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Portables

Submission + - Ed Wood appreciation at The Moon Books Project

Submitted by
btmullins
btmullins writes: "Ed Wood appreciation weekend at The Moon Books Project At The Moon Books Project we are holding an Ed Wood appreciation weekend. In honor of all the underdogs out there who follow their dreams, we have decided to spotlight a specific film maker. Ed Wood, for those of you who are unfamiliar is hailed as one of the worst film makers of all time. He kept on trying, and surprisingly releasing films and following his dreams. So in honor of Ed Wood, The Moon Books Project has made three of his films available, for watching on the Nintendo DS. Two of these three are 'classics'. Glen or Glenda is a semi-autobiographical film, and Plan 9 From Outer Space holds the distinction of being called the worst film of all time, and has a huge following in the science-fiction genre. So, head on over and enjoy the films! http://www.moonbooks.net/moonbooks"
Windows

Submission + - Creative to charge for EAX via Audigy on Vista

Submitted by
Shemmie
Shemmie writes: "Creative Labs, after months of silence, have come out and stated they will extend ALchemy support to Audigy soundcard users — for a price.

Microsoft removed hardware DirectSound in Vista, leaving only a software emulation — and so ALchemy is used as a method of converting calls to the DirectSound API used by games into OpenAL calls — re-enabling EAX sound in games.

Creative have finally agreed to support Audigy users using Vista as a games-machine — as long as they are willing to pay for the "low-cost upgrade" to re-enable previously free features."
Software

Submission + - IT: Tools Standardization

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: We are mid-sized HW/SW manufacturing company with main 4 organizational pillar as Engineering, Global Support, Business (Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance etc. all in one bucket) and IT, growing decently for last decade. We have lot of in house applications supported by IT as well within other 3 organizations. Also, to fast track lot of things, few ASP model based outsourced applications, owned by business units, also came in picture. In addition, few smaller companies were acquired in recent years which added more tools. By tools, I mean SDLC tools like Issue/Task Tracking, Collaboration, Project Management, Production Monitoring, IDEs, home grown apps (various internal websites) etc. and technology stack for supporting those apps, and NOT enterprise apps like SAP, Siebel etc. Last year, we initiated activities for tools standardization within IT but it moved on to low priority. Again we would like to initiate process to standardize on tools in coming year or 2, and would be glad to know from /.ers about their opinion. Main criteria that we are thinking to start off with is identifying all the tools that we must have across organization for productivity improvement as well better processes control. What are various tools that /.ers think are must for any organization and what was their experience in standarding them, if any?
Portables

Submission + - India hopes to make $10 laptops a reality

Submitted by sas-dot
sas-dot writes: We all know Nicholas Negroponte's $100 OLPC, India which was a potential market rejected it. Having rejected Nicholas Negroponte's offer of $100 laptops for schoolchildren, India's Human Resources Development ministry's idea to make laptops at $10 is firmly taking shape with two designs already in and public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex evincing interest to be a part of the project. So far, the cost of one laptop, after factoring in labour charges, is coming to $47 but the ministry feels the price will come down dramatically considering the fact that the demand would be for one million laptops. "The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts," an official said.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Congress Asks Universities to Curb "Piracy"

Submitted by
The Illegal Subset of the Integers
The Illegal Subset of the Integers writes: "According to Ars Technica, Congress has sent letters to 19 universities identified by the RIAA and MPAA has havens for copyright infringement. In it, they not only seek to discover what these universities are doing to dissuade students from infringing activities, but give the implied threat. House Judiciary Committee member Lamar Smith (R-TX) was quoted as saying, "If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act." One wonders, though, what the universities are supposed to due when international disrespect for imaginary property rights is so widespread that there are currently over two million hits on Google for a certain oft-posted illegal number, up from the three hundred thousand hits from sometime yesterday."
Intel

Death of the UMPC? 127

Posted by CowboyNeal from the go-not-gently dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Remember the UMPC, that little tablet that Microsoft once called Origami? Well it looks like that Intel has scrapped the idea of promoting the UMPC, in favor of a much smaller (and less capable) Mobile Internet Device (MID). The UMPC is now heading for a market niche, where it may be replacing the tablet PC as a mobile computer for field technicians. The MID takes on the role of the original UMPC concept, but it won't run Vista."
Portables

Submission + - Mini DNA replicator could benefit world's poor

Submitted by
bob_calder
bob_calder writes: "From New Scientist: A pocket-sized device that runs on two AA batteries and copies DNA as accurately as expensive lab equipment has been developed by researchers in the US. The device has no moving parts and costs just $10 to make. It runs polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), to generate billions of identical copies of a DNA strand, in as little as 20 minutes. This is much faster than the machines currently in use, which take several hours. Victor Ugaz of Texas A&M University Journal reference: Angewandte Chemie International Edition (DOI: 10.1002/anie.200700306)"
Google

Submission + - Google branches out into hardware

Submitted by
Nefarious Wheel
Nefarious Wheel writes: "In frustration at our very large enterprise's somewhat antiquated document management system, I went to Google and typed in "Web-based document management systems" and, lo and behold, this turned up (rather unsurprisingly in retrospect) as paid link #1 http://www.google.com.au/enterprise/gsa/index.html /

So it looks like Google is branching out into hardware. Is this new or am I just late to the party? This is the first time I've seen any reference to Google selling its own branded hardware. Nice looking 1RU and 2RU units, too. Options list is awesome. (Note to editors — not affiliated with brand)"

Feed Nanotechnology May Be Used To Regenerate Tissues, Organs (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Research at Northwestern University has shown that a combination of nanotechnology and biology may enable damaged tissues and organs to heal themselves. In a dramatic demonstration of what nanotechnology might achieve in regenerative medicine, paralyzed lab mice with spinal cord injuries have regained the ability to use their hind legs six weeks after a simple injection of a purpose-designed nanomaterial.
Linux Business

