Several readers noted Google’s announcement yesterday of Google Apps for Government: “The new version is a variant of Google Apps Premier edition, and includes the same core apps: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, Groups, Video, and Postini. Pricing is the same as for Google Apps Premier: $50 per user per year. The certification says that Google Apps qualifies for is called a FISMA-Moderate rating, which means that it’s authorized for use with data that’s (more…)

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Forbes:
“Electronic Arts, one of the world’s largest games publishers, on Monday partnered with microtransactions platform Live Gamer to bolster its online game efforts. … THQ also announced a partnership with Live Gamer last week to facilitate microtransactions of its online PC and mobile games in North America. … Worldwide sales of virtual items are expected to reach $7 billion by 2015, according (more…)

An anonymous reader writes with the latest advance in the quest for a cloak of invisibility (Michigan Tech University’s press release). We’ve been following this research as it develops; here a story in each of the last four years. “Invisibility cloaks are slowly working their way up to shorter wavelengths — starting at millimeter-long microwaves and working their way to the nanometer wavelengths of visible light. EETimes says we are about half (more…)

Barence writes “Dell has stopped selling consumer PCs preloaded with Ubuntu from its website, and doesn’t know when they’re coming back. A search for Ubuntu on the Dell UK website returns only one laptop — the Dell Latitude 2100 from the company’s business range. Dell insists that it’s continuing to sell Ubuntu systems, but only over the phone, and has no idea when — or even if — the Ubuntu PCs will return online. ‘We’ve recently (more…)

Andorin writes “It’s common knowledge that the majority of files distributed over BitTorrent violate copyright, though the exact percentage is unclear. The Internet Commerce Security Laboratory of the University of Ballarat in Australia has conducted a study and found that 89% of files examined were in fact infringing, while most of the remaining 11% were ambiguous but likely to be infringing. Ars Technica summarizes the study: ‘The total sample consisted (more…)

If you have $765 burning a hole in your pocket, and a penchant for drinking alcohol out of a taxidermied animal, the good folks at BrewDog have just the drink for you. Their latest creation, called The End of History, is a 110 proof beer that comes packaged in a variety of small stuffed animals.

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Trintech writes “According to MSNBC: ‘The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for “industrial” cultivation starting next year.
The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.
The resolution passed the city council easily after a nearly four-hour (more…)

Stoobalou writes “Sony has recently published patents which will allow two-player 3D gaming on a single screen. The new technology could spell an end to split-screen gaming, but is unlikely to see the light of day for a few years at least. Sony’s method would allow player one to see frames one and three whilst player two would see frames two and four. Current technology requires a display with a 120 Hz refresh rate so it seems likely that we’ll have (more…)

coondoggie writes NASA is working on some difficult renovations to reinvigorate its 70-meter-wide ‘Mars antenna.’ The antenna, a key cog in NASA’s Deep Space Network, needs about $1.25M worth of what NASA calls major, delicate surgery. The revamp calls for lifting the antenna — about 4 million kilograms of finely tuned scientific instruments — to a height of about 5 millimeters so workers can replace the steel runner, walls and supporting (more…)

richardkelleher writes “IEEE Spectrum takes a look at the machines developed by a company funded by Kevin Costner that are supposed to extract the oil from the Gulf waters. Is it possible that in the years since the Exxon Valdez, that Kevin Costner is the only one who has invested money into the technology of oil spill cleanup?”

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