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Your Rights Online

Submission + - Reserve Bank of India rejects Islamic Banking (firstpost.com) 1

Submitted by vencs
vencs writes: Earning interest on deposits is prohibited under Islamic banking. Instead, the money could be utilised for enterprises and the profit earned from their functioning could be shared by investors. There had been offers of Islamic funding schemes from NRIs and groups in the Middle East and other countries. However, the Governor of Reserve Bank of India said that Islamic banking is not permissible under existing rules.

In its intended form, Islamic banking as advocated by the Prophet would be close to venture capital or even a mutual fund – where the investor earns nothing if his money makes a business loss. He gets a share of profit or dividends if the venture or underlying investment makes a profit.
Education

Submission + - Cyber Corps program trains spies for the digital age (latimes.com)

Submitted by
David Hume
David Hume writes: "The Los Angeles Times has a story entitled Cyber Corps program trains spies for the digital age, about the two-year University of Tulsa Cyber Corps Program. About "85% of the 260 graduates since 2003 have gone to the NSA, which students call "the fraternity," or the CIA, which they call "the sorority."" "Other graduates have taken positions with the FBI, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security." According to the University of Tulsa website, two programs — the National Science Foundation's Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service and the Department of Defense's (DOD's) Information Assurance Scholarship Program — provide scholarships to Cyber Corps students."
Apple

Submission + - 1976 Polaroids of an Apple-1 resurface (time.com)

Submitted by
harrymcc
harrymcc writes: "In 1976, Paul Terrell, owner of the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, placed an order for 50 Apple-1 computers, becoming Apple's first dealer. Over at TIME.com, I've published three Polaroid snapshots of the Apple-1 which Terrell shot at the time. They're fascinating history, and it's possible they're the oldest surviving photos of Apple products."
Power

Submission + - HydroICE project developing a solar-powered combustion engine (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: OK, first things first – stop picturing a car with solar panels connected to its engine. What Missouri-based inventors Matt Bellue and Ben Cooper are working on is something a little different than that. They want to take an internal combustion engine, and run it on water and solar-heated oil instead of gasoline. That engine could then be hooked up to a generator, to provide clean electricity. While that may sound a little iffy to some, Bellue and Cooper have already built a small-scale prototype.
Google

Submission + - In Dublin, U.S. Execs Give Thanks for Tax Breaks

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: On the First Thanksgiving, Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered at Plymouth to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. On this Thanksgiving, CNBC reports, U.S. business chiefs and the Irish Minister of Finance gathered for a KPMG-sponsored Thanksgiving Day meal at the Four Seasons in Dublin to give thanks for low taxes, a cool climate and the financial crisis — three factors that have helped produce a bumper year in their favorite corner of Europe. The American Chamber of Commerce ('The voice of US companies in Ireland') event comes a week after the Chair of a UK parliamentary committee accused Google of being 'immoral' for exploiting Ireland's favorable tax rates, which reportedly reduced its effective UK tax rate to a mere 0.4% on £2.5bn. 'We pay all the tax you require us to pay.' said Google’s head of northern European operations, adding that the company’s tax arrangements are not a matter of “personal choice” but of a responsibility to shareholders to keep costs down. Na-na-na-NA-na!
Open Source

Submission + - Guy builds wifi wardriving motorbike (scmagazine.com.au)

Submitted by
mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: "This custom Yamaha TRX 850 has been outfitted with wireless sniffing and attack tools, routers, a laptop, Raspberry Pi and even a heads up display integrated within the bike helmet.

It was built from open source kit and cheap hardware by a security penetration tester who wanted to make his love of wardriving more nimble.

