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Submission + - Breakthrough portends cure for the common cold (independent.co.uk) 1

Submitted by breadboy21
breadboy21 writes: Scientists have been able to show for the first time that the body's immune defences can destroy the common cold virus after it has actually invaded the inner sanctum of a human cell, a feat that was believed until now to be impossible.

The discovery opens the door to the development of a new class of antiviral drugs that work by enhancing this natural virus-killing machinery of the cell. Scientists believe the first clinical trials of new drugs based on the findings could begin within two to five years.
Idle

Submission + - Big Brother Barbie (forbes.com)

Submitted by nonprofiteer
nonprofiteer writes: Mattel's holiday creation is Video Girl Barbie, which comes with a hidden camera installed in Barbie's torso. The lens is disguised as a necklace. The Barbie can hold up to 30 minutes of video, and then can be hooked up to a computer for uploading. Experts are worried about pedophiles taking advantage of posted Barbie footage. I'm worried about the havoc that little girls with hidden cameras are going to wreak.
Science

Submission + - Bell Systems Technical Journals Published for Free (bell-labs.com)

Submitted by alexandre.alencar
alexandre.alencar writes: With this posting of the Bell System Technical Journal from volume 1 issue 1 in July 1922 to the final issue published in December 1983, we are pleased to be able to open the vault of this knowledge to our global technical colleagues. This is great for all geeks out there as Bell Labs was the home for many technologies out there...

Submission + - Bat mortality reduced by turbine's speed change

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: While wind energy has shown strong potential as a large-scale, emission-free energy source, bat and bird collisions at wind turbines result in thousands of fatalities annually. Migratory bats, such as the hoary bat, are especially at risk for collision with wind turbines as they fly their routes in the forested ridges of the eastern U.S. This loss not only impacts the immediate area, but is also detrimental to ecosystem health nationwide—that is, bats help with pest management, pollination and the dispersal of numerous plant seeds. Since turbine towers and non-spinning turbine blades do not kill bats, some scientists have proposed shutting off or reducing the usage of wind turbines during peak periods of migration in the late summer and early fall months when bat activity and fatalities are highest. In a study to be published online November 1, 2010 in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (e-View), a journal of the Ecological Society of America, Edward Arnett from Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas and colleagues examined the effects of changes in wind turbine speed on bat mortality during the low-wind months of late summer and early fall.

Submission + - OpenBSD 4.8 released (openbsd.org)

Submitted by Theatetus
Theatetus writes: OpenBSD 4.8 was announced today, though as of submission the man pages aren't up on the man site yet and some of the mirrors are still catching up. A lot of ACPI work with suspend/resume now apparently supported for most network interfaces, some work on tmux (a native GNU screen-like capability). Still no USB installer, so my netbook will have to wait, but congrats to Theo for another ahead-of-schedule delivery.
Google

Submission + - Google offers more enterprise controls for Android (blogspot.com)

Submitted by BcNexus
BcNexus writes: It seems that Google is trying to get Android powered mobile devices into the corporate workplace, but not the way some might expect. While MS offers device encryption, remote wipe and password policies through their Exchange Active Sync protocol, Google hasn't licensed the technology. Instead, Google has announced that they're now offering similar controls through Google Apps. A Google Apps domain administrator can enable mobile policies such as "Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices", "Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity", "Require a device password on each phone", "Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords", and "Require passwords to include letters and numbers".
However, end-users have to install the Google Apps Device Policy application before their administrator can enforce polices. There doesn't seem to be a policy for device and storage card encryption in the list of policies.
Google

Submission + - Google offers bounty to Web bug hunters (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Following up on a successful bug bounty program that pays hackers for finding security flaws in its Chrome browser, Google now says that it will pay cash for security bugs reported on its websites.

Google calls the program "experimental," but says it gives security researchers new incentives to report Web flaws directly to Google's security team. "As well as enabling us to thank regular contributors in a new way, we hope our new program will attract new researchers and the types of reports that help make our users safer," Google said Monday in a blog posting announcing the program.http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2010/11/rewarding-web-application-security.html

The idea is to give Google a chance to fix the vulnerabilities before the bad guys get their hands on them. So, in order to qualify, security researchers must privately disclose new flaws to Google first before they go public with their research. In return, the hackers qualify for cash rewards of between US$500 and $3,133.70, depending on the severity of the flaw. Google has already paid out about 50 such rewards for Chrome bugs since launching a similar program last January. Google doesn't pay out for bugs in all of its products, however. There are no bounties for finding flaws in Android, Picasa or Google Desktop, for example.

Submission + - Crticial Bug in MySQL Leaves Users Angry (mysql.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The current production version of MySQL (5.1.52) has a problem with cascade deletes and updates, things that help maintain database referential integrity.

However, while the problem was quickly identified and fixed almost immediately, it's been nearly a month and the release still hasn't even made it to the labs.

Bottom line: MySQL is seriously broken, and user comments in the bug forum are starting to get fairly colorful and upset with the way Oracle is running things.
Government

Submission + - How Technology Gets the News Out of North Korea (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Kim Dong-cheol is a North Korean with 'a double life', writes the IDG News Service's Martyn Williams in a story on ITworld. 'In addition to his job as a driver for a company, Kim also works as a clandestine reporter for AsiaPress, a Japanese news agency that's taken advantage of the digital electronics revolution to get reports from inside North Korea,' says Williams. 'When we started training journalists in 2003 or 2004, getting cameras into North Korea was a real problem,' said Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor of the news agency, at a Tokyo news conference on Monday. 'Nowadays, within North Korea you are able to have your pick of Sony, Panasonic or Samsung cameras.' And the images they're capturing are 'often startling and documents a side of the country the government doesn't want the world to see,' says Williams.
Open Source

Submission + - London Stock Exchange postpones Linux launch (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by DMandPenfold
DMandPenfold writes: The London Stock Exchange has postponed the launch of its Linux-based IT system for cash markets, after a third live test was completed with customers over the weekend.

The Millennium Exchange system – built in a C++ environment around Linux, linked into Oracle databases – had been due to be switched on today. It is now expected to go live on...

Comment Re:Urine? (Score 1) 322

by NBolander (#33558896) Attached to: Is DIY Algae Farming the Future?
From the same wikipedia article:
The safe reduction of human waste into compost is possible. Many municipalities create compost from the sewage system biosolids, but then recommend that it only be used on flower beds, not vegetable gardens. Some claims have been made that this is dangerous or inappropriate without the expensive removal of heavy metals. There are other simple yet effective ways to process the compost into safe and usable material. One method that has been successful is known as "humanure" where the material is composted with kitchen refuse and high-carbon materials, such as yard waste, heated through biological activity (fermentation), and kept for an optimal period of time, whereby the pathogens are destroyed. Many people in the United States and other countries have been practicing this method for over ten years now without any negative consequences

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