Slashdot Mirror

Adam Attarian writes "CNN's Miles O'Brien (no relation to the dude on Star Trek) has an excellent column on NASA's reflection of the Challenger explosion 15 years ago, and how they are guarding against "go-fever" as much as possible. The article also talks about how detailed and precise NASA engineers are now, and how mathmatical statistics mean hardly anything anymore. This is an excellent read. Hopefully Dubya won't cut NASA's budget more than it all ready has. Those guys are all ready pretty much running on fumes."

Hero_or_what writes: "CNN has a story about Stephen Hawking.In a recent talk in Bombay, Stephen Hawking has predicted that humans would colonize other planets within 100 years. He also predicts sucessful improvement in the human design in the next millennium." Pretty safe predictions, IMHO.

Hero_or_what writes: "CNN has a story about Stephen Hawking.In a recent talk in Bombay, Stephen Hawking has predicted that humans would colonize other planets within 100 years. He also predicts sucessful improvement in the human design in the next millennium." Pretty safe predictions, IMHO.

the_rev_matt sent in linkage to CNN talking about how the DOJ has said that Jackson was not biased in his Microsoft Ruling. Now mind you since nothing will ever happen as a result of his ruling, I guess it doesn't really matter either way.. I mean, many people think Microsoft is a monopoly. But doesn't appear that anything will change.

omnirealm writes ""Engineers are making plans to change the gentle giant (Boeing 747) into a hot-blooded killer with a swiveling nose-cone laser beam theoretically capable of destroying enemy missiles hundreds of miles away." Of particular interest is the fact that "No human finger will actually pull a trigger. Onboard computers will decide when to fire the beam." I find this to be a bit disconcerting. " Somehow I feel as if we had posted this a while ago - no search found it. i do remember that this has been talked about for quite some time, tho'.

Lots of people submitted this - we held off until we could find the FCC's information page. CNN and nearly every other news outlet on the planet have stories, but for the real info, you'll need to go straight to the FCC and read their documents. While you're pondering the meaning of this, consider: it used to be the policy of the U.S. government to keep content producers and carriers separate.

deebaine writes: "CNN has this article describing the settlement of the case of Toysmart.com's customer database, which Toysmart proposed to sell to the highest bidder in order to pay off their creditors. Apparently, the settlement stipulates that a Disney subsidiary will pay Toysmart $50,000, and they will destroy their own records. The FTC is hailing it as a victory."

deebaine writes: "CNN has this article describing the settlement of the case of Toysmart.com's customer database, which Toysmart proposed to sell to the highest bidder in order to pay off their creditors. Apparently, the settlement stipulates that a Disney subsidiary will pay Toysmart $50,000, and they will destroy their own records. The FTC is hailing it as a victory."

Kierthos writes: "In a true sign of survival of the biggest, astronomers and scientists now believe that the Milky Way 'ate' a smaller galaxy billions of years ago. They believe that this could shed some light on the origin of the universe, although their search only included 1500 "sun-like" stars (far short of the 10,000 stars they want to search). Check out the article here."

Kierthos writes "Another great picture from the Chandra X-ray observatory shows us this Cat's Eye Nebula, which scientists believe may be what our Sun will look like in billions of years. While you don't have to pack any time soon, the nebula (images created from the Chandra observatory and the Hubble telescope) offers some insights into what happens to stars as they age into planetary nebula and white dwarfs. And much like articles on /. there are a few typos. Check out the article here. (And if anyone can find a better picture, post the link.)"

streampipe writes "NASA's asteroid-orbiting NEAR-Shoemaker satellite has essentially completed it's mission, and scientists will attempt to land the craft onto Eros on February 12th in an attempt to squeeze some 'bonus science' out of the orbiter...story at CNN." NASA's pretty good at smacking probes into other objects - this target is a little smaller than, say, Mars, but I predict a solid hit. :)

Popocatepetl writes "Apparently, you can get a job if you tell Indian government officials you can "hack" a government web site. This story is short on details, but may be interesting nonetheless, especially since the FBI is mentioned."

