Feed Yuri's Night: Burning Man meets NASA (com.com)
With artists and science geeks, DJs and dancers on hand, the celebration of Yuri Gagarin and the first manned spaceflight was a perfect mashup of cultures.
Gary Kasparov Arrested Over Political Fight 427
geddes writes "World chess champion turned opposition leader Gary Kasparov was arrested this morning while leading an march through Moscow in opposition to Russian President Vladamir Putin. Kasporov is a leader of the 'Other Russia' coalition which has been banned by the government from appearing on TV, and had been denied a marching permit. From the New York Times: 'Essentially barred from access to television, members of Other Russia have embraced street protests as the only platform to voice their opposition ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next March. Early this month, Mr. Kasyanov's and Mr. Kasparov's Web sites were blocked, though it was unclear by whom.' Kasparov was later released from detention, though he was still fined for participating in the event."
MS Requiring More Expensive Vista if Running Mac 545
ktwdallas writes "Mathew Ingram from Canada's Globe and Mail writes that Microsoft will require at least the $299 Business version of Vista or higher if installing on a Mac with virtualization. Running the cheaper Basic or Premium versions would be a violation of their user agreement. According to the article, Microsoft's reasoning is 'because of security issues with virtualization technology'. Sounds suspiciously like a 'Mac penalty' cost that Microsoft is trying to justify."
New Laws of Robotics Proposed for US Kill-Bots 373
jakosc writes "The Register has a short commentary about a proposed new set of laws of robotics for war robots by John S Canning of the Naval Surface Warfare Centre. Unlike Asimov's three laws of robotics Canning proposes (pdf) that we should 'Let machines target other machines and let men target men.' Although this sounds OK in principle, 'a robot could decide under Mr Canning's rules, to target a weapon system such as an AK47 for destruction on its own initiative, requiring no permission from a human. If the person holding it was thereby killed, that would be collateral damage and the killer droid would be in the clear.'"
Feed Media Frenzy: A Soft Sell With Cold, Hard Cash in Mind (nytimes.com)
Does “advertainment” cross an unseen line between commercial message and content where consumers ought not to go?
Feed Novelties: The iPod and the Vacuum Tube Sing a Warm Duet (nytimes.com)
Manufacturers are selling docking stations for iPods and MP3 players with amplifiers based on an old but resilient technology: vacuum tubes.
Submission + - Taking LINUX to the races
PrvtBurrito writes: "Chastain Motorsports is running a fundraiser to raise money to brand their Indy 500 entry car with Linux and Tux. Bob Moore, a Indianapolis native and proponent of Linux has gotten support of the racing team, a marketing firm and others in his quest. In order to succeed in this community driven effort, Bob needs to raise $350,000 before May 21st. After four days, they have raised more than $2,000. You can view status of the effort at Tux500.com."
Submission + - Chess Grandmaster Kasparov Arrested in Moscow
carre4 writes: Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov was arrested in Moscow during an anti-Kremlin demonstration along with at least 100 other activists. Kasparov now leads the strongest opposition movement in Russia as previously discussed on Slashdot. This march was part of the Dissenters' Marches that have been held in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod in spite of refused permits.
Submission + - Crash Test Laptops
Masq666 writes: How much punishment can your laptop take? A Swedish test lab put nine popular computers through the crash test to find out which one could survive the biggest Oops!
Mozilla and Google — Exchange Killers At Last? 336
phase_9 writes "The latest version of Mozilla Thunderbird may still only be in beta but already the user community have started creating an extensive set of viable Exchange killers. One such example is the latest mashup between Thunderbird and Google Calendars, providing bi-directional syncing of calendar information from both the client and internet. How long will it be before open-source software can provide a complete, accessible office suite for a fraction of the cost that Microsoft current imposes?"
Submission + - Get QuickTime Alternative to play All QuickTime fo
jsbi writes: "QuickTime Alternative[Freeware] allows you to play QuickTime files without having to install the official QuickTime Player. All QuickTime formats (.mov .qt .3gp etc.) are supported, including streaming content and QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages. Some advantages compared to QuickTime player are the quick and easy install, make an unattended installation, no background processes, use a player of your own choice, low on resources, and smaller size.
Some advantages compared to QuickTime player:
* Quick and easy install.
* It's easy to make an unattended installation.
* No background processes.
* Use a player of your own choice.
* Low on resources.
* Smaller size."
Submission + - What is Bio Degredable plastic all about?
jsbi writes: "Due to their molecular stability, plastics do not easily break down into simpler components. Plastics are therefore not considered biodegradable .However, researchers are working to develop biodegradable plastics that will disintegrate due to bacterial action or exposure to sunlight.
