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Wireless Networking

Submission + - BBC Panorama Questions Long-Term Health of Wi-Fi

Submitted by
vtechpilot
vtechpilot writes: "From the article:

Britain is in the grip of a Wi-Fi revolution with offices, homes and classrooms going wireless — but there is concern the technology could carry health risks. The Government insists Wi-Fi is safe, but a Panorama investigation shows that radio frequency radiation levels in some schools are up to three times the level found in the main beam of intensity from mobile phone masts.
"
Toys

Submission + - Polyethylene Bulletproof Vests better than Kevlar

Submitted by teflonscout
teflonscout writes: When I think of bulletproof vests, the first word that comes to mind is Kevlar. Wired is running a story on Dynema SB61, a bulletproof material that is made of polyethylene. It is a higher grade of the plastic found in Tupperware. The story also mentions the recall of Second Chance bulletproof vests that were made from Zylon, a material that degraded slowly when exposed to moisture. At least one police officer was injured when a bullet penetrated his Zylon vest. Polyethylene is impervious to moisture. The first vests made from this new material are 5mm thick and can stop at 9mm bullet traveling at 1777 feet per second, which is slightly better than other top of the line vests.
Announcements

Submission + - All Your Rights Are Belong to Us

Submitted by
cyrusmack
cyrusmack writes: "For those of us that thought US copyright law was about the most draconian in the world, we were shocked by today's announcement of a new lobbyist group that wants even stronger copyright law. The group, called the "copyright alliance", features the usual suspects: Microsoft, MAFIAA, Viacom und herr Maus ("Look, it's Walt Disney! Shoot him now!"). Funnily enough, there was no mention of information access rights nor of US copyright law's gross violations of basic human rights. Funny that."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Identical Twins Battle Over Paternety Test

Submitted by ziggamon2.0
ziggamon2.0 writes: Twin brothers Raymon and Richard Miller are the father and uncle to a 3-year-old little girl. The problem is, they don't know which is which. Or who is who. Since they are identical twins, and have the exact same DNA they are inseparable in paternety tests. How is one to know? And if their DNA is really the same, in a biological perspective, does it really matter?
Software

Submission + - Is Modeling Science?

Submitted by
DanielMarkham
DanielMarkham writes: "I've been watching the flame wars on Global Warming on Slashdot for a few months now. In an effort to ask a simple question without all the flame wars, is modeling science? That is, is creating a computer model the same as coming up with a new law of physics?

I've just got through posting a blog entry in which I make the case that the types of modeling we read about in the news is not science at all, or science as we know it.

This topic has all the nerd stuff you could ever want. Cellular Automata, Turing Tests, Philosophy of Science, nature of chaotic systems, modeling complex software systems in UML. If I've missed something, I'm sure you guys will let me know about it and I appreciate the critique. So what say you? Is modeling science or not? Can we at least agree on this point?"
Patents

Journal Journal: Software patents, what is innovation? 1

Journal by ancientt

Recipes for chemistry are patented regularly. Consider dyes and solvents, there are dozens of easy examples. The question is whether they should be, not whether they can be, and that answer probably applies to software patents as well.
Links

Submission + - Reduce Global Warming with Biochar

Submitted by Nick Nethercote
Nick Nethercote writes: Want to sequester carbon, create fuel and improve soils in a single step? Then smoulder biomass (such as corn stover or peanut hulls) in the absence of oxygen. The first byproduct is "biochar" (also called "agrichar"), a fertiliser responsible for the rich "terra preta" (black land) soils of the Amazon. The second byproduct is biodiesel, more than enough to fuel the smouldering. And the entire process is carbon negative! The recent International Agrichar Initiative 2007 Conference presented the latest research on this exciting topic. Is this the birth of a new wedge in the fight against global warming?
Games

