Comment Re:Two cool open hardware music toys (Score 1) 122
http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=2646&page=1#Item_0
there's recently been a great discussion around this topic in the monome forum...
Submission + - Egyptian Blogger Silenced by YouTube
Frosty Piss writes: "A Egyptian human rights activist has been muzzled after YouTube and Yahoo! shut down accounts belonging to the award-winning blogger. Cairo-based Wael Abbas regularly writes and posts video about police brutality, torture and sexual harassment in Egypt. One of the videos — of an Egyptian bus driver being sodomized with a stick by a police officer — was used as evidence to convict two officers of brutality, a rare occurrence in a country where human-rights groups say torture is rampant. YouTube said the decision to remove Abbas' videos had nothing to do with the Egyptian government, but was rather an internal decision."
Submission + - Two Firefox Releases within a Week (cybernetnews.com)
jason writes: On Tuesday Mozilla sent Firefox 2.0.0.10 out the door with a critical bug that can cause some extensions and websites to have troubles drawing images. One of the affected extensions, FoxSaver, is even urging Firefox users not to upgrade until Mozilla releases a new build. Firefox 2.0.0.11 is already in the Release Candidate stage and should be available tomorrow, making it the shortest period between two Firefox releases in the product's history.
Submission + - Youngest Known Solar Systems Detected 450 LY Away (eurekalert.org) 1
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "University of Michigan astronomers have detected two of the youngest known solar systems, both located in the Taurus star formation region just 450 light years away. Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the researchers noticed gaps in the protoplanetary disks of gas and dust surrounding the young stars UX Tau A and LkCa 15, both only about 1 million years old. According to the lead researcher, the observed gap is "like a lane has been cleared within the disk. That is not consistent with photoevaporation. The existence of planets is the most probable theory that can explain this structure." The article abstract is available from The Astrophysical Journal Letters."
Submission + - iPhone SDK on the way
An anonymous reader writes: His Steveness has posted a short open letter at Apple — Hot News. In short, quote-unquote:
The SDK will also work to create 3rd party apps for iPod Touch. Speculation time: apparently now that Leopard has gone Golden Master, Apple can work to finalize iPhone's SDK. That what's we've been saying to naysayers from interpreting Stevespeaks over the years and this may prove we were right.Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers' hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.
Submission + - Minister: Games less important than TV and Film (on.net)
UgLyPuNk writes: "It's often been an Australian complaint that while we seem to pride ourselves in supporting "the arts", video games never seem to get the same attention. This has come to the forefront again today, following news that the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, The Hon. Helen Coonan, has dismissed a call from the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) for a 40% rebate to assist game developers and promote the growth of the industry in this country.
The recent budget outlined a Screen Media Support Package, which "has the potential" to support screen content producers of all kinds — seemingly as long as the screen is of the television or movie variety."
The recent budget outlined a Screen Media Support Package, which "has the potential" to support screen content producers of all kinds — seemingly as long as the screen is of the television or movie variety."
Submission + - Bush vetoes stem cells for a second time
thepacketmaster writes: CNN is reporting that Bush has again vetoed stem cell research, stating "If this legislation became law, it would compel American taxpayers for the first time in our history to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. I made it clear to Congress and to the American people that I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line." It seems to me he's ignore the argument the human embryos are already, so why not at least make something positive out of it. I doubt very much that allowing stem cell research would create a wave of mothers wanting to have abortion.