The plans are detailed in a diagram and a video."
Science

Submission + - Water From Water Vapor With Hydrophilic Beetle-Emulating Coatings (astounde.com)

Submitted by mbstone
mbstone writes: The Namib Desert Beetle generates water from water vapor via its shell, which has alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic bumps which channel water droplets into its mouth. Scientists at MIT developed a self-filling water bottle using this technology, and have announced a contest for the best design of a countertop water-from-air generator.
Google

Submission + - Australian Govt pledges action on Google tax evasion (delimiter.com.au)

Submitted by daria42
daria42 writes: Looks like Google's habit of funnelling billions of dollars in revenue through its Irish and Bermuda subsidiaries, in a tactic known as the "double Dutch sandwich", continues to attract unfavourable government attention globally. France has already announced plans to take on the search giant's tax evasion habits, and the Australian Government, to which Google paid just $74,000 in tax last year despite having Australian revenues close to $1 billion, has now confirmed plans to do the same. How does tax evasion relate to Google's 'don't be evil' motto? Perhaps Google should re-consider its stance in this area.
Security

Submission + - HTTP Strict Transport Security becomes Internet standard (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "A Web security policy mechanism that promises to make HTTPS-enabled websites more resilient to various types of attacks has been approved and released as an Internet standard — but despite support from some high-profile websites, adoption elsewhere is still low. HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) allows websites to declare themselves accessible only over HTTPS (HTTP Secure) and was designed to prevent hackers from forcing user connections over HTTP or abusing mistakes in HTTPS implementations to compromise content integrity."
Google

Submission + - DuckDuckGo - Is Google Playing Fair? (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Penurious Penguin
Penurious Penguin writes: Privacy-oriented search-engine and Google-rival, DuckDuckGo, is contending possible anti-competitiveness on the part of Google. MIT graduate and founder of DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, cites several examples; his company's disadvantages in the Android mobile OS; and browsers, which in Firefox requires only a single step to set DuckDuckGo as the default search — while doing so in Chrome requires five. Weinberg also questions the domain duck.com, which he offered to purchase before it was acquired by Google. His offer was declined and duck.com now directs to Google's homepage.

Weinberg isn't the first to make similar claims; there was scroogle.org, which earlier this year, permanently shut down after repeated compatibility issues with Google's algorithms. Whatever the legitimacy of these claims, there certainly seems a growing market for people interested in privacy and objective searches — avoiding profiled search-results, aka "filter bubbles".
Earth

Submission + - The World Falls Back in Love with Coal

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Richard Anderson reports on BBC that despite stringent carbon emissions targets in Europe designed to slow global warming and massive investment in renewable energy in China, coal, the dirtiest and most polluting of all the major fossil fuels, is making a comeback with production up 6% on 2010, twice the rate of increase of gas and more than four times that of oil. “What is going on is a shift from nuclear power to coal and from gas to coal; this is the worst thing you could do, from a climate change perspective,” says Dieter Helm. Why the shift back to coal? Because coal is cheap, and getting cheaper all the time. Due to the economic downturn, there has been a "collapse in industrial demand for energy," leading to an oversupply of coal, pushing the price down. Meanwhile China leads the world in coal production and consumption. It mines over 3 billion tons of coal a year, three times more than the next-biggest producer (America), and last year overtook Japan to become the world's biggest coal importer. Although China is spending massive amounts of money on a renewable energy but even this will not be able to keep up with demand, meaning fossil fuels will continue to make up the majority of the overall energy mix for the foreseeable future and when it comes to fossil fuels, coal is the easy winner — it is generally easier and cheaper to mine, and easier to transport using existing infrastructure such as roads and rail, than oil or gas. While China is currently running half a dozen carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects — which aim to capture CO2 emissions from coal plants and bury it underground — the technology is nowhere near commercial viability. "Renewed urgency in developing CCS globally, alongside greater strides in increasing renewable energy capacity, is desperately needed," writes Anderson, "but Europe's increasing reliance on coal without capturing emissions is undermining its status as a leader in clean energy, and therefore global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.""
EU

Submission + - EU Passes resolution against ITU asserting control over internet (falkvinge.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today, the European Parliament passed a resolution that condemns the upcoming attempt from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to assert control over the Internet, and instructed its 27 Member States to act accordingly. This follows an attempt from the ITU to assert itself as the governing body and control the Internet.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Fox news parent NewsCorp may face corruption investigation (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by rtfa-troll
rtfa-troll writes: The Guardian reports that News Corporation may face FCPA investigations after an "official of the British ministry of defence" was charged "for allegedly receiving £100,000 from Murdoch's tabloid newspapers". News corporation, headed by Rupert Murdock, is loved by most of the readers of Slashdot as the owner of Fox News and as the company which put the overly complicated paywall on the Wall Street Journal. The article states that the charges "would be hard for the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to ignore and would warrant investigation under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which could lead to risks for "27 TV licences within the Fox network" .

