shaitand writes "When looking for a remote support application that penetrates firewalls and can be initiated by my clients with a couple of clicks, I came across Showmypc.com. It was a standalone executable but looked like it would work and best of all it was open source. The only thing I didn't like was the interface, so I went to check out the Sourceforge page. I noticed a substantial problem: CVS is empty and the source on the download page is for the 2.6 version. The version of the executable is 3.53. I mailed the developers that they needed to distribute their modified SSH client and VNC source to be in compliance with the GPL license. They said they didn't modify those programs and ignored my request for the current source code. So I ask again, if this is a GPL'ed application; where is the source?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

YIAAL writes "Indian journalist Amit Varma reports that Mumbai's police are requiring the city's 500 Internet cafes to install keystroke loggers, which will capture every keystroke by users and turn that information over to the government — nearly in realtime by the sound of it. Buy things online, and the underpaid Indian police will have your credit card number. 'Will these end up getting sold in a black market somewhere? Not unlikely.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bombula writes to let us know that Google is "finally succumbing to the power of the almighty dollar" and getting ready to implement image and video ads in sponsored searches.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's been a really interesting morning, in a sick kind of way (that is, I'm still really sick, coughing and wheezing, rasping and sneezing).

First, I got a really excellent How To Be A Sick Dude from Naked Jen, my very good friend from Santa Cruz, who specializes in wellness through herbs and good vibes. She's been sending well-intentioned "mom energy" my way, advising me to do certain things, and against others. The most serious thing she warned me about was doing too much too soon. That's a good way to be sick for a month, she warned. So I asked for her prescription. When can I go for a walk, and how long should it be? I really want to get out and I think pulling oxygen in and out of my lungs would be good for them. But when I exert myself, even a little, I start coughing madly. So she wrote me a How To, and I'm going to encourage her to post it on her blog because a lot of other people could benefit from this common sense advice on what to do and what to avoid.

Marc Canter wrote a fantastic blog post this morning that explains in a nutshell all that's wrong with the tech press. It's a well-written piece, you get the sense that he's spent a lot of time thinking about it. The problem is that when the press don't do their job, and those of us who care about getting the real story do their job for them, it's very easy to get rid of the problem, just make fun of the people who care enough to ask. That's what happened at Gnomedex, I asked questions of someone in power that he didn't want to answer.

The sad thing is that this doesn't just happen in the tech press, it happens in all media. They feel it's their responsibility to carry the story the way those in power want it carried, so they ask questions about "the surge" that Bush wants asked and only when he wants them asked. We're seeing this play out in excruciatingly agonizing detail with tomorrow's appearance in Congress of General Petraeus. He will come to explain the decision that's already been made, he'll say we can discuss it when it's been given a chance to work or not. How about next June or July?

I've been playing around with a new expandable display for the Scripting News home page, using the mktools package from Matt Kruse. Let me know if you like it, or don't.

Copyfighter James Grimmelman -- now at the New York Law School -- has just posted a new draft paper: "Information Policy for the Library of Babel." It's a lovely allegory about the Library of Babel proposed in 1941 by Jorge Luis Borges, in which all possible books are available -- and about the information policy the library's guardians would have to implement to make it the best library possible. James proposes that the Internet bears striking similarities to the Library of Babel -- and applies the lessons from its infinite depths to the question of information policy for the net.

Or, looked at another way, the Federal Library Commission must serve the inhabitants of the Library (or "librarians," as Borges calls them). There is no one else for it to serve. The inhabitants, however, encounter the Library first and foremost as readers. Indeed, their search for information in its stacks (or the repudiation of that search) is the principal act that gives their own lives meaning. They search for their Vindications, for "the books of the Crimson Hexagon, books smaller than natural books, books omnipotent, illustrated, and magical." 12 On the shelves somewhere are "the detailed history of the future, the autobiographies of the archangels, . . . the treatise Bede could have written (but did not) on the mythology of the Saxon people,"13 and other informational treasures beyond measure. We do our job well if we help our constituents find the true and beautiful books and steer them clear of the false and ugly ones.

PDF Link, HTML Link

Dear Lord, I have such a case of bookcase lust over this chair, with its integrated bookcases and lamp. The fact that you can pick it up from behind and wheel it around like a wheelbarrow just makes it all the cooler. Someday, I will have a library of my own and it will be filled with furniture like this. Link (via Neatorama)

See also:
Bookcase with integrated chair/stool
Armchair incorporates 5m of bookcase
Handyman's 17-in-1 lounger from 1939

VeriChip -- and other vendors -- have been busily implanting radio-frequency ID (RFID) chips in human and animal subjects ever since the FDA approved the process. But a series of studies conducted from 1996-2006 noted a high incidence of dangerous tumors arising at the sites of RFID implants -- something the FDA apparently did not consider when it approved the procedure.

Cancer or no, I wouldn't go near an RFID implant. These things don't have off-switches. They don't have disclosure policies. They don't have logs, or even notifiers. That means that you can't stop people from interrogating your RFID, you can't choose who gets to interrogate your RFID, you can't see who has polled your RFID -- and you can't even know when your RFID is being read. You wouldn't carry normal ID that behaves this way, but from London's Oyster Card to the DOT's FastPasses to the new US passports, these things are being stuck to our person in ever-greater numbers.

And while manufacturers claim that these things have inherent security because they can only be read from a few centimetres away, hackers have already ready them at more than 10m distance.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are safe, as does its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.