Does Zelda Need an Overhaul? 286

Posted by Zonk from the tooling-up-the-mean-green-machine dept.
CVG has up a piece noting the fact that not much about Zelda games have changed since the move to 3D. Chalk that up to the greatness of Ocarina of Time if you will, but the same mirror moving, fire-arrow switch activating puzzles have been in the last several titles. Is it time for some kind of radical change to the equation? "People generally don't like to accept change. But change doesn't always spell disaster. Final Fantasy introduces a totally new cast, setting and theme with each sequel and continues to please fans. Resident Evil 4 completely revolutionised Capcom's horror series and is now viewed as one of the best games ever made ... We still totally adore Zelda but eventually the appeal will tire and the series risks bombing. Nintendo needs to take the bold step and inject something totally new into Zelda. We're not talking about a couple of new items, or a new location - that's been done. We mean a significant change that affects the whole structure and gameplay."
Software

Submission + - Game designer causes stink with Virginia Tech game

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Talk about whistling past the graveyard.

An Australian video game designer has caused a major uproar Down Under with his creation of a game based on the Virginia Tech massacre.

Called V-Tech Rampage, the game has several levels of "stealth and murder," reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

But what really is causing the kerfuffle — as if the game itself wasn't in bad enough taste — is that its designer, Ryan Lambourn, says he will take the game down from his Web site only if the public comes up with a $2,000 payoff.

For another grand, he'll apologize.

"I've done offensive things before, but they're not usually this popular," the Morning Herald quoted Lambourn as saying.

He also said that friends encouraged him to put up the cash payment demand.

"Attention angry people," Lambourn wrote on his site. "I will take this game down from Newgrounds (where the game is hosted) if the donation amount reaches $1,000. I'll take it down from (Lambourn's Web site) if it reaches $2,000 and I will apologize if it reaches $3,000."

It's hard to know how to respond to that. So I won't.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9720248-7.html
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Google Nudes Win on Appeal

Submitted by astonishedelf
astonishedelf writes: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/20 07/05/17/google_nudes_win_on_appeal.html Google nudes win on appeal By Jack Schofield / Google 01:44pm Back in 2004, a company called Perfect 10 sued Google on the grounds that its use of thumbnails violated its copyrights. This attracted attention because of the subject matter — nude photography — and because it represented a significant challenge to the working of the Web. (Perfect 10 also sued Amazon.) Google has now won the case on appeal, according to the Washington Post. It says: The appeals court ruled that the thumbnails fell within a "fair use" exception in copyright law because they play a role in the search process and thus have a function different from that of the original photos. "We conclude that the significantly transformative nature of Google's search engine, particularly in light of its public benefit, outweighs Google's superseding and commercial uses of the thumbnails in this case," Judge Sandra S. Ikuta wrote for the panel. However, "Yesterday's ruling was not a complete victory for Google, because the judges directed the lower court to reconsider a separate finding in the company's favor," says TWP. Basically, it seems the problem is that while Google's thumbnails may not infringe copyright, it was linking to sites that do infringe copyright — and knowing that, not stopping it.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Skill based immigration better than H1B?

Submitted by ghoul
ghoul writes: Congress is talking about shifting to skill based immigration instead of family based immigration. This should immediately make it easier for Indian and Chinese Engineers and Scientists to immigrate on green cards without needing to go through the H1B no mans land. This is because under the current system they get stuck as the quota are set to be 7% of total from any country in the world irrespective of population size. This means the Vatican gets the same sized quota as China or India. In the new system the losers are Latin Americans who are mostly unskilled labourers (note mostly I know quite a few Brilliant latin american post grads) but used to be able to get in easier as there being a large number of latin american countires each country got 7%. How does the Slashdot community which has strong opinions on H1B feel about this? As these new workers will be on Green cards they wont be beholden to companies and should not depress the market as they wont take any shit from companies. In fact if the green card process can be shortened down to 6 months H1Bs can be abolished all together. Given this if people still feel this is not right are we still talking about protecting jobs or about fear of the stranger? Canada, Britain and Australia seem to be doing very well with these kind of point based systems.

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