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======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Nearby, Recent Interplanetary Collision Inferred
* Charlie Stross, Paul Krugman Discuss the Future
* GPLv2 Libraries — Is There a Point?
* Google Previews New Search Infrastructure
* Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over
* The Right Amount of "Challenge" In IT & Gaming
* A Standardized OS For Robots
* No Windows 7 XP Mode For Sony Vaio Z Owners
* Schneier On Self-Enforcing Protocols
* "Terminator Vision" Is Here For the iPhone
* CRIA, MPAA Demand Expanded DMCA For Canada
* US Cell Phone Plans Among World's Most Expensive
* Voting Machine Attacks Proven To Be Practical
* Chevy Volt Rated At 230 mpg In the City
* MS — Dropping IE6 Support "Not an Option"
* Adobe Flash Cookies Raising Privacy Questions Again
* Intel Licenses NVIDIA SLI Technology For P55 Chips
* Reports of IE Hijacking NXDOMAINs, Routing To Bing
* Sensor To Monitor TV Watchers Demoed At Cable Labs
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nearby, Recent Interplanetary Collision Inferred |
| from the when-worlds-collide dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday August 10, @20:29 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/10/2149204 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Bad Astronomer writes about a new discovery by the Spitzer Space
Telescope, which [0]detected signs of an interplanetary smashup only 100
light-years from here, and only a few thousand years ago. There's a
NASA-produced animation of the collision between a Mercury-sized planet
and a moon-sized impactor. The collision's aftermath was detected by the
presence of what are essentially glass shards in orbit around the star.
Here's [1]NASA's writeup.
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/10/2149204
Links:
0. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/10/when-worlds-collide/
1. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-20090810.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charlie Stross, Paul Krugman Discuss the Future |
| from the i'll-have-the-vegetarian dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday August 10, @22:25 (Sci-Fi) |
| http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/0211257|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Peripatetic Entrepreneur writes "At the Science Fiction World
Convention in Montreal, Hugo Award winning author Charlie Stross and
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman opened the show with a
75-minute, [1]wide-ranging conversation on stage. From flying cars to
decoding the genome of the Pacific Ocean to vat-grown Long Pig, it's all
there. [2]Audio is also available ��� video soon."
Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/0211257
Links:
0. http://www.steussy.com/blog/
1. http://www.steussy.com/blog/?p=1867
2. http://cluebytwelve.net/anticipation/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GPLv2 Libraries — Is There a Point? |
| from the spirit-of-the-license dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @00:24 (GNU is Not Unix) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/0222234 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
PiSkyHi writes "I understand that if I build an application that links
with a library that is licensed under GPLv2, I must also make my
application GPL2. I can see that value in this for an application. But
for a library, what's to stop me separating my program into a
GPLv2-compliant client app that talks to the rest of my (choose my own
license) application?"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/0222234
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Previews New Search Infrastructure |
| from the not-standing-still dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @03:01 (Google) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/0349217 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Google has announced a [0]"developer preview" of a new search
infrastructure, though one wouldn't have to be a developer to try it out.
Google is asking for feedback on how the search results in [1]the new
regime stack up against the old. Matt Cutts has posted a [2]mini FAQ.
Some [3]early testing indicates that the new search may be faster in some
cases, and return more relevant results, than the old one. Those who
attempt to game Google search for a living will be scrambling henceforth.
Has anyone identified the new crawler bot in log files?
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/0349217
Links:
0. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/08/help-test-some-next-generation.html
1. http://www2.sandbox.google.com/
2. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/caffeine-update/
3. http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/google-caffeine/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over |
| from the nice-while-it-lasts dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @05:38 (Earth) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/034221 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]xp65 writes "Scientists at this year's XXVIIth General Assembly of the
International Astronomical Union in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil agree that we
do not yet know how ubiquitous or how fragile life is, but that: '[1]The
Earth's period of habitability is nearly over on a cosmological
timescale. In a half to one billion years the Sun will start to be too
luminous and warm for water to exist in liquid form on Earth, leading to
a runaway greenhouse effect in less than 2 billion years.' Other
surprising claims from this conference: that the Sun may not be the ideal
kind of star to nurture life, and that the Earth may not be the ideal
size."
