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Comment Money well spent (Score 1) 439

by 40ozFreak (#25975737) Attached to: Study Confirms Mobile Phones Distract Drivers
*slow applause* Wow, that was money well spent. Did we really need a scientific research study to prove this to ourselves? Are we so belligerent and delusional as a society that we need lab confirmation that yapping on a phone makes it tougher to drive in traffic? We all see the signs every day driving to and from our jobs, taking our families around town. I could have told them this for free if they'd have called me, and I'm no scientist. Great job, fellas, you cracked the unsolvable case.
Space

Alien Comet May Have Infiltrated the Solar System 208

Posted by kdawson from the starseed-lure dept.
New Scientist has a piece about Comet Machholz 1, whose uncommon molecular composition suggests, but does not prove, that it may be an interloper from another star system. "Comet Machholz 1 isn't like other comets. David Schleicher of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, measured the chemical makeup of 150 comets, and found that they all had similar levels of the chemical cyanogen (CN) except for Machholz 1, which has less than 1.5% of the normal level. Along with some other comets, it is also low on the molecules carbon-2 and carbon-3."
Image

Police In 90 Minute Standoff With Cardboard Cutout 2

Posted by samzenpus from the better-safe-than-sorry dept.
Authorities say a cardboard figure of a person inside a Somerset County bank kept police at bay for 90 minutes. Police sealed off the area to traffic and evacuated residents in three nearby apartment buildings in an attempt to save them from the cardboard menace. The SWAT team was deployed after the cutout refused to answer repeated inquiries as to its demands.
Privacy

Submission + - Rogers Inserts Content Into Users' Webpages (bit-tech.net)

Submitted by geekmansworld
geekmansworld writes: It seems that Canadian ISP Rogers is inserting data into the HTTP streams returned by the websites requested by it's customers. Probably intended as a "feature", the unsolicited intrusion is nonetheless unsettling.
Games

Jack Thompson Facing Disbarment Trial 258

Posted by Zonk from the facing-the-music dept.
pwizard2 writes "Gamepolitics reports that controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson faces the start of an ethics trial this morning, a process which could ultimately see him disbarred. The review board has set aside the entire week to hear details on the case. 'Over the weekend, Thompson turned to the Florida Supreme Court in an apparent effort to block this morning's trial from moving forward. In one court filing Thompson asserted that he was willing to accept a 90-day suspension of his license to practice law. The embattled attorney claimed that such an offer had been on the table, but that the Florida Bar was now seeking his permanent disbarment.'"
Security

Submission + - Man hacks 911 system, sends SWAT on bogus raid. 5

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Orange County Register reports that a 19 year old from Washington state broke into the Orange County California 911 emergency system. He randomly selected the name and address of a Lake Forest, California couple and electronically transferred false information into the 911 system. The Orange County California Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics Team was immediately sent to the couple's home. The armed officers surrounded the home.Inside the home lived a couple with two toddlers who were asleep and unsuspecting of what was going outside the home. The SWAT team handcuffed the husband and wife before deciding it was a prank.
The Internet

Why Japan Leads the Mobile World 152

Posted by Zonk from the always-on-the-move dept.
Phurge writes "It is no wonder that companies touting m-commerce as the next big web thing tell us Japan is the future blueprint. The Guardian takes a look at the cutting edge and everyday life of cell phone users in Japan. 'By offering the Japanese a multiplicity of services — and, very importantly, some very cool handsets to use them on — the operators have created what every western mobile service provider is dreaming of: a mobile lifestyle culture that keeps millions reaching for the mobile rather than the fixed internet ... What they are less keen on is video calling: in Japan, as in the UK, 90% say "no thanks, never". And as for using the mobile as a modem - to link to the internet - that's very expensive in Japan.'"
United States

The Soldier of the Future 289

Posted by samzenpus from the phased-plasma-rifle-in-40-watt-range dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Land Warrior, the Army's wearable electronics package, was panned earlier this year by the troops who were testing it out. They were forced to take the collection of digital maps and next-gen radios to war, anyway. Now, Wired's Noah Shachtman reports from Iraq, those same soldiers are starting to warm up to their soldier suits of the future."
Security

Convicted VoIP Hacker Robert Moore Speaks 183

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the kind-of-thing-an-idiot-would-have-on-his-luggage dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Convicted hacker Robert Moore, who will report to federal prison this week, gives his version of 'How I Did It' to InformationWeek. Breaking into 15 telecom companies and hundreds of corporations was so easy because most routers are configured with default passwords. "It's so easy a caveman can do it," Moore said. He scanned more than 6 million computers just between June and October of 2005, running 6 million scans on AT&T's network alone. 'You would not believe the number of routers that had "admin" or "Cisco0" as passwords on them,' Moore said. 'We could get full access to a Cisco box with enabled access so you can do whatever you want to the box. We also targeted Mera, a Web-based switch. It turns any computer basically into a switch so you could do the calls through it. We found the default password for it. We would take that and I'd write a scanner for Mera boxes and we'd run the password against it to try to log in, and basically we could get in almost every time. Then we'd have all sorts of information, basically the whole database, right at our fingertips.'"
Idle

Fighting Cannibal Style 2

Posted by samzenpus from the taking-a-bite dept.
Some relationships end better than others and some end with your ex-husband chasing your new husband down a dirt road and trying to eat him. The new husband told police, "He told me, 'You know what that was, that's your ear,'" Nuckols said. "And he says, 'I'm going to get the other one.'"
The Courts

Oklahoma Game Law Permanently Enjoined 60

Posted by Zonk from the that's-what-you-get dept.
The poorly-written game law passed in Oklahoma - and subsequently found unconstitutional by the courts - has now been permanently enjoined from existing. This has been a pet project of Governor Brad Henry, and this enjoinment will stop the law from rearing its head again. "The law sought to ban the dissemination to minors of any computer or video game that contains any depiction of "inappropriate violence," which was defined by depictions that fall into any one of nine broad categories. Violators would also have been subject to fines of up to $1,000 ...It also seems in some way that the law singled out the game industry, since according to the court decision, the law was found to be underinclusive - meaning that a minor might be prevented from buying a video game with 'inappropriate violence' but may still legally buy or rent the book or movie on which the game was based." GamePolitics has reaction to this decision.
Education

GameStop Manager Suspended After "Games for Grades" 539

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the remember-you-still-work-for-someone-else dept.
mikesd81 writes "A manager at a GameStop has been suspended for instituting a 'games for grades' policy. 'Brandon Scott says he started a unique new policy in his store to promote good grades in school but now his employer has sent him to detention for speaking out of turn. Scott says he's been suspended by GameStop in the wake of his unconventional "games for grades" policy at an Oak Cliff store.' Apparently, on his own, Scott decided to stop selling video games to any school-age customer unless an adult would vouch for the student's good grades."
The Courts

Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act 673

Posted by samzenpus from the but-what-about-the-terrorists dept.
Shining Celebi writes "U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled in favor of the ACLU and struck down a portion of the revised USA PATRIOT Act this morning, forcing investigators to go through the courts to obtain approval before ordering ISPs to give up information on customers, instead of just sending them a National Security Letter. In the words of Judge Marrero, this use of National Security Letters 'offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

Realtime ASCII Goggles 331

Posted by kdawson from the through-crt-colored-spectacles dept.
jabjoe writes "Russian artists from Moscow have created goggles with realtime image filtering. Among the Photoshop-like filters that can be applied is, interestingly, ASCII: you can view the world in real time as ASCII. Pointless but cool."

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