Alterslash

the unofficial Slashdot digest

January 28 is Data Privacy Day

Posted by timothy in YRO • View
An anonymous reader writes "A bit early, but just a reminder that January 28 is international Data Privacy Day in the U.S., Canada, and many European countries. Various events are being held around the globe: the head of the FTC opened a weekend forum on the topic by calling out Facebook and Google, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner is holding a symposium on 'Surveillance by Design', and of course Google recently announced they'll be tracking you more thoroughly in the future."

Mars-Bound Probe Serves As Radiation Guinea Pig

Posted by timothy in Science • View
sighted writes "This week's huge solar storm will benefit future astronauts, thanks to the rover Curiosity, now on its way to Mars. The rover is equipped with an instrument that measures the radiation exposure that could affect a human astronaut en route to the Red Planet. Scientists are just starting to pore over the data from the blast of particles. Don't worry about the poor robotic geologist, though: 'No harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event,' says NASA."

Damn no one tell

By Dyinobal • Score: 4, Funny • Thread
I hope no on tells PETA that NASA is irradiating a guinea pig with a probe.

D.O.A.

By ebonum • Score: 3 • Thread

This problem could make a manned trip to Mars impossible. The radiation in open space from one solar flare would fry a bunch of astronauts. Sending people to Mars becomes a gamble on the odds of a solar event occurring. Worse yet. There is no technology within reach that can protect astronauts from this type of radiation. A few feet of lead shielding might help some, but the weight would be too much to get into space. Plus, try slowing down all that mass when you arrive at Mars. Perhaps a nuclear powered wire loop ( super conducting??? ) with a circumference of a mile or two? Something with enough kick to deflect super high speed charged particles a few meters - enough to keep them away from the crew?...
I don't see any way to get people to mars with an acceptably high probability of survival.

USPTO Declares Invalid Third of Three Critical Rambus Patents

Posted by timothy in YRO • View
slew writes "This is a followup to this earlier story about 2 of 3 of Rambus's 'critical' patents being invalidated. Apparently now it's a hat-trick." There's something that seems unsavory and wasteful about a business environment in which a company's stock value "fluctuates sharply on its successes and failures in patent litigation and licensing." The linked article offers a brief but decent summary of the way Rambus has profited over the years from these now-invalidated patents.

Any money back?

By icebike • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

So do Nvidia, Hewlett-Packard , et al have any chance of recovering any money they paid to Rambus, or are they simply out the entire amount, or has no actual money traded hands yet?

ARM holdings?

By bartoku • Score: 3, Insightful • Thread

There's something that seems unsavory and wasteful about a business environment in which a company's stock value "fluctuates sharply on its successes and failures in patent litigation and licensing."

If ARM holdings licensing came into question it would probably destroy the company's stock. I am loving the way the ARM architecture is handled, a lot more competition than x86, and it seems to be advancing quickly now that it has becoming popular.

I was trying to imagine today if ARM holdings could survive in a world without IP laws. I think yes it could. It seems that getting a hold of ARM holdings processor plans, from something like bittorrent, would not be super useful even to Texas Instruments, Samsung, or Nvidia engineers. ARM works with them to implement the design, so the payment agreement would probably just be altered slightly and ARM would have to protect its disclosure of ARM architecture details a little more closely. Perhaps ARM would morph more into a standards body and not be as profitable though? I am curious what someone with more info on the topic can share please!

What's wrong...

By DoofusOfDeath • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

It's not that a company's price fluctuates with the state of its patent portfolio. The problem is that 3 patents, which should have never been issued in the first place, terrorized inventors and suppressed innovation for multiple years. This is squarely an indictment of the USPTO and of the Congress.

Of course Stock costs fluctuate.

By Oxford_Comma_Lover • Score: 3 • Thread

Patents are a property; changes to the scope of existence of a property right change the value of the property governed by that right.

The market should estimate the possibility of a company's winning or losing a patent case; once the decision is made, the actual value of the company has changed because of the new determination of whether the company has the right.

The only alternative would be to split the patent right King-solomon style. But that only happens if both parties are willing to settle.

Parties are sometimes not willing to settle. They may know or mistakenly believe that they are in the right, or they may expect they can force the other side to settle for more later.

In addition, mucking up their estimation as to whether they will win--and thus whether it makes sense to settle--is the fact that empirical research demonstrates that lawyers are more attractive to clients when they project a higher chance of winning. Thus it is in the interest of the lawyers to artificially inflate the chance of winning by at least some margin--whether done subconsciously or deliberately--and this means parties have biased information when they decide whether to settle.

Finally, occasionally a court will do something nobody expected, either legitimately for reasons people did not anticipate would motivate them or out of stupidity.

