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The Media

Submission + - More girls than boys in the Aractic (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by
flexi7
flexi7 writes: "There is a recent article by the guardian that is discussing strange birth rate statistics in the Arctic area (Greenland, Canada & Rusia). Quoting from the article, "Twice as many girls as boys are being born in some Arctic villages because of high levels of man-made chemicals in the blood of pregnant women, according to scientists from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (Amap)".

To be honest, I am confused whether to classify this as good news or bad news.

This is the link to the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,,2167005,00.html"
Windows

Stealthy Windows Update Raises Serious Concerns 362

Posted by Zonk from the for-your-own-good dept.
UniversalVM writes "What is the single biggest issue that bothers open source advocates about proprietary software? It is probably the ability of the vendor to pull stunts like Microsoft's recent stealth software update and subsequent downplaying of any concerns. Their weak explanation seems to be a great exercise in circular logic: 'Had we failed to update the service automatically, users would not have been able to successfully check for updates and, in turn, users would not have had updates installed automatically or received expected notifications.' News.com is reporting that all of the updated files on both XP and Vista appears to be in windows update itself. This is information that was independently uncovered by users and still not released by Microsoft."
Software

Submission + - Breathalyzer source code revealed (duiblog.com)

Submitted by Nonillion
Nonillion writes: New Jersey attorney Evan M. Levow was finally able to get an order from the Supreme Court of New Jersey forcing the manufacturer of the popular Draeger AlcoTest 7110 to reveal the source code. Levow turned the code over to experts, Base One Technologies, to anaylze. Initially, Base One found that, contrary to Draeger's protestations that the code was proprietary, the code consisted mostly of general algorithms: "That is, the code is not really unique or proprietary." In other words, the "trade secrets" claim which manufacturers were hiding behind was completely without merit.
Education

Submission + - Baby Hacking 1

Submitted by LanMan04
LanMan04 writes: My wife and I are expecting our first child to be born in about 3 months, and I wanted to ask the /. crowd for any "Baby Hacking" projects/recommendations. I'd define baby hacking as any early childhood education project that can give the baby a head start (i.e. early language acquisition, accelerated learning, etc), with an emphasis unconventional ideas. This is especially important, with recent research showing that those Baby Einstein videos are actually detrimental. Also, any really "cool" projects you wish your parents could have done from day 1 (e.g. take a picture of the baby's face every day, starting at birth, to see how it changes over the years, etc) would be appreciated as well. Thanks Slashdotters!
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - iPhone hacked to work with different carriers

Submitted by
pixarnation
pixarnation writes: "A report was released today on cnn.com about how George Hotz, a teenager, managed to hack the iPhone so he could use it on different carriers besides AT&T. From the article it appears some soldering and software modification are required. Big kudos to George for accomplishing such a task! You can follow the steps to unlock the iPhone here."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - I Phone unlocked (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
mysterious_mark
mysterious_mark writes: "The Apple I phone has been successfully unlocked. George Hotz of New Jersey managed to unlock his I Phone and is now using on the T-Mobile network. Detailed instructions on how to unlock the I Phone are posted on Blog Spot also the story is being carried on CNN and Fox , no comment from yet Apple or AT&T."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - iPhone SIM-Unlock done (for a fee)! (engadget.com) 1

Submitted by
prxp
prxp writes: "Engadget is running a story on a company named iPhoneSIMfree.com that has been able to SIM-unlock the iPhone via software. The iPhoneSIMfree.com team is planning on selling the solution for a small (?) fee. According to the story the unlock is legitimately and works even after you fully restore your iPhone. Although Engadget is claiming "they're officially the first to break Apple's SIM locks on the iPhone", earlier this week George Hotz, a 17-year old former member of the iPhone Development Team, has also been able to SIM-unlock the iPhone, but his technique was hardware based and too complicated for the non-expert. It seems the race is over now. Who came first after all?"
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - New Jersey teen cracks iPhone network lock

Submitted by dispatch
dispatch writes: From MSNBC, "A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple's iPhone to AT&T's wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones." He has posted directions on how to do it on his blog which while they are interesting to read are probably a bit above the average cell phone user's head. Also, it is important to note that unfortunately at the moment the only other carrier that can handle the iPhone is T-Mobile.

How AT&T or Apple will respond has yet to be seen but it should be interesting. Will either argue intellectual property? Do they even have a position? Would AT&T have any kind of recourse against people using T-Mobile or T-Mobile itself? Will other carries start supporting the iPhone? Will a new market pop up for iPhone modders/over seas sales?
Software

Submission + - Who Owns a Hosted Open Source Project? 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Just over a year ago I convinced my company to release a framework we had created, under an open source license. Since then, a lot of hard work has been put in by myself and others outside of normal work hours and we've managed to turn it into a fairly substantial project with a solid user base. Now I've reached a point where I'm going to move on to something else and the company I work for is taking the typical corporate position that they own the project and everything related to it. Since it's hosted on a popular project hosting site, I'm curious who actually owns the project and it's SVN repository? I originally established the project and no one but the core developers have access to it, so can we refuse to hand over full access to the open source project? Clearly, it's within my right to fork it, but that seems like a bad solution especially since the company just wants to shut it down. I've spent sometime looking around for information on this, but it seems like this either hasn't happened before or it's happened behind closed doors. Does the slashdot community have any thoughts on this?
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - First Fully Unlocked Iphone done via Hardware Hack (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
prxp
prxp writes: "One of the iPhone Dev Team Members, GeoHot, has successfully unlocked the iPhone for use with any carrier's SIM card. According to GeoHot's web site: "The current method involves taking apart your phone and doing some complicated soldering, with a high probablity of a bricked phone. Although after the phone is unlocked all the hardware can be removed. We hope to find a software unlock very soon." GeoHot also uploaded a video in you tube showing his unlocked iPhone. Though this might seen quite unbelievable at the moment since several Scams about unlocked iPhones are flying around, GeoHot has a very good reputation on these matters which could be attested by the Dev Team's forum members."

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