An anonymous reader writes "U.S. consumers will be making a multimillion dollar donation to an Australian government agency in the near future, whether they like it or not. After the resolution of a recent lawsuit, practically every wireless-enabled device sold in the U.S. will now involve a payment to an Australian research organization called the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO, which hired U.S. patent lawyers who told a very lucrative tale in an East Texas courtroom, that they had '[invented] the concept of wireless LAN ... [and] when the IEEE adopted the 802.11a standard in 1999 — and the more widely-used 802.11g standard years later — the group was choosing CSIRO technology. Now CSIRO had come to court to get the payments it deserved.'"
mdsolar writes "Kenichi Ohmae, an MIT-trained nuclear engineer also widely regarded as Japan's top management guru, is dean of Business Breakthrough University. In the CSM he writes: 'Fukushima's most important lesson is this: Probability theory (that disaster is unlikely) failed us. If you have made assumptions, you are not prepared. Nuclear power plants should have multiple, reliable ways to cool reactors. Any nuclear plant that doesn't heed this lesson is inviting disaster.'"
zacharye writes with this snippet from BGR: "Nearly a dozen suspects have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the theft and sale of AMOLED display technology under development at Samsung. Yonhap News Agency on Thursday reported that 11 suspects either currently or formerly employed by Samsung Mobile Display have been arrested. One 46-year-old researcher at Samsung is believed to have accepted a payment of nearly $170,000 from an unnamed 'local rival firm' in exchange for trade secrets pertaining to proprietary Samsung technology used in the company's AMOLED panels..."
pigrabbitbear writes "The recent web pornography ban in Egypt has raised questions about the evils of censorship (and porn) and the changing tide of popular attitude of Egyptians. It perhaps reflects the emerging influence of more conservative Muslim elements in government, a shift . Apparently the same ban was passed 3 years ago but was not enforced because their filtering system was not effective. But porn bans are nothing new. Other countries with strict censorship laws like China and Saudi Arabia have successfully implemented bans that restrict pornography along with anything else they deem inappropriate for public viewing. In 2010 the UK discussed a ban that would require users to specifically request access to pornographic material from their internet service providers. And porn-banning rhetoric has even stomped through the U.S. news media over the last few months, thanks to GOP also-ran Rick Santorum claiming President Obama is failing to enforce pornography laws. (There have also been some awesomely ridiculous pornography PSAs.)"
Orome1 writes "Industry and government efforts have dealt a significant blow to spam, according to a Commtouch report that is compiled based on an analysis of more than 10 billion transactions handled on a daily basis. The sustained decrease in spam over the last year can be attributed to many factors, including: Botnet takedowns, increased prosecution of spammers and the source industries such as fake pharmaceuticals and replicas. However, spam is still four times the level of legitimate email and cybercriminals are increasing their revenues from other avenues, such as banking fraud malware."
First time accepted submitter rodrix79 writes "Hi all. I am trying to move from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu, but maybe to Mint). The problem is I telecommute full time and I am having a hard time trying to find the right tools to keep communication flowing with my clients (which are mostly on Windows / Mac). Any good recommendations from Linux telecommuters?"
An anonymous reader writes "Following up on the 2009 story about the first graphics game written for a 16-Bit Home PC, I thought Slashdot readers might be interested in seeing the game in question running in their browsers. The original hardware has been emulated and loaded with the original machine code transcribed from PDF scans. Some brief background here."
Lucas123 writes "Major tech vendors are funding patent trolls, companies that derive the bulk of their income, if not all of it, from licensing huge libraries of patents they hold as well as by suing companies that use their patents without permission, according to an investigation by Computerworld. Tech companies — including Apple and Micron — have railed against patent 'nuisance' lawsuits, only to fund or otherwise support some of the patent trolls. Because of patent trolls, more politely called mass patent aggregators, patent litigation has in part increased by more than 230% over the past 20 years. 'Most of the major tech companies are backing a troll in some way, probably financially,' says Thomas Ewing, an attorney who has authored reports on what he calls 'patent privateering.'"
donniebaseball23 writes "Video game publisher Electronic Arts has not only had to defend itself against 'worst company in America' labels, but GamesIndustry International has revealed that EA's been receiving thousands of letters protesting the inclusion of same-sex relationship content in games like Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic. The campaign against EA appears to be led by Florida Family Association and the Family Research Council. The letters threaten to boycott purchase of EA games if the company won't remove the LGBT content, and many allege that EA was pressured by LGBT activists to include the content, which they say is forcing LGBT themes on children playing the games. 'This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment,' said Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications."
