Awel - Slashdot User

Submission + - How Adobe Rips-Off a little guy of everything... (colourlovers.com)

Submitted by

JagsLive

on Saturday July 07, 2007 @07:58AM

JagsLive writes: "a little guy from http://www.colourlovers.com/ responds to " Adobe Rip-Off " : " Back in Nov. of last year Adobe Labs launched Kuler: A 5 color palette creation tool, built around rating, tagging, commenting and sharing the palettes. Craftzine gushed, ?Not only can you create your own palettes, you can get inspired by the popular color combinations already uploaded by other users. Genius!? I take the last word in that sentence with pride. The idea is genius? I should know, I created it 2 years earlier when I built COLOURlovers. Adobe Took a Proof of Concept and Duplicated It. ""

Submission + - UK copyright extension in exchange for censorship? (conservatives.com)

Submitted by

Awel

on Friday July 06, 2007 @07:37AM

Awel writes: "The UK opposition leader, David Cameron, says in a speech to the British Phonographic Industry that his party would work to extend the copyright term to 70 years and crack down on piracy. But in return, labels would have to agree to bear more 'social responsibility', which appears to translate into avoiding lyrics that glorify 'an anti-learning culture, truancy, knifes, violence, guns, misogyny'. He doesn't spell out how this would be achieved in practice. This follows the publication in December of a UK government report recommending that the standard copyright term in Europe remain at 50 years (and not be raised to 70 or 95 years)."

Submission + - The Atrophy of Educational Fair Use? (ft.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04, 2007 @10:16AM

An anonymous reader writes: The Copyright Clearance Center has a new blanket license for educational institutions.. It is billed covering all copyright clearances, though it doesn't really.. Defenders of educational fair use are worried by this apparently benign development, or so says an article in the Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/25cf260c-265c-11dc-8e18-00 0b5df10621.html

"Teachers and students may come to understand their freedom to make educational copies as granted by license, not law. That may not be of much concern for wealthy colleges that find it easier to just pay a flat fee rather than educate their students and teachers about fair use. But it is a great concern for poorer institutions and for the rest of us...
The Copyright Clearance Center's goals are respectable. Publishers and authors have completely legitimate interests to defend. But is the result of this new license a buy-out by wealthy institutions, the only ones who could afford to defend the principle of academic freedom called fair use? Is it a retreat to licensed "gated communities," leaving the poor, the uninformed and the dissident to with no license and an atrophied culture of fair use?"

Submission + - Truth Behind the Great Pyramids (yahoo.com)

Submitted by cbroglie on Monday June 04, 2007 @03:13PM

cbroglie writes: Ever feel like less of a man because the ancient Egyptians could lift heavier things than you? You can rest easy now that professor Michel Barsoum from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel has discovered that the great pyramids were actually made from a primitive cement.

Submission + - Cancer docs gets death threat over drug approval (psa-rising.com)

Submitted by

nbauman

on Monday June 04, 2007 @12:53PM

nbauman writes: "Two oncologists got death threats from angry prostate cancer patients because they voted, as members of the Food and Drug Administration's drug approval panel, to delay approval of a new cancer drug. http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2007/06/03/pr ostate-cancer-doctor-receives-death-threat-over-pr ovenge#more-325 The issue is rigorous science vs. immediate access. Howard I. Scher and Maha Hussain said that the studies of Provenge, a prostate cancer vaccine, done by manufacturer, Dendreon Corp., didn't show improved survival. After the FDA studies were done, supporters of the drug went back and found ways of interpreting the data that did show an advantage, which sometimes came out to 4 1/2 months longer survival depending on how you look at it. Critics say they're data-dredging evidence selectively to make the drug look good. http://psa-rising.com/blog/index.php/2007/04/17/sc her-to-fda-about-provenge-hearing An ongoing 500-patient study will give the answer — in 2 years. Prostate cancer patients say they'll be dead by then, they have nothing to lose, and they have a right to use a new drug now. "We want Provenge to work; that's our raison d'etre," Scher said, but in order to know whether it works, they need to complete the study. Paul Goldberg, editor of The Cancer Letter, said that basing decisions on reliable evidence is also "patient advocacy. This is just another form of it through science." http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/05/10/cancer-vacc ine-activists-unhappy-but-unbowed/ Usually unmentioned is the question of who should pay for the treatment. The FDA would let Dendreon give the vaccine to cancer patients now as "compassionate use," but Dendreon says it would be too expensive. Cancer patients want it to be approved so Dendreon can sell it normally and insurance companies (and Medicare) will pay for it."

