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Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Put Your Own Micro Satellite in Orbit For $8,000 (npr.org)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: For just over eight large, a California company will give you a kit and put your satellite in orbit. A professional astronomer who purchased one with the intent of making music out of the solar sensor described the kit, 'It has a power system that's basically two lithium AA batteries hooked together, a little stick of gum computer chip, a bunch of very fragile solar cells that are packed away, antenna and lots of wires. If you were expecting to see Sputnik, it's completely different.' However, it appears that whatever you could fit inside the shoebox sized "launch cylinder" could go up (no weight limits listed). The TubeSat Kit suggests many possible uses and experiments including 'Earth-from-space video imaging, Earth magnetic field measurement, Satellite orientation detection (horizon sensor, gyros, accelerometers, etc.), Orbital environment measurements (temperature, pressure, radiation, etc.), On-orbit hardware and software component testing (microprocessors, etc.), Tracking migratory animals from orbit, Testing satellite stabilization methods, Biological experiments, On-orbit advertising, Private e-mail, Space art and even Space burials.' Considering how easily some have made image satellites, there might be a lot of uses for amateur and professional alike.

Submission + - Study that 99.7% of torrents are "illegal" flawed (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by Caledfwlch
Caledfwlch writes: techdirt, and others, point to an analysis by TorrentFreak of the recent report by Internet Commerce Security Laboratory (ICSL) of Australia that only 0.3% of torrents contain legal content. One of the data points was that the movie The Incredible Hulk was the number one seeded torrent "the fact that the release is nearly two years old should have sounded some alarm bells. It appears that the researchers have pulled data from a bogus tracker, and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if all the torrents in their top 10 are actually fake.". The study had been widely picked up a couple of days ago by the media, here, at ArsTechnica, and others.

Submission + - Is Valve's Anti-Cheat software faulty? (rockpapershotgun.com)

Submitted by HaymarketRiot
HaymarketRiot writes: There have been reports that Valve's Anti-Cheat software (VAC) has recently banned a large number of Modern Warfare 2 players. A banning from VAC is especially strict in that there is no chance of appeal, as that would show a fault in supposedly perfect software. Word from the associated Steam Group indicates that the problem may be the fault of the game's developers, Infinity Ward.
Microsoft

Submission + - Will Ballmer be replaced as Microsoft CEO? (thedailybeast.com)

Submitted by Strudelkugel
Strudelkugel writes: The Beast reports unhappiness with Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft: Sources say the talk around Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters—which has grown increasingly louder ever since Apple surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization—-is that the company's stock suffers from a "Ballmer discount," and that the CEO is on the clock to significantly move the needle on its share price over the next two or three quarters or face a potential move to oust him. "Ballmer is on the list of mega-executives under pressure," says a banker who has negotiated deals for Microsoft. "If he was asked to leave the building, I suspect there would be more happy than unhappy people."
Privacy

Submission + - Facebook can infer what you're browsing on the web (arnab.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Facebook is indirectly collecting your entire browsing history for all websites that have Facebook widgets. You don’t have to click any like buttons, just visiting sites like IMDB.com or CNN.com or BritneySpears.com will enable this."

Submission + - Newspaper's New Revenue Plan: Copyright Suits (wired.com)

Submitted by SpicyBrownMustard
SpicyBrownMustard writes: Wire magazine has coverage of the sudden numerous lawsuits filed by Righthaven, LLC regarding the content of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission. And he says he’s making money."
The owner of the LVRJ comments on the strategy and the Las Vegas Sun has extensive coverage of each suit filed. The owner of one site has apparently settled for more than the site has made in six years. Media Matters suspects many if most of the suits may be politically motivated, and violates federal election law.
Power

Submission + - Size Matters - The Rise of Small Nuclear Plants (theoildrum.com)

Submitted by ColdWetDog
ColdWetDog writes: The Oil Drum (one of the best sites to discuss the technical details of the Macondo Blowout) is typically focused on ramifications of petroleum use and in particular, the Peak Oil theory. They run short guest articles from time to time on various aspects of energy use and policies and today they have an interesting article on small nuclear reactors with a refreshing amount of technical details concerning their construction, use and fueling. The author's major thesis:

Pick up almost any book about nuclear energy and you will find that the prevailing wisdom is that nuclear plants must be very large in order to be competitive. This assumption is widely accepted, but, if its roots are understood, it can be effectively challenged.

