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Wii

Submission + - Miiware.com to make Mii "stuff"

Submitted by
boywundr
boywundr writes: "Hey, I found this site, MiiWare.com, while surfing the web for Mii stuff. It's cheaper than the other ones out there and seems pretty cool. On the one page they have a Flash program that you make the Miis on and then get it printed on shirts and stuff. The My Account area's pretty cool with the Mii images there instantly after you make them."
Education

Submission + - High Tech School shut down

Submitted by fermion
fermion writes: In the continuing story of corporations attempting to reform education, High Tech High in Redwood City has been shut down two years into a five year project, leaving bewildered parent and students behind. I guess this shows that educating the masses is not as simple as running a corporation. The threat of layoff cannot be used to bring unmotivated kids into line. The pipe dream of stock options cannot be used in place of genuine concern for the child. And the scores on standardized test cannot be fabricated as easily as the numbers in an SEC filing. As much as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation wants to do good, they and others in the corporate world must discover that educating the populous is not a activity that will bend toward the standard corporate buzz words.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Definitive answer to Fermi's Paradox

Submitted by
fiveniner
fiveniner writes: "I have written my definitive answer to Fermi's paradox, which I think is pretty more accurate and fun than the one shown one month ago in slashdot (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/ 19/1515205) I really belive no one can argument on it. Here it goes: (link to my post: http://logforbuggymind.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-own -response-to-fermis-paradox.html ) So today I came with my own response to Fermi's paradox: As the technology and science knowledge of extraterrestrial civilizations advance, they feel eager to conquer the rest of the universe, but at some point in that way to the universe, they advance in science enough to know how does their brain work, and they realize that being eager to conquer the world is an impulse originated by their desire of power, which ultimately only gives pleasure because some neurotransmitters activate when "power" is achieved. So before they can even go and conquer the universe, they discover a drug which gives that same pleasure, but without conquering the universe, just eating a pill, so then they eat the pill, and dont want to conquer anything, because they are happy, and after that, they discover that disappearing is not such a bad option, so they decide to just disappear, so that's why there's no evidence of extraterrestrial life, it's better to have drugs and disappear. That's the ULTIMATE ANSWER to Life, the Universe and Everything thanks and best regards... (I love karma) elias"
Graphics

Submission + - Linux Video Decoder

Submitted by rthornto
rthornto writes: We need a PCI card that can decode the advanced video codecs in hardware, so I created a pledge here: http://www.pledgebank.com/1080p-linux, please pledge, this is for Linux or Windows. The pledge is as follows:

"I will pay $200USD for a PCI 1080p MPEG2/H.264/VC-1 decoder card with Windows/Linux drivers and HDCP support, it also needs to output video across the PCI bus but only if 1,000 other people will do the same."

The idea is to send this to the manufacturers to spur some interest, or maybe we could have one produced from a reference design.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Dow Jones Plunge Fueled by Overwhelmed Computers

Submitted by
cloudscout
cloudscout writes: "The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 400 points today. While there were various valid financial reasons for such a decline, some of the blame is being placed on computer systems that couldn't keep up with the abnormally high volume at the New York Stock Exchange and the resulting tremor as they switched over to a backup system. In other words, Dow Jones got Slashdotted."
Censorship

Submission + - ICANN to Become Internet's "Word Police"

