Submission + - Google Maps Boston to London
minus_273 writes: "Google Maps was upgraded today and now has instruction on how to get to London from Boston the method used is incredibly clever. What will they think of next?"
Submission + - Man Crushes Testicle With Wii Controller
Bony Tlair writes: "A Leeds accident and emergency unit reported that a man was admitted to hospital in the early hours of april the 1st with severe injuries to his testical after playing with his Nintendo Wii console in the nude. Doctors reported that he had apparently jerked his Wii so hard he accidently crushed a testicle by jamming the controller against a loose testical. Doctors advised him not play with his Wii again until the swelling went down.
http://www.maxitmag.com/game-on/game-articles/man- crushes-testical-with-wii-controller.html"
Submission + - RIAA Can't Have Defendant's Son's Desktop
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's attempt to get Ms. Lindor's son's desktop computer in UMG v. Lindor has been rejected by the Magistrate Judge. The judge said that the RIAA
Decision by Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy. (pdf)""offered little more than speculation to support their request for an inspection of Mr. Raymond's desktop computer, based on... his family relationship to the defendant, the proximity of his house to the defendant's house, and his determined defense of his mother in this case. That is not enough. On the record before me, plaintiffs have provided scant basis to authorize an inspection of Mr. Raymond's desktop computer."
Submission + - Slashdot announces Slashdot Personals
mi writes: "After years of development and testing, Slashdot is responding to market demand with today's announcement of free Slashdot Personals (Beta): "We have long felt, this would be a good idea, and today we finally bring it to fruition. We have a strong and loyal community and there is no reason, we should not try to facilitate dating among the members. This is a long-term investment for us — nerds' offsprings will start becoming loyal users as soon as within 10 years," — said Commander Taco..."
Submission + - Proof Dog can sniff out piracy
rasyadi writes: "A few days ago slashdot published article on Dogs Trained to Sniff Out Piracy. Today, Malaysian newspaper reported two specially trained sniffer dogs, used their nose to make the biggest pirated optical discs bust of the year. Quoted from New Straits Times Online:
"Two dogs used their noses to make the biggest pirated optical discs bust of the year on their very first official assignment in Malaysia.
Lucky and Flo sniffed out RM10 million in fake optical discs at a shopping complex here yesterday.
The outing was a resounding endorsement of the decision to bring the Labrador Retrievers here from Northern Ireland to put pirated optical disc operators out of business."
Full news can be found at Hot dogs bust pirates"
"Two dogs used their noses to make the biggest pirated optical discs bust of the year on their very first official assignment in Malaysia.
Lucky and Flo sniffed out RM10 million in fake optical discs at a shopping complex here yesterday.
The outing was a resounding endorsement of the decision to bring the Labrador Retrievers here from Northern Ireland to put pirated optical disc operators out of business."
Full news can be found at Hot dogs bust pirates"
Submission + - Teacher Suspended After Pro-gay Article is Printed
An anonymous reader writes: A few months ago, after a student wrote an article for her school newspaper saying that people who are gay should be treated the same as everyone else, the journalism advisor was written up for insubordination. Now she has been placed on paid leave. People planned on attending the school board meeting, but once there, they were informed that they couldn't ask any questions about the situation to protect the teacher. Board president Rev. Stephen Terry said the board could not be swayed in any way before an appeal.
A reprint of the student's original "offending" story can be found on a local news website. The class at Woodlan has stopped publishing their newspaper entirely, and all other schools are having a new policy enforced on them by the school board that states that none of the newspapers are open forum, and that all issues must be approved by the school principal before going to print. One can only wonder whether or not the teacher will be fired in the end."He said his decision was based on state law, but when Jack Groch, the Indiana State Teachers representative for East Allen, asked what the statute was, he was told he was out of order."
Submission + - NASA Confirms Solar Storm near 2012
An anonymous reader writes: `This week researchers announced that a storm is coming — the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.`
`Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.`
Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?
`Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.`
Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?
Submission + - Microsoft gives in to the EU
An anonymous reader writes: Redmond Developer News reports that Microsoft has given in to EU threats of further fines and opened up a whole host of protocols, including the Exchange protocol, under a licence.
http://reddevnews.com/news/devnews/article.aspx?ed itorialsid=192
It doesn't say what the licence will look like though.
http://reddevnews.com/news/devnews/article.aspx?e
It doesn't say what the licence will look like though.
Submission + - phpbb 2.0.* server goes down, comes back up 3.0
FF8Jake writes: "Quoted from phpbb.com:
"After a long time of downtime we are proud to say to be back online. Due to the events we decided to give our previous plans and work a good push and put the new website up instead of reviving the old one. Within this step we also updated the main forums to phpBB3 Olympus as well as using the new phpBB default style, named prosilver."
Looks seckseh. ^_^"
"After a long time of downtime we are proud to say to be back online. Due to the events we decided to give our previous plans and work a good push and put the new website up instead of reviving the old one. Within this step we also updated the main forums to phpBB3 Olympus as well as using the new phpBB default style, named prosilver."
