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superflippy (442879)

superflippy
  (email not shown publicly)
http://www.superflippy.net/
Superflippy is a graphic designer in the southeastern U.S. She has one son and is married to a physicist, despite never having taken a physics class in her life. At home, she runs MacOS X on a dual-processor cheese grater, but uses a MacBook Pro at work.

superflippy (442879)

  FT article on open publishing 2007-01-23 10:58 Anonymous Coward

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:58AM
An anonymous reader writes "James Boyle has an article in the Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b46f5a58-aa2e-11db-83b0-00 00779e2340.html describing experiments in "open publishing" — publishers who make the text freely available online. Lots of links to free digital texts — fiction and non — from Doctorow to Lessig to O'Reilly."
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 [+] submission, books
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  IT: MySpace Sues Spam King 2007-01-23 10:58

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:58AM
from the why-would-you-call-yourself-spam-king dept.
Harry Maugans writes to mention a lawsuit filed by MySpace against Scott Richter, the 'Spam King'. Filed under California's harsh anti-spam laws, the suit alleges that Richter sent millions of unsolicited 'bulletins' to MySpace users over the past few years. From the article: "The suit is aiming for monetary damages and an injunction that would permanently ban Richter and his affiliates from MySpace. The amount of money sought by MySpace has not been disclosed. Richter was already ordered to pay $7 million in a 2003 lawsuit filed by Microsoft after initially refusing to settle the dispute for $100,000. Microsoft announced in 2005 that it would be using the money from the settlement to fuel further antispam operations."
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 [+] story, it, spam, good, myspace, haha, court, internet

  That box on the left side in the new Slashdot UI 2007-01-23 10:37 Morten Hustveit

Submitted by Morten Hustveit on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:37AM
Morten Hustveit writes "Who uses that damn box on the far left of the new article view? What is it for? Why can't I configure it to be hidden permanently?"
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 [+] submission, askslashdot, slashdot
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Submitted by boxlight on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:32AM
boxlight writes "As of today, Canadians require a passport to enter the US. We only required a photo id before this. Meanwhile, Canadians — who have waited until the last minute — are going nuts, lining up in droves at passport offices."
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 [+] submission, republicans
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  Hardware: Nokia Developing Diamond-Like Gadget Casing 2007-01-23 10:27

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:27AM
from the still-waiting-on-transparasteel dept.
space_pingu writes "In the future, all gadgets could be coated with tough, diamond-like material. A patent from Nokia — featured in the latest patent round-up from New Scientist — describes a way of infusing plastic cases with a material, structurally similar to diamond, made from coal. Not only is it more scratch and grime-resistant, but it's also cheap and biodegradable. Apparently it also shines like a metal. The article also touches on a technique for welding with 'ice bullets', and an airport scanner that protects the dignity of travelers."
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 [+] story, hardware, science, technology, diamondage

  Blogger gets millionaire to pay up! 2007-01-23 10:22 Daphne

Submitted by Daphne on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:22AM
Daphne writes "Gert Verhulst, a Belgian actor & writer, gradually became famous ever since he started the television series 'Samson en Gert' back in 1989. In 1991, he recorded a children's song in which he sang something like: "If I would have 10 million, I would buy gallons of lemonade and a hundred kilos of chocolate. I would throw a party, host a fair, and everyone would be invited." Bert, a 21-year old student in Communication Sciences, remembered the song and created the website Gertje.info, in which he presented the 'evidence' in order to persuade the television millionaire to keep true to his promise. Well, guess what? The 21-year old has done it. Millionaire Gert Verhulst announced he will be hosting a fair for over 1500 people on February 2nd. The power of one person and the internet keeps amazing me!"
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 [+] submission, humor
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  Google Antiphishing Site Exposes Private User Data 2007-01-23 10:07 Juha-Matti Laurio

Submitted by Juha-Matti Laurio on Tuesday January 23 2007, @10:07AM
Juha-Matti Laurio writes "Google has removed a few user names and passwords posted inadvertently to a phishing blacklist it compiles and makes publicly available on the Web. This information was submitted to Google by Firefox users with browser's internal antiphishing toolbar. This feature developed in co-operation with Google enables users to report potential phishing sites to Google's blacklist database. Google has reportedly implemented a new mechanism detecting login data in submitted URL's to prevent sensitive information from getting posted to the list."
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 [+] submission, google
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Submitted by s31523 on Tuesday January 23 2007, @09:54AM
s31523 writes "It may come as a surprise to some, but in previous years travel to/from the United States to/from neighboring countries did not require a passport for re-entry into the U.S. Not anymore, as new regulations go into effect today that will require a passport for travelers entering the U.S. from neighboring countries like Canada, Mexico, and various Caribbean islands. U.S. territories are the only exception. The new rule even applies to children, as noted on the U.S. Dept. of State website."
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 [+] submission, politics, announcement
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  Could a white-on-black Google save power? 2007-01-23 08:06 Kris_J

