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Books

The "Copyright Black Hole" Swallowing Our Culture 278

Posted by Soulskill from the sanity-optional dept.
An anonymous reader writes "James Boyle, professor at Duke Law School, has a piece in the Financial Times in which he argues that a 'copyright black hole is swallowing our culture.' He explains some of the issues surrounding Google Books, and makes the point that these issues wouldn't exist if we had a sane copyright law. Relatedly, in recent statements to the still-skeptical European Commission, Google has defended their book database by saying that it helps to make the Internet democratic. Others have noted that the database could negatively affect some researchers for whom a book's subject matter isn't always why they read it."
Input Devices

Ideas For the Next Generation In Human-Computer Interfaces 170

Posted by timothy from the literally-exploding dept.
Singularity Hub writes "For decades our options for interacting with the digital world have been limited to keyboards, mice, and joysticks. Now with a new generation of exciting new interfaces in the pipeline our interaction with the digital world will be forever changed. Singularity Hub looks at some amazing demonstrations, mostly videos, that showcase new ways of interacting with the digital world." Along similar lines, reader shakuni points out a facial expression-driven user interface reported on News.com for operating, say, an iPhone, explaining "This device is tiny and fits into the ear and measures movements inside the ear due to changes in facial expression and then uses that as input triggers. So [tongue out] starts or stops your iPod Touch; [Wink] rewinds to the last song; and [smile] replays the same song."
Security

With Lawsuit Settled, Hackers Working With MBTA 90

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the how-it-should-be dept.
narramissic writes "The three MIT students who were sued earlier this year by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority for planning to show at Defcon how they had had reverse engineered the magnetic stripe tickets and smartcards said Monday that they are now working to make the Boston transit system more secure. 'I'm really glad to have it behind me. I think this is really what should have happened from the start,' said Zack Anderson, one of the students sued by the MBTA."
Government

Time To Discuss Drug Prohibition? 1367

Posted by kdawson from the with-your-remaining-brain-cells dept.
gplus writes "December 5th was the 75th anniversary of the end of alcohol prohibition in the US. The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed which argues that now may be the time to discuss our war on drugs and the drug prohibition currently in place. The article argues that the harm caused by the banned substance must be balanced against the harms caused by the prohibition. As to why Americans in 1933 finally voted to end prohibition, while we barely even discuss it: 'Most Americans in 1933 could recall a time before prohibition, which tempered their fears. But few Americans now can recall the decades when the illicit drugs of today were sold and consumed legally. If they could, a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming.'"
Windows

Why Use Virtual Memory In Modern Systems? 983

Posted by timothy from the virtually-useless dept.
Cyberhwk writes "I have a system with Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit) installed on it, and it has 4GB of RAM. However when I've been watching system performance, my system seems to divide the work between the physical RAM and the virtual memory, so I have 2GB of data in the virtual memory and another 2GB in the physical memory. Is there a reason why my system should even be using the virtual memory anymore? I would think the computer would run better if it based everything off of RAM instead of virtual memory. Any thoughts on this matter or could you explain why the system is acting this way?"
Communications

US Army Sees Twitter As Possible Terrorist "Operation Tool" 320

Posted by timothy from the which-technically-is-true dept.
Mike writes "A draft US Army intelligence report has identified the popular micro-blogging service Twitter as a potential terrorist tool. A chapter titled 'Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter' notes that Twitter members reported the July Los Angeles earthquake faster than news outlets and activists at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis used it to provide information on police movements. 'Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives,' the report said. The report goes on to say, 'Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operation tool.' Just wait until the Army finds out about chat rooms and email!"

