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Feed Science Daily: Cheap And Easy Technique To Produce Hydrogen From Visible Light Is Almost Ready (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
There is a revolution in solar hydrogen on the horizon. The prospect for the wide spread use of hydrogen as a portable energy carrier is dependent on finding a clean, renewable method of production. A research group headed by a professor of electrical engineering is "only a couple of problems away" from developing an inexpensive and easily scalable technique for water photoelectrolysis - the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen using light energy -- that could help power the proposed hydrogen economy.
Music

Submission + - Unforgiven: Metallica sues Red Octane, Activision, (qj.net) 1

Submitted by antek9
antek9 writes: Remember Metallica? Those hairy guys that wanted to sue everyone who obtained their music minus an appropriate license? They're at it again, suing even those video game makers who legitimately licensed their music for music-centered franchises.

From the article: "[...] the counsel for Red Octane and Activision had this to say:
Our company paid a licensing fee to feature the track 'One' by Metallica in Guitar Hero III. We don't understand why Metallica would turn around and sue us, unless they've gone from insane to completely batshit insane since 2001, but we're confident that the law and our contracts will be enough to have this thrown out.

Metallica's counsel, on the other hand, explained that the band is fearful that album sales will decline because consumers can easily get hold of their songs just by purchasing video game titles. The lawyer added, "The band learned its lesson the hard way with file sharing in the late 90s. This time they want to do a pre-emptive strike before the music gets out there"."

Any lawyer using the expression 'batshit insane' is a good lawyer by default, so this should be fun.
Programming

Submission + - Crowther's Original Adventure Source Code Found!

Submitted by drxenos
drxenos writes: I don't know how many of you are fans of old-school text adventures (interactive fiction), but Will Crowther's original Fortran source code has been located in a backup of Don Wood's old student account. For fans like me, this is like finding the Holy Grail. link: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fictio n/browse_thread/thread/607acaf1a279d4dd/bd53b672a1 85d177#bd53b672a185d177

Feed Science Daily: 'Smart' Traffic Sign Stops Collisions (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Researchers have developed a "smart" traffic sign that helps drivers make correct decisions and avoid collisions at traffic intersections that lack traffic signals. The device consists of two cameras mounted on a pole at the intersection - one facing the main road and the other the secondary road. A computer located below constantly processes data it receives from the cameras. When a collision risk is identified, flashing lights on two yield signs at the intersection are activated to alert approaching drivers.
Security

Submission + - OpenBSD patched BIND9 10 years ago (heise-security.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
juct
juct writes: "News from the "they-could-have-known-better-department": As heise Security reports OpenBSD changed the buggy implementation of the pseudo random number generator before switching from BIND 8 to Bind 9 back in 1997. So OpenBSD was not affected by the recent Cache Poisoning problem in Bind 9. According to Theo deRaadt the OpenBSD team even told ISC that their PRNG was flawed — but "the didn't listen"."
The Internet

Submission + - Man called 'nerd' torched web taunter's trailer (msn.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Petty Officer Russell Tavares traveled 1,300 miles to torch rival's trailer

Russell Tavares, 27, was sentenced to seven years for the 2005 arson of John Anderson's mobile home after a squabble on the Internet.

ELM MOTT, Texas — A Navy man who got mad when someone mocked him as a "nerd" over the Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas to teach the other guy a lesson.

As he made his way toward Texas, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer Russell Tavares posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several states' borders, as if to prove to his Internet friends that he meant business.

When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy's trailer down.

I always considered 'nerd' to be a compliment."
Programming

Submission + - Assembly Language in Linux (jojodi.com)

Submitted by
Brandon Pelfrey
Brandon Pelfrey writes: "Assembly Language, especially in the 8086 family has seen a wide berthing throughout the last couple of decades. Whether you're programming in C++, Java, Ruby, or any other programming language, the code that you spend hours slaving over eventually becomes mangled into assembly code that often times, developers simply don't truly understand or have a grasp on. At jojodi.com, there has been a revival in my interests and in the mind of some others in what some see as a lost art. With RAD design methodologies and complex libraries, some elements of programming have been lost. Programmers in this day, even with increasing hardware at their disposal, need to learn optimization and proper debugging which comes only with experience and learning the Assembly code behind their compiled binaries. Head over to jojodi.com and brush up on assembly code: your programming will be better from it!"
Communications

Submission + - Are Mobile Phone Masts Responsible For Illness?

Submitted by drewmoney
drewmoney writes: According to a major UK study, symptoms of illness caused by mobile phone masts is "all in the mind".

Excerpts from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6914492.stm

Dozens of people who believed the masts triggered symptoms such as anxiety, nausea and tiredness could not detect if signals were on or off in trials.

However, the Environmental Health Perspectives study stressed people were nonetheless suffering "real symptoms".

Campaign group Mast Sanity "http://www.mastsanity.org/" said the results were skewed as 12 people in the trials dropped out because of illness.

Feed news.com: Cheap Hosting and Free Speech (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed
Blog: Jimmy Atkinson at the Dedicated Hosting Guide has recently compiled a list of web host providers committed to free speech and allegedly will not drop clients over controversy.
Sci-Fi

Farscape (Kinda) Returns 140

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what-the-frell dept.
westlake writes "In a weekend press tour, Sci Fi announced that Farscape would be resurrected on-line in ten short webisodes to be produced by the Jim Henson Company. There are hints that Ben Browder and Claudia Black will both be both "available." Browder has another project to keep him occupied, at least part of the time: Sci Fi also announced that it had picked up Going Homer, a miniseries he developed with "Farscape" director Andrew Prowse. Greek and Roman deities walk among us, but only 12 year old Homer Ulysses Jones can see them for what they truly are. When Homer and his father are forced to flee a custody battle that would likely separate them, they journey from Los Angeles to the home of their ancestors — in Ithaca, N.Y."
Math

Möbius Strip Riddle Solved 184

Posted by kdawson from the that's-listing-strip-to-you dept.
BigLug writes with news that two experts in non-linear dynamics, Gert van der Heijden and Eugene Starostin of University College London, have developed an algebraic equation that describes the Möbius strip — something that, you may be surprised to learn, had never been done since the form's discovery in 1858. ABC.net.au has an accessible short summary: "What determines the strip's shape is its differing areas of 'energy density,' they say. 'Energy density' means the stored, elastic energy that is contained in the strip as a result of the folding. Places where the strip is most bent have the highest energy density; conversely, places that are flat and unstressed by a fold have the least energy density."
Privacy

Submission + - Seeing Yellow: fighting printer tracking dots (miscmeta.com)

Submitted by
jkrobin
jkrobin writes: "MIT's Computing Culture research group has established the 'Seeing Yellow' project, which wants to preserve the right to anonymous communication by fighting both printer tracking dots and the government bullying used to sustain them.

We've known for years that color laser printers can embed a series of tiny yellow dots on pages they print. The dots — almost invisible under normal circumstances — can be used to determine which particular printer produced the image. Essentially, each printer outputs its own serial number. This is great for busting counterfeiters but raises all sorts of privacy concerns. Now, MIT students are getting involved in the campaign against the dots with the new Seeing Yellow project.

Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer — and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

More at: http://www.shadowmonkey.net/articles/privacy/seein g-yellow.html"

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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