tagged w/ Tech News
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DNS provision pulled from SOPA, victory for opponents
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57358947-261/dns-provision-pulled-from-sopa-victory-for-opponents/
CNET reports the provision for DNS blocking has been pulled from SOPA. CNET also adds that six Republican senators have asked Majority Leader Harry Reid to postpone a vote on Pro IP, also known as PIPA.
From CNET
In a move the technology sector will surely see as a victory, a controversial antipiracy bill being debated in Congress will no longer include a provision that would require Internet service providers to block access to overseas Web sites accused of piracy.
Rep. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), one of the biggest backers of the Stop Online Piracy Act, today said he plans to remove the Domain Name System requirements from the Stop Online Piracy Act.
"After consultation with industry groups across the country," Smith said in a statement released by his office, "I feel we should remove DNS-blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the [U.S. House Judiciary] Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision.
"We will continue to look for ways," Smith continued, "to ensure that foreign Web sites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers."
Smith's decision comes a day after Sen. Patrick Leahy, announced he would strip SOPA's sister bill in the senate, known as the Protect IP Act, of all DNS requirements.
Both bills are heavily supported by a wide group of copyright owners, including the big record companies and Hollywood film studios. The tech sector has claimed that if the bills became law, they would turn rob the Web of free speech and damage the health of the Internet. Copyright owners charge that online piracy has damaged their businesses and costs workers their jobs.
Without the DNS provision, SOPA now looks a great deal more like the OPEN Act, a bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), which was designed to be an alternative to SOPA. A watered-down SOPA means Smith improves his chances of getting the bill through Congress but at this point, nothing is assured.
Late today came word that six Republican senators have asked Majority Leader Harry Reid to postpone a vote on Pro IP, also known as PIPA. The senators wrote: "Prior to committee action, some members expressed substantive concerns about the bill, and there was a commitment to resolve them prior to floor consideration."
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57358947-261/dns-provision-pulled-from-sopa-victory-for-opponents/DNS provision pulled from SOPA, victory for opponents... more
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Google has launched a new film rental service for Android phone and tablet users. UK users can now rent films via the Android Market, with prices starting at £2.49.
A similar service has already launched in America, and initially British users will have access to a library of approximately 1,000 titles.
read more on:
http://www.justnewsnow.com/2011/10/tech-news-google-lunch-1000-films-in.htmlGoogle has launched a new film rental service for Android phone and tablet users. UK... more
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German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry.
The move is a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March, chief executive Peter Loescher said.
He told Spiegel magazine it was the firm's answer to "the clear positioning of German society and politics for a pullout from nuclear energy".
"The chapter for us is closed," he said, announcing that the firm will no longer build nuclear power stations.
Mr Loescher also gave his backing to the German government's planned switch to renewable energy sources, calling it a "project of the century" and claiming Berlin's target of reaching 35% renewable energy by 2020 was achievable.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced at the end of May that all of the country's 17 nuclear reactors would be shut down by 2022.
Prior to the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power accounted for 23% of electricity production in Germany.
The decision marked a complete U-turn by the chancellor, who only in September 2010 had announced that the life of existing nuclear plants would be extended by an average of 12 years.German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from... more
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When George Orwell (pen name of Eric Blair) first published his famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, it was the year 1949, and it told a dark story of what he envisioned life may be like in the future-in the year 1984. His book, as well as his name, have become synonymous with privacy concerns involving technology and also an all-powerful, oppressive ruling elite that strictly governs the activities of the population with an iron fist.
Orwell’s book is where we get the term Big Brother from, such as when people say “Big Brother is watching you.” When people say this, they’re referring to the omniscient surveillance system described in the novel that continuously watched and listened to people-even in their own homes. When we call something Orwellian to describe the invasiveness of certain technology or government policies, we are also referring to George Orwell’s nightmarish vision he described in his novel. There are several other terms that Orwell himself coined in Nineteen Eighty-Four, such as doublethink, thoughtcrime, and memory hole, which have also become part of our vernacular.
