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Communications

Submission + - Burning Man IP contested

Submitted by tinkerghost
tinkerghost writes: The Burning Man Festival is evidently a hot issue right now. CNN has a small article about one of the original promoters suing the other 2. He's trying to get the 'Burning Man' IP (Trademark & Logo) released to the public domain — I would thing that CC-Non-commercial might be a better way to go.
Education

Submission + - Bilingualism slows down Alzheimer's/Dementia

Submitted by
Dee
Dee writes: "From the article: "Bilingual people typically develop dementia about four years later than those who only speak one language, a research team from York University in Toronto and other institutions said. The research was conducted on 184 patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia undergoing treatment at the Memory Clinic at the Baycrest Research Centre for Aging and the Brain in Toronto. Researchers analyzed various data on patients including their academic background and occupation. "

This seems like the best motivation I've come across for learning a second language, and it makes sense when you think about it. What with your brain needing to parse information between two seperate formats, just straight up thinking to yourself in different languages seems like it would exercise your grey matter. Maybe it's time to start trying to get the grandparents to learn French!"
Nintendo

Submission + - Nintendo DS was UK's Best Selling Console '06

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "According to this IGN article, the Nintendo DS outsold every other console in the UK, handheld and otherwise, with unprecedented Christmas sales. From the article: 'More than half a million people bought a DS in Blighty last month, taking the total number sold across Europe to a staggering 1.7 million units — the highest ever monthly sales for the handheld since its launch in 2005.'"
Communications

Submission + - Google Panorama Viewer Released by UCL

Submitted by
Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith
Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith writes: "University College London has released a simple methodology for viewing 360x180 degree panoramas direct in Google Earth. Using backface culling it is possible to project a image onto a sphere and then navigate inside of it within Google Earth. A step by step tutorial is provided as well as a series of files, the examples could be the first of many panoramas to spring up in Google Earth."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple attacks iPhone skin makers-a blogger speaks

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hi,
Apple is famous for attacking bloggers — currently, the next wave is rolling against bloggers who publish links to iPhone skins for Windows Mobile or Palm OS.

Now, the head editor of a small tech blog called TamsPalm decided to respond — feel free to comment!

http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2007/01/15/the-way- of-the-iphony-review/
Patents

Submission + - Cisco & Apple don't own iPhone mark in Canada

Submitted by TomTraynor
TomTraynor writes: There could be a real problem if Apple wants to launch their iPhone in Canada using that name. Cisco does not own the trademark, neither does Apple. There is a company called Comwave that owns the trademark and they do have a real VOIP product (since 2004). I wonder how much Apple paid its legal staff to research the name in the various countries to see if there was a valid trademark or if it was available for Apple to use?

Comwave -> http://www.comwave.net/CDN/

News article -> http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/15/comw ave-iphone.html
The Courts

Submission + - Fighting child porn vs. ruining innocent lives

Submitted by
netbuzz
netbuzz writes: "ABC News has the story of a horrifying example of how legitimate societal concerns about child pornography are leading to overzealous prosecutions that can upturn if not ruin the lives of innocents. In this case, the innocents are a teenage boy and his parents, who have been so traumatized by the injustice that they've taken the drastic though understandable step of disconnecting their PC from the Internet. What can other parents do to lessen the chances of this nightmare happening to their families? And what can technologists contribute to the cause of sorting true child porn traffickers from those who are merely unwitting hosts? http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1046 0"
Privacy

Submission + - Deleting personal data from private institutions

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Slashdotters are familiar with the liabilities of personal data being stored on servers owned by private institutions. Bank records, phone records, credit records, flight records, basically any type of digital transaction can be (is) stored indefinitely for whatever reason. Are there processes by which one can request a removal of personal data, or by signing contracts with these companies, do they own the rights to the information? If you have attempted such an erasure, have you encountered resistance?

