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Submission + - Senator Leahy newest IT legislation (thehill.com)

Submitted by CapitalOrange
CapitalOrange writes: Senator Leahy, of PIPA fame, is pushing one new bill and may be involved with a second. The first new tech bill is dealing with data breach legislation. Data breach, much like piracy is an important topic. Consumers deserve to know what information has been leaked about them. However as almost all the political blogs (and tech blogs have said) when one road closes for politicians, they often try to backdoor their message into other legislation, through a concept called riders. Riders equivalent in the IT world is the annoying animated gif in an email signature. They often serve no purpose, increase the bloat and are often used to introduce unpopular legislation into popular bills. Hollywoods bought and paid for senators and congressman are going to try to try to get SOPA/PIPA through congress another means and its up to the IT world to make sure they don't sneak it by on our watch.

Also he is working to create our next cyber security bill, which is a great chance for him to slip in SOPA related laws. The idea that someone with such a fundamental lack of understanding of the internet is going to write anything Cyber related is quite scary.

The bottom line, don't rely on the net coalition or the EFF to do this job by themselves. We need to stay vigilante in reviewing the proposals coming out of congress, because if we don't no one else will.
Idle

Submission + - State Bill Outlaws Use Of Fetuses In Food Industry (npr.org)

Submitted by
pburghdoom
pburghdoom writes: "I stumbled across this crazy story on NPR about a new bill introduced in the Oklahoma Legislature where they are hoping to prohibit "the manufacture or sale of food or products which use aborted human fetuses." The bill has been introduced by State Senator Ralph Shortly.

I dont know about you but I will not give up my aborted fetus poofs."
Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla Offers Alternative to OpenID (net-security.org)

Submitted by
Orome1
Orome1 writes: "Mozilla has been working for a while now on a new browser-based system for identifying and authenticating users it calls BrowserID, but its only this month that all of its sites have finally been outfitted with the technology. Mozilla aims for BrowserID to become a more secure alternative to OpenID, the decentralized authentication system offered to users of popular sites such as Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, MySpace and others."

Submission + - Massive sunspot headed towards earth. (adorraeli.com)

Submitted by parallel_prankster
parallel_prankster writes: NY Times reports that a huge sunspot unleashed a blob of charged plasma Thursday that space weather watchers predict will blast past the Earth on Sunday. Satellite operators and power companies are keeping a close eye on the incoming cloud, which could distort the Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt radio communications, especially at higher latitudes. The huge blob of charged gas spotted by NASA satellites is speeding toward Earth at more than 2 million mph. The most damaging solar discharges, which are very rare, can zoom at speeds more than twice that fast. A better link with some animation is available here
Software

Submission + - Apple restricts iBooks Author works to own devices (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Any author deciding to write their next book in the new iBooks Author is in for quite a shock. When it comes time to publish that book Apple points out you can't sell the book anywhere else without its permission. This is noted at the time of publication, but also in the EULA.

Needless to say the content probably belongs to you under law, but the creation of said work, and the format it takes in iBooks Author remains the property of Apple. Try and sell it in that format elsewhere and Apple will block it. Sell it on iBookstore and Apple will take a cut.
Hardware

Submission + - NTT wireless module transfers data at 15 Gbps (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NTT has developed a prototype milliwave transceiver module capable of transferring data at up to 15Gbps, that’s 25x faster than TransferJet. The final module is promised to be small enough to fit inside a portable device like a tablet and has a range of 50 cm, meaning transfer of music and video is only going to take seconds rather than minutes.

In order to achieve the 15Gbps transfer speed, NTT utilized all four communication channels available on the 60GHz band. It is therefore capable of using one or more channels, with the slowest speed being a still impressive 3.8Gbps.

