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Submission + - choose your morning poison

Submitted by
weighn
weighn writes: "Choose your morning poison:
decaf
aspartame
skim milk
tepid water, urn/microwave dead
CowboyNeal took my mug"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linux: A Japanese Penguin

Submitted by
reporter
reporter writes: "According to a report by Reuters, Tokyo is aggressively promoting Linux in all branches of the Japanese government. The report states, "The central government has set aside 1.25 trillion yen ($10.40 billion) for spending on information systems in the fiscal 2007 budget, and the figure is expected to reach around 2 trillion yen when including local governments. That would be around roughly 15 percent of IT spending for all of Japan , including private-sector corporations, the Nikkei said.""
Operating Systems

Submission + - No Windows on OLPCs (officially)

Submitted by
Kadin2048
Kadin2048 writes: "Despite reports last week in major news sources indicating that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was in negotiations with Microsoft to bring Windows XP to the low-cost platform, Walter Bender, president of Software and Content at OLPC, said in an interview with Ars Technica, "We are a free and open-source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO.""
Software

Submission + - The Text Editors of KDE

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: One of the more overlooked, but very useful features of KDE is its text editors. In a full standard install of KDE there are 3 of them. Kate, Kedit, and Kwrite. Each has its advantages, disadvantages, and general uses. This article looks at each of these and what each one offers the end user in terms of features, usability, and functionality.
Networking

Submission + - Homeless man disrupts Internet2 service

Submitted by MSRedfox
MSRedfox writes: A fire started by a homeless man knocked out service between Boston and New York on the experimental Internet2 network. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/050207-inter net2-fire.html "Question: When can a cigarette take down your network? Answer: When you throw it at a bridge and light it on fire." It seems the redundant systems are needed when internet2 services can be knocked out this easily. Does this show that internet2 has a long ways to go before it's ready for prime time?
Windows

Submission + - Refusing Vista EULA?

Submitted by
Sasayaki
Sasayaki writes: "I recently purchased a Compaq Presario C500 notebook in Brisbane, Australia which came bundled with Microsoft Windows Vista. However, I wish to install Ubuntu as my Operating System. To that end I wish to reject the Windows Vista EULA which is presented to me when I turn on said notebook, yet I find there is no way for me to do so; when the EULA is displayed to me in the "Set Up Windows" stage of installation, I am presented with what I interpret to be a standard Vista EULA and then a second HP EULA. There is no obvious way to refuse either of these license terms; the only options I am presented with are two checkboxes (one for each EULA) and a greyed out button labelled 'Next'. The two checkboxes read: "I accept the license terms (required to use Windows)" and "I accept the license terms (required to use your computer)". Reading the second (HP specific) EULA carefully, it makes it clear that I cannot use this laptop without agreeing to the Vista EULA. Specifically, ".... YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS EULA. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE LICENSE TERMS, YOUR SOLE REMEDY IS TO RETURN THE ENTIRE UNUSED PRODUCT (HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE) WITHIN 14 DAYS FOR A REFUND SUBJECT TO THE REFUND POLICY OF YOUR PLACE OF PURCHASE." Naturally (since I still have the notebook) I still have not accepted the terms of the EULA. I crawled Microsoft's website at www.microsoft.com, searching for some recourse for myself and those like me who wish to reject the EULA and receive a refund on the Microsoft Vista Operating System when I do not agree to the EULA's conditions, but did not find anything (unsurprisingly). Can any slashdotters offer any suggestions where I might go to receive said refund?"
Power

Submission + - PV Silicon breakthrough wins MIT prize

Submitted by
Sterling D. Allan
Sterling D. Allan writes: "Silicon shortages have logjammed the solar industry, causing otherwise feasible plants to shut down or lay off workers, even though the demand has been skyrocketing. Silicon production worldwide is at around 40,000 tons per year, while the present demand is approaching 75,000 tons/year. Tuesday, a new silicon producer came out of stealth mode, winning MIT's Ignite Clean Energy '07 Business Presentation Competition. Reaction Sciences, Inc (RSI) Silicon would cut production cost to a third, plant costs to 1/10 and plant build time by 1/2. "Most Silicon plants make electronic grade '8 Nines' (99.999999%) purity needed for semiconductors, using the Siemens process. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory study found that solar Silicon purity only needs to be six nines (99.9999% pure), with emphasis on Boron, Phosphorus, and select metals. RSI has created a new proprietary process that makes only solar-grade silicon of six nines purity, without needing all the costly equipment and tri-chlorosilane gases used with metallurgical Silicon feedstock.""
Google

Submission + - Google's Evil NDA

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Google claims that it's motto is "Do No Evil" — but they sure have an evil NDA! In order to be considered for employment there, they require you to sign an agreement which forbids you to "mention or imply the name of Google" in public ever again. Further, you can't tell anyone you interviewed there, or what they offered you, and you possibly sign away your rights to reverse engineer any of Google's code ever. And this NDA never expires. Luckily, someone has posted the contents of the NDA before he signed it and had to say silent forever.
Math

Mathematica 6 Launched 222

Posted by kdawson from the simulate-this dept.
Ed Pegg writes "Wolfram Research has just released Mathematica 6. That link, in addition to the usual 'dramatic breakthrough' material, has an amazing flash banner that simultaneously shows a thousand mathematical demonstrations all at once. The animations came from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, a free service with 1200+ dynamically interactive examples of math, science, and physics, all with code. For the product itself, much is new or improved, with built-in math databases, improved visualizations, and more."
Censorship

Submission + - Digg.com Attempts to Supress HD-DVD Revolt

Submitted by
fieryprophet
fieryprophet writes: "An astonishing number of HD-DVD encryption key releated stories have gone MIA, in many cases along with the digger who submitted it. As a result, many in the digg community are becoming disillusioned with the "democratic" news site and retaliating in clever and inventive ways. Search digg for HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, shirts, and more for a taste of the rebellion."
Censorship

Censoring a Number 1046

Posted by kdawson from the you-can't-copyright-that dept.
Rudd-O writes "Months after successful discovery of the HD-DVD processing key, an unprecedented campaign of censorship, in the form of DMCA takedown notices by the MPAA, has hit the Net. For example Spooky Action at a Distance was killed. More disturbingly, my story got Dugg twice, with the second wave hitting 15,500 votes, and today I found out it had simply disappeared from Digg. How long until the long arm of the MPAA gets to my own site (run in Ecuador) and the rest of them holding the processing key? How long will we let rampant censorship go on, in the name of economic interest?" How long before the magic 16-hex-pairs number shows up in a comment here?
Linux Business

Dell to Sell Machines with Ubuntu Pre-Loaded 562

Posted by Zonk from the a-decision-is-made dept.
kotj.mf writes "Cnet is reporting that Dell will shortly announce a partnership with Canonical to offer Ubuntu pre-loaded on certain consumer-oriented desktops and notebooks. The announcement comes after a groundswell of support for pre-installed Linux on Dell's IdeaStorm site. 'The company is starting its business by trying to appeal to users of desktop computers. From there, Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth has said, the company plans to head to the server market, where the real Linux bread and butter can be found. [Dell spokesman Kent] Cook wouldn't comment on whether Dell plans to offer Ubuntu on its servers as well.'."

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