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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 64 declined, 22 accepted (86 total, 25.58% accepted)

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Software

Submission + - Linux Foundation promises LSB4 (internetnews.com)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Ever thought it was difficult to write software for Linux? For multiple distros? InternetNews reports that the LSB is making a push for their next release (due out later this year) that should help make all that much easier.

Although the LSB has not lived up to expectations, this time round Linux has a higher profile and ISVs are more interested. This is to help persuade them to develop applications that will run on any LSB-compliant Linux distribution. If it gets adopted, LSB 4 could bring a new wave of multidistribution Linux application development.

"It is critically important for Linux to have an easy way for software developers to write to distro 'N,' whether it's Red Hat, Ubuntu or Novell," he said. The reason you need that is because we don't want what happened to Unix to happen to Linux in terms of fragmentation." says Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation

The LSB defines a core set of APIs and libraries, so ISVs can develop and port applications that will work on LSB-certified Linux distributions. Maybe this time they'll make it work with Debian!
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft sponsors Apache Software Foundation

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Ars Technica reports that Microsoft is to sponsor the Apache Foundation to the tune of $100k.

From TFA: "I asked him if this could possibly be the beginning of a broader initiative by Microsoft to increase Apache compatibility with .NET web development technologies, but he says it's still too early to guess Microsoft's future plans for Apache participation."

"He doesn't anticipate a confrontational response from the developers working on individual Apache projects ... The response of the broader open source software community, however, is harder to predict."

So what does the broader community think? Is MS running scared of the increasing relevance of open source software in today's IT world?

(In related news, MS also intends to participate in the RubySpec project)
Security

Submission + - OpenID to hit the mainstream

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: So OpenID is here, and has made a splash amongst those in the know, but soon its about to go mainstream with support from another huge provider — MySpace.

Apparently there are 120 million OpenID accounts in use, MySpace's 100 million users will double that.

Initially support is to use MySpace OpenIDs as providers only — ie you cannot logon to MySpace with an OpenID created elsewhere, but that policy will change in the future.

This should help to make OpenID the de-facto login mechanism for the internet, now if only MicroSoft would support it, there are plenty OSS OpenID libraries available.
Math

Submission + - mathematical crop circles (timesonline.co.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Whilst crop cirles are nothing new, and usually the work of drunk alie^H^H^H^H engineering students, this time they've gone one better: a crop circle that depicts, apparently, a coded image representing the first ten digits of pi — and even astrophysicists admit they find it "mind-boggling".

Really, its quite cool and keeps the tradition of digging patterns in the grass in Wiltshire since mankind first walked the planet.
Power

Submission + - Latest 'green' power generation - your feet. (timesonline.co.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Remember those ideas that suggested hooking gym machines to the power grid, well, the Times is reporting that something like this to harness free energy is about to become a reality — the footfall of trudging shoppers is to become the latest source of emission-free energy

Engineers who have modelled the effects of the technology at Victoria Underground station in central London have calculated that the 34,000 travellers passing through every hour could power 6,500 lightbulbs.

The plans for heel-strike generation follow successful trials last year at a bridge in the Midlands where generators converted energy from trains passing above into electricity powering a flood detector.

Possibly the most important thing for the readership is at the end, There could also be a range of domestic uses, for example powering iPods by plugging them into batteries placed in the owners' heels, using technology which is already available. obviously you'd have to get up and walk around, but as they say it's the thought that counts.
Biotech

Submission + - Cyborg monkeys a reality. (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Scientists have made breakthroughs allowing monkeys to control robot arms, with only their thoughts.

The BBC reports of monkeys feeding themselves with robotic arms directly attached to their brains via tiny wires implanted into the monkey's primary motor cortex.

After some training, two monkeys — who had had their own arms restrained — were able to use the prosthetic limbs to feed themselves with marshmallows and chunks of fruit.

The researchers said that the movements were fluid and natural.

The monkeys were able to use their brains to continuously change the speed and direction of the arm and the gripper, suggesting that the monkeys had come to regard the robotic arm as a part of their own bodies.

Writing in Nature journal, the authors said their work could eventually help amputees and people who are paralysed, but completely glossed over the potential for robot monkey pirates.
Power

Submission + - UK's Energy-saving day begins (e-day.org.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Energy Saving Day, a 24-hour initiative aiming to reduce the UK's electricity use, begins right now. Consumers are asked to switch off an electrical item for the next 24 hours so the National Grid can monitor energy usage and report on consumption.

The group organising this hopes to save enough energy to take 4 coal-fired power plant off line, but even a 3% decrease in energy use would be the equivalent of 1 power station's output.

It'll be interesting to see if this initiative makes any difference, or whether no-one cares to unplug a "wall-wart" charger, turn off a lightbulb, or switch the TV or PC off instead of leaving it on standby.

the BBC has a piece on it, and you can see how much of a difference its making on the e-day's website.
Input Devices

Submission + - Brain control headset for gamers (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone.

