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Businesses

Submission + - Opalescent plastic could be both pretty and handy

Submitted by AnotherDaveB
AnotherDaveB writes: A group of researchers from the University of Southampton, in England, and the German Plastics Institute in Darmstadt, led by Jeremy Baumberg, have discovered how to create a plastic with th Opal's iridescent properties. Their invention could be used to make a sparkling substitute for paint, banknotes that are hard to counterfeit and chemical sensors that can act as visible sell-by dates.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Id Goes Full Steam Ahead

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Today, quite wisper and rumors became fact as two FPS giants, Id and Valve joined forces to bring Id games back catalog to Valve's Steam. This marks a huge influx of old classics as well as opening up the possibility of bringing some of the newest, most anticipated Id games to Steam. Expect to hear more from Valve's appearance at Quakecon soon.
Data Storage

Submission + - Can CDs Be Recycled?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I was recently doing a closet-cleaning and came across literally hundreds of old software CDs that are no longer usable — both manufactured CDs and CD-Rs. Note that by "not usable", I mean that many of them simply couldn't be read anymore, possibly due to the fact that they'd been stored rather ineptly (no, I wasn't responsible for how they were stored). My question is: Is it possible to reclaim CDs for raw materials? It seems wrong to just throw them out, but are there other things that can be done with them that will allow their raw materials to be reused in some way?
Biotech

Submission + - Bionic eye could restore vision

Submitted by
MattSparkes
MattSparkes writes: "A new bionic eye could restore vision to the profoundly blind. A prototype was tested on six patients and "within a few weeks all could detect light, identify objects and even perceive motion again. For one patient, this was the first time he had seen anything in half a century." The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer's pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer's head."
Windows

Submission + - Vista "express" upgrade program bungled

Submitted by Josh M.
Josh M. writes: Thousands of customers who purchased new Windows PCs this past Christmas are still waiting on their promised Windows Vista upgrades, despite the Vista launch occurring more than two weeks ago. Ars reports that Dell and HP have both pushed their shipping dates 6-8 weeks back after launch, meaning some people won't get their upgrades well into April. It turns out that because those customers get free Vista support, the OEMs are waiting for better driver support, hence the delay. So much for "express."
Power

Submission + - Data centers sucking down electricity bigtime

Submitted by
BobB
BobB writes: "Energy consumption in corporate data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005, due in large part to the spreading use of volume servers, according to a new report. The study, conducted by a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and a consulting professor at Stanford University, found that servers and associated infrastructure, such as cooling and uninterruptible power supplies, in U.S. data centers consumed about 45 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2005, accounting for about 1.2% of the country's electricity consumption, roughly equal to the power drawn by the nation's color televisions. The electricity costs for the servers and associated infrastructure reached $2.7 billion. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/021507-study .html"
The Media

Submission + - Hockey player fired for not signing flag

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: More news from the Patriotic Insanity department. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2006/ 12/18/nb-hockeyflag.html

From the article:
A junior hockey player has been ousted from the Saint John Sea Dogs after he did not sign a Canadian flag that the team was sending to troops in Afghanistan. Dave Bouchard — a 20-year-old from Jonquière, Que., who played left wing on the Quebec Major Junior team — said he thought someone else had already signed his name. But Sea Dogs coach Jacques Beaulieu said he did not accept that explanation and cut him from the team after Saturday's game. "Morally, we have standards with this hockey team and that's a standard that we believe in," Beaulieu told CBC News Monday. "I mean, if Dave doesn't believe in it, that's fine. But he won't be part of it. He won't be part of this organization. That's the standard that we set."
Nintendo

Submission + - Wii Remote Driver for Linux Released

Submitted by
keitosama
keitosama writes: "Yesterday, version 0.1.2 of WMD, a Wii Remote driver for Linux, was released. It will allow the Wii Remote to act as a mouse and a keyboard, and while it might not yet be useful as much more than a media player remote controller, that's a great start.

WiiLi, a project aiming to port Linux to the Wii, are planning to develop a media center LiveCD called WiiLi Link for regular PCs, using the remote for this purpose. If you've got a working Bluetooth unit in your PC, it should be able to use the Wiimote. If you for some sadistic reason wish to use the Wiimote with your PS3, it's now possible with these patches."
The Almighty Buck

Melting Coins Now Illegal In the U.S. 778

Posted by kdawson from the facing-meltdown dept.
A number of readers have noted the action by the U.S. Mint to outlaw the melting down or bulk export of coins. This has come about because the value of the precious metals contained in coins now exceeds their face value. The Mint would rather not have to replace pennies (at a cost of 1.73 cents per) or nickels (at 8.74 cents). The expectation is that Congress will mandate new compositions for some U.S. coins in 2007.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - commercial game written in pygame released

Submitted by
Horst JENS
Horst JENS writes: "A game written in the python extension pygame was released this Saturday: Galcon is a hectic coffee-break game where you conquer planets by launching armadas of little spaceships against your enemy. The demo of the game is free to download, but to play the full version a key (US$ 19,95) has to be purchased. Mac and Windows versions are linked from the homepage, a linux version is not linked yet but can be found at http://www.imitationpickles.org/tmp/galcon.tgz"
Security

Submission + - MySpace users have stronger passwords than corp...

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "This Wired News column reports Bruce Schneier's analysis the data from a successful phishing attack on MySpace and compares the captured user-passwords to an earlier data-set from a corporation. He concludes that MySpace users are better at coming up with good passwords than corporate drones. The article is a great state-of-the-password address, with lots of fun nuggets like "We used to quip that 'password' is the most common password. Now it's 'password1.' Who said users haven't learned anything about security?" ... Seen on Boing Boing."
Java

Submission + - Sun Released Java 6 Much Sooner Than Expected!

Submitted by
jgertzen
jgertzen writes: "From the Java home page at Sun: Java SE 6 is the current major release of the Java SE platform. Java SE 6 features and enhancements to the platform are summarized in the Umbrella JSR (JSR 270). Areas of improvement include: New Security Features and Enhancements, Integrated Web Services, Scripting Language Support (JSR 223), Enhanced Management and Serviceability, Increased Developer Productivity & Improved User Experience. The new Scripting Language Support is one of the most anticipated features because it includes a new framework and API for binding to scripting languages as well as a built-in version of the Mozilla Rhino engine for JavaScript. If Ajax hasn't skyrocketed JavaScript's popularity enough, this is certain to do it!"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Bank error not in your favor, lose $400.

Submitted by
Loconut1389
Loconut1389 writes: "A few days ago, I deposited $400 cash in an atm. Long ago, I remember my mother saying not to put cash in an ATM, but have been doing so ever since I 'grew up' without problem- until now. This morning I looked at my online banking to see if a check had gone through only to see that they 'corrected' my deposit to $40 instead of $400. I have to wait until things open to speak with a human and work towards fixing this, but even if they immediately take me at my word and correct the 'correction'- the larger question remains: is it safe to deposit cash? I've been a customer at this particular bank for 6 years with no incidents like this- which should be in my favor, but I ask Slashdot, do you deposit cash? Have you had a problem like this? What problems did you have getting the bank to trust you?"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linus on "GPL-tagged kernel modules only"

Submitted by
slashthedot
slashthedot writes: "Linus, on the Linux mailing list