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NASA

NASA Launches Giant Magnifying Glass Into Space 115

Posted by CmdrTaco from the it's-all-in-the-name-of-science dept.
ByronScott writes "Early this morning NASA kicked off Operation LENS, an ambitious plan to concentrate and collect solar power using a giant magnifying glass in outer space. Long speculated to be a rumor, the 7,000,000 ft. wide lens was fabricated over the course of the past three years and launched from Cape Canaveral much to the dismay of almost every scientist in the world. While the first phase went exactly as planned, the plan hit a major snag when the magnifying glass began to work a bit too well, and ended up scorching large regions in the western hemisphere."
Image

California Legislature Declares "Cuss-Free" Week 262

Posted by samzenpus from the f#*k-those-f@^king-f%&kers dept.
shewfig writes "The California legislature, which previously tried to ban incandescent light bulbs, just added to the list of banned things ... swear words! Fortunately, the measure only applies for the first week of March, and compliance is voluntary — although, apparently, there will be a 'swear jar' in the Assembly and the Governor's mansion. No word yet on whether the Governator intends to comply."
Security

Hackers vs. Phishers 137

Posted by CmdrTaco from the better-than-predator-vs-alien dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Some hackers out there don't like to do all the hard work of running a successful phishing campaign. Instead, they developed a simple online service to 'steal' account details from the hard-working phishers. Named AutoWhaler, the service allows anyone to scan a phishing server for log files that contain juicy information such as usernames and passwords."
Media

Danish DRM Breaker Turns Himself In To Test Backup Law 466

Posted by timothy from the impure-impurity-and-impureness dept.
coaxial writes "In Denmark, it's legal to make copies of commercial videos for backup or other private purposes. It's also illegal to break the DRM that restricts copying of DVDs. Deciding to find out which law mattered, Henrik Anderson reported himself for 100 violations of the DRM-breaking law (he ripped his DVD collection to his computer) and demanded that the Danish anti-piracy Antipiratgruppen do something about it. They promised him a response, then didn't respond. So now he's reporting himself to the police. He wants a trial, so that the legality of the DRM-breaking law can be tested in court."

Comment Re:I don't get it... (Score 1) 151

by mikemsd (#30037308) Attached to: MIT Grad To Make Digital "SixthSense" Open Source

Yeah, really, I mean, it's like those people that wanted to put computers the size of a room in their house! I mean, it's not like they would have ever been able to make them small enough to fit in your pocket. Think of all the time and effort that would have been wasted. I'm glad I didn't invest that failed IBM startup.
Transportation

Computer Failure Causes Gridlock In MD County 483

Posted by Soulskill from the single-point-of-roadrage dept.
Uncle Rummy writes "A central traffic control computer in Montgomery County, Maryland failed early Wednesday morning, leading to widespread gridlock across the entire county. The computer, which dates to the 1970s, is the single point of unified control for all traffic signals in the county, which comprises a number of major Washington DC-area suburban communities. When the system failed, it caused all signals to default to stand-alone operation, rather than the highly-tuned synchronization that usually serves to facilitate traffic flow during rush hours. The resulting chaos is a yet another stark reminder of how much modern civilization relies on behind-the-scenes automation to deliver and control basic services and infrastructure. The system remains down Thursday, with no ETA in sight."

Submission + - Penny-Sized Nuclear Batteries Developed 1

Submitted by pickens
pickens writes: Pickens writes:

Nuclear batteries that produce energy from the decay of radioisotopes are an attractive proposition for many applications because the isotopes that power them can provide a useful amount of current for hundreds of years at power densities a million times as high as standard batteries. Although nuclear batteries have been used for military and aerospace applications for years their large size has limited their general usage but now a research team at the University of Missouri team has developed a nuclear battery the size of a penny that could be used to power micro- and nano-electromechanical systems. The researchers' innovation is not only in the battery's size, but also that the batteries use a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor. "The critical part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure of the solid semiconductor," says Jae Wan Kwon. "By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem." The batteries are safe under normal operating conditions. "People hear the word 'nuclear' and think of something very dangerous," says Kwon. "However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pacemakers, space satellites and underwater systems."

Submission + - French Prez Caught Violating His Own Copyright Law (ruwenzori.net)

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been caught violating someone's copyright again. This time, presidential services made 400 unauthorized copies of a DVD when only 50 had been made by the publisher. Mr. Sarkozy, of course, is the one pushing the HADOPI law, which would disconnect the internet service of an alleged pirate after three allegations of infringement. This isn't the first time he's been connected to copyright violations, either. His party had to pay some 30,000 Euro for using a song without authorization. If he were he subject to his own law, Mr. Sarkozy would be subject to having his internet disconnected the next time he pirates something."

Submission + - Dow to sell Solar Shingles (reuters.com)

Submitted by CyberDong
CyberDong writes: Dow Chemical Co said on Monday it would begin selling a new rooftop shingle next year that converts sunlight into electricity. The new solar shingles can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles, Dow said, and will be introduced in 2010 before a wider roll-out in 2011.
Spam

Submission + - Gold Spam becoming a sore topic for AION players (aiononline.com)

Submitted by Usagi_yo
Usagi_yo writes: Endless whispers for Kinah (in game currency), scrolling chat tabs of multi-line SPAM messages from in-game currency traders, phishing scams, key-logger scam, power leveling ... It's all there and it's very ugly for NCsoft's latest release of AION http://na.aiononline.com/ online mmorpg as players are starting to revolt after only a two weeks of game release. Would you pay $49.95 + tax and then $15 per month for such headaches?
Windows

Submission + - "Windows 7 compatible" PCs must be 64-bit (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Microsoft has started certifying PCs as "compatible with Windows 7" — and looks to have avoided the mistakes that dogged the Vista Capable scheme. Whereas Microsoft certified PCs that could only run Vista Home Basic last time round, this time PCs will have to work with all versions of Windows 7 to qualify for the sticker, including 64-bit versions of the OS. Microsoft also claims that "products that receive the logo are checked for common issues to minimise the number of crashes, hangs, and reboots experienced by the user.""
Software

Submission + - Company uses DMCA to take down second-hand softwar (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by
dreemteem
dreemteem writes: "A judge Tuesday heard arguments in a dispute over software sales that could potentially have repercussions on the secondhand sale of virtually any copyright material.
The suit was filed by Timothy Vernor, a seller on eBay, after Autodesk, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, asked eBay to remove some of its software products that Vernor had listed for sale there, and later to ban him from the site.
Vernor had not illegally copied the software but was selling legitimate CDs of the products secondhand. For that reason, he argued, he was not infringing Autodesk's copyright.
Autodesk countered that because it licences the software, rather than selling it outright, a licensee does not have the right to resell its products."

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