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Windows

Submission + - Survey: few intend to upgrade to Vista

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: A recent Harris Poll has found that while most online computers users are aware of Microsoft's Windows Vista, few are intending to switch over to the new operating system anytime soon.

The Harris Poll of 2223 US online adults in early March found that 87% were aware of Vista. Unfortunately for Microsoft, only 12% of Vista-aware respondents were intending to upgrade to Vista in the next 12 months.

The poll revealed that 39% of those intending to move over to Vista planned to upgrade their existing computer so it would meet Vista requirements, 35% planned to buy a new computer with Vista preinstalled, 17% planned to purchase a new "Vista-ready" computer, and 8% said that they would install Vista on their existing computer without any upgrade.
Space

Submission + - Massive star burps, then explodes

Submitted by
gollum123
gollum123 writes: "Tens of millions of years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a massive star suffered a nasty double whammy ( http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/0 4/04_supernova.shtml ). Signs of the first shock reached Earth on Oct. 20, 2004, when the star was observed letting loose an outburst so enormous and bright that Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki initially mistook it for a supernova. The star survived for nearly two years, however, until on Oct. 11, 2006, professional and amateur astronomers witnessed it blowing itself to smithereens as Supernova (SN) 2006jc. All the observations suggest that the supernova's blast wave took only a few weeks to reach the shell of material ejected two years earlier, which did not have time to drift very far from the star. As the wave smashed into the ejecta, it heated the gas to millions of degrees, hot enough to emit copious X-rays. The Swift satellite saw the supernova continue to brighten in X-rays for 100 days, something that has never been seen before in a supernova. All supernovae previously observed in X-rays have started off bright and then quickly faded to invisibility."
United States

Submission + - EPA forced to defend the environment

Submitted by Nitack
Nitack writes: The NY Times is reporting that the US Supreme Court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency is required by the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon emissions. Senator John Kerry is quoted as saying "It's an historic moment when the Supreme Court has to step in to protect the environment from the Bush administration."
Robotics

Submission + - Sunspots on Sale - Robot Rocket Built in a Day

Submitted by
shanmoon
shanmoon writes: "Robotic enthusiasts have long awaited the production release of the Sunspots. These Java based development kits include two "Sunspot" units and base station. Included on each Sunspot: Temperature sensor,Light sensor,8 tri-color LEDs, 6 analog inputs, 2momentary switches, 5 general purpose I/O pins and 4 high current output pins,180 MHz 32 bit ARM920T core — 512K RAM/4M Flash, 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 radio with integrated antenna. Using this kit, in a single day, some researchers launched two (redundant) Sun SPOTs on a single model rocket that streamed light, temperature and acceleration data live over the radio to the ground stations that were busy plotting the data.

Lots of possibilities for robotic fun here, guys. Although they're about twice as expensive as a Mindstorm NXT kit ($550), they're more powerful and more versatile. Can't wait to get mine!

Check them out at Sunspot World."
Businesses

Submission + - Exempt Employees and the fight against Overtime

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I'm employed as a Software Engineer, to clarify; I'm a combination third-level tech support and systems engineer. I work for a fairly large company in Michigan. My boss, under the stress of completing the latest huge project, has started to demand that I, and the rest of my team, complete mandatory overtime to meet some very shortsighted deadlines. I'm an exempt employee, which means that I make a salary and am not required to keep track of my time each week. I don't feel I'm compensated well enough to work unlimited hours, but that seems to be my boss's goal. What options do I have in restricting my employer and my boss's ability to destroy every little bit of my free time while still staying employed?
Security

Submission + - Fortune 1000 Companies Sending Spam, Phishing

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TheRegister takes a look at spam touting everything from Viagra to phishing sites being blasted out of Fortune 1000 networks. Oracle was found to have a machine pushing out a PayPal phishing scam, and BestBuy had a system sending thousands of spams a month. The Washington Post's Security Fix blog also is tracking this story, finding stock spam being pumped from ExxonMobile and from American Electric Power, among others. Another machine at IndyMac Bank was the source of spam touting generic prescription drugs. From the story: "...an IT engineer with American Electric Power, said the stock spam came from a bot-infected computer belonging to a contractor at one of its power generator plants."
Quickies

Submission + - Carbon Post-it Notes - Look Ma, No Pen!

Submitted by davidwr
davidwr writes: Imagine the carbonless paper 2-copy checks use. Now put Post-It note glue on the back. That's what a team of freshmen from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology came up with at the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA Challenge.

Finally, I don't need to find a pen for all those yellow things encircling my monitor: I can just use the edge of my USB memory stick.
Announcements

Submission + - Dell's Driver plan

Submitted by
Shadow_mil
Shadow_mil writes: "Direct2dell finally posted more information about their Linux support, entitled Linux: Driver Support is Key" this post includes talks about dells plans to improve their drivers, and use GPL drivers when ever possible. But they will also provide closed-source drivers to those you wish to use them (which you need for some 3D effects on certain video cards)."
Intel

Submission + - Intel's Penryn & Nehalem Cores: New Details Em

Submitted by 4130-Chromoly
4130-Chromoly writes: Roughly two years ago, Intel talked about their proposed "tick-tock" product strategy which entailed the shift to a new process technology followed by an enhanced or entirely new microarchitecture approximately every year. In this article, HotHardware.Com has new details regarding 2007's "tick", the Penryn core, and next year's "tock", the Nehalem core, which also all ushers in significant changes with Intel's platform architecture as a whole. According to this new information, Nehalem can execute two threads per core, and in some configurations will feature on-die memory controllers and integrated graphics cores.
Television

Submission + - Atheist Debate: Should we rid the mind of God?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The video from this debate is now online. It was between [theist] Alister McGrath, Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University, author of "Dawkins' God" and "The Dawkins Delusion" and Peter Atkins, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University, well-known atheist and supporter of Richard Dawkins. As seen on Channel 4's "The trouble with atheism". This event was organised jointly by The University of Edinburgh Philosophy Society and The Christian Union. The lecture theatre it was held in seats 500, and it overflowed. More than 300 people had to be turned away.
Space

Submission + - Spaceport America Takes Off

Submitted by
SeaDour
SeaDour writes: "Spaceport America, being built north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is finally becoming a reality and is set to become the world's first commercial spaceport. Governor Bill Richardson recently secured 33 million dollars from the state legislature for the final design, and a proposed 0.25% sales tax increase in Dona Ana County, where the facility is to be constructed, is expected to bring an additional 6.5 million dollars per year (if approved by voters next week). Richard Branson, the head of upstart Virgin Galactic, on Monday agreed to lease the facility for 27.5 million dollars over twenty years. If all continues to go as planned, SpaceShipTwo will make its first suborbital joy ride in two to three years."
Republicans

Submission + - McCain's MySpace Misuses IP, Pays Consequences

Submitted by Nakanai_de
Nakanai_de writes: We all know how the 2008 Presidential candidates are looking to integrate their campaigns with the internet as much as possible. It should therefore come as no surprise that Clinton, McCain, Edwards, and Obama all have MySpace pages. Well, as TechCrunch and Newsvine are reporting, John McCain's page used a template made by Mike Davidson without proper attribution, and even used images on his server without permission. As payback, Mr. Davidson changed one of the links so that instead of listing contact info, McCain now proclaims his support for gay marriage!
Software

Submission + - 20 Million Copies of Vista Sold

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has sold 20 million copies of Vista during the first two months of availability to consumers. This exceeds the same period following XP's release by 18%, during which time 17 million copies were sold. It seems as though the general public isn't as turned off to the new product as those on Slashdot (and the Apple commercials) would like to believe.

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