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Windows

Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x 384

Posted by kdawson from the an-application-has-expectedly-quit dept.
rugatero writes "The BBC reports that, as of last Saturday, Microsoft is no longer issuing licenses for the 18-year-old Windows 3.x. Many here may well be surprised to learn that anyone still has use for the antiquated software, but it seems to have found a home in a number of embedded systems — including cash registers and the in-flight entertainment systems on some long-haul passenger jets (Virgin and Qantas are cited). Considering Linux's credentials as an embedded OS, this news could very well indicate the possibility of more migrations in the pipeline."
The Internet

AT&T Begins a Trial To Cap, Meter Internet Usage 421

Posted by kdawson from the unlimited-is-just-a-word dept.
An anonymous reader writes "On the heels of Comcast's decision to implement a 250-GB monthly cap, and Time Warner Cable's exploration of caps and overage fees, DSL Reports notes that AT&T is launching a metered billing trial of their own in Reno, Nevada. According to a filing with the FCC (PDF), AT&T's existing tiers, which range from 768 kbps to 6 Mbps, would see caps ranging from 20 GB to 150 GB per month. Users who exceed those caps would pay an additional $1 per gigabyte, per month."
Graphics

How To Make Money With Free Software 187

Posted by timothy from the actual-money dept.
fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"
Games

Spore Expansion Announced, Another Coming In 2009 105

Posted by Soulskill from the evolving-content dept.
EA announced this week what many suspected for a while, now: Spore expansions are on their way. The first, due out in November, will be an addition to the creature creator, offering more parts for players to use. The next, due in Spring 2009, will provide new gameplay: "The expansion will give space-faring species the ability to beam down from their ships to explore other worlds and complete missions. And along with this, the expansion will include an Adventure creator, in which players can build — and then share — their own customized missions."
United States

Submission + - Orphan works bill passed by the Senate (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday, the visual arts community was buzzing with news that the Senate was "hot lining" the Orphan Works Bill (S2913) for a vote that afternoon, and that the House was expected to follow suit. We've now learned that the Senate bill was passed. It is troubling indeed that this legislation was pushed through in this manner, the last day of the Congressional term, and a time when the Congress is embroiled in responding to an economic crisis. As our colleagues at the Advertising Photographers of America (APA) have declared, in their email alert posted at Friday midnite: "Passing controversial legislation by this process, i.e. under the radar, is deeply troubling to say the least and every Senator needs to be held accountable."
Government

Submission + - Canada's Parliament Dissolved (time.com)

Submitted by arrenlex
arrenlex writes: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has dissolved Canada's parliament in preparation for a national election in mid-October. The Time article speculates that Harper called the election early to avoid being forced into one by the opposition after a bill is defeated, when the economy might be weaker; it also mentions that Harper will likely run on economic issues, although his goal is probably to win a majority government, which will allow him to pass laws with less reliance on the cooperation of opposing parties. It is interesting to note Harper himself created a law which fixes election dates for the ruling party, but sidestepped the law using a loophole that lets the Prime Minister choose election dates at will.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - America's Army Returning To Mac and Linux?

Submitted by Milyardo
Milyardo writes: Way back in 2005, America's Army was a cross-platform First Person Shooter with both Linux and Mac clients. However after version 2.5 the Army Stopped supporting them. Flash forward to 2008 and AA version 3.0 is soon to be released for Windows only. However, on the forums, where a game developer quotes "I've been looking into this and there are ways to make it work. We are exploring that possibility.", there's talk of developer interest reviving at least the Mac client for a 3.0 release. If you'd like to see this great FPS make its return to Linux and Mac, head over to the America's Army Forum and post your interest in a Linux and Mac client.
Censorship

Submission + - Ebay censoring user searches?

Submitted by
assemblerex
assemblerex writes: "I have an automated search I run every day to find items for my
video game collection on Ebay.

One of these items is a Dreamcast VMU cloner that was released
a few years back. I've yet to find one on Ebay.

However, in my forum someone started a discussion of backing up VMU
saves and posted a link to one!

I decided to do some testing and to my surprise found that the item
would not surface using a keyword (backup) found in the very item description.

