Skip to topic | Skip to bottom

Perry-Thistle.net

P-TWiki > Family > OurVeryOwnPortal

Family Web | Studios Web | Piano Web
Family
Family.OurVeryOwnPortalr1.44 - 18 Mar 2007 - 22:19 - NatePerryThistletopic end

Start of topic | Skip to actions

Our Very Own Portal

This site has the HeadlinesPlugin installed. This may be used to collect and display RSS feeds. By displaying feeds from sites that we like we create Our Very Own Portal.

Other RSS Feeds

OurSite | OurVeryOwnPortal | GovTrack

BuzzTracker | DisasterEvents | GreatNewsNetwork

GoogleNews | IndyMedia | TheNews | CurrentEvents

CaliforniaWeather | EarthQuakes | NationalHurricaneCenter | SpaceWeather

InternetStormCenter | MozillaBits | SecurityFocus | UnitedStatesCERT


What's McCain doing in front of my junior high?
(Speculation has it that it was a goof-up that had the Republican nominee standing in front of Walter Reed Middle School during his acceptance speech Thursday. In any case, the image is bringing back old memories for CNET News' Ina Fried.)
Microsoft tries to reclaim Windows' image
(After years of letting Apple's attack ads go unanswered, software maker sets out on difficult, costly journey of trying to take back control of what Windows stands for. )
Week in review: Google's Chrome shines
(Web giant makes long-awaited foray into browser market, while the mobile market warms up. Also: Tech goes to Republican National Convention.)
Duke Energy to invest in mini solar power plants
(Can hundreds of rooftop solar panels collectively operate like a central power plant? Duke Energy launches $100 million distributed solar program to find out. )
About time: Joost to launch browser-based player
(Company's desktop client failed to catch on with the public, so the Web video service is retooling, but is it too late to catch up to Hulu and Google's YouTube? )
Google and 'Vanity Fair' party with the GOP
(Google and Vanity Fair hosted one of the most talked-about parties at the Republican convention.)
Analysts as a lagging indicator of success
(Gartner, Forrester, and other analyst firms tend to be great predictors of the past, probably because that's where they get their money.)
Memo: Windows chief on new ads
(Windows business unit head Bill Veghte send a memo to troops late Thursday promising that the debut Seinfeld/Bill Gates ad was just an "icebreaker.")
Reality Check: The Seinfeld ad was superb
(Although most think the new Microsoft ad with Jerry Seinfeld failed on most counts, Don Reisinger thinks it was superb. Who's right?)
How will Google Chrome change user experience on the Web?
(

Featured links from the CNET Blog Network

How will Google Chrome change user experience on the Web?--With Google Chrome, the Web application era is getting real. Gianluca Brugnoli, Principal Design Analyst in frog design's Milan studio, outlines some possible models and consequences Chrome might have for the field of user experience.

Timing rumors surface for AMD plant spin-off--Rumors persist that Advanced Micro Devices is planning to spin off all or part of its manufacturing operations.

Improve Vista's performance a little or a lot--Disable indexing, shut down the Aero interface, and clear out unneeded autostart apps to put Vista into high gear.

Online content and services via game consoles will generate $8 billion in revenue in 2013--The revenue possibilities in gaming continue to grow, at least for the big console manufacturers.

)


Exactly What's Under the Chrome, Anyway?
(

Bob Rice is the author of Three Moves Ahead: What Chess Can Teach You About Business, and the former C.E.O. of a tech startup. He now runs merchant bank Tangent Capital, which he founded in 2005.

Love 'em to death, but here's the thing to remember about Google: Your business is its business.

Google doesn't sell software or hardware or content. It sells you -- or, slightly more precisely, its ability to understand your habits and deliver your attention to particular advertisers. And because of this, I am just a touch nervous about installing Chrome, its new browser software.

Of course, Google already collects mountains of information about you from your searches (you do realize they keep track of those, right?), and from the huge cookie collection delivered fresh daily by their ad bakery (the cookie gathers information from all Google products and affiliates -- and doesn't expire until 2038). Gmail users may also have long ago realized they were conceding privacy for convenience and bells and whistles.

Indeed, Google has far more and better data about your habits than the relatively modest amounts that set of privacy firestorms for AOL and DoubleClick (which Google now owns) back in the day. But so far, with Google, it's been like successfully boiling a frog: the temperature has gone up very slowly, so nobody's jumped out of the pot just yet.

