FleaPlus writes "Steve Cook, project manager for the Ares I-X, Ares I, and Ares V rockets, announced that he will resign from NASA MSFC after 19 years at the agency, leaving for an executive position at Dynetics, Inc. This raises doubts about the future of the Ares program, which has been plagued with development problems and massive cost/schedule overruns since its inception. Steve Cook also oversaw the (since discredited) 2005 ESAS study which scrapped NASA's prior plans to adapt already-existing commercial rockets for human/beyond-LEO exploration in favor of internally developing the Ares rockets."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

N!NJA writes "In an amicus curiae brief filed on Aug. 24, Dell asked the judge overseeing the Eastern District Court of Texas to reconsider its order blocking sales of Word, part of the original ruling in favor of Canadian software developer i4i. In the worst case, the brief argued, the injunction should be delayed by 120 days. 'The District Court's injunction of Microsoft Word will have an impact far beyond Microsoft,' Dell and HP wrote. 'Microsoft Word is ubiquitous among word processing software and is included on [redacted] computers sold by Dell.' 'If Microsoft is required to ship a revised version of Word in Dell's computers, a change would need to be made to Dell's images,' Dell wrote. 'Making such a change would require extensive time- and resource- consuming testing.' An addendum to the brief notes that it was authored in Microsoft Word, part of Office 2003."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Canadian Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party and former frontman for the awesome punk band L'Etranger Charlie Angus sez,

I saw your comments on the Toronto town hall copyright forum [ed: in which the NDP was threatened with expulsion for handing out fliers calling for a moderate new copyright law that balanced public rights with the rights of copyright holders]. The fallout has been very bizarre. A copyright lobbyist with the American federation of Musicians is circulating an online e-mail demanding the NDP apologize for our "disgusting" position on balanced copyright.

The attack was caused by Olivia Chow handing out an interview I did with EXCLAIM Magazine on how copyright changes could benefit independent Canadian bands. Exclaim did the interview with me because of my background with DIY bands.

Seems to me the interview is consistent with what the NDP have always said on this file -- we want artists to be able to benefit from the massive stream of information being traded but we don't want average citizens turned into criminals. Here's Michael Geist's blog on the attack on us.

I was elected to participate in discussions about public policy. I have never heard of a lobbyist group demand an apology for speaking out about a totally botched piece of legislation like Bill C-61. If they spent less time running e-mail attacks and more time speaking with the various players they might realize that the NDP position has been balanced and consistent from the beginning.

As for a public recanting to satisfy the C-61 lobby ? Sorry, dude....it ain't happening.

In this project, we'll make battery packs essentially for free. If you need a lot, make a lot. If you need more voltage, add on more cells with couplers. If participants and students in your workshop or class all make their own, they can do it together, maybe even doing a manufacturing project to create many for future use.

For some time now, I have struggled with the expense and scarcity of battery holders. Costing anywhere from a dollar to three, they can raise the price point of a project, though they do look nice and work well. Since they are an item that most stores don't carry, you will have to order battery packs for projects that you intend to do. If you're planning a workshop or class with 25 people and want to use plastic battery holders, order ahead and pay up.

Plastic battery packs are also pretty easy to ruin if the ends of the wires are short-circuited accidentally or intentionally. A short circuit will heat up the batteries, which will then melt the plastic around one or both of the springs, causing the pack to fail. By making a battery pack, your participants and students can free themselves of the various barriers that purchased battery packs present for first run and experimental projects. For more formal projects, you or they may want to dig into the budget and buy some packs for a more polished look.

My first designs were done with cardboard from the recycling bin. I also made these with side by side arrangement. The way I am doing them these days is all in a line, which is probably not as sturdy or compact, but is definitely quicker. If you develop a better way of making these battery packs, please share pictures in the MAKE Flickr pool, and show us some links to them in action on projects.

Skills in this project:

• Manufacturing
• Trouble shooting and the design process
• Identifying a conductor and insulator
• Testing for electrical continuity
• Testing for voltage
• Designing for voltage

Materials you will need:

• Duct tape
• Tin foil
• Batteries, AA or AAA are good to start with
• Rubber band
• Stranded wire

Tools:

• Scissors
• Utility knife
• Wire cutters/strippers
• Voltage/Ohm meter

Time Frame:
Less than an hour, after you get the hang of it, you can make one in twenty minutes or so.

Mastery Objective:
Students and participants will know how to make a 3 volt or more battery pack using readily available materials so that they can use them in electricity projects.

Process:
Gather your supplies.
Make the tubes
For each battery pack, cut 3 four inch strips of duct tape. One will be the coupler, two will be for end caps.
On each strip, cut a 1 inch square out of one end.
fold the strip in half, leaving exposed a 1 inch section at the end. Be careful that the other adhesive is not exposed (it could stick to the battery later)
Roll the strip onto a battery to make a tube. The exposed adhesive tab in the previous step should be the last section on.
Do this to make three of these tubes.
Make a coupler and end caps
Crunch up or fold up some tin foil and put it in one of the tubes. This will help ensure that there is good electrical contact between the batteries.
Put a battery into each side of the coupler. One should be positive end in, the other should be negative end in.
Slide a tube over each end of the exposed batteries.
Fold up a 1" x 2"section of tin foil so that it makes a flat band of foil. Make two of these.
Fold over the end a couple of times so that it is a bit thicker.
Put this thicker end over the end of one of the batteries in turn.
Place a 3/8" to 1/2" wide section of tape over the end of the battery and end cap.
Hold the end caps in place with a piece of tape. You will want to remove the tape when the battery dies or needs to be recharged, so maybe fold over the end to make a pull tab.

