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Apple: Man Claims iPod Set His Pants Aflame

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 08, @02:22PM
from the lighter-and-gasoline-in-his-pocket-had-nothing-to-do-with-it dept.
Handhelds
alphadogg writes to mention that an Atlanta man is claiming an iPod Nano actually caught fire in his pants creating flames that lasted 15 seconds and reached up as far as his chest. Apple hasn't responded to the claims yet other than sending him a packet to return the iPod.

Science: Heart Corset to Reduce Congestive Heart Failure

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 08, @01:30PM
from the suck-in-that-ventricle dept.
Biotech
Scientists have designed a new "heart-reinforcing corset" to help combat congestive heart failure. While there isn't a large degree of understanding of the condition, many believe that the heart expands in order to pump more blood as a reaction to damage or valve problems. This expansion generally exacerbates the problem, so the new reinforcing band is attempting to control the expansion of the heart thereby reducing the chance of failure.

Your Rights Online: How Not to Write a Cease-and-Desist Letter

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 08, @12:39PM
from the love-seeing-bullies-get-bullied dept.
The Courts
In our overly litigious society it seems that many companies are all too happy to fire off a cease-and-desist letter if they see something they don't like. Many times these letters end up online just causing further embarrassment for the company. One such company has decided to try scaring their targets out of this response by including a copyright notice for their cease-and-desist letter. Public Citizen has fielded one of these dumb letters and has invited them to try to assert their cease-and-desist copyright (which isn't even registered).

Science: Brain Heatsink Could Reduce Epilepsy

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 08, @11:47AM
from the also-prevent-core-dumps dept.
Biotech
SimonNight writes "Attaching a heatsink to the brain can reduce the severity of epileptic seizures, Japanese researchers say. They've developed a surgically implanted heat conduit that connects a brain region to a heatsink on the outside of the skull. Seizures get worse when they abnormal activity of brain cells overheats the brain and causes more abnormal firing patterns."

Is the Internet Bad For Professional Writers

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 08, @11:09AM
from the won't-someone-please-think-of-the-writers dept.
The Media
destinyland writes "The internet democratized writing — but has there been collateral damage? A former magazine editor asks 10 professional writers how the net has changed their profession, and even the act of writing itself. Has the net changed the demand for longer articles, or created more opportunities for more kinds of writing? It's a fascinating read that belongs in a time capsule for the variety of reactions captured — including the author who complains reading time was traded away for time to maintain our applications, and adding "Gates and Jobs...ought to be disemboweled — yes, on the internet.""

IT: Adobe Confirms Unpatched PDF Backdoor

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 08, @10:29AM
from the machines-wide-open dept.
Security
50Mat writes "Adobe has fessed up to a dangerous code execution vulnerability affecting software programs installed on millions of Windows machines. The flaw, publicly disclosed more than three weeks ago, could allow hackers to use rigged PDF files to take control of Window XP computers with Internet Explorer 7 installed. It affects Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat Standard, Professional and Elements and Adobe Acrobat 3D."

Tivo Tries, Cancels PayPerPost Ad Strategy

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 08, @09:53AM
from the not-the-best-plan-folks dept.
The Almighty Buck
Tivo tries out PayPerPost- essentially pseudo viral marketing where you pay people for creating advertising for you and getting it out on the net. Unsurprisingly, when this all came out, people complained and they killed the program and tried to pull the videos when they realized that they were looking like tools.

Science: NASA Building Giant Roller Coaster For Science

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 08, @09:15AM
from the still-no-excuse-for-300ft-pinwheel dept.
NASA
Jamie found a story of NASAs Giant "Science" Roller Coaster. It will be used as an escape chute on rocket launchpads, and will be the 3rd highest drop in the world. More like the Cedar Point Demon Drop than a roller coaster, but still, I'd ride it.

Games: 'Neurotic' is Best RTS strategy

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 08, @08:35AM
from the better-than-my-strat-of-hide-and-cry dept.
Real Time Strategy (Games)
An anonymous reader writes "Austrian researchers experimenting with adding emotion to game AI say that 'neurotic' software is best at RTS. They developed aggressive, defensive, neutral and neurotic bots to play Age of Mythology, based on psychological models of emotion. Neurotic bots beat the standard game AI every time and faster than the other personalities."

New Hope for Jackson Hobbit Film?

Posted by Zonk on Monday October 08, @07:03AM
from the something-worth-fighting-for dept.
Lord of the Rings
DrJimbo writes "Just in time for the 70th Anniversary of the Hobbit (published September 21, 1937) Entertainment Weekly has a 5-page article on a possible reconciliation between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema that may pave the way for the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to return and helm the filming of The Hobbit. It was previously reported here that Jackson would not be making the Hobbit film. The EW article says that Jackson wants to make two films: first the Hobbit in its entirety and then another film that bridges the roughly 60 years between the end of the Hobbit and the start of the Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately Jackson already has a lot on his plate with filming of The Lovely Bones scheduled to start this month and a live action Tintin film in the works."

Your Rights Online: In the UK, Possession of the Anarchist's Cookbook Is Terrorism

Posted by Zonk on Monday October 08, @06:22AM
from the orwell-would-have-been-so-proud dept.
The Courts
Anonymous Terrorist writes "Back in the midsts of time, when I was a lad and gopher was the height of information retrieval I read The Anarchist's Cookbook in one huge text file. Now it appears the UK government considers possession of the book an offense under the Terrorism Act 2000 and is prosecuting a 17 year old boy, in part, for having a copy of the book. 'The teenager faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000. The first charge relates to the possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year. The second relates to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism.'"

