bigdavesmith - Slashdot User

The Dangers of a Patent War Chest 125

Posted by Zonk on Saturday June 09, 2007 @01:29PM from the not-more-powerful-quicker-easier-the-dark-side-is dept.

Timothy B. Lee writes "I've got an article in the New York Times in which I make the case against software patents. Expanding on a point I first made on my blog, I point out that Microsoft has had a change of heart on the patent issue. In 1991, Bill Gates worried that 'some large company will patent some obvious thing' and use it to blackmail smaller companies. Now that Microsoft is a large company with a patent war-chest of their own, they don't seem so concerned about abuse of the patent system. I then describe how Verizon's efforts to shut down Vonage are a perfect illustration of Gates' fears."

Anti-DRM Activists Take On the BBC 200

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday June 09, 2007 @12:21PM from the doing-what's-right dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Activists from Binary Freedom Boston have launched a campaign calling on the BBC to release their content online without DRM or proprietary formats. You might remember the BBC asking us about this earlier and even though the public chose not to use DRM by a landslide, they still decided to use it. EMI and Amazon have already ditched DRM. How long before the BBC does?"

TorrentSpy Ordered By Judge to Become MPAA Spy 372

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday June 09, 2007 @09:20AM from the watching-the-watchmen dept.

PC Guy writes "TorrentSpy, one of the world's largest BitTorrent sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users. They are asked to keep detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA. Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney responded to the news by stating: 'It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users. If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise.'"

Why Music Really Is Getting Louder 388

Posted by Zonk on Saturday June 09, 2007 @01:43AM from the what's-that-grandpa dept.

Teksty Piosenek writes "Artists and record bosses believe that the best album is the loudest one. Sound levels are being artificially enhanced so that the music punches through when it competes against background noise in pubs or cars. 'Geoff Emerick, engineer on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, said: "A lot of what is released today is basically a scrunched-up mess. Whole layers of sound are missing. It is because record companies don't trust the listener to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up." Downloading has exacerbated the effect. Songs are compressed once again into digital files before being sold on iTunes and similar sites. The reduction in quality is so marked that EMI has introduced higher-quality digital tracks, albeit at a premium price, in response to consumer demand.'"

Submission + - Run MapReduce Tools for Eclipse on Linux

Submitted by Adi Lane on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:23PM

Adi Lane writes: Simplify the creation and deployment of MapReduce programs with IBM MapReduce Tools for Eclipse, a plug-in that can runs on Linux, Windows, or any system that can run Eclipse. It uses the Hadoop open-source MapReduce framework, which enables data-intensive applications to run on large clusters of commodity hardware.

Submission + - Movie Review Search Engine Launched

Submitted by

on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:22PM

An anonymous reader writes: MovieTango.com is a brand new search engine that searches only the top movie review sites on the Internet. No more sifting through a bunch of individual web sites. All of the results are posted together in a clean and simple format. Using MovieTango.com saves me a lot of time and energy; plus I'm no longer wasting my money at theaters or on DVD rentals and having to sit through really bad movies. The URL is www.movietango.com/

Submission + - PS3 Dominates Folding@Home Stats

Submitted by Castar on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:21PM

Castar writes: As gaming site Kotaku reports, the PS3 is currently tearing up the Folding@Home charts. With more processing power than all the other client OSes combined, it seems as if this application really shows the strengths of the Cell processor.

Feed News: Our Old Tricks (penny-arcade.com)

From feed by pennyarcadefeed on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:12PM

Tycho: Like former ESA head Doug Lowenstein, I think that even referring to Jack Thompson empowers him, potentially even summoning him, not unlike Candyman. But he's appended us to his latest hijinx for some reason - that is to say he started it. This is (as our foes will tell you!) "fabulously unwise."

Submission + - YouTube Username Dispute

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: Hi there, I am user NativeInstruments in the YouTube community. I have received a request from the head of public relations of Native Instruments gmbh to handover the account because they would like to open their own channel. I asked what I could expect for my trouble. He has offered me $500 and threatened legal action if I do not respond by this sunday because they want to open the channel ASAP. So my questions to the slashdot community are mostly; is this what YouTube and communities are about? Are there any potential legal actions that can be taken against me? Are there examples of YouTube or Google accomodating corporate interest over individuals? Should I just give them the account? Any advice is appreciated since I value slashdot contributors' insight highly. Thank you!

Submission + - How To Pass a Silicon Valley Software Interview

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:07PM

An anonymous reader writes: Googler Paul Tyma tells what he looks for when interviewing people — at Google and his own startup. He gives a specific question that most interviewees get wrong, but his mom got right! Some of this is common sense, but it's definitely a good read if you're interviewing for hardcore software engineering positions.

Submission + - Cary Sherman Works for FELF, not RIAA

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:03PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "I was reading the article entitled "Students 'worst customers' : RIAA", in which Cary Sherman of the RIAA explains that the reason he has stepped up his campaign against college students is that, while they used to be among the record labels' best customers, college students are now its worst customers. I.e. he thinks suing them will make them better customers. This made me wonder whether Mr. Sherman is really working for the RIAA, or is instead a secret agent for the FELF (Full Employment for Lawyers Foundation)."

Submission + - Ergonomic Software Eliminates Mouse Clicking

Submitted by

ThinSkin

on Friday March 23, 2007 @01:01PM

ThinSkin writes: "GentleMouse is an ergonomic software program that eliminates the need to click the mouse by translating cursor movements into mouse actions, providing an easy way to perform mouse actions without manually pressing buttons or scrolling. ExtremeTech's review of the GentleMouse provides an in-depth look of this unusual software and was quite pleased with its "intuitive interface, execution, and software options" but the software "cannot overcome issues in certain apps where clicking a mouse is essential, such as when gaming or designing graphics." Here's a video tutorial of the GentleMouse in action."

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