Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Biotech

Submission + - Scientists discover how to erase memories (pressesc.com) 1

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Neuroscientists have discovered that long-term memories are not etched in a "clay tablet"-like stable form as once thought, but the process is much more dynamic, involving a miniature molecular machine that must run constantly to keep memories going, jamming the machine briefly can erase long-term memories."
Privacy

Submission + - Privacy winning search engine war (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Privacy is emerging as the real winner of the Internet search engine war as companies aggressively compete with one another by offering stronger protections for user records, a report published today by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) concluded. The report notes that until recently, most of the major Internet search engines kept detailed and potentially personally identifiable records of their customers' searches for as indefinitely. But today the companies are trying to outdo each other in privacy protection by announcing steps to delete old user data, strip the personally identifiable information out of stored search records, and, in one case, give users the option to have all of their search records deleted."
The Internet

Submission + - Senators call for universal internet filtering (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "US senators today made a bipartisan call for the universal implementation of filtering and monitoring technologies on the Internet in order to protect children at the end of a Senate hearing for which civil liberties groups were not invited. Senators call for universal Internet filtering Senators call for universal Internet filtering"
Censorship

Submission + - Bush takes over federal science (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Through an Executive Order that gives political appointees final say regarding science-based federal agency regulations and the appointment of an anti-educationist to head the Office of Management and Budget, US President George W. Bush is attempting to insulate his administration from congressional accountability while effectively turning federal scientists into White House puppets, a group of scientists warned today."
Biotech

Submission + - HIV vaccine ready for clinical trials (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "A vaccine that is capable of delivering a double whammy against AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus by both providing immunity against the infection while at the same time destroying cells infected by the virus is ready for clinical trials, a group of Russian researchers announced today."
Space

Submission + - Scientists find water on extra-solar planet (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Scientists have, for the first time, conclusively discovered the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere of a planet beyond our Solar System, according to an article appearing in Nature. They made the discovery by analysing the transit of the gas giant HD 189733b across its star, in the Infrared using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. HD 189733b is a 'hot jupiter', a gas giant that is roughly the size and mass of Jupiter but orbits very close to the star, so no chance of life there."
Privacy

Submission + - Court upholds warrantless Internet snooping (pressesc.com) 1

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Federal agents can snoop on an individual's web surfing, email and all other forms of Internet communication habits without a warrant, a US appeals court ruled on Friday. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in its judgment on USA vs Alba concluded that cyber-surveillance was analogous to the use of a pen register that the Supreme Court held in Smith v. Maryland (1979), and did not constitute a search for Fourth Amendment purposes."
Google

Submission + - Google loses "Gmail" trademark case (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "A court in Germany today banned Google from using the name "Gmail" for its popular webmail service following a trademark suit filed by the founder of G-Mail. Daniel Giersch (33), started using the name G-Mail in 2000, four years before Google released "Gmail". "Google infringed the young businessman's trademark that had been previously been registered," said the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in its judgement."
Google

Submission + - People trust Yahoo! and Google just for the brand (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Here's an interesting experiment: Copy Google results pages from four different e-commerce queries. Tell 32 test subjects who are going to evaluate the results that the results were from four different search engines: Google, MSN Live Search, Yahoo! and an in-house engine created for the study. And see which once they rate as the best.

As it turns out, Google and Yahoo! win hands down, proving that even on the Internet, it is all about branding now."
Education

Submission + - FBI to restrict student freedoms (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "US university students will not be able to work late at the campus, travel abroad, show interest in their colleagues' work, have friends outside America, engage in independent research, or make extra money without the prior consent of the authorities, according to a set of guidelines given to administrators by the FBI. Feds are going around briefing top universities including MIT about "espionage indicators" aimed at identifying foreign agents and terrorists who might steal university research."
Announcements

Submission + - Scientists get plastic from trees (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Scientists have found a method to replace crude oil as the root source for plastic, fuels and scores of other industrial and household chemicals with inexpensive, nonpolluting renewable plant matter. They directly converted sugars ubiquitous in nature to an alternative source for those products that make oil so valuable, with very little of the residual impurities that have made the quest so daunting."
Networking

Submission + - US falls to 24th place for broadband penetration (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "US fell to 24th place in terms of broadband penetration with 53%. South Korea led the pack with 90% having highs peed connections.

The US remains the largest broadband country in the world with more than 60.4 million subscribers in the quarter with 2.9 million new broadband additions but China is fast catching up and has cut the gap to the US from 5.8 million at the end of 2006 to 4.1 million at end of March 2007."

Slashdot Top Deals

Almost anything derogatory you could say about today's software design would be accurate. -- K.E. Iverson

Close