SkiifGeek writes "With little fanfare, section 202c of the German computer crime laws came into effect over the weekend. Worryingly for Security professionals, the laws make the mere possession of (creates, obtains or provides access to, sells, yields, distributes or otherwise allows access to) many useful tools illegal. A similar law was proposed for the UK, however it was modified prior to passing through parliament due to the outcry from the industry. Phenoelit, KisMAC, the CCC, and the Month of PHP Bugs are just some of the relatively high profile projects and groups to have already taken measures to remove or modify content under this law."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

smallfries writes "The network neutrality debate has raged on in the States for some time now. Now broadband providers in the UK have banded together to threaten the BBC, who plans to provide programming over 'their' networks. The BBC is being asked to cough up to pay for bandwidth charges, otherwise traffic shaping will be used to limit access to the iPlayer. 'As more consumers access and post video content on the internet - using sites such as YouTube - the ability of ISPs to cope with the amount of data being sent across their networks is coming under increasing strain, even without TV broadcasters moving on to the web. Analysts believe that ISPs will be forced to place stringent caps on consumers' internet use and raise prices to curb usage. Attempts have been made by players in the industry to form a united front against the BBC by asking the Internet Service Providers' Association to lead the campaign on the iPlayer issue. However, to date, no single voice for the industry has emerged. ' I thought that the monthly fee we pay already was to cover access ... but maybe it only covers the final mile and they need to be paid twice to cover the rest of the journey."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cory Doctorow: Tyler sez, "The Singularity Summit 2007 is one month away, happening September 8th-9th at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco. Tickets for the two-day event can be purchased online for the extremely low-price of $50, which even includes two lunches, a Saturday night reception, and extensive audience participation. The theme is 'Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity.' Some of the fascinating questions to be explored include: 'What are the major challenges to achieving advanced AI? What are the benefits and dangers? How far are we from self-improving AI? How should we prepare for this potentially powerful innovation?'" Link (Thanks, Tyler!)

Cory Doctorow: Tyler sez, "The Singularity Summit 2007 is one month away, happening September 8th-9th at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco. Tickets for the two-day event can be purchased online for the extremely low-price of $50, which even includes two lunches, a Saturday night reception, and extensive audience participation. The theme is 'Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity.' Some of the fascinating questions to be explored include: 'What are the major challenges to achieving advanced AI? What are the benefits and dangers? How far are we from self-improving AI? How should we prepare for this potentially powerful innovation?'" Link (Thanks, Tyler!)

Cory Doctorow: NPR's Rick Kleffel sends us a link to "Over an hour with William Gibson, talking about the Fortean Times, SF as based in the present, the history of cyberpunk, and, and, and ... more." Link (Thanks, Rick!)

ScottMaxwell writes "Spirit, the Mars rover designed for a 90-day mission, has now outlasted the Viking 2 lander. Viking 2 survived until its 1281st sol (Martian day); Spirit is now on sol 1282 and counting. Assuming both rovers continue to weather the ongoing dust storms, Spirit's sister, Opportunity, will reach the same age in a few weeks. They aren't breathing down the neck of the all-time record just yet, though — the Viking 1 lander lasted 2245 sols on the surface of Mars; Spirit and Opportunity won't break that record for another 2.7 Earth years."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Xeni Jardin:

Getting high with Richard Branson: Virgin America's virgin flight (Xeni)

Jay Kinney reviews Zeitgeist, the Movie (Mark)

Chart of presidential candidate's positions (Mark)

Two-word license agreement: "FUCK YOU!" (Cory)

Bad cops to wear Hello Kitty armbands (Pesco)

Rep. Bob Allen cites fear of black men, weather in oral sex arrest (Mark)

Great Happiness Space: doc film on Japan's "host bars." (Xeni)

Video game you control with piss (Cory)

Cartoons for HTTP error codes (Cory)

Google Video robs customers of the videos they "own" (Cory)

US tech firm behind massive new human-tracking system in China (Xeni)

Image: RedandJonny, from this BB post: Link.

David Pescovitz: Thanks so much to everyone who submits sites, permalinks, and other online ephemera to us. We really appreciate it! However, we never ever accept submissions (including PR pitches) via email. It's also not polite to add us, or anyone for that matter, to email lists without permission. So, as a friendly reminder, here's the ol' helpful post describing "HOWTO get something posted to Boing Boing." Thank you again for your support and incredible suggestions. We appreciate it! Link

Xeni Jardin: More than 20,000 jetlagged international flyers were stuck at LAX for hours this weekend when the computer system for passenger screening failed for several hours. Three people became sick, and had to be transported to nearby hospitals. Snip:

[...] Americans and foreigners sat in four airport terminals and in 60 planes starting about 2 p.m. on Saturday, when the computer system broke down, said Los Angeles World Airports spokesman Paul Haney. A major switch in the system, which contains names of arriving passengers and law enforcement data about them, including arrest warrants, had failed and had to be replaced, said Mike Fleming, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

"That system allows our officers to make decisions on who we can allow to enter the United States," Fleming said. "You just don't know by looking at them."

