blugu64 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Large academic FLOSS study gets the real facts

Submitted by

Hans Kwint

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @05:42PM

Hans Kwint writes: "The European Commission's enterprise and industry department just released the final draft (warning: 1,8 MB) of what could be the biggest academic interdisciplinary study on the economic / innovative impacts of FLOSS*. The study was done by an international consortium, led by the United Nations University / University of Maastricht's (NL,EU) department of innovation ; UNU-MERIT for short. The study was prepared by senior researcher Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, who did a tremendous amount of FLOSS studies the last few years, amongst them on FLOSSpols and FLOSSWorld.

The academic grade study has a very, very broad scope and has collected real world information that is valuable for both companies and government bodies who are thinking about migration, and decision-makers in the ICT business. The study is about the direct economic impact of FLOSS, but also about the more hidden indirect economical impact of FLOSS, and also compares scenarios of open and proprietary software futures of Europe. In addition to that, the study is also about competitiveness of FLOSS software compared to proprietary software, and also provides a few TCO comparison case-studies.

Probably most important, the study gives policy strategies to European government bodies, which can also be very useful for any company or organization. In this article, I'll discuss the key findings of this report, and try to link this with my own knowledge and experience.

A must-read for anyone who's willing to Get the real Facts!"

Inside MySpace.com 250

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @05:38PM from the like-Topsy dept.

lizzyben writes "Baseline is running a long piece about the inner workings of MySpace.com. The story chronicles how the social networking site has continuously upgraded its technology infrastructure — not entirely systematically — to accommodate more than 26 million accounts. It was a rocky road and there are still hiccups, several of which writer David F. Carr details here." From the story: "MySpace.com's continued growth flies in the face of much of what Web experts have told us for years about how to succeed on the Internet. It's buggy, often responding to basic user requests with the dreaded 'Unexpected Error' screen, and stocked with thousands of pages that violate all sorts of conventional Web design standards with their wild colors and confusing background images. And yet, it succeeds anyway."

Submission + - IRS 2006 Telephone Tax Refund

Submitted by

kdean06

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @04:28PM

kdean06 writes: "It came to my attention today that just about every American who files taxes this year will be eligible for a refund of improperly collected long distance taxes on VOIP, Wireless and landline phone service. Any taxes on long distance service, or service that does not distinguish between local and long-distance (like most mobile service), are eligible for these refunds, thanks to recent court decisions. More can be found on the IRS's page on the topic, found at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161506,0 0.html"

Submission + - Apple to play fairer with Fairplay?

Submitted by NewbieMonster on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @04:06PM

NewbieMonster writes: According to tech.co.uk (http://tinyurl.com/yd7ac9), Apple are preparing to license Fair Play to Made for iPod accessory manufacturers. They understand that Apple will also allow streaming of protected AAC content via USB. From the article: The expected announcements could signal a move on Apple's part to take some of the sting out of its Fairplay DRM which has come in for a great deal of criticism over recent months. It may also be a way of keeping Made For iPod makers onside, as the draw of the Microsoft Zune becomes stronger. Could this signal a move to allowing other music players to access and play ITMS content?

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