Genral Web Comments
Friday, April 29, 2005
Dutch plans for iPod tax could kill MP3 industry | The Register
Dutch plans for iPod tax could kill MP3 industry | The Register: "A Netherlands proposed tax on MP3 players could devastate sales of hard disk players, and set up international waves over copyright legislation.
The tax is being proposed by the Stichting Thuiskopie foundation, and is set to become law in the Netherlands in a few short months unless the European Commission finds a reason to intervene. It is unlikely that will happen, as it has failed to come up with a policy for levy taxation so far."
'Hello? Chavez Here, Imperialists Want Our Oil' - Yahoo! News
'Hello? Chavez Here, Imperialists Want Our Oil' - Yahoo! News: "CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Telephone callers at Venezuela's oil ministry are getting the low-down on the country's oil strategy direct from President Hugo Chavez.
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'What is the reason for the imperialist aggression against our country? Venezuela is the world's top oil reserve and the world's oil is running out,' the short, repeated recording of a recent Chavez speech tells phoners as their call is put on hold and transferred internally."
Florida Governor Signs Deadly Force Law - Yahoo! News
Florida Governor Signs Deadly Force Law - Yahoo! News: "TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed a new anti-crime law on Tuesday that allows people to kill in self-defense without first trying to flee.
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Supporters say the law is a logical extension of common law that allows homeowners who fear for their lives to use deadly force to defend themselves from an intruder in their homes."
Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists - Yahoo! News
Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists - Yahoo! News: "BERLIN - More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday.
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Both the pond's water and body parts of the toads have been tested, but scientists have been unable to find a bacteria or virus that would cause the toads to swell up and pop, said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "LONDON (Reuters) - There are plenty of Web sites on the Internet encouraging Britons to swap sexual partners. Now, similar sites are urging them to swap votes.
Marginalised by the country's winner-takes-all electoral system, voters in some parts of the country are indulging in what one activist describes as 'orgiastic vote-swapping'.
For example, a Labour voter who realises that the party has no chance of beating the Conservatives in his or her constituency agrees to vote for the Liberal Democrats in a bid to keep the Conservatives out."
Guerrilla Art Group Mocks Exclusive Enclaves - Yahoo! News
Guerrilla Art Group Mocks Exclusive Enclaves - Yahoo! News: "LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In a city where fame is an industry and privacy is a mark of privilege, guerrilla artists have erected mock guard towers to protest what they see as a disturbing proliferation of gated communities.
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Heavy Trash, a coalition of anonymous architects, designers and urban planners, erected the bright orange, 12-foot (3.6- meter) viewing platforms outside the gates of three upscale Los Angeles neighborhoods."
Thursday, April 28, 2005
DNA Reopens 32-Year-Old Serial Rapist Case - Yahoo! News
DNA Reopens 32-Year-Old Serial Rapist Case - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - DNA testing on semen found on a raped woman's underwear 32 years ago has reopened an investigation into 25 sexual assaults spanning three states over three decades, Manhattan prosecutors said on Tuesday.
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DNA testing of semen found on a victim's underwear in a 1973 Manhattan knifepoint rape was matched to Clarence Williams, 58, who was arrested last year after a 26-year hiatus, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said."
Man Drives on Taxiway at Iowa Airport - Yahoo! News
Man Drives on Taxiway at Iowa Airport - Yahoo! News: "DES MOINES, Iowa - Air traffic at Des Moines International Airport was temporarily halted when a disoriented 70-year-old man drove in through an exit gate and led security on a chase onto an active taxiway.
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Duane Edwards Sheets drove through an open gate at the adjacent Iowa Air National Guard base Tuesday, nearly striking a guard who tried to stop him, said Col. Greg Schwab, commander of the 132nd Air Fighter Wing."
Man Drives on Taxiway at Iowa Airport - Yahoo! News
Man Drives on Taxiway at Iowa Airport - Yahoo! News: "DES MOINES, Iowa - Air traffic at Des Moines International Airport was temporarily halted when a disoriented 70-year-old man drove in through an exit gate and led security on a chase onto an active taxiway.
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Duane Edwards Sheets drove through an open gate at the adjacent Iowa Air National Guard base Tuesday, nearly striking a guard who tried to stop him, said Col. Greg Schwab, commander of the 132nd Air Fighter Wing."
Man Allegedly Demands Ransom for Pooch - Yahoo! News
Man Allegedly Demands Ransom for Pooch - Yahoo! News: "BOSTON - A man whose truck was stolen with his 11-week-old puppy inside said the thief threatened to kill his pet unless he paid a $500 ransom. Instead, the dog owner brought the police along to the planned rendezvous, and a suspect was arrested.
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Timothy Connors, 30, left the keys in his pickup truck, with the dog inside, when he stepped into a convenience store Monday. That's when Michael Cyr allegedly stole the truck and Dakota, a two-pound Pomeranian-Maltese mix."
Friends Find $75,000 in Backyard Treasure - Yahoo! News
Friends Find $75,000 in Backyard Treasure - Yahoo! News: "BOSTON - Simple luck helped Tim Crebase and two friends find a stash of cash buried in his yard. Splitting up the money without damaging their friendship may take more skill.
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It was a rainy day that prevented Crebase and friends Barry Billcliff and Matt Ingham go to their roofing job, so they began digging around his Methuen yard to dig up a shrub whose roots were creeping into a nearby set of stairs."
Houston Bans Offensive Odor in Libraries - Yahoo! News
Houston Bans Offensive Odor in Libraries - Yahoo! News: "HOUSTON - Those who want to browse books at Houston's public libraries should get enough sleep, eat and bathe before they begin to peruse the shelves.
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On Wednesday, Houston's city council passed a series of library regulations that some say are an attempt to discourage homeless people from visiting the public buildings.
Library officials said people have been using their facilities as temporary shelters, restaurants and changing stations. The new ordinance prohibits sleeping on tables, eating, using restrooms for bathing and 'offensive bodily hygiene that constitutes a nuisance to others.'"
Burglar With Conscience Returns Items - Yahoo! News
Burglar With Conscience Returns Items - Yahoo! News: "ENID, Okla. - There may be a burglar with a conscience in Garfield County.
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A television, stereo, and VCR were stolen over the weekend from a house in the small town of Kremlin."
Beggars May Need Licenses in Minneapolis - Yahoo! News
Beggars May Need Licenses in Minneapolis - Yahoo! News: "MINNEAPOLIS - The police chief wants to license panhandlers, saying it would make it easier for officers to manage aggressive begging in Minnesota's largest city.
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Under the plan, panhandlers would have to register each year at a government center and have their picture taken. Anyone failing to wear an ID badge would be jailed for 30 days, and possibly fined."
