Submission + - Info About Urine Alcohol Tests (chamberli.org)
denman3 writes: "Since urine alcohol tests are cost-effective ways to detect alcohol, and due to the fact that alcohol testing is increasing in importance at many organizations, institutions, and companies, urine alcohol tests will continue to be one of the key methods used to detect alcohol consumption in American workplaces."
Submission + - Soy Bad For You. . ? (alternet.org)
Fantastic Lad writes: "Studies showing the dark side of soy date back 100 years," says Kaayla Daniel, PhD, clinical nutritionist and author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food. "The 1999 FDA-approved health claim pleased big business, despite massive evidence showing risks associated with soy, and against the protests of the FDA's own top scientists. Soy is a global four-billion-dollar industry that's taken these health claims to the bank." Soy, indigenous to Eastern Asia, where it was once considered toxic and used only as a cover crop, is today everywhere in our food supply, as the star in cereals and health-promoting foods or hidden discreetly in processed foods. A common misconception is that Asians are consuming more soy than they actually are; soy accounts for only about 15 percent of their total calories, or nine grams per day. Asian diets include small amounts of primarily fermented soy products, such as miso, natto, and tempeh, and some tofu. By contrast, in the US, processed soy food snacks or shakes can contain over 20 grams of soy protein in one serving.
Submission + - USPTO Calls BS on 1-Click Patent Claims
theodp writes: "Seeking to extend the reach of CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click patent, Amazon ran into a very unimpressed USPTO examiner who rejected all 75 of the e-tailer's new claims, repeatedly invoking terms like 'obvious' and 'old and well known' to dismiss the purported inventions. Amazon has taken the unusual step of requesting an Oral Appeal to plead its case and also canceled and refiled its 1-Click claims in a continuation application, not unlike a popular stalling tactic employed by skilled lawyers. As it touted the novelty of 1-Click to Congress (PDF) last fall, Amazon didn't mention the examiner's rejection as it insisted that 'still no [1-Click] prior art has surfaced' to a Committee whose members included Rick Boucher (VA) and Howard Berman (CA), recipients of campaign contributions from a PAC funded by Amazon execs and their families."
Submission + - Why Digital Rights are Human Rights
Cyrus Mack writes: "I've written a paper on why access to information should be recognized explicitly as a basic human right. Laws should protect citizens from oppressive governments that wish to restrict these rights. If we don't do this, we risk scores of disenfranchised people with no means to fully participate in our digital society. This puts them at a severe disadvantage. Legislation such as California's AB 1668 must be supported and rights protected."
Submission + - Open source java framework to develop RIAs
Mauro Carniel writes: "The rise of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) has lately become an important topic in the Java community. In addition to new technologies like AJAX and MacroMedia Flex and MS SilverLight, the combination of Swing and Java Web Start has also been proposed as a RIA technology.
Much people criticize Swing because of the lack of data binding and POJO (plain old Java objects) support. Recently some efforts have been done to create a data binding layer that simplify data setting onto the graphical components (see JDNC project). Also a reference framework is needed to develop Swing applications, expecially for beginner Swing programmers. Recently some efforts have been done to design an Advanced Swing Framework (JSR 296). However this may represent a future step, not a current available solution. Moreover these attempts do not still provide a complete solution (a framework and advanced swing components with data binding capabilities) to quickly and easly develop rich-client applications; in addition, Swing components are just hard to use: creating a powerful table or a tree component usually requires a lot of code and time and skills.
OpenSwing is an open-source Swing framework that provides an MVC architecture and automates communication between models, views, and controllers by means of Java Beans, directly connected to view components. It also provides a suite of advanced graphics components based on Swing components with data binding between components and data model.
It is possibile to apply this framework to develop java stand-alone applications, without an underlying database, or to develop more classic two layered client-server applications (front-end + database) or to develop three tiered web applications (i.e. Swing front-end + HTTP + java servlet + database), or to develop distributed rich-client applications (Swing front-end + server side applications remotely accessed via RMI or another protocol + database).
OpenSwing provides some utility classes that simplify Hibernate integration with OpenSwing, iBatis integration with OpenSwing and comunication between OpenSwing and Spring Framework, so that you can develop UI layer using OpenSwing and develop server-side layer using Spring and/or Hibernate or iBatis.
