Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Handhelds

Camera Phones Read Hidden Messages in Print 126

Posted by CowboyNeal from the go-go-gadget-decoder dept.
pikine writes "As reported by BBC News, Fujitsu has developed a technology that encodes 12-bytes of information in a printed picture by skewing yellow hue, which is difficult to discern by human eye but fairly easy for camera phones to decode using software written in Java." The first target uses are promotional contests and competitions, not entirely unlike those game pieces that need to be viewed through a colored filter.
Announcements

Submission + - BitTorrent and µTorrent join forces-not g

Submitted by
wo0zy
wo0zy writes: "Bram Cohen, the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, and Ludvig (Ludde) Strigeus, the writer of Torrent have decided to join forces. Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and Torrent AB have decided to join forces. BitTorrent has acquired Torrent as it recognized the merits of Torrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together Torrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client. Many Torrent users are very unhappy about this. Check out the thread on Torrent,s, web site http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=17278"

Feed Congress Tackles Patent Reform (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
Experts tell lawmakers the broken patent system chills innovation and feeds lawyers and trolls. Will something finally be done? Luke O'Brien reports from Washington.


Java

Submission + - Objenesis: bypassing constructors in Java

Submitted by
Objenesis Team
Objenesis Team writes: "The Objenesis Team proudly presents Objenesis 1.0, a framework that allows the creation of objects without calling constructors.
Instantiation of objects without calling the constructor is a fairly specialized task, but many infrastructure projects could certainly benefit from it. Up until now, most solutions depended on clever hacks and/or use of JVM internals, lacking in portability. But the Objenesis Team has endeavoured to concetrate the many different approaches into a single, portable solution.

Objenesis is released under the MIT license, and comes in two flavours:
        * Standard, which creates objects without calling constructors.
        * Serialized, which creates Serializable objects according to the
Java Serialization specification: calling the no-arg constructor of the
first non-serializable superclass.

You can find out more at the project website:
http://objenesis.googlecode.com/svn/docs/index.htm l"
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - waterproof iPod mod is just the beginnning

Submitted by
Gilliam H.
Gilliam H. writes: "The waterproof iPod thing is already out there. The real scoop I think is that the guy who invented it. Professor Silverman, has a string of patents on things that are very nearly sci-fi. The swimman is what everyone is talking about all of the the sudden but that's like throwing a bullet as opposed to shooting it. Yes, I am too lazy to write the actual story but I thought I'd put out what I know and let other more caffeinated people do it. Gilliam-"
Privacy

Submission + - RFID Powder

Submitted by microsage
microsage writes: Engadget is carrying a short article about a new RFID technology with some worrisome privacy implications.

From the article:
"As if the various other permutations and teensyness of RFID weren't wild enough, here comes Hitachi with its new "powder" 0.05mm x 0.05mm RFID chips. The new chips are 64 times smaller than the previous record holder... and yet still make room for a 128-bit ROM that can store a unique 38-digit ID number. "
The Courts

Groklaw No Front for IBM 206

Posted by CowboyNeal from the killing-the-messenger dept.
A Groklaw Reader writes "After all the wild speculation SCO put forth about Pamela Jones, her alleged subpoena by SCO, and her recent vacation due to illness, we now have Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols writing to say 'Yes, there is a PJ.' In his own words, he says, 'Let me address this directly. Yes, Pamela Jones is a real person. I've met her several times [...] I consider her a friend. She is not a front for anyone.' Hopefully, this statement will be enough to put those SCO-induced conspiracy theories to rest."
Censorship

Submission + - Ethics of proxy servers

Submitted by
Mav
Mav writes: "I was recently asked to host a website for free in return for a lot of advertising. After querying them about how they knew the site would produce traffic they stated the site was going to be running PHPProxy (an open source web proxy). The traffic was a result of him and his contacts (nearly one thousand of them) using the site to bypass his school's firewall in order to view their MySpace pages and get access to their MSN messengers. Given all the attention social networking sites have recently received and the various laws attempting to block or control access to them I feel guilty and unsure making this available. Are there legal implications that I need to worry about? Could I be held liable if one of the students got in trouble? Most importantly, what's the moral thing to do?"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Not So Global Warming

Journal by OverlordQ

A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models. This comes soon after the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that strongly supports the conclusion that the Earth's climate as a whole is warming, largely due to human acti
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft blasts IBM in open letter

Submitted by carlmenezes
carlmenezes writes: Arstechnica has an article on Microsoft's open letter to IBM that adds fresh ammunition to the battle of words between those who support Microsoft's Open XML and OpenOffice.org's OpenDocument file formats. Microsoft has strong words for IBM, which it accuses of deliberately trying to sabotage Microsoft's attempt to get Open XML certified as a standard by the ECMA. In the letter, general managers Tom Robertson and Jean Paol write: "When ODF was under consideration, Microsoft made no effort to slow down the process because we recognized customers' interest in the standardization of document formats." In contrast, the authors charge that IBM "led a global campaign" urging that governments and other organizations demand that International Standards Organization (ISO) reject Open XML outright.
Could MS actually be getting a taste of their own medicine?
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox flaw could let sites fake being "trust

Submitted by thirty-seven
thirty-seven writes: According to an article on the CBC website, a Firefox bug could be exploited to make it look like users are connected to a trusted site when they are not. Apparently, by exploiting a flaw in the way that Firefox manages data written to the browser's "location.hostname" DOM property, a site could manipulate the authentication cookies for trusted websites such as an online bank, thereby appearing trusted itself.
User Journal

Journal SPAM: BTW: Iranian Dates 5

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

Like every one in the known universe, Iran represents the date as day/month/year. Everyone, except the US who backwards talk do.

In Iran, it is the year 1385, and they don't use CE dates. Iran also rejects the Arab lunar calandar in favor of the Zoroastrian solar year, basing year zero on the hijira date 0 to define the beginning of the epoch.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - HOWTO: Upgrade your PSP to Firmware 3.10 OE-A'

Submitted by LHN
LHN writes: Learn how to upgrade your PSP to Dark_Alex's latest firmware 3.10 OE-A' using this simple tutorial. Its fairly easy, and should be easy to complete for everyone without bricking their PSP.

Slashdot Top Deals

"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds

Close