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Submission + - West Virginia is geothermically active (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Researchers have uncovered the largest geothermal hot spot in the eastern United States. According to a unique collaboration between Google and academic geologists, West Virginia sits atop several hot patches of Earth, some as warm as 200C and as shallow as 5 kilometers. If engineers are able to tap the heat, the state could become a producer of green energy for the region.

Submission + - GoogleSharing, Now With No Trust Required

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: GoogleSharing, the popular Google anonymizing service created by well known privacy advocate and security researcher Moxie Marlinspike, has released a major new version today. The biggest change is leveraging Google's SSL search option to provide an anonymizing service which doesn't require you to trust either Google or GoogleSharing. This means that anyone who wishes to opt out of Google's data collection practices can now do so without having to trust the operator of the anonymizing service.
IT

Submission + - Take This GUI and Shove It (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Deep End's Paul Venezia speaks out against the overemphasis on GUIs in today's admin tools, saying that GUIs are fine and necessary in many cases, but only after a complete CLI is in place, and that they cannot interfere with the use of the CLI, only complement it. Otherwise, the GUI simply makes easy things easy and hard things much harder. 'If you have to make significant, identical changes to a bunch of Linux servers, is it easier to log into them one-by-one and run through a GUI or text-menu tool, or write a quick shell script that hits each box and either makes the changes or simply pulls down a few new config files and restarts some services?' Venezia writes. 'And it's not just about conservation of effort — it's also about accuracy. If you write a script, you're certain that the changes made will be identical on each box. If you're doing them all by hand, you aren't.'"
Censorship

Submission + - Monkey Island creator slams Apple control freaks (grumpygamer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ron Gilbert, co-creator of classic games Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island 1 and 2, and many more, speaks out against corporate censorship in the way of large companies getting a say on what does or does not get published on the distribution channels they control. Although his insightful rant applies to a number of corporations (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Comcast are mentioned), most of the direct examples single out Apple. A few choice excerpts:

"...Apple has maintained an almost North Koreanish dictatorial control over the devices, becoming the arbitrator over what is good and bad, what is allowed and not allowed. They don't have this control over the Mac because it is a real computer and an open device, but they can do this with the iPhone because we (as consumers) were convinced by the cell phone carriers that they needed this control to protect their networks (in the same way they wouldn't let us own our own telephones in the 70s) and Apple was happy to jump on that ship because they could finally control everything that went on the device and we bought it into it. Apple apologists say that Apple needs this control to maintain the "specialness" of the device. I say that's a load of crap. Anyone that uses a Mac will tell you that much of the software (completely out of Apple's control) is beautiful and highly functional, unlike the sea of garbage that finds it's way onto Windows. Apple set a high aesthetic standard and challenges people to follow it and it's worked great. No one tells me what I can or can not buy and use on my Mac, yet it's all lovely and special.

"Ideas are often censored not because they are bad, but because they are not understood and mistaken for bad. The damage here is that truly brilliant ideas can take a while before their importance and genius is truly appreciated or that people are ready for them. Ideas can also be upsetting and disruptive to the status quo, the very institutions that have the power to censor.

"If Gutenberg's press could have be shackled with DRM and technology to prevent anything unauthorized from being printed, you know it would have been. And then where would be be today? I don't need corporations to protect me and limit what I can or can not create, express or enjoy. I'm an adult.

He also mentions Adidas dropping out of iAds because they couldn't accept Apple's excessive creative control, a photography app that was rejected because it used the volume buttons as trigger ("[it] was pure genius [but was banned] to avoid consumer confusion") and art being created on the iPhone and the iPad in spite of the devices and not because of it ("[Sam & Max and Monkey Island artist] Steve Purcell ... would sit in team meetings and create to most incredible jaw dropping pictures on an Etch-A-Sketch, but that doesn't mean it was suddenly a serious tool for the creation of art").
Botnet

Submission + - Comcast Warns Customers Suspected of Bot Infection (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Comcast is pushing a new program nationwide that warns customers if they might have a bot infection. It puts a semitransparent overlay on the top of the website you're viewing warning you that you may have a bot installed if the provider detects botnet traffic from your residence. Of course, if you have multiple machines running behind a router or modem then you're going to have a difficult time pinning down which machine might have the infection.
Image

"Super Monkey" Security Force Used At Commonwealth Games 66

Posted by samzenpus from the fight-monkeys-with-monkeys dept.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has increased the strength of its monkey security team for the Commonwelath Games. The large langur monkeys are used to scare away smaller, more troublesome primate species from sporting arenas and food stalls. "From tomorrow onwards we will increase the number of langurs from 28 to 38. The additional langurs will take care of the Games venues and other important areas," an NDMC official told the Press Trust of India news agency. Sounds like a good idea until the monkeys learn how to throw barrels.
Image

George Washington Racks Up 220 Years of Late Fees At Library 146

Posted by samzenpus from the at-least-he-read dept.
Everyone knows that George Washington couldn't tell a lie. What you probably didn't know is that he couldn't return a library book on time. From the article: "New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that the president has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed, but never returned. One of the books was the 'Law of Nations,' which deals with international relations. The other was a volume of debates from Britain's House of Commons. Both books were due on Nov. 2, 1789."

Feed news.com: Open-sourcing the music experience with Songbird (cnet.com)

From feed by cnetfeed

Featured links from the CNET Blog Network

Open sourcing the music experience with Songbird -- Songbird is a really cool way to experience music. Open source style.

The Klipsch iFi--the best ever iPod speaker--it's back! -- The Audiophiliac recalls his favorite iPod speaker, Klipsch's iFi.

Corner Shot takes some of the guesswork out of urban warfare -- New weapon system allows police and soldiers to see and shoot around corners.

A logo program I can get behind -- Neuros has proposed a new logo to identify DRM-free content and the devices that play it.

Feed Science Daily: Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Created That Avoid Immune Rejection (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
In a groundbreaking experiment scientists have derived four unique embryonic stem cell lines that open the door for the creation of therapeutic cells that will not provoke an immune reaction in large segments of the population. The stem cell lines are "HLA-homozygous," meaning that they have a simple genetic profile in the critical areas of the DNA that code for immune rejection. The stem cells under development are derived from unfertilized donor eggs, not from fertilized embryos, so the technique does not carry the same ethical burden.

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