Narrative Fallacy brings us a story about the US government's plan to reduce the roughly 4,000 active internet connections used by its civilian agencies to a mere 50 highly secure gateways. This comes as part of the government's response to a rise in attacks on its networks. "Most security professionals agreed that the TIC security improvements and similar measures are long overdue. 'We should have done this five years ago, but there wasn't the heart or the will then like there is now,' said Howard Schmidt, a former White House cyber security adviser. 'The timetable is aggressive,' he said, but now there is a sense of urgency behind the program. Small agencies that won't qualify for their own connections under TIC must subcontract their Internet services to larger agencies."
An anonymous reader writes "After pressing charges against its chief competitor in the race for the world's first production electric sports car that we broke down here recently, Tesla Motors seems to be shifting from the high-tech company re-writing Detroit's script to another Silicon Valley startup trying to sniff out the competition. So says Engadget's legal analyst in an in-depth column breaking down the legal ramifications. From the article: "This could upset the whole race for major production of an electric car in the U.S., which may be the main result of this whole drama. If anything, that's a win for Tesla. Let's just hope the company that set out to upend the automotive industry achieves its competitive goals in the lab and in the marketplace — and keeps its future fights out of the courtroom.""
By FARIHA KARIM WOMEN are using a cream for babies' bottoms on their faces to try to look young. The pounds 2.49 own-brand Baby Bottom Butter has been flying off the shelves of supermarket Waitrose. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO - A conservation group is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to quickly act to prevent regional extinctions of polar bears. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Candus Thomson, The Baltimore Sun Apr. 20--At 6:08 yesterday morning as he powered up the twin diesels and nosed his 46-foot charter boat toward the Chesapeake Bay, Capt. George Bentz declared the striped bass season open for business. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Doug Kreutz, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Apr. 20--Common sense tells us that something known as "global warming" is bound to be bad news for a place that's already a desert. Open wide, please. It's time for some bitter pills. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Victoria Sizemore Long, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Apr. 20--The entrepreneurial spirit of younger folk is alive and well, but for some it comes with a greener twist. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Janna Goerdt, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn. Apr. 20--People were worried in the days and weeks after the Ham Lake fire ripped through homes and cabins at the end of the Gunflint Trail. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By J. Anderson THERE were only a few laughs on ITV's satirical comedy sketch show Headcases. It isn't a patch on its predecessor Spitting Images. The computer figures are good but it's not a 'must see'. - J. Anderson, Aberdeen. (c) 2008 Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
POPE Benedict yesterday called for a time of purification and healing in the wake of the church sex abuse scandal. He was preaching to a congregation of mostly priests and nuns in St Patrick's famed cathedral in New York. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Bob Fernandez, The Philadelphia Inquirer Apr. 20--Most afternoons, the Internet in Sarah Chambers' office at iFractal L.L.C. in Center City crashes and leaves her cyber-stranded without e-mail or online communication with clients. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Erica Beshears, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Apr. 20--Huntersville United Methodist Church is leaving its home of 40 years to open a new 65,000-square-foot church today. The new facility is on 28 acres on Stumptown Road between Old Statesville Road and U.S. 21. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By ROB McKAY THIS is the first photo of the teenage terror suspect held by police after three controlled explosions at his house. Andrew Ibrahim, 19, is a recent Muslim convert who now wears white robes. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Edited by Katie Stirling Talk about Mission Impossible... Thanks to Jim MacDonald, of Dumfries, who wins my weekly tenner. If you have a funny internet image, why not share it with us? Send your emails to mailbox@sunday mail.co.uk and include postal address. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
SCOTLAND'S First Minister doesn't appeal to everyone - including, possibly, some of his own family. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
A couple weeks ago, I blogged about the wonderful amateur film of a family's 1956 prize-trip to Disneyland made by Robbins Barstow of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Robbins just got in touch with me to tell me a little more about his decades-long love of film, supplying a link to a treasure trove of his fantastic work stretching all the way back to this 1936 Tarzan fan-film:
I am the now-88-year-old filmmaker from Wethersfield, Connecticut, who filmed, directed, edited, and narrated the amateur home movie entitled "Disneyland Dream" which you Boing-Boinged on April 11, 2008. I was delighted to be described as the "skinny, dorky, goofy dad" who documented our contest-winning family vacation to Disneyland in 1956, because our aim was to make the film "pure gold" fun for everyone viewing it. So far (April 19) it has garnered 15,777 downloads from the archive.org web site, thanks to your posting of the link! This is incredibly phenomenal to all of our still life-loving family, and I want to thank you for your fabulous review and letting the world know about it.
