souls writes "The folks at Wikileaks are calling for a boycott against eNom, Inc., one of the top internet domain registrars, which WikiLeaks claims is involved in systematic domain censoring. On Feb 28th eNom shut down wikileaks.info, one of the many Wikileaks mirrors held by a volunteer as a side-effect of the court proceedings around wikileaks.org. In addition, eNom was the registrar that shut off access to a Spanish travel agent who showed up on a US Treasury watch list. Wikileaks calls for a 'global boycott of eNom and its parent Demand Media, its owners, executives and their affiliated companies, interests and holdings, to make clear such behavior can and will not be tolerated within the boundaries of the Internet and its global community.'"
By Eric Berger, Houston Chronicle Mar. 9--Mayor Bill White challenged the area's chemical industry to reduce its emissions of toxic chemicals such as benzene four months ago and promised punitive measures if it failed to do so. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Candus Thomson, The Baltimore Sun Mar. 9--The Internets. Can't live with them. Can't kill them. Unadulterated flapdoodle comes oozing through the series of tubes that make up our online world. Some stuff is life-altering. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["China's Political Advisers Speak on Taiwan Issue,Hong Kong Development" - Xinhua headline] Beijing, March 9 (Xinhua) - Chinese political advisers on Sunday Morning continued to raise their proposals on major state affairs at the annual session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Kristopher Hanson Photos: Long Beach Earth Quake LONG BEACH - Six minutes before 6 p.m. 75 years ago Monday, all hell broke loose in Long Beach. It was a sleepy late-winter Friday, March 10, 1933, and the nation was in the grip of the Great Depression. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Phillip McGowan, The Baltimore Sun Mar. 9--A prominent Anne Arundel businessman will not have to raze buildings constructed without permits on one of his two large marinas, under a settlement reached Friday with the county government. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Suzette Parmley and Tom Avril, The Philadelphia Inquirer Mar. 9--Wires, trees and roofs blown down by winds as high as 45 m.p.h. blocked many area roads last night, making travel treacherous and leaving thousands without electricity. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Tony Davis, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Mar. 9--A slight majority of Southern Arizonans who responded to an online survey trust that wastewater can be made safe to drink -- although many still don't want to drink it. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By The Baltimore Sun Mar. 9--Frustrated by slap-on-the-wrist enforcement of a state law limiting waterfront development, members of the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly four years ago to increase the maximum penalty for violations from $500 to $10,000. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Clay Barbour, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Mar. 9--Pam Hester always considered herself outdoorsy. She loved to hike and camp. She recycled. And she favored protecting greenspace in a growing region. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Stephanie Desmon, The Baltimore Sun Mar. 9--In the middle of campaign season, about 250 Episcopalians gathered for some electioneering of their own yesterday morning as they came out to meet, greet and grill the six men and women who hope to be the diocese's next bishop. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Kathryn Thier, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Mar. 9--MI-Connection Internet customers have until March 18 to convert their old Adelphia and Time Warner e-mail addresses. After that, the Time Warner mail server network supporting those addresses will be suspended. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report by correspondent headlined "Bail granted to Hizb activist" published by Pakistani newspaper The News website on 09 March The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday [8 March] granted bail to an activist of banned Hizbul Tehrir's, who is facing charges under anti-terrorism laws. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Scott Rothschild, Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan. Mar. 9--Calling all government efficiency ideas The Legislative Division of Post-Audit has set up a link on its Web site for people to submit ideas about how the state could save money and operate more efficiently. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Atonius sez, "Marianne Kearney-Brown, the Quaker math teacher who was fired by California State University for inserting the word 'non-violently' into her loyalty oath to the state, has been reinstated... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 9:24 am
Atonius sez, "Marianne Kearney-Brown, the Quaker math teacher who was fired by California State University for inserting the word 'non-violently' into her loyalty oath to the state, has been reinstated after Atty General Jerry Brown clarified that the oath doesn't require employees to take up arms."
The idea that someone could be fired for refusing to sign a loyalty oath came as a surprise to many Californians who were unaware that public employees are still required to sign it. The pledge was added to the state Constitution in 1952 at the height of anti-Communist hysteria and has remained a prerequisite for public employment ever since. All state, city, county, public school, community college and public university employees are required to sign the 86-word oath. Noncitizens are exempt.
Nelson sez, "Japanese researchers have developed a fire alarm that sprays the aroma of horseradish instead of ringing an alarm. It was effective in waking 13 out of fourteen test subjects within two minutes, deaf subjects reacting particularly quickly."