White House Chief Technology Officer Steps Down

Posted by Soulskill in Politics • View
New submitter Krazy Kanuck writes "The White House is running a story on their OSTP blog that Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra is stepping down after being appointed to the post by President Obama in 2009. There is some mention of him returning to his home state of Virginia, and the Washington Post suggests a possible bid for lieutenant governor."

Can we apply as a group?

By LostCluster • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Maybe we can talk someone in the White House press office to use Ask Slashdot for technical questions and Your Rights Online for recommendations on tech bills... Would somebody please put together a resume for We the People of Slashdot?

At least

By Dyinobal • Score: 3 • Thread
At least he isn't stepping down to a lobbying position for the media industry. I half expected that when I read the title. Though I guess he still can...

This just in

By koan • Score: 4, Funny • Thread

Aneesh Chopra current lieutenant governor of Virginia has introduced the death penalty for on-line piracy bill (DPOP)

Re:Can we apply as a group?

By girlintraining • Score: 4, Funny • Thread

Would somebody please put together a resume for We the People of Slashdot?

We could, but it would be full of contradictory skills and experiences, an entire year devoted to yelling "First Post!", and would boast certifications like "Made baby jesus cry."

Actually... It's still better than the current crop of presidential hopefuls. PRINT IT.

Re:Big talker, little substance

By Hatta • Score: 5, Funny • Thread

That sounds awfully familiar somehow.

DARPA Funding a $50 Drone-Droppable Spy Computer

Posted by Soulskill in Management • View
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "At the Shmoocon security conference, researcher Brendan O'Connor plans to present the F-BOMB, or Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors. Built from just the disassembled hardware in a commercially-available PogoPlug mini-computer, a few tiny antennae, eight gigabytes of flash memory and some 3D-printed plastic casing, the F-BOMB serves as 3.5"-by-4"-by-1" spy computer. With a contract from DARPA, O'Connor has designed the cheap gadgets to be spy nodes, ready to be dropped from a drone, plugged inconspicuously into a wall socket, (one model impersonates a carbon monoxide detector) thrown over a barrier, or otherwise put into irretrievable positions to quietly collect data and send it back to the owner over any available Wi-Fi network. O'Connor built his prototypes with gear that added up to just $46 each, so sacrificing one for a single use is affordable."

Funding

By TitusC3v5 • Score: 5, Funny • Thread
I drop F-bombs all the time, at a considerably cheaper cost.

Re:Cockroaches

By Lab Rat Jason • Score: 5, Funny • Thread
They respond unfavorably to being impacted by a presidential shoe.

Coverage? Can you hear me now?

By Marxist Hacker 42 • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

"over any available Wi-Fi network."

In cities this may not be a problem (though who runs an unencrypted Wifi AP in the city?!!?!?) but in rural areas I suspect WIFI may be hard to come by. It needs a better backup.

An interesting use for Raspberry Pi

By scottbomb • Score: 3 • Thread

The article doesn't say, but I suspect the computer is Raspberry Pi. Throw in a cellphone-based modem, camera, and microphone and you've got yourself a spy.

WTF

By wbr1 • Score: 3 • Thread
If you drop it from a drone? Some retard is going to say oh, look a free carbon monoxide detector. I need to plug this into my mud hut next to my poppy field, how convenient! If you have to have them plugged in, why not just send them with the troops?

If we can make tracking devices that we use on whales, sharks, bears, etc, that are self powered, unobtrusive to the animal, and auto-upload to satellite or base station, we have to rely on some twerp plugging in the device -and- for free WiFi to be available for a military device? Pshaw.

And people complain about dropping DARPA funding. With idiotic projects like this we damn sure should.

North Star May Be Wasting Away

Posted by Soulskill in Science • View
sciencehabit writes "The North Star, a celestial beacon to navigators for centuries, may be slowly shrinking, according to a new analysis of more than 160 years of observations. The data suggest that the familiar fixture in the northern sky is shedding an Earth's mass worth of gas each year."

Re:Oh my god!

By SpryGuy • Score: 5, Funny • Thread

Well, except that over that same time period, we'll be experiencing a reversal of the poles, and the accompaning period of magnetic flux that would make magnetic compasses rather useless.

Re:Cough. Earth's Mass?!?

By icebike • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

Mass of the sun is 330,000 times the mass of earth.

So if it were losing an Earth-Mass yearly it would have had to be 7 times as massive as today at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and would only have a life expectancy of about 330,001 years left.

The Sun appears to have been active for 4.6 billion years and has enough fuel to go on for another Five billion years or so..

So I think you may have lost a few digits (in the exponents) when making your calculations.

