lavalyn - Slashdot User

Submission + - 40GB PS3 will NOT be backwards compatible! (computerandvideogames.com) 2

Submitted by

gevmage

on Monday October 08, 2007 @09:14AM

gevmage writes: "An article on computerandvideogames.com says that the 40GB version of the PlayStation 3 console, which will supplant the 60GB version (at least in Europe) will not be backwards compatible. From the article: 'In a new eye-opener from Sony the company's revealed that it's to drop backwards-compatibility support in PlayStation products.'

Personally, I think that Sony's generally good attitudes about backwards compatibility has been one reason that I own a PlayStation 2. If they dump that completely, then I may go Wii shopping."

UK Schools Will Fight Cyberbullying 273

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @03:17PM from the spreading-in-loco-parentis dept.

Plutonite writes "The BBC is running a story on UK schools being told by the education minister to fight cyberbullying, by which they mean bullying with the aid of (network-based) technology. Schools have been told to confiscate mobile phones, and, more controversially, to investigate and get material removed from personal social-networking sites. Are schools supposed to be doing this as an extension of their duty to prevent physical bullying in school, or is this is yet another example of governmental intervention where it is not due? Should kids be brought up knowing that their life on the web is being documented and controlled by people other than their parents?"

Submission + - Germany to build new maglev railway. (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

EWAdams

on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @10:44AM

EWAdams writes: "According to the BBC, the Bavarian state government has announced that it has signed an agreement with Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway system, and the Transrapid consortium, to provide a maglev railway between central Munich and its airport. The only other maglev in full operation at the moment is in Shanghai, again as a city-to-airport service. No completion date has been announced."

Submission + - IT pay falls short, finds annual salary survey 1

Submitted by BobB on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @10:44AM

BobB writes: A storm seems to be brewing in the IT job market. Pay raises have continued to outpace inflation, and bonuses are downright impressive — 11.6% on average. Yet, as the 2007 Network World Salary Survey finds, dissatisfaction over the salary package is rampant. Package includes a salary calculator to compare what you're making to those in your region and across U.S. http://www.networkworld.com/salary/2007/092407-annual-salary-survey.html?ts0hb=&story=ab5_salartsrvy

A Mathematical Answer To the Parallel Universe Question 566

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 24, 2007 @02:33PM from the evil-twins-always-have-a-goatee dept.

diewlasing writes to mention that Oxford scientists have proffered a mathematical answer to the parallel universe question that is gaining some support in the scientific community. "According to quantum mechanics, unobserved particles are described by 'wave functions' representing a set of multiple 'probable' states. When an observer makes a measurement, the particle then settles down into one of these multiple options. The Oxford team, led by Dr. David Deutsch, showed mathematically that the bush-like branching structure created by the universe splitting into parallel versions of itself can explain the probabilistic nature of quantum outcomes."

Submission + - Has copyright gone too far? RMS' views

Submitted by

holdenkarau

on Friday July 20, 2007 @12:28AM

holdenkarau writes: "Richard M. Stallman (RMS) recently gave a talk entitled Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks to the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club. The talk looks at the origin of copyright, and how it has evolved overtime from something that originally served the benefit of the people to a tool used against them and answers the question of how copyright has gone to far, and how to fix it. In keeping with RMS' desire to use open formats, the talk and qa session are only available in ogg theora."

Submission + - How do we solve the copyright/piracy problem?

Submitted by Archaelicos on Friday July 20, 2007 @12:09AM

Archaelicos writes: I'm a second year law student working on my law review note (it's a "short" article, basically) and my subject is probably going to be copyright law regarding entertainment media in a digital environment where old solutions have failed. The industry grudgingly gave up the fight over VCRs and cassettes after they were able to require royalty payments on blank tapes to compensate them for future piracy, and a combination of energy barriers and limited social access prevented most people from mass-producing thousands of copies and trading them. That's all changed. You can't reasonably charge royalties on the sale of all storage media, our social access is now the entire planet, and the energy barrier is literally the push of a button. Piracy is a real legitimate problem for the industry, but their answer has been, shall we say, unenlightened, and the pirates are committed to the fight. Ignorance runs wild on all sides. The industry drops millions on copy protection schemes that are cracked within days. Internet users complain that the DMCA criminalizes fair use (it is evil legislation, but this belief isn't accurate; see, e.g., Lexmark v. SCC, 387 F.3d 522, 561 (6th Cir. 2004) ("[T]he DMCA explicitly leaves the defenses to copyright infringement, including the fair use doctrine, unaltered.")). iTunes is obviously a smashing hit, yet piracy continues unabated. Are there any solutions? REAL solutions, not "fsck the RIAA" solutions? Do the laws cast too wide a net? I'm hoping to see some insightful, thoughtful comments (on Slashdot, even, yes!) that I could quote in my note. I haven't decided what "side" of this I'm on, I'm going to let my research decide. I am especially interested in any legitimate studies done of the industry, its profit model, piracy, its impact on the bottom line, and so forth, so if anybody knows of that data, or even news articles that are critical, post them! You might have the dubious distinction of being immortalized in a legal journal. If this little experiment is success I'll try to post another story when the note is published letting you know where to find it.