Best Man Arrested in Honeymoon Blaze - Yahoo! News
Best Man Arrested in Honeymoon Blaze - Yahoo! News: "HAMPTON, Va. - A honeymooning couple was to return Wednesday night to find their home had been set on fire while they were away, and that police arrested the best man at their wedding and charged him with setting the blaze.
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Joseph Overton, 27, was charged with burning and destroying a dwelling and manufacturing and use of an explosive device, Fire Marshal Rick Rickett said"
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "LONDON (Reuters) - Dog-lovers have taken 2.7 million working days off to care for their sick pets over the last two years, according to a survey on Thursday.
Ten percent of owners missed five days of work, with half of these taking up to two weeks off to look after their pets.
Dog owners are so concerned about their pooches' wellbeing that 55 percent admitted they paid more attention to sick pets than an ill partner.
Fifty-three percent of owners also said they bought their dogs a present if their pets were feeling under the weather."
Utah Women Sue Religious Group for Fraud - Yahoo! News
Utah Women Sue Religious Group for Fraud - Yahoo! News: "SALT LAKE CITY - Two women claim they were bilked out of their life savings by an apocalyptic religious group that promised them land and a face-to-face meeting with Jesus Christ.
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Kaziah Hancock and Cindy Stewart earlier won their lawsuit against Jim Harmston and The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of The Last Days in a district court, but it was thrown out by a judge."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's normally strait-laced politicians are getting ready for a tieless look this summer to combat global warming but the idea has left fashion mavens cold.
Government workers and politicians are being encouraged to dress down between June 1 and September 30 so that air conditioner thermostats can be set higher to save energy."
Couple Hosts Surprise Wedding in Wash. - Yahoo! News
Couple Hosts Surprise Wedding in Wash. - Yahoo! News: "LAKE STEVENS, Wash. - After more than three decades together, Betty Tellesbo and John Troutman have tied the knot. But not before playing a complicated trick.
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The couple began by asking their parents, their three children and the children's spouses and children to meet them at a restaurant on the pretext of a combined celebration for a number of family members who have birthdays in April."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian court has sentenced a woman to nine months in jail for raping a man, the first such conviction in the Scandinavian country that prides itself for its egalitarianism.
The 31-year-old man fell asleep on a sofa at a party in January last year and told the court in the western city of Bergen he woke to find the 23-year-old woman was having oral sex with him."
Police Doubt Report That 'The Scream' Burned - Yahoo! News
Police Doubt Report That 'The Scream' Burned - Yahoo! News: "OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian police expressed skepticism about a newspaper report Thursday that thieves had burned Edvard Munch's missing masterpiece 'The Scream' out of fear that investigators were closing in.
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'The Oslo police have no knowledge of that,' Iver Stensrud, the police chief leading the investigation since gunmen stole the iconic 1893 painting from an Oslo gallery in August 2004, told Norway's NRK public radio."
Salem Not Thrilled With 'Bewitched' Statue - Yahoo! News
Salem Not Thrilled With 'Bewitched' Statue - Yahoo! News: "SALEM, Mass. - Not all Salem residents like the idea of a statue honoring the star of the TV show 'Bewitched.'
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Thousands of tourists flock each year to the Massachusetts city made famous by the witch hysteria of 1692."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "LONDON (Reuters) - The factors that drove a group of religious zealots to try blowing up parliament 400 years ago are as relevant today as they were then, police said on Thursday.
The Gunpowder Plotters, the most famous of whom was Guy Fawkes, were Catholic fanatics in an age when Catholicism was a persecuted minority faith in England.
'They were a minority who felt they had no say and when that happens people feel their options are limited and some turn to violence,' said police Commander Steve Allen.
'There are communities today who feel the same way, and our job is to try to build an inclusive society so that minorities do feel they have a voice,' he told Reuters at the opening of a special exhibition on the plot.
Neither Allen nor the exhibition at London's Globe Theatre mentioned the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington -- although there is a reference to England's 5/11, meaning November 5, the date in 1605 set for the detonation.
'We will be bringing groups of youths through here to study what happened and what it means,' Allen said. 'This is relevant to all young people because we are going to have to forge a country where everyone has a voice.'
The exhibition, with police-style profiles of the plotters is being staged at Shakespeare's Globe theatre because he wrote Macbeth immediately afterwards with a strong signal of support for the king, according to co-curator Daniel Hahn."
Inmate Sends Judge a Letter With Marijuana - Yahoo! News
Inmate Sends Judge a Letter With Marijuana - Yahoo! News: "AZTEC, N.M. - An inmate's letter delivered Monday to a district judge tested positive for marijuana, authorities said.
Craig Hopkins, an inmate at the San Juan County Detention Center, apologized to Judge Thomas Hynes for violating his probation. At the bottom of the envelope were marijuana leaves."
Standing Room Only at New Cemetery - Yahoo! News
Standing Room Only at New Cemetery - Yahoo! News: "CANBERRA (Reuters) - It will be standing room only for those being buried at a new Australian cemetery that aims to provide cheap, environmentally friendly burials.
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Australia's Victoria state government has approved plans for the cemetery at Darlington, 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the Victorian capital Melbourne, where corpses will be buried vertically in body bags -- instead of caskets -- on grazing land. 'When you die, you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment,' a spokesman for Palacom, which will establish the cemetery, told Australian Associated Press on Thursday."
Sport genetics could make Superman fantasy a reality - Yahoo! News
Sport genetics could make Superman fantasy a reality - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (AFP) - Genetic engineering and steroid enhancement could turn Superman-like fantasy figures into reality, American football officials and players warned in a Congressional hearing.
The first signs of a massive mighty race might already be appearing in 21st Century American sports, where teams do not face World Anti-Doping Agency standards even though lawmakers are pondering imposing such measures.
Concerns about the future of doping were on the minds of several who testified here Wednesday at a House Government Reform committee hearing about steroids in the National Football League."
Mind Hacks: Does email really reduce IQ ?
Mind Hacks: Does email really reduce IQ ?: "A widely reported news story suggests that email and phone calls reduce IQ by up to 10 points. At closer examination however, the majority of the headlines do not stand up to scrutiny."
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Nuclear fusion on the desktop ... really! - Science - MSNBC.com
Nuclear fusion on the desktop ... really! - Science - MSNBC.com: "Scientists say they have achieved small-scale nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment, using tried and true techniques that are expected to generate far less controversy than past such claims."
OSSIM (Open Source Security Information Management)
OSSIM (Open Source Security Information Management)
Yahoo! News - Man Who Put Mom in Freezer Had Odd History
Yahoo! News - Man Who Put Mom in Freezer Had Odd History: "TOWN OF CAMPBELL, Wis. - As a teenager, Philip Schuth was teased mercilessly by the other kids because his mother still walked him to school. As an adult, he lived with his mother, cut his backyard with a scythe, and once bought $150 worth of Spam in a single grocery store outing. But the strangest thing of all would come to light over the weekend: Schuth had kept his mother's remains in a basement freezer for years while he went on collecting her Social Security checks.
