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What Microsoft Could Learn from OSS and Linux 271

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the they-seem-to-be-doing-ok dept.
An anonymous reader writes "An article on OSWeekly.com discusses a few things that Microsoft could learn from OSS and Linux. 'As Microsoft continues to understand that open source does not mean they cannot generate a decent profit, I honestly wonder if they will eventually "get" that releasing MS Office code to the open source community is their only option. Since the whole threatening to sue thing will be met with the same fan base response, just like the RIAA, it is certainly not a wise decision. And if Microsoft thinks Open Office is a pain now, try suing people over it, then see how many people refuse to buy their products.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Hidden Images On Windows Vista DVD

Submitted by
bigwophh
bigwophh writes: "A blog post at Spanish-speaking website inicia.es shows a hidden image of three men standing side-by-side on a Windows Vista Business DVD. So, we decided to investigate further and slapped a Windows Vista Ultimate DVD down on a scanner to see if we could verify the original image and to see if there were any other hidden images to speak of. Well, we were able to verify the hidden image of the three men and found another picture of what appears to be two more faces, and another that looks like a view of Earth from the Moon. A fourth image is also visible, but we haven't been able to make out the details."

Feed Nanoparticles Unlock The Future Of Superalloy Metals (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
As part of Sandia's nanoscale research, a group of experts specializing in inorganic synthesis and characterization, modeling, and radiation science have designed a radical system of experiments to study the science of creating metal and alloy nanoparticles.
Games

Feed Sony preaches the smack to circling PS3 hackers (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Gaming

Sony's PS3 anti-hacker walls are crumbling, with an exploit for 1.10 and 1.11 firmwares recently found, and the announcement of the first copied game to boot on the heretofore unassailable console -- though it isn't actually playable yet, just booting. Sony, of course, isn't taking this lying down, and has threatened legal action to anyone using these new exploits illegally. "Unfortunately, hackers will try to exploit any hardware system software," said SCEA spokesperson Dave Karraker. "The best we can do as a company is to make our security that much stronger and aggressively pursue legal action against anyone caught trying to use an exploit in an illegal manner." Of course, Dave wasn't abundantly clear as to what's "illegal" activity, but soundbites aren't exactly the best place to start bantering about fair use. What is clear is that these are only the opening shots in what promises to be a long war between Sony and the homebrew scene, with the PSP community providing the best example of what Sony most hopes to avoid, for reasons not wholly comprehensible.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Security

Submission + - Stupid Hacker Tricks (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
infoworldjason
infoworldjason writes: "Andrew Brandt put together a humorous, partial compendium of infamous boneheaded hackers, spammers, and script kiddies over here at InfoWorld: "But as any IT pro knows, the more complexity you add to a system, the more likely it is that system will fail in unanticipated ways. The same rule applies to criminals who employ complex webs of technology to further their misdeeds. And besides, despite their reliance on technology, cyberoutlaws are not robots themselves. More often than not it's what makes them human — greed, an inflated ego, loose lips — that ends up getting the better of them..." It's somewhat of a new twist on our Stupid User Tricks and More Stupider User Tricks amuse fests."

Feed Nokia's E90 launch party held in Jakarta (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Cellphones

It's no secret that the actual launch of Nokia's E90 was imminent, and while you've had plenty of time to read reviews, stare at press shots, and drool over hands-on photo sessions, now it's time to party. A camera-wielding blogger was able to drop in on the fairly large launch event held in Jakarta and snap a few photos of geeks grappling to boot theirs up the fastest. Of course, we're sure you wish you were somewhere amongst the hordes, but feel free to leap on through for more of the action -- and to think, just under a month ago some impatient soul paid a whopping $5,000 for this bad boy.

