tsa - Slashdot User

Submission + - Norwegian standards body members resign over OOXML (arstechnica.com)

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tsa

on Friday October 03, 2008 @05:39PM

tsa writes: "Arstechnica tells us that 13 of the 23 members of the technical committee of the Norwegian standards body Standards Norway, the organization that manages technical standards for the Scandinavian country, have resigned because of the way the OOXML standardization was handled. From the article: The standardization process for Microsoft's office format has been plagued with controversy. Critics have challenged the validity of its ISO approval and allege that procedural irregularities and outright misconduct marred the voting process in national standards bodies around the world. Norway has faced particularly close scrutiny because the country reversed its vote against approval despite strong opposition to the format by a majority of the members who participated in the technical committee."

Submission + - Apple wants you to use Nike exclusively (arstechnica.com)

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tsa

on Monday September 15, 2008 @04:41PM

tsa writes: "Arstechnica writes about Apple, who apparently wants to tie your shoes to your clothes with DRM. From the fine article: If you're a Nike+iPod Sport Kit fan, you may eventually find yourself being restricted to using it with Nike-branded sportswear, thanks to a recently-published Apple patent. The patent, filed for in March of 2007 and published last week, describes a "Smart Garment" that would allow a gadget to authenticate to a specific garment--whether that garment is shoes, pants, or a jacket. When the garment is authenticated, however, unapproved garments would be blocked from being able to use the device."

Submission + - T-Mobile USA seen cloning iPhone's App Store (appleinsider.com)

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tsa

on Saturday August 09, 2008 @03:41AM

tsa writes: "T-mobile USA is copying Apples App store for their mobile phones. They have a German App store as well, in which they also sell PC software. I'm not sure I like this development. On the one hand, you get guaranteed spyware- and virusfree applications. On the other hand we're moving towards total control of your devices by the provider."

Submission + - Microsoft's Mojave website is live (mojaveexperiment.com)

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tsa

on Wednesday July 30, 2008 @01:28AM

tsa writes: "Microsoft's Mojave Experiment website is up. They let people who had never seen Vista 'test their new upcoming OS', and afterwards told them they had been using Vista all along. They don't show what the subjects had to do however. Wtach the site and find out yourself what to think about it!"

Submission + - City sued by telco over fibre network (arstechnica.com)

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tsa

on Wednesday July 23, 2008 @10:08PM

tsa writes: "The small town of Monticello, Minnesota, wants to build its own fibre network. The town held a referendum; 74 percent of voters agreed to fund the $25 million scheme. The city sought the needed municipal bonds, but the day before it closed on them, the local telco, Bridgewater Telephone, filed suit to stop the plan. Its claim: taking out bonds to build a fiber network is illegal."

Submission + - Google Earth takes you inside refugee camps

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tsa

on Wednesday April 09, 2008 @01:59PM

tsa writes: "A beautiful blend of technology and humanitarian aid is described in this article at ArsTechnica. From the article: "Refugee camps almost by definition have limited visibility. Often located in places that are hot, flooded, or at war, such camps go unseen by most of the world except for the occasional crisis segment on the evening news. Now, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hopes to give more visibility to the work that it does in such camps around the world, bringing the reality of refugee life into the laptops and living rooms of web surfers thanks to the power of Google mapping tools.""

Submission + - Poltergeists explained by quantum physics (newscientist.com)

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tsa

on Tuesday April 01, 2008 @06:13PM

tsa writes: "I know it's a bit late but New Scientist has a nice April fools prank about poltergeists being explained by quantum physics. From the article: Children generate poltergeist activity by channelling energy into the quantum mechanical vacuum. These disturbances would be similar in character to the quantum mechanical fluctuations that physicists believe occur in the vacuum, in which "virtual" particle and antiparticle pairs pop up for a fleeting moment, before they annihilate each other and disappear again. The extra fluctuations triggered by the pubescent brain would substantially enhance the presence of the virtual particles surrounding the person. This could slowly increase the pressure of air around them, moving objects and even sending them hurtling across the room."

Submission + - Dutch government moves to open standards (www.fnl.nl)

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tsa

on Friday December 14, 2007 @01:59AM

tsa writes: "A motion (PDF) to start using open standards (ODF is mentioned in particular) as soon as April 2008 was accepted last Wednesday by a large mayority of the Dutch parliament. Government institutions will have to start using open standards, as well as open source software wherever and whenever possible from then on. Theo Rinsema, director of Microsoft Nederland, said in an interview that he feels Microsoft is discriminated against. The use of open standards as defined in the motion prevents people from using Microsoft's products. Reitsema wants the government to be able to use standards that are controlled by companies, like GSM, MP3 and PDF. In the Netherlands, 177.000 people work for MS, and Reitsema wonders if they will still have a license to operate after April 2008. He was largely ignored during the parliament's discussion."

Submission + - MS gives in to Kroes (teletekst.nos.nl)

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tsa

on Monday October 22, 2007 @08:37AM

tsa writes: "On Dutch teletekst there is a short news item about MS finally giving in to the European Union. They will pay the fine of nearly 500 million euros Neelie Kroes had imposed on them, and everyone can buy the necessary data to make their programs interact with MS Windows for 10000 euros."

Submission + - iPhone AT&T deal under scrutiny by US governme (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by

tsa

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @12:44AM

tsa writes: "Apple's multi-year iPhone contract with AT&T has become the poster child for the ills of the cellphone industry in a US House committee debate, with Verizon also casting its own doubts on the device. Here's what AppleInsider has to say about it."

Submission + - People waiting in line for the iPhone already (willemtjerkstra.nl)

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tsa

on Tuesday June 26, 2007 @01:36AM

tsa writes: "A new low has been reached in the iPhone frenzy that's been hard to miss these past weeks. The first people to wait in line have been spotted last monday, in front of the Apple Store in Manhattan, four days before the iPhone will be released on Friday, june 29. AppleInsider has the scoop, with pictures and even a video of the first interview with the first person to wait in line for the iPhone."

Submission + - Video of iPhone features available (apple.com)

Submitted by

tsa

on Friday June 22, 2007 @03:15PM

tsa writes: "You got to hand it to them: the guys from Apple know how to market their stuff. They now have a Get Ready for the iPhone page on their website, which even contains a video that shows the most important features of the iPhone in all their slickness. What surprised me was this tidbit I found on their website: "To set up your iPhone, you'll need an account with Apple's iTunes Store. If you already have an iTunes account, make sure you know your account name and password. If you don't have an account, you should set one up now to save time later.""

Submission + - Project to bring DX10 to Mac, Linux

Submitted by

tsa

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @02:51AM

tsa writes: "On Ars Technica there is an article about a company named Falling Leaf Systems that aims to bring DX10 to the Mac and to Linux. If they pull this off I can finally do the fun stuff Apple has promised I can do on the Mac for years: play the games I like! Although there is a working alpha, I wonder if this project is legally and technically feasible."

Submission + - Microsoft pays companies to use LiveSearch

Submitted by

tsa

on Sunday March 18, 2007 @05:48AM

tsa writes: "On John Battelle's Searchblog there is a piece about how Microsoft pays companies to not only have them use MS's Live Search engine, but also get information about the amount of users and PC's in the company. Companies get paid a fee per PC. The height of the fee depends on the usage of the MS LiveSearch engine. The use of IE7 is mandatory for this, because MS wants the companies to use a plugin for this browser to be able to keep track of the user's searching habits. If you ask me, this is bribery."

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