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Privacy

Cambridge, Mass. Moves To Nix Security Cameras 366

Posted by timothy from the buncha-lefties dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Citing privacy concerns, the Cambridge, Mass. City Council has voted 9-0 to remove security cameras scattered throughout the city. 'Because of the slow erosion of our civil liberties since 9/11, it is important to raise questions regarding these cameras,' said Marjorie Decker, a Cambridge city councilor. Rather than citing privacy, WCBVTV is running the story under the headline 'City's Move To Nix Security Cams May Cost Thousands.'"
The Internet

Some Of Australia's Tubes Are About To Be Filtered 339

Posted by samzenpus from the think-of-the-koala-children dept.
Slatterz writes "The first phase of Australia's controversial Internet filters were put in place today, with the Australian government announcing that six ISPs will take part in a six-week pilot. The plan reportedly includes a filter blocking a list of Government-blacklisted sites, and an optional adult content filter, and the government has said it hasn't ruled out the possibility of filtering BitTorrent traffic. The filters have been widely criticized by privacy groups and Internet users, and people have previously even taken to the streets to protest. While Christian groups support the plan, others say filters could slow down Internet speeds, that they don't work, and that the plan amounts to censorship of the Internet. At this stage the filters are only a pilot, and Australia's largest ISP, Telstra, is not taking part. But if the $125.8 million being spent by the Australian Government on cyber-safety is any indication, it's a sign of things to come."
Space

Satellites Collide In Orbit 456

Posted by samzenpus from the starpocalypse dept.
DrEnter writes "According to this story on Yahoo, two communications satellites collided in orbit, resulting in two large clouds of debris. The new threat from these debris clouds hasn't been fully determined yet. From the article, 'The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning. Each satellite weighed well over 1,000 pounds.' This is the fifth spacecraft/satellite collision to occur in space, but the other four were all fairly minor by comparison."
Medicine

New Success For Brain-Controlled Prosthetic Arm 81

Posted by timothy from the less-impressive-than-vice-versa dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A number of amputees are now using a prosthetic arm that moves intuitively, when they think about moving their missing limb. Todd Kuiken and colleagues at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago surgically rearrange the nerves that normally connect to the lost limb and embed them in muscles in the chest. The muscles are then connected to sensors that translate muscle movements into movement in a robotic arm. The researchers first reported the technique in a single patient in 2007, and have now tested it in several more. The patients could all successfully move the arm in space, mimic hand motions, and pick up a variety of objects, including a water glass, a delicate cracker, and a checker rolling across a table. (Three patients are shown using the arm in the related video.) The findings are reported today in Journal of the American Medical Association."
The Courts

Texas Judge Orders Identification of Topix Trolls 344

Posted by timothy from the who-the-hell-are-y'all? dept.
eldavojohn writes "Ars Technica has a story on a Texas judge who has ordered Topix.com to hand over the identifying details of 178 trolls that allegedly made 'perverted, sick, vile, inhumane accusations' about Mark & Rhonda Lesher. Mark Lesher was accused of sexually assaulting an unidentified former client (and subsequently found not guilty) which prompted the not so understanding discussions on Topix. Topix has until March 6 to give up the information. Let's hope the Leshers don't visit Slashdot!"
Government

Senator Diane Feinstein Trying to Kill Net Neutrality 873

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wonder-what-the-payoff-was dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to the Register, Senator Diane Feinstein is attempting to put language into the stimulus bill that would kill net neutrality. The amendment that her provision was attached to was withdrawn, but lobbyists tell Public Knowledge that Feinstein hopes to put it back into the bill during the closed-door conference committee that reconciles the House and Senate versions." Bad Senator! No Cookie!
Games

EVE Devs Dissect, Explain Massive Economic Exploit 139

Posted by Soulskill from the this-is-how-you-deal-with-such-events dept.
In December we discussed news that a major exploit in EVE Online had just been widely discovered after being abused by a few players for up to four years, creating thousands of real-life dollars worth of unearned in-game currency. Representatives from CCP Games assured players that the matter would be investigated and dealt with; a familiar line in such situations for other multiplayer games, and often the final official word on the matter. Yesterday, CCP completed their investigation and posted an incredibly detailed account of how the exploit worked, what they did to fix it, how it affected the game's economy, and what happened to the players who abused it. Their report ranges from descriptions of the involved algorithms to graphs of the related economic markets to theatrically swooping through the game universe nuking the malfunctioning structures. It's quite comprehensible to non-EVE-players, and Massively has summarized the report nicely. It's an excellent example of transparency and openness in dealing with a situation most companies would be anxious to sweep under the rug.
The Almighty Buck

$700 Billion Bailout Signed Into Law 857

Posted by kdawson from the how-4-pages-becomes-400 dept.
Many readers reminded us of what no-one can have failed to hear: that the Congress passed and the President signed a $700B bailout bill in an attempt to avert the meltdown of the US economy. The bill allocates $700 billion to the Treasury Department for the purchase of so-called "toxic assets" that have been weighing down Wall Street balance sheets. This isn't particularly a tech story, though tech will be affected as will virtually all parts of the economy, and not just in the US. Among the $110B in so-called pork added to the bill to sway reluctant legislators are extensions of popular tax benefits for business R&D and alternative energy, relief for the growing pool of people subject to the alternative minimum tax, and a provision raising the FDIC's ceiling of guaranteed deposits to $250,000. Some limits were also imposed on executive compensation, though it's unclear whether they will be effective.

