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Digital

Submission + - Nanotube forests grown on silicon chips for future (physorg.com)

Submitted by
Tjeerd
Tjeerd writes: "Engineers have shown how to grow forests of tiny cylinders called carbon nanotubes onto the surfaces of computer chips to enhance the flow of heat at a critical point where the chips connect to cooling devices called heat sinks."
Enlightenment

Submission + - Ice Chunks Fall From Blue Skies (sfgate.com)

Submitted by wximagery95
wximagery95 writes: Some scientists believe that there is a larger, more sinister type of ice-chunk precipitation besides hail which can form outside of storms, making even the largest hailstones look puny in comparison. There is a great deal of disagreement in the scientific community regarding the origin of these falling slabs of ice, but it is certain that something is causing massive frozen chunks (weighing between 6 pounds to as much as 400 pounds) to occasionally drop from seemingly clear blue skies. The objects are called megacryometeors.

If these things are forming on, and then becoming dislodged from large aircraft, you would think there is the potential for a massive lawsuit should one of these ice chunks actually kill someone. Is the FAA and the airline industry really covering up the source of these ice chunks (AKA; megacryometeors)?
The Internet

Submission + - ISPs Blocking Bulk Solicited Email & Workaroun 1

Submitted by moogle10000
moogle10000 writes: I've recently encountered an issue where large ISPs (such as AOL, Earthlink, Roadrunner, etc.) are blocking email coming from our private mail server. To rectify that, we enlisted the services of a mail security company — not only do they filter SPAM, but they also relay our outgoing mail so we can avoid the mass-block from the major ISPs. However, we send out a solicited mass emailing that is prohibited by the Terms of Service of our mail security company. What is a sysadmin to do? Should I simply send them direct and then hunt down each of the ISPs individually? The mass-blacklisting of mail servers seems to be a BIG problem for small businesses (big businesses are immune)... What do you think?
Power

Submission + - Radioactive Boy Scout At It Again (foxnews.com)

Submitted by
Whip-hero
Whip-hero writes: "'Authorities were concerned he was trying to obtain a radioactive isotope from the smoke detectors... Authorities first learned of Hahn's obsession with radioactivity in 1994 after he told a health official that he hoped to earn an Eagle Scout badge by producing energy, according to an article in Harper's Magazine...'

Check out the story to see a picture of what I can only guess is some stage of radiation poisoning."
Security

Submission + - Feds bust botnet boss (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "According to court documents, a California man this week was indicted on four counts of electronic transmission of codes to cause damage to protected computers. Greg King, also known as "Silenz, Silenz420, sZ, GregK, and Gregk707, " allegedly controlled over seven thousand such "bots" and used them to conduct multiple distributed denial of service attacks against websites of two businesse — CastleCops and KillaNet. The botnet attacks on KillaNet took place between July 2004 and February 2007 causing at least $5,000 in damage. KillaNet said on its Web site today that "King caused thousands of dollars in losses of time and content through many attacks against our webserver." In addition King allegedly taunted KillaNet in a series of emails during the attacks. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20231"
Unix

Submission + - UNIX V7 ported to i386 (nordier.com)

Submitted by
Seth Morabito
Seth Morabito writes: "Ever wanted to run the classic original AT&T UNIX V7, but just couldn't bring yourself to fire up that PDP-11 you have in your garage? Robert Nordier has recently announced a port of the V7 source to Intel. It supports ATA disks, ATAPI CD drives, 1.44M floppy disks, and standard PC serial ports. Robert describes the port as “stable and quite generally usable”. Fun for anyone wanting to play with a piece of UNIX history."
The Internet

Submission + - Software For Virtual Teams

Submitted by
Ricmac
Ricmac writes: "Virtual team technology has evolved a lot over the past few years, enabling more and more companies to go virtual. But in order for working from home to be effective, certain things need to be in place. The most critical is technology — a set of tools, along with the infrastructure, that can replace the traditional office. Using these tools it is possible for team members to connect, communicate and execute as effectively as a traditional company. This Read/WriteWeb article looks at software that makes virtual companies possible — examples include Skype, GoToMeeting, Basecamp, Google Calendar, CVSDude, ElephantDrive and QuickBooks."
Education

Submission + - BBC Micro: Britain's First PC Hit

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: North American children grew up with the Apple II. Across the Atlantic, the BBC gave its blessings to the unreleased Acorn Proton (another 6502 micro) and it became the standard in education and home for almost a decade as the BBC Micro, even though there were cheaper, more capable machines on the market. Read about how Acorn won the lucrative contract and slowly disintegrated after their RISC home computer (released in 1987) failed to catch on.
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia bureaucrat with bogus PhD

Submitted by keyero
keyero writes: The New Yorker has posted an Editor's note, correcting for a story they published in July about Wikipedia and expertise. In the article, they quoted User:Essjay who is a a bureaucrat, arbitrator, and other roles including checkuser. He was described as "a tenured professor of religion at a private university" with "a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law." Turns out, he is twenty-four and holds no advanced degrees, and that he has never taught. Nonetheless, Jimmy Wales has brushed this aside and recently appointed Essjay to the Arbitration committee. He also hired Essjay to serve as "Community Manager" on Wikia.
The Internet

Submission + - Using Web 2.0 Tools to Drive Traffic - Comparison

Submitted by
Jettero Heller
Jettero Heller writes: "Every day, it seems, I'm coming upon new Web 2.0 tools that can be used to drive visitors to your site or blog. At first, I tried to do justice to this with a blog post here and there, attempting to catalog some of these. My list has since grown out of control, though, so I'm writing this blog post as much to inform, as to organize my own thoughts on this. I am a Scientologist, I have a message I want to get out on my blog, and as such would want people to see it and find out about Scientology. It's the same problem that someone trying to sell bicycles has, or someone trying to peddle on-line pet care products or washing machine catapults.

