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BusinessWeek Advocates Microsoft Piracy 181

Posted by Zonk from the not-like-they-have-anything-to-lose dept.
xzvf writes "In a lengthy editorial, BusinessWeek advocates allowing users in China and India to pirate Microsoft software so that it can obtain the same level of market share there as it has in the US and Europe. From the piece: 'If Microsoft succeeds in discouraging piracy of Windows in China and India, it is far more likely to drive the user of the pirated software into the Linux camp than it is to steer them into the land of paid-up Windows users. Microsoft's IP management strategy in China and India should instead focus on securing the victory of Windows on the desktops of all PC users. That may require deliberately lax enforcement efforts against pirated copies of Windows for the short and medium term. Only after the Linux threat lessens might Microsoft have the luxury of tightening up piracy protections, as it is now doing in the West. Microsoft can afford to be patient.'"
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - FreedroidRPG 0.10.2 release 1

Submitted by
Arthur Huillet
Arthur Huillet writes: "Hello,

version 0.10.2 of FreedroidRPG was just released.

FreedroidRPG is an isometric 3D role playing game inspired from Diablo and Fallout.
(http://freedroid.sourceforge.net/info.php)

This new version, mostly unchanged from the -rc4, focuses on making the development for the
game easier, exported some hardcoded data into files, made the map
editor a bit more usable and other major and minor tweaks.

The source code and a win32 binary package are available at
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=54521&package_id=58238&release_id=517900

That all being said, here is what we expect to deliver in the next version of FreedroidRPG:

- Magic is going to make a comeback, after a total redesign aimed at making it more original and
funnier
- New maps
- More dialog translations
- Small improvements on the interface

Updates will be announced on our website at http://www.freedroid.org/.

Contributors for dialog translations, mapping and sound effects are welcome. We are also looking
for testers, especially for platforms such as Mac OS, Linux/PPC, *BSD, etc.
You can contact us on #freedroid on irc.freenode.net, or by mail to freedroid-discussion AT
lists.sourceforge.net."
Networking

Submission + - Half of Americans now have home broadband access

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nearly half of all Americans have broadband Internet connections in their homes, largely because of increasing use among minorities and the poor, according to an annual survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The number of home broadband users nationwide now equals the total number of Americans with any type of Internet connection in 2000, the first year the survey was conducted. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/070507-broad band-access-in-american-homes.html
Slashdot.org

Submission + - 6,000-year-old Arctic ponds drying out (thestar.com)

Submitted by
Raver32
Raver32 writes: "Global warming is destroying ponds that have supported life in the Arctic for thousands of years — bad news for the North and an ominous warning to the rest of the world, says a new report by two Canadian scientists. The small, shallow ponds on Ellesmere Island, high in Canada's Eastern Arctic, are drying up and could begin to release greenhouse gases that make the problem worse, says John Smol, a biologist at Queen's University in Kingston. "What happens in the Arctic will affect us all, and not in good ways," says Smol, co-author of the report with Marianne Douglas of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. It is being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their findings are the latest in a series of troubling studies that show how global warming is transforming the Arctic. The region is heating up further and faster than any other place on Earth, and "it's the first to show signs of change," Smol says. It's like the canaries that were kept in mines to warn of bad air: "The canary is singing — it's coughing and choking.""
Google

Google Patents the Design of Search Results Page 114

Posted by kdawson from the look-and-feel dept.
prostoalex writes "ZDNet is reporting that USPTO issued a patent to Google, Inc. for 'ornamental design for a graphical user interface'. This is not, as ZDNet points out, a software patent (which is usually issued as a utility patent), but a design patent, which governs the look and feel of the product and prevents others from directly copying it." Ironic, given Google's recent slip-up of copying a Yahoo page. In news on the flipside, Google has launched a patent search service (in beta).
Communications

Study Shows Cell Phones Safe 210

Posted by Zonk from the safe-for-our-human-brains dept.
PreacherTom writes "In a move worthy of the Mythbusters, scientists in Denmark tracked over 420,000 cell phone users over the course of 21 years in an attempt to determine if the urban legend that cell phone use causes cancer is true. Their results: the RF energy produced by the phones did not correlate to an increased incidence of the disease. Please note that this doesn't make chatting on the highway at 85 mph any more safe." From the article: 'This so-called Danish cohort "is probably the strongest study out there because of the outstanding registries they keep,' said Joshua Muscat of Pennsylvania State University, who also has studied cell phones and cancer. 'As the body of evidence accumulates, people can become more reassured that these devices are safe, but the final word is not there yet,' Muscat added."
Software

Sun Exec Backs GPLv3 94

Posted by Zonk from the friends-in-high-places dept.
Hyperbeth writes "Sun's chief open-source officer Simon Phipps said that existing work towards GPLv3 had been 'extraordinary and effective' and he said he is 'frankly amazed by the criticisms'. The article notes that Mr. Phipps' comments are somewhat surprising, given that the recent open-sourcing of Java went forward with GPLv2." From the article: "I am frankly amazed by the criticisms that have [been] levelled at the GPLv3 process. They seem to ignore the incredible and positive way it is evolving and just find fault with things that are already the subject of work... I would be very surprised if the final GPLv3 was not an effective tool for some of the communities Sun sustains or will initiate in the future."
Software

