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Submission + - 10 Plane Crashes That Changed Aviation (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by mattnyc99
mattnyc99 writes: As horrifying (and voyeuristic) as they are, plane crashes have actually done a lot of good. There's only been one fatal crash in the U.S. in the past five years, and, in a follow-up to their safest seat on an airplane investigation, Popular Mechanics says that's because 10 accidents spurred new technology that keeps air travel safe and routine today.
Portables

Submission + - Do All Laptop Batteries Suck? 1

Submitted by jon_anderson_ca
jon_anderson_ca writes: I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 with the (allegedly better-than-basic) 85 WHr battery. After a little over a year of using it, the battery is almost useless, and I'm not alone. Oh, and the battery's warranty is 12 months, of course.

My questions to Slashdot are: how do other laptop batteries fare these days? Do batteries last longer than 6-12 months on Apple, HP, even other Dell laptops? Is it just the Dell 85WHr 9-cell that's the problem? Why is it that battery life is so very short? Is there anything I can do about it (reconditioning or replacement)?
Networking

Submission + - Internet growing too large for current hardware?

Submitted by
rkohutek
rkohutek writes: "There has been a very interesting discussion happening on the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) mailling list about the scalability of today's Internet routers. A vast quantity of those routers support only 256,000 unique networks. According to the CIDR-Report, there are ~233,216 routes on the Internet, and at the current rate of 3,500 additional routes per month, we are going to be bumping into those hardware limits very quickly. Not many people are aware of the situation, and even fewer are prepared to perform the expensive upgrades. Has anybody already dealt with this and have solutions?"
Space

Submission + - Ice Age Triggered by Proximity to Sun (geologytimes.com)

Submitted by
webdoodle
webdoodle writes: "Analysis of Antarctic ice cores shows that the last four great ice age cycles began when Earth's distance from the sun during its annual orbit became great enough to prevent summertime melts of glacial ice. The absence of those melts allowed buildups of the ice over periods of time that would become characterized as glacial periods."
Businesses

Submission + - How-To video on NOT hiring american workers (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Lawyers at a conference discuss with clients how to go about not hiring qualified american workers so they can secure a green card for their immigrant worker.
Software

Submission + - Samba to Go GPLv3 (samba.org)

Submitted by jon_anderson_ca
jon_anderson_ca writes: The verdict is in: Samba will be going with the GPLv3 for versions 3.2 and on:

After internal consideration in the Samba Team we have decided to adopt the GPLv3 and LGPLv3 licences for all future releases of Samba.
...

To allow people to distinguish which Samba version is released with the new GPLv3 license, we are updating our next version release number. The next planned version release was to be 3.0.26, this will now be renumbered so the GPLv3 version release will be 3.2.0.


Since the GPLv3 was crafted to torpedo deals like the one Microsoft struck with Novell, what's going to happen to "working together on interoperability", of which Samba is an important part?
Communications

Submission + - Sprint cancels PCS wireless of over 200 soldiers (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Newer Guy
Newer Guy writes: Sprint has cancelled the PCS service of over 200 military members for "excessive roaming". This is on the heels of last week's news about Sprint where they were cancelling PCS service for "excessive complaining" to Customer Service. Time to cancel my Sprint PCS I guess!
United States

Submission + - H1B holders to flood immigration office w flowers

Submitted by Vikram Pendharkar
Vikram Pendharkar writes: Gandhian Protest by legal skilled immigrants about the recent roller-coaster, abrupt changes in American immigration rules: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?R ef=VE9JQS8yMDA3LzA3LzA4I0FyMDA4MDA=&Mode=Gif&Local e=english-skin-custom Immigration Voice link where this is being co-ordinated: http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?p =102748#post102748 This form of protest (sending flowers) was popularized recently in India by a movie — MunnaBhai, which has helped revitalize Gandhian way of protesting the trampling of your rights.
Education

Submission + - Protest against sex education in India

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Uttar Pradesh is all set to introduce sex education in its schools from Class 9, but teachers have threatened to burn the books, saying the material goes against Indian culture. The working committee of the secondary schools teachers' association had met on Sunday evening. Members are unanimous that the books published for adolescent education are not in tune with Indian culture and traditions. "The manner in which the courses have been laid out are bound to not only poison young minds but also become a source of embarrassment for teachers," Om Prakash Sharma, chief of the secondary schools teachers' association said.
Republicans

Submission + - PA budget fight brings partial shutdown (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
JagsLive
JagsLive writes: "AP reports, " Gov. Ed Rendell late Sunday ordered a range of state government services shut down and placed about a third of the state work force on indefinite unpaid furlough after frantic last-minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. Rendell, appearing outside his Capitol office, said the shutdown would go forward but added that he was optimistic that he and legislators could come to an agreement within a day. ""
Announcements

Submission + - Dell Linux Details

Submitted by jon_anderson_ca
jon_anderson_ca writes: Dell, through their direct2dell website, has released some details of their soon-to-be-available Linux machines. Among the highlights:

  • only hardware that works with Linux is offered
  • open-source drivers used where possible
  • binary drivers for Intel wireless cards, etc.
  • no support for media codecs


Seems reasonable, but it's too bad that Click2Run isn't in Ubuntu 7.04 for the sake of those wanting to (legally) play DVDs, use AVI files, etc.
Privacy

Submission + - Obscene' Devices Head for the Supreme Court

Submitted by Funky125
Funky125 writes: WASHINGTON — You know a case is ripe for Supreme Court review when the retelling of its history cites lower court decisions labeled "Williams I," "Williams II," "Williams III," "Williams IV" and "Williams V." -advertisement- The "Williams," of course, is Sherri Williams, who along with eight co-petitioners is seeking to overturn Alabama's obscene device law, which in Williams' case would prevent her from selling and/or distributing any sex toy intended primarily for the stimulation of humans to orgasm in the privacy of their own homes. http://avn.com/index_cache.php?Primary_Navigation= Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=289264
Patents

Submission + - Prizes vs. Patents: a Nobel laureate's perspective

Submitted by
benesch
benesch writes: "Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, points out the flaws of our patent system "The fundamental problem with the patent system is simple: it is based on restricting the use of knowledge. Because there is no extra cost associated with an additional individual enjoying the benefits of any piece of knowledge, restricting knowledge is inefficient." He goes on to suggest prizes as a more efficient alternative "Of course, the patent system is itself a prize system, albeit a peculiar one: the prize is temporary monopoly power, implying high prices and restricted access to the benefits that can be derived from the new knowledge. By contrast, the type of prize system I have in mind would rely on competitive markets to lower prices and make the fruits of the knowledge available as widely as possible. With better-directed incentives (more research dollars spent on more important diseases, less money spent on wasteful and distorted marketing), we could have better health at lower cost.""

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