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/034221
Links:
0. http://spacefellowship.com/
1. http://spacefellowship.com/2009/08/10/on-a-cosmological-timescale-the-earths-period-of-habitability-is-nearly-over/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Right Amount of "Challenge" In IT & Gaming |
| from the inversely-proportional dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Tuesday August 11, @08:08 (Games) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/0650226 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]boyko.at.netqos writes "In an essay entitled '[1]An Epiphany I Had
While Playing Pac-Man,' the author talks about how smart people need to
find a certain amount of intellectual challenge from day to day. If they
don't find it in their workplace, they'll end up playing complex, 'smart'
games, like Civilization IV or Chess ��� and if they do find it in their
workplace, they're more likely to sit down with a nice game of Pac-Man,
Katamari Damacy, or Peggle. Quoting: 'When I look back on my life, and I
compare the times in my life when I was playing simple games compared to
the times in my life when I was playing complex ones, a pattern emerges.
The more complexity and mental stimulation I was getting from other
activities ��� usually my day job at the time ��� the less I needed mental
stimulation in my free time. Conversely, in times when I was working
boring jobs, I'd be playing games that required a lot of thinking and
mental gymnastics.' The author then goes on to speculate that some IT
workers might subconsciously be giving themselves more challenges by
choosing to deal with difficult problems, rather than performing simple
(but boring) preventative maintenance and proactive network management."
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/0650226
Links:
0. mailto:brian.boyko@netqos.com
1. http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2009/08/an_epiphany_i_had_while_playin.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Standardized OS For Robots |
| from the kill-all-humans-until-done dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @08:56 (Robotics) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1242217 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The New Scientist reports that at present, all
robot software is designed uniquely, even for parts common to all robots
but that could be about to change as roboticists have begun to think
about [1]what robots have in common and what aspects of their
construction can be standardized, resulting in a basic operating system
everyone can use. 'It's easier to build everything from the ground up
right now because each team's requirements are so different,' says
Anne-Marie Bourcier of Aldebaran Robotics but Bourcier sees this changing
if robotics advances in a manner similar to personal computing where a
common operating system allowed programmers without detailed knowledge of
the underlying hardware and file systems to build new applications and
build on the work of others. 'Robotics is at the stage where personal
computing was about 30 years ago,' says Chad Jenkins of Brown University.
'But at some point we have to come together to use the same resources.'
This desire has its roots in frustration, says Brian Gerkey of the
robotics research firm Willow Garage. If someone is studying object
recognition, they want to design better object-recognition algorithms,
not write code to control the robot's wheels. "You know that those things
have been done before, probably better," says Gerkey, who hopes to one
day see a robot "app store" where a person could download a program for
their robot and have it work as easily as an iPhone app."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1242217
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327206.300-robots-to-get-their-own-operating-system.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| No Windows 7 XP Mode For Sony Vaio Z Owners |
| from the for-your-own-good dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @09:48 (Sony) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1315255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Voyager529 writes "While virtually every Core 2 Duo processor supports
the hardware virtualization technology that powers the Windows 7 XP Mode,
The Register UK reports that the Core 2 Duo processors in the Sony Vaio Z
series laptops had the [1]virtualization features intentionally crippled
in the BIOS. Senior manager for product marketing Xavier Lauwaert stated
that the QA engineers did this to make the systems more resilient against
malicious code. He also stated that while they are considering enabling
VT in some laptop models due to the backlash, the Z series are not among
those being retrofitted."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1315255
Links:
0. http://voyager529ampyahoocom/
1. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/06/sony_vaio_virtualization_disabled/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Schneier On Self-Enforcing Protocols |
| from the visibility-rocks dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @10:36 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1340256 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Hollow Being writes "In an essay posted to Threatpost, Bruce Schneier
makes the argument that [0]self-enforcing protocols are better suited to
security and problem-solving. From the article: 'Self-enforcing protocols
are safer than other types because participants don't gain an advantage
from cheating. Modern voting systems are rife with the potential for
cheating, but an open show of hands in a room ��� one that everyone in the
room can count for himself ��� is self-enforcing. On the other hand,
there's no secret ballot, late voters are potentially subjected to
coercion, and it doesn't scale well to large elections. But there are
mathematical election protocols that have self-enforcing properties, and
some cryptographers have suggested their use in elections.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1340256
Links:
0. http://threatpost.com/blogs/value-self-enforcing-protocols
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Terminator Vision" Is Here For the iPhone |
| from the old-hat-to-thad-starner dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @11:27 (Displays) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1442239 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