Schuth told authorities that his mother died of natural causes in 2000 and that he feared police might charge him with murder, according to court documents. An autopsy is planned.
'Everybody thought he was nuts,' said Gary Mitchell, 59, who lives next door. "
Yahoo! News - Casino Camera Operators Accused of Ogling
Yahoo! News - Casino Camera Operators Accused of Ogling: "ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Four more surveillance camera operators at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino have been accused of using the equipment to ogle women, according to a complaint filed Tuesday.
In December, the same casino was fined $80,000 for incidents involving two camera operators who trained their in-ceiling cameras on low-cut blouses and revealing clothing. "
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "BANGKOK (Reuters) - Doctors found around 50 maggots in the ears of an 84-year-old Thai man after he went to hospital complaining of an itch.
Wednesday's Nation newspaper said Anan Temtan, who lives in the tsunami-hit southern resort island of Phuket, had used cotton buds to relieve the itching, but had scratched so hard his eardrums ruptured and started bleeding.
'We believe flies might have gone inside his ears to lay eggs, which hatched into larvae and caused the itching,' said Somsak Nonthasri, the doctor who treated him.
Somsak, who used tweezers and a small suction device to remove the maggots, said Anan would be kept in for observation for a while to make sure no more eggs hatched. "
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
??? - RIM - Ami Ben-Bassat's Blog
??? - RIM - Ami Ben-Bassat's Blog: "Novel new data transfer system was launched recently in a unique experiment being held in KinnerNet 2005 camp (an Israeli internet camp , modeled after Tim Oreilly's Foo camp). The experiment conceived and run by a group of Israeli Internet addicts, including Yossi Vardi (former ICQ chairman), Shimon Schocken (computer scientist) and Ami Ben Bassat (science writer).
The system called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol(, uses biological carriers, and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer."
Yahoo! News - Priest Ordered to Stop Protests in Mass.
Yahoo! News - Priest Ordered to Stop Protests in Mass.: "BOSTON - The Archdiocese of Boston has ordered a priest to stop demonstrations outside the home of the state Senate president, protests the priest said were necessary because of the politician's support of embryonic stem cell research.
The Rev. Thomas DiLorenzo and several parishioners recently spent several days demonstrating outside Sen. Robert E. Travaglini's duplex, singing hymns, carrying rosary beads and displaying signs with slogans such as 'Stop Playing God' and 'This is all about money.' "
Yahoo! News - Internet quiz puts true British party loyalties to the test
Yahoo! News - Internet quiz puts true British party loyalties to the test: "LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party might be the hot favourite to win the British general election, but according to an innovative Internet-based test of the policies voters really support, millions may be backing the wrong politician. "
Yahoo! News - Restaurant Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Lesbians
Yahoo! News - Restaurant Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Lesbians: "STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish lesbian couple who were thrown out of a Stockholm restaurant in 2003 for kissing won an appeal Monday against an earlier court ruling that cleared the restaurant owner of sexual discrimination.
The Court of Appeals in Stockholm ordered restaurant owner Aziz Cakir to pay 50,000 crowns ($7,100) in damages and to cover the legal costs of Sweden's ombudsman against sexual discrimination, HomO, which filed the appeal.
Cakir asked Anna Fernstrom and Susanne Gustafsson to leave his restaurant after they kissed and later told police he did not let anyone engage in such behavior on his premises regardless of their sexual orientation. "
Yahoo! News - Woman Finishes Anthem on Morning News Show
Yahoo! News - Woman Finishes Anthem on Morning News Show: "NEW YORK - By the dawn's early light, Caroline Marcil finally finished on national TV what she started at a hockey game � a flawless rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' "
Yahoo! News - Woman Finishes Anthem on Morning News Show
Yahoo! News - Woman Finishes Anthem on Morning News Show: "NEW YORK - By the dawn's early light, Caroline Marcil finally finished on national TV what she started at a hockey game � a flawless rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' "
Yahoo! News - Woman Finishes Anthem on Morning News Show
Yahoo! News - Woman Finishes Anthem on Morning News Show: "NEW YORK - By the dawn's early light, Caroline Marcil finally finished on national TV what she started at a hockey game � a flawless rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' "
Yahoo! News - A Law Dogs Would Write, if They Were Lawyers...
Yahoo! News - A Law Dogs Would Write, if They Were Lawyers...: "ROME (Reuters) - Dog owners in Turin will be fined up to $650 if they don't walk their pets at least three times a day, under a new law from the city's council.
People will also be banned from dyeing their pets' fur or 'any form of animal mutilation' for merely aesthetic motives such as docking dogs' tails, under the law about to be passed in the northern Italian city.
'In Turin it will be illegal to turn one's dog into a ridiculous fluffy toy,' the city's La Stampa daily reported.
Italians can already be fined up to 10,000 euros and spend a year in prison if found guilty of torturing or abandoning their pets, but Turin's new rules go into much greater detail. "
Yahoo! News - 'Cat Hoarder' Forced to Give Up 70 Felines
Yahoo! News - 'Cat Hoarder' Forced to Give Up 70 Felines: "BRUNSWICK, Maine - An animal shelter has taken in more than 70 cats that were given up by their owner in what officials described as a case of 'animal hoarding.'
Sharon Turner, director of the Coastal Humane Society, said the man who had the cats is a hoarder and that hoarding 'is a bona fide mental illness' related to obsessive compulsive disorder.
An animal hoarder 'is a person who amasses more animals than he/she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to recognize � or refuse to acknowledge � when the animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect,' the Humane Society of the United States said on its Web site.
Turner said the cats' owner had been working with the shelter over a couple of years to build up trust. Finally, she said, he recognized his financial limitations and 'did absolutely the right thing' by giving the cats to the shelter. "
Yahoo! News - Restaurant Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Lesbians
Yahoo! News - Restaurant Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Lesbians: "STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish lesbian couple who were thrown out of a Stockholm restaurant in 2003 for kissing won an appeal Monday against an earlier court ruling that cleared the restaurant owner of sexual discrimination.
The Court of Appeals in Stockholm ordered restaurant owner Aziz Cakir to pay 50,000 crowns ($7,100) in damages and to cover the legal costs of Sweden's ombudsman against sexual discrimination, HomO, which filed the appeal.
Cakir asked Anna Fernstrom and Susanne Gustafsson to leave his restaurant after they kissed and later told police he did not let anyone engage in such behavior on his premises regardless of their sexual orientation. "
Yahoo! News - Restaurant Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Lesbians
Yahoo! News - Restaurant Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Lesbians: "STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish lesbian couple who were thrown out of a Stockholm restaurant in 2003 for kissing won an appeal Monday against an earlier court ruling that cleared the restaurant owner of sexual discrimination.
