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The Internet

Submission + - Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! Now Support GeoRSS

Submitted by
Lord Satri
Lord Satri writes: "This week, Microsoft announced their new Live Maps, in addition to supporting Firefox on Windows for 3D, now supports the GeoRSS standard. They join Google which recently announced the support of GeoRSS and KML mapping in their Google Maps API. In short, GeoRSS is a standard supported by the Open Geospatial Consortium that incorporates geolocation in an interoperable manner to RSS feeds. The applications are numerous. With Yahoo!'s support of GeoRSS, all the major players are in and the future looks bright for this emerging standard. As for KML, Google Earth's file format, this new Google Maps integration is not unrelated to the recent announcement of internet-wide KML search capabilities within Google Earth. From the GeoRSS website: "This site describes a number of ways to encode location in RSS feeds. As RSS becomes more and more prevalent as a way to publish and share information, it becomes increasingly important that location is described in an interoperable manner so that applications can request, aggregate, share and map geographically tagged feeds. To avoid the fragmentation of language that has occurred in RSS and other Web information encoding efforts, we have created this site to promote a relatively small number of encodings that meet the needs of a wide range of communities. By building these encodings on a common information model, we hope to promote interoperability and "upwards-compatibility" across encodings.""
Security

Submission + - UK Hacker Faces Extradition

Submitted by kurbchekt
kurbchekt writes: The Guardian reports, "The British computer hacker who spectacularly cracked the Pentagon system and embarrassed the American defence establishment now faces extradition to the United States, where a prosecutor has said he would like to see him "fry"." Also in the rumour mill: Matthew Broderick wrote his dialer program and RISC architecture is gonna change everything.
Microsoft

Submission + - Will Apple EMI Deal Marginalize the WMA Format?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If the recent deal between Apple and EMI to sell DRM-free tracks in the AAC codec takes off — and it waits to be seen if consumers will pay an extra 30% for the privilege — it could marginalize WMA as a lead commercial codec. Because they were locked out of FairPlay most player manufacturers and download services turned to WMA and PlaysForSure as their DRM solution for the masses. Some also incorporated additional open codecs like OGG, but did so to primarily attract a niche, digitally savvier, audience. As it gives competing DAP makers and music services access to the iPod and iTunes, the deal now places straight AAC in prime position to take off as the paid download standard. This means there is less compelling reason to stick with WMA should the other major labels follow suit. It doesn't help that Microsoft angered a number of its partners when it introduced Zune and a new proprietary DRM scheme restricted to that player and their Zune Marketplace. That strategic move now appears to be ill-fated.
Education

Submission + - Are College Students Techno Idiots?

Submitted by
ict_geek
ict_geek writes: "Are college students techno idiots? Despite the inflammatory headline, Inside Higher Ed at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/15/info lit asks an interesting question. The article refers to a recent study by ETS, which analyzed results from 6,300 students who took its ICT Literacy Assessment. Check out the demo: http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy/demo.html. The findings, at http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy/prelimfindings.html , show that students don't know how to judge the authoritativeness or objectivity of web sites, can't narrow down an overly broad search, and can't tailor a message to a particular audience. Yikes. According to the article, "when asked to select a research statement for a class assignment, only 44 percent identified a statement that captured the assignment's demands. And when asked to evaluate several Web sites, 52 percent correctly assessed the objectivity of the sites, 65 percent correctly judged for authority, and 72 percent for timeliness. Overall, 49 percent correctly identified the site that satisfied all three criteria.""
Software

Submission + - VMware: 'We can't execute our roadmap fast enough'

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Rapid adoption of new products and demands for improvements in all phases of virtualization are putting a lot of pressure on VMware Inc. In an interview with SearchServerVirtualization.com, VMware co-founder and president Diane Greene said that's a good thing.

In part one of this Q&A, Greene talked with SearchServerVirtualization.com about the far-reaching implications of inserting a virtualization layer into the computing stack. In part two, Greene comes back to earth and talks about the company's current products, how customers are using them and what they are asking for.
Music

Submission + - British Music Copyright Wars

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The copyright over musical recordings in Britain “only” lasts 50 years, so all kind of cool stuff is about to enter the public domain.... Or at least it would, except that the recording industry wants to extend the term for 45 years or more – for old songs as well as new ones. James Boyle has a piece in the Financial Times about what a dumb idea it is. “I hired an artist to paint a portrait. I offered $500. He agreed. We had a deal. .. A few years later he returned. “You owe me another $450” he said. We looked at the contract. “But you agreed to paint it for $500 and I paid you that amount.” He admitted this was true, but ..told me, all British painters planned to demand another $450 for each picture they had already painted as well as for future pictures. This would “harmonise” our prices with other countries .. His other argument was that painters often lost money. Only changing the terms of their deals long after they were struck could keep them in business.”
Data Storage

Submission + - ZFS patches for FreeBSD

Submitted by
JunkMale
JunkMale writes: "Pawel Dawidek has announced his first public patch set to use Suns ZFS file system on FreeBSD, having demonstrated ZFS at the FreeBSD Developer Summit in Milan last week. His demonstration included examples ZFSs disk striping, volume management, and data integrity protection.

