1019 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Patent Ruling Smacks SCO Group (thestreet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13, 2007 @02:29PM

An anonymous reader writes: A judge's slap-down of SCO Group's (SCOX — Cramer's Take — Stockpickr — Rating) Unix patent pretensions may have dealt it a final blow. A judge in the U.S. District Court for Utah sided with Novell (NOVL — Cramer's Take — Stockpickr — Rating) on most of SCO's claims for owning Unix patents, parts of which are the basis for open-source Linux software, which Novell sells. Shares in Lindon, Utah-based SCO Group were down $1.12, or 71.9%, to 44 cents Monday. Back in 2003, the stock traded near $20 a share. It has since shrunk to a micro-cap stock, with revenue of $26.8 million in 2006. SCO had claimed to own substantial chunks of the Unix code and threatened to sue IBM (IBM — Cramer's Take — Stockpickr — Rating) and nearly everybody else in the open-source industry, including customers, for reparations. "Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights," U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball, wrote in Friday's decision. Furthermore, Novell can require SCO to waive claims against IBM, he ruled. Novell and IBM have a long-standing partnership in furthering the use of open-source Linux software in the enterprise. "Today's court ruling vindicates the position Novell has taken ... and it settles the issue of who owns the copyrights of Unix in Novell's favor," Joe LaSala, Novell general counsel, said in a statement issued Friday. "The court's ruling has cut out the core of SCO's case and, as a result, eliminates SCO's threat to the Linux community." We are extremely pleased with the outcome," LaSala stated. Novell was up 32 cents, or 5%, to $6.74. SCO Group could not be reached for comment. SCO Group's revenue for the first two quarters of 2007 was down 16.9% year on year, to $14.5 million. The majority of its revenue is Unix-related. The company posted a loss of 5 cents per share for each of those quarters. SCO Group spent just over $1 million on litigation costs in the second quarter.

Submission + - Nanoglue Trumps Elmer's Glue

Submitted by

LegoDoug

on Thursday May 17, 2007 @10:35AM

LegoDoug writes: "CHICAGO (Reuters) — A cheap glue that gets stronger at high temperatures might be useful around the house, but make it 100,000 times thinner than a human hair and you have nanoglue, a sticky substance that could help make extremely tiny computer chips, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. Read more about this story here at Reuters."

Submission + - A Truly Inconvenient Truth

Submitted by

mattatwork

on Monday April 30, 2007 @11:25AM

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."

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

Submitted by

narramissic

on Monday April 30, 2007 @11:20AM

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."

Submission + - US Mint Limits Exportation & Melting of Coins

Submitted by kenheut on Thursday April 19, 2007 @11:38AM

kenheut writes: The United States Mint today announced [usmint.gov] a final rule to limit the exportation, melting, or treatment of one-cent (penny) and 5-cent (nickel) United States coins, to safeguard against a potential shortage of these coins in circulation. The rising commodity prices of copper, nickel and zinc have increased the value of the metal in both pennies and nickels so that the content of these coins now exceeds their face value. There is concern that speculators could remove pennies and nickels from circulation and sell them as scrap for profit.
Perhaps it's finally time to eliminate the penny. It has outlived its practical value.

Submission + - Microsoft's 3$ Bundle for Developing Countries

Submitted by

linumax

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @11:32AM

linumax writes: "Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates launched an initiative here Thursday aimed at bridging the digital divide between technologically advanced and developing countries. The initiative, an expansion of Microsoft's "Unlimited Potential" strategy, involves offering governments a $3 software package called the Student Innovation Suite. It includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Mail desktop."

Submission + - John McCain's MySpace Page "Pranked"

Submitted by

(EB)nickm

on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @05:41PM

(EB)nickm writes: "Looks as though a staffer didn't read the fine print of the "credit" clause when selecting a template for presidential hopeful John McCain's MySpace page. In retaliation, the template author and CEO of Newsvine, Mike Davidson, changed the template's main image to contain the following message:

Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage...particularly marriage between two passionate females.
Original story and screen capture at TechCrunch."

Submission + - RIAA Backs Down After Receiving Stern Letter

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @05:35PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In SONY BMG v. Merchant, in California, the defendant's lawyer wrote the RIAA a rather stern letter recounting how weak the RIAA's evidence is, referring to the deposition of the RIAA's expert witness (see Slashdot commentary), and threatening a malicious prosecution lawsuit. The very same day the RIAA put its tail between its legs and dropped the case, filing a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal. About an hour earlier NYCL had termed the letter a "model letter"; maybe he was right."

Submission + - Vista Sales Numbers Don't Add Up

Submitted by Overly Critical Guy on Tuesday March 27, 2007 @04:53PM

Overly Critical Guy writes: Vista's sales numbers don't add up according to Joe Wilcox of Microsoft-Watch. Going through the numbers and citing NPD, Gartner, and IDC, Wilcox describes the difference between licenses sold to manufacturers and actual consumer purchases, noting that there haven't been 20 million PCs sold since Jan. 30, contrary to Microsoft's numbers. In fact, only 3 million PCs have been sold since the start of the year.

Submission + - An Introduction to the Binary System

Submitted by Johnsnow on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @09:10AM

Johnsnow writes: The GeeksAreSexy blog has a great intro presenting the basics on how the binary system works. From the article: "As you already know, counting in decimals is done by using 10 digits, from 0 to 9. Each time we jump a "column" (from 9 to 10), we add 1 digit to our total and reset all subsequent numbers to 0 (999 becomes 1000). The binary system works exactly the same way, but instead of using digits that goes from 0 to 9, we keep things simple and only use 0's and 1's, just like computers do."

Submission + - Teacher Suspended After Pro-gay Article is Printed

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @09:00AM

An anonymous reader writes: A few months ago, after a student wrote an article for her school newspaper saying that people who are gay should be treated the same as everyone else, the journalism advisor was written up for insubordination. Now she has been placed on paid leave. People planned on attending the school board meeting, but once there, they were informed that they couldn't ask any questions about the situation to protect the teacher. Board president Rev. Stephen Terry said the board could not be swayed in any way before an appeal.

"He said his decision was based on state law, but when Jack Groch, the Indiana State Teachers representative for East Allen, asked what the statute was, he was told he was out of order."
A reprint of the student's original "offending" story can be found on a local news website. The class at Woodlan has stopped publishing their newspaper entirely, and all other schools are having a new policy enforced on them by the school board that states that none of the newspapers are open forum, and that all issues must be approved by the school principal before going to print. One can only wonder whether or not the teacher will be fired in the end.

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