Link
(Thanks, Nelson!)
Nelson sez, "Japanese researchers have developed a fire alarm that sprays the aroma of horseradish instead of ringing an alarm. It was effective in waking 13 out of fourteen test subjects within two minutes,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 9:21 am
A European rocket has lifted off from French Guiana on a mission to bring oxygen, food, water and equipment to the international space station. It is the first of nine... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 9:01 am
An anonymous reader writes "Despite all the emphasis on protecting Olympic copyrights in China this year, the official web site of the Beijing Olympics features a Flash game that is a blatant copy of one of the games developed at The Pencil Farm. Compare the game on the Olympic site with 'Snow Day' at The Pencil Farm."
Zivity is an adult content social network and user generated content site (they call it “Promoting Beauty 2.0″). It has the distinction of being one of the first adult content startups to be... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 8:25 am
South by Southwest, that annual whirlwind of musical hype, prompts music critics, bloggers and journalists to fall all over each other in a rush to declare the year's break-out act. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 8:01 am
After World War 2, America built the infrastructure to deliver mass produced products, by mass transit for mass markets. We consumed along the arteries of this infrastructure, in supermarkets, fast food... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 7:32 am
Brian Stretch sends us to the National Review for an interview with Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig. Lessig talks about money, politics, money in politics, and his decision not to run for an open seat in Congress. From the interview: "Lessig hates corruption. He hates it so much, in fact, that last year he announced he'd be shifting away from his work on copyright and trademark law... to focus on it... 'One of the biggest targets of reform that we should be thinking about is how to blow up the FCC.'"
KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) - An unmanned Ariane rocket successfully put a cargo vessel into orbit in Europe's first mission to carry supplies to the International Space Station (ISS),... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 6:35 am
After tonight’s world premiere of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a woman in the audience asked why they involved George Bush. Someone else in the audience answered for the stars and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 6:25 am
A European rocket lifted off from French Guiana early Sunday on a mission to bring oxygen, food, water and equipment to the international space station. The rocket will carry 21 tons... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 5:58 am
I'm back at SXSW as one of the RWW contributors covering the interactive festival. This afternoon I attended Jason Fried's presentation on "Stuff We've Learned at 37 Signals". 37 Signals is a software... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 5:34 am
A father of three told yesterday how burglars raided his family home - then posted gloating messages to his estranged wife on the Internet site Facebook. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 5:00 am
Loop plays it all It's an old cliche, but applicable to the music of Loop 2.4.3: Everything but the kitchen sink. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 5:00 am
Cut through the flurry of announcements out of Microsoft's Mix conference this week and what emerges is the Redmond giant's three-pronged defense strategy: consumer, enterprise and developer. Only by understanding... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 4:56 am
The speaker’s-eye view from my panel: A small bit of the line to get into the Google party. Nevermind. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 4:50 am
dynamator writes "I live about 550 meters from my Verizon central office. I pay for their higher-tier 'Power Plan' DSL service, which boasts 3 Mbps down and 758 Kbsp up. For the past year, I've enjoyed excellent performance on this line. However, this past month Verizon has been hooking up my neighbors with FiOS, their new fiber-to-the-home system, and guess what, my connection speed and dependability have taken a nosedive. What can I do to build the case that this is really happening? Will anyone, least of all Verizon, care? Are they making me a fiber offer I can't refuse?" We discussed a few times last year what Verizon may be up to.
