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Crime

Thief Returns Stolen Laptop Contents On USB Stick 352

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-been-a-pleasure-being-your-victim dept.
While it's true that Sweden is responsible for unleashing IKEA and ABBA on humanity, not everything they produce is terrible. Their thieves are some of the most considerate in the world. An unnamed professor at Umeå University received a USB stick with all his data after his laptop was stolen. From the article: "The professor, who teaches at Umeå University in northern Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen. But to his surprise, a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick. 'I am very happy,' the unnamed professor told the local Västerbottens-Kuriren newspaper. 'This story makes me feel hope for humanity.'"
Music

Spotify Releases a Linux-Only Client Library 96

Posted by timothy from the you-and-you-and-definitely-not-you dept.
f0rk writes "Spotify, a popular music streaming service, has just recently released libspotify. An official, binary-only, only for subscribers, library to 'enable and inspire you to build some really cool stuff.' The first release only has support for x86-32 Linux, the only major platform Spotify does not run on. It looks like the Spotify team is trying to be nice to the Linux community and hope someone will use their restricted binary-only library to write a Linux client."

Comment Re:Who really benefits? (Score 5, Funny) 240

by Anonymous Coward (#23451288) Attached to: Dag Wieers Scoffs at Coordinated Linux Release Proposal

try this lot [microsoft.com]. Their disto still seems fairly popular though

Tell me about it, been trying to get this one working for ages. Firstly, my friend tells me it's only available on bittorrent, instead of just downloading it from their site. Which is a bit weird, but whatever.

Where I'm really having trouble is with the package manager. How do I add a software repository in that add/remove programs thing? It doesn't seem to mention what type of packages are compatible with it either. Am guessing RPM or DEB, but which is it, maybe someone could enlighten me?

To be honest, I'm about to give up on this Windows thing, it's just not ready for the mainstream.

Comment The nice way of having ads on online videos... (Score 1) 134

by Warod (#22761710) Attached to: Google's New Patent on Commercial Breaks
Didn't read the patent text but my idea about having ads on online video without disturbing the watchers would be something like this:

1. Short ad at the end of the video.
2. Ads by user input as in showing ad video or flash-style animations while user has paused the video.
3. Allowing video uploader to mark where they'd like to have ad content on their work.
4. If keeping the time limits on videos, adding possibility for uploader to make video sequences out of them and show the ads when moving from clip to another.

That's about it. Anything else and I'd get annoyed when watching the video or having ads on my production published through the service. So, now I just have to hope that Google really have "Do no evil" with them on this.
Music

Submission + - Nine Inch Nails post result of "Free or Pay

Submitted by Rovent
Rovent writes: Back on November 1st, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails convinced Saul Williams to release his latest album, "The Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust", for free or $5, you decide. After a two month run, Trent posted the results of this experiment on the Nine Inch Nails homepage. On it, he breaks down how many people downloaded the album, who came back and paid for it, and his insight on the whole affair.
The Media

Submission + - The Real Bill Gates Behind Daniel Lyons' FSJ (roughlydrafted.com)

Submitted by shillhunter
shillhunter writes: Forbes' Dan Lyons, author of the Fake Steve Jobs blog, decided it would be entertaining to parody the unplugging of ThinkSecret by pretending his own blog was under threat from Apple. Except that in order to do that, he had to stop pretending to be FSJ and start pretending that the real Steve Jobs was threatening him. That's where he left the world of parody and reentered the familiar territory of lucrative scandal. Even before starting FSJ, Lyons jumped to follow Microsoft's marketing message with SCO against Linux, and continues to follow closely in his "People Ready," corporate-savvy, yet comical blog. His readers just haven't realized it yet. Daniel Lyons Cries Wolf: The Real Bill Gates Behind the Fake Steve Jobs
Security

Submission + - Turn in a software pirate, collect $500 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is offering consumers up to $500 for reporting software counterfeiters who sell their goods on online auction sites like eBay. Under the plan, anyone who unwittingly buys fake software from an online fraudster can receive up to $500 if they report the scam. SIIA said the program is a "don't get mad, get even" approach to stopping software piracy. It's "a way for unsuspecting buyers to get even with auction sellers who rip them off," said SIIA VP Keith Kupferschmid. The campaign, launched December 13, is slated to run through January 30, 2008.
Businesses

Submission + - In DRM world, customers have no rights (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
iweditor
iweditor writes: "Currently in the U.S., the only laws pertaining to Digital Rights Management (DRM) prohibit attempts to tamper with it. No constraints or responsibilities are placed on copyright holders for making sure their DRM doesn't unfairly deprive legitimate customers of their rights. Warning: this product contains DRM. InfoWorld contributor Ed Foster takes up the cause: Instead of vendors and the politicians who serve them telling us not to touch the DRM, we need to send them a warning of our own — those companies that use DRM do so at their peril."
Linux Business

Submission + - Is Ubuntu playing trademark policy games? (classhelper.org) 7

Submitted by
palegray.net
palegray.net writes: "The subject could just as easily be stated "Does Ubuntu understand its own trademark policy?" or alternately "Does Ubuntu really want community support and involvement?" I thought so a week ago. If you're interested in the full write-up of the whole affair, check this page. It contains copies of all the emails I sent to Ubuntu's "trademarks" email address regarding this matter, along with copies of the replies I received.

