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GNOME

Submission + - Fedora 16 And GNOME Shell: Tested And Reviewed (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by LordDCLXVI
LordDCLXVI writes: Ubuntu and Mint don't want it; Linus called it an “unholy mess.” While most other distros are passing up or postponing GNOME Shell, Fedora is full steam ahead. Does Red Hat know something the rest of us don't? Or is GNOME 3 really as bad as everyone says? This massive article amounts to a full-blown guide to Fedora 16 “Verne” and complete dissection of GNOME Shell. It begins with an installation guide, with instructions for enabling 3rd party repos, proprietary graphics drivers, Wi-Fi, Flash, Java, multimedia codecs, and 32-bit libs. Next up is a GNOME Shell tear-down, including customization options and methods to “fix” the Shell or mimic GNOME 2. Finally, Fedora is benchmarked against Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 7. The author makes a compelling case for why the GNOME Shell is so disastrous for the GNOME project, and just wrong for Fedora. While he adds to the voices criticizing GNOME Shell, he also points out that the extensions can empower distributors to create unique, yet compatible layouts. One of the most fair and constructive critiques of GNOME 3, definitely worth the read, and even makes GNOME 3 worth a second look.
Piracy

Submission + - World-Wide Sting on Internet Piracy. (tvnz.co.nz)

Submitted by xenn
xenn writes: The linked article, titled by TVNZ as "Kim Dotcom bail appeal dismissed, funds released", somehow doesn't quite capture the drama the lies within...

"Meanwhile, it emerged today that US authorities are investigating Dotcom's pregnant wife, Mona Dotcom, as part of a world-wide sting on internet piracy.

Toohey said she had received a preliminary application from the US indicating that Mona could have been involved in Megaupload."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Why 9/11 was not a government conspiracy 1

Journal by downhole

The thing that most people do wrong when arguing about 9/11 is paying too much attention to the technical details of things. Start talking about construction techniques, steel alloys, flame temps, etc. and you just get bogged down in techno-babble that doesn't convince anyone. An argument based on people and their motives, plans, and actions is much simpler and much more effective proof. To form this argument, ask 3 questions that no troofer will be able to answer meaningfully:
Blackberry

Submission + - Leaked Memo Says Apple Provides Backdoor to Govern 2

Submitted by Voline
Voline writes: In a tweet early this morning, cybersecurity researcher Christopher Soghoian pointed to an internal memo of India's Military Intelligence that has been liberated by hackers and posted on the Net. The memo suggests that, "in exchange for the Indian market presence" mobile device manufacturers, including RIM, Nokia, and Apple (collectively defined in the document as "RINOA") have agreed to provide backdoor access on their devices.

The Indian government then "utilized backdoors provided by RINOA" to intercept internal emails of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a US government body with a mandate to monitor, investigate and report to Congress on "the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship" between the US and China. Manan Kakkar, an Indian blogger for ZDNet, has also picked up the story and writes that it may be the fruits of an earlier hack of Symantec.

If Apple is providing governments with a backdoor to iOS, can we assume that they have also done so with Mac OS X?
IT

Submission + - IT salaries edge up back to 2008 levels (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by
tsamsoniw
tsamsoniw writes: "A soon-to-be released salary survey finds that the average salary for IT professionals in the U.S. is $78,299, putting overall compensation back at January 2008 levels. More heartening: Midsize and large companies are both aiming to hire more IT pros. The midsize are seeking IT executives (such as VPs of information services and technical services), as well as programmers, database specialists, systems analysts, and voice/wireless communication pros. Enterprises are moving IT and data center operations back in-house, which means greater demand for data center managers and supervisors."
Google

Submission + - French court frowns on Google autocomplete, issues (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Lexx Greatrex
Lexx Greatrex writes: Google had been sued by insurance company Lyonnaise de Garantie, which was offended by search results including the word "escroc," meaning crook, according to a story posted Tuesday by the Courthouse News Service. "Google had argued that it was not liable since the word, added under Google Suggest, was the result of an automatic algorithm and did not come from human thought," the article states. "A Paris court ruled against Google, however, pointing out that the search engine ignored requests to remove the offending word... In addition to the fine, Google must also remove the term from searches associated with Lyonnaise de Garantie."
Security

