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Power

Going Faster Than the Wind In a Wind-Powered Cart 315

Posted by Soulskill from the any-way-the-wind-blows dept.
Shawnconna writes "Can a wind cart travel faster than the wind? A group of makers say, 'Yes!' Make: Online has published a story about the Blackbird wind cart that just set a record. This is a follow-up to an earlier story in which Charles Platt built a cart based on a viral video where a guy claimed he'd built a wind-powered vehicle that could travel downwind faster than the windspeed. Charles built one and said it didn't work. Heated debates broke out in forums, on BB, and elsewhere on the Net. In the ensuing time, a number of people have built carts and claimed success, most principally, Rick Cavallaro. He got funding from Google and JOBY to build and test a human-piloted cart. They claim success, with multiple sensor systems on board, impartial judges and experts in attendance."
Businesses

Submission + - Blizzard and Activision Announce $18.8bn Merger (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Ebon Praetor
Ebon Praetor writes: "The BBC reports that Blizzard and Activision have announced an $18.8bn merger. Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, will become the head of the joint company, while Vivendi, Blizzard's current parent company, will become the largest single investor in the new group. Even with the size of the merger, the combined company will still be smaller than the industry giant EA."
KDE

Submission + - KDE 4 to be relelased on Jan 11th

Submitted by
VincenzoRomano
VincenzoRomano writes: "It's official! KDE 4.0 will be released on next January 11th. The release itself doesn't sound very firm, as "the developers are confident to be able to release a more polished and better working KDE" and not the long awaited prime time release.
At the very first Alpha release on march 11th, the release date had been forecasted to October 2007, and then shifted to the end of the year with the second Beta.
Despite this, the promises for the fourth version are quite interesting and maybe deserve a "stay tuned"."
Perl

Submission + - BBC creates 'Perl on Rails' 2

Submitted by Bogtha
Bogtha writes: Long-time users of Perl for their public websites, and having successfully used Ruby on Rails for internal websites, the BBC have fused the two by creating a 'Perl on Rails' that has the advantages of rapid development that Rails brings, while performing well enough to be used for the Beeb's high-traffic public websites. This is already powering one of their websites, and is set to be used in the controversial iPlayer project as well.
Government

Submission + - Canada's new DMCA considered worst copyright law (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by
loconet
loconet writes: "The government of Canada is preparing to attempt to bring a new DMCA-modeled copyright law in Canada in order to comply with the WIPO treaties the country signed in 1997. These treaties were also the base of the American DMCA. The new Canadian law will be even more restrictive in nature than the American version and worse than the last Canadian copyright proposal, the defeated Bill C-60. Amongst the many restrictive clauses, in this new law — as Michael Geist explains — is the total abolishment of the concept of fair use, "No parody exception. No time shifting exception. No device shifting exception. No expanded backup provision. Nothing.". Michael Geist provides a list of 30 things that can be done to address the issue."
Privacy

Submission + - EFF Releases Software to Spot Net NonNeutrality (eff.org)

Submitted by DanielBoz
DanielBoz writes: In the wake of the detection and reporting of Comcast Corporation's controversial interference with Internet traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a comprehensive account of Comcast's packet-forging activities and has released software and documentation instructing Internet users on how to test for packet forgery or other forms of interference by their own ISPs.
The Military

Submission + - Wired: How Tech Almost Lost the War 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Blame the geeks for the mess in Iraq? Wired says so. Networked troops were supposed to be so efficient, it'd take just a few of 'em to wipe out their enemies. But the Pentagon got their network theory all wrong, with too few nodes and a closed architecture. Besides, a more efficient killing machine is the last thing you want in an insurgency like Iraq.

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