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Submission + - SpaceX Wins FAA Permission to Build a Spaceport in Texas

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: SpaceX just got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to build a 56.5-acre spaceport along the Gulf of Mexico on the Texas-Mexico border—a huge step toward actually making the spaceport a reality.
Wednesday, the FAA, which handles all commercial space launch permitting in the United States, issued what's known as a "Record of Decision" that suggests the agency would allow the company to launch 10 Falcon 9 rockets and two Falcon Heavy rockets per year out of the spaceport, through at least 2025.

Submission + - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Employee Memo: "We Will Reinvent Productivity"

Submitted by rjmarvin
rjmarvin writes: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent out a lengthy memo to employees http://sdt.bz/71478 laying out a proposed reorganization of the company, a renewed focus on devices and services and a call to action to “reinvent productivity.” The memo, entitled “Bold Ambition & Our Core,” http://www.microsoft.com/en-us... talks about transforming Microsoft from a self-described “devices and services” company to a “productivity and platform company.” Nadella also reaffirmed Microsoft’s commitment to the Xbox platform and touted CloudOS and its Enterprise Mobility Suite.

Submission + - Senator Al Franken accuses AT+T of 'skirting' net neutrality rules (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: In a letter to the U.S. Federal Communication Commission and the Department of Justice, Senator Al Franken warned that letting AT&T acquire Direct TV could turn AT&T into a gatekeeper to the mobile Internet. Franken also complained that AT&T took inappropriate steps to block Internet applications like Google Voice and Skype: "AT&T has a history of skirting the spirit, and perhaps the letter" of the government's rules on net neutrality, Franken wrote.

Submission + - Sand-Based Anode Triples Lithium-Ion Battery Performance (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Conventional lithium-ion batteries rely on anodes made of graphite, but it is widely believed that the performance of this material has reached its zenith, prompting researchers to look at possible replacements. Much of the focus has been on nanoscale silicon, but it remains difficult to produce in large quantities and usually degrades quickly. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have overcome these problems by developing a lithium-ion battery anode using sand.

Submission + - India forged Google SSL certificates

Submitted by NotInHere
NotInHere writes: As Google writes on its Online Security Blog, the National Informatics Centre of India (NIC) used its intermediate CA certificate issued by Indian CCA, to issue several unauthorized certificates for Google domains, allowing to do Man in the middle attacks. Possible impact however is limited, as, according to Google, the root certificates for the CA were only installed on Windows, which Firefox doesn't use, and for the Chrom{e,ium} browser, the CA for important Google domains is pinned to the Google CA.
According to its website, the NIC CA has suspended certificate issuance, and according to Google, its root certificates were revoked by Indian CCA.

Submission + - Single European Copyright Title on the Horizon (dropbox.com)

Submitted by presroi
presroi writes: It has been 13 years after the last harmonization effort of copyright within the European Union and this period might soon be over. After the election of a new European Parliament in May this year, Jean-Claude Juncker has been nominated to become the new President of the European Commission. He has named a unified copyright his top priority, a statement repeated today at a hearing before the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament (transscript of the question by MEP Julia Reda and his answer in German, Video recording). These statements are coinciding with the upcoming release of a report by the General Directorate in charge of copyright, of which an advanced draft has been already leaked to the internet. The report analyzes four possible policy options, one of which is the introduction of a Single EU Copyright title.

Submission + - Qualcomm retracts GitHub takedowns (phoronix.com)

Submitted by ndogg
ndogg writes: Qualcomm has reversed course on its DMCA takedown of 100+ GitHub repositories. Many of the repositories are back online, although the original takedown notice can still be found on GitHub's website.