Perhaps that's because Google offers so many wonderful services. Who wants to head out without checking the traffic with Google Maps (oops, more footprints)? Or plan an event without checking everybody's calendar (oy...)?

At first glance, Chrome seems just another browser -- and between us, who cares? IE, Safari, Firefox, Chrome -- one has more cup-holders, another has leather trim. So is the idea really just to take a piece of the "browser business," as many say? I doubt it, largely because there isn't one: Nobody's paid for browser software since about 1998. Firefox, remember, is the product of a nonprofit -- one that, interestingly, has been heavily funded by Google, for reasons previously unknown.

At first, Google's goal will be to change the software game and speed your transition from a desktop-driven environment to its "cloud computing" applications: word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Google hopes that soon, you'll create these documents on one computer, leave them on their servers in the sky, and then continue working on them later from any other computer. Natch, you'll collaborate, share and deliver the docs this way, too. And Chrome will be the interface for it all, on top of serving more mundane web surfing functions.

And all the while, Google will be doing the usual, capturing your data, your documents, your habits.

And, how will they use all this information? To do what they do: deliver ever more precisely targeted ads, with concomitant higher response rates, and thus generate more dollars. Maybe we'll see "This cell sponsored by Fidelity" in our spreadsheets soon.

Sure, other companies are in position to track your data, too. The difference is that, for the most part, their business models don't require them to exploit that knowledge. And certainly nobody has the reach that Google has and will have -- especially after they eliminate your last ability to hide with the G-phone this fall.

Now we know Big Brother's real name, do we care? Free software and services are great, and I'd rather see relevant ads than irrelevant ones. But make no mistake: this lunch, too, has a real cost. It's called privacy.

So that's the question consumers have to answer: Is it worth it? If they genuinely don't care about one company controlling a complete catalog of their surfing and working, talking and texting, and meetings and greetings, fine. For me, I think I'd rather pay cash and avoid a virtual peeping Tom who only makes money if he predicts my private behavior well. But, then, I admit it: I'm so 2005.

So, shine up your computer with Chrome if you like; but at least consider getting that "Do No Evil" promise in writing first.


Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Google Reigns as World's Most Powerful 10-Year-Old
(When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc. on Sept. 7, 1998, they had little more than their ingenuity, four computers and an investor's $100,000 bet on their belief that an Internet search engine could change the world. It sounded preposterous 10 years ago, but look now: Google draws upon a gargantuan computer network, nearly 20,000 employees and a $150 billion market value to redefine media, marketing and technology.
Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Palin Comparison: Which Ticket Would Be Better for Music?
(Word is that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave one of her children the middle name "Van" so that his name would rhyme with Van Halen. Does that give the GOP ticket the edge on who would be better for music? Not necessarily.
Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

MIT Brainiacs Cutting Weather-Related Air Delays
(Researchers find a better way of directing airplanes around storms. But then, anything's better than the current method, which amounts to little more than guesswork.
Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Nokia Warns 3Q Market Share Will Fall; Shares Dive
(Nokia warns that its 3Q global market share will decline from 2Q levels, sending its U.S. shares tumbling more than 11 percent in premarket electronic trading. Nokia gave no figures, but in July had predicted that "its mobile device market share in the third quarter of 2008 would be approximately at the same level sequentially" as the second quarter.
Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Sept. 5, 1885: Pay at the Pump
(

1885: Sylvanus F. Bowser delivers the first gasoline pump. It improves safety, but can't guarantee low prices.

The automobile was yet to be invented, and gasoline was a byproduct of refining kerosene for stoves and lamps. Some of that equipment could use gasoline, but it wasn't much in demand.

You bought fuel in a general, hardware or grocery store. You had to bring your own gallon (or whatever) can, and the storekeeper would ladle the flammable fluid from a barrel. Wasteful. Messy. Dangerous.

To reduce spillage, Bowser built a pump in his Fort Wayne, Indiana, barn. He sold and delivered the first one to Fort Wayne merchant Jake Gumper 123 years ago today.

The self-contained unit included a wooden storage barrel, marble valves, a wooden plunger, a hand lever and an upright faucet lever. It was a success. Bowser formed the S.F. Bowser Company and patented his pump in 1887.