Extensions:
Test for continuity
Put your meter on either the continuity setting or the ohms/resistance setting. When you touch the probes to an object that is a conductor like two ends of a stripped wire, you will have continuity: the meter will beep in the continuity setting or it will show numbers in the ohms/resistance setting. Electricity can travel between these two points. If you do not get continuity, such as on a piece of plastic or glass, or if one end of the wire is not stripped, electricity cannot travel easily between these two points. This is an insulator.
Increase your pack's voltage
If your project needs 4.5 volts, 6 volts or more, you can add to the standard pack by slipping another battery onto the pack with another coupler. AA and AAA batteries are 1.5 volts each, so when you connect your batteries in series like this project, each battery you add boosts your voltage by 1.5 volts.
Add wires
Cut two stranded wires, about 2" to 4" long.
Strip the ends about 3/8".
On the end that will connect to the battery pack, spread the strands of the wire.
On the end that will connect to your circuit, twist the wires together. If you have access to a soldering iron, tin the wires to keep them together.
Test your pack and fix if needed
Put your meter in DC voltage mode and touch the probes to each of the wires.
The voltage for two batteries should read 3 volts. A (-) symbol in front of the number just means you have the probes on the battery backwards.
If you get 0 volts, you may need to press the pack together to get a better connection. In this case, you can hold the pack tighter together with a rubber band or carefully tape the caps so that they fit tightly.
Another problem that could give you 0 volts is that the batteries could be in the wrong direction. The negative of one battery has to touch the positive of the next battery.
Use your battery pack
You can use your new battery pack by twisting the wires on the pack to the wires on your circuit project.
You can also solder a 9 volt battery top onto your pack wires so you can use the standardized clip of the 9 volt system.
You can also twist your wires onto a connector cut from a power supply.

More:

• How-To: Pencil lead potentiometer
• How-To: Quick, cheap soldering stand
• 123 Vibrobot

Teach your family to solder! Take a few pictures tagged as "MAKEcation" and put them in the MAKE Flickr pool by September 9th to enter to win a $100 Maker Shed gift certifiate!

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stoolpigeon writes " All communication links with the only Indian satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says. Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization (ISRO)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"And now, a dramatic reading of a real break up letter from a real person."

Dramatic reading of a break-up letter (via Sean Bonner)

Selanit writes "Since David Waitzman wrote his tongue-in-cheek Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, there have been occasional attempts to actually transmit information via pigeon. One group back in 2001 successfully sent a PING command. But now there's a practical use for pigeon-based communications: photographers working for the white-water rafting company Rocky Mountain Adventures send memory sticks full of digital photos via homing pigeon so the photos will be ready when the rafters finish up. The company has details on how the pigeons are trained and equipped. It may not be a full implementation of the Pigeon Protocol, but it works in narrow canyons far off the beaten path — and just as David Waitzman presciently predicted, they occasionally suffer packet loss due to hawks and ospreys."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hugh Pickens writes "News Corporation's James Murdoch says that a 'dominant' BBC threatens independent journalism in the UK and that free news on the web provided by the BBC made it 'incredibly difficult' for private news organizations to ask people to pay for their news. 'It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,' says Murdoch. 'The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision.' In common with the public broadcasting organizations of many other European countries, the BBC is funded by a television license fee charged to all households owning a television capable of receiving broadcasts. Murdoch's News Corporation, one of the world's largest media conglomerates, owns the Times, the Sunday Times and Sun newspapers and pay TV provider BSkyB in the UK and the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News TV in the US." Note that James Murdoch is the son of Rupert Murdoch.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hugh Pickens writes "News Corporation's James Murdoch says that a 'dominant' BBC threatens independent journalism in the UK and that free news on the web provided by the BBC made it 'incredibly difficult' for private news organizations to ask people to pay for their news. 'It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,' says Murdoch. 'The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision.' In common with the public broadcasting organizations of many other European countries, the BBC is funded by a television license fee charged to all households owning a television capable of receiving broadcasts. Murdoch's News Corporation, one of the world's largest media conglomerates, owns the Times, the Sunday Times and Sun newspapers and pay TV provider BSkyB in the UK and the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News TV in the US."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NeverVotedBush writes with an update to a story we discussed early this month about an enormous accumulation of garbage and plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean, a thousand miles off the coast of California. The team of scientists has now returned from their expedition to examine the area and say they "found much more debris than they expected." The team will start running tests on the samples they retrieved, and they are preparing to visit another section of ocean they suspect will be full of trash. "The Scripps team hopes the samples they gathered during the trip nail down answers to questions of the trash's environmental impact. Does eating plastic poison plankton? Is the ecosystem in trouble when new sea creatures hitchhike on the side of a water bottle? Plastics have entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish, and one paper cited by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 100,000 marine mammals die trash-related deaths each year. The scientists hope their data gives clues as to the density and extent of marine debris, especially since the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may have company in the Southern Hemisphere, where scientists say the gyre is four times bigger. 'We're afraid at what we're going to find in the South Gyre, but we've got to go there,' said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kids in the Hall superfan Tavie sez,

The Kids in the Hall are shooting their new miniseries for CBC, Death Comes to Town, in North Bay, Ontario.

