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Privacy

Submission + - FBI slammed as Amazon wins customer privacy battle

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: The FBI has been slammed in a court ruling after attempting to get Amazon to hand over details on its customers and their reading habits. The agency had taken Amazon to court after the company refused to hand over customer records.

"The [subpoena's] chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," US magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in an August 2006 ruling which he has just unsealed. "Well-founded or not, rumours of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into cancelling planned online book purchases."
Government

Submission + - Connect Arkansas Broadband Act signed into law (connect-arkansas.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On March 28, 2007, Governor Mike Beebe signed the Connect Arkansas Broadband Act into law to expand broadband infrastructure throughout Arkansas. The legislation paved the way to make internet access and usage available to all Arkansans. Connect Arkansas, a 501(c)(3) private, non-profit organization, was formed to implement this plan and progress is actively underway. Words such as "delivery platform neutral" may sound unusual, but the concept is clear. Connect Arkansas will work with all internet service providers to accomplish its two initial objectives Prepare the people and businesses of Arkansas to secure the economic, educational, health, social and other benefits available via broadband use. Facilitate the availability of broadband service to every home and business in Arkansas.
The Internet

Submission + - EFF fires an upper-cut at Internet traffic futzers (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Looking to keep the pressure on Comcast and any other ISPs who might be messing with Internet traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today has released software and documentation instructing 'Net users on how to test for packet forgery or other forms of interference by their own service providers.The EFF also published what it calls a comprehensive account of Comcast's packet-forging activities. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/22375"
Space

Submission + - Organic Building Blocks Seen in Titan's Atmosphere (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "Scientists analyzing data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft have confirmed the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan's atmosphere. These particles may act as organic building blocks for even more complicated molecules. This discovery was completely unexpected because of the chemical composition of the atmosphere, mainly consisting of nitrogen and methane. According to the lead researcher at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, "Additional rings of carbon can build up on these ions, forming molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which may act as a basis for the earliest forms of life." The article abstract is available from Geophysical Research Letters."
Space

Submission + - Earth's Evil Twin (esa.int)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "For the past two years, Europe's Venus Express orbiter has been studying Earth's planetary neighbor up close. Today, mission scientists have released a new collection of findings and amazing images. They include evidence of lightning and other results that flesh out a portrait of a planet that is in many ways like ours, and in many ways hellishly different, such as surface temperatures over 400C and air pressure a hundred times that on Earth."
Music

Submission + - Deutsche Grammophon offering DRM-free downloads (deutschegrammophon.com)

Submitted by C3c6e6
C3c6e6 writes: Deutsche Grammophon, one of world's leading record labels for classical music, has launched today an online-shop where people can download high-quality (320Kbps) versions of 2400 classical recordings, including 600 albums that are currently out of print. The idea is apparently to make the entire catalog of probably the oldest surviving record label (founded in 1898) available online.

It's nice to see that yet another record company is steering clear of DRM.
Software

Submission + - Asus resolves Eee GPL violation (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Jety
Jety writes: "Last week, software developer Cliff Biffle wrote a blog post pointing out certain discrepancies in the source code archive made available by Asus for the Linux-based software platform distributed on the Eee PC.
In response to criticism from Linux enthusiasts, Asus has made additional source code archives available for download with code for the asus_acpi module, BusyBox, and several other components. The code released by Asus brings the company into compliance with its obligations under the GPL and should satisfy most of the critics.
It's always nice to see companies in touch with their audience who are able to respond quickly to issues raised by the community, especially when it involves adhering to the licensing requirements for the software they are distributing."
Media

Submission + - Harper to succumb to US bullying on copyright law (canadians.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Activist
Anonymous Activist writes: "According to an entry on the Slyck.com news website, and a recent article from CanWest columnist Deirdre McMurdy, Canada is about to announce a revised Copyright Act to bring its intellectual property regime in line with stricter (and some say unreasonable) U.S. standards."
...
"This isn't just pandering to U.S. demands, it would be a bad move for Canada, said Geist in a column in the Toronto Star from this past April. "While the USTR report and its supporters seek to paint Canada as a laggard on copyright, this rhetoric ignores the fact that Canada is compliant with its international obligations and that Canadian law is consistent with the laws in most countries around the world," he wrote."

Time to make noise & object, write a letter, contact the COC to help organize the campaign against it (they're one of the main groups that helped defeat the MIA & caught the under cover cops at the SPP summit in Quebec), etc.
Robotics

Submission + - Robots Infiltrate, Influence Cockroach Groups (npr.org)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A study published in the 16 November, 2007 issue of Science describes and interesting study involving autonomous robots interacting with cockroaches. The original article requires subscription, but a related npr article doesn't: [URL="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16328789"]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16328789[/URL]
Television

Submission + - Daily Show writers find Youtube; speak on Strike

Submitted by Inakizombie
Inakizombie writes: The writers from the Daily Show have turned to Youtube to give their perspective on the writers' strike in the best way they know how, humorously. From the post "What do the writers of the Daily Show think of the ongoing writers' strike? If only there were some way to find out like, I don't know... clicking on the image(Youtube) to your left. It's so crazy, it might just work!"
Education

Submission + - Pasta Monster Gets Academic Attention (excite.com)

Submitted by laughing rabbit
laughing rabbit writes: Adherents of His Noodly Appendage — the FSM — have gone to bat to have their beliefs taught along with Intelligent Design and Evolution.

From the article http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071116/D8SUOUQG1.html...



"...When some of the world's leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They'll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion.

The appearance of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting gives a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a phenomenon that first emerged in 2005, during the debate in Kansas over whether intelligent design should be taught in public school sciences classes."

I like the moxie of these folks, in some places in the United States, being this forthright about your beliefs can get you injured.
Robotics

Submission + - Robots assimilate in cockroach society (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
sufijazz
sufijazz writes: "Scientists have gotten tiny robots to not only integrate into cockroach society but also control it. This experiment in bug peer pressure combined entomology, robotics and the study of ways that complex and even intelligent patterns can arise from simple behavior. Animal behavior research shows that swarms working together can prosper where individuals might fail, and robotics researchers have been experimenting with simple robots that, together, act a little like a swarm.

The BBC also has a video story on this."
Security

Submission + - Up for Sale: 'Ravaging' ClamAV Code Execution Flaw (zdnet.com)

Submitted by
jay kunitsky
jay kunitsky writes: "The WabiSabiLabi vulnerability auction house is hyping the sale of a potentially nasty remote code execution flaw in ClamAV, the popular open-source anti-virus toolkit for UNIX. The company said the flaw can be exploited by simply sending a specially crafted e-mail to a vulnerable mail server. From the article: "The latest verified vulnerable version is ClamAV 0.91.1 but other versions could be affected as well. As you can obviously imagine, the impact of this vulnerability is ravaging.""

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