Houyhnhnm - Slashdot User

Will more IITs, IIMs help economy of India ? 1

Submitted by

Gaura

on Thursday August 02 2007, @02:37PM

Gaura writes "If the central government has its way, India Inc will soon get more corporate honchos, straight out of top-notch B-schools along with more IIT tech grads.The Planning Commission has proposed a plan which includes setting up eight new IITs and seven new IIMs among other institutes. The government feels that increasing the number of IITs and IIMs will add to the number of executives and tech wizards that the country needs and beef up its presence in the scope of research. One point raised has been that perhaps the government should focus more on better medical schools. Another that having more IITs and IIMs will simply fritter the premium on quality that these institutes have. Can a mere increase in numbers guarantee a consistency in the quality of education imparted? Or will the move merely lower quality and dilute the prestige of these premium institutes by turning them into commonplace schools that churn out dozens of average professionals?"

Firefox 3 To Support Offline Apps

Submitted by on Monday February 12 2007, @05:19PM

An anonymous reader writes "Read/WriteWeb reports that Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla, a kiwi who drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox, spoke at the recent New Zealand Foo Camp event about how Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This means you'll be able to use your web apps — like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc — in the browser even when offline. Not only does this move suit Google, but it makes Firefox attractive as the browser platform of choice for SaaS providers like salesforce.com. All of which will hit Microsoft where it hurts. Robert O'Callahan turns up in the comments to the article to say that "Yes, Web apps need to be reengineered for this, and no, no-one (including Google) has announced they will do so — although we hope they will!"."

Upgrading CPUs of a Mac Pro to Quad Core Xeons

Submitted by

EB

on Monday February 12 2007, @04:08PM

EB writes "Macbidouille/HardMac just released a step-by-step procedure to replace original Dual Core Xeon CPUs of a Mac Pro 3.0GHz by Quad Core Xeon X5355 CPUs clocked at 2.66GHz. OSX can already handle all cores, so let's get a 8-Core Xeon-powered Mac Pro before Apple releases it. http://www.hardmac.com/articles/70/"

Blu-ray Secretly Courting Porn Studios

Submitted by

ahoehn

on Monday February 12 2007, @04:01PM

ahoehn writes "In contrast to previous coverage on Slashdot, the LA Times is reporting that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have been actively courting the adult video industry. Even though Sony is still publicly refusing to manufacture adult Blu-ray discs, the article states that, "Last summer, a group pitching Blu-ray visited the Canoga Park offices of Wicked Pictures, whose films include 'As Sleazy as 1-2-3' and 'Womb Raiders.' Wicked executive Jackie Ramos said the Blu-ray proponents spent hours explaining how the movie studio could benefit from releasing Blu-ray DVDs, which deliver dramatically higher picture quality than conventional discs. But what amused Ramos was the warning that came after the presentation — 'They said, 'We can help you, but remember: We were never here.''"

The article implies, but doesn't implicitly state that the representatives came directly from Sony."

New Hiking Maps of Mars

Submitted by

sighted

on Monday February 12 2007, @03:38PM

sighted writes "The European Space Agency has released new topographic 'hiking maps' of Martian canyons. The maps provide detailed height contours and names of complex geological features in the Iani Chaos region, which in the past was the site of ice melted by volcanic heat. These days, if you want to hike the labyrinth of canyons and cliffs in Iani, you'll have to bring your own water."

How do your store your movie collection?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2007, @03:00PM

An anonymous reader writes "I finally went HD. I bought a new TV, new stereo, even upgraded my DVR to HD. Problem is, my DVD recorder isn't HD, and I'd rather keep things at my finger tips instead of burning everything to DVD. I'd like to capture HD content from my sat/cable system and import my DVDs so I can access everything from my couch. Ideally you could browse, search, and organize the collection, use imported DVDs (still browse the DVD menus to see things like extra features), and record HD content. And it needs to have the capacity for a reasonably sized collection (at least 200 DVDs). It doesn't need lots of bells and whistles. Importing and organizing can be complicated, but browsing and playing needs to be simple. Are there commercial solutions? How would you go about building such a system? Or would you just buy a HD DVD burner and another bookcase?"

EU May Force iTunes Store To Accept Returns 252

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 12 2007, @02:42PM
from the putting-a-dent-in-the-bottom-line dept.

Sweet Harmony writes "ArsTechnica is reporting that the European Union may soon require online music stores to accept returns. A review of European consumer protection laws has highlighted online sales of 'digital content services' as an area where existing consumer protection laws need to be harmonized. 'The EC would like to standardize cooling-off periods along with other aspects of the EU's consumer protection laws. One of the issues being considered is whether the rules on consumer sales should apply to 'digital content services' like music.'"

Motorola unveils phone that bends

Submitted by on Monday February 12 2007, @02:23PM

An anonymous reader writes "According to CNET, who are out at 3GSM in Barcelona, Motorola has unveiled a phone that bends in order to make putting it up to your face more comfortable. The Motorola Z8, as the bendy phone is called, runs on a Symbian based platform and also displays video at up to 30 frames per second."

Windows Vista vs. Windows XP vs. Ubuntu Linux

Submitted by

Fwankie

on Monday February 12 2007, @12:33PM

Fwankie writes "Viperlair compares Vista Home Premium to XP Professional as well as Ubuntu. I think those a little peeved at M$ will want to consider this distro of Linux. "Once you get Ubuntu going and you become comfortable with the interface, its actually not any harder then Windows. In fact when it comes to updating the OS you get a bonus; it updates all of your packages too (unless you tell it not to), this all with a few clicks, a password and boom, your done. Oh and no REBOOT needed..." http://www.viperlair.com/articles/editorials/vista /versus/"

AACS broken for all HD and Blu-ray disks

Submitted by on Monday February 12 2007, @11:26AM

An anonymous reader writes "Two months after Muslix64 initially publicized his method for getting AACS keys, a user on Doom9 has found the processing key, which is able to decrypt all disks for both formats released thus far. The exploit can even be reused for future keys. This will allow the creation of a one-click backup utility and is a major blow against DRM."