NETANYA, Israel, March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE: CEL) (the "Company") announced today that a purported class action lawsuit filed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 3:00 am
There has been lots of cringing in the northeastern U.S. and in eastern Canada this year about the amount of snow that has fallen. So, is the current snow cover -- the amount of snow on the ground -- anomalous... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 2:41 am
MTV Networks became the target of information theft recently when an individual stole private employee data by hacking into the New York company's computers. The Viacom Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 2:00 am
CBS Radio in New York said this week it is joining with AOL Radio to increase its presence on the Internet and push advertising sales for the portal. The deal will make more than 150 CBS Radio stations accessible through the AOL network, The Hollywood Reporter reported Saturday. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 2:00 am
NEW DELHI: Google on Thursday announced the widening of its bouquet of payment options for the AdWords advertising programme in India. Advertisers will now have the power to choose from among a range of payment options to create their Google AdWords account. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Mar 2008 | 2:00 am
Much of my family lives in Ottawa, Canada, and so now and then I like to check a live webcam across the street from Parliament Hill. Mid-winter it can be lovely, with snow all around and the Canadian flag... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 1:53 am
The web is positively awash in terrible ideas for startups. So many, in fact, that Waxy.org's Andy Baio was inspired to create a contest to see who could dream up the most awful, short-sighted business plan. Mike Calore reports from SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Edis Krad writes "While RealID in the US is a threat whose implementation is a ways in the future, the Japanese long ago implemented something similar; and there has been very little complaint raised about it. The Juki Net (Residents Registration Network — link in Japanese) has been silently developing since 1992. The system involves an 11-digit unique number to identify every citizen in Japan, and the data stored against that ID covers name, address, date of birth, and gender. Many Japanese citizens seem to be oblivious that such a government-run network exists. Juki Net had a spotlight shone on it recently because a number of citizens around the country sued against it, citing concerns of information misuse or leakage. And while an Osaka court ruled against the system, the Japanese Supreme Court has just ruled it is not unconstitutional, on the grounds that the data will be used in a bona-fide manner and there's no risk of leakage. While there is a longstanding registration system for us foreigners in Japan, what astonishes me is how the government can secretly implement such a system for its citizens, and how little concern the media and Japanese citizens in general display about the privacy implications."
Team Underwire is covering South by Southwest 2008 'round the clock. Well fortified with BBQ, the team is posting photos, movie reviews, show recaps, party pictures, exclusive interviews and impromptu Rock Band showdowns. Check back often and keep your eye on the Underwire as your one-stop shop for reports from the front lines.
One of South by Southwest 2008's first film premieres opens to a packed and uproarious house of pot aficionados and comedy lovers alike. Super High Me spoofs Morgan Spurlock's month-long fast food diet in Super Size Me. Rather than gorging on McDonald's, the film's star, Doug Benson, indulges in another type of refreshment for 30 days -- marijuana. Jenna Wortham reports from Austin, Texas.
Worldwide email traffic hits 196 billion messages a day and is predicted to reach 374 billion per day by 2011 Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Mar 2008 | 12:03 am
ericatcw writes "Critics have charged that last week's ISO Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) to decide the fate of changes to Office Open XML standards proposal was too perfunctory and deviated from accepted ISO practices, possibly in an attempt to smooth the passage of the Microsoft format. This week, the ISO 'convener' of the BRM disputed those charges, saying that voting to dispose of 900 changes to the spec at once and allowing 'O' Observer countries to vote were the correct moves. ISO released a statement backing him up. Also, Patrick Durusau, editor of the competing OpenDocument Format specification and a late convert to OOXML's passage, also said that claims the process was flawed were overstated."
palegray.net writes "Threat Level brings us the story of the US Air Force's use of the DMCA to forcibly remove a 'Cyber Command' recruitment video that they had previously thanked Threat Level for running. The article notes that US government works are not even subject to copyright, but this fact didn't stop YouTube from caving and taking down the video."
Presto Vivace forwards a link detailing a recent House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the White House missing emails mess. David Gewirtz's report, carried in OutlookPower and DominoPower (in 6 parts, keep clicking), makes for scary reading. "If, in fact, the bulk of the White House email records are now stored in bundles of rotting PST files, all at or above their maximum safe load-level, that ain't good in a very big way... I object to using the inaccurate and inflated claim of excessive cost as a reason to avoid compliance with the Presidential Records Act."
Fred sez, "As tax season approaches, Californians might want to know that, if you're single and your taxes are relatively simple, California may have filled out your return for you. Do you really want to pay TurboTax, again, for collating the information the government already has?"
Link
(Thanks, Fred!)
Why do girls on average lead boys for all their years in the classroom, only to fall behind in the workplace? Do girls grow up and lose their edge, while boys mature and gain theirs? Ten years ago, no... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 8 Mar 2008 | 7:35 pm
MBCook sends us to the blog of one Landon Dyer, who posted an entry the other day entitled Donkey Kong and Me. It describes how he was offered at job at Atari after writing a Centipede clone and ended up programming Donkey Kong for the Atari 800. It's full of detail that will be fascinating to anyone who ever programmed assembly language that had to fit into 16K, as well as portents of what was to come at Atari. "My first officemate didn't know how to set up his computer. He didn't know anything, it appeared. He'd been hired to work on Dig Dug, and he was completely at sea. I had to teach him a lot, including how to program in assembly, how the Atari hardware worked, how to download stuff, how to debug. It was pretty bad."