Submitted by
Amanda B. Reckonwith
Amanda B. Reckonwith writes: "ICANN to Become Internet's "Word Police" Top-Level Domain Policy to Bypass National Sovereignty and Free Speech Civil Society Proposes Amendment to Protect Civil Liberties and Innovation ICANN's Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) submitted a proposal to protect freedom of expression and innovation in the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). ICANN's policy council, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), is currently developing policy recommendations to regulate the introduction of new top-level domain names on the Internet. NCUC is troubled by the GNSO's draft recommendation to create string selection criteria that would prevent the registration of a new gTLD string that contains a controversial word or idea. In the 13 February 2007 GNSO draft report, proposed Term of Reference 2(v) of the string criteria states that "the string should not be contrary to public policy (as set out in advice from the Governmental Advisory Committee)". According to the GAC guidelines: "No new gTLD string shall promote hatred, racism, discrimination of any sort, criminal activity, or any abuse of specific religions or cultures. ... If the GAC or individual GAC members express formal concerns about a specific new gTLD application, ICANN should defer from proceeding with the said application until GAC concerns have been addressed to the GAC's or the respective government's satisfaction." Unless reformed, this ICANN policy will prevent anyone in the world from being able to use controversial words like "abortion" or "gay" in a new gTLD if a single country objects to their use. The proposal would further prevent the use of numerous ordinary words like "herb" and "john" in a string since they can have an illegal connotation in certain contexts. In addition to any country in the world being able to stop a new gTLD string, ICANN staff would also be able to prevent any idea that it deemed too controversial to exist in the new domain space. The 13 Feb. proposal (Term of Reference 2(x)) gives ICANN staff the important job of making preliminary determinations as to whether a string is inappropriate and who the "legitimate sponsor" of a domain name (such as .god) should be. "The 13 Feb proposal would essentially make ICANN the arbiter of public policy and morality in the new gTLD space, a frightening prospect for anyone who cares about democracy and free expression," said Robin Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice, an NCUC member organization. "The proposal would give ICANN enormous power to regulate the use of language on the Internet and lead to massive censorship of controversial ideas." NCUC proposes to amend the GNSO draft policy so that only the legal restrictions in the national jurisdictions of the string application in question will apply to the particular string. Under NCUC's proposal, national law would be the measure for what words are permitted to be registered in any particular nation, not ICANN policy. NCUC's proposal recognizes the reality that there are competing standards of morality and competing public policy objectives and that ICANN should not try to set a universal standard. NCUC's amendment better protects freedom of expression, since only those words and ideas that are actually outlawed in a particular nation could not be registered in that nation. Instead of engaging in censorship in the new domain space, ICANN policy should respect international freedom of expression guarantees. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." ICANN should adhere to the principles of Article 19 and permit the registration of lawful, but controversial strings in the new gTLD space. Besides free expression, NCUC's proposal also protects national sovereignty, and the right of nations, not ICANN, to decide what words may be used in their jurisdictions. The current draft report would usurp the right of an individual nation to permit the use of words in its own country that are controversial in other countries. Rather than blanketly applying 240 nations' cumulative restrictions on speech onto every country, NCUC's proposal is more narrowly tailored to limit only those words that are actually illegal where registered. Milton Mueller, Professor at Syracuse University School of Information Studies and NCUC Executive Committee member said, "There has always been a danger that ICANN's exclusive control of Internet identifiers would be used as leverage to enforce extraneous policies. ICANN needs to stick to its narrow, technical coordination role, We need to protect the Internet from globalized, centralized regulation." The current GNSO proposal is further flawed because it is framed from an irrelevant 1883 treaty on trademarks that is inappropriate, both because of its archaic origin and because trademark law is intrinsically a narrow legal paradigm that does not extend to a full vision of societal benefits and rights. Most notably, trademark law is not designed to regulate non-commercial speech, which is vast majority of online communication. NCUC's proposal to amend Term of Reference 2 (v) is the main proposal in a group of 5 NCUC proposals to reform the policy recommendations in the 13 Feb. GNSO draft report. It is possible that ICANN's GNSO Policy Council will vote on draft final report as soon as the next ICANN board meeting in Lisbon in late March 2007. NCUC urges individuals and organizations that are concerned with protecting free expression and innovation to contact ICANN Board Members and their national representative of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) to express their concerns about the current draft and support for NCUC's amendments. If you live in the United States, your representative on the GAC is Suzanne Sene from the US Commerce Department. Suzanne Sene can be contacted via email to SSene[at]ntia.doc.gov The ICANN GAC representatives from other countries are listed here: http://gac.icann.org/web/contact/reps/index.shtml The ICANN Board of Directors is listed here: http://www.icann.org/general/board.html Links to relevant documents: GNSO Draft Final Report on the Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains: http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/GNSO-PDP-Dec05-FR13-F EB07.htm NCUC proposal (Feb. 2007) to amend the draft report: http://www.ipjustice.org/ICANN/drafts/022207.html NCUC Comments on Fall 2006 Draft Report http://www.ipjustice.org/ICANN/NCUC_Comments_on_Ne w_gTLDs.pdf Internet Governance Project Alert: "Will the UN Take Over the Internet" Through ICANN? http://internetgovernance.org/news.html#UNTakeOver InternetThroughIcann_022207 GNSO Council Webpage on Intro of New gTLD Policy: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/ About the NCUC: The Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) is the part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that represents the interests of noncommercial Internet users. NCUC is a voting member of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), which develops policy and advises the ICANN Board on matters regarding generic top-level domains on the Internet. NCUC develops and supports Internet policies that favor noncommercial use on the Internet. The NCUC is made up of 40 civil society organizations from around the world and maintains a website at http://www.ncdnhc.org/ ."
Encryption

Submission + - Legal Battle For AACS Begins

Submitted by henrypijames
henrypijames writes: As widely expected, the MPAA has learned nothing from the debacle of its failed prosecution against DVD Jon (of DeCSS) and is now releasing its army of lawyers to fight against the circumvention of AACS (the successor of CSS): Upon the reception of a DMCA takedown notice, SourceForge has immediately terminated its hosting of BackupHDDVD (a tool to backup HD DVD movies, as its suggestes). The project leader is seeking advice on how to proceed.
The Internet

Submission + - Updated Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

Submitted by
ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb writes: "In a follow-up to his Top 100 Alternative Search Engines article at the end of January, Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) Charles S. Knight has produced an updated list, featuring 32 new search engines. The criteria for the list is that search engines should exhibit superiority to Google — not as a whole, but in just one particular area. An example is "Search Engine of the Month" GoshME, a Meta-Meta-Search Engine which searches across a variety of specialized search engines and databases, then categorizes and filters the results.

Knight writes that 68 of the original 100 search engines are still firmly in the top 100, either because they have continued to improve (see Zuula), or because they have yet to be challenged (amongst the "Answers" search engines, only ChaCha uses paid guides, not volunteers or community members). This block of 68 search engines, says Knight, forms a sort of "core" representation of the new breed of alternative search engines."
Robotics

First Dynamically Balancing Biped Robot 155

Posted by kdawson from the mister-rossum-on-line-1 dept.
damg writes "Anybots, which is three guys led by Trevor Blackwell, has developed the first robot that walks like we do, by dynamically balancing itself rather than being pre-programmed for walking like Asimo. The video shows the robot walking and being pushed by another 'bully' robot to demonstrate that it can't easily be pushed over."
OS X

Submission + - Customize the Mac OS X Login Screen - for Free

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After several hundred times of logging into your Mac you may be tired of looking at the same old login screen. Maybe you'd like to have a customized login screen for your school or employer's workstations. Forget the $10 programs that automate the process, we'll show you how to customize the login screen entirely on your own, for free. It's not as difficult as you might think, and it's a fun way to personalize your Mac a bit more. Be sure to check out the screenshot below for an example of the results. http://osxdaily.com/2007/02/22/customize-the-mac-o s-x-login-screen/

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