quiddity - Slashdot User

Submission + - FSF launches campaign against Windows Vista

Submitted by

FrankNFurter

on Saturday December 16, 2006 @02:52PM

FrankNFurter writes: "The FSF yesterday launched BadVista, a campaign against Microsoft's new operating system. The aim of this is to inform users about the (alleged) harms inflicted by it on the user and free software alternatives. Quoth program administrator John Sullivan: "Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care.""

Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport Makes First Launch 67

Posted by kdawson on Saturday December 16, 2006 @02:45PM from the scaring-the-ponies dept.

PeeAitchPee writes "East Coast residents of the US were treated to the first launch from the mid-Atlantic region's commercial spaceport. The 69-foot Minotaur I rocket soared from the launch pad at 7 a.m. ET, after teams spent the week resolving a glitch in software for one of the satellites that had scrubbed a liftoff on Monday. I witnessed the launch while driving to BWI airport this morning and it was beautiful! It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible." The spaceport, a commercial collaboration of Virginia and Maryland, is on the Delmarva peninsula south of the Maryland line, just west of Chincoteague Island.

Submission + - Wikia goes free, hosting included

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, 2006 @02:31PM

An anonymous reader writes: Web site operators and bloggers will get free Web hosting Free How-To Guide for Small Business Web Strategies — from domain name selection to site promotion., including all advertising Email Marketing Software — Free Demo revenue from their sites, with a new service called "OpenServing" from the for-profit Wikipedia company Wikia. The company said OpenServing will "extend the essence of the open source Latest News about open source model," delivering not only free software and content to users but also free bandwidth, storage, computing power and ad revenue.

Submission + - Hacking the Palm z22 USB port?

Submitted by

FlyingSquidStudios

on Saturday December 16, 2006 @02:20PM

FlyingSquidStudios writes: "I love my little z22. It only cost 99 bucks, it has a decent battery life, it plays fun games... oh, it's also an organizer. Anyway, the one thing the z22 lacks is an expansion slot of any kind. There's simply no way to add an SD Card/Memory Stick/Whatever. However, it *does* have a mini USB port for data transfer. So... seeing as how there are both flash drives and wifi adapters that are for USB, is there any way to hack the port to let it use them?"

Submission + - Near-Complete Cure for Diabetes in Two Years?

Submitted by resistant on Saturday December 16, 2006 @02:14PM

resistant writes: Researchers at a Toronto hospital have stumbled upon a dramatic treatment for mouse diabetes, with large implications for the treatment of diabetes in humans. From the article: "[...] The islet inflammation cleared up and the diabetes was gone. Some have remained in that state for as long as four months, with just one injection. [...] They also discovered that their treatments curbed the insulin resistance that is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes, and that insulin resistance is a major factor in Type 1 diabetes, suggesting the two illnesses are quite similar."

Submission + - China Readies Rival DVD Format Royalty Free

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, 2006 @02:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: According to http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/15/HNchinad vdrivalformat_1.html , 'InfoWorld' online magazine in an article titled "China Readies DVD Rival Format", the Chinese manufacturers of DVD's, players and disks, are preparing to rollout their new format across China and probably elsewhere. To quote the article with due respect to the holder of copyright, the publishers of 'InfoWorld': " The DVD player makers plan to switch to EVD (enhanced versatile disc) in an attempt to avoid paying patent royalties on the DVD format, according to published reports. The world's largest producers of DVD players, Chinese electronics companies would use the format instead of standards such as MPEG-4. Last week, 20 top manufacturers including Haier announced their plans to switch from DVD to EVD entirely by 2008, according to a report in China Economic News." According to the article, the Chinese electronics industry in order to pursue royalty free hardware in an effort to reduce costs. The fact that this would also break the media giants monopoly on the industry, hardware and software is not mentioned. Professional industry skeptics claim that China will fail, as have similar initiatives in 2003. The Chinese appear better organized and prepared this time however, and could easily by governmental edict make fools of these 'skeptics'. It would be a fitting gesture to the world from a power determined to break hegemonies to also make the EVD open source. This would truly break the media hegemony of Sony, MPAA and RIAA. All the major equipment manufacturers have made the choice of using Chinese manufacturers to make their equipment, so very little real independant manufacturing capability is outside China save for maybe a Taiwanese manufacturer or two that might not want to for its own reasons fight the mainland on this. This fact may have not registered on the so called skeptics, as by simple governmental fiat backed up by the largest armed force in the world including nuclear MIRVs, they can order this switch nationwide and make it a standard within China. They could also suddenly stop making the monopolists DVD's as well and confiscate the so called 'intellectual property' contained inherent to their manufacture and distribution. As a check on 'retribution', the Chinese could say simply that we have taken this as is our right as a sovereign nation and it is in our borders...so be quiet and pray that we do not take more! This is the future and the effective end of DRM. It will be taken and coopted by nation states.

Submission + - FCC drops Morse Code requirement for Amateur Radio

Submitted by

lee317

on Saturday December 16, 2006 @01:58PM

lee317 writes: "The American Radio Relay League [http://www.arrl.org] is reporting that "the FCC [http://www.fcc.gov] has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission today adopted, but hasn't yet released, the long-awaited Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235, the "Morse code" proceeding." Hopefully this action will bring young people into the the experimental hobby of wireless communications which today includes many digital modes and even has an experimental WiFi band at 2.4GHz [http://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/projects/wireless/modif y.html]."

White House Clamps Down On USGS Publishing 417

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday December 16, 2006 @01:40PM from the need-to-know-basis dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The White House has begun implementing a new policy toward the U.S. Geological Survey, in which all scientific papers and other public documents by USGS scientists must be screened for content. The USGS communications office must now be 'alerted about information products containing high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature.' Subjects fitting this description might include global warming, or research on the effects of oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve."

Questions for Entry Level PC Techs? 176

Posted by Cliff on Saturday December 16, 2006 @01:15PM from the wheat-from-the-chaff dept.

Rick Zeman asks: "For the first time ever, I have to interview and hire (I'm not management, so an exception is being made) what we call a 'PC Technician', which is an entry-level IT person. While actual computer knowledge and how we do things can be taught, how to think, and the aptitude for troubleshooting can't be. In the readers' experiences, what are the best (legal in the US!) questions to ask an entry-level candidate to really evaluate them? They don't have the resumes, the skills, or the experience yet, so I think they have to be judged on other factors that are harder to qualify."

Submission + - Double helixes of nano-ice

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Saturday December 16, 2006 @01:08PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) have used computer modeling to find double helixes of nano-ice molecules 'that resemble the structure of DNA and self-assemble under high pressure inside carbon nanotubes.' Of course, these computer simulations need to be confirmed by real experiments. But the scientists think their discovery may help other researchers studying the protein structures that cause diseases such as Alzheimer's and mad cow disease. Read more for additional references and a spectacular computer image of a nano-ice double helix."

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