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Heise's 'Two Clicks For More Privacy' vs. Facebook 206

Posted by timothy from the like-grit-in-the-eye-of-sauron dept.
First time accepted submitter FlameWise writes "Yesterday, German technology news site Heise changed their social 'like' buttons to a two-click format (Original in German). This will effectively disable unintentional automatic tracking of all page visits by third-party social sites like Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Less than 24 hours later over 500 websites have asked about the technology. Facebook is now threatening to blacklist Heise (Original in German)." As I read the updated story, Facebook has backpedaled a bit, so "blacklist" may no longer be the operative word. An anonymous reader adds a quick explanation of the changed interface: "Instead of enabling Facebook to track a user (arguably without prior consent) by placing a 'like' button on the website in the usual way, a greyed-out like button is shown. If a user wants to share or 'like,' he has to execute an additional click to enable the original Facebook 'like' button and get the desired behavior. This technique obviously has a disadvantage for Facebook, because the behavioral tracking does not work anymore."
Earth

Using Cinnamon In the Production of Nanoparticles 126

Posted by samzenpus from the what-about-the-brown-sugar? dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists at the University of Missouri used cinnamon to replace almost all toxic chemicals needed for making gold nanoparticles used in electronics and healthcare products. Nanoparticle production requires the use of extremely dangerous and toxic chemicals. While the nanotechnology industry is expected to produce large quantities of useful nanoparticles in the near future, the entire production process could be detrimental to the environment."

Comment Re:I'd like to solve the puzzle, Pat (Score 1) 151

by stirz (#34297944) Attached to: Sculptor Gives a Hint For CIA's Kryptos

I guess they figure that if you have the courage to try to learn it, and speak it, you don't need to prove any valour beyond that.

I suppose it stems from the fact that German is known to be pretty complicated to learn, especially when English is your mother tongue.

I have seen the film clip where Kennedy says, "Ich bin ein Berliner!", but all of the crowd knew what he wanted to say, and so it was no problem.

Actually, JFK had a quite remarkable pronounciation. He could not entirely conceal his American accent, but managed to get his tongue round very well. However, the crowd reacted with such enthusiasm because two years before JFK's speech, the East Germans had started constructing the Berlin Wall isolating West Berlin. And at this climax of the Cold War, an American president declaring his solidarity in such an emotional way was something West Berliners were really pining after.

Comment Re:Hitler assassination plot (Score 1) 1270

by stirz (#33984750) Attached to: Given one free trip to the past in a time machine, I would..
Sadly enough, those courageous people did not receive much support from the Allies. In fact, the Allied High Command demanded an unconditional surrender which gave the group of July 20th not much room for manoeuver. Furthermore, it's clear that this group was not a team of democratic people. The common factor was that they wanted get rid of the Nazi apparatus, but many of them approved an autocratic state.

And, oh, if I chose to go back in time, I would rather keep the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria from happening. This could have probably the effect of preventing WWI and WWII. Nevertheless, many problems of that time, like a latent anti-semitism and autocratic tendencies would still leave Europe like a powder keg.
NES (Games)

Nintendo Entertainment System Turns 25 164

Posted by Soulskill from the mine-still-works dept.
harrymcc writes "On October 18th 1985, Nintendo launched its NES console in the US, reviving a near-dead video game industry and establishing Nintendo as a leader in home consoles. We've celebrated with a roundup of some of the stranger spinoffs that the NES has inspired over the last quarter century, from odd controllers to a lock parents could use to disable the console to do-it-yourself projects like an NES built into a Super Mario cartridge."

Comment Re:If Microsoft did this... (Score 1) 548

by stirz (#33203560) Attached to: Canonical Begins Tracking Ubuntu Installations
Do you actually know that Microsoft doesn't? At least product activation and update services have to "phone home" regularly, and you can't tell what information is being transmitted. So if Canonical uses a piece of software that
  • everyone is able turn off easily,
  • works in a transparent way so that every user can acutally view the collected data if (s)he wants to,
  • does not only come in binary form,
  • does not collect personal data or personal data can be excluded easily

why should we all expect a major uproar?

Anyway, given these prequesites, I'd voluntary install this piece of software. But this would mean a tough job. I know many Ubuntu-users who associate "transparency" with a userfriendly gui, whereas most of the experienced users would prefer a CLI. Therefore the application should be completely manageable through the console as well as through a GUI. The display of the collected and transmitted data has to be accessable both ways, too. Microsoft does - on the other hand - not have applications to manage product activation and updates which comply with the mentionned criteria. So - once again - I believe that it would cause a greater buzz if MS did this.


regards,

stirz
Medicine

New Ebola Drug 100% Effective In Monkeys 129

Posted by Soulskill from the quick-somebody-call-hoffman dept.
TrisexualPuppy writes "A team of scientists at Boston University has created a cure for the Ebola virus, first discovered in 1976. After setting the correct dosages, all monkeys tested with the vaccine survived with only mild effects. No tests have been performed on humans yet, as outbreaks happen infrequently and are difficult to track. Quoting NPR: '[The drug] contains snippets of RNA derived from three of the virus's seven genes. That "payload" is packaged in protective packets of nucleic acid and fat molecules. These little stealth missiles attach to the Ebola virus's replication machinery, "silencing" the genes from which they were derived. That prevents the virus from making more viruses.'"
PC Games (Games)

