this breakthrough in our understanding of DVDs is just the beginning. The researchers say their work – which is also applicable to the alloys used in Blu-Rays – is going to pave the way for even better forms of optical storage, with longer life, larger storage capacities, and shorter access times
http://io9.com/5729882/it-took-a-team-of-physicists-all-this-time-to-figure-out-how-dvds-work
Apparently the Google co-founder and recent father wasn’t content with his jetliners and fighter plane
http://gawker.com/5729859/tour-a-google-founders-new-superyacht
The NY Times recently had an odd review of a new book about anonymity online. The book, called The Offensive Internet, is a collection of essays from various legal scholars, apparently taking a look at the fact that (gasp!) some people are just nasty online.
President Barack Obama has promised to step up efforts into protecting intellectual property. Last June, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told reporters that file sharing wasn’t any different than stealing physical goods. “Piracy is theft,” Biden said. “Clean and simple, it’s smash and grab. It ain’t no different than smashing a window at Tiffany’s and grabbing [merchandise].”
That’s tough talk. Pinpointing government action on this issue is more difficult.
The music and film industries can point to some successes in their antipiracy efforts over the past year. But for all the talk about the political might of big entertainment companies, when it comes to protecting copyright, it appears more and more that they’re on their own.
Buoyed by its current high profile, a result of interest in its recent DDoS attacks on Visa, Mastercard and Amazon, the group has issued a call for global action, drenched in freedom-fighting rhetoric.
In a typical proclamation, from mid-December, @AnonOps said “people are the owners of internet, not governments, not corporations”.
Such doctrine is at odds with reality almost everywhere on Earth, but it reveals the thinking – or faith – behind Anonymous. The question of whether its recent wider exposure can convert internet notoriety to bodies on the streets of the capital will be answered this week.
Today Wall Street is ruled by thousands of little algorithms, and they’ve created a new market—volatile, unpredictable, and impossible for humans to comprehend.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/algorithms-take-control-of-wall-street.ars
It’s a smartphone sized prototype that lets UK consumers know whether their bank card transaction is safe. But a leading bank card trade association tried to have details about the device unpublished.
Did the Big Four music labels engage in anticompetitive behavior by agreeing to a minimum song price for online sales? The music labels don’t think so, but the US Supreme Court says a lawsuit alleging anticompetitive behavior will move forward.
“If recipients of official information who are not themselves public servants cannot be prosecuted or prevented from publishing it, it would create an unacceptable situation where people outside (the) Government would have every incentive to obtain confidential information from public servants in every way possible,” Mr Shanmugam said. “And public servants would constantly be weighing the benefits to themselves of releasing the confidential information against the likelihood of getting caught and punished. ”Meanwhile, the broader public interest will suffer.
“We believe that everyone involved in a leak of information, whether in Government or outside, should be dealt with firmly. We do not intend to encourage cat and mouse games.
“Public interest in free flow of information cannot justify the abuse of confidential Government information.”
More: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1103731/1/.html
WikiLeaks won’t publish documents concerning a U.S. bank immediately, founder Julian Assange said in an interview with Tribune de Geneve.
Assange said he might base himself in Switzerland or Australia
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is investigating
A lawyer has played down the significance of the Twitter data mining sparked by the US’s clampdown on WikiLeaks, saying that anyone using sites hosted in the United States had to accept that their data could be made available to authorities.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/364225/consumers-have-to-accept-us-snooping-on-web-services
Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of Swiss-based Bank Julius Baer, has been ordered to appear before a Zurich regional court Jan. 19 to answer charges of coercion and violating Switzerland’s strictbanking secrecy laws. If convicted he could be sentenced to up to three years in prison and a fine.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/01/10/general-eu-switzerland-wikileaks_8247954.html
Sources have also told the newspaper “De Telegraaf” that the son of a Turkish diplomat offered several millions of euros to have WikiLeaks hosted at a robust and reliable Dutch hosting provider.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/8691314/___Gonggrijp_Assanges_adjudant___.html?p=33,1
Previously: http://vrritti.com/?s=gonggrijp