The Court of Appeals in Stockholm ordered restaurant owner Aziz Cakir to pay 50,000 crowns ($7,100) in damages and to cover the legal costs of Sweden's ombudsman against sexual discrimination, HomO, which filed the appeal.
Cakir asked Anna Fernstrom and Susanne Gustafsson to leave his restaurant after they kissed and later told police he did not let anyone engage in such behavior on his premises regardless of their sexual orientation. "
Yahoo! News - He Sues Lover After Sex Change Hitch
Yahoo! News - He Sues Lover After Sex Change Hitch: "NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian who became a man to marry a female relative was dumped after the surgery, a newspaper reported Monday.
Twenty-nine-year-old rubber tapper Kuttiyamma, born with both male and female genitals, had been in love with the relative, Laura, 25, for 15 years before having surgery to become a man and change her name to Binu, the Hindustan Times reported. "
Yahoo! News - He Sues Lover After Sex Change Hitch
Yahoo! News - He Sues Lover After Sex Change Hitch: "NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian who became a man to marry a female relative was dumped after the surgery, a newspaper reported Monday.
Twenty-nine-year-old rubber tapper Kuttiyamma, born with both male and female genitals, had been in love with the relative, Laura, 25, for 15 years before having surgery to become a man and change her name to Binu, the Hindustan Times reported. "
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladeshi customs officials found luxury cars, large-screen television sets and refrigerators in a container declared to be carrying metal scrap -- so they made it just that at a public ceremony on Monday.
Hundreds of people watched as officials from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) used bulldozers to crush a Mercedes Benz and a Toyota car and other luxury goods at a railway container terminal in Dhaka.
NBR chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury said a trading firm had sought to evade customs duties by falsely declaring that the container carried iron scrap.
'They wanted to befool us by saying they brought in scrapped metals...so we are giving them the same. They, or anyone like them, will not forget this,' he told reporters at the site."
Yahoo! News - Man Pleads Guilty in French Fries Rage
Yahoo! News - Man Pleads Guilty in French Fries Rage: "DuBOIS, Pa. - A man who angrily berated fast-food employees when a drive-thru clerk told him the restaurant was out of french fries pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.
Gregg Luttman, of DuBois, pleaded guilty to assault, resisting arrest, institutional vandalism and other charges stemming from the confrontation on New Year's Day at a Burger King restaurant. "
Yahoo! News - Judge to Woman: Jail or Packers Tickets
Yahoo! News - Judge to Woman: Jail or Packers Tickets: "OSHKOSH, Wis. - It's a choice that could give pause to some Green Bay Packers fans. A judge ordered a woman convicted of theft to decide whether to spend 90 days in jail or donate her family's Packers tickets next season to charity. "
Monday, April 25, 2005
Linux.com - Create a Root Certification Authority Certificate.
Linux.com - Create a Root Certification Authority Certificate.: "2.2. Create a Root Certification Authority Certificate.
CA.pl -newcert
(openssl req -config /etc/openssl.cnf -new -x509 -keyout newreq.pem -out newreq.pem -days 365)
creates a self signed certificate (for Certificate Authority). The resulting file goes into newreq.pem. For the common Name (CN) use something like �ACME root Certificate�. This file needs to be split into 2 files cacert.pem and private/cakey.pem. The part -RSA PRIVATE KEY- goes into private/cakey.pem while the part -CERTIFICATE- goes into cacert.pem. Delete newreq.pem when finished.
Now ensure that the file index.txt is empty and that the file serial contains 01.
You may want to increase the number of days so that your root certificate and all the certificates signed by this root does not have to be changed when the root certificate expires. I think professional companies work over 5 years to 10 years for their root certificates.
openssl req -config /etc/openssl.cnf -new -x509 -keyout private/cakey.pem -out cacert.pem -days 3650
This last command is better than �CA.pl -newcert� as it will place the files in the required locations and create a root CA valid for 10 years.
Now ensure that this self signed root certificate is used only to sign other certificates. The private key is highly sensible, never compromise it, by removing the passphrase that protects it. Some people will place the private key on a floppy and will load it only when signing other certificates. If you computer gets hacked they can't physically get hold of the private key, if it is on a floppy.
Now you have a root Certification Authority. Other people need to trust your self-signed root CA Certificate, and therefore download it and register it on their browser.
You w"
Nmap Hackers: Microsoft Tightens the Noose on Raw Sockets
Nmap Hackers: Microsoft Tightens the Noose on Raw Sockets: "Many of us were annoyed last year when Microsoft intentionally broke
raw sockets on Windows XP, while leaving the feature enabled in
Windows 2003. MS is well known for maintaining the upgrade treadmill
by dubious means such gratuitous file format incompatibilities, but
this is a new low. People pay $299.99 for WinXP Pro with working raw
sockets, then MS cripples their systems and demands $1019 (WS2003
retail price) to return the functionality. Of course Microsoft claims
this change is necessary for security. That is funny, since all of
the other major platforms Nmap supports (e.g. Mac OS X, Linux, *BSD)
offer raw sockets and yet they haven't become the wasp nest of
spambots, worms, and spyware that infest so many Windows boxes.
This takes us back to 1996, when MS released Windows NT 4.0
Workstation with a limit of 10 incoming connections per 10 minutes[1].
They (falsely) claimed this limit was due to substantial technical
differences between Workstation and Server, and wasn't just a way to
force an $800 upgrade. But at least that was a new product -- MS
didn't proactively break existing, working web servers. Soon hackers
discovered that the 'substantial technical differences' were just a
registry key setting. MS backed down and removed the limitation.
Well, they haven't backed down this time! I know that some of you
have been avoiding SP2 to keep your system fully functional. MS made
a blocking tool available to Enterprises, but they overrode it on
April 12 and forced the upgrade through Automatic Update anyway[2].
And now they have quietly snuck the raw sockets restriction in with
their latest critical security pa"
Yahoo! News - Main Web Site Hackers Are Schoolboys, Watchdog Says
Yahoo! News - Main Web Site Hackers Are Schoolboys, Watchdog Says: "LONDON (Reuters) - Attacks on company and government Internet sites spike during school holidays when the main culprits -- schoolboys -- spend time in front of their computers rather than in the classroom.
There were almost 400,000 attacks on Web sites around the world last year, a surge of 36 percent from 2003, said a report issued by Internet watchdog agency Zone-H to coincide with a London information security exhibition.
'A lot of 15- and 16-year-old guys are smart enough to have strong political opinions,' Roberto Preatoni, Zone-H founder, told Reuters Monday. "
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Yahoo! News - 36 States Face Perchlorate Contamination
Yahoo! News - 36 States Face Perchlorate Contamination: "RIALTO, Calif. - Like dozens of other towns nationwide, this working-class suburb is facing an emerging threat of uncertain dimensions � a chemical used in rocket fuel and defense manufacturing that has befouled nearly half its drinking water supply. Concern spread along with the underground plume of water that carries the chemical from barren land that once housed World War II munitions, Cold War weapons-makers and, now, fireworks warehouses and a dump.
