Baumi - Slashdot User

Submission + - New images of deep Martian caves

Submitted by untree on Monday May 28, 2007 @06:15PM

untree writes: The Astronomy Picture of the Day today is an image recently taken by the HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. More information is available on the Planetary Society blog, including a description of the paper (pdf) that describes this series of caves.

From the image description:

"Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist."

And for fans of traditional units of measure, this cave entrance is about the size of a football field.

Submission + - Store Burns Books to Protest Decline in Reading

Submitted by

Frosty Piss

on Monday May 28, 2007 @06:00PM

Frosty Piss writes: "Tom Wayne amassed thousands of books in a warehouse during the 10 years he has run his used book store, Prospero's Books. But wanting to thin out his collection, he found he couldn't even give away books to libraries or thrift shops, which said they were full. So Wayne began burning his books protest what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word. 'This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today,' Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books. The fire blazed for about 50 minutes before the Fire Department put it out because Wayne didn't have a permit to burn them."

Submission + - Storing Music for Personal Use Online is Illegal

Submitted by

on Monday May 28, 2007 @05:38AM

An anonymous reader writes: In a court case of JASRAC vs. Image City, The Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling that says Image City's MYUTA service is guilty of copyright infringement. MYUTA is an online music storage service that allows users to upload music from their own CDs etc. to a central server from which they can download to their cellphones to listen to. Music uploaded to the central server is accessible only by the user who uploaded it and can only be downloaded to their cellphone. Despite the music only being stored for personal use, the ruling reasoned that the act of uploading music to a central server owned by a company is the equivalent of distributing music to that company. This has implications for other services such as Yahoo! Briefcase which could mean Yahoo! is gulity of copyright infringement if any of its users store music in their account for personal use. Google's translation can have a go at the original Japanese article.

Submission + - Microsoft is using Linux for their Servers!

Submitted by jhepoy on Monday May 28, 2007 @02:58AM

jhepoy writes: http://pinoygeek.org/2007/05/27/microsoft-is-using -linux-for-their-servers/ Yahoo.com is a consistent FreeBSD on their servers. Apple.com which is known for OSX as based in Unix is not surprising to see MacOSX and Linux running on their servers. The most surprising part is when I looked for Microsoft.com statistics and found out that they are running Linux on some of their web servers. The irony is that Microsoft is attacking Linux as an insecure OS which can be found on their Get The Facts campaign.

Submission + - Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward

Submitted by antikarma on Friday January 12, 2007 @06:23PM

antikarma writes: The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world. The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe. The group did not say in which direction the hands would move. But in a news release previewing an event next Wednesday, they said the change was based on "worsening nuclear, climate threats" to the world.

Submission + - iPhone not running OS X

Submitted by

rochlin

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @06:47PM

rochlin writes: "The iPhone looks to be running on a Samsung provided ARM core processor. That means it's not running on an Intel (or PPC) core. That means it's not running OS X in any meaningful sense (Apple can brand toilet paper as running OS X if they like). Darwin, the BSD based operating system that underlies what Apple has previously called OS X does not run on ARM processors. The Darwin/Apple Public Source licensing agreement says the source would have to be made available if it is modified and sold (paraphrased. read it yourself). A Cingular rep has said the iPhone version of the OS source will not be made available. It will be closed, like the iPod OS and not Darwin. So if it ain't Darwin, it ain't OS X (in any meaningful way).An InfoWorld article on an FBR Research report breaks down iPhone component providers and lists Samsung as the chip maker for the main application/video cpu. So, that leaves the question... What OS is this phone really running? (not Linux or the source would need to be open)"

Submission + - Inconvenient Truth Too Inconvenient For Schools

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11, 2007 @06:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Way School Board in Washington State recently restricted the showing of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's documentary about global warming and its potential effects on Earth. An email was sent to the school board that said "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD" prompting one of the board members to propose a moratorium on the showing of the film. The film is being made available to educators via participate.net, which also provides films such as Fast Food Nation, Murderball (not what it sounds like), and Stand Up. Up to 50,000 copies of An Inconvenient Truth are made available to teachers.

Submission + - My Wife's SSN was Hacked. What can I do?

