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Software

Submission + - IE6 search engine being changed to Bing.com (cnet.com) 1

Submitted by
weazel2006
weazel2006 writes: "CNet just posted a story that confirms my suspicions that the default search engine for anyone using IE6 has been reset to www.bing.com. Earlier today a story on Slashdot explained that IE6 is still very popular amongst corporate users. The reason for this is that large enterprise applications would need costly upgrades to be compatible with a newer browser version. (from CNet..) Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is looking into an issue in which users of Internet Explorer 6 are forced into having Bing as their default search engine. "We are aware of the issue with Bing on machines running IE6 and are investigating a solution," Microsoft said in a statement. "This issue is not impacting IE7 and IE8 users." Although it is only affecting its older browser, many people still use IE6 and Microsoft has faced a lot of regulatory scrutiny over how default search preferences are set and changed within Internet Explorer."
Government

Submission + - Norwegian court rules: Indexing sites not legal 1

Submitted by geirendre
geirendre writes: The court of Norways capitol "Oslo Tingrett" have ruled that indexing internet sites without prior consent from the owner to be illegal. Link to original article (in Norwegian) http://www.digi.no/814900/forbudt-aa-indeksere-uten-lov The court states that "indexing a site is copying content" and thus violates copyright laws. In other words, what Google (and other search engines) does when it indexes sites, is illegal.
Encryption

Submission + - No Museum Status For UK Home Of Enigma Machine (eweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
hardsix
hardsix writes: "Despite the numerous films, books and plays, celebrating the brilliant achievements of the code-breakers at Bletchley Park, the UK government is still dragging its feet over providing proper support for the site. There has just been a debate in the House of Lords over whether the site should be given similar status to the UK's main WWII museum — the Imperial War Museum. But the government has brushed off the request claiming that the site has received enough funding recently. However, as was shown by a visit to the site by UK actor, and Twitter-lover Stephen Fry, although devices such as Enigma have been restored many of the huts where the code-breaking work went on are in a bad state and more investment is needed."
The Internet

Submission + - Wolfram|Alpha, the Details Behind the Prompt (infoq.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wolfram|Alpha uses symbolic computation in an attempt to make the world's systematic knowledge computable. It does that by accepting a linguistic input not a custom set of formulas. The main components of the system are a data curation pipeline, an algorithmic computation system, a linguistic processing system, and an automated presentation system.
Cellphones

Submission + - G1 Google phone could be most popular console ever (pocketgamer.co.uk)

Submitted by
Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan writes: "Pocket Gamer has been getting its fingers inside the unique new Zeebo console — a sub $200 system designed for emerging markets — to discover it's based on a hacked version of the T-Mobile G1 Google phone. It effectively consists of the chipset from the HTC Dream/G1 Android phone, plus some extra I/O to deal with TV screens, controllers and the like. If this gaming, entertainment and educational console for the billion-strong middle classes in emerging economies such as Brazil and India catches on, HTC could become a serious global gaming force."
Internet Explorer

Submission + - SourceForge.net drops IE 6 support (wkoorts.com) 1

Submitted by
Wayne Koorts
Wayne Koorts writes: "Users of SourceForge.net with any version of Internet Explorer lower than 7 are now simply greeted with the message: "Your browser isn't supported, so some things might not work as expected. Please upgrade to a newer version of IE, or to Firefox.". We're not talking about only minor pixel differences here and there either, the site is quite badly disfigured in IE 6."
Robotics

Submission + - SPAM: Robot soldiers are being deployed

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes: "As a Rutgers philosopher discusses robot war scenarios, one science magazine counts the ways robots are already being used in warfare, including YouTube videos of six military robots in action. There are up to 12,000 "robotic units" on the ground in Iraq, some dismantling landmines and roadside bombs, but "a new generation of bots are designed to be fighting machines." One bot can operate an M-16 rifle, a machine gun, and a rocket launcher — and 250 people have already been killed by unmanned drones in Pakistan. He also tells the story of a berserk robot explosives gun that killed nine people in South Africa due to a 'software glitch.'"
Link to Original Source
Announcements

Submission + - Free online MPP, MPX and planner viewer released (gnanttzilla.com) 1

Submitted by
Aleksey Drobnych
Aleksey Drobnych writes: "We're team of Grails/Java enthusiasts. A few days ago we released new online service named Ganttzilla. At first approach this is online viewer of Microsoft Project documents of all versions of MPP, MPX and XML formats. Ganttzilla process Planner files also. Around this basic functionality our service supports versioning of document and 2 types of sharing: publishing and secured "inside team" sharing. We're working with Online Editor functions now. So probably we'll have significant update soon. We're open for any discussions and ideas about other features interesting for Community of Developers and Project Managers."
Biotech

Texas Makes Zombie Fire Ants 398

Posted by samzenpus from the what-could-go-wrong dept.
eldavojohn writes "What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent? Bring over the natural predator from the other continent. Scientists in Texas have introduced four kinds of phorid flies from South America to fight fire ants. These USDA approved flies dive bomb ants and lay an egg inside the ant. The maggot hatches and eats away juicy tender delicious ant brain until the ant is nothing more than a zombie that wanders around for two weeks before the head falls off and the ant dies. A couple of these flies will cause the ants to modify their behavior and this will be a very slow acting solution to curb the $1 billion in damage these ants do to Texas cattle ranches and — oddly enough — electrical equipment like circuit breakers. You may remember zombifying parasites hitting insects like cockroaches."
Censorship

French Assembly Rejects Three Strikes Bill 129

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they-don't-even-play-baseball-there dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The French Assembly has rejected the Three Strikes bill (in French!) which would allow ISPs to cut off users found to have been downloading protected content after two warnings. Summary: the Sarkozy administration can go back with a new draft for approval by both chambers or try to get upper house approval of a softer version without the cutoff passed by the lower house."
Microsoft

Major League Baseball Dumps Silverlight For Flash 388

Posted by kdawson from the silverlight-in-the-pan dept.
christian.einfeldt writes "This week, Major League Baseball will open without Microsoft's Silverlight at the plate, according to Bob Bowman, CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which handles much of the back-end operations for MLB and several other leagues and sporting events. The change was decided on last year but was set to be rolled out this spring. Among the causes of MLB's disillusionment with Silverlight were technical glitches users experienced, including needing administrator privileges to install the plugin (often impossible in workplaces). Baseball's opening day last year was plagued by Silverlight instability, with many users unable to log on and others unable to watch games. Adobe Flash already exists on 99% of user machines, said Bowman, and Adobe is 'committed to the customer experience in video with the Flash Player.' MLBAM's decision to dump Silverlight is particularly problematic for Microsoft's effort to compete with Adobe, due to the fact that MLBAM handles much of the back-end operations for CBS' Webcasts of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and this year will do the encoding for the 2009 Masters golf tournament."
Linux

Linux Needs Critics 1127

Posted by CmdrTaco from the that-which-does-not-kill-us dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Keir Thomas berates the fact that the world of Linux almost entirely lacks critics. In fact, he says, Linux people tend to see genuine critical evaluation as a bad thing. FTA: 'The problem with this anti-criticism approach is that it's damning Linux to an eternity of navel gazing. Nothing can ever get any better. The best hope we have are the instances where a few bright sparks, with their heads screwed on the right way, get together and make something cool (as happened with, say, Firefox back in the day). But that's rare and can't be relied upon.'"

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