notea42 - Slashdot User

Submission + - MS dirty tricks archive trickles back to life

Submitted by networkBoy on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:44AM

networkBoy writes: The register is carrying a blurb about the dirty tricks of microsoft archive going off-line, and being pulled from archive.org. It appears that several individuals have the pieces to the puzzle and are looking for hosting sources. Maybe the /. community can help here? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/21/microsoft_ archive_not_lost/

The 3,000 document archive from the Comes antitrust trial, which disappeared from the web abruptly when Microsoft settled the case last week, is beginning to trickle back into view. A week ago the site was placed under password protection, Microsoft withdrew its own account of events, and so-called internet "archive" archive.org apparently also pulled its mirror.

Submission + - What is the cost of using hosted applications?

Submitted by foniksonik on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:39AM

foniksonik writes: I work at a small company, less than 30 people, and yet the leadership refuses to consider using hosted applications for ANY purpose. They won't consider going to Gmail as a POP email provider, or using Basecamp for Project Management or Harvest for timesheets, Salesforce for CRM. etc. even though these hosted applications would save them a lot of effort/grief as well as time = money.

They claim that there is a huge downside to not 'owning' their own data in these areas and that it far outweighs the savings from not having to manage, maintain and support those tools internally. SO we have created a hodgepodge of opensource versions of the tools (dotProject, timesheet, Sugar) which don't interoperate well together either AND take a lot of time to set up, deploy, configure and customize for our needs. We have competent developers and a team in India we contract to for time intensive troubeshooting... but he time they spend on these apps takes away from time they could be devoting to PAID projects.

What do you think Slashdot? Are hosted apps a money loser, does not having ultimate control of your operational business data (as opposed to your code or other proprietary data) keep you from considering them as a time = money saver? If your company has already made the leap to hosted apps for business use, what are your experiences — good and bad?

Building the Interplanetary Internet 334

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:33AM from the ping-and-wait dept.

sighted writes "Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, now a Google VP, is leading a NASA effort to create a permanent network link to Mars within the next two years. As Cerf outlined in a recent talk, the 'InterPlaNet' protocol is designed to handle the delay caused by interplanetary distances. A signal traveling between the Earth and Mars can take up to 20 minutes."

Submission + - Junk Faxes

Submitted by olddoc on Thursday February 22, 2007 @11:31AM

olddoc writes: I am having a growing problem with junk faxes. Unlike email, it costs me money when I get a fax so junk faxes really tick me off. A while ago, I gave my number to a removal number and now I am getting more junk faxes than ever! Does anyone know how to make them pay? What devious methods can I use to get even? Can I sign up for a phone number that will drive up their costs when I call the toll free removal number? What have other readers done?

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.'"

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