I am a retired educator, but all my life I have been an ardent amateur filmmaker, starting at the age of 12, in 1932, making family chronicles, travelogs, and other documentaries. I am submitting on your posted form another archive.org link which I think you will also enjoy -- a teen-age, fictional, Tarzan story which I made in 1936 with my two younger brothers and some neighborhood girls -- "Tarzan and the Rocky Gorge."
Actually, if you go to archive.org on the internet, and search for "Barstow Travel Adventure," you will find a listing of 8 of my personal travel documentaries, including Disneyland and Tarzan, which can be played anytime by anyone.
A couple weeks ago, I blogged about the wonderful amateur film of a family's 1956 prize-trip to Disneyland made by Robbins Barstow of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Robbins just got in touch with me to tell... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 10:59 am
The editorial staff of the UK's Bookseller magazine want you to know that lining your exterior walls with books is practically a moral imperative, since it reduces your energy costs and saves the world. You don't have to tell me -- I've been lining my walls with books for decades.
In today's environment-conscious world, they also have another valuable function. "Books are the original insulator. A shelf of books along an outside wall works well to prevent heat escaping," says Joel Rickett. "If all the books were removed from the homes in Britain, our energy bills would rocket."
The editorial staff of the UK's Bookseller magazine want you to know that lining your exterior walls with books is practically a moral imperative, since it reduces your energy costs and saves the world... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 10:47 am
An anonymous reader writes "Professor Edward N. Lorenz, who discovered in 1961 that subtle changes in the initial conditions of a weather simulation program could cause very large differences in its results, died of cancer Wednesday at the age of 90. The contributions of the father of chaos theory, who coined the term 'the butterfly effect' and also discovered the Lorenz Attractor, are best summarized by the wording of the Kyoto Prize in 1991 which noted that his discovery of chaos theory 'profoundly influenced a wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton.'"
The Toronto Public Library system is just kicking off a gigantic, ambitious speculative reading series that starts next Monday with Michael Skeet hosting a panel discussion with Karl Schroeder, James... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 10:23 am
The Toronto Public Library system is just kicking off a gigantic, ambitious speculative reading series that starts next Monday with Michael Skeet hosting a panel discussion with Karl Schroeder, James Alan Gardner and Peter Watts on the pursuit of foresight in Canadian science fiction.
On April 31 May 1, Toronto Public Library will be launching my next novel, Little Brother, at an event at the Merril Collection, the astounding public science fiction reference library. Books will be on sale through BakkaPhoenix books, and they're taking pre-orders for signed/inscribed copies of the book to be mailed out to you (CDN$19.95 for the book, plus $9 and GST for shipping in Canada, $15 to the US, $20 to Europe, and $25 to the rest of the world). BakkaPhoenix: 416 963 9993, inquiries@bakkaphoenixbooks.com
(Patient US readers who don't mind waiting until the end of May for their signed, inscribed copies can request them from San Francisco's Borderlands Books, who are not charging for domestic shipping. Borderlands: 888.893.4008, webmail@borderlands-books.com.)
