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Comment Re:Discussed This Report Four Days Ago (Score 2, Informative) 183

by RxScram (#28845409) Attached to: Could Cyber-Terrorists Provoke Nuclear Attacks?
All American SSBN's (Ohio Class) can actually carry 24 missiles, with a theoretical limit of 8 (or 12, depending on the source of information) W88 warheads, each warhead with a yield of 475 Kt. Of course, the START and SALT treaties limit the number of warheads per missile to something like 4, but it's still a mighty destructive force.
Privacy

Submission + - Interpol unscrambles doctored photo in manhunt. (google.com)

Submitted by jackpot777
jackpot777 writes: From the AP story out of Paris, France:

The international police organization said German specialists had succeeded in producing identifiable images of the man, from the original pictures, where his face had been digitally blurred, but the man's identity and nationality remain unknown, prompting Interpol's public appeal.


Good for Interpol in this instance — the man in question is wanted in connection with an international investigation involving online videos and children. But it does show one interesting facet of internet privacy that has also been noted with topics ranging from reading blurred check numbers in images to Google's plan to blur out license plate and face data for Street View. And that is: blurring is not the same as completely obscuring. In the Interpol instance, the suspect would not have been identified if he had placed a single-colored shape over his head in the pictures.

Just something you might want to think about if you're planning to post photos of yourself online in the throes of embarrasing / illegal / politically noticable acts. As computers become more adept at extrapolating data of different types, your identity isn't safe unless you completely cover all those identifying features. Filter > Distort > Twirl is as good as nothing.
Patents

Peer Review Starts for Software Patents 102

Posted by Zonk from the clarity-to-a-muddy-situation dept.
perbert writes "As seen in an interview in IEEE Spectrum: Qualcomm v. Broadcom. Amazon v. IBM. Apple v. seemingly everyone. The number of high-profile patent lawsuits in this country has reached a staggering level. Hoping to curtail the orgy of tech-industry litigation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is experimenting with reforming the way patents are applied for and processed. Launched on 18 June 2007 was an Internet-based peer-review program whereby anyone (even you) can help to evaluate a number of software patent applications voluntarily submitted for public evaluation. The one-year pilot Peer-to-Patent program is a collaboration between the USPTO and New York Law School's Institute for Information Law and Policy, in New York City. The program's Web site allows users to weigh in on patent applications by researching, evaluating, submitting, and discussing prior art, which is any existing information, such as articles in technology journals and other patents, relevant to the applicant's claims."
Quickies

Submission + - Lake Disappears into Andes

Submitted by steveb3210
steveb3210 writes: It seems that what was once a 5 acre glacial lake in the Andes has mysteriously disappeared. "In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal," Juan Jose Romero from Chile's National Forestry Corporation, Conaf, said.

"We went again in May and to our surprise we found that the lake had completely disappeared. All that was left were chunks of ice and an enormous fissure."
Movies

Submission + - Lucas To Make New Live Action Star Wars films

Submitted by DrNASA
DrNASA writes: An article that quoted George Lucas as saying that SpiderMan 3 is a 'silly movie' also had this interesting bit of King Geek speak: "And here's a little news: Lucas tells me he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era. "But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu." " TFA — http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270874,00.html
Robotics

Submission + - Soliders Bond With Bots, Take Them Fishing

Submitted by HarryCaul
HarryCaul writes: Soldiers are finding themselves becoming more and more attached to their robotic helpers. During one test of a mine clearing robot, "every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield." The man in charge halted the test, though- "He just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg. This test, he charged, was inhumane." Sometimes the soldiers even take their metallic companions fishing. Is there more sympathy for Robot Rights than previously suspected?

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