Here's what I've found has been successful, in varying degrees, to get people to come to my Blogs:

http://jetteroheller.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/how- do-you-use-web-20-tools-to-drive-traffic-to-your-s ite/"
Privacy

Submission + - DHS Abandons RFID

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The Department of Homeland Security has abandoned plans to embed RFID chips in arrival and departure forms carried by foreign nations in the U.S. The decision comes shortly after a General Accounting Office report found that the chips often were not properly scanned by sensors, and that they provided no additional assurance that the person arriving in the country was the same as the person leaving the country. Privacy groups had criticized the plan to embed the chips out of fear that they would allow people on the street to be scanned for forms that would identify them as non-citizens.
United States

Submission + - DHS testing new Data Mining program

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: According to an article in the Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations. The GAO is unhappy with the privacy violations involved. They criticize the government's use of citizens' private information without proper notification and using the data for a purpose different than originally envisioned.
Movies

Submission + - Making 300 Interview

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Surprisingly, FHM Online has an interesting interview with visual effects supervisor Chris Watts about the making of 300. From the article: "What does it take to film Frank Miller's legendary graphic novel about the ancient Spartan army? Spears, loincloths and over 1300 visual effects — including a series that gave life to a military-enlisted rhinoceros. Here, 300's visual effects supervisor, Chris Watts, breaks down every step that went into creating that sweet-assed rhino scene." http://www.fhmonline.com/articles-3866.asp?cnl_id= 3&stn_id=12&idx_id=3866
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA letter sent to all presidents by ACE

Submitted by
JM
JM writes: "Sent via List-Serv today:

David Ward and the American Council on Education's
President to President
Vol. 8, No. 8
February 28, 2007
SPECIAL EDITION

Recording Industry to Announce Efforts to Limit Illegal Peer-to-Peer File Sharing on Campus
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will announce today that it is initiating legal action against individuals who engage in illegal file sharing of copyrighted materials using peer-to-peer systems. Roughly 400 of these actions will be taken against college students and the RIAA has asked that we share the following letter with you.
In the last three years, several higher education organizations, including ACE, the Association of American Universities, the National Association of State Universities of Land-Grant Colleges, and EDUCAUSE have worked with the entertainment industry to address this serious, continuing problem. The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, currently chaired by William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, and Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, has communicated regularly with campuses about this issue and the need to take appropriate action to stop it.

These efforts, along with the hard work of campuses, have undoubtedly deterred many individuals from engaging in illegal downloading but there is no doubt that this practice continues to be a significant problem that demands attention.
The RIAA's letter states that it will initiate a "pre-notice plan" that allows students to settle claims before a formal lawsuit is filed. A summary of their approach is attached to the RIAA letter. We have not had time to fully evaluate this idea and cannot, at present, formally advise you on this matter, but it may provide potential benefits to students facing lawsuits as well as to the RIAA. In the event that your institution is contacted, we encourage you to review the proposal with legal counsel and determine whether this approach makes sense for your campus.

An attachment to the letter outlines four ways to prevent or reduce the illegal file sharing problem on campus. One suggestion is to implement a network technical solution. While these products have become more sophisticated and powerful in recent years, we believe the term "solution" overstates the capacities of current technologies. In some cases, the technology may be too indiscriminate, blocking not only illegitimate peer-to-peer file sharing but also the legitimate peer-to-peer file sharing increasingly used in research and education activities. In other cases, the cost may be prohibitive. Nonetheless, because of the continued seriousness of the problem of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing and the promise of emerging network technologies, the Joint Committee has established a new technology working group which is actively addressing this topic and expects to issue a report to the higher education community within a few months.
For a more extensive analysis of the legal aspects of campus peer-to-peer file sharing, you might examine the November 2006 paper, Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks.

I underscore that illegal peer-to-peer file sharing remains a serious issue that all campuses must continue to address. My Washington colleagues and I appreciate the efforts you have already made in this area and encourage your ongoing attention to this matter.

David Ward,
President of ACE
****For further information and complete updates, please visit ACE's web site at http://www.acenet.edu/."
Businesses

Submission + - The Green Grid helps IT to save money and power

Submitted by squishylimbs
squishylimbs writes: A new industry group called The Green Grid is made up of Intel, AMD, and other big tech firms, and it's trying to make the data center more efficient. Why? Because they claim that current servers are wasting almost 35 percent of their power through power conversion alone.

From the article: "Electricity is being wasted at an alarming rate by most current servers. A typical 2U server with dual processors runs on a 450W power supply. Of that, 35 percent (160W) is lost just in the power conversion process inside the machine. This doesn't just cost money for a bit of wasted power; it also costs money for the additional cooling required to keep the datacenter at a constant temperature, and it limits the total number of servers that can be installed in a datacenter due to power constraints."

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