Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Editorial

Submission + - Caught in red tape, Eric De La Cruz needs a heart (weloveeric.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Eric De La Cruz, (@EricDLCruz on Twitter) age 27, who resides in Nevada, is in dire need of a heart transplant. He is dying. His sister, Veronica (@VeronicaDLCruz on Twitter), is doing all she can to help her brother. However, she is caught in the red-tape system in Nevada. He needs Medicare Disability.

Eric has been turned down for the heart transplant list because he is on Nevada Medicaid, and there are no transplant centers in Nevada. He needs to get to California under the Medicare Disability program. He has been rejected twice and the next appeals hearing is in one year. Eric has Severe Dilated Cardiomyopathy with an EF of 15%. His kidneys are having trouble because of his heart. His creatinine levels are high, his blood pressure is very low and he keeps retaining fluid.

$150,000 is needed to get Eric on a transplant list, and the transplant is projected to cost nearly $800,000.

http://weloveeric.com/

Media Coverage:
KTNV: http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10384977
KLAS: http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=10384960
Google

Google Chrome, the Google Browser 807

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the fun-unfounded-rumor dept.
Philipp Lenssen writes "Google announced their very own browser project called Google Chrome — an announcement in the form of a comic book drawn by Scott McCloud, no less. Google says Google Chrome will be open source, include a new JavaScript virtual machine, include the Google Gears add-on by default, and put the tabs above the address bar (not below), among other things. I've also uploaded Google's comic book with all the details (details given from Google's perspective, anyway... let's see how this holds up). While Google provided the URL www.google.com/chrome there's nothing up there yet."
Censorship

Submission + - OiNK is taken down by Interpol, admin arrested 2

Submitted by QuietR10t
QuietR10t writes: Scott Gilbertson from Wired raises an interesting point: "However, there is one interesting quote in the IFPI's press release. Jeremy Banks, head of the IFPI's Internet Anti-Piracy Unit, says in the press release: "OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online." (emphasis mine)

The IFPI seems to be making a distinction of scale between professional piracy groups and friends sharing files, even if, so far as I know, copyright laws in Britain (and the U.S.) make no such distinctions."
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/10/oink-is-the-lat.html

There are also rumors of investigation into users, but with 180k users I'm not sure they would know where to start.
Music

Submission + - Apple's iTunes store having serious problems. (apple.com)

Submitted by rpax9000
rpax9000 writes: Apple's iTunes store is still accepting customers' money, but in many cases it will not allow customers to download what they have purchased. In some cases, customers are now going on their third day of being unable to download items they have already been charged for. Thus far, there is no public admission from Apple that there is a problem, although some support e-mails have admitted there is an issue with the store that should be resolved "in the next 24 hours" (as of 48 hours ago). Apple has gone so far as to lock a support forum thread with complaints from Windows users, which is ironic considering that they initially direct their users to the support forums to try to find help. A thread in the Mac iTunes Store forum, is still active for now.
Media

Submission + - Belgium prosecutes the church of Scientology

Submitted by
sheean.nl
sheean.nl writes: "The Belgian Federal Judicial Authorities plans to prosecute the church of Scientology. The church is accused of being a criminal organisation which involves itself with extortion, fraud, unfair trading, violation of privacy laws and unlawfully practicing medicine. Both the Belgian and the European departement should be brought to court, according to the authorities. An investigation has been started in 1999 after former Scientologists complained about extortion by the church, this investigation has now been completed and the authorities want the case to be put through. The Belgians call this case a world's first. In some countries, including the US, the church of Scientology is officially recognised as a religion, with high-profile followers such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - More damaging compounds found in HFCS drinks (newswise.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D., conducted chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS. He found 'astonishingly high' levels of reactive carbonyls in those beverages. These undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with "unbound" fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage, says Ho, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar, whose fructose and glucose components are "bound" and chemically stable, the researcher notes.

More here: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/532433/
Quickies

Submission + - New FingerprintingTechnique to Reveal Race and Sex (telegraph.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Tech.Luver
Tech.Luver writes: "Telegraph reports, " A new fingerprinting technique that can identify the race and sex, and possibly the diet of suspects has been developed. Scientists have shown that using a gelatine-based gel and high-tech chemical analysis can provide significant clues to a person?s identity even if police do not hold existing fingerprint records. ""
Handhelds

Submission + - 20 Yet Unreleased Gadgets for Geeks (autopartsplace.com)

Submitted by
ipodwheels
ipodwheels writes: "The following are the devices that I feel will be a part of the future's digital lifestyle. From infrared keyboards, to edible music media, these will surely have you drooling. The following has been a compilation of gadgets still under development at NEC. This story later inspired the "List of Gadgets not Sold in the US" on the Auto Parts Blog which on the other hand listed gadgets that are "banned" for distribution in the US."
The Courts

Submission + - Supreme Court rules Ebay sale binding. (smh.com.au)

Submitted by Slurpee
Slurpee writes: The NSW Supreme court has ruled that making an offer of sale on Ebay is legally binding. In other words — you can't change your mind. In a case that reached the NSW Supreme Court, Peter Smythe sued Vin Thomas after he changed his mind on the sale of a 1946 World War II Wirraway plane after the eBay auction had ended. "It follows that, in my view, a binding contract was formed between the plaintiff and the defendent and that it should be specifically enforced," Justice Rein said in his decision. The judgment sets a precedent for future cases and means eBay sales could now be legally binding (At least in Australia).
Privacy

Submission + - Ruling by Secret US Court Allegedly Reduces Spying

Submitted by conspirator57
conspirator57 writes: TFA http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la- na-spying2aug02,0,5813563.story?coll=la-home-cente r states that the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (a court that no citizen can establish standing to appear before) has ruled against Executive requests for so-called "basket warrants" as violating the 4th amendment to the Constitution, namely that such warrants do not meet the clearly expressed criteria in the second half of the amendment. To accomplish this they must have looked startlingly like British general warrants which were the original motivation for the 4th amendment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_(law) for more.

TFA is very sympathetic to the Executive branch, going on to depict ways in which we're all less safe because of this ruling. Personally, I feel safer with more rulings like this one. Just wish the process were a bit more transparent.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Music

Submission + - Multiformat Listening Test at 64kbps 1

Submitted by
prospective_user
prospective_user writes: "Do you think you have good ears? Think again.

The community at Hydrogenaudio has prepared a Public Listening Test for comparison of the most popular audio codecs (AAC, Vorbis, and Microsoft's WMA included) in a battle to see how they stand at compressing audio at 64kbps.

Many of the participants right now have expressed their surprise at being unable to determine which is the original and which is the compressed version of 18 samples covering a vast amount of musical styles.

The results of this test (and other that are conducted at Hydrogenaudio) will be used by the developers of the codecs to further improve the "transparency" and let this kind of test be even harder.

Everyone is invited to participate and show how good your listening is!"
Biotech

Submission + - Chernobyl Mushrooms Feeding on Radiation

Submitted by cowtamer
cowtamer writes: According to a National Geographic Article certain fungi can use ionizing radiation to perform "radiosynthesis" using the pigment melanin (the same one in our skin that protects us from UV radiation). It is speculated that this might be useful on long space voyages where energy from the Sun is not readily available.

Slashdot Top Deals

Mystics always hope that science will some day overtake them. -- Booth Tarkington

Close