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Space

Submission + - Air Force to blast second super-secret spaceship (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The US Air Force will launch a second secretive spaceship, the X-37B, tomorrow if the weather holds and all systems are go.

The first X-37B, known as Orbital Test Vehicle 1, launched April 22 last year and stayed in space conducting experiments for some 220 days. The Air Force stated. The ship fired its orbital maneuver engine in low-earth orbit to perform an autonomous reentry before landing, the Air Force stated."
Firefox

Submission + - Firefox 4 Tracking User Startup Times (internetnews.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Did you know that Mozilla knows exactly how long it took for your Firefox 4 browser to start?

"You know how every day Firefox pings to get a list of blocked add-ons for security, what we send in that ping now is one number and that number is, how long did it take you to start-up this morning," Mike Beltzner Director of Firefox said. "So we're getting live start-up data from the field."
Google

Submission + - Irony: Chrome OS beta Achilles' heel is the Web (infoworld.com)

Submitted by GMGruman
GMGruman writes: The whole point of the forthcoming Google Chrome OS is to not be like today's Windows or Mac OS "fat client" style of computing, and instead rely on cloud-based resources for nearly everything. InfoWorld's Galen Gruman has been spending quality time with a prototype Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop and the beta version of Chrome OS, and finds that it's the cloud's Web resources that are likely to make or break the Chrome OS concept. Right now, they would break it, he finds, given the overly simplistic nature of Web apps today and the problems of working on a computer that needs you to be always connected. The real version is a good six months away, but Gruman is surprised that Google's own Web apps aren't already in beta form to show the Chrome OS in better light, given how long Google has been working on the project. Right now, the irony is that the cloud is failing the cloud-based Chrome OS.
Privacy

Submission + - Opinions as Password (faqs.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Sebastopol (CA) based startup "Fortknock Protection LLC" wants to replace passwords by short multiple choice tests, see their patent application (http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090276839). At signup, the user has to define a list of questions and answers. "Factual questions [...] are to be avoided", opinions should be stated instead.

The Secret Service will certainly be interested in the collected data :)
Politics

Submission + - War on The Fourth Estate (frontwave.eu)

Submitted by frontwave
frontwave writes: Is the US government going to shut down the New York Time’s website, freeze their accounts, and prosecute their editors? By the same token they have collaborated with Wikileaks in disclosing confidential information. Are the European governments going after The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais?

In a recent editorial, The Nation’s editors say “By and large WikiLeaks has come to embrace the ethics that guide traditional news organizations' disclosure of secrets, and it should be afforded the same protections.”, and add “Critics characterize WikiLeaks' actions as indiscriminate document dumps, but at press time WikiLeaks had released only 1,095 cables, almost all vetted and redacted by its partner news organizations. WikiLeaks even asked the State Department to help redact the cables before they were released. It refused.” In the same editorial they point out “Over the past decade, our leaders have come to see secrecy as a casual right instead of a rare privilege.”
Politics

Submission + - WikiLeaks Copycats Begin to Form (bryanhealey.com)

Submitted by healeyb
healeyb writes: Forbes is reporting on the sudden development of a number of WikiLeaks copycat websites, in addition to OpenLeaks, which includes BrusselsLeaks, which focuses on the European Union, BalkanLeaks, which focuses on the nations of the BalkanPeninsula, and IndoLeaks, which focuses on Indonesia and has already published revealing documents. These are but a few in what is sure to be a precipitous rise in competing websites, all echoing the cry for information freedom and governmental accountability...
Security

Submission + - Death sentence in Chinese anti-virus bribery case (sophos.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A high-up Chinese government official, who took over 2 million dollars in bribes, has been given a suspended death sentence in a case which shows the bitter rivalry between rival anti-virus firms in the country.

Yu Bing, a former director of Internet monitoring department of the Ministry of Public Security, is said to have received bribes from a number of firms including 4.2 million yuan ($630,000) from leading Chinese anti-virus firm Rising. His firm sent out public warnings about malware, telling users to install Rising's product.

According to media reports, Yu pleaded guilty earlier this year to all charges of bribery charges and also fabricating evidence to frame Tian Yakui, a Vice President at Chinese anti-virus firm Micropoint, who used to work for Rising.

Tian spent 11 months in prison on the charges, before being released without charge, and his company said it lost over 30 million yuan (US$4.39 million) as a result of the action.

Micropoint is reported to be planning to launch a lawsuit seeking compensation for losses caused by the defamation. In the past, Rising has denied claims that it framed its competitor.
Space

Submission + - Alien Planet Detected (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by sridharo
sridharo writes: Astronomers have discovered an alien planet circling a dying star.
There's every reason to believe that planets are really quite widespread throughout the Universe. This is the first time that astronomers have detected a planetary system in a stellar stream of extragalactic origin. This cosmic merger (Milky Way gobbling up the Dwarf Galaxy of the planet_ has brought an extragalactic planet within our reach."
Google

Submission + - How to act like Microsoft? Get sued over Java... 1

Submitted by chaboud
chaboud writes: Like a blast from Microsoft's past, Java's new keepers at Oracle have filed what will probably end up being an unfashionably out-of-style double-breasted lawsuit over Google's use of Java in Android, throwing in all of the usual sweet legal nothings, such as "willful," "injunction," and "damages." I wish someone had told me earlier that the way to make money off of software was to stand around with a law degree.

Submission + - Oracle sues Google for patent infringement (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by bit4byte
bit4byte writes: Various sources are reporting the Oracle is sueing Google for patent infringement on the Andriod paltform.
This mainly resovolves around Java and patents that Oracle America now owns due to the purchance of Sun Microsystems.
Here is a link to the actual complaint:
http://regmedia.co.uk/2010/08/13/oracle_complaint_against_google.pdf

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