|
|
|
|
iPhone 3G coming to Best Buy next monthIf lining up at the Apple Store or AT&T Store isn’t your thing, and you are still in need of an iPhone 3G, you may be interested to know that, beginning next month, you can instead join the crowd...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:44 pm China Does A Milli VanilliFirst we hear that some of the fireworks displayed during the opening night ceremonies in Beijing were a 3D CGI. Created by Crystal Digital Technology Co, the excuse was “for convenience and theatrical...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:00 pm Best Buy to sell iPhone in the U.S. (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:09 am CoffeeCakes.com's President Receives Outstanding Women in Business AwardDENVER, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Sherry Comes, President and Founder of CoffeeCakes.com, an Internet retailer of high-end baked goods and gifts, has received the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am AERC.com, Inc. Offers FREE Electronics Recycling at American Red Cross Disaster Awareness Day on August 15FLANDERS, N.J., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- AERC.com, Inc. (AERC Recycling Solutions) announces its participation in the American Red Cross Santa Clara Valley's DisasterSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am Entrepreneur.com's Social Networking Site Opens New Doors for 8.3 Million BusinessesEntrepreneur Connect and Sprint Help Get Work Done IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneur.com announces the launch of Entrepreneur Connect, a highly...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am New Survey Reveals Parents Are Overlooking Essential Back to School Preparation - Most Going Shopping as Primary Back to School ActivityGreatSchools Launches Initiative to Educate Parents About Essentials of Back-to-School Prep SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents are more than twice as ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am Amdocs Releases New Features for Digital Content Retailing PlatformQpass Retail Suite updates enable service providers to further personalize and improve the customer experience ST. LOUIS, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Amdocs...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am Diving deep into Amazon Web Services (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Amazon's Web Services (AWS) are based on a simple concept:Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am EU Reserves a Frequency For Talking CarsIddo Genuth writes "The European Commission has recently decided to reserve, across Europe, part of the radio spectrum for smart vehicle communications systems. The decision is part of the Commission's overall fight against road accidents and traffic jams, and the hope is that vehicles' developers will create wireless communication technology that will allow cars to 'talk' to other cars and to the road infrastructure providers."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2008 | 9:47 am Ener1 Gains 100% Ownership in EnerDel - Move to Accelerate Potential Partnership Discussions with Auto OEMs and Tier One Automotive Supply CompaniesNEW YORK, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ener1, Inc. (Amex: HEV), maker of advanced battery technology designed to power the next generation of hybrid and electric...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 9:30 am SourceLabs Announces Major Update to Search Tool for Linux and Java TroubleshootingNew Ability to Recognize Specific Hardware Compatibility Issues Uses Sophisticated Data Analysis Techniques SEATTLE, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- SourceLabs, the company...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 9:30 am SwapaDVD.com Offers a Free Alternative to NetflixATLANTA, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- href="http://www.SwapaDVD.com">www.SwapaDVD.com would like for your readers to learn about our DVD swapping club, which launched in...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 9:20 am Tencent Announces 2008 Interim and Second Quarter resultsHONG Kong, Aug. 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Holdings Limited ("Tencent" or the "Company", SEHK: 00700), a leading provider of Internet and ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 9:11 am Radware's SIP Director Awarded INTERNET TELEPHONY's 2008 TMC Labs Innovation AwardMAHWAH, New.Jersey, August 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Radware, the leading provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart networking announcedSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 9:00 am Ore. contenders differ on endangered species plan - The Oregonian - OregonLive.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:44 am Dell Launches E-Series Latitude Notebook Range - TrustedReviews
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:41 am EA Reveals Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure - Wired News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:28 am Polaroid Is Making A Comeback With A Digital Version Of The Old ClassicBy Jonathan Kimak I loved the old Polaroid cameras. A picture that would appear and develop in a minute in your hands instead of 7 days later at a photo lab seemed like an absolute miracle of technology...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:27 am TerraGo Technologies Announces New Release of Map2PDF Professional for AcrobatData Source Independence Critical for Enabling Non-GIS Users TerraGo Technologies Julie Buckley, 703-879-1582 jbuckley@speakerboxpr.com TerraGo(R) Technologies, the visionary provider of tools, technology and know-how for building collaborative geospatial applications (GeoApps), today announced the release of Map2PDF Professional for Acrobat, version 4.1.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am Mass. agency will argue MIT students should stay gagged - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am From Hoover Press: Greener Than Thou, By Terry L. Anderson and Laura E. HugginsThere are two ways to show you are green. One is to preach, sue, lobby and spend; the other is to find ways to nudge people in environmental directions by changing their economic incentives.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am Research and Markets: Snapshots Canada Internet Service Providers 2008: 2007 Year-End Market Size Data, With 2008 EstimatesResearch and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 press@researchandmarkets.com Logo: http://www.researchandmarkets.com Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ 32415d/snapshots_canada_i) has announced the addition of the "Snapshots Canada Internet Service Providers 2008" report to their offering.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am Transit agency wants MIT students to stay gagged (CNET)CNET - The state of Massachusetts plans to ask a federal judge on Thursday to keep in place a restraining order that prevents three MIT students from publicly discussing vulnerabilities they discovered in subway card security.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am 'Slow' light to speed up the net - BBC News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:54 am Could official Beijing 2008 Olympics screensavers contain malware? (update)(UPDATE: In two words, probably not. It appears that the files currently being served from the Olympics 2008 website likely do not contain malware. However, one aspect of the testimonial below still...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:49 am Could official Beijing 2008 Olympics screensavers contain malware? (update) (UPDATE: In two words, probably not. It appears that the files currently being served from the Olympics 2008 website likely do not contain malware. However, one aspect of the testimonial below still can't quite be explained. Detailed findings at the end of this post, from a security researcher who kindly looked into this for us. -- XJ)
Continuing in the thread of China/Tibet/malware-related posts, Boing Boing reader Bruce Satow tells us: I'm a Systems Administrator at a large university and I think I may of found something important, but not sure, but I think it is worth reporting. One of my friends said that it would be a good idea maybe to post this information somewhere that is popular, like boing boing.Regarding the broader trend of malware and trojans which are attached in some way to politically-charged memes or spoofed origins, Infowar Monitor editor Greg Walton (whose related account I just blogged here) adds: Such tactics are not only political weapons. The start of the Beijing Olympics last week kicked off a slew of malicious internet activity. Some are relatively indiscriminate – using malicious software embedded in innocent websites, often of news organisations with audience numbers boosted by their sports coverage, which then infects the visitor's computer. Some are more sophisticated. Related: Update on China/Tibet cyberattacks (and Russia/Georgia), and call for testimonials.
