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Sci-Fi

Submission + - Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team 1

Curlsman writes: Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team

Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.
We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.

If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com — we hope someone at CBS will read them.

Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/2316633.html

Is this site worth a write-in campaign?
Censorship

Submission + - Facebook Censoring Mothers' Breastfeeding Photos (breastfeeding123.com)

NewsCloud writes: "Some Facebook moms report having their accounts deleted for uploading photos of breastfeeding their newborns. 'Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our Terms and are removed,' says Facebook. In response, more than 33,431 concerned Facebook members created the "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" [group req. reg.]. Facebook's censorship thresholds were covered earlier on Slashdot. Meanwhile, Flickr's foot fetish groups are going strong."
Robotics

Submission + - Virtual robots fooled by visual illusions

Roland Piquepaille writes: "Researchers at University College London (UCL) have written a computer program using neural networks which are duped by optical illusions the same way as we do. Their virtual robots, which were trained to 'see' like us, could help to understand why we fall for optical illusions. This might also be important for robot vision. If robots are trained to 'see' like us, they will act like us — and make mistakes. Very interesting... But read more for additional references and one of the visual illusions featured on the Web site of the lead researcher for this project."
Education

Submission + - Student Attacked After Dropping Cake (infowars.net) 17

An anonymous reader writes: "School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up. The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process."
Music

Submission + - Apple's aims to stop second-hand iPod trading (cnet.co.uk) 4

An anonymous reader writes: CNet is running a story that highlights how Apple's apparently generous offering of free iPod engraving, is actually an effort to curb any resale of used iPods. This stops any second-hand trading and forces buyers to seek brand-new models, full-price, directly from Apple. One commenter notes that this engraving also voids any option of replacement iPods through AppleCare.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Star Wars fan puts himself in Carbonite (thesneeze.com)

sneezesteve writes: How do you secure your nerd-cred for eternity? By acquiring a life-size replica of Han Solo in Carbonite, having Han's face removed, and replacing it with your own.

"It is made from fiberglass, and the short story is that a friend who is a special effects guy owned the piece, which was a direct casting off the original prop. He was moving, (aka getting married and yelled at) and asked me if I wanted it. I screamed a huge lispy "Yes!", and picked it up, but knew I wanted to do something cool with it. So I called my other nerdy special effects pals, and they offered to replace Harrison Ford's face with mine. I was so tired of hearing this offer in my daily life, but decided to finally consider it, so off it went.

KNB Effects in the valley took an algae mold of my entire head, then cut off Han Solo's, and replaced it with mine. They even added the frozen saliva that rushed out when Han got frozen."

Microsoft

Submission + - The Top 15 most controversial Microsoft statements (computerworld.com.au)

StonyandCher writes: In the pantheon of controversial Microsoft comments CEO Steve Ballmer's recent quote about the Apple iPod: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a US$500 subsidized item," ranks right up there.

But Between Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates that comment would be hard pressed to crack the Top 15 all-time most controversial or even colorful things the two of them have uttered in the past oh, 20 years or so.

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft stealing Ubuntu logo?

ggravier writes: "Could it be that Microsoft is trying to appropriate the Ubuntu logo?

Have a look at the Microsoft Alumni Network page... as well as the Ubuntu Home Page... and compare the logos... Same notion of 3 people. Same circle. Same holding hands. Same variation style on the earth / sand brown color. Hum... If I were a copyright lawyer, I'd start heating up my work processor (OpenOffice.org, of course) and writing a cease and desist letter to the guys in Redmond."
Businesses

Submission + - Senate Refuses to Increase H1-B Visa Quota (eweek.com)

teebob21 writes: Eweek reports that the Senate refused to carry forward legislation that would have increased the number of H1-B visas granted each year. The immigration reform bill (S-1639) was heavily lobbied for by companies such as Microsoft, who rely heavily on H1-B visa holders to staff their IT and technical departments. The immigration bill included a provision to raise the yearly limit on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000. The H-1B supply for the 2007 fiscal year was used up in just over one day last year.
Space

Submission + - Microsoft behind the latest UFO hoax? (littlemanwhatnow.com)

Charles.Pooter writes: "In April some rather pretty photos started appearing on UFO websites, including the site of the popular Coast to Coast AM radio show. Then recently someone calling themselves "Issac" launched a unusually well-written (by the usual standards of UFO exposes) website revealing the "truth" behind the photos, with some more lovingly-crafted, supposedly leaked photos and documents from his time reverese-engineering alien tech for the US Government. So who is really behind all this? Answer: Slashdot's favourite villain: Microsoft!"
Quake

Submission + - Technology Predicts Earthquakes (newsblaze.com)

newsblaze writes: "Japan's Meteorological agency distribution network connects to the Internet, sending a signal to activate a device that delivers a loud countdown of up to 20 seconds preceding the beginning of a tremor. The Agency is to begin the first warning broadcast on radio and television within four months and later this year starts sending to a new version of cell phones. In Shake, Rattle & Roll — Don`t Panic, Strasbaugh outlines how it works and notes that JEITA, Electronic Industries Association of Japan says there can be false alarms. As long as there aren't too many and people take notice, that will be OK. I know, wrong Quake, but how to classify this?"
Announcements

Submission + - Open Source Journey Around The World (bmc.com)

whurley writes: " Noel Hidalgo is about to take off on an open source journey. For seven months, he'll traverse the seven continents, dive into the seven oceans, and visit the seven ancient wonders of the world. Using new media voodo, Noel will harness the collective knowledge of the globe and report weekly on seven topics relating to freedom and the organic component of digital communication ."
Software

Submission + - LINA: run existing Linux apps on Windows, OS X (apcmag.com)

Krispy Sausage writes: "Between WINE, VMware, BOCHs and ilk — not to mention the renewed focus on virtualisation we're now seeing — we're somewhat spoilt for choice when it comes to running Windows applications on Linux. But what about the other way around? Cygwin aside, there is another way.

It goes by the name of LINA, and after four years of development, it is due for release later next month. Building off a concept similar to Java, LINA aims to provide open-source developers the ability to compile applications that will run on all of Windows, MacOS X, and various Unix systems. Additionally, it promises to do so using each OS' own interface libraries — so a Linux application on Windows doesn't look out of place — and runs them within their own contained environment to ensure they don't play up."

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