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Australia

Company Protects Australians With Its "Portector" 18

Posted by samzenpus from the webbing-for-the-web dept.
jalovick writes "With all the talk of Internet filtering in Australia and the high cost to implement the filter, an Australian technology distributor has come up with a cheaper solution to the government's Internet filter: The Kogan Portector."
Handhelds

"See-Through" Touchscreen Solves Fat Finger Problem 170

Posted by kdawson from the eight-finger-salute dept.
Urchin sends along a New Scientist writeup on Microsoft Research's nanoTouch prototype, a way of operating a touch screen from the rear (video here). The prototype will be presented at the Computer and Human Interaction conference in Boston, Mass., in April 2009. Coming soon to a wristwatch or neck pendant near you. "Electronic devices have been shrinking for years, but you might be forgiven for thinking that one that's only a centimeter across would be just too difficult to operate. Microsoft Research's new nanoTouch device suggests otherwise. Touch-screens are difficult to control with any precision — the fingers get in the way of the tiny targets you're trying to hit. But putting the touch interface on the rear of the screen instead gives users more precision because they can still see the whole screen as they interact with it. Microsoft Research has produced a prototype device called nanoTouch with a rear-mounted touch interface. User tests show it lets users accurately and reliably hit targets just 2 millimeters across on a screen under a centimeter across."
Mars

Phoenix Mars Lander Declared Dead 154

Posted by kdawson from the so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-pix dept.
SpuriousLogic sends in a sad note from the BBC: "NASA says its Phoenix lander on the surface of Mars has gone silent and is almost certainly dead. Engineers have not heard from the craft since Sunday 2 November when it made a brief communication with Earth. Phoenix, which landed on the planet's northern plains in May, had been struggling in the increasing cold and dark of an advancing winter. The US space agency says it will continue to try to contact the craft but does not expect to hear from it."
Government

How We Used To Vote 517

Posted by kdawson from the viva-voce dept.
Mr. Slippery writes "Think hanging chads, illegal purges of the voter rolls, and insecure voting machines are bad? The New Yorker looks back at how we used to vote back in the good old days: 'A man carrying a musket rushed at him. Another threw a brick, knocking him off his feet. George Kyle picked himself up and ran. He never did cast his vote. Nor did his brother, who died of his wounds. The Democratic candidate for Congress, William Harrison, lost to the American Party's Henry Winter Davis. Three months later, when the House of Representatives convened hearings into the election, whose result Harrison contested, Davis's victory was upheld on the ground that any "man of ordinary courage" could have made his way to the polls.' Now I feel like a wuss for complaining about the lack of a voter-verified paper trail." The article notes the American penchant for trying to fix voting problems with technology — starting just after the Revolution. This country didn't use secret ballots, an idea imported from Australia, until quite late in the 19th century.
Censorship

Submission + - U.S. plots "Pirate Bay killer" G8 trade ag (wikileaks.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wikileaks has revealed that the United States is plotting a "Pirate Bay killing" multi-lateral trade agreement called "ACTA" with the EU, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland and New Zealand. The proposal includes clauses designed to criminalize the non-profit facilitation of copyrighted information exchange on the internet, which would also affect transparency sites such as Wikileaks. The Wikileaks document details provisions that would impose strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. If adopted, the tready would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime imposing new cooperation requirements upon internet service providers, including perfunctory disclosure of customer information, as well as measures restricting the use of online privacy tools.
Cellphones

Journal Journal: Cost of Text Messaging

Journal by Se7enLC

Apart from "because people will pay it", why do US cell providers charge so much for text messaging? Text messages place very little strain on the networks compared to voice calls, because of their small throughput and high latency. And yet, it is cheaper using most providers and plans to make a 5 minute call than to send a single text message.
Microsoft

Submission + - Why Microsoft won't have Blu-ray on the Xbox (thestandard.com) 1

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Ever since Toshiba stopped production of HD DVD players, many Xbox 360 owners have been wondering when Microsoft will offer some sort of Blu-ray option for the Xbox 360. The answer: Probably never. Microsoft's product manager for the Xbox 360 has told Reuters that Microsoft is not in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association. Why not? The Industry Standard points to HDi, an obscure Microsoft technology that was part of the HD DVD interactivity layer. HDi may be dead on physical media, but it could potentially be applied to other Microsoft HD-compatible technologies such as Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Media Center, and be part of a long-term play to own a big share of the market for HD content delivered over the Internet."
Security

Submission + - Casino insider tells (almost) all about security (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Cool story on Casino security talks to Jeff Jonas, founder and chief scientist of Systems Research & Development (SRD), who helped build numerous casino systems before 2005 when his company was purchased by IBM. Between 1990 and 2005 Jonas helped pioneer facial recognition technology and various other systems in casinos such as the Bellagio, Treasure Island and Beau Rivage. "Today possibly half the casinos in the world run something or another that I had my hand in," he said. Jonas reveals some of the secret scams he learned from the casino industry such as the infinite hundred dollar bill, the hollowed out chip cup, the palm (trading cards), the specialty code (inserted by rogue programmer into video poker machine) and the cameraman, as well as detailing how casinos strike back against fraudsters and cheats. "In the old days it was the kneecaps, but those were the old, old days," he says. Jonas also talks about when casinos will actually allow cheating, such as card counters, to continue playing when their actions result in others losing money — thereby ensuring a profit for the casino. A very interesting read with lots of insider info on some of Vegas' most famous casinos
Robotics

Submission + - BattleBots & ESPN TV Deal (battlebots.com)

Submitted by NMajik
NMajik writes: Although BattleBots has been largely removed from the public eye since episodes stopped airing years ago, a new deal has recently been struck up with ESPN to return combat robots to the living room. Episodes will be broadcast as a series on ESPNU and ESPN2 after filmed at the competition in June 2008. This is the first notable progress towards televised combat robotics in years.
Government

Submission + - Lessig campaign and the Change Congress movement

Submitted by
GoldenShale
GoldenShale writes: "Larry Lessig has created a Lessig08 website, and it looks like he is getting serious about running for congress. In his introduction video he proposes the creation of a national "Change Congress" movement which would try to limit the influence of money in the electoral and legislative processes. Having a technologically savvy representative and a clear intellectual leader to head this kind of movement is exactly what we need to counter the last 8 years of corporate dominance in government. If he gets enough support for this movement he will run, so go to the website and show your support!"

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