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Science

Submission + - When Continental Drift was considered Pseudoscience (smithsonianmag.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Love this article in Smithsonian by Richard Conniff. One of my geology professors was in grad school when the theories for plate tectonics, seafloor spreading, etc., were introduced; he remembered how most of his professors denounced them as ridiculous. This article chronicles the introduction of continental drift theory, starting a century ago with Alfred Wegener.
A nice read.
Security

Submission + - The Cost of Crappy Security in Software Infrastructure (oreilly.com)

Submitted by blackbearnh
blackbearnh writes: Everyone these days knows that you have to double and triple check your code for security vulnerabilities, and make sure that your servers are locked down as tight as you can. But why? Because our underlying operating systems, languages, and platforms do such a crappy job protecting us from ourselves. A new article suggests that the inevitable result of clamoring for new features, rather than demanding rock-solid infrastructure, is that the developer community wastes huge amounts of time protecting their applications from exploits that should never be possible in the first place. TFA: The next time you hear about a site that gets pwned by a buffer overrun exploit, don't think "stupid developers!", think "stupid industry!"
Google

Submission + - Google Highlights Censored Search Terms in China (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Responding to complaints from Chinese Googlers that the search engine is 'inconsistent and unreliable,' Google has updated its service to help users steer clear of search queries that will result in page errors. Google will now highlight characters and phrases that are likely to 'break' a user's connection. 'By prompting people to revise their queries, we hope to reduce these disruptions and improve our user experience from mainland China,' the company said in a blog post."
Science

Submission + - two new elements (engadget.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has ratified two new elements — Flerovium and Livermorium.
Crime

Submission + - Venezuela bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition (bbc.co.uk) 2

Submitted by
Bob the Super Hamste
Bob the Super Hamste writes: "The BBC is reporting on a new law in Venezuela that effectively bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition to private citizens. Previously anyone with a permit could purchase a firearm from any commercial vendor but now only the police, military, and security firms will be able to purchase firearms or ammunition from only state owned manufactures or importers. Hugo Chavez's government states that the goal is to eventually disarm the citizenry. The law which went into effect today was passed on February 29th and up to this point the government has been running an amnesty program allowing citizens to turn in their illegal firearms. Since the law was first passed 805,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered from gun dealers. The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela where 78% of homicides are linked to firearms."
Microsoft

Submission + - IE10 Will Have "Do Not Track" On By Default (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As Microsoft released the preview of the next version of its Internet Explorer browser, news that in Windows 8 the browser will be sending a “Do Not Track” signal to Web sites by default must have shook online advertising giants. "Consumers can change this default setting if they choose," Microsoft noted, but added that this decision reflects their commitment to providing Windows customers an experience that is "private by default" in an era when so much user data is collected online. This step will make Internet Explorer 10 the first web browser with DNT on by default. And while the website are not required to comply with the user's do not track request, the DNT initiative — started by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission — is making good progress.
Google

Submission + - Google Points Finger at Microsoft, Nokia (wsj.com)

Submitted by
x0d
x0d writes: "Google Inc. said it filed an antitrust complaint Thursday in Europe
arguing that Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.51% and Nokia Corp. are using proxy companies
to brandish patents and hurt the prospects of Google's Android mobile-phone software to the advantage of Microsoft's technology.
The Internet-search giant alleges that Microsoft and Nokia have entered into agreements that enable entities such as Canada-based Mosaid Technologies Inc. to legally enforce their patent rights and share the resulting revenue."

Submission + - Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran (nytimes.com)

Submitted by diewlasing
diewlasing writes: WASHINGTON — From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.

Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.
Earth

Submission + - Solar geoengineering could lead to whiter, brighter skies (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: We’ve already heard reports that placing small, reflective particles into the upper atmosphere could actually improve crop yields, but would also significantly reduce the amount of electricity generated by solar power plants and do little to arrest the acidification of the world’s oceans. Now another potential side effect has been theorized by Californian researchers, who say that solar geoengineering could lead to brighter, whiter skies, and sunsets with an afterglow.
Robotics

Submission + - Attempt to smuggle 7 cellphones into jail by drone (suasnews.com)

Submitted by
garymortimer
garymortimer writes: "Emulating a 2009 drug smuggling attempt in the UK by toy helicopter criminals in Brazil have attempted to fly cellphones across the fence to inmates.