Thanks a lot "Name a star, buy a star"

By GauteL • Score: 3 • Thread

After decades of overselling the North Star, is there any wonder there's so little of it left?

Does this mean victory for the Southern Cross?

By Kenja • Score: 3 • Thread
Does this mean victory for the Southern Cross fighting style? Or am I just too much of a nerd so no one will understand the reference?

Re:Damn...

By mark-t • Score: 4, Funny • Thread
Indeed... everyone knows that the first magnets fell to earth from that star, which is why it always experienced a small tug in that direction. Future magnets inherited this trait by mimicking the original magnets' functionality, which was to adhere strongly to certain types of metals.

Flaw In YouTube Takedown Process Exposed

Posted by Soulskill in News • View
New submitter BraveThumb writes "One independent rap group found it impossible to post their song on YouTube. When they tried to put up their video, they were informed that the copyright belonged to Universal Music, even though the rap group wasn't signed to any label. Another group working with Universal had used the music in a video of their own, which then accidentally leaked online. YouTube's filtering software then blocked the original. The Hollywood Reporter shares what happened and concludes by saying, 'For an industry that's pursuing copyright reform, the portrayal of a copyright regime that works against young artists can't be a good thing.'"

Re:"we believe in strong (c)!" (when it suits us!)

By jamstar7 • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

They only support "artist interests" when it suits their profit motive. The same is true for their support of copyright.

The only 'artistry' the media companies are interested in is the artistry needed to hide profits from the artists themselves. You don't really think all that money goes to rock stars, do you?

I got the chance to look over a 'standard starup contract' for a new band a few years back. Yeah, they got a $30,000 advance, on 3 albums. The fine print said, they had to use the label's recording studio at the usual rate, plus the label's engineers & techs, also at the usual rate. The label wiould supply the producer, paid for by the band at the producer's usual rate. Advertising and promotion would be provided by the label and paid for by the band at the label's usual rate. And so on and so forth. All of this was supposed to come out of the band's share of the profits before they got paid a dime. Oh, they also had to pay back that $30,000 advance before they saw any money. And they only got a small percentage of the profits.

I remember a commercial for a tax service that aired about 3 years ago where one guy played a musician and said "I made 250,000 last year. If I do that good this year, I might break even!'.

Re:Sue Universal For Copyright Ingringement

By icebike • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Give them a taste of their own medicine.

Massive escalating fines for take down orders that prove to be false is the only solution here.

$100,000 for first offense, payable 90% to the victim, 10% to the hosting site, escalating 10% (compounding) for each instance.

The risk of even one false take down order should be enough to get their attention.

Just Curious...

By element-o.p. • Score: 3 • Thread
I'm a bit confused as to what happened here. I recently posted a video of a portion of a motorcycle trip I took on YouTube (http://youtu.be/gQbwJjcO2N4 if anyone cares ;). The audio consisted exclusively of the sound of my motorcycle engine and wind noise (through the really, really crappy microphone on my camera) -- no music mixed in after the fact, no voice over, just motorcycle engine and wind noise -- and the video was all shot by me, on the road. A couple of weeks later, while on YouTube, I saw a notice that one of my videos contained "potentially infringing material". I followed the links, and sure enough, this was the offending video. There was another link that allowed me to dispute the claim, so I clicked it, and offered the justification that all of the audio and video was recorded by myself and that to the best of my knowledge, it contained no infringing material. Just checked YouTube -- the video is still there, and the "infringing content" notification has been removed.

Why did I have no trouble with this, but the artists in TFA did? Perhaps none of the **AA's are even remotely interested in my video (likely), but the rap artists had the potential of $$$ with their video?

Re:Slander of title is more like it

By pixelpusher220 • Score: 5, Informative • Thread
They had *no* license to use the work. linky

The summary also makes it look like YouTube did this. In fact, Youtube allows the music labels themselves to add songs to filter on. So UMG saw their artist play a song then someone else play the song (the true author) and so uploaded the song as a violation...even though their artist was in fact the violator.

The problem isn't Universal. It's the DMCA.

By Jane Q. Public • Score: 4, Informative • Thread
Seriously. For those who don't remember, the DMCA put in place this ridiculous takedown process, which requires sites to take down works based merely on somebody's say-so, without any due process. That has inevitably led to situations in which some people do not have access to certain media at all. And of course, as usual in recent years, the whole process is slanted toward big corporations.

There should never be a law in the United States that forces compliance without first having to go through due process. The system wasn't broken, and the DMCA didn't fix it. The DMCA made things worse.

I was against these provisions of the DMCA and protested them before the law was even passed. We are merely seeing the results that many of us knew had to happen if such a bad law was passed.

As far as I am concerned, the ONLY good parts of the DMCA are the "safe harbor" provisions. Given a choice, I would shitcan the entire rest of the Act.

