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Submission + - British Army uses laser dazzlers to save lives (wired.co.uk)

Submitted by Lanxon
Lanxon writes: A laser has become a vital weapon in the British Army's operations in Afghanistan, reports Wired. It doesn't burn its target to a cinder; in fact, its function is saving lives. The Green Laser Optical Warner, or GLOW, made by Thales is used to stop anyone approaching a checkpoint or patrol. Unusually for a weapon, the safety of the target is a key design consideration. Weighing about a kilo, GLOW is a lot chunkier than your average laser pointer, but the effective range of over three hundred metres is more than most laser pointers too.
Google

Submission + - Google & Verizon's Real Net Neutrality Proposa (blogspot.com) 3

Submitted by langelgjm
langelgjm writes: Announced this afternoon in a joint conference call held by CEOs Eric Schmidt and Ivan Seidenberg, Google and Verizon have released a joint net neutrality proposal in the form of a "suggested legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers." This comes on the heels of last week's assertion (and subsequent denial) that Google and Verizon were close to concluding talks that would permit Verizon to prioritize certain content in exchange for pay. A look at the actual text of the framework shows some positive net neutrality principles, but there is also some more curious content: "Wireless broadband" is singled out for exclusion from most of the agreement, and providers would be permitted to prioritize "additional online services... distinguishable in scope and purpose." Public Knowledge, a watchdog group based in Washington, has criticized the agreement for these provisions.

Submission + - Discovery Threatens Fan Site That It Also Promotes (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It seems that the lawyers and the marketing people at The Discovery Channel don't talk to each other much. The marketing people behind the show "The Deadliest Catch" have been supporting a fan community called DeadliestCatchTV.com for a while now. They've regularly sent the site info, free clips, previews and information about the show. On top of that, they link to it from the official site, including it in a list of "fan sites" as a part of the "Discovery Network," and even will frame the site with the show's own dashboard for those who click through. Discovery's lawyers, on the other hand have threatened to sue the site out of existence and have demanded that the owner hand over the domain name — which he is going to do, because he doesn't have the money to fight this. While there may be a trademark issue (which could be easily resolved with a free license), the lawyers are also making the ridiculous argument that posting the videos Discovery sent him to post are copyright infringement. They're also claiming that embedding the official Discovery Channel YouTube videos (which have embedding turned on) is copyright infringement. This is exactly how you turns lots of fans into people who hate your entire channel.
Networking

Submission + - Are new IETF switching, routing specs needed? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Two high-profile specifications winding their way through the IETF promise to boost data center switching and service provider routing, but advances from Cisco and Juniper Networks raise questions about how much the specs are even needed.

For switching, the IETF is working on Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL), which is intended to overcome limitations of the Spanning Tree protocol in scale and topology reconvergence. For routing, the IETF is investigating the Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP), which is designed to improve addressing and load balancing for enterprises working with multiple ISPs.

While these may seem like solutions to long overdue networking problems, they may also be redundant with capabilities already or soon to be on the market. In the case of TRILL, Ethernet switch market leader Cisco will soon be shipping FabricPath for its Nexus 7000 switch that accomplishes the same tasks TRILL is intended to address while providing many more capabilities. And Cisco, the original author of LISP, acknowledges there are other techniques available today that accomplish some of the same goals as LISP. Rival Juniper concurs, enough so that it is holding off on pledging support for LISP — as well as TRILL.

Comment For all those quibbling about lift capacity ... (Score 2, Informative) 973

by whatajoke (#33189480) Attached to: Abandon Earth Or Die, Warns Hawking
Check out Project orion
I am sure it can be made even more risk free in terms of radiation spread ( which is already very small), and it absolutely can get us to mars or launch heavy stuff for constructing O'Neil cylinders. And with a large enough space vehicle/station, asteriod belt can practically provide all the material we need for making more orion crafts.

Comment Re:Die. (Score 1) 973

by whatajoke (#33189378) Attached to: Abandon Earth Or Die, Warns Hawking

What's wrong with dying? We all do it sooner or later as individuals. Why should the race last forever?

There is his called reproduction that you seem to be unaware of. Ask any parent, and they will tell you that a part of them lives on through their children. It is very common to find mannerisms and body language being passed down from parent to child.
Linux

Submission + - Linux Stories Buried on Social Networking Sites? (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes on Computerworld that those who follow Social Networking sites have long known that sites like Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon are susceptible to external gaming. "In early 2009, new popular Linux stories would pop up every day or two on Digg. By mid-2010, Linux stories on Digg became popular only once every week or so. Why? Has everyone who once interested in Linux suddenly vanished? Have people stopped writing about Linux?" writes Vaughan-Nichols. "The only explanation I can come up with is that Linux stories are getting down-voted on a regular basis on Digg these days. Who's doing this? In whose best interest is it to make it appear that there's little interest in Linux?"
Government

Submission + - MP wants official email address kept private (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: An MP in the UK has had his official email address removed from the parliamentary website, because he's tired of getting "nuisance" emails via online campaign websites. Conservative MP Dominic Raab had his @parliamentary.uk email address removed from his official House of Commons listing after a spat with online lobby group 38 Degrees. "Just processing the emails from your website absorbs a disproportionate amount of time and effort, which we may wish to spend on higher priorities, such as helping constituents in real need or other local or Parliamentary business," he said, threatening to report the group to the government's data and privacy watchdog if they didn't remove the details from their own website. 38 Degrees says Raab gave them his personal email address during the election: "it's only since he became a member of parliament with a taxpayer funded email address that he's now said he doesn't want to hear from people," unless they're willing to shell out for a stamp to write him a letter. The lobby group said Raab likely averaged fewer than two emails from their site each day.

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