Submission + - How 90 percent of one doctor's patients are now Albanian (washingtonpost.com)
wiredog writes: This is what happens when your drop down list is organized alphabetically, not by "most likely choice" first.
Submission + - Space Shuttle Endeavour's Final Journey
daveschroeder writes: "After over 296 days in space, nearly 123 million miles traveled, Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) is making its final journey — on the streets of Los Angeles. The last Space Shuttle to be built, the contract for Endeavour was awarded on July 31, 1987. Endeavour first launched on May 7, 1992, launched for the last time on May 16, 2011, and landed for the final time on June 1, 2011. Endeavour then took to the skies aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), completing the final ferry flight and the final flight of any kind in the Space Shuttle Program era with an aerial grand tour of southern California escorted by two NASA Dryden Flight Research Center F/A-18 aircraft on September 21, 2012. This morning around 1:30AM Pacific Time, Endeavour began another journey, this one on the ground. All Space Shuttles have traveled via road from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA, to Edwards Air Force Base, but this time a Space Shuttle is taking to the streets of Los Angeles for the journey from Los Angeles International Airport to its final home at the California Science Center. Getting the shuttle through LA surface streets is a mammoth logistical challenge as it lumbers along at 2 mph to the cheers of onlookers. Watching Endeavour make the journey is a sight to be seen! Thank you, Endeavour!"
Submission + - Lulzsec Member Raynaldo Rivera Pleads Guilty in Sony Pictures Hack (paritynews.com)
hypnosec writes: Raynaldo Rivera has pled guilty of hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment website in May 2011 at the US District Court for the Central District of California. The 20 year old, in his plea agreement, revealed that he joined Lulzsec in the month of May last year in a bid to help the hacking collective carry out cyberattacks on governments and businesses. Rivera, who surrendered to the FBI on August 28 this year, admitted that he was the one who launched an SQL injection attack against sonypictures.com that enabled him to extract confidential information from the website's database.
Submission + - What does your degree matter? Millions of dollars over time (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: "Over the course of a working career, the type of degree you have can be worth millions of more dollars to your bottom line. The US Census Bureau this week came out a wit couple first-time studies that show people with higher level technical or engineering degrees can on average make over $3 million more during their lifetimes than those who graduated with majors in the arts, humanities and education."
Submission + - Converting sea water to navy jet-fuel (defensetech.org)
Jules IV writes: "Navy scientists and researchers say they are close to a breakthrough toward turning seawater into jet fuel.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is working to extract the carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen gas from the seawater. The key is then converting the carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons that can then be used to develop JP-5 fuel stock."
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is working to extract the carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen gas from the seawater. The key is then converting the carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons that can then be used to develop JP-5 fuel stock."
Submission + - Study finds correlation between chocolate consumption and Nobel laureates (nejm.org)
space_in_your_face writes: Since chocolate consumption could hypothetically improve cognitive function not only in individuals but also in whole populations, a researcher wondered whether there would be a correlation between a country's level of chocolate consumption and its population's cognitive function. And apparently, there is. At least, he found a correlation between chocolate consumption in a country and the number of Nobel laureates in said country. Interesting read after the discussion about correlation vs causation.
Submission + - 'Anonymous' No Longer Gaga Over WikiLeaks
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Guardian reports that computer hacker collective Anonymous has distanced itself from WikiLeaks, claiming the whistleblowers' site has become too focused on the personal tribulations of its founder, Julian Assange. A statement posted on the Anonymous Twitter account, AnonymousIRC, described WikiLeaks as "the one man Julian Assange show" after the website began asking users to pay for access to millions of leaked documents. "The idea behind WikiLeaks was to provide the public with information that would otherwise be kept secret by industries and governments. Information we strongly believe the public has a right to know," said the statement on behalf of Anonymous. "But this has been pushed more and more into the background, instead we only hear about Julian Assange, like he had dinner last night with Lady Gaga." The dispute could starve WikiLeaks of potentially newsworthy leaks in the future, as some of Wikileaks' recent disclosures – including the Stratfor emails – are alleged to have come from Anonymous."
Submission + - ICANN To Replace 'Digital Archery' Program With Raffle (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: "As Slashdot readers will recall, ICANN has been struggling to find a way to decide which applications to evaluate first. At the end of June, ICANN announced it had abandoned plans to use the Digital Archery contest. Then at the end of July, ICANN said it would process all applications simultaneously. Now there's a new plan in the works: an old-fashioned, manual raffle with tickets costing $100. There's just one catch, though, California law prohibits unlicensed lotteries."