When Viruses Infect Worms

Posted by Soulskill in Management • View
An anonymous reader writes "Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable files; and a worm is an executable file. If the virus reaches a PC already compromised by a worm, the virus will infect the exe files on that PC — including the worm. When the worm spreads, it will carry the virus with it. Although this happens unintentionally, the combined features from both pieces of malware will inflict a lot more damage than the creators of either piece of malware intended. While most file infectors have inbuilt spreading mechanisms, just like Trojans and worms (spreading routines for RDP, USB, P2P, chat applications, or social networks), some cannot replicate or spread between computers. And it seems a great idea to “outsource” the transportation mechanism to a different piece of malware (i.e. by piggybacking a worm).'"

Digital evolution at work

By Anonymous Coward • Score: 4, Funny • Thread

Only a million trillion times faster than it happens in the real world. I for one welcome our sentient viral overlords.

Shockwave Rider

By Gibgezr • Score: 3, Interesting • Thread

Why does this bring back vague memories of that John Brunner classic, "The Shockwave Rider"? It's been about 30 years since I read it, so I can't recall if the protagonist wrote a "worm" that infected another worm, or just destroyed it/replaced it or something.

Re:oh shit!

By Jeng • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Well, how about when a known virus infects an unknown worm? That should help the AV program to recognize the worm as undesirable.

Biological viruses and worms

By uigrad_2000 • Score: 5, Funny • Thread

Did anyone else start reading the summary assuming it was a story on biology? Here's how I first read it:

"Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable flies;

Instead of staring at the word "flies" which was actually "files", instead my eyes backed up and were focused on executable. What did it mean for a fly to be executable?

Re:Mental Image

By Dahamma • Score: 4, Funny • Thread

Whatever you are taking, you need either more or less of it. The current dosage isn't working out.

The ACTA Fight Returns: What Is At Stake & What You Can Do

Posted by Soulskill in YRO • View
An anonymous reader writes "The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. and elsewhere, but it is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that has captured increasing attention this week. Several months after the majority of ACTA participants signed the agreement, most European Union countries formally signed the agreement yesterday (notable exclusions include Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia). Michael Geist has a full rundown on what is at stake and what you can do, wherever you live."

Re:BTW

By rahvin112 • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

Presidents routinely sign treaties that aren't later ratified by Congress, there is nothing special about what Obama did compared to any of the other dozen treaties that Congress never ratified.

Re:Obama!

By sycodon • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

Here is what the Feds say

But it seems to me that an "Executive agreement" as it is defined in that reference is pretty much unconstitutional.

I think your average reasonable man would say that a Treaty, duly ratified, has the force of law and is applicable to all citizens.

An Agreement, on the other hand, would have the parties conduct themselves in a certain manner (follows certain protocols or procedures) with respect o the subject matter. but do so within the framework of the law.

So, while an "Agreement" would have the Feds use the existing U.S. laws to enforce the goals, they would still have to follow the law (i.e. get a court order to shut down a site).

A Treaty, on the other hand, would have the force of law and presumably not require the government to get a court order.

That's my guess anyway. But only a fool relies on internet posts for their information eh?

Re:What benefits do these countries get from signi

By qbast • Score: 5, Informative • Thread
When in Poland a parliament commission approved resolution asking prime minister to postpone signing ACTA, official from US embassy called demanding explanation why it was voted and who voted for it. Here is translated link from Polish source.

Kill Hollywood.

By unity100 • Score: 3 • Thread

They are the carriage industry refusing to die, and blocking progress. Kill hollywood. fix your problems. and no - 'dont buy their stuff' will not work. they already have enough money to buy lawmakers until the end of century. find another way. best would be to buy lawmakers ourselves. internet/tech companies need to spearhead this shopping spree.

Re:Signing is only the start of the battle

By Wowsers • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

You will get blank stares because if you're like the UK, not one word has been mentioned in the press about the ACTA treaty. Even today, you can watch foreign news on protests in a few countries (there's a week long protest going on in Poland who signed the treaty), but despite the UK signing the ACTA treaty - not one word in the British press about it or that there are even protests abroad about ACTA, no mention of how devastating it will be for internet freedom democracy and rule of law.

No mentions in the press is censorship and just what proponents of ACTA like.

Bill Gates Gives $750M To AIDS Fund

Posted by Soulskill in Science • View
redletterdave writes "Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged $750 million to the troubled global AIDS fund on Thursday and urged governments to continue their support to save lives. Since the fund was launched 10 years ago, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $1.4 billion to the charity, having already contributed $650 million prior to the latest donation. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria accounts for around a quarter of international financing to fight HIV and AIDS, as well as the majority of funds to fight TB and malaria."