Simply put, Ebay has certain search words nullified in certain categories.

I don't know how many words, or what areas, but if proven this makes it harder to
find legitimate items on Ebay. For certain sellers this guarantees a bidder black hole.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170236460820

vs

http://video-games.search.ebay.com/backup_Accessories_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQdfspZ32QQfclZ3QQfposZ07015QQfromZR2QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ32QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsabfmtsZ1QQsacatZ139969QQsadisZ200QQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

vs

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=32&catref=C6&fcl=3&from=R2&satitle=pc+link&sacat=139969%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=07015&sabfmts=1&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=32%26fsoo%3D2&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search

Has anyone run into similar problems?"
Unix

Submission + - Unicode, Regexes, and the Emacs Mini-Buffer

Submitted by ckuttruff
ckuttruff writes: I've been using emacs for a little while now, and I have a really quick question for all the slashdotters out there that have far more experience than I with the program. I've really tried to find the answer in man pages, forums, and of course through the mother of all information, google... but to no avail.

So, here it is:
I know how to get information about a character within emacs (C-u C-x =). But what I'm trying to do is then use either the hex value or the unicode value of said character in order to input the character in a regular expression search and replace. All the stupid smart quotes and special chars that get pasted in when you're editing text, for whatever reason are proving a nuisance to enter into the mini-buffer so I can then replace them with regular ascii text.

Anyways, I appreciate the help since I've looked all over the place.

Feed Science Daily: Insects Evolved Radically Different Strategy To Smell (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms. This is an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field. Scientists find that insects use fast-acting ion channels to smell odors, a major break with the ideology of the field -- and evolution.


The Internet

Virgin Media CEO Says Net Neutrality Is Already Gone 378

Posted by kdawson from the it's-not-your-internet-sonny dept.
Virgin Media CEO Says Net Neutrality is "A Load of Bollocks". Anyone here been shaken down by their Internet Service Provider? "The new CEO of Virgin Media is putting his cards on the table early, branding net neutrality 'a load of bollocks' and claiming he's already doing deals to deliver some people's content faster than others... If you aren't prepared to cough up the extra cash, he says he'll put you in the Internet 'bus lane.'"
Security

Submission + - AU utility corps soon to be spies? (smh.com.au)

Submitted by
RdeVjun
RdeVjun writes: "Sydney Morning Herald reports the Australian Attorney-General, Robert McClelland has flagged changes to federal legislation that would expand soon-to-expire (well, June 09 actually) snooping powers (non- consentual email interecption) of intel agencies to companies including those that operate critical infrastructure.

Thin end of the (inevitable) wedge? Or maybe something that suggests AU federal agencies perhaps aren't quite up to the job? And remember, this comes at a time when they're under increasing scrutiny and smarting from some fairly bad blood following the Dr Haneef affair and the change of government."
Privacy

Submission + - New Zealand ISPs forced to police internet piracy (computerworld.co.nz)

Submitted by
Rob O'Neill
Rob O'Neill writes: "New law forces ISPs to cut internet access for customers breaching copyright:

Internet service providers took a big step towards becoming internet police courtesy of a new copyright law passed in Parliament last week. The Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill requires ISPs to have a process in place to cut the internet access of persistent copyright infringers and to enforce that process, according to the Ministry of Economic Development (MED). Ministry spokeswoman Bronwyn Turley says ISPs are required not only to adopt but to "reasonably implement" an account discontinuation policy. If an ISP fails to do so, the provision could be enforced by a court order, she says.
"
The Internet

Submission + - Update: Undersea Cable Damage

Submitted by
warrior_s
warrior_s writes: "Some news sites are reporting that progress has been made on identifying the cause of undersea cable damage that happened some time ago. The Dubai Port Trust authorities have impounded two ships that are believed to have been responsible for the undersea cable damage, which crippled Internet services in India earlier this year. CNN-IBN (CNN in India) is reporting that an Indian chief officer of an Iraqi vessel that was allegedly responsible for snapping an undersea communication cable in February leading to widespread Internet outage in India and the UAE has been arrested and will face trial.
Google News has some good coverage also."

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