UPDATE: Security researcher Maarten Van Horenbeeck, who is based in Belgium, looked at the file and website in question for us, and says: Actually, after a Flash is converted with FlashForge, it is turned into a regular binary with SCR extension, so it's not really Flash anymore. Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:49 am First Images From 50-km Enceladus FlybyCheshireCatCO writes "The first pictures from yesterday's flyby of Enceladus are now public. At closest approach, Cassini was set spinning to cancel out the apparent motion of Enceladus so as to capture unsmeared images during the 40,000-mph flyby. Although it wasn't clear that this would work (errors in pointing could easily have made the cameras miss their targets), the maneuver panned out beautifully, producing spectacular images of the surface. Images show the 'tiger stripes' at the south pole, including at least one location that has been identified as a source of a jet, as well as considerable vertical relief, easily visible thanks to the low sun-angle near the south pole at present. Processed, enhanced images should follow shortly."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:29 am Plushie Kali goddess BB reader Sanjay Patel says,"You kindly mentioned my dorky book (Little India) on Boing Boing a while ago. Thank you! I thought you might be interested in what me and my old art school friend Leeanna cooked up. Hopefully it makes you Ghee Happy." Kali, Goddess of Death (Leanna's Thread) Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:21 am Plushie Kali goddessBB reader Sanjay Patel says, "You kindly mentioned my dorky book (Little India) on Boing Boing a while ago. Thank you! I thought you might be interested in what me and my old art school friend Leeanna...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:21 am Yahoo's Web Location Platform Fire Eagle Takes Flight - BusinessWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:14 am CCTV wall-decalsWallFor's "We're Not Watching" CCTV wall-decals are a nice little commentary on ubiquitous surveillance. We're Not Watching (Thanks, Liam!) Update: Liam sez, "I created the coupon code, 'BOINGBOING'...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:50 am CCTV wall-decals WallFor's "We're Not Watching" CCTV wall-decals are a nice little commentary on ubiquitous surveillance. We're Not Watching (Thanks, Liam!)
Update: Liam sez, "I created the coupon code, 'BOINGBOING' to give people 10% off their orders." Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:50 am Photo Scanning's ScanCafe Raises $5.5MScanCafe has raised $4M in Series B led by Sigma Partners with an additional $1.5M in debt. Photoscan says it has scanned 10M images since it launched. The idea here is that you can send ScanCafe some...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:48 am Best Buy to sell iPhones starting Sept. 7 - CNNMoney.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:37 am Before the Gunfire, Cyberattacks - New York Times
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:36 am Navy to restrict sonar use to protect whales - Los Angeles Times
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:33 am Guardian Daily podcast: Russia dictates humiliating ceasefire terms to Georgia; plus a 'snooper's charter'Georgia and Russia have agreed to an EU-brokered peace plan over South Ossetia. The Guardian's Luke Harding reports from a march in Tblisi, and Tom Parfitt has joined Russian forces in Tskhinvali.Our home...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:18 am Toaster Bags Take Toasting To New HeightsBy Luke Anderson During the summer months I tend to eat a lot of lunch meat sandwiches, mostly because it’s too hot outside to bother cooking. Every now and then I get tempted to try and toast the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:12 am Animal Nuisance Repeller Is A Mailmans Best FriendBy Luke Anderson I love animals, and enjoy having them around my house. When I was growing up, we had two dogs and always a few stray cats. It is rare that I actually find myself scared of a dog, as I...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:11 am Blogging Is Not A CrimeI found this arresting chart on Swivel. It plots the number of bloggers who have been incarcerated over the past few years, based on data collected by the World Information Access project. The number...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 6:04 am Architecture generated from spam Alex Dragulescu's "Spam Architecture" project designs virtual houses by mapping the content of incoming spam to structural and decorative elements: "he images from the Spam Architecture series are generated by a computer program that accepts as input, junk email. Various patterns, keywords and rhythms found in the text are translated into three-dimensional modeling gestures." Spam Architecture (via Cribcandy) Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:52 am HOWTO Tap a phone lineThis Wired How-To Wiki article on tapping phone lines is a good primer on what actually happens when someone puts a physical tap on your line. Of course, there are lots of invisible ways to virtually tap your line: in the US, the Federal CALEA statute mandates that phone-switches have tapping back-doors that only cops are supposed to have the passwords for (yeah, right), and the digital PBX in your office is just as likely to have a vulnerability as the PC on your desk.Tap a Phone Line
(Image: Trussell) Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:49 am Olympic fever being fuelled by high-tech in SKorea (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:48 am Update on China/Tibet cyberattacks (and Russia/Georgia), and call for testimonials. Earlier today I received my first-ever bona fide piece of fake-Tibetan malware, which appears to have originated in China.
