Google StreetView Is In Your Driveway 439

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @01:12PM from the friendly-google-car dept.

hermit_crab writes "Janet and George McKee are the neighbors of the Borings, who we discussed yesterday as the couple suing Google over StreetView. The McKees own a house that is featured in a much more intrusive set of Google StreetView images. 'The Google car continued past the steps leading to the McKees's front door and came to a stop outside the house's three-car garage (and next to the family's trampoline and portable basketball rim). Taking photos all the time, the Google vehicle was squarely on private property, a fact that presumably should have been apparent when the gravel path became paved.' Unlike the Borings, the McKees have not announced intentions to sue Google, nor have they requested to have the images removed."

613890 story

Alligator Blood May Be Source of New Antibiotics 265

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @11:16AM from the darn-tasty-eating-too dept.

esocid writes "Biochemists from McNeese State University have described how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers and severe burns. This new class of drug could also crack so-called 'superbugs' that are resistant to conventional medication. Previous studies have showed alligators have an unusually strong immune system; unlike humans, alligator immune systems can defend against microorganisms such as fungi, viruses, and bacteria without having prior exposure to them. Scientists believe that this is an evolutionary adaptation to promote quick wound healing, as alligators are often injured during fierce territorial battles."

613066 story

EU Recommends Slashing Search Data Retention 93

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @03:18AM from the tracks-in-the-snow dept.

Wayland writes "The European Union's Article 29 Working Group has completed its PDF report on data protection and search engines. The group recommends that search engines only be allowed to hold onto search data for six months. 'To hang onto data for longer, search engine operators will need to show that such data is "strictly necessary" to offer the service. Google and others have long said that they need to retain data in order to refine search results, prevent click fraud, and launch new services like spell check (which, in Google's case, was built from user search data). In addition, the data that is kept will need to be guarded more closely. The working group concluded that IP addresses could be used to identify individuals; if not by the search engine itself, then by law enforcement or after a subpoena.'"

2227021 comment

Comment Snooping in Passports? Yet we want them to... (Score 2, Informative) 204

by SirStanley on Saturday March 22, 2008 @09:00PM (#22833084) Attached to: Passport Files of Presidential Hopefuls Snooped

So we're concerned about the relatively innocuous data that is found in passport files? Thank god they don't keep track of our health records! Oh wait... that may be coming next.

234241 feed

Feed Engadget: Dvorak tries a Mac... he likes it! (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Thursday July 26, 2007 @02:13PM

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

As most everyone reading this no doubt knows, John Dvorak hasn't exactly shown much love to Macs (and all things Apple) over the years. Mac fanboys may now want to brace themselves, however, as it seems Dvorak has had a change of heart -- sorta. While he still has "no plans to move to the Mac platform for my personal use," Dvorak has apparently been using a Mac for the past few months and, shockingly, admits to liking it. Of course, he isn't quite exuberant in his praise, calling the system he's been using (an iMac) "not half bad," adding that "it's very quiet, and it performs as well as the PC on general office applications." He also found that "the interface is slicker," and that he didn't get the feeling that the computer was going to " start acting weird because of some virus, spyware, or endless Firefox loading procedure." But other than that, he says, he "cannot see much of a difference between the Mac and PC." He even apparently found doing some things on the Mac, like burning CDs, "convoluted." Despite that, he says he has taken to recommending Macs to friends and neighbors, although we somehow suspect he won't go so far as to recommend an iPhone anytime soon.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

234203 submission

Submission + - Swiming Pool Stolen (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by techiemikey on Thursday July 26, 2007 @01:42PM

techiemikey writes: So here's one i'd like to see slash dotters out there explain. CNN reports that a pool was stolen out from behind a woman's house in New Jersey without spilling a drop. It was a 10 foot diamater above ground pool that holds approximately 1000 gallon's of water. Police say the obvious, "Someone took a little time and effort thinking about this". I now need to know...how can one silently steal a pool of that size?

234201 submission

Submission + - Passive Optical Networks - suggestions?

Submitted by

who's got my nicknam

on Thursday July 26, 2007 @01:42PM

who's got my nicknam writes: "I have been asked to help with the replacement/upgrade of a community cablevision system in a small, remote village in Northern Canada. The existing coaxial cable plant has to be completely replaced due to corrosion and age; the headend is being replaced because the building it was in burned down. The community wants a modern infrastructure that can be used for television, Internet, and telephony (Triple-play), as well as local access to educational networks (ie, the system will need to support VLAN so customers can access a local LAN in addition to their Internet ISP's gateway).

My research leads me to believe that GPON is going to be the preferred technology, but we are having a hard time sourcing hardware. The actual glass will be easy to source and install (and where I am located, fibre optic cable is cheaper than copper anyways), but we need a reputable vendor for the headend and CPE hardware. It seems a lot of what's being talked about in press releases is still vapourware.

The community consists of about 150 homes in a tight geographical area. There is currently a high-speed microwave link providing an E10 to the local school, as well as another E10 to the local WISP, so bandwidth in and out is fine. Construction on the last 30 kilometres of fibre to reach the village will begin shortly, after which the microwave will be surplussed.

Given the small size of the community, EPON would be a viable alternative, but I am a bit concerned about its limitations regarding HDTV. Maybe that's not an issue though.

Any vendors or geeks out there who'd care to offer advice or pre-sales support on a project like this? I can be emailed at this address."

120373 submission

Submission + - Screen Grabs of New Star Wars 30th DVD Changes

Submitted by

Fraser

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @08:46AM

Fraser writes: "My favourite blog, Be Still My Blog of War!, has a story and grabs of the latest alterations to everyone's fourth favourite trilogy, Star Wars — for the 30th anniversary DVD release. Have a look before they get pulled down — changes include coloured patches on Storm Troopers (to make them more Clone Troopery), new eyes for Greedo and yet another Jabba. http://bsmbow.blogspot.com/ F"

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