SpicyLemon - Slashdot User

Massive VMware Bug Shuts Systems Down 410

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @09:49AM from the at-least-it-only-shut-down-the-virtual-ones dept.

mattmarlowe writes "Imagine if Red Hat released a version of Linux, and after it was deployed, customers noticed that any processes with a start date of today would refuse to run? Well, that's what happened to VMware — a company that wants nearly all server applications running in virtual machines within a matter of years." Supposedly a fix will be available ... in 36 hours.

Your Mashup Is Probably Legal 149

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @09:22AM from the oh-thank-you-2-live-crew-thank-you dept.

TV Barn writes "We've been conditioned to think that if you pull something off the web and use it, you're committing some sort of copyright infringement. But increasingly, the law is moving in the opposite direction. Provided you are making a truly new use of the content, you are free to make money off those copyrighted images and video and sound. On Monday the Center for Social Media released 'Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Online Video,' which reflects the latest changes in copyright law that has expanded the understanding of fair use to include 'transformational effect.' Already Miro has endorsed the guidelines, as have several public broadcasters. The Center has a good track record, having issued guidelines for documentary filmmakers that have greatly reduced copyright claims in that area. The website has plenty of resources for mashers and mixers; I interviewed the Center's director in this podcast that summarizes the most important findings of the report." On the other hand, says reader kaliphonia, your guitar tablature sites may not fare so well.

User Charged With Felony For Using Fake Name On MySpace 931

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday July 07, 2008 @03:53PM from the understand-before-you-prosecute dept.

Recently a user, Lori Drew, was charged with a felony for the heinous crime of pretending to be someone else on the Internet. Using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Lori was charged for signing up for MySpace using a fake name. "The access to MySpace was unauthorized because using a fake name violated the terms of service. The information from a "protected computer" was the profiles of other MySpace users. If this is found to be a valid interpretation of the law, it's really quite frightening. If you violate the Terms of Service of a website, you can be charged with hacking. That's an astounding concept. Does this mean that everyone who uses Bugmenot could be prosecuted? Also, this isn't a minor crime, it's a felony punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment per count. In Drew's case she was charged with three counts for accessing MySpace on three different occasions."

How Duct Tape Saved Apollo 17's Moon Buggy 203

Posted by timothy on Tuesday April 22, 2008 @12:21PM from the these-pictures-clearly-faked dept.

Ant points out a story spotted on Boing Boing in which NASA "shares a story that turns back the clock 36 years to reveal the "key roll of duct tape in the Apollo program." The quality of the photographs from the moon always grabs me, and the duct-taped fender here is no exception.

Cloned Sniffer Dogs Begin Training 44

Posted by timothy on Tuesday April 22, 2008 @09:50AM from the at-least-they're-not-cloning-a-smart-breed dept.

H0D_G writes "The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the world's first cloned sniffer dogs have begun their training in South Korea. The dogs, cloned from a successful golden retriever sniffer dog, were the result of a $320,000 AUD project."

NJ Supreme Court Rules For Internet Privacy 84

Posted by timothy on Tuesday April 22, 2008 @08:56AM from the now-let's-keep-isp-and-bank-records-private-too dept.

dprovine writes "The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that ISPs can't release customer information without a warrant. The unanimous decision reads in part 'We now hold that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy protected by Article I ... of the New Jersey Constitution, in the subscriber information they provide to Internet service providers — just as New Jersey citizens have a privacy interest in their bank records stored by banks and telephone billing records kept by phone companies.'"

Gibson Accuses Guitar Hero of Patent Violation 192

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 13, 2008 @07:59AM from the karaoke-crack-down dept.

robipilot writes "Video game publisher Activision Inc. has asked a federal court to declare that its popular "Guitar Hero" game does not violate a patent held by real-guitar maker Gibson Guitar Corp. Gibson's 1999 patent covers a virtual-reality device that included a headset with speakers that simulated participating in a concert, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday by Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles."

DOE Shines $14M on Solar Energy Research 164

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 13, 2008 @05:11AM from the government-heliotrope dept.

coondoggie writes "Eleven university solar research projects aimed at developing advanced solar photovoltaic (PV) technology manufacturing processes and products got a $14 million boost today from the Dept. of Energy. Photovoltaic-based solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity, and are made of semiconductor materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity."

Nerve-tapping Neckband Allows 'Telepathic' Chat 205

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 13, 2008 @02:09AM from the mouth-of-cyber-sauron dept.

ZonkerWilliam writes "Newscientist has an interesting article on tapping the nerve impulses going from the brain to the vocal chords, allowing for 'Voiceless' phone calls. "With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerized voice." It's not quite telepathy, but it's pretty close."

