Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Perl

Free Resources for Windows Perl Development 117

Posted by kdawson from the christmas-present dept.
jamie pointed out an important announcement in the Perl community. Adam Kennedy, known as Alias, developed Strawberry Perl to "make Win32 a truly first class citizen of the Perl platform world." Over the last year, major CPAN modules have used Strawberry Perl to get to releases that work trouble-free on Windows. But the tens of thousands of smaller modules on CPAN are lagging, in many cases because of lack of access to a Windows environment for development and testing. Now Alias has worked with Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab to provide for every CPAN author free access to a centrally-hosted virtual machine environment containing every major version of Windows. "More information (and press releases) will follow, the entire program under which this partnership will be run is so new it's only just been given a name, so some of the organisational details will ironed out as we go. But for now, to all the CPAN authors, all I have to add is... Merry Christmas. P.S. Or your appropriate equivalent religious or non-religious event, if any, occurring during the month of December, etc., etc."
The Internet

CRTC Rules Bell Can Squeeze Downloads 245

Posted by samzenpus from the throttle-away dept.
pparsons writes "Bell Canada Inc. will not have to suspend its practice of 'shaping' traffic on the Internet after a group of companies that resell access to Bell's network complained their customers were also being negatively affected. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today released a decision that denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request that Bell be ordered to cease its application of the practice to its wholesale customers."
The Courts

The Shady Business Practices of Classmates.com 275

Posted by timothy from the let-her-stalk-you-for-a-change dept.
eldavojohn writes ""Some of your classmates are trying to contact you!" reads one e-mail. Attempts to remove yourself from the mailing list may only result in more mailings from the site of ill repute. Well, Ars Techica brings us news of a suit against Classmates.com. You don't need to look far for anti-classmates.com sentiment spreading like wild fire across the tubes." Good next target: ads that say "you've already won" some expensive toy.
Patents

Submission + - Navy's Sound Weapon

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wired News reports that the Navy has patented a new "sound weapon" that would use acoustic beams to blast things out of the water:

Imagine a day when a submarine could blast a target to smithereens using nothing more than acoustic energy. That's the idea behind a recently granted U.S. Navy patent for a cavitation weapon. The powerful weapon would use sonar to generate "acoustic remote cavitation," i.e. a big pressure bubble, that would destroy everything from torpedoes to mines. As the patent describes:



A method is disclosed of generating a predetermined field of cavitation around a remote target in an underwater environment. The method includes the steps of identifying a remote target location, generating at least two acoustic beams, each at a high power output, from an underwater acoustic source, and controlling the generated acoustic beams to intersect with each other at the remote target location and thereby create a destructive cavitation field at the intersection of the beams. The acoustic source and target can be located in unconfined underwater space and at a distance of at least 100 m apart.

Feed DIY solar heater constructed with aluminum cans (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

A solar-powered air conditioner doesn't do one much good during a Vermont winter, but rather than cranking on the heater (or huddling under the heated Hello Kitty mat) just to heat things up in a relatively small garage, a clever DIYer set out to concoct his own solar heater using scrap parts and a bit of free time. The solar wall was primarily built with black-painted soda cans, a wooden wall, plexiglass cover, and an inlet and outlet to channel the air around. The homegrown "solar furnace" captured the sunlight beaming onto the south side of the building, and as cool air found its way into the toasty cans and rose through drilled out portals, it managed to heat up a respectable 15-degrees Fahrenheit before escaping into the garage. The creator did note that his next attempt would sport a relocated inlet and be much larger in size, but if you're interested in putting a few in-the-way parts to good use next winter, be sure to hit the read link for a pictorial how-to.

[Via HackNMod, thanks Joe]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft wins AT&T patent battle

Submitted by
Hanners1979
Hanners1979 writes: "BBC News reports on the verdict of a long-running case in the US Supreme Court about the reach of US patent law, where Microsoft admitted to breaching an AT&T-held patent in the US, while refusing to accept liability for any breaches occuring outside of the country. The court upheld Microsoft's take on the case, which could well have intriguing ramifications both for patent law and any future cases against Microsoft themselves."
Power

Submission + - A Truly Inconvenient Truth

Submitted by
mattatwork
mattatwork writes: "I received an interesting email from my mother-in-law, and then had it forwarded again by my wife. According to WorldNetDaily, Compact Flourescent lamps (or CFL's) contain a significant amount of Mercury. While you're saving the world from global warming, you're also putting yourself and other carbon based life forms at risk to mercury poisoning. One of the victims of a CFL's mercury found out the hard and high priced way that removing the mercury couldn't be done with a simple vacuum, but by a specialized enviremental cleanup firm for around $2000. You would think someone like Al Gore, father of the Internet, would think twice before pushing a technology like CFL, still in its infancy, on consumers who don't or didn't know the risks. I know that when I get home tonight, I'm taking out my CFL's and replacing them with good ol' incandescents."
Microsoft

Submission + - Future Zunes: Going Where Apple Hasn't Gone Before

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "To hit on a winning product or service, Microsoft is going to have to 'find ways of being where Apple isn't and find ways of growing the overall market,' says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. But what Microsoft really has planned for future Zunes may be something much less remarkable. In the next month or so, as Microsoft reveals more about its vision, we'll likely see offerings in the three main categories in the sector: higher-end video players, mid-range music-centric devices such as the iPod Nano, and low-end USB devices such as the iPod Shuffle."
Sony

Submission + - Sony PR as in touch with the world as ever

Submitted by JunkmanUK
JunkmanUK writes: So Sony have caused media outrage again, not by inflicting more DRM on the unsuspecting public, but this time by parading topless women around in front of a goat carcass and inviting partygoers to eat offal from inside the dead creatures stomach. Bet you didn't see that one coming... Of course it's all a shock tactic and God of War II, which they're promoting, will be a best selling game.
Businesses

Submission + - The Future of AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HardOCP predicts Intel heavy into workstation video cards, AMD heavy into integrated mobile CPU/GPU combos, and the demise of NVIDIA as an industry leader. "One of the underlying business models that have propelled NVIDIA to its immense success has been "bigger, stronger, faster." With that have come bigger wafers and much more power. While the 8800 series GPU is an engineering marvel, I do not know if it is a testament to NVIDIA's future. At this time I do not think that NVIDIA has the needed elegance in engineering to compete with the AMD and Intel of the future unless they make sweeping changes."
Robotics

Submission + - From Dream to Marketplace: Flying Robot's Inventor

Submitted by
egadfly
egadfly writes: "Sean Frawley was still in high school when the vision hit him: he would create a robot that flies by flapping its wings. In this interview, the now 22 year old Frawley traces his invention of the Dragonfly — from brainstorm to mass production. He describes creating a practical fly weight by painstakingly shaving plastic from the gears of his prototype , experimenting with carbon fiber for durability, and finding a Pacific Rim manufacturer to produce a low-cost version of the toy. He has walked where many of us dream of going."

Slashdot Top Deals

This file will self-destruct in five minutes.

Close