asavin writes "The founder of Marshall Amplification, Jim Marshall OBE, has died at the age of 88. A tribute to the man known as the Father of Loud was posted on his official website, praising the man whose name became iconic for electric guitarists." Reader LizardKing points to the Guardian's coverage of Marshall's passing, and adds : "A former drummer, Jim Marshall initially became involved with guitar amplification as an importer of Fender equipment, until he eventually decided to branch out and make his own amps. The trademark Marshall sound evolved alongside the requirements of such luminaries as Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton. The Marshall stack has since become a ubiquitous symbol of live rock music in particular — so much so that some bands perform in front of veritable walls of Marshall branded speakers. In addition to his lead guitar amplifiers, Jim will also be remembered for his great bass amps (as used by Lemmy Kilmister in particular) and the much sought after Guv'nor distortion pedal."
New submitter si622test1 writes "A judge has determined that the ex-astronaut-turned-politician who was sued by California Republicans for putting 'astronaut' as his occupation while running for Congress will be allowed to do so, saying that Hernandez is an astronaut for 'more than the time spent riding a rocket.'"
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from ZDNet: "Security researchers from two universities say they found how hackers can retrieve credit card data and other personal information from used Microsoft Xbox 360s, even if the console is restored back to factory settings and its hard drive is wiped. Microsoft is now looking into their story of buying a refurbished Xbox 360 from a Microsoft-authorized retailer, downloading a basic modding tool, gaining access to the console's files and folders, and eventually extracting the original owner's credit card information. Redmond is still investigating, but it's already calling the claims 'unlikely.'"
suraj.sun writes "A new study from researchers at Jay W. Forrester's institute at MIT says that the world could suffer from 'global economic collapse' and 'precipitous population decline' if people continue to consume the world's resources at the current pace. The study's researchers created a computing model to forecast different scenarios based on the current models of population growth and global resource consumption, different levels of agricultural productivity, birth control and environmental protection efforts. Most of the computer scenarios found population and economic growth continuing at a steady rate until about 2030. But without 'drastic measures for environmental protection,' the scenarios predict the likelihood of a population and economic crash."
twoheadedboy writes "A Flashback variant dubbed Backdoor.Flashback.39 has infected over 600,000 Macs, according to Russian security firm Dr Web. The virulent Flashback trojan infecting Apple machines sparked interest earlier this week after it was seen exploiting a Java vulnerability, although it was actually first discovered back in September last year. The Trojan has a global reach after Dr Web found infected Macs in most countries. More than half of the Macs infected are in the US (56.6 percent), while another 19.8 percent are in Canada. The UK has 12.8 percent of infected Macs."
Dell has acquired Make Technologies, a company that helps businesses update their woefully out-of-date legacy application for the modern age of computing. Most people see Dell as a hardware company, but this is the third software outfit is has acquired in the past four days.
Angry Birds enters entirely new airspace with today's release of the Angry Birds Helicopter, a remote-controlled flying machine with the plastic body of the game's red bird -- and the latest in a long line of perverse product extensions.
Lisa Porter, the first and only director of way-out research for the American intelligence community, is stepping down after more than four years on the job.
Viacom is getting another chance to prove YouTube violated copyright laws, thanks to an appeals court, but the ruling leaves only a narrow opening for the content giant.
It didn?t take long for Larry Page to fulfill my prediction that he would figure out that being more public with his plans and thoughts would bring benefits to him and Google. Yesterday he did an interview with Business Week. And now he has posted a detailed memo (on Google+, naturally, as well as Google's Investor Relations site) titled "Update From the CEO 2012," where he explicitly sketches those plans and thoughts.
The upcoming film is a crazy time-traveling journey that follows a young couple as they try to unmask a mysterious cult leader named Maggie. But started out as just a low-budget labor of love. In this exclusive making-of video, writer/director Zal Batmanglij and writer/star Brit Marling talk about the raw cinematic experience of watching their film, and the precise way that its tale of a cult and its enigmatic leader will mess with audience members' minds.
Imagine robots that can do everything you can do -- and probably do it even better. Brace yourself, because that era might be here sooner than you think: The Pentagon agency behind some of the most important robotics research will soon challenge experts worldwide to come up with humanoid robots that can navigate their environment and handle tools with near- skill.
A new smartphone app allows bird watchers to share sightings with scientists straight from the field.
