Kranfer - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Next Solar Cycle May Have Begun (space.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @08:24AM

Josh Fink writes: "As many of us know, the sun usually works on an 11 year cycle for extreme solar storms and flares. The last time that this cycle peaked was in 2001 and 2002. However, on December 11th, scientists began to observe a "modest knot of magnetism," and are saying this might be the signal for increased activity from our local star. From the article: 'This patch of magnetism could be a sign of the next solar cycle," said solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. 'Solar minimum is upon us.'....Though forecasts vary wildly, some scientists predict Solar Cycle 24 will be intense. If so, 'it could have significant impacts on telecommunications, air traffic, power grids and GPS systems,' according to the NASA statement."

Submission + - Vonage in the legal boiler pot once again (news.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @08:14AM

Josh Fink writes: "We all thought that everyone was done picking Vonage apart, right? Well, it seems this is not so. On Friday, Nortel filed a lawsuit against Vonage claiming that Vonage had violated 9 of Nortel's patents. These patent violations include services such as click to call, 411 and 911.

"The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, comes in response to a suit Vonage is pursuing against Nortel. In 2004, a company called Digital Packet Licensing sued Nortel for infringing on three of its patents. Vonage acquired Digital Packet Licensing last year and is continuing the lawsuit." Eventhough Vonage continues to bring in money, how much longer can it stand against suits filed against it from companies such as Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T?"

Submission + - Wave power goes commercial in California (news.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @08:08AM

Josh Fink writes: "The folks over at news.com have an interesting piece on wave power. Pacific Gas & Electric is planning on building a wave farm 2.5 miles off the coast of California's Humboldt County. The deal is with Finavera Renewables, and will produce 2 megawatts of power. Not enough to run your DeLorean, but it is still something. The article also reports that if everything goes according to plan and the initiative succeeds, Finavera will increase the electric production to 100 megawatts. The plant will begin producing power in 2012 and has the potential to reduce CO emitions by 245 tons each year."

Submission + - Universal's Imeem Deal May Unlock More Free Music (nytimes.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:50AM

Josh Fink writes: "It seems that Universal has been the last studio to hold back on Imeem, a growing social networking site, but no longer. On Monday Universal announced that it will be enbracing Imeem and allowing its catalog to be put onto the site for users to stream their music for free. The music listening rights is paid for by advertisers, so if you don't mind looking at ads while listening to music, this is a grand opportunity when things such as Rhapsody cost money monthly. You also have the option to buy tracks, of course for your listening pleasure for $0.99. "'We think that area will explode," Rio Caraeff, an executive vice president in the Universal's digital unit said. "I think you will see ad-supported streaming models continue to proliferate with companies both large and small.' ""

Submission + - WiFi worms: the next generation of virus (arxivblog.com)

Submitted by

KentuckyFC

on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @03:27AM

KentuckyFC writes: "The density of WiFi routers within our cities has reached a critical value that allows malware to spread from machine to machine without having to travel over the internet. Researchers have simulated how this spread would occur in several major US cities and say that 37 per cent of routers would be affected within two weeks (abstract published on the physics arxiv). They say that poor password hygiene, known problems with WEP encryption and the absence of antiviral software for routers all contribute to make the threat critical."

Submission + - Dell announces touchscreen and is immediately sued 3

Submitted by goombah99 on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @02:12AM

goombah99 writes: Dell computer announced their foray into consumer touchscreen tablets using multitouch technology. And they are immediately sued in Texas by a company who's 1995 and 1997 patents cover "Portable computer with touch screen and computing system employing same". The claims seem to cover any toucscreen laptop or computing device. The Latitude XT's base price is $2,499, it has a 12.1-inch LED-backlit screen, a 1.06-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 1GB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive with Vista or XP. Battery life is said to be 5 hours and it weighs 3.5 pounds. The screen rotates from notebook with integral keyboard to tablet mode.

Microsoft Giving Away Vista Ultimate, With a Catch 495

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @12:48AM from the no-free-lunch dept.

Opinari writes "In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is giving away copies of Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, or Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 — you can choose any one. The caveat is that you have to let them monitor your use of the program."

