Phil246 - Slashdot User

Sony Starts a Standards War Over Wireless USB 401

Posted by kdawson on Monday January 14, 2008 @12:37AM from the don't-stand-so-close-to-me dept.

Stony Stevenson alerts us to news out of CES that Sony has kick-started another standards war, this time over wireless USB. Ars notes that Sony "[never was] one to settle for an open standard when the opportunity to push a proprietary alternative presents itself." Sony's TransferJet technology uses low-power UWB at very short distances to transfer data at a nominal 520 Mbps. Almost every other large technology company — including Intel, Microsoft, HP, and Samsung — has embraced the W-USB standard, which promises transfer speeds of 480 Mbps at distances up to 3 meters, vs. TransfeJet's 3 centimeters.

Submission + - Atheists not allowed to adopt children (time.com) 4

Submitted by

gollum123

on Friday January 04, 2008 @01:47AM

gollum123 writes: "From Time, After six years of childless marriage, John and Cynthia Burke of Newark decided to adopt a baby boy through a state agency ( http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877155,00.html ) . John Burke, an atheist, and his wife, a pantheist, left the line for religious affiliation blank on the forms. Superior Court Judge William Camarata raised the religious issue. Inestimable Privilege. In an extraordinary decision, Judge Camarata denied the Burkes' right to the child because of their lack of belief in a Supreme Being. Despite the Burkes' "high moral and ethical standards," he said, the New Jersey state constitution declares that "no person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience." Despite Eleanor Katherine's tender years, he continued, "the child should have the freedom to worship as she sees fit, and not be influenced by prospective parents who do not believe in a Supreme Being." Two weeks ago, aided by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Burkes appealed directly to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. If they fail in their appeal, Eleanor Katherine may have to leave the only family she has ever known and await adoption by another couple whose religious convictions satisfy the State of New Jersey."

Submission + - Windows Home Server corrupts files (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

crustymonkey

on Wednesday December 26, 2007 @04:17PM

crustymonkey writes: "From the article:

Microsoft Corp. has warned Windows Home Server users not to edit files stored on their backup systems with several of its programs, including Vista Photo Gallery and Office's OneNote and Outlook, as well as files generated by popular finance software such as Quicken and QuickBooks.

Don't back up you files to Windows Home Server as recommended by Microsoft themselves according to this article. I'm not exactly what the point is in having a home server if you can't backup files on it."

Submission + - Has RIAA expert Jacobson contradicted himself? (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Wednesday December 26, 2007 @11:20AM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "A year and five months after examining the defendant's hard drive in UMG v. Lindor, the RIAA's "expert" witness, Dr. Doug Jacobson, has issued a "supplemental report" which appears to contradict his earlier "reports" alluding to the hard drive inspection. In view of the superb job the Slashdot community and the Groklaw community did in helping first to prepare for, and then to vet, Jacobson's deposition, I humbly submit for your learned review the now three (3) versions of the "expert's" opinions based on the hard drive, for your analysis. As with almost all federal litigation documents nowadays, they are, unfortunately, in *pdf format: (a) December 19, 2006, declaration; (b) unsigned October 25, 2006, report, awaiting approval from RIAA lawyers; and (c) December 15, 2007, version. The initial observations of commentators on my blog are located here."

Submission + - A new low in restrictive software licensing 4

Submitted by Coutal on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @05:52PM

Coutal writes: Licensing is usually looked upon as a burden by software customers, although one we're grudgingly used to living with. However, at times one encounters new lows which can still invoke sufficient outrage — a stealable license.
Recently, my i-go based pocket pc navigation unit was stolen. However, I still retained my valid serial number, certificate of authenticity, proof of purchase and even a backup of the software. I figured restoring my software to another device should be a matter of unit service or (tops) minimal fee for media restoration. Tech support, however, had other ideas in mind. They informed me that my license was stolen with the unit. No amount of explanation of the lack of logic in that statement made through. They insisted that my backups were also void because I no longer have the original SD card and that I am not allowed to use them (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of backup, as the device only stores extremely little other data than the original software — no more than a few points of interest and marginal settings).

Submission + - Obama backs Network Neutrality (youtube.com)

Submitted by on Monday December 24, 2007 @06:20AM

An anonymous reader writes: Barack Obama, in a speech at Google (youtube link), said that he would "take a back seat to no one" in his support of network neutrality, and said he intends to double Federal funding for science and to make the R&D tax credit permanent. Could Obama be the first mainstream candidate to start understanding geek issues?

Submission + - Police take fingerprints, even for traffic stops (wbay.com)

Submitted by

Khyber

on Monday December 24, 2007 @04:45AM

Khyber writes: "Green Bay police are now taking on a new tactic to "prevent crime" by fingerprinting you, even for minor traffic violations. The claims seem pretty far-fetched, given the recent surge in the reports of privacy invasions."