Re:Good work

By b4dc0d3r • Score: 5, Funny • Thread

Bill contributed to an AIDS fund, not a "Stop AIDS" fund. Windows viruses were just the start of his reign of terror!

Re:Bill Gates foundation is a scam

By gandhi_2 • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

I think you miss the benefit of the "tax shelter" if the money you wish to "shelter" doesn't belong to you anymore.

Re:Where Does the Money Actually Go Though?

By bws111 • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

Buying stock does not cause ANY money to be put 'in the companies coffers', unless it is newly issued stock (which is rare). Whoever owned the stock before you has the money. You, in turn, have an asset that will hopefully earn you more than you paid for it, over time. That worth could be realized as income from dividends or from sale of the stock at a higher price than you paid.

Germany buying stock in a German company in no way helps the company, so what is the point of doing it?

Why do other countries contribute to the foundation? Because they trust that the money will be managed and spent wisely. Could they do the same things themselves? Of course - but what makes you think they would do any better managing or spending the money?

Do they NEED to invest the money? Of course not - they could keep it in the proverbial vault and dole it out to orgs as needed. However, that would GUARANTEE that the money will eventually run out. With well-managed money you can theoretically continue handing out money forever.

Re:bill gates donates to charity, doesn't get canc

By Samantha Wright • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

Admittedly it's not completely clear-cut, but he didn't exactly do as much as he could have. Observe:

Despite his diagnosis, Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for mainstream medical intervention for nine months,[103] instead consuming a special alternative medicine diet in an attempt to thwart the disease. According to Harvard researcher Dr. Ramzi Amir, his choice of alternative treatment "led to an unnecessarily early death".[136] According to Jobs's biographer, Walter Isaacson, "for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer – a decision he later regretted as his health declined."[139] "Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He also was influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, before finally having surgery in July 2004."[140] He eventually underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") in July 2004, that appeared to successfully remove the tumor.[141][142][143] Jobs apparently did not receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy.[137][144] During Jobs's absence, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.[137]

So sayeth Wikipedia. The "flying to mysterious locations for exotic treatments" part did not work out so well.

Re:Where Does the Money Actually Go Though?

By lgw • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

And how much did you give to charity, exactly? The Gates foundation is extremely focused on making sure the money it spends produces real results in helping people. If you did give money to charity, did you do the same? Do you think a child receiving a malaria vaccination gives half a shit where it was made? Have you ever done anything worthwhile in your entire life?

FBI Building App To Scrape Social Media

Posted by Soulskill in Management • View
Trailrunner7 writes "The FBI is in the early stages of developing an application that would monitor sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as various news feeds, in order to find information on emerging threats and new events happening at the moment. The tool would give specialists the ability to pull the data into a dashboard that also would include classified information coming in at the same time. One of the key capabilities of the new application, for which the FBI has sent out a solicitation, would be to 'provide an automated search and scrape capability for social networking sites and open source news sites for breaking events, crisis and threats that meet the search parameters/keywords defined by FBI/SIOC.'"

Re:So. It begins.

By kiwimate • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

So what?

Yes, I sound cavalier, but I see so many people on /. blithely affirming that people should just know that what they put on the internet stays there forever, and should just know that their SSID is being broadcast and it's a good thing that it can be tracked and stored, and should be fine with people capturing anything whatsoever that's done outside the house, or in the house with the curtains open...

So I can't see that anyone on Slashdot has anything to complain about here. Or is it different because it's not Google doing it?

Privacy?

By liquidhokie • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Who thinks Facebook is private? The whole point is to *not* be private, right? Otherwise... what is the point of Facebook?

If the FBI was going to start monitoring encrypted email, VPNs, and other things where you are *trying* to be private, I would be concerned (yes, I know-- whole 'nuther can o' worms). But Facebook? You are giving the info away as a user, that is the purpose of having a Facebook account.

Wake Up Mr. President!

By tgeek • Score: 4, Funny • Thread
We have have highly credible reports that Farmville is planning a sneak attack on Washington. Air Force One is fueled and ready.

Re:and here comes slashdot, late again

By ColdWetDog • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread

why does this site even exist anymore? reddit posts everything first, with less bias, and without all the self-loathing commentators screaming shill/troll/astroturf/mccarthyist label of the day.

We're here specifically to annoy you, AC. Looks like we're on top of our game again.

