erbmjw - Slashdot User

Submission + - Pirate Party policies pirated by Norway's Liberals

Submitted by Ghoti on Sunday April 15, 2007 @09:15AM

Ghoti writes: In an unexpected move, Norway's Liberal Party has decided to adopt "pirate copy" of the Swedish Pirate Party's policies on copyright extension, legalised file-sharing, free sampling and a ban on digital rights management (DRM), according to a recent statement (Norwegian link only). In light of the recent EMI/Apple deal and the European Union's ongoing fight against DRM, the spread of ideas like these to mainstream political parties give a faint promise that the fight for fair use and against corporate lock-in for digital media may yet be won!

Submission + - China Launches Navigation Satellite

Submitted by ThanksL on Sunday April 15, 2007 @02:28AM

ThanksL writes: A Chinese rocket placed a navigation satellite in orbit Saturday as part of an effort to build a global positioning system, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The Long March 3-A rocket blasted off from the Xichang launching center in southwestern China and a short time later the satellite was maneuvered into orbit, 13,300 miles above the earth, Xinhua said.

Journal Journal: 50 terabyte flash drive made of bug protein

Journal by Ergasiophobia on Sunday April 15, 2007 @12:29AM

A prototype USB drive using bug protein to store data in the neighborhood of around 50 terabytes worth of data could be here in less then 18 months. This idea first started out by coating DVDs with a layer of protein so that one day solid state memory could hold so much information that storing data on your computer hard drive will be obsolete, says Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston while reporting on his findings at the International Conf

Submission + - Donkey Kong Recreated Using 6,400 Post-it Notes

Submitted by

NickFitz

on Saturday April 14, 2007 @01:54PM

NickFitz writes: "Students at UCSC have recreated the first level of Donkey Kong using 6,400 Post-it notes stuck to the windows of the E2 building. It took a team of about 10 people five hours to complete the work, which will remain in place until May 1. There's a time-lapse video of the construction process."

Submission + - Open Source Economics and why IBM is winning

Submitted by

driehle

on Thursday April 12, 2007 @09:52PM

driehle writes: "In an article published in IEEE Computer magazine I recently looked at the economics of open source. I argue that large system integrators will do best and that open source startups will keep struggling. For developers, open source creates independence and new career paths as committers, while non-committers will fall on hard times. The race is on!"

Feed Why Doesn't The Justice Department Want An Identity Thief To Tell His Story To C (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed on Thursday April 12, 2007 @09:12PM

In what world would it make sense for politicians determining policy on a scam to be barred from speaking to an expert on that exact scam? Apparently, the world known as Washington DC. The Senate Finance Committee is holding hearings on identity theft, and asked a convicted identity thief to testify about his crimes. That certainly seems like one good way to learn about what's going on in the identity theft world -- but the Justice Department tried to stop it, claiming that allowing him to testify would violate laws that don't allow prisoners to have "elevated status" and also that it could pose a security risk. Apparently the Justice Department believes that if no one can talk about identity theft, maybe it won't happen. The good news, though, is that a judge has ruled against the DOJ, allowing the guy to testify before the Senate Committee. Identity theft is a serious problem, and hiding those who can best educate people about the problem doesn't help solve it.

Submission + - RIMM use LEGO Machines to Test Blackberry

Submitted by LEGO - my - Crackberry on Thursday April 12, 2007 @07:16PM

LEGO - my - Crackberry writes: Matthias Wandel is an engineer at Research in Motion (RIMM), the company that makes the Blackberry. What did RIMM turn to for testing the antenna reception of one of its 900MHz devices? LEGO machines. Specifically a device made of LEGO that could rotate a Blackberry about its horizontal & vertical axis in a pre-defined pattern. See for yourself.

Submission + - How to convince the boss to use open source?