Perhaps my name is on some list somewhere of journalists who've covered stories related to the Tibetan human rights movement. Screengrab at left, and click for larger size which shows the message in entirety. Also on this same day, I received an interesting update from Greg Walton, a SecDev Fellow at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto who also edits the Infowar Monitor. He's currently in Hong Kong doing pro bono work for the advocacy group Human Rights in China, briefing them on security issues and monitoring systems during a sensitive time -- the Olympics, recent unrest in Tibetan and Uighur regions, and other factors. Greg has been observing some interesting, troubling malware and internet-attack trends of late, related to the Tibetan independence movement. He tells Boing Boing: Later today I head to Dharamsala, India to work with the Dalai Lama's I.T. staff. Both HRIC and the Tibetans have been subjected to sophisticated targeted malware attacks via email attachments on an industrial scale, particularly this year. Attacks on the Tibetans spiked during the uprising in March (increases of 300%) and Chinese human rights NGOs have witnessed an increase in the run up to the Olympics. We've also seen defacements of websites and the injection of malicious code into Tibet.com and press freedom organisation ,Reporters sans frontières web assets in the last few days.(Thanks, Oxblood) Related: Do official Beijing 2008 Olympics screensavers contain malware? Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:45 am Surprise, surprise: US broadband is slow. Really slow. - TG Daily
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:37 am Old time record enthusiast rips and posts thousands of 78RPM tracksWired's Listening Post blog has a great feature on Cliff Bolling, a 78RPM record enthusiast who has digitized and posted nearly 4,000 old vinyl tracks, complete with cartridge hiss and pops.One Man's Quest to Digitize and Publicize Rare Vinyl Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:18 am What Tech Workers Need To Know About Overtimeonehitwonder writes "The class-action lawsuit that current and former Apple employees have filed against the company raises questions about what kinds of workers are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) — and thus, what kinds of workers are eligible for overtime pay. Some tech workers are covered under it; some are not though perhaps they should be. The lawyer who got IBM workers a $65M settlement from Big Blue for violating labor laws explains why employers often deny tech workers overtime pay and the circumstances under which certain tech workers may or may not be covered under the FLSA. From the article: 'It's not uncommon for employers to err on the side of classifying employees as exempt [from the FLSA], says Sagafi... In fact, the dirty little secret among employers and HR departments is that classifying employees as exempt — even if it means breaking the law — is in their best interest[,] provided... that they don't get caught... "In a sense, they may see it as economically viable for them to skirt the law and wait to see if they get sued because the exposure is not that huge [if they don't get sued]," Sagafi says. "If they can settle [a complaint] for less than 100 percent of what they owe people [for overtime], they've gotten away with a good deal."'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:13 am Grateful Dead lyrics cannot be quoted in children's bookKembrew sez, "The blog Poetry & Popular Culture just covered a copyright conflict involving the Grateful Dead and J.T. Dutton's young adult novel 'Freaked,' which HarperTeen is publishing early next year. The novel is about a 15 year-old kid obsessed with the Grateful Dead."In her original manuscript, Dutton had opened every chapter with a quotation from a Dead song, titling each chapter with the title of the song being quoted from. When it came time to publish, though, Ice 9 Publishing—which somehow owns the rights to all of the Dead's songs—wouldn't grant permission to Dutton to use all of the lyrics she wanted to use. Ultimately, Dutton was allowed to quote from 'Dire Wolf' and was given leave to use brief phrasings from the songs here and there within the text (as with 'She can dance a Cajun rhythm...' in the preceding passage).J.T. Dutton's "Freaked" (Thanks, Kembrew!) Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:11 am Traffic cams bring in $250,000/month in a town with a $4.6 million budgetWhy do towns install speeding cams? Is it because robotic, inflexible, perfect enforcement of every single infraction of the speed-limit makes the streets safer? Or because they can raise $250,000 a month in fines for small town budgets?In Chevy Chase, for example, where speeding tickets brought in about $8,000 monthly before cop cams, "We are routinely bringing in approximately a quarter-million dollars per month," Geoffrey Biddle, Chevy Chase's village manager, told his Board of Managers in February.Cop cameras don't just catch speeders, they raise cash (Thanks, Marilyn! Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:09 am Deported from China for documenting Free Tibet protests -- IOC censors YouTube videos of protestsFred sez, "My friend and fellow-NY-techer Noel 'No-Neck' Hidalgo was deported from China last week. He got rounded up as one of the people documenting the 'Free Tibet' protests in Tienanmen square. His Facebook regarding his deportation have also been censored. I've just posted his video and information about his Facebook updates and also a discussion about the IOC censoring YouTube videos recorded in NYC of the Free Tibet protests." No-Neck, The Peoples Republic of China and Fair Use (Thanks, Fred!) Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:00 am Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, to Speak About Virtual Environments at SMB Pre-DayEvolve Technologies Dave Sobel, 703-426-7100 busdev@evolvetech.com or Press Contact: DPR Group, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:00 am Doctors Warn of Black Henna RisksU.S. doctors are warning black henna used in temporary tattoos can cause long-term skin problems. The tattoos, made with henna darkened with the chemical paraphenylenediamine, can cause blisters, eczema and permanent scarring, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:00 am iPass and IIJ Partner for Mobile Broadband in Japan; New Partnership Gives iPass Customers Greater 3G Options in Japan and IIJ a New Route to the Global Enterprise MarketREDWOOD SHORES, Calif. and TOKYO, Aug. 13, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- iPass Inc. (Nasdaq:IPAS), a global provider of services that unify the management of enterprise mobility, and Internet Initiative Japan Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:00 am Refinance.Com Builds Billion Dollar Online Mortgage Business Using Internap's Managed Server, Performance IP(TM) Networking and Security SolutionsLeading Web-Based Mortgage Lender Turns to Internap to Power Sophisticated New Web Site with Online Chat, Financial Planning Tools and Self-Help Tutorials Internap Press contacts: Katie Eakins / Wanda Soler, 619-677-2700 internap@lewispr.com or Investor contact: Andrew McBath, 404-865-7198 amcbath@internap.com Logo: http://www.internap.com/ Internap Network Services Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP), a global provider of end-to-end Internet business solutions, announced today its Managed Server, Performance IP(TM) Networking and Security solutions are powering the business expansion initiatives for Refinance.com, one of the foremost mortgage companies nationwide.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:00 am AT&T U-Verse Voice Launches in WisconsinMILWAUKEE, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. today announced the availability of AT&T U-verse(SM) Voice to customers in parts of Wisconsin, bringing consumers a next-generation digital voice service that is delivered over the AT&T U-verse Internet Protocol (IP) network.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 5:00 am Electronic Art sets "Madden" sales blitz (Reuters)Reuters - At 70 million units sold and counting, it's the most important sports franchise in video game history, so Electronic Arts pulled out all the stops for its newest release.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:42 am Best Buy becomes first independent iPhone retailer (AP)AP - Best Buy Co. will start selling the iPhone on Sept. 7, becoming first U.S. chain to do so outside of Apple Inc.'s and AT&T Inc.'s own stores.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:24 am Gallery: Wired.com Readers Photograph NYC Waterfalls : While New York City's summer waterfall art installation by Olafur Eliasson is impressive in its scope, its impact on observers is varied. We asked our readers to show us their take on the project by submitting their own photos. Some views are beautiful, others ordinary, but they all amount to an interesting experiment in crowdsourced photography. Click through the gallery to see our selections from the reader's submissions, all of which can be viewed on the original submissions page along with more information. Let us know what you think in the comments section. Left: Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water Photographer's comment: "Image taken from Brooklyn side. The expressway is behind and Manhattan is in front."  : NYC Waterfall with Sky Photographer's comment: "This shot was taken from the free ferry that takes you to see all the waterfalls. This is looking south."  : Over the Falls Photographer's comment: "My view is from above looking down to the East River. I learned how to get access to this part of the Brooklyn Bridge when I was a teenager, finally a practical use for that info."  : Picnic at Sunset in the Park Under the Bridge Photographer's comment: "There was a picnic and screening of Stand by Me last night in the park under the bridge. Snapped this at sunset before the movie started."  : Not Everyone Loves the Waterfalls ... Photographer's comment: "Not everyone is a fan."  : Untitled Photographer's comment: "Walked along the piers to see all four falls yesterday. Nothing like saltwater in the face. :)"  : Waterfall and Ferries Photographer's comment: "The Governors Island Ferry docks in front of the waterfall, as the Staten Island Ferry passes.”  : Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall Photographer's comment: None  : Blowing Waterfall Photographer's comment: "I took the ferry to Governors Island, and on the way back a thunderstorm came, with large gusts of wind. The waterfall started blowing onto the island, soaking the people waiting for the next ferry."  : Up the East River Photographer's comment: "From Brooklyn Bridge Park you can see the waterfalls at the Brooklyn Bridge and just north of the Manhattan Bridge."  : Brooklyn Bridge Falls Photographer's comment: "Taken July 19, from the South Street Seaport."  : Wired.com photographer Bryan Derballa captures one visitor's displeasure with the waterfalls. Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com 
Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am Scott Brown (the World's Most Brilliant Writer) Gets a Wiki Page All His OwnThis article is about the renowned humorologist. For the sports figure, see Scott Brown (Scottish footballer).