Continue reading Nokia's E90 launch party held in Jakarta

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Censorship

Submission + - Law students sue anonymous message board posters (wsj.com)

Submitted by
The Xoxo Reader
The Xoxo Reader writes: "The Wall Street Journal reports that two female students at Yale Law School have filed suit for defamation and infliction of emotional distress against an administrator and several anonymous posters (identified only by their pseudoynms) at the popular law student discussion board AutoAdmit (a.k.a. Xoxohth). One of the claims is that the posters have violated copyright laws by reposting pictures of the women without their permission. Since AutoAdmit's administrators have previously said that they do not retain IP logs of posters, it is unclear how the plaintiffs will ultimately be able to identify the actual people behind the pseudonyms named in the complaint. Apparently, one method was to post the summons on the message board itself and ask the posters to step forward. The controversy leading to this lawsuit was previously discussed on Slashdot here."
Businesses

Submission + - Is Africa ready for Google and the new era? (peupe.net)

Submitted by
Al Kags
Al Kags writes: "In a groundbreaking move, Google has employed its first African, Joseph Mucheru to help set up its Africa operations in Kenya. Clearly serious about setting up shop in Kenya, Google aims to achieve three things with the move: First, to optimise the use of its applications in Africa, to make Google maps (and earth, I believe) more useful in Africa and to work on Google advertising further to ensure that Google ads are better monetized in Africa.

Mucheru says that they understand that bandwidth is an impediment and they aim to work on this. "Google understands that this is an impediment and is willing to go to the extent of buying international bandwidth that locals don't have to pay the current considerable premium they are."

I should like to hear more about this for sure. Coupled with the fact that my favorite ministry, the Ministry of Information and Communications, headed by the indomitable duo, Mutahi Kagwe and Dr. Bitange Ndemo is working extra hard to get fribre optic connection in East Africa through Kenya by mid 2008, we are in for interesting times.

However, we need to accept, Africa, that the largest impediment to our development is our cultural outlook — not the traditions and customs but the way we do business and our openness to new concepts. I recently had a meeting with a government official with regard to accessing some of the records that they have, digitizing it at my own cost and sharing the digital data with them for them to develop its use by wider sharing it. Amazingly, his first reaction was "absolutely not." Why? Because it is not done in government. When we got over that, we found that there is a huge fear with regard to what the information will be used for.

The same is true for business leaders in Africa. Fears such as "if I have a blog and allow people a free hand to comment on my views, how can I protect myself?" My position is that you only need to protect yourself from obsene and crude remarks but not as a recent executive asked me, from critisism. In fact, if your staff thinks that you are afraid of critisism, then you need to actively change that.

Of course information can be misused and so can the free use of applications such as the comments section of your blog. Of course a nicely elaborate Google Maps and Google earth can be misused by say, terrorists. But then, that cannot stop us from developing. Cars can be used as getaway cars in bank robberies and the like but that does not stop us from developing them?

If your business is to develop, then sharing information and interacting with a wide community is the way to build it in the new era. Its the only way to be ready for the likes of Google and Multiple Choices."
Science

Plants 'Recognize' Their Siblings 331

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the family-tree dept.
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that according to a recent study, Biologists have found that plants are able to recognize their own relatives. "Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings. [...] Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives, says Dudley. Like humans, the most interesting behaviours occur beneath the surface."
Space

Submission + - Europe unveils new space plane for tourist market (space.com)

Submitted by
mrminator
mrminator writes: "Space.com is reporting that EADS's Astrium division, prime contractor for Ariane 5 rockets and for Europe's contribution to the international space station, announced just a few hours ago that a group of its engineers has spent two years quietly designing a space tourism vehicle that looks like a business jet with exceptionally long wings and a rocket engine. The round trip would last about 90 minutes and carry four passengers and a pilot, with the passengers each paying about 200,000 euros ($267,000) for the experience."

Feed UK's Lightning to build all-electric GT sports car (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Transportation

Adding its name to the ever-growing list of all-electric cars that never seem to seep onto lots is Lightning, which is apparently developing a 700bhp whip that unashamedly rips styling cues from quintessential British cars of the past and present. Designed to "compete with premium market sport cars," the GT is hoping to "combine high performance electric motive power with an advanced regenerative energy system that recharges the car's batteries under braking by capturing lost friction energy." Additionally, motorists can expect a sub-four second 0-60 time, and better yet, just a ten minute charge time to sustain a 250 mile range. As expected, Lightning would love to secure your deposit on the not-yet-launched car right now for a 2008 delivery, but we'd recommend checking with its shipping department before you place an order from outside of Britain.

[Via Autoblog]

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