Cycnus - Slashdot User

Rocket Hobbyists Prevail Over Feds In Court Case 546

Posted by kdawson on Monday March 16, 2009 @07:01PM from the up-up-and-away dept.

Ellis D. Tripp writes "DC District Court judge Reggie Walton has finally ruled in the 9-year old court case pitting the model rocketry community against the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ruling is a 'slam dunk' for the rocketry community, stating that the BATFE ignored scientific evidence and overstepped its bounds by classifying ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) as an 'explosive.' Effective immediately, the BATFE has no legal jurisdiction over hobby rocket motors, and a federal Low Explosives User's Permit will no longer be needed in order to purchase APCP motors. The full text of the Judge's decision is reproduced at the link."

What to Fight Over After Megapixels? 596

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 16, 2009 @01:12PM from the just-create-a-new-buzzword dept.

NewScientist has a quick look at where the digital image crowd is headed now that the megapixel wars are drawing to a close. Looks like an emphasis on low-light performance and color accuracy in addition to fun software tools are the new hotness. "For years, consumers have been sold digital cameras largely on the basis of one number - the megapixels crammed onto its image sensor. But recently an industry bigwig admitted that squeezing in ever more resolution has become meaningless. Akira Watanabe, head of Olympus' SLR planning department, said that 12 megapixels is plenty for most photography purposes and that his company will henceforth be focusing on improving color accuracy and low-light performance."

Names of Advisors Cleared To Access ACTA Documents 186

Posted by kdawson on Monday March 16, 2009 @08:12AM from the who-sees-what-you-can't dept.

1 a bee writes "With the White House claiming national security grounds for failing to release ACTA related information, including negotiating documents and even the list of participants, the spotlight is now on just who does have access. Turns out, according to James Love, hundreds of advisers, many of them corporate lobbyists, are considered 'cleared advisers.' The list looks a who's who of captains of industry."

Journal Journal: Sometimes straddling the fence should hurt.

Journal by yoder on Monday December 25, 2006 @11:23PM

I've been reading posts here and on some other forums with people who say they are "skeptical environmentalists" and then go on to say that the jury is still out on Global Warming. There are those who say they just don't have enough information to make a decision about Global Warming. And that is fine, more power to them in their quest for that last bit of missing evidence, that huge red blinking neon sign that covers the sky from horizon to horizon that says "Global Warming is real. It is

Submission + - Will Vista really improve Windows security?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 25, 2006 @04:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: On first glance it appears a no-brainer that Vista will improve security a lot. After all, Microsoft has been working on it for five years. However, the major changes that make it different from XP with respect to security are LUA and IE7 always operating at a lower privilege level (even when run by Administrator)

These are good and necessary changes, but bring Vista to the same playing field that Unix, Linux and more recently OS X "enjoy", where you have to concern yourself with a whole new class of privilege escalation problems. This is something Microsoft has never needed to address before and bug hunters were never concerned with finding. When almost everyone runs XP as Administrator, what good is a locally exploitable hole that lets a non-Administrator gain Administrator privileges?

Now, as this article at news.com.com.com.com shows, these holes are just now starting to be investigated, and are already being easily found. And comparatively few researchers and blackhats are looking hard at Vista, since it is so new that hardly anyone is using it now. Certainly many such bugs remain to be found, and given Microsoft's track record on security and the likelihood that their programmers have never really concerned themselves with this class of bug before, it seems quite possible that breaking into a Vista system will be almost as easy and common as breaking into a Windows 2000 or XP system. The only difference in technique will be that in addition to the initial bug that allows gaining local user privileges, a second bug will need to be used that then escalates that privilege to Administrator. After that, the typical rootkit or virus installation can take place as before.

Submission + - What movies got computers right?

Submitted by boxturtleme on Monday December 25, 2006 @03:33PM

boxturtleme writes: There have been several posts recently about how movies have gotten computers, hackers, and other geeky stuff entirely wrong. A while back there was an article on Servers, Hackers, and Code In the Movies and another on Usability [of a GUI] in the Movies. Now we all know that most movies out there that have anything to do with technology get some part of it wildly innacurate, though it often makes for a fun movie. But what movies got technology right? This could range from movies about the past that represent it correctly to modern day movies or movies about the future that slashdot readers think present something within the realm of possibility. With all the complaining about bad movies, I'm curious to know what the good ones are.

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