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Feed Brain Machine legally induces mind trip (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We know, returning to work after an all-too-short long weekend leaves you just wanting more time off, but rather than skimming through those pictures you snapped and refusing to get back in the groove, why not force your brain to meditate and release those negative vibes? In an admittedly bizarre how-to guide, the folks over at MAKE have detailed Mitch Altman's Brain Machine, which reportedly enables you to slip into deep thought, sleep, or peaceful nirvana by syncing up your brain waves with pulsing lights and sounds. Odd as it may sound, the homegrown trip inducer purportedly utilizes an SLM (Sound and Light Machine) to "phase in new brain states by switching frequencies back and forth." Of course, we're still a bit hesitant to put our retinas at risk in order to legally experience hallucinations, but be sure to hit the read link for the step-by-step guide, and tap the via if you're interested in catching a video before subjecting yourself. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via MAKE]

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Patents

Submission + - Microsoft will not sue over Linux patents

Submitted by San Muel
San Muel writes: In an official statement, Microsoft has said it has no immediate plans to sue after alleging patent infringements by open-source vendors for the time being.

"If we wanted to go down that road we could have done that three years ago," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "Rather than litigate, Microsoft has spent the last three years building an intellectual property bridge that works for all parties — including open source — and the customer response has been tremendously positive. Our focus is on continuing to build bridges."
Editorial

Submission + - Scientology harrassment attempt backfired badly

Submitted by BertDeJong
BertDeJong writes: Making a critical documentary about the cult of Scientology wasn't made easy for BBC Panorama's investigating journalist John Sweeney, as he was being follow-up, harrassed, and intimidated for days by one "Tommy" (wearing sunglasses and a black suit) of Scientology during his investigation. Sweeney lost it after a couple of days, and explained "Tommy" where they were at. Scientology taped the event, and decided it would be good message to enemies of Scientology so they put it on Youtube. But this badly backfired when Panorama viewing rates went through the roof in Britain. Scientology are now considering legal steps.
Software

Submission + - Ways People Screw Up AJAX

Submitted by
foo
foo writes: "People are aware of the good that technologies such as AJAX have added to sites such as gmail, digg, and slashdot. The negative aspects and implementations of AJAX have mostly avoided by the media and are rarely spoken. CGISecurity has published a top 5 list of problems which can be encountered by implementing AJAX improperly."
OS X

Submission + - "It's not as intuitive as Vista, is it"

Submitted by
Jehoshaphat
Jehoshaphat writes: "I bought my wife a shiny new Macbook yesterday. It's our first Mac, we've had pc's for years, and our main pc runs Vista. As she unpacks it, I'm rather excited at the brownie points I will earn for getting her such a "cool" machine, and I'm looking forward to her raving about an OS instead of cursing it.

Having set it all up, I leave her for 20 minutes to have a play, certain that I will return to oohs and aahs of delight. Instead, on my return I am greeted by a concentrated frown on her face as she searches for a right-click button on the touchpad and tries to get a window to maximise to the entire screen. "It's not as intuitive as Vista, is it?", she quips...

So, SlashDot, does MacOS truly have a monopoly on intuitivism, or is it merely down to clever marketing and 25 years of conditioning?"
Software

Submission + - Registry for *nix?

Submitted by
hellsDisciple
hellsDisciple writes: "The registry is often touted as being the source of many of Windows' faults. But the horrid messy binary blob does unify configurations of many system services and paves the way for Group Policy and AD to control a lot of the machine's behaviour. With Samba's recent push to emulate AD fully for Windows and LDAP being suggested as the basis of a central management system, is it not time to get applications like Apache and Samba into shape for unified control? Should a standard config file syntax be agreed on and where should the data be stored? A push towards an "open registry" in *nix would make remote management really a snap."
Movies

Submission + - Revolution OS -the award winning documentary

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This article calls Revolution OS the finest documentaries created which traces the path taken by GNU, Free Software, Open Source and Linux. The whole documentary all of 1 hour and 10 minutes long consists of bits and pieces of conversation with various leaders of the community which of course includes Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond, Richard M Stallman, Bruce Perens and many others.

In the documentary, Linus Torvalds calls RMS the great philosopher of the movement and himself the engineer.