As one city well after another tested positive for perchlorate � six of the city's 13 wells in all � projected cleanup costs ballooned to more than double Rialto's $40 million annual budget. The town sued the Defense Department and dozens of other suspected polluters, pleaded with residents to conserve water and hiked water rates 65 percent.
Officials and townspeople, meanwhile, want to know just how hazardous perchlorate is. High amounts can be dangerous � the chemical can interrupt the production of thyroid hormones, which are needed for pre- and postnatal development. But how much exposure should be permissible sparks debate in governmental and scientific circles.
The conclusion of city leaders: Piping any amount of perchlorate into homes posed an unacceptable gamble. "
Yahoo! News - Nev. Researcher Suing Over Security Probe
Yahoo! News - Nev. Researcher Suing Over Security Probe: "RENO, Nev. - In just months, Hussein S. Hussein went from being an internationally known animal nutrition researcher who brought millions of dollars in grants to the University of Nevada, Reno, to a campus pariah. The reversal is an unfinished story of dead research animals, hidden surveillance cameras and FBI inquiries into allegations of terrorism and toxins.
Hussein, a native of Egypt, alleges that campus police were directed to call in the FBI to intimidate him earlier this year because of trumped up fears that his lab housed biohazards. He has filed two lawsuits in federal court against the university system, UNR President John Lilley and other administrators.
Hussein, an animal nutritionist, accuses them of orchestrating reprisals and trying to fire him since he complained to the U.S. Department of Agriculture last summer about alleged abuse of research animals at the college's labs and farms. "
Yahoo! News - Ocean Off Hawaii Strewn With Wreckage
Yahoo! News - Ocean Off Hawaii Strewn With Wreckage: "HONOLULU - From junked trucks to World War II submarines, vast fields of far-flung wreckage exist beneath the blue-green ocean off Hawaii. "
Yahoo! News - Slaying Highlights DNA Backlog in Mass.
Yahoo! News - Slaying Highlights DNA Backlog in Mass.: "BOSTON - The slow pace of DNA testing in the case of a fashion writer killed more than three years ago on Cape Cod illustrates a frequent complaint by Massachusetts prosecutors: The state crime lab is so understaffed and underfunded it has to ration how many tests local law enforcement agencies may submit.
'It is not a question of the science of the lab,' said Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe. 'The lab is excellent. The people there are dedicated. The issue is one of capacity.'
In March 2004, police investigating the death of fashion writer Christa Worthington took a DNA sample from her trash collector, Christopher McCowen, by swabbing the inside of his cheek. It had been more than two years since her death, and police were taking a second look at about three dozen suspects. "
Yahoo! News - Slaying Highlights DNA Backlog in Mass.
Yahoo! News - Slaying Highlights DNA Backlog in Mass.: "BOSTON - The slow pace of DNA testing in the case of a fashion writer killed more than three years ago on Cape Cod illustrates a frequent complaint by Massachusetts prosecutors: The state crime lab is so understaffed and underfunded it has to ration how many tests local law enforcement agencies may submit.
'It is not a question of the science of the lab,' said Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe. 'The lab is excellent. The people there are dedicated. The issue is one of capacity.'
In March 2004, police investigating the death of fashion writer Christa Worthington took a DNA sample from her trash collector, Christopher McCowen, by swabbing the inside of his cheek. It had been more than two years since her death, and police were taking a second look at about three dozen suspects. "
NASA - Gusev Dust Devil Movie, Sol 456 (Enhanced)
NASA - Gusev Dust Devil Movie, Sol 456 (Enhanced): "This movie clip shows a dust devil scooting across a plain inside Gusev Crater on Mars as seen from the NASA rover Spirit's hillside vantage point during the rover's 456th martian day, or sol (April 15, 2005). The individual images were taken about 20 seconds apart by Spirit's navigation camera, and the contrast has been enhanced for anything in the images that changes from frame to frame, that is, for the dust devil.
The movie results from a new way of watching for dust devils, which are whirlwinds that hoist dust from the surface into the air. Spirit began seeing dust devils in isolated images in March 2005. At first, the rover team relied on luck. It might catch a dust devil in an image or it might miss by a few minutes. Using the new detection strategy, the rover takes a series of 21 images. Spirit sends a few of them to Earth, as well as little thumbnail images of all of them. Team members use the 3 big images and all the small images to decide whether the additional big images have dust devils. For this movie, they specifically told Spirit to send back frames that they knew had dust devils.
The images were processed in three steps. All images were calibrated to remove known camera artifacts. The images were then processed to remove stationary objects. The result is a gray scene showing only features that change with time. The final step combined the original image with the image that shows only moving features, showing the martian scene and the enhanced dust devils.
Scientists expected dust devils since before Spirit landed. The landing area inside Gusev Crater is filled with dark streaks left behind when dust devils pick dust up from an area. It is also filled with bright 'hollows', which are dust-filled miniature craters. Dust covers most of the terrain."
Yahoo! News - Angola at Critical Stage in Marburg Battle -WHO
Yahoo! News - Angola at Critical Stage in Marburg Battle -WHO: "LUANDA, Angola (Reuters) - Angola is at a critical stage in its fight against an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus and must step up its drive to bring the disease under control, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) said Saturday. "
Yahoo! News - N.Y. Looks Into Foster Kids in Drug Trials
Yahoo! News - N.Y. Looks Into Foster Kids in Drug Trials: "NEW YORK - A city agency that put more than 400 HIV-positive foster children into clinical trials for AIDS drugs has asked for an independent review of the program after children's rights advocates said it amounted to exploitation."
Yahoo! News - Gene Variant Yields Clues to Brain Cancer
Yahoo! News - Gene Variant Yields Clues to Brain Cancer: "FRIDAY, April 22 (HealthDay News) -- A specific genetic trait appears to double the survival rate of patients with the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme, researchers report."
Yahoo! News - Gene Variant Yields Clues to Brain Cancer
Yahoo! News - Gene Variant Yields Clues to Brain Cancer: "FRIDAY, April 22 (HealthDay News) -- A specific genetic trait appears to double the survival rate of patients with the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme, researchers report."
Yahoo! News - New Weapon Against Alzheimer's Found
Yahoo! News - New Weapon Against Alzheimer's Found: "FRIDAY, April 22 (HealthDay News) -- Regular infusions of plasma-derived antibodies appear to reduce levels of Alzheimer's disease-causing brain plaques while improving patients' thinking ability, researchers report."