The Air Force's law-firm has sent an illegal DMCA take-down notice to YouTube, demanding the removal of a publicly available video promoting its Cyber Command project. Material produced by federal agencies is not copyrighted -- cannot be copyrighted, by statute -- so there's no basis for the Air Force's representatives to swear (on penalty of perjury, no less!) that this video infringed its copyright.
It's cyber war! Lawyers representing the Air Force's elite electronic warriors have sent YouTube a DMCA takedown notice demanding the removal of the 30-second spot the Air Force created to promote its nascent Cyber Command. We'd uploaded the video to share with THREAT LEVEL readers.
krquet notes an InfoWorld article on Sun's plans for the iPhone. After studying Apple's newly released SDK docs for 24 hours, Sun decided it was feasible to develop a JVM, based on Java Micro Edition, for both the iPhone and the iTouch. An analyst is quoted: "I think going forward, with the SDK, it takes out of Apple's control which applications are 'right' for the iPhone." The article doesn't speculate on how Apple might to react to such a loss of control. "Apple had not shown interest in enabling Java to run on the iPhone, but Sun plans to step in and do the job itself... The free JVM would be made available via Apple's App Store marketplace for third-party applications."
The BBC appears to have inadvertently (?) removed the controversial DRM from its iPlayer video-on-demand service. Now, all BBC programmes are broadcast across the country in digital form without DRM, literally diffused at the speed of light in all directions without any restrictions, but the Beeb somehow believes that there's a new risk of piracy created by letting those same digital files out on the net.
Glyn sez, "The BBC have just launched a version of their iPlayer that works with the iPhone (and iPod Touch). Instead of streaming Flash, it streams an MP4... but they don't let non-iPhone users know it's an option. To gain access to it you need to set your browser up to claim to be a iPhone. The User Agent Switcher plugin on Firefox will let you do just that. Now you can download files on Linux from the iPlayer website."
Link
(Thanks, Glyn!)
Astronauts bound for orbit this week will dabble in science fiction, assembling a "monstrous" two-armed space station robot that will rise like Frankenstein from its transport bed. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Mar 2008 | 5:40 pm
Mister Jalopy buys mixed tapes at garage sales, and we are playing them at Dinosaurs and Robots. This week on Mixed Tape Friday Night, Maria takes over the Trenton College Radio studio for "Everybody is a DJ Week." All extraneous audio, static, tape stretch, door slams and sorority sister antics have been included for your listening pleasure.
Every Friday night, Dinosaurs and Robots will upload a dusty cassette mixed tape! Found at garage sales and junkyard glove boxes, mixed tapes provide all the voyeuristic thrills of reading somebody’s diary without the related ethical quandaries.
Tune in each week for a new exploration into heavy metal thunder road trips, teenage bedroom melancholy meltdowns, college radio clunkers, headbanger barf bag parties, glam rock glitter fests, industrial punch-your-lights-out rockers and the ill-advised tapes created by lovers soon to be spurned. Before collaborative filtering, music was hand selected for us by those who know us best.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Countdown clocks at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida began ticking on Saturday toward Tuesday's launch of space shuttle Endeavour carrying a Japanese... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Mar 2008 | 4:57 pm
Kathryn writes, "I spent a while last night and this morning decorating Easter eggs in Mathematica and this activity has proved wildly popular in this household: My children are going to run me out of toner in my color printer very shortly. My daughter has made a document entitled 'My Little Egg Book' out of egg printouts."
Link,
Link to equations for egg shapes
Miss Monster has sculpted these scratch-built steampunk animal skulls that blow me away. Fetish masks for a firelight ceremony in a parallel universe.
Link to bear skull, Link to wolf skull
(Thanks, Ananth!)
The countdown began Saturday for NASA's next shuttle launch, an unusually long space station mission by Endeavour. The shuttle's seven astronauts arrived early in the morning, delayed ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Mar 2008 | 1:12 pm
The countdown has begun for Nasa's next shuttle launch, an unusually long space station mission by Endeavour. The shuttle's seven astronauts have finally arrived,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Mar 2008 | 12:44 pm
Comment by Scott Thomsen Strategic Advisor, Seattle City Light
Every Friday night, Dinosaurs and Robots will upload a dusty cassette mixed tape! Found at garage sales and junkyard glove boxes, mixed tapes provide all the voyeuristic thrills of reading somebody’s diary without the related ethical quandaries.
Scott says: "There are a bunch of these odd Michael Jackson Playmobil custom figures up on Flickr!"
Link