Submission + - OpenOffice + Linux = Crap

Submitted by ramboando
ramboando writes: Open Kernel Labs founder Professor Gernot Heiser had some blunt words for the OpenOffice community — the product isn't ready to compete with the big boys. In this story, he says: "If you want to be successful in open source it can't just be a 'me too' product. Anything that's not the best technology will not work ... enterprise is willing to pay for the best. OpenOffice is not the best ... it's the first thing that made me move from Linux to Mac," Heiser said. "Open source is creating the most pure Darwinist environment possible. It's brutal survival of the fittest," he said, surprising the crowd at CeBIT's Open Source Business session today. "Only the best software will be able to survive. Regardless of how free it is, enterprise will not use it unless it is better," Heiser added. Sun's Simon Phipps basically said he was talking crap.
Privacy

Submission + - Experian Uses Robot Replay for Customer Playback

Submitted by Mike
Mike writes: Credit Reporting Giant Experian uses Replay Robot to Replay Web Sessions on Credit-Checking Site The credit reporting giant Experian is using a "free" service from Nitobi Inc. called Robot Replay to review users' interaction with their website. When a user browses to http://www.experian.com/subservice a java script is downloaded to their machine which records all mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes. Experian is running this javascript on pages that have input forms for username and passwords. The last thing our financial institutions need in this country is another risk of potential data loss. According to Nitobi's press release dated April 15, 2007 (http://www.nitobi.com/news/?a=49) Robot Replay (http://www.robotreplay.com) records and plays back every mouse movement, mouse click, and keystroke for the monitored website. We spoke with Nitobi and we concluded that any username or password if collected is sent across the internet to Nitobi's servers in clear text. During a phone call with Experian's Web Site Operations group, an individual in that group downplayed the dangers of this activity by stating "Usernames and passwords are masked out when they are replayed from the server." This would indicate that the person reviewing the web session could not see the username or password. However, the real question is if the username and password are encrypted while in transit to Nitobi Inc.'s servers.
Music

Submission + - Harvard Law Prof Urges University to Fight RIAA

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Distinguished Harvard University Law School Professor Charles Nesson has called upon Harvard University to fight back against the RIAA and stand up for its students: "Students and faculty use the Internet to gather and share knowledge now more than ever....Yet "new deterrence and education initiatives" from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) threaten access to this vibrant resource. The RIAA has already requested that universities serve as conduits for more than 1,200 "pre-litigation letters." Seeking to outsource its enforcement costs, the RIAA asks universities to point fingers at their students, to filter their Internet access, and to pass along notices of claimed copyright infringement. But these responses distort the University's educational mission....... One can easily understand why the RIAA wants help from universities in facilitating its enforcement actions against students who download copyrighted music without paying for it. It is easier to litigate against change than to change with it. If the RIAA saw a better way to protect its existing business, it would not be threatening our students, forcing our librarians and administrators to be copyright police, and flooding our courts with lawsuits against relatively defenseless families without lawyers or ready means to pay. We can even understand the attraction of using lawsuits to shore up an aging business model rather than engaging with disruptive technologies and the risks that new business models entail...... But mere understanding is no reason for a university to voluntarily assist the RIAA with its threatening and abusive tactics. Instead, we should be assisting our students both by explaining the law and by resisting the subpoenas that the RIAA serves upon us. We should be deploying our clinical legal student training programs to defend our targeted students......""
Unix

Submission + - UNIX Command Line in One Sentence

Submitted by CowGirl
CowGirl writes: Speaking UNIX is simply a matter of building a sentence. An executable is a verb, output is a noun, and the shell operator is a conjunction. Virtually all non-trivial problems require you to filter good data from bad. Discover the many UNIX command line utilities that use regular expressions to discern the relevant from the irrelevant.
PHP

Submission + - Any good ideas for suggesting usernames?

Submitted by stillsix
stillsix writes: I've seen these around, but not impressed by what I see. I'm trying to build a script for suggesting alternative usernames when the user has requested one that already exists. The code is easy, but the logic requires a little more creativity than I have right now. I need 5 suggestions. I've seen the following: 1) original username request + 2 digits (boring) 2) add "the" + original username request (not bad) 3) original request only backwards (clever) 4) the city they entered + original request (not sure what they would look like) 5) original request in pig latin (might be fun) Any other bright ideas? Thought this would be a fun topic to discuss. Not looking to scarf anyone's prized solutions to this problem. But if you put one down I might ask if I can use that idea. Thanks.
Media

Submission + - Desktop Nexus Goes Live!

Submitted by
Harry Maugans
Harry Maugans writes: "Are you tired of searching Google Images for your wallpapers, sorting through odd sizes and inaccurate images? A new startup called Desktop Nexus aims to fix that. From the article:

If someone uploads a 1024×768 wallpaper, Desktop Nexus will automatically resize and remaster that wallpaper for another visitor who requests it in say, 1600×1200. It then goes a step farther and will show an AJAX script to allow any user to instantly crop (interactive) or stretch the wallpaper to create a widescreen version for anyone who requests it... so essentially one wallpaper of any size is uploaded, and Desktop Nexus will make it available to anyone with any resolution... completely bypassing previous limitations of wallpaper sharing, standard aspect ratio or widescreen.
Finally no more scouring the web for 2560x1600 resolution versions of Ubuntu wallpapers. With the community at it's foundation, meta-moderation allows members to choose which wallpapers are high enough quality to be added to the galleries, and which deserve to be deleted. AJAX and RSS enhance the site's functionality, and tagging brings wallpapers together. The next Flickr or YouTube? It may be too early to say, however this site does have a lot of potential."

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