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The Courts

Submission + - Cellular networks should be open, says major news (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
athloi
athloi writes: "In the USA, however, cellphone service providers can and do thwart innovative technologies and limit competition. For example, they routinely bar handset makers from including Wi-Fi capabilities, which can save consumers a bundle by allowing them to use a free network when they are in "hot spots." With more new technologies on the way, the current system could stifle innovation. http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070712/cm_usato day/ourviewonspectrumforsaledisconnectphoneprovide r"
Privacy

Submission + - Privacy Isn't Dead, or At Least It Shouldn't Be (sciam.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Scientific American sits down with Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Latanya Sweeney to discuss online privacy. After a brief discussion of the importance of privacy in society (and a few paragraphs on her life) Latanya Sweeny, who heads the Data Privacy Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, talks about just how easy it is to identify people through publicly available information. From the article: "[Earlier in my career] I had learned that if I had the date of birth, gender and a five-digit zip code of a person, I could identify 87 percent of the people in the United States. So even if you don't give me your social security number, I can find out who you are nearly nine out of 10 times."
United States

Submission + - The New Science of Parking

Submitted by
Articles Directory
Articles Directory writes: " The New Science of Parking If you live in a city and drive a car, chances are you know the hassles of looking for a place to park. Studies of traffic congestion in New York and Los Angeles have found that cruising for parking is, in fact, a major source of gridlock. In a 2006 study undertaken in a Brooklyn neighborhood by Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based advocacy group, 45% of drivers interviewed admitted they were simply looking for a parking spot. A more rigorous analysis was conducted in Los Angeles by Dr. Douglas Shoup, an urban planning professor at UCLA and one of the nation's top parking gurus. Over the course of a year, he and his students found, the search for curb parking in a 15-block business district "created about 950,000 excess vehicle miles of travel — equivalent to 38 trips around the earth, or four trips to the moon," which consumes "47,000 gallons of gas and produces 730 tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.""
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Banks Make More on Overdraft Fees than Loans (jeremyduffy.com)

Submitted by
JeremyDuffy
JeremyDuffy writes: "Research shows that banks are making far more on fees than actual loans. Worse yet, they specifically engineered their systems and policies to maximize the fees charged. For example, holding deposits long enough for your account to go negative so they can charge overdraft fees. New laws are in the works and if they pass, this kind of predation could end. In the meantime, you can use their nasty policies against them to get free loans for the cost of a single fee (see the article for details)"
Communications

Submission + - Is SMS message content stored by US telcos? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Does anyone know if US telcos store the content of SMS/text messages? Can it be retrieved for evidence in legal matters? Both the source and recipient are T-Mobile subscribers.
Music

Submission + - Music Industry Attacks Free Prince CD (guardian.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "You might not like Prince but he's planning on giving away a free CD in a national Sunday newspaper, but music industry executives are practically going insane over the idea and threatening to retaliate. "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday," said Entertainment Retailers Association spokesman Paul Quirk, who also said it would be "an insult" to record stores. But wait a minute- can't Prince give away his own music if he wants to without fear of industry retaliation?"
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia vandal predicts death

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A wikipedia vandal inserted into wikipedia information that Nancy Benoit was dead 14 hours before police found out. The vandal later came forward and said it was just a coincidence, and apologizing for ever vandalizing wikipedia:

...I feel incredibly bad for all the attention this got because of the fact that what I said turned out to be the truth. Like I said it was just a major coincidence, and I will never vandalize anything on wikipedia or post wrongful information. I've learned from this experience. I just can't believe what I wrote was actually the case, I've remained stunned and saddened over it....
Biotech

Submission + - Team claims synthetic life feat (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by gertvs
gertvs writes: According to the BBC scientists in the US say they have taken a major step towards producing life from scratch in the laboratory by having successfully transplanted an entire genome from one bacterium cell to another. This technique could possibly lead to the creation of 'designer' microbes producing fuel or help cleaning toxic waste. Others fear negative effects, e.g. that it could be used to create biological weapons.
Businesses

Submission + - Senate Refuses to Increase H1-B Visa Quota (eweek.com)

Submitted by teebob21
teebob21 writes: Eweek reports that the Senate refused to carry forward legislation that would have increased the number of H1-B visas granted each year. The immigration reform bill (S-1639) was heavily lobbied for by companies such as Microsoft, who rely heavily on H1-B visa holders to staff their IT and technical departments. The immigration bill included a provision to raise the yearly limit on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000. The H-1B supply for the 2007 fiscal year was used up in just over one day last year.
Quake

Submission + - Technology Predicts Earthquakes (newsblaze.com)

Submitted by
newsblaze
newsblaze writes: "Japan's Meteorological agency distribution network connects to the Internet, sending a signal to activate a device that delivers a loud countdown of up to 20 seconds preceding the beginning of a tremor. The Agency is to begin the first warning broadcast on radio and television within four months and later this year starts sending to a new version of cell phones. In Shake, Rattle & Roll — Don`t Panic, Strasbaugh outlines how it works and notes that JEITA, Electronic Industries Association of Japan says there can be false alarms. As long as there aren't too many and people take notice, that will be OK. I know, wrong Quake, but how to classify this?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - tux500

Submitted by
M$ Turncoat
M$ Turncoat writes: "Marketing Linux has always been a tricky proposition. As a community, we have relied on corporations who have a stake in the Linux operating system to market Linux to the world at large. Today, we have an opportunity to change that, and make Linux marketing as much a community effort as Linux development. That effort begins with the Tux 500 project. http://www.tux500.com/

Our goal is simple: we want to collect community donations to enter a Linux sponsored car in the 2007 Indianapolis 500. We need your help! If less than 1% of the Linux community donates $1, this will happen... will you do your part?"
Patents

Submission + - Dell joins Microsoft and Novell in Linux pact

Submitted by Peaceful_Patriot
Peaceful_Patriot writes: According to this Reuters article, Dell has joined with Novell & Microsoft to offer Suse Linux to its Enterprise customers. According to the short article, "...The move makes Dell the first major systems provider to join the Microsoft-Novell collaboration, which consists of a broad set of business and technological agreements to make their products work together better to serve corporate customers using both Linux and Windows computer servers..." According to MS, Dell will also be migrating some of its existing Linux customers to Suse.
Businesses

Submission + - Is age 40 too old for IT or Software Development?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I have read some stuff on Dice.com's message boards where some people are claiming that after age 40 or so that jobs become very scarce in the IT profession. I was wondering how prevalent this really is, and in particular I was wondering how hard it would be to actually start a career in IT or Software Development at age 40.

I recently finished up a degree in physics, and I have done a little basic IT support as well as some programming as part of my job working in an environmental testing lab. How difficult would it be to start a computer career at age 40, and what industries and fields will have the most problem with my age and which will have the least problem with my age?
Security

Submission + - Damn Vulnerable Linux

Submitted by
Scott Ainslie Sutton
Scott Ainslie Sutton writes: "Enterprise GNU/Linux Resource Linux.com have highlighted a newly created GNU/Linux distribution named Damn Vulnerable Linux, built upon Damn Small Linux. The distribution, headed by Thorsten Schneider, aims to deliver the Operating System in such a way that it allows Security Students first hand insight and hands on experience with Security issues within GNU/Linux in order to teach them protection and mitigation techniques The project's website describes the distribution as 'the most vulnerable, exploitable Operating System ever' and it's true, the developers have ensured that it contains outdated, ill-configured, flawed code and contains GNU/Linux 2.4 Kernel which is known to have many exploitable avenues in itself. Damn Vulnerable Linux's website can be viewed here."

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