notea42 - Slashdot User

Submission + - South African government to switch to Linux

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:28AM

An anonymous reader writes: Looks like the South Africa government is planning to switch all government departments over to open source computer software instead of using Microsoft systems Seems to make sense and all for the country that spawned Ubuntu

Submission + - Egyptian Blogger Gets 4 Year Prison Sentenced

Submitted by bored_lurker on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:26AM

bored_lurker writes: According to a story carried on the washingtonpost.com (among others) an Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt's first prosecution of a blogger. The judge issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and another year for insulting Mubarak. Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison.

In some places discussing politics and religion in the workplace is considered bad taste, but jail time for doing it in a blog? Will the rest of the world stand by and say nothing?

Submission + - Conservapedia replaces Wikipedia with anti-science

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:03AM

An anonymous reader writes: Some conservatives have launched an alternative to Wikipedia due to bias: http://www.conservapedia.com/Examples_of_Bias_in_W ikipedia

The new resource is still small (only about 3200 articles, many weak and with gaps in coverage such as having an entry for mathematical "crisp sets" but not for "sets"), and understandably endorses religious and conservative points of view. But the encyclopedia also undercuts the search for knowledge with statements such as "But historical facts, or their absence, are irrelevant since we all know He existed. Historical sources and scientific facts are unnecessary," in the entry for Jesus (http://www.conservapedia.com/Christ), and bizarre anti-science entries (http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2007/02/conserva pedia_and_math_1.php).

Submission + - HDCP prevents PC from playing 1080p on TV

Submitted by

motherball

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:02AM

motherball writes: "Will hardware manufacturers and the movie industry stop at nothing to fight the consumer? An article in EDN mentions that newer TVs deliberately do not include the common HDMI connector but instead have the HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content-protection) connector which is intended to make it impossible to hook up your PC to your TV and render 1080p! Who stands to gain from this? Doesn't the consumer (I hate that word) have any rights?"

Submission + - Amazon launches answers service (beta)

Submitted by

Fennec

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @10:59AM

Fennec writes: "Amazon.com has launched a beta of a new service called Askville, yet another online answers service, flavored with "Experience Points, Levels, and Quest Coins." These coins will supposedly become useful some day on another Amazon service that's not actually open yet, Questville. If this virtual currency becomes useful, could Askville fill a place between strictly volunteer systems and pay-for-answer services like the now-defunct Google Answers? Or is it destined to fail in the already-saturated online Q&A market?"

Submission + - Wikipedia Banned at College

Submitted by

Zatoichi007

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:54PM

Zatoichi007 writes: "The NYT is reporting that Wikipedia is now being banned as a source for research at Middlebury College. It seems that the last straw for the college occured when students in a Japanese history class wrongly asserted that the Jesuits aided in the Shambara Rebellion, using Wikipedia as the reference point. Is Wikipedia a valid source for "serious" research or just a starting point to find out what might be interesting about a particular topic?"

Oblivion Designer Moves To New Company 37

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:54PM from the big-huge-gig dept.

Gamasutra reports on the new position that former Bethesda designer Ken Rolston has taken with Big Huge Games. The lead designer for Bethesda's hit titles Morrowind and Oblivion, Rolston is now slated to be working on an unnamed title for the Rise of Nations developer. Rolston announced he was planning to retire early last year but ... apparently not. The designer characterizes his new project as 'a strikingly original and cunning concept for a console RPG'. No name or concept was included in the announcement.

Submission + - James Gosling Appointed to the Order of Canada

Submitted by Andrija Ifkovic on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:49PM

Andrija Ifkovic writes: James Gosling, the creator of Java language and a VP of Sun has been appointed to the Order of Canada. This is the highest honour Canada can bestow upon its citizens. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/02/21/tech -20070221.html

Submission + - UK Government Rejects Anti-DRM e-Petition

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:44PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "The UK government has rejected an e-Petition calling for a ban on DRM. In a response posted to the e-Petitions site, they claim that DRM gives users "unprecedented choice". BBC News reports on the response: "It said DRM acted as a policeman in that it protected digital content, but, it added, the technology also improved choice and the price consumers wished to pay." The response did, however, recognise that "the needs and rights of consumers must also be carefully safeguarded.""