Scott Brown
Early life and careerBrown was born in Alabama in 1976. He grew up white and male — which, he assures you, is harder than it looks. He learned sharecropping from his father and wine-pairing from his mother, but his greatest teacher was the streets: They taught him everything he knows about paving and resurfacing. HA! Yes, Brown is also a humorist, and thank you, America, for the laughter. In 1998, Brown began writing for magazines and awaiting the creation of a free, crowdsourced online encyclopedia that would deliver the recognition denied him by his peers, his parents, and Who's Who Among American High School Students 1993/1994. ControversyFamously, no one has ever created a Wikipedia page for Brown, an omission some attribute to a lack of Web savvy on the part of Brown's mother. Across Brown's apartment, the debate rages: How is it that a man can write stuff, put his name on it, and get published over and over again and not warrant a few lines in the world's de facto most-authoritative public record? Seriously, would it kill the world's de facto most-authoritative public record? You don't even have to upload a picture. (But if you do, please use one of the pre-bald ones.) Some say Brown was simply too humble to promote himself properly. Others maintain Brown's ideas were too radical for the system, and the system retaliated by not noticing. Still others claim that "some," "others," and "still others" were all Brown, using various high-pitched voices. Resurgence and triumphBrown was often advised to secretly author his own Wiki entry, despite how this would violate the rules and juke the whole noble Wiki experiment. "Everyone does it!" Brown was told. What's the use of a free-market popularity contest if it's rigged and padded, he reasoned. Then it's just LinkedIn! For years, he maintained a serene faith in the wisdom of crowds, checking Wikipedia two or three times a day to discover that a) he wasn't there and b) crowds are stupid. And then one day, after a night of heavy drinking, an entry finally appeared. "I didn't write this"Late in his Wikipedia entry, Brown was quoted as saying, "I didn't write this Wikipedia entry. It may look like I did, but I didn't. I'm a published writer, so it's not inconceivable that one of my many hot young fans [citation needed] wrote this. I'll look it over, though, just to make sure everything's accurate ... Yup, looks good!" Death and sainthoodToward the end of his life, Brown died. He died a hero, blowing up a Nazi asteroid that was either headed for Ohio or was the size of Ohio. (And he doesn't even have any friends in Ohio!) Anyway, the people have spoken. With a single voice. Which is not his. Make changes, but know this: The people check this page a lot, and they like it how it is. - - - - Scott Brown's Wikipedia page may (or may not) be here .
Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am Aug. 13, 1913: Great Alloyed Victory for Stainless Steel1913: English metallurgist Harry Brearley casts a steel alloy that's resistant to acidity and weathering. Because his sponsor names it "stainless steel," Brearley will often be credited as the inventor, but there are more metallurgists than metals in this story. Even the hometown British Stainless Steel Association acknowledges that Brearley was not alone. English and French researchers had learned as early as the 1820s that iron-chromium alloys resisted some acids. But they were restricted to low- rather than high-chromium-content alloys, because they hadn't yet figured out the necessity of lowering the carbon content. Two Englishmen filed a patent for an acid-resistant steel with 30 to 35 percent chromium and 2 percent tungsten in 1872. But it was a French researcher named Brustlein who in 1875 detailed the importance of low carbon content. He determined that a high-chromium alloy would need carbon content below 0.15 percent or thereabouts. The race was on. Very slowly. Many attempts produced many failures over the next 20 years. Hans Goldschmidt of Germany broke the logjam in 1895 with the development of the aluminothermic reduction process for producing carbon-free chromium. French metallurgist Leon Guillet forged ahead, so to speak, with work on iron-nickel-chromium alloys in the first decade of the 20th century, but seemingly ignored their resistance to corrosion. Back in Germany, P. Monnartz and W. Borchers discovered in 1911 that having a minimum 10.5 percent chromium seriously increased steel's resistance to corrosion. Enter Harry Brearley of Sheffield, England. He started working on a project in 1912 for a small-arms manufacturer that wanted to prevent its rifle barrels from eroding away quickly from the heat and friction of gunshot. Brearley needed to etch his steel-alloy samples to examine their granular structure under the microscope, but when he used nitric acid, the high-chromium samples resisted being dissolved. His focus shifted from erosion resistance to corrosion resistance. After trying various combinations with 6 to 15 percent chromium and differing measures of carbon, he made a new alloy on Aug. 13, 1913, containing 12.8 percent chromium and 0.24 percent carbon. It resisted not only nitric acid, but lemon juice and vinegar as well. So he took his discovery of "rustless steel" to Sheffield cutler R.F Mosley. A manager there, Ernest Stuart, renamed it "stainless steel." But wait, there's more. Metallurgists at Germany's Krupp Iron Works were also working on high-chromium, corrosion-resistant steel alloys of various compositions between 1908 and 1914. Elwood Haynes and two other Americans were doing parallel work in the years 1908-1911, and Poland's Max Mauermann of Poland displayed something similar at the 1913 Adria exhibition in Vienna. And there's a Swedish claimant as well. Brearley, however, did formulate the first alloy to be called stainless steel, and he recognized potential uses others had not seen. Today is the 95th anniversary of his discovery. Source: British Stainless Steel Association
Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am Digitizing Rare Vinyleldavojohn writes "While the RIAA is busy changing its image to a snake eating its own tail, one man is busy digitizing out-of-print 78s. 'There's a whole world of music that you don't hear anymore, and it's on 78 RPM records,' he stated to Wired. Right now, you can find about 4,000 MP3s on his site, with no digital noise reduction implemented yet."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2008 | 2:55 am Cameco Reports Update on Dewatering at Cigar LakeALL AMOUNTS ARE STATED IN CDN $ (UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED) Cameco Corporation (TSX: CCO) (NYSE: CCJ) reports that remediation work at the No.1 Shaft at its Cigar Lake uranium project was temporarily suspended today after an increase in the rate of water inflow to the mine was observed.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2008 | 2:00 am Myrtle Beach Reduces Landing Fees to Retain and Recruit Air Service Amid Economic DownturnThe Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Horry County, South Carolina, in an effort to protect current domestic air service to the destination, have announced the reduction of landing fees for a 9-month period, effective September 1, 2008, with an option to continue.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2008 | 2:00 am FEC Disposes of Two MattersThe U.S. elections watchdog Tuesday announced final action in two matters involving the National Democratic Congressional Committee and a political blog. In the first matter, Marcus Belk acknowledged, as part of a settlement with the U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2008 | 2:00 am Russian hackers continue attacks on Georgian sites (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:57 am Apple wages 3G war for BlackBerry coreWhen Apple launched its touch screen iPhone 3G at its flagship London store, there was the predictable queue of people, eager to own a device which is equal parts phone, MP3 player and wireless web browser...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:11 am Best Buy becomes first independent iPhone retailerBest Buy Co. will start selling the iPhone on Sept. 7, becoming first U.S. chain to do so outside of Apple Inc.'s and AT&T Inc.'s own stores.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:09 am New Scientific Evidence Emerges In Anthrax Casesciencehabit writes "A Science Magazine investigation uses clues from a key document unveiled last week to reconstruct the trail that led the FBI to Bruce Ivans. Among the revelations: Anthrax fingerprinting was not critical to the investigation, as many reports have suggested. Rather, brute-force genetic sequencing, with the help of the J. Craig Venter Institute, helped crack the case. New potential motivations by Ivans are also revealed."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:05 am Alt Text: How to Get Published and Avoid Alien BloodsuckersThe internet has created enormous opportunities for aspiring writers. It's easier than ever to get your words in front of readers, who can then provide you with feedback, offer advice and attempt to scam you out of thousands of dollars while treating your dreams and aspirations the same way armed rural teenagers treat speed limit signs. In a perfect world, the advent of the web would have sent literary scammers skittering back into their mucus-tube burrows. However, as I discover every time I search Google Images for any body part, this is not a perfect world. Many aspiring writers still react to supposedly professional interest with sparkling eyes and open wallets.