You can see it at: OpenSwing Home Page"
Much people criticize Swing because of the lack of data binding and POJO (plain old Java objects) support. Recently some efforts have been done to create a data binding layer that simplify data setting onto the graphical components (see JDNC project). Also a reference framework is needed to develop Swing applications, expecially for beginner Swing programmers. Recently some efforts have been done to design an Advanced Swing Framework (JSR 296). However this may represent a future step, not a current available solution. Moreover these attempts do not still provide a complete solution (a framework and advanced swing components with data binding capabilities) to quickly and easly develop rich-client applications; in addition, Swing components are just hard to use: creating a powerful table or a tree component usually requires a lot of code and time and skills.
OpenSwing is an open-source Swing framework that provides an MVC architecture and automates communication between models, views, and controllers by means of Java Beans, directly connected to view components. It also provides a suite of advanced graphics components based on Swing components with data binding between components and data model.
It is possibile to apply this framework to develop java stand-alone applications, without an underlying database, or to develop more classic two layered client-server applications (front-end + database) or to develop three tiered web applications (i.e. Swing front-end + HTTP + java servlet + database), or to develop distributed rich-client applications (Swing front-end + server side applications remotely accessed via RMI or another protocol + database).
OpenSwing provides some utility classes that simplify Hibernate integration with OpenSwing, iBatis integration with OpenSwing and comunication between OpenSwing and Spring Framework, so that you can develop UI layer using OpenSwing and develop server-side layer using Spring and/or Hibernate or iBatis.
You can see it at: OpenSwing Home Page"
Submission + - openSUSE Hobbled by Microsoft Patents
kripkenstein writes: "openSUSE 10.2 no longer enables ClearType (which improves the appearance of fonts). The reason given on the openSUSE mailing list for not enabling it is:
As reported on and discussed here and here, this matter may be connected to the Microsoft-Novell deal. If so, Novell should have received a license for the Microsoft patents, assuming the deal covered all relevant patents. Does the license therefore extend only to SUSE, but not openSUSE?"Note that this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library.
Submission + - Comcast Weans Hogs Off Their Packet Teat
eldavojohn writes: "The telecommunications giant Comcast has severed its services to internet hogs who use more bandwidth than others. From the article, "Carreiro said he received a message from a Comcast Security Assurance representative in December, who warned him that he was hogging too much of the company's bandwidth and needed to cut down. When Carreiro contacted customer service about the call, they had no idea what he was talking about and suggested it was a prank phone call. Unconvinced, Carreiro contacted Comcast several more times, but was again told there was no problem. A month later, he woke up to a dead Internet connection. Customer service directed him to the Security Assurance division, which Carreiro said informed him he would now be without service for one year." This is quite alarming to me, considering that I am forced into using a particular ISP based on some deal my neighborhood made many years before I moved here."
Submission + - College student murders for video game money
dido writes: "The Mainichi Daily News reports that a college student has been arrested for withdrawing money from the bank account of a man found murdered last January 28. The suspect, 21-year-old Hiroshi Shimura, has further admitted to killing the man and his mother, telling investigators: "I spent the money at video game arcades. I murdered them so I could steal some money.""
Submission + - Apple CEO lambasts teacher unions
An anonymous reader writes: After publishing a controversial open letter taking a stance against DRM, Steve Jobs turned his attention to teacher unions. As reported by Associated Press, Jobs said "I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," during an education reform conference. He stated that no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. Acknowledging the potential fallout of this stance, Jobs also said "Apple just lost some business in this state, I'm sure."
On the other hand, Dell responded that unions were created because "the employer was treating his employees unfairly and that was not good. So now you have these enterprises where they take good care of their people. The employees won, they do really well and succeed."
On the other hand, Dell responded that unions were created because "the employer was treating his employees unfairly and that was not good. So now you have these enterprises where they take good care of their people. The employees won, they do really well and succeed."
Feed Feds Pull Traveler Help Site (wired.com)
Submission + - FCC wants to regulate violence on TV
An anonymous reader writes: CNN is reporting that the FCC has released a report that claims Congress can expand the FCC's authority to regulate broadcast television. Currently, the FCC can regulate profanity and sexual content, but the new report calls for the power to regulate violence as well.
Submission + - Linus fires latest shot in GNOME Wars
HellFeuer writes: Linus speaks out against GNOME again. When challenged to use GNOME for a month, he submitted patches to the GNOME project to prove his criticism is *constructive*, saying "The code is actually _cleaner_ after my patches, and the end result is more capable. We'll see what happens". However, he still didn't commit to actually using GNOME.
Where do you stand on Linus vs GNOME?
Where do you stand on Linus vs GNOME?
