zilym - Slashdot User

Submission + - Researcher says Sears downloads spyware (networkworld.com)

Submitted by BobB-NW on Tuesday January 01, 2008 @09:29PM

BobB-NW writes: Sears and Kmart customers who sign up for a new marketing program may be giving up more private information than they'd bargained for, a prominent anti-spyware researcher claims. According to Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Ben Edelman, [cq] Sears Holdings' My SHC Community program falls short of U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) standards by failing to notify users exactly what happens when they download the company's marketing software.

Feed Science Daily: Fresh Fossil Evidence Of Eye Forerunner Uncovered (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Tuesday January 01, 2008 @09:12PM

Ancient armored fish fossils from Australia present some of the first definite fossil evidence of a forerunner to the human eye. Researchers analyzed the fossilized remains of 400-million-year-old Devonian placoderms -- jawed ancestors of modern fish whose bodies were protected by thick bony armor. Palaeobiologists discovered that unlike all living vertebrate animals -- which includes everything from the jawless lamprey fish to humans -- placoderms had a different arrangement of muscles and nerves supporting the eyeball -- evidence of an "intermediate stage" between the evolution of jawless and jawed vertebrates.

Submission + - Egypt to Copyright Pyramids and Sphynx (google.com)

Submitted by empaler on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @06:01PM

empaler writes: We all know the usual pro-copyright arguments. Most of them hinge on the fact that the individual or company that has a copyright needs an incentive to make something that is copyrightable, and therefore ensure a revenue stream in a period after the copyright has been granted. In a never-surpassed move, Egypt is working on legislation to extend copyright well above 3000 years — they are going to start claiming royalties for using likenesses of the Sphynx and the Pyramids. It is still unclear whether the original intent of the Pyramids included "making sure them bastards pay for a plastic copy in 3000 years" alongside "securing a pathway to the heavens for the God King". Speaking as a Greenlandic national, I want dibs on ice cubes.

Submission + - A new low in restrictive software licensing 4

Submitted by Coutal on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @05:52PM

Coutal writes: Licensing is usually looked upon as a burden by software customers, although one we're grudgingly used to living with. However, at times one encounters new lows which can still invoke sufficient outrage — a stealable license.
Recently, my i-go based pocket pc navigation unit was stolen. However, I still retained my valid serial number, certificate of authenticity, proof of purchase and even a backup of the software. I figured restoring my software to another device should be a matter of unit service or (tops) minimal fee for media restoration. Tech support, however, had other ideas in mind. They informed me that my license was stolen with the unit. No amount of explanation of the lack of logic in that statement made through. They insisted that my backups were also void because I no longer have the original SD card and that I am not allowed to use them (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of backup, as the device only stores extremely little other data than the original software — no more than a few points of interest and marginal settings).

Submission + - Mario Christmas Mural Video (metacafe.com)

Submitted by

Daniel LeBlanc

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @04:56PM

Daniel LeBlanc writes: "Just in time for the Christmas Season, I drew an NES 8-Bit styled mural on the side of my high school. The mural consists of Yoshi pulling a sled with a Santa Mario and an Elf Toad. The video of the mural coming together can be found at: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1002353/super_marios_sleigh_ride_mural/ And a full photo gallery of the mural is at: http://solidstatesociety.com/fullcircle.php I hope yall enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!"

Submission + - Top solid state disks and TB drive review (computerworld.com) 3

Submitted by

Lucas123

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @03:45PM

Lucas123 writes: "Computerworld has reviewed six of the latest hard disk drives that include 32GB and 64GB solid state disks, a low-energy consumption "green" drive and several terabyte-size drives. With the exception of capacity, the solid state disk drives appear to beat spinning disk in every category, from CPU utilization, energy consumption and read/writes. The Samsung SSD drive was the most impressive with a read speed of 100MB/sec and write speed of 80 MB/sec, compared to an average 59MB/sec and 60MB/sec read/write speed for a traditional hard drive."

Submission + - Microsoft Complains About Google's Monopoly Abuse (eweek.com)

Submitted by

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @02:39PM

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Frustrated at the FTC's blessing of the Google/Doubleclick merger, Microsoft is complaining to the EU. Its latest filings detail how the merger would give Google a stranglehold on the advertising industry. While these complaints aren't new, the diagram [PDF] Microsoft created gives you an interesting look at the sort of competition Microsoft fears from Google."