Submission + - DRM could soon be in 3D printers (torrentfreak.com) 1
another random user writes: Downloading a car – or a pair of sneakers – will be entirely possible, although Ford and Nike won’t be particularly happy if people use their designs to do so.
A new patent, issued this week by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and titled ‘Manufacturing control system’, describes a system whereby 3D printer-like machines (the patent actually covers additive, subtractive, extrusion, melting, solidification, and other types of manufacturing) will have to obtain authorization before they are allowed to print items requested by the user.
In a nutshell, a digital fingerprint of “restricted items” will be held externally and printers will be required to compare the plans of the item they’re being asked to print against those in a database. If there’s a match, printing will be disallowed or restricted.
A new patent, issued this week by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and titled ‘Manufacturing control system’, describes a system whereby 3D printer-like machines (the patent actually covers additive, subtractive, extrusion, melting, solidification, and other types of manufacturing) will have to obtain authorization before they are allowed to print items requested by the user.
In a nutshell, a digital fingerprint of “restricted items” will be held externally and printers will be required to compare the plans of the item they’re being asked to print against those in a database. If there’s a match, printing will be disallowed or restricted.
Submission + - RATs Are Found Riddled With Bugs And Weak Encryption (darkreading.com)
ancientribe writes: A couple of college interns have discovered that remote administration tools (RATs) often used for cyberspying and targeted cyberattacks contain common flaws that ultimately could be exploited to help turn the tables on the attackers. RATs conduct keylogging, screen and camera capture, file management, code execution, and password-sniffing,and give the attacker a foothold in the infected machine as well as the targeted organization. This new research opens the door for incident responders to detect these attacker tools in their network and fight back.
Submission + - Seattle police want more drones, even while two sit unused (muckrock.com)
v3rgEz writes: "The Seattle Police Department is seeking to buy more unmanned aerial vehicles (a.k.a. drones) even as the two it currently owns site warehoused until the city develops a policy for their use, documents released as part of the EFF and MuckRock's Drone Census show.
More frightening than the $150,000 price tag? The fact that the drone vendors market the fact that these lease agreements do "not require voter approval.”"
More frightening than the $150,000 price tag? The fact that the drone vendors market the fact that these lease agreements do "not require voter approval.”"
Submission + - The Story of Nokia MeeGo
An anonymous reader writes: TaskuMuro, a Finnish tech news site, has anonymously interviewed various Nokia employees and pieced together an interesting timeline of the events which led to the abandonment of the Nokia MeeGo platform and Nokia's current affiliation with Microsoft and Windows Phone. It appears the MeeGo project was rather disorganized from the get go and fell victim to the company-internal tug-of-war, aimless management causing several UI redesigns and a none-too-wise reliance on Intel components which lacked some key features – namely, LTE support.
Submission + - Rejected papers get more citations when eventually published (nature.com)
scibri writes: In a study of more than 80,000 bioscience papers, researchers have illuminated the usually hidden flows of papers from journal to journal before publication.
Surprisingly, they found that papers published after having first been rejected elsewhere receive significantly more citations on average than ones accepted on first submission.
There were a few other surprises as well...Nature and Science publish more papers that were initially rejected elsewhere than lower-impact journals do.
So there is apparently some reason to be patient with your paper’s critics — they will do you good in the end.
Surprisingly, they found that papers published after having first been rejected elsewhere receive significantly more citations on average than ones accepted on first submission.
There were a few other surprises as well...Nature and Science publish more papers that were initially rejected elsewhere than lower-impact journals do.
So there is apparently some reason to be patient with your paper’s critics — they will do you good in the end.
Submission + - Libertarian Candidate Excluded From Debate For Refusing Corporate Donations (fishmanforcongress.com) 3
fishdan writes: "I'm a long time /. member with excellent karma. I am also the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress in Massachusetts 6th District. I am on the ballot. I polled 7% in the only poll that included me, which was taken 6 weeks ago, before I had done any advertizing, been in any debates or been on television. In the most recent debate, the general consensus was that I moved a very partisan crowd in my favor. In the 2 days since that debate, donations and page views are up significantly.
