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Submission + - Alternatives to Slashdot post beta? 8

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Like many Slashdotters, I intend to stop visiting Slashdot after the beta changeover. After years of steady decline in the quality of discussions here, the beta will be the last straw. What sites alternative to Slashdot have others found? The best I have found has been arstechnica.com, but it has been a while since I've looked for tech discussion sites.

Submission + - Slashdot BETA Discussion (slashdot.org) 60

Submitted by mugnyte
mugnyte writes: With Slashdot's recent restyled "BETA" slowly rolled to most users, there's been a lot of griping about the changes. This is nothing new, as past style changes have had similar effects. However, this pass there are significant usability changes: A narrower read pane, limited moderation filtering, and several color/size/font adjustments. BETA implies not yet complete, so taking that cue — please list your specific, detailed opinoins, one per comment, and let's use the best part of slashdot (the moderation system) to raise the attention to these. Change can be jarring, but let's focus on the true usability differences with the new style.
Mars

4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover 101

Posted by samzenpus from the take-a-look dept.
A reader points out that there is a great new panorama made from shots from the Curiosity Rover. "Sweep your gaze around Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover is currently exploring, with this 4-billion-pixel panorama stitched together from 295 images. ...The entire image stretches 90,000 by 45,000 pixels and uses pictures taken by the rover's two MastCams. The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up the scenery — from the distant high edges of the crater to the enormous and looming Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual destination."
GNOME

GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode 267

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the extend-freely dept.
Hot on the heels of the Gtk+ 3.8 release comes GNOME 3.8. There are a few general UI improvements, but the highlight for many is the new Classic mode that replaces fallback. Instead of using code based on the old GNOME panel, Classic emulates the feel of GNOME 2 through Shell extensions (just like Linux Mint's Cinnamon interface). From the release notes: "Classic mode is a new feature for those people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. Built entirely from GNOME 3 technologies, it adds a number of features such as an application menu, a places menu and a window switcher along the bottom of the screen. Each of these features can be used individually or in combination with other GNOME extensions."
Games

Submission + - Blizzard: Diablo 3 on Linux Possible, But Demand Must Be There (ausgamers.com)

Submitted by
trawg
trawg writes: "As the release draws closer, Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson from Blizzard has been working hard to keep the community updated. On a press trip to Australia last week, Jay answered a wide range of questions in this video interview (transcript provided) on topics such as PvP, patch releases, game difficulty, and the potential for D1 or D2 being re-released in HD form. He also touches on the subject of a Linux release of the game: '... I don’t think that it would be outrageous, but I think that we’d have to see that there’d be a demand for it. And then we’d have to see that that demand would be worth the time we take away from the other things that we could do.' So it sounds unlikely in the short term, but there's a glimmer of hope for the future."
Movies

Submission + - Kickstarter foundraising for DRM-free Lib-Ray HD media standard

Submitted by vNentropy
vNentropy writes: Terry Hancock is actively developing the Lib-Ray format "for releasing high-definition video without DRM or other anti-features" and reporting about it on Free Software Magazine.

Lib-Ray exploits free software and open technologies to provide free culture projects with a distribution media of the same or superior features as commercial Blu-Ray discs but without DRM or proprietary formats.

Terry has now decided that it is time to work on it full time to make it real. On Free Software Foundation "Day against DRM" he launched a Kickstarter campaign to found the project.
Hardware

Submission + - Auto Makers Announce Electric Car Charging Standard (motorward.com)

Submitted by Overly Critical Guy
Overly Critical Guy writes: Auto makers are launching a universal EV charger that charges an electric vehicle in 15 to 20 minutes. The standard, called Combined Charging System, has been approved by the Society of Automative Engineers and ACEA, the European association of vehicle manufacturers, as the standard for fast-charging electric vehicles.
Microsoft

Submission + - Little known open source tool, Classic Shell, restores many Windows 7/8 features (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by xpclient
xpclient writes: If you want a high quality Start Menu back on Windows 8 or also want to fix other minor bugs and missing features in Windows Explorer on Windows 7/8/Vista, try this free open source software called Classic Shell for Windows: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ . It has three components.

The first is Classic Start Menu (which is not purely a Classic menu but a hybrid Start Menu which includes Windows 7-style search to launch programs, as well as classic style menu expansion to utilize the full screen. It is extremely customizable, all of its settings can be changed. Sort of a power user's dream or the missing TweakUI for Windows 7. By default, it looks like the Classic Menu but you can simply load a skin like this one (http://www.askvg.com/download-classic-shell-skin-to-get-windows-7-look-like-start-menu-and-start-button-in-windows-8/) to make it look like the Windows 7 Start Menu. The search box also returns partial word matches unlike Windows 7's search box.

The Classic Explorer component restores many Explorer features back like the missing toolbar, missing status bar information, missing shared folder icon in Windows 7, and fixes bugs like the folder pane jumping down bug.

Finally, a third component, Classic IE9 restores the page title, progress bar and protected mode status indicator to Internet Explorer 9.

Classic Shell began in Nov. 2009 and reached a million downloads this month. Its biggest feature is customizability and choice. It's not just about bringing classic features back, you can mix the new and old way of working because of its customization. It is 100% free, open source and infinitely customizable. If you want to boost your Windows environment productivity, try it.
United States

Submission + - Mississippi Teens Jailed After Video Recording Police Investigation From Balcony (wlbt.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Two Mississippi teenagers were arrested after video recording a police investigation from their balcony Tuesday. Pearl Police, who charged up the stairs to arrest the teens and burst through their apartment door without a warrant after a shooting took place in the parking lot below, charged the teens with disorderly conduct. Terrell Madison and his twin sister Shanell were jailed for several hours before they were released. Police returned their phone but kept their SIM card, which is unlawful to do without a subpoena.

According to WLBT, "The Colony Park Apartment resident said she and her twin brother Terrell were on their apartment balcony when Tuesday's tragic police shooting unfolded. But she said minutes later they were being manhandled by officers after they saw her brother recording the scene with his cell phone. "The police came up here after they took his phone. They slammed him down and arrested him, and I'm like 'Why are y'all arresting him', and then they grabbed me and slammed me also and arrested me," said Shanell Madison. She said they didn't know why they were targeted in their own home."
Apple

Submission + - The Origin(s) Of My MacBook Pro (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Recent controversies about working conditions at the Chinese factories that assemble Apple products drove home to Americans that most of our laptops and gadgets are assembled in China. But "assembled" is the key word there — Chinese factory workers are generally putting together components that are built elsewhere. I decided to do a little sleuthing to figure out what countries the widgets in my MacBook Pro came from, and came up with an interesting list that included the United States."
Privacy

Submission + - Supreme Court: GPS devices equivalent of a search, (wired.com) 2

Submitted by
gambit3
gambit3 writes: "The Supreme Court says police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.

The court ruled in the case of Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones. A federal appeals court in Washington overturned his drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month."

Comment Re:These works were written between 40 - 60 years (Score 2) 721

by johnlenin1 (#34403360) Attached to: Greg Bear, Others Cry Foul on Project Gutenberg Copyright Call

This would be a good time to bring up the American Library Association's Digital Copyright Slider:

http://www.librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Makes it easy to determine the length of copyright in the US. Like, as another poster noted, no works from 100 years ago will be protected by copyright today.

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