First, a little bit of background on myself and how this situation started. I'm a pretty big nerd, and I mean that in more than just your general "loves computers and programming Linux applications" sense. I also happen to enjoy puzzles of all types, word games, and kite building. Yes, kite building, especially miniature kites that can be flown in very light winds (or even indoors, in some cases).

I decided it might be a good idea to offer some small kites for sale that were decorated with various open source and Linux themed logos. Given the amount of support the Ubuntu project gives to education, especially considering their focus on education through the Edubuntu project, I thought their logo would look nice on small kites designed for Linux enthusiasts and school-age children. The way I see it, the more kids are exposed to operating systems like Ubuntu, and the less they're forced to use Microsoft products, the better off we all are in the long run. Who knows, maybe a simple kite might spark some kid's curiosity...

So I decided to do the right and proper thing by asking for permission to use the Ubuntu logo on small kites. After a few email exchanges with the folks at Ubuntu, my request was flatly denied with no commentary on my stated interpretation of their trademark policy and the procedure one should use for requesting licensed use of their logos.

What does the Slashdot community think of this? I offered to contribute a percentage of any revenue generated from the kites to the Ubuntu (or Edubuntu, whichever they prefer) project, but received no acknowledgment of that offer. What gives?"
Patents

Submission + - Life after death for IP? (blogologue.com)

Submitted by
blogologue
blogologue writes: "I'm the manager of a small-time Open Source company, and we host, customize and develop solutions for our customers. Lately the matter of patents have popped up in contracts with our customers, and this is something we need to think carefully about. Is there a trustworthy organization we can transfer these rights to, so that they are available for everyone to use, regardless of what happens to the customer or us as a company? We're in the process of getting professional (lawyer) help with this, but it seems like a good idea to ask /.'s collective wisdom for pointers on this issue first."
Media

Submission + - Why are some HD shows S T R E T C H E D? (newteevee.com) 1

Submitted by
Chris Albrecht
Chris Albrecht writes: "There's some science behind some TV networks distorting their shows to fit a widescreen format. TBS uses an algorithm to determine where the action is taking place. It keeps that ratio normal and stretches the rest of the image to fit the screen. Research also says people prefer the stretched image to the original. What do you think?"
Businesses

Submission + - The Epic Battle between Microsoft and Google 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "There is a long article in the NYTimes well worth reading called "Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft" about the business strategies both companies are pursuing and about the future of applications and where they will reside — on the web or on the desktop. Google President Eric Schmidt thinks that 90 percent of computing will eventually reside in the Web-based cloud and about 2,000 companies are signing up every day for Google Apps, simpler versions of the pricey programs that make up Microsoft's lucrative Office business. Microsoft faces a business quandary as they to try to link the Web to its desktop business — "software plus Internet services," in its formulation. Microsoft will embrace the Web, while striving to maintain the revenue and profits from its desktop software businesses, the corporate gold mine, a smart strategy for now that may not be sustainable. Google faces competition from Microsoft and from other Web-based productivity software being offered by start-ups but it is "unclear at this point whether Google will be able to capitalize on the trends that it's accelerating." David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School, says the Google model is to try to change all the rules. If Google succeeds, "a lot of the value that Microsoft provides today is potentially obsolete.""
Announcements

Submission + - Wikipedia will be licensed under Creative Commons (jamendo.com) 3

Submitted by
lkratz
lkratz writes: "Sylvain (Jamendo's CTO) just got back from a Wikipedia/iCommons party in San Francisco where he taped a very exciting announcement from Jimmy Wales : Creative Commons, Wikimedia and the Free Software Foundation just agreed to make the current Wikipedia license (the GFDL) compatible with Creative Commons (CC BY-SA). As Jimbo puts it, "This is the party to celebrate the liberation of Wikipedia"."
Music

Submission + - How do you find new non-RIAA music? 4

Submitted by burgundysizzle
burgundysizzle writes: Hey this is /. (almost) everyone hates the RIAA and a lot of people say that they don't buy anything from the companies that are part of that trade group. What alternatives do you use or more importantly what methods do you use to discover alternative sources of music?

I use http://www.sellaband.com/ (some free legal music available) and http://www.amiestreet.com/ (new music is free and most music really cheap) to find new music, but I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting places to discover new music. Tell me about your experiences and any other interesting places you get new music from (that's inexpensive and legal).

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