Submission + - Testing web application security

Submitted by
gram3000
gram3000 writes: "I write PHP applications for the company I work for. I spend a lot of time working on improving the security of the forms on clients sites to prevent PHP injection and spam. I'd like to know what other developers out there use to test the security of their apps? Can anyone recommend a checklist, or a site which might check form / application security?"
Nintendo

Submission + - World of Warcraft unlikely for consoles

Submitted by
jtorry
jtorry writes: "Blizzard developer talks down rumours of WoW on consoles. Wii version definitely not happening. A Blizzard developer has suggested massively popular MMO World of Warcraft would not translate well to the Nintendo Wii. Speaking to Pro-G at the launch of the game's first expansion, the Burning Crusade, Blizzard game designer Jonathan LeCraft said using the Wii Remote wouldn't work with the PC hit.

A number of user generated videos have appeared on the internet showing gamers playing World of Warcraft with a Wii remote, but LeCraft poured scorn on the possibility.

"You really do need a keyboard to play WoW," he said. "I've seen some mods where people have hooked up WoW to their Wii. When I saw that I was like, well, that's got to be pretty easy to PVP against, honestly. It's not something we're looking at right now."

The aptly named LeCraft also revealed Blizzard currently has no plans to port the game to the Xbox 360 or PS3, despite the success of Xbox Live and the development of the PS3's online service.

"We don't have any plans for it specifically," noted LeCraft. "We always keep all our options on the radar, but there are no plans for the immediate future."

Adding fuel to the fire of speculation about where Blizzard will take their other popular franchises, Starcraft and Diablo, LeCraft didn't rule out the possibility of the studio hosting another huge MMO alongside World of Warcraft.

He said: "I think we have the capacity for another one [MMO]. It [World of Warcraft] means that there's going to be some other cool games coming from the studio because we're very successful. And I think they're even going to be a step above what people expect.

"We're always considering our licenses when we think about our next product. They are really strong, well known licenses. We own them completely so we can do whatever we want. We can take the fiction in whatever direction or apply whatever gameplay we want."

However, LeCraft wouldn't budge when pressed on whether work on other titles had already begun, with a "Maybe" being all he'd say on the subject.

http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/15-01-2007-4497.html"
Linux Business

Submission + - EU study: open source increases competitiveness

Submitted by Rob
Rob writes: Increased use of free and open source software in Europe could increase the region's competitiveness with the US, according to a European Commission study. "Given Europe's historically lower ability to create new software businesses compared to the US, due to restricted venture capital and risk tolerance, the high share of European FLOSS developers provides a unique opportunity to create new software businesses and reach towards the Lisbon goals of making Europe the most competitive knowledge economy by 2010," states the report.
The Media

Submission + - Dinosaurs, humans coexist in U.S. creation museum

Submitted by jlowery
jlowery writes: Yeah, yeah: flamebait. But it's not the museum I find darkly amusing, it's the following paragraph in this Reuters story.

Mocking publicity is free publicity," Looy said. Besides, U.S. media have been more respectful, mindful perhaps of a 2006 Gallup Poll showing almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve, but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.
I long for the days when journalists aspired to the old-fashioned ideal of being guardians of the truth. Instead, media chooses to be 'respectful' of quaint pre-19th century theologic explanations of the natural world just because half of Americans would rather be spoonfed fairy stories instead of cracking open a science book. If they did, they would soon understand how the miraculous world they live in today is due entirely to men and women applying the scientific method to understand the world around them.

While the truth may be murky at times, that does not mean that every half-baked extreme point of view has to be given equal deliberation or respect.
Businesses

Submission + - Walmart Prevents Shopping With Firefox

Submitted by
mattfite
mattfite writes: "I haven't yet seen this on /., but while looking for an artist's recording, I went to Walmart to try out the $0.88/song download. The link informs me that "We notice you're not using Internet Explorer. To continue, please visit this page using Internet Explorer 6.0 or later." Others have noticed this, too."

Comment Great News! (Score 1) 161

by TempusMagus (#17473000) Attached to: Premiere Back on Mac
I'm one of those mac lovers people love to flame. However, I love Premiere Pro and use it over FCP on a Windows box. I'm sorry but I do everything else on a mac but *GASP* the user experience with PP is far superior FCP. FCP is a great alternative to Avid boxes but I was never an Avid user. I can work so much faster in PP and it's a GREAT program. I'm happy that I can go back to my mac to use Premiere Pro!

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