Tag: journal

Jail Looms For Man Who Revealed AT&T Leaked iPad User E-Mails

concealment sends this quote from MIT’s Technology Review: “AT&T screwed up in 2010, serving up the e-mail addresses of over 110,000 of its iPad 3G customers online for anyone to find. But Andrew Auernheimer, an online activist who pointed out AT&T’s blunder to Gawker Media, which went on to publicize the breach of private information, is the one in federal court this week. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation worry that should that charge succeed it will become easy to criminalize many online activities, including work by well-intentioned activists looking for leaks of private information or other online security holes. [Auernheimer’s] case hasn’t received much attention so far, but should he be found guilty this week it will likely become well known, fast.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Jail Looms For Man Who Revealed AT&T Leaked iPad User E-Mails

Hands-On With Intel’s “Next Unit of Computing” Mini PC

crookedvulture writes “Intel’s Next Unit of Computing has finally made its way into the hands of reviewers. The final revision is a little different from the demo unit that made the rounds earlier this year, but the concept remains the same. Intel has crammed what are essentially ultrabook internals into a tiny box measuring 4″ x 4″ x 2″. A mobile Core i3 CPU provides the horsepower, and there’s a decent array of I/O ports: USB, HDMI, and Thunderbolt. Users can add their own memory, storage, and wireless card to the system, which will be sold without an OS for around $300. Those extras raise the total price, bringing the NUC closer to Mac Mini territory. The Apple system has a bigger footprint, but it also boasts a faster processer and the ability to accommodate notebook hard drives with higher storage capacities than the mSATA SSDs that are compatible with the NUC. If Intel can convince system builders to adopt the NUC, the future of the PC could be a lot smaller.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hands-On With Intel’s “Next Unit of Computing” Mini PC

GOP Study Committee Director Disowns Brief Attacking Current IP Law

cervesaebraciator writes “Saturday an article was featured on Slashdot which expressed some hope, if just a fool’s hope, that a recent Republican Study Committee Brief could be a sign of broader national discussion about the value of current copyright law. When one sees such progress, credit is deservedly given. Unfortunately, others in Washington did not perhaps see this as worthy of praise. The committee’s executive director, Paul Teller, sent a memo today disavowing the earlier pro-copyright reform brief. From the memo: ‘Yesterday you received a Policy Brief or [sic] copyright law that was published without adequate review within the RSC and failed to meet that standard. Copyright reform would have far-reaching impacts, so it is incredibly important that it be approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand.’ People who live in districts such as Ohio’s 4th would do well to send letters of support to those who crafted the original brief. I cannot imagine party leadership will be happy with so radical a suggestion as granting copyright protection for the limited times needed to promote the progress of science and useful arts.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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GOP Study Committee Director Disowns Brief Attacking Current IP Law

Artificial Muscles Pack a Mean Punch

sciencehabit writes “Here’s a twist: Scientists have designed a flexible, yarn-like artificial muscle that can also pack a punch. It can contract in 25 milliseconds—a fraction of the time it takes to blink an eye—and can generate power 85 times as great as a similarly sized human muscle. The new muscles are made of carbon nanotubes filled with paraffin wax that can twist or stretch in response to heat or electricity. When the temperature rises, the wax melts and forces the nanotubes to contract. Such artificial muscles, the researchers say, could power smart materials, sensors, robots, and even devices inside the human body.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Artificial Muscles Pack a Mean Punch

Super-Earth Discovered In Stars' Habitable Zone

astroengine writes “The family of planets circling a relatively close dwarf star has grown to six, including a potential rocky world at least seven times more massive than Earth that is properly located for liquid water to exist on its surface, a condition believed to be necessary for life. Scientists added three new planets to three discovered in 2008 orbiting an orange star called HD 40307, which is roughly three-quarters as massive as the sun and located about 42 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. Of particular interest is the outermost planet, which is believed to fly around its parent star over 320 days, a distance that places it within HD 40307’s so-called “habitable zone.”” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Super-Earth Discovered In Stars' Habitable Zone

Microsoft Retiring Messenger, Replacing It With Skype

Entropy98 writes “Windows Live Messenger will be shut down by March 2013, after nearly 13 years of service, so Microsoft can focus its efforts on Skype, its recent $8.5bn acquisition. No word on whether users will be able to transfer their WLM accounts to Skype. ‘According to internet analysis firm Comscore, WLM still had more than double the number of Skype’s instant messenger facility at the start of this year and was second only in popularity to Yahoo Messenger. But the report suggested WLM’s US audience had fallen to 8.3 million unique users, representing a 48% drop year-on-year. By contrast, the number of people using Skype to instant message each other grew over the period.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Retiring Messenger, Replacing It With Skype

Glow-In-The-Dark Smart Highways Coming To the Netherlands In 2013

An anonymous reader writes “The Netherlands is moving forward with plans to build ‘smart’ highways that can become more easily visible in the dark or communicate weather conditions to drivers. Work will begin as early as next year. ‘Special paint will also be used to paint markers like snowflakes across the road’s surface — when temperatures fall to a certain point, these images will become visible, indicating that the surface will likely be slippery. Roosegaarde says this technology has been around for years, on things like baby food — the studio has just up-scaled it. The first few hundred meters of glow in the dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Brabant in mid-2013, followed by priority induction lanes for electric vehicles, interactive lights that switch on as cars pass and wind-powered lights within the next five years.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Glow-In-The-Dark Smart Highways Coming To the Netherlands In 2013