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Submitting a review for consideration is easy; please first read Slashdot's book review guidelines. Updated: 200818 by samzenpus

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      Slashdot Firehose

      The Slashdot Firehose is a collaborative system designed to allow users to assist our editors in the story selection process. The hose contains submissions, RSS Feeds, journals and Slashdot stories, each color-coded along the color spectrum to indicate popularity. Red is hot, violet is not. Try tagging and voting on the entries below, and by using the 'feedback' menus. Please send comments to hose at cmdrtaco dot net but be forgiving of beta code!

        New kind of scrollbar (demo)[->] 2008-05-09 16:09 thorwil

      Submitted by thorwil on Friday May 09, @04:09PM
      + -
       [+] submission, linux, gui , feedback

        BioShock Movie to be made by Universal[->] 2008-05-09 16:06 azuredrake

      Submitted by azuredrake on Friday May 09, @04:06PM
      azuredrake writes "Gamasutra reports that Universal Pictures has just announced a completion of licensing negotiations to bring the game BioShock to the silver screen. For those unfamiliar with the property, it was the much lauded Game of the Year contender praised for its storyline which emerged through gameplay, not just cutscenes. The director for the project is to be Gore Verbinski, who proved himself on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and the current writer for the screenplay is John Logan, who is recently known for the also-creepy Sweeny Todd."
      http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18577
      + -
       [+] submission, games, movies

        Dipity TimeTube mashup creates YouTube timelines[->] 2008-05-09 15:59 Anonymous Coward

      Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 09, @03:59PM
      An anonymous reader writes "Make a YouTube timeline with a new mashup from Dipity. NewTeeVee created a RickRoll timeline here: http://newteevee.com/2008/05/08/cool-tools-make-a-youtube-timeline/ The Britney Spears timeline is telling http://www.dipity.com/user/timetube/timeline/YouTube_Videos_matching_query_britney_spears"
      http://www.dipity.com/mashups/timetube
      + -
       [+] submission, google

        Team Integrator for Eclipse-based Tools[->] 2008-05-09 15:55 jmalasko

      Submitted by jmalasko on Friday May 09, @03:55PM
      jmalasko writes "Learn how Team Integrator for Eclipse-based Tools enables collaboration between developers using different tools. This package provides team integration for business process management, an exemplar implementation of the package, and projects built using WebSphere Business Modeler and Websphere Integration Developer."
      http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/teamintegrator?open&S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GRsite-lnxw01&ca=dgr-lnxw01awteamintegrator
      + -
       [+] submission, developers, programming

        First release candidate of Wine 1.0 released 2008-05-09 15:55 moronikos

      Submitted by moronikos on Friday May 09, @03:55PM
      moronikos writes "The first release candidate of Wine 1.0 was announced and released into the wild today. Wine is an implementation of the Windows API that runs on Linux (or other POSIX compatible OSes) under X."
      + -
       [+] submission, linux, windows, , ,
      Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday May 09, @03:41PM
      from the undermining-from-the-inside dept.
      Techdirt called our attention to an interesting video of patent attorney Stephan Kinsella's presentation on "Rethinking Intellectual Property Completely". It's a long presentation, but well worth the time to watch. There is also an ongoing series of posts discussing intellectual property rights on Techdirt for additional reading.
      + -
       [+] story, yro, patents, software

