Erioll - Slashdot User

Submission + - Software license terms that could kill you (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by Julie188 on Tuesday May 18, 2010 @04:27PM

Julie188 writes: Some 2000 licenses cover the 230,000+ projects in Black Duck's open source knowledge base. While 10 licenses cover 93% of the software, that leaves 1980-odd licenses covering the other 3% — and some of them have really crazy conditions. The Death and Repudiation License, for instance, requires the user to be dead.

Inventor Demonstrates Infinitely Variable Transmission 609

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday May 15, 2010 @11:26AM from the clutch-discovery dept.

ElectricSteve writes with this excerpt from Gizmag: "Ready for a bit of a mental mechanical challenge? Try your hand at understanding how the D-Drive works. Steve Durnin's ingenious new gearbox design is infinitely variable — that is, with your motor running at a constant speed, the D-Drive transmission can smoothly transition from top gear all the way through neutral and into reverse. It doesn't need a clutch, it doesn't use any friction drive components, and the power is always transmitted through strong, reliable gear teeth. In fact, it's a potential revolution in transmission technology."

Submission + - Simple, cheap drug holds cancer treatment promise

Submitted by SoTerrified on Wednesday May 12, 2010 @05:06PM

SoTerrified writes: A major breakthrough at the University of Alberta where it's been discovered that a drug already being used to treat mitochondrial diseases, also stops cancer growth. Early tests have been very successful. (Of 5 test subjects, 4 had cancer growth end, and 3 actually had tumors shrink.)

The most interesting part of the story is that the breakthrough was originally discovered in 2007, but tests have taken so long to advance because no one would profit. From the article "Michelakis notes that all of the studies they've undertaken thus far on DCA has come with the support of the University of Alberta and public donations. That's in part because DCA is a commonly available compound that is not patented or owned by any drug firm. Pharmaceutical companies have not been interested in funding further research on DCA since the treatment won't make them a profit."

The University of Alberta continues to solicit funds to advance the research on DCA. Anyone who would like to donate to the university's DCA Cancer Research Fund can can do so online, or by contacting the university's Faculty of Medicine.

Submission + - Researcher Grows Bricks From Sand, Bacteria & (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by ByronScott on Wednesday May 12, 2010 @12:10PM

ByronScott writes: Assistant architecture professor Ginger Krieg Dosier recently unveiled a new breed of biologically “grown” bricks that are durable, sustainably manufactured, and easily produced from readily available materials. Called “Better Bricks,” the building material can be “grown” from sand, common bacteria, calcium chloride, and urea (yes, the stuff in your pee) instead of being baked, which consumes a ton of energy.

Submission + - Microsoft patents portable applications (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by Julie188 on Thursday May 06, 2010 @06:32PM

Julie188 writes: On Tuesday, Microsoft was awarded a U.S. patent for "portable applications." The description of this innovative technology? Running an executable file from a flash device. Does this, or does this not, sound an awful lot like running an application from a thumb drive instead of loading it onto your computer? A Microsoft spokesperson offers this clarification: "The patent relates to portable applications that can be executed from a portable memory device (such as a USB flash drive) without impacting the configuration of the computer. The patent is not directed solely to running an application from a flash drive but to running an application from the flash drive without altering the configuration of the computer."

Submission + - Sprint Fires Good Samaritians (wordpress.com)

Submitted by mjwalshe on Thursday May 06, 2010 @11:00AM

mjwalshe writes: Apprently two sprint employes on a break aprehended a shoplifter and got fired for there good deeds.

Submission + - Traveling Salesman in Polynomial Time? (blogspot.com) 2

Submitted by James on Monday May 03, 2010 @12:41AM

James writes: Kingrames, a regular Slashdotter, has recently posted his second of two solutions to the Traveling Salesman problem, both of which are done in Polynomial time. He's asking for fellow mathematicians and computer scientists to lend a hand in proving and disproving his theories, and welcomes all feedback. If this discovery turns out to be true, it calls into question the idea that there are no polynomial-time solutions to these "hard" problems, and that would be very significant. If you have the time, and the inclination, please consider lending your helping hand.

Submission + - Corporate Internet Armageddon, coming May 5 (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by littlekorea on Thursday April 29, 2010 @10:35PM

littlekorea writes: Coming to a corporate network near you! No internets! Nothing! Mass confusion! Starring your douchebag network administrator, who forgot that DNSSEC signatures roll out across the remainder of the internet's root servers starting May 5. Best supporting actor goes to your older networking kit, pre-configured to block DNS responses over 512 bytes. And featuring an Oscar-winning tantrum from your company's sales manager, demanding the poor help desk admin explain how the HR guy can surf Failbook all day while his own PC can't access a single site.