Yahoo! News - Summary Box: Today Sponge Returns
Yahoo! News - Summary Box: Today Sponge Returns: "FOUND WORTHY: The Food and Drug Administration has approved U.S. sales of the Today Sponge, a popular nonprescription birth control product that was yanked from the market in 1995. "
Health News Article | Reuters.co.uk
Health News Article | Reuters.co.uk: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Involving both patients with end-stage cancer and their caregivers in a pain control program has benefits for both, results of a pilot study suggest.
Dr. Francis J. Keefe, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his associates provided instruction in partner-guided pain management that included educational information about cancer pain and training in pain coping skills."
Health News Article | Reuters.co.uk
Health News Article | Reuters.co.uk: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Millions of Americans may be struggling to cope with people who have personality disorders, a form mental illness in which people have trouble functioning with others, according to an expert.
A recent government survey estimated that nearly 15 percent of Americans have a personality disorder.
Consequently, Dr. Stuart C. Yudofsky of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas estimated that another 15 to 30 percent of people have a close relationship with someone -- perhaps a co-worker, partner or family member -- who has antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, or some other personality disorder.
People with the histrionic type of personality disorder, a common condition, are impulsive and quickly form intense but shallow relationships. People with borderline personality disorder are typically unstable, exhibit wild mood swings, and have self-destructive behavior. Other personality disorders include narcissistic, paranoid, schizotypal, and addictive types."
Yahoo! News - Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs
Yahoo! News - Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - College kids looking for free music may have popularized Internet file-trading software, but the technology is now used by everyone from penny-pinching phone callers to polar explorers.
Even the recording industry is changing its tune as labels that for years have waged a legal war against 'peer-to-peer' companies are now allowing authorized uses of the technology.
'I never thought you'd hear this from me, but the record industry has, mostly, been fairly cooperative,' said Wayne Rosso, who is launching an authorized service called Mashboxx (http://www.mashboxx.com) while the U.S. Supreme Court considers the entertainment industry's copyright suit against Grokster, his old peer-to-peer company.
Peer-to-peer, or P2P, software allows users to connect directly to each others' computers, bypassing the powerful servers that underpin much of the Internet. Web pages, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and other material usually stored on servers can thus be made public directly from a user's hard drive. "
Yahoo! News - Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs
Yahoo! News - Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - College kids looking for free music may have popularized Internet file-trading software, but the technology is now used by everyone from penny-pinching phone callers to polar explorers.
Even the recording industry is changing its tune as labels that for years have waged a legal war against 'peer-to-peer' companies are now allowing authorized uses of the technology.
'I never thought you'd hear this from me, but the record industry has, mostly, been fairly cooperative,' said Wayne Rosso, who is launching an authorized service called Mashboxx (http://www.mashboxx.com) while the U.S. Supreme Court considers the entertainment industry's copyright suit against Grokster, his old peer-to-peer company.
Peer-to-peer, or P2P, software allows users to connect directly to each others' computers, bypassing the powerful servers that underpin much of the Internet. Web pages, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and other material usually stored on servers can thus be made public directly from a user's hard drive. "
Yahoo! News - Microsoft Owns Up To Win2000 Bug
Yahoo! News - Microsoft Owns Up To Win2000 Bug: "A Microsoft executive took the unusual step this week of confirming a bug in Windows by posting a message on the official blog site of the Redmond, Wash.-based developer's Security Response Center. "
Yahoo! News - Woman With Hundreds of Wild Birds Arrested
Yahoo! News - Woman With Hundreds of Wild Birds Arrested: "KENNEWICK, Wash. - A woman was jailed after police and wildlife agents found hundreds of wild birds � many of them dead or neglected � littering her home and yard.
Raymona Balko, 70, was booked into the Benton County Jail for investigation of animal cruelty charges Thursday.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife also is expected to seek charges for possessing protected wildlife and live wild birds, Sgt. John McIntosh said. "
Yahoo! News - Woman With Hundreds of Wild Birds Arrested
Yahoo! News - Woman With Hundreds of Wild Birds Arrested: "KENNEWICK, Wash. - A woman was jailed after police and wildlife agents found hundreds of wild birds � many of them dead or neglected � littering her home and yard.
Raymona Balko, 70, was booked into the Benton County Jail for investigation of animal cruelty charges Thursday.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife also is expected to seek charges for possessing protected wildlife and live wild birds, Sgt. John McIntosh said.
About 400 birds � including wild magpies, hawks, owls, pheasants and quail � were found at Balko's home during the raid, Detective Rick Runge said. Some were in cages, others were perched on curtain rods and still others were in trees or bushes outside, he said. "
Yahoo! News - Most Condoms in India Used to Make Saris
Yahoo! News - Most Condoms in India Used to Make Saris: "NEW DELHI - Only a quarter of condoms made in India are used for sex, most of the others are used to make saris, toys and bathroom slippers, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The condoms are valuable to manufacturers because of the lubricant on them. Sari weavers place the condoms on their thread spools and the lubricant on the prophylactics is rubbed off on the thread, making it move faster through their sewing machines, The Economic Times newspaper quoted an Indian industry official as saying.
Sari makers also turn the condom's inside out, place them on their fingers and use the high-quality lubricant to polish gold and silver threads used in the traditional Indian women's outfits.
India manufactures more than 1 billion condoms annually to check population growth and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. "
Yahoo! News - Man Uses Video Camera to Catch Speeders
Yahoo! News - Man Uses Video Camera to Catch Speeders: "VALPARAISO, Ind. - A man tired of drivers speeding through his neighborhood has started videotaping the violators.
Bill Fraze of Valparaiso said police always ask for a license plate number or a vehicle type when he reports motorists violating the 20 mph speed limit near his home on Beech Street.
So he decided to use a video recorder to catch them, the 34-year-old father told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville for a Saturday story. "
Yahoo! News - The Blind Struggle As Gadgets Proliferate
Yahoo! News - The Blind Struggle As Gadgets Proliferate: "As technology has evolved, it's become lighter, smaller and more portable. For most people, that makes it more convenient. For millions of blind and vision-impaired people, it's anything but.
Jay Leventhal, who is blind, still fumbles with the tiny controls on his iPod but has given up on the kiosk in his New York office building that lists all the tenants.
For Leventhal, even laundry has become a task requiring the help of a sighted person. The washers he uses now take smart cards instead of quarters, issuing instructions on a digital screen that he can't read.
'The biggest barrier for blind people is access to information, and more and more information is being made available through different machines that aren't designed for people who can't see,' says Leventhal, editor in chief of AccessWorld: Technology and People with Visual Impairments.
Blind people need a way to communicate with the machines that surround them, he says, from automated tellers to ticketing machines at train stations and airports. "
ABC News: Pleasantly Plump May Be OK
ABC News: Pleasantly Plump May Be OK: "April 20, 2005 � Obesity may not be as deadly as we once thought. A new analysis of weight and mortality finds that the number of excess deaths each year attributed to obesity and being overweight in the United States is around 112,000 � about one-quarter of the previous estimate of more than 400,000 deaths.