The Bowser pump soon became known as a "filling station," and Bowser started selling an improved model to the first automobile-repair garages in 1893.

Most places that sold fuel to motorists used the "drum and measure" method. Gasoline was gravity-fed from a large steel drum into a five-gallon measuring can. The motorist then carried the can over to his automobile and poured the fuel into the car's tank through a funnel that was lined with a chamois filter to remove grit and impurities. A big bother all around, and not awfully safe, either.

Bowser came up with a big improvement in 1905: He enclosed a square, metal tank in a wooden cabinet equipped with a forced-suction pump. A hand-stroke lever pumped the gas. This pump featured air vents for safety, stops that you could set to deliver a predetermined quantity and -- wonder of wonders -- a hose to dispense the gasoline directly into the vehicle's fuel tank. He called it the Bowser Self-Measuring Gasoline Storage Pump. (Rival John J. Tokheim of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had fitted a pump with a direct-delivery hose in 1903.)

The word bowser soon became a generic term for a vertical gasoline pump. That usage has dropped away in the United States, but lingers in Australia, New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, Canada. A bowser is also a tank truck that delivers fuel to airplanes on the tarmac, and in Britain the term applies as well to self-propelled tanks carrying any fluid that is delivered directly to the end user -- for instance, water after a disaster.

Bowser's later career was quirky and litigious. He invented and personally marketed a backscratcher and a sit-down enema. He also sold postcards of himself next to the "Stone of Scone," part of the coronation throne on which British monarchs sit while being crowned in Westminster Abbey.

Source: Petroleum Collectibles Monthly, others


Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Gallery: Distilling 2.0 -- Bye-Bye Boiling, Hello Health Care
(: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

PASADENA, California - For all you moonshine makers who thought your hobby was just a guilty pleasure, a new spin on distilling may actually help save lives. Using ancient technology reduced to a microscopic scale, scientists at Caltech have created new tools to detect disease and purify water using tiny stills.

The creation of the still around A.D. 500 was one of humanity's earliest, and still quite popular, technological advancements. Traditionally, a still boils liquids in order to vaporize and separate them. Now, using nanoparticles and lasers, liquids no longer need to be boiled to be separated.

Removing the heat requirement from distillation means the process could be used to separate living cells without killing them, which could lead to advanced disease detection. Other applications include extracting water cheaply and efficiently from sea water in low-energy saltwater distillation plants.

How do they do it? Take a tour through professor David Boyd's lab and go behind the scenes of this revolutionary process.

Left: A green laser evaporates the water from a liquid. This is the final stage of nano distillation.

:

Here is a diagram of the basic nano still technique. At top is the initial setup with gold nanoparticles sitting on top of a glass slide. The fluid waiting to be distilled is enclosed from above by a silicone rubber chip.

In the bottom diagram, a green laser operating near the resonant frequency of the gold particles is applied. The laser heats the gold nanoparticles, which then transfer the heat to the surrounding fluid. This small amount of heat is just enough to cause controlled evaporation over the gas bubble barrier, leaving pure water on the right-hand side of the diagram.

Click through to the next photo to take a closer look at each of these steps.

Illustration: Chemical Separations by Bubble Assisted Interphase Mass-Transfer, David A. Boyd, James Adelman, David Goodwin, and Demetri Psaltis

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

This spin coater is used to spread out the thin layer of gold nanoparticles on the glass slide. A drop of the gold solution is placed on the slide and the coater spins extremely fast. This spinning spreads the solution evenly and coats the slide with a nearly uniform 15-nanometer layer of gold.

To get a controlled spacing of particles there needs to be a structure in place to hold them. To achieve this, scientists add a polymer to the gold solution. This polymer forms a uniform lattice to structure all the gold. But observant readers will notice there was no polymer in the previous diagram. Where does it go? Click to the next photo to find out.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

This is an oxygen etcher. Once the glass slide is covered with the polymer-and-gold solution, this etcher burns off the polymer, leaving just the gold behind.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

This is a sample slide covered with a matrix of gold nanoparticles. The purple streaks on the slide are the nanoparticles, visibly spreading out from the initial drop applied to the slide during the spin coating. For those readers expecting the entire slide to be purple, scientists actually need only a small portion of the slide to be covered uniformly by the gold, so these streaks will suffice.