This is a first set of patches, which allows to use ZFS file system from OpenSolaris on FreeBSD. ... Most of the functionality should work, but there are exceptions. ... Big thanks to ZFS developers for great work and to SUN for opening ZFS source!

The patches are available for FreeBSD 7-CURRENT.

What is ZFS?

ZFS is a new kind of filesystem that provides simple administration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability. ZFS is not an incremental improvement to existing technology; it is a fundamentally new approach to data management. We've blown away 20 years of obsolete assumptions, eliminated complexity at the source, and created a storage system that's actually a pleasure to use. More details here"
Biotech

Submission + - Ancient swords made of carbon nanotubes

Submitted by
brian0918
brian0918 writes: "Nature reports that researchers at Dresden University believe that sabres from Damascus dating back to 900 AD were formed with help from carbon nanotubes. From the article: 'Sabres from Damascus are made from a type of steel called wootz. But the secret of the swords' manufacture was lost in the eighteenth century.' At high temperatures, impurities in the metal 'could have catalysed the growth of nanotubes from carbon in the burning wood and leaves used to make the wootz, Paufler suggests. These tubes could then have filled with cementite to produce the wires in the patterned blades, he says.'"
Quickies

Submission + - Large Earthquake off Japan causes small Tsunami

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A large 8.1 Earthquake off the northern coast of Japan today caused a series of surge waves to hit the Northern California coast. News reports say the waves were from Crescent City in the north to San Luis Obispo in the south. In Crescent City there were a series of 5-6 foot waves moving at 30 mph. Severe damage to several docks is reported (>$600,000 damage), nobody hurt. Odd thing is that this is the second time in 42 years that Crescent City has been hit. They were hit with a much larger Tsunami from the Alaska quake of 1964. That one came inland 6 blocks, caused extensive damage and killed a few people. Several smaller papers like the Mercury News in San Jose have articles but I find nothing on CNN or other larger places.
Graphics

Submission + - Virtual reality tackles phantom limb pain

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amputees who experience phantom limb pain can get relief from 3D virtual reality that creates the illusion they can once again control their missing limb. In tests patients were asked to use their virtual limbs to perform simple tasks, like catching a virtual ball or stepping on highlighted squares. Four out of five said their pain decreased. The researchers say it may work by reactivating dormant brain pathways linked to the missing limb.
Space

Submission + - Big Freakin' Laser Beams in Space

Submitted by
schnippy
schnippy writes: "Interesting story in Esquire on the work on adaptive optics and directed energy being done at the U.S. Air Force's Starfire Optical Observatory. This facility was the subject of a New York Times article earlier this year which suspected the facility was conducting anti-satellite weapons research under the cover of astronomy."
Windows

Submission + - User paid to uninstall XP

Submitted by
VlartBlart
VlartBlart writes: "The BBC is reporting on a Linux fan who got a refund from Dell for not installing WIndows XP on his new laptop. From the BBC article "As Mr Mitchell was planning to run the Linux open source operating system on the machine, he had no need for the copy of Windows XP Home that had been pre-installed. When he started it for the first time, he clicked the box that said "no" on the Windows licence agreement that asked him to agree to its terms. The text of this agreement states users can get a refund for the "unused products" on their new computer if they get in touch with the machine's manufacturer. ...two days later, Dell rang him and told him to expect a refund to his credit card soon after""
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Shatner Says Abrams Wants Him and Nimoy in Trek XI

Submitted by
Blue Fox USA
Blue Fox USA writes: "From TrekMovie.com: "William Shatner appeared at a couple of Trek conventions over the weekend and gave some more details from his conversations with Star Trek XI Producer J.J. Abrams. According to TrekWeb, Shatner again confirmed that the characters of Kirk and Spock would be in the film, telling the crowd in Springfield, MA that "I had a talk with J.J. Abrams a while ago and they were writing a new script — and we are all hoping it will be wonderful...and he said, they were going to get the Kirk and Spock characters in there." The next day Shatner was in New York where Doug Wilson of TrekCore.com reports Shatner as saying "J.J. [Abrams] is committed to having Leonard and I, Leonard and me, in the film." Shatner also suggested that Abrams would be looking at unkowns for the roles of the younger Kirk and Spock.""

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