Even if you have not read the book or seen the film, you are still undoubtedly familiar with the issues that make up the storyline, such as the high-tech surveillance system watching and listening to everyone in order to keep them in line with the government (called the Party in the novel). You are probably also familiar with the concept of a small elite ruling class (what Orwell calls the Inner Party) living in luxury and wielding unimaginable power over lower level citizens. In the novel, people have lost their freedom, their critical thinking skills, and even the ability to love due to the cultural depths society has sunk to as a result of Big Brother’s control. The reason Nineteen Eighty-Four remains so popular, and the reason society has adopted vocabulary from the book, is because it serves as more than merely a fictional novel for the reader’s entertainment. The novel served (and continues to serve) as a stark warning of what the future may hold if we don’t resist invasive technology and oppressive government policies, or if the population at large becomes so lost in a world of pop culture, sports entertainment, or our own selfish desires, that we simply don’t care. My new non-fiction book, Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True, looks at technology that now exists or is under development and will exist in the near future, that threatens to make our world just as horrific or even worse than the world George Orwell described. I have assembled information from mainstream news sources, industry experts, and even patent numbers of the most invasive and sinister Orwellian devices anyone could dream of. We will also look at actual government programs and policies that seem as if they came right out of Orwell’s dark imagination, such as the government secretly paying mainstream media reporters to act as gate-keepers and propagandists for the establishment, and the FBI illegally spying on and smearing peaceful political activists who were seen as problematic.
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2011/03/big-brother-orwellian-nightmare-come.htmlWhen George Orwell (pen name of Eric Blair) first published his famous novel, Nineteen... more
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Move over mobility. Google extended it's Android Market client from just mobiles devices to the web. As long as you have a browser you can now search thousands of third party software and purchase apps right from your desktop. The apps are then automatically downloaded to your android based device or smartphone.Move over mobility. Google extended it's Android Market client from... more
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If you still pay the $6 on your commute over the Golden Gate Bridge then you’ll probably be interested to know that by 2012, the toll collector who has been collecting your cash since 1937 will be replaced by, you guessed it, modern technology.If you still pay the $6 on your commute over the Golden Gate Bridge then you’ll... more
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Samsung plans to introduce ‘something big, something that is ‘the next evolution’ in Samsung Mobile in February at the Mobile World Congress.Samsung plans to introduce ‘something big, something that is ‘the next... more
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Steve Jobs sent a letter to Apple employees today informing them that he would be taking a leave of absence from the company, the second time in two years.Steve Jobs sent a letter to Apple employees today informing them that he would be... more
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Renewable energy company Iberdrola Renovables has acquired the 26MW Beii Nee Stipa wind farm in Mexico from Gamesa.
Located in the state of Oaxaca, the wind farm consists of 31 units of Gamesa G52 model turbine, each with a generating capacity of 850kW.
The acquisition of this wind farm brings Iberdrola Renovables' total operating capacity in Mexico up to 106MW.
In Mexico, the company has the 80MW La Ventosa wind farm in operation and Beii Nee Stipa is its second operational wind farm in the country.
Iberdrola Renovables is also building a 103MW wind farm, La Venta III, in the municipality of Santo Domingo Ingenio in Oaxaca.Renewable energy company Iberdrola Renovables has acquired the 26MW Beii Nee Stipa... more
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Sprint has something up its sleeve for February 7th and that can only mean one thing. David Blaine will be attendance.Sprint has something up its sleeve for February 7th and that can only mean one thing.... more
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Dubai Bank has implemented SmartStream's TLM Corona to deliver more efficient nostro and central bank account reconciliations.
Dubai Bank implemented the Cash and Investigations as the first modules of its new reconciliations factory, which will eventually act as a single transaction processing platform across the bank's business.
The solution is currently processing nostro and central bank transactions, with plans in place to introduce the new reconciliation types over the next 12 months, said SmartStream.
This enterprise-wide approach provides a single platform that can be expanded in the future, in a modular way, to include all of the bank's reconciliation requirements.
Dubai Bank chief information officer Faizal Eledath said the decision to use SmartStream was based on its strong reputation for its reconciliations products and its ability to deliver proven software to a large and diverse range of clients.
"Furthermore, it also offered local reference visits to see the solution in a live business environment and local support through the office in Dubai, which was important to us.
"With TLM Corona now live we are seeing significant improvements in our transaction processing, with a higher volume of reconciliations taking less than half the time they used to in the manual environment. Loading transactions has also been cut from around two hours to just 15 minutes, while the number of staff required to manage the entire process has been reduced by half," Eledath concluded.Dubai Bank has implemented SmartStream's TLM Corona to deliver more efficient... more
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Range Resources and its Georgian partner Strait Oil and Gas UK have agreed the terms of a Heads of Agreement (HOA) to each sell 10% of their interests in Block VIa and Block VIb in Georgia to Red Emperor Resources.
