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Piracy

Submission + - How RapidShare Plans To Avoid MegaUpload's Fate (readwrite.com)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "On November 27, RapidShare will start putting a tight cap on outbound downloads for its free users. Paid members will still have 30 gigabytes in outbound downloads per day, but everybody else will be capped at one gigabyte. The change is expected to further deter pirates from using RapidShare to distribute copyright material on a large scale."
Google

Submission + - Google after antitrust: The good, the bad, and the ugly (cnet.com)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "Google has had regulatory run-ins before. It overpowered objections and acquired DoubleClick, AdMob, and ITA, but it knuckled under when the U.S. Justice Department threatened to sue over a Google-Yahoo search-ad deal.

But unlike the earlier antitrust fights, today's investigations are aimed at Google's heart: search and search advertising. After more than a year of investigation in both the EU and the United States, it appears regulators are ready to make a move, and most expect action by the end of the year. FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz is pushing Google to make a settlement offer "in the next few days" or face a lawsuit, Bloomberg reported last week."
Medicine

Submission + - Nanoparticles Stop Multiple Sclerosis In Mice (medicalnewstoday.com)

Submitted by HangingChad
HangingChad writes: Scientists have used nanoparticles covered in proteins to trick the immune system to stop attacking myelin and halt the progression of multiple sclerosis in mice.

The nanoparticles, about 200 times thinner than a human hair, are made from the same material as dissolving stitches. Scientists compare the process an immune system "reboot". The process keeps the immune system from treating myelin as an alien invader and to stop attacking it.
Space

Submission + - Ariane 5 has no chance says SpaceX CEO (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Dupple
Dupple writes: "I don't say that with a sense of bravado but there's really no way for that vehicle to compete with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. If I were in the position of Ariane, I would really push for an Ariane 6."

Ariane's future will be a key topic this week for European Space Agency (Esa) member states.

They are meeting in Naples to determine the scope and funding of the organisation's projects in the next few years, and the status of their big rocket will be central to those discussions.
Crime

Submission + - Dutch police solves murder by asking for DNA from citizens (dutchnews.nl) 1

Submitted by muttoj
muttoj writes: Police in Friesland have arrested a local man in connection with the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1999.

The man was picked up following the mass dna testing of men living close to the field where Marianne Vaatstra's body was found.

According to television crime reporter Peter R de Vries, who has been central to keeping the case open, the dna match is 100%. ‘In ordinary words, you could say ‘the case is solved’', De Vries told Nos radio.

Farmer

The suspect is said to be a white, 44-year-old man from Friesland. ‘It is a farmer with his own company,’ De Vries said.

Nearly 6,600 men voluntarily gave a dna sample in a last ditch attempt to solve the murder earlier this year.

The decision to launch the dna appeal came after De Vries in May broadcast information about a Playboy cigarette lighter found in Vaatstra's bag which contains dna traces that match the traces found on the schoolgirl's body.

Tip-offs following the broadcast showed the lighter was on sale in the local area at the time, including in the village of Zwaagwesteinde where she lived.

Police are due to give a news conference about the arrest later on Monday.

Many comments where made on /. when the police asked for DNA from citizens: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/09/06/1759257/dutch-police-ask-8000-citizens-to-provide-their-dna
Moon

Submission + - Roaming robot may explore mysterious Moon caverns (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "William 'Red' Whittaker often spends his Sundays lowering a robot into a recently blown up coal mine pit near his cattle ranch in Pennsylvania. By 2015, he hopes that his robot, or something like it, will be rappelling down a much deeper hole, on the Moon.
The hole was discovered three years ago when Japanese researchers published images from the satellite SELENE1, but spacecraft orbiting the Moon have been unable to see into its shadowy recesses. A robot might be able to “go where the Sun doesn't shine”, and send back the first-ever look beneath the Moon's skin, Whittaker told attendees at a meeting of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme in Hampton, Virginia, last week.
And Whittaker is worth taking seriously-his robots have descended into an Alaskan volcano and helped to clean up the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. There's a video of the rover with the story (unfortunately not showing it spelunking)."

Submission + - Jolla to unveil Sailfish OS on November 21st (jollatides.com)

Submitted by ryzvonusef
ryzvonusef writes: Jolla, as it has been discussed previously, is the phoenix that claims to be rising from the ashes of Nokia's MeeGo plans.

Their iteration of the MeeGo OS, known as "Sailfish OS" will be revealed, alongside an SDK, on a two-day SLUSH event in Helsinki.