musefrog writes "The BBC is reporting that so-called [0]augmented reality
has arrived ��� in the UK at least. From the article: 'Via the video
function of a mobile phone's camera it is now possible to [1]combine a
regular pictorial view with added data from the internet just as the
fictional Terminator was able to overlay its view of the world with vital
information about its surroundings. For example, UK-firm Acrossair has
launched an application for the iPhone which allows Londoners to find
their nearest tube station using their iPhone.' The page features an
impressive video demonstrating AR in action."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1442239
Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8193951.stm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CRIA, MPAA Demand Expanded DMCA For Canada |
| from the professional-envy dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @12:16 (The Internet) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1534224 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian Recording Industry Association
and the MPAA's Canadian subsidiary are [0]demanding that Canada adopt
copyright laws that go beyond even the DMCA. The groups demand
anti-circumvention law, three strikes and you're out legislation, and
increased secondary liability for websites. The demands come as part of
the [1]national copyright consultation in which hundreds of Canadians
have [2]spoken out against such reforms."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1534224
Links:
0. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4256/125/
1. http://www.copyrightconsultation.ca/
2. http://speakoutoncopyright.ca/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Cell Phone Plans Among World's Most Expensive |
| from the yes-but-we-have-cheap-gasoline dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday August 11, @13:03 (Communications) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1610237 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Albanach writes "An OECD report published today has shown moderate cell
phone users in the United States are [0]paying some of the highest rates
in the world . Average US plans cost $52.99 per month compared to an
average of $10.95 in Finland. The full report is available only to
subscribers, however Excel sheets of the raw data are available to
download." (You'll find those Excel sheets ��� which open just fine in
OpenOffice ��� on the summary page linked above.)
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1610237
Links:
0. http://www.oecd.org/document/20/0,3343,en_2649_201185_43471316_1_1_1_1,00.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Voting Machine Attacks Proven To Be Practical |
| from the back-up-the-dumpster dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @13:51 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1642231 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Every time a bunch of academics show
vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines, critics complain that the
attacks aren't realistic, that attackers won't have access to source
code, or design documents, or be able to manipulate the hardware, etc. So
this time a bunch of computer scientists from UCSD, Michigan, and
Princeton offered a rebuttal. They completely [0]own the AVC Advantage
using no access to source code or design documents (PDF), and deliver a
complete working attack in a plug-in cartridge that could be used by
anyone with a few private minutes with the machine. Moreover, they came
up with some cool tricks to do this on a machine protected against
traditional code injection attacks (the AVC processor will only execute
instructions from ROM). The research was presented at this week's USENIX
EVT."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1642231
Links:
0. http://www.usenix.org/events/evtwote09/tech/full_papers/checkoway.pdf
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Chevy Volt Rated At 230 mpg In the City |
| from the bragging-rights dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @14:41 (Transportation) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1738234 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
necro81 writes "General Motors, emerging from bankruptcy, [0]today
announced that its upcoming plug-in hybrid vehicle, the [1]Volt, will
have an [2]EPA rating of 230 mpg for city driving (about 98 km/L). The
unprecedented rating, the first in triple digits, is the result of a new
(draft) methodology for calculating the 'gas' mileage for vehicles that
operate primarily or extensively on electricity. The Volt, due out late
next year, can drive approximately 40 miles on its Li-Ion battery pack,
after which a gasoline engine kicks in to provide additional electricity
to charge the battery. Running off the gasoline engine yields
approximately 50 mpg. Of course, the [3]devil's in the details, because
the conversion of grid-based electricity to gasoline-mileage is
imprecise." Now we know the meaning of the mysterious [4]"230" viral
marketing campaign.
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1738234
Links:
0. http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=http://image.emerald.gm.com/gmnews/viewmonthlyreleasedetail.do?domain=74&docid=56132
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chevrolet_Volt&oldid=307386950
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/business/12auto.html
3. http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/11/autos/volt_mpg/?postversion=2009081108
4. http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=138346
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MS — Dropping IE6 Support "Not an Option" |
| from the die-already dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @15:31 (Internet Explorer|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1756248 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft wants to see IE6 gone as much as
anyone else, [0]but the company isn't going to make the decision for its
users anytime soon. The software giant has been pushing IE6 and IE7 users
to move to IE8 ever since it arrived in March 2009, but it's still up to
the user to make the final decision to upgrade: 'The engineering point of
view on IE6 starts as an operating systems supplier. Dropping support for
IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included
with Windows for the lifespan of the product. We keep our commitments.