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Add To Your Site: The HP Garage is recognized as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. We got the rare opportunity to get inside of the Garage (thanks to our sponsor... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 9:31 am
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will complete a new research station in the interior of Antarctica next year, state media said on Sunday, expanding its presence on the continent. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 8:58 am
By Tim Potter, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Apr. 20--On one level, the cleanup Saturday in Matlock Heights was about helping residents save money and about helping a neighborhood stay blight-free. On another level, it was about helping troubled men find their self-worth. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Michael Pearce and Beccy Tanner, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Apr. 20--They gather on prairie ridges while most of us are still asleep, humming a haunting three-note song that carries for miles in the pre-dawn stillness. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Apr. 20--To help celebrate Mother's Day on May 11, the Tribune is inviting readers to write an essay about their mom and what makes or made her special. We'll print excerpts of the essays in the May 11 Tribune and post complete essays at www.lacrossetribune.com. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Apr. 20--The Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Coulee Region will hold its fourth annual Catered for Kids' Sake event from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. May 8 at the Radisson Hotel ballroom, 200 Harborview Plaza. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
By Cherish Wilson, The Shelby Star, N.C. Apr. 20--SHELBY --Thanks to Operation Inasmuch, Cleveland County now has more wheelchair ramps, freshly painted houses, cleaner yards, numerous outreach projects and contented hearts after Saturday's Operation Inasmuch or OIAM. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
Amy Bennett writes "Move over police scanner and most-wanted poster. The Greater Manchester Police force has created a Facebook application to collect leads for investigations. The application delivers a real-time feed of police news and appeals for information. A 'Submit Intelligence' link takes a Facebook user to the police Web site where they can anonymously submit tips. Another link leads to the videos on YouTube featuring information on the police force, ongoing investigations and other advisories." As reader groschke writes, though, "Their access to user data raises significant civil liberties problems. They may be able to see more of your data than your friends or network members can — and you also expose your friends' data when you add the application. All without needing a subpoena or warrant."
It's the butt of jokes and the source of choice curses, but the donkey is an integral part of Mediterranean culture, and friends on Cyprus are working to protect one of the world's last... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 6:50 am
Hailed until only months ago as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming, biofuels are now accused of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor. Billions have... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 5:20 am
NW writes "While universities like MIT, Berkeley and CMU don't tend to shout as loudly about their latest tech innovations as do Google, Cisco and other big vendors, their results are no less impressive in what they could mean for faster, more secure and more useful networks, computers, etc. Here's a good roundup of 25 of them, from studies on putting T-Rays to use in computers to advancing wireless to the next level to outsmarting terrorists on the Web."
My former hometown's paper writes about local politician working on bill to make double sure voice calls can't be made over the U.S.: Three House Transportation Committee members, including long-time rep... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 4:02 am
Apple Store To Go Virtual? That’s the theory of MacNN, at least, citing an Apple patent application published on the US government site last Thursday, somewhat obscurely entitled “Enhancing... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 2:59 am
Today marked the fourth year of Y Combinator’s startup school, and judging by the overflowing auditorium that persisted throughout the event, it was a runaway success. A crowd of over 650 developers,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 2:52 am
Anonymous Coward writes "After 8 years of effort, InPhase Technologies is shipping the world's first holographic disk drive next month. They showed it at this week's NAB. With a 300GB 5.25" disk cartridge and a 50-year media life, the Tapestry 300r is aimed at the video and film archive market. They've been promising this thing for so long I'd given up hope that they'd ever ship it!"
By Steve Rock RICHMOND, Mo. -- As Traycie Sherwood sits in the living room of her home, a glass of Diet Mountain Dew beside her, the hours tick away. She's there most nights, sometimes until 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2008 | 2:00 am
CWRUisTakingMyMoney writes "Yahoo! Finance has a story about the defunct Soviet Union's .su TLD. 'Sixteen years after the superpower's collapse, Web sites ending in the Soviet ".su" domain name have been rising — registrations increased 45 percent this year alone. Bloggers, entrepreneurs and die-hard communists are all part of a small but growing online community resisting repeated efforts to extinguish the online Soviet outpost.'"
Yahoo has offered a limited release of Yahoo BrowserPlus, a software distribution framework that allows device developers to bridge the browser programming environment to any component. Skylar Woodward... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 12:41 am
(TrendHunter.com) Marketing yourself is an essential part of becoming successful in the modern world, and having a cutting edge business card is a crucial component. That being aid, standing out from... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2008 | 12:12 am
BarlowBrad writes "Yesterday my house was broken into and among other things two laptops were stolen. Getting past the feeling of violation, I am looking to the future and how to both prevent theft and recover computers should it happen again. I have found various services that claim to track and recover stolen laptops such as LoJack for Laptops, Computrace, GadgetTrak and Undercover, but I (obviously) have no experience with any of them. I also know that Intel will be coming out with a new anti-theft technology chip, but that isn't supposed to come out until the fourth quarter and I'll be replacing the laptops before then. Does Slashdot have a recommendation between these services or suggestions for another?" Read on for a related question about automating this process.
