Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Privacy

Facebook Will Shut Down Beacon To Settle Lawsuit 101

Posted by Soulskill from the strategic-retreats dept.
alphadogg writes "Facebook has agreed to shut down its much-maligned Beacon advertising system in order to settle a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in August of last year, alleged that Facebook and its Beacon affiliates like Blockbuster and Overstock.com violated a series of laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Video Privacy Protection Act, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the California Computer Crime Law. The proposed settlement, announced late on Friday, calls not only for Facebook to discontinue Beacon, but also back the creation of an independent foundation devoted to promoting online privacy, safety and security. The money for the foundation will come from a US$9.5 million settlement fund."
Idle

Submission + - Tomatoes thrive on urine, study finds (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Using human urine as a fertiliser produces bumper crops of tomatoes that are safe to eat, scientists have found. Their research was published last month in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and may help cheaply boost crops in the developing world.
Idle

Submission + - Fungus Treated Wood Beats $2 Million Strativarius (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes: Violins made by the Italian master Antonio Giacomo Stradivarius are regarded as being of unparalleled quality even today, with enthusiasts being prepared to pay millions for a single example. Stradivarius himself knew nothing of fungi which attack wood, but he received inadvertent help from the âoeLittle Ice Ageâ which occurred from 1645 to 1715. During this period Central Europe suffered long winters and cool summers which caused trees to grow slowly and uniformly â" ideal conditions in fact for producing wood with excellent acoustic qualities. Now scientists are turning to fungi to recreate some of these amazing sounding instruments.
Earth

Submission + - Mafia Sinks Ships Containing Toxic Waste 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "For years there have been rumors that the mafia was sinking ships with nuclear and other waste on board as part of a money-making racket but now BBC reports that a sunken vessel has been found 30km from the coast of the southwestern Italian region of Calabria and murky pictures taken by a robot camera show the vessel intact and alongside it are a number of yellow barrels with labels on them that the contents are toxic. The ship's location was revealed by Francesco Fonti, an ex-member of Calabria's feared 'Ndrangheta crime group, who confessed to using explosives to sink this vessel and two others as part of an illegal operation to bypass rules on the disposal of toxic waste. Experts are now examining samples taken from the wreck and an official says that if the samples prove to be radioactive then a search for up to 30 other sunken vessels believed scuttled by the mafia would begin immediately. "The Mediterranean is 0.7 percent of the world's seas. If in this tiny portion there are more than 30 (toxic waste) shipwrecks, imagine what there could be elsewhere," says Silvestro Greco, head of Calabria's environment agency."
Biotech

Birdsong Studies Lead To a Revolution In Biology 117

Posted by kdawson from the growing-a-new-one dept.
Smithsonian.com covers research that began with the study of birdsong and ended by overturning the common belief that adult animals can't produce new brain cells. "Deconstructing birdsong may seem an unlikely way to shake up biology. But [Fernando] Nottebohm's research has shattered the belief that a brain gets its quota of nerve cells shortly after birth and stands by helplessly as one by one they die — a 'fact' drummed into every schoolkid's skull. [Nottebohm] demonstrated two decades ago that the brain of a male songbird grows fresh nerve cells in the fall to replace those that die off in summer. The findings were shocking, and scientists voiced skepticism that the adult human brain had the same knack for regeneration. ... Yet, inspired by Nottebohm's work, researchers went on to find that other adult animals — including human beings — are indeed capable of producing new brain cells. And in February, scientists reported for the first time that brand-new nerves in adult mouse brains appeared to conduct impulses — a finding that addressed lingering concerns that newly formed adult neurons might not function."

Submission + - Is Happiness Catching? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by chrb
chrb writes: The New York Times has an interesting article about research into modelling of real world social networks, and how tendencies to be happy, to smoke, and to become obese, are passed between nodes in a directed graph in a way that suggests such concepts are "contagious". Well connected nodes in the graph (i.e. people with more friends) are more likely to be happier than less connected nodes, even when the edges represent more distant friendships. Individuals quitting smoking, or becoming obese, influence not only their immediately connected friends, but also friends of friends, with the effect sometimes skipping the intermediary node. The contagion effect is most noticable when a tendency is passed from one person to another of the same sex — friends of the opposite sex, including spouses, are not as influential.
Government

"Right To Repair" Bill Advances In Massachusetts 478

Posted by kdawson from the not-open-source-but-it's-a-step dept.
Wannabe Code Monkey sends along an article from the Patriot Ledger about an effort in Massachusetts to pass a "Right to Repair" bill. "Since the advent of congressionally mandated computers in vehicles more than 15 years ago (for emissions), cars have evolved into complex machines that are no longer just mechanical. Computers now monitor and control most systems in the car from brakes to tire pressure and all the electronics and engine fluids... [and] car manufacturers continue to hold back on some of the information that your mechanic needs in order to properly repair your car and reset your codes and warning lights... Massachusetts is now poised to solve this problem and car-driving consumers should pay attention this fall when the Massachusetts Legislature takes up landmark legislation that would force manufacturers to respect the right of consumers to access their own repair information. The legislation, known as Right to Repair, is seen by car manufacturers as a threat to the lucrative service business in their dealerships and they are massing their lobbyists on Beacon Hill in an effort to defeat it."
Security