The particles have a unique property of rapidly dissipating heat, which is a key factor in how the still works.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

In another part of the lab, the piece of silicone rubber is made. If you think back to the second image in this gallery, you'll recall that the silicone rubber encloses the fluid between itself and the glass slide. This piece of silicone is called the microfluidic chip because of the fluid channels carved into it.

The machine pictured at left is called a mask aligner. It creates a mold for the microfluidic chip. It does this by exposing an image (in this case, the shape and design of the chip) to a photosensitive material. The unexposed portion of the material is discarded, and the shape of the mold is all that's left. It's similar to a photo enlarger, but instead of a two-dimensional image, a fully formed nano structure is made. The final mold is then used to create fluid channels in a piece of silicone rubber. This silicone rubber ends up being the microfluidic chip.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

Here, the silicone rubber chip is drilled to create ports for the nano still. These ports will be used to inject solutions for distillation and to extract the distilled liquid.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

Tiny plugs of silicone are the doughnut holes of the micro-fabrication world. Sadly, these plugs will remain uneaten.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

After fabrication of the microfluidic chip, we're ready to put it all together. The chip is glued to the gold-coated slide that we made earlier (pictured at center-left inside petri dish). Now we have a nano still, which has an electronic sensor attached for measuring the conductivity of the fluid.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

Sometimes science is messy. This workbench is covered with a collection of syringes and gold nanoparticle-coated glass slides. The syringes are used to inject fluids through the ports into the channels in the still, which we'll see in the next photo.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

In this photo, blue "Smurf blood" food-grade dye is injected into the nano still through a syringe. The dye makes it easy to see when the liquid has been distilled. The distilled water will be clear and the remaining water will become darker due to the higher concentration of dye.

: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com

A low-powered green diode laser shines down into the still. The laser is roughly the same strength as an off-the-shelf laser pointer. Very little energy is needed in the microdistilling process thanks to the heat-dissipating properties of the gold nanoparticles.

Professor Boyd, the lead researcher on the project, reveals that this process was largely discovered by accident. "We had this problem with [an] air bubble, so we started hitting it with a laser. Instead of getting rid of it, we saw that we were actually causing the distillation process to occur, which was completely unexpected," Boyd explains.


Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Blimpin' Ain't Easy: Crossing the English Channel in a Pedal-Powered Airship*
(

You know it's hard up here for a blimp. Or so says Stephane Rousson, a 39-year-old Frenchman who's hoping to cross the English Channel in a homemade, pedal-powered airship. As a child, he was captivated by the Gossamer Albatross, the first entirely human-powered craft to fly the turbulent stretch from England to France. Hoping to repeat that 1979 feat, Rousson acquired Zeppy, a crank-driven zeppelin. Built originally by Jean Marc Geiser and his son Luc back in 1984, the craft's forward momentum and steering come from a pair of 10-foot movable propellers, churned by a recumbent bike hanging from the ship's belly; Rousson modified the chassis to improve its stability and power. He has logged more than 30 hours of flight time, including a four-hour hop around the coastal town of Toulon. But so far, no English Channel. The problem: Breezes over 5 mph bat the blimp around like a cat playing with a moth. Also, the heat of the sun raises the temperature of the helium in the Zeppy, which could cause it to explode. With the channel typically experiencing only three windless days a year, Rousson will have to time his five-hour, 34-mile flight perfectly. He plans to try again in September. Here's hoping the attempt doesn't go down like a lead balloon.

*Rejected headlines: Big Blimpin', Keep Your Blimp Legs Strong, Blimp's My Ride


Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Michael Moore to Release Next Movie, Slacker Uprising, for Free Online
(The Fahrenheit 9/11 director plays the Radiohead card with his new documentary about the 2004 election, Slacker Uprising.
Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)

Rain Clips Greenbird's Wings
(You can't set a land-speed record on mud, so British engineer Richard Jenkins packs up his wind-powered land yacht and heads home.
Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to digg Add to Google

)


