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Education

Submission + - $300 PC from Wal-Mart w/ OpenOffice.org + no bloat

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ars Technica reports that Wal-Mart will soon be offering a $300 PC from Everex for the back-to-school season that has OpenOffice.org preinstalled and little else. From the article:

Cost aside, the two centerpieces of the Everex offering are the inclusion of OpenOffice.org 2.2 and the absence of crapware typically bundled with low-cost PCs. Including OO.org instead of Microsoft Office or even Microsoft Works allowed the PC manufacturer to shave a few additional dollars off of the PC's price, and according to OO.org marketing project lead John McCreesh, the open-source office suite passed all of Everex's tests "with flying colors."
Worms

Submission + - The Computer Virus Turns 25 in July 1

Submitted by bl8n8r
bl8n8r writes: In July of 1982, an infected Apple II propogated the first computer virus onto a 5-1/4" floppy. The virus, which did little more than annoy the user, Elk Cloner, was authored in Pittsburgh by a 15-year-old high school student, Rich Skrenta. The virus replicated by monitoring floppy disk activity and writing itself to the floppy when it was accessed. Skrenta describes the virus as "It was a practical joke combined with a hack. A wonderful hack." Remember, he was a 9th grader when he did this.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Slashdot and the tagging fad 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Here's a question for the slashdot crowd. Tagging is one of those fads that seems to be everywhere, and slashdot has picked it up too. After watching how people use tagging since it's introduction here, it appears that it's mostly useless though, given that nearly every article gets tagged with either contradictory tags ("yes","no","yesno", all on one post) or ones that are opinions of the tag posters ("slownewsday", "whoopeef*ck", "wewerenotmeanttobe", as a sampling from the current front page). The remaining tags of any value seem to be solely for the purpose of categorizing, and can be achieved without tagging by editors simply putting articles in the right category/subcategory. So my question: why bother with the tagging thing? Can we get that useless garbage off of the front page so we don't have to see "whoopeef*ck* and other childish noise?
Software

Submission + - Who wants to report piracy to be a millionaire? (com.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "A software industry group that has become well known for its high-profile antipiracy campaigns and crackdowns is now offering up to $1 million to tipsters who divulge the juiciest copyright infringement incidents in their workplaces.

The Business Software Alliance announced on Monday that between July and October, it will be multiplying fivefold the maximum incentive currently offered through its almost 2-year-old "rewards" program. The effort is designed to encourage whistleblowers to report unlicensed software use by their businesses — which, BSA reminds us in its press release, can carry as much as $150,000 in fines and cost the United States more than $7 billion last year alone.

For me, the operative phrase in the reward offer is "up to," which begs the question, what sort of tip would qualify for that jackpot?

The short answer is, the reward is at BSA's "sole discretion," according to its terms and conditions. It's also supposed to be tied to the monetary value of the settlement or damages paid by a company in connection with the piracy claims."
Wine

Submission + - Parallels Releases WineD3D Source Code (winehq.org)

Submitted by something_wicked_thi
something_wicked_thi writes: Seeing as Slashdot ran the story about Parallels being out of compliance with the [L]GPL, I think it's only fair that they provide an update. On the very next weekday after the Slashdot story ran, Parallels, apparently, has released the source code. The Wine developers are verifying that it really is what they say it is. The Wine page provides a link to the sources, though it is temporary. It would be nice if someone could mirror that before it gets Slashdotted.
Portables (Games)

Submission + - DS 'Brain Game' Banned in UK (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
janitorj
janitorj writes: "According to this BBC article, the Nintendo DS puzzler 'MindQuiz' was banned from UK shelves. The woman in the story, whose father and son both had Cerebral Palsy, contacted a BBC radio program to report that she "was shocked when she had performed poorly at one part of the game and it rated her efforts in a manner derogatory to the disabled.""
Google

Submission + - Google Maps now does interactive re-routing (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Remember how cool it was the first time you used MapQuest or Google Maps or Google Earth? Once you try the new interactive dragging of routes on Google Maps, you'll find yourself wasting too much time again just playing with it and being amazed at how fast and scalable it is.
The Internet

Submission + - Puzzling Wikipedia edits on wrestler's murder (wikinews.org)

Submitted by glesga_kiss
glesga_kiss writes: An interesting article on wikinews points to edits of WWE Wrestler Chris Benoit's page on wikipedia suggesting foreknowledge of the murder. Edits from an IP in Connecticut, later followed by one from a wifi provider in Australia state that he cancelled an engagement due to the death of his wife. These were posted 13 hours prior to the polices discovery of the bodies after concerned family members asked the police to check up on him after erratic behaviour. A member of the Wikimedia Foundation has suggested that the IP address quite likely belongs to the WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
Education

Journal Journal: Our Solar system was adopted? 4

Journal by mandark1967
Our Solar System is traveling at a 60 to 90 degree angle compared to the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy and scientists have now discovered why. It seems our solar system originated not in the Milky Way Galaxy, but in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, which is in the process of being eaten by the Milky Way.
The Internet

Submission + - Wikipedia gets state funding in Germany (heise.de)

Submitted by
tmk
tmk writes: "How can the Wikipedia be improved? The German government started today a project to train experts to contribute to Wikipedia. The goal is to write or improve several hundret articles about renewable ressources in the Internet encyclopaedia. The project ist funded by the German Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection. The German chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation is hiring a Wikipedian to coordinate the efforts."
Security

Submission + - Passwords in small companies

Submitted by daeg
daeg writes: As any person in a small company can tell you, we have too many passwords and too many people know them because the defined job roles are very lax. The programmers know our shipping password because they've had to ship things before and the administrative assistants know our printer passwords, for instance. Are there any easy ways to manage these types of passwords securely? If an employee leaves, we have to change all of the passwords (particularly for the places that do not allow multiple delegate user accounts) and simultaneously tell everyone the new password, which is tedious and error prone, at best. What are some methods that have worked in your small companies?
Music

Submission + - Oregon mother sues the RIAA

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Tanya Andersen, the disabled Oregon mother who for three years has been living a nightmare, is suing RIAA and its so-called settlement center for malicious prosecution, says Recording Industry vs The People. "They made life horrible and did a lot of damage," she told p2pnet. "People need to fight back. It's really wrong they can abuse their power like this. It was three years — two years for the lawsuit and a year when they were harassing me. It's really important for me to tell people what they've done and I'm really thankful that I'm able to do that.""
Democrats

Submission + - Diane Feinstein vs. The First Amendment

Submitted by CodeBuster
CodeBuster writes: United Press International reports that, "U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said Sunday she is "looking at" the possibility of reviving the fairness doctrine for U.S. broadcasters. Feinstein, speaking on "Fox News Sunday" with Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said talk radio in particular has presented a one-sided view of immigration reform legislation being considered by the Senate. U.S. talk radio is dominated by conservative voices."
Education

Submission + - UK Government rules Inteligent Design not Science (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by blane.bramble
blane.bramble writes: The Register is reporting that there is no place in the science curriculum for Inteligent Design and that it can not be taught as science. The UK Government has stated that "The Government is aware that a number of concerns have been raised in the media and elsewhere as to whether creationism and intelligent design have a place in science lessons. The Government is clear that creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science National Curriculum programmes of study and should not be taught as science."

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