Submission + - Insecure Firefox Add-Ons Invite Browser Hijacking

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @02:47PM

An anonymous reader writes: Many makers of extensions or add-ons for Firefox are introducing ways for bad guys to hijack the Web browser, new research suggests. A great many add-ons are updated over insecure (non https:/// connections, providing an avenue for attackers to replace the extension with an evil update. From the story: "As a result, if an attacker were to hijack a public Wi-Fi hot spot at a coffeehouse or bookstore — a fairly trivial attack given the myriad free, point-and-click hacking tools available today — he could also intercept this update process and replace a Firefox add-on with a malicious one."

Submission + - Adobe unveils Photoshop CS3 Extended

Submitted by

Jon Hughes

on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @08:56AM

Jon Hughes writes: "New to the Photoshop family, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended delivers everything in Photoshop CS3 and more. Render and incorporate 3D images into your 2D composites. Stop time with easy editing of motion graphics on video layers. And probe your images with measurement, analysis, and visualization tools. http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/ps_psext_i nfo.html"

Submission + - 802.11n Draft 2.0 Finaly Approved by Working Group

Submitted by

[Geeks Are Sexy]

on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @08:48AM

[Geeks Are Sexy] writes: "Yes folks, the 802.11 Working Group has finally approved Draft 2.0 of the 802.11n spec, brigning us a step closer to its final form. From the article: "With the positive vote from the 802.11n Working Group, the Wi-Fi Alliance will now begin officially certifying equipment as being compliant with Draft 2.0. That's an important step, as official Draft 2.0-compliant gear is guaranteed to be fully compatible with the final 802.11n standard.""

Submission + - The affects of Music on Mental & Physical Heal

Submitted by

renoss

on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @08:16AM

renoss writes: "Studies confirm what many of us know intuitively; if we've had the kind of upbringing that introduced us to the kind of music that works, and if we've had enough leisure time in our adult lives to experiment, investigate and study. What is the kind of music that works? And for what? Read further: http://www.newtohomeinternetbusiness.com/"

Unlimited Wireless Plans Coming 206

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @07:51AM from the talk-much-surf-often-text-lots dept.

An anonymous reader tells us about a BusinessWeek story claiming that in a few years most wireless plans will be unlimited. And pretty costly: unlimited cell calling, SMS, and data for on the order of $115 - $150 a month. Sprint is conducting a trial of such an offering in San Francisco, with the intent of rolling it out nationwide, and other carriers are said to be sure to follow suit. An interesting claim in the article is that in 5 years time, 40% of the US population will be untethered from landlines and using their cell numbers exclusively (vs. 15% now).

Scientifically Accurate Sci-Fi for High-Schoolers? 268

Posted by Cliff on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @03:15AM from the diamond-hard-suggestions dept.

Raul654 asks: "A member of my immediate family is a biology teacher at an all-girls high school. For some years, she's been giving her students the option to earn extra credit by reading a science-related book. What scientifically accurate science fiction books would you recommend for high school readers?"

Submission + - Pianist's Husband Admits Faking Recordings

Submitted by bugg_tb on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @08:34AM

bugg_tb writes: Earlier this month Slashdot reported on Gramophone Magainze's article about Joyce Hatto's music not actually being recorded by her....

It turns out that this appears to be correct as the BBC is reporting that her husband William Barrington-Coupe "began faking passages because Joyce Hatto, who had ovarian cancer, could be heard groaning in pain during recordings"

Submission + - Diamond Thermal Compound finally available

Submitted by dampeal on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @08:33AM

dampeal writes: Here's a review of the first available Diamond based thermal compound... Snip: They say Diamonds are a girls best friend, well that might be true but I think they may be a geeks or enthusiasts best friend as well... I'm talking of course of the thermal properties of diamonds, diamonds are the best thermally conductive substance out there, so of course having a diamond based thermal compound would be probably the best choice for a thermal compound.

Submission + - Natural Interaction: multitouch and touchless

Submitted by

Alessandro Valli

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @08:13AM

Alessandro Valli writes: "New site (beta). New interactive projects (both multitouch and touchless). Along with demo movies. http://naturalinteraction.org/"

Submission + - Windows Vista worse for user efficiency than XP

Submitted by

erikvlie

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @08:07AM

erikvlie writes: "Pfeiffer Consulting released a report on User Interface Friction, comparing Windows Vista/Aero with Windows XP and Mac OS X. The report concludes Vista/Aero is worse in terms of desktop operations, menu latency and mouse precision than XP — which was and still is said to be a lot worse in those areas than Mac OS X. The report was independently financed. The IT-Enquirer editor has read the report and summarised the most important findings."

Slashdot Top Deals