All Things News

Straight from Slashdot: “Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org has acquired an actual Diebold Acu-vote ballot scanner. Rummaging through King County’s trash, she managed to get her hands on some of their tags and seals. She has since demonstrated a successful penetration of the seals without breaking them … all in under 4 minutes with no training or technical skills required. There’s a nice how-to with photos over at Verified Voting New Mexico.”

Straight from Slashdot: “As one might expect, Arellanes isn’t too keen on the idea of sending her hard drive (PDF) to an RIAA star chamber for examination. Citing the RIAA’s numerous missteps in its ill-conceived crusade against music fans, she requests that the court require a “neutral computer forensics expert and a protocol protective of non-relevant and privileged information” be used to conduct the examination.”

Straight from Ars Technica: “Network neutrality has been off the front page for the last few weeks, but the issue is alive and kicking across the US. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has been spending money like a drunken heiress—$6.6 million on telecom reform ads in the first seven months of the year alone. And what did they buy with all that cash? The sort of advertising so devoid of intellectual content that it’s an insult to stupid people everywhere.Consider the most recent TV spot, a clip aptly called “Mumbo Jumbo.” We’re warned to watch out for the schemes of the “multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley tech companies” and informed that “Net neutrality simply means: you pay.” Riiiiggght—consumers who advocate for Net neutrality do so to enrich Google at their own expense. Whatever you think of the issue, this level of debate is frankly insulting and unhelpful. (Better is an NCTA-linked look at Net neutrality from the market-oriented Progress & Freedom Foundation, which lays out a generally thoughtful case about the negative possible consequences of Net neutrality, but remains open to the idea that regulation might be necessary down the road.)”

Straight from Ars Technica: “Another lawsuit against the NSA will be permitted to move forward (PDF). Federal Judge Garr M. King sided with Judge Walker and pulled the plug on the government’s attempt to block the lawsuit, which targets the NSA’s controversial domestic eavesdropping program. The judge denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case and refused to grant a summary judgement in favor of the government.During the court proceedings, the government asserted state secrets privilege, a rule designed to prevent the release of information that could potentially be detrimental to national security. The state secrets privilege is considered a drastic measure, and it has been used only about 60 times in the past. Critics of the state secrets privilege argue that it can potentially be used to prevent government malfeasance from being revealed to the public.”

Straight from Slashdot: “In the last few weeks the first HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives for PCs have slowly trickled onto the market. Up to now, it has not been clear what system requirements you need to actually be able to play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. The operating system was the main cause of concern; many rumors cropped up that the new generation of video discs would not work under Windows XP. Hardware.Info put the question to Cyberlink, the company behind Power DVD, if the lack of a protected videopath in Windows XP would make it impossible to enable HD-DVD or Blu-Ray playback. They have answered the questions, and provide a complete checklist of what you need to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies in HD resolutions on your home PC.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Apple today announced a new model in the lineup of iMacs, a new 24″ HD model. It comes with a 1920×1200 LCD, 2.16GHz or 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1-3 GB Memory, 250 or 500GB SATA Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT or 7600GT with 128MB GDDR3 Video card. Also posted is a new lower end iMac, which looks very similar to the education iMac. Also available is a small speed boost to the Mini line, which now sports a Core Duo 1.83GHz Processor.”

Straight from Engadget: “The war against your eyesight is on. Sprint is busting out a new pay-per-view movie service that streams full-length flicks to your tiny screen. They’ve already got 45 titles lined up for the service, including popular titles like National Treasure, Spider-Man 2 and Scarface. The new Sprint Movies service is in addition to Sprint’s current mSpot movie service, which offers an all-you-can-eat selection of video content for 7 bucks a month. Sprint Movies can be controlled much like a DVD, with the ability to skip between chapters and resume the flick where it gets left off. Movies cost between $4 and $6 each, with rental periods ranging from 24 hours and one week, and 24 hour extensions are available for a buck. Check the read link for the full movie selection — we’re totally all over that Kindergarten Cop action.”

Straight from Engadget: “The US Air Force has just awarded a grant to military contractor Triton Systems to develop a “Lethal Frisbee UAV,” which can be launched from a device like a skeet launcher and operated by remote control or autonomously. According to the grant abstract, the Lethal Frisbee UAV’s ultimate goal is to locate fortified foes and, to “provide precision fires to neutralize these hostiles.”"

Straight from Engadget: “If you told us a few days ago you were holding out for that hot-rod aesthetic before jumped into the eco-car game, we might’ve questioned your sanity as well as your taste — but now we’ll just question the latter. Ah, we’re just kidding guys! We suppose this new Eco-Fueler American Roadster does have a certain cutesy, almost mutant charm, and that 70 mpg figure is hard to argue with. The new three-wheeler sweetens the deal by running compressed natural gas, which goes for around 62 cents a gallon, and works out to about a penny a mile. Speed tops out at 120mph, and the Roadster has a sound system, heater and a hard-top for all the comforts of home. Production starts next month, and Eco-Fueler hopes to build about 150 of these a month for the $20,000-ish asking price.”