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Submission + - Fox News Censors Iowa Straw Poll Results (chrisbrunner.com)

Submitted by

Chris Brunner

on Sunday August 12, 2007 @04:59PM

Chris Brunner writes: "If you don't already know, the Iowa Straw Poll, seen as a first test of organizational strength by news media and party insiders, took place yesterday. The results weren't too surprising, considering that McCain, Fred Thompson, and Giuliani all boycotted the event. What was surprising, however, is that Fox News blatantly cut certain candidates out of the results they reported. They didn't just stop listing candidates after a certain point. They listed positions one through three, skipped four and five, and then continued with positions six through eight."

Submission + - Do "Illegal" Codecs Actually Scare Linux U (earthweb.com) 1

Submitted by

jammag

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @09:13AM

jammag writes: "In this article, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says that "Despite strong points that go far beyond price, Linux falls short when it comes to legally supporting file formats such as MP3, WMA/WMV and DVDs." He talks about using Ubuntu and booting up Totem Movie Player, only to be confronted with a burst of legalese about what a hardened criminal he'll be if he uses Totem without a license. (Gasp!) This problem is "a deal breaker" for him."

Submission + - Achtung! New Laws on Cybercrime 1

Submitted by

CCC

on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @06:27PM

CCC writes: "Germany is passing some new laws regarding cybercrime that might affect security professionals.

SecurityFocus interviewed Marco Gercke, one of the experts that was invited to the parliamentary hearing, to learn more about this delicate subject. They discussed what is covered by the new laws, which areas remain in the dark, and how they might affect vulnerability disclosure and the use of common tools, such as nmap.

If you live outside Germany and think this doesn't affect you, wait!

The Convention on Cybercrime was signed by non EU and non European countries too, and East European Countries as well as African and Arabic countries are planning to sign and ratify the Convention.

You can read learn more reading the FAQ hosted by the United States Department of Justice, or the comments by EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center).

In the meantime the german hacker group Phenoelit had to move their site to a safe host in USA."

Submission + - Bush Presidency Dead as a Duck (isupportthismessage.com) 1

Submitted by Tanaris on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @06:22PM

Tanaris writes: By commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby (with a pardon to follow), President Bush has effectively admitted his mandate to lead is over. With his crushing defeat on immigration reform last week, Republicans in Congress jumping ship on his Iraq policy, and no chance of any legacy changes for the rest of his administration, Bush decided the time was right to get his loyal servant a get out of jail free card.

I don't want to debate whether Libby was guilty or not, a fall guy or not, that his sentence was too heavy or not — that's not what is truly important. Rather, that our system of government allows for a president with another 18 months in office without any support of the American people. This creates a devil may care attitude which he just exhibited with Libby. What's next — executive orders on issues he cares about and war power's act decisions to bomb the Axis of Evil? Where are the checks on him now? At times like this there needs to be a mechanism like the California recall system that can bring this train wreck to a halt. I'm not sure what that is but a president at 25% approval rating who goes against the will of the people, time and time and time again is not good for American and our standing in the world.

Let's hope these kind of decisions are kept to a minimum as we wait for the end to mercifully come.

Source: I Support This Message

Submission + - Linux Gains Completely Fair Scheduler (kerneltrap.org)

Submitted by SchedFred on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @05:47PM

SchedFred writes: KernelTrap is reporting that Ingo Molnar's Completely Fair Scheduler, or CFS, was just merged into the Linux Kernel. The new CPU scheduler includes a pluggable framework that completely replaces Molnar's earlier O(1) scheduler, and is described to "model an 'ideal, precise multi-tasking CPU' on real hardware. CFS tries to run the task with the 'gravest need' for more CPU time. So CFS always tries to split up CPU time between runnable tasks as close to 'ideal multitasking hardware' as possible." The new CPU scheduler should improve the desktop Linux experience, and will be part of the upcoming 2.6.23 kernel.

Submission + - Sheehan to Challenge Pelosi if no Impeachment (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by

mdsolar

on Monday July 09, 2007 @07:55PM

mdsolar writes: "Personable and determined Cindy Sheehan resigned from leadership in the anti-war movement in late May but is now active in an accountability movement which she says differs from her past activity. Speaker Pelosi has until July 23 to introduce Articles of Impeachment or she will face an indepenent run from Sheehan. Sheehan's son Casey was killed in the Iraq War which appears to be grinding to an end now. Sheehan set up camp outside the President's residence in Crawford, Texas asking to speak with him about Casey's death. With the President's continued refusal, a movement grew up around Camp Casey in Crawford which most recently has concentrated on the failure, so far, of democrats to carry out the mandate they won in Novermber of 2006. In Pelosi's district, a democrat got elected mayor by the skin of his teeth against a green opponent, so she may not have a safe seat. Articles of Impeachement have been introduced already for the VP with growing cosponsorship. Seems like Sheehan is telling Pelosi, either stop being Speaker by becoming President of stop being Speaker by losing your seat."