ewhac was one of several to inform us that Yahoo has knuckled under. Their auction site will now start using "computer software," which as we all know is infallible, to roboban auctions of Nazi and Klan items (see SFGate's story or CNN's story). France wanted its countrymen kept away from these items, and since Yahoo couldn't block the French, they blocked the stuff. Cigarettes, switchblades and used underwear are also forbidden, but it seems only the hateful stuff gets autoblocked. "Photons have neither morality nor visas" my ass. Just wait until every one of the planet's sovereignties gets a proscripted category of its own -- will I be able to sell paintings by John Wayne Gacy? Wounded Knee medals? Confederate flags? The world's full of offensive knickknacks, Yahoo, have fun banning it all.

The actual terms of service forbid: "any item which, in Yahoo!'s sole discretion, is inflammatory, offensive, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, racially or ethnically objectionable, or otherwise inconsistent with the spirit of Yahoo! Auctions." It's the robo-enforcement that's new.

ewhac was one of several to inform us that Yahoo has knuckled under. Their auction site will now start using "computer software," which as we all know is infallible, to roboban auctions of Nazi and Klan items (see SFGate's story or CNN's story). France wanted its countrymen kept away from these items, and since Yahoo couldn't block the French, they blocked the stuff. Cigarettes, switchblades and used underwear are also forbidden, but it seems only the hateful stuff gets autoblocked. "Photons have neither morality nor visas" my ass. Just wait until every one of the planet's sovereignties gets a proscripted category of its own -- will I be able to sell paintings by John Wayne Gacy? Wounded Knee medals? Confederate flags? The world's full of offensive knickknacks, Yahoo, have fun banning it all.

The actual terms of service forbid: "any item which, in Yahoo!'s sole discretion, is inflammatory, offensive, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, racially or ethnically objectionable, or otherwise inconsistent with the spirit of Yahoo! Auctions." It's the robo-enforcement that's new.

A number of people have been wondering what's going to happen to TPJ ^[?] in light of Earthweb's (the owner of TPJ) sale of most of its properties to Internet.com. Many rumours have been flying around and Jon Orwant has decided to clear things. I've put his status update below.

From Jon Orwant:

"January 2, 2001

Some folks have been asking me about the status of The Perl Journal #20, and prospective authors have been asking me about deadlines for future issues. The answers: TPJ #20 is in press and ready to print, but EarthWeb (the owner of TPJ) has told the printer to stop the presses until further notice. I am currently responding to proposals sent to me with approximately "I don't know if there's going to be another issue, but when I do I'll respond to your proposal."

Since the future of the magazine is in doubt, I can't in good conscience greenlight proposals; I will not encourage an author to spend weeks writing an article when I know that it might never be printed. So I've told people who've asked what I know about the current situation: while EarthWeb has sold many of its properties to internet.com so that it can focus on "career services", it has not sold TPJ. However, EarthWeb has also made it clear that they don't want to publish TPJ any more.

This story has started to leak out to the Perl community and has already mutated a bit in not-quite-correct directions, so I wanted to write this note to set the record straight. Or as straight as I can, given what little I know about EarthWeb's decisions.

While TPJ's future is very much up in the air, people shouldn't take this as any indicator about Perl itself. TPJ was doing just fine back when I ran it, there's no shortage of content out there, and the magazine could easily go bimonthly and then monthly -- indeed, when EarthWeb acquired TPJ I had thought that was the plan. I still enjoy the editing, the authors enjoy the writing, and the designers enjoy the designing. What happens now is up to EarthWeb. And no, I'm not suggesting that people bombard them with e-mail. Heck, they just laid off 100 people, so I'm not even sure who to bombard. Eventually there will be some resolution, and when there is I'll write again to let everyone know.

As of December 27th, this matter is now in the courts, and so I have to adopt the "just the facts" tone of this letter without portraying my opinions. Someday I'll be able to talk more about what is happening in these strange days; until then, you'll have to conjure up your own adjectives on my behalf.

