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AMD

Submission + - AMD Phenom Processor Underwhelming (pcper.com)

Submitted by
SizeWise
SizeWise writes: "The Barcelona core is the first major update to AMD's CPU line up since the introduction of the Athlon 64 back in 2003 and is intended to keep the company going for several more years. While the server-based Barcelona launch was met with lukewarm results, the desktop Phenom processor was just launched and seems to be even more underwhelming. Running at only 2.2 GHz and 2.3 GHz, much lower than the 2.8 GHz anticipated back in June, AMD's new flagship quad-core CPU has trouble keeping up with any Intel quad-core processors and even some dual-core parts. AMD will be cutting pricing to stay competitive but can an already financially unstable corporation keep this up?"
Red Hat Software

Submission + - Samba's GPLv3 sparks a heated debate in Fedora (fedoraproject.org)

Submitted by
yalsaif
yalsaif writes: "A heated debate is ongoing in fedora-devel mailing list about the implications of including the GPLv3 licensed version of Samba in Fedora 9. The discussion is centered around two topics. First, the effects of Samba's decision on KDE (specifically the licensing implications on the GPLv2 only kdebase and kdebase4). Second, whether Samba should reconsider it's decision to move to GPLv3. While some suggested that SMB support should be dropped temporarily, others suggested a compat-libsmbclient as a temporary replacement to libsmbclient (the SMB library used by kde). Introducing a compatibility package raised some concerns on package maintenance issues. Some argued that a compatibility package would only defer resolving the issue until something critical forces GPLv2 only projects to adopt a GPLv3 compatible license; however, others expressed optimism and argued that a transitional period would ease transition to GPLv3 and would give open source developers more time to make a decision regarding this issue."
Software

Submission + - Linux devicemaker sued in first U.S. test of GPL

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: For the first time in the U.S., a company is being taken to court for a GPL violation. The Software Freedom Law Center has sued Monsoon Multimedia over alleged GPL violations in the Hava, a place- and time-shifting TV recorder similar to the SlingBox. Interestingly, Monsoon Multimedia is run by a highly experienced international lawyer named Graham Radstone. According to his corporate biography, Radstone has an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge, England, and held the top legal spot at an unnamed "$1 billion private multinational company." He also reportedly held top management positions with Philip Morris, Pfizer, and DHL. Sounds like the makings of a good old legal donnybrook ahead.
The Courts

Submission + - First New Dismissal Motion Against RIAA Complaint

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Several weeks ago it was discovered that a California federal judge, in rejecting an RIAA application for default judgment, had dismissed the RIAA's standard complaint for failure to state a claim, calling it "conclusory" "boilerplate" "speculation" in Interscope v. Rodriguez. In the wake of that decision, a Queens, New York, woman being sued in Brooklyn federal court, Rae J Schwartz, has told the Court that she is making a motion to dismiss the complaint in her case, Elektra v. Schwartz. This is the first post-Interscope challenge to the RIAA's boilerplate, of which we are aware. This is the same case in which the RIAA had sent a letter to the Judge falsely indicating that AOL had "confirmed that defendant owned an internet access account through which copyrighted sound recordings were downloaded and distributed". Ms. Schwartz suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, but the RIAA has pressed the case against her."
The Courts

Submission + - Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act

Submitted by Shining Celebi
Shining Celebi writes: U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled in favor of the ACLU and struck down a portion of the revised USA PATRIOT Act this morning, forcing investigators to go through the courts to obtain approval before ordering ISPs to give up information on customers, instead of just sending them a National Security Letter. In the words of Judge Marrero, this use of National Security Letters "offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers."
The Media

Submission + - iPlayer to be available on other OSs (pm.gov.uk)

Submitted by craig1709
craig1709 writes: The Government has responded to the petition to open up iPlayer access for those on other operating systems. While the wording is confusing, near as I can tell, they say they will make the iPlayer available to users of those operating systems. "The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible. They will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish the findings."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - One month left for first Netflix prize (netflixprize.com)