Submitted by PHPNerd on Monday April 09, 2007 @11:04AM

PHPNerd writes: My boss is a very smart man who has been in the computing industry (mainly the software side of it) for the last twenty years. Now he's the IT Director at the company I work for where I'm a software developer (about 500 employees total). I see the value of open source, and so does my boss who frequently tests out the latest and greatest that the community has to offer. However, here at this company, we're rather entrenched into Microsoft and other companies where the users feel "safe" and "secure" using it because it's the familiar thing to them. He told me that he cannot justify moving to Open Office, Linux, and other open source movements. Effectively, it appears as though his hands are tied by the higher-ups. So, I ask the Slashdot community for help: I need a homerun, slam dunk list (to present to the vice presidents) with reasons why moving to open source will not only save money, but help the company to do better business.

Submission + - Taipei - The World's First Major Cyber City

Submitted by jcdenhartog on Monday April 09, 2007 @10:51AM

jcdenhartog writes: The following story from Digital Communities: http://www.govtech.net/digitalcommunities/story.ph p?id=101773 contains the remarks of Mayor Ma Ying-jeou at W2i Taipei on the wide use of WiFi and other technologies throughout the city.
Some examples are, offering cell phones to guests of a hotel which provide information services through WiFi, and real-time transfer of information between ambulance paramedics and the hospital.
An impressive accomplishment for a large city, though it does raise questions about Big Brother.

Submission + - The Implications of Free Java

Submitted by dsginter on Monday April 09, 2007 @09:21AM

dsginter writes: Last November, when Sun announced that they would be adopting GPLv2 licensing for Java, I expected somewhat of a bigger splash. Is this truly a non-event or does the assumption of such a robust tool set on GNU systems change the landscape? What happens to LAMP? Will Tomcat move in as the web server du jour? Can PHP finally die? What about the venerable Portable Operating System Interface? It seems like there is a lot of room that could be filled by this move.

Submission + - Combined hovercraft and helicopter

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 09, 2007 @07:50AM

An anonymous reader writes: Have British engineer Geoff Hatton brought us the best of two worlds with his UFO-looking machine? The US military thinks so and are investing in it.

The design is sturdy (as opposed to a helicopter) and can fly high (as opposed to a hovercraft). It is based on the "Coanda Effect" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coanda_Effect ).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/tec hnology/technology.html?in_article_id=447317

Submission + - Hacker's Case May Add to Students' Privacy Rights

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 09, 2007 @05:37AM

An anonymous reader writes: Article in Inside Higher Ed says the legal loss of a hacker in federal appeals court may result in students at public universities having MORE privacy rights. The hacker lost, but federal appeals court also said he had (generally) a right to privacy on computer in his dorm room:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/09/heck enkamp

Submission + - RIAA sues sites hosting leaked Year Zero tracks

Submitted by

no reason to be here

on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @08:19PM

no reason to be here writes: "The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has become notorious for suing anyone from high school students to retirees for downloading music from the web, has gone after web sites such as Idolator that have posted leaked songs from the upcoming NINE INCH NAILS album, "Year Zero". The problem, however, is that the tracks were leaked intentionally. Several songs from the album were left on computer hard drives at venues on the band's current European tour, with fans finding and posting them on the web for others to download and swap. According to Billboard.com, the RIAA sent cease-and-desist emails to web sites that posted the tracks, leading one industry source to say, "These f***ing idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on."

Submission + - To Buy, Or Create Computers?

Submitted by Scienceboy on Monday April 02, 2007 @08:50PM

Scienceboy writes: Something I've noticed is that alot of nerds and /.-ers usually tear apart the computers that they buy, and change them to their own specifications, whether it be hardware or software. My question is this: For the person who usually does this sort of stuff, is it worth it anymore to buy computers from a retail provider, only to change it so much that there are barley any original parts? Or is it better just to buy the parts that you know you are going to use and build it yourself?

Submission + - Firefox No Longer Alternative Enough

Submitted by

Kelson

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @07:21AM

Kelson writes: "The Alternative Browser Alliance, which promotes the use of alternative browsers over Internet Explorer, has stopped promoting Firefox after nearly two years. According to the announcement, Firefox has sold out, gone mainstream, and "is no longer an alternative web browser."

Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""

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