Here are a couple hints to help you distinguish the scammers from legitimate publishers. First off, don't be afraid. Scammers can smell fear, and to them it smells like the still-living flesh strips that make up most of their diet. A lot of aspiring writers see publishers and agents as bored nobility, offering contracts in a whimsical attempt to inject some entertainment into an otherwise tedious existence. They suspect that even putting too long a delay between "yes" and "please" will cause the contract to be withdrawn and fed to a purebred Saluki. This isn't true. If publishers or agents are taking the time to talk to you about your submission, it means they like you like you. Sure, it's possible that nothing will come of it, but the very fact that you're actually talking to a real human being rather than having your manuscript rejected with a terse form letter means that you're free to ask questions, make suggestions and receive clarifications. So, do it! If an editor gets huffy at you over questions, that's a good sign that he's an ichor-oozing arthropod dressed up in human skin for the purpose of draining your lifeblood to feed their brood. Now, even if the editor initially appears to be a mammal, it's still possible to get scammed. There's a wonderful rule of thumb known as Yog's Law: "Money flows toward the writer." I know that in a world filled with kickbacks and graft, this seems too good to be true. It seems perfectly logical that you might have to spread around some cash, grease some palms and lubricate the chassis of commerce with some crude currency in order to make publishing run smoothly. Scammers leap on this misapprehension like a cat on cantaloupe. OK, maybe I have a weird cat. The point is that you, the writer, do not pay the agent. You do not pay the publisher. Not for reading the manuscript, not for offering suggestions and certainly not for printing. The agent gets a portion of the money you've already made. The publisher makes a profit from sales. You do not write checks to these people. As a writer, you're free to spend as much money as you want for your own purposes, like workshops and hand-stitched dream journals and magic feathers. You might even choose to spend some or all of your advance on publicity, once you have the cash in hand. But if an agent or publisher tells you that you need to shell out in order to make the deal happen, you should listen for telltale chittering and examine the person's spine for the subdermal squirming associated with literary scammers. None of this should be taken as a slight against legitimate businesses catering to self-publishers. These businesses will tell you exactly what you get for each dollar, and promise nothing more. They will not attempt to convince you that you're the next Browning, Kipling, Fleming, Golding or Rowling. I myself was once an aspiring writer, before I became famous and wealthy beyond the fever dreams of a thousand rajahs. I know how difficult it is, and how tempting attention can be. But if you follow these guidelines, you'll not only protect yourself, you'll also protect the Earth from invasion by insectoid parasites that depend on the cooperation of naive writers to supplant humans as the planet's dominant species and put us to work as blood-cows for their throbbing young. - - - Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a professional writer.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am Make Big Brother Proud: How to Tap a Phone LineEavesdropping on land-line communications is easier than ever with today's digital listening devices. But phone-tapping tech predates the digital age, so grab your screwdrivers and your electrical tape as we show you how to be an old-school snoop with this tutorial in Wired's How-To Wiki.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Make Big Brother Proud: How to Tap a Phone LineEavesdropping on land-line communications is easier than ever with today's digital listening devices. But phone-tapping tech predates the digital age, so grab your screwdrivers and your electrical tape as we show you how to be an old-school snoop with this tutorial in Wired's How-To Wiki.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Collegiate Resistance To RIAA In MichiganNewYorkCountryLawyer writes "There are now at least three complaints being investigated in Michigan against the RIAA's unlicensed investigator, SafeNet a/k/a MediaSentry, one of which was filed by Central Michigan University itself. Two other complaints have been filed by students, one from Northern Michigan University and one from University of Michigan. This appears to be part of the growing sense of exasperation colleges and universities are feeling over the RIAA's harassment."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:11 pm Cree Inc. outlook exceeds Wall Street expectationsLED light maker Cree Inc. on Tuesday said it expects a smaller profit in its fiscal 2009 first quarter compared with the same period a year ago, but higher revenue.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:09 pm Obituary: Fritz KoernerObituary: Explorer whose polar data illuminated the climate-change debateSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:06 pm Vivisection: Study finds 115 million animals used in tests worldwideLiechtenstein and San Marino are the only countries which have banned animal testing altogetherSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:06 pm Vivisection Study finds 115 million animals used in tests worldwideLiechtenstein and San Marino are the only countries which have banned animal testing altogetherSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:06 pm Cree's 4th-quarter profit jumps 31 percentCree Inc. said Tuesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 31 percent as sales of the company's light-emitting diodes drove a 22 percent revenue gain to beat Wall Street expectations.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:02 pm BeSang, National NanoFab Center, and Stanford University NanoFab Develop Breakthrough 3D IC TechnologySEOUL, Korea, Aug.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm University of Rhode Island and Local Municipalities Agree to Clean Up Superfund SiteWASHINGTON, Aug.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm Lame Duck White House Launches Assault on Endangered Species ActTo: POLITICAL EDITORS Contact: Tony Iallonardo of National Audubon Society, +1-202-861- 2242, ext. 3042 Statement of Betsy Loyless, Senior Vice President,National Audubon Society WASHINGTON, Aug.