DHS To Review Report On US Power Grid Vulnerability 138

Posted by kdawson from the like-dominos dept.
CWmike writes "The US Department of Homeland Security is looking at a report by a research scientist in China that shows how a well-placed attack against a small power subnetwork could trigger a cascading failure of the entire West Coast power grid. Jian-Wei Wang, a network analyst at China's Dalian University of Technology, used publicly available information to model how the West Coast grid and its component subnetworks are connected. Wang and another colleague then investigated how a major outage in one subnetwork would affect adjacent subnetworks. New Scientist magazine reported on this a week or so ago, and the paper has been available since the spring."
Earth

Submission + - Panasonic's New LED Bulbs Shine for 19 Years (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by
Mike
Mike writes: "As lighting manufacturers leapfrog the incandescent bulb and CFLs looks set to define the future of lighting, Panasonic recently unveiled a remarkable 60-watt household LED bulb that they claim can last up to 19 years. With a lifespan 40 times longer than their incandescent counterparts, Panasonic's new EverLed bulbs are the most efficient LEDs ever to be produced and are set to debut in Japan on October 21st. Hopefully as the technology is refined we'll see them break down their significant cost barrier — $40 dollars is still pretty pricey for a light bulb."
Medicine

Taking Showers Can Be Harmful To Your Health 431

Posted by timothy from the healthiest-guy-alive dept.
TheClockworkSoul writes "According to both the BBC and NewScientist, showering may be bad for your health. Apparently, dirty shower heads can be an ideal breeding ground for Mycobacterium avium, a bug responsible for a type of pulmonary disease more prevalent than tuberculosis in developed countries, cases of which have risen in parallel with the rise in showering. Tests revealed nearly a third of devices harbor significant levels of the critter."
Bug

Microsoft Says No TCP/IP Patches For XP 759

Posted by timothy from the to-improve-your-customer-experience dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft says it won't patch Windows XP for a pair of bugs it quashed Sept. 8 in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The news adds Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SP3 to the no-patch list that previously included only Windows 2000 Server SP4. 'We're talking about code that is 12 to 15 years old in its origin, so backporting that level of code is essentially not feasible,' said security program manager Adrian Stone during Microsoft's monthly post-patch Webcast, referring to Windows 2000 and XP. 'An update for Windows XP will not be made available,' Stone and fellow program manager Jerry Bryant said during the Q&A portion of the Webcast (transcript here). Last Tuesday, Microsoft said that it wouldn't be patching Windows 2000 because creating a fix was 'infeasible.'"

Submission + - Health insurance does not include smartphones and (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
consonant
consonant writes: "The NY Times has an article on insurers refusing to cover cheaper devices such as iPhones and netbooks which may be used by the speech-impaired, and instead requires them to acquire devices that cost from 10 to 20 times as much. The reason? "Insurance is supposed to cover medical devices, and smartphones or PCs can be used for nonmedical purposes, like playing video games or Web browsing."

For the millions of Americans with A.L.S., Down syndrome, autism, strokes and other speech-impairing conditions, the insurance industryâ(TM)s aversion to covering mainstream devices adds to the challenges they face. Advocates say using an everyday device to communicate can ease the stigma and fear of making the adjustment. At the same time, current policies mean that the government and private insurers may be spending unnecessary dollars on specialty machines.

"
The Media

Google Wants To Ease News Browsing With Fast Flip 125

Posted by timothy from the see-page-17-for-details dept.
CWmike writes "Google is developing a product called Fast Flip that aims to make it simpler and faster to browse through news articles on the Web, a process the company says is cumbersome and discourages people from reading more online. Fast Flip, which lets readers glance at pages and browse through them quickly without having to wait for multiple page elements to load, was expected to go live late Monday at the Google Labs Web site. The idea is to try to replicate online the ease with which people flip through the pages of print magazines and newspapers in the offline world. This could motivate people to read more online, which Google argues will help publishers attract more readers and increase their revenue. However, when users click on a Fast Flip link, they will be taken to the corresponding publisher's Web site, where the Google technology will not be on hand to display the page more quickly."

Submission + - Australian Goverment to break up Telstra (abc.net.au)

Submitted by benz001
benz001 writes: The same Minister in charge of the ridiculous broadband filter plan has at least won a few brownie points with today's press conference (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/15/2686143.htm). Telstra, Australia's largest ISP and the countries main infrastructure owner is to voluntarily split off its network and wholesale arms or the Goverment will step in with legislation.

The official press release can be found on the Ministers site (http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/088)
Wireless Networking

Submission + - (Near) Constant internet while RV'ing?

Submitted by
Neilio
Neilio writes: "What systems would Slashdotters recommend for staying connected while RV'ing across the US and Canada? While a 3G data plan seems obvious, the intrepid RV'er wants to get remote and into those parts of the coverage map that are usually gray (no coverage). But satellite can be expensive, includes high latency for VOIP and gaming, and requires a clear view of the southern sky. I've come across some intriguing products that use and amplified 2G/3G signal and bridge to WiFi, like www.wifiinmotion.com, and CradlePoint's MBR1000 (http://www.cradlepoint.com/products/mbr1000-mobile-broadband-039n039-router (I have no affiliation to either). Do folks have any experience with these, or can you recommend another approach (even homebrew)? While I am an electrical engineer by degree, you have to go back a few decades since I last expertly sported a soldering iron, so the less DIY the better. My wife and I now run a web-based business, so nearly daily connectivity is a must, no matter where we are."

Slashdot Top Deals

** MAXIMUM TERMINALS ACTIVE. TRY AGAIN LATER **

Close