Looks seckseh. ^_^"
Submission + - Livedoor.com founder sentenced to prison
dido writes: "The Mainichi Daily News reports that Takafumi Horie, the founder and former president of Japan's most famed Internet company Livedoor.com has been convicted for violating Japan's Securities and Exchange law, and has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. From the article: 'The Tokyo District Court convicted Horie, 34, the founder of the Internet company, of spreading false information on the stock market about his company in a bid to manipulate share prices and of making false entries in its securities report in violation of the law.'"
Submission + - YouTube Banned Again: Time to RethinkWeb 2.0
vikrantsharma1 writes: "After Brazil & Turkey, YouTube seems to have got a similar treatment in Thailand. Beginning past Friday till Saturday evening, YouTube users in Thailand got redirected to website of MICT, the government agency responsible for Internet censorship. The site was later restored. The ban in Brazil and Turkey was lifted only when YouTube removed the videos which lead to the controversy. The kind of reaction YouTube has faced from government and judges looks bizarre.
This series of bans on YouTube and subsequent judgements raises certain concerns in mind about user generated content and the future of web 2.0 companies. The freedom for users and user-generated content around which the entire Web 2.0 concept revolves goes for a toss when sharing and viewing is banned by force. Users should be deciding what should be shared & seen and what not; however, the democracy of Internet takes a backseat when interest of government or authorities comes forward. Like in case of Thailand, Mashable reports that, the ban could be related to clips from a CNN interview featuring Thailand's ex-Prime Minister Thaksin who was ousted by the Thai military. It seems that the current regime is not happy about the media exposure Thaskin is getting.
This does not imply that there should not be any censorship on the content but solutions need to be explored to involve users in filtering objectionable content. Although, the voting system used by Digg and other sites is a similar soulution but that does not seem to be enough. Suggestions are welcome...!
If we look from a Web 2.0 company's perspective, these kind of situations are really discouraging for startups and headache for established ones. When a giant like YouTube could not stand their ground, in a situation which should not have lead to a ban in the first place, what will happen to a smaller companies. Startups, generally, don't feel comfortable entering areas with lot of legal hassles. If these kind of bans keep coming in, not many startups
will dream of getting into video sharing arena.
I will not be surprised if these kind of activities and judgements, which have set a precedent now, are used as weapons by companies to pull their competitors in court or probably getting banned!!!
Let me know your opinion on this and probable solutions to content moderation if any has come to your mind.
http://vikrantweb.blogspot.com/2007/03/youtube-ban ned-again-time-to-rethink.html"
This series of bans on YouTube and subsequent judgements raises certain concerns in mind about user generated content and the future of web 2.0 companies. The freedom for users and user-generated content around which the entire Web 2.0 concept revolves goes for a toss when sharing and viewing is banned by force. Users should be deciding what should be shared & seen and what not; however, the democracy of Internet takes a backseat when interest of government or authorities comes forward. Like in case of Thailand, Mashable reports that, the ban could be related to clips from a CNN interview featuring Thailand's ex-Prime Minister Thaksin who was ousted by the Thai military. It seems that the current regime is not happy about the media exposure Thaskin is getting.
This does not imply that there should not be any censorship on the content but solutions need to be explored to involve users in filtering objectionable content. Although, the voting system used by Digg and other sites is a similar soulution but that does not seem to be enough. Suggestions are welcome...!
If we look from a Web 2.0 company's perspective, these kind of situations are really discouraging for startups and headache for established ones. When a giant like YouTube could not stand their ground, in a situation which should not have lead to a ban in the first place, what will happen to a smaller companies. Startups, generally, don't feel comfortable entering areas with lot of legal hassles. If these kind of bans keep coming in, not many startups
will dream of getting into video sharing arena.
I will not be surprised if these kind of activities and judgements, which have set a precedent now, are used as weapons by companies to pull their competitors in court or probably getting banned!!!
Let me know your opinion on this and probable solutions to content moderation if any has come to your mind.
http://vikrantweb.blogspot.com/2007/03/youtube-ba
Submission + - Open Source: What's It Good For
An anonymous reader writes: InformationWeek blogs about an open source panel at the South by Southwest conference:
My first planel for South by Southwest was titled, "Open Source: Tell Me Why I Care." Four advocates discussed the reasons for using open source. Pleasantly, there was almost no Microsoft-bashing, and only a little discussion of using open source because it's socially the right thing to do. "One of the myths that keeps people away from open source is that it smells a little bit like patchouli," said one audience participant. Instead, the panel offiered hard-headed, practical reasons why using open source makes sense. The arguments will be pretty familiar to open source advocates, but they'll be compelling to anyone who's sitting on the fence, currently committed to proprietary software and worried about the risks of using open source.