Many people expect what they originally got with their operating system
to keep working whatever release cadence particular subsystems have. As
engineers, we want people to upgrade to the latest version. We make it as
easy as possible for them to upgrade. Ultimately, the choice to upgrade
belongs to the person responsible for the PC.'" Of course some big Web
sites aren't waiting for Microsoft. Reader Yamir writes, "Google's Orkut,
a social networking service popular in Brazil and India, has [1]started
warning IE6 users that the browser will no longer be supported. Just last
month, [2]YouTube started showing a similar message."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1756248
Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/microsoft-dropping-support-for-ie6-is-not-an-option.ars
1. http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/googles-orkut-starts-phasing-out-support-for-ie6.ars
2. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/14/1813200/YouTube-Phasing-Out-Support-For-IE6
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Adobe Flash Cookies Raising Privacy Questions Again |
| from the flash-in-the-pan dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @16:10 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/1947208 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Nearly a year after we discussed the [0]privacy implications of Flash
cookies, they are in the news again as the US government [1]considers
revising its cookie policy. Wired covers a study out of UC Berkeley
[2]exposing questionable practices used by many of the Internet's
most-visited Web sites ([3]abstract). The most questionable activity the
report exposes is known as "respawning": after a user has deleted browser
tracking cookies, some sites will use information in Flash cookies to
recreate them. The report names two companies, Clearspring and QuantCast,
whose technologies reinstate cookies for other Web sites. "Federal
websites have traditionally been banned from using tracking cookies,
despite being common around the web ��� a situation the Obama
administration is proposing to change as part of an attempt to modernize
government websites. But the debate shouldn't be about allowing browser
cookies or not, according Ashkan Soltani, a UC Berkeley graduate student
who helped lead the study. 'If users don't want to be tracked and there
is a problem with tracking, then we should regulate tracking, not
regulate cookies,' Soltani said."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/1947208
Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/14/1656251&tid=83
1. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/29/2123256
2. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/
3. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1446862
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intel Licenses NVIDIA SLI Technology For P55 Chips |
| from the men-to-match-my-mountains dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @17:08 (Graphics) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/2030237 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
adeelarshad82 writes "NVIDIA announced that Intel has [0]licensed the
company's SLI technology for inclusion in upcoming products ��� as have a
slew of major hardware partners such as ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI.
This means the P55 chipsets that power those new socket LGA 1156
motherboards, which are based around the next-gen Nehalem architecture,
will let you build systems using two or four NVIDIA-powered GPUs.
Specifically, the licensing agreement covers the Core i5 and Core i7
microprocessors."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/2030237
Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351409,00.asp
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Reports of IE Hijacking NXDOMAINs, Routing To Bing |
| from the if-I-want-bing-I-will-type-bing dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @18:01 (Internet Explorer|
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/2149218 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Jaeden Stormes writes "We just started getting word of a new browser
hijack from our sales force. 'Some site called Bing?' they said. Sure
enough, since the patches last night, their IE6 and IE7 installations are
now routing all NXDOMAINs to Bing. Try it out ��� put in something like
www.DoNotHijackMe.com." We've had mixed results here confirming this: one
report that up-to-date IE8 behaves as described. Others tried installing
all offered updates to systems running IE6 and IE7 and got no hijacking.
Update: 08/11 23:24 GMT by [1]KD : Readers are reporting that it's not
Bing that comes up for a nonexistent domain, it's the user's default
search engine (noting that at least one Microsoft update in the past
changed the default to Bing). There may be nothing new here.
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/2149218
Links:
0. mailto:mholden@darkenedsky.com
1. http://slashdot.org/~kdawson/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sensor To Monitor TV Watchers Demoed At Cable Labs |
| from the audience-has-reached-critical-mass dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, @18:47 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/08/11/2236252 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Cable operators at the semi-annual CableLab's
Innovation Showcase have informally voted as best new product a gizmo
that can [0]determine how many people are watching a TV. Developed by
Israeli company [1]PrimeSense, the product lets digital devices see a 3-D
view of the world (the images look like something from thermal imaging).
In other words, that cable set-top box will know whether three people are
sitting on the sofa watching TV and how many are adults vs. children. Do
we really need cable and/or video service operators knowing this? It all
happens via a chip that resides in a camera that plugs into the set-top
box."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/11/2236252
Links:
0. http://www.cablefax.com/cfp/just_in/Future-Gazing-at-CableLabs-Innovation-Showcase_37042.html
1. http://www.primesense.com/
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