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Programming

Submission + - Drizzle Hits General Availability (infoworld.com)

snydeq writes: "MySQL fork Drizzle has been released for general availability, giving companies a viable alternative to Oracle-owned MySQL, InfoWorld reports. 'Organizations that have been seeking a less-expensive alternative to Oracle's brand of MySQL — or a variant devoid of feature bloat — now have an option that Drizzle's creators deem ready to package in Linux distributions.'"

Submission + - U.S. military commissions sock puppet program (guardian.co.uk)

chrb writes: The Guardian and The Telegraph are reporting that U.S. based Ntrepid Corporation has been awarded a $2.76 million contract to develop software aimed at manipulating social media. The project aims to enable military personnel to control multiple "sock puppets" located at a range of geographically diverse IP addresses, with the aim of spreading pro-U.S. propaganda. The project will not target English speaking web sites (yet) but will be limited to foreign languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto. The project will be funded as part of the $200 million Operation Earnest Voice (OEV) program run by U.S. Central Command.
NASA

Submission + - NASA Worker Falls To His Death On Launch Pad (ibtimes.com)

RedEaredSlider writes: Tragedy has struck NASA as the organization announced a space shuttle worker fell to his death at the Endeavour launch pad this morning.

NASA said the United Space Alliance worker fell at approximately 7:40 am eastern this morning at the NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A.The launch pad is currently holding the space shuttle Endeavour, which is slated to launch in a month on April 19.

Apple

Submission + - New MacBook Pro Teardown Reveals 'Shoddy Assembly' (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: "Apple's new MacBook Pro shows some build-quality problems that shouldn't be seen in a notebook that costs $1,800, a teardown expert said on Monday. iFixit.com found several signs of substandard assembly while disassembling a 15-in. MacBook Pro. Among them: A stripped screw near the subwoofer enclosure and an unlocked ZIF (zero insertion force) socket for the IR (infrared) sensor. '[These] should not be things found inside a completely unmolested computer with an $1,800 base price,' iFixit said in the teardown description. iFixit also spotted an unusual amount of thermal paste applied to both the CPU and the GPU. 'Holy thermal paste! Time will tell if the gobs of thermal paste applied to the CPU and GPU will cause overheating issues down the road,' iFixit said. The refreshed MacBook Pro models launched last Thursday in what one analyst called a 'ho-hum' upgrade."
Security

Submission + - 20 Years of Innovative Windows Malware (infoworld.com)

snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard takes a look at the past 20 years of innovative Windows malware — an evolution that provides insights into the kinds of attacks to come. From macro viruses, to interstitial infections, to spray attacks, to industrial espionage, 'there's been a clear succession, with the means, methods, and goals changing definitively over time,' Leonhard writes, outlining the rise of Windows malware as a succession of ingenious breakthroughs to nefarious ends."
Government

Submission + - Comcast-NBC Deal Accidentally Protects Internet (itworld.com)

jfruhlinger writes: "Details of the conditions that the Department of Justice required to approve Comcast's purchase of NBC have emerged today. Blogger Kevin Fogarty looks at the details — Comcast is forbidden from blocking Netflix over its pipes, and must sell NBC shows via iTunes and other similar services — and concludes that Internet access for everybody, including business users, has been protected, more or less by accident."
Government

Submission + - DOJ cracks down on copyright infringing sites (politico.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The Obama administration is just getting started in its mission to shut down rogue websites that illegally share copyrighted content such as movies and music.

The White House's intellectual property czar, Victoria Espinel, said Monday that the Internet community should "expect more of that" pre-emptive action as the administration ramps up its efforts to combat online copyright infringement — especially the illegal copying and sale of pharmaceutical drugs.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46003.html#ixzz17MF27N00

Games

Submission + - Best Buy Unapologetic About Charging for Firmware (industrygamers.com) 2

donniebaseball23 writes: After discovering that electronics retailer Best Buy was charging ignorant customers $30 for the "service" of installing updated firmware on PS3s, IndustryGamers got word from the company on its policy. Best Buy sees no problem with charging for this convenience, even though it's something Sony provides to PS3 owners completely free. "While many gamers can handle firmware upgrades easily on their own, those customers who do want help can get it from Geek Squad, and we continue to evaluate this offering to ensure it meets their needs. The service goes beyond a firmware updates, and includes user account setup, parental control setup and other components," a rep told IndustryGamers.
The Courts

Facing 16 Years In Prison For Videotaping Police 878

krou sends this snip from the Maine Civil Liberties Union: "The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who faces as much as sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. ... Once [the Maryland State Police] learned of the video on YouTube, Graber's parents' house was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated. Graber was arrested, booked, and jailed. Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation. Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute. The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties. According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber's case, 'To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist.'" Here are a factsheet (PDF) on the case from the ACLU of Maryland, and the video at issue.
Media

Submission + - Times UK paywall a miserable failure (newser.com)

David Gerard writes: "As part of his war against free, Rupert Murdoch put the Times and Sunday Times of London behind a paywall. Michael Wolff of Newser asks how that's working out for him. You can guess: miserable failure. "Not only is nobody subscribing to the website, but subscribers to the paper itselfâ€Â”who have free access to the siteâ€Â”are not going beyond the registration page. Itâ€Âs an empty world." Not that this wasn't entirely predictable."
Networking

Submission + - Millions of home routers are hackable (forbes.com)

Julie188 writes: Craig Heffner, a researcher with Maryland-based security consultancy Seismic, plans to release a software tool at the Black Hat conference later this month that he says could be used on about half the existing models of home routers, including most Linksys, Dell, and Verizon Fios or DSL versions. The tool apparently exploits the routers through DNS rebinding.
NASA

Submission + - Senate Bill Adds Shuttle Flight, New Shuttle-Deriv (orlandosentinel.com)

simonbp writes: The Senate Commerce Committee this morning marked up a compromise NASA Authorization Act that rolls back some of Obama's plans for NASA, while keeping others. The bill adds at least one more shuttle flight, keeps Obama's technology demonstrators and commercial access to ISS (albeit at reduced funding), restores the Orion crew capsule, and replaces the Ares rockets with a Shuttle-Derived "Space Launch System" for going to the ISS and Beyond, and which could be ready as soon as 2015.
Hardware Hacking

The Genius of the Lego Printer 187

Barence writes "If you've ever struggled to build anything more complex than a cube of Lego, this will blow your mind. It's a fully functioning Lego printer, complete with felt tip print head."
Mars

NASA Mars Rover Spots Its Ultimate Destination 101

coondoggie writes "It has been years in the making but NASA said its Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured a new view of the rim of the planet's Endeavour crater, perhaps the rover's ultimate destination. The Mars rover set out for Endeavour in September 2008 after spending two years exploring the Victoria crater. NASA says Endeavour is 13 miles across, some 25 times wider than Victoria crater, and could offer scientists more insight into the red planet's makeup."

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