Headsets which read neural activity are not new, but Ms Le [president of US/Australian firm Emotiv] said the Epoc was the first consumer device that can be used for gaming.

"This is the first headset that doesn't require a large net of electrodes, or a technician to calibrate or operate it and does require gel on the scalp," she said. "It also doesn't cost tens of thousands of dollars."

Personally, I'll hold out for one that replaces the mouse.
The Internet

Submission + - IPv6 one step closer (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: IPv6 came a step closer yesterday as ICANN added IPv6 host records to the root DNS servers, reports the BBC

Paul Twomey, president of Icann which oversees the addressing system, told the BBC News website there was a need to start moving to IPv6. "There's pressure for people to make the conversion to IPv6," he said. "We're pushing this as a major issue."

Whether you should bother about this depends how you read this piece from TFA: "We're down to 14% of the unallocated addresses out of the whole pool for version 4," he said. Projections suggest that this unallocated pool will run out by 2011 at the latest.

Only 3 years to go... better ask RIPE for another couple of IPs for my server.
Biotech

Submission + - Scientists create custom-built organs (timesonline.co.uk)

Submitted by
gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: "From the Sunday Times

SCIENTISTS have created a beating heart in the laboratory in a breakthrough that could allow doctors one day to make a range of organs for transplant almost from scratch. The procedure involved stripping all the existing cells from a dead heart so that only the protein "skeleton" that created its shape was left. Then the skeleton was seeded with live "progenitor" cells, which multiplied and grew back over it, eventually linking together into a new organ.
Sci-fi stories get closer every day."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - BT creates free 'peer 2 peer' wifi network

Submitted by
gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: "British Telecom and FON have come together to create a national, free, wi-fi network. Instead of building a corporate-style network where an ISP puts its routers all over the place, this group is inviting users to share their wifi connection (through a secure portion of their bandwidth) to create a world-wide wifi network.

You share a little of your network bandwidth, you get to share other user's bandwidth using the same concept as P2P filesharing apps do.

Users do get to use BT's openzone hotspots for free too. All the usual questions are answered on the BTFon's FAQ"
Software

Submission + - Open Source for the masses

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: The BBC broadcast a programme on Radio 4 all about Open Source. I think F/OSS doesn't get much attention in the media for the uninitiated into all things software, so how they have portrayed OS software is of interest to us all. The blurb says:

Paul Bennun finds out how Free and Open Source software is making its impact felt across the world, fuelling development and saving businesses millions of pounds. Produced by a global network of software enthusiasts and freely given away, community created computer programs can compete with big business. Their creators are driven by an ideology as much as price, challenging traditional intellectual property rights and placing power in the hands of the public rather than private corporations.
The radio programme is available on the BBC's excellent Listen Again service, at least for the next week. (for those who don't know, Radio4 is an intelligent, 'highbrow' talk radio channel. Try some of its truly excellent comedy shows)
Communications

Submission + - Paging Doctor Kirk.....

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: More cool gadgets for slashdotters.. this time, its a star-trek type communicator. This article describes the 'badge' communicator that works using a wireless network.

The new system, called the BT Managed Vocera® solution, operates over a BT wireless local area network. It allows users to speak to each other instantly anywhere in the hospital through a voice-controlled, wearable badge weighing less than two ounces. Staff simply have to say a person's name, department or role to be automatically connected to the appropriate person and can speak to them just like on a normal phone.
While quite cool, and an improvement over paging or finding a telephone, I just hope it needs a touch (and a reassuring tee-twip noise, obviously) otherwise the scope for accidental use could be disastrous. And there is a YouTube demo.
Music

Submission + - Steve Jobs decrys DRM

Submitted by
gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: "Interesting stuff! From the BBC, Steve Jobs speaks out against DRM technology.

"In an open letter on the Apple website, Mr Jobs argues that the copy protection software used to protect digital music downloads from piracy has not worked.

In the letter he outlines a world where the record industry abandons so called Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems"

"Mr Jobs says FairPlay was imposed on it by the big four record companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. "When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied," he wrote. "

Unfortunately, the music industry thinks that DRM is still a viable technology, and that they just need to get a DRM standard, so systems would be interoperable with each other."
Robotics

Submission + - 3d printer to build houses

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: Ok, its not quite like the 3d printer, even if it is inspired by it, but this is still cool: , from the Sunday Times, a robot is being developed to build houses.

The first prototype — a watertight shell of a two-storey house built in 24 hours without a single builder on site — will be erected in California before April. The robots are rigged to a metal frame, enabling them to shuttle in three dimensions and assemble the structure of the house layer by layer. The sole foreman on site operates a computer programmed with the designer's plans.

Inspired by the inkjet printer, the technology goes far beyond the techniques already used for prefabricated homes. "This will remove all the limitations of traditional building," said Hugh Whitehead of the architecture firm Foster & Partners, which designed the "Gherkin" skyscraper in London and is producing designs for the Loughborough team. "Anything you can dream you can build."

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