dheera - Slashdot User

Comment: Re:So the market sure is promoting innovation (Score 2, Informative) 369

by dheera on Thursday May 24 2007, @01:35AM (#19249285) Attached to: The Man Who Owns the Internet

"you're only a professional if your email address has a legitimate domain"

Side comment... fortunately, this still works for the .edu's.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Prepares to Take Flight

Submitted by

Lizzytishl

on Tuesday May 15 2007, @08:44AM

Lizzytishl writes "While Boeing is preparing to fly it's first 787 Dreamliner, the company opened up to editors at Design News who dug deep in the trenches to get everything you need to know from revolutionizing not only larger passenger jets, but the way complex machinery is conceived, designed and built. From the materials used to build the body of the plane itself to the technology to guarantee passengers will have a smoother ride (less of a chance of motion sickness) to larger windows and carry-on storage bins. It's fascinating. You can view it here: www.designnews.com/Boeing."

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Prepares to Take Flight

Submitted by

on Tuesday May 15 2007, @08:36AM

An anonymous reader writes "While Boeing is preparing to fly it's first 787 Dreamliner, the company opened up to editors at Design News who dug deep in the trenches to get everything you need to know from revolutionizing not only larger passenger jets, but the way complex machinery is conceived, designed and built. From the materials used to build the body of the plane itself to the technology to guarantee passengers will have a smoother ride (less of a chance of motion sickness) to larger windows and carry-on storage bins. It's fascinating. Check it out at: www.designnews.com/Boeing."

Start-ups hardest hit by Microsoft patent claims

Submitted by MsManhattan on Tuesday May 15 2007, @08:36AM

MsManhattan writes "Microsoft's patent claims will hit start-ups and other small businesses based on the open-source model the hardest, legal experts and open-source advocates say. Even if the company pursues licensing arrangements instead of legal action, as it has indicated it would prefer, "There's no way a small company ... can compete against the patent portfolio of any big company. The very people that Microsoft's trying to collect from are the people least likely to be able to pay them any significant amount of money," says Matt Asay, vice president of business development for open-source developer Alfresco Software Inc. In general, open-source supporters view Microsoft's actions this week as "an attempt to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt and make people hesitant to use open source as an alternative to commercial products" and to mask the lackluster reception for Vista, Office 2007 and other under-performing products. And some have suggested that Microsoft will suffer a backlash effect. Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, notes "The same threat ... Microsoft is holding over open-source users' heads could be turned on the software giant, which itself has used open-source or freely available technology to develop its own commercial products. In fact, there is just as much potential patent infringement in Windows than there is in open source.""

Canadians Overpay Millions on Copyright Tax 144

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 15 2007, @08:22AM
from the helping-the-man dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist has up a post on his site about the Copyright Board of Canada's decision last week on the controversial private copying levy, which functions like a tax on blank media. The good news? The Board reduced the levy on certain media such as CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio, and MiniDiscs. The bad news? The millions of dollars in overpayment from these media will go into the pockets of manufacturers, importers, and retailers, not back to the consumers who paid in the first place. 'In addition to the overpayment issue, the decision contains several interesting revelations ... the decision sheds some light on the CPCC's enforcement program. The collective has aggressively targeted those parties that do not pay the levy, with 21 claims over the past three years. In fact, the enforcement program has been so effective that the Board found that concerns about the emergence of a gray or black market for blank CDs has not materialized.'"