cygonik - Slashdot User

Submission + - Babylon 5: The Lost Tales Trailer Posted (warnerbros.com)

Submitted by

Space

on Monday June 25, 2007 @12:33AM

Space writes: "The trailer for the upcoming movie Babylon 5: The Lost Tales — Voices in the Dark has been posted at the official Babylon 5 site. The pre-production was mentioned in a previous article. Let the J. Michael Straczynski worship commence..."

Submission + - Are laptop batteries the next "printer ink"

Submitted by Quixote on Monday June 25, 2007 @12:20AM

Quixote writes: Sometime back I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop because Dell was offering a very good deal on it. A few weeks after the warranty expired, the battery suddenly died. It was as if the battery was non-existent: the laptop would shutdown if unplugged even if the battery had been in the laptop the whole time. When plugged in, the battery charging light would keep flashing. This seemed quite puzzling, since just days before this, the battery used to give me a good 2 hours or so of use.

Searching around on the web to see if the flashing lights meant anything, I came across this page. It seems like lots of people have been reporting the same symptoms: just after the warranty expires, the battery mysteriously "dies". Even the Dell forums are replete with posts from unhappy users.

The solution from Dell is: buy a new battery. But they aren't cheap: a Dell one runs you about $100.

I know I should have known better than buying a Dell (cue the "Dude!" jokes). But this begs a bigger question: is this legal (it certainly doesn't seem ethical)? How many of these (working) batteries end up in the landfill? Have laptop batteries become the next "printer ink", forcing us to keep buying new ones?

CBC News Interprets GPL - Poorly 252

Posted by Zonk on Sunday June 24, 2007 @11:31PM from the that's-a-new-one dept.

frankShook writes "The Canadian news service CBC has up an article entitled 'Linux distributors scorn Microsoft partnership'. Primarily, it looks to describe the ongoing licensing saga between Microsoft and Linux distributors. It also includes a highly unique interpretation of the GPL: 'Open-source software such as Linux, on the other hand, encourages individuals to add to or modify software without fear of legal repercussions, so long as they abide by the conditions of the general public license, which stipulates that the program must remain open and sharable.'"

Weapon Found in Whale Dated From the 1800s 661

Posted by Zonk on Friday June 15, 2007 @02:04PM from the whale-just-wanted-the-damn-kids-off-his-lawn dept.

LABarr writes "AP and CNN are carrying a story that has forced scientists to re-evaluate the longevity of mammals. A bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt over a century ago. 'Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old. The bomb lance fragment, lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time. It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890.' "

Intuit Finally Offers Some Support For Linux 108

Posted by kdawson on Thursday June 14, 2007 @11:57AM from the double-entry-penguins dept.

walterbyrd sends us to the ZDNet blog, where Dan Farber & Larry Dignan write: "Intuit said Wednesday it will allow QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions to operate on Linux servers. For Intuit, the move is a bit of a milestone — QuickBooks is the first of its products [to] work on open source software."

Submission + - Phrack has reborn : #64 is out

Submitted by

The Circle of Lost Hackers

on Monday May 28, 2007 @12:27PM

The Circle of Lost Hackers writes: "The hacking electronic magazine Phrack is back online. A new issue has been released this week-end, which ends up more than a year and a half without publication. This issue features a mix of scene articles and many highly technical papers dealing with almost all topics of computer hacking: Hardware, Code analysis & Reverse engineering, previously unpublished Kernel & Heap exploits techniques, applied network intrusion on Windows and UNIX, Cryptanalysis, OsX kernel tricks, are waiting for you. A new volume of a very high quality that reminds some old-school issues as it also includes its amount of Underground and body/mind experiences reports. A must read."

Submission + - A Linux Computer in Every Garage?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @12:24AM

An anonymous reader writes: A U.S. government- and industry-led coalition aiming to equip every car and roadside in America with wirelessly connected computers has tapped Linux for the design of a system that aims to lower driver death rates, reduce traffic jams, and media-enable cars. The project, which is under the auspices of the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Consortium (VII-C) and funded by the Department of Transportation (DOT), ten state departments of transportation, and seven vehicle manufacturers, has adopted an Linux and open source strategy, at least at the prototype level.

