Slashdot Mirror

SRMoore writes "Some good news from Congress today. Looks like the International Space Station will get its funding this year. (At least from Congress)" Well, there are plenty of bloody battles to be fought before next year's budget is finally passed, but according to the CNN article SRMoore pointed us to, the House vote in favor of funding the space station was 298 to 121, so construction will probably continue for at least another year.

SRMoore writes "Some good news from Congress today. Looks like the International Space Station will get its funding this year. (At least from Congress)" Well, there are plenty of bloody battles to be fought before next year's budget is finally passed, but according to the CNN article SRMoore pointed us to, the House vote in favor of funding the space station was 298 to 121, so construction will probably continue for at least another year.

Dan Schleifer writes "Good to see that main-stream media has picked up on the release of GnuPG 1.0, and run a story on it. This is an especially GoodThing(tm) as, it's not just free software, but free encryption software that says: 'Haha, you silly little export regulations...' " Several nitpicky errors that I'm most of you will notice, but all in all great to seen the mainstream reporting on this, and starting to hit the issue of privacy exportation, if only skimming the surface.

Dan Schleifer writes "Good to see that main-stream media has picked up on the release of GnuPG 1.0, and run a story on it. This is an especially GoodThing(tm) as, it's not just free software, but free encryption software that says: 'Haha, you silly little export regulations...' " Several nitpicky errors that I'm most of you will notice, but all in all great to seen the mainstream reporting on this, and starting to hit the issue of privacy exportation, if only skimming the surface.

lemonBoy writes "It looks like now I'll be able to pay off that speeding ticket in Texas...If you've ever been to Texas then you know about all the little burgs and villas...Paying that ticket in Hondo will be easier now that some municipalities are moving to the web for helping people pay fines." So here's the deal: Just setup cron to check & pay your fines (from a cellphone equipped PC in your trunk). Then you can speed at will (until you get to many points on your license, but we'll have to worry about that later).

James Ensor writes " Cnn.com is running an interesting article comparing MCI Worldlnet's recent frame relay outage to an outage that AT&T had last year, comparing their method's of handling the situation. Good Reading. " It's fun to watch major corporations blunder about. Unless it's your connection that's down.

Ed Powell writes "CNN has a story about how AOL is looking into creating a TV channel. Looks like MSNBC is getting some competition soon. " Can they spam my TV ads?

Scott Hutton writes "CNN is carrying a story that states that AOL is exploiting a buffer overflow in their own client in order to detect and lock out Microsoft AIM clients. That's the first time I've seen someone use a buffer overflow to 'enhance' security."

Scott Hutton writes "CNN is carrying a story that states that AOL is exploiting a buffer overflow in their own client in order to detect and lock out Microsoft AIM clients. That's the first time I've seen someone use a buffer overflow to 'enhance' security."

alphuris writes "CNN.com has a little nugget of info about Carl Sagan being an avid Marijuana user. Apparently Marijuana's effects were a good part of Sagan's motivation to write his books and do his research. Who says Marijuana's a downer?" The article also says, "Ann Druyan, Sagan's former wife, is a director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The nonprofit group promotes legalization of marijuana."

alphuris writes "CNN.com has a little nugget of info about Carl Sagan being an avid Marijuana user. Apparently Marijuana's effects were a good part of Sagan's motivation to write his books and do his research. Who says Marijuana's a downer?" The article also says, "Ann Druyan, Sagan's former wife, is a director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The nonprofit group promotes legalization of marijuana."

akey writes "According to this CNN article, NASA engineers test fired a new hybrid rocket motor. It's not as combustible on its own as conventional solid-fuel motors, and much less expensive than liquid engines, and allegedly produces fewer noxious emissions than solid-fuel motors. An added bonus is that for the motor to burn, an oxidizing agent must be continuously injected -- unlike other solid-fuel motors, it can be turned off after ignition if necessary. It won't be ready for use on a scale for the Space Shuttle for a few years yet, but it's showing promise. "

PDA Buzz wrote to us with the latest privacy-invasion scheme. The Clinton Administration plans to ask Congress to give police authority to go secretely into people's computers, search for passwords and override encryption programs, "using devices, if needed".Investigators would need to have a sealed warrant to carry this out, but privacy groups are casting this as an invasion of the home. Shades of the Clipper Chip, anyone? Check this out for another report as well.

berniecase wrote to us with coverage of the creation of digital life, in a computer-petri dish. The bugs succed by getting more processing time and thus living more, and reproducing more. This type of experiment has been going on for while, which sparks the debate of digital life? Is it coming? Is it already here? Will it never arrive?

Cebert writes "CNN.com posted an article about using relativity to create a new form of encryption. The new encryption allows an individual to make a prediction with a guaranteed date stamp that only they can reveal. " Hmmm...quantum predictions. Yeah, I guess that's hard to crack.

funkman writes "Here is an article on CNN about the new Electrofuel PowerPad battery from IBM. It can runs an IBM ThinkPad 560 Pentium MMX-233 notebook for 15 hours. But the battery is not for sale yet. Finally, no more carrying multiple batteries. "

funkman writes "Here is an article on CNN about the new Electrofuel PowerPad battery from IBM. It can runs an IBM ThinkPad 560 Pentium MMX-233 notebook for 15 hours. But the battery is not for sale yet. Finally, no more carrying multiple batteries. "

CamelMan wrote to us with an interesting story over at CNN. The Internet Engineering Task Force is apparently on a fast track to get the Common Name Resolution Protocol into place as early as next year. It will be, however, mostly aimed at intranets, and not at the Internet writ large.

