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Comment Re:They're not trolls (Score 1) 107

by Andhesaidtome (#44741993) Attached to: Taking the Battle Against Patent Trolls To the Public
The key part of that quote for me is "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Looks like the broken part of the system is allowing rights holders to sell their rights to another who acts as Author or Inventor, rather than simply licensing the use of the tech.

Submission + - Groklaw Closes Over Email Security Fears (techweekeurope.co.uk) 3

Submitted by judgecorp
judgecorp writes: Groklaw, the blog that covered patent law for the open source community has closed over fears of email interception by the US government. Pamela Jones, who has won awards from the Electronic Frontier Federation and others for Groklaw, says, for her "the Internet is over". The site relies on private email communication, which she says is now impossible

Comment Re:It's not just the Javascript either... (Score 1) 318

by Andhesaidtome (#43856489) Attached to: Taking Action For Free JavaScript

What about all the non-free images and text taking away your rights?

Wake up people!111

What about all the non-free avenues they suggest you promote this through....how many youtwitfaces are non-free.

To amplify the effect of your action, post about it on your microblogging system or social network. Use the hashtag #freejs and link to this blog post.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - The Use of truth serum to confirm insanity (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by xclr8r
xclr8r writes: James Holmes representation did not enter a plea today in with regards to the Aurora, Co. Movie theatre shooting so the Judge entered a plea of not guilty for James that could be changed at a later date by Holmes' attorney. The judge entered an advisory that if the plea was changed to Not Guilty by insanity that Holmes would be subject to a "narcoanalytic interview" with the possibility of medically appropriate substances could be used e.g. so called truth serums. Holmes defense looks to have initially objected to this but as the previous article seems to infer that some compromises are being worked out. This certainly raises legal questions on how this is being played out 5th, 14th amendments. The legal expert in the second article states this is legal under Co. law but admits there's not a huge amount of cases regarding this. I was only able to find Harper v State where a defendant willingly underwent truth serum and wanted to submit the interview on his behalf but was rejected due to the judge not recognizing sufficient scientific basis to admit the evidence.

Submission + - Defcad.com Wants To Be The Google Of 3D-Printable Guns (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: For the last six months, Cody Wilson and his non-profit group Defense Distributed have worked towards a controversial goal: To make as many firearm components as possible into 3D-printable, downloadable files. Now they’re seeking to make those files searchable, too–and to make a profit while they’re at it.

In a talk at the South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas Monday afternoon, Wilson announced a new, for-profit spinoff of his gun-printing project that will serve as both a repository and search engine for CAD files, including the ones designed to let anyone build a deadly firearm in their garage. Though the search engine will index all types of files, Wilson says he hopes the group's reputation for hosting politically incendiary content will mean users trust that it won't censor search results. "When we say you should have access to these files, people believe we mean that,” says Wilson. “No takedowns. No removals. We’d fight everything to the full extent of the law.”

Along with the SXSW announcement, Wilson also released a provocative video where he lays out the plan for Defcad.com and criticizes gun control advocates and "collusive" 3D printing companies like Makerbot.
Space

Submission + - Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments (technologyreview.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On 29 December 2012, a fireball lit up the early evening skies over the Sri Lankan province of Polonnaruwa. Hot, sparkling fragments of the fireball rained down across the countryside and witnesses reported the strong odour of tar or asphalt.

Over the next few days, the local police gathered numerous examples of these stones and sent them to the Sri Lankan Medical Research Institute of the Ministry of Health in Colombo. After noticing curious features inside these stones, officials forwarded the samples to a team of astrobiologists at Cardiff University in the UK for further analysis.

The results of these tests, which the Cardiff team reveal today, are extraordinary. They say the stones contain fossilised biological structures fused into the rock matrix and that their tests clearly rule out the possibility of terrestrial contamination.
The Internet

Submission + - Pirate bay advertisment (geek.com)

Submitted by masterhob
masterhob writes: "Perhaps the biggest technological advancement an old advertising staple, the billboard, has made is that LED and LCD units can change ads on a timer. Even though this doesn’t seem like the most futuristic advancement, it allows billboards to be tampered with in such a way that isn’t simply spray painting some graffiti over the ad. Case in point, an electronic billboard in Serbia was hacked to display The Pirate Bay logo.

