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Comment Won't matter (Score 1) 664

Part of me wonders if this is not-trivially for publicity, like Greenpeace goes after Apple a couple times a year. But either way, not many people will care and I certainly doubt that they'll convert anybody. iTunes does, IIRC, sell non-DRM'd music (at a premium but also at a higher bitrate), and the DRM they do have is fairly unobtrusive as DRM goes. I don't like DRM'd media any more than the next person, but I can think of much worse offenders to go after than Apple.
Television

CNET UK Credits Claim That Apple Will Release Networked TVs 110

r2k writes "While the Apple rumours posted yesterday highlight some of the most commonly talked-about opinions, a writer for CNet UK sat down with Mahalo's Jason Calacanis, who told CNet he knew for a fact that Apple is developing fully networked LCD TV sets. As the writer points out, Apple dropped 'Computer' from its company name for a very good reason."
Education

How US Schools' Culture Stifles Math Achievement 888

Zarf writes "I'd like to file a bug report on the US educational system. The New York Times reports on a recent study that shows the US fails to encourage academic talent as a culture.'"There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn't really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics," said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.'s math department. "Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none."' While we've suspected that the US might be falling behind academically, this study shows that it is actually due to cultural factors that are devaluing the success of our students. I suspect there's a flaw in the US cultural system that prevents achievement on the academic front from being perceived as valuable. Could anyone suggest a patch for this bug or is this cause for a rewrite?"
Communications

Choosing a Replacement Email System For a University? 485

SmarkWoW writes "The university I attend is currently looking to change the way in which is provides its students with an email service. In the past they used a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their needs. A committee has narrowed the possibilities down to three vendors: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Representatives from these three vendors will be coming to our college and giving a presentation on the advantages of their systems. We're looking at other services these companies provide such as calendaring and integration with existing software that our university runs. What questions would Slashdot readers ask during these Q&A sessions? Which of these three companies would you recommend? Why? What advantages would each have that college-level students would take advantage of? What other aspects should we consider when making our decision?"
The Media

Jobs Rumor Debacle Besmirches Citizen Journalism 286

On Friday someone posted a false rumor that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack on CNN's unverified citizen journalism site, iReport. Apple's stock price went vertical, losing 9% before Apple stepped in and denied the rumor; the stock then recovered most of its loss. The SEC is investigating. PCWorld looks at the hit taken by citizen journalism as a result of this incident. "[The] increasingly blurred line between journalism and rumor is a serious concern for Al Tompkins, the broadcast/online group leader at The Poynter Institute — a specialized school for journalists of all media forms. 'How could you possibly allow just anybody to post just anything under your [CNN] label unless you have blazing billboards that say, "None of this has been verified, we've not looked at any of this, we have no idea if this is true"?' he asks."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Verizon Adds iPhone Lookalike To Challenge Apple (informationweek.com)

Mike writes: "It looks like an iPhone, walks like an iPhone, and quacks like an iPhone, but it's not. It's Verizon's new "Voyager", an iPhone look-a-like made specifically to take on Apple in the marketplace. One advantage is that it has a large external touch screen that also slides open sideways for a full QWERTY keypad. The phone plays MP3s, WMAs, and unprotected AAC files, plus it includes a removable MicroSD memory slot that holds up to 8 Gbytes of memory. The Voyager also uses Verizon Wireless' fast 3G data network instead of the slower AT&T Edge network. Has Verizon come up with the proverbial "iPhone Killer"?"
Biotech

Submission + - The secrets of mother-of-pearl strength

Roland Piquepaille writes: "Do you know that the nacre layer, or mother-of-pearl, which is found in pearls and abalone shells is 3,000 times more fracture-resistant than aragonite, the mineral of which it is composed? According to researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison, this remarkable strength "is due to well-defined nanolayers of organics at the interfaces between micro-tiles of aragonite." "You can go over it with a truck and not break it — you will crumble the outside [of the shell] but not the [nacre] inside. And we don't understand how it forms — that's why it's so fun to study," said the lead researcher. But if becomes possible to harness the mechanism of formation of nacre, it would be possible to produce cars that absorb all the energy at the impact point but do not fracture. Read more for additional details and references about how mother-of-pearl grows."
Censorship

Submission + - NYC man Arrested for Reciting First Amendment

CWRUisTakingMyMoney writes: 'Reverend Billy' — a cross between a street-corner preacher and an Elvis impersonator (but blond) — was arrested on harassment charges last week while reciting the First Amendment through a megaphone in Manhattan's Union Square. Have we reached the point where we can't even (rather uniquely) recite from our own Constitution without being arrested or shouted down?
Software

Submission + - iPhone root password cracked in three days

Dimentox writes: Builder.au reports that "The iPhone root password has been cracked, The information came from an an official Apple iPhone restore image (rename as a zip file and extract). The archive contains two .dmg disk images: a password encrypted system image and an unencrypted user image. By delving into the unencrypted image inquisitive hackers were able to discover that all iPhones ship with predefined passwords to the accounts 'mobile' and 'root', the last of which being the name of the privileged administration account on UNIX based systems..."
"The information came from an an official Apple iPhone restore image (rename as a zip file and extract). The archive contains two .dmg disk images: a password encrypted system image and an unencrypted user image. By delving into the unencrypted image inquisitive hackers were able to discover that all iPhones ship with predefined passwords to the accounts 'mobile' and 'root', the last of which being the name of the privileged administration account on UNIX based systems."
Data Storage

Submission + - What Is Your Favorite Writing Instrument?

CWRUisTakingMyMoney writes: Knowing that Slashdotter-types are generally finicky about the tools they use day in and day out, are you equally picky about what you use for writing? What are your favorite writing instruments: ball-point pens? Felt-tip pens? Mechanical pencils? Hammer and chisel? Something else?

Feed CBS creates video-sharing network (com.com)

Blog: CBS unveiled a video-distribution network Thursday that will allow users to share clips and full-length content for free.The broadcaster...
Republicans

Submission + - White House E-mails Deleted

kidcharles writes: The Washington Post reports that in the midst of an investigation by the U.S. Congress into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Department of Justice, numerous White House e-mails have been lost. Among them are communications from presidential adviser Karl Rove. Parallels are being drawn with the infamous "18 minutes" missing from the Nixon Watergate tapes. Also at issue is the use of Republican National Committee e-mail domains (such as gwb43.com and georgewbush.com) rather than the official White House domain. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.
Communications

Submission + - Job-placement firm threatens suit against blogger

Chmcginn writes: "Instapundit reports that a Tennesee woman, blogging about her & her husband's expierence with a "pay us first, then you get job placement assisstance", has recieved a takedown notice about her February 27 post, among others. Numerous other local & national blogs reporting on the same story — notably Qando's "How to Ruing your buisness in one easy step"."

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