It seems the US Government is at it again. The first story discusses a bill passed by the US Senate (but not yet the House) to prevent cybersquatting. Apparently, anyone who registers a domain in bad faith can be hit with a hefty fine. The second is an article at Wired about a new law being pushed that would make it a felony to link to websites which contain information about drugs and "where to buy related paraphernalia".

XDG writes "The guy who sued Pepsi for failing to deliver a Harrier jump jet after he raised money the buy the requisite amount of Pepsi points has just lost the first round of his court case. According to the judge, "no objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier jet." More details are at CNN. " The worse part is that Rob and I had already booked it for the flight out to LWCE.

Rob (not Malda) sent us this story about how UC Berkeley astronomer Derek Buzasi found that a satellite with a malfunctioning main telescope had a perfectly functional "spotting" scope that could still be used to gather valuable data. Now, because of Buzasi's inspiration, the Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) satellite NASA had written off as a $73 million piece of space trash is a useful astronomical tool that makes approximately 750,000 observations per day.

At a conference today, scientists from the University of Wisconsin revealed that they have managed to create influenza A virii entirely through the manipulation. Doesn't sound cool enough? If you can create a virus entirely from genes, we're a short step away from being able to insert mutagens into viruses and using them to fight cancer and such-something that people have been working on for quite sometime now.

wtpooh writes "CNN has a review of Ender's Shadow, an upcoming book by Orson Scott Card which retells the events of Ender's Game from the perspective of Bean, one of the children under Ender's command. I always liked Bean, so I'm really looking forward to this. According to Amazon, it will be available on August 31. You can also read the first four chapters of the book at Card's web site". Despite all the recommendations, I've never bothered to read Ender's Game. I think that will have to change very soon.

jyuter writes "CNN posts the first chapter of the new Monty Python book, 'Monty Python Speaks!' It's a bit long, but an interesting read. " Well, the topic icon seems very applicable today. Read it-really good stuff.

jyuter writes "CNN posts the first chapter of the new Monty Python book, 'Monty Python Speaks!' It's a bit long, but an interesting read. " Well, the topic icon seems very applicable today. Read it-really good stuff.

munchkin writes "CNN has a story from their computing section on the U.S. government's plans to build a Y2k bunker. Apparently, the bunker will be used for Y2k "event managment", better known as "panicking stupid people" and/or "drunken rioting". " What's even more interesting is that this is being considered as the first test of Clinton's drive for a "cyber defense", an initiative that was starting last May.

munchkin writes "CNN has a story from their computing section on the U.S. government's plans to build a Y2k bunker. Apparently, the bunker will be used for Y2k "event managment", better known as "panicking stupid people" and/or "drunken rioting". " What's even more interesting is that this is being considered as the first test of Clinton's drive for a "cyber defense", an initiative that was starting last May.

38 years after it's sinking the Mercury capsule that Gus Grissom flew into space. Officially called the Liberty Bell 7, it was recovered from a depth of 15,000 feet (about 3 miles). They were unable to recover the hatch, meaning that the mystery of whether the hatch bolts blew prematurely, or Grissom activated them too early while remain a mystery. It's going to be cleaned and put on exhibiton-the Discovery Channel footed the bill. Hats off to them.

kade writes to us with the news that New Zealand scientists and ethicists have decided that attempts to clone the extinct Huia bird should begin immediatly. The birds were declared extinct in the 1920s, their fault being they had white tipped black feathers that were "used" in a European fashion craze in the 1920s. IMHO, more stuff like this should happen-and for the organisms in danger of extinction, we should procure cell samples in hope of cloning later. Of course, first priority should be saving them then, but what do you all think?

Milkman Ken writes "It seems that after several months of operating, ICANN is now a million bucks in the hole. Bummer. " Apparently the transition from the NSI monopoly over .com, .edu, and .net domain registrations to a competitive registration environment has been handled so poorly that the whole system may collapse, at least temporarily, without government intervention. And I thought the purpose of ICANN was to get the government out of the domain name registration business. Oy!

jacobm wrote with a story about the NASA/Boeing project. Called the X-37, it's not like other X-class planes - it can actually stay in orbit. The purpose of the plane is to test "new reusable rocket technologies". Apparently, it designed to reach only a mere Mach 25, but a Boeing VP says another goal is to make space travel as affordable as travelling by plane. The article also includes a neat little insert with pictures of the other X-class planes.