Microsoft's Ballmer: Google Reads Your Mail

Posted by Zonk on Monday October 08, @04:22AM
from the ballmer-lives-in-a-glass-house dept.
Privacy
Anonymous writes "A piece of video has emerged in which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says of Google, 'they read your mail and we don't.' Evidently, it was part of a lengthy discussion on the future of the software business model, and whether advertising could support free consumer software. Ballmer said it doesn't work, at least when it comes to email. '"That's just a factual statement, not even to be pejorative. The theory was if we read your mail, if somebody read your mail, they would know what to talk to you about. It's not working out as brilliantly as the concept was laid out." Ballmer isn't the first to fire salvos at Google's Gmail privacy policy. Privacy advocates have been critical over the policy almost since the beginning, but the popularity of the service has skyrocketed nonetheless.'"

Developers: Thunderbird in Crisis?

Posted by Zonk on Monday October 08, @02:11AM
from the film-at-eleven dept.
Mozilla
Elektroschock writes "The two core developers of Thunderbird have left Mozilla. Scott McGregor made a brief statement: 'I wanted to let the Thunderbird community know that Friday October 12th will be my last day as an employee of the Mozilla Corporation.' Meanwhile, David Bienvenu blogged: 'Just wanted to let everyone know that my last day at The Mozilla Corporation will be Oct. 12. I intend to stay involved with Thunderbird... I've enjoyed working at Mozilla a lot, and I wish Mozilla Co and the new Mail Co all the best.' A few month ago Mozilla management considered abandoning their second product and setting up a special corporation just for the mail client. Scott was more or less supportive. David joined in. While Sunbird just released a new version no appropriate resources were dedicated to the missing component. And while Thunderbird became the most used Linux mail client it has been abandoned by Mozilla for 'popularity reasons'. Both messages from David and Scott do not sound as if the founders will play any role in the Thunderbird Mail Corporation. What happened to Mozilla? Is it a case of pauperization through donations?"

Science: Scientists Deliver 'God' Via A Helmet

Posted by Zonk on Monday October 08, @12:23AM
from the don't-forget-the-devil-in-the-details dept.
Communications
prostoalex writes "Scientific American is reporting on scientific work done to map the euphoric religious feelings within the brain. As a result, it's now quite possible to experience 'proximity to God' via a special helmet: 'In a series of studies conducted over the past several decades, Persinger and his team have trained their device on the temporal lobes of hundreds of people. In doing so, the researchers induced in most of them the experience of a sensed presence — a feeling that someone (or a spirit) is in the room when no one, in fact, is — or of a profound state of cosmic bliss that reveals a universal truth. During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and religious language — terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or the wonder of the universe.""

Your Rights Online: Listening To The Radio At Work? Prepare To Be Sued

Posted by Zonk on Sunday October 07, @10:06PM
from the we-live-in-an-age-of-wonders dept.
The Courts
MLCT writes "The Performing Rights Society, one of the UK's royalties collecting societies, has taken a Scottish car servicing company to court because the employees are alleged to have been listening to the radio at work, allowing the music to be 'heard by colleagues and customers'. The PRS is seeking £200,000 in damages for the 'performances of the music' which they claim equates to copyright infringement. The judge, Lord Emslie, has ruled that the case can continue to hearing evidence, commenting that the key point to note was that music was 'audibly blaring from employee's radios'. Where do the extents of a 'public performance' end? Radios on in cabs?"

IT: Ticketmaster Claims Hacking Over Ticket Resale Site

Posted by Zonk on Sunday October 07, @08:18PM
from the watch-out-for-ticket-haxxors dept.
Security
FlopEJoe writes "Ticketmaster claims that RMG Technologies is providing software to avoid security measures on their website - even to the point of utilizing bots to get large blocks of tickets. RMG says it just 'provides a specialized browser for ticket brokers.' From the New York Times article: 'The fact that tickets to popular events sell out so quickly -- and that brokers and online resellers obtain them with such velocity -- is clouding the business, many in the music industry say. It is enough, some longtime concertgoers say, to make them long for the days when all they had to do to obtain tickets was camp out overnight.'"

Hardware: Corporate Encouragement For Sharing Your WiFi

Posted by Zonk on Sunday October 07, @06:15PM
from the everybody-in-the-phone-booth dept.
Wireless Networking
anagama writes "Conventional wisdom is that one should lockdown wifi, your ISP doesn't want you to share your connection, that person checking email outside the coffee shop ought to be arrested. The UK ISP BT is offering an alternative model. The company will encourage its three million broadband users to pick up a FON router and start sharing signals. 'For BT, the move makes its broadband offering more useful to customers, who can access the Internet from more places, and BT doesn't need to build out a new wireless network itself. BT's Gavin Patterson, a managing director, holds out hopes that the FON scheme can someday "cover every street in Britain." "We are giving our millions of Total Broadband customers a choice and an opportunity," he added in a statement. "If they are prepared to securely share a little of their broadband, they can share the broadband at hundreds of thousands of FON and BT Openzone hotspots today, without paying a penny." '"
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