Submission + - Saudi Arabia implements electronic tracking system for women (rawstory.com)

Submitted by dsinc
dsinc writes: Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements.

Since last week, Saudi women’s male guardians began receiving text messages on their phones informing them when women under their custody leave the country, even if they are travelling together.

“The authorities are using technology to monitor women,” said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the “state of slavery under which women are held” in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Women are not allowed to leave the kingdom without permission from their male guardian, who must give his consent by signing what is known as the “yellow sheet” at the airport or border.
Businesses

Submission + - Insurance industry could screen-out Psychopaths from Senior Management

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Dr. Clive Boddy believes that increasingly fluid corporate career paths have helped psychopaths conceal their disruptive workplace behavior and ascend to previously unattainable levels of authority. Boddy points out psychopaths are primarily attracted to money, status and power, currently found in unparalleled abundance in the global banking sector. As if to prove the point, many of the world's money traders self identify as the "masters of the universe." Solution? Screening with psychological tests. Who would pay for it? The insurance industry, since such bosses-from-hell leave behind vast wakes of psychological wreckage, with payouts to victims usually the result.
Technology

Submission + - Electric Car Designed with Smartphone in Mind (intelfreepress.com)

Submitted by
kenekaplan
kenekaplan writes: "The electric car concept blends smartphone-like sensors and computing with Space Station and motorcycle technology. Danny Kim, CTO of startup Lit Motors, claims the two-wheeled, self-balancing C1 brings the benefits of a motorcycle with the safety and comfort of a car. In tests, the gyroscopically balanced, wheel-hub motored vehicle goes from 0 to 60 mph in under 6 seconds, reaching top speeds of over 100 mph, and gets 200 miles per battery charge that, according to Kim, costs $1."
Software

Submission + - No, Mozilla did not just kill Firefox x64 for Windows (geek.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Over at TheNextWeb, it’s been reported that Mozilla has “quietly killed” the 64-bit build of Firefox for Windows. TNW’s Emil Protalinski noted in his post that Firefox engineering manager Benjamin Smedberg ”had declared that the 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows would never see the light of day,” but that’s not actually the case. Indeed, the title of the related Bugzilla item tells a different story: “Disable windows 64 builds for now.”

Firefox x64 isn’t dead, it’s just going to disappear from the nightlies at some point in the near future. It will be back some time later in 2013.

Submission + - Google Maps Offering Indoor Floor Plans On Desktop

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has been making modifications to its mobile-based Google Maps feature with regular updates, offering a host of options for users. Nonetheless, the company hasn’t forgotten about the desktop version of the feature and now, per reports, Google has announced the introduction of indoor maps support for the desktop version of the Maps.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook to Eliminate Voting on Privacy Changes (net-security.org)

Submitted by
Orome1
Orome1 writes: "Facebook has announced some proposed updates to their Data Use Policy (how user data is collected and used) and their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (explains the terms governing use of their services). These updates include new tools for managing Facebook Messages, changes to how they refer to certain products, tips on managing one's timelines, and reminders about what's visible to other people on Facebook. Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of communications, public policy, and marketing, said: "We found that the voting mechanism, which is triggered by a specific number of comments, actually resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over their quality," he explained. "Therefore, we’re proposing to end the voting component of the process in favor of a system that leads to more meaningful feedback and engagement.""

Submission + - Fetuses Caught Yawning in 4D (reuters.com)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: Reuters reports 4D scans have conclusively shown that fetuses do yawn. Understandable, eh? After all, all they get is cable.

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