Cheers,

Jon Orwant "

Captain Foobar writes: "The little-known but very active Quadrantid meteor shower will be visible over most of the U.S. (clear skies permitting) in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, January 3, 2001. The peak is supposed to occur in a two-hour block around 7:00am Eastern time (viewing will be limited due to sunrise), 4:00am Pacific time (viewing should be quite good). Details are here." Note that CNN says the best viewing isn't early Wednesday morning, but late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning.

Scott Treadwell writes "The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) stated in a 73 page report, that the government and the private sector should be concerned about the " trustworthiness" of future Microsoft products. This, in the aftermath of the October hack into the Microsoft's network in which an attacker allegedly gained access to Windows source code. "With most military and government systems powered by Microsoft software and more generally reliant on [commercial, off-the-shelf systems], this recent development can pose grave national-security-related concerns""

sConner writes: "I know the CNN 2001 articles were mentioned, but I believe this one deserves special mention. It's a little piece about the role of AI on one of NASA's unmanned spacecraft currently in operation. Not much detail, but Deep Space 1 seems like a nifty fellow!" I'm not sure this merits the title "artificial intelligence", but it is impressive nonetheless.

mwillems writes "CNN reports that six Russian satellites were just lost after a third-stage booster rocket failed to ignite. More Russian embarassment, and bad for space travel."

calags noted that CNN is reporting that the very cool "Cosmos" is finally going to be available on DVD. I'm curious to see how well the 20-year-old mini- series has aged. I loved it when I was little tho. They're also going to air an hour "Highlights" show on PBS.

jeffsenter writes "According to this NYTimes article (free reg. req.) Nintendo is actually in talks to buy Sega for about $2B. As you know Sega has been losing money for years and is beaten by the competition from Sony. Rumors of the end of Sega are nothing new. Sega is making money from its arcade business so maybe they will sell to Nintendo and focus on software." But according to a CNNfn story, it isn't happening

jerkychew writes "CNN is airing a five-part special about Kubrick's now-legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here is a clip from their webpage: Starting December 26, Headline News Space Science and Technology Correspondent Allard Beutel looks at the technological vision put forth by Kubrick and co-screenwriter Sir Arthur Clarke. In a five-part series called, "2001: A Space Prophecy," Beutel compares science in the year 2001 to science in the movie "2001." Click to CNN for more information, and the series schedule."

jerkychew writes "CNN is airing a five-part special about Kubrick's now-legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here is a clip from their webpage: Starting December 26, Headline News Space Science and Technology Correspondent Allard Beutel looks at the technological vision put forth by Kubrick and co-screenwriter Sir Arthur Clarke. In a five-part series called, "2001: A Space Prophecy," Beutel compares science in the year 2001 to science in the movie "2001." Click to CNN for more information, and the series schedule."

Ben De Luca pointed out that CNN has a headline story about losing contact with the unmanned Mir space station. Hmmmm. So much for a "controlled descent." Update: 12/26 06:37 PM by T : Contact has been regained (thanks, Nennon) -- so, no Skylabs worries, yet.

Ben De Luca pointed out that CNN has a headline story about losing contact with the unmanned Mir space station. Hmmmm. So much for a "controlled descent." Update: 12/26 06:37 PM by T : Contact has been regained (thanks, Nennon) -- so, no Skylabs worries, yet.

gunner800 writes: "CNN.com has a decently-researched story about SnapNames, which offers a service to monitor domain expiration. Working with several registrars, they can purchase a domain name on your behalf as soon as it becomes available. Future plans include watching for registration of typos and 'malicious derivatives' (yournamesucks.com). My first thought was 'What if someone competes with SnapNames and offers the same 'back-order' service?'"

gunner800 writes: "CNN.com has a decently-researched story about SnapNames, which offers a service to monitor domain expiration. Working with several registrars, they can purchase a domain name on your behalf as soon as it becomes available. Future plans include watching for registration of typos and 'malicious derivatives' (yournamesucks.com). My first thought was 'What if someone competes with SnapNames and offers the same 'back-order' service?'"

