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Japan

Little health risk seen from Fukushima's radioactivity -> 2

Submitted by
gbrumfiel
gbrumfiel writes "Two independent reports show that the public and most workers received only low doses of radiation following last year's meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Nature reports that the risks presented by the doses are small, even though some are above guidelines and limits set by the Japanese government. Few people will develop cancer as a result of the accident, and those that do may never be able to conclusively link their illness to the meltdowns. The greatest risk lies with the workers who struggled in the early days to bring the reactors under control. So far no ill-effects have been detected. At Chernobyl, by contrast, the highest exposed workers died quickly from radiation sickness."
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Microsoft

ITC judge calls for US XBox ban in Motorola patent battle->

Submitted by symbolset
symbolset writes "In the long running complaint between Motorola and Microsoft, Judge David Shaw of the ITC recommended Monday a ban on XBox consoles, as they are found to infringe Motorola's patents. The judge also ordered Microsoft post a bond of 7 percent of the retail price of all unsold US XBox inventory. The decision will go to the ITC’s board of commissioners who will either uphold the recommendation or overturn it."
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Microsoft

Microsoft Launches 'so.cl' Network->

Submitted by
benfrog
benfrog writes "Microsoft just quietly launched so.cl, its own sort-of-clone of Facebook, Google+, and the like. It also pretty much sponges off of them, in that you can log in with your Facebook ID and it will contact your Facebook friends if you want it to. They've also (wisely?) put Bing Search at the center of the (currently invitation-only) site."
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Security

Researchers Can Generate RSA SecurID Random Numbers Flawlessly->

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes "A researcher has found and published a way to tune into a RSA SecurID Token. Once a few easy steps are followed anyone can generate the exact numbers shown on the token. The method relies on finding the seed that is used to generate the numbers seemingly randomly, but once known can be used to generate the exact numbers displayed on the targetted Token. The technique, described on Thursday by a senior security analyst at a firm called SensePost, has important implications for the safekeeping of the tokens. An estimated 40 million people use these to access confidential data belonging to government agencies, military contractors, and corporations. Scrutiny of the widely used two-factor authentication system has grown since last year, when RSA revealed that intruders on its networks stole sensitive SecurID information that could be used to reduce its security. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin later confirmed that a separate attack on its systems was aided by the theft of the RSA data."
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The Internet

ICANN gTLD application system back in action->

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says that its application system for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has reopened, more than a month after it was brought down because of a software glitch. Registered applicants can now log in, review and submit their applications on the TLD Application System (TAS) which will stay open until 23:59 GMT on May 30, ICANN chief operating officer Akram Atallah said in a statement. Two-hour maintenance windows have been scheduled on three days, he added."
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Education

Programing now starting in Elementary Schools->

Submitted by
the agent man
the agent man writes "The idea of getting kids interested in programming in spite of their common perception of programming to be "hard and boring" is an ongoing Slashdot discussion. With support of the National Science Foundation the Scalable Game Design project has explored how to bring computer science education into the curriculum of middle and high schools for some time. The results are overwhelmingly positive suggesting that game design is not only highly motivational across gender and ethnicity but even finding new ways of tracking programing skills transferring from game design to STEM simulation building. This NPR story highlights an early and unplanned foray into brining game design based computer science education even to Elementary Schools. A short story includes a nice video of students sharing their experiences."
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Facebook

Facebook Privacy Suit Seeks $15 Billion->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The folks at Facebook may be focusing on their IPO today, but a complaint filed in federal court has given them something else to think about. The filing consolidates 21 separate but similar cases and alleges Facebook invaded users privacy by tracking their browsing behavior even after they had logged out of the site. The claim seeks $15 billion in damages. 'If the claimants are successful in their case against Facebook, they could prevent Menlo Park from collecting the huge amount of data it collects about its users to serve ads back to them. Like the previous lawsuits, Facebook is once again being accused of violating the Federal Wiretap Act, which provides statutory damages per user of $100 per day per violation, up to a maximum per user of $10,000. The complaint also asserts claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, various California Statutes and California common law.'"
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Games

EA To Provide Free Distribution to Kickstarter Games->

Submitted by The God of Code
The God of Code writes "EA has announced that they will be waiving all Origin distribution fees for crowd-funded games — like those from Kickstarter — for the first 90 days. "The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal," Origin VP David DeMartini commented. "It's also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers". The recently funded Wasteland 2 developer Brian Fargo applauds EA's move, saying "Having Origin waive their distribution fees for 90 days for fan funded games is a major economic bonus for small developers. We look forward to bringing Wasteland 2 to the Origin audience.""
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Software

Wozniak's Original System Description of the Apple ][->

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes "Opening with the line, "To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use and inexpensive." Stephen Wozniak gave his system description of the Apple-II in the May, 1977 issue of BYTE.
It's instructive to read what was worth bragging about back then, such as integral graphics, "A key part of the Apple-II design is an integral video display generator which diectly accesses the system's programmable memory. Screen formatting and cursor controls are realized in my design in the form of about 200 bytes of read only memory."
And it shows what the limitations were in those days, "While writing Apple BASIC, I ran into the problem of manipulating the 16 bit pointer data and its arithmetic in an 8 bit machine.
My solution to this problem of handling 16 bit data, notably pointers, with an 8 bit microprocessor was to implement a nonexistent 16 bit processor in software, interpreter fashion.""
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Tallulah Bankhead barged down the Nile last night as Cleopatra and sank. -- John Mason Brown, drama critic