Blizzard Boss Says Restrictive DRM Is a Waste of Time 563

Posted by Soulskill from the what-about-lan-play dept.
Stoobalou writes "Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce reckons that fighting piracy with DRM is a losing battle. His company — which is responsible for one of the biggest video games of all time, the addictive online fantasy role player World of Warcraft — is to release StarCraft 2 on July 27, and Pearce has told Videogamer that the title won't be hobbled with the kind of crazy copy protection schemes that have made Ubisoft very unpopular in gaming circles of late. StarCraft 2 will require a single online activation using the company's Battle.net servers, after which players will be allowed to play the single-player game to their hearts' content, without being forced to have a persistent Internet connection."
Image

Beaver Dam Visible From Space 286

Posted by samzenpus from the dam-big-job dept.
ygslash writes "The Hoover Dam no longer holds the title of the world's widest dam. Satellite photos of northern Alberta, Canada, show that several families of beavers have apparently joined forces to build a dam 850 meters wide, more than twice as wide as the Hoover Dam."

Comment Re:More than 10 years ago? (Score 1) 505

by stirz (#32028236) Attached to: I last bought 3.5" floppy disks ...
I stopped buying 3,5" floppies for daily use approximately 10 years ago because of 2 reasons. First, I bought a Iomega ZIP-drive and some ZIP-100 disks and second, I had around 50 floppy disks containing everything I needed for (re)installing my system as well as personal backups. So, who says one has to go from floppies directly to flash memory?
Games

Haptic Gaming Vest Simulates Punches, Shots, Stabbing 110

Posted by Soulskill from the thumpity-thump-thump dept.
An anonymous reader writes "IEEE Spectrum reports that University of Pennsylvania researchers have developed a Tactile Gaming Vest that smacks and vibrates as players get shot in a game based on Half-Life 2. Four solenoid actuators in the chest and shoulders in front and two solenoids in the back give you the feeling of a simulated gunshot. In addition, vibrating eccentric-mass motors clustered against the shoulder blades make you feel a slashing effect as you get stabbed from behind. If this kind of vest could be linked to a movie while you watch it, the experience would be that much more exciting. Or as one of the creators put it, 'every time Bruce Willis gets shot, you feel it.'"
Government

House Passes Massive Medical Insurance Bill, 219-212 2424

Posted by timothy from the house-of-representin'-in-effect dept.
The votes are in: yesterday evening, after a last-minute compromise over abortion payments, the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill effecting major changes in American medical finance. From the BBC's coverage: "The president is expected to sign the House-passed Senate bill as early as Tuesday, after which it will be officially enacted into law. However, it will contain some very unpopular measures that Democratic senators have agreed to amend. The Senate will be able to make the required changes in a separate bill using a procedure known as reconciliation, which allows budget provisions to be approved with 51 votes - rather than the 60 needed to overcome blocking tactics." No Republican voted in favor of the bill; 34 Democrats voted against. As law, the system set forth would extend insurance coverage to an estimated 32 million Americans, impose new taxes on high-income earners as well as provide some tax breaks and subsidies for others, and considerably toughen the regulatory regime under which insurance companies operate. The anticipated insurance regime phases in (starting with children, and expanding to adults in 2014) a requirement that insurance providers accept those with preexisting conditions, and creates a system of fines, expected to be administered by the IRS, for those who fail or refuse to obtain health insurance.
It's funny. Laugh.

Details Emerge On Futurama's "Rebirth" (and Return) 183

Posted by timothy from the you'll-need-a-3d-tv-with-smellovision dept.
Svippy writes "As revealed last summer, Futurama will be returning this year, and while there were conflicts about the cast of the show in the late summer of 2009, a deal was eventually secured. Last week, Comedy Central confirmed the airing of the first episode, 'Rebirth,' will be 24 June 2010. Several other details related to plot and production have surfaced over the months, and for those interested, a full article is available on the subject."
Power

High-Tech Research Moving From US To China 426

Posted by timothy from the viewing-the-world-as-a-zero-sum-game dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that American companies like Applied Materials are moving their research facilities and engineers to China as the country develops a high-tech economy that increasingly competes directly with the United States. Applied Materials set up its latest solar research labs in China after estimating that China would be producing two-thirds of the world's solar panels by the end of this year and their chief technology officer, Mark R. Pinto, is the first CTO of a major American tech company to move to China. 'We're obviously not giving up on the US,' says Pinto. 'China needs more electricity. It's as simple as that.' Western companies are also attracted to China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers and the subsidies offered by many Chinese cities and regions, particularly for green energy companies. Applied Materials decided to build their new $250 million research facility in Xi'an after the city government sold them a 75-year land lease at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter of the lab complex's operating costs for five years."

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