Submission + - Richard Stallman talks on Copyright V. The People 5

Submitted by

holden

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @07:41PM

holden writes: "Richard M. Stallman recently gave a talk entitled Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks to the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club. The talk looks at the origin of copyright, and how it has evolved overtime from something that originally served the benefit of the people to a tool used against them. In keeping with his wishes to use open formats, the talk and qa are available in ogg theora only."

Submission + - Richard Stallman talks on Copyright V. The People 5

Submitted by

holden

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @07:41PM

holden writes: "Richard M. Stallman recently gave a talk entitled Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks to the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club. The talk looks at the origin of copyright, and how it has evolved overtime from something that originally served the benefit of the people to a tool used against them. In keeping with his wishes to use open formats, the talk and qa are available in ogg theora only."

Submission + - Former spammer reveals secrets in new book

Submitted by StonyandCher on Thursday July 19, 2007 @07:39PM

StonyandCher writes: A retired spammer is looking to make money from a tell-all book rather than fleecing people dependent on pharmaceuticals and people with gambling problems. In this Computerworld article, "Ed," a retired spammer, predicts the spam problem will only get worse, aided by consumers with dependencies and faster broadband speeds.

From the article: He sent spam to recovering gambling addicts enticing them to gambling Web sites. He used e-mail addresses of people known to have bought antianxiety medication or antidepressants and targeted them with pharmaceutical spam. Response rates to spam tend to be a fraction of 1 percent. But Ed said he once got a 30 percent response rate for a campaign. The product? A niche type of adult entertainment: photos of fully clothed women popping balloons.

"Yes, I know I'm going to hell," said Ed.

Submission + - Checkers solved, unbeatable database created (nature.com)

Submitted by

tgeller

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @03:32PM

tgeller writes: "My story in Nature announced that a team of computer scientists at the University of Alberta has solved checkers. From the game's 500 billion billion positions (5 * 10^20), "Chinook" has determined which 100,000 billion (10^14) are needed for their proof, and run through all relevant decision trees. They've set up a site where you can see the proof, traverse the logic, and play their unbeatable automaton. Congratulations to Dr. Schaeffer and his crew!"

Submission + - FBI used CIPAV for secret online search (heise-security.co.uk)

Submitted by

juct

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @09:47AM

juct writes: "The FBI has used PC spyware for the first time to reveal the identity of an offender who sent bomb threats to a high school in Washington state. According to heise Security a declaration from the FBI official who applied for the search warrant describes the mode of operation of the spyware which the FBI is using under the abbreviation CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier)."

Submission + - Study: Scientists not very Religious

Submitted by Davin on Thursday July 19, 2007 @09:26AM

Davin writes: Study finds that top scientists are not very religious, but that is not because they studied science.
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/8732
"The first systematic analysis in decades to examine the religious beliefs and practices of elite academics in the sciences supports the notion that science professors at top universities are less religious than the general population, but attributes this to a number of variables that have little to do with their study of science."

Submission + - All Humans Evolved from a Single Origin in Africa (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by

Invisible Pink Unicorn

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @09:12AM

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "Researchers at the University of Cambridge have combined studies of global human genetic variations with skull measurements worldwide to conclusively show the validity of the single origin hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis contended that different populations independently evolved from Homo erectus to Home sapiens in different areas. The lead researcher explains, 'The origin of anatomically modern humans has been the focus of much heated debate. Our genetic research shows the further modern humans have migrated from Africa, the more genetic diversity has been lost within a population. However, some have used skull data to argue that modern humans originated in multiple spots around the world. We have combined our genetic data with new measurements of a large sample of skulls to show definitively that modern humans originated from a single area in Sub-saharan Africa.' The article abstract is available from Nature."

Submission + - Instrumented GIMP to Identify Usability Flaws

Submitted by Mike on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @04:24AM

Mike writes: New users of the GIMP often become frustrated at the application's unwieldy user interface. For this reason Prof. Michael Terry and a group of researchers at the University of Waterloo have created ingimp, an modified version of the GIMP that collects real-time usability data. Terry recently gave a lecture about ingimp and the data it collects. During each session, ingimp records events such as document creation, window manipulation, and tool use. A log of these events is sent to the ingimp server for analysis. The project hopes to answer questions such as "What is the typical monitor resolution of a GIMP user?" and "Is GIMP used primarily for photo editing or drawing?" Answers to these questions will help the GIMP developers find and fix GIMP's usability problems. For more information about ingimp, visit the project's web site.

Slashdot Top Deals