mavenguy - Slashdot User

Submission + - Say farewell to Dash and Dot

Submitted by livnah on Wednesday January 24, 2007 @04:57PM

livnah writes: At WRC-03 in 2003 the International Telecommunications Union made the decision to "delegates agreed to authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30 MHz", effectively putting an end to the Morse Code Requirement worldwide. It took until today for the FCC (United States Federal Communications Commission, which oversees radio licensing in the US and it's territories) to formally announce that "23 February 2007 [will be] when the current 5 WPM Morse code requirement will officially disappear from the Amateur Radio Service Part 97 rules". The article from the ARRL goes on to say: "After midnight on that date, applicants for a General or Amateur Extra class Amateur Radio license no longer will have to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code. They'll just have to pass the applicable written examination. The appearance in today's Federal Register of the FCC's Report and Order (R&O) in the "Morse code proceeding," WT Docket 05-235, starts a 30-day countdown for the new rules to become effective. Deletion of the Morse requirement — still a matter of controversy within the amateur community — is a landmark in Amateur Radio history."

Submission + - Microsoft Patenting RSS?

Submitted by

VE3OGG

on Friday December 22, 2006 @05:47PM

VE3OGG writes: "Back in July 2005, Microsoft had announced its plans to integrate RSS tightly within its new browser and operating system. It was also believed that Microsoft was intending to redistribute any changes or modifications to the RSS-standard through the Creative Commons license. This appears to no longer be the case. Now Microsoft appears to be trying to patent RSS through two specific patent applications it filed more than a year ago. "This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS," Dave Winer, one of the self-professed creators of the format, said."

Submission + - Samsung exec go to jail over DRAM price-fixing

Submitted by TheUnknownCoder on Friday December 22, 2006 @04:45PM

TheUnknownCoder writes: According to The Register, four executives from Samsung — the world's largest manufacturer of DRAM — have agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time in the United States for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices.

Bruce Sterling's Final Prediction 162

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @10:59AM from the so-long-Nostradamus dept.

In Bruce Sterling's final column for Wired, he summarizes the output of a survey of Net prognosticators conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The piece is peppered with Sterling's trademarked stop-you-in-your-tracks imagery. An example: "The bubble-era vision of a Utopian Internet is dented and dirty... The Lexus has collided with the olive tree, and its crumpled hulk spins in a ditch as the orchard smolders."

Slashdot Top Deals