As their official online presence cheerleader and resident of the US with no access to CBC, I thought it important that they get their asses online and use social media to its fullest. If the show has no buzz, how will a US network pick it up and let ME see it? It's all about me.

After some poking and prodding by his most annoying fan, Mark McKinney has at last started posting production notes at their Facebook page. The page was originally set up by a fan, but has been handed over to the guys to post official photos, videos and hilarious status updates,

Their willingness to let their fans drag them to the 21st century, kicking-and-screaming, makes me love them long time. I'm co-admin along with a fan named Jen. Any status updates by one of us will have our names in front - otherwise, it comes directly from the keyboard and fevered brain of Mark McKinney, the Chicken Lady herself. Check out the photo he posted of himself in full feathered regalia, it's fucking sweet.

Kids in the Hall (Thanks, Tavie!)

eldavojohn writes "The Entertainment Software Association has released this year's fiscal report (PDF), putting out their numbers to level the finger at new targets. Following up on last year's published report, this one has a whole bunch of new numbers to ponder. The top five P2P game piracy countries this year are: Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Poland. The ESA's anti-piracy program notes, 'Chief among this year's actions were five separate law enforcement raids against game pirates in California, resulting in the seizure of several thousand games and dozens of modded consoles, and the arrests of five individuals.' But don't worry, they've expanded to other countries. 'The ESA sent takedown notices to ISPs covering more than 45 million instances of infringement of member company games in more than 100 countries worldwide.' They also strive to show they are actually doing things, like endorsing 43 bills aimed at regulating content or controlling access to video games — with not a single one of them making it into law. They did put some into effect at the state level; mostly making it a crime to sell mature games to minors. You can also find their activities localized to you, as this report has sections arranged by state and country. Conspicuously absent this year are any global numbers of what piracy cost the entertainment industry, so unfortunately Ars Technica will have to find someone else to audit, although Venture Beat has a good breakdown."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week's dog days of summer deal is our Mystery MAKE T-Shirt. You pick the size, and we pick the shirt. Let us surprise you! Hey, what do you want for just $3? Yep, $3, that's 80% OFF. Also, if you purchase more than $30 in the Maker Shed, along with your Mystery MAKE T-shirt, we will throw in a FREE Maker's Notebook! Read all the details here.

Grab your very own "Mystery Make T-Shirt", we have different shirts left over from promotions, obsolete colors & styles, heck, stuff we just found in a box in the warehouse! The catch is we get to pick 'em. Logo & color will vary, but you choose the size and style: man, woman or child, all for $3. What a deal! ...But wait there's more, if you buy a Mystery shirt with any other items and the order total is more than $30, we'll throw in a free Maker's Notebook ($20 Value) as well. Just type "Mystify Me" in your order comments (NOT in the coupon code field -we don't want the boss to know) and we'll take care of the rest.

Please Note: Don't worry, Maggie received plenty of treats for being such a trooper during this latest photo shoot! Oh, and your shirt will not be covered in fur!

The dog days of summer are upon us, and you know what that means? Time to hit the beach? Well, maybe. But, it also means that it's time for some special deals in the Maker Shed. Each week we will feature a kit at a special "dog days" discount. The deal will last about a week, so take advantage of the savings while you can.

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itwbennett writes "Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute, took great interest in a National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) warning issued earlier this week, thinking, 'Finally this is in the wild, because I've only seen it in pen tests before.' Unfortunately for Mr. Ullrich, the letter and 2 CDs that caused the kerfuffle were part of a sanctioned security test of a bank's computer systems conducted by Ohio-based security company MicroSolved. 'It was a part of some social engineering we were doing in a fully sanctioned penetration test,' said MicroSolved CEO Brent Huston. For his part, NCUA spokesman John McKechnie did not have much to say about his organization's alert, except that 'at this point, it appears that this is an isolated event.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

quacking duck writes "With the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple has updated a support document describing how their new operating system reports capacities of hard drives and other media. It has sided with hard drive makers, who for years have advertised capacities as '1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes' instead of the traditional computer science definition, and in so doing has kicked the debate between marketing and computer science into high gear. Binary prefixes for binary units (e.g. GiB for 'gibibyte') have been promoted by the International Electrotechnical Commission and endorsed by IEEE and other standards organizations, but to date there's been limited acceptance (though manufacturers have wholeheartedly accepted the 'new' definitions for GB and TB). Is Apple's move the first major step in forcing computer science to adopt the more awkward binary prefixes, breaking decades of accepted (if technically inaccurate) usage of SI prefixes?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The NY Times reports on legislation in Utah which harshly penalizes people who cause fatal car accidents while texting. Instead of merely facing a fine, offenders may now get up to 15 years in jail — the same as drunk drivers. "In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an 'accident' like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless. 'It's a willful act,' said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter of the new measure. 'If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you're assuming the same risk.' The Utah law represents a concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking behind the wheel — a topic to be discussed at a national conference about the dangers of distracted driving that is being organized by the Transportation Department for this fall."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Runaway1956 writes "Microsoft's chief Washington lobbyist has been convening regular meetings, attended by the company's outside consultants, that have become known by some beltway insiders as 'screw Google' meetings, DailyFinance has learned. The meetings are part of an ongoing campaign by Microsoft, other Google opponents, and hired third parties to discredit the Web search leader, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. 'Microsoft is at the center of a group of companies who see Google as a threat to them in some combination of business and policy,' said a source who requested anonymity to avoid retribution. 'The effort is designed to make Google look like the big high-tech bad guy here.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

