PaulK - Slashdot User

Submission + - LANCOR v. OLPC Update (groklaw.net)

Submitted by drewmoney on Tuesday January 01, 2008 @03:17PM

drewmoney writes: According to an article on Groklaw: It's begun in a Nigerian court. LANCOR has actually done it. Guess what the Nigerian keyboard makers want from the One Laptop Per Child charitable organization trying to make the world a better place?

$20 million dollars in "damages", and an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in Nigeria.

Submission + - Foams with good memory for space applications

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Tuesday January 01, 2008 @01:49PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently reported that two research teams have developed a new porous foam of an alloy that changes shape when exposed to a magnetic field. The NSF states that this new material is able to remember its original shape after it's been deformed by a physical or magnetic force. This polycrystalline nickel-manganese-gallium alloy is potentially cheaper and lighter than other materials currently used in devices ranging from sonar to precision valves. It also could be used to design biomedical pumps without moving parts and even for space applications and automobiles. But read more for additional references and a photograph showing an example of such a magnetic shape-memory foam."

Office 2003 Service Pack Disables Older File Formats 555

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, 2008 @10:29AM from the always-so-helpful dept.

time961 writes "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft disabled support for many older file formats. If you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source. Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward 'Do you really want to do this?' dialog boxes to click through. And of course because these are, after all, old file formats ... many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives."

Submission + - Wii Finally Cracked

Submitted by

arbourp

on Monday December 31, 2007 @01:32PM

arbourp writes: "The Register has a video which shows how, at the 24th Chaos Congress, an example of how the Wii was hacked has been presented: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/31/nintendo_wii_hack/"

Submission + - Lifesaving hospital hygiene checklist banned (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by on Monday December 31, 2007 @01:18PM

An anonymous reader writes: From the article:
Johns Hopkins University published a simple five-step checklist designed to prevent certain hospital infections. It reminds doctors to make sure, for example, that before putting large intravenous lines into patients, they actually wash their hands and don a sterile gown and gloves.

The results were stunning. Within three months, the rate of bloodstream infections from these I.V. lines fell by two-thirds. The average I.C.U. cut its infection rate from 4 percent to zero. Over 18 months, the program saved more than 1,500 lives and nearly $200 million.

Yet this past month, the Office for Human Research Protections shut the program down.

Submission + - Top 10 independent games of 2007 (gametunnel.com)

Submitted by

cliffski

on Monday December 31, 2007 @12:11PM

cliffski writes: "2007 marks the sixth year of the Game Tunnel Independent Game of the Year awards. It's been a long journey to get here and each year it seems Indie games are just a little better known by the gaming public at large, which we view as tremendously good news. The games themselves also seem to get a bit better each year, mixing unique visions with innovation to create experiences that speak to the heart of gamers. Each of the games is a winner in its own right, an undiscovered gem just waiting to be found. So dim the lights and warm up your modem, as Game Tunnel presents: The Top 10 Independent Games of 2007."

Submission + - Google mobiles to make February debut? (apcmag.com)

Submitted by

SpinelessJelly

on Wednesday December 26, 2007 @08:35AM

SpinelessJelly writes: "It appears that Google's Android, criticised by Microsoft as vaporware, has sprung to life. Prototype devices are circulating, software developers are experimenting with the SDK and PC-based Android emulator, and there are rumours of a show-stopping debut at February's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Numerous examples of the Android GUI are also starting to leak out."

Submission + - Lucent fined $2.5M for cozy China relationship (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @11:49PM

coondoggie writes: "Lucent has entered an agreement with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay a $ 2.5 million in fines to resolve allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by spending millions of dollars on approximately 315 trips for Chinese government officials that included primarily sightseeing, entertainment and leisure. Many trips consisted primarily or entirely of sightseeing to locations such as Disneyland, Universal Studios, the Grand Canyon, and in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and New York City, and typically lasted 14 days each and cost between $25,000 and $55,000 per trip, the DOJ stated. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/23329"

Submission + - Apple Even More Committed to DRM

Submitted by on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @09:43PM

An anonymous reader writes: Apple seeks to patent anti-piracy technology that is far more onerous than Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage.

The scheme Apple outlined in the patent application would rely on a cryptographic key generated prior to the hardware reaching the user. As an application launches, the technology would inject code into the app's executing code stream, generate data that's sent to a digital rights management module, then compare that signed data with the key. If they match, the application continues to open. If not, it's stopped in its tracks.

Such checks could be done on a very frequent basis, said Apple's patent application.

Submission + - Egypt wants to copyright the Pyramids (bbc.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Munchkinguy on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @08:57PM

Munchkinguy writes: The Government of Egypt intends to pass a law that requires people to pay license loyalties whenever they photograph monuments such as the Pyramids of Giza. Zahi Hawass, the chair of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says that this copyright will apply worldwide and insists that "Even if it is for private use, they must have permission from the Egyptian government".

Submission + - Ruby 1.9.0 Released (ruby-forum.com)

Submitted by

sciurus0

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @08:56PM

sciurus0 writes: "The 1.9.0 development version of the Ruby programming language has been released. This version has many changes, including a new virtual machine that provides great speed improvements."

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 + - Top solid state disks and TB drive review (computerworld.com) 3

Submitted by

Lucas123

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @03:45PM

Lucas123 writes: "Computerworld has reviewed six of the latest hard disk drives that include 32GB and 64GB solid state disks, a low-energy consumption "green" drive and several terabyte-size drives. With the exception of capacity, the solid state disk drives appear to beat spinning disk in every category, from CPU utilization, energy consumption and read/writes. The Samsung SSD drive was the most impressive with a read speed of 100MB/sec and write speed of 80 MB/sec, compared to an average 59MB/sec and 60MB/sec read/write speed for a traditional hard drive."

Submission + - Zink Imaging to launch inkless printer

Submitted by

Vinit

on Saturday February 17, 2007 @11:52AM

Vinit writes: "Zink Imaging has developed a unique technology which can print pictures without ink! The innovation could be applied to make hand-held printers that can be integrated into mobile phones and digital cameras. While printing one only needs a paper, I mean Zink paper which is initially colorless, looks and feels like ordinary white photograph paper and is not light sensitive. You can get a copy of picture (5 cm x 7.5 cm) in 30 seconds and the photos are are very durable — they cannot be torn and are also water resistant. The firm plans to launch two products by the end of the year: a small battery-operated, pocket-sized printer for camera-phones and a digital camera with a 2 inch x 3 inch (5 cm by 7.5 cm) printer built in. The company recently demonstrated a working prototype of the camera phone printer at the DEMO 2007 technology conference in California, US. The printer is expected to cost $200 while 100 sheets of paper will cost $20. http://www.pclaunches.com/optical_media/zink_imagi ng_to_launch_inkless_printer.php"

Scientists Expose Weak DNA in HIV 196

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 17, 2007 @11:43AM from the go-for-the-throat dept.

Ace905 writes "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Thursday that they had discovered a very promising 'weak spot' in the HIV virus. The HIV virus, a progenitor to full blown AIDS has eluded all attempts at a vaccine since it was discovered sometime in the 1970's. The major problem with developing a vaccine initially was isolating the virus. Conventional viruses are often defeated with existing drugs, or after being tested against new compounds. HIV has been unique, and staggering in it's ability to resist all attempts at treatment by mutating its own genetic code. HIV is able to resist, with great effectiveness, any drug or combination drug-therapy that is used against it."

Slashdot Top Deals