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Transportation

Tesla's High-Tech Lawsuits in Silicon Valley War 79

Posted by timothy from the lawsuits-are-positively-negative dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After pressing charges against its chief competitor in the race for the world's first production electric sports car that we broke down here recently, Tesla Motors seems to be shifting from the high-tech company re-writing Detroit's script to another Silicon Valley startup trying to sniff out the competition. So says Engadget's legal analyst in an in-depth column breaking down the legal ramifications. From the article: "This could upset the whole race for major production of an electric car in the U.S., which may be the main result of this whole drama. If anything, that's a win for Tesla. Let's just hope the company that set out to upend the automotive industry achieves its competitive goals in the lab and in the marketplace — and keeps its future fights out of the courtroom.""
Operating Systems

Submission + - Gartner downs Microsoft, OpenMac. All connected. (crafted.com.au)

Submitted by
jamiegau
jamiegau writes: "What all this comes down to is that the PC is becoming consumer electronics device. This is a huge pivotal point for the world. There will be a shift of power in some of the biggest companies in the world. To date I have not seen any real articles that cover this issue. So here I go. I'll try to make it short and to the point."
Math

Edward Lorenz, Father of Chaos Theory, Dies at 90 104

Posted by timothy from the what-are-the-odds-his-middle-name-was-norton dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Professor Edward N. Lorenz, who discovered in 1961 that subtle changes in the initial conditions of a weather simulation program could cause very large differences in its results, died of cancer Wednesday at the age of 90. The contributions of the father of chaos theory, who coined the term 'the butterfly effect' and also discovered the Lorenz Attractor, are best summarized by the wording of the Kyoto Prize in 1991 which noted that his discovery of chaos theory 'profoundly influenced a wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton.'"
Communications

Submission + - 'Nerdic' Geek Speak Taking World by Storm? (wired.com)

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "Jenna Wortham's Wired News blog says nerdic is reportedly one of the world's fastest-growing languages. New "research" (we're still waiting on the white paper) from Pixmania, one of Europe's largest online retailers, claims that Nerdic is the fastest-growing language on the Continent due to its widespread use and adoption by all age groups. Of course, it's not really a language: Nerdic refers to the buzzwords and acronyms that describe technological techniques or advances that are becoming integrated into everyday conversation. For example, consider the widespread use of terms like rickroll, mashup and googling... Seen on Shacknews."
Software

Submission + - SPAM: How To Restrict or Disable Keyboard, Mouse and Eve

Submitted by
raymondblog
raymondblog writes: "When you have kids coming over to your place, it is best you turn off your computer or else the toddler will be banging your keyboard, moving your mouse and even pressing the power button. If you need to leave it on, here is how you can disable the keyboard, mouse and even power button without unplugging it from the back of the computer."
Link to Original Source
Security

Submission + - Barack Obama's website hacked, laptops stolen (dailykos.com) 1

Submitted by
tulare
tulare writes: "Apparently someone (presumably supporting Hillary Clinton hacked the my.barackobama.com website, inserting redirects to Hillary Clinton's website when users tried to click through the community blogs section. There's a video of the redirects being run on the link above. Additionally, there are reports that laptops containing field data, as well as cellphones, were stolen during a break-in at the Allentown, PA field office.

Is it 1972 all over again?"
Privacy

British Police Use Facebook to Gather Evidence 128

Posted by timothy from the nothing-at-all-creepy-about-that dept.
Amy Bennett writes "Move over police scanner and most-wanted poster. The Greater Manchester Police force has created a Facebook application to collect leads for investigations. The application delivers a real-time feed of police news and appeals for information. A 'Submit Intelligence' link takes a Facebook user to the police Web site where they can anonymously submit tips. Another link leads to the videos on YouTube featuring information on the police force, ongoing investigations and other advisories." As reader groschke writes, though, "Their access to user data raises significant civil liberties problems. They may be able to see more of your data than your friends or network members can — and you also expose your friends' data when you add the application. All without needing a subpoena or warrant."
Privacy

