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Power

Submission + - MIT powers lightbulb wirelessly

Submitted by kcurtis
kcurtis writes: According to the Boston Globe, MIT Researchers lit a light bulb remotely. The successful experiment to lit a 60-watt light bulb from a power source two meters away, with no physical connection between the power source and the light bulb. Details about WiTricity, or wireless electricity, are scheduled to be reported today in Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.
Television

Submission + - Jericho Saved by Nuts

Submitted by nicholasjay
nicholasjay writes: CNN has an article saying that the "Nuts!" trick has worked. CBS has decided to bring back the series, Jericho, for seven more episodes. Even the president of entertainment at CBS issued a letter to Jericho community.

From the article:

"The renewal of "Jericho" also underscores that there is more to TV viewership than what the Nielsen ratings tell us. As more and more people watch their favorite shows when they want thanks to TiVo (TIVO) and other digital video recorders as well as through sites like Apple's (AAPL) iTunes and the networks' own Web sites, looking just at the "live" Nielsen rating may not give networks a true impression of how popular a show is."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - New MacBook Pro Benchmarked against the Old

Submitted by yonp
yonp writes: Apple released the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro this week, here is a write up about the new MacBook Pro. Be sure to click on the benchmark page and see the benchmark against the last gen MacBook Pro.

"No write up on any Apple product can get by without asking the question "Why would I spend so much on an Apple when I could buy an X from Y for just $Z?" Let's look at the new MacBook PRO; in 15" screen with 2Gb RAM and 256 meg graphics, it's $2,499... I could buy THREE Dell laptops for that sort of money; seriously; check out the Inspiring 6400 or whatever it's called but, I reckon that, as you've read this far, you're with me... you don't want a Dell, not even three of them. You want a cool laptop... join me as we go over to the dark side of premium consumer products."
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Gamer sues gold farmers

Submitted by navygeek
navygeek writes: Tired of contending with gold farmers in Blizzard's online sensation, World of Warcraft, gamer Antonio Hernadez has filed a class-action lawsuit against gold farming outfit IGE.

The attorney representing Hernandez in the case, Richard Newsome, told The Escapist, "Guys like Tony [Hernandez, the plaintiff] have paid their $15 for some entertainment, and IGE is polluting that entertainment. It's kind of like, if someone pays for a ticket to go see a movie, and if someone else comes in behind them and kicks their seat, you can get them to stop doing that."
Details on the lawsuit may be found at Gamespot and The Escapist. The actual complaint can be found here, PDF warning.
Communications

Submission + - TouchFlo ain't no match for the iPhone's interface

Submitted by ZigstonR
ZigstonR writes: CNET.co.uk has a full review of the iPhone-like HTC Touch. CNet gives it a thumbs up and writes that the TouchFlo interface looks great. That said, they clearly state that the TouchFlo interface is no match for what the iPhone is going to offer, "The TouchFlo menu presents you with a set of applications, media apps and contacts that you navigate through by swiping your thumb left and right. It's presented in a three-dimensional way and gives the illusion that you're turning a multi-faced block. It works rather well, although you have to press the screen a little harder than you might think. Unfortunately, as soon as you click one of the thumb-sized buttons, you're ejected back into the less thumb-friendly Windows Mobile interface. You then need to pull out a stylus to input text messages or browse Web pages properly. The lack of a phone-wide finger-friendly interface isn't great — compared to the iPhone this is pretty lacklustre, but compared to most of the Windows Mobile devices out there it's a great improvement."
Displays

Submission + - Man sues Gateway because he can't read EULA

Submitted by Scoopy
Scoopy writes: California resident Dennis Sheehan took Gateway to small claims court after he reportedly received a defective computer and little technical support from the PC manufacturer. Gateway responded with their own lawyer and a 2-inch thick stack of legal docs, and claimed that Sheehan violated the EULA, which requires that users give up their right to sue and settle these cases in private arbitration. Sheehan responded that he never read the EULA, which pops up when the user first starts the computer, because the graphics were scrambled — precisely the problem he had complained to tech support in the first place. A judge sided with Sheehan on May 24 and the case will proceed to small claims court.

A lawyer is quoted as saying that Sheehan, a high school dropout who is arguing his own case, is in for a world of hurt: 'This poor guy now faces daunting reality of having to litigate this on appeal against Gateway...By winning, he's lost.'
Republicans

Submission + - Congressman Orrin Hatch caught pirating software

Submitted by
Rocketship Underpant
Rocketship Underpant writes: "Orrin Hatch, the Congressman viewed by many as a shill for corporate copyright interests, recently stated that people who download copyrighted materials should have their computers destroyed as punishment. However, as Wired.com reports, Hatch's own website uses copyrighted software without permission — a Javascript menu system developed by a British company. Is Mr. Hatch accepting volunteers to go through his home and office destroying all his computers, or were his comments to Congress just a bunch of hypocritical hot air?"
Biotech

Submission + - Slow Drug Tests Cause False Positives

Submitted by MissDemeanor
MissDemeanor writes: Wired science reports that chemists at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia have proven that the illicit drug Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate is slowly produced in refrigerated urine samples, which could cause innocent people to accidentally test positive. Drug testing labs often have a massive backlog of samples. This means that a urine sample could be left in a refrigerator for months before it is tested. During that time, the drug known as liquid ecstasy, forms naturally and can lead to a false positive result that fools even the most rigorous laboratory testing by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. To make matters worse, the field test for GHB gives a false positive when exposed to natural soaps.
Power

40% Efficiency Solar Cells Developed 357

Posted by Zonk from the that-makes-me-28-percent-happy dept.
gtada writes "A story published at Physorg.com discusses recently published research into the fabrication of solar cells that surpass the 40% efficiency milestone. Such devices would be the high water-mark to date, and hint at the possibility of even more effective technology. 'In the design, multijunction cells divide the broad solar spectrum into three smaller sections by using three subcell band gaps. Each of the subcells can capture a different wavelength range of light, enabling each subcell to efficiently convert that light into electricity. With their conversion efficiency measured at 40.7%, the metamorphic multijunction concentrator cells surpass the theoretical limit of 37% of single-junction cells at 1000 suns, due to their multijunction structure.'"
Movies

Submission + - Hollywood Contradictions on File Sharing

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Which of these two articles should I believe? The first article, which was posted on April 2, 2007 on Investor's Business Daily is titled Hollywood Reeling From Illegal Movie, TV Downloads. The commentary from Investor's Business Daily writer Brian Deagon recants the MPAA's spin that "in 2005 alone it lost $2.3 billion to Internet copyright breaches in the U.S and $7 billion worldwide, including box-office receipts and video sales". The second article was published in USA Today on April 1, 2007. The title of that article is 2007 Box Office is Smoking. The USA Today article tells how the film industry is set to break all box office records this year. So, is Hollywood reeling or isn't it?
Software

Submission + - How to convince the boss to use open source?

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes: My boss is a very smart man who has been in the computing industry (mainly the software side of it) for the last twenty years. Now he's the IT Director at the company I work for where I'm a software developer (about 500 employees total). I see the value of open source, and so does my boss who frequently tests out the latest and greatest that the community has to offer. However, here at this company, we're rather entrenched into Microsoft and other companies where the users feel "safe" and "secure" using it because it's the familiar thing to them. He told me that he cannot justify moving to Open Office, Linux, and other open source movements. Effectively, it appears as though his hands are tied by the higher-ups. So, I ask the Slashdot community for help: I need a homerun, slam dunk list (to present to the vice presidents) with reasons why moving to open source will not only save money, but help the company to do better business.

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