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Government

Submission + - Hockey sticks, pocket knives and billiard cues among carry-on items TSA will soo (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "As of April 25th the Transportation Security Administration will let a bunch of previously prohibited items such as small pocket knives and what it calls "novelty" or toy bats to be taken on aircraft as carry-ons. The idea the agency said was to let Transportation Security Officers better focus their efforts on spot higher threat items such as explosives and guns."
Communications

Submission + - Google Releases Data On FBI Spying (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to Wired, 'National Security Letters allow the government to get detailed information on Americans’ finances and communications without oversight from a judge. The FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs and has even been reprimanded for abusing them.' It's significant, then, that Google has released data about how many NSLs they've received annually since 2009. The numbers are fuzzed — the FBI apparently worries that if we know how often they're spying on us, we can figure out who. But Google is able to say they've received from 0-999 letters each year for the past four years. And we know it's likely near the upper end of that range because they list the number of accounts affect, as well: always over a thousand.
Robotics

Submission + - Drone came within 200 feet of airliner over New York (cnn.com)

Submitted by FoolishBluntman
FoolishBluntman writes: (CNN) — An unmanned drone came within 200 feet of a commercial jet over New York, triggering an FBI appeal to the public for any information about the unusual and potentially dangerous incident.
The crew of Alitalia Flight 608 approaching John F. Kennedy airport on Monday reported the sighting.
"We saw a drone, a drone aircraft," the pilot can be heard telling air traffic controllers on radio calls captured by the website LiveATC.net.

Comment Re:Terrible move by a dying entity (Score 0) 317

by Grekan (#43086089) Attached to: Best Buy Follows Yahoo in Banning Remote Work

The only arguments I've seen along these lines have all been one flavor or another of 'I need to work at home. I have kids there, or a dying mother. I don't have any choice but to work at home. So if I can't I'll have to quit'.

How about "I was hired when this was allowable, live in another timezone, and don't want to uproot my family to get into the office"?

I guess you're fired then.

Comment Re:That's not DRM (Score 1) 215

by Grekan (#43079925) Attached to: DRM Chair Self-Destructs After 8 Uses
Philip K Dick already came up with this concept in his novel "Ubik" All your appliances need to have money inserted in them. Want to open the fridge door? That's a nickel. Want your place cleaned? Gotta pay the building to send in the cleaning robots. Want to leave your house? Better pay the door a nickel.

Comment Uhhh, sure? (Score 1) 1

by Grekan (#42488143) Attached to: Steam Users Ditch Windows 7, Vista, And XP For Windows 8, OS X, And Ubuntu
Survey Here: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey If you look at the survey Windows 7 lost a total of 2.09% and Windows 8 gained a total of 2.24%, the Linux gains (now capturing 0.8% of steam users) would of course be due to Steam for Linux beta releasing late last year. So, where is this "ditching" you're talking about, we're talking minimal amount of switching of OSs here.

Submission + - Huge pumice rock 'island' seen floating in South Pacific (msn.com)

Submitted by ZombieBraintrust
ZombieBraintrust writes: Pumice, the lightweight stone used to smooth skin, is usually found in beauty salons, but on Thursday sailors from New Zealand's Royal Navy found nearly 10,000 square miles of the lava rock bobbing on the surface of the South Pacific Ocean.

Comment Re:Enough with the gimmicks. (Score 0) 273

by Grekan (#40664397) Attached to: Hollywood Acts Warily At Comic-Con
I'm with you on this one, it'd be nice if people could turn their gadgets off and watch what they paid to watch. I caught a showing of Pulp Fiction in theaters earlier this year (having been too young to see it in 1994). It was incredible, except the twinkling lights of people playing with their cell phones. What's the point of going to a movie if all your going to do is text and otherwise generally be a douche bag?
Security

Submission + - Milford resident stopped by State police for radioactivity (ctpost.com)

Submitted by Okian Warrior
Okian Warrior writes: A Milford CT man was pulled over when a state police car radioactivity scanner flagged his car as being radioactive.

The man had been given a cardiac exam using radioactive dye, and had a note from his physician attesting to this, but this raises questions about the legality.

Given that it it not illegal to own or purchase or transport radioactive materials (within limits for hobbyist use), should the police be allowed to stop and search vehicles which show a slight level of radioactivity?
Science

Submission + - Scientists Plan $1 Billion Ghost Town

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Although a fully operation city with no people sounds like the setup for a dystopian sci-fi novel, the Boston Globe reports that the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation will develop a $1 billion scientific ghost town near Hobbs, New Mexico to help researchers test everything from intelligent traffic systems and next-generation wireless networks to automated washing machines and self-flushing toilets on existing infrastructure without interfering in everyday life. Bob Brumley, senior managing director of Pegasus Holdings, says the town will be modeled after the real city of Rock Hill, South Carolina, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new although unlike traditional cities, City Labs will start with its underground “backbone” infrastructure that will allow the lab to monitor activity throughout the 17-mile site. “The idea for The Center was born out of our own company’s challenges in trying to test new and emerging technologies beyond the confines of a sterile lab environment,” says Brumley. Since nobody lives in the Center's buildings, computerized systems will mimic human behavior such as turning thermostats up and down, switching lights off and on, or flushing toilets. The Center’s test facilities and supporting infrastructure may require as much as 20 square miles of open, unimproved land where the controlled environment will permit evaluation of the positive and negative impacts of smart grid applications and integration of renewable energies for residential, commercial and industrial sectors of the economy. Additional testing opportunities would include technologies emerging in intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks, smart grid cyber security and terrorism vulnerability. “It’s an amusement park for the scientists,” adds Brumley. "The only thing we won't be doing is destructive testing, blowing things up — I hope.""

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