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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft recovers Sidekick data (itpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: Microsoft has managed to recover most if not all of the data from T-Mobile Sidekick users that it lost after a fault. "We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up," said Roz Ho, corporate vice president for premium mobile experiences at Microsoft. She added that Microsoft will fix how it handles backups to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Patents

Submission + - Should I Publish or Patent?

Submitted by BorgeStrand
BorgeStrand writes: Patenting is an expensive process, even coming up with some sort of proof that your idea is unique (and thereby try to attract financing) may be prohibitive for the lone inventor. So what do you folks out there do when you come up with a good idea but don't have the means to patent it or market it to someone who will pay for the patenting process? And how much sense does it really make for the lone inventor to patent something? Would it make more sense to publish the whole idea, and make it (and my inventive brainpower) up for grabs? If my ideas are indeed valuable, what is the best way to gain anything from them without investing too much financially? What is your experience?

Submission + - easier Wi-fi coming up

Submitted by Necroloth
Necroloth writes: The Wi-Fi Alliance (includes Intel, Apple and Cisco) said it would soon finish work on a new specification called Wi-Fi Direct which will let wi-fi devices like phones and laptops connect to one another without joining a traditional network. Wi-Fi Direct will automatically scan for local existing hotspots and any wi-fi-enabled devices, such as cameras, phones and computers. Is this the end for Bluetooth?

Submission + - WiFi Direct - WiFi 'a whole lot easier' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by aaaurgh
aaaurgh writes: The BBC has an article of a new twist on the world of Wi-Fi.

Called Wi-Fi Direct, it will let wi-fi devices like phones and laptops connect to one another without joining a traditional network. Sounds like P2P without the ISP (and a whole heap of security headaches to boot) to me...
The Internet

Submission + - 1Mb Broadband Access Becomes Legal Right (www.yle.fi)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Finland is the world's first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - SPAM: How Nokia Learned to Love Opennes

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder
ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: Once Sebastian Nyström laid out the logic of moving to open source, there was very little resistance within Nokia to doing so. I think that's significant; it means that, just as the GNU GPL has been tested in various courts and found valid, so the logic behind open source – that openness allows software to spread further, and improve quicker, for the mutual benefit of all – is also increasingly accepted by hard-headed business people: it's become self-evident that it's a better way.
Link to Original Source
Education

Submission + - New Theoretical Solution to Arrow-of-Time Dilemma (physorg.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: A new paper by Lorenzo Maccone now published in the Physical Review Letters suggests a solution to a well known paradox concerning the second law of thermodynamics. This paradox — known as Loschmidt's Paradox — is solved if we assume that quantum mechanics holds true on all scales. The paper shows that entropy can both increase and decrease. The catch being that if the event leaves information behind, it can only increase. Essentially, time reversible phenomena can exist, they just cannot be observed since they do not leave information behind. So while this means you're not going to be able to reverse a glass falling to the floor and shattering, it does solve the conundrum of physics being time-invariant. The summary of the paper states, 'All phenomena where the entropy decreases must not leave any information of their having happened. This situation is completely indistinguishable from their not having happened at all. In the light of this observation, the second law of thermodynamics is reduced to a mere tautology: physics cannot study those processes where entropy has decreased, even if they were commonplace.' So things could be happening backwards, we just can't study them.
Television

Submission + - n End To Unencrypted Digital Cable TV and the HTPC

Submitted by Talinom
Talinom writes: AnandTech has a writeup on how ClearQAM appears to be headed for an early death. From the article — "At this point there's no reason to believe that cable companies won't deploy Privacy Mode across their networks, so it's a matter of "when", not "if" this will happen. It goes without saying that if you're currently enjoying the use of a ClearQAM tuner to receive EB tier channels, you'll want to enjoy what time you have left, and look in to other solutions for the long-haul. At this pace, it looks like cable TV and computers will soon be divorcing."
Social Networks

Submission + - Canadian regulator forces Facebook privacy changes

Submitted by S.O.B.
S.O.B. writes: The BBC is reporting that Facebook has agreed to make worldwide changes to its privacy policy as a result of negotiations with Canada's privacy commissioner. Last month the social network was found to breach Canadian law by holding on to users' personal data indefinitely. Facebook has now agreed to make changes to the way it handles this information and be more transparent about what data it collects and why.
Supercomputing

Submission + - Fujitsu SuperComputer With 10-Petaflop Performance 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Fujitsu is currently developing a new supercomputer which will be able to achieve 10-petaflop performance — ten times faster than today's most powerful supercomputer. The new system configuration with a scalar processing architecture makes use of the world's fastest CPU (Fujitsu SPARC64 VIIIfx with 8 cores, 128 gigaflops), and will be unveiled by 2012.
Social Networks

Submission + - UK police spot illegal rave on Facebook (police.uk)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Police officers in North Yorkshire turned to Facebook to shut down an illegal rave before it even started. The event was being organised (perhaps unwisely) via the social networking site.
Government

Submission + - Koslowitz mistates the truth (cityhallnews.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Karen Koslowitz who is running for the Queens 29th District City Council seat, has hired a firm to poll residents of the district about the race. That by itself is not too big a deal but denying you are doing it when asked by a newspaper editorial board, that raises some questions.
The Media

Submission + - Apple Issues Takedown Notice For Snow Leopard Rev (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Tuesday evening UK time The Register received a take-down notice from San Francisco lawyers acting on behalf of Apple. Their hosting company, Rackspace, received a similar notice, Apple's beef being that The Register had posted "confidential trade secrets" in their First Look at Snow Leopard.... I guess there is no harm in a slashdot post pointing to this "Evil" review. ;-) Captcha: angelic
Cellphones

Submission + - 5 lab technologies that could reinvent cell phones (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Researchers this week demonstrated five technologies in the lab that do everything from hide cell phone identity and let users "write" with their phones in the air to helping cell phones engage in social media. The tecnologies could change the way we look at the ubiquitous devices. http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2009/082709-cell-phone-tech.html?ts0hb&story=labcell"

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The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland"; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.

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