Feed Turkey Lifts YouTube Ban (wired.com)
Submission + - Al Qaeda plot to bring down UK internet
Khaed writes: British MI5 have gathered evidecne that Al Qaeda were plotting to bring down the internet in the UK. Not by technical means or DDoS attacks, but by actually blowing up the facilities where servers are located.
Submission + - Are Web Templates More a Problem Than a Solution?
An anonymous reader writes: First a few admissions, (first) I do not consider myself to be a top tier coder (second) This is my first stint as a web master/coder and (third) This is one of my first few times having root rights on a remote server. Hence, my questions may be naively based.
It is becoming my sense after trying to use two different blogging systems that one may be buying into a lock-in or extra inertia by adopting one system developer's templates to run your site. My guess is the template systems are unique to each brand. Indeed, in one case just viewing the code and documentation warning the closing tabs were absent induced migraine like head throbs. Nonetheless, I have been shown examples where site templates were used to create a customized, attractive and seemingly effective sites. So some have found template systems to be effective labor saving devices. Yet the code and calls for these sites were very difficult for me to understand.
That leads to another issue: I am finding the viewed code for sites becoming ever more difficult to understand. My suspicion here is that this is caused by web site painting tools and the templating systems. It seemed to me that less than a year ago the code was more transparent. Am I mistaken?
Recently I was asked if I would take over the maintenance of a site, because it had become too onerous a task for the person performing those duties. To that person's defense it was a site with a high percentage of image data and the pages were pleasing to view. Looking at the code, I tried to see how I could add missing content with minimal disturbance. It became obvious that route would not work. I viewed the code directly as text and then visually seeing an overly embedded html table structures. What made it even worse was there was no css file only in-line style directives that added to the difficulty of interpreting the code. While I cannot state with absolute certainty, I believe this person thought that any changes required a complete repainting of the pages with the desired changes. Only afterward could the new pages be generated. This could be a case of an individual knew little more than how to run a single application. That is precisely the reason I do not wish to rely too much on templates. If they have a gap or a flaw I too could be left without an alternative.
It might be that I have the need to understand precisely what I am creating, that fuels my distrust of tools. I find it easier to hand write my site's pages where the layout is placed in logical order (for me) to generate the display I am seeking. In the last year I have noticed that viewing the code (as mentioned above) has become harder to understand how the actual page was generated. Is this part of a trend to reveal less to others seeking to learn from the experiences of others or is this simply the complex code generated by both web site painters and templates?
I worry that in some sense when the site is further along I will be re-inventing the wheel, figuratively, by having to write scripts to store older articles in an archive database. To some that would be scary per se, but databases were my specialty it's the damn scripts I don't look forward to writing. This might be a failing of free source code where too little is reused by interested parties. Hence, if that is my error, where would I find the scripts?
Thanks in advance to any constructive, knowledgeable responses.
It is becoming my sense after trying to use two different blogging systems that one may be buying into a lock-in or extra inertia by adopting one system developer's templates to run your site. My guess is the template systems are unique to each brand. Indeed, in one case just viewing the code and documentation warning the closing tabs were absent induced migraine like head throbs. Nonetheless, I have been shown examples where site templates were used to create a customized, attractive and seemingly effective sites. So some have found template systems to be effective labor saving devices. Yet the code and calls for these sites were very difficult for me to understand.
That leads to another issue: I am finding the viewed code for sites becoming ever more difficult to understand. My suspicion here is that this is caused by web site painting tools and the templating systems. It seemed to me that less than a year ago the code was more transparent. Am I mistaken?
Recently I was asked if I would take over the maintenance of a site, because it had become too onerous a task for the person performing those duties. To that person's defense it was a site with a high percentage of image data and the pages were pleasing to view. Looking at the code, I tried to see how I could add missing content with minimal disturbance. It became obvious that route would not work. I viewed the code directly as text and then visually seeing an overly embedded html table structures. What made it even worse was there was no css file only in-line style directives that added to the difficulty of interpreting the code. While I cannot state with absolute certainty, I believe this person thought that any changes required a complete repainting of the pages with the desired changes. Only afterward could the new pages be generated. This could be a case of an individual knew little more than how to run a single application. That is precisely the reason I do not wish to rely too much on templates. If they have a gap or a flaw I too could be left without an alternative.
It might be that I have the need to understand precisely what I am creating, that fuels my distrust of tools. I find it easier to hand write my site's pages where the layout is placed in logical order (for me) to generate the display I am seeking. In the last year I have noticed that viewing the code (as mentioned above) has become harder to understand how the actual page was generated. Is this part of a trend to reveal less to others seeking to learn from the experiences of others or is this simply the complex code generated by both web site painters and templates?
I worry that in some sense when the site is further along I will be re-inventing the wheel, figuratively, by having to write scripts to store older articles in an archive database. To some that would be scary per se, but databases were my specialty it's the damn scripts I don't look forward to writing. This might be a failing of free source code where too little is reused by interested parties. Hence, if that is my error, where would I find the scripts?
Thanks in advance to any constructive, knowledgeable responses.