Submission + - Doping: Beyond Sports? (latimes.com)

Submitted by runamock on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @12:16AM

runamock writes: The Los Angeles Times ran a story on the growing use of 'mind drugs': 'Forget sports doping. The next frontier is brain doping.. Despite the potential side effects, academics, classical musicians, corporate executives, students and even professional poker players have embraced the drugs to clarify their minds, improve their concentration or control their emotions.. Unlike the anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and blood-oxygen boosters that plague athletic competitions, the brain drugs haven't provoked similar outrage. People who take them say the drugs aren't giving them an unfair advantage but merely allow them to make the most of their hard-earned skills.'

Journal Journal: Your favorite keyboard? 4

Journal by larry bagina on Monday December 24, 2007 @11:47PM

Keyboards seem to be the sort of thing many slashdotters are over emotional about (and why not? You do spend a significant amount of time using one). I'm in the market for a new keyboard (for a Mac, but I can scrape off the window key). On the mac side, the best keyboard seems to be either a Apple Extended Keyboard (or II) plus an ADB/USB adapter or a Matias tactile pro.

Submission + - Nanosolar ships first $1/watt panels (nanosolar.com)

Submitted by

ThreeGigs

on Thursday December 20, 2007 @03:32PM

ThreeGigs writes: "After five years of development and $100 million in funding, solar panel maker Nanosolar has begun shipping their $1.00 per watt panels. At those prices, solar power cheaper than coal has finally become a reality. The bad news? The next 18 months worth of production from their 600,000 square foot facility are already sold. Still, it's a revolution in the making."

Submission + - Norwegian govenment chooses ODF

Submitted by runesk on Thursday December 20, 2007 @03:32PM

runesk writes: A press release from the Norwegian govenment yesterday declares that HTML, PDF and ODF is the only formats allowed for governmental information published on the Internet from 2009-01-01. Information can still be published in other formats, as long as it is also published in one of allowed formats. All governmental agencies is also supposed to be able to receive documents in the same formats from the public. The work for making a regulation for municipals subordinate to the same is also started, and is supposed to be approved within 2009-01-01. Already published information in other formates is to be converted within 2014.

Submission + - IBM virtual world defies laws of physics (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Thursday December 20, 2007 @03:26PM

jbrodkin writes: "IBM has a unique take on virtual worlds for business use. Rather than strictly adhering to the laws of physics, IBM is letting its employees hold virtual meetings up in the air and under water, and giving them wacky chores such as kicking a giant boulder 1,400 feet. "Why do we need walls and ceilings to do a meeting?" asks Michael Ackerbauer of IBM, who is building the company's virtual world, called the Metaverse. "We've had meetings under water and up in the air. Meetings are where you want them to be." There have been some mixed reactions to the unconventional model, Ackerbauer admits. "Some are saying 'wow, this is great, I'm ready to go.' Others are scratching their heads," he says."

Submission + - Press copies unaudited information from Wikipedia (arne-nordmann.de)

Submitted by

dotxp

on Thursday December 20, 2007 @03:25PM

dotxp writes: "German mass media seem to copy extensively from Wikipedia without re-auditing the information. A German student added a 3 little words to a German wikipedia article for fun, which were copied by many highly frequented websites, printed newspapers and they even occured in the famous game show "Wer wird Millionär" ("who will be millionair"). The student modiefied an article about the German women-soccer team winning the world championship in 1989. Every member of the team received a coffee set back then, as a present from the German Federal President. The unnamed student added "and an ironing-board in addition" to this article, at the time when the German team won in again in 2007. Even famous websites like Spiegel-Online (http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/0,1518,508977,00.html) and Stern.de (http://www.stern.de/sport-motor/fussball/:WM-Party-Hurra,-Weltmeister/599260.html) copied these words when reporting about the recent victory. The whole story can be read on http://de.arne-nordmann.de/Blog/kaffeeserviceundbuegelbrett (German)."

Feed Tom's Hardware: Samsung Ships 320 GB 2.5" Hard Drive (pheedo.com)

From feed by thfeed on Thursday December 20, 2007 @03:12PM

Samsung rolled out a new version of its Spinpoint 2.5" hard drive series. The new drive is the second drive in the market to offer a capacity of 320 GB in this form factor.

Submission + - Silicon Valley Startup ships $1 / Watt solar panel (andrewrondeau.com)

Submitted by

GWBasic

on Thursday December 20, 2007 @03:10PM

GWBasic writes: "At $1 per Watt, the iTunes of Solar Energy Has Arrived A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar shipped its first solar panels — priced at $1 a watt. That's the price at which solar energy gets cheaper than coal. While other companies have been focusing their efforts on increasing the efficiency of solar panels, Nanosolar took a different approach. It focused on manufacturing."

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