TALlama - Slashdot User

Submission + - Massachusetts adopts Open XML (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

willdavid

on Thursday August 02, 2007 @01:44PM

willdavid writes: "By John Fontana, NetworkWorld.com: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has added Open XML to its list of approved open documents formats. Critics of Open XML adoption, such as Andy Updegrove, a lawyer, Linux Foundation board member and Massachusetts resident, said Microsoft should not be "rewarded for launching a competing, self-serving standard as a next-best defense against erosion of its dominant position." Massachusetts officials acknowledged the criticism, but said the importance of open formats could not be denied. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080107-massa chusetts-open-xml.html?page=1"

Submission + - Should We Rebuild America with Minneapolis Bridge? (popularmechanics.com) 2

Submitted by mattnyc99 on Thursday August 02, 2007 @01:32PM

mattnyc99 writes: The tragic collapse last night in Minneapolis of a truss bridge—one that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation found "structurally deficient" two years ago—raises an important issue beyond just the engineering of one single span. As national security expert Stephen Flynn pleads in an op-ed on American infrastructure in the wake of yesterday's disaster, "The blind eye that taxpayers and our elected officials have been turning to the imperative of maintaining and upgrading the critical foundations that underpin our lives is irrational and reckless." Do we need to start spending to rebuild America?

Submission + - One-in-three Americans want iPhone (macworld.co.uk)

Submitted by

TALlama

on Tuesday July 17, 2007 @06:14PM

TALlama writes: "According to the folks over at MacWorld, a staggering one in three Americans "indend on purchasing" an iPhone.

Apple has achieved notoriety for the device. Nearly 90 per cent of respondents have heard of the device.

Maybe Fake Steve needs to change his motto to "I invented the freakin' iPhone. Maybe you've heard of it?""

Submission + - UK Government Rejects Anti-DRM e-Petition

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:44PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "The UK government has rejected an e-Petition calling for a ban on DRM. In a response posted to the e-Petitions site, they claim that DRM gives users "unprecedented choice". BBC News reports on the response: "It said DRM acted as a policeman in that it protected digital content, but, it added, the technology also improved choice and the price consumers wished to pay." The response did, however, recognise that "the needs and rights of consumers must also be carefully safeguarded.""

Submission + - Vista Performance Monitor - it's actually good!

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:21PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "This is the first in a small series of articles covering a few of the more useful features of Windows Vista that you may not be familiar with (or even know about). There are are some nice little tools tucked away in Vista, and the first one that I will discuss is the Reliability Monitor. Full article here"

Submission + - History According to Jesus Taught in NJ

Submitted by

fistfullast33l

on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @10:23AM

fistfullast33l writes: "A fight is brewing in Kearny, New Jersey a 16 year old student and his school district over the teachings of the student's history teacher. According to the NY Times, the student did not think the teacher's lectures in class were relevant to the subject matter, so he started recording the teacher in class. On the tapes, "Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah's ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe." Matthew LaClair, the student, was reprimanded by the school for turning the tapes in (apparently students aren't allowed to secretly record lectures) and has been harassed by students. He has threatened to sue the school district. According to WNBC in NY, the teacher claims "he was merely answering a question posed to him in a question-and-answer session, according to Demetrios Stratis, a Fair Lawn lawyer who said he represented the teacher.""

Journal Journal: Gates announce AIDS vaccine initiative

Journal by taketheleap on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @02:42PM

From the article:

Canada will be the site of a new facility to manufacture and test vaccines to fight HIV/AIDS, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates announced Tuesday in Ottawa. Ottawa will contribute up to $111 million toward the new Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, while the Microsoft founder, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will donate up to $28 million.

Viacom Turns to Joost, Spurns YouTube 139

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:55AM from the google-has-lost-please-turn-to-page-57 dept.

Vincenzo writes "Viacom has signed a deal with Joost that will see content from MTVI, Comedy Central, and CBS distributed on the new P2P distribution service. The move comes just two weeks after demanding YouTube pull over 100,000 videos offline. 'Joost's promise to protect their copyrights was a major factor in Viacom's decision, and also a stumbling block in their discussions with YouTube/Google. At the moment is it quite easy to download and store video content from YouTube, but no such exploit for Joost is known to exist.' It's also a 'secure' distribution medium in the eyes of many in the entertainment industry, since users can't upload content themselves.'"