Track record

By trolman • Score: 3 • Thread
If this 'app' goes the way of the other FBI IT projects then we have no worries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Case_File

2001 Projected started just after 911. ... 2009 The FBI is years behind and millions over budget
2010 The FBI is $100 million over budget on the ... only half of the project's four-phase development had been completed
2011 The FBI's upgrade of its computerized case file system has hit another snag

Russian Rocket Fleet Grounded Again

Posted by Soulskill in Science • View
Velcroman1 writes "Failed pressure chamber tests have forced Russia to postpone two manned launches to the International Space Station — echoing a 2011 situation that left the country's space transport vehicles grounded and led to speculation that scientists may be forced to abandon the orbiting space base. Six astronauts are currently aboard the ISS including two Americans: Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. 'There is plenty of margin for the current space station crew to stay onboard longer, if necessary, and plenty of margin in our manifest for upcoming launches,' a NASA spokeswoman said. But Soyuz issues are scary nonetheless. 'This re-entry capsule now cannot be used for manned spaceflight,' an unnamed source told Interfax."

Re:This

By geekoid • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

Nope. Sorry, I know far too many people at NASA for that to remotely ring true.

However, Space flight is very dangerous, requires high label of engineering and maintenance, and is risky not jsut to the crew, but to everyone who wants to get to space. So there are a lot of details and NASA, being the experts, know what companies need to do. Companies OTOH get all pissy when they find out going to space is in no way like flying a plane and need to be held to a high standard, just like NASA.

NASA has nothing to gain by limiting private companies. Being able to rational remove themselves from low orbit bus trips is something they would like see happen.

Congress did NOTHING to help them move to a new launch vehicle. NASA originally didn't want a shuttle, they wanted specialized ships. One for people, and one for Cargo. Had congress allowed for that, we would have a more robust commercial launch system...probably.

more complete comments from Alexei Krasnov

By ChrisCampbell47 • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

Alexei Krasnov, chief of piloted programs:

"The malfunction was found in the service elements of the descent capsule....but no decision was taken to delay a forthcoming launch.

Krasnov acknowledged that several days ago some problems really emerged....but the problems are related to a service element, rather than the descent capsule,

Krasnov did not rule out that “the schedule of piloted missions will be revised,” but he sees no tragedy in this. “There are program reserves to deal with the emerged problem,” he underlined.

“It is very good that upon the results of the tests we received critical remarks before the spaceship was brought to the Baikonur spaceport, because we have some time and possibilities to examine everything in detail,” Krasnov concluded.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/328095.html

Title is misleading

By Mercano • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

The title of this story is misleading. It isn't the rockets that are grounded, its the spacecraft that sits on top of them.

Also, for what it's worth, the shuttle wouldn't have been help matters much if the Russian's can't fly a Soyuz. While the shuttle is fine for swapping crews (in fact, the shuttle's runway landings are gentler than the Soyuz's parachute landings, a good thing for people who have spent the last six months in 0g), the shuttle can only fly a two week mission, meaning without a Soyuz attached to the station, we'd have to leave people in orbit without an immediate way home, a risk that neither NASA nor Roscomos is willing to take. The Soyuz itself is only rated for six months in orbit, giving them a limited window to fix the problems before we have to talk about unmanning the station.

Re:This

By notany • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

But we can save money. Soyuz program is the most successful launch platform by wide margin. It's safe, cheap, reliable and can launch frequently. Soyuz has over 1700 successful launches. It's the closest thing to "space truck" that there is.

Re:This

By hairyfeet • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread
I don't know about him but I'm friends with one of the engineers that designed the shuttle mockups (really cool stuff, he has a great shot of him pushing a 25+ ton model all by himself because it was so perfectly balanced, also got to hold some of the actual blueprints for the shuttle interior cargo hold he rescued from the trash) and he sadi too many politicians were involved and i for one believe him. you look at the map of where the shuttle parts were being built and it looked like a shotgun blast on the map of the USA because so many politicians wanted a piece of the action so him saying that nothing got approved that would hurt Congressman Porkus from bringing home the bacon rings true to me. After all look at how many bridges to nowhere and other completely pointless projects we've had over the years because it brought money in to the right senator's or congressman's district. Sadly that is the problem with large government projects, suddenly all the congressmen are squealing like little piggies and fighting for a spot at the trough, nobody gives a crap about the good of the country, just the good it'll do their re-election campaign.

Mars Rover Opportunity Turns 8

Posted by Soulskill in Science • View
New submitter el borak writes "Never mind all the talk about the revival of the American auto industry. What may be the greatest car the U.S. has ever built is currently a tidy 78 million miles (125m km) away from this world — resting on the edge of Endeavour crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars. It was on January 25, 2004 that the rover Opportunity bounced down on Mars for a mission designed to last a minimum of three months and a maximum of just a year or two."

Re:Yea ok

By PickyH3D • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread

A break-in period that consisted of being shipped slowly on a ship compared to a violent launch on the top of a rocket, as well as the re-entry into the atmosphere of a largely mysterious planet, and finally the potentially violent landing.

