hubertf - Slashdot User

How Can We Convert the US to the Metric System? 1487

Posted by Cliff on Saturday January 13, 2007 @07:23AM from the worthwhile-but-pigs-are-likely-to-fly-first dept.

thesolo asks: "Despite past efforts of the 1970s and 1980s, the United States remains one of only three countries (others are Liberia and Myanmar) that does not use the metric system. Staying with imperial measurements has only served to handicap American industry and economy. Attempts to get Americans using the Celsius scale, or putting up speed limits in kilometers per hour have been squashed dead. Not only that, but some Americans actually see metrication efforts as an assault on 'our way' of measuring. I personally deal with European scientists on a daily basis, and find our lack of common measurement to be extremely frustrating. Are we so entrenched with imperial units that we cannot get our fellow citizens to simply learn something new? What are those of us who wish to finally see America catch up to the rest of the world supposed to do? Are there any organizations that we may back, or any pro-metric legislators who we can support?"

Submission + - RIAA Trying Again

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Saturday January 13, 2007 @06:52AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "The RIAA is at it again, trying to limit the ability to record (only) digital content: "A new bill introduced in the US Senate this week would force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers (but not over-the-air radio) to implement measures designed to restrict the ability of listeners to record audio from the services.""

Submission + - Cisco Lost Rights To iPhone Trademark

Submitted by

Umbral Blot

on Saturday January 13, 2007 @06:31AM

Umbral Blot writes: "
The Cisco iPhone trademark was registered 11/16/1999 (Reg. No. 2293011). In order to keep a trademark registration active, you have to file a Declaration of Use on or before the sixth anniversary of the registration date, in which you state, under penalty of perjury, that you have been using the trademark continuously during that period. The sixth anniversary would have been 11/16/2005. Cisco did not file the Declaration of Use by 11/16/2005, which if they had been using the trademark would seemingly have been easy to do.
Cisco did file a Declaration of Use during the six month grace period, but it appears they may have done so improperly, invalidating their claim."

Submission + - When your site doesn't exist

Submitted by El Lobo on Saturday January 13, 2007 @05:46AM

El Lobo writes: Most businesses on the net get 70% of their traffic from Google, but what happens when Google — the source of more than 70 percent of your traffic — decides it will no longer index your web site? That's what happened to JavaLobby last month. From the article:

"We had completely disappeared from Google's main index!...if you run a website, then you know how serious a problem this is. On any given day over 10,000 visitors arrive at Javalobby as a result of Google searches, and suddenly they stopped coming! Suddenly we no longer existed in the eyes of the World"

Microsoft is often accused of being a monopoly, but nothing compares to the dangerous power of Googles monopoly.

Undersea Cable Repair Via 19th Century Tech 98

Posted by Zonk on Saturday January 13, 2007 @04:36AM from the going-old-school dept.

An anonymous reader writes to mention a story going across the wires about an old-fashioned way to fix a modern convenience. Taiwanese boaters are using simple hooks to fish up the fiber-optic cables damaged in an earthquake late last year. The outage that resulted kept millions of users offline in half a dozen countries around the Pacific rim. From the article: "They work 24 hours a day but the weather can hinder their progress. Walters said one ship is waiting for 30 to 40 mile-an-hour winds (48 to 64 kilometres- an-hour) to die down in the Bashi Channel. The winds have stirred up 10 to 12 metre waves ... After arriving at the scene they survey the ocean bottom to assess whether the contour has changed, and the degree of sediment movement. Then the traditional tools are brought out. A rope with a grapnel on the end is played out, down into the depths, and towed over the sea floor until tension registers on a graph on the ship, indicating contact has been made with the cable. Today's fibre optic cables are just 21 millimetres in diameter."

Submission + - Author of Illuminatus! has died.

Submitted by

OmnipotentEntity

on Saturday January 13, 2007 @03:17AM

OmnipotentEntity writes: "Robert Anton Wilson, or RAW as he was known, a coauthor of the Illuminatus! trilogy (which was the basis of quite a bit of hacker humor) has passed beyond this mortal plane. Some last words posted onto his blog are "Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd." Have fun on your fnord, and dream of Eris good buddy. You'll be missed."

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