For example, scientists are incorporating starch molecules into some plastic resins during the manufacturing process. When these plastics are discarded, bacteria eat the starch molecules. This causes the polymer molecules to break apart, allowing the plastic to decompose. Researchers are also investigating ways to make plastics more biodegradable from exposure to sunlight. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun causes many plastics molecules to become brittle and slowly break apart. Researchers are working to create plastics that will degrade faster in sunlight, but not so fast that the plastic begins to degrade while still in use."
Submission + - Microsoft "admits" problems with Xbox-360
owlstead writes: The Dutch consumer show "Kassa" has devoted a broadcast to problems with the Xbox-360. Besides the information as displayed below, they also mentioned the probable techninal cause of the scratches. The experts in the broadcasts think that Microsoft deliberately downplays the problems. They mentioned the huge (PR) problem it would cause if it was shown that millions of machines may be broken.
The following text is a small part of this page translated to English.
—
Microsoft admits scratching by Xbox-360
Kassa devoted attention to the Xbox-360 at the end of January. The game console of Microsoft can cause scratches on games. Thousands of people came to us to complain, and according to all messages on the Internet there are worldwide many more people that suffer scratched Cd's.
The Kassa Scratching Test:
Despite the thousand complaints, and the many messages on this issue on the Internet, Microsoft kept by their statement: "an Xbox cannot scratch the disks if they have been placed on a stable platform". So Kassa went to work: during tree days we tested — in a lab situation with the help of three gamers and in a living room setting at a later stage — the scratch resistance of the Xbox. The test results show that even if an Xbox on a stable platform can cause scratches on different games.
From the information known to Kassa, it can be concluded that the problems occur specifically to Xboxes that have been produced at the end of 2006, using the infamous TSST-drive.
The response of Microsoft Nederland:
Xbox owners who think that their disks have been scratched in a similar manner as displayed by Kassa, should contact us. We shall examine the console and, if necessary, repair it to full working order. Besides that, we shall inform Xbox owners on how to obtain replacement disks, should they need them.
—
Seems to me that they are still reluctant to say that something is wrong with certain models of the Xbox.
The following text is a small part of this page translated to English.
—
Microsoft admits scratching by Xbox-360
Kassa devoted attention to the Xbox-360 at the end of January. The game console of Microsoft can cause scratches on games. Thousands of people came to us to complain, and according to all messages on the Internet there are worldwide many more people that suffer scratched Cd's.
The Kassa Scratching Test:
Despite the thousand complaints, and the many messages on this issue on the Internet, Microsoft kept by their statement: "an Xbox cannot scratch the disks if they have been placed on a stable platform". So Kassa went to work: during tree days we tested — in a lab situation with the help of three gamers and in a living room setting at a later stage — the scratch resistance of the Xbox. The test results show that even if an Xbox on a stable platform can cause scratches on different games.
From the information known to Kassa, it can be concluded that the problems occur specifically to Xboxes that have been produced at the end of 2006, using the infamous TSST-drive.
The response of Microsoft Nederland:
Xbox owners who think that their disks have been scratched in a similar manner as displayed by Kassa, should contact us. We shall examine the console and, if necessary, repair it to full working order. Besides that, we shall inform Xbox owners on how to obtain replacement disks, should they need them.
—
Seems to me that they are still reluctant to say that something is wrong with certain models of the Xbox.
Preparing for the Worst in IT 172
mplex writes "How vulnerable is the internet to terrorist attack? Is it robust enough to handle an outage on a massive scale? Should the commercial infrastructure that powers the internet be kept secret? These are the sorts of questions raised by Mark Gibbs in his latest column in Network World. 'There is an alternate route available for nearly all services through Las Vegas or Northern California serving all facilities-based carriers in Los Angeles -- all interconnected at numerous L.A. and L.A.-area fiber-optic terminals supporting both metro and long-distance cable.' Given that the internet thrives on open networks, it's hard to imagine keeping them a secret. At best, we must be prepared to deal with the worst."
Submission + - Gary Kasparov is the Russian Martin Luther King?
reporter writes: "Like Martin Luther King of an older generation, gutsy Gary Kasparov has again defied authorities and lead a peace demonstration demanding basic civil rights and fair elections. Quoting Vladimir Ryzhkov, Bloomberg reports that the Russian police broke up the demonstration by "beating grandmothers and pensioners with billy clubs, hitting them in the back". Kasparov, a former chess champion, runs the risk of being permanently checkmated by President Vladimir Putin. Will Kasparov share the same untimely end that concluded King's life?"
