SETI crimebusters and banning lightbulbs

Source: C|Net News James Gosling, the father of the Java programming language, has just been appointed to the Order of Canada.

Source: New York Times Daniel Goleman writes an interesting article on the cause of internet "flame wars", and reviews some ideas on how to combat it.

Source: ABC News The SETI project provided itself useful for more than finding intelligent life, it was used to recover a stolen laptop. A laptop belonging to the wife of a Minnesota programmer as recently stolen; however, it had SETI@home installed on it so the laptop's IP address could be discovered when her computer checked in with the SETI server. SETI provided the IP address to the programmer who handed it to police who then subpoenaed a local service provider to reveal the user's real-world address. The address was raided and the laptop returned safe and sound. The thief is still at large, but is missing a collection of rap music that they apparently installed on the system.

Source: Globe and Mail Ontario is considering of joining Australia in banning the sale of conventional light bulbs in an effort to reduce energy consumption. In Australia, they expect the measure to cut household energy consumption by as much as 66%. California is also considering a similar ban.

Source: iTWire NASA plans to have a permanent "interplanetary internet" connecting Earth to Mars in place by 2008. The move would improve their ability to communicate with and control Mars robotic explorers. Spacecraft sent to the planet would only need to connect to the local network rather than make an independent connection to earth.