Comment Re:What the problem with Gmail? (Score 1) 489

by ghstomahawks (#25177355) Attached to: Good Email For Kids?
My school system put every 6th grader through a few very brief typing lessons until they showed demonstrated some very basic skills. It's only grown more important to be able to type since then, so it's not that surprising there are classes for it.

As for the e-mail though, I'd suggest a gmail account. The filters are likely as good as any, and with the kid being in 7th grade (and not 5 years old, he really needs to learn to be prudent when online.

Help him pick out an address designed to be less likely to receive spam (as discussed here), and teach him not to broadcast his address to every corner of the internet. That includes not registering for an account on every website he might come across, and probably keeping it 'private' on any sites he might have an account on.

The most important part though is that no email solution will get rid of 100% of the spam that he'll get. You'll need to teach him the appropriate response. Spam represents the 'bad neighborhoods' of the internet, be it porn (or "male enhancement"!) or phishing attacks or virus-ridden something else. The lessons you teach him will have a significantly greater affect on what ends up in his inbox than whether you use gmail, yahoo mail (don't), or a supposedly kid-safe alternative.

Feed Engadget: Probe finds one-third of people shot by Tasers need medical attention (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

While the last Taser study we came across found that the devices were safe and caused only a few trips to the hospital, a joint investigation by CBC News and the Canadian Press has now turned up some decidedly different findings, with about one-third of people shot by Tasers reportedly requiring some form of medical attention. Those numbers were drawn from the Taser-use forms that RCMP officers are required to fill out whenever they draw the device, which revealed that 910 of the 3,226 people shot between 2002 and 2007 had to go to a medical facility, and that "many more" people had minor injuries but never saw a doctor. Needless to say, we somehow suspect this won't be the last such investigation or study on the matter, especially with the lawsuits flying fast and furiously these days.

[Via Digg]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments


Censorship

Submission + - Sandvine CEO says Internet monitoring a necessity

Submitted by
Khalid Baheyeldin
Khalid Baheyeldin writes: "In an interview with the Canadian CBC, Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo says, among other things, that internet monitoring is a necessity.

Slashdotters may not know who Sandvine is, until they realize that it is the Waterloo, Ontario based company that provides the technology for Comcast and other ISPs the ability to send RST packets for torrents."
Music

Submission + - Gene Simmons blames fans, P2P for killing music

Submitted by vleonty
vleonty writes: Gene Simmons stated, "The record industry is dead. It's six feet underground and unfortunately the fans have done this. They've decided to download and file share. There is no record industry around so we're going to wait until everybody settles down and becomes civilised. As soon as the record industry pops its head up we'll record new material." Simmons also slammed Radiohead for putting up their album for download giving fan's the option to pay what they wanted.
Security

Man Fired When Laptop Malware Downloaded Porn 635

Posted by samzenpus from the your-computer-wants-porn dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes "The Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents fired worker Michael Fiola and initiated procedures to prosecute him for child pornography when they determined that internet temporary files on his laptop computer contained child porn. According to Fiola, 'My boss called me into his office at 9 a.m. The director of the Department of Industrial Accidents, my immediate supervisor, and the personnel director were there. They handed me a letter and said, "You are being fired for a violation of the computer usage policy. You have pornography on your computer. You're fired. Clean out your desk. Let's go."' Fiola said, 'They wouldn't talk to me. They said, "We've been advised by our attorney not to talk to you."' However, prosecutors dropped the case when a state investigation of his computer determined there was insufficient evidence to prove he had downloaded the files. Computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs, who spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense, explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was running corrupted virus-protection software, and Fiola was hit by spammers and crackers bombarding its memory with images of incest and pre-teen porn not visible to the naked eye. The virus protection and software update functions on the laptop had been disabled, and apparently the laptop was 'crippled' by malware. According to Loehrs, 'When they gave him this laptop, it had belonged to another user, and they changed the user name for him, but forgot to change the SMS user name, so SMS was trying to connect to a user that no longer existed ... It was set up to do all of its security updates via the server, and none of that was happening because he was out in the field.' A malware script on the machine surfed foreign sites at a rate of up to 40 per minute whenever the machine was within range of a wireless site."
United States

Submission + - US Government Wants Your Fingerprints, Again (openmarket.org) 2

Submitted by
tjstork
tjstork writes: "Never put it past the government to use any crisis to try and get more power. Just like the previously conjured crises of the Red Scare, Civil Rights Protests, the War on Drugs, the Environment, the War on Terror, the first signs are coming that the US Mortgage crisis is being used as another way to smash the rights of the people of the people be secure in their freedom. The US Senate has just passed through committee a provision which would require everyone connected with the housing industry to be fingerprinted.

Read the article here

Spare your political thunder — this is a bipartisan move. The introduced law passed nearly unanimously. America has to be safe from evil people in the housing market, at any price, and your friends in the government are going to protect you from everyone, just as much as it will protect everyone from you!"
Censorship

Submission + - China to US: 'We Like Our Censorship Thanks.'

Submitted by cynagh0st
cynagh0st writes: A Pew Internet & American Life Project report indicates that of an overwhelming majority of Chinese people that believed the internet should be "managed or controlled," 85% want the government to do this managing. This is resulting from surveys on internet use over the last 7 years in China. 'The survey findings discussed here, drawn from a broad-based sample of urban Chinese internet users and non-users alike, indicate a degree of comfort and even approval of the notion that the government authorities should control and manage the content available on the internet.' The report goes further into describing the divide in perspective between China and Western Nations on the matter and discusses the PRC's justifications for internet control.

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