Boatloads of Trouble: How We Are Importing Our Way to Destruction
(As our consumer goods travel thousands of miles by boat, train and truck, they're leaving a trail of soot and cancer in their wake.)
McCain Uses His Big Speech to Give Us a Tour of His Vietnamese Prison Cell
(Number of sentences in John McCain's RNC speech about being a POW in Vietnam: 43. Number about his 25 years in the House and Senate: 8.)
GOP's Plan for Palin: Reignite the Culture Wars
(Republicans will try to spin Palin's shortcoming into strengths, by revving up the culture wars. )
How My 7-Year-Old Learned About Pre-Marital Sex from John McCain
(I wholly believe in educating my child about contraception. But given that he is 7, I could have waited a few years for that particular talk.)
Amy Goodman: Why We Were Falsely Arrested
(Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy.)
Palin Pick Is GOP Hypocrisy at its Best
(Will the media test her on substance or let her play "Ms. Congeniality?" It is up to the public to see through the fact-free diet we're being fed.)
Robert Scheer: Palin Helps Alaska Get Rich Off Oil While the Rest of the Country Suffers
(We're all part of one nation. So why do the people of Alaska get a cut of oil company profits when the rest of us don't?)
Jim Hightower: A Swarm of Lobbyists Would Run McCain's White House
(McCain has already assembled his clique of advisors, and they don't have our best interests in mind.)
David Sirota: The Democratic Convention Was Anything But Conventional
(This year's Democratic convention may have helped forge a new progressive movement.)
Mark Weisbrot: Bolivia: Can the Majority of People Vote for Change and Actually Get It?
(A wealthy minority in Bolivia seems determined to thwart the changes demanded by a majority of the population.)


Slashdot's Disagree Mail
(Everyone likes to belong to something. Whether it be for fun, a sense of belonging, or a need for attention, a group gives you a feeling of solidarity. Surrounding yourself with people that share common goals and ideas can be comforting. Sometimes however, you realize that you hate the people you've surrounded yourself with. Your religion doesn't allow you to read anything that has profanity or you've subscribed to Slashdot thinking you could learn more about hockey. This weeks collection is composed of people who don't want to play, read, or be associated with us anymore. Read below to find out how bad they want out.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

Facebook Blocks Users From Mentioning BugMeNot.com
(ThinkingInBinary writes "The other day, I was trying to mention bugmenot.com in my Facebook status, and I discovered to my horror that Facebook blocks the phrase "bugmenot.com" as "abusive" in status updates, messages, and presumably any other communications on the site. Facebook isn't even listed on BugMeNot, as they requested that logins for Facebook be blocked. This is pretty ridiculous, as I can't even send my friends a message mentioning bugmenot.com!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

Amazon Opens On-Demand Video Store
(g0dsp33d writes "Amazon opened the doors on its new video on demand service. Some promotional videos are free and the quality seems to be good. You can preview the first 2 minutes of any of the offerings. Episodes of TV shows cost $1.99 and movies are $14.99. Movies can also be 'rented' for 24 hours for $3.99. Purchasing allows download to two machines and unlimited viewing online. The service claims 14.5K movies and 1,200 TV shows including pre-purchasing the rights to upcoming seasons. Considering alternative, ad-based, free online video sites such as Hulu, is Amazon's service too pricey?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

Best Shrinkable ReiserFS Replacement?
(paulkoan writes "I have been using ReiserFS for my file system across a few servers for some time now (follow the link below for details of my experience). I can't foresee the future of ReiserFS, but if I'm going to have to migrate as support diminishes, I'd like to begin that process now. My criteria are: in-kernel support, shrinkable, and has good recovery when the file system is not closed properly. That shrinkable requirement precludes a lot of options. What's a good replacement for ReiserFS?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

FCC Aims To End Debate With Wireless Tests
(narramissic writes "Engineers from T-Mobile, AT&T, M2Z Networks, Nokia, Metro PCS, CTIA and XM Sirius have convened at a Boeing facility in Seattle this to watch as the FCC performs tests it hopes will quiet debate over a proposed spectrum auction. At issue is the FCC's requirement that the winner offer free wireless broadband services in a portion of the spectrum, a move the wireless industry contends will lead to interference for 3G phone users. The FCC is conducting some of the same tests that T-Mobile, one of the more vocal opponents of the FCC plan, has already done plus some additional tests, focusing on interference between handsets running on the different frequencies. Some of the tests involve using handsets connected to WiMax or UMTS networks running on spectrum the commercial providers would use, and then issuing signals using the proposed new service and spectrum, to determine at what signal strength the proposed service causes the WiMax or UMTS call to drop."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

