AP – A federal judge has ruled that a Boston University student violated copyright laws when he swapped music online, paving the way for a jury to begin considering damages Friday.

Excerpted from:
Judge in Mass. download case rules for music cos.
(AP)

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/security/In_San_Francisco_hackers_park_for_free’;

In High School civics class we learned that besides voting, feeding the meter is one of the most important things we Americans can do. But just like e-voting, it looks like you can add parking to the list of things that hackers have spoiled for law and order-types everywhere. According to the kids at CNET, a group of nogoodniks were able to decode the smartcards used by Guardian XLE-series meters manufactured by J.J. MacKay Canada — from which point it was a simple matter of boosting the card’s value to $999.99. Its unclear how the city of San Francisco (one of several around the country that have dealt with the company) is going to address the problem, but one possibility is flagging accounts with suspicious activity and reprogramming parking meters to ignore the offending cards. Is nothing sacred, people?

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In San Francisco, hackers park for free originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever since it’s debut in November of 2007, Amazon.com’s Kindle electronic book reader has remained one of its flagship products, targeting the e-book market at entirely new demographics. The Kindle also continues to evolve, seeing its second generation in early 2009 and, in June of that same year, appearing again as the Kindle DX. So what new features does the Kindle DX bring to your virtual libraries, and does it lose anything when compared to its predecessors? Below you’ll find an overview of what new features the DX offers.

More here:
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Amazon Kindle DX

AP – Britain’s High Court on Friday rejected an autistic British man’s bid to avoid extradition to the United States to face trial for hacking into military computers.

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UK court rejects hacker’s bid to avoid extradition
(AP)

In short video clips, the new web site Sputnik Observatory seamlessly links disparate ideas into cohesive, connected trains of thought. One thread—the site prefers the term “pathway”—begins with an elderly physicist speculating about whether humans might have dormant capabilities, like being able to fly, and ends with a neurologist explaining why some brains turn sounds into mental paintings. In between, big thinkers touch on Buddhism, the animal brain, and the cellular response to emotional experiences. Taken together, the speakers articulate a multilayered vision of what it means, presumably, to be in control of one’s faculties (thus the pathway’s name, “Lost Faculty”).

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Big Thinkers Unite on a New Web Site