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Submission + - Open Source within DoD & Intelligence Systems

Submitted by

jmwci1

on Saturday April 07, 2007 @12:44PM

jmwci1 writes: "http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/ 07/0517238

Brigadier General Nick Justice, the Deputy Program Officer for the Army's Program Executive Office, Command, Control and Communications Tactical (PEO C3T) said that open source software currently plays a critical role in his command's activities.

"Our job is to provide accurate and timely information to the soldier in the field so they can perform their mission," said General Justice. "Open source software is part of the integrated network fabric which connects and enables our command and control system to work effectively, as people's lives depend on it.

"When we rolled into Baghdad, we did it using open source," General Justice continued. "It may come as a surprise to many of you, but the U.S. Army is "the" single largest install base for Red Hat Linux. I'm their largest customer.""

Submission + - OpenBSD caught stealing GPL code

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07, 2007 @12:40PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Linux bcm43xx developers have found GPL code in OpenBSD's bcw driver. Coverage here: http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38746 and here: http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=2007040 6104008

Submission + - RIAA & MPAA seek exemption from pre-texting la

Submitted by msblack on Saturday April 07, 2007 @12:40PM

msblack writes: The RIAA and MPAA are lobbying California legislators for an exemption to proposed legislation which would outlaw pretexting. Pretexting is the practice of pretending to be someone else in order to obtain personal information on that person, such as telephone or banking records. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the RIAA and MPAA sometimes need to lie in their pursuit of bootleggers. They would like the legislation to exempt anyone who owns a copyright from restrictions against pretexting. The recording industry says that sometimes their employees need to pose as someone else as they gather evidence to bring legal actions against criminals who counterfit or steal motion pictures. An interesting line from the article is, "[RIAA's Brad] Buckles said the recording industry would never, nor would it ever, assume someone's identity to access that person's phone or bank records." Fortunately, Senator Corbert, the bill's author, is unlikely to accept these hostile changes.

Submission + - Stem Cells May Fix Hearing Loss

Submitted by

webdoodle

on Saturday April 07, 2007 @11:53AM

webdoodle writes: "Loud noise can cause hearing loss in humans due to loss or faulty development of the sensory hair cells inside the ear. Lost hair cells are not replaced and people exposed to these conditions face permanent hearing loss. Identification of the stem cells from the adult cochlea would be a major step forward to fixing hearing loss."

First AACS Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Key Revoked 254

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday April 07, 2007 @11:52AM from the changing-the-locks dept.

Thomas Charron writes "An update posted for Intervideo WinDVD 8 confirms that it's AACS key has been possibly revoked. WinDVD 8 is the software which had its device key compromised, allowing unfettered access to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD content, resulting in HD movies being made available via many torrent sites online. This is possibly the first known key revocation which has taken place, and little is known of the actual process used for key revocation. According to the release, 'Please be aware that failure to apply the update will result in AACS-protected HD DVD and BD playback being disabled,' which pretty much confirms that the key revocation has already taken place for all newly released Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs."

Submission + - Solaris ZFS filesystem has been ported to FreeBSD

Submitted by

Derkjan de Haan

on Saturday April 07, 2007 @11:23AM

Derkjan de Haan writes: "The Solaris ZFS filesystem has been ported to FreeBSD. Here is the commit message: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current /2007-April/070544.html"

How To Properly Archive Data On Disc Media 120

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 31, 2007 @05:48PM from the yay-data dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Patrick McFarland, the well-known Free Software Magazine author, goes into great detail on CD/DVD media over at the Ad Terras Per Aspera site. McFarland covers the history of the media, from CDs through recordable DVDs, explaining the various formats and their strengths and drawbacks. The heart of the article is an essay on the DVD-R vs. DVD+R recording standards, leading to McFarland's recommendation for which media he buys for archival storage. Spoiler: it's Taiyo Yuden DVD+R all the way. From the article: 'Unlike pressed CDs/DVDs, burnt CDs/DVDs can eventually fade, due to five things that affect the quality of CD media: sealing method, reflective layer, organic dye makeup, where it was manufactured, and your storage practices (please keep all media out of direct sunlight, in a nice cool dry dark place, in acid-free plastic containers; this will triple the lifetime of any media).'"

Feed Novelties: For Chatting Face to Face, Webcams With a Clearer View (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Saturday March 31, 2007 @05:12PM

To tap the potential world of video buddies, manufacturers are offering high-quality portable Web cameras.