Submitted by jafo
jafo writes: Last Sunday was the day Netflix was supposed to be sending out the "you have one month to win a million dollars" e-mail. I haven't seen that, but the Netflix Prize Leaderboard is not looking good for someone getting a million dollars. However, there are lots of teams that have far surpassed the requirement for the "progress prize". BellKor is currently the leader with an 8.26% improvement over Netflix's own engine. One contender that I've been watching, Simon Funk has slipped down to 29th, but he's been interesting because he's already revealed the algorithms he's used. It'll be interesting to if there's a burst of activity in the last month, or if revelations made after October 2 help get things motivated to move forward again.
Windows

Submission + - Creative Labs' Vista driver team feeling stressed? (creativelabs.com) 2

Submitted by
regular_gonzalez
regular_gonzalez writes: "While the X-Fi's issues under Vista have been widely reported, that doesn't prevent a flood of complaints pouring into the Creative Labs website, posted for all to see. What is more surprising is the employees' responses. A sampling:

# The drivers will be released when we are good and ready and happy with them
# Bitching like a 5 year old won't magically solve all our problems on the drivers.
# Call us hopeless and whatever else all you like, noone else is going to fix these drivers but us, demoralizing us won't bring it faster
# There are already reasonably working drivers supplied with the card, legally our responsibility stops there, think yourselves lucky we even bother updating the drivers at all.
# Anymore of these derogatory posts and we might well just flush the whole XFi/Vista64 saga to the toilet and move on.
Is Creative Labs obliged to treat even the most obnoxious of whiners with a certain level of respect, or is it refreshing to have a company actually state opinions that normally would be kept to themselves?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Why Microsoft Won't List Patent Violations

Submitted by
BlueOni0n
BlueOni0n writes: "Earlier today, Microsoft announced it will begin actively seeking reparations for patent infringement by Linux and the Open Source Community in general. One opinion on this issues is that it's fear of having these IP-infringement claims debunked or challenged that's keeping Microsoft from publishing these 235 alleged infringements to the public — and instead waiting until the OS community comes to the bargaining table. But a more optimistic thought is that Microsoft is afraid to list these violations not because it's afraid they're false but because it knows they can be worked-around by the open-source community — leaving Microsoft high & dry without any leverage at all."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Defends "Expert", says "everyone

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Arguing that "everyone in his field proceeds the same way that he did", and that "there is no other way to do what he did" (pdf), the RIAA opposes Ms. Lindor's motion to exclude the testimony of Dr. Doug Jacobson at trial based on Dr. Jacobson's deposition testimony in which he admitted that neither his work, nor that of MediaSentry, upon which he relied, had any of the ordinary indicia of "reliability" required of expert testimony in federal court."
Enlightenment

Submission + - Scientists offer new way to read online text

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists at a small startup called Walker Reading Technologies in Minnesota have determined that the human brain is not wired properly to read block text. They have found that our eyes view text as if they're peering through a straw. Not only does your brain see the text on the line you're reading, but it's also uploading superfluous information from the two lines above and the two lines below. This causes your brain to engage in a tug of war as it fights to filter and ignore the noise. The result is slower reading speeds and decreased comprehension. The company has developed a product that automatically re-formats text in a way that your brain can more easily comprehend. This article in VentureBeat — http://venturebeat.com/2007/05/10/live-ink-offers- better-way-to-read-text-online/#more-10459 — explains.
The Courts

Submission + - Sued For Non-Existent Content?

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "I'd like to get the opinion of Slashdot readers on this (even though I know it''s not legal advice). Several years ago one of my websites (nameless for obvious reasons) used a CGI script to pull and display some publicly-available content from another site. The script is long gone and the content hasn't been available for several years.
Recently, however, I received a letter from an "internet law" firm claiming that the content was copyrighted and that I owed a bunch of money to the original copyright holder for my 'illegal use'. (The content was apparently found through Archive.org.) The content isn't on my site and hasn't been for years, so my question is just what is my liability? I never received any sort of takedown notice and the content was gone long before receiving this demand for money. What say ye, Slashdotters- am I liable? Is this a thinly-veiled extortion attempt? How would anyone actually determine what the supposed worth of this infringement is/was?"

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