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Programming

Submission + - Facebook Helps Give Hacking a Good Name Again

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Ira Winkler writes that whenever he sees another "cyberchallenge" getting play in the press, he think our priorities are screwed up. "People seem to think that organizing teams of people to hack into systems is a way to bring together the best computer talent to square off against each other," writes Winkler. "I look at it as a waste of that talent." That's why Winkler supports Facebook's latest Hacker Cup which has become one of the few tests of creative computer talent. Facebook is using the original definition of "hacker," referring not to someone who breaks into computer systems, but rather to an individual who "enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities." Facebooks's contest consists of successive sets of increasingly difficult algorithmic problems. Scoring will be based on how accurately and quickly the programmers complete the puzzles. Last year's contest featured challenges such as determining the optimum number of shield generators and warriors one should acquire for the Facebook game Starcraft II and calculating the best race car driving strategy given a variable number of opponents, race track curves and likelihood of crashing. "Meanwhile, the media effectively lionize groups like Anonymous by breathlessly reporting on their latest hacks," writes Winkler. "What we really should be doing is not to reward a handful of students to find problems, but to train all students, and inevitably the profession, to integrate security into their efforts from the start.""
Science

Submission + - Proteins build 'cages' around bacteria (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Research in human cells shows that proteins called 'septins' are able to build cages around pathogens to prevent them infecting other cells. According tot he researchers, the newly discovered defence system could lead to new therapies for diseases. The microbes trapped in the cage are later broken down by the cell.
Data Storage

Submission + - IBM Makes First Racetrack Memory Chip (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by
holy_calamity
holy_calamity writes: "Slashdot has followed the progress of IBM's revolutionary "racetrack" memory which stores data inside nanowires for several years. Now Big Blue has made the first prototype integrated onto a single chip, using the CMOS processing used in commercial chip fabs. It's still a research prototype, but goes some way to validate IBM's claim that the technology could be commercialized."
Image

Denver Rejects UFO Agency To Track Aliens 80

Posted by samzenpus from the name-and-galaxy-of-origin-please dept.
Republicans weren't the only ones to win big yesterday. Aliens in The Mile-High City can breathe easier thanks to voters rejecting a plan to officially track them. From the article: "The proposal defeated soundly Tuesday night would have established a commission to track extraterrestrials. It also would have allowed residents to post their observations on Denver's city Web page and report sightings." Let the anonymous probings begin!
Government

Submission + - Judge approves $100 million Dell settlement (skunkpost.com)

Submitted by crimeandpunishment
crimeandpunishment writes: It's official. Dell will pay the US government $100 million to settle fraud charges. CEO Michael Dell will personally pay a $4 million fine. A federal judge approved the settlement after Michael Dell assured him the company will deliver on the reforms it promised. Dell was accused of pumping up its profits over five years by improperly using payments from Intel, in order to meet Wall Street targets.
Censorship

Submission + - Seven Words You Can't Say on Google Instant 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Back in 1972, Georgle Carlin gave us the Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Thirty eight years later, Valleywag reports on The Definitive List of Words Google Thinks Are Naughty. You've probably noticed how the new Google Instant tries to guess what you're searching for while you type — unless it thinks your search is dirty, in which case you'll be forced to actually press ENTER to see your results. Leave it to the enterprising folks at 2600 to compile an exhaustive list of words and phrases Google Instant won't auto-search for.
Data Storage

Submission + - IBM Demos Single-Atom DRAM (eetimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A single-atom DRAM which was demonstrated with a slo-mo movie of the atomic process of setting and erasing a bit on a single atom, getting IBM on the next Science. Videos of atomic processes inside chips was not possible until now, leading to IBM's claim that its pulsed-STM (that makes the moview) will lead to a new atomic-scale semiconductor industry, and not just for memory chips, according to this EETimes story:

"The ultimate memory chips of the future will encode bits on individual atoms, a capability recently demonstrated for iron atoms by IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., which unveiled a new pulsed technique for scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs). Pulsed-STMs yield nanosecond time-resolution, a requirement for designing the atomic-scale memory chips, solar panels and quantum computers of the future, but also for making super efficient organic solar cells by controlling photovoltaic reactions on the atomic level."

The original STM is what enabled chip makers to perfect the current DRAM and flash memories, so it makes sense that turning the STM into a high-speed movie camera to record individual atoms could result in atomic memories, better solar cells and the ultimate goal--atomic scale quantum computers.
Politics

Submission + - China Embargos Rare Earth Exports to Japan (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles. China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound. The embargo comes after a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain whose ship collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. The Chinese embargo is likely to have immediate repercussions in Washington. The House Committee on Science and Technology is scheduled to review a detailed bill to subsidize the revival of the American rare earths industry and the House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements."
Robotics

Submission + - Researcher builds machines that daydream (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: Murdoch University professor Graham Mann is developing algorithms to simulate "free thinking" and emotion. He refutes the emotionless reason portrayed by Mr Spock, arguing that "an intelligent system must have emotions built into it before it can function". The algorithm can translate the "feel" of Aesop's Fables based on Plutchick's Wheel of Emotions. In tests, it freely associated three stories: The Thirsty Pigeon; The Cat and the Cock; and The Wolf and the Crane, and when queried on the association, the machine responded: "I felt sad for the bird."
Open Source

Submission + - Stallman crashes talk, fights 'war on sharing' (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: Free software activist Richard Stallman has called for the end of the 'war on sharing' at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia. He criticized surveillance, censorship, restrictive data formats and software-as-a-service in a keynote presentation, and asserted that digital society had to be "free" in order to be a benefit, and not an attack.

Earlier in the conference, Stallman briefly interrupted a European Patent Office presentation with a placard that said: "Don't get caught in software patent thickets". He told journalists that the Patent Office was "here to campaign in favor of software patents in Australia", arguging that "there's no problem that requires a solution with anything like software patents".
Privacy

Germany To Roll Out ID Cards With Embedded RFID 235

Posted by Soulskill from the meine-Brieftasche-ist-radioaktiv dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The production of RFID chips, an integral element of the new generation of German identity cards, has started after the government gave a 10-year contract to the chipmaker NXP in the Netherlands. Citizens will receive the mandatory new ID cards starting from the first of November. The new card allows German authorities to identify people with speed and accuracy, the government said. These authorities include the police, customs and tax authorities and of course the local registration and passport granting authorities. There are some concerns that the use of RFID chips will pose a security or privacy risk, however. Early versions of the electronic passports, using RFID chips with a protocol called 'basic access control' (BAC), were successfully hacked by university researchers and security experts."
Biotech

A Genetically Engineered Fly That Can Smell Light 111

Posted by timothy from the lsd-way-cheaper dept.
An anonymous reader writes "It sounds like a cool — if somewhat pointless — super-powered insect: a fly that can smell light! Researchers added a light-sensitive protein to a fruit fly's olfactory neurons, which caused the neurons to fire when the fly was exposed to a certain wavelength of blue light. Adding the protein specifically to neurons that respond to good smells, like bananas, makes for a light-seeking fly."

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