The billboard was located in a prominent location, Republic Square in the center of Belgrade, which is not only Serbia’s capital, but also the country’s largest city. The hacked billboard displayed The Pirate Bay logo alongside Ghandi’s quote, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Science

Submission + - Oatmeal's Inman Surprises Paleofuture's Novak at SxSW Tesla v. Edison Talk (t.co)

Submitted by
MatthewVD
MatthewVD writes: "Paleofuture blogger Matt Novak’s South by Southwest talk on the Edison versus Tesla debate and myth of the lone inventor went electric when web comic artist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal, whose Tesla comic spurred the debate, showed up to defend his work.
“The goal with my comic wasn’t to write nonfiction, it was more to paint Tesla’s picture,” Inman said, when he emerged from the audience to ask a question at the end of the session. “I celebrate geeks.”
Novak had taken issue with Inman’s viral comic “Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived” comic, saying that it fed the “Great Man Theory of History” and the myth of the lone inventor. But the discussion was very friendly and polite."
Android

Submission + - A Giant, Tethered Tablet: Acer Shows Its Android Display (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Acer's Android Display looks like a giant Android tablet, with its 1920 x 1080 pixel, 21.5-inch touch screen — but you wouldn't want to carry it around. That's because the All-in-One Android Display weighs 4.8 kilograms and has no battery, so needs to be plugged in to operate. The display has three main uses, an Acer spokesman said at an event at the Cebit trade show in Germany on Wednesday. The first: as an information kiosk. Propped up on its built-in stand at an angle of 75 degrees, it can be used to surf the Web or view videos. Folded down to a 20-degree angle, the display finds a second role, as a giant tablet, allowing the user to interact with it more easily without the risk of 'gorilla arm,' the sensation of heaviness felt after a few minutes of operating a touch screen with one arm raised out in front of the body. Finally, with a laptop computer connected to its micro-HDMI socket the display can be used as an additional or external touch-sensitive screen. The main addition Acer has made to the standard Android interface is the Acer Ring: Touch a glowing green circle in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and a circular menu pops up offering quick access to a browser, gallery, screenshot tool and settings, with shortcuts to open applications fanning out around the circle. Other apps, including Skype and YouTube, can be added from the Android App Store.
Android

Submission + - STRaND-1 Satellite Preparing to Activate Onboard Nexus One (thepowerbase.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In as little as a few days, the British-made Surrey Training, Research, and Nanosatellite Demonstrator (STRaND-1) satellite will begin transitioning its key systems over to a completely stock Android Nexus One smartphone that's been bolted to the bottom of it. The mission is designed to test the endurance of off-the-shelf consumer hardware, and to validate Android as a viable platform for controlling low-cost spacecraft.

STRaND-1 managed to beat NASA's own "PhoneSat" mission to the punch, which will see a Nexus One and Nexus S launched into space aboard the April test flight of the Orbital Sciences Antares commercial launch vehicle, the prime competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9.
Security

Submission + - Groundbreaking DARPA Cyber Fast Track Research Program Ending (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: When Peiter Zatko, the security researcher and pioneering hacker known as Mudge, joined the federal government several years ago to help run a DARPA research program, some in the security industry wondered what effect someone with his background could have in an organization as famously change-resistant and slow as the Department of Defense. As it turns out, the Cyber Fast Track program he started has been a huge success and though the CFT is ending in less than a month, the program may well serve as a model for other agile research programs inside the U.S. government.

Submission + - US Attorney General Defends Handling of Aaron Swartz Case (wired.com)

Submitted by TrueSatan
TrueSatan writes: Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday said the suicide death of internet activist Aaron Swartz was a “tragedy,” but the hacking case against the 26-year-old was “a good use of prosecutorial discretion.” The attorney general was testifying at a Justice Department oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee and was facing terse questioning from Sen. John Cornyn (D-Texas).
Holder stated: “I think that’s a good use of prosecutorial discretion to look at the conduct, regardless of what the statutory maximums were and to fashion a sentence that was consistent with what the nature of the conduct was. And I think what those prosecutors did in offering 3, 4, zero to 6 was consistent with that conduct.”
Notwithstanding Holder’s testimony, Massachusetts federal prosecutors twice indicted Swartz for the alleged hacking, once in 2011 on four felonies and again last year on 13 felonies. The case included hacking charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that was passed in 1984 to enhance the government’s ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality.

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