Comment Because adobe doesn't care about you. (Score 2, Insightful) 963

by Max_Abernethy (#24636567) Attached to: Why Is Adobe Flash On Linux Still Broken?
Adobe cares about the folks buying expensive site and server licenses. Those guys don't really care about you because there aren't enough of ya to have much impact on their website's success, so why should adobe invest in your platform, besides the bare minimum quality implementation as a hedge in case desktop linux becomes more important some day. There's no economic incentive.
Security

Shrinky Dinks As a Threat To National Security 257

Posted by timothy from the silly-putty-now-public-enemy-No.-2 dept.
InflammatoryHeadlineGuy writes "What do Shrinky Dinks, credit cards and paperclips have in common? They can all be used to duplicate the keys to Medeco 'high-security' locks that protect the White House, the Pentagon, embassies, and many other sensitive locations. The attack was demonstrated at Defcon by Marc Weber Tobias and involves getting a picture of the key, then printing it out and cutting plastic to match — both credit cards and Shrinky Dinks plastic are recommended. The paperclip then pushes aside a slider deep in the keyway, while the plastic cut-out lifts the pins. They were able to open an example lock in about six seconds. The only solution seems to be to ensure that your security systems are layered, so that attackers are stopped by other means even if they manage to duplicate your keys."
Censorship

IOC Admits Internet Censorship Deal With China 380

Posted by CmdrTaco from the shut-up-it's-patriotic dept.
Dave writes "BEIJING (Reuters) — Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday. Persistent pollution fears and China's concerns about security in Tibet also remained problems for organizers nine days before the Games begin. China had committed to providing media with the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics, but journalists have this week complained of finding access to sites deemed sensitive to its communist leadership blocked. 'I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on website access during Games time,' IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said, referring to Beijing's Olympic organizers. 'I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related,' he said." But yet somehow the mainstream media will ignore this because the Olympics are patriotic or something.
The Gimp

Submission + - The GIMP used to solve homicide

Submitted by b1ng0
b1ng0 writes: The acclaimed show "Forensic Files" on TruTV is airing an episode tonight that features The GIMP and how it was used in a homicide case. Has The GIMP gone mainstream now that it's been featured on TV? "Coming up July 18 at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time, we have another episode that might inspire some investigators. "About Face" tells the story of a Jane Doe skeleton and the steps detectives took to identify her. They had a skull and photos of missing women, and wondered if there was a way to do a comparison without paying a high-tech lab thousands of dollars for photo or video superimposition. A dedicated team at the University of North Carolina's Wilmington campus did some trial and error experimenting. They took photos of the skull tilted at the same angles as the women's heads in the missing persons photos, and compared them using a free program available online called The GNU Image Manipulation Program or "GIMP" for short. (Check out the GIMP here: www.gimp.org) I won't tell you how it turned out, but I will say bones can be used to identify someone — long after they're gone."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Can Instant-on Linux Turn Off Windows? (channelinsider.com)

Submitted by
buzzardsbay
buzzardsbay writes: "Motherboard manufacturer Asustek Computer is ready to throw down the gauntlet when it comes to the instant-on PC. Frustrated with the boot times associated with today's operating systems, Asus is now embedding a Linux environment called Slashtop, that incorporates Firefox and Skype into its motherboards. The idea here is that in less than 10 seconds, a user can turn on the PC and be surfing the Web, checking e-mail or even making VOIP calls — simple tasks that are currently all but impossible with today's operating systems."
Businesses

Submission + - More efficient IT?

Submitted by mooreBS
mooreBS writes: I'm currently employed as the CAD administrator at one of the few surviving machine tool manufacturers in the US. Recently I was told that the company wants me to take on even more responsibility and won't compensate me for doing so. I balked because I'm already putting in fifty hours a week and I'm underpaid. When I voiced my objection I was told that I simply need to be more efficient. I was at a loss for words.

How do you increase efficiency as an IT worker? Most of my job involves tracking down arcane bugs in the software we use, reporting them to the developers, and finding a workaround until a patch is issued. I'm also responsible for installing software, documenting and maintaining the system, as well as testing new releases of software. My company is on a lean kick right now which is all right for assembly lines, but I'm not sure how to apply lean principles to IT. Any suggestions?

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