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Biotech

Submission + - Get Your Genome Sequenced Here (forbes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Forbes has a cover story on why new gene technologies are going to lead to a boom in tests that will tell you your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. "Soon all of us will be able to find out what ticking time bombs lie hidden inside our DNA ..." the article notes, "if we really want to know."

http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/05/31/g enetic-testing-dna-tech-cx_mh_rl_0531dna_land.html

The reason for the boom: "Seven years later Moore's Law has come to gene hunting. Powering the revolution are new devices that speed-read DNA cheaper than ever before."

These new machines may make it possible to find out about your disease risk, and even to get your whole genome sequenced. A project at Harvard is seeking to sequence the DNA of thousands of people. See: http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0618/052_5. html

Other features of interest:
-12 Gene Tests That Could Change Your Life: http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/31/gene-tests-availa ble-tech_cz_rl_mh_0531genetests.html

-Video of a woman who took a radical step after finding out she had a cancer-causing gene. http://www.forbes.com/video/?video=fvn/tech/jal_ca ncer053107

-A reporter gets genotyped:
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0618/052b.h tml
AMD

Submission + - The Truth About ATI/AMD & Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by
Xaxo
Xaxo writes: "Earlier this month AMD's Henri Richard promised open graphics drivers for Linux. While the drivers aren't open sourced yet, they have opened their development and release cycle information to Phoronix. In this article called The Truth About ATI/AMD & Linux they have authenticated slides from AMD about their Linux development cycle and quotes from the AMD Graphics Products Group. From the article: "...each AMD Linux "fglrx" driver release takes usually about eleven to twelve weeks from start to finish. With the development, validation, beta, and bake phases, there are always at least two releases being prepared. This rigid development cycle allows AMD to release updated drivers on a monthly basis while ensuring that each driver has been tested and contains more changes than just a simple version bump.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft bullies UK developer (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by
ZDOne
ZDOne writes: "Microsoft has shown that once again despite having a near bottomless marketing budget — it is supremely talented at coming across as ruthless and uncaring. The boys at Redmond have demanded — with very unsubtle lawyers' letters — that a London-based Windows developer withdraws a version of his free debugging tool from distribution, and is claiming that the tool breaches its licensing conditions. What's this about Microsoft finally seeing the light around the benefits of an open source community approach to software development — we are not convinced.

Microsoft angered by UK developer

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,3928 7310,00.htm"
Sci-Fi

Submission + - 4th part of exclusive interview with Douglas Adams (darkermatter.com)

Submitted by
Ben Coppin
Ben Coppin writes: "Darker Matter's three part interview with Douglas Adams from 1979 lay unnoticed in a drawer for 28 years, until it was published by the new online science fiction magazine. The interview has generated so much interest (much of it coming from Slashdot's coverage, by the way) that we've decided to publish a fourth part — and it's not just the dregs. There's some really interesting stuff in there about how Douglas Adams considered himself neurotic, shy and self-conscious, and why it's surprising that the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy ended up being as good as it was.

http://www.darkermatter.com/issue4/douglas_adams.p hp"
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - FSF Releases "Last Call" Draft of GPLv3 (fsf.org)

Submitted by
mw13068
mw13068 writes: "From the FSF Website: http://www.fsf.org/news/gpl3dd4-released

The new draft incorporates the feedback received from the general public and official discussion committees since the release of the previous draft on March 28, 2007. FSF executive director Peter Brown said, "We've made a few very important improvements based on the comments we've heard, most notably with license compatibility. Now that the license is almost finished, we can look forward to distributing the GNU system under GPLv3, and making its additional protections available to the whole community."

The FSF has also published an essay by Richard Stallman on the benefits of upgrading to GPLv3. "Keeping a program under GPLv2 won't create problems," he writes. "The reason to migrate is because of the existing problems which GPLv3 will fix, such as tivoization, DRM, and threats from software patents. . . . Further advantages of GPLv3 include better internationalization, gentler termination, support for BitTorrent, and compatibility with the Apache license.""
The Media

Submission + - Al Gore talks about his book, confesses to read /.

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Al Gore has come out with his new Book — The Assault on Reason, and has generated quite a media buzz. Everybody asking is he going to run for president, and one of the more interesting interviews is available at Politico — where he confesses to be occasionally reading Slashdot.

"[Mr. Gore] has a Google news page and regularly reads about two dozen sites that range from traditional outlets like USA Today as well as new media venues like Slashdot.org, a technology site, and Huffington Post."

Al is also voicing himself in the upcoming Futurama movie.
Spam

Submission + - Tiscali e-mail not being received (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Reports are surfacing (BBC) that millions of emails sent from Tiscali users have not arrived. They are apparently being blocked as spam after someone (possibly) used Tiscali servers for mass sending. Personally I haven't recieved any messages from family in the UK since Saturday, although they have sent several.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Big ideas for the gaming industry

Submitted by
Chris Williams
Chris Williams writes: "So you have a concept for a 'revolutionary' new game but you are one man with big ideas. How does said person with a big idea market it to a large gaming company? I've followed slashdot for quite some time now and by my reasoning the best start is to get advice from a community that follows such things. So, as a small-time guy with a big idea, what's the first step?"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Alternative Enterprise Desktop Solutions?

Submitted by sinco
sinco writes: Since Microsoft Vista's pricing and hardware requirements increased, I am currently in the process of evaluating alternative solutions for our enterprise desktop computing environment. I have been evaluating Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 as well looking into the other potential cost saving solutions such as using thin-clients. Our organization has about 3,000 computers. Out of that we'd like to target employees that use the basic applications (word processing, email, web browsing) and if successful move forward from there. I was wondering what was your recent experience of migrating from Windows to Linux on the desktop with your enterprise in relation to cost and ease? Also, what is your opinion or experience of using thin-clients as an alternative to the traditional fat client for the enterprise desktop?
Programming

Submission + - Steve Gibson Discusses Software Patents

Submitted by MasterOfMagic
MasterOfMagic writes: On this week's episode of Security Now, Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte discuss software patents, how they are different from trademarks and copyrights, and why they think that they are bad. The actual discussion about software patents starts 15:50 into the podcast. They also discuss IBM's patent portfolio, the RIM patent matter, and the Novel-Microsoft pact. As a bonus, they discuss Apple's Airport responding to request to closed ports instead of ignoring requests to them, and a follow up to the allegation that The Geek Squad used SpinRite without permission. While I know that software patents is a quite divisive issue on Slashdot, the discussion is a good introduction and refresher for people that are 'new around here'. IANAL, nor is Steve Gibson or Leo Laporte, but their discussion is a good starting point.
Media

Submission + - Finnish court rules CSS "ineffective"

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In an unanimous decision released today, Helsinki District Court ruled that Content Scrambling System (CSS) used in DVD movies is "ineffective". The decision is the first in Europe to interpret new copyright law amendments that ban the circumvention of "effective technological measures".

http://www.turre.com/blog/?p=102

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