pizzarobot - Slashdot User

Microsoft Finds a Home For Barcode 141

Posted by kdawson on Saturday April 21, 2007 @03:39PM from the color-cuecat dept.

MicroBarcode writes in about the color barcode technology that Microsoft developed but shelved two years back because nobody adopted it. The technology promised a way to link packaging to Web sites — and once cell phone cameras get good enough, Microsoft hoped lots of people would use it. It seems the technology has finally found a home: the ISAN International Agency has inked a deal with Microsoft. The color barcodes, consisting of red, green, yellow, and black triangles, will appear on XBox 360 games and other products beginning later this year.

Submission + - Boston bans Boing Boing from municipal wi-fi

Submitted by

DrFlounder

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @03:16PM

DrFlounder writes: "The city of Boston has apparently blocked access to Boing Boing on the municipal wifi. This is possibly due to the website's known Mooninite sympathies."

Submission + - When Developers Attack

Submitted by

Rhymes With Trouble

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @02:54PM

Rhymes With Trouble writes: "What do you do when you fork your project and the users shun the new application and keep using the old one? The Freenet Project has had an ongoing problem where many of the users have kept using the older 0.5 network because it was stable and had Open Net while the new 0.7 network was slow, buggy, and difficult to connect to. The Freenet developers Zothar and Nextgens decided that they should attack and destroy the old network instead of making the new network more stable and easier to use. The following is an IRC chat between two of the Freenet developers. " [20:12:25] Zothar_Work> I need to talk about bringing 0.5 down with toad [20:12:38] Zothar_Work> I've got some ideas on how to do it [20:12:52] that would definitly shut up 0.5 trolls, wouldn't it ? [20:14:08] nextgens: yeah, that would probably do it [20:14:13] censoring at hand? [20:14:24] it's not about censoring [20:14:30] I find it interesting that Frost on 0.5 doesn't seem to be having the board spoofing problem 0.7 does [20:14:36] it's about prooving that 0.5 has to be replaced :) [20:14:43] FuriousRage: vulnerability demonstration [20:15:19] that would be indirect "settling" " When asked to condem this action, the primary developer Matthew Toseland (Toad) remained silent."

Submission + - Microsoft Billionaire Simonyi Lands After Trip

Submitted by jjj30337 on Saturday April 21, 2007 @02:49PM

jjj30337 writes: From Bloomberg — Charles Simonyi, whose two decades as a software developer at Microsoft Corp. made him a billionaire, returned to Earth today, two weeks after blasting off to become the world's fifth space tourist.

Hungarian-born Simonyi, 58, landed in Kazakhstan today at 6:31 p.m. local time, images broadcast live on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's online television station showed. He was accompanied by NASA Commander Michael Lopez- Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who had spent a record 215 days at the International Space Station.

— You can read more about his adventure in outer space here (flash warning)

Global Positioning Without GPS 82

Posted by kdawson on Saturday April 21, 2007 @02:31PM from the where-we-are dept.

GadgetMike sends word of an award to Boeing for work on a Robust Positioning System that could make use of cell signals, television transmissions, and other clues to provide position information when GPS is unavailable. (Wonder if they've heard about Skyhook Wireless, which does a similar job based on Wi-Fi hotspots, for 2500 US cities and towns.) The work is being sponsored by the US military, so it's not surprising that they don't want to rely on upcoming GPS enhancers or replacements from France, China, and Russia. Here is the Boeing press release.

Submission + - Gunman Kills at NASA

Submitted by

Bizzeh

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @02:30PM

Bizzeh writes: "
A gunman has killed a male hostage and himself during a stand-off at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Police, who had surrounded the scene and entered when they heard a gunshot, also found a second hostage, a woman, who was alive but tied up with tape.
Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6578167. stm"

Submission + - Kremlin Gag Order Issued to Russian Journalists

Submitted by

reporter

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @02:28PM

reporter writes: "In a shocking report, "The New York Times" states, "At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia's largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be 'positive.' In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy , journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin." Will the Kremlin now resurrect the Ministry of Truth?"

Submission + - American Candidate for French President?

Submitted by

reporter

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @02:09PM

reporter writes: "With regards to American politics, the French will hold their most important presidential election in more than 20 years. Nicolas Sarkozy currently holds the lead among the 4 most viable candidates. He is pro-American and advocates American values: e.g., free markets, affirmative action, and freedom of speech. The French will go to the polls tomorrow, April 22. If Sarkozy wins, he would steer the European Union into a stronger relationship with the USA."

