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Japan

Submission + - Pensioners to Help Clean Up Nuclear Plant (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by
mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "As noted earlier on slashdot, retirees have volunteered to help clean up the nuclear disaster site in Fukushima. http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/05/31/1527213/Senior-Citizens-Lining-Up-to-Tackle-Fukushima

Now, it is being reported that the volunteers will be put to work.

Yasuteru Yamada, a 72-year-old former anti-nuclear activist, will lead a band of pensioners to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant early next month to help clean up the site of Japan’s worst atomic disaster since World War II. Yamada, a retired Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. (5405) plant engineer, is waiting for Tokyo Electric Power Co. to allow his volunteer “Skilled Veterans Corps” to carry out preliminary inspections at the plant after the government welcomed the move.

"
Apple

Submission + - Apple releases Final Cut Pro X (apple.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday Apple released Final Cut Pro X with the tagline "Everything just changed in post." Many professional video editors agree, but not necessarily in a good way. Currently standing at 307 1-star ratings (the lowest possible rating) out of 636 reviews on the Mac App Store, some pros are calling it "the worst product launch I've ever seen from Apple or pretty much any software manufacturer." Lacking basic features from the previous version such as the ability to import projects from prior versions, collaborate with other editors, or export files to other pro software, even CNN's Fortune calls it a "debacle." Maybe Apple shouldn't have discontinued the prior version or required resellers to return their unsold inventory. Some, like Ars Technica's Chris Foresman are still holding out hope that a future revision will fix the glaring omissions, but a number of large broadcasters and post houses are already planning their migration away from FCP as a serious video editing platform.

Submission + - Network Outages and Server Downtime 1

Submitted by
popsensation
popsensation writes: "I've been a programmer and systems analyst for almost 10 years now and I've always wondered if there is a place to go to report outages and downtime? My 6 bluehost accounts across 4 servers all went down a few minutes ago and I feel like there should be a resource to report this, as well as make sure someone has notified Bluehost. I always wonder when my Cox connection goes down if there is a place I can notify (via my phone tether) as well. Does any such service exist? What do people prefer? If not tell me what this service should do and I'll start writing it."
Transportation

Is a US High-Speed Railway Economically Feasible? 1139

Posted by samzenpus from the price-of-admission dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The federal government has committed at least $8-billion (and counting) for the development of a nationwide high-speed intercity passenger railway system in almost three-dozen states. Rail advocates have long dreamed of an extensive railway grid that will provide clean, speedy, energy-efficient travel. The high-speed rail program is also expected to create thousands of desperately needed jobs, while reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil and easing gridlocked highways and congested air-space. However, this noble, ambitious, multi-year plan faces a multitude of obstacles — including costs that will no doubt escalate as the years pass by; and an American public that may be reluctant to relinquish the independence and convenience of their beloved automobiles for a train."

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: WebApp Identity and Access Controls?

Submitted by jackDuhRipper
jackDuhRipper writes: What are the recommended libs and frameworks to use for an open identity and access control management system for web apps? There are existing user-data dbs. There are new web apps to be built in short order. OpenID and OAuth seem the way to go; where to start for authentication and app-by-app access controls?
Space

SpaceX Successfully Launches Falcon 9 Rocket 190

Posted by Soulskill from the how-much-for-a-ride dept.
leetrout writes "SpaceX has successfully launched a two-stage rocket, the Falcon 9, into Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 'Liftoff came after hours of delay, sparked initially by launchpad telemetry problems, then by a sailboat that strayed into a restricted area of the launch range. The day's first countdown was aborted at virtually the last second, due to a problem with the engine parameters, but the launch software was adjusted and a second countdown went all the way to the end.'" Update: 06/04 20:16 GMT by S : Reader mrcaseyj points out Spaceflight Now's coverage, which includes a number of pictures from the launch.
Image

Oil Leak Could Be Stopped With a Nuke 799

Posted by samzenpus from the lesser-of-two-disasters dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico could be stopped with an underground nuclear blast, a Russian newspaper reports. Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily, reports that in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. The idea is simple, KP writes: 'The underground explosion moves the rock, presses on it, and, in essence, squeezes the well's channel.' It's so simple, in fact, that the Soviet Union used this method five times to deal with petrocalamities, and it only didn't work once."
The Courts