The computers were fully restored at 11:45 p.m., and the last of backlogged passengers were processed by early Sunday, Fleming said.

Link

hackingbear writes "News.com reports that China is building the largest and most sophisticated people-tracking network in the world, all to track citizens in the city of Shenzhen. This network utilizes 20,000 intelligent digital cameras and RFID cards to keep track of the 12.4 million people living in the Southern port city. The key to the system is the new residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips. 'Data on the chip will include not just the citizen's name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord's phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China's controversial "one child" policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.' While I lived in Shenzhen, there indeed were (and still are) plenty of crimes. One of my friend who lived at the 20th floor of a condo building in a nice neighborhood saw an intruder in the middle of one night while he was sleeping. Still, this will clearly raise the fear of human rights abuses. And ... 'one of the most startling aspects of this plan is that this project is mostly made possible by an American company with solid venture fundings.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

hackingbear writes "News.com reports that China is building the largest and most sophisticated people-tracking network in the world, all to track citizens in the city of Shenzhen. This network utilizes 20,000 intelligent digital cameras and RFID cards to keep track of the 12.4 million people living in the Southern port city. The key to the system is the new residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips. 'Data on the chip will include not just the citizen's name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord's phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China's controversial "one child" policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.' While I lived in Shenzhen, there indeed were (and still are) plenty of crimes. One of my friend who lived at the 20th floor of a condo building in a nice neighborhood saw an intruder in the middle of one night while he was sleeping. Still, this will clearly raise the fear of human rights abuses. And ... ' one of the most startling aspects of this plan is that this project is mostly made possible by an American company with solid venture fundings.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Xeni Jardin: Rick Prelinger says,

Seeing the post on AT&T and its concern for user privacy in 1928 reminded me of their 1920 ad, where they call for the Americanization of new immigrants and the use of a single language on the phone.

"But the telephone is no interpreter. If its far reaching wires are to be effective, those who use them must speak the same language. The telephone best serves those who have become one with us in speech."

Well, sure. Babel is one thing, but xenophobia and suspicion of difference is quite another.

Link

Previously on BoingBoing: How AT&T fought for privacy -- 80 years ago

grrlscientist writes "New research has shown that the skeletal system may be an important player in preventing obesity and type-2 diabetes in animals. This may also be true for humans, and thus represents an important development for the treatment of these health conditions. From the article: 'Not only do bones produce a protein hormone, osteocalcin (pictured), that regulates bone formation, but this hormone also protects against obesity and glucose intolerance by increasing proliferation of pancreatic beta cells and their subsequent secretion of insulin. Osteocalcin was also found to increase the body's sensitivity to insulin and as well as reducing its fat stores ... "The skeleton used to be thought of as just a structural support system. This opens the door to a new way of seeing the bones," said Dr. Gerard Karsenty, chairman of the department of genetics and development at Columbia University Medical Center in NYC, who headed the team that made the discovery.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Xeni Jardin: Haven't ever ordered or demoed anything from miniot.com, but their new product sure looks nice: handcrafted wood protective cases for the iPhone, now available in oak, cherry, mahogany, walnut, and padouk, whatever the hell that is. Each iWood is said to be carved from a single piece of "the finest woods we can find, obtained from well-managed forests, and FSC-certified supply." Pricing starts at €60 ($82). Link. Looks like they'll burn a logo or monogram in if you like, too.

PoliTech writes "iPhone bills are surprisngly large - 'Xbox Large', according to Ars technica: 'AT&T's iPhone bills are quite impressive in their own right. We're starting to get bills for the iPhone here at Ars, and while many of us have had smartphones for some time, we've never seen a bill like this. One of our bills is a whopping 52 pages long, and my own bill is 34 pages long. They're printed on both sides, too. What gives? The AT&T bill itemizes your data usage whenever you surf the Internet via EDGE, even if you're signed up for the unlimited data plan. AT&T also goes into an incredible amount of detail to tell you; well, almost nothing. For instance, I know that on July 27 at 3:21 p.m. I had some data use that, under the To/From heading, AT&T has helpfully listed as Data Transfer. The Type of file? Data. My total charge? $0.00. This mind-numbing detail goes on for 52 double-sided pages (for 104 printed pages!) with absolutely no variance except the size of the files.' You would think that a data company would have a more efficient billing process."

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anagama writes "Forgent Networks, a patent troll, got the slap down by a TX jury in May when it invalidated a patent Forgent held regarding video teleconferencing over telephone lines, and today, its motion for a new trial against EchoStar was denied. In fact, the court awarded EchoStar $90k in costs. Forgent probably isn't crying that much though, it already extorted $28m from other defendants. Some of you may recall that Forgent made a business out of cheating companies for jpeg use — till their patent was largely invalidated on that front as well."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.