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Power

Submission + - Canada to Ban Incandescent Bulbs by 2012

Submitted by Radon360
Radon360 writes: Canada will ban the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2012 as part of a plan to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases. Canada is the second country in the world to announce such a ban. Australia said in February it would get rid of all incandescent bulbs by 2009. The ban will not apply to uses where incandescent bulbs are still the only practical alternative.
Networking

Submission + - MySpace-like innovation from UK's UCAS

Submitted by
R Mistry
R Mistry writes: "England's UCAS (Universities & Colleges Admission Service) has released an exciting new website, YouGo.
It is a social networking website similar to MySpace, and is designed for students who are either currently applying to or already in university in Britain. It allows students to search and make friends with other students who may well be attending the same university as them when they join in September. It seems to be a very clever niche, and has collected many new users within days of launching by the looks of things. As the website is run by UCAS, they have the ability to email all students who are applying to university by email and inform them of the new website, and what more incentive to join, than 8 free iPods to be won by the first 8 users to make 100 new friends on the service. I wish I'd had that idea!"
Security

Submission + - How to legally determine an anonymous coward's ID

Submitted by CPE1704TKS
CPE1704TKS writes: My girlfriend is running into a weird situation. Someone is posing as her and sending her friends on her friendster account messages asking for their IM account names. Some of them have been duped and have even engaged in conversation with this person. What can I do (legally) to determine this person's true identity.

I was able to determine this person's IP address by putting trackers on specific web pages and sent those pages to them to look at. I even set up a fake AIM account and chatted with this person, pretending to be someone who thought she was my gf.

Now what?

I have the person's IP address, and I know the city that they live in, based on it. Is there any way I can narrow down who they are? If people post grey-area or not-so-legal tactics, as a law-abiding citizen, I would never do such a heinous thing, but it would be educational to know what tricks and tips there are out there to figure out who this person is.
Businesses

Submission + - The SEC is getting closer to Jobs

Submitted by Strudelkugel
Strudelkugel writes: CNN is reporting that the ex-CFO of Apple warned Steve Jobs about backdating options. FTA: "Apple's former finance chief Fred Anderson blamed Apple CEO Steve Jobs for a 2001 stock option grant that was backdated, according to a statement from Anderson's lawyer released Tuesday. The statement was released by Anderson's lawyer, Jerome Roth, after Anderson settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to Apple's stock option plan without admitting or denying any wrongdoing." This is serious business. It is quite possible that the SEC could someday require Jobs to resign from Apple. If that happens, is Apple only as good as Jobs' creative mind, or will the company continue successfully as it has since Jobs returned? Who is capable of replacing Jobs?
Communications

Submission + - Digital Camera Or Camera Phone?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: CNet.co.uk has tested camera phones alongside digital cameras to see which device takes the best quality pictures. The results are surprising, with Nokia's latest handset that features a built-in 5-megapixel camera, taking more vibrant pictures in medium light conditions than a 10-megapixel dSLR. Of course, the pictures aren't fully representative of how the images would look at full size but given that most people resize images to put on Flickr, it could be possible that we'll start to see a massive decline in dedicated digital cameras sales and an increase in camera phone sales.
The Courts

Submission + - Jobs made me do it: Ex-Apple CFO cuts plea deal

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson has released a statement saying that Steve Jobs ordered him to backdate stock options. It looks like this is part of a plea deal with the SEC. From the article:

Anderson was told by Jobs in late January 2001 that Jobs had an agreement with the board of directors to grant stock options on Jan. 2, according to the statement from Anderson's attorney. Anderson "cautioned" Jobs that the grant for executives would have to be priced based on the date of the board agreement "or there could be an accounting charge," and also told Jobs the board would have to confirm it had given prior approval for the grant dates "in a legally satisfactory method." Jobs assured him that the board had given approval and Anderson "relied on these statements by Mr. Jobs and from them concluded the grant was being properly handled," the statement said.
"
Google

Submission + - Google Calendar downtime poorly scheduled

Submitted by
Einstein Burgos
Einstein Burgos writes: "Google has sent a mass mail to the the domain administrators of its hosted "Application for your Domain" service but the day and time has been very poorly chosen. Instead of scheduling it on a weekend or overnight it will happen on a weekday and during peak hours.

Like if administrators can tell their users (bosses) to refrain from using the calendar during business hours!

Ok, so I'm making too much out of this... I'm not that complainy but the email is worth and entry on Slashdot because it is the first announcement Google makes for such matters

Below the email.