Hollywood Nervous About Kagan's Fair Use Views 239

Posted by kdawson from the fair's-fair dept.
Of the many commentaries and analyses springing up about Obama's Supreme Court nominee, this community might be most interested in one from the Hollywood Reporter. Reader Hugh Pickens notes that Hollywood may have reason to be nervous about the nomination of Elena Kagan to be the next US Supreme Court justice. "As dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009, Kagan was instrumental in beefing up the school's Berkman Center for Internet & Society by recruiting Lawrence Lessig and others who take a strongly liberal position on fair use in copyright disputes. And Kagan got an opportunity to showcase her feelings on intellectual property when the US Supreme Court asked her, as US Solicitor General, to weigh in on the big Cablevision case. 'After Cablevision announced in 2006 that it would allow subscribers to store TV programs on the cable operator's computer servers instead of on a hard-top box, Hollywood studios went nuts, predicting that the days of licensing on-demand content would be over,' writes Gardner. Kagan's brief compared remote-storage DVRs to VCRs (PDF), brought up the Sony/Betamax case, and lightly slapped Cablevision on the wrist for not making fair use a bigger issue. 'It sounds to us like Kagan would love the Court to determine when customers have a fair-use right to copy, which should cheer those on the copy-left at the EFF, and worry many in the entertainment industry.' On the minus side, Kagan has surrounded herself with entertainment industry advocates in the Justice Department."
Google

The Need For Search Neutrality 203

Posted by samzenpus from the fair-and-balanced dept.
wilsone8 writes "The New York Times includes an op-ed today arguing for Search Neutrality: 'Today, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's new Bing have become the Internet's gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to Web sites means they are now as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself. The F.C.C. needs to look beyond network neutrality and include search neutrality: the principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial and based solely on relevance.'"
Businesses

Best Open Source Business Tools? 164

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the getting-the-details-right dept.
An anonymous reader writes "My wife and I started an S Corp in 2009 mainly to provide small scale consulting services for friends with small businesses of their own (we build them websites and do odd technical jobs). Now that the year is closing I'm giving thought to our corporate tax filings which will be due March 15th. I've scoured the web for free/open source legal templates for hiring contractors, issuing W-2s, keeping shareholder minute meetings, etc, but haven't been able to find any decent sources. It seems like this should be a priority of the open source community since reducing the cost of entry into small business could drive open source development. What are the best sources of open source legal templates, tax filing software, corporate compliance templates, etc?" What experiences have others had with open sources businesses and the best way to consolidate the necessary corporate mojo into a workable model?

Submission + - Make use of a provider locked VoIP ATA (atmurray.net)

Submitted by atmurray
atmurray writes: I've done a bit of a write up on how to use Asterisk to make use of a provider locked Netgear TA612V ATA. It doesn't involve hacking the firmware or altering the ATA in any way and the concept is probably applicable to other devices. I don't believe (but I'm no lawyer!) there should be any legal concerns governing the method I suggest.
Privacy

Submission + - New Fb privacy issues: act now, photoStalk your ex

Submitted by jackDuhRipper
jackDuhRipper writes: From Kash Hill: "Two new Facebook privacy issues have made their way onto my radar. I took advantage of one glitch to stalk peruse off-limits photo albums. Though most Facebook users have been made aware of the fact that the new privacy settings default to be quite open, many have not realized that this applies to their photo albums too."

Submission + - SPAM: Homemade solar panel

Submitted by lkhwealth
lkhwealth writes: The present economic scenario and the ever-shrinking state of the global oil reserves is not good news for everyone. But on a positive note it makes us investigate for alternative energy sources that is become the solution of cutting down present and the future energy consumption, particularly in terms of fossil fuel usage like oil.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: 10 Ways to Save Energy and Water in Your Home

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Here are 10 ways that you can start to lessen your utility bills by using less energy and water. You have probably heard some of these before but they are still worth repeating:
Link to Original Source
Television

"Loud Commercial" Legislation Proposed In US Congress 636

Posted by Soulskill from the you-have-my-grandmother's-vote dept.
Hackajar writes "Have you ever caught yourself running for the volume control when a TV commercial comes on? Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has, and is submitting legislation that would require TV commercials in the US to stay at volume levels similar to the programming they are associated with. From the article: 'Right now, the government doesn't have much say in the volume of TV ads. It's been getting complaints ever since televisions began proliferating in the 1950s. But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the "apparent loudness" of commercials.'"

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