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Education

Submission + - Programming, puzzles and problem solving - free open online course 1

Submitted by dncsky1530
dncsky1530 writes: UNSW professor Richard Buckland, lecturer of the famous Computing 1 course on YouTube, is now running a large scale open online Computer Science course for the world. UNSW Computing 1 — PuzzleQuest and the Art of Programming starts off with microprocessors and works it way through C with interactive activities while taking students on an adventure of hacking, cracking and problem solving. It's based around a three month long PuzzleQuest with grand and suspiciously unspecified prizes as well as fame and glory for the intrepid. The next class starts December 3rd 2012.
The Internet

Submission + - Ask Slashdot : Management software for small independant ISP?

Submitted by Vorknkx
Vorknkx writes: I work in a small ISP. Most of our customers have cable modems but some of them are using Canopy or Ubiquity products. To manage all that, we're using a number of programs and solutions not necessarily made for such a task that are kept up to date simply using copy and paste. We have an Access database for all our internet customers, an Excel document for our wireless users, The Dude to monitor every user and a custom-made web application to monitor traffic. Needless to say, we're starting to hit the limit and juggling between all these programs is a complete pain. Is there some kind of all-in-one solution that would allow us to eliminate all the copy and paste while keeping the same functionality?
Medicine

Submission + - Hi-Tech 'Sunglasses' Could Eliminate Jet-Lag

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "It is estimated that up to 94 per cent of long-haul travelers suffer from jet lag because the body becomes confused to traveling through different time zones. Now Andrew Hough writes that jet lag could soon become a distant memory for weary travelers with the development of a set of hi-tech “sunglasses”, described as the world’s first “time control” spectacles, which can imitate sunlight patterns helping world travelers adapt to changing sleep patterns and time zones in “small steps”. Dubbed the “Re-Timer,” the device targets a part of the brain that regulates the human body-clock, by sending signals to the rest of the body that help it slowly realize it is in a different area of the world. "The light from Re-Timer stimulates the part of the brain responsible for regulating the 24-hour body clock,” says Professor Leon Lack, a researcher on sleep, circadian rhythms, bright light therapy, and treatments for insomnia and the device's chief inventor. “Using a light device allows you to transition your body clock to a new time zone in small steps. This eliminates the sudden change people experience after flying and reduces the symptoms of jet lag.”"
Security

Submission + - After Weeks Of Trying, UK Cryptographers Fail To Crack World War II Code

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A dead pigeon discovered a few weeks ago in a UK chimney may be able to provide new answers to the secrets of World War II. Unfortunately, British cryptographers at the country’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have been unable to crack the code encrypting a message the bird was tasked with sending and say they are confident it cannot be decoded “without access to the original cryptographic material.”

Submission + - Life for Stratfor hacker .. (rt.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: A pretrial hearing in the case against accused LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond this week ended with the 27-year-old Chicago man being told he could be sentenced to life in prison for compromising the computers of Stratfor.

Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday that he could be sentenced to serve anywhere from 360 months-to-life if convicted on all charges relating to last year’s hack of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, a global intelligence company whose servers were infiltrated by an offshoot of the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

Hammond is not likely to take the stand until next year, but so far has been imprisoned for eight months without trial. Legal proceedings in the case might soon be called into question, however, after it’s been revealed that Judge Preska’s husband was a victim of the Stratfor hack.
Privacy

Submission + - "Anonymous" File-Sharing Darknet Ruled Illegal by German Court (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A court in Hamburg, Germany, has granted an injunction against a user of the anonymous and encrypted file-sharing network RetroShare . RetroShare users exchange data through encrypted transfers and the network setup ensures that the true sender of the file is always obfuscated. The court, however, has now ruled that RetroShare users who act as an exit node are liable for the encrypted traffic that’s sent by others.
Advertising

Submission + - Ad blocking – a coming legal battleground? (computerworld.co.nz)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Computerworld asks: What will happen if big advertisers declare AdBlock Plus a clear and present danger to online business models? Hint: it will probably involve lawyers.

From the article:
Could browser ad blocking one day become so prevalent that it jeopardises potentially billions of dollars of online ad revenue, and the primary business models of many online and new media businesses? If so, it will inevitably face legal attack.
Nintendo

Submission + - THQ claims Nintendo's new Wii U console CPU underwhelming (eurogamer.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: THQ has clarified comments made by 4A Games' chief technical officer Oles Shishkovtsov about the upcoming first-person shooter Metro. This week THQ developer house told NowGamer: “[The] Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU” by way of explaining why a Wii U version of Metro wasn't in the works. We genuinely looked at what it would take to bring the game to Wii U. It's certainly possible, and it's something we thought we'd like to do. The reality is that would mean a dedicated team, dedicated time and effort, and it would either result in a detriment to what we're trying to focus on or we probably wouldn't be able to do the Wii U version the justice.
Linux Business

Submission + - LiMux Project saved Munich €10m so far

Submitted by Mojo66
Mojo66 writes: After project savings had been estimated to amount to at least €4 million in March, more precise figures are now in: Over €10 million (approximately £8 million or $12.8 million) has been saved by the city of Munich, thanks to its development and use of the city's own Linux platform. The calculation compares the current overall cost of the LiMux migration with that of two technologically equivalent Windows scenarios: Windows with Microsoft Office and Windows with OpenOffice. Reportedly, savings amount to over €10 million. The study is based on around 11,000 migrated workplaces within Munich's city administration as well as 15,000 desktops that are equipped with an open source office suite. The comparison with Windows assumes that Windows systems must be on the same technological level; this would, for example, mean that they would have been upgraded to Windows 7 at the end of 2011. Overall, the project says that Windows and Microsoft Office would have cost just over €34 million, while Windows with Open Office would have cost about €30 million. The LiMux scenario, on the other hand, has reportedly cost less than €23 million. A detailed report (in german) is available here.