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @06:27PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "My Wife received a letter yesterday from UCLA confirming that she was on the short list of 28,000 people who had their personal information compromised by the UCLA database hack reported last month: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucla12dec1 2,0,7111141.story?coll=la-home-headlines UCLA has suggested that she put out a fraud alert on her credit as precautionary measure. I'm skeptical of doing this since the data has already been compromised for over a year and the fraud alert only lasts for 90 days. In addition to this, fraud alerts do not mandate that creditors actually research any credit applications. It's merely advisory. It seems that filing a fraud alert on her credit will only inconvenience her and do little to actually deter anyone who wishes to abuse her social security number in the distant future or prevent any fraud that has already taken place. So far we have no evidence that her SSN has been abused in any way or that there has been fraudulent use of her credit or identity. I am of the understanding that changing her SSN is next to impossible. Are there any other steps that I can take to help protect her personal information?"

Journal Journal: Warner Solves Blu-ray, HD DVD War With Total HD

Journal by dare567k on Thursday January 11, 2007 @06:10PM

LAS VEGAS -- On Tuesday at CES, Warner Home Video made a splash with its announcement of the company's Total High-Def disc, a disc that will put an HD DVD-formatted movie on one side and a Blu-ray version on the other. In true Hollywood fashion, this announcement was an orchestrated and visual event, right down to the coordinated flashes of red and blue--Warner's way of representing the competing factions. HD DVD was red (an outgrowth of the deep-burgundy border that surrounds HD DVD cases), wh

Submission + - Blogger in fair use fight with ABC

Submitted by joeflies on Thursday January 11, 2007 @06:09PM

joeflies writes: The dispute arises out of whether the blogger can use clips of show recordings in grassroots activism against the station, and where to draw the line on digital free speech for both parties. The story has been picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle

Submission + - Robert Anton Wilson has passed away

Submitted by

romkey

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @06:08PM

romkey writes: "Robert Anton Wilson died at 4:50AM Pacific time on 01/11/07. Wilson was the co-author of Illuminatus!, the author of The Schrodinger's Cat trilogy, the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, the Cosmic Trigger Series, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, and many other books. An appeal for help to support him in his last days appeared on Slashdot back in October and over $80,000 was raised. His passing was reported on his blog, RAW Data."

Journal Journal: Is Google Falsely Flagging Harmless Sites?

Journal by dare567k on Thursday January 11, 2007 @05:54PM

Some Web site operators are complaining that Google is flagging their sites as containing malicious software when they believe their sites are harmless. At issue is an interstitial page that Google presents when a user clicks on a search result link to a site that Google believes contains malware. The page cautions users with the words "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!" Google does not block access to the site, but a user must manually type in the Web site address to con

Submission + - Mozilla: Apple's Safari could come to Windows

Submitted by mrbigsocks on Thursday January 11, 2007 @05:48PM

mrbigsocks writes: Will Apple release a version of its Safari browser for Windows? The Mozilla Foundation seems to believe such a move is a distinct possibility. Buried in the wiki information the Mozilla Foundation posted this week about its future plans for Firefox is a statement under the "Observations & Assumptions" section that reads: "Apple may have Safari on Windows with likely ties to iTunes & .Mac"

Submission + - Dead birds leave officials scratching heads

Submitted by xlordtyrantx on Thursday January 11, 2007 @05:25PM

xlordtyrantx writes: From the article: "Two towns, in two separate continents, have reported the mysterious dropping of thousands of dead birds out of the sky." This is a very odd event that has this Austin local worried. What does Slashdot think? http://www.dailyindia.com/show/102198.php/Dead-bir ds-fall-from-the-skies-in-Australia-and-America

Submission + - Senator to FCC: no broadcast flag for you!

Submitted by Flag waver on Thursday January 11, 2007 @04:50PM

Flag waver writes: Senator John Sununu (R-NH) will introduce legislation that will prevent the FCC from creating technology mandates for the consumer electronics industry. As a result, the FCC would be hamstrung in its efforts to revive the broadcast flag. '"The FCC seems to be under the belief that it should occasionally impose technology mandates," Sununu said in a statement. "These misguided requirements distort the marketplace by forcing industry to adopt agency-blessed solutions rather than allow innovative and competitive approaches to develop."' Sen. Sununu previously tried without success to remove the broadcast flag provisions from the massive telecommunications bill that died before reaching the Senate floor during the last Congress.

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