        Neil Turok Joins Perimeter Institute [->] 2008-05-09 15:20 modernphysics

      Submitted by modernphysics on Friday May 09, @03:20PM
      modernphysics writes "Not only is top scientist Dr. Neil Turok coming to North America, he's coming to Perimeter Institute and he's going to lead it. Professor Stephen Hawking says "The combination of Neil and PI is brilliant and holds great promise for the future." PI is an independent and non-profit research organization where international physicists can ponder the deepest questions in nature and calculate new ideas about the essence of space, time, matter and information. Dr. Turok is joining PI as Executive Director. The founder of PI is Mike Lazaridis who says "We are extremely pleased to welcome Professor Turok to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is a world-renowned scientist of the highest calibre and provides tremendous research and leadership experience." Dr. Turok says, "The Institute's innovative approach, its flexibility and its determination to tackle the most basic questions are already attracting the world's most brilliant students and researchers to Canada. Working with the excellent PI team, I hope to strengthen these developments so that PI becomes a world epicenter for theoretical physics, catalysing major scientific breakthroughs." The appointment was webcast around the world to the research community. It can be played back from http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/News/In_The_Media/Dr._Neil_Turok_Appointed_Executive_Director_of_Perimeter_Institute"
      http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/News/In_The_Media/Dr._Neil_Turok_Appointed_Executive_Director_of_Perimeter_Institute
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       [+] submission, education
      Submitted by d1to on Friday May 09, @03:06PM
      d1to writes "http://www.vodaplus.com/notebook/dell-xps-gen-2-notebook-service-manual Click the Download to download the Dell XPS Gen 2 Notebook Service Manual and save it to your hard drive. If you downloaded a compiled file (files with an extension of .chm), double-click the file to open it. If you downloaded an executable zip file (files with an extension of .exe): 1. Go to the directory location you specified when you saved the file. 2. Double-click the .exe file you downloaded. The WinZip Self-Extractor dialog box appears. 3. Specify the location to which you want to save the unzipped files and click Unzip. A message appears, stating that the files unzipped successfully. 4. Click OK. 5. Click Close. 6. To view the document, start your browser and open the index.htm file in the directory containing the unzipped files More...............(visit site)"
      http://www.vodaplus.com/notebook/dell-xps-gen-2-notebook-service-manual
      + -
       [+] submission, tech, digital
      Journal by RobertM1968 on Friday May 09, @03:01PM

      According to Bloomberg, Microsoft has appealed the EU's $1.35B ruling against them: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFpXl7.5U_a4&refer=home

      Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, asked a court to overturn or reduce a record 899 million-euro ($1.4 billion) European Union fine over claims the company failed to comply with an antitrust ruling.

      The appeal was filed today at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, Microsoft spokesman Jesse Verstraete said in an e-mailed statement.

      ``We are filing this appeal in a constructive effort to seek clarity from the court,'' Verstraete said.

      I for one, do not understand what additional clarity Microsoft is seeking... "You've been found guilty. Here is the fine" (and hopefully some more penalties for wasting more of the court's time). Seems pretty darn clear to me.

      + -
       [+] journal,
      Submitted by Capt. Spike on Friday May 09, @02:59PM
      Capt. Spike writes "Science Daily has a story that shows that stroke patients respond much better to human rehab professionals rather than a robot. They work harder and get more done in a block of time with a person helping them with their work. This makes sense at several levels of rehab and it would not surprise us that spinal cord patients respond the same way that stroke patients do. The human can make immediate adjustments to the rehab training to pinpoint areas that need more work or to back off if the strain is too hard on the muscles and joints. Robots can only perform the same task over and over again, they cannot tell that the patient is in too much pain or is working too hard to get the desired response. Also the human rehab specialist can change the training immediately if they see that other work would be more beneficial, where the robots have nothing to compare the present work to. The only real bonus for robotic trainers is that they will do a better job of keeping track of numbers like repetitions and number of revolutions that the human may miss."
      http://www.spinalcordresources.com/?q=node/638
      + -
       [+] submission, science, robot
      Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday May 09, @02:52PM
      from the your-special-and-unique-just-like-everyone-else dept.
      suso writes ""The estimated population of the world will pass 6,666,666,666 today. No doubt an interesting number for people everywhere (not referring to any religion connotations). 5,555,555,555 was passed about 14 years ago. You may not realize that only a 80 years ago, the population of the Earth was only around 2 billion. This shows how the population of the world has increased at an alarming rate in recent times. Although the growth rate is almost half what it was at its peak in 1963, when it was 2.2%. Unrelated but also an interesting coincidence, the estimated number of available IPv4 addresses is getting very close to 666,666,666. It should cross over today as well.""

        Drill Hole in SIM to Unlock 3G Phones[->] 2008-05-09 14:49 mickeytwist

      Submitted by mickeytwist on Friday May 09, @02:49PM
      mickeytwist writes "A UK based unlocking service has released technology to unlock your 3G mobile phone by drilling a whole in your SIM card."
      http://news.timtechs.com/drill-hole-in-sim-to-unlock-3g-phones.html
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       [+] submission, tech, cellphones, idroppeditonadrill

        Where Sun Shines on Virtualization 2008-05-09 14:41 Esther Schindler

      Submitted by Esther Schindler on Friday May 09, @02:41PM
      Esther Schindler writes "What does Sun have to do with virtualization? Plenty, says Deni Connor, principal analyst for research firm Storage Strategies NOW, in Sun's Virtualization Strategy Evolves. The author explains how Sun's virtualization technologies are changing and stacking up in the age of VMware, and how open source fits into Sun's virtualization plans.