Submission + - Raspberry Pi to Get Camera Module Capable of 1080p Video Recording (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new add-on – a camera module that will enable the credit card sized computer to snap pictures as well as record 1080p videos. Showcased by RS Components at the Elecontrica 2012 in Germany [watch video here] the £16 (apprx) module will be equipped with a 5MP sensor and will plug into the otherwise unused CSI pins of the Pi. The camera module’s board is still in prototype stage and is expected to reach production sometime soon. Liz Upton, Executive Director of the Foundation said in a blog post, “We’ve a (very) little way to go before we’re able to send it out to manufacture.” According to Upton, testing slots have been booked in December to check on electromagnetic radiations from the ribbon cable.
Privacy

Submission + - Senate Bill Gives Federal Reserve Warrantless Access to Your Emails and Facebook (activistpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Bill, The Electronic Communications Privacy Act, is supposed to make the internet more private, but instead has provided a wealth of organizations unfettered access to online communications. This grants warrantless access to government agency, including the ability to take over mail account without notifying owners or the judiciary. As a final affront, the Federal Reserve, which isn't even a government body with oversight, will have these powers
Education

Submission + - Judge Saves Girl From Suspension For Refusing To Wear RFID Tag

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A district court judge for Bexar County has granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to ensure that Andrea Hernandez, a San Antonio high school student from John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy, can continue her studies pending an upcoming trial. The Northside Independent School District (NISD) in Texas recently informed the sophomore student that she would be suspended for refusing to wear a “Smart” Student ID card embedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking chip.
Robotics

Submission + - Disney Research Robot Can Juggle, Play Catch (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: With the aim of providing some physical interaction between entertainment robots and guests at its theme parks, while still maintaining a safe distance between the two, Disney Research has created an animatronic robot that can play catch and juggle balls with a human partner.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft patents smart glasses with augmented reality (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: A patent granted to the US tech firm describes how the eyewear could be used to bring up statistics over a wearer's view of a baseball game or details of characters in a play.

The newly-released document was filed in May 2011 and is highly detailed. If a product comes to market it could challenge Google's Project Glass.

Google is planning to deliver its augmented reality glasses to developers early next year and then follow with a release to consumers in 2014. Smaller firms — such as Vuzix, TTP and Explore Engage — are also working on rival systems.

Although some have questioned how many people would want to wear such devices, a recent report by Juniper Research indicated that the market for smart glasses and other next-generation wearable tech could be worth $1.5bn by 2014 and would multiply over following years.
News

Submission + - WWII code 'may never be cracked' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
AltGrendel
AltGrendel writes: "The BBC reports that experts at intelligence agency GCHQ have asked for help in de-coding a message found attached to a pigeon leg, thought to date back to WWII. The dead bird was found in a chimney in Surrey a few weeks ago. But without more information, the code may never be cracked, according to the BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera"
Space

Submission + - Europe sets modest goals for space (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "Europe’s space chiefs are hailing the two-day meeting at which research ministers hammered out Europe’s priorities in space as a success, despite them getting less money than they had hoped. At the 20–21 November meeting in Naples, Italy, the ministers agreed to give the European Space Agency (ESA) €10.1 billion (US$13 billion) over the next several years, somewhat less than the total €12 billion cost of the project proposals considered at the meeting.
With flat funding of about €500 million per year for 2013–17, the scientific programme takes a cut in real terms, although it is not yet clear which missions will be affected as a result.
But ministers did agree on a way forward for the Ariane program. Germany argued that ESA should continue to develop an upgraded version of the rocket known as Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution (5ME), which can carry payloads 20% heavier than its namesake and could put satellites in higher orbits. But France believed it was better to start building a new Ariane 6 rocket that would be cheaper to launch and therefore more competitive. In the end it was agreed that both projects should be developed over the next couple of years — with funding of about €600 million — and then both will be reviewed in 2014, with the goal that Ariane 5ME will launch in 2017 or 2018.
For robotic exploration, meanwhile, there is mixed news. On 19 November, ESA’s ruling council approved the involvement of Russia in the agency’s twin ExoMars missions to measure trace gases in Mars' atmosphere and search for signs of life on the planet's surface, scheduled for launch in 2016 and 2018. The Russian space agency Roscosmos will provide two Proton rockets for the lift-off and so plug some of the funding gap left when NASA pulled out of the mission last year. But just ahead of the Naples meeting, Germany announced that it would abandon plans for a lunar lander because it could not gather enough support from other member states to pay for the €500-million mission."
Science

Submission + - Blind Patient Reads Words Stimulated Directly Onto the Retina

Submitted by
ScienceGeek.Michael
ScienceGeek.Michael writes: "Neuroprosthetic device uses implant to project visual braille

For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient’s retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. The device, the Argus II, has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of who can now see color, movement and objects. It uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the signal from the camera into electrical stimulation, and a microchip with electrodes implanted directly on the retina. The study was authored by researchers at Second Sight, the company who developed the device, and has been published in Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics on the 21st of November."
Security

Submission + - U.S. Denies Malware Attack Against France (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: "That allegation was leveled at the U.S. government by unnamed French officials, according to a Tuesday report in the weekly French newspaper L'Express. It reported that computers belonging to top advisers to then French president Nicolas Sarkozy had been hacked using the Flame cyberespionage malware, which was designed to be used in highly targeted attacks... Napolitano was also asked if it wasn't ironic that while the United States has been sounding alarms over the growing amount of malware that's targeting U.S. government system, it also commissioning the Stuxnet and Flame cyber-espionage malware used against Iran. Napolitano, however, pled official ignorance. "These programs were never attributed in any way to the U.S. government.""

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