Submitted by Kris_J on Tuesday January 23 2007, @08:06AM
Kris_J writes "Rising Phoenix Design's BlackBack theory says that since white costs more power to display than black on a CRT, web pages should be light text on a dark background. One idea then is that since Google is the most popular website on the planet, would there be a significant global power usage reduction if they changed their design to white text on a black background? At the very least, I reckon they should try it for three days and find out."
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 [+] submission, science, power
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Submitted by daffy on Tuesday January 23 2007, @07:48AM
daffy writes "Joining their colleagues in Norway and consumer organizations in Germany and France, the Finnish ombudsman has sent Apple a letter stating their EULA for iTunes Store must be modified to be more consumer-friendly. The ombudsman's main gripe is with the iPod lock-in: "The basis in Finland is that the consumer can choose on which device s/he wants to listen to downloaded music. Terms of agreement which prevent this or make this needlessly difficult must therefore be removed." (freely translated from the ombudsman's press release). Furthermore, they criticize Apple reserving one-sided rights to modify the EULA."
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 [+] submission, yro, media
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  'Heartbeat' in Earth's climate 2007-01-23 07:28 On Purpose

Submitted by On Purpose on Tuesday January 23 2007, @07:28AM
On Purpose writes "Researchers identify a 'heartbeat' in Earth's climate
A few years ago, an international team of researchers went to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and drilled down five kilometers below sea level in an effort to uncover secrets about the earth's climate history. They exceeded their expectations and have published their findings in the Dec. 22 edition of the journal Science.
The researchers' drilling produced pristine samples of marine microfossils, otherwise known as foraminifera. Analysis of the carbonate shells of these microfossils, which are between 23 million to 34 million years-old, has revealed that the Earth's climate and the formation and recession of glaciation events in the Earth's history have corresponded with variations in the earth's natural orbital patterns and carbon cycles.
The researchers were particularly interested in these microfossils because they came from the Oligocene epoch, a time in Earth's history known for falling temperatures.
"The continuity and length of the data series we gathered and analyzed allowed for unprecedented insights into the complex interactions between external climate forcing, the global carbon cycle and ice sheet oscillations," said Dr. Jens Herrle, co-author of the paper and a micropaleontology professor at the University of Alberta.
The authors also show how simple models of the global carbon cycle, coupled to orbital controls of global temperature and biological activity, are able to reproduce the important changes observed after the world entered an "ice-house" state about 34 million years ago.
In the early half of the 20th century, Serbian physicist Milutin Milankovitch first proposed that cyclical variations in the Earth-Sun geometry can alter the Earth's climate and these changes can be discovered in the Earth's geological archives, which is exactly what this research team, consisting of members from the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Canada, has done.
"This research is not only concerned with the climate many millions-of-years-ago. Researching and understanding 'extreme' climate events from the geological past allows us to better tune climate models to understand present and future events, and the response to major perturbations of Earth's climate and the global carbon cycle, Herrle added.

Article"
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 [+] submission, announcement
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  The most intense source of light on Earth 2007-01-23 05:24 coldcell

Submitted by coldcell on Tuesday January 23 2007, @05:24AM
coldcell writes "In the Oxfordshire countryside, a giant Synchrotron called 'The Diamond' is about to become the most intense source of light on Earth.

From the article: "It looks like a million dollars, though it is worth a lot more. It dazzles, shining more brightly than anything else on the planet. And it is surrounded by the ultimate in boffin bling... The facility has become a world leader, helping to study the resistance-defying properties of superconductors, revealing how catalysts become "poisoned" so they stop making chemicals, providing clues on how to tackle pollution, unveiling some of the metalworking secrets of the ancients, unravelling the stretchy properties of polymers and shedding light on how viruses defend themselves against dehydration.""
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 [+] submission, supercomputing
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  Hardware: Running Your Electric Meter Backwards 2007-01-23 03:23

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 23 2007, @03:23AM
from the power-to-the-peeps dept.
kog777 writes to note a story in International Business Times about "net metering," or generating your own power without disconnecting from the grid. Forty states have laws allowing individuals to do this, and many of them offer subsidies and tax breaks for people who do. From the article: "When the sun shines bright on their home in New York's Hudson Valley, John and Anna Bagnall live out a homeowner's fantasy. Their electricity meter runs backward. Solar panels on their barn roof can often provide enough for all their electricity needs. Sometimes — and this is the best part — their solar setup actually pushes power back into the system."
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 [+] story, hardware, power, usa, oldnews, solarpanel, beendoingthisforyears

  Ask Slashdot: Do You Tell a Job Candidate How Badly They Did? 2007-01-10 19:45

Posted by Cliff on Wednesday January 10 2007, @07:45PM
from the let-the-job-market-sort-it-out dept.
skelter asks: "I have been lamenting with friends in the industry about interviewing woes and the candidates that we find. Consider a hypothetical job candidate comes in after some how making it through screening. In the team technical interview they prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only is he (or she) not as adequate as he thinks he is, but has demonstrated that he is a danger to any code base. Do you tell them? Quietly step away, usher them out and say nothing? Play with them on the whiteboard the way your cat plays with injured mice? Should you leave them as their own warning to others? Is there any obligation to guide them to gaining real experience? Can you give them any advice or is it all liability?"
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 [+] story, askslashdot, business, employment, maybe, jobs, lawsuit, it

  Science: Pictures of Titan's Lakes 2007-01-03 21:39

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 03 2007, @09:39PM
from the in-space-nobody-can-hear-you-fish dept.
sighted writes "For decades, scientists have wondered if the thick orange haze that shrouds Saturn's giant moon Titan hid lakes of liquid methane on the surface, but there was no way to confirm it, until now. The Cassini flyby of July 22, 2006 took these striking images and were released today."
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 [+] story, science, space, cassini, saturn, sirensoftitan, titanthemoon

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