At last week's Canadian copyright town hall meeting in Toronto -- the one where the speaker-roster was overwhelming stacked with representatives from giant entertainment conglomerates -- security guards prevented the Canadian Federation of Students from distributing literature by the doors that advocated for more liberal copyright rules. They also stopped a Member of Parliament from one of the opposition parties from distributing flyers.

The Canadian Federation of Students has issued a press release disclosing a disturbing incident just prior to last night's townhall in Toronto. CFS says that students attempted to distribute a flyer outlining the organization's position on fair copyright outside the townhall. The students involved were approached by private security guards who threatened to remove them from the hotel if they continued to do so. The CFS decided to distribute the flyers specifically because of the limited number of speaking slots and the fear that they would not be called upon to speak (they were not). It is hard to understand how distributing relevant materials outside a public, government-run townhall is viewed as grounds for ejection. As the chair of CFS-Ontario notes, "it is ironic that while students are concerned that new legislation may allow copyright owners to lock up information, the government is locking up its own consultations."

Update: NDP MP Olivia Chow reports that she faced the same threats when she tried to distribute documents outlining Charlie Angus' position on copyright.

Why Did Security Guards Stop CFS From Distributing Flyers at the Copyright Town Hall?

An anonymous reader writes 'At my company, our mis-implementation of Agile includes the employment of some of our most highly-paid, principal engineers as ScrumMasters. This has effectively resulted in a loss of those engineering functions as these engineers now dedicate their time to ScrumMastery. Furthermore, the ScrumMasters either cannot or do not separate their roles as Team Leads with those of ScrumMastery and — worse — seem to be completely unaware that this poor implementation of Agile development is harmful to our velocity. To date, I have chalked this up to poor leadership, a general lack of understanding of Agile, and an inability to change from traditional roles left over from the waterfall development mode. In addition, I have contended that, for a given Scrum Team, the role of ScrumMaster should be filled by someone of lower impact, such as an intern brought in specifically for that purpose. But I would like to put the questions to Slashdotters as to whether they have seen these same transitional difficulties, what the results have been at their respective companies, or whether they just plain disagree with my assertion that principal engineers should not be relegated to the roles of ScrumMasters.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

David Byrne describes his experiences using the Kindle DX while on tour: nice device, crappy DRM, not worth it.

Here's where the rub is. This machine only reads Kindle files and PDFs. And nothing else out there reads Kindle files. It can read other types of files -- Word DOCs, MOBI, TXT etc. -- but you have to go through Amazon via email, where they're converted for a small charge, then sent directly to your Kindle. And, you can't share a book with your friends, even if they too have a Kindle. No doubt, as with MP3 and iTunes, book publishers would only agree to this system if people couldn't share their purchases. As we know, Apple has relented on this, and has taken DRM off many of their music files. But which ones? How do you know? Years from now, having gone through a few computers, your music collection is unplayable except for the files without DRM. Well, same with these books -- if you migrate to a different tablet (the forthcoming Apple one we hear so much about, for example), you are fucked. All the unread books in your Kindle library are stuck on what will eventually become antiquated technology.

There are other e-book formats out there (EPub is being touted as a cross-platform format, but still, ugh, with DRM)...We're linked now, which is how we use these things that represent our inner selves -- as social connectors. Take that ability away, the ability to exchange stuff that represents us, and I'll bet some of the "value" of these kinds of e-books goes too... the social interconnectedness value, not the dollar value.

08.25.09: The Kindle Experience

himitsu writes "In an article titled 'The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine,' Wired claims that the future of technology, warfare and medicine will be filled with 'good enough' solutions; situations where feature-rich and expensive products are replaced with bare-bones infrastructures and solutions. 'We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as "high-quality."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rachel @ CRAFT found this LEGO automated yarn ball winder, which resides at Twisted yarn shop in Portland, OR. Now that's the kind of MAKE/CRAFT synergy I like to see!

The ball winder was born out of boredom and concern. A good friend of Emily's is an out-of-work engineer, and he was in the shop, visiting us one day. We were winding a ball of yarn for a customer the old-fashioned way, and he was appalled - why were we expending so much energy to wind a ball of yarn!? So, he took an old winder home with him, and a month or so later, came into the shop with Mr. Roboto, version 1.0. We have since had an upgrade, and we absolutely love it!

He sent some technical info about the ball winder:

The Lego apparatus serves to electrically crank a Royal brand manual winder. Two 9V Lego motors, fed by an AC/DC power supply, drive the crank. On/Off and winding speed are controlled through a power button and potentiometer housed in an electronics project box. The entire assembly is mounted to an acrylic cutting board via zip-ties.