Submission + - TSA Interested In Purchasing Dosimeters (gsnmagazine.com) 1

Submitted by OverTheGeicoE
OverTheGeicoE writes: TSA recently announced that it is looking for vendors of 'radiation measurement devices'. According to the agency's Request for Information, these devices 'will assist the TSA in determining if the Transportation Security Officers (TSO) at selected federalized airports are exposed to ionizing radiation above minimum detectable levels, and whether any measured radiation doses approach or exceed the threshold where personnel dosimetry monitoring is required by DHS/TSA policy.' A TSA spokeman claims that their RFI 'did not reflect any heightened concern by the agency about radiation levels that might be excessive or pose a risk to either TSA screeners or members of the traveling public.' Concern outside the agency, however, has always been high. TSA has long been criticized for its apparent lack of understanding of radiological safety, even for its own employees. There has been speculation of a cancer cluster, possibly caused by poor safety practices in baggage screening.
Idle

Submission + - Why US Gas Mileage Advances Don't Help Consumers a (inhabitat.com) 2

Submitted by
greenrainbow
greenrainbow writes: "The average, fuel efficiency for US vehicles actually increased by 60 percent between 1980 and 2006 but at the same time cars in the US got bigger (by 26% on average) and their horsepower increased (by 107 hp on average), which, when factored in, means that the average fuel efficiency of American cars only increased by a mere 15%. Almost all of the new technology went into making cars more efficient per pound of weight so that the cars could get bigger and still fit within average mile per gallon expectations."
Transportation

Submission + - TSA roving teams, my rights, and your experiences? 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "I live in Boston and I have noticed that the TSA performs random security checks at the Copley T and other locations. I routinely travel with a laptop, iPhone, and other gadgetry. What are my rights when asked by one of the TSA agents to "come over here"? Can I say no and proceed with my private business?

What if a police officer says that I "must go over there and cooperate"? Can I say "no thank you" or "where's your warrant?" Like the majority of the population I turn into an absolute shrinking violet when pressured by intimidating authority but I struggle with what I see to be blatant social devolution.

Has anybody out there actual responded, rationally, like above? What were your experiences?"
Twitter

Submission + - Juror's Tweets Overturns Trial Verdict (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by D H NG
D H NG writes: The Arkansas Supreme Court had overturned a murder conviction due to a juror tweeting during the trial. Erickson Dimas-Martinez was convicted in 2010 of killing a teenager and was sentenced to death. His lawyers appealed the case on account of a juror tweeting his musings during the trial. Tweets sent include "The coffee here sucks" and "Court. Day 5. here we go again". In an opinion, Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote "because of the very nature of Twitter as an... online social media site, Juror 2's tweets about the trial were very much public discussions." Dimas-Martinez is to be given a new trial.
Music

Submission + - Pop artists support Megaupload; Universal censors 1

Submitted by TheSHAD0W
TheSHAD0W writes: Several well-known artists, including P. Diddy, Will.I.Am, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West produced a song in support of the site Megaupload, recently targeted by law enforcement as a "rogue site". The music video was gaining popularity — until Youtube received a takedown notice from Universal Media Group, claiming it violated their copyrights.

Submission + - Was Russia Behind Stuxnet? (the-diplomat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Despite the U.S. and Israel being widely assumed to be responsible for Stuxnet, Russia is the more likely culprit, says U.S. Air Force cyber analyst. The nuclear gangsterism of the past 20 years give sit plenty of motive.
Google

Submission + - Google-Funded Study Knocks Firefox Security (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Researchers at the security firm Accuvant released a study Friday that gauges the security features of the top three web browsers. Accuvant admits the study was funded by Google, and naturally, Chrome came out on top. More surprising is that Internet Explorer was rated nearly as secure as Chrome, while Firefox is described as lacking many modern security safeguards. Though the study seems to have been performed objectively, it won't help Google's fraying partnership with Mozilla--Chrome overtook Firefox in market share earlier this month.
Science

Submission + - You really are what you know (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
jd
jd writes: "There has been research for some time that shows that London cab driver brains differ from other people's, with considerable enlargement of those areas dealing with spacial relationships and navigation, with follow-up work showing that it wasn't simply a product of driving a lot.

However, up until now it has been disputed as to whether the brain structure led people to become London cabbies or whether the brain structure changed as a result of their intensive training (which requires rote memorization of essentially the entire street map of one of the largest and least-organized cities in the world). Well, this latest study answers that. MRI scans before and after the training show that the regions of the brain substantially grow as a result of the training, that they're quite normal beforehand.

The practical upshot of this research is that — even for adult brains, which aren't supposed to change much — what you learn structurally changes your brain. Significantly."

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