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The Media

Submission + - Senate bill bans Net & satellite radio recordi

Submitted by kaufmanmoore
kaufmanmoore writes: The new congress is the same as the old congress as Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) reintroduced a bill that would require internet radio, music offered via digital cable, XM and Sirius to pay "fair market value" to use music libraries under members of the RIAA. FTA: "The proposal says that all audio services — Webcasters included — would be obligated to implement "reasonably available and economically reasonable" copy-protection technology aimed at preventing "music theft" and restricting automatic recording." The act also restricts "manual" recording saying that it should only be done "in a manner that is not an infringement of copyright." The full article is available from Cnet
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Shatner Leaks Trek XI Details

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The rumors that the next Star Trek movie would revolve around the earliest missions of Kirk and Spock have been confirmed by William Shatner in a Sci Fi Wire interview. J.J. Abrahms (creator of "Lost") will direct, and has confirmed that a draft script is completed.

So, the question is, will Shatner appear as a reminiscing older Kirk in the beginning, setting up the rest of the movie as a flash-back, or will geriatric-Kirk and young-Kirk meet? (Spock to Kirk: "Jim, if you don't go on this mission, we will never meet!").
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - iPhone 3rd party development support petition

Submitted by Alex Speller
Alex Speller writes: According to http://www.petitiononline.com/iphone/petition.html :

"Apple's major competitors in this space (Palm, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile) were given a thorough drubbing by Steve Jobs during his latest MacWorld keynote. But all of these platforms allow easy, open 3rd-party development by developers large and small. Even the vast majority of non-"smart" mobile phones allow the installation of mobile Java applications, including complex games. In the case of Palm, it is possible to develop and distribute applications with no licensing fees and no software investment. As a result, the thousands of free and shareware applications developed by the community are largely considered the platform's biggest asset.

The software included with the iPhone is incredible, with functionality and user interfaces far superior to the standard software included with any other handheld. But as amazing as it is, it's just not enough. With a tiny investment, any smartphone can be enabled to edit Office documents, connect to chat networks, read electronic books, manage a diet, and play games. All of these activities would be better, easier, faster and more enjoyable on the iPhone, so it breaks our heart to know that, if Apple maintains its closed stance, none of this potential will be realized. "
Education

Global Warming Only a Theory, Says School Board 1089

Posted by Zonk from the i'd-think-seattle-would-know-about-rain dept.
BendingSpoons writes "A Seattle school board has placed a moratorium on screenings of 'An Inconvenient Truth', having found its subject matter too controversial. Echoing the language of the evolution debate, the school board found that students must be told that global warming is only a theory and presented with an opposing viewpoint. The ban was prompted by the complaints of a parent: '"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."'"
Portables

Submission + - Dell accused of selling defective notebooks-again

Submitted by crowbarsarefornerdyg
crowbarsarefornerdyg writes: Dell's in the courts again, except this time Sony isn't to blame. The lawsuit stems from overheating Inspiron laptops. I own one (I inherited it, ok!) and it has overheated since we got it. Dell's answer? Keep it cleaned out. From TFA:

'A lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court alleges that Dell notebooks suffer from design defects that cause premature failure of the motherboard due to overheating.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of an Ontario owner of an Inspiron PC, according to articles by the Canadian Press and the Associated Press. It claims that Dell knew or should have known of the defects but sold the notebooks anyway.'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/12/inspiron_d efect_lawsuit/
Biotech

Submission + - Protien in HIV functions as resistor

Submitted by
TwilightXaos
TwilightXaos writes: "Leor Weinberger and Thomas Shenk, two researchers at Princeton, have discovered a new model for how the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) enters and exits dormancy. They claim it functions as a resistor, this is in contrast to other types of regulation models found in other viruses and animals. From the abstract:

Here we show that a dissipative feedback resistor, composed of enzymatic interconversion of the transactivator, converts transactivation circuits into excitable systems that generate transient pulses of expression, which decay to zero. We use HIV-1 as a model system and analyze single-cell expression kinetics to explore whether the HIV-1 transactivator of transcription (Tat) uses a resistor to shut off transactivation. The Tat feedback circuit was found to lack bi-stability and Tat self-cooperativity but exhibited a pulse of activity upon transactivation, all in agreement with the feedback resistor model.

The research could lead to an effective treatment of the HIV virus, and has the possibility of increasing understanding of other viruses like herpes.
Additionally hindu.com has a article on the findings."
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - PS3 piling up in retail stores

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Seems like Playstation are piling up at retail stores around the US. I just called a few Best Buys around the Bay Area and sure enough, they are available, which is shocking given that it is Silicon Valley, plus the Bay Area is richer than most and could probably afford the $600 price tag. Meanwhile Wiis are sold out everywhere. Is Sony's strategy completely failing? Will they have to drop the price soon in order to remain competitive?

Microsoft's Battle For Software Mindshare 245

Posted by Zonk from the 40-million-open-office-users-say-meh dept.
chemicaloli writes to mention a BBC article about Microsoft's battle to convince users they need to buy new software. The article explores the changes to the UI in Microsoft Office 2007. Along with the changes prompted by the adoption of the 'Ribbon', the article also looks at some of the software's new features. From the article: "'One of the biggest challenges... is to fight that perception that old versions of software are good enough,' said Microsoft's Chris Capossela. Office 2007 goes on sale to business on 30 November, the same date new operating system Vista is launched. 'Our business model of course allows you to keep using Office 2003 — the software doesn't really expire,' said Mr Capossela, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Business Division. Many large businesses will have Office 2007 delivered as part of existing IT contracts but small business and individual consumers will need persuading to make the change."

Yahoo! Goes To Print 42

Posted by Zonk from the so-this-would-be-the-jelly-then dept.
PreacherTom writes "In response to the 'peanut-butter' memo and a major drop in stock prices since January, Yahoo! is taking things in a new direction: local. Yesterday, they announced a partnership with 176 newspapers in an attempt to expand into local advertising. As part of the deal, newspapers will give their classified advertisers the option of also posting employment ads on Yahoo's HotJobs network. The newspapers stand to benefit by exposing customers to Yahoo's audience of 130 million unique monthly visitors while Yahoo gains a relationship with local advertisers. Revenue will then be shared."

Students Put UCLA Taser Video On YouTube 1583

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the police-buddhism-studies dept.
dircha writes "As widely reported, an incident in which Iranian-American student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was tasered up to five times by UCLA police on Friday, has been captured by a fellow student using a video enabled cell phone and published to YouTube. From the Daily Bruin: 'At around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Tabatabainejad, a fourth-year Middle Eastern and North African studies and philosophy student, was asked to leave the library for failing to present his BruinCard during a random check. The 23-year-old student was hit with a Taser five times when he did not leave quickly and cooperatively upon being asked to do so.' In a story which has raised concerns of racial profiling, police brutality and the health risks of taser use, the ubiquity of video cell phone technology has given us a first hand record of an incident which might otherwise have been a he-said, she-said affair. While the publishing of the video to YouTube has given the issue compelling popular exposure beyond the immediate campus community."

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