon and Texas this year, and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley (D) also is expected to approve an e-waste law passed by his state's Legislature."
United States

Green Cars You Can't Buy 528

Posted by samzenpus from the you-can't-handle-the-lack-of-pollution dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes "Auto industry blogger Lawrence Ulrich notes that Honda is now making a "Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle" (or PZEV for short) version of the 2008 Accord, an all-new vehicle that is redesigned to meet California emission standards. He notes "So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving." But the irony is that it's actually illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states they were designed for! Apparently, anybody selling one of these ultra-green vehicles out of the correctly-designated venue — which means either California, or seven northeast-states with similar pollution laws — "could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only for the special states.""
Media

Submission + - Accessing Old Data Formats a "Timebomb" (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The problem of being unable to access old data formats has been described as a ticking timebomb by the UK's National Archives. Unsurprisingly, the article notes that: "The root cause of the problem is the range of propriatorial file formats which proliferated during the early digital revolution. Technology companies, such as Microsoft, used file formats which were not only incompatible with pieces of software from rival firms, but also between different iterations of the same program." I know I've already encountered problems of storing my sheet music in a dead obscure format ... only to realize that there no longer exists any available option to open these files. The double edged sword of technology strikes again."
Data Storage

Submission + - Knowledge lost when old files no longer readable

Submitted by
Keith_Beef
Keith_Beef writes: "According to an article on the BBC News website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6265976.stm ), there is a real risk of knowledge being lost when computer systems are no longer capable of reading older file formats.

In the wider view, this would be true of not only the file formats, but of the physical media themselves. Who now has an 8" floppy drive to hand? How long before nobody knows what an Exabyte cartridge is? And in a couple of decades, maybe CD-ROM and even DVD-ROM will dissappear as Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or some other technology (like holo-diamonds) become affordable.

From the article:
Natalie Ceeney said society faced the possibility of "losing years of critical knowledge" because modern PCs could not always open old file formats.

She was speaking at the launch of a partnership with Microsoft to ensure the Archives could read old formats.

Microsoft's UK head Gordon Frazer warned of a looming "digital dark age".

So of course, rather than look for Free Software to solve the problem in an open, honest way, Ceeney has done the typical UK Gov't dance to Microsoft's tune."
Enlightenment

Submission + - RIAA's Media Defender sets up 'fake' site to catch (blorge.com) 1

Submitted by
secretsather
secretsather writes: "RIAA's Media Defender sets up 'fake' site to catch pirates

Don't get caught up in MPAA's latest sting. Media Defender, a company which does the dirty work for the MPAA, has been caught setting up 'dummy' websites in an attempt to catch those who download copyrighted videos.

The site, MiiVi.com, complete with a user registration, forum, and "family filter", offers complete downloads of movies and "fast and easy video downloading all in one great site." But that's not all; MiiVi also offers client software to speed up the downloading process. The only catch is, after it's installed, it searches your computer for other copyrighted files and reports back.

ZeroPaid, acting on a tip from The Pirate Bay, found MiiVi to be registered to Media Defender using a whois search. Shortly after, the registrar information was changed, but the address still reflects Media Defender's address at 2461 Santa Monica Blvd., D-520 Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Not 10 hours after the site was found to be registered to Media Defender, the site went dead. There's no telling how long it was up; however, the domain was registered on February 8, 2007.

Perhaps Media Defender won't use its own name on the registrar the next time around, but it just goes to show the lengths at which the MPAA is willing to go, to fight piracy."
Microsoft

Submission + - Gates' Generosity Under Investigation (lewrockwell.com)

Submitted by vashfish
vashfish writes: In a fit of irony, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is under investigation by the DoJ for being TOO generous. From the article:

"After the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced plans to donate five billion dollars to help rebuild libraries destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division launched a formal investigation into the Foundation. Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General, said in a press release that, 'The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charity cartel, has overstepped its boundaries and entered into the realm of predatory pricing. How is FEMA supposed to compete with private charities?'"
Software

Submission + - Google Sketchup Helping Get College Kids Drunk (google.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Found a couple Beer Pong table designs while perusing Google's 3D warehouse. The warehouse allows users to upload their Sketchup-created models to share with others and review.
Businesses

Dot-Com Work Culture Making a Comeback? 456

Posted by Zonk from the brace-yourselves-lads-you-know-what-comes-next dept.
jeebus writes "This week a Deloitte study has shown that high on the agenda of CEOs around the world is the shortage of tech talent. Is a shortage of talented geeks in the market seeing a return of the dot-com culture with foosball tables, beanbags, and inflated salaries used to entice talented workers? Welcome to Web 2.0 work culture, the future of yesterday. 'Global recruitment companies were telling prospecting employees that they were no longer going to be employed just because they were a technical guru. They were going to have to learn to dress, communicate, and adapt all the traditional corporate ideals that IT has been exempt from during the dot-com boom. Fast forward to Web 2.0 and while workplaces aren't as cheesy with their decor as they were were in the late '90s, and developers aren't getting paid $100K for being HTML and JavaScript jockeys, geeks just aren't chuffed with corporate culture.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft security group makes 'worst jobs' list (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: What do whale-feces researchers, hazmat divers and employees of Microsoft's Security Response Center have in common? They all made Popular Science magazine's 2007 list of the absolute worst jobs in science.

From the article: The MSRC ranked near the middle as the sixth-worst job in this year's list, published in the July issue of the magazine. "We did rate the Microsoft security researcher as less-bad than the people who prepare the carcasses for dissection in biology laboratories," Moyer said.

Moyer didn't have to think long when asked whether he'd rather have the number 10-ranked whale research job. "Whale feces or working at Microsoft? I would probably be the whale feces researcher," he said. "Salt air and whale flatulence; what could go wrong?"
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - First Authorized iPhone Reviews Roll In

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From Digital Daily: The first reviews of the iPhone published to the Web at 3 PM PST today and seem to be generally positive with the typical caveats about Apple's choice of cell phone carriers. Walt Mossberg says that "despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer." David Pogue says it's "so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese." More reviews to be found in Digital Daily's review round-up.
Slashback

NY Legislature Rejects "Microsoft Amendment" 223

Posted by kdawson from the joy-in-mudville dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Finally, some good news on electronic voting. The New York state legislature rejected an amendment proposed by Microsoft's lobbyists which would have gutted New York's requirements for voting machine vendors to turn over their source code to the state Board of Elections. Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton commented: 'The voting machine vendors have known for two years what our laws said. Now they're saying that those parts of their systems using Microsoft software have to be proprietary? It's just wrong.'"

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