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Communications

Scientists "Teleport" Quantum Information One Meter 107

Posted by timothy
from the teleport-a-child-and-we'll-be-impressed dept.
the4thdimension writes "While we may not be beaming up to the Enterprise anytime soon, a team of scientists from the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan have managed to teleport information between two atoms up to a meter apart. Until this point, only very tiny distances were able to be traveled. However, using a complicated system of photons, ions, lasers, and electromagnetics, scientists have managed to 'teleport' information contained on one atom to another atom that is in a separate sealed container. This can lead to a wide range of developments in computing and communications." Update: 01/29 22:29 GMT by T : Sorry, it's a dupe, but today's article in Time is better reading than the abstract anyhow.
Transportation

Online Carpooling Service Fined In Canada 541

Posted by kdawson
from the regulatory-capture dept.
TechDirt is reporting on a disappointing development out of Canada. An Ontario transportation board has fined PickupPal, a Web-based service for arranging carpools, because a local bus company complained of the competition. (TechCrunch apparently first broke the story.) "[The transportation board has] established a bunch of draconian rules that any user in Ontario must follow if it uses the service — including no crossing of municipal boundaries — meaning the service is only good within any particular city's limits. It's better than being shut down completely, and the service can still operate elsewhere around the world, but this is yet another case where we see regulations, that are supposedly put in place to improve things for consumers, do the exact opposite."
The Internet

China Defines Internet Addiction 201

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the one-more-addiction-to-the-list dept.
narramissic writes "Three years after the first clinic dedicated to Internet addiction opened in Beijing, Chinese doctors have now officially defined it as an ailment. Those afflicted with this ailment spend six or more hours a day online and exhibit at least one of the following symptoms: difficulty sleeping or concentrating, yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress. Do you meet the criteria? You're in good company: About 10 percent of China's 253 million Internet users exhibit some form of addiction to the medium, and 70 percent of those people are young men, an official Xinhua News Agency report said."
Biotech

Repairing Genetic Mutations With Lasers? 65

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the shed-a-little-light-on-your-genes dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "German researchers at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) think they've proved that genetic information can be controlled by light. The group studied the interaction between the four DNA bases — adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) — by using femtosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The researchers think that they've demonstrated that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences. The team thinks that it might be possible in the future to repair gene mutations using laser radiation. One of the project leaders said that 'it might even be possible under some circumstances to make transistors from DNA that would work through the hydrogen bonds.' It's not the first time I've heard about DNA computing, but this new approach looks promising."
Software

Linux 2.6.27 Out 452

Posted by timothy
from the not-all-fancy-like-gnu dept.
diegocgteleline.es writes "Linux 2.6.27 has been released. It adds a new filesystem (UBIFS) for 'pure' flash-based storage, the page-cache is now lockless, much improved Direct I/O scalability and performance, delayed allocation support for ext4, multiqueue networking, data integrity support in the block layer, a function tracer, a mmio tracer, sysprof support, improved webcam support, support for the Intel wifi 5000 series and RTL8187B network cards, a new ath9k driver for the Atheros AR5008 and AR9001 chipsets, more new drivers, and many other improvements and fixes. Full list of changes can be found here."
Microsoft

France and OOXML

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Groklaw published a very interesting interview of Frederic Couchet (executive director of APRIL, the main French Free Software advocacy association) on OOXML in France :

"This new event reinforces, if it wasn't already necessary, the absolute need for clear explanations concerning the change of direction of the French position and the role played by various actors (in particular at ministry cabinet levels). Aside from that, it is rather bizarre that France rushes to reinforce the dominant position of Microsoft, a company censured many times for its practices. On a wider scale it is inadmissible to see applied, these past weeks in France, purely political decisions which disregard all technical reality, and the associated distortion of competition."

Read more : "The AFNOR Affair: Interview with Frédéric Couchet of APRIL on OOXML in France""
Microsoft

MS Forgets HDA In Windows XP SP3 = No Audio!-> 1

Submitted by
crazyeyes
crazyeyes writes "This is funny. Microsoft forgets to add the HDA driver into the latest Windows XP Service Pack 3 release candidate , rendering many users audio-less. You can't even update using SP1 and SP2 driver updates cause they are "older than SP3"!

Fortunately, smart Slashdotters can hack their way to a full audio experience with Service Pack 3. Lazy and smart Slashdotters can just download and install the hacked driver ."
Link to Original Source
The Courts

RIAA Tries to Stop RICO Class Action 1

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Last month an Oregon woman, victimized by the RIAA for two years, retaliated by bringing a class action for fraud, RICO, malicious prosecution, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, misuse of copyright law, civil conspiracy, and other assorted wrongs, against the record companies, the RIAA, their investigators, and their 'enforcers', in Andersen v. Atlantic. The opening gambit of the record companies, the RIAA, and the enforcers (Settlement Support Center LLC), all of whom are being represented by the same law firm, has been to file a motion to dismiss Ms. Andersen's complaint. The RIAA's unlicensed "investigators", MediaSentry/Safenet, presumably represented by separate counsel, have yet to respond to the amended complaint. Ms. Andersen is the disabled single mother, who together with her 10 year old daughter, had been pursued by the RIAA for two (2) years, despite the fact that neither of them had ever engaged in file sharing."
Microsoft

DoJ, states divided on Microsoft antitrust success->

Submitted by Rob
Rob writes "Computer Business Review is reporting that the US Department of Justice and five States have declared themselves satisfied with the antitrust enforcement efforts taken against Microsoft despite a further seven States maintaining they have had 'little or no discernible impact in the marketplace.' While the US DoJ and five States — New York, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, and Wisconsin (The New York Group) — reported that the final judgments have succeeded in increasing competition to the benefit of consumers, seven States making up the California Group are not convinced."
Link to Original Source
Security

Critical Security Bug in FireFox-> 1

Submitted by
Gypsy2012
Gypsy2012 writes "This article from CNet says "A "highly critical" security flaw has been discovered in Firefox, which could allow a malicious attacker to gain remote control of a user's system, according to an advisory issued by Secunia." Looks like it's a good idea to make sure the 'firefox://' URI handler is not registered on your system."
Link to Original Source
Data Storage

Holographic Storage Slated to Hit Market This Fall 201

Posted by CowboyNeal
from the just-in-time-for-christmas dept.
prostoalex writes "The Guardian takes a look at the current developments in the world of holographic storage. Despite being available in research for over 40 years, the technology is getting commercialized only now, with InPhase Technologies launching its 600 GB write-once disk and a drive this fall. What avout the price? "The first holographic products are certainly not mass-market — a 600GB disc will cost around $180 (£90), and the drive costs about $18,000. Potential users include banks, libraries, government agencies and corporations.""

War is never imperative. -- McCoy, "Balance of Terror", stardate 1709.2