The Pentagon's spending cuts, and the few spending increases in the military, are a technology story. It is not just about our country's troubled finances; defense has become one more victim of a computing revolution.
... Read More
The developers behind the KDE project have released version 4.8 of the open source desktop environment. The minor release brings a number of new features and technical improvements to the KDE platform, desktop shell, and application stack.
The Plasma Workspace has been undergoing an overhaul ... Read More
The White House's use of its "We The People..." petition system has been interesting to watch over the last few months since it was introduced. While they quickly raised the "threshold" necessary to get a response, lately it's been used in some interesting ways. We've highlighted a few different petitions -- specifically those related to SOPA/PIPA, Chris Dodd ... Read More
We've talked a lot in the past about the "idea/expression dichotomy." This is an important concept in copyright law that says you can only copyright the specific expression, and not the idea. This is supposed to protect people from getting accused of copyright infringement for basically making something similar to what someone else made. Unfortunately, as we've ... Read More
Special glands on the rumps of binturongs, or bearcats, excrete a chemical that smells like popcorn. Laelaps blogger Brian Switek explains how the chemical concoction plays a crucial role in the animal's bizarre mating ritual.
... Read More
chrb writes "Asim Kauser, a 25-year-old British man, has been jailed for two years and three months for downloading recipes on how to make bombs and the toxin ricin. Police discovered the materials on a USB stick Asim's father gave to them following a burglary at the Kauser family home. Asim pled guilty and claimed that he only downloaded the ... Read More
New submitter tcjr2006 writes "Obama's State of the Union focused on the return of manufacturing jobs to America. This New Yorker story makes the case that the manufacturing jobs aren't going to come back, and he should be focusing on software. Quoting: 'Yes, there are industries where manufacturing jobs can be brought back to America through proper tax incentives and ... Read More
The U.S. Military Cuts for the Cloud
KDE 4.8 released with QML bits and new password framework
Another Interesting White House Petition: Reduce The Term Of Copyright
Why Popcorn Smells Like a Bearcat?s Butt
Man Who Downloaded Bomb Recipes Jailed For 2 Years
Canadian teens send Legonaut 15 miles into atmosphere