Four SSDs Compared — OCZ, Super Talent, Mtron
(MojoKid writes "Solid State Drive technology is set to turn the storage industry on its ear — eventually. It's just a matter of time. When you consider the intrinsic benefits of anything built on solid-state technology versus anything mechanical, it doesn't take a degree in physics to understand the obvious advantages. However, as with any new technology, things take time to mature and the current batch of SSDs on the market do have some caveats and shortcomings, especially when it comes to write performance. This full performance review and showcase of four different Solid State Disks, two MLC-based and two SLC-based, gives a good perspective of where SSDs currently are strong and where they're not. OCZ, Mtron and Super Talent drives are tested here but Intel's much anticipated offering hasn't arrived to market just yet."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

UK ISPs To Hand Over Thousands of File Sharers' Data
(Death Metal Maniac sends along a link from TorrentFreak on the latest development in game developer Topwear's battle against file sharers in the UK. "US game developer Topware Interactive, the people behind the now infamous Dream Pinball affair, are about to turn up the heat. Operating through London lawyers Davenport Lyons, they have managed to convince the High Court to send out an order demanding that ISPs in the UK start to hand over the details of several thousand alleged pirates... BT, one of the UK's largest ISPs..., confirmed it had been ordered to hand over details of alleged copyright infringing file-sharers... Virgin Media was a little more slippery in its response but reading between the lines it seems obvious they are involved too."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

Every Satellite Tracked In Realtime Via Google Earth
(Matt Amato writes "With the recent discussion of the ISS having to dodge some space junk, many people's attention has once again focused on the amount of stuff in orbit around our planet. What many people don't know is that USSTRATCOM tracks and publishes a list of over 13,000 objects that they currently monitor, including active/retired satellites and debris. This data is meaningless to most people, but thanks to Analytical Graphics, it has now been made accessible free of charge to anyone with a copy of Google Earth. By grabbing the KMZ, you can not only view all objects tracked in real-time, but you can also click on them to get more information on the specific satellite, including viewing its orbit trajectory. It's an excellent educational tool for the space-curious. Disclaimer: I not only work for Analytical Graphics, but I'm the one that wrote this tool as a demo."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

Shadow Analysis Could Spot Terrorists
(Hugh Pickens writes "An engineer at Jet Propulsion Labs says it should be possible to identify people from the way they walk — a technique called gait analysis, whose power lies in the fact that a person's walking style is very hard to disguise. Adrian Stoica has written software that recognizes human movement in aerial and satellite video footage by isolating moving shadows and using data on the time of day and the camera angle to correct shadows that are elongated or foreshortened. In tests on footage shot from the sixth floor of a building, Stoica says his software was indeed able to extract useful gait data. Extending the idea to satellites could prove trickier, though. Space imaging expert Bhupendra Jasani at King's College London says geostationary satellites simply don't have the resolution to provide useful detail. 'I find it hard to believe they could apply this technique from space,' says Jasani." Comments on the article speculate on the maximum resolution possible from KH-11 and KH-12 spy satellites.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)

US Web Firm Described As "Phantom Registrar" Haven
(snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Martin Heller directs attention to ongoing investigations of more than 40 phantom registrars linked to The Directi Group, including PDR, one of the 10 worst offenders on the Net. According to KnujOn, an additional 19,000 domains advertised through spam have been hiding their ownership behind PrivacyProtect.org, which The Washington Post has outed as Directi-owned. Directi claims it suspends illicit domains, but KnujOn provides documentation suggesting that Directi reports the registrars suspended and then reinstates them at another IP address. 'There has been some outcry about all this from the ICANN At-Large Committee, but as of this writing there has been no response from ICANN's Tim Cole,' Heller writers. 'Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that LogicBoxes, a Directi-owned registrar, has sponsored ICANN meetings in L.A. and Delhi.' Directi has since issued an official response to the allegations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

)



Note: I did have trouble with the Alternet.org feed. I suspect that it is encoded in UTF-8, and there is a patch to convert that into ISO-... whatever TWiki likes. I'll try to apply it soon. -- NatePerryThistle - 23 Jul 2004

Way cool - thanks Nate :_ -- FloydPerryThistle - 23 Jul 2004

UPDATE: With the patch that I just applied I was able to get the alternet.org feed. -- NatePerryThistle - 02 Sep 2004
to top


You are here: Family > OurVeryOwnPortal

to top

Copyright © 1999-2008 by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding P-TWiki? Send feedback

 


Edit IncludedSearch