Submission + - Checkers has been Solved

Submitted by

r55man

on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @12:23AM

r55man writes: "The Chinook project recently announced that checkers has been solved. Perfect play from both sides results in a draw. From their website:

On May 8, 2007, we were pleased to announce that checkers is now solved. From the standard starting position, Black (who moves first) is guaranteed a draw with perfect play. White (moving second) is also guaranteed a draw, regardless of what Black plays as the opening move. Checkers is the largest game that has been solved to date.
"

Submission + - Phone-based Two-Factor Coolness

Submitted by

dispensa

on Monday May 21, 2007 @10:38PM

dispensa writes: "Today at Interop Las Vegas, Positive Networks debuted its new two-factor authentication service, called PhoneFactor. Unlike other two-factor technologies, this one works by placing a confirmation call to your phone during login, so it works with any phone and with no software to install.

PhoneFactor will be made available for free to anyone. Enterprise-level upgrades will also be available.

More here:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/smbit/archives/2007/05 /interop_twofact.html
http://kernelmustard.com/2007/05/21/phonefactor-fr ee-two-factor-authentication-for-everyone/

(Disclaimer: I'm an architect and coder on this project, and Positive's CTO.)"

Submission + - First OpenOffice virus emerges

Submitted by

Slinkysausage

on Monday May 21, 2007 @10:36PM

Slinkysausage writes: "Pop the champagne corks, Microsoft. Yes, it's another round of FUD from an anti-malware vendor that has gotten hold of a proof-of-concept virus that has never been spotted in the wild. STILL, it is kinda interesting: the worm exploits a vulnerability in the "StarBasic" scripting language included in OpenOffice to drop scripts in platform-appropriate languages onto the host computer. For example, on Windows it drops Javascript files as well as using MiRC to propagate, on OS X, Rubyscript, and on Linux, Python and Pearl. APC Magazine has the lowdown including part of the indecent picture the virus shows ... of a man in a bunny suit doing a gal in the woods."

Journal Journal: survival by expression: Paper Clings to Pen 1

Journal by WannaBeGeekGirl on Monday May 21, 2007 @10:04PM

i cannot hide from time

the dusty clock opposite my bed
in the corner of my unadorned room
blinks ignored, angry crimson LED numbers
failing to captivate me to set it.
it has done so for as long as i can remember.

Submission + - RIAA Seeks Royalties From Terrestrial Radio

Submitted by

SierraPete

on Monday May 21, 2007 @09:35PM

SierraPete writes: "First it was Napster, then it was Internet radio, then it was college students and dead/dying people. But now our friends at the RIAA are going decidedly low-tech. The Los Angeles Times reports that the RIAA wants royalties from radio stations. Congress long ago exempted radio stations from paying royalties to performers and labels because radio helped sell music. But since the labels that make up the RIAA are not getting the cash they desire through sales of CD's and since Internet and Satellite broadcasters are forced to cough up cash to their racket, now the RIAA wants terrestrial radio to pay up as well. That sound you're hearing is the goose that laid the golden egg taking one for the team..."

Submission + - ABC breaks on-line video viewing for Linux users

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday May 21, 2007 @09:26PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "It used to be that with Firefox 2.0 with the flashplayer 9 plug-in you could view the videos on www.abc.com. A while ago they announced that their "new" player would only work on Windows XP and Mac however they did leave a link to the old player which worked just fine with Linux. Today, the old player is no longer an option."

Submission + - "Software Update" shuts down XM Radio Sate

Submitted by George on Monday May 21, 2007 @09:16PM

George writes: New York (NY) — XM Radio is experiencing massive outages after one of its satellites was disabled. The company says satellite number 1 is down for "performance" reasons and the company is currently performing a "software update". While the company has a spare satellite, many customers in the United States and Canada are still experiencing problems. TG Daily Reported, http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32127/97/.

I live in North Carolina and my XM has been out all day long. Anyone else?

Submission + - Open Voting Consortium visits Red Hat Summit '07

Submitted by nadamsieee on Monday May 21, 2007 @09:12PM

nadamsieee writes: Julie Bryce of Red Hat Magazine got the chance to chat a bit with Alan Dechert during the 2007 Red Hat Summit. She asked him some questions; he gave her some answers. Alan stated that "[voting software] is an area ripe for open source software development." Also, when asked how corrupt the current system of voting is, Alan replied "The short answer is that I think the system is quite corrupt, and problems with the voting system are generally underreported in the media."

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