Submission + - BonziBUDDY ported to Mac OS X - the world's end?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:49AM

An anonymous reader writes: As it could be read recently on digg and Ars Technica, the world famoust spyware, the BonziBUDDY, has been ported to OSX, no exatcly like the original but as price for the spyware freeness, with a bit more "profane" attitude to the users. Does spyware free ports of the world famoust spyware bring the mac world in danger? At least it's worth a good laugh.

Submission + - Tesla to produce a standard electric

Submitted by WindBourne on Monday February 19, 2007 @08:17PM

WindBourne writes: Apparently, Elon Musk is going to sell Electric cars to the middle class masses, not just the wealthy.Musk's Tesla Motors, based out of San Carlos, California, will use the plant to produce its "WhiteStar" car — a four door, five passenger sports sedan which is 100 percent electric. I will be be nice to see this encourage GM/Ford/Toyota/Honda/etc to get the true hybrids and electrics out the door sooner, rather than later.

Submission + - Microsoft: IBM limiting choice by blocking OOXML

Submitted by thefickler on Thursday February 15, 2007 @07:37PM

thefickler writes: In an open letter, Microsoft has lashed out at IBM for trying to derail the standardization of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Submission + - Microsoft: "IBM has 'ulterior' standards age

Submitted by

twofish

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @02:36PM

twofish writes: "In a somewhat hysterical letter Microsoft has accused IBM of trying to block its attempts to fast-track approval of its XML Office file formats as an international standard. IBM's goal is to deny customers choice by only promoting OpenDocument Format (ODF) as an international standard while also advancing Lotus Notes, Microsoft claimed.

"This campaign to stop even the consideration of Open XML in ISO/IEC JTC1 is a blatant attempt to use the standards process to limit choice in the market place for ulterior commercial motives — without regard for the negative impact on consumer choice and technological innovation," Microsoft says."

Music Execs Think DRM Slows the Marketplace 224

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 15, 2007 @11:22AM from the well-duh dept.

MacGod writes "From BBC News comes a story about a Jupiter Research survey conducted before Steve Jobs's anti-DRM essay, indicating that most music industry execs see DRM-free music as a way to expand sales on digital tracks. The survey covered large and small record labels, rights bodies, digital stores, and technology providers. To summarize: 54% of music execs think that current DRM is too restrictive and 62% think selling unencumbered music would be a way to boost sales. Even limiting the survey to the record labels themselves, 48% believe this. Yet, many also believe it's not going to happen without significant governmental intervention — even though most insiders think DRM is harmful, the labels are keen to stick with it. Is this yet another sign of the typical media industry 'head in the sand, refuse to change' approach, or might we be seeing the early stages or some actual change?"

Submission + - Microsoft Posts Open Letter on Open XML & ODF

Submitted by on Thursday February 15, 2007 @10:01AM

An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday, Microsoft posted an open letter entitled 'Interoperability, Choice and Open XML'. Although I could write a book as a reply to the letter, I think that there are /. members who are better qualified for this task. Among the contents of the letter are accusations of IBM for 'smoke and mirrors' as well as 'ODF being tied to OpenOffice' (but Open XML, at the same time, is apparently not tied to MS Office). The term 'customer' is also mentioned ten times, revealing the true root of their Open XML intentions: to keep everyone as a *paying* customer.

Submission + - AOL Supports OpenID

Submitted by Nurgled on Thursday February 15, 2007 @08:08AM

Nurgled writes: On Sunday John Panzer announced that AOL now has experimental OpenID server support. This means that every AOL user now has an OpenID identifier. OpenID is a decentralized cross-site authentication system which has been growing in popularity over the last few months. AOL is the first large provider to offer OpenID services, and though they do not currently accept logins to their services with OpenID identifiers from elsewhere, they are apparently working on it. The next big challenge for OpenID proponents is teaching AOL's userbase how to make use of this new technology.

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