bigmammoth - Slashdot User

Submission + - Wikipedia's 2008 donation campaign kicks off (wikimedia.org) 1

Submitted by

David Gerard

on Thursday November 06, 2008 @04:01PM

David Gerard writes: "It's that time of year again: Wikipedia needs your money. The Wikimedia sites don't have ads — it all runs on donations. This year, the Wikimedia Foundation is hitting the theme that Wikipedia, the most popular Wikimedia site, is useful to you every day so deserves your support. The goal this time is six million dollars, which is approximately nothing to run a top 10 site (#8 on Alexa, #4 on ComScore). They're at almost $2 million so far. There's blog buttons and radio/podcast PSAs too. The site had its greatest traffic ever on election night, falling over for a short time under the strain."

Submission + - Trust-metric demo of Wikipedia (ucsc.edu)

Submitted by on Thursday December 20, 2007 @09:05AM

An anonymous reader writes: http://wiki-trust.cse.ucsc.edu/ is a copy of Wikipedia at 6 Feb 2007 colored according to their trust metric. This is part of the stable version plan.

Submission + - Xiph Fights Back for inclusion in the HTML5 Draft (xiph.org)

Submitted by

bigmammoth

on Thursday December 13, 2007 @02:38PM

bigmammoth writes: "Last night xiph.org has issued a press release responding to changes made in the HTML5 draft that remove references to ogg codecs and container.

The W3C has expressed a clear intention to officially define video as an integral part of the web by introducing the <video/> tag. Up to this point, video on the web has been presented primarily using a fragmented array of proprietary extensions powered by encumbered formats. Those who cannot use them have been made second-class citizens. Failing to standardize on an unencumbered, reasonably-performing format is a failure to advance beyond this state.

They also point out that Ogg has triggered no litigation to date even though it is very widely used. The same cannot be said for MPEG-licensed codecs.

The MPEG-LA's own sublicense disclaimer warns that licensees are not protected from patent-related litigation nor are they protected from submarine patents.
"

Submission + - Principles for Open Government Data RFC (opengovdata.org)

Submitted by

dale

on Sunday December 09, 2007 @03:05PM

dale writes: "This weekend, 30 open government advocates gathered to develop a set of principles of open government data. The meeting, held in Sebastopol, California, was designed to develop a more robust understanding of why open government data is essential to democracy.
The Internet is the public space of the modern world, and through it governments now have the opportunity to better understand the needs of their citizens and citizens may participate more fully in their government. Information becomes more valuable as it is shared, less valuable as it is hoarded. Open data promotes increased civil discourse, improved public welfare, and a more efficient use of public resources. The group is offering a set of fundamental principles for open government data. By embracing the eight principles, governments of the world can become more effective, transparent, and relevant to our lives."

Submission + - Cese and Desist for Posting "secret" Ingre (indybay.org)

Submitted by bigmammoth on Monday October 15, 2007 @04:21AM

bigmammoth writes: Suterra LLC, a manufacturer of "biorational" pest control products about to be used in residential areas, has issued a cease and desist order to Indybay.org demanding that information about a "secret" ingredient in the CheckMate OLR-F mating disruption pheromone be removed from the site.

Submission + - Brain-computer-interface for Second Life (pinktentacle.com)

Submitted by

Tjeerd

on Monday October 15, 2007 @04:14AM

Tjeerd writes: ""A research team led by professor Jun'ichi Ushiba of the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory has developed a BCI system that lets the user walk an avatar through the streets of Second Life while relying solely on the power of thought. To control the avatar on screen, the user simply thinks about moving various body parts — the avatar walks forward when the user thinks about moving his/her own feet, and it turns right and left when the user imagines moving his/her right and left arms.""

Submission + - WoW Character Banned After Paying Almost $10,000 (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

Xight

on Monday October 15, 2007 @03:48AM

Xight writes: "A character named Zeuzo from a guild called Method on Sylvanas(EU). After getting both pieces to make The Twin Blades of Azzinoth the account was sold to a person by the name of Shaks for roughly 5000pounds(Almost $10,000). The account was banned by blizzard very shortly afterwards. The story made BBC headlines back in September ."

Submission + - Iraqi Officials Smuggle Arms, Claim U.S. Approval (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

Mike Kuykendall

on Sunday August 12, 2007 @02:54PM

Mike Kuykendall writes: "Another tale of horrid mismanagement and malfeasance in Iraq involving possible U.S.-approved illicit arms deals uncovered by Italian authorities. Why would the Iraqi government require massive weapons shipments from smugglers?"

Submission + - Better solar cells

Submitted by forgethistory on Friday May 04, 2007 @07:10AM

forgethistory writes: Solar cell technology developed by Massey University's Nanomaterials Research Centre will enable New Zealanders to generate electricity from sunlight at a
10th of the cost of current silicon-based photo-electric solar cells.
Details at Science daily

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