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Submission + - Videotaping Law Enforcement Validated by Federal J (reason.com)

Submitted by jkyrlach
jkyrlach writes: The abuse of the innocent citizen trying merely to document their encounters with law enforcement via videotape have been a frequent topic of /. discussions. Legal precedent may finally be developing to clearly establish the rights of citizenry to monitor their police force with an important victory for freedom that transpired last week in a federal court in Oregon.

Submission + - New BBC Sports Website uses "Semantic Web Technolo (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by whyloginwhysubscribe
whyloginwhysubscribe writes: A technical blog post describes how the BBC have rolled out the latest changes to it's sports website in anticipation of the Summer Olympics in London.

The innovative content management system extends the already available dynamic semantic publishing, which enables their journalists "to spend more time creating great content and less time managing that content".

The blog post covers some of the technical and lots of the HCI / UI design decisions and is accompanied by a non-technical overview of the re-design.
NASA

Submission + - NASA Studying Solar-electric Propulsion for "Space (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Last year, NASA announced it was seeking proposals for mission concept studies of a high-power solar electric propulsion (SEP) system that could be used in a "space tugboat." Such a ship would be used ferry payloads in low Earth orbit (LEO) into higher energy orbits, including geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and Lagrange point one (L1) — saving on fuel and the use of expensive secondary boosters. NASA also anticipates an SEP system could be used to propel spacecraft into deep space for science missions and for the placement, service, resupply, repositioning and salvaging of space assets by commercial operators.
Japan

Submission + - Japan plans to merge major science bodies (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: In its battle against a sluggish economy, Japan's government is gearing up to make cost savings through a root-and-branch reform of the country's science system, merging some of its most prominent research organizations.

Plans approved by the government's cabinet on 20 January would consolidate the RIKEN network of basic-research laboratories with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) — the national funding body.

But with few details about the timing, potential cost savings or full implications of the change, many researchers are concerned that it could be a recipe for harsh funding cuts and even greater bureaucracy.
Hardware

Submission + - Synchronized Nano-Quadrotor Swarm (makezine.com)

Submitted by
PerlJedi
PerlJedi writes: "Sorry to shamelessly just quote another site, but this is just plain awesome.


It used to be that having your own quadrotor drone was cutting edge. Now that the average joe can pick one up at their local mall for a couple hundred bucks means that you’ve got to step your game up if you don’t want to be seen as pedestrian. That’s why today’s aspiring UAV enthusiasts are working with swarms. Not just any swarms either, but swarms of nano-quadrotors. These days, budget conscious drone makers are going small to cut costs and shed ounces.

"
Earth

Submission + - WSJ Misrepresents Climate Science (wsj.com)

Submitted by
mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "As noted on slashdot, the WSJ wrote an opinion piece for which it found 16 scientist to sign on.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/01/28/2234257/dont-worry-about-global-warming-say-16-scientists-in-the-wsj

The contents of that opinion piece badly misrepresented climate science as pointed out in a letter that starts out: "Do you consult your dentist about your heart condition? In science, as in any area, reputations are based on knowledge and expertise in a field and on published, peer-reviewed work. If you need surgery, you want a highly experienced expert in the field who has done a large number of the proposed operations.

You published "No Need to Panic About Global Warming" (op-ed, Jan. 27) on climate change by the climate-science equivalent of dentists practicing cardiology."

The WSJ also seems to have misrepresented the economics of climate change as well. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/scientists-challenging-climate-science-appear-to-flunk-climate-economics/"
Android

Submission + - ITC throws out B&N antitrust claims against MS (blogspot.com)

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: Barnes & Noble's primary line of defense against Microsoft's allegations of patent infringement by the bookseller's Android-based devices has collapsed in its entirety. An Administrative Law Judge at the ITC today granted a Microsoft motion to dismiss, even ahead of the evidentiary trial that will start next Monday (February 6), Barnes & Noble's "patent misuse" defense against Microsoft. [...]

Prior to the ALJ, the ITC staff — or more precisely, the Office of Unfair Import Investigations (OUII), which participates in many investigations as a third party representing the public interest — already supported Microsoft's motion all the way. The OUII basically concluded that even if all of what Barnes & Noble said about Microsoft's use of patents against Android was accurate, it would fall far short of the legal requirements for a patent misuse defense.
Piracy

Submission + - Pirate Bay appeal refused by Swedish Supreme Court (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: The Swedish Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from the founders of The Pirate Bay against prison sentences and fines imposed by the Swedish Court of Appeals, the court said on Wednesday.

Over a year ago, the Court of Appeals sentenced Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström to 10 months, eight months and four months of jail time, respectively. The court also said they must collectively pay a 46 million kronor (£4.3 million) fine.
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - Data of 'Innocent' MegaUpload Users Will Not be De (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by AlistairCharlton
AlistairCharlton writes: A website has been setup to offer legal advice for any MegaUpload customers who are worried about losing their data, which is due to be deleted in two weeks' time.

Created by data storage company Carpathia and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the site — called MegaRetrieval.com — hopes to return data to innocent customers of the recently shut down MegaUpload file sharing site.
Hardware

Submission + - Old Tech Is The Best Place To Mine Rare Metals (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "More on recycling: the tech industry could face increasing shortages of rare metals, unless it reclaims them from the waste stream . the Royal Society in London was told this week that production of "hitchhiker" metals such as gallium, indium and selenium can't be easily ramped up, as they are only available as a by-product of major industrial metals such as aluminium, copper and zinc. If we want more, we have to make better use of them, and claim them back from e-waste."

Comment How about NVU? (Score 1) 300

by jkyrlach (#38724558) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Open Source Answer to Dreamweaver?
It will never be Dreamweaver (I don't think anything free ever will be) but it tries. I will echo above opinion that as great as Dreamweaver is, the html/css that it generates is horrible inefficient, the only worse one i know is Microsoft's WYSIWYG. Once you have done it enough, you can be quite fast as HTML/css from scratch in a text editor. Let us know what you pick and why. http://net2.com/nvu/

Comment Re:Use your imagination (Score 1) 111

by jkyrlach (#38677562) Attached to: $10M Tricorder X PRIZE Kicks off
I'm sorry, that's not going to happen. You could make something identify 10 or more symptoms, but no way will you get a five pound something diagnose any ten diseases with 100% accurtacy -- the diseases would have to be completely diagnosable from the surface of the patient, and even then, i bet you are going to need the software that i talked about in original post that can parse pictures to identify ailments. I don't get what you guys are saying: This contest is about producing a better medical swiss army knife -- if that's what's keeping those poor refugees from getting treated, then ok, go for it. but i think a lot more people could be helped by focusing on artificial diagnostic intelligence, using something like watson.

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