BitTorrent, Inc. Acquires uTorrent 189

Posted by Zonk from the now-torrenting-faster-than-ever dept.
ColinPL writes "BitTorrent, Inc. has taken the next step — the acquisition of uTorrent. In a joint announcement made today, the two firms have publicly solidified the merger. 'Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent AB have decided to join forces ... BitTorrent has acquired uTorrent as it recognized the merits of uTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together uTorrent'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.'"
Businesses

Best Buy Institutes Extreme Flex Time 300

Posted by Zonk from the now-that's-managing dept.
s31523 writes "The company I work at has a flex time policy where basically, you can come in and leave within a window of time, as long as you are in the office during 'core' hours (10am-2pm). Best Buy has gone extreme, they have completely banished traditional views of office hours. Citing a preference for results over time invested, the company has completely done away with schedules. No mandatory meetings. No impression-management hustles." From the article: "Another thing about this experiment: It wasn't imposed from the top down. It began as a covert guerrilla action that spread virally and eventually became a revolution. So secret was the operation that Chief Executive Brad Anderson only learned the details two years after it began transforming his company. Such bottom-up, stealth innovation is exactly the kind of thing Anderson encourages. The Best Buy chief aims to keep innovating even when something is ostensibly working. '[The 'results-only work environment'] was an idea born and nurtured by a handful of passionate employees,' he says. 'It wasn't created as the result of some edict.'" Sheesh. I work from home and even I have a schedule. Here's hoping it catches on.
Novell

Why the Novell / MS Deal Is Very Bad 367

Posted by kdawson from the laying-it-out dept.
jamienk writes "PJ from Groklaw has taken the time to really explain the big picture of the Novell/MS deal and how it all fits into the SCO case and the strategy some have employed to attack Free Software. If you thought PJ was becoming too shrill before, or if you haven't understood what the big deal is with Novell's agreement, it's really worth a read." From the article: "This is Groklaw's 2,838th article. We now have 10,545 members, who have worked very hard to disprove SCO's scurrilous claims, and we did. We succeeded, beyond my hopes when we started. But here's the sad part. As victory is in sight, Novell signs a patent agreement with Microsoft..."

YouTube Stays Relevant Despite Pulled Content 279

Posted by Zonk from the tube-is-all-things-to-all-people dept.
Gray writes "École Secondaire Mont-Bleu has banned all personal electronic devices and suspended two 13-year-old girls after one uploaded to YouTube a camera phone video of their teacher yelling at the other. After the video was posted on the popular internet video site, the teacher was so embarrassed that he stayed home from work, where he remains on stress leave. The teachers' union is now trying to get all personal electronic devices banned from all schools in Western Quebec." Meanwhile, via the PVRBlog comes word that YouTube has helped raise CBS' ratings by some 7-9%. From that article: "CBS has uploaded more than 300 clips that have a total of 29.2 million views on YouTube, averaging 857,000 views per day, since the service launched on October 18. CBS has three of the top 25 most viewed videos this month (Nov.1-17), including clips from CBS's Tuesday night hit drama 'NCIS,' 'Late Show with David Letterman,' 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' and 'The Early Show.' The CBS Brand Channel is also one of the most subscribed channels of all time with more than 20,000 users subscribing to CBS programming on YouTube since the channel launch last month."

Students Put UCLA Taser Video On YouTube 1583

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the police-buddhism-studies dept.
dircha writes "As widely reported, an incident in which Iranian-American student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was tasered up to five times by UCLA police on Friday, has been captured by a fellow student using a video enabled cell phone and published to YouTube. From the Daily Bruin: 'At around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Tabatabainejad, a fourth-year Middle Eastern and North African studies and philosophy student, was asked to leave the library for failing to present his BruinCard during a random check. The 23-year-old student was hit with a Taser five times when he did not leave quickly and cooperatively upon being asked to do so.' In a story which has raised concerns of racial profiling, police brutality and the health risks of taser use, the ubiquity of video cell phone technology has given us a first hand record of an incident which might otherwise have been a he-said, she-said affair. While the publishing of the video to YouTube has given the issue compelling popular exposure beyond the immediate campus community."

Free Geek Robbed 275

Posted by kdawson from the free-as-in-ripped-off dept.
Ellen Wilson writes, "Portland, Oregon, non-profit Free Geek, which turns old PCs into Linux boxen, has been robbed of about $4500 worth of hardware. Portlanders are asked to keep an eye out for suspicious sales of Ubuntu laptops." This blog post has some details of labeling that could help to spot the stolen laptops. BoingBoing picked up the story and added that another local outfit, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which supports Portland's zine scene, had been hit on the previous night.
Security

Help Black Box Voting Examine ES&S Software 197

Posted by kdawson from the ooh-fresh-code dept.
Gottesser writes, "Bev Harris of Black Box Voting has asked for the help of the Slashdot community. She would like people to take a look at ES&S's central tabulator software and start reporting on their impressions of it. This is a past release of the software but it is similar to the applications in production. Sorry, no source code." Read on for Bev's request and pointers to the code repositories. Update 23:38 GMT by SM Bev has confirmed that blackbox1.org is indeed owned by BlackBoxVoting making both a comment in the discussion and a post on the front page of blackboxvoting.org to help assuage reader fear/doubt.

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