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Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Major Linux hardware donor is a CNN "hero" (archive.org) 1

Submitted by
christian.einfeldt
christian.einfeldt writes: "James Burgett of the Alameda County Computer Resource Center calls himself a "tattooed freak" and a recovering drug addict, but CNN is calling him a hero (video) for diverting tons of computers from landfills, installing Ubuntu Linux on them, and giving them out to schools, non-profits, and poor people. Burgett's filmed interview is currently leading a CNN contest among videos of "ordinary people" whom CNN considers every day heroes, narrowly edging out the video of a man who is saving gorillas from extinction. In his CNN interview, Burgett points out that the people working for him are also recovering drug addicts or recovering mental illness patients."
The Courts

Submission + - How should I have responded to RIAA lawyer? 10

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's lawyers are a bit jumpy these days since their standard "making available" boilerplate was rejected by the Court in Interscope v. Rodriguez. But I still never expected, when I initiated a dismissal motion in Elektra v. Schwartz, that they would be reaching out to me , of all people, for help. But so they did, asking me "in the interest of efficiency... what precisely Defendant contends is lacking from Plaintiffs' Complaint for Defendant to consider it sufficient. Perhaps Plaintiffs may be able to satisfy these alleged deficiencies and spare both parties additional and unnecessary motions practice." Unfortunately my response was not very helpful; I couldn't think of anything better than to say, more or less, that "Plaintiffs have no case whatsoever against Ms. Schwartz, and their case against her was frivolous in its inception. Accordingly, there are no facts they can allege that will satisfy the plausibility standard." On reflection, I'm feeling kind of guilty that I didn't give them a more creative, and helpful answer, and I thought to turn to my friends at Slashdot, who are (a) almost always helpful, and (b) always creative. What would you have said?"
Censorship

Submission + - MoveOn.org Becomes Parody of Self

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The L.A. Times has an opinion piece about MoveOn.org in which they discuss attempts by MoveOn.org to squelch dissenting speech that incorporates their trademarks. T-shirts with phrases critical of MoveOn.org and that include the name MoveOn.org were demanded removed by MoveOn.org because they supposedly infringed on their merchandising rights. I hope MoveOn.org doesn't send a cease-and-desist letter because this post includes the name MoveOn.org.
Biotech

Submission + - Bringing Patients Back from the Dead (msn.com) 1

Submitted by FattyBoeBatty
FattyBoeBatty writes: Interesting article claiming that patients generally don't die from lack of oxygen — but from the rapid reintroduction of it. Cells without oxygen can conceivably live for upwards of an hour without any damage. While this idea is already proving successful in small ER trials, this may change the way emergency medicine is delivered around the world.
Handhelds

Submission + - 20 Yet Unreleased Gadgets for Geeks (autopartsplace.com)

Submitted by
ipodwheels
ipodwheels writes: "The following are the devices that I feel will be a part of the future's digital lifestyle. From infrared keyboards, to edible music media, these will surely have you drooling. The following has been a compilation of gadgets still under development at NEC. This story later inspired the "List of Gadgets not Sold in the US" on the Auto Parts Blog which on the other hand listed gadgets that are "banned" for distribution in the US."
Microsoft

Submission + - Converting from XP to Ubuntu (ittoolbox.com) 1

Submitted by
madgreek
madgreek writes: "Here is a short story about my switch to Ubuntu from XP at work. I have been Microsoft free for 3 months now at a Microsoft heavy shop. Few people know I am using Open Office and Linux. I create countless documents that people open using Word, Excel, PPT and nobody can tell that they were created using Open Office. http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/madgreek/archives/o pen-source-and-microsoft-free-17339"
The Courts

Submission + - Cellular networks should be open, says major news (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
athloi
athloi writes: "In the USA, however, cellphone service providers can and do thwart innovative technologies and limit competition. For example, they routinely bar handset makers from including Wi-Fi capabilities, which can save consumers a bundle by allowing them to use a free network when they are in "hot spots." With more new technologies on the way, the current system could stifle innovation. http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070712/cm_usato day/ourviewonspectrumforsaledisconnectphoneprovide r"
Privacy

Submission + - Privacy Isn't Dead, or At Least It Shouldn't Be (sciam.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Scientific American sits down with Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Latanya Sweeney to discuss online privacy. After a brief discussion of the importance of privacy in society (and a few paragraphs on her life) Latanya Sweeny, who heads the Data Privacy Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, talks about just how easy it is to identify people through publicly available information. From the article: "[Earlier in my career] I had learned that if I had the date of birth, gender and a five-digit zip code of a person, I could identify 87 percent of the people in the United States. So even if you don't give me your social security number, I can find out who you are nearly nine out of 10 times."
United States

Submission + - The New Science of Parking

Submitted by
Articles Directory
Articles Directory writes: " The New Science of Parking If you live in a city and drive a car, chances are you know the hassles of looking for a place to park. Studies of traffic congestion in New York and Los Angeles have found that cruising for parking is, in fact, a major source of gridlock. In a 2006 study undertaken in a Brooklyn neighborhood by Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based advocacy group, 45% of drivers interviewed admitted they were simply looking for a parking spot. A more rigorous analysis was conducted in Los Angeles by Dr. Douglas Shoup, an urban planning professor at UCLA and one of the nation's top parking gurus. Over the course of a year, he and his students found, the search for curb parking in a 15-block business district "created about 950,000 excess vehicle miles of travel — equivalent to 38 trips around the earth, or four trips to the moon," which consumes "47,000 gallons of gas and produces 730 tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.""
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Banks Make More on Overdraft Fees than Loans (jeremyduffy.com)

Submitted by
JeremyDuffy
JeremyDuffy writes: "Research shows that banks are making far more on fees than actual loans. Worse yet, they specifically engineered their systems and policies to maximize the fees charged. For example, holding deposits long enough for your account to go negative so they can charge overdraft fees. New laws are in the works and if they pass, this kind of predation could end. In the meantime, you can use their nasty policies against them to get free loans for the cost of a single fee (see the article for details)"
Communications

Submission + - Is SMS message content stored by US telcos? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Does anyone know if US telcos store the content of SMS/text messages? Can it be retrieved for evidence in legal matters? Both the source and recipient are T-Mobile subscribers.
Music

Submission + - Music Industry Attacks Free Prince CD (guardian.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "You might not like Prince but he's planning on giving away a free CD in a national Sunday newspaper, but music industry executives are practically going insane over the idea and threatening to retaliate. "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday," said Entertainment Retailers Association spokesman Paul Quirk, who also said it would be "an insult" to record stores. But wait a minute- can't Prince give away his own music if he wants to without fear of industry retaliation?"
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia vandal predicts death

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A wikipedia vandal inserted into wikipedia information that Nancy Benoit was dead 14 hours before police found out. The vandal later came forward and said it was just a coincidence, and apologizing for ever vandalizing wikipedia:

...I feel incredibly bad for all the attention this got because of the fact that what I said turned out to be the truth. Like I said it was just a major coincidence, and I will never vandalize anything on wikipedia or post wrongful information. I've learned from this experience. I just can't believe what I wrote was actually the case, I've remained stunned and saddened over it....
Biotech

Submission + - Team claims synthetic life feat (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by gertvs
gertvs writes: According to the BBC scientists in the US say they have taken a major step towards producing life from scratch in the laboratory by having successfully transplanted an entire genome from one bacterium cell to another. This technique could possibly lead to the creation of 'designer' microbes producing fuel or help cleaning toxic waste. Others fear negative effects, e.g. that it could be used to create biological weapons.

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