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Submission + - Geeks are as sexy as anyone

Submitted by
Don Brooks
Don Brooks writes: "Geeks are as sexy as anyone.

Wired blog

Some fun little meaningless non-scientific online poll results about the sex lives of geeks from Geek 2 Geek, an online dating site for people who self-identify as geeks (whatever that means)"
Google

Submission + - Who's behind the anti-Goog Information-Revolution?

Submitted by mstrom
mstrom writes: Walk on the tube (metro) in London anytime now and you'll adverts plastered around asking "Who controls 75% of the worlds information?", "Who is controlling your information?" inviting you to join the "Information Revolution" by going to information-revolution.org. Trouble is, it doesn't say who's behind this revolution. This revolutions most recent trick was to laser-beam a huge advert onto the Houses Of Parliament. It's homepage provides the answer to choice — a search box that lets you choose which search engine to use (well, one of the big-4 anyway) — this is the information revolution!

The entries on their site use hip hand-scrawled or sidewalk-chalked messages to give it a viral buzz as though this is truly a community-sourced revolution. Slick it certainly is, too slick. Hundreds of feedback comments on the site are questioning who is behind it and expressing huge disappointment that a campaign that truly got them to think led them to what seems to be a very expensive anonymous attack on Google.

The culprit looks like non other than Ask.com — the domain name information-revolution.org is registered by Performo who list Ask and Yahoo among their clients. But the actual website is otherwise shrouded in secrecy. The biggest clue is the search links on their homepage — ask.com is the first link and choose Ask as your search provider and then search for Google or Yahoo and hey presto! you get an "Information Revolution" advert courtesy of Ask. So a valid question — why does Google own most of the worlds information — but a bad answer — use Ask. The real question remains — why the secrecy, why is the Information Revolution anonymous and was Ask trying to trick us into thinking their really is a revolution against Google?
Microsoft

Submission + - NIST says No to Vista

Submitted by
sglafata
sglafata writes: "Information Week is running a story on how NIST has banned Microsoft's new operating system from their internal computing networks.

"Word of NIST's Windows Vista ban comes a week after InformationWeek revealed that the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration have both imposed similar blackouts on the operating system, as well as on Microsoft Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7."

However, the National Security Agency (NSA) assisted in editing the Microsoft Windows Vista Security Guide based on this CNet article and covered on Slashdot."
User Journal

Journal Journal: MSN search default on Lenovo. 1

Journal by 140Mandak262Jamuna
Lenovo has agreed to install MSN search toolbar as default search engine. The article also says more "Microsoft plans to announce more such partnerships in the coming months and has several in the works, Osmer said, declining to specify. Microsoft also may start packaging its search tool bar with some of its software downloads, he said."
Privacy

Submission + - Dealers Install GPS To Repo Cars

Submitted by jasomill
jasomill writes: Dealer Marketing Magazine highlights the benefits of using GPS to track cars sold to sub-prime customers at so-called "Buy Here, Pay Here" lots. From the article: "The devices or receivers are becoming sleeker and smaller in size, making them more difficult for the delinquent customer to find and remove. The receivers are programmed to report details specific to the industry. Mainly location, as the whereabouts of a delinquent customer's vehicle is valuable information for a dealer that wants to recover the asset." I suppose it comes in handy in a market where "collections can become more important than sales," but how else could this be used, other than for repossessing a car? What laws, if any, are in place that require the dealer to inform the customer of the GPS unit, and to place limits on the device's use?
Google

Submission + - Google censors user-generated content in Brazil

Submitted by
airshowfan
airshowfan writes: "Imagine that every time you wrote something on Blogger that the Chinese government disagreed with, China's courts could fine Google China and Google had to delete your post and give your IP address to the Chinese police. This is basically how Google runs Orkut, a social-networking site it owns, and by far the most widely-used social-networking site in Brazil, with over twice as many users as Facebook. Not only does Google get rid of any user-generated content on Orkut that Brazil's courts dislike, they have given the Brazilian police admin access, including the ability to censor content and to find your IP address. And this is despite the fact that all of Orkut's data is hosted in the US!"
Toys

Submission + - World's first Lego autopilot

Submitted by zlite
zlite writes: What's the best way to create a UAV for less than $1,000? Use the new Hitechnic gyro sensor for Mindstorms NXT to create a Lego autopilot! This one can turn a R/C plane into a drone, keeping the aircraft level and returning it to the launch area. Add a Bluetooth GPS module and a microcam and you've got a fully autonomous surveillance platform.
User Journal

Submission + - Court Clerks To be Extempted from Privacy Laws

Submitted by Krishna Dagli
Krishna Dagli writes: The Texas House of Representatives last week passed an emergency bill that exempts courthouse clerks in Texas from state and federal laws requiring that Social Security numbers be kept confidential. The bill is not yet voted at Texas Senate.

If not the Court Clerks then who will be responsible for ensuring that exposing SSN's in public documents does
not occur and who will be held accountable?

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=printArticleBasic&articleId=285672
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Hit & Run driver caught with internet help

Submitted by Kumba
Kumba writes: The collective power of the internets was demonstrated in this thread as one member of an auto enthusiast forum helped another member identify the driver of a hit and run incident against the latter's friend. Since then, it's spread like wildfire. The one photo depicting the driver's face may yet become the most photoshopped image on the planet.
The Media

Submission + - Associated Press puts credibility on the line

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Matt Crenson a political science professor and a AP National writer had a piece published on ethanol. Just at the time when Bush is visiting Brazil. A country that uses ethanol for energy extensively. In case you wondered, the Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the world's largest such organization.
This article says that ethanol use for energy is a bad idea no matter how you cut it. Even when some parts of this long article are correct, they are outwheigthed by the baseless inaccuracies. From " most analysts conclude its environmental benefits are questionable at best. " all the way to " even the most generous analysts estimate that it takes the energy equivalent of three gallons of ethanol to make four gallons of the stuff. " Plus the question-answer format of the middle portion of the article has a nauseating fact feeding style.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070311/ap_on_sc/ethan ol_q_a_9
Bug

Submission + - Canadian Online Tax Filing System Glitch

Submitted by
CHaN_316
CHaN_316 writes: "The Financial Post reports that a computer glitch has forced the Canadian online tax filing system to shut down. Officials have ruled out causes due to hackers, viruses, or other security breaches. The integrity of the information is not affected, but it's not always in the right place. If the problem isn't resolved within a few days, the agency may have to look at options, including a possible extension of the tax deadline. Currently half of all tax filings are submitted online in Canada."

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