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Handhelds

+ - "Free the iPhone" campaign=end cellphone c->

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes "The iPhone's exclusive carrier deal may fuel a revolt against all long-term cellphone contracts. A new web site called Free the iPhone" argues that "True open access standards should apply to the entire wireless market." It's supported by the powerful Freepress public interest group, and it's a direct challenge to the position of FCC chariman Martin, who wants open access only for the new, soon-to-be-released spectrum. Could the iPhone be the spark that triggers the end of long-term cellphone contracts?"
Link to Original Source
Space

+ - Distributed Eyeballs for Cosmology at Galaxyzoo

Submitted by LauraLolly
LauraLolly (666) writes "A consortium of astronomers is using public eyeballs at GalaxyZoo. According to their training page, "... the human brain is much better at recognising patterns than a computer can ever be."

The images are taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the results of the analysis are stored at Astrophysics at Oxford. The training takes very little time. It's great to have yet another cool distributed eyeball project out there."
Software

+ - Australian Competition Authority Sues Google!->

Submitted by sceptik
sceptik (1127019) writes "The Courier Mail http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/ is reporting that GOOGLE, the "world's best search engine" is being taken to court by the Australian competition watchdog, which is alleging the company engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges Trading Post Australia, Google Ireland, Google Australia and Google Inc. were misleading in the search engine's "sponsored links" section. The ACCC said that in 2005, sponsored links titled "Kloster Ford" and "Charlestown Toyota" allegedly appeared on Google, but the links allegedly directed users to the Trading Post website. Both dealerships compete with the Trading Post. The ACCC said by publishing the links, Google allegedly engaged in "misleading and deceptive conduct". Google also continues to allegedly fail to "adequately distinguish sponsored links from 'organic' search results", according to an ACCC statement. "The ACCC understands that it is the first regulatory body to seek legal clarification of Google's conduct from a trade practices perspective," the statement said. "This is the first action of its type globally." The matter will come before the Federal Court in Sydney on August 21."
Link to Original Source
Spam

+ - Tech related legislation proposals

Submitted by
theinfobox
theinfobox writes "I have a friend that is a state legislator and is seeking input on a state level anti-SPAM law. Which states have effective anti-SPAM laws? What should a new anti-SPAM law do differently? And on that same note, what other state level tech legislation should I suggest? I have already talked to them about Net Neutrality. Another piece of legislation I would like to see passed is the support by state agencies for Open Document Formats. Any thing else I should propose?"
Security

+ - Finger Pointing over IE-to-Firefox Vulnerability->

Submitted by
Kenny G.
Kenny G. writes "ZDnet has the back story on a cross-browser IE-to-Firefox vulnerability that has led to lot of finger pointing between Microsoft and Mozilla over who is to blame. The issue actually resides with Firefox but can only be exploited if the target clicks a link in IE. There is a feeling that both sides should issue individual patches to block the attack class."
Link to Original Source
Patents

+ - Supreme Court Favors Microsoft in Patent Fight

Submitted by
taoman1
taoman1 writes "The Supreme Court sided with Microsoft Corp. on Monday, finding that U.S. patent law doesn't apply to software sent to foreign countries. In a 7-1 decision, the court rejected AT&T's position that it is entitled to damages for every Windows-based computer manufactured outside the United States using technology that compresses speech into computer code."
The Internet

+ - Mistaken YouTube takedown of national TV reporter

Submitted by parodyca
parodyca (890419) writes "David Akin is a national TV reporter for CTV in Canada. Youtube recently took down his home video of his trip to Vimy Ridge (A Canadian national monument) in France. His video was here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71fBv-U-6b8 and was ordered down via DMCA by a law firm called Holland & Hart LLP. But from Akins description there is nothing possibly infringing in the video. By strange coincidence another video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71fBv-U-6b9 was also ordered down by the same law firm. Is this another example of the consequences of not having any accountability for these takedown notices? Having now happen to a national TV reporter with the DMCA get the bad press it so richly deserves?"
Space

+ - Experiment Confirms Relativity Claims

Submitted by
scubamage
scubamage writes "On the 14th of April, Stanford University scientists announced the completion of the experimental phase of Gravity Probe B, a test of Einstein's theory of relativity and gravity. To quote, "One way to think about space-time is as a large fishing net. Left unperturbed and stretched out flat, it is straight and regular. But the minute one puts a weight into the net, everything bends to support that weight. A weight that was spinning would wreak even more havoc with the net, twisting it as it spun. The mass-energy of the planet earth represents a "weight" in our net of space-time, and the daily revolutions of the earth, according to Einstein's theory, represent a twisting of local space-time. GP-B will search for this twisting effect, which has never before been measured." The tests so far have shown that Einstein was correct at least in the fact that there is a distortion. The actual drag created on time space is still being calculated. The stanford article can be found here. The official press release in PDF format can be found here."
The Courts

+ - RIAA Files lawsuits against NCSU students

Submitted by Odin The Ravager
Odin The Ravager (980765) writes "The RIAA filed 23 "John Doe" lawsuits on North Carolina State students, following the 400 settlement letters sent last month. Interestingly, the college is fighting these lawsuits. FTA:

But Pam Gerace, the director of Student Legal Services at the University, is fighting the lawsuits for her student clients.
The next step is for the judge to approve the beginning of the name-discovery process."

Misclassified For Centuries, Medicinal Leeches Found To Be 3 Distinct Species->

From feed by sdfeed
Genetic research has revealed that commercially available medicinal leeches used around the world in biomedical research and postoperative care have been misclassified for centuries. Until now, the leeches were assumed to be the species Hirudo medicinalis, but new research reveals they are actually a closely related but genetically distinct species, Hirudo verbana.
Link to Original Source

If a thing's worth doing, it is worth doing badly. -- G.K. Chesterton

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