This is to hoping that the umpteenth raising of this rocky platform will prove fruitful. Will you be interested in buying and developing for it?
Nintendo

Submission + - Nintendo's WiiU console susceptible to old Wii Homebrew Hacks (youtube.com)

Submitted by
EGSonikku
EGSonikku writes: "While not a hack of the WiiU directly, it is possible to use original Wii homebrew on the WiiU by booting into "Wii Mode" and using Comex's "Stack Smash" exploit. It is surprising that Nintendo didn't patch this "ancient" exploit, but WiiU owners may appreciate being able to use all their old homebrew and emulators on their new WiiU console."
Government

Submission + - How Airport Security Is Killing Us (businessweek.com)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: This week marks the beginning of the busiest travel time of the year. For millions of Americans, the misery of holiday travel is made considerably worse by a government agency ostensibly designed to make our journeys more secure. Created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Transportation Security Administration has largely outlived its usefulness, as the threat of a terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland continues to recede. These days, the TSA’s major role appears to be to make plane trips more unpleasant. And by doing so, it’s encouraging people to take the considerably more dangerous option of traveling by road.

According to one estimate of direct and indirect costs borne by the U.S. as a result of 9/11, the New York Times suggested the attacks themselves caused $55 billion in “toll and physical damage,” while the economic impact was $123 billion. But costs related to increased homeland security and counterterrorism spending, as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, totaled $3,105 billion. Mueller and Stewart estimate that government spending on homeland security over the 2002-11 period accounted for around $580 billion of that total.

If Americans really care about saving lives this Thanksgiving travel season, for goodness’ sake, don’t beef up airport security any further. Slashing the TSA will ensure that more people live to spend future holidays with loved ones.
Businesses

Submission + - Unresolved Issues Swirl Around Securing Mobile Payments (banktech.com)

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: "While many mobile payments startups are using both traditional and nontraditional authentication methods, regulatory uncertainty still exists around liability for fraud attacks on customers using mobile payments. Although there haven't been any public attacks from fraudsters on alternative mobile payments providers such as Square, LevelUp or Dwolla, anecdotal stories are already circulating among security experts and regulators of such attacks. One thing that still has to be worked out in this area is regulatory oversight. "The regulators are not yet clear who owns the regulatory oversight for these environments. These technologies tend to fall through the cracks even in terms of card-present or card-not-present.""

Submission + - On the road, mobile communications and power station

Submitted by loggiew
loggiew writes: I am going on the road for a while with a popup camper and I can't bear to live without the net. Power is a huge issue. I'm IT. Just like you, I cannot live without. I've decided to start with a Raspberry Pi. I've been looking at the modules for interconnecting arduinos and additional modules like a cell radio.

http://www.cooking-hacks.com/index.php/gprs-sim900-shield-for-raspberry-pi.html

With that and the 720p developer glasses below for $300, I'm estimating I can get the power consumption for my PC work down bellow 10 watts with a full home theater.
http://www.oculusvr.com/
Or this:
http://store.sony.com/p/Wearable-HDTV/en/p/HMZT1

With solar panel prices through the floor and computer power consumption at an all time low, I'm planning to install ipfire and asterisk on this device. Full VoIP, routing, cell access, and the ability to cluster arduino/PI combo's for very low power means I should have all the computing power I need. What would you do with it? 3g/4g/satalite options available and a remote server available, what crazy ideas can we do to trick out my truck?
Music

Submission + - Best way to know which online Intnl Music Stores are legit?

Submitted by
rjnagle
rjnagle writes: "I'm an American lover of music who is interested in buying legally music from other countries. How do I know which CD/online music stores are legit and actually benefit the artist? I'm very cost-conscious and prefer indie music anyway, so the types of international music for sale on Amazon/itunes tends to be from the bigger labels. Suppose I wanted to buy music from Pakistan/Ukraine/China/Brazil/Chad. What's the best way to identify which labels or online stories are authorized to sell them? Perhaps all I need is a list of the best known online music stores for each region (Yesasia.com, etc)."
Ubuntu

Submission + - Netflix Desktop Application for Gnu-Linux. (iheartubuntu.com)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: An app for Netflix-Desktop that is much cleaner and easier to install was released today. It is built for Ubuntu, but per the comments some .RPM builds are being worked on. The app runs well, looks native, and plays Netflix video nicely. Trust me, after building WINE via git 5 times to get the manual method method of Netflix running on LInux, the app is a godsend. Hop over and check it out. Hopefully it's the start of a great thing for us Linux users.