Our customers, as you can imagine, absolutely love it.

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Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-128 mission is set to lift off within minutes of the time of this blog post. My suggestion: space out to Soma FM's Mission Control channel in one browser tab (or on iTunes or your player of choice) while you watch Miles O'Brien hosting live coverage of the launch on SpaceFlightNow.com, embedded after the jump. Follow Miles on Twitter here, and SpaceFlightNow here. I'll also be following @Astro_Jose = Mexican-American astronaut José Hernández, who tweets from space en Español (!!!).

Image (via NASA): "Seated are Commander Rick Sturckow (right) and Pilot Kevin Ford. From the left (standing) are mission specialists José Hernández, John "Danny" Olivas, Nicole Stott, European Space Agency's Christer Fuglesang and Patrick Forrester." Godspeed, all.

In 1991, after having been paroled, convicted kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido snatched an 11 year old girl named Jaycee Dugard off the street. He kept her captive for 18 years, repeatedly raped her, and fathered two children from those rapes. Jaycee gave birth to the first child when she was 14. There may be additional child victims. And investigators are now also looking for clues that could link Garrido with a series of 10 unsolved murders nearby, in which prostitutes were sexually violated before they were killed.

Garrido maintained a blogspot blog which amounts to a disturbing look inside the internal thought process of a monster. That blog includes numerous postings about an electronic invention he wished to patent, that allowed him to "control sound" using his "mental powers." Snip:

This document is to affirm that I Phillip Garrido have clearly demonstrated the ability to control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena. by using a sound generator to provide the sound, and a headphone amplification system, ( a device to focuc your hearing so as to increase the sensitivity of what one is listening to) I have produced a set of voices by effectively controlling the sound to pronounce words through my own mental powers.

His brother told the press today that Garrido did a lot of LSD when younger. Phillip Garrido believes that having children with the child he abducted and raped cured him of pedophilia. Blogging under the user name THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND, Garrido wrote,

This all began by God removing a problem from my shoulders that behavioral scientist believe is not possible to remove. since then my life has seen major improvements allowing me to stand here today a free man.

His crazy hallucinations about controlling sound and controlling human thought and will are not at all unrelated to his crimes. Garrido housed his victims in a series of makeshift tents and soundproofed shelters in his back yard, in such a way that neighbors, according to several reports, "never heard a thing."

Despite Garrido's careful schemes to "control sound" and control the behavior and visibility of his captives, at least one neighbor did suspect something, and contacted authorities. The police came to Garrido's property, and didn't go in the back yard to check.

The deputy determined that no crime had been committed even though he did not enter or ask to enter the backyard, the sheriff said.

I wonder how many other opportunities were missed before an unnamed female campus security officer at UC Berkeley started the chain of events that would lead to Dugard's freedom, and that of her two children. Update: The officer's name is Ally Jacobs.

Here's the Megan's Law database entry for Phillip Garrido. (Tip: want to totally creep yourself out, and/or protect your family? Search the database for entries located near your home or place of work).

Yesterday, he gave a lengthy, rambling phone interview with a local TV station. You can listen to the whole interview with Garrido here. It is chilling. Snip from transcript:

"It's a disgusting thing that took place with me in the beginning. But I turned my life completely around (...) What's kept me busy the last several years is I've completely turned my life around. And you're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim - you wait.

If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backwards and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful heart-warming story."

May he rot in hell.

BB commenter Mojave adds,

An interesting little side note to this story is that [his] van was captured on googlestreetview as it left the house of horrors. I think even calling the guy a monster is too nice. Gives monsters a bad name.

And other BB commenters note that related images taken by the Google Street View van on that same day seem to show that Garrido's van may have followed the Google van with interest.

Well, this little viral number didn't take long to become the stuff of screaming Drudge sirens. So, over at CNET, Declan McCullagh wrote about an update to a cybersecurity bill that first circulated this spring. In his interpretation of the bill (which I haven't read in entirety, full disclosure), Declan says the bill gives the White House new power to unplug private-sector computers from the Internet in the case of national emergency. Snip:

[Critics of the earlier bill are] not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet (CNET).

Commenting on this article, ZDNET's Sam Diaz argues that the White House is not equipped to hold the keys (where are these magical keys, btw?). "The argument that the government is ill-equipped and shouldn't be trusted with the such far-reaching power is no joke."

At the Atlantic, Mark Armbinder counters that Skepticism [is] Warranted -- But Nuance Needed.

A few things to keep in mind. One: the president already has the authority to shut down parts of the Internet in emergencies.

The bill restates the power and expands it to make sure that any system that is too big to fail cannot be allowed to fail at the expense at the rest of the system. The analogy the bill's authors use is that of the president's power to order all aircraft to land in the event of a systemwide emergency. That power is -- powerful! -- but we're generally OK with it. The Internet, of course, is different, in kind and expanse. There's a broad sense that it should be free, unfettered, and allowed to evolve on its own. There's a broad sense that the Internet is to citizens today what guns were to civillian militias of the founding era -- the trenchline against tyranny. (Editorial note: I agree.)