Then, once in use and with the odometer actually ticking up, the Mercedes gets an oil change every few thousand miles, or every few months; it's also refueled probably every other week, at least. And it's probably not in a hostile environment the entirety of its driven life, at least without serious repair assistance.

So, yes, we really should be proud of the Opportunity for lasting for eight years while 78 million miles from a repair shop.

Re:Great engineering!

By Pope • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

Can you remember the last piece of technology hardware you had which outlived its warranty?

Practically all of it, since I don't buy horribly-made cheap crap.

Pay for quality, get quality. Simple.

Re:Great engineering!

By edremy • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

Still, we had a visitor to our local Astronomy club explain the one oversight which may ultimately doom Opportunity - dust build up on the Solar Panels. Next probe will probably have a little robotic arm and brush to sweep itself off now and then.

This wasn't an oversight, it was well understood that this would happen. They've gotten lucky that dust devils have cleaned the panels a few times.

The next Mars rover is nuclear powered. There are no attempts at any kind of dust cleaning device- it would be far too heavy and fragile to be worth bothering with.

Re:Great engineering!

By ColdWetDog • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

Makes you wonder, when people say we can't do that for consumer vehicles, eh? Where's the Can-do spirit?!?

You could, it just costs more. That said, most US made vehicles will run 100K miles with minimal supervision. My 12 year old GMC truck has really been quite reliable and could well run another 10 years. I'm part owner of a 40 year old plane that could fly for another 40 years.

Not everything is an iPad.

Re:Great engineering!

By lemur3 • Score: 5, Funny • Thread

Of course You can afford to

Pay for quality

You're the Pope!!

  you probably bathe in a golden bathtub..

ReDigi Defends Used Digital Music Market

Posted by Soulskill in YRO • View
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "ReDigi has fired back, opposing Capitol Records's motion for a preliminary injunction. In his opposition declaration, ReDigi's CTO Larry Rudolph explains in detail (PDF) how the technology employed by ReDigi's used digital music marketplace effects transfer of a music file without copying, but by modifying the record locator in an 'atomic transaction,' and how it verifies that only a single instance of a unique file can enter the ReDigi cloud system. ReDigi's opposition papers also point out plaintiff's own admissions that mp3 files are not 'material objects' or 'phonorecords' under the Copyright Act, and therefore not subject to the Copyright Act's distribution right, and defend ReDigi's used digital music marketplace and cloud storage system (PDF) on a number of grounds, including the First Sale exception to the distribution right applicable to a 'particular' copy, the Essential Step exception to the distribution right applicable to a copy essential to the running of a computer program, and Fair Use space shifting."

Re:"First sale" doesn't really apply.

By AcidPenguin9873 • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

What possible reason can you offer for suggesting that the rules are different simply because the storage mechanism is different?

It's the same reason that pro-piracy advocates use: IP goods are not the same as physical goods. If IP can't be stolen (it's merely being copied), then there's no way to enforce sale of a "used" IP either. There's absolutely no way to enforce that when you sell your copy of the IP, that you are selling the your original copy and not merely a copy of your copy.

All the pro-piracy advocates say that IP shouldn't try to operate using an artificial-scarcity business model to make it seem like a physical good. Well, without (artificial) scarcity, there is also no logically-consistent argument for sale of "used" IP either.

Pick one: artifical, government-enforced/DRM-managed scarcity + first-sale doctrine, or IP-should-be-free + no used sales. Those are your logically consistent options.

Re:Issues such as fair use & first sale

By Maximum Prophet • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

think the question of reselling digital music is absurd in the face of reality. It would take someone deeply convinced that people are buying digital music and spending tens of thousands of dollars on it in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Quite an ability to delude themselves it what it would take. It probably says something about a lawyer willing to take on such a client as well.

It's not the government's job to prop up a dying business model. Aluminum used to be very expensive, even more so than silver. The top of the Washington monument is aluminum, at the time a precious metal. Should government have stepped in to guard the value of someone's aluminum store, when the Hall–Héroult process made it almost worthless?

The cost and value of creative works is being adjusted due to the Internet and cheap storage. Some businesses will thrive, and others die off.

Re:This is extremely laughable.

By dgatwood • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

You can't resell something that cannot be adequately protected through DRM, period.

Sure you can. It's actually quite easy. You're missing a fairly fundamental concept, which is this: what is necessary to prevent playback of copies is not required to merely prevent sale of those copies. To do the former, it must be impossible to get a decryption key without proving that you are the current owner. This is fundamentally impossible to do in an unbreakable way, and the harder you try, the worse the customer experience is. By contrast, to do the latter, you need only the ability to uniquely identify each sold copy of a file. This requires nothing more than a guarantee from the companies that sell the original tracks that there will never be two identical copies of the track, plus a verifiable, ideally signed marker of some sort to determine authenticity.