Last year, when scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta released the initial estimate of 400,000 obesity deaths, the figure came with a dire warning: Obesity was poised to overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of preventable death in America. "
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Cheapbooks.com - Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents
Cheapbooks.com - Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents: "I have purchased almost every hard drive cooling device on the market, some costing as much as $50 or more. I have systems that place fans in front of the drive that suck air from the outside, and fans that mount underneath. The problem with these setups are that they tend to be expensive, the airflow tends to be quite low, and in general they just don't cool down the drives by more than 1 - 5 degrees. I even own one that claims an 80cfm airflow. But alas I was never satisfied with any of these cooling methods."
GIT - the stupid content tracker
GIT - the stupid content tracker
: "
'git' can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not
actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a
mispronunciation of 'get' may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the
dictionary of slang.
- 'global information tracker': you're in a good mood, and it actually
works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- 'goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t': when it breaks
GIT comes in two layers. The bottom layer is merely an extremely fast and
flexible filesystem-based database designed to store directory trees with
regard to their history. The top layer is a SCM-like tool which enables human
beings to work with the database in a manner to a degree similar to other SCM
tools (like CVS, BitKeeper or Monotone)."
GIT - the stupid content tracker
GIT - the stupid content tracker
'git' can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not
actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a
mispronounciation of 'get' may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the
dictionary of slang.
- 'global information tracker': you're in a good mood, and it actually
works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- 'goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t': when it breaks
This is a stupid (but extremely fast) directory content manager. It
doesn't do a whole lot, but what it _does_ do is track directory
contents efficiently.
There are two object abstractions: the 'object database', and the
'current directory cache'.
InformationWeek > Security > New Antivirus-Firewall Combo Protects XML Traffic > April 22, 2005
InformationWeek > Security > New Antivirus-Firewall Combo Protects XML Traffic > April 22, 2005: "Forum Systems will integrate its XWall Web Services Firewall with Computer Associates' eTrust Antivirus software to fight viruses, worms, and other malware entering networks via XML, Soap, and attachments.
By Martin J. Garvey
InformationWeek
XML is becoming the great enabler for E-commerce. Years of proprietary and expensive connections between companies are being replaced by XML transactions over the Internet. But while companies use XML to exchange goods and currency at unprecedented rates, the information is at risk from virus attacks.
Two vendors on Monday will try to reduce such threats by combining antivirus software for XML with firewall protection at the edge of the network. Forum Systems Inc. will integrate Computer Associates' eTrust Antivirus software with its Forum XWall Web Services Firewall to fight viruses, worms, and other malware entering networks via XML, Simple Object Access Protocol, and attachments. The vendors hope to cut down on the threats that can damage IT infrastructure, degrade network performance, and hurt business apps that use XML as a standard data format. "
Torvalds Gives Inside Skinny on Git
Torvalds Gives Inside Skinny on Git: "Linus Torvalds didn't want to change software configuration management tools; however, business and open-source philosophy problems left the Linux founder with no choice but to abandon BitKeeper and create his own system: Git.
SCM programs are used to control the flow of updates and track program changes. In a project as large as Linux�more than 17,000 files�this can be very difficult and very slow. "
Linux-Kernel Archive: Kernel SCM saga..
Linux-Kernel Archive: Kernel SCM saga..: "[ And apparently this just hit slashdot too, so by now _everybody_ knows ]"
Torvalds Gives Inside Skinny on Git
Torvalds Gives Inside Skinny on Git: "Linus Torvalds didn't want to change software configuration management tools; however, business and open-source philosophy problems left the Linux founder with no choice but to abandon BitKeeper and create his own system: Git.
SCM programs are used to control the flow of updates and track program changes. In a project as large as Linux�more than 17,000 files�this can be very difficult and very slow. ADVERTISEMENT "
The Bosh
The Bosh: "Analysis of more than 2,000 aerial photographs dating from 1940 and more than 100 satellite images from the 1960s by Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and the US Geological Survey show glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula retreating at an increasingly rapid pace and almost 90 per cent have melted significantly in the past 50 years.
It is unclear, however, whether the increased temperature causing the shrinkage is a natural regional effect or a result of global warming, said the scientists who conducted the study, published this week in the journal Science reports ABCnews."
New York Post Online Edition:
New York Post Online Edition:: "April 21, 2005 -- Two NYPD veterans are being investigated by Internal Affairs for allegedly accepting payoffs from the motion-picture industry to arrest vendors of pirated DVDs, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
One officer, a sergeant on the force since 1992, has been transferred from the Staten Island Task Force to the 122nd Precinct pending the internal investigation.
The other, a cop for five years, still works on the task force.
As members of the unit, the officers, ages 36 and 32, would arrest the sellers of illegal DVDs and confiscate their stock. "
New York Post Online Edition:
New York Post Online Edition:: "April 21, 2005 -- Two NYPD veterans are being investigated by Internal Affairs for allegedly accepting payoffs from the motion-picture industry to arrest vendors of pirated DVDs, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
One officer, a sergeant on the force since 1992, has been transferred from the Staten Island Task Force to the 122nd Precinct pending the internal investigation.
The other, a cop for five years, still works on the task force.
As members of the unit, the officers, ages 36 and 32, would arrest the sellers of illegal DVDs and confiscate their stock. "
Airbag - A Better Tighty Whitey.
Airbag - A Better Tighty Whitey.: "There's a lot of talk about the recently declassified White House brief that mentions a possible attack by Al Queda forces within the United States but nothing about the state of intelligence reports given to the President of the United States.
I speak specifically to the design of the document. It's clearly inefficient in its purpose to communicate the assessment of threats against the United States. While a better designed document might not save the world, I believe it would help the President (Bush or otherwise) to quickly and more effectively assess the information given to him.
In a world with Jakob Neilson, how is it possible that nobody in the West Wing has learned the word usability?"
SSRN-Wi-Fi Liability: Potential Legal Risks in Accessing and Operating Wireless Internet by Robert Hale
SSRN-Wi-Fi Liability: Potential Legal Risks in Accessing and Operating Wireless Internet by Robert Hale: "Suppose you turn on your laptop while sitting at the kitchen table at home and respond OK to a prompt about accessing a nearby wireless Internet access point owned and operated by a neighbor. What potential liability may ensue from accessing someone else's wireless access point? How about intercepting wireless connection signals? What about setting up an open or unsecured wireless access point in your house or business? Attorneys can expect to grapple with these issues and other related questions as the popularity of wireless technology continues to increase.