The grid-like front end of this promising social music reviews site represents the highest-rated and most-discussed albums. If MusicGrid pulls in enough users, it could become like a curated version of Amazon reviews.
A new report from the UK's leading climate change watchdog refutes the oft-cited argument that climate action will herald economic Armageddon.
New attack code that can be used to take over the control systems of refineries, power plants and factories has been released into the wild. The purpose? To push vendors to take security seriously.
Nearly half of American tablet and smartphone users are surfing the web on their devices while watching TV, according to a recent study conducted by Nielsen. What's more, more than 80 percent of those owners are surfing while TV watching at least once a month.
Flickr is replacing the Flash-based Picnik photo editor with an HTML-based alternative named Aviary. The change means Flickr users can now edit their photos on iOS devices and any upcoming Windows Metro tablets, neither of which run the Flash plugin.
The Air Force has more drones and more sensors collecting more data than it has humans to interpret what the electronic tea leaves say. The glut of all that video and still imagery is "unsustainable," says the Air Force's top civilian -- but it'll be "years" before the Air Force digs its way out of it. (Spoiler: The solution is automating the cameras.)
If you're waiting for a major automaker to fire the first shot across Tesla's bow, the Infiniti LE Concept is it. Largely based on the bits that make up the Nissan LEAF, the LE is set to be the first mass-market luxury EV when it goes on sale in 2014.
Can a farmer commit patent infringement just by planting soybeans he bought on the open market? This week, the Supreme Court asked is pondering an appeals court decision saying that such planting can, in fact, infringe patents.
It?s not you. It?s really not you. It?s me. I just can?t take this relationship any further. I want to start seeing other cloud providers, writes Alexander Haislip.
If you are struggling to develop your cloud strategy, consider the option of spreading your resources to multiple providers, and using a single company to manage those resources. Don't think that you have to go all in, writes Todd Nielsen.
It's no real surprise to read reports that Apple and five of the Big Six trade publishers are close to a settlement agreement with the DoJ. The only questions (besides how close the two sides actually are and whether the whole thing may still fall apart) will be the details of that potential agreement and the consequences of those details for the still-forming digital publishing industry.
This year, there will be no Easter egg hunt in Colorado Spring's historic Bancroft Park, reports USA Today. The cancellation is due to what the newspaper calls "helicopter parents" jumping last year's rope line to ensure their tots pocketed eggs. Here are tips that will ensure you don't join their ranks -- here are the 10 Commandments of a Civil Easter Egg Hunt.
Whether you?re a diehard fan of a local team or a numbers junkie who records scores of every game, you can make the 2012 Major League Baseball season even better with the help of key mobile apps. We present the seven best.
Moon mining and outer-space colonies remain a pie-in-the-sky dream for now. But a new paper argues that the settlement of other worlds would take off if the government could provide one thing: property rights.
The biggest rivalry in the camera world today ? Canon vs. Nikon ? has been heating up lately as Nikon tries to claw its way into an HDSLR market that has thus far been dominated by Canon and its 5D Mark II. Tension has been mounting between fans of both, and a new video, "The F%^&ing Nikon D800 vs. Canon 5D mkIII Shootout," aims to provide some comic relief.
Before he sets foot in a military courtroom to be tried on 17 counts of premeditated murder, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will face a different kind of judgment. Called a sanity board hearing, it's meant to decide whether Bales is mentally fit to stand before a jury, as well as what role (if any) his mental health played in his alleged massacre of Afghan civilians. It happens before the trial. But it might be just as complex, and controversial, as the courtroom proceedings themselves.
The Crane Company Bathroom of Tomorrow opens in Disneyland?s Tomorrowland, promising visitors the lavish lavatory of the future, which was actually ?Available Today!? from -- you guessed it -- the Crane Company.
When Photoshop wizard Kevin Weir spots a somber, 19th-century Russian man in the Library of Congress' Flickr archive, he sees more than a black-and-white photograph: He imagines a pagan who sprouts an outraged, bestial head when nobody's looking, then resumes his pose as a solid citizen. That's just one vivid vision Weir has turned into an animated GIF, part of his ongoing series of vintage images transformed into absurdist portraits for the internet age.
A funny thing happens when diesel fuel drops below -30 degrees Fahrenheit: It turns to jelly. So when Icelandic 4x4 conversion specialists Arctic Trucks began prepping a fleet of Toyota Hilux pickups for the longest polar expedition in history, they had to find a new fuel source to cope with the frigid climes. JET 1A fuel fit the bill, allowing the team to cover some 70,000 km (over 43,000 miles) in four months.