n9uxu8 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Verizon Vs. Vonage: Prior Art found in 12 YO post

Submitted by kamikaze-Tech on Thursday April 19, 2007 @06:12PM

kamikaze-Tech writes: A recent Vonage Forum Post locates a 12 year old comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup post that establishes new prior art in the Verizon Vs. Vonage patent case, years before Verizon filed for the patents. In the newsgroup post dated Sep 22 1995, author Jack Decker states: "I want to go on record as proposing this now so that when someone gets the bright idea in a few months or years, I can point to this as "prior art"...."

Submission + - Some UK Schools/Teachers Dropping the Holocaust

Submitted by

nmb3000

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:59PM

nmb3000 writes: "Apparently some schools and teachers in the United Kingdom are more concerned about offending their students than teaching them history. Specifically, schools are dropping subject such as the Holocaust to avoid "upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial." Other parts of history some schools are removing are the Crusades, and the conflict-filled history of the state of Israel. If "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", what does that mean for future generations who never learned of it?"

Submission + - Orange And Maroon Web Effect Day

Submitted by

buzzdroid

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:55PM

buzzdroid writes: "Tomorrow is "Orange And Maroon Web Effect Day" organized by Virginia Tech alumni at BuzzDroid.com to honor the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Bloggers and webmasters have been challenged and encouraged to incorporate Virginia Tech colors into their website design for the day. More info on the "Orange And Maroon Web Effect" is here. The date coincides with a state-wide day of mourning in Virginia and a national movement to wear Orange and Maroon to honor all victims."

Feed Scientists Unlock Secret Of What Makes Plants Flower (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:53PM

A protein acting as a long-distance signal from leaf to shoot-tip tells plants when to flower, says new research published in Science Express. The finding and related research could have broad agricultural implications.

Submission + - Website system for K-12 school

Submitted by

Intelopment

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:50PM

Intelopment writes: "I'm trying to select a good content management system for a K-12 school website, and wanted to get suggestions. System should have the following properties:
— Idiot Proof (no HMTL skills exist at the school)
— The school staff needs to manage their own day-to-day content, although a knowledgable nerd (me) would be available for admin/setup/etc.
— Features can be limited, or quite rich, such as allowing teachers to define homework content for their students. (Optional)
— At a minimum, user managed content, but more user friendly than just a wiki.
— Willing to pay some money, but Open Source is important.
— Need the ability to provide surveys and feedback forms for parents.

I recall Apple having something like this in the past, but it doesn't seem to be available anymore."

Submission + - Cyber criminals cash in on Virginia Tech tragedy

Submitted by thefickler on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:47PM

thefickler writes: Cyber criminals are flooding email inboxes with spam messages offering camera phone footage of the Virginia Tech shootings. The messages, however, are infected with malware that tries to steal banking passwords, user names and account numbers if activated.

Very sick indeed.

Submission + - Massively Multiplayer Online ... Birdwatching Game

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:36PM

eldavojohn writes: "It looks to be a fun game where you shoot stuff up. You manipulate remote control cameras, take pictures of a bird and classify it. It starts next week with the premise being that the more birds you take pictures of and classify correctly, the more points you get. Ok ok, so it's more so an experiment in collaborative technology than a game ... but if you can get your users to do work for you and have fun at the same time, you might have something big. Who knows, you might even find a new species."

Submission + - DOJ joins lawsuit against HP, Sun, Accenture

Submitted by jcatcw on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:35PM

jcatcw writes: Computerworld reports the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has joined three whistleblower lawsuits alleging that Hewlett-Packard Co., Accenture LLP and Sun Microsystems Inc. provided kickbacks on numerous government contracts since the late 1990s. The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, allege that the three companies have submitted false claims to the U.S. government on "numerous" government contracts since the late 1990s.

Feed More Windows cursor patch trouble (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed on Thursday April 19, 2007 @04:33PM

Blog: Microsoft has documented more problems with a "critical" Windows patch released earlier this month. Three additional applications...

Submission + - Lyrid meteors no moon this weekend

Submitted by

mdsolar

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @12:42PM

mdsolar writes: "If you want to take a chance on the Lyrid Meteor Shower you should be looking this weekend. This shower is usually a quiet one but can result is spactacular displays from time to time. Sky and Telescope http://skytonight.com/observing/objects/meteors/33 05866.html has this to say:

In 1982 the rate unexpectedly reached 90 for a single hour, and 180 to 300 for a few minutes. A brief outburst of 100 per hour was also seen in 1922. And on April 20, 1803, residents of Richmond, Virginia, upon being rousted out of bed by a fire bell, were startled to see great numbers of meteors in all parts of the sky.

http://www.earthsky.org/article/49561/who-should-w atch-the-lyrid-meteor-shower gives viewing times as the very early hours of Sunday and Monday morning. The Moon will have set by then."

Submission + - U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Federal Abortion Ban

Submitted by

andyteleco

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @12:41PM

andyteleco writes: "Law Threatens Women's Health; Criminalizes Safe, Early Abortions WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the federal abortion ban in the cases Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood and Gonzales v. Carhart. The ban, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003, criminalizes abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy that doctors say are safe and the best to protect women's health. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) denounced the ruling. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-pre ss/politics-policy-issues/supreme-court-14047.htm"

Submission + - Pitched Battle Over California AB 1668

Submitted by

Cyrus Mack

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @12:26PM

Cyrus Mack writes: "Microsoft has raised its ugly head once again in the battle over California AB 1668. The Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy debated AB 1668 for a full hour on Tuesday, with lengthy arguments on both sides. Due to some fierce opposition, AB 1668 has now been reduced in scope to a pilot project involving a few state agencies, including the state CIO. See bytesfree.org for details. Sun was in full voice supporting the bill while Microsoft brought out the usual suspects. Please, for the love of God, California residents, write your state assembly member."

Submission + - Typing Patterns for Authentication

Submitted by

Kelson

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @12:17PM

Kelson writes: "NPR's Marketplace is reporting on a new authentication scheme. BioPassword tracks the way you type your password: how long each key is depressed, the time between keystrokes, overall speed. When someone tries to log into your account, it compares the pattern to what it has on file. It only allows you in if both the password and patterns match. The technique has been around a while: World War II morse code operators used it to determine whether a message was sent by an ally or an impostor."

Submission + - Open Source Medical Journal

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19, 2007 @12:06PM

An anonymous reader writes: After the Canadian Medical Association Journal was embroiled in a series of editorial disputes, a number of their editors quit/were fired in protest to what they felt was excessive editorial control by the Canadian Medical Association and excessive influence of the Pharmaceutical industry. They've taken a new angle to providing the medical community with scientific medical information: they've started an open source medical journal.

Submission + - Linux on the TabletPC

Submitted by

n9uxu8

on Thursday April 19, 2007 @11:42AM

n9uxu8 writes: "The workplace just puchased a Toshiba (m400) TabletPC for training purposes. I liked it so much I bought a tablet (HP TC4400) for myself. While officially rescinding my previous rants against the TabletPC format, I'm still currently staring at a windows box. With the recent announcements of the Mandriva's and Ubuntu's latest releases, it seems an appropriate time to focus the usual my distro is better than your distro rants with the following question: which distro, in your experience, actually offers best tablet support out of the box? Key features include pen (and pressure) support, handwriting recognition, screen rotation and suspend to disk/ram.

Dave"

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