Terov writes "This story at CNN.com says President Clinton has announced that the time has come to increase NASA's budget. All I can say is, "It's about time!""

Terov writes "This story at CNN.com says President Clinton has announced that the time has come to increase NASA's budget. All I can say is, "It's about time!""

ggrappone writes: "If you call North America your home you'll be treated to a Christmas day eclipse. This article on CNN describes the rare event in more detail."

buss_error wrote to us with a breaking news story from ZDNN. 26 states, with three not attending/voting have decided to move towards simpliying their tax codes. Why? So that they can begin to try and tax catalog and Internet sales with their applicable state sales tax. I think it was back in 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that you had to have a "nexus" within the state for the state to charge sales tax because of the patchwork of different sales tax laws. Catalog sales are much higher than Internet sales currently, but the states can see the phenomenal growth of Internet sales and want to reclaim some of the sales tax they are losing. The vote here doesn't mean as much as the actual decision they will make - lots of negotiation still to come, I'm willing to bet. CNNfn has a more detailed report.

matth writes: "CNN has got an article which speaks of NASA thinking about sending a space craft out to Pluto, which happens to be the only planet we have not yet been visited by an Earth-sent space craft. Is it worth it? Should we?"

matth writes: "CNN has got an article which speaks of NASA thinking about sending a space craft out to Pluto, which happens to be the only planet we have not yet been visited by an Earth-sent space craft. Is it worth it? Should we?"

An AC writes: "Zdnet and CNN report that Napster's new business partner BMG has been requested to stop all trading of music with lyrics that some find offensive. The lyrics in question are those of 'Nazi' bands. Now that Napster is a true business entity, do they have responsibilities to regulate the music that is shared? Is the technology to stop this even available? If so, where do they draw the line?" Answers: "not really," "not really" and "wherever they want." If Nazi violence is prohibited by the terms of service, presumably gangsta rap is next; selections from Pink Floyd The Wall to follow; Nine Inch Nails and other degenerate art to be purged soon after. Here's my opinion (written 1998).

Germany bans much material of this type. Even old Nazi propaganda films cannot be shown except in strictly regulated educational contexts. For a scholarly, in-depth examination of how real propaganda can be effectively used to educate -- and a call for its deregulation -- I recommend my late friend Stig Hornshøj-Møller, writing about Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew," a 1941 propaganda film created by Hitler and Goebbels).

Censorship of Nazi expression ultimately comes from a fear that it is seductive and may influence its audience. I've listened to a sampling of racist, Nazi music and it's not likely to reach a huge audience just because it's on Napster. It's the worst music I've ever heard. Even if I could ignore the lyrics, I think I'd prefer "Achy Breaky Heart" on infinite replay. For some reason, racist imbeciles don't make good musicians, go figure. A ban is entirely unnecessary: it really just draws attention to what would otherwise be overwhelmingly ignored.

And just for completeness, here's a link to the Yahoo French auction ruckus. France demanded that Yahoo make it impossible for anyone within its (France's) borders to access an auction of Nazi-themed items. (Their own report found that this would work pretty well, excepting the minor fact that anyone who wanted to could circumvent it.)

alumshubby writes "The Washington Post, undoubtedly among others, reports that the AOL & Time-Warner merger has gone through. Note that it was unianimous, and the FTC extracted a promise that the new behemoth would 'protect consumer choice.'" And, on the more amusing side check out this alternative coverage. On a more serious note, we've also got information from the FTC, and coverage from CNNfn, and ABCNews.