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm Utah Wildfire Brought Under ControlUtah fire officials said Tuesday crews have contained a 1,600-acre wildfire burning in the northwestern corner of the state.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to Deliver Remarks at the Oregon Anti-Terrorism Conference and TrainingWASHINGTON, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey will give remarks highlighting the Justice Department's efforts in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement to prevent terrorism on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2008 at 9:00 A.M. PDT.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm Potash One Completes Technical Site Screening Review and Environmental Regulatory StrategyPotash One Inc. (The "Company" or "Potash One") (TSX VENTURE: KCL) is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed strategic planning for the Environmental Assessment on its 100% owned Legacy Potash Solution Mining Project (The "Project").Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm Rewards Network Inc. Repurchases $36.1 Million of Its 3.25% Convertible Subordinated DebenturesRewards Network Inc. (NASDAQ: DINE), a leading provider of marketing services and frequent dining programs to the restaurant industry, today announced that it has repurchased $36.1 million of its 3.25% Convertible Subordinated Debentures ("Debentures") out of cash reserves.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm Searches Find No Trace of Missing ToddlerInvestigators using dogs searched a wooded area Tuesday near the Florida house where the grandparents of a missing 3-year-old girl live. Orange County sheriff's deputies apparently found no trace of Caylee Anthony, WKMG-TV, Orlando, reported. Another area was searched Monday.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm From Hoover PressFor many policy makers, whoever can outgreen the other gets to set the regulation, and if you don't jump on the bandwagon, you risk being left behind altogether, say Hoover fellows Terry Anderson and Laura Huggins in their new book Greener Than Thou: Are You Really an Environmentalist? (Hoover Institution Press, 2008).Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 pm Cooking Stimulated Big Leap In Human CognitionHugh Pickens writes "For a long time, humans were pretty dumb, doing little but make 'the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years,' says Philipp Khaitovich of the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai. Then, 150,000 years ago, our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials. We started creating art and maybe even religion. To understand what caused the cognitive spurt, researchers examined chemical brain processes known to have changed in the past 200,000 years. Comparing apes and humans, they found the most robust differences were for processes involved in energy metabolism. The finding suggests that increased access to calories spurred our cognitive advances, although definitive claims of causation are premature. In most animals, the gut needs a lot of energy to grind out nourishment from food sources. But cooking, by breaking down fibers and making nutrients more readily available, is a way of processing food outside the body. Eating (mostly) cooked meals would have lessened the energy needs of our digestion systems, thereby freeing up calories for our brains. Today, humans have relatively small digestive systems and allocate around 20% of their total energy to the brain, compared to approximately 13% for non-human primates and 2-8% for other vertebrates. While other theories for the brain's cognitive spurt have not been ruled out, the finding sheds light on what made us, as Khaitovich put it, 'so strange compared to other animals.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 12 Aug 2008 | 10:09 pm Final Glance: Internet companiesShares of some top internet companies were mixed at the close of trading: Akamai Technologies fell $.29 or 1.2 percent, to $22.92.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 10:03 pm Final Glance: Computers companiesShares of some top computers companies were mixed at the close of trading: Apple Inc rose $3.17 or 1.8 percent, to $176.73.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Aug 2008 | 10:03 pm Memory Disruption Could Aid AddictsScientists have reduced the drug-seeking behaviors of cocaine-addicted rats by disrupting the memories they associate with getting high.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Aug 2008 | 10:00 pm Gates marks anniversary of Microsoft research arm (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Aug 2008 | 9:53 pm Indicted Fed Informant Coerced Hacker Into Caper That Drew 9-Year SentenceA strange link emerges between a Secret Service informant charged with stealing millions of credit card numbers from TJ Maxx and other retailers, and an earlier WiFi hacking case that drew a record prison term for a Michigan hacker.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Aug 2008 | 9:44 pm Starz ending Vongo movie service for Starz Play (AP)AP - Liberty Media Corp.'s Starz pay TV subsidiary is pulling the plug on its Vongo movie-download service in favor of letting Verizon Communications Inc. and other affiliates market a similar service.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Aug 2008 | 9:28 pm How to Back Up Your Bookmarks OnlineYour browser's bookmarks are a collection of web gold. One browser update or computer crash, and your carefully collected bookmark collection turns to dust, which is why it is always a good idea to store a backup somewhere online. "Eek!" you say, "I don't want my bookmarks available to just anyone." No problem, we'll show you how to password-protect them from prying eyes.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Aug 2008 | 9:15 pm Infineon Chipset May Be Cause of IPhone 3G IssuesJagsLive sends along a CNet blog piece about a plausible theory to explain the iPhone 3G connection problems many users have experienced. Apple has not acknowledged any such problems. "Richard Windsor of Nomura published a research note... Tuesday singling out the iPhone 3G's chipset, made by Infineon, as the probable culprit for the reception problems we reported on Monday. The dropped calls, service interruptions, and abrupt network switches experienced by iPhone 3G users reminded Windsor of similar complaints five years ago, when 3G phones were first launched in Europe. 