Submission + - Dell will sell Linux on PCs outside of U.S.

Submitted by StonyandCher on Monday July 09, 2007 @07:53PM

StonyandCher writes: Dell plans to sell computers with preinstalled Linux outside the U.S. as well as offer the Ubuntu Linux distribution to small business customers.

More details will be revealed later, wrote Lionel Menchaca, digital media manager for Dell on a company blog on Friday.

"I wanted to be clear that Dell does have plans to offer Linux to more consumers in additional locations outside the United States," Menchaca wrote.

Submission + - Taser builds a high-tech bullet

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09, 2007 @07:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: Taser claims to have reinvented the traditional bullet. The XREP looks like a regular shotgun round (and can be shot through a regular shotgun at 300 ft/s), but basically is a self contained taser device complete with its own microprocessor and a battery. On impact, the device separates in two parts (which remain connected through a wire) and tries to attach itself to at least two body locations to deliver the electrical charge. Get this: If a criminal tries to remove the XREP, he is likely to either touch more electrodes or touch the booby-trapped wire, which will lock down the hand and prevent it from letting go. Wicked.

Submission + - Nicotine is the new wonder drug. (wired.com)

Submitted by Fantastic Lad on Monday July 09, 2007 @07:14PM

Fantastic Lad writes: Smoking may be bad for you, but Researchers and biotech companies are quietly developing pharmaceuticals that are decidedly good for brains, bowels, blood vessels and even immune systems — and they're inspired by tobacco's active ingredient: nicotine. Nicotine acts on the acetylcholine receptors in the brain, stimulating and regulating the release of a slew of brain chemicals, including seratonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Now drugs derived from nicotine and the research on nicotine receptors are in clinical trials for everything from helping to heal wounds, to depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, anger management and anxiety. Smoking will kill you, but also keep you in good health? Another story about nicotine warding off Parkison's disease here seems to agree. -Who knew?

Submission + - Is Robotics Going to the Dogs?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09, 2007 @07:11PM

An anonymous reader writes: At least that's the feeling one gets from a pair of stories that followed the recent Robocup soccer-playing competition. One is about the Linux-powered 'der neue Roboter' (the new robot), which is much larger than Sony's discontinued AIBO and has 15 joints, including three for each leg and three for the neck. This doggie-bot was created by the Technical University of Darmstadt in collaboration with the Osaka-based Hajime Research Institute, which was founded by AIBO creator Hajime Sorayama. The other is about the RobuDOG, a French doggie-bot that runs Windows XP Embedded and is nearly as large as 'der neue Roboter,' has 17 servo-powered joints, sensors for velocity and floor contact, infrared sensors, and a programmable color camera. The RobuDOG is supported by a simulator that's built into Microsoft's just-released Robotics Studio version 1.5.

Submission + - New Web metric likely to hurt Google, help YouTube

Submitted by StonyandCher on Monday July 09, 2007 @06:47PM

StonyandCher writes: In a nod to the success of emerging Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX and streaming media, one of the country's largest Internet benchmarking companies, Nielsen/NetRatings, will no longer use page views as its primary metric for comparing sites.

Nielsen/NetRatings will now begin using total time spent by users of a site as its primary measurement metric. This is likely to affect Google's ranking because while users visit the site often, they don't usually spend much time there.

"It is not that page views are irrelevant now, but they are a less accurate gauge of total site traffic and engagement," said Scott Ross, director of product marketing at Nielsen/NetRatings. "Total minutes is the most accurate gauge to compare between two sites. If [Web] 1.0 is full page refreshes for content, Web 2.0 is, 'How do I minimize page views and deliver content more seamlessly?'"

Submission + - WikiWrit: The Holy Book Anyone Can Edit (wikiwrit.com)

Submitted by

boyko.at.netqos

on Monday July 09, 2007 @06:37PM

boyko.at.netqos writes: "Take Wikipedia. Infighting aside, it's quite a remarkable source of information. Thousands of people edit it every day, so you'd think it would be a chaotic mess of competing agendas, but it is a valuable resource for knowledge. So I was wondering what would happen if you took a holy text, and let anyone edit it. I started uploading one "real" piece of religious text — the beginning of Genesis — and just let people go at it.

Now, from the pages of WikiWrit!: "3:4. Both of them were naked at this point, and the Human saw genitals for the first time, and was so surprised that they too grew genitals out of the sheer amazement of it. 3:5. It is not known if the first Human became Male or Female because nobody except God, Satan, Bob, or an Enchanted hobo saw it happen, and none of them remember which of them it was. 3:6. By this time, however the other eggs had begun hatching, and soon the Human with Genitals was surrounded by a group of amazed and genital-ed humans. Thus it was that there were sufficient humans to reproduce without mutation.3:7. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone, the pot tree sprouted apples, for it was not a pot tree at all.""

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