Rick Zeman writes: "A spammer faces up to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to "computer hijacking." " He apparently hijacked a mail server, and used it to send millions of forged email to make it come from IBM domains. He's pleaded guilty to forgery and I hope he gets all 7 years. But then again, I also wish someone would get 7 years every time they mail me a credit card offer, or call me and ask me to change my long distance service.

aldheorte writes: "The extolled virtues of polite multinational cooperation and goodwill allegedly exemplifed by Space Station Alpha are giving way to practical difficulties. CNN is carrying a story entitled "Life aboard the space station: long days, sarcasm and swearing" highlighted by ground controllers pleading with belligerent, swearing astronauts; certainly not the 'Gee shucks, darnit' family-values-and-apple-pie team image NASA likes to create." Well, at least they got the solar panels fixed.

aldheorte writes: "The extolled virtues of polite multinational cooperation and goodwill allegedly exemplifed by Space Station Alpha are giving way to practical difficulties. CNN is carrying a story entitled "Life aboard the space station: long days, sarcasm and swearing" highlighted by ground controllers pleading with belligerent, swearing astronauts; certainly not the 'Gee shucks, darnit' family-values-and-apple-pie team image NASA likes to create." Well, at least they got the solar panels fixed.

Greetings from the Wings Academy of the Bronx, from which this trio of Slashback entries springs. (I'm sitting with Miguel Muirhead, Jay Sulzberger and Ariel Rosa as we semi-surreptitiously install Red Hat and Debian distributions on two of this school's computer-lab desktops.) I hope you enjoy these updates.

I went down to the sacred store ... While the music industry (odd phrase, no?) certainly has more things to worry about, like not selling shiny disks full of overproduced pap, but dcigary writes to remind us: "The music industry was trying to control prices via their 'MAP' pricing scheme, but the FTC has started to put a stop to that. Discount retailers are responding by lowering prices dramatically -- sometimes cheaper-than-wholesale."

This doesn't find my lovely friend Uyen, though. Admin writes: "Howdy. Nearly 2 years ago, after a year of building the thing, I announced www.theindex.com search engine on Slashdot, which promptly gave it the drubbing it deserved. The reponse crashed TheIndex into the dirt. 2 years and lots of money and hard work later, TheIndex is now finished, and kicks butt. This started when I was whining to my software-engineer son about either having to wade thru "237,542 search results found", 10 at a time, or thru sub, sub sub, ad nauseum, categories. TheIndex has NO categories, (it uses a synonym-search process instead) and gives results 100 links at a time. It has nearly all of the best of the Internet (no one has it all) and the rest will come. There are NO porn or personal websites. Nearly all of the crap has been weeded out. This is a search engine built by only two people that is just as good, or better, than most of the top engines. We would really appreciate another chance on Slashdot, to show what TheIndex can do."

It sure looks promising, but failed to find a few friends whose names I tapped in, and surely that's a frequent search engine task. Anyhow, time to give these guys some constructive criticism again, eh? The more search engines the better as far as I'm concerned!

Cultural differences aren't just for yogurt Reader Leong Chii Kee objected to many of the comments in the story about bringing Internet-linked computers by boat to remote parts of Malaysia, and wrote with some clarifications:

After checking out your post Bringing The Internet To Borneo -- By Sea, which started an entire line of misinformation about my country, I figured I'd write to the source and hope that you would put up a additional description of the situation.

Firstly, There is essentially two parts of Malaysia, West Malaysia, which most of you would know is where our capital is, Kuala Lumpur (don't ask me why it translates to "mud cove" - I didn't name it) and there is East Malaysia. West Malaysia is fairly developed, we have our own silicon valley equivalent, and last I checked even those "kampung" (as our tourism board happily promotes it!) houses in the middle of the jungle had a phone line and electricity (and with a cheap copy of linux who said the poor can't afford internet access). But the situation is vastly different in East malaysia, which remains rather under-developed (you know jungles, rain forests, orang utans and stuff).

Secondly, the article deals with how the central government (located in west malaysia - lucky fellas) is trying to introduce the internet to eastern malaysians and NOT the attempts to bring Maylasian citizens into the Internet Age.. So it's nothing more than bringing internet to part of a country that doesn't have it (because it ain't that easy laying fiber optic cables in the rain forest when you have some eco-protection agency breathing down your neck about protecting the forest)... Imagine if you're sitting comfortably in front of your all powerful Athlon server with broadband access and halfway across globe someone calls you a spear wielding, hide wearing native. You'll be pissed too.