Happy Programming,

E. B.

Hello Einstein,

We wanted to inform you that we are planning to conduct routine maintenance to Google Calendar between 8AM and 9PM on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 . During this time, this service may be unavailable to some of your users. Please inform your users about this planned maintenance appropriately. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to improve Google Calendar.

If you have any questions, you can contact the Google Apps Support team through the Google Apps Help center (http://www.google.com/support/a/).

Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team"
Supercomputing

Submission + - New processor handles trillions of calculations

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The prototype of a revolutionary general-purpose computer processor, which has the potential of reaching trillions of calculations per second and handling massive applications, was unveiled by a team of computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin today.The new processor, known as TRIPS (Tera-op, Reliable, Intelligently adaptive Processing System), could be used to accelerate industrial, consumer and scientific computing, the group said in a statement. Each TRIPS chip contains two processing cores, each of which can issue 16 operations per cycle with up to 1,024 instructions in flight simultaneously. Current high-performance processors are typically designed to sustain a maximum execution rate of four operations per cycle. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1445 8"
Linux Business

Submission + - Linux to sponsor a car at the Indy 500

Submitted by
Davidian1024
Davidian1024 writes: "Tux, the cherubic penguin mascot of the Linux computer operating system has just taken up residence on the front nose of the Chastain Motorsports Panoz / Honda Indy car. Driver, Stephan Gregoire, and team owner, Tom Chastain, applied the ceremonial first decal yesterday to the distinctive two-tone blue, 225 mph Indy racer that Gregoire will pilot for this year's 91st running of the famed Indianapolis 500 mile race on May 27, 2007."
Security

Submission + - Ed Foster: Spy Act of 2007 = "Vendors Can Spy

Submitted by strick1226
strick1226 writes: Ed Foster describes the Spy Act bill (H.R. 964) as being for the prevention of spyware what the Can Spam Act was for the allowing of Spam. Unfortunately, it allows exceptions for companies to utilize spyware for any number of reasons. Most troubling is that this bill would pre-empt all state laws, including those more focused on the privacy of an individual's data. It is expected to pass soon with "strong bipartisan support."
Supercomputing

Submission + - Next-gen, high-performance processor unveiled

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The prototype for a new general-purpose processor, which has the potential of reaching trillions of calculations per second, has been designed and built by a team at the University of Texas at Austin. Each TRIPS chip contains two processing cores, each of which can issue 16 operations per cycle with up to 1,024 instructions in flight simultaneously. Currently, ScienceBlog.com reports, high-performance processors are typically designed to sustain a maximum execution rate of four operations per cycle.

Feed Recoll: A search engine for the Linux desktop (slashdot.org)

From feed by lcfeed
Desktop search engines are all the rage these days. While Beagle may be the most popular desktop search engine for Linux, there are alternatives. If you are looking for a lightweight and easy-to-use yet powerful desktop search engine, you might want...
The Internet

Submission + - succinct definition of the internet?

Submitted by magnamous
magnamous writes: Ever since Senator Ted Stevens used the phrase "series of tubes" to describe his understanding of the Internet, I've noticed several stories and comments on Slashdot referencing how silly that is, the latest one being this one. Although I agree that that description is rather silly, each time I've found myself trying to come up with a succinct layman's definition of what the Internet is, and I come up short. Wikipedia has a gargantuan page describing the Internet, and Google's definitions offer pretty good descriptions of what the Internet is in a functional sense (with some throwing in terms that the layman wouldn't understand, or take the time to understand), but not really a good description of what it "is" in the physical sense that I think Sen. Stevens was trying to get at. What are your suggestions for a succinct layman's definition of the Internet?

I know some would say that laypeople should take the time to learn the technical, more accurate meaning of what the Internet is. The problem is that they won't. We all know laypeople. I live with two of them. When you start talking about "TCP/IP" or "DNS," or if you get far enough to start describing those terms, their eyes glaze over. That's what makes them laypeople — they don't care about the subject enough to learn about it in-depth; if they did, they'd be computer enthusiasts. So please keep in mind that, in order for this discussion to be useful, "succinct" and "layman's" are essential parts to any definition of the Internet given here. Also keep in mind that "succinct" doesn't necessarily mean one sentence; a relatively short paragraph would be fine, too — the main goal is to come up with something that physically describes the Internet which laypeople actually understand.
United States

Submission + - American Candidate for French President?

Submitted by
reporter
reporter writes: "With regards to American politics, the French will hold their most important presidential election in more than 20 years. Nicolas Sarkozy currently holds the lead among the 4 most viable candidates. He is pro-American and advocates American values: e.g., free markets, affirmative action, and freedom of speech. The French will go to the polls tomorrow, April 22. If Sarkozy wins, he would steer the European Union into a stronger relationship with the USA."

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