Ogg Format Accusations Refuted 248

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 27, 2010 @05:21PM from the horse's-mouth dept.

SergeyKurdakov sends in a followup to our discussion a couple of months ago on purported shortcomings to the Ogg format. The inventor of the format, Monty "xiphmont" Montgomery of the Xiph Foundation, now refutes those objections in detail, with the introduction: "Earnest falsehoods left unchallenged risk being accepted as fact." The refutation has another advantage besides authoritativeness: it's far better written than the attack.

Submission + - Gizmodo Journalist has Electronics Seized (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by fwice on Monday April 26, 2010 @05:06PM

fwice writes: California police raid and seize property of Jason Chen, Gizmodo journalist dealing with the iPhone 4 leak. Gaby Darbyshire, COO of Gawker Media LLC [parent of Gizmodo], claims the search warrant to remove these computers was invalid under section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code.

Submission + - Is the Tide Turning on Patents? (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by Glyn Moody on Friday April 16, 2010 @11:14AM

Glyn Moody writes: The FSF has funded a new video, “Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system”, freely available (of course) in Ogg Theora format (what else?). It comes at time when a lot is happening in the world of patents. Recent work from leading academics has called into question their basis: "The work in this paper and that of many others, suggests that this traditionally-struck ‘devil’s bargain’ may not be beneficial." A judge struck down Myriad Genetics's patents on two genes because they involved a law of Nature, and were thus “improperly granted”. Meanwhile, the imminent Supreme Court ruling In re Bilski is widely expected to have negative knock-on effects for business method and software patents. Is the tide beginning to turn?

Submission + - PA School laptop spying, 1000s of pics found. (philly.com) 1

Submitted by jargon82 on Friday April 16, 2010 @10:42AM

jargon82 writes: You may remember the story not long ago about Lower Merion School district in Pennsylvania, USA allegedly spying on students via webcams in the school issued laptops. Well, some of the results are in, and they are interesting.
Philly.com includes the following: 'The material disclosed by the district contains hundreds of photos of Robbins and his family members — "including pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping," the motion states.'

While it seems clear the school is very deeply in the wrong, there is still much debate as to how wrong and exactly what should be done about it. The good news is as a result of this story many schools have stepped back to take a look at their students privacy and worked to make it better, or assure that their programs don't interfere with it. http://www.archive.org/details/lowermerionlaptops is a call that went out from a district very near the incident explaining their stance on it.

There have been numerous stories posted on slashdot about this particular incident, and this is merely the latest information on it. Links here.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/02/20/1445216
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/02/21/2010213
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/02/22/1814248
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/02/23/2030207
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/03/13/0537200
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/02/18/1846222

Submission + - Spyware & Backdoor In Microsoft Windows 7? (techarp.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @12:03PM

An anonymous reader writes: The guys who leaked Microsoft's roadmaps on Windows 7 and service packs for Windows Vista and Windows XP has just leaked some shocking information — that Microsoft has spyware in Windows 7. Quote from their article :
We just learned some troubling news about the recently-released anti-hack update for Windows 7 as well as the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1. From what we understand, this could also involve new updates for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

First of all, the new Windows 7 anti-hack update does more than just scan for anti-activation exploits. It also performs a simple heuristic-based scan of all storage media...

Submission + - Man w/ Rare Blood Antibody Saves Over 2Mil Babies (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by gamebittk on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @01:29PM

gamebittk writes: James Harrison, 74, has an antibody in his plasma that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a form of severe anaemia. He has donated 984 times since he was 18 years old, saving an estimated 2.2 million babies so far. He made a pledge to be a donor aged 14 after undergoing major chest surgery in which he needed 13 litres of blood.

Submission + - Cure For Multiple Sclerosis To Undergo Trials (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @04:37PM

kkleiner writes: Paolo Zamboni developed an amazing possible “cure” for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that’s based on a radical new theory of what causes the condition. There has been rampant speculation inside and outside the medical community as to whether Zamboni’s theory and treatments are sound. Now, at least some of that speculation can be put to rest. A recent randomized study out of the University of Buffalo supports Zamboni’s theory. Not only that, but the University plans on starting a trial to test Zamboni’s treatment on a small group of patients. It’s too soon to know if this will confirm Zamboni’s results, but there’s no doubt that this is an exciting moment in the MS community.

Slashdot Top Deals