      "Last year, we got much more aggressive on moving into the virtualization space with commodity x86-based hardware, as well the ability to work with Linux and Windows workloads in addition to just Solaris," Sun's Wilson says. "That's what has led us to the xVM strategy."
      "
      + -
       [+] submission, it, sun
      Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday May 09, @02:01PM
      from the melts-in-your-hand-not-in-your-rack dept.
      schliz writes to mention that in a recent interview with ITNews researcher John Shalf explained the purpose and some of the technical details of the newly-announced "iPod supercomputer". "Microprocessors from portable electronics like iPods could yield low-cost, low-power supercomputers for specialized scientific applications, according to computer scientist John Shalf. Along with a research team from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Shalf is designing a supercomputer based on low-power embedded microprocessors, which has the sole purpose of improving global climate change predictions."
      + -
       [+] story, mobile, handheld, supercomputing, hardhack, worldcommunitygrid
      Submitted by MCS396 on Friday May 09, @01:12PM
      MCS396 writes "From Tech On: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) manufactured integrated 3D carbon-nanotube components by using single-layer carbon nanotubes. A "carbon-nanotube wafer" developed by densely aligning carbon nanotubes enabled to use microfabrication techniques of lithography."
      http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080509/151479/
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       [+] submission, science, hardhack
      Posted by kdawson on Friday May 09, @01:06PM
      from the who-do-you-trust dept.
      There are new developments in the case of the counterfeit Cisco routers, which we have been discussing for some time. The NYTimes updates the story after an FBI PowerPoint presentation made its way onto the Web. It seems that experts at Cisco have examined some of the counterfeit routers in detail and proclaimed that they contain no back doors. Others don't believe we can be so sure. "Last month, [DARPA] began distributing chips with hidden Trojan horse circuitry to military contractors who are participating in the agency's Trusted Integrated Circuits program. The goal is to test forensic techniques for finding hidden electronic trap doors, which can be maddeningly elusive... The threat was demonstrated in April when a team of computer scientists from the University of Illinois presented a paper at a technical conference in San Francisco detailing how they had modified a Sun Microsystems SPARC microprocessor... The researchers were able to create a stealth system that would allow them to automatically log in to a computer and steal passwords."
      + -
       [+] story, it, security, government,
      Submitted by FiReaNGeL on Friday May 09, @01:02PM
      FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers have found that the productivity in a company that is facing closure rises, which is quite the opposite of what is expected. They explain that "the patterns are surprisingly clear. When the decision to close is made public, there is an initial drop in productivity. People are angry, sad, and worried about their future. But when negotiations are over and everyone knows what the conditions are, productivity rises". Interesting insight about human psychology!"
      http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/05/09/productivity.rises.when.companies.are.facing.closure
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       [+] submission, business

        Firm Claims to Use SEO to Bury Bad News Online[->] 2008-05-09 12:54 buzzardsbay

      Submitted by buzzardsbay on Friday May 09, @12:54PM
      buzzardsbay writes "Ziff blogger Pedro Pereira is challenging PressReleasePros.com to bury his slam on them after the latter issued a release Friday saying it offers, for a fee, the ability to manipulate search engines through SEO in order "to bury negative blog postings" about a client's company. So if your company has been the object of ridicule by a blogger, or perhaps deserved criticism, the brain trust at PressReleasePros.com is presumably going to show you how to prevent people from finding those blog entries. Is such a thing even possible? As Pereira writes: "If your goal is to provide marketing advice to companies that need it, perhaps you should focus on counseling them to avoid being written about negatively in the first place.""
      http://blog.channelinsider.com/content001/channel_chatter/marketing_chutzpah_1.html
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       [+] submission, google

        UK uses CCTV, terrorism laws against pooping dogs[->] 2008-05-09 12:50 Anonymous Coward

      Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 09, @12:50PM
      An anonymous reader writes "The United Kingdom has the most surveillance cameras per capita in the world. With the recent news that CCTV cameras do not actually deter crime, how can the local town councils justify the massive surveillance program? By going after pooping dogs. Recent reports in the UK indicate that local town governments have been using anti-terrorism laws and the large number of CCTVs to combat petty crimes. Those crimes include the owners of pooping dogs, public littering, the misuse of a disabled parking pass, and someone who was working while receiving sick benefits. Sure, these are crimes, but this is not what the sweeping anti-terrorism laws were intended for. Government over-reach, or a good thing? You decide."
      http://www.cnet.com/8301-13739_1-9939635-46.html
      + -
       [+] submission, privacy

        The 10 worst workspaces in tech[->] 2008-05-09 12:42 nicholas.m.carlson

      Submitted by nicholas.m.carlson on Friday May 09, @12:42PM
      nicholas.m.carlson writes "Fell better about your hovel. We've toured the top 10 workspaces in tech. Now Valleywag goes back to Office Snapshots to find the 10 worst. What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem "Internet-y" — come off even worse. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla and others."
      http://valleywag.com/388566/the-10-worst-workspaces-in-tech
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       [+] submission, features, business
      Submitted by Ian Lamont on Friday May 09, @12:40PM
      Ian Lamont writes "Google has begun to scan the streets of Paris as part of its Street View service, but the company may be hindered from publishing them unedited. The reason? French privacy laws:

      ... In France, citizens have a "droit à l'image," the right to their own image: pictures identifying them as they go about their private business may not be published without their permission. That could put the brakes on Google's deployment of Street View in France, unless the camera-cars are accompanied by an army of clipboard-wielding legal assistants asking bystanders to sign release forms as they sip their coffee.
      The article says Google may be forced to blur faces or use low-resolution versions of the photographs. The Embassy of France in the U.S. has a page devoted to French privacy laws, that says the laws are needed to "avoid infringing the individual's right to privacy and right to his or her picture (photograph or drawing), both of them rights of personality.""

      http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/05/09/google-takes-street-view-snaps-paris-lawsuits-may-follow
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       [+] submission, yro, google

        Coldplay Sets Dates for Extensive amp[->] 2008-05-09 12:37 musicguru

      Submitted by musicguru on Friday May 09, @12:37PM
      musicguru writes "Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" world tour — which will land in North America, Europe and Japan — is set to begin at Philadelphia's"
      http://blog.mp3dream.org/?p=38
      + -
       [+] submission, news, music

        The History of the Intellivision[->] 2008-05-09 12:32 Matt Barton

      Submitted by Matt Barton on Friday May 09, @12:32PM
      Matt Barton writes "Gamasutra has published our history of Mattel's Intellivision, a popular game console from the 80s. While not as popular or well known as the Atari 2600 or Nintendo NES, the Intellivision was a best-selling platform for its day and helped ignite the graphics wars that are still ongoing today. The article covers the history, hardware, software, and peripherals for this unfairly obscure console."
      http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3653/a_history_of_gaming_platforms_.php?print=1
      + -
       [+] submission, games, classicgames
      Posted by kdawson on Friday May 09, @12:24PM
      from the time-to-buy-stock-in-noscript dept.
      Manfre writes "On his birthday, John Resig (creator of jQuery) has given a present to developers by releasing Processing.js. This is a Javascript port of the Processing Visualization Language and a first step towards Javascript being a rival to Flash for online graphics content. His blog post contains an excellent writeup with many demos."
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       [+] story, developers, graphics, software, slashdotted, why, awesome
      Submitted by alphadogg on Friday May 09, @12:21PM
      alphadogg writes "Rap "star" Foxy Brown pleaded guilty yesterday to smashing her neighbor in the face with a BlackBerry smarphone. Conflicting accounts say Brown threw the device, others that she held it and beat the victim, in the process coining a new term: SmackBerry. Brown appeared Thursday May 8 in Brooklyn Supreme Court, just days before the start of Research in Motion's annual BlackBerry user conference, the Wireless Enterprise Symposium http://www.wirelessenterprisesymposium.com/ in Orlando, Florida. Chances are she won't be attending."
      http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/27644
      + -
       [+] submission, wireless