Maybe the White House should have this power in extreme emergencies, but it had better be clear about what those emergencies entail, and it had better accept accountability if it oversteps its authority. There is, aside from the obvious definitional issues, an inherent trade-off in codifying this power, and it's going to be tough to find a balance that satisfies everyone. So far most of what I'm seeing in the way of online discussion around this *draft* bill (it's not yet law, guys) involves meta debates around authoritarianism and "is Obama Hitler," plus a lot of rehashing of boilerplate Libertarian and Republican talking points. I'm less interested in those thread-wars, and more interested in better understanding the murky technical details under discussion. I'll be reading what I can find over the weekend, but welcome your thoughts in the comments. No sirens plz.

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Using just a basic pot, small spring, and pushbutton switch, Danwagoner created a compact combo push-pot -

An idea I had for making one of my projects more user friendly and cut down on interfaces (buttons, etc). Completely made out of stuff I had laying around. Turn to scroll through, push down to select, and only one knob to deal with.

Nice idea - looks like a good way to simplify cramped layouts.

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one_neuron_two_neuron writes "Researchers at Harvard have taken a new look at how electricity can make neurons fire in the brain. The scientists found some surprising things: if you stick an electrode in the brain and apply current, you don't just make a small group of neurons fire — many neurons fire a long way away from the electrode. That's probably because instead of activating the cell bodies of the neurons, their axons fire. Those axons are the wiring of the brain. Your cerebral cortex is something like a big pile of unwound yo-yos — if you stick an electrode into the cortex, you're much more likely to hit the strings (the axons), and the yo-yo connected to the string can be really far away. So, how will you ever hook up a computer to your brain? This data shows that we need to rethink how to do that with electrical current. If you stick an electrode in one place, neurons in a totally different place will fire. New optogenetic methods (e.g. using viral delivery of proteins) might work. Or possibly we will figure out how to make the brain learn to interpret these sparse, widespread electrical patterns. New optical techniques have made a dramatic impact on neuroscience recently, and this study uses pulsed-laser-scanning microscopy (two-photon microscopy) to take pictures of neurons deep inside the living brain. The academic paper (PDF) is available on the author's site."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Researchers hope to mass-produce robots on a chip @ Physorg...

Tiny robots the size of a flea could one day be mass-produced, churned out in swarms and programmed for a variety of applications, such as surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine, cleaning, and more. In an effort to reach this goal, a recent study has demonstrated the initial tests for fabricating microrobots on a large scale.

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We've seen a bunch of studies like this in the past, but people keep submitting this, so figured we'd do a quick post on it. Yet another study has shown that people who are more active in unauthorized file sharing, also tend to spend more on authorized entertainment purchases. Now, to be fair, the study was paid for by a file sharing provider -- so, take it with a rather large grain of salt. But similar studies have been done in the past as well, and it seems to once again call into question the rallying cry in Hollywood that people just want stuff for free.

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(Ed. Note: The Boing Boing Video site includes a guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. We'll post roundups here on the motherBoing.)

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More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

(Ed. Note: The Boing Boing Video site includes a guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. We'll post roundups here on the motherBoing.)

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More @BBVBOX: boingboingvideo.com

One and a half years in the making... this Megaman II chain link piece is 38" x 45" and weighs 16lbs...

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Computer History Museum photo gallery @ PC Authority...

Zara Baxter toured the Computer History Museum in California, and took these fascinating photos, including a giant 27Kg hard drive, a Star Trek-like SAGE Air defense system, and other intriguing artifacts.

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When this article in the ABA Journal started off by noting (accurately!) that the following story sounds like typical late-night fodder that makes lawyers look bad for filing frivolous lawsuits -- but then said "but the suit is anything but silly" -- I expected an article that would explain convincingly why a trademark lawsuit between two tourist tour operators that have passengers use kazoos to quack like a duck was not silly. But, I'm left scratching my head. I found the article via Eric Goldman, who notes that "I can't imagine this lawsuit has a good ROI."

Here's the basic story. Apparently, there are some tour operations out there that involve amphibious truck/boats, that take tourists around different places both on land and in water. One company, Ride the Ducks, does this in various areas around the country, and has trademarked the sound of kazoos being used to quack like a duck -- which it asks passengers to play as the truck goes from land to water. Now it turns out, right nearby where I am, in San Francisco, there's a tour called Bay Quackers, that does something similar, also involving quacking kazoos. Ride the Ducks isn't happy and has sued Bay Quackers, saying that the specific quack of the kazoo is trademarked.

My first question is why Bay Quackers just doesn't get different kazoos. Well, actually, my first question is a slightly unprintable question about why tourists might ride amphibious boat/trucks while using kazoos to sound like ducks... but I figure that's a tangent. Either way, it's difficult to see what benefit there really is to this lawsuit, other than Ride the Ducks being pissed off that someone else is using their idea. But ideas aren't protectable, and competition is a good thing. So, we're left with a silly lawsuit about quacking kazoos that does, still, seem pretty frivolous.