Submission + - How to Laser Tag (i.e. graffiti) a Building

Submitted by

John3

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:38PM

John3 writes: "The Graffiti Research Lab has posted video of laser graffiti they created on a Rotterdam building. The effect is very cool, and a complete guide on how they did it is posted on Theodore Watson's website. All you need is a laptop, LCD projector, and laser and you too can graffiti buildings without any permanent damage (unless you fry the retinas of a curious late night janitor). The GRL site states they are "dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source technologies for urban communication" and there are several other examples of previous high-tech graffiti experiments, including drive-in GIF theater."

Microsoft Apologizes for Serving Malware 171

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:30PM from the caught-sneaking-one-by dept.

dark_15 writes "Microsoft has apologized for serving malware via its websites and Windows Live Messenger software. APC reader Jackie Murphy reported the problem: 'With Microsoft launching Vista along with their Defender software to protect users from viruses and spyware, it seems therefore to be an oxymoron that they have started to putting paid changing banner advertisements for malware, on the popular MSN groups servers.'"

Submission + - Skype goes Google with Jyve search engine

Submitted by

BobB

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:28PM

BobB writes: "There are many alternatives to the world's most popular search tool, but a newly created Web site called Jyve offers an approach that acts like an online chat room instead of a typical search engine. Jyve users ask questions and receive answers from other users, usually within seconds. It's like a cross between Wikipedia and Ask Jeeves (now known simply as Ask.com). It started as a Skype plug-in. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/022007-jyve. html"

Submission + - Keith Urban vs. Keith Urban

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16, 2007 @12:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: I just noticed this on cnn.com about Keith Urban vs. Keith Urban. It seems to me to be an interesting question. One

Keith Urban is a famous singer (I never heard of him before) and has trademarked his name. The other is an artist and owns the KeithUrban.com web site. The artist never claims to be the singer but never clarifies that he isn't. There are google ads at the top of the page that advertise tickets to the singer's concert which would give the impression this is the singer.

Who should prevail? I'm torn. The artist does not generate the google ads. I've looked at the source code for the page and I don't see anything he generates that is overtly deceptive. I do wonder how common the Urban surname is and if a common name should be allowed to be trademarked.

Submission + - ATI is not supporting the All-in-Wonder in Vista

Submitted by Working-Person on Friday February 16, 2007 @12:36PM

Working-Person writes: Thinking about using your expensive All-in-Wonder with Vista? Think again. Here's the response from ATI when looking for Vista drivers "The product you purchased was not advertised or broadcasted as Vista Compliant it is fully functional and supported on the specified Operating Systems. The tuner on the board doesn't meet Windows Vista's requirements and is not compatable. That means it will not be supported and there will be no drivers or software release for the tuner on the ALL IN WONDER Board."

Apple May Be Re-Entering the Sub-Notebook Market 281

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 16, 2007 @12:33PM from the time-to-upgrade dept.

An anonymous reader writes "AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has plans to reenter the sub-notebook market this year. The project, the article states, should be unveiled around the time of WWDC (summer). Drawing parallels to the legendary PowerBook 2400, the sub-notebook will offer some of the best elements of old and new. With a small footprint, light weight, and manageable screen it will fill a niche not currently occupied by any Apple hardware. At the same time, it will offer some new technologies that the current crop of computers do not: 'The new MacBook model is expected to introduce some features not yet available with Apple's existing notebook offerings, such as onboard NAND flash. Plans reportedly call for the notebook to be the first of the company's MacBook offerings to utilize the solid-state memory in order to improve power efficiency and facilitate near instantaneous boot times. This feature, however, had not been frozen upon last check.' Apple hopes this micro-notebook will capture interest both here in the states and in Japan, where the appeal of small consumer electronics may offset the current weak computer market."

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