Yesterday I received a stunning email from the local ABC affiliate telling me that they were going to exclude me from their televised debate because I did not have $50k in campaign contributions, even though during my entire campaign I have pointedly and publicly refused corporate donations. They cited several other trumped up reasons, including polling at 10%, but there has not been a poll that included me since the one 6 weeks ago — and I meet their other requirements."
Yesterday I received a stunning email from the local ABC affiliate telling me that they were going to exclude me from their televised debate because I did not have $50k in campaign contributions, even though during my entire campaign I have pointedly and publicly refused corporate donations. They cited several other trumped up reasons, including polling at 10%, but there has not been a poll that included me since the one 6 weeks ago — and I meet their other requirements."
Submission + - A woman in France received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion Euros (bbc.co.uk)
Chrisq writes:
A woman in south-west France, who received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion euros, has had the real amount she owed waived — after the company admitted its mistake. Solenne San Jose, from Pessac outside Bordeaux, said she received a huge shock when she opened the bill for 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros (£9.4qn). This is nearly 6,000 times France's annual economic output.
If only she paid the bill Europe could have been out of recession and France the world's strongest economic power!
Submission + - Apple stays on EPEAT's green list after MacBook checks (pcpro.co.uk)
nk497 writes: "Apple has kept its place on a controversial green registry, despite previously suggesting its products wouldn't meet the necessary requirements. Earlier this year, Apple walked away from EPEAT — a green buying guide — leading to speculation that new MacBook Pros wouldn't meet its recycling requirements. After a bit of a backlash, Apple rejoined the group, and EPEAT said it would verify the devices in question. According to EPEAT's CEO, the group looked at all "ultralight" unibody laptops on the registry, finding all conformed to the four issues in question: whether they were upgradable, if tools were easily available, and if the battery and screen could be removed easily for recycling. The ideas behind some of those decisions may raise eyebrows: anything is upgradeable if it has a high-speed connection, such as to allow an external hard drive, and tools are "easily available" if they can be bought online — rather than if it uses standard screws."
Submission + - iPhone hacker dream team edges closer to iOS6 jailbreak (softview.co.in)
srimadman writes: A trio known for their prowess in hacking Apple's iPhone software indicated on Thursday they may be edging closer to breaking the improved security measures in iOS 6.
Submission + - Linux Foundation offer non-Microsoft boot loader (arstechnica.com)
dgharmon writes: The Linux Foundation has announced plans to provide a general purpose solution suitable for use by Linux and other non-Microsoft operating systems. The group has produced a minimal bootloader that won't boot any operating system directly. Instead, it will transfer to control to any other bootloader—signed or unsigned—so that that can boot an operating system
Submission + - EFF To Ask Judge To Rule Universal Abused DMCA
xSander writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal judge in San Jose, CA to rule that Universal abused the DMCA to take down a video of a toddler dancing to a Prince song.
The case in question, whose oral argument will be Tuesday, October 16, is Stephanie Lenz vs. Universal, a case that began back in 2007. Lenz shared a video on YouTube of her son dancing to "Let's Go Crazy" on a stereo in the background. After Universal took the video down, Lenz filed a suit with help of the EFF to hold Universal accountable for taking down her fair use. The court had already decided that content owners must consider fair use before sending copyright takedown notices.
The case in question, whose oral argument will be Tuesday, October 16, is Stephanie Lenz vs. Universal, a case that began back in 2007. Lenz shared a video on YouTube of her son dancing to "Let's Go Crazy" on a stereo in the background. After Universal took the video down, Lenz filed a suit with help of the EFF to hold Universal accountable for taking down her fair use. The court had already decided that content owners must consider fair use before sending copyright takedown notices.
Submission + - Samsung Galaxy Nexus ban overturned by US appeals court (bbc.co.uk)
Maow writes: The US Court of Appeals has overturned a ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, in a blow to Apple in the ongoing battle between the two rivals.
It said the district court in California, which had issued the ban in June, had "abused its discretion in entering an injunction".
Link to the decision.
I always wondered why the pure Google (Nexus) model was banned, and why Google didn't file an Amicus Curae filing in that suit...
It said the district court in California, which had issued the ban in June, had "abused its discretion in entering an injunction".
Link to the decision.
I always wondered why the pure Google (Nexus) model was banned, and why Google didn't file an Amicus Curae filing in that suit...