Researchers to outline plans to promote one of the most controversial scientific ideas of the 21st century - synthetic biology Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 11:01 pm
Letters: While I am concerned about late diagnosis of cancer, my comments in your front-page story - 'GPs warned over failure to diagnose cancers' (News, last week) - never amounted to a 'warning' to GPs,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 11:01 pm
Rebecca Bug writes "Several Web sites (Wired, eWEEK, The Washington Post) are reporting on Dan Kaminsky's Toorcon discussion of a serious security risk introduced when major ISPs serve ads on error pages. Kaminsky found that the advertising servers are impersonating, via DNS, hostnames within trademarked domains. 'We have determined that these injected servers are, in fact, vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks. Since these servers are being injected into your trademarked domains, their vulnerability can be used to attack your users and your sites,' Kaminsky said, identifying EarthLink, Verizon and Qwest among the ISPs."
Facebook is getting a global boost from users around the world, who are translating its visible framework into nearly two dozen languages for free. The move is generating mounting criticism online, where some users question whether amateurs can produce good translations.
ISPs, including Earthlink, that seek to make money from customers' mistyped URLs put the entire internet at risk from hackers that steal passwords, a security researcher reveals Saturday. While the immediate vulnerability is fixed, the practice of returning ads instead of error messages raises ongoing security, Net Neutrality and security concerns.
Bear Stearns had just imploded when I found myself chatting with a surprisingly merry investment banker. While his clients panicked over their risk exposure in this time of $100 oil, evaporating credit... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 9:35 pm
Oil prices rose above $116 a barrel last week, setting another record for the worlds most indispensable energy commodity. What was striking about this latest milestone was what didnt happen: there was... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 9:35 pm
Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and its not an easy one to answer. I dont know about you, but for me the most upsetting... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 9:35 pm
In poor countries around the world, theres money being made by cutting down forests. Should these countries be paid not to cut down their forests? Such a curious transfer of wealth may represent the next... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 9:35 pm
An anonymous reader writes "CNET News has a piece in which AT&T claims that the Internet's bandwidth will be saturated by video-on-demand and such by 2010. Says the AT&T VP: 'In three years' time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today.' Similarly: 'He claimed that the "unprecedented new wave of broadband traffic" would increase 50-fold by 2015 and that AT&T is investing $19 billion to maintain its network and upgrade its backbone network.'"
Is a coupon still a coupon if you cant clip n save it? Betting that the answer is yes, some advertisers are beginning to invest in mobile coupons discounts that are delivered to customers cellphones (with... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 7:36 pm
AT a time of economic belt-tightening, might cheap science from low-wage countries help keep American innovators humming? Americans have long profited from low-cost manufactured goods, especially from... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 7:36 pm
one place the socialist utopia lives on: cyberspace. Sixteen years after the superpower's collapse, websites ending in the Soviet ".su" domain name have been rising - registrations... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 6:17 pm
Deutschland, as the country is known in German. Then there's ".aq" for Antarctica, a land with more penguins than computers. About 250 country-code domain names exist for various... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 6:17 pm
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- NeoSynergy, a Web-based automotive software firm, announced today that the company has completed the installation of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 5:40 pm
The mercenary tactics of pre-med students can be tremendously annoying, but these students may be victims of a broken system. The standards for medical school admissions are so stringent that scholars must nearly abandon their individuality and give up everything but ceaseless study.
Ignoring our observation plane circling above the frozen Lake Superior wilderness, the eight gray wolves seemed as harmless as your beloved pooch cavorting with its pals in the yard.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 4:22 pm
South Korea's first astronaut returned to Earth on Saturday, touching down with two International Space Station crew members slightly off target in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan, space officials... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2008 | 12:46 pm
The Toronto Public Library system is just kicking off a gigantic, ambitious speculative reading series that starts next Monday with Michael Skeet hosting a panel discussion with Karl Schroeder, James Alan Gardner and Peter Watts on the pursuit of foresight in Canadian science fiction.
