Wednesday, 26. May 2010

German watchdog tells firms to do own US privacy checks


German privacy watchdogs have told companies to conduct their own checks of US companies' conduct before passing personal data to them, even if they are signed up to the EU-US 'Safe Harbor' data protection scheme.

The Düsseldorfer Kreis is an informal group of Germany's private sector data protection watchdogs. It has said that companies must not simply take US companies' word on their compliance with EU privacy principles if they plan to send personal data to them. They must make their own checks, the group said.

theregister.co.uk

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Staatstrojaner immer noch arbeitslos


Dem Bundesinnenministerium zufolge hat das BKA den umstrittenen Bundestrojaner immer noch nicht eingesetzt. Außerdem: Viacom gräbt Google-Geheimnisse aus, die USA richten ihr Cyber-Command ein und Google Street View kommt vielleicht erst nach 2010. Das und mehr im Überblick.

spiegel.de

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Berlusconi Seen Sellling AC Milan Majority Stake To Gazprom


AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi is preparing to sell his 25–30% stake of the football club to Russian gas giants Gazprom.

The Italian Prime Minister will pocket around €180 million from the deal, but will lose the status of majority owner after 24 years in charge.

Italian Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Berlusconi has discussed the transaction with none other than his close friend – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

eurasiareview.com

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Tuesday, 25. May 2010

China Decides Photocopiers Are Evil; At Least If They're In Tibet


It's widely known that China tries to widely censor political dissent online, but modern technology makes it possible to communicate widely not just on the internet. And, so, it appears that China is also looking to plug the "analog hole" in its Great Firewall -- at least in Tibet. The gov't is so concerned about photocopier machines, that printing and copy shops in Tibet will be required to take down detailed identifying information from everyone who uses the shops.

nytimes.com

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Cray-1 resurfaces in pieces on eBay


What are the odds that two different sellers on both sides of the Pond would find themselves peddling some of the processing modules of the original Cray-1 vector supercomputer?

The probability would be 1.

A chap in the United Kingdom put up one of the original Cray-1 gate array modules on the UK eBay site for £550 on May 17, and no one bid on it. This seller claims that the Cray 1 module came from the very first Cray-1 super, which was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976 after a bidding war with Lawrence Livermore National Lab. This original Cray-1 was shipped off to the European Weather Centre in the UK, and then absorbed into the bowels of a UK government site for heaven only knows what purpose.

theregister.co.uk

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Pixel - A pixel art documentary


An 11 minute documentary exploring the merits and impact of pixel art, animation and chiptune music.

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Saturday, 22. May 2010

Art thieves steal £80,000 Banksy from Kate Moss's home


It is thought that Moss, 36, her partner Jamie Hince, and her 59-year-old mother Linda were asleep in the house when the burglars struck.

The gang forced their way into her £7 million home in Maida Vale, north London, at around 4am on Thursday and grabbed the pieces before fleeing.

telegraph.co.uk

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Turin police raid Scientology chapter


Police raided a local Scientology chapter here and discovered a hidden archive which contained not only information on the group's members but also on the sect's 'enemies', the Turin daily La Stampa reported on Thursday.

Police were acting on a warrant issued by magistrates who have opened a probe into the religion which is suspected of violating laws governing the handling of personal information.

ansa.it

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1794 Silver Dollar Sells for Record $7.85 million


What may be America's oldest silver dollar has become the world's most expensive coin, with its owner saying it changed hands in a private transaction between coin collectors for nearly $8 million.

Steven L. Contursi, who has owned the mint-condition 1794 Liberty dollar for the past seven years, confirmed Thursday that he sold it to the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation of Sunnyvale for $7.85 million.

firstcoastnews.comkxan.com

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Friday, 21. May 2010

Lost Hacking Documentary Surfaces on Pirate Bay


After collecting cobwebs in a studio vault for the better part of a decade, an unreleased documentary on the 2003 hacking scene leaked onto the Pirate Bay Thursday.

Narrated by actor Kevin Spacey, the 90-minute Hackers Wanted follows the exploits of Adrian Lamo, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to cracking the internal network of The New York Times. The film was produced by Spacey’s Trigger Street production company, and includes interviews with Kevin Rose and Steve Wozniak.

wired.com

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German High Court Declares All Software Patentable


Long gone are the times when Europe was that bastion of resistance against software patents and patents on such things as file systems were ruled invalid. In a decision published today, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany upheld a patent on the automatic generation of structured documents (such as XML/HTML) in a client-server setting.

slashdot.org

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Fader pushers mourn Fritz Sennheiser


The founder of Sennheiser Electronics, Dr Fritz Sennheiser, has died aged 98.

Sennheiser studied electronics in Berlin in 1929 first at the Technical University then the Heinrich Hertz Institute. He helped build the amplification for the 1936 Berlin Olympics ceremony. During the war he worked in cryptography, but this was verboten by the Allies after VE Day.

theregister.co.uk

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