Submission + - User Review: Dell Inspiron 1420N with Ubuntu (starryhope.com)

Submitted by

wehe

on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @06:32AM

wehe writes: "After two weeks of using the new Dell Inspiron 1420N with pre-installed Ubuntu, Starry Hope decided it's time to write down some of his thoughts about this new Linux offering from Dell: "Unfortunately, Dell and Ubuntu's parent company Canonical have not worked together closely enough to make this a first-rate offering. While I think the 1420N is a great computer overall, the lack of attention to detail (and unbelievably bad driver support) keep these latest Linux offerings from being ready for the general public. Hopefully Dell and Canonical will resolve these problems and make a truly great product that I could feel comfortable recommending to family members who are not familiar with Linux. ... With just a little extra work and closer attention to the pre-installed software and drivers, they could be shipping the perfect Linux notebook. The way it is now, I wouldn't recommend this notebook for anyone who's not a seasoned Linux geek." One special detail: the pictures illustrating his review are showing the Windows Key of the laptop, which is sort of a bummer on an Ubuntu machine. The official Dell wiki about the Inspiron 1420N with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-installed doesn't provide much details about the Linux compatibility of the laptop. Most Linux laptop installation guides from average Linux users provide much more information."

Submission + - Arm Wrestling Machine Breaking Arms

Submitted by iminplaya on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @06:31AM

iminplaya writes: Japanese arcade distributor Atlus Co. said it will recall 150 arm-wrestling machines that are breaking players' arms.

The machine, known as Arm Spirit, has so far broken three arms of players who put it to the challenge. The machine features 10 levels of arm-wrestling difficulty, including a French maid, a drunken martial arts master and a Chihuahua. The final throw-down, for those who manage to avoid having their forearms snapped, is against a professional arm-wrestler.

"We think that maybe some players get overexcited and twist their arms in an unnatural way."

Submission + - Google Sky

Submitted by

Tom F

on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @06:18AM

Tom F writes: "BBC News are running an article relating to the release of Google Sky. A new tool to allow users to now view images of the heavenly skies with the chance to look at 1 million stars and 200 million galaxies. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6955787.stm"

Submission + - Researchers develop a practical attack on KeeLoq (kuleuven.be)

Submitted by

StevenOdb

on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @06:01AM

StevenOdb writes: "Cryptography researchers from Belgium and Israel have developed a practical attack on KeeLoq, a cipher used in several car anti-theft mechanisms distributed by Microchip Technology Inc. The cipher is included in the remote control device that opens and locks your car and that activates the anti-theft mechanisms. Each device has a unique key that takes 18 billion billion values. With 100 computers, it would take several decades to find such a key. Therefore KeeLoq was widely believed to be secure. Now, a method has been found to identify the key in less than a day. The attack requires access to the remote control for about 1 hour (for example, stored in the victim's pocket while he's enjoying a meal). With this key the alarm can be easily deactivated. The results were presented at the CRYPTO 2007 conference."

Submission + - Wal-Mart "DRM-Free" MP3 Site: Windows-Only

Submitted by Skavoovie5 on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @06:29PM

Skavoovie5 writes: Despite all the raving about the new DRM-Free MP3 Download section of Wal-Mart, it would appear that Wal-Mart still expects its customers to chain themselves to a sub-standard OS. No Linux, no OS X.

Isn't the entire purpose of DRM-Free music to enable the purchaser the freedom to use the music on the platform and method they see fit? Apparently only as long as you're willing to run Windows, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player. No thanks!

When attempting to access Wal-Marts MP3 download section of their website via Linux, the user is presented with the following error message:

"We're sorry, your operating system is incompatible. To provide the best download experience, we can no longer support Windows 98, ME or NT. Please visit again after you upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP. Visit our Help section for complete system requirements information."

Following the "Help section" link leads to a page listing the minimum system requirements:

What are the system requirements for using Wal-Mart Music Downloads?

* Windows 2000 or XP (sorry, no Macintosh or Linux) ...
* Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher
* Windows Media Player version 9 or later

Submission + - Wikipedia fights NBC's "Justice" group (10zenmonkeys.com)

Submitted by

destinyland

on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @05:35PM

destinyland writes: "Wikipedia was labelled a "corporate sex offender" by the group behind NBC Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series — who also began re-directing any visitors from Wikipedia to a critical page. The group also tagged LiveJournal and YouTube as "offenders" for failing to delete enough accounts of suspected pedophiles. But after a thoughtful debate, Wikipedia simply changed their link-formatting so their readers wouldn't be re-directed. They also allowed the group to continue criticizing Wikipedia's policies on Wikipedia rather than censoring them. Though as this article points out, "Wikipedia remained ungrateful when Perverted Justice helpfully pointed out which Wikipedia editors they thought were pedophiles.""

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