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

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Announcements

Submission + - Portugal Celebrates Massive Solar Plant

Submitted by SolarPower
SolarPower writes: A project slated to become the world's largest-producing solar power plant was inaugurated Wednesday in Portugal, though construction actually began last summer. The 11-megawatt 61 million euro ($78.5 million) plant, a joint project of U.S. and Portuguese energy companies, spreads across a 150-acre hillside in Serpa, 124 miles southeast of Lisbon.
United States

Submission + - California scrutinizing Diebold voting machines

Submitted by
christian.einfeldt
christian.einfeldt writes: "During her successful campaign for California Secretary of State, newly-minted California Elections Czar Debra Bowen spoke repeatedly of the need to use free open source software in voting machines to ensure the integrity of California's elections. Now that Secretary Bowen is acting on that campaign pledge, closed-source voting machine vendor Diebold worries aloud that rejecting its black-box voting machines could snarl California's elections, according to this detailed article by Contra Costa Times reporter Ian Hoffman. Diebold's concerns come at the same time that it is suing Massachusetts for "wrongfully" declining to purchase those same voting machines."
Software

Submission + - Ultimate Free CD/DVD Burn Tool for Windoze?

Submitted by
DigitalPowderHound
DigitalPowderHound writes: "Before I started browsing the mounds of projects over at sourceforge I thought I'd ask Slashdot for advice regarding the ultimate CD/DVD burning tool. I am looking to replace the usual garbage apps that come pre-installed on factory machines. I am looking for a universal tool when it comes to all tasks related to CD/DVD media -Data, Audio, Video, MP3 Tools, ISO, etc. Along with being super stable, the application should have a simple to use front-end, but also allow expert users to select advanced options. Finally, this ultimate burn tool should be free. Thanks for your help!"
Biotech

Submission + - Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality

Submitted by sas-dot
sas-dot writes: In an earlier New york times article reported here in slashdot, threw up many interesting questions like Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity?. Now Scientists question the Philosophers and Theologians hold on the subject of Morality as reported in this new article. They find Chimpanzees social behaviours as precursors for Human morality. So now Biologists holds the rules for morality?
Linux Business

Submission + - Microsoft's project to classify Linux users

Submitted by
RJ2770
RJ2770 writes: "Microsoft has started a project for their partners to help identify the personas of different Linux users in an attempt to sway them toward Microsoft products. They've created a web site (http://www.linuxpersonas.com) and released a webcast (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?f amilyid=fc78610a-711d-4de7-9ae5-cc8b57d38d7d&displ aylang=en&tm). Hurry over and find out how Microsoft classifies you!"
Businesses

Submission + - Getting Approval to Work at Home

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In large cities, many employees spend 4 weeks each year in their car driving to and from work. Eliminating the commute, even just one day a week, is equivalent to an extra 1.5 weeks of vacation. The technology is all there to work from home, but most people mess up when they approach their boss about telecommuting. Here is a five step process to get your boss to say yes and avoid common mistakes.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Offers Incentives for Search

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "In an effort to boost its Web search market share, Microsoft is leaning on its loyal and well established enterprise customers. The company is testing a program with 'a select number of enterprise customers based on the number of Web search queries conducted by their employees via Live Search,' Microsoft said in a statement. In exchange for their employees' Live Search usage, these enterprise customers will receive 'service or training credits.' Analyst Greg Sterling from Sterling Market doesn't hold out much hope for the long-term success of this strategy. 'Ultimately you have to compete at the product level. The product has to stand on its own merits. There's a fairly high risk this will not succeed at the grassroots level, because they're using a top-to-bottom approach here,' Sterling said."
Intel

Submission + - High schooler is awarded $100,000 for research

Submitted by wired_LAIN
wired_LAIN writes: A teenager from Oklahoma was awarded $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search competition for building an inexpensive and accurate spectrograph that can identify the specific characteristics of different kinds of molecules. While normal spectrographs can cost between $20,000 and 100,000 to build, her spectrograph cost less than $500 dollars. The 40 finalists' projects were judged by a panel of 12 scientists, all well established in their respective fields. Among the judges were Vera Rubin , who proved Dark Matter, and Andrew Yeager, one of the pioneers of stem cell research. My only question is: why aren't these kids given more media coverage?
Google

Submission + - Interesting article on page rankings manipulation

Submitted by
Ayal Rosenthal
Ayal Rosenthal writes: "March 14, 2007 (Computerworld) — Rand Fishkin knows how valuable it is for a Web site to rank high in a Google search. But even this president of a search engine optimization firm was blown away by a proposal he received at a search engine optimization conference in London last month, where he was a panelist. The topic — Can a poker Web site rank high on a Google search using purely white hat tactics — meaning no spamming, cloaking, link farms or other frowned-upon "black hat" practices. Fishkin answered yes, provided the site also added other marketing techniques and attracted some media attention. The rest of the panel scoffed. "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight," one chided. After all, this is the cutthroat online gambling sector. But one poker Web site owner was intrigued, and he later approached Fishkin. "He said, 'If you can get us a search ranking in the top five for online poker or gambling [using white hat methods], we'll buy that site from you for $10 million,'" http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command =viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012943&pageNumber=1"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Slashdotters need Help with Story Submissions 7

Journal by drinkypoo

While I am perhaps not the best person to talk about this as I've only had one submission accepted, my recent time spent with the Firehose has demonstrated to me that most people have a hard time crafting an acceptable story submission, in spite of the numerous examples on the front page. The following is just a list of hints and tips that might help someone assemble a story submission that makes sense.
Windows

Journal Journal: Piracy worked for us

Journal by dorianm

Piracy worked for us, Romanian president tells Gates

Reuters
Thursday, February 1, 2007; 9:45 AM

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Pirated Microsoft Corp software helped Romania to build a vibrant technology industry, Romanian President Traian Basescu told the company's co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday.

Basescu was meeting the software giant's chairman in Bucharest to celebrate the opening of a Microsoft global technical center in the Romanian capital.
Businesses

Submission + - Comparison of Working at the 3 Big Software Giants

Submitted by
castironwok
castironwok writes: "Finally, everything you've ever wanted to know about being an employee at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Tastyresearch describes his (or her) past few years interning and working at the three companies. Things I didn't know from before: Bill Gates wears old shoes, Google's internal security watches you like a hawk, the office styles of each company, and how to fill your suitcase with Google T-shirts. He calls the few select companies the 'prestigious internship circle', noting "once you have worked at one, it's a lot easier to get into another". But what *I* really want to know now, is who has a more equal male-female ratio?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsofts Office 2007 MLK setup annoys customers

Submitted by
lukas84
lukas84 writes: "With Office 2007, Microsoft changed the rules for OEM versions again — they're now called MLK. You no longer get media with your MLK License, you will have to order them from Microsoft together with receipts of your new PC.

Not every reseller seems to obey these new rules, as i've written in my article about this particular problem."

Slashdot Top Deals

"It says he made us all to be just like him. So if we're dumb, then god is dumb, and maybe even a little ugly on the side." -- Frank Zappa

Close