Recently, however, a growing body of plant designers, utility companies, government agencies and financial players are recognizing that smaller plants can take advantage of greater opportunities to apply lessons learned, take advantage of the engineering and tooling savings possible with higher numbers of units and better meet customer needs in terms of capacity additions and financing. The resulting systems are a welcome addition to the nuclear power plant menu, which has previously been limited to one size — extra large.

Submission + - Adobe Putting PDF Reader in Sandbox

Submitted by
Captain Eloquence
Captain Eloquence writes: "The next major version of Adobe’s PDF Reader will feature new sandboxing technology aimed at curbing a surge in malicious hacker attacks. The initial sandbox implementation will isolate all “write” calls on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003. Arkin believes this will mitigate the risk of exploits seeking to install malware on the user’s computer or otherwise change the computer’s file system or registry. In a future dot-release, the company plans to extend the sandbox to include read-only activities to protect against attackers seeking to read sensitive information on the user’s computer."
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook User Satisfaction 'Abysmal,' Survey Finds (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: While Facebook is expected to announce this week that it has grabbed its 500 millionth user, the social networking site scored a 64 on the 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index's scale of zero to 100. A rating of 64 might not sound so bad, until you consider that sites for filing tax forms electronically to the IRS scored better. Facebook and MySpace, which came in just below its rival with a rating of 63, were the two lowest-scoring sites out of all of them. The report noted that both sites showed 'abysmal performance.' The big winner in the social media Web site category was Wikipedia, which had a satisfaction rating of 77. YouTube came in second with a 73. This is the first year that ACSI rated social media sites. 'Facebook is a phenomenal success, so we were not expecting to see it score so poorly with consumers,' said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, which partnered to conduct the e-business survey. 'Our research shows that privacy concerns, frequent changes to the Web site, and commercialization and advertising adversely affect the consumer experience, he said. 'Compare that to Wikipedia, which is a nonprofit that has had the same user interface for years, and it's clear that while innovation is critical, sometimes consumers prefer evolution to revolution,' Freed said.

Comment Re:It's not the paywall that's failed (Score 1) 428

by Pelekophori (#32925026) Attached to: Murdoch's UK Paywall a Miserable Failure

We in the UK pay for the BBC willingly because it is worth the price

Don't presume to speak for all of us in the UK. You might pay for the BBC willingly, but I'd rather not if I had a choice. However I'm coerced into doing so even if I just want to watch their competitors.

The BBC's latest theory is that I am obliged to pay them a license fee if I merely watch a video on my PC which is being streamed live (by any broadcaster/website) because that is covered by the 1949 act which established the license fee. They haven't tried to enforce that one yet but they are positioning themselves to maintain their rentseeking position if/when the traditional broadcast TV audience declines even more significantly.
The Internet

Submission + - UK Regulator to Tackle Internet Net Neutrality (ispreview.co.uk)

Submitted by Mark.JUK
Mark.JUK writes: Telecoms regulator for the United Kingdom, Ofcom, has officially brought the Net Neutrality debate (a principal of treating all internet traffic as equal) to Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland by opening a new debate into the subject. Many ISPs already use Traffic Management in the UK as a means to balance the performance of their networks so that the majority of their customers are not unfairly affected by a minority of heavy users.

However some ISPs have gone further and suggested that online video sites, VoIP and even internet search engine services should be forced to pay internet providers if they want their content to be given priority. Ofcom has expressed concern at the anti-competitive behaviour of such ideas and fears that it could suppress the quality of content from popular services.

Submission + - UK Anti-Piracy Lawyers Threaten US P2P Forum 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TorrentFreak is reporting that ACS:Law is threatening to sue Slyck.com, one of the Internet’s oldest file-sharing forums, because they don’t like what members have written about them.

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