5207265
submission
macs4all writes:
Not content to mold science class to foment its agenda, this article reports that those ka-ray-zee "educators" in Texas are proposing "revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall."
Of course, reasoned heads on the Texas Board of "Education" will surely prevail. Those members, hand-picked for their "enlightened" views are exemplified by Board member David Barton, founder of WallBuilders, a group that promotes America's Christian heritage; and Rev. Marshall, who preaches that Watergate, the Vietnam War and Hurricane Katrina were God's judgments on the nation's sexual immorality.
The conservative reviewers say they believe that children must learn that America's founding principles are biblical. For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man's fall and inherent sinfulness, or "radical depravity," which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances.
4866833
submission
macs4all writes:
Apple has (finally!) patched the Java Vulnerability that nearly everyone else has patched already.
Available now through these links for OS X 10.4 and 10.5 and through Apple's Software Update service, this Update patches a flaw in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that could potentially allow a malicious Java Applet to execute arbitrary code on the machine.
Apple had previously advised users to temporarily turn off Java in their web browsers. This patch should allow Java to be turned back on.
1101645
submission
macs4all writes:
This article in ITWire details the latest in the abomination that is the Software Patent.
If patenting the obvious is considered something of an art form in the world of IT, then Microsoft is undoubtedly an old master. The Page Up Page Down patent it has been granted would seem to confirm this...
US Patent 7,415,666 goes under the snappy title of: "Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments" and is the latest to be granted to that serial patent application junkie better known as Microsoft.
Anyone who has ever looked at technology patents will know that there is a trick to quickly scanning these application titles in order to weed out the genuine ones from those that are, to be fair, just attempting to patent something that already exists.
So what could a method of navigating paginated content, or stuff on the page, using page-based increments possibly refer to? Ding! Of course, the PgUp and PgDn keys.
Look at the abstract description on that patent and you will see that what Microsoft has cleverly managed to grab ownership of is:
"A method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed."
Which sounds remarkably like using the Page Up and Page Down keys...
773367
submission
macs4all writes:
According to this article, Apple has begun legal proceedings against Psystar, documents confirm. The suit is actually noted to have been filed on July 3rd, through the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit accuses Psystar of license, copyright and trademark infringement, as a result of selling its $400 OpenMac computer.
279307
submission
macs4all writes:
In an open letter to iPhone owners, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that all iPhone owners that have not received other compensation, would be given a $100USD credit as a gesture of good-will.
This should help quell the bad press that early adopters of the iPhone have been generating, and is a sign that Apple does listen to, and value, its customers.
181763
submission
macs4all writes:
MacNN is reporting that following the early morning release of iTunes 7.2, Apple on Wednesday launched iTunes Plus, which brings support for new DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for higher audio quality. The new higher-quality, DRM-free songs are available immediately for $1.29 per song. iTunes Plus currently includes EMI's digital catalog of outstanding recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney's classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.