'We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier,' Windsor wrote. 'This is not surprising as the Infineon 3G chipset solution has never really been tested in the hands of users. Some people will not experience these problems as it is only in areas where the radio signal weakens that the immaturity of the stack really shows.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 12 Aug 2008 | 9:07 pm Georgian Sites Were Scouted Before Mass Attack (NewsFactor)NewsFactor - Russia is not only attacking Georgia by land and by air, but hackers are attacking Georgia's computer systems. Cyber attackers began launching virtual missiles at Georgian servers on Aug. 8.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Aug 2008 | 9:06 pm New SQL Injection Attack Fuses Malware, PhishingPainMeds tips a recent post in Secure Computing's research blog describing a new SQL injection attack that had infected thousands of MSSQL-based web servers by last weekend, turning them into malware delivery systems. The attack apparently rewrites the server's Web pages to include JavaScript which pushes malware to the visitor as if it were from the genuine site. Sites using Sybase might possibly be vulnerable, as it uses the same exploited syntax that MSSQL does. The post includes an example of the attack. Unlike most malware attacks, this one appears to originate from the site the user is actually visiting. From the blog: "'Similar to phishing, this attack takes advantage of the website visitor's trust in the site they are visiting. Instead of phishing for information, however, malware is sent to the client, which the client has a higher likelihood of accepting being from a trusted site... These web pages are associated with Web sites from around the world and supplying various content — including government sites, sales sites, real estate sites, and financial information sites among others."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 12 Aug 2008 | 8:08 pm New µTorrent Update Boosts Performance, Improves Vista SupportThe popular Windows BitTorrent client µTorrent has been updated to provide better support for Vista users and the ability to handle speedier IPv6 traffic. The creators also hint that the long-awaited Mac OS X version will be released in just a few weeks.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Aug 2008 | 7:15 pm Russia and Georgia Engaged In a Cyberwardoctorfaustus writes "I first picked this up in bits and pieces last week off Daily Rotation. A more in-depth story is available at ZDNet, which reports 'a week's worth of speculations around Russian Internet forums have finally materialized into a coordinated cyber attack against Georgia's Internet infrastructure. The attacks have already managed to compromise several government web sites, with continuing DDoS attacks against numerous other Georgian government sites, prompting the government to switch to hosting locations to the US, with Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs undertaking a desperate step in order to disseminate real-time information by moving to a Blogspot account.' There is a question whether the computer work is being done by the Russian military or others. ZDNet's story offers further analysis of the attacks themselves and their origins. Some pretty good reporting." And reader redbu11 contributes the news that Georgia seems to be censoring access to all Russian websites, as confirmed by a Georgian looking glass/nslookup tool. The access is blocked on DNS level (Italy censored the Pirate Bay in the same way). Here are a couple of screenshots (in a language other than English) as of Aug 12th 5:40 pm: www.linux.ru nslookup — FAIL, www.cnn.com nslookup — OK. ComputerWorld guy CWmike adds "In an intriguing cyberalliance, two Estonian computer experts are heading to Georgia to keep the country's networks running amid an intense military confrontation with Russia. Poland has lent space on its president's Web page for Georgia to post updates on its ongoing conflict with Russia. Estonia is also now hosting Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 12 Aug 2008 | 7:10 pm Tire-Gauge Industry Pumps Up Obama Campaign CoffersBig Oil doesn't control America's energy policy. The tire pressure gauge industry does.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Aug 2008 | 6:23 pm Space Shuttle Successor Won't Fly Before 2014NASA pushes back the launch of the Orion spacecraft by one year.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Aug 2008 | 6:00 pm Space Plane Goes to Boot CampA prototype spaceship abandoned by NASA is now in the hands of the U.S. Air Force.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Aug 2008 | 4:22 pm Handy App Turns iPhone Into Wireless DriveA new $7 application for the iPhone turns the device into a hard drive that you can access over a wireless network.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 12 Aug 2008 | 3:48 pm Saber-Toothed Cat Unearthed in VenezuelaOil prospectors in South America find the first fossils of an extinct scimitar cat there.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Humpback Whales on Road to RecoveryOnce hunted nearly to extinction, the humpback whale is making a striking comeback.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Some Prehistoric Giants Killed by PeopleIt's no coincidence that Tasmania's giant kangaroo died out shortly after people arrived.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Aug 2008 | 12:40 pm
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Tap:
With an access point in mind, you should have an idea of the necessary equipment. Using an old lineman's handset (also called a "butt set") or building a "beige box" are the best starters. In short, the lineman's handset is a tool used by repairmen to test a line for activity. It's little more than a trussed up wall phone with a small dialing pad and alligator clips for tapping directly into a line. A beige box is just the DIY, 133t cousin of the lineman's handset. Of course, if price and jail time are no concern, there are a number of other options -- but for the sake of ease, we'll stick with these.