FBI and Next-Gen P2P Monitoring 122

Posted by CmdrTaco from the big-brother-wants-to-give-you-a-hug dept.
AHuxley writes "Can the FBI get funding to create a next-generation network monitoring and database system for P2P networks, web sites, and chat rooms? Could the FBI's Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) network be opened to more law enforcement agents across the USA? Will the tracking of p2p users via 'unique serial numbers' generated from a person's computer be expanded from its first use in late 2005? Is your p2p application or plug-in sending back your MAC address, firmware revision, manufacture date, GUID or other details?" Could this story submitter pose any more questions in his submission? Won't someone please think of the ... oh, never mind.
Space

Submission + - Soyuz ballistic re-entry 300 miles off-course

Submitted by call-me-kenneth
call-me-kenneth writes: Soyuz TMA-11, carrying a crew of three returning from the ISS, unexpectedly followed a high-G ballistic re-entry trajectory and ended up landing 300 miles off-course. The crew, including Commander Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, are reportedly in good health. Soyuz capsules have previously saved the lives of the crew even after severe malfunctions that might have lead to the loss of a less robust vehicle.
Security

Submission + - Coolest university tech lab projects in the works (networkworld.com)

Submitted by NW
NW writes: While universities like MIT, Berkeley and CMU don't tend to shout as loudly about their latest tech innovations as do Google, Cisco and other big vendors, their results are no less impressive in what they could mean for faster, more secure and more useful networks, computers, etc. Here's a good roundup of 25, from studies on putting T-Rays to use in computers to advancing wireless to the next level to outsmarting terrorists on the Web.
The Internet

Submission + - Dilbert goes Flash and readers revolt

Submitted by
spagiola
spagiola writes: "The Dilbert.com website just got an extreme makeover. Gone is the old, rather clunky but perfectly functional, website, replaced by a Flash-heavy website that only Mordac the Preventer of Information Services could love. Users have been pretty unanimous in condemning the changes. Among the politer comments: "Congrats. Vista is no more lonely at the top in the Competition For The Worst Upgrade In Computing Industry, this web site upgrade being a serious contender." You have to register to leave comments, but many seem to have registered for the express purpose of panning the new design."
Google

Hackontest — 24h Open Source Coding Marathon 50

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the room-full-of-doritos-and-mountain-dew dept.
maemst writes "Can you code 24 hours non-stop? Hackontest is a new Google-sponsored 24-hour programming competition between different open source projects. Its goals are to enhance Free Software projects according to user needs and to make visible how enthusiastically open source software is being developed. During the current online selection process users and developers of open source software may submit feature requests and rate and comment them. On August 1st, 2008 the Hackontest jury will pick the three most promising teams. Each team will receive a free trip to Switzerland on September 24/25, 2008 to participate in the competition located in Zurich. Hacking 24 hours inside an etoy.CONTAINER, the teams and their virtually present communities will implement certain features based on the online ratings and jury selection. In the end, the Hackontest jury evaluates the code and awards the winners with a total of USD 8500. The jury is made up of 10 renowned open source contributors: Jeremy Alison (Samba), Jono Bacon (Ubuntu), Brian W. Fitzpatrick (Subversion), Martin F. Krafft (Debian), Alexander Limi (Plone), Federico Mena-Quintero (GNOME), Bram Moolenaar (vim), Bruce Perens (OSI founder), Lukas K. Smith (PHP) and Harald Welte (gpl-violations.org)."
Announcements

Submission + - Piratebay: All your cops belong to MPAA

Submitted by eiapoce
eiapoce writes: The guys operating piratebay discovered that the "Chief police investigator in Pirate Bay trial [is] employed by the copyright industry"

Short version, the chief behing the preliminary investigaton at piratebay is now a Warner Bros employee. The discovery comes through his facebook profile and has been confirmed. According to the operators at piratebay this is a another signal that "The copyright industry stands no chance in an objective legal judgement and therefore have to cheat their way forward."

Original Blog article here: http://static.thepiratebay.org/pm/20080418_eng.txt

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