The key terms of the HOA will see Red Emperor contribute 40% of the drilling costs for the planned two well program (capped at total gross costs of $14m - RMP contributing $5.6m) to acquire the 20% interest in the two blocks.
The company believes the transaction reduces its financial exposure to the two well drilling program through the favorable two-for-one farm-in terms, whilst still maintaining a significant 40% interest in the two blocks.
The HOA entered into with Red Emperor constitutes the execution of a share subscription agreement, pursuant to which Red Emperor will acquire its farm-in interest in the joint venture entity, by the parties by 28 February 2011 (or such later date as agreed by the parties).Range Resources and its Georgian partner Strait Oil and Gas UK have agreed the terms... more
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Will this be a WTF moments? CIA today setup a Wikileaks Task Force (WTF) to watch, study and learn the operations of Wikileaks. This also includes CIA closely monitoring its traffic flow to the ISP that hosts the
http://bit.ly/e9ra7gWill this be a WTF moments? CIA today setup a Wikileaks Task Force (WTF) to watch,... more
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Harland Financial Solutions, a provider of software and services to financial institutions, has acquired Tennessee-based uMonitor, a provider of online solutions specifically designed for financial institutions.Harland Financial Solutions, a provider of software and services to financial... more
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We had reported earlier that iPhone 5 was being worked on. Well BGR reported yesterday that iPhone 5 has supposedly hit the Engineering Verification Test(EVT) stage of testing while iPhone 4 CDMA version ...
http://bit.ly/bxXMTAWe had reported earlier that iPhone 5 was being worked on. Well BGR reported yesterday... more
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This image shows nanoparticles growing. Credit: Image courtesy Wenge Yang
Breakthrough in nanocrystals growth
October , 2010 Breakthrough in nanocrystals growth
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time scientists have been able to watch nanoparticles grow from the earliest stages of their formation. Nanoparticles are the foundation of nanotechnology and their performance depends on their structure, composition, and size. Researchers will now be able to develop ways to control conditions under which they are grown. The breakthrough will affect a wide range of applications including solar-cell technology and chemical and biological sensors. The research is published in Nano Letters.
As coauthor Wenge Yang of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory explained: "It's been very difficult to watch these tiny particles be born and grow in the past because traditional techniques require that the sample be in a vacuum and many nanoparticles are grown in a metal-conducting liquid. So we have not been able to see how different conditions affect the particles, much less understand how we can tweak the conditions to get a desired effect."
These researchers work at the Center for Nanoscale Materials and the Advanced Photon Source (APS)–both operated by Argonne National Laboratory–and the High Pressure Synergetic Consortium (HPSynC), a program jointly run by the Geophysical Laboratory and Argonne. The scientists used high-energy X-rays from the APS to carry out diffraction studies that enabled them to gain information on the crystal structure of the materials. Thanks to the highly brilliant and high penetration of this X-ray source–the largest of its kind in the US–the researchers were able to watch the crystals grow from the beginning of their lives. The atoms scatter very short wavelength X-rays and the resulting diffraction pattern reveals the structure of these unusual particles. Quite often the chemical reaction occurs in a very short time and then evolves. The scientists used highly focused high-energy X-rays and a fast area detector, the key components to make this investigation possible. This is the first time-resolved study of the evolution of nanoparticles from the time they are born.
HPSynC, is also a part of the Energy Frontier for Research in Extreme Environments (EFree) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center supported at Carnegie by DOE-BES. One of the missions of this center is to harness new synchrotron radiation techniques for in situ studies of materials structure and dynamics in extreme conditions and thereby to understand and produce new energy materials.
"This study shows the promise of new techniques for probing crystal growth in real time. Our ultimate goal is to use these new methods to track chemical reactions as they occur under a variety of conditions, including variable pressures and temperatures, and to use that knowledge to design and make new materials for energy applications. This is a major thrust area of the HPSynC program that we have launched in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory," remarked Russell Hemley, the director of Geophysical Laboratory.
Provided by Carnegie Institution
via:http://www.physorg.com/news/*
This image shows nanoparticles growing. Credit: Image courtesy Wenge Yang... more
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