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Networking

Submission + - Brookline, MA launches municipal Wi-Fi (boston.com)

Submitted by keithjr
keithjr writes: The city of Brookline, MA plans to open the first border-to-border Wi-Fi network open to commerical and residential use. The wireless canvas, touted as the first of its kind, has been free for preview by Brookline residents. Upon launch, it will be available with a subscription fee. The multi-use service network will also serve as a means of relaying public safety information among city departments, as well as providing Internet access. Free Internet service will also be available in various parks and hotspots throughout the town. The official "wirecutting" information can be found at the Brookline Wireless official website.
Utilities (Apple)

Submission + - Review of Parallels 3.0 Desktop for Mac (lunapark6.com)

Submitted by
Michael
Michael writes: "http://lunapark6.com/parallels-desktop-30-for-mac. html Article reviews the latest virtualization software from Parallels. Several new features including 3D support, Snapshot, Parallels Explorer and Parallels SmartSelect have been included in Parallels 3.0. The review covers all the new features and finds most of the new features well done except, SmartSelect. That application does pose a significant security risk for the OS X desktop. Besides SmartSelect the review found Parallels 3.0 to be a worthy upgrade."
Security

Submission + - iPhone has a built-in spyware module? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by pilok22
pilok22 writes: Russian underground hackers released a white paper with analysis of iPhone firmware. They found a very suspicious function which can steal all personal information from an iPhone.
Google

Submission + - Google Streetview Camera Cars Set to Invade USA (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by
berberine
berberine writes: "A camera-toting tipster saw what appeared to be a giant armada of Chevy Cobalt cars in the Google parking lot, getting ready to take pictures of the entire world (or thereabouts) with special 360 cameras. The tipster says he followed a Google camera van as it cruised back to its Mountain View, California, lair yesterday after that van finished a session of picture taking for Google's Streetview navigation site."
The Media

Submission + - AT&T quietly offers $10 DSL plan

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NEW YORK — Without any sort of fanfare, AT&T Inc. has started offering a broadband Internet service for $10 a month , half the price of its cheapest advertised plan. The DSL, or digital subscriber line, plan introduced Saturday is part of the concessions made by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission to get its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved last December.
Media (Apple)

Will The iPhone Kill The iPod? 338

Posted by Hemos from the most-likely-yes dept.
Edward Sinovian writes "According to Cnet.co.uk, the days of MP3 players, digital cameras and satellite navigation systems are numbered with cell phones about to take center stage. "PDAs have already been crushed by smart phones and the same thing looks to be happening with standalone MP3 players, particularly the smaller flash ones — a theory supported by Apple's recent entry into the world of music phones. If you then take into consideration the convergence of camera, GPS, TV and laptop-like functionality into mobile phones, it raises the question of how long it's going to take before all you need is a mobile phone." With that in mind, do you think that the iPhone will kill the iPod?"
Businesses

Submission + - SCOTUS Case May End Sale Prices

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: If you own a mom & pop store, and can't get rid of some of your inventory, you can always clear out some shelf space by holding a sale. If the Supreme Court sides with business interests in a case they heard today, however, such sales may no longer be possible.

Since 1911, it has been illegal for manufacturers to force retailers into price manipulating agreements that forbid the retailer from selling the manufacturer's product for less than a certain price. This means that individual retailers get to decide how much they sell their products for, and the market gets to decide what the prices should be. Today, however, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case seeking to overturn this longstanding rule. Should the Court do so, it would drive up consumer prices as retailers could be forced into agreements that prevent them from offering discounts or trying to offer lower prices than their competitors. This case is particularly salient in the era of internet shopping. Thanks to Google, consumers are now able to shop around to multiple retailers and find the best price for whatever goods they are seeking. If the Supreme Court overturns the 1911 ban on price floors, internet consumers would no longer have this advantage.
Handhelds

Submission + - Anti-texting while driving movement heats up

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Legislatures on both coasts are looking at developing laws against texting (ala Blackberries and other devices) and driving. Three South Jersey lawmakers say texting while driving is even more dangerous than using a cell phone because it requires drivers to divert their hands and eyes. And according to a Philadelphia Inquirer story they've introduced a bill to ban it. And the aren't the only ones. Washington's legislature has a pending bill making it a primary offense to text and drive. "Primary" means law officers can stop anyone they see texting behind the wheel; they do not need another reason to make the stop. The state House already approved the bill, backed by the Washington State Patrol. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1291 2"
Businesses

Submission + - The next Silicon Valley...Siberia???

Submitted by
Iberian
Iberian writes: "Fortune magazine writes about the stunning phoenix like birth of IT in the tundra of Siberia. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_arc hive/2007/04/02/8403482/index.htm

From the article:

Tapping brain resources, then, becomes a priority. Every year, Russia graduates as many science and technology specialists as India — 200,000 — although Russia is 80 percent smaller by population. Russian science and technology hold a unique position in the world, with a tradition of critical thinking and developmental breakthrough, along with a professional hunger born of the proximity to actual hunger."
Science

New State of Matter Boosts Quantum Computation 41

Posted by kdawson from the string-net-liquid dept.
Matthew Sparkes writes "In theory, quantum computers can be superior to classical computers for some kinds of problems; in practice their building blocks, qubits, are extremely fragile. Even a slight knock can destroy information. A radical solution to this problem was proposed in the 80's — instead of storing qubits in properties of particles, such as an electron's spin, it was suggested that qubits could be encoded into properties shared by the whole material, and so would be harder to disrupt. Unfortunately, no material with the needed properties existed. Scientists now think they have made a material in the lab, thought to be an example of a new state of matter, that might do the trick. It's an ultra-purified form of a mineral, herbertsmithite, first discovered in Chile in 1972. Its electrons are arranged in a triangular lattice. Researchers say it could become the silicon of the quantum computing era."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows Update Set IE as Default Browser?

Submitted by terloon
terloon writes: I recently got an automatic update for Windows XP. After the installation, after opting to reboot at a later time, I started Firefox. At this point, it asked me that Firefox wasn't my current default browser. Firefox, before the update, was my default browser. Does Microsoft automatically change this on every update?
User Journal

Journal Journal: All story submissions should be journal entries! 6

Journal by drinkypoo

While perusing the Firehose I came to the realization that most of those stories are going to be lost to antiquity. Oh, they'll be discussed on other websites, but slashdot actually provides us journal functionality so that they can be discussed here even if your submission doesn't make it as a story.

It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Cure Space Madness with Duct Tape, Tranqs

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Concerns were raised about astronaut instability after the breakdown of Lisa Nowak but NASA already has detailed written procedures for this scenario: Duct Tape. That's right, the universal "fixes everything but marriages" silver strip of stickiness is apparently the answer when your crewmate's going ape. From the article, "The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say the astronaut's crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary." Well, I'm glad NASA thought of everything!"
Spam

Verizon Wins Injunction Against Text Spammer 92

Posted by Zonk from the seek-another-line-of-business dept.
bulled writes "CNet is running a story illustrating the US court system's ongoing harsh opinion about unwarranted communications of any kind. Verizon Wireless recently won a lawsuit against a company that was delivering massive numbers of spam text messages to its customers. Specialized Programming and Marketing and Henderson was ordered to pay more than $200,000 in damages to Verizon Wireless, some two years after Verizon filed the suit against the company. In 2005 Specialized Programming sent some 100,000 emails to Verizon phones. Verizon now has an injunction against the Marketing firm, another win for a company that has developed a reputation for going after spammers."

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