Cody Taylor

The BBC is reporting on minor damage to the space shuttle Atlantis revealed by a 10-hour inspection in orbit. On the shuttle’s right side, near where the wing joins the body, inspection revealed a 21″ (53cm) line of chips in the tiles that make up the vehicle’s heat shield. “…more analysis by engineers would determine whether a ‘focused inspection’ was needed in that specific area. If so, astronauts would use sensors to determine the exact depth of the damage to the heat shield tiles. NASA has placed the space shuttle Endeavour on stand-by to rescue the crew of Atlantis if they are endangered.” The crew couldn’t shelter on the ISS in case of trouble, because their orbit is higher and on a different inclination.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The French National Assembly has passed the country’s controversial “graduated response” law that will disconnect repeat Internet copyright infringers. The bill is the toughest in the world, but a showdown still looms between France and Europe over the practice.

College students have always been prime targets for anti-piracy outfits such as the RIAA. Despite inundating students with mountains of threats and legal action, the number of copyright infringements committed by them have not declined. What did change though is the positioning of various universities in the list of most infringing establishments.

Mozilla today confirmed a recent report from Mozilla Links that future Firefox versions will separate interface from content processes to increase the browser’s stability.

ChelleChelle writes “This article examines the limitations of the sockets API. The Internet and the networking world in general have changed in very significant ways since the sockets API was first developed in 1982, but the API has had the effect of narrowing the ways in which developers think about and write networked applications. This article discusses the history as well as the future of the sockets API, focusing on how ‘high bandwidth, low latency, and multihoming are driving the development of new alternatives.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.