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Portables

Submission + - ITC Aid Organization Accuses OLPC of Exploitation

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: FAIR, an aid organization dedicated to the spread of ICT in developing countries, has accused the OLPC organization of misleading and exploiting poor countries with its $100 laptop. The aid organization claims that countries are "being misled into measures which shift the focus away from their real needs."

http://www.hwupgrade.com/news/mobile/non-profit-or ganization-accuses-olpc-of-exploitation_86.html

Feed Thumb-Print Banking Takes India (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
A pilot program developed to help illiterate farmers use cash machines could revolutionize personal banking. If it takes off, a billion Indians will need only a thumb print to withdraw cash. Scott Carney reports from Chennai, India.


Input Devices

Submission + - Gaming with iPhone

Submitted by
mankee
mankee writes: "Excogito has an interesting article where he discusses how the accelerometer functionality of Apple iPhone can be used for touch/button free scrolling of music files, panning of maps and even playing games."
Media

Where Do You Go for Worthwhile Product Reviews? 88

Posted by Cliff from the head-to-head dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "What's the deal with reviews and product comparisons? My boss wants independent comparative reviews of proxy and web servers to use to make/justify his decision. We all know that what the vendors write about their own (and competitive) products, so I tried searching for 3rd party reviews. I can find heaps of articles on the web telling us how great IIS is or how good Microsoft's Proxy server is, but nothing showing a back-to-back comparison of Squid vs. Sun Java Proxy vs. Microsoft Proxy, and the same for Apache and IIS. What's happening here? Where can I find an honest back-to-back product comparison?"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - John Carmack: Gamers Don't Need Vista or DX 10

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: In an interview with Marcus Yam at Daily Tech legendary PC/Console game creator John Carmack holds forth on DirectX 10: "Personally, I wouldn't jump at something like DX10 right now. I would let things settle out a little bit and wait until there's a really strong need for it." and then zings Microsoft's marketers over DX10's mandatory use of the Vista OS: "Carmack then said that he's quite satisfied with Windows XP, going as far to say that Microsoft is 'artificially' forcing gamers to move to Windows Vista for DX10." There are a few good tidbits on Xbox 360 vs. PS3 development, and a fairly clear disinterest in Wii as a platform for his company's products is shown.
The Internet

Bill to Treat Bloggers as Lobbyists Defeated 537

Posted by CowboyNeal from the common-sense-prevails dept.
Lawrence Person writes "The attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists previously reported by Slashdot has been stripped out of the lobbying reform bill. The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats."
Programming

Submission + - Profanity Filter API

Submitted by
Jonathan Freger
Jonathan Freger writes: "I have been a Web Developer (perl, php, coldfusion, java) for over 10 years. I have created web applications for various large companies that can't allow profanity to get through to their users. Quite often I have been asked to create "profanity filters" to screen user input. Each time I wrote the code from scratch searching the web for best techniques. Everyone has their own opinion on the best way to search text for profanity. Some more efective thans other.

I realized that this would make a great API and with user collaboration a very effective tool could be create and used by all. I know that no profanity filter can be 100% effective, but I am going to try and get as close as possible. So I announce the release of "WebPurify" http://www.webpurify.com/ a free easy to use Profanity Filter API.

This isn't an advertisement as much as a was to start a dialogue on creating APIs for commonly requested programming task."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Macbook Pro Display only capable of 262,144 Colour

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: People have been noticing the Apple Macbook Pros have grainy displays. Apparently the problem lies in that the Macbook Pro's display is only capable of displaying 262,144 colours at a time. Beyond that it dithers, thus the graininess. For any old Amigans out there, they'll remember that number from HAM8! This link explains the nature of the problem in greater detail. How sad that Apple's flagship notebook display is defective by design.
Programming

Submission + - The Future of Languages and Software Composability

Submitted by LifeForm42
LifeForm42 writes: Very interesting interview on Microsoft's Channel 9 with Anders Hejlsberg, Herb Sutter, Erik Meijer and Brian Beckman covering the future of programming languages and software composability. Seems like the trend for imperative languages is to become more functional in nature as a way to deal with concurrency and multi-core hardware innovations.
Announcements

Submission + - Put the Amiga Demoscene in your DVD Player

Submitted by
Jason Scott
Jason Scott writes: "Four years ago, the crew at Hornet put out a collection of PC demos spanning 10 years on a DVD, and called it "Mindcandy". Everyone asked when they'd come out with a DVD of demos for other platforms, and just four short years later, they've announced MindCandy 2: Amiga Demos. It's got 30 Amiga demos rendered on the original hardware, a documentary about how a demoparty is run, and even 5.1 surround remixes of all the music. Additionally, they're sponsoring a rare US demoparty this April called Blockparty. It's a great year for demos!"
Security

Submission + - How protect your new RFID Passports from stealing?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We've all heard that RFID passports (which every new passport will now be) are insecure and easily cloneable. So my questions to slashdotters: 1. Is it vulnerable in a pocket? 2. Can I protect it in a pocket? Pack it in metal? 3. Is there anything you can do to protect an RFID card/passport? A small keychain electronic that sends out a signal? What options are there?

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"Only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core." -- Hannah Arendt.

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