Submission + - A Data Center That Looks Like A Mansion (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: A luxury homebuilder in Minnesota wants to build a data center that looks like a mansion, allowing the commercial building to fit into a residential neighborhood. The "community-based data center" designed for FiberPop features a stone facade and sloped roof with dormers, along with an underground data hall. Data centers are typically located in industrial areas in nondescript buildings providing anonymity and structural integrity. Can they work in residential areas?
Cloud

Submission + - What happens to your files when a cloud service sh (extremetech.com) 2

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "Megaupload's shutdown poses an interesting question: What happens to all the files that were stored on the servers? XDA-Developers, for example, has more than 200,000 links to Megaupload — and this morning, they're all broken, with very little hope of them returning. What happens if a similar service, like Dropbox, gets shut down — either through bankruptcy, or federal take-down? Will you be given a chance to download your files, or helped to migrate them to another similar service? What about data stored on enterprise services like Azure or AWS — are they more safe?"
Movies

Submission + - Why can't filmmakers distribute their stuff online (vornaskotti.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Why can't filmmakers just put their movies online, bypass distributors and rake in money through Paypal or other online method? The problem is the rather byzantine structure of film financing, where the traditional distributors are an essential part of film funding. It's facts like this that make discussing online distribution hard: whereas the industry is clueless about the internet, the other side of the issue is clueless about how different media industries work.

Submission + - MPAA Accuses Anonymous of Being Against Free Speec (theinquirer.net)

Submitted by ForgedArtificer
ForgedArtificer writes: In a laughable twist of irony, the MPAA has condemned the recent website attacks by Anonymous, in response to the MegaUpload takedown, as being against free speech.

Particularly humorous comments include "Unfortunately, some groups believe that speech or ideas that they disagree with should be silenced." and "The motion picture and television industry has always been a strong supporter of free speech. We strongly condemn any attempts to silence any groups or individuals."

I guess they don't actually know what SOPA and PIPA are all about?
Businesses

Submission + - Dell execs in massive insider trading probe (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by DMandPenfold
DMandPenfold writes: Two former Dell employees, including a former investor relations manager, were part of a $62 million record-breaking insider trading scam, involving the company's shares as well as Nvidia stock, according to the FBI.

The news comes as the US authorities step up their pursuit of inside traders. Two months ago, Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in jail for his role in a scam involving AMD, IBM and 3Com stock.

Yesterday, Sandeep Goyal, an employee at Dell's US headquarters between 2006 and 2007 before becoming a financial analyst, was arrested. An unnamed co-conspirator in Dell's investor relations department from 2007 to 2009 is also alleged to have been part of the scam. The co-conspirator has not been arrested, it is understood.

Goyal allegedly made $175,000 by providing inside information about Dell to a hedge fund. He has pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud.

Jesse Tortura, a former analyst at Diamondback, and Spyridon Adondakis, formerly at Level Global, have also pleaded guilty.

Seven men in total are allegedly implicated in the scam, including Todd Newman, a senior manager with the Diamondback Capital Management hedge fund, and Anthony Chiasson, a co-founder at Level Global investors. Newman oversaw IT stock investments at Diamondback. Chiasson's Level firm principally trades in IT and finance shares. Both were arrested yesterday.

Jon Horvath, an employee at hedge fund Sigma Capital Management, and Danny Kuo of Whittier Trust, were also allegedly part of the scam. Both hedge funds trade in a range of share types.

All seven were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, relating to profits made from trading Dell and Nvidia stock in 2008 and 2009.

Authorities even produced an email from Kuo to Adondakis, Tortura and Horvath, in which he openly states that he is providing insider information.

In one instance of profit from the scam, Level Global allegedly made $57 million from a tip ahead of Dell's results – which authorities branded as the largest single profit ever from inside information.

Dell said in a statement that it "has cooperated with government authorities". It added: "All Dell employees are required annually to complete training on the company's Code of Conduct, which includes a section on insider trading. Violations of these policies are treated seriously, and violations result in disciplinary action up to and including termination."

FBI assistant director Janice Fedarcyk said: "The FBI has arrested more than 60 people in 'Operation Perfect Hedge' [the hedge fund insider trading probe] to date, and this initiative is far from over.

"If you are engaged in insider trading, what distinguishes you from the dozens who have been charged is not that you haven't been caught; it's that you haven't been caught yet."

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