Submission + - A better brain powered computer cursor (stanford.edu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Stanford Researchers have developed a new algorithm that significantly improves the control and performance of neural prosthetics: brain-controlled computer interfaces for individuals suffering from spinal cord injury and neurodegenerative disease to aid interaction with computers, drive electronic wheelchairs, and control robotic arms and legs. With this algorithm, monkeys implanted with multielectrode arrays in motor regions of their brain controlled a computer cursor more quickly and accurately than ever before, including navigation around obstacles. Further, the system maintained this high performance across 4 years, demonstrating long-term reliability. These improvements in performance and robustness are crucial for clinically-useful neural prosthetics, and pave the way for success in clinical trails.
Software

Submission + - Best Strategy to Start Development Career Without Degree

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hey slashdotters, first time poster here, hope I'm following protocols. I'm looking to change careers and go into software development. I have the equivalent of about a first year CS education — understanding of OOP, understanding of algorithm design and analysis, ability to code up non-trivial programs (mostly in Python), etc. However, I don't have a degree. I have enough cash set aside to where I can spend about another year honing my skills, but I will need to be making a liveable income after that. I'm located in a major metropolitan area. I was thinking about using the year to familiarize myself with programming libraries, picking up a few more languages, learning some front-end/design principles and methods, involving myself with a number of open source projects, and picking up a little bit of work from friends/contacts. Would anyone care to critique that strategy or maybe add some specifics to it?
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Coffee and Intellectual Property (allafrica.com)

Submitted by cervesaebraciator
cervesaebraciator writes: A "Coffee Branding Workshop," sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), was held recently in Arusha City wherein the Director General of the Tanzania Coffee Board presented a paper entitled "Supporting the Coffee Sector with added Value Products Through Intellectual Property and Branding." The paper encouraged the use of intellectual property claims, including trademarks, copyrights, patents, and designs, as sources of income which can be used to support agriculture in Africa. The Director General claimed, "[Intellectual property rights] are the basis for today's knowledge based economy and international competitiveness". This is no doubt related to a broader effort to advance western style intellectual property in Africa through claims of the benefits it offers agriculture. Promoting western style intellectual property law as a means of third world development is a popular strategy for WIPO, the only branch of the UN to have significant wealth deriving from contributions independent of Member States. On a related note of interest to Slashdotters, there is a history of tension between WIPO advocates and FOSS advocates.
Piracy

Submission + - The real reason why the MPAA fears piracy (aardvark.co.nz)

Submitted by
NewtonsLaw
NewtonsLaw writes: "I'm pretty sure that everyone reading this will be aware of the movie Iron Sky.

I've been waiting for a long time to watch this movie and finally it has been uploaded to YouTube so I watched it on the weekend.

As the title credits rolled, I rushed off and pre-ordered the BluRay disk of the movie, which isn't due for release here in NZ until December 14th.

I am proof that making your wares available for free can actually promote sales — but only so long as your content is good enough (which Iron Sky certainly is). So, perhaps the reason that the MPAA fears piracy is because it lets people see just how crappy most of their material is *before* they fork over their hard earned cash.

I blogged about this in more detail today"
Android

Submission + - First dual-booting tablet can run Linux/Android (pengpod.com)

Submitted by garbagechuteflyboy
garbagechuteflyboy writes: PengPod is the first dual-booting tablet; It's able to run both Linux and Android. Pengpod is now running the latest Plasma Active which gives this powerful Linux tablet features that were previously only available to iPad and Android tablets. PengPod is currently selling Pre-orders on Indiegogo.
PengPod hoping to ship inexpensive Linux tablets with 7, 10 inch displays liliputing
Android and Linux on a dual-booting tablet Ars Technica
Meet the PengPod, a 'true Linux' tablet starting at $120 PCWorld

Submission + - Hounded By Recruiters, Codes Put Themselves Up For Auction (forbes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When Pete London posted a resume on LinkedIn in December 2009, the JavaScript specialist stumbled into a trap of sorts. Shortly after creating a profile he received a message from a recruiter at Google. Just days later, another from Mozilla. Facebook reached out the next month and over the course of the next two years, nearly every big name in tech – attempt to lure him to a new employer. He received 530 messages in all, or one every 40 hours... the only problem? Pete London didn't exist.

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