Submission + - Chuck Norris sues, says his tears no cancer cure (reuters.com) 2

Submitted by Google85 on Saturday December 22, 2007 @02:29PM

Google85 writes: Chuck Norris sued publisher Penguin on Friday over a book he claims unfairly exploits his famous name, based on a satirical Internet list of "mythical facts" about him.
The book capitalizes on "mythical facts" that have been circulating on the Internet since 2005 that poke fun at Norris' tough-guy image and super-human abilities, the suit said.

Submission + - Windows XP driver support begins to end (blorge.com) 3

Submitted by

thefickler

on Friday December 21, 2007 @07:26PM

thefickler writes: "It's official, manufacturers are starting to dump Windows XP support entirely and some new models won't even have Windows XP drivers or any kind of support available, anywhere. One reader, "Mark" contacted TECH.BLORGE regarding installing Windows XP on his HP V6610 (Australian) laptop which is the V6620 in the US. "Mark" said when he went to the HP driver/downloads section that very few Windows XP drivers were available for it and he was right, there were almost no useful drivers for the laptop there. His call to HP support didn't get very far as "HP is no longer supporting Windows XP on the newer PCs.""

Submission + - Dodd beats telecom spying immunity

Submitted by cleetus on Monday December 17, 2007 @09:47PM

cleetus writes: Earlier this evening Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the FISA bill which had retroactive immunity for spying telecoms from consideration on the US Senate floor. This bill, discussed on /. earlier today, would have shielded telecoms who turned data over to the government from lawsuits over 4th Amendment rights violations. The threat of a full scale filibuster from Senator Chris Dodd (which was partially underway already) was enough to force Reid to pull the bill. While the fight over immunity is over for now, but the bill will be brought up again at some point next month so vigilance it still required.

New Vista Random Numbers to Include NSA Backdoor? 269

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 17, 2007 @04:33PM from the advice-is-to-never-enable-it.-Ever. dept.

Schneier is reporting that Microsoft has added the new Dual_EC-DRBG random-number generator to Vista SP1. This random-number generator is the same one discussed earlier that may have a secret NSA backdoor built into it.

Submission + - Student given detention for using Firefox 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17, 2007 @12:05PM

An anonymous reader writes: Several sites are reporting that a student has been given detention for using "Firefox.exe" to do his classwork. No, really. The student was in class, working on an assignment that necessitated using a browser. The teacher instructed him to stop using Firefox and to do his classwork, to which the student responded that he was doing his classwork using a "better" browser (it is unclear whether the computer was the student's own computer or not). The clueless teacher (who called the rogue program "Firefox.exe") ordered him to detention.

Submission + - Installing a game patch, CCP removes c:\boot.ini 1

Submitted by

egnop

on Thursday December 06, 2007 @08:56AM

egnop writes: "So there are about 300k subscribers that play the EVE-online game, at 5 december they had a large patch/upgrade for the game, imagine installing it, reboot your computer and it says, boot.ini missing can't start :-/ From their website: http://www.eve-online.com/ Posted — 2007.12.06 06:19:00 — [1] Please do not reboot your computer without reading this information and determining if your system might be affected. If you upgraded from the Classic client to the Premium client, using the content upgrade, then please read on. Check the root directory of your hard drive and see if you have a boot.ini file, if so then you are not affected. The file is normally hidden so you need to click Tools : Folder Options : View and select "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" to be able to see it. You can also check for the presence of this file by clicking Start : Control Panel : System : Advanced : Startup and Recovery : Settings (third button down). Windows will alert you if the boot.ini file is missing. ... Now that is like sending out a virus to your paying customers, firing the QA departement and going bankrupped?"

Submission + - IAMCP threatens legal action over OOXML (wordpress.com)

Submitted by dread on Thursday December 06, 2007 @08:55AM

dread writes: The swedish section of the IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners) have announced internally that they intend to take legal action against SIS (Swedish Standards Institute) over the OOXML standardisation debacle earlier this fall. And if they didn't look like assholes before they sure do now. First they avoided the democratic process, then they tried to buy the vote and when that was stopped they threaten legal action against SIS. Nice scare tactics.

Submission + - Government-sponsored cyberattacks on the rise (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Friday November 30, 2007 @12:06PM

jbrodkin writes: "A new McAfee report finds that 120 countries, notably the United States and China, are launching Web espionage operations. Government-sponsored cyber attacks against enemy countries are becoming more common, targeting critical systems including electricity, air traffic control, financial markets and government computer networks. This year, Russia allegedly attacked Estonian government news and bank servers, while China was accused of hacking into the Pentagon. A McAfee researcher says this trend will accelerate, noting "it's easier to attack government X's database than it is to nuke their troops.""

Slashdot Top Deals