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Microsoft

Submission + - MS Office 2007 Software As Pre-Paid Service (sify.com)

MissingRainbow writes: "Microsoft Office 2007 software is now available as a pre-paid service in India. While buying a computer you can obtain a pre-paid license for a specific duration (say six months). And after that period, it can be renewed. They are comparing this service with the mobile pre-paid cellular services. The price difference between perpetual license and this pre-paid license is quite huge. A perpetual license would cost INR 15,000/- while a pre-paid license for six months would cost just INR 1500/-. So if the MS Office release cycle is less than 5 years, it would make sense to go with the pre-paid option. Otherwise why would anybody want to go pre-paid?"
Red Hat Software

Submission + - Extremely Rare - Flower Hat Jelly (0buckhost.com)

vints777 writes: ""AMAZING IMAGES of the flower hat jelly, a rare species of jellyfish occurring primarily in Brazil, Argentina, and off southern Japan. Characterized by lustrous tentacles that coil and adhere to its rim when not in use, the flower hat jellys bell is translucent and pinstriped with opaque bands, making it easily recognizable.""
The Media

Submission + - Variety's Scathing SMG Review Sponsored by...Sony? 1

Cymoro writes: Talk about fair and balanced journalism. On Monday, Variety published a review of Super Mario Galaxy, which had been released the same day. However, their first impressions of the game were less than stellar. Astute readers did happen to notice a "Sponsored by Sony" located at the top of the page, and a strong comparison to Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction. Is it possible that Sony is paying off reviewers now to hold off Nintendo's sales?

Feed The Register: Reno 911: World's largest reboot underway (theregister.com)

The sound of 10,000 OSes clapping

SCO7 You were up all night writing those last lines of code to ensure mega-demonstration success. And this code is a real pain in the ass to deal with because it has to spread across a 72-processor cluster. But, with a bit of perseverance, you nail it, pop open a beer and wait for the glories to follow when show attendees see your genius on the conference floor.


Feed The Register: Cig-lighter electropulse cannons offered to US plods (theregister.com)

Cold dead turkey strangely incapable of flight

Electromagnetic weapons designed to zap circuitry have long been a favourite speculation of war-tech buffs. Consensus opinion suggests that the only energy source capable of powering a useful pulse strike is a nuclear explosion, or perhaps in the near future a largish conventional bomb. But a recent report in MIT Tech Review suggests that actually it can be done with a car alternator.


Feed The Register: Court date for challenge to 'new' patent rules (theregister.com)

UK conflict with Europe is 'absurd'

A date has been set for a hearing in the High Court to determine the legality of a patent office review of the level of protection it offers to software patents in the UK. On November 19, the High Court will hear four small UK companies argue that the patent office's refusal to accept patent claims covering disks and downloads is "absurd" and puts the UK in conflict with European patent law.


Linux Business

Submission + - Wal-Mart's $200 Linux PC Sells Out (ecogeek.org)

hankmt writes: "About a week ago Wal-Mart began selling a $200 linux machine running on a 1.5 ghz Via C7 processor and 512 megs of RAM. While the specs are useless for vista, it works blazingly fast on Ubuntu with the Enlightenment Window Manager. The machine is now officially sold out of their online warehouses, and the product sales page at WalMart.com is full of glowing reviews from new and old linux users alike."
Privacy

Submission + - We made a mistake, so what? (timesnow.tv)

MissingRainbow writes: "An HCL employee was arrested and kept under custody for 50 days at Bangalore, India. His crime was to have defamed an historical person named Chhatrapati Shivaji, on Google's Orkut social networking site. Later the police found that they had the wrong person under custory and hence released him. When the police was asked about this their response was "We made a mistake. So what?". The error was that they relied on the information (the IP address) provided by internet service provider (ISP), Airtel. And that turned out to be false! Now who is responsible for this debacle? The ISP, for providing the wrong information or the police for not doing their due research before arresting the person? What if the ISP had some ulterior motive for doing this? Why no action is being taken against the ISP for providing false information?"
Privacy

Submission + - Mobile Phone as Tracking Device a Reality (hindu.com)

MissingRainbow writes: "In India, privacy issues are not taken very seriously. Thats why the news, that a big telecommunications company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is providing a service named 'Target Subscriber Notification', which can be used to track subscribers, did not surprise me much. This is touted as a value added service and is available for both police and common subscribers. There are two problems with this. One is that the procedure for the police to avail this facility against an individual is not very clear. I think it will be available for the asking. Since the news article, doesn't even bother to mention the word privacy anywhere, you know the kind of importance it is given in India. The other problem is in the family. I foresee lot of trouble between husband and wife, parents and children, and between lovers because of this service."
Patents

Submission + - Copyrights Are Not Patents (blogspot.com)

MissingRainbow writes: "A group of people in Kolkata, India constructed a pandal (consider this a temporary building used during festivals) based on the Harry Potter theme. The pandal was constructed for a famous festival called Durga Pooja. The Harry Potter theme was used because of its popularity with the neighborhood children. This was a non-commercial use. This should have made the creators of Harry Potter proud. But sadly it didn't. Instead of considering this as free marketing, they have sued the organizers of the Durga Pooja function. Is this how ardent fans are rewarded?"

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