| abstract | - Private company first to take on Lunar X Challenge Odyssey Moon is the first to register for the Lunar X Challenge, a competition sponsered by Google. Carnegie Mellon is also expected to register. The top prize is $20 million, second prize is $5 million, and there are an additional $5 million in prizes for things like roving distance and surviving a lunar night. Some airlines to offer in-flight Internet service JetBlue Airways will be the first to offer e-mail and instant messaging on an airplane. These limited services will be free as the system is still working out some kinks. American Airlines, Virgin America, and Alaska Airlines should be offering greater internet service soon, for $10 a flight. Virgin America hopes to integrate its internet capabilities with its seat-back entertainment. Wi-Fi 'illegal images' politician defends legislation The SAFE Act (Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act) provides up to a $300,000 fine for anyone who provides internet access and fails to report any illegal images they may have observed. The wording of this act is such that it may refer to home wi-fi connections. Declan McCullagh suggests that the problem stems from the fact that this bill was written in a hurry and rushed to the floor, avoiding the usual “back-and-forth process” of law crafting. SAFE Act won’t turn mom-and-pop shops into Wi-Fi cops The SAFE Act, despite its unfortunately dated wording defining ISP’s, explicitly states that internet providers do not need to monitor people or content. The law would increase the penalties for those who learn about child pornography and don’t report it. Hackers launch major attack on U.S. military labs Hackers used phishing emails to gain access to a visitor database that included dates of birth and social security numbers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Los Alamos National Laboratory also appears to have been targeted, but there is little information about the details of that attack. Los Alamos has a history of security problems, including the release of nuclear research information through email and the existence of a USB stick with nuclear weapons test information on it. EVE-Online patch makes XP unbootable (Thanks, Nicole!) The newest EVE-Online patch, meant to improve graphics quality, is instead making it impossible for your computer to boot. Due to a typo (extra backslash) and an unfortunate file name (boot.ini), the patch overwrites the c:\boot.ini in Windows XP. Clients who install this patch while running Windows XP are unable boot their computers until they have replaced the boot.ini file required by the operating system. Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain A man finds out he is banned from editing Wikipedia because he lives in the wrong neighborhood. One of his neighbors was banned from Wikipedia because he accused the site’s administrators of giving four articles a biased slant. Dennis taps into Facebook craze (Thanks, Nicole Lee!) Dennis Publishing will publish a Facebook guide book. The “bookazine” will be available for £5.99, and if sales are good enough it will be followed by a sequel. Balancing robot can take a kicking A human-sized robot that can regain its balance after being shoved and kicked was built by researchers in Japan. The robot is able to keep its balance because of joints that sense position and movement and yield when pushed. Toyota unveils violin-playing robot Toyota’s violin-playing robot will pave the way for dexterous robots that can use tools and help around the house.
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