Submission + - DistroWatch.com domain name suspended due to issue with domain registrar (zdnet.com)

Submitted by rriegs
rriegs writes: The popular DistroWatch Linux and BSD distribution tracking site has had its .com domain name suspended as a result of unspecified issues with its domain registrar, Doteasy. Founder Ladislav Bodnar reports:

As many of you noticed, the distrowatch.com domain name was suspended by the domain's registrar, Doteasy, last Sunday. I don't want to go into details about what exactly happened as it's a long and boring story. Suffice to say that I feel grossly aggrieved by the series of greedy and even malicious actions taken by Doteasy and as soon as I get this sorted out, I will be looking into transferring the distrowatch.com domain name to another registrar.

DistroWatch continues operations at its alternate domain name, distrowatch.org. Can anyone recommend a suitable, Linux- and BSD-friendly domain registrar to help get DistroWatch back online under its chosen URL?

Submission + - How Can the ACM Better Serve Professional Programmers?

Submitted by ChelleChelle2
ChelleChelle2 writes: The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded in 1947. Today, it is considered one of the most prestigious scientific and educational computing societies in the world. For decades ACM membership was considered to be a mark of a professional; however, this is no longer the case. Many programmers today consider the ACM a purely academic institution of little use or relevance for professionals. In this article, Vinton Cerf—one of the “fathers of the internet” and a past president of the ACM—asks how can ACM “adapt its activities and offerings to increase the participation of professionals?” Is there anything the ACM can do to better serve professional programmers? Join in the conversation

Comment Battery not removeable? No HTC One M8 for me. (Score 1, Interesting) 702

A few days ago I was thinking of buying an HTC One M8 because the camera takes very clear close-ups. When I discovered that the battery cannot be removed, I decided I probably won't ever buy anything from HTC.

If a company engages in sneaky, tricky behavior, I try to avoid buy its products. The sneakiness and trickery I know about may be only part of the attempts to trick the customers.

Submission + - Airbus Patents Windowless Cockpit That Would Increase Pilots' Field of View (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Imagine showing up at the airport to catch your flight, looking at your plane, and noticing that instead of windows, the cockpit is now a smooth cone of aluminum. It may seem like the worst case of quality control in history, but Airbus argues that this could be the airliner of the future. In a new US patent application, the EU aircraft consortium outlines a new cockpit design that replaces the traditional cockpit with one that uses 3D view screens instead of conventional windows.

Submission + - Google shutting down Orkut (google.com)

Submitted by quarterbuck
quarterbuck writes: Google is shutting down its 10 year old social network Orkut . It was more popular outside the US than in US and was at a point the most popular website in India and Brazil. By 2012 Facebook had overtaken Orkut pretty much everywhere.
Google is allowing the users to take their data out, but the discussions are being shut down.

Submission + - Scribd, Oyster, and - Blloon?

Submitted by Nate the greatest
Nate the greatest writes: Tech startups like to keep secrets but some take the idea a little too far. Earlier this week a new ebook startup called Blloon revealed that they would be launching a Netflix-style ebook service later this summer. With a catalog of a million titles, Blloon is going to offer readers in the US and UK read on Android and iOS apps. But who, exactly, is behind Blloon? Reports from Germany said that it was txtr, a Berlin-based ebook company. Txtr denied the connection, but after being asked why txtr owned the German trademark for the term Blloon and the Blloon.de domain, txtr said that Blloon "emanates from txtr employees but Blloon is a separate company." I have heard of secretive companies, and I have heard of startup founders running several companies at once, but this is the first I have encountered a company which didn't want you to know that its founders were launching a new startup.Why do you suppose they were hiding the connection?

Submission + - beta still sucks, still getting pushed (slashdot.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Guys.

Beta has become toxic. It is not better than what you had, the fads aren't that interesting, the changes are if anything shinily counterproductive, you've pushed it so incessantly that you've made it hated, and it's reflecting back to you. You're *still* doggedly flogging this dead horse. Whadayawant, keep on it until your readership will lap it up while mumbling "braaaains"?

There are things you could be doing to improve slashdot, like making it less dependent on javascript to function, like making it function well also when javascript is unavailable and without requiring logging in for punishment, and things like that. Oh, and people with basic grasp of English for editors would be nice too. But beta, beta is not those things.

Let. It. Go.

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