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Over at The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy website, Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Director Cindy Cohn writes about the so-called Presidential Surveillance Program, the "still-shadowy set of programs that spy on Americans in America without any probable cause or warrant." The EFF, as regular BB readers know, has fought this program for several years now -- in 2006, it filed suit against AT&T for providing the NSA with direct access to its database of communications records. Snip from Cohn's essay:

While the details are unknown, credible evidence indicates that billions of everyday communications of ordinary Americans are swept up by government computers and run through a process that includes both data-mining and review of content, to try to figure out whether any of us were involved in illegal or terrorist-related activity. That means that even the most personal and private of our electronic communications - between doctors and patients, between husbands and wives, or between children and parents - are subject to review by computer algorithms programmed by government bureaucrats or by the bureaucrats themselves.

It's a bizarre turn of events, these unwarranted general searches. Our country was founded on the rejection of "general warrants" - pieces of paper that gave the Executive (then the King) unchecked power to search colonial Americans without cause. The Fourth Amendment was adopted in part to stop these "hated writs" and to make sure that searches of the papers of Americans required a probable cause showing to a court. The warrantless surveillance program returns us to the policies of King George III only with a digital boost. It subjects a huge number our daily digital papers to threshold surveillance, then adding subsequent, more intrusive warrantless surveillance if faceless government computers and bureaucrats determine that our communications or communications patterns merit further scrutiny.

Both Yoo and Hayden draw from a similar bag of tricks to defend the surveillance programs, including claims that there was a "gap" between our domestic surveillance and our foreign intelligence surveillance.

Lawless Surveillance, Warrantless Rationales (via Rebecca McKinnon)

Over at The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy website, Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Director Cindy Cohn writes about the so-called Presidential Surveillance Program, the "still-shadowy set of programs that spy on Americans in America without any probable cause or warrant." The EFF, as regular BB readers know, has fought this program for several years now -- in 2006, it filed suit against AT&T for providing the NSA with direct access to its database of communications records. Snip from Cohn's essay:

While the details are unknown, credible evidence indicates that billions of everyday communications of ordinary Americans are swept up by government computers and run through a process that includes both data-mining and review of content, to try to figure out whether any of us were involved in illegal or terrorist-related activity. That means that even the most personal and private of our electronic communications - between doctors and patients, between husbands and wives, or between children and parents - are subject to review by computer algorithms programmed by government bureaucrats or by the bureaucrats themselves.

It's a bizarre turn of events, these unwarranted general searches. Our country was founded on the rejection of "general warrants" - pieces of paper that gave the Executive (then the King) unchecked power to search colonial Americans without cause. The Fourth Amendment was adopted in part to stop these "hated writs" and to make sure that searches of the papers of Americans required a probable cause showing to a court. The warrantless surveillance program returns us to the policies of King George III only with a digital boost. It subjects a huge number our daily digital papers to threshold surveillance, then adding subsequent, more intrusive warrantless surveillance if faceless government computers and bureaucrats determine that our communications or communications patterns merit further scrutiny.

Both Yoo and Hayden draw from a similar bag of tricks to defend the surveillance programs, including claims that there was a "gap" between our domestic surveillance and our foreign intelligence surveillance.

Lawless Surveillance, Warrantless Rationales (via Rebecca McKinnon)

Avatar28 points us to a potentially interesting lawsuit over whether or not A&E's decision to use 12-seconds of the song Rocky Top in part of a TV show is fair use. The article is actually pretty comprehensive in laying out all the details in the case. A&E was doing an episode of the show City Confidential about some contract killings in Knoxville, Tennessee. In setting the scene, the show presents quick clips of scenes around Knoxville, including a photo of a UT football player, with the 12-seconds of the song playing in the background. The song Rocky Top is apparently one of (a few) official state songs in Tennessee and is the "unofficial" fight song of the University of Tennessee (which holds a special license to use the song).

A&E claims that it's fair use, since the music was being used in part as a news report would use it. The article compares it to both the recent case where John Lennon's Imagine was allowed in the movie Expelled without a license... but also to the infamous Bridgeport ruling that basically said fair use doesn't apply to music at all. Some will say that A&E's case is also weaker because it had approached the children of the songwriters (who now control the copyright) about a license, and then never got one, but that, alone, doesn't change the fair use calculation.

This is one of those cases that really could go either way. As a strong believer in fair use, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I think this is clearly fair use, and that the four factors of fair use support it (as should common sense). But, others will surely make the case in the other direction. The thing that I wonder is how allowing such a use could possibly be a bad thing for the copyright holders. It seems like one of those cases where copyright holders are suing just because they have the copyright and think that, because of that, they absolutely have to sue. Either way, kudos to A&E for standing up for fair use.

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The Cycologists are quite possibly the first guerrilla bicycle band. They show up unannounced, perform seven-minute long performances using instruments made out of functional parts of their bicycles, then ride off with no explanation. How amazing it must be to see their show! From their website:

The musicians include three wind players (Linsey Pollak, Ric Halstead, Brendan Hook). All the music is made with the bicycles, especially featuring: three clarinets made from the bicycle seat stems plus bicycle pump panpipes, tuned bicycle bells and a handlebar flute.

