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Why Does the US Cling To Imperial Measurements? 2288

Posted by samzenpus
from the my-car-gets-40-rods-to-the-hogshead dept.
PhunkySchtuff writes "As one of only three countries on Earth that hasn't converted to a metric system of units and measurements, there is a huge amount of resistance within the US to change the status quo. Whilst the cost of switching would be huge, there is also a massive hidden cost in not switching when dealing with the rest of the world (except for Liberia & Burma, the only other two countries that don't use the metric system) With one of the largest organisations in the US, the military, using metric units extensively, why does the general public in the US still cling to their customary system of units?"
Privacy

EU critisises for 'No Interest' in Data Protection->

Submitted by jhernik
jhernik writes "Viviane Reding has highlighted a clash between US and European attitudes to data privacy regulation

Viviane Reding, the outspoken European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, has accused the US authorities of demanding access to European citizens’ data without regard to their privacy rights.

Her comments spring from a meeting in Washington, USA, to thrash out a personal data protection agreement when the two jurisdictions co-operate to fight terrorism or crime. Reding complained that the American negotiating team were unprepared and uninterested.

Following an initial meeting earlier this year, she met Eric Holder, US Attorney General, and Janet Napolitano, the secretary for homeland security, on December 9. Reding said that the EU had “done its homework” over the year and a mandate was issued by the European Council of Ministers on December 3. It also appointed Francoise Le Bail, the director general of the Commission’s department for justice, as chief negotiator."
Link to Original Source
Power

Going Faster Than the Wind In a Wind-Powered Cart 315

Posted by Soulskill
from the any-way-the-wind-blows dept.
Shawnconna writes "Can a wind cart travel faster than the wind? A group of makers say, 'Yes!' Make: Online has published a story about the Blackbird wind cart that just set a record. This is a follow-up to an earlier story in which Charles Platt built a cart based on a viral video where a guy claimed he'd built a wind-powered vehicle that could travel downwind faster than the windspeed. Charles built one and said it didn't work. Heated debates broke out in forums, on BB, and elsewhere on the Net. In the ensuing time, a number of people have built carts and claimed success, most principally, Rick Cavallaro. He got funding from Google and JOBY to build and test a human-piloted cart. They claim success, with multiple sensor systems on board, impartial judges and experts in attendance."
Government

Sweden Government to adopt Open Source policy->

Submitted by
wisser
wisser writes "Computer Swedens today headline (sorry, Swedish only) tells us that the Swedish Government Agency Verva decided to consider Open Source with every it-procurement. Verva is among other things responsible for all it-procurement for the central Swedish government. Its policies are widely followed by other public service agencies in Sweden."
Link to Original Source
Displays

Monitor with 0Watt standby power launched 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Fujitsu Siemens recently announced the introduction of an innovative display that requires no electricity at all in idle mode! The technique is based on a new switch in the monitor that shuts it down entirely when the computer signal is absent and turns it on again when the signal reappears. According to the firm, with this switch, the display saves several euros per year in power costs."
Linux Business

Is Ubuntu selling out or growing up?->

Submitted by
AlexGr
AlexGr writes "Article by Jeff Gould in Interop News: Sometimes I wonder whether Ubuntu is really an open source software company any more. Yes, yes, I realize Ubuntu is not a company at all but a free Linux distribution, GPL'd and open source by definition. But still, the Ubuntu distro is sponsored by a traditional for profit company, The answer that has recently emerged to this question is, "yes and no." Yes, of course, because Ubuntu's web site promises that the distro "will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates." But Ubuntu the enterprise ecosystem — understood as the collection of desktops and servers running Ubuntu in a given organization — is not. http://www.interopnews.com/news/is-ubuntu-selling-out-or-growing-up.html"
Link to Original Source
Privacy

Violent porn media to be illegal to possess in UK->

Submitted by
Backlash
Backlash writes "Massive surveillance? Check. Building a DNA database? Check. Laws against thought crime? Not yet, but coming very soon.
The UK government is soon to pass legislation that would criminalise possession of certain types of "violent" pornography, even if it was part of a consensual session between two adults.
Lord Wallace of Tankerness pointed out an ideological schism during last week's debate in the House of Lords.
"If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence," he said. "Having engaged in it consensually would not be a crime, but to have a photograph of it in one's possession would be a crime. That does not seem to make sense to me."

First they came for the people that viewed "violent" pornography, and I did not speak out."
Link to Original Source
Security

Kraken bot cracked, source code revealed 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2383.html Security vendor PC Tools has published the source code and mathematical algorithm used in the domain name generation technique applied by the latest Kraken bot variant, Bobax. Analysis by researchers at PC Tools has uncovered how Bobax talks to control centres via HTTP using pseudo-random DNS names with a variable seven to twelve character length followed by a number of default suffixes in order to evade host intrusion prevention systems. The random word generator employed by Kraken is of particular interest as it is capable, in the Bobax variant at least, of dynamically constructing these random words using properly matched vowels and consonants by way of an internal rule based system which ensures that the random vowels and random consonants are only used when the word will still make sense."

But Officer, I stopped for the last one, and it was green!