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The Internet

W3C Publishes First Public Working Draft of HTML 5 310

Posted by Zonk from the new-coat-of-shellack dept.
Lachlan Hunt writes "Today W3C announced that the HTML Working Group has published the first public working draft of HTML 5 — A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML. It's been over 9 months since the working group began in March 2007 and this long awaited milestone has finally been achieved. '"HTML is of course a very important standard," said Tim Berners-Lee, author of the first version of HTML and W3C Director. "I am glad to see that the community of developers, including browser vendors, is working together to create the best possible path for the Web..." Some of the most interesting new features for authors are APIs for drawing two-dimensional graphics, embedding and controlling audio and video content, maintaining persistent client-side data storage, and for enabling users to edit documents and parts of documents interactively.' An updated draft of HTML 5 differences from HTML 4 has also been published to help guide you through the changes."
Mozilla

Firefox Struggling to Compete as Corporate Browser 364

Posted by Soulskill from the mo-zilla-mo-problems dept.
ericatcw brings us an article describing some of the obstacles Firefox is facing while competing with Internet Explorer for business use. Quoting Computerworld: "Now nearly three-and-a-half years old and nearing the release of Version 3, Firefox no longer can be accused of being callow. And while many IE-only apps remain, plenty of others have been overhauled to support Firefox as well. However, other obstacles to broader adoption have emerged. Mozilla thus far has neglected to develop tools to help IT departments deploy and manage Firefox, and it doesn't offer paid technical support services to risk-averse corporate users. Janco Associates Inc. in Park City, Utah, currently gives Firefox a 16% usage share among visitors to 17 business-to-business Web sites that it monitors. Janco puts IE's share at 67% while giving 9% to Netscape and 3% to Google Desktop."
The Internet

YouTube Breeding Harmful Scientific Misinformation 816

Posted by kdawson from the playing-to-the-emotions dept.
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "University of Toronto researchers have uncovered widespread misinformation in videos on YouTube related to vaccination and immunization. In the first-ever study of its kind, they found that over half of the 153 videos analyzed portrayed childhood, HPV, flu and other vaccinations negatively or ambiguously. They also found that videos highly skeptical of vaccinations received more views and better ratings by users than those videos that portray immunizations in a positive light. According to the lead researcher, 'YouTube is increasingly a resource people consult for health information, including vaccination. Our study shows that a significant amount of immunization content on YouTube contradicts the best scientific evidence at large. From a public health perspective, this is very concerning.' An extract from the Journal of the American Medical Association is available online."
Biotech

Study Suggests Genome Instability Hotspots 72

Posted by Zonk from the perfect-place-to-splice dept.
Dr. Eggman writes "Ars Technica reports on a new study that suggests not only that certain areas of the mouse genome undergo more changes, but that changes to those areas are more tolerable by the organism than changes in other areas. Recently published in Nature Genetics, the study examined the certain copy number variations of the C57Bl/6 strain in mice that have been diverging for less than 1,000 generations. The results were a surprising number of variations. While the study does not address it, Ars Technica goes on to recount suggestions that genomes evolved to the point where they work well with evolution."
Communications

Submission + - Delaying the "inevitable" death of Morse C (pete.net)

Submitted by
synchros
synchros writes: "The Wall Street Journal had a front-page article today describing one man's work to encourage the uptake of Morse code, by transcribing books into Morse Code-based audio CDs.

From the article: "So far, Mr. Adams says he has sold or donated thousands of Morse versions of such novels as Edgar Rice Burroughs's "At the Earth's Core," Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," and H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine." In about an hour his software can take any book in the public domain and turn it into a string of digital dits and dahs; last weekend, he turned out a version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's - .... . / -... . .- ..- - .. ..-. ..- .-.. / .- -. -.. / -.. .- — -. . -.. (a.k.a., "The Beautiful and Damned")."

I'm just disappointed I didn't get my 20WPM before the Morse Code requirement for radio amateurs was dropped."
Toys

James Randi Posts $1M Award On Speaker Cables 1239

Posted by kdawson from the money-where-your-ears-are dept.
elrond amandil writes "James Randi offered US$ 1 million to anyone who can prove that a pair of $7,250 Pear Anjou speaker cables is any better than ordinary (and also overpriced) Monster Cables. Pointing out the absurd review by audiophile Dave Clark, who called the cables 'danceable,' Randi called it 'hilarious and preposterous.' He added that if the cables could do what their makers claimed, 'they would be paranormal.'"
Security

Submission + - Fox News' FTP Password Anyone?