If you are interested in making music from your bicycle, check out this instructional video by Frank Zappa. [via neatorama]

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mikee805 writes "Solar Roadways, a project to replace over 25,000 square miles of road in the US with solar panels you can drive on, just received $100,000 in funding from the Department of Transportation for the first 12ft-by-12ft prototype panel. Each panel consists of three layers: a base layer with data and power cables running through it, an electronics layer with an array of LEDs, solar collectors and capacitors, and finally the glass road surface. With data and power cables, the solar roadway has the potential to replace some of our aging infrastructure. With only 15% efficiency, 25,000 square miles of solar roadways could produce three times what the US uses annually in energy. The building costs are estimated to be competitive with traditional roads, and the solar roads would heat themselves in the winter to keep snow from accumulating."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week, we learned that the Obama administration will continue the Bush administration's practice of relocating war-on-terror detainees to other countries for offshore imprisonment and interrogation, with promises that their treatment will now be more closely monitored to ensure that they are not tortured. Human rights advocates condemn the decision as an extension of a program that creates conditions in which abuse is likely to flourish with impunity. U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, but With More Oversight (NYT).

The news came on the same day the ACLU released documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request which detail acts of torture committed against detainees held by the United States, domestically and in overseas "black sites."

In related news, the ACLU is protesting an agreement between the US and Britain which may lead to hacker Gary McKinnon being extradited to the US, after he penetrated the defenses of poorly secured US Government computers. According to reports, McKinnon suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, and has testified that he was searching for evidence of extra-terrestrials and UFO activity.

This week, we learned that the Obama administration will continue the Bush administration's practice of relocating war-on-terror detainees to other countries for offshore imprisonment and interrogation, with promises that their treatment will now be more closely monitored to ensure that they are not tortured. Human rights advocates condemn the decision as an extension of a program that creates conditions in which abuse is likely to flourish with impunity. U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, but With More Oversight (NYT).

The news came on the same day the ACLU released documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request which detail acts of torture committed against detainees held by the United States, domestically and in overseas "black sites."

In related news, the ACLU is protesting an agreement between the US and Britain which may lead to hacker Gary McKinnon being extradited to the US, after he penetrated the defenses of poorly secured US Government computers. According to reports, McKinnon suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, and has testified that he was searching for evidence of extra-terrestrials and UFO activity.

We've already discussed how Washington DC darling Connected Nation appears more and more like a telco sponsored boondoggle to control gov't mapping mandates and collect gov't money, without having to give up real data on broadband access. But, for some reason, politicians just seem to love Connected Nation (CN). Last time I was in DC, it was all anyone was talking about concerning broadband policy. However, there are more and more questions being raised now. Apparently, Connected Nation got a big win in Florida recently, despite the fact that its bid for mapping was more than double the next runner up, ISC. Connect Florida -- a brand new "affiliate" of Connected Nation, bid $7.1 million. ISC, which is actually based in Florida and has worked with Florida gov't agencies in the past, bid $2.8 million. ISC used references for its actual work on the ground in Florida, including "the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Department of Agriculture and two local businesses, including an Economic Development Council. The ISC application also listed 11 contracts the company has with Florida state agencies." Connect Florida, on the other hand, named out-of-state references who were involved in other Connected Nation projects, raising questions about Connect Florida's understanding of the Florida market. So how did Connect Florida win?

According to sources, one of the five judges gave ISC the win, with an eight-point differential over CN. Two other judges gave CN a two-point win. One other judge gave CN a 15-point win over ISC. Yet in another curiosity, one judge gave CN a 51-point win. That judge was Bill Price, currently the broadband stimulus program manager for the state of Florida, a position he has held for the past three months. According to his profile on the Linked-In social networking site, Price was vice president for business development for BellSouth Business.

Remember how Connected Nation is really closely connected to the telcos? And a former telco exec who only recently got the state gov't job suddenly happens to rate it up massively over the second place competitor? Doesn't that at least raise some ethics questions? Perhaps there's more to it, and perhaps there are good reasons why Connect Florida is better than ISC. But it sure does seem like Florida owes the public an explanation of what those good reasons might be.

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Rejoice! Automated and unsolicited phone calls in which businesses try to push products on consumers will soon be punishable by fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the US Federal Trade Commission.

Calls from politicians, public service announcements and "informational" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says. The FTC asks people to report questionable robocalls by visiting its complaint Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(thanks, Chief Fulfiller of Needs)

Rejoice! Automated and unsolicited phone calls in which businesses try to push products on consumers will soon be punishable by fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the US Federal Trade Commission.

Calls from politicians, public service announcements and "informational" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says. The FTC asks people to report questionable robocalls by visiting its complaint Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(thanks, Chief Fulfiller of Needs)

As we all know by now, the new administration hired a bunch of the entertainment industry's favorite lawyers, and during the confirmation hearings for the most senior among them, a desire to have the Justice Department focus more on intellectual property was a key point. So, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Justice Department has announced new grants to focus on intellectual property enforcement. It's not a huge amount ($1.9 million) and, as per the DOJ's purview, the focus is on criminal intellectual property infringement, but you really wonder if there aren't more important things for the DOJ to be focused on these days. Still... thanks to the Justice Department PR folks who sent me a press release for the first time ever. Apparently, someone there is reading us.

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The folks over at AfricaNews put together a nice compilation video about Maker Faire Africa, including a chair made from plastic bottles, electric cream used for food preservation, and many other fine projects!

Did you miss the Faire this year? Don't fret, an even bigger version is being planned for next year! In the meantime, be sure to check out some of the other coverage of this year's Faire.

(Thanks, Daniel Carter!)

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