This paper explores several theories of liability involving both the accessing and operating of wireless Internet, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, wiretap laws, as well as trespass to chattels and other areas of common law. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of key policy considerations. "
(PDF)
SSRN-Wi-Fi Liability: Potential Legal Risks in Accessing and Operating Wireless Internet by Robert Hale
SSRN-Wi-Fi Liability: Potential Legal Risks in Accessing and Operating Wireless Internet by Robert Hale: "Suppose you turn on your laptop while sitting at the kitchen table at home and respond OK to a prompt about accessing a nearby wireless Internet access point owned and operated by a neighbor. What potential liability may ensue from accessing someone else's wireless access point? How about intercepting wireless connection signals? What about setting up an open or unsecured wireless access point in your house or business? Attorneys can expect to grapple with these issues and other related questions as the popularity of wireless technology continues to increase.
This paper explores several theories of liability involving both the accessing and operating of wireless Internet, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, wiretap laws, as well as trespass to chattels and other areas of common law. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of key policy considerations."
Maxium concurrent connections with IPTables
Maxium concurrent connections with IPTables: "In January-February we tested conntrack where the setup was the
following:
- firewall: dual Xeon CPU, Serverworks chipset, 2GB RAM, Intel copper GE
cards with the e1000 driver
- two 3Com switches with GB uplink
- 20 'client' and 10 'server' machines. There was a minimal boa httpd
on the server and two httperf instances started on each client machines
One test series consisted of trying to issue 5000, 10000, 15000, ... 40000
parallel new http sessions trough the firewall per second. The tested
kernels were 2.4.25, 2.4.25+SMP, 2.4.25+SMP+NAPI, 2.6.3(+SMP+NAPI),
2.6.3 conntrack locking patch, 2.6.3 + conntrack locking + nonat patch,
2.6.3 + conntrack locking + nonat patch + TCP window tracking patch.
Overall, 2.6 was better than 2.4, SMP+NAPI and conntrack patches
helped to improve performance. The TCP window tracking patch resulted
practically no loss in performance.
Maximally we could reach ~200,000pps troughput (indifferent from packet
size), ~20,000 new connection/s and ~2,000,000 parallel connection with
this test firewall, in this environment. Delay, jitter, etc was not
measured. There was no iptables rule at all, we loaded in just the
ip_conntrack module."
: "Now suppose you put 512MB of RAM (a decent amount of memory considering today's
memory prices) into the firewalling-only box, and use all but 128MB for
conntrack, which should really be big enough for a firewall in console mode,
for example.
Then you could set both CONNTRACK_MAX and HASHSIZE approximately to:
(512 - 128) * 1024^2 / 308 =~ 1307315 (instead of 32768 for CONNTRACK_MAX,
and 4096 for HASHSIZE by default).
As of Linux 2.4.21 (and Linux 2.6), hash algorithm is happy with
'power of 2' sizes (it used to be a prime number before)."
: "
Setting HASHSIZE
----------------
For mathematical reasons, hash tables have static sizes. So HASHSIZE must be
determined before the hash table is created and begins to be filled.
Before Linux kernel version 2.4.21, a prime number should be choosed for hash
size, ensuring that the hash table will be efficiently populated. Odd
non-prime numbers or even numbers are strongly discouraged, as the hash
distribution will be sub-optimal.
Since Linux kernel version 2.4.21 (and for 2.6 kernel as well), conntrack
uses jenkins2b hash algorithm which is happy with all sizes, but power
of 2 works best."
Internet News Article | Reuters.co.uk
Internet News Article | Reuters.co.uk: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California state senators approved a bill on Thursday that would ban hunters from killing animals over the Internet.
Hunters may now stalk prey online at www.live-shot.com, a Web site linking firearms and cameras so customers can point, click and shoot antelope, sheep and wild hogs on a Texas ranch from thousands of miles away.
Live-shot.com is the only Web site of its kind and California lawmakers voted 25 to 6 to deter imitators.
'It's an over the top, pay-per-view video game using live animals for target practice that ought to be banned from coast-to-coast,' said Sen. Debra Bowen, the bill's author."
The Elder Geek on Windows XP
The Elder Geek on Windows XP
Random windows info. Usefull (or so i'm told)
bit-tech.net :: Computers in Space
bit-tech.net :: Computers in Space: "Spaceships portrayed in the movies have vastly complicated computers running them. Databanks brimming over with the sum knowledge of human (or alien) kind within them. But as we know, life rarely imitates art, and none so more the case as real-life space computing.
Why is it, that at a time where you can go and buy a machine that is several thousands of times more powerful than the sum computing capability of NASA at the time of the Apollo moon shots, does the space industry lob hardware up there that�s only marginally faster than an old 386? Let�s find out. And no, before you ask, it�s not to stop infiltration by attractive looking clones and walking toasters.
The first thing to realise is that spacecraft don�t really need to be very clever at all. A rocket on the pad has one goal � up. And to keep a rocket going up doesn�t require billions of calculations per second. It does require a colossal amount of grunt from the engines, but the guidance system just needs to be able to keep your giant firework on a relatively accurate course � once in orbit, your course can be corrected and finessed with ease. And all of this can be done with a tiny amount of computational power.
Or no power at all, in the case of the early days of rocketry � the V2 just relied on accelerometers to gauge if it had hit the correct speed for it�s sub � orbital lob toward London. Besides, it�s much more important to be hyper-reliable in the calculations, not hyper-quick. Computers need to be able to withstand the enormous G and acceleration of takeoff, and function flawlessly during ascent. And the easiest way to do that is to keep it simple, and relatively dumb � so much so that the latest Ariane or Titan probably has less power than your Nintendo DS. A lot less.
Once you�re up there, the tasks that need to be accomplished may ch"
Friday, April 22, 2005
An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks -- Dodds et al. 301 (5634): 827 -- Science
An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks -- Dodds et al. 301 (5634): 827 -- Science: "An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks
Peter Sheridan Dodds,1 Roby Muhamad,2 Duncan J. Watts1,2*
We report on a global social-search experiment in which more than 60,000 e-mail users attempted to reach one of 18 target persons in 13 countries by forwarding messages to acquaintances. We find that successful social search is conducted primarily through intermediate to weak strength ties, does not require highly connected 'hubs' to succeed, and, in contrast to unsuccessful social search, disproportionately relies on professional relationships. By accounting for the attrition of message chains, we estimate that social searches can reach their targets in a median of five to seven steps, depending on the separation of source and target, although small variations in chain lengths and participation rates generate large differences in target reachability. We conclude that although global social networks are, in principle, searchable, actual success depends sensitively on individual incentives. "
(PDF) - Local
Bug Me Not Login
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "MOSCOW (Reuters) - Red rain fell in the Voronezh region of southern Russia, coloured by pollutants from a local paint factory, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Wednesday.
It quoted local Emergencies Ministry officials as saying the rusty-red rain, which fell on agricultural land, was coloured by ochre, a natural pigment containing clay and iron oxide.
The pollutant came from a paint factory in the nearby town of Zhuravka, an investigation found, but it presented no danger to people or animals, Tass said."