Submitted by Paris The Pirate
Paris The Pirate writes: Jeff Goodman writes "While browsing around the Fox News website, I found that directory indexes are turned on. So, I started following the tree up, until I got to /admin. Eventually, I found my way into /admin/xml_parser/zdnet/, in which, there is a shell script. Seeing as it's a shell script, and I use Linux, I took a peek. Inside, is a username and password to an FTP. So, of course, I tried to login. The result? Epic fail on Fox's part. And seriously, what kind of password is T1me Out. This is just pathetic." Anyone want to suggest a password policy to Fox?

Feed Linux.com: Open source software on the Nintendo DS (Lite) (linux.com)

From feed by lcfeed
The Nintendo DS is an excellent gaming device, but that's not all you can do with it. The machine's "hackability" makes the Nintendo DS a great platform for running open source software and even Linux, if you want to run a slimmed down version of Linux. In fact, several nifty open source applications can turn your Nintendo DS into a rather useful all-around computing device.
Businesses

Submission + - Outsourcing IT

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Recently my boss announced at a meeting that the focus at our company should be to outsource all 'non-core' aspects of our business. Because what we do is very much IT related, it surprised me to hear that parts of IT should be outsourced as well. While our email and phone systems are currently outsourced, certain systems such as corporate websites, source code management, and project collaboration seem like things that are better managed in house. My question to the slashdot crowd is this: Given such a directive, would you recommend outsourcing? Why or why not?

Feed Engadget: UK retailers reveal Xbox 360 Elite pricing (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Gaming

Retailers such as HMV, Play, and Game in the UK are gearing up for the August 24th European release of Redmond's deluxe game system, and have begun pricing and taking pre-orders on Xbox 360 Elite packages at £330, although there's been no official word from the company on pricing. Microsoft has been tight-lipped, but speculation is that sellers have been tipped off from other regions, as many of them have a European presence. Of course, Steve McGill, the UK mouthpiece for the Xbox, stated last week that the Elite vs. Premium package pricing would be similarly relative to their US counterparts, thus placing the Elite costs close to £336 -- which certainly seems to solve this mystery.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
The Courts

Gateway Customer Sues to Get His PC Fixed 147

Posted by Zonk from the toss-the-tossing-toses dept.
prostoalex writes "The Sacramento Bee tells the story of an El Dorado resident who had to go to small claims court to get his Gateway PC fixed: 'Right out of the box, he says, the computer displayed scattered graphics and wouldn't work properly. He says he called a Gateway salesman five times and sent him an e-mail to get an authorization number to send the computer back, but his phone calls and message were never returned. Then, over the course of months, Sheehan said he called Gateway technical support dozens of times.' Gateway insists that by clicking 'Accept' on a customer service EULA when the computer was first booted, Mr. Sheehan has waived his rights to sue the computer manufacturer in United States courts. The Gateway EULA states that conflicts must be resolved via private arbitrage. Sheehan, though, argues that he never saw the EULA, because of the broken graphics. As such, he's not held to that agreement." Some connections between this and a discussion about a Second Life case we had yesterday.
The Internet

Submission + - Mapping the Blogosphere

Submitted by
dominique_cimafranca
dominique_cimafranca writes: "Discover Magazine has an interesting article on mapping the blogosphere, reporting on the work of Matthew Hurst. Hurst put together a 3D map of the blogosphere, with bright spots represent sites with the highest number of links and isolated islands represent closed communities like Livejournal. The study also identifies other islands like sociopolitical commentary, gadget hounds, sports fans, and, um, porn blogs."
Education

Submission + - CU Student Arrested For Dorm Room Weapons Cache

Submitted by championsoftware
championsoftware writes: Officers then went to Kittredge West and contacted Matthew Furnish at his room. After interviews with Furnish and a search of his room that was done with his consent, officers seized a Glock .40 caliber handgun, a Remington12-guage shotgun, several hundred rounds of ammunition, magazine clips for weapons and a 12-inch knife. Click here for article

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