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OCAU News |
Sunday Afternoon
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Sunday, 4-November-2012 14:42:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The ACCC has told a parliamentary enquiry that widespread downloading of media in Australia is a backlash against suppliers. The ACCC said illegal downloading methods were well-known to many consumers in Australia and are having an impact on supplier strategies. According to the ACCC, this illegal downloading is putting "competitive tension in the market". “At the end of the day, some of these responses in the market may well end up being a reasonably powerful backlash by consumers against what might be perceived as unfair conduct by suppliers,” an ACCC spokesperson told the inquiry
The data retention debate continues, with hazy definitions an issue. Committee member Andrew Wilkie suggested the changes to the legislation would simply target everyday internet users, while savvy crooks would slip through the nets using encryption, dark net and anonymising services such as Tor. “This will simply apply to law abiding citizens,” said Wilkie, of the proposed changes, “while the people we are really concerned about won’t be caught up.” Pretty much the same as the internet filtering proposal, then.
A judge has ordered the FBI to explain in more detail their internet monitoring plans. Washington hopes to eventually roll out a program that will see that the FBI and other federal agencies are allowed backdoor access to any and all online communications. So far, though, they’ve managed to make much of the so-called “Going Dark” program a matter that’s shielded from interested parties, namely the EFF and other Internet activists. On Tuesday, Judge Seeborg agreed with the plaintiffs that the Justice Department has been not exactly accommodating with Freedom of Information Act paperwork filed by the San Francisco-based non-profit, and said the FBI and other federal agencies will have to go back and reassess those requests, ordering a "further review of the materials previously withheld.”
Microsoft seem to be doing well in terms of software security, with no appearances on Kapersky's top 10 vulnerabilities list. Java and Flash feature heavily, though. The rankings are based on the percentage of users whose computers had the vulnerability in question. In other words, unpatched and old software, or just poor software in the first place. A few years ago, Microsoft would be all over the list, but starting with the release of Windows Vista, the company has seriously cleaned up its act.
BenchmarkReviews consider the future of personal 3D printing. I tell ya, I'm getting pretty excited about this stuff and where it will be in a couple of years. 3D printing technology has progressed beyond prototyping and developed into consumer production. What was once an expensive process that enabled quicker proto-fabrication has now become an affordable means for regular users to construct or duplicate any object of their desire. Inventors have championed 3D printers as devices favorable to their pursuit of product development, but the same technology will allow consumers the ability to copy patented work or firearms without consideration.
There'll be a total solar eclipse visible from the north of Australia on the 14th of November, thanks jimbogimp, who also notes that Panasonic will be broadcasting the event using solar power (Facebook link). The Total Solar Eclipse on November 14th, 2012 occurs in Earth's southern hemisphere, early in the morning on Wednesday 14th November. The path of totality will cross North Australia and the Southern Pacific. This is the first total solar eclipse for Australia since the South Australian eclipse in 2002.
Also in space, BeanerSA sent in these two cool Apollo stories - behind the scenes at Mission Control, and every console explained from there as well. So this is a station-by-station tour of Historical Mission Operations Control Room 2, or "MOCR 2." As mentioned in the feature, MOCR 2 was used for almost every Gemini and Apollo flight, and in the late 1990s was restored to its Apollo-era appearance. You can visit it if you're in Houston, but you won't get any closer than the glassed-in visitor gallery in the back, and that's just not close enough.
An Australian team won the F1 in Schools World Finals recently. Cold Fusion, a team from Adelaide, Australia, have been crowned F1 in Schools World Champions 2012 at the eighth World Finals held at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. This team of five 16 and 17 year old students from Brighton Secondary School turned up the heat on their rivals to lift the Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy and receive Motorsport and Automotive Engineering Scholarships for City University, London. Congrats!
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