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Media

Submission + - 'Scrapers' Dig Deep for Data on Web (wsj.com)

Submitted by
srwellman
srwellman writes: "The market for personal information gleamed from social media and online forums is exploding. The practice of Web "scraping" is growing as many firms offer to collect personal, and potentially incriminating, data about users from their social networking profiles and discussions. Many companies even collect online conversations and personal details from social networks, job sites and forums where people might discuss their lives and even potentially sensitive data, such as health issues. These scrapers operate in a legal grey area leaving many users exposed."
Government

Submission + - US can conduct warrantless searches of computers (computerworld.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: U.S. can conduct warrantless searches of computers seized at borders, appeals court rules:

Laptop computers and other digital devices carried into the U.S. may be seized from travelers without a warrant and sent to a secondary site for forensic inspection, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled last week. The ruling is the second in less than a year that allows the U.S. government to conduct warrantless, offsite searches of digital devices seized at the country's borders.

A federal court in Michigan last May issued a similar ruling in a case challenging the constitutionality of the warrantless seizure of a computer at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Several other courts, including the Ninth Circuit itself, have ruled that warrantless, suspicion-less searches of laptops and other digital devices can take place at U.S. border locations.

ComputerWorld: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215554/U.S._can_conduct_offsite_searches_of_computers_seized_at_borders_court_rules
Apple

Submission + - Remembering the Apple I (technologizer.com)

Submitted by
harrymcc
harrymcc writes: "This month marks the 35th anniversary of Apple--and the 35th anniversary of the Apple I, its first computer. It was a single-board computer that was unimaginably more rudimentary than any modern Mac--it didn't even come with a case and keyboard standard--but in its design, sales, and marketing we can see the beginnings of the Apple approach that continues to this day. I'm celebrating with a look at this significant machine."

Submission + - WikiLeaks cash-for-votes exposé rocks Indian (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by mage7
mage7 writes: While the world's attention seems to be focused on the events unfolding in Japan and the Middle-east, Indian headlines are being dominated by the latest WikiLeaks' revelations.
The newly leaked cable (dated 17 July 2008) suggests that India's ruling Congress party bribed MPs, in order to secure their votes for a controversial nuclear deal between India and the US. Among other details, It describes how a senior Congress aide showed a US embassy official "chests of cash" allegedly containing about $25 million to pay off MPs ahead of the vote. Another Congress insider told a US official about how the Minister of Commerce and Industry formerly "could only offer small planes as bribes.....now he can pay for votes with jets."
Botnet

Submission + - Microsoft conducts massive botnet takedown action (wsj.com)

Submitted by
h4rm0ny
h4rm0ny writes: "Yesterday, Microsoft, in co-operation with Federal agents, conducted what the Wall Street Journal described as "sweeping legal attacks" as they enterered facilities in Kansas City, Scranton, Pa, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle and and Columbus, Ohio to seize alleged "command and control" machines for the Rustock botnet — described as the largest source of Spam in the World.

The operation is intended to "decapitate" the botnet, preventing the sezied machines from sending orders to suborned PCs around the world."
Japan

Submission + - Heroism is Part of a Nuclear Worker's Job

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Michael Friedlander writes in the NY Times that in 1988 he was a newly minted shift technical adviser at a nuclear power plant near the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Gilbert, a Category 5 storm, was bearing down on the plant and received word that all workers should leave except for critical plant personnel and there was never a question: my team and I would stay, regardless of what happened (reg. may be required). "The situation facing the 50 workers left at Fukushima is a nuclear operator’s worst nightmare," writes Friedlander. "But the knowledge that a nuclear crisis could occur, and that we might be the only people standing in the way of a meltdown, defines every aspect of an operator’s life." The field attracts a very particular kind of person, says Friedlander, and the typical employee is more like a cross between a jet pilot and a firefighter: highly trained to keep a technically complex system running, but also prepared to be the first and usually only line of defense in an emergency. "We will likely hear numerous stories of heroism over the next several days, of plant operators struggling to keep water flowing into the reactors, breathing hard against their respirators under the dim rays of a handheld flashlight in the cold, dark recesses of a critically damaged nuclear plant, knowing that at any moment another hydrogen explosion could occur," writes Friedlander. "These operators will be hailed as heroes, and deservedly so. But if they are like the rest of the tightly knit community of nuclear workers, they will simply say they were doing their job.""

Comment Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated (Score 5, Interesting) 370

by srwellman (#35522970) Attached to: Is the Business Card Dead?
I remember the first time business cards were supposed to die. I was in a meeting at a trade show when someone offered to "beam" their virtual business card to me from their Palm Pilot PDA (remember those?). This must have been like 10, maybe 11, years ago. Has anyone beamed a business card to you recently in a meeting? I suspect not, unless you spend time with people who like using classic PDAs.
Education

Submission + - Texas bill outlaw discrimination of creationists (scienceblogs.com)

Submitted by
ndogg
ndogg writes: "There is a Texas bill, HB 2454, proposed by Republican State Rep. Bill Zedler, that will outlaw discrimination against creationists in colleges and universities. More specifically, it says, "An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms.""
Japan

Further Updates On Post-Tsumami Japan 369

Posted by timothy from the virgin-mobile-was-evidently-affected-too dept.
DarkStarZumaBeach points out a frequently updated page from the International Atomic Energy Agency with updates on the situation at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, which reports in terse but readable form details of the dangers and progress there. The most recent update says that the plant's Unit 2 has been re-wired for power, and engineers 'plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed.' Read on for more on the tsunami aftermath.
Programming

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

Submitted by
snydeq
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.'"
Canada

Submission + - Russia's VimpelCom Buys Wind Mobile in Canada (wifitalk.ca)

Submitted by silverpig
silverpig writes: Wind Mobile's CEO and Chairman Tony Lacavera announced on the wind mobile site that VimpelCom has decided to purchase Wind Telecom for $6 billion. The deal should go through by the middle of this year and may give Canadians cheaper international and roaming rates, as well as giving Wind some extra leverage with its suppliers and handset manufacturers.

The deal is particularly interesting as Wind is one fo the new entrants into the Canadian wireless operator industry and has had to deal with issues regarding Canada's foreign ownership rules. Expect a lot of scrutiny from the CRTC, Bell, Telus, and Rogers.

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