Link

See also:
How thieves steal RFID-enabled cars
HOWTO disable your new, RFID-laden US passport
CA bill would ban forced subdermal RFID-tagging of humans
HOWTO make an RFID virus
Report: "contactless" credit cards with RFID are easily hacked
DIY self-RFID-chipping HOWTO, Wed. Jan 4 at Dorkbot in NYC
HOWTO build an RFID skimmer
Hello Kitty anti-RFID skimming sleeves
Personal firewall for the RFIDs you carry
Interview with RFID implantee
Former Bush official signs up for RFID implant
How RFID hackers can steal gas, cars, and office access
HOWTO turn a disposable camera into an RFID-killer
UK RFID passports cracked
US Passports to get RFID chip implants in 2006
US starts issuing RFID passports, despite security concerns
Audio from Bruce Sterling's "Arphid nor RFID" rant
Why RFID-chipped US passports are a bad idea
Why new US passports can be read without permission
US govt admits RFID passports are danger to Americans

Ryan Brown writes "As of September 1, the free XML TV guide service at zap2it labs has shut its doors due to misuse issues, as well as internal business issues. Now that Linux users, and most PVR users for that matter, are nearing the end of their last fetched TV guide, what free alternatives exist that can replace this much-needed service?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Andrew Baron likes to keep checking to see who's writing about China's effect on the Internet.

So far, he says, it's only been David Weinberger and himself. Now I will be part of the club.

Like Andrew, I read with some curiosity that China has developed a way to disable the US military entirely through the Internet. It's like a science fiction movie. Now we have to develop a similar capability to disable their military, and voila, there's one war that can't happen! Excellent.

Apply that technique to all existing armies and you've solved a major problem for mankind. Okay this may be a little naive, not sure, but it's worth discussing, don't you think??

Fishead writes "As the fight heats up between HD DVD and Blu-ray, and as consumers seem to care less and less, a new contender has entered the fray. Next month, New Medium Enterprises will be selling a 1080p player through Amazon and stores such as Radio Shack and Costco for around $150 — half what the cheapest HD DVD player costs, and a quarter the cost of a low-end Blu-ray. The difference this new HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format brings is that the discs are created with the same (cheap) red laser as DVDs. From the article: 'HD VMD discs, which hold up to 30GB on a single side, are encoded with a maximum bit rate of 40 megabits per second... between HD DVD's 36 Mpbs and Blu-ray's 48 Mbps. The format uses MPEG-2 and VC1 video formats to encode at 1080p resolution for the time being, and will possibly move to the H.264 format in the future.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "In an attempted palace coup that would not have been out of place in a Shakespearian tragedy, a moderator faction at Mac Serial Junkie, one of the largest underground Mac communities, was shut out this weekend after it was discovered that many staff members were plotting a coup. The plans included a surreptitious takeover of the domain name macserialjunkie.com. In an Open Letter to the Community, the founders of MSJ explain how a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years, only to be foiled at the last minute."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

grrlscientist writes "Yesterday, I received the devastating news that Alex the African Grey parrot, who was both a study subject and colleague to Irene Pepperberg, died unexpectedly at 31 years of age. 'Even though Alex was a research animal, he was much more than that. This species of parrot generally lives to be 50-60 years old, so Alex was only middle-aged when he died. According to some reports I have read, it is possible that Alex might have succumbed to Aspergillosis, a fungal infection of the lungs that he has battled in the past. However, the cause of death will not be known until after a necropsy has been completed... Alex's veterinarian is returning from vacation to personally conduct this necrospy.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

uh oh notes a story from Down Under where a police investigation came to a screeching halt as a man being investigated by the police found tracking devices in two of his cars, ripped them out, and listed them on an auction site. "Ralph Williams, of Cromwell, said he found the devices last week in his daughter's car, which he uses, and in his flatmate's car after the cars were seized by police and taken away for investigation."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

crazyeyes writes "Just two weeks ago, a Thai journalist walked out of the hush-hush AMD event in Singapore over a controversial NDA that required him to 'send any stories to the vendor before his newspaper can publish it.' AMD categorically denied it happened, but today, we not only have proof that it happened, we also have the sordid details of the entire affair. Here's a quote from the editorial: 'First off, the non-disclosure agreement covered everything confidential said or written over the next two years on the product, and had a duration of five years, during which anything published or used in marketing would have to receive written approval from AMD before it could be used. Worse, at the end of the five years, all copies of the information made would have to be returned to the chipmaker.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

runamock writes "Brilliant technologists like Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks are gathering in San Francisco for The Singularity Summit. The Singularity refers to the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence beyond which the future becomes unpredictable. The concept of the Singularity sounds more daunting in the form described by statistician I.J Good in 1965: 'Let an ultra-intelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra-intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

dominique_cimafranca writes "Classic anime cult favorite "Robotech" may be next for the big screen live action treatment, if recent news from SciFi.com's SCI FI Wire is to be believed. Tobey Maguire will produce and may star in the film. The article says 'Warner Brothers Pictures picked up the rights to Robotech, which features giant robots known as mechas. Maguire is producing through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eyeing the lead role in what the studio plans as an SF franchise a la Paramount's hit Transformers.'" I wonder if they'll go back to the Macross source material when plotting the movie... there's a lot more good substance there then in our version.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Erling Ellingsen made his own homebrew multi-touch interface from a plastic bag, blue dye, and an iSight camera. It's called the dyeSight.
Link (Thanks, Mike Love!)

Just posted! Our detailed hands-on preview of the Nikon D300 digital SLR. Our preview covers the design of the camera, control layout, operation use, displays and menus. Also included is a closer look at the D300 implementation of live view including videos of it in use. We've also explored HDMI output and included a couple of 720p video clips to give you an idea of how high definition may change the way we use video output on digital cameras.

This gorgeous skull and bones lock is up for auction on eBay. According to the listing, it was issued by the National Hardware Company in the late 1800s. It would be perfect to keep the riff raff out of your wunderkammer. With twelve hours to go before the hammer drops, the starting bid is $199.
Link