Lust writes "CNN has an article summarizing a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Assoc concerning carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and its frequency in the general population. One of the most important points was the last paragraph of the article: "[Nerve conduction velocity] testing showed only 70 percent sensitivity among subjects with a diagnosis of CTS based on history and physical examination and a high rate of false-positive results (approximately 76 percent). Practitioners need to recognize these limitations and work to overcome them." "

D3 writes "Who knew how easy it could be to hotwire a kiddie car? This 6 year old had no problem. " Heh-I needed to read something like this. Kids-they're gonna take everything over. Thanks to modnar for a more detailed story.

jchaw sent us a story thats running over on CNN and talks about hiccups with Singapore's Cashless System which apparently messed up 4500 transactions and caused a quarter of a million dollars to be lost in the system. Kinda creapy- as we become more and more reliant on credit cards, debit cards, and ATM cards, the chances of bugs popping up increases.

LLatson writes "CNN.COM is running an article about Sir Distic releasing Back Orifice 2000. Sounds like this time it will run on NT..." Comments on why this is being done, as well as a source release and a few changes to the 2k system.

richard writes "CNN has an interesting article on companies racing to support Linux. " Talks about HP, IBM, LinuxCare and a few other odds and ends. Slanted somewhat oddly, but it ends on an (again mixed) high note.

El Jefe writes "The European space agency has plans to land on (a shoot a harpoon into) a comet. The spacecraft is called Rosetta, and is supposed to rendezvous with the comet Wirtanen in 2012. " And all this time I thought cheesy Hollywood blockbusters where astronauts landed on asteroids had no scientific basis. I find it interesting, however, that the spacecraft will secure itself to the comet through the use of a harpoon.

dittrich writes "Found this at CNN this morning. It's an interesting point of view, the meat of whicht is that Palm Pilots don't really make us more productive, they are just cool toys that people want, not need. " That's been one of the those ongoing arguements about computers in general-do they really increase our productivity? I say yes, but every year or so, someone produces a study saying that they don't.

Lycestra writes "CNN has an article on why Linux is and Windows isn't. We all know this, but it's broken down for the non-geek to understand why the better OS comes out of basements and not Seattle. Its all about competition and what works. Also references to a few of ESR's writings. "

There's increasing reports coming about the state of US Government's Internet Tax Committee. The committee, which stopped meeting about six months because of squabbling is back talking again about a way to acheive "tax-neutrality", meaning that all those nice tax free sales may be gone in the next few years.

Sean Mooney writes "CNN is reporting that $1000 pc that is 60,000 times faster than a PII 350 may be on the market within 18 months. Star Bridge Systems is making the field programmable gate array (FPGA) computer. These are the same guys who are making HAL, reported earlier. " I'll believe that when I see it. Although I can't think of a better way to break Moore's Law.

A reader writes "A German free software advocacy group has asked local government officials to halt their agreement with Microsoft to sponsor a new e-commerce center.. The group has made a good arguement, stating that taxpayer dollars are being used to pay for something that can already be obtained for free. The government's current reply is that partnering with Microsoft doesn't preclude involvement from other operating system.

mbruns wrote in to send us a CNN Story and a Symantic Bit about a new Melissa-esque virus that alters users win.ini and deletes files. Of course, only people who use that "Other" OS are at risk.

Uriel writes "CNN reports that Governor Davis of California has responded to the outrage about possible sales of wage information by ordering the Employment Development Department to take no action on the law permitting such. One for our side? "

munchkin writes "CNN interviews Bob Young as he explains how Red Hat will revolutionize the software market. Read all about it here " Same story as usual in many ways-but at least the mainstream press has a growing fascination with the Open Source model and how it works; especially the notion of it being impossible for one company do destory the rest.

munchkin writes "CNN interviews Bob Young as he explains how Red Hat will revolutionize the software market. Read all about it here " Same story as usual in many ways-but at least the mainstream press has a growing fascination with the Open Source model and how it works; especially the notion of it being impossible for one company do destory the rest.

pluteus_larva writes "Speaking of the media and government's war on hackers, CNN is reporting that "hackers" (why can't *anyone* get this right?) are attacking Federal Web sites. " The press is covering this in a variety of areas. In related news, CobaltQ sent us the story about how "non-sanctioned" Chinese crackers have taken aim at NATO sites since the Chinese embassy bombing.

pluteus_larva writes "Speaking of the media and government's war on hackers, CNN is reporting that "hackers" (why can't *anyone* get this right?) are attacking Federal Web sites. " The press is covering this in a variety of areas. In related news, CobaltQ sent us the story about how "non-sanctioned" Chinese crackers have taken aim at NATO sites since the Chinese embassy bombing.

Anonymous Coward writes "Here's the story over at CNN about the new map NASA has of Mars - it's 3D. So, now we can get a feel for how water moved on the planet, just how large all those formations are, and when you want to take a Mars weekend vacation in a few years, you can pick that nice sunny spot beneath the 5 mile tall mountain. " Check out the NASA Mars Animations for eye-candy.

James Green writes "CNN is reporting something will surely make everyone want to duck - the SkyCar, an invention by Moller International, of California. Quote, "The Batmobile-shaped vehicle will seat four people, do about 5 miles per liter of gas, have a top speed of over 600 mph and will take off and land vertically." It is due for a maiden journey in the next few weeks. "