Submission + - Medical Imaging Reaches the Stars

Submitted by

SeaDour

on Saturday March 31, 2007 @05:04PM

SeaDour writes: "Physicians around the globe have been using detailed three-dimensional images to look deep inside the human body for years. Now, astrophysicists are using the same visualization technology to peer through the cosmos. "Harvard's Initiative for Innovative Computing (IIC) has brought together astronomers, medical imaging specialists, and software engineers to adapt medical imaging software to create 3-D views of astronomical bodies." The project, known as AstroMed, allows scientists to analyze detailed information on the underlying structure of various large-scale deep space phenomena, all generated on a typical home computer. "Right now, this software is a tool for scientists. We are blazing a trail in the field of 3-D astronomical computer graphics," explained Michael Halle, AstroMed Project Manager. "As we refine our capabilities, we hope to develop a tool that researchers in a variety of fields reliant on 3-D data will use on everyday computers.""

Google Using Pre-Katrina Imagery on Google Maps 242

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 31, 2007 @03:46PM from the errr-huh dept.

Thirdsin writes "CNN reports that images of lands devastated by Hurricane Katrina have been replaced on Google's map service with pre-Hurricane Katrina imagery. Now a subcommittee from The House Committee on Science and Technology has asked CEO Eric Schmidt for Google's motivation behind the imagery switch. '[Congressional subcommittee chair Brad] Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery. "To use older, pre-Katrina imagery when more recent images are available without some explanation as to why appears to be fundamentally dishonest," Miller said.' It is worth pointing out that images from Google Earth have not been changed."

Submission + - Windows Vista restricts GNU GCC apps to 32 MB

Submitted by Neil Watson on Saturday March 31, 2007 @03:26PM

Neil Watson writes: A developer named Thomas R. Nicely claims that... Executable images created for the DOS/Wintel environment (but not employing the Win32 API), using the GNU GCC compilers and language standards, are subject to failure (or performance degradation) when executed in Microsoft Windows Vista, because Vista arbitrarily restricts the memory space for the GCC executable to 32 MB (33,554,432 bytes) Read more.

Submission + - Google Does Evil

Submitted by

ronocdh

on Saturday March 31, 2007 @02:27PM

ronocdh writes: "CNN reports that Google has replaced current satellite imagery of the New Orleans area with pre-Katrina images. From the article: "Swapping the post-Katrina images and the ruin they revealed for others showing an idyllic city dumbfounded many locals and even sparked suspicions that the company and civic leaders were conspiring to portray the area's recovery progressing better than it really is. [...] a virtual trip through New Orleans via Google Maps is a surreal experience of scrolling across an unscathed landscape of packed parking lots and marinas full of boats." Congressman Brad Miller (D-North Carolina) has written a letter to CEO Eric Schmidt, demanding an explanation by April 6, 2007."

Serious Magnet Failure at CERN's New Accelerator 193

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday March 31, 2007 @10:57AM from the smashing-atoms dept.

GrepNut writes "CERN is reporting that the giant magnets that steer the particle beam in the new and highly anticipated Large Hadron Collider have just failed catastrophically in a stress test, apparently due to a design oversight. It doesn't help that the magnets were designed and built by CERN's US competitor Fermilab." While safety precautions were followed, and no one was injured nor were any rifts in the space-time continuum opened, it's still a rather large setback for the project.

Submission + - DMCA: Takedown Anyone's YouTube videos

Submitted by BillGatesLoveChild on Saturday March 31, 2007 @12:27AM

BillGatesLoveChild writes: Bob Cringely reports that an interview potentially embarrassing to Steve Jobs was taken off YouTube. The interview was from Cringely's 1990s show Triumph of the Nerds. YouTube said it responded to a DMCA complaint made by NBD Television Ltd in London. Trouble is, NBD is not the copyright holder. They have nothing at all to do with the show and don't even sell it.

PBS who made and holds the copyright said they knew nothing of the complaint. Cringely tried to contact NBD Television Ltd who wouldn't respond. Neither would Youtube, who only speaks by form letter. Why did NBD Television make the complaint? Why did YouTube blindly enforce it? Is Steve Jobs behind this, or is it just another media company misusing the DMCA, at that, not even with their own copyrighted material? Why should a London-based company be able to issue DMCA takedowns, yet not be liable when they abuse the law?

Newton's Second Law, Revisited 171

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 31, 2007 @12:23AM from the my-favorite-law dept.

eldavojohn writes "Dust off your fundamental physics books, an aspiring astrophysicist by the name of Alex Ignatiev has published a paper that proposes testing special cases of Newton's Second Law on earth's surface. His goal is sort of ambitious. The time he has to test his theory is only 1/1000th of a second, twice each year, in either Greenland or Antarctica. What would he look for? Spontaneous motion. From his interview with PhysOrg: 'If these experiments were to take place, Ignatiev says that scientists would look for what he calls the SHLEM effect. This acronym stands for static high latitude equinox modified inertia and would be noticed in a condition where the forces of the earth's rotation on its axis, and of the orbital force of the earth as it moves around the sun, would be canceled out ... In the end, if Newton's Second Law could be violated, he would be forcing physicists to reevaluate much of what we understand derived from that law — which is quite a bit.'"

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