Thanks in advance,

CK

BenGarvey writes "CNN.com cites a new study claiming huge meteors hit the Earth and Moon around the time that life formed, leaving two possible conclusions. That any existing life died out and had to start again, or the "panspermia" theory of life arriving on the meteors themselves."

BenGarvey writes "CNN.com cites a new study claiming huge meteors hit the Earth and Moon around the time that life formed, leaving two possible conclusions. That any existing life died out and had to start again, or the "panspermia" theory of life arriving on the meteors themselves."

mccready was one of quite a bunch of people to send us the news trinket from CNNfn . It seems that the on-again, off-again Iridium system has at least another two years. The US Department of Defense has stepped in with $72 million, while another buyer is found. The reason? To avoid 'triggering possible "widespread anxiety" on re-entry.'

dcigary writes: "CNN has an interesting story about the attempts to bring Maylasian citizens into the Internet Age. Now, they just have to wait until the infrastructure in the country catches up." Actually, this wouldn't be a bad idea of parts of the U.S. (and elsewhere), either.

aldheorte writes "CNN is reporting "out-of-this-world" ratings for the now-complete Dune mini-series. Apparently, 3.06 million homes tuned in, making for the biggest orginal series in Sci-Fi Channel's history. I think it is a fair to good adaptation of a very difficult work, though I would appreciate a doubling of the episodes including more scenes from the book as well as more background on all, especially supporting, characters." I've also decided that the ultimate goal for any living human being is to get to be in one of those "I am Sci-Fi" commercials. I immensely enjoyed the series, and look forward to them continuing the saga.

aldheorte writes "CNN is reporting "out-of-this-world" ratings for the now-complete Dune mini-series. Apparently, 3.06 million homes tuned in, making for the biggest orginal series in Sci-Fi Channel's history. I think it is a fair to good adaptation of a very difficult work, though I would appreciate a doubling of the episodes including more scenes from the book as well as more background on all, especially supporting, characters." I've also decided that the ultimate goal for any living human being is to get to be in one of those "I am Sci-Fi" commercials. I immensely enjoyed the series, and look forward to them continuing the saga.

AftanGustur writes "Everybody should be familiar with FBI's Carnivore by now and the possibilities of abuses that come with it. An interesting article on Cryptome gives an example of what can happend when you are monitored 24 hours a day and then manipulated into committing a crime.. It also tells about the existance of the Secret FISA Court that FBI has regularly used to get permission for wiretaps and monitoring, and also the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program. Interesting read for everyone." The FISA court is an abomination against the Constitution, and it's good to see news entities taking more of an interest in it.

Richard Finney writes "Reuters reports that French and Kenayn scientists have unearthed fossilized remains of mankinds' earliest know ancestor ahat predate previous discoveries by more than 1.5 million year. The remains belong to at least five individuals, both male and female."

ActMatrix writes: "Scientists at Stanford and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke have demonstrated that stem cells in bone marrow can produce neurons that replace dead brain cells, similar to the way our bodies constantly replenish skin cells. What isn't certain yet is whether these new brain cells make functional neural connections. If they do, it's possible that doctors will some day use marrow transplants to treat brain disorders. What's especially cool is how they discovered this. In one case, mice whose natural bone marrow was killed by radiation were injected in the tail with marrow containing a phosphorescent protein. When the mice were killed later, parts of their brains glowed in the dark. =) Article with some more details from CNN here."

A number of readers wrote in reminding folks that the Science Fiction Channel's Dune miniseries is airing December 3, 4 and 5. CNN also has a write up about the series -- here's to hoping that it won't blaspheme the legacy of Frank.

OS24Ever points to this CNN story, writing: "SDMI is announcing that they are paying two hackers $5000 each for breaking the encryption on their watermarking technology." And as the article points out, conspicuously ignoring the fact that independent researchers have broken four of the watermarking schemes without getting taking part in the official contest.