Submission + - Melamine in pet food may not be accidental

Submitted by

kervaw

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @01:42PM

kervaw writes: "USA Today is reporting that Melamine in pet food may not be accidental. The nitrogen in Melamine makes the food appear to have more protein because the protein level is tested indirectly by testing the nitrogen content. From the article: "A nitrogen-rich chemical used to make plastic and sometimes as a fertilizer may have been deliberately added to an ingredient in pet food that has sickened and killed cats and dogs across the country, public and private officials say. A leading theory is that it was added to fake higher protein levels. Melamine has been found in wheat gluten, rice protein concentrate and, in South Africa, corn gluten, all imported from China, and all meant for use in pet food, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed Thursday.""

The Hundred Million Mile Pipe Organ 76

Posted by kdawson on Saturday April 21, 2007 @01:20PM from the louder-than-yours dept.

jd writes "Scientists have announced that the gigantic coils of plasma in the solar atmosphere, known as coronal loops, actually carry sound waves much like a pipe organ. Micro-flares on the surface of the sun create powerful blasts of charged particles, which are then guided through the coronal loops, creating the standing waves. Sheffield University is hosting movies and audio recordings of the sun's performance."

Submission + - Canada's Wayne Crookes sues Google, Wikipedia

Submitted by

newtley

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @01:18PM

newtley writes: "Wayne Crookes, the Green Party of Canada's ex-financier, is in effect trying to sue the Net. He's going after the Wikiedia, Google and openpolitics.ca, run up by federal Green Party activist Michael Pilling, claiming he's suffered, "an immense amount of frustration and emotional distress" over postings. Some 15 others may also have been targeted. "Mr Crookes seems to be trying to unwrite history," Pilling says. "He was a central figure in the growth of the Green Party. His actions were highly controversial and if we have freedom of speech in this country, people should be allowed to talk about them.""

Submission + - eBay changes its listings policy,businesses hurt

Submitted by cyberianpan on Saturday April 21, 2007 @01:14PM

cyberianpan writes: An interesting article on the BBC describes how eBay has changed its search interface. The standard search on the .com site now only brings up items for sale by US sellers. Some UK businesses have reported a 90% drop in sales. eBay's fix ? : register separately for 2 eBay accounts & thus pay 2 listing fees per item. Previously for bricks & mortars shops, rent reviews were at worst yearly & you could always plan ahead to move down the street. Now we have international monopolistic companies who can double their charges overnight. Do we welcome our new overlords ?

Is Your Printer Ripping You Off? 362

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday April 21, 2007 @11:16AM from the or-only-its-maker dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Are original inkjet cartridges really worth the high cost? Do third party refill inks do as good a job? This article looks at printers from Epson, HP, Canon and Lexmark, with a combination of original inks and the top selling third-party options, using a whole host of different papers. A panel of printer users judged the output in a blind test — the printer manufacturers may not be happy with the results!"

Submission + - Clean slate Internet projects mean end to privacy?

Submitted by srijon on Saturday April 21, 2007 @10:48AM

srijon writes: this article by Steve Watson observes that recently discussed clean slate Internet projects pay scant regard to privacy. From the article:

In tandem with broad data retention legislation currently being introduced worldwide, such "clean slate" projects may represent a considerable threat to the freedom of the internet as we know it. EU directives and US proposals for data retention may mean that any normal website or blog would have to fall into line with such new rules and suddenly total web regulation would become a reality.
Though the article lacks any "smoking gun", it provides a good summary of existing efforts to clamp down on the net. Certainly Standford's clean slate white paper is alarming because it pays scant regard to privacy, stating only that the new internet should "support anonymity where prudent, and accountability where necessary."

Easy-to-Make Material Scratches Diamond 213

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday April 21, 2007 @10:20AM from the mohs-hardness-scale-so-hosed dept.

holy_calamity writes "A material tough enough to scratch diamond that can be made without resorting to massive pressure has been developed at UCLA. A regular furnace and a zap of current is enough to meld boron with the metal rhenium." Sound familiar? This is the other new material tougher than diamond, but no word yet on how they rate against each other.

Slashdot Top Deals