Flying Humans 330

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @10:54PM from the that-trick-never-works dept.

mlimber sends us to the NYTimes for a story about flying people who jump from planes or other high locations wearing a wing suit akin to a flying squirrel's. Their efforts have potential military and Xtreme sports applications. The story profiles, with video, one guy who wants to be the first to jump from a plane and land without a parachute (and live). Here's a YouTube video of another of these fliers skimming six feet above skiers in the Swiss Alps. Quoting: "Modern suit design features tightly woven nylon sewn between the legs and between the arms and torso, creating wings that fill with air and create lift, allowing for forward motion and aerial maneuvers while slowing descent. As the suits, which cost about $1,000, have become more sophisticated, so have the pilots. The best fliers, and there are not many, can trace the horizontal contours of cliffs, ridges and mountainsides."

Submission + - Best Books, Movies, Games, and Media of 2007?

Submitted by

ThousandStars

on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @09:47PM

ThousandStars writes: "Year-end lists abound for books, movies, and games, and in the past I've asked Slashdot about the best books of the year. Others have asked about movies and games. This year I'll ask in one thread: what are the best and worst of this year's media?"

Submission + - Top ten scientific discoveries of 2007 (time.com) 2

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @09:30AM

Josh Fink writes: "Time Magazine has a piece about the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007. While most of the items in the top ten are interesting, I do not know if they hold much value as the best top ten to pick from what has been discovered this year. Items such as "Kryptonite", stem cell research and the brighten supernova on file made it to the list though. Check out the editorial here. Also included in the top 10 editorial are pieces on the top 10 medical breakthroughs, the top 10 man made disasters and the top 10 green "ideas"."

Submission + - CSS Pocket Reference

Submitted by

Michael J. Ross

on Sunday December 09, 2007 @01:41PM

Michael J. Ross writes: "For Web developers who appreciate the value of separating Web content from its presentation, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) has proved a godsend, because it allows all of the styling of a Web site to be organized in CSS files separate from the site's semantic content, in HTML files (possibly dynamically generated). Yet to make this styling power possible, CSS must incorporate a long list of syntax elements, including hundreds of selectors, properties, and values. Thus it can be quite handy for the developer to have on hand a concise summary of CSS, such as the CSS Pocket Reference, authored by Eric A. Meyer.

The book was published by O'Reilly Media on 5 October 2007, under the ISBNs 0596515057 and 978-0596515058. CSS itself has evolved along with other Web technologies, and this book is now in its third edition, having been updated to reflect the ongoing changes in CSS; the book now covers CSS2 and CSS2.1. On the book's Web page, O'Reilly offers an online table of contents, as well as ways for the visitor to view and submit errata (none as of this writing) and reviews for the book. Unlike most technical publishers, O'Reilly now makes available previews of their books' contents, in the form of a table of contents with links to the first few paragraphs of each section, including tables and illustrations.

Despite the growth in the number of elements in CSS, and the attention paid to each one of them by the author of CSS Pocket Reference, the book is still small enough to fit in a pocket, at only 168 pages. The book's material is organized into 18 unnumbered sections, preceded by some notes on the book's typographical conventions, and followed by an essential index. The bulk of the material is found in the Property Reference section. Other sections explain how to add styles to HTML and XHTML pages; CSS rule structure and style precedence, including inheritance and the cascade; element classification and display roles; visual layout; rules on floating and positioning; and table layout. Subsequent sections cover CSS value types and units, and selectors, including some of the newest additions to CSS, such as the adjacent sibling selector and the language attribute selector. Just before getting into the details on properties, Eric Meyer discusses pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements, which have made it possible for Web developers to create rather robust and attractive site navigation using CSS exclusively, without any need to resort to images and JavaScript for rollover effects and other navigation eye candy.

For each element of CSS that is covered in all of the sections mentioned above, the types of information presented to the reader can vary, depending upon the category of element. But they generally include the element's possible values, a default value, what elements it can apply to, whether it is inherited, its computed value, a brief description of the element, at least one example illustrating its usage, what browsers support it, and oftentimes a note on its usage. Consequently, this new edition of the book, like its predecessors, should prove more than adequate for most CSS reference needs.

