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Google

Submission + - Google and Dell team up to feed you spyware

ph34rtheSAiNT writes: David Ulevitch reports on his Open DNS blog:

In short, Google and Dell have teamed up to install some software on Dell computers that borders on being spyware. I say spyware because it's hard to figure out what it is and is even harder to remove. It also breaks all kinds of OpenDNS functionality. At the end, I'll tell you what we're doing about it.
Elaborating further:

Typo correction? Broken. Shortcuts? Broken. Google's application breaks just about every user-benefiting feature we provide with client software that no user ever asked for.
Spam

Submission + - Domain Keys gets Nod from Internet Standards Body

* * Beatles-Beatles writes: "http://news.com.com/Promising+antispam+technique+g ets+nod/2100-1029_3-6185904.html

A key Internet standards body gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to a powerful technology designed to detect and block fake e-email messages called Domain keys. Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Sendmail and PGP Corporation are behind the push for DomainKeys, which the companies said in a joint statement will provide "businesses with heightened brand protection by providing message authentication, verification and traceability to help determine whether a message is legitimate."
Communications

Submission + - Sharks don't need sex to reproduce

j.leidner writes: "According to researcher from Ireland and the U.S., sharks don't need sex for reproduction. A lady shark in a zoo that provably had no sex produced a baby shark with "no paternal DNA" using a process known as "Parthenogenesis", the process that "occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male sperm cell." The experiment publicized only today, was reportedly carried out in 2001, which raises the question of the academic reviewers didn't believe the findings for quite some time, or have secretly carried out their own experiments... Since Slashdot curiously doesn't have (need?) a "sex" category, I tag this message "Communications"..."
Software

Submission + - MIT Media Lab Releases New Programming Language

An anonymous reader writes: Efforts to make computer programming accessible to young people began in the late 1970s with the advent of the personal PC, when another programming language with roots at MIT — Logo — allowed young people to draw shapes by steering a turtle around a screen by typing out commands. But the path to mastering most programming languages has been strewn with obstacles, since students needed to figure out not only the underlying logic but also master a brand new syntax, observe strict rules about semicolons and bracket use, and figure out what was causing error messages even as they learned the program. By contrast, Scratch — a free download at scratch.mit.edu — is easy enough for kindergarten-age children to use.
AMD

Submission + - AMD will deliver open graphics driver

FrankNFurter writes: "According to this blog entry, Henri Richard, AMD's executive vice president of sales and marketing announced during his keynote at the Red Hat Summit that AMD will soon deliver open graphics drivers. What is lacking are details about which products will be supported, when the drivers will be available and how open the license will be."
The Courts

Submission + - Student on Myspace Jailed with $1 Million bail

An anonymous reader writes: Slashdot previously covered the story of Allen Lee, the student jailed for writing a violent essay.
In similar events, A University of Southern Mississippi student remains jailed on a one-million dollar bail since April 18th for posting threating remarks to his myspace blog and bulletins. Athorities have been very quiet, and in an update from last week claim to still be collecting evidence.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Building will repair itself during an earthquake

Kate Seamer writes: A US$18.6 million "self-healing" house will be able to resist earthquakes by sealing cracks in its walls and monitoring seismic vibrations. The walls of the house contain nano-polymer particles designed to convert into liquid when under pressure, flow into cracks, and solidify. This would theoretically stabilize the structure after severe seismic trauma. Funded by the European Union, and using technology from Leed University's NanoManufacturing Institute, the house is to be constructed in Greece by 2010.
Google

Submission + - Google Slowly Taking Over The World

newandyke writes: "Outside the Beltway's James Joyner starts from news this weekend that Google has filed a patent to compile psychological profiles of online gamers and looks at the privacy implications of Google's creeping acquisition of information on every bit of our lives. Links include a Guardian newspaper piece, the EPIC 2014 and EPIC 2015 videos, and the "Who's Not Afraid of Google" piece from Slashdot this morning."

Feed Absolutely SFW (theregister.com)

A sermon on modern safety

Stob Before I start, please take a moment or two to identify your exits, in the unlikely event of the alarm sounding during this article. These are clearly marked with a blue underline like this (nb this is not an actual exit, but just a demonstration of what an exit would look like if this were an exit. Do not click on this), and of course some of you may also be able to use your back button. At the first alarm, please click to escape immediately. Do not stop to gather your thoughts. Do not sit there gawping vaguely at the girl in the sidebar advertisement’s Flash animation.


Comment German government conspiracy? (Score 2, Interesting) 79

A quick glance at Wikipedia yielded some interesting figures about Boll's films:
The House of the Dead (budget: $12 million) broke $5.73 million on opening weekend, Alone in the Dark made over $5.1 million (budget: $20 million), and BloodRayne (budget: $25 million) topped $2.42 million.
There is also an answer to the question of how he continues to raise funding:
'Boll is able to acquire funding thanks to German tax laws that reward investments in film. The law allows investors in German-owned films to write off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction; it also allows them to invest borrowed money and write off any fees associated with the loan. The investor is then only required to pay taxes on the profits made by the movie; if the movie loses money, the investor gets a tax writeoff.'
Uwe Boll is a direct result of German tax policy. Looks like the Germans are having some kind of sick joke on our behalf.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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