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Submission + - What a dumb a year it's been!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Fortune's "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" is out for 2007. And what a banner year it has been! Everything from CEO excesses (playing *LOTS* of golf while Merrill Lynch posts the first quarterly loss ever), fancy restaurants with expensive desserts (then the restaurant fails health inspection), sleazy business practices (e.g., Best Buy setting up an in-store web server with higher priced specials), and loads of hilariously defective or just plain unlucky technological stuff (e.g., 365 Main's 3-backup power failure). Apparently you can't be charged with DUI in New Jersey if you are driving a Zamboni (who knew?). Oh, and of course, there's Comcast's surprise porn.
Announcements

Submission + - Scientists:Whale Might Came From Deer Like Mammals (xuecast.com)

Submitted by
XueCast
XueCast writes: "http://www.xuecast.com/?p=393, The scientists at the NorthEastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine have just announced that it is very likely that the whales, Earth's largest mammals had been evolved from small sized deer like mammals. The scientists also believe that all Cetaceans ( Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises ) might had been evolved from this deer like species as well. The scientists dubbed this ancient species as the Indohyus, because it is estimated that these ancient mammals used to live in where India was about 48 million years ago."
Sony

Submission + - Sony silently drops PS3 linux support. (ps2dev.org) 4

Submitted by
t0qer
t0qer writes: "Up until this week, hackers at the PS2dev.org forums have been hot on the trail of writing a hardware accellerated driver for the PS3 RSX chip until Sony released thier new firmware. Now it seems that updating to the new 2.10 version of PS3 firmware not only blocks RSX access completely, but breaks linux installs as well. This is a harsh blow to the PS3 linux community."
Microsoft

Submission + - Internet Explorer 8 Passes the Acid2 Test (msdn.com)

Submitted by mattmcm
mattmcm writes: (From the story) The IE team has been very hard at work on IE 8 for the past several months and they hit a huge milestone last Friday evening. The IE dev team checked in a bunch of code that included several new features implemented in the core rendering engine that enable IE to pass the ACID 2 test! This is great news for web developers: IE 8 is going to be our most standards compliant browser to date. Passing ACID 2 is really a combined side effect of all the new features that have been developed for IE 8.
Censorship

Submission + - Court Allows Company To Copyright Cease & Desi (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt has the news of a lawsuit where a company was allowed to claim copyright on a cease-and-desist letter that an anonymous blogger had posted to a blog. The company then used the DMCA to not just get the C&D taken down, but to try to find out the identity of a *different* anonymous blogger that it was accusing of libel. This could create chilling effects for anyone who tries to post a cease-and-desist letter online, as you might now face copyright violation charges on the C&D in addition to whatever the C&D was originally for.
Toys

Submission + - (Fly) Drive the road like a jet figther.

Submitted by
chicobaud
chicobaud writes: "I stumbled on this ready to market vehicle — the Venture One by Venture Vehicles — and I don't know if slashdot readers are aware of it or if it was published in here before. This is an hybrid 3 wheeled car with an option for a full gas motor with even bigger autonomy / range. It's a US $22.00 Dollars vehicle that's just amazing and fun to drive (watch the video on their web site). I wish I had one... This is a three wheel car that's rides like a true motorcycle. Well it's a car ! — but it rides like a jet air plane just one feet above the road with the behaviour of a motorcycle leaning as you make a turn. There are videos on their website to watch. Superb."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - NBC Has Hacked Their iPhone (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by ESheline
ESheline writes: If you looked closely at last night's episode of Saturday Night Live during the iPhone: The Affair sketch, you may or may not have noticed a certain extra "Installer" icon next to the iTunes button. So what's that icon signify? The iPhone being used was Jailbroken (or, hacked for programs and games, in layman terms).
Upgrades

Submission + - Nerds Rejoice! Wedgie Proof Underwear is Here!

Submitted by Rude Awakening
Rude Awakening writes: From the Hardware Upgrade Department: Jared and Justin Serovich came up with the "Rip Away 1000," rigged shorts that got them to the finals of a central Ohio invention competition earlier this year, as well as an invitation to appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
Education

Submission + - Michigan State University Bans Online apps 1

Submitted by liquidvi
liquidvi writes: To: Deans, Directors, Chairs

From: Vice Provost, Libraries, Computing and Technology
Assistant Vice President for Finance, CFO and Controller
Associate Provost for Academic Services
Assistant Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies and Executive Director, MSU Technologies

Subject: Avoiding use of online software tools such as Google Apps, Gmail, and Microsoft Office Live

Please share this message with faculty and staff in your units.

