head_dunce writes "According to this article, Mark Shuttleworth from the Ubuntu camp says Dell is seeing a demand for the Linux-based PC and, "There are additional offerings in the pipeline." I'm starting to see flashbacks of the days when Microsoft partnered up with IBM to gain control of the desktop market. Will other Linux flavors find their way to the likes of Lenovo or HP, etc, or will Ubuntu claim the desktop market working with other PC manufacturers?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Animats writes "Details are scant at this time, but a explosion at the Scaled Composites rocket test facility has killed two people and seriously injured four more. The Los Angeles Times reports that the explosion was 'ignited by a tank of nitrous oxide.' This is Burt Rutan's facility, and the home of SpaceShip One and Virgin Galactic spacecraft development."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

But there's no doubt I'm going to see this movie.

Synopsis: "Homer Simpson must save the world from a catastrophe he himself created."

Cory Doctorow:
I just bought one of these "Monster Belt Buckles" on the ComicCon floor -- I couldn't resist. They've got the classic good looks of the Universal Monsters or vintage Ray Harryhausen, cast in heavy metals like brass or pewter (there's aluminum versions too). Nice variety in the subjects -- there's a really encouraging trend to vintage monster stuff at ComicCon this year. Link

When we launched the public beta of the Techdirt Insight Community, one of the things we tried to be very careful about was the terms of service. We wanted to avoid a lot of the annoying things you find in many of the terms of service. It took two separate law firms and (not joking) one special two hour meeting explaining that the terms of service needed to actually be for the benefit of the user, rather than positioning us against the user, but eventually things worked out. One of the things the lawyers came back with initially was a clause saying that we could change the terms at any time and it was the users' responsibility to check. That seemed pretty lame. In fact, our product development team had already set up our system so that any changes to the terms alerts the user and will not allow them to login to the service without agreeing to the new terms. I'll admit that our terms still suggest that the user check the terms for changes, but it also lets them know that they'll be alerted to changes as well. It's good that we did this, because as Greg Beck alerts us, a court has ruled that websites can't unilaterally change contracts on customers and claim it's the users' responsibility to check for changes. Eric Goldman gives his take on the case as well. This is something that should be obvious, but apparently wasn't. In an age of EULAs that no one ever reads, it's good to see the courts recognizing that it may be a bit ridiculous to consider them binding -- at least in some specific cases.

Mav sent in this article that opens, "In a roundtable with the European press, John Chambers confirmed the "end of life" of the Linksys name, being replaced by the new and redesigned Cisco branding." He explains, "It will all come over time into a Cisco brand. The reason we kept Linksys' brand because it was better known in the US than even Cisco was for the consumer. As you go globally there's very little advantage in that."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In recent months, there have been a spate of stories about defective or dangerous products being exported from China. These include everything from toy train sets to toothpaste laced with poison. The conventional thinking is that this poor quality control is the result of a rapidly growing economy outstripping the capabilities of regulators, but that these issues will inevitably correct themselves over time as the economy matures. Writing at Knowledge@Wharton, Paul Midler offers a slightly contrarian stance, arguing that poor quality control, or "quality fade" as he calls it, is actually to be expected from a maturing economy (via Evolving Excellence). Basically, the inattention to quality is a result of cutthroat price competition and the attendant margin pressures faced by exporters. It's well known that Chinese exporters don't enjoy good margins, so for commodity products (like a tube of toothpaste), substituting inferior ingredients may seem like the only way to make a buck. The effects are exacerbated by pressure to demonstrate a fast ROI on new infrastructure investments. The perverse consequence is that companies that have recently expanded their capacity often try to raise prices (or skimp in other areas), so as to rapidly justify the expansion, which turns the concept of economies of scale on its head. Ultimately, China is likely to end up like its neighbors (Japan, Korea, et. al.), which once were known for their inferior goods but eventually got their act together. But this transition won't happen overnight and in the meantime, market demands could get in the way.

flaws writes "The guys at Secure Science Corporation have written a revealing article demonstrating the relationship with the most recent Ransom-based Trojan (known as Glamour) and some previous data stealing trojans. They include an open source decrypting utility for unlocking your files if infected, and some stats that are a bit disturbing. According to their report, in the past 8 months, 152,000 victims have been infected, and over 14.5 million records were discovered to be logged by the trojan."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

David Pescovitz: Scientists now estimate that cats were first domesticated 12,000 years ago in the Near East. According to research published last month in the journal Science, every housecat is a descendant of a Middle Eastern wildcat with the name Felis sylvestris ("cat out of the woods.") In a new online article, Smithsonian outlines what we know about the secret history of domesticated cats. From Smithsonian:

When humans were predominantly hunters, dogs were of great use, and thus were domesticated long before cats. Cats, on the other hand, only became useful to people when we began to settle down, till the earth and—crucially—store surplus crops. With grain stores came mice, and when the first wild cats wandered into town, the stage was set for what the Science study authors call "one of the more successful 'biological experiments' ever undertaken." The cats were delighted by the abundance of prey in the storehouses; people were delighted by the pest control.

"We think what happened is that the cats sort of domesticated themselves," Carlos Driscoll, one of the study authors, told the Washington Post. The cats invited themselves in, and over time, as people favored cats with more docile traits, certain cats adapted to this new environment, producing the dozens of breeds of house cats known today. In the United States, cats are the most popular house pet, with 90 million domesticated cats slinking around 34 percent of U.S. homes.