The documentary produced by J.T.S Moore also shows snippets of publicity the movement received in the main stream media such as in CNBC and The New York Times. Some prominent people from Slashdot also make their appearances in the documentary. The article goads you to watch and enjoy it and as a follow up buy the DVD to support the cause.
Announcements

Submission + - 'Kryptonite' Discovered in Serbian Mine

Submitted by Rubinstien
Rubinstien writes: A mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum was contracted to help identify an unknown mineral found in a Serbian mine. After its crystal structure was analyzed and identified, the researcher was shocked to find the material already referenced in literature. Says Dr. Chris Stanley, "Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns." "I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either — although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," he told BBC News. More details can be found in the BBC News article.
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: Things Computers Can Do in Movies

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1. Word processors never display a cursor.
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3. Movie characters never make typing mistakes.
4. All monitors display inch-high letters.
5. High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA or some such governmental institution, will have easy to understand graphical interfaces.
Security

Submission + - How a fleece jacket hacked airport security

Submitted by
rabblerouzer
rabblerouzer writes: "According to its own website the Transportation Security Administration "will continuously set the standard for excellence in transportation security through its people, processes, and technology." On my recent trip to Denver I was frankly alarmed at the number of vulnerabilities in airport security that I witnessed. And what happened because of a fleece jacket."
Privacy

Submission + - Forced RFID Implantation Illegal in North Dakota

Submitted by
JeremyDuffy
JeremyDuffy writes: "From the "don't forget we're people, not products" department, North Dakota is the second state to ban forced RFID implantation. However, even if this is a step in the right direction, does it do enough? It doesn't ban voluntary implantation and last I checked a lot of things that aren't really "voluntary" are treated such under law. Here's a quote from the article of someone who agrees with me:

But Michael Shamos, a professor who specializes in security issues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, believes the law is too vague to do much good. For instance, it only addresses situations where a chip is injected, even though RFID tags can also be swallowed. And it doesn't clearly define what a forced implant really is; someone could make chipping a requirement for a financial reward.

"Suppose I offer to pay you $10,000 if you have an RFID [chip] implanted?" he asked. "Is that 'requiring' if it's totally voluntary on your part?"
It's a poor example, but the right idea. Instead, what if you are offered a high paying job and move your family to a new state, get settled and begin the orientation process for your new job. You find out that they require RFID implants for "security" (which has been proven to weaken security" ). How much free will do you have in this instance? Can you really afford not to take the job now? You'd have to have an almost religious mentality to refuse it at this point.

Another example, perhaps not so drastic. Companies push and push and finally get most everyone to use RFID implants as identification and method of payment. Because you're smart enough to know what a bad thing this is, you refuse, but find yourself inconvenienced everywhere. You can only shop at certain stores that still have non-RFID checkout. You pay an extra "cash handling" fee for not using the new methods. You have to drive 20 miles away to the only gas station around that's equiped to take non-RFID transactions.

Is it still a choice?

Note that both Spychips.com and Privacy.org are carrying this story and that Spychips lists Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Florida as more states with anti-implantation bills in the works. The first state to pass such a bill was Wisconsin (note the same flaw as the ND bill).

Before someone leaves a comment saying "well, you complain, but don't offer solutions!", here's the wording I would add to each of these bills:

"Futher, any company who offers RFID based services must also accept non-implanted RFID for those same services (ie, a RFID enabled card or token). Any company who offers incentive plans or otherwise implements hurdles, difficulties, or hardships for customers who chose not to use implanted RFID will be in violation of this law and subject to fines, per day per offense.

Any company who provides chip implantation services must make their customers aware of this law and have them sign a disclaimer before implantation. Should such a company be found to have misrepresented the law, minimized the law, or made it appear as if implantation were artificially superior in order to influence the customer to proceed with the implantation, that company shall be liable for the full cost of removing the chips at their expense and may additionally be fined or decertified."

There. That's a good start.

(Originally posted at http://www.jeremyduffy.com/forced-rfid-implantatio n-illegal-in-north-dakota/)"
Music

Submission + - Vinyl sales up 10%

Submitted by
orgelspieler
orgelspieler writes: "NPR's Morning Edition ran a story this morning about how USB turntables are giving vinyl records a new lease on life. According to the summary, "audiophiles are drawn to records because there aren't any anti-piracy restrictions." The story goes on to talk about USB turntables being used to transfer older music collections into the digital era, leading to an increase in used vinyl sales. Most interestingly, sales of new vinyl albums are up about 10%. While the volume is still low (about 1 million units), it seems to punch a hole in the recording industry's theory that digitization leads to reduced sales due to piracy."

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