In other words, to support resale of commercially-sold tracks, you need only take advantage of the watermarks that most or all of those services put in the tracks to begin with. Tracks are usually sold with additional info in the track's metadata that ties it to a particular user's account so that if it gets pirated, it can be traced back to the person who illegally distributed it.

This means that every digital download is unique and trivially verifiable as authentic or inauthentic without the need for actual DRM that would limit your ability to play the file. Thus, all that is necessary is a central database that every reseller talks to, in which the current ownership of every track that gets sold is tracked based on which account purchased it originally.

At least I'm assuming this is how they're doing it. It's certainly the most straightforward and obvious way to do it.

What this does not do, of course, is prevent you from making a copy before you sell the track. However, resale of physical CDs and DVDs has exactly the same problem, making this argument largely irrelevant as far as drawing a legal distinction between the two types of resale.

Re:Issues such as fair use & first sale

By NewYorkCountryLawyer • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

Thanks for posting regarding this story, Mr. Beckerman. I've followed such stories with great interest since a friend of mine had a ridiculous situation where he licensed a movie for showing in his venue then received a C&D the date of the showing. Please be aware that some of us truly appreciate the work you do and your communication with us here.

Thank you. The support of the Slashdot community means a great deal to me. We are living in an interesting time, where 10 large, politically connected corporations -- 4 record companies and 6 motion picture companies -- are on a rampage to save their dying business models and to deflect blame from their management for allowing their businesses to die. Instead of investing in the future, and building better technology, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on nonsensical litigation. Very sad. I look forward to the day when they have been beaten back.

Re:Issues such as fair use & first sale

By NewYorkCountryLawyer • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

It's not the government's job to prop up a dying business model. Aluminum used to be very expensive, even more so than silver. The top of the Washington monument is aluminum, at the time a precious metal. Should government have stepped in to guard the value of someone's aluminum store, when the Hallâ"Héroult process made it almost worthless? The cost and value of creative works is being adjusted due to the Internet and cheap storage. Some businesses will thrive, and others die off.

And I can think of a record company that is dying off, but not before it wastes even more of its money on frivolous litigation.

Man Who Downloaded Bomb Recipes Jailed For 2 Years

Posted by Soulskill in YRO • View
chrb writes "Asim Kauser, a 25-year-old British man, has been jailed for two years and three months for downloading recipes on how to make bombs and the toxin ricin. Police discovered the materials on a USB stick Asim's father gave to them following a burglary at the Kauser family home. Asim pled guilty and claimed that he only downloaded the materials because he was curious. A North West Counter-Terrorism Unit spokesman said, 'I also want to stress that this case is not about policing people's freedom to browse the Internet. The materials that were downloaded were not stumbled upon by chance — these had to be searched for and contained very dangerous information that could have led to an explosive device being built.'"

Re:Arrested for knowledge? WTF?

By TheGratefulNet • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

in 5 yrs or less, TSA will convert 'drivers licenses' into internal US passports.

ie, they'll install themselves at every point where people change planes, busses, trains, etc. highways/tollboothes are not out of their reach, either, in their eyes.

so, to pass around in the US, you'll need to stay off this or that 'bad guy' list. move around in your own country? you'll have to reverify yourself.

but its all for our own safety, don't you know.

Re:Arrested for knowledge? WTF?

By Hatta • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

That's not clear intent, that's wishful thinking. Where and when did he intend to bomb? If there's no plan, there's no intent.

Re:Arrested for knowledge? WTF?

By pixelpusher220 • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread
Well you did have Goldman Sachs selling things to people that they knew were going to or very likely to fail (and did fail in the end)...precisely because Goldman Sachs were making bets that they would fail.

That's pretty much the definition of fraud....

Re:Arrested for knowledge? WTF?

By Bootsy Collins • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

God, who modded this up? In what way does that clearly show intent? It might, or it might not, depending on how he meant the word "jihad," which normally does not mean terrorism or, to western Muslims, even any kind of armed fight with or assault on enemies. It can (and frequently does) mean nothing more than the personal struggle to lead a good life.

Mind, I'm not saying he didn't have nefarious ends in minds; I have no idea. But how are you so sure he did, from those words?

Re:Arrested for knowledge? WTF?

By mcgrew • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread

The only choices left are which depressing SF/SciFi/SyFy dystopia you like

SyFy != Sci Fi. Sci fi is Asimov and Heinlein and Star Wars and 2001. SyFy is stupid shit on a useless cable channel that is an embarrasment to anybody with half a brain.