Link

David Pescovitz: Scientists now estimate that cats were first domesticated 12,000 years ago in the Near East. According to research published last month in the journal Science, every housecat is a descendant of a Middle Eastern wildcat with the name Felis sylvestris ("cat out of the woods.") In a new online article, Smithsonian outlines what we know about the secret history of domesticated cats. From Smithsonian:

When humans were predominantly hunters, dogs were of great use, and thus were domesticated long before cats. Cats, on the other hand, only became useful to people when we began to settle down, till the earth and—crucially—store surplus crops. With grain stores came mice, and when the first wild cats wandered into town, the stage was set for what the Science study authors call "one of the more successful 'biological experiments' ever undertaken." The cats were delighted by the abundance of prey in the storehouses; people were delighted by the pest control.

"We think what happened is that the cats sort of domesticated themselves," Carlos Driscoll, one of the study authors, told the Washington Post. The cats invited themselves in, and over time, as people favored cats with more docile traits, certain cats adapted to this new environment, producing the dozens of breeds of house cats known today. In the United States, cats are the most popular house pet, with 90 million domesticated cats slinking around 34 percent of U.S. homes.

Link

David Pescovitz: This hotel in southwestern Bolivia is constructed entirely from blocks of salt. It was built on the salt desert of Salar de Uyuni. Previously, the only folks in the area were salt miners but apparently it's now a tourist destination. From National Geographic:

The blindingly white flats stretch as far as the eye can see, except for a few raised mounds of salt. Despite its barren appearance, the desert hosts cacti and rare hummingbirds, and three species of flamingos stop over each year to breed.

Link

mytrip writes "NASA said today it is investigating suspected sabotage of a recorder placed on the shuttle Endeavour for delivery to the space station where it will track physical stresses on the orbiting lab."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back in May we wrote about a journalism professor from Berkeley named Neil Henry claiming that it was it was Google's social responsibility to give money to journalists because Google News was putting newspapers out of business (which was followed by an equally bizarre claim from another journalist that this claim didn't go far enough and newspapers should actually sue Google). The problems with this statement are obvious. First, it's not Google that's killing journalism. If anything, Google has helped drive much more traffic to many websites of various newspapers. That's good for those newspapers. Second, Google doesn't host any content at all. It's not competing with newspapers, it's simply acting as a guide so people can find the news on those newspapers' websites. It would be the same thing as blaming a newspaper for harming the movie business because it has movie listings. After all, that provides "choice" to readers who can pick which movie they want (just like Google provides a choice about which news site people can pick to read news stories). Finally, Google doesn't even have any ads on its Google News pages -- showing that Google isn't even making any money on the site that these journalists claim is making so much money.

We pointed out much of this, as did many other sites. As a journalist and a journalism professor, you would think that perhaps Mr. Henry would have bothered to read up on this and understand why his claims don't make sense -- and then either apologize and change his opinion or, at least, respond to the criticism. Instead, as an anonymous reader points out, he's simply repeating the bizarre claim that Google has a social responsibility to give money to journalists, while talking about how his former students are losing jobs. It must be emotional to have your students losing jobs, but perhaps it has more to do with learning from a journalism professor who doesn't seem to understand how the thing he's criticizing actually works (and then ignores everyone who points out his incorrect statements).

Mark Frauenfelder: Former narcotics officer Barry Cooper says he feels guilty for making over 800 drug arrests in his career: "The war on drugs is an utterly losing proposition," he tells Radar. "We caused more harm breaking up families to put non-violent drug offenders in jail than the drugs ever did. And for what? To eradicate 1/10th of a percent of drugs on the street."

Now he has made an instructional video called Never Get Busted Again. Radar Online has printed some of Cooper's tips.

• The best advice I can give you is this: Never carry more marijuana than you can eat. If the police turn on the red and blues, just eat it. It's not illegal to smell like pot—it's just illegal to possess it.

• Don't think that by hiding pot in coffee grounds, or masking the scent with Bounce fabric softener or vanilla extract, you're gonna be okay. Police dogs are trained to cut through these scents. Petroleum and cayenne pepper don't work either—a dog may jerk back after smelling it, but humans will recognize the reaction.

• If you are going to travel with marijuana, place it in a non-contamined container right before you leave. The drug odor won't have time to permeate through the plastic. If you are handling pot at your house, wear latex gloves or wash your hands—marijuana dust can reside on your fingers, and dogs can smell it. You'd be surprised at how many people get busted when dogs start sniffing around car door handles.

• Hiding your drugs in food is also a wise move. The mixed smells will throw off a dog.

Link

An anonymous reader writes "Finally, a BitTorrent interface for the mobile phone. Dubbed uTorrent mUI, the web user interface allows the end user to control torrent downloads remotely. The interface still lacks the ability to add torrents, however bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kodak today filed a suit against Panasonic (and JVC) claiming that they are infringing Kodak patents which cover image compression, storage, color image sensors, selectable image size and preview. Apparently Kodak is seeking damages and an injunction against Matushita (Panasonic) and its subsidiaries. An interesting suffix to this story is that apparently Sony already settled a similar case with Kodak in January which requires them to pay Kodak royalties (something Olympus and Sanyo already do).

Mark Frauenfelder: Josh says:

A couple of days ago you noted Elbruz.org's geographical claim, in this post:

There is a larger one on Glover Island on Newfoundland.

I should know: I believe I'm the only person to have ever slept on an island on an island on an island. I went to Newfoundland once and camped on one the islands in the lake on Glover.

Link (This is a Google Maps link. Zoom in an out to see the island on an island on an island)