Perhaps this is not the first attempt, whoever made the craft made a neat job using cable tidies and laying out the platform in an ordered manner. The flight controller used appears to be a Chinese DJI NAZA this craft if GPS equipped could have been flown visually over the fence and then return to launch at the flick of a switch. But from the press photo the GPS appears to be missing, perhaps they will go for the upgrade now."
Android

Submission + - Gnuplot now Running on Android (kickstarter.com) 2

Submitted by MathIsTasty
MathIsTasty writes: While it looks like the previously discussed campaign to raise funds for Octave and gnuplot development for Android is quite short of its goal, it looks like the developer has forged ahead and released a decent and only slightly buggy version of gnuplot running on Android already. Though it can create 2D and 3D plots and even output to a PostScript file, it looks like there is no pinch-zoom and similar. Maybe that is one of the things the requested funds are for. I just wonder whether the only person working on the project should have spent more time on marketing as opposed to development.
Piracy

Submission + - Rights Holders See Little Point Creating Legal Content Sources (itnews.com.au) 1

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: Six weeks after Hollywood lost a landmark internet piracy case in Australia, it appears the film studios have gone cold on the idea of helping develop legal avenues to access copyrighted content as a way to combat piracy. Instead, they've produced research to show people will continue pirating even if there are legitimate content sources available. The results appear to support the studio's policy position that legislation is a preferable way of dealing with the issue.
Australia

Submission + - What is a patent troll? (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: Australian tech publication iTnews is defining ”patent trolls" as those who claim rights to an invention without commercializing it, and notes that government research organization CSIRO could come under that definition.

The CSIRO in April reached a $220 million settlement over three US telcos’ usage of WLAN that it invented in the early 1990s. Critics have argued that the CSIRO had failed to contribute to the world’s first wifi 802.11 standard, failed to commercialize the wifi chip through its spin-off, Radiata, and chose to wage its campaign in the Eastern District courts of Texas, a location favored by more notorious patent trolls.
Businesses

Submission + - Worst Design Ever? Plastic Clamshell Packaging 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Rebecca Rosen writes that iIf you've recently opened up — or, more specifically, tried to open up — an CFL light bulb, you can sympathize with the question posted on Quora last year, "What is the worst piece of design ever done?" to which the site's users have given resounding support to one answer: plastic clamshell packaging. "Design should help solve problems" — clamshells are supposed to make it harder to steal small products and easier for employees to arrange on display — but this packaging, says Anita Schillhorn, makes new ones, such as time wasted, frustration, and the little nicks and scrapes people incur as they just try to get their damn lightbulb out. The problem is so pervasive there is even a Wikipedia page devoted to "wrap rage," "the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging." Amazon and Wal-Mart are prodding more manufacturers to change their packaging to cut waste. “We’ve gotten e-mails from customers who’ve purchased scissors in a clamshell, which would require another pair of scissors to open the package,” says Nadia Shouraboura, Amazon’s vice president of global fulfillment. Other worthy answers to the Quora question include the interfaces on most microwaves, TV remotes, New York City's parking signs, and pull-handles on push-only doors, but none gained even close to the level of popular repudiation that clamshells received."

Submission + - House Appropriators want to limit public availability of pending bills (washingtonexaminer.com)

Submitted by Attila Dimedici
Attila Dimedici writes: The House Appropriations Committee is considering a draft report that would forbid the Library of Congress to allow bulk downloads of bills pending before Congress. The Library of Congress currently has an online database called THOMAS (for Thomas Jefferson) that allows people to look up bills pending before Congress. The problem is that THOMAS is somewhat clunky and it is difficult to extract data from it. This draft report would forbid the Library of Congress from modernizing THOMAS until a task force reports back. I am sorry that I cannot write a better summary of these articles, but I think this is an important issue about improving the ability of people to understand what Congress is doing. I am pretty sure that the majority of people on slashdot agree that being able to better understand how the various bills being considered by Congress interact would be good for this country.
NASA

Submission + - Andromeda on collision course with the Milky Way (nature.com) 1

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: From the Nature story: The Andromeda galaxy will collide with the Milky Way about 4 billion years from now, astronomers announced today. Although the Sun and other stars will remain intact, the titanic tumult is likely to shove the Solar System to the outskirts of the merged galaxies.

Researchers came to that conclusion after using the Hubble Space Telescope between 2002 and 2010 to painstakingly track the motion of Andromeda as it inched along the sky. Andromeda, roughly 770,000 parsecs (2.5 million light years) away, is the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way.
Microsoft

Submission + - More Reasons Why Windows Users Will Hate Windows 8 (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by
Julie188
Julie188 writes: "Microsoft has a problem with Windows 8. After playing with the near final version released today, Business Insider editor Matt Rosoff decided that Microsoft must have been on drugs or something. "Unlike the iPad (and iPhone), which were immediately intuitive, Metro is not. A lot of the apps themselves are excellent, but as soon as you get out of the apps and into the "chrome" — the interface of the actual operating system — it gets weird.""
OS X

Submission + - Humble Indie Bundle V (humblebundle.com)

Submitted by Splintercat
Splintercat writes: The Humble Indie Bundle V has just been released featuring Psychonauts, LIMBO, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, and Bastion for Windows, OSX and Linux.
Ubuntu software center support has also been added as a method of downloading.
Google

Submission + - Judge rules API's can not be copyrighted (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Asmodae
Asmodae writes: Judge Alsup in the Google vs Oracle case has finally issued his ruling on the issue of whether or not API's can be copyrighted. That ruling is resounding no. In some fairly clear language the judge says:"a utilitarian and functional set of symbols, each to carry out a pre-assigned function... Duplication of the command structure is necessary for interoperability."

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