Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Censorship

Submission + - HD-DVD processing key and massive censorship

Submitted by
Rudd-O
Rudd-O writes: "After successful discovery of the HD-DVD processing key, massive unprecedented amounts of censorship, in the form of DMCA takedown notices (by the MPAA), have begun to circulate around the Internet. For example, Spooky Action at a Distance was killed. More disturbingly, my story got Dugg twice, with the second wave hitting 15.500 votes, and today I found out it had simply disappeared from Digg. How long until the long arm of the MPAA gets to my own site (run in Ecuador) and the rest of them holding the processing key? How long will we let rampant censorhip go, in the name of economic interest?"
Software

Submission + - Ext3cow Versioning File System released for 2.6

Submitted by
Zachary Peterson
Zachary Peterson writes: "Ext3cow, an open-source versioning file system based on ext3, has been released for 2.6 kernel. Ext3cow allows users to view their file system as it appeared at any point in time through a natural, time-shifiting interface. This is can be very useful for preventing data loss, revision control, intrusion detection, and meeting the requirments of data retention legislation. Kernel patches and details can be found at: http://www.ext3cow.com./"
Privacy

Submission + - Last Week to Tell DHS to STOP REAL ID

Submitted by
groschke
groschke writes: "A broad coalition of organizations across the United States is urging the public to submit comments rejecting the illegal national identification system created under the Department of Homeland Security's REAL ID program. Their website links to several portals you can use to submit your comments online, as well as some sample comments. REAL ID doesn't contain adequate privacy and security safeguards; makes getting a driver's license harder; and will make it easier for stalkers, identity thieves and corrupt government officials to access our personal information. The REAL ID Act passed with no hearings and this is your chance to speak up! The deadline is May 8th, 5pm Eastern."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - AACS exploit and industry revenge

Submitted by
Guzabi
Guzabi writes: "Not a scoop, really, but ruud-o has published the (in)famous 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 some hours ago. This is actually a key that is part of the de-cyphering process for HD contents found on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. There seems to be a storm over this on the web (despite the code being accessible for months now) as AACS-LA is desperately trying to shut down sites exhibiting the code. Read the full story below and if you feel like contributing to world freedom, you know what to do ;-)

http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/04/30/spread-this- number/"
United States

Submission + - SF fire proves official WTC collapse explanation?

Submitted by sn00ker
sn00ker writes: As was widely reported by numerous agencies, a petrol tanker crashed into a freeway bridge in San Francisco and the subsequent fire caused a section to collapse within 25 minutes.

One of the core tenets of WTC conspiracy theory is that a simple petroleum-products fire could not cause sufficient structural weakness to have caused the towers to collapse. However, this incident seems to prove otherwise. Another nail in the conspiracy coffin, or more grist for the mill?
Science

A Step Towards an Invisibility Cloak 172

Posted by kdawson from the who-goes-there dept.
An anonymous reader alerts us to work out of Purdue University in Indiana, where researchers have produced a design for a method of cloaking objects of any shape and size at a single wavelength of visible light. The math for such an invisibility effect was worked out last year at Duke and in the UK, but the new work, to be published in Nature Photonics this month, is the first practical design. The lead researcher, Vladimir Shalaev, notes that even though the current design works only at a single wavelength, and so would not convey true invisibility, it could still be useful — against, for example, night-vision goggles or laser target designators. Shalaev calls the technical challenge of producing an all-wavelengths cloak "doable in principle."
Software

Submission + - AOL sues, Gaim is now Pidgin

Submitted by Pat J
Pat J writes: Gaim has announced that the reason for the long awaited 2.0.0 release has been an ongoing discussion with AOL over rights to the name AIM. Today, they announced on their blog that Gaim 2.0.0 will now be called Pidgin and will be released within a week or so. http://gaim.sourceforge.net/index.php?id=177.
Google

Submission + - Google to Viacom-The law is clear, and on our side

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google responded to the opinion piece in the Washington Post by a Viacom Lawyer with a letter to the editor titled "An End Run on Copyright Law." "Viacom is attempting to rewrite established copyright law through a baseless lawsuit. In February, after negotiations broke down, Viacom requested that YouTube take down more than 100,000 videos. We did so immediately, working through a weekend. Viacom later withdrew some of those requests, apparently realizing that those videos were not infringing, after all. Though Viacom seems unable to determine what constitutes infringing content, its lawyers believe that we should have the responsibility and ability to do it for them. Fortunately, the law is clear, and on our side."
Programming

Submission + - Why and How Become a Software Team Leader?

Submitted by
abyx
abyx writes: "You're a developer and you enjoy it, and suddenly you get the chance to become a team leader. How can you tell whether you want to or not? I, for one, enjoy the development itself. On the other hand getting some more responsibility sounds interesting and a nice change. On the third hand I'm not sure whether it's really that interesting.

So... How do you know whether to take that step, and if you do how do you become a team leader from a generic developer?"
The Courts

Submission + - Do you know your rights during police encounters?

Submitted by stry_cat
stry_cat writes: Think you know your rights during police encounters? Like most Americans you probably know less than you think. FlexYourRights.org has a short quiz to see if you know what to do when you encounter the police.

I'll give you a hint, it's not like how they make it out on TV.
Biotech

Journal Journal: Composting spent grains from beer brewing 1

Journal by Sloppy

It all started in late 2005. It's a rental house and other occupants had neglected the back yard (it was in aweful shape) so we got into the habit of throwing the used coffee grounds on the "grass." I think that when I moved in and started making sure it got watered regularly, that is what really brought the lawn back, but I never got completely over the coffee ground superstition.

Space

Submission + - Mars Rover Churns Up Yellow Soil

Submitted by
SeaDour
SeaDour writes: "Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are taking a closer look at images sent back by the Mars rover Spirit nearly a year ago, showing bright yellow soil that had been churned up by the rover's wheels. The soil appears to contain high concentrations of sulfur as well as traces of water. "This material could have been left behind by water that dissolved these minerals underground, then came to the surface and evaporated, or it could be a volcanic deposit formed around ancient gas vents," said Dr. Ray Arvidson. Researchers are planning to see if the soil turns up anywhere else in the area, potentially giving more clues as to its origin."

Slashdot Top Deals

"If you want to know what happens to you when you die, go look at some dead stuff." -- Dave Enyeart

Close