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Submission + - Priest checks fingerprints for mass attendance (reuters.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: A Polish priest has installed an electronic reader in his church for schoolchildren to leave their fingerprints in order to monitor their attendance at mass, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily said on Friday.

The pupils in the southern town of Gryfow Slaski told the daily they liked the idea and also the priest, Grzegorz Sowa, who invented it.

"This is comfortable. We don't have to stand in a line to get the priest's signature (confirming our presence at the mass) in our confirmation notebooks," said one pupil, who gave her name as Karolina.

Comment sprint mifi! (Score 1) 438

by mytrip (#29444891) Attached to: (Near) Constant Internet While RV'ing?
I have a Sprint MiFi and like it but you should know Sprint and Verizon do not have data everywhere they have voice. AT&T does but I dont think they have a MiFi right now. The mifi is from novatel and gives you a wireless hotspot that provides data for up to 5 devices. Way cool and no software to install. I just love mine.
Security

Submission + - Obama:IP Treaty a 'National Security' Secret (wired.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: President Barack Obama came into office in January promising a new era of openness.

But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.

The White House this week declared the text of the proposed treaty a "properly classified" national security secret, in rejecting a Freedom of Information Act request by Knowledge Ecology International.

"Please be advised the documents you seek are being withheld in full," wrote Carmen Suro-Bredie, chief FOIA officer in the White House's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Software

Submission + - LimeWire MakerBrings Open-Source to Urban Planning (wired.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Entrepreneur Mark Gorton wants to do for people what he already helped do for files: move them from here to there in the most efficient way possible using open-source tools.

Gorton, whose LimeWire file sharing software for the open-source gnutella network was at the forefront of the P2P revolution nearly a decade ago, is taking profits earned as a software mogul and spinning them into projects to make urban transportation safer, faster and more sustainable.

You might call it a "P2P-to-people" initiative — these efforts to make cities more people-friendly are partly funded by people sharing files.

Gorton's open-source model would have a positive impact on urban planning by opening up the process to a wider audience, says Thomas K. Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association, an organization that deals with urban planning issues in the New York metropolitan area."
Red Hat Software

Submission + - Red Hat set to surpass Sun in market capitalizatio (cnet.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: In what may come to be seen as a deeply symbolic moment in the history of operating systems, Red Hat is on the verge of surpassing Sun Microsystems' market capitalization for the first time.

Sun, perhaps unfairly, represents a fading Unix market. Red Hat, for its part, represents the rising Linux market.

Given enough time for its open-source strategy to play out, Sun's market capitalization will likely recover and outpace Red Hat's. But for now, a symbolic moment is about to occur. The inauguration of the Linux-based economy?
Privacy

Submission + - ISPs can profit from busting file sharers (cnet.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: Jerry Scroggin, the owner of a Louisiana Internet Service Provider, says he's skeptical of a service that proposes to pay ISPs to police their networks for pirated music and movies.

Scroggin argued that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) should help pay the costs incurred when they ask ISPs to chase down suspected music pirates. Days after the story was published, antipiracy firm Nexicon contacted Scroggin about a plan to share money collected from accused file sharers with ISPs.

He said previous antipiracy services have alienated ISPs and Nexicon wishes to avoid that.
Privacy

Submission + - U.S. visitors required to register online (cnet.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: Starting Monday, travelers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, and a host of other countries will have to register online with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before they can travel into the United States.

As part of its efforts to use technology to improve border security, the DHS is mandating that travelers from any of the 35 countries in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program apply online for an Electronic System of Travel Authorization before boarding a plane to the U.S. Previously, visitors from those countries were only required to fill out the I-94W form on flights to the U.S. for trips shorter than 90 days.
Privacy

Submission + - Sex offenders must hand over online passwords (msn.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: ATLANTA — Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law set to take effect Thursday that would require sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders, but it is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well.
Google

Submission + - Google Kills Yahoo Ad Deal (cnet.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: Google has pulled the plug on on a search-ad partnership with Yahoo that would have given Yahoo major new revenue but that raised antitrust concerns.

"After four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement," said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer in a blog post Wednesday. "Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn't have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement."

Such a move is likely to drive Yahoo back to Micrsosoft.
Security

Submission + - Judge Rules Against Boston Transit In Hacking Case (wsj.com)

Submitted by mytrip
mytrip writes: BOSTON — A federal judge ruled against the Boston transit system in a closely watched lawsuit against MIT students who found a way to take free subway and bus trips.

But a federal antihacking law doesn't prohibit the public disclosure of computer-security flaws, District Judge George O'Toole ruled. The judge dissolved the injunction and ruled the agency was not likely to win its case.
Google

Submission + - Google URL Indexs Hits 1 Trillion URL Milestone (cnet.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "In a blog posting on Friday the company shared some detail about the challenges of one aspect of its search operation, the Web indexing and processing that must take place before the results are delivered to users. The short version: Google has no choice but to think big.

"This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it'd be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections," the engineers said."
The Courts

Submission + - AP Files 7 DMCA Takedowns Against Drudge Retort (cadenhead.org)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Rogers Cadenhead, author of the Drudge Retort blog says:

I'm currently engaged in a legal disagreement with the Associated Press, which claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing "'hot news' misappropriation under New York state law." An AP attorney filed six Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown requests this week demanding the removal of blog entries and another for a user comment.

An example of something the AP objects to is

Hillary Rodham Clinton says she expects her marathon Democratic race against Barack Obama to be resolved next week, as superdelegates decide who is the stronger candidate in the fall. "I think that after the final primaries, people are going to start making up their minds," she said. "I think that is the natural progression that one would expect.""
Privacy

Submission + - Pentagon Wants Kill Switch for Planes (wired.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "The Pentagon's non-lethal weapons division is looking for technologies that could "disable" aircraft, before they can take off from a runway — or block the planes from flying over a given city of stretch of land.

The Directorate's program managers don't mention how engineers might pull off such a kill switch. But, however it's done, they'd like to have a similar system for boats, as well. They're looking for a device that can, from 100 meters away, "safely stop or significantly impede the movement" of vessels up to 40 feet long, with "minimal collateral damage.""

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