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The Military

Submission + - Pain Beam: Break, Enter, Burn. 11

Submitted by
king_cipher
king_cipher writes: "Wired is hosting an article on the "Pain Beam" which is currently being considered by Dept. of Homeland Security. The Air Force previously tested the Active Denial System (ADS) and claims nobody can tolerate the non-lethal weapon for more than 5 seconds before they tuck tail and run away with the feeling that their face is melting off. A scenario from the wired article: Burglars break into an apartment, hoping to pick up some expensive electronics or jewelry. But they're out again, empty-handed, within seconds, howling with pain and surprise. They've been driven back by waves of intolerable heat: Entering the apartment is like stepping into a furnace. It's the Active Denial System, or ADS, at work, the ultimate in home protection ... among other uses."
The Internet

Submission + - Internet to reach capacity by 2010 story overblown (computerworld.com.au) 1

Submitted by Gustoman
Gustoman writes: The co-author of a report that received global media coverage claiming the Internet will reach capacity by 2010 says the study was blown way out of proportion. Headlines such as "Internet facing meltdown" and "Internet blackouts predicted by 2010" are way off course, said the report's co-author Johna Till Johnson, president and senior founding partner of Nermertes Research. According to her, all the study concluded is that a mismatch between demand and access capacity will be reached in three to five years that will have to be met by billions of dollars in spending by carriers. It estimates access providers will have to spend between US$42 billion and US$55 billion to close that gap, which could be 70 per cent more than they plan to invest. Otherwise, the next YouTube may be throttled because the Internet will be hard to access. Johnson goes on to explain the merits of the report, including the bandwidth consumption models used and interviews with vendors, enterprises, service providers and investment companies the research firm conducted to arrive at its findings. "We explicitly are not saying the Internet's going to break," she said.
Music

Submission + - EMI may cut funding to IFPI, RIAA (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Teen Bainwolf
Teen Bainwolf writes: Big Four record label EMI is reportedly considering a big cut in its funding for the IFPI and RIAA. Each of the labels reportedly contributed over $130 million per year to fund industry trade groups, and EMI apparently believes that money could be better spent elsewhere. 'One of the chief activities of the RIAA is coordinating the Big Four labels' legal campaign, and those thousands of lawsuits have done nothing but generate ill will from record fans, while costing the labels millions of dollars and doing little (if anything) to actually reduce the amount of file-sharing going on. In fact, the RIAA freely admits that the legal campaign is a real money pit, and EMI's new ownership may be very leery of continuing to pour money down that particular rat hole.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Celebrity Star Wars

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I'm almost embarrassed to submit this as even as an AC. However, there are a few entries at this Celebrity Star Wars (photoshop) contest which were actually pretty amusing. From the contest page: 'The rules of the game are thus: Change a celebrity into a Star Wars character. Do NOT use an actor who actually was in Star Wars. Feel free to change the celebrity into any of the weird and wacky supporting Star Wars characters.' Sigh.
Space

Submission + - Obama to cut NASA budget for education

Submitted by mknewman
mknewman writes: MSN is reporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's education policy is causing a stir ... but not all in a good way. Advocates for space exploration are noting with dismay that he'd take billions of dollars from NASA to pay for the educational programs he'd like to expand.

The shift from exploration to education came last week when Obama talked up his $18 billion education plan during a New Hampshire campaign swing. Actually, the reference to NASA comes at the end of a 15-page document laying out the details behind the plan (PDF file):

"The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years, using purchase cards and the negotiating power of the government to reduce costs of standardized procurement, auctioning surplus federal property, and reducing the erroneous payments identified by the Government Accountability Office, and closing the CEO pay deductibility loophole. ..." http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/26/481595.aspx
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - What Geeky Things Must Be Done? 2

Submitted by John
John writes: A few weeks ago, my friends were discussing "The Princess Bride", and most of the references went completely over my head — I've not seen it all the way through, nor read the book. Naturally, revealing this fact made these people look at me as if I'd just moved into town from under some rock. This led into a discussion of the things that most general geeks should be expected to know; for example, reciting the inscription on the One Ring, or (apparently) quoting "Princess Bride" on-demand. The suggestions we came up with ranged from personal things, like having one's movie/game library in an online database, to big, world-scoped things like contributing to an open-source project of your choosing. I'm curious to know what the general consensus is on the most obvious or biggest geek/nerd things that should be seen, done, or read/watched/heard.
Microsoft

Submission + - CNet rates Vista one of "history's worst produ (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by DrNick
DrNick writes: It could be one of the most controversial decisions in recent times online, but CNet UK has rated Windows Vista as one of the worst tech products in history.

From the article: "Its incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade, are just some examples of why this expensive operating system earns the final place in our terrible tech list.
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA ordered to divulge expenses-per-download

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: The Court has ordered UMG Recordings, Warner Bros. Records, Interscope Records, Motown, and SONY BMG to disclose their expenses-per-download to the defendant's lawyers, in UMG v. Lindor, a case pending in Brooklyn. The Court held that the expense figures are relevant to the issue of whether the RIAA's attempt to recover damages of $750 or more per 99-cent song file, is an unconstitutional violation of due process.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - The Taxman Barely Cometh

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "While Congress is considering lowering the 35% federal tax rate, a lot of companies don't need help from Washington. They've been finding legal ways to shrink their tax bill for years, with 'cross-border tax arbitrage' — getting profits out of the U.S. if taxes are lower offshore — emerging as one of the hottest tax-avoidance strategies. A list compiled by BusinessWeek of the S&P 500 companies sending in the smallest checks sports a number of high-tech household names, including Amazon and Yahoo, who respectively sent Uncle Sam 2.8% and 2.9% of their earnings before income taxes over the past five years, and Apple, which paid a whopping $0 in cash taxes last year."
Security

Submission + - Major QuickTime Vulnerability in Latest Version (beskerming.com)

Submitted by
SkiifGeek
SkiifGeek writes: "Less than a month after news of active OS X fake codec malware, a major vulnerability in the latest version of QuickTime (7.3, only released two weeks ago) has been discovered and has already gone from proof-of-concept exploit code to two readily available exploit samples.

With the ease by which this exploit can be integrated with media streams, it marks a greater threat for end users than a fake codec. At this stage, about the best mitigation recommended is to disable support for RTSP via the File Type / Advanced -> MIME Settings option in QuickTime's Control Panel / PreferencePane. Even though the exploit is only for Windows systems (including Vista — QuickTime apparently doesn't utilise ASLR), OS X users could be at threat from related problems, given historical RTSP vulnerabilities."
Enlightenment

Submission + - The New Grinch?

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "The NYT reports there's a new Grinch in town — relatives pushing eco-friendly gifts for Christmas like energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs and carbon offsets. To help the little ones get with the program, FAO Schwarz offers the new children's book When Santa Turned Green (gift wrap optional), with its tale of Santa's struggle to save The North Pole from a global warming meltdown."
Networking

Submission + - Content filtering for free wi-fi 5

Submitted by Munk
Munk writes: My in-laws own a truckstop and want to start offering free wi-fi to their customers. Since the wi-fi would cover the restaurant and other public areas, they don't want folks surfing porn where other customers could see it. And as a side benefit, I would also like to be able to block P2P traffic that would use excessive bandwidth. Does anybody have an suggestions for a setup to handle this sort of thing? I would obviously like to use linux and other free software if possible.
Quickies

Submission + - The birthplace of Romulus and Remus found

Submitted by
jd
jd writes: "A cave known to the Romans as the Lupercal has been found. The Lupercal (a 26' high cave) was believed by the Romans to have been the place that Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome) were rescued and suckled by a she-wolf. Now, whether these two people ever existed is another matter entirely, but even the place itself had descended into myths and legends, with no serious archaeologist believing it existed. Due to the extreme instability of Palatine Hill, where the cave exists, the archaeologists have not been inside. Instead, exploration has been by robots with cameras, endoscopes and laser scanners. These have mapped some amazing mosaics, marble artwork and an amazing white eagle."
Announcements

Submission + - Fossilized sea scorpion was larger than a person (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by hereisnowhy
hereisnowhy writes: A giant fossilized claw discovered in Germany belonged to an ancient sea scorpion that was much bigger than the average man, an international team of geologists and archaeologists reported Tuesday. In a report in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, the team said the claw indicates that sea scorpion Jaekelopterus rhenania was almost 2.5 metres long, making it the largest arthropod — an animal with a segmented body, jointed limbs and a hard exoskelton — ever found. In the report, the authors said the scorpion exceeds previous size records for arthropods by almost half a metre.
Programming

Submission + - Maryland Set To Tax Custom Computer Programming 1

Submitted by mcwop
mcwop writes: Maryland passed legislation to apply a new six percent sales tax (more) to "custom computer programming" and other computer and hardware related services. As a purchaser of these services, it will be interesting to see what the impact is. In-house IT and buying out of state may have become attractive options, as well as the extra money cutting into other projects.

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