Google, Microsoft, and other companies are offering, at no charge, an increasingly diverse set of online, web-based software tools, many of which provide standard "office" functions such as document and slide deck production and management, spreadsheeting and communications, including e-mail. These tools run on company (vendor) servers, and user files and other content are stored on company systems as well. The no-cost option is attractive to many University units, faculty and staff. However, due to the terms of use and business models being applied to these tools, they MAY NOT be used in the conduct of University work.

To illustrate one concern, the terms to which you agree when you use Google Apps (http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en) include the following; which compromises the University's intellectual property rights and the security of University records:

"You [user] retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. BY SUBMITTING, POSTING OR DISPLAYING THE CONTENT YOU GIVE GOOGLE A PERPETUAL, IRREVOCABLE, WORLDWIDE, ROYALTY-FREE, AND NON-EXCLUSIVE LICENSE TO REPRODUCE, ADAPT, MODIFY, TRANSLATE, PUBLISH, PUBLICLY PERFORM, PUBLICLY DISPLAY AND DISTRIBUTE ANY CONTENT WHICH YOU SUBMIT, POST OR DISPLAY ON OR THROUGH, THE SERVICES. . You agree that this license INCLUDES A RIGHT FOR GOOGLE TO MAKE SUCH CONTENT AVAILABLE TO OTHER COMPANIES, ORGANIZATIONS OR INDIVIDUALS WITH WHOM GOOGLE HAS RELATIONSHIPS for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services." (emphasis added)

Furthermore, neither Google nor Microsoft makes any promise to back up content, secure confidential or proprietary content, or provide free service for any particular period of time. If they change their minds about the business utility of this model, it may simply go away one day.

Contract terms like these do not provide appropriate protection for University business records or documents. If software tools like these are used in instruction, they may compromise student intellectual property protections. They may also adversely affect commercialization or publication of intellectual property created by faculty. Because individuals frequently do not know that they are creating University business records, including student records, in the course of doing their daily work at MSU, ANY use of these sorts of online tools must be avoided. Individuals or units contemplating use of any software tool or online service should carefully read and consider the terms of use, and seek appropriate legal or other review from University administrative offices when terms of use are incompatible with University policy or exceed the relevant administrator's authority.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Best Buy goes the extra mile - yes it's true

Submitted by davidwr
davidwr writes: Miracle of miracles, Best Buy goes the extra mile and gives people who ordered $99 Toshiba DVD players the next version, valued at about $299. I'm no fan of Best Buy but if they keep acting like this and repudiate their historical evil practices they'll be on my Good Vendors list by Christmas '08. I hope other stores follow suit.
Google

Submission + - Google's 'Racist' Glitch

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Newsweek reports on the embarrassing Google News search glitch that unintentionally linked Time Warner's Richard Parsons and outgoing Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal to a picture of monkeys. For all of its cutting-edge advancements, Google is simply incapable of a performing a skill typically mastered by first graders: matching the right words with the right images. The problem generally has plagued Google since June when it introduced the Image Version of Google News to pair the top headlines with illustrative photos."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Verizon FiOS 20/20 @ Home

Journal by diamondonion

I've spent the past couple of days playing phone tag with Verizon's tech support about their FiOS 20/20 service.

After being told that I needed to reboot my router, run their "Optimizer" (Windows only, the rest of you will have to manually adjust your MTU, etc.), and reboot my machine, it seems the holy grail of residential internet is here. 20Mbs down, 20Mbs up.

The Internet

Submission + - Six Degrees of Wikipedia

Submitted by
ClogHammer
ClogHammer writes: "No article, but just curious; Can you get from any Wikipedia article to any other Wikipedia article in six links or less?"
Quickies

Submission + - Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Myths

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "This Tech ARP guide/article was written in response to the numerous fallacies about the hard disk drive (HDD) that are still being propagated in many forum discussions. Although many articles have covered these topics, it is apparent that hard drive urban legends are still more popular than the simple truth. Here are the basics and examined some of these common fallacies or myths and debunk them..."

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