As with any computer book, there are several ways in which this one could be improved. Any reader using the book to look up a particular element, has two possible ways of doing so: They could first consult the index, and, assuming the element is listed there, go straight to the page indicated. But most readers, knowing that the elements in each section are listed alphabetically, will probably open up the book near the front or the back, and begin flipping backward or forward, respectively, hoping to spot the element of interest as quickly as possible, given its alphabetical ordering. That individual will likely immediately spot an obvious problem with the book: The pages have no running titles (the words that indicate the first element discussed on that page, and typically listed at the very top of each page). Inclusion of such running titles in the next edition of the book, would make it much faster to use.

Another valuable addition would be some sort of table listing all of the CSS elements and their level of support within the most commonly used Web browsers and, in the case of Internet Explorer, the most commonly used versions of the browser. Also, on page 48 of the book, at the beginning of the Property Reference section, it has a subhead of "Visual Media," which suggests that there are other subheads within that section, for other media types; but I was unable to find any.

All of these problems concern the publisher's choice of material. My last criticism concerns the layout of that material in the print version of the book. Because this diminutive volume has narrow pages, and they are tightly glued together in the binding, it is imperative that the publisher of such a book provide plenty of white space in the inner margins (those closest to the binding), so the reader does not have to crack open the book too much in order to read the text closest to the binding. Repeatedly opening up the book far enough to read those inmost words, will over time weaken and eventually destroy the binding. In contrast, a small reference book like this has no need for much outer margin. Sadly, O'Reilly got it backwards with this volume, with relatively wide and useless outer margins, and inadequate inner margins.

Aside from the aforementioned flaws — all of which can be remedied in the future — CSS Pocket Reference is a compact and neatly organized gem of a book, packed with information of value to busy Web programmers.

Michael J. Ross is a Web developer, writer, and freelance editor."

Submission + - Microsoft shuts down Santa for being naughty (kirotv.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Thursday December 06, 2007 @08:15AM

Josh Fink writes: "While Santa might know if you are naughty or nice, but what do you do when Santa is naughty to you over Windows Live Messenger and encourages you to talk about oral sex? Thats right folks. Once again Microsoft has encouraged kids all around the world to speak to Santa again this year via Northpolelive.com, however this time, Santa has had his AI beefed up it seems. From the article: "Microsoft's holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex." I am beginning to wonder if Microsoft ever bothered to do a QA test, or check words in its Santa response database."

Submission + - Google ruins homepage for iPhone users (informationweek.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Thursday December 06, 2007 @08:04AM

Josh Fink writes: "It seems like the folks over at Google have rendered their homepage useless to iPhone users. I found an article at Information Week where blogger Eric Zeman discusses his frustration. "Before, it was the general mobile version of the site, which showed my headlines, weather, Gmail and other content all in a quick glance. Now it is a simple search box and I have to actively choose to view my content. Why did Google make it more difficult to use?""

Submission + - Vista tougher than XP on piracy (efluxmedia.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Tuesday December 04, 2007 @08:24AM

Josh Fink writes: "The folks over at efluxmedia have an intersting, if one sided piece on how Vista's piracy rates are half that of XP. From the article: "Microsoft announced yesterday that piracy rates for Windows Vista are half those of XP and this proves that the giant software maker really created its toughest operating system up to date....Additionally, Microsoft announced on Monday that it plans to offer an update for WGA that will run the piracy check regularly, without the computer users initiating the process." I do not believe that Vista is 'tougher' I just believe that it has not been accepted yet by the IT/user world yet. As for WGA being updated and running without consent, I think Microsoft might be called out in the world of privacy, just like how it was when WGA was released."

Submission + - Girls make history, win top honors in science (nytimes.com)

Submitted by

Josh Fink

on Tuesday December 04, 2007 @08:18AM

Josh Fink writes: "The New York Times has an interesteing piece about how girls have made history by winning top honors in Math, Science and Technology in one of the nation's most prestigeous science competitions: The Siemens Competition . The event took place at New York University on December 3, 2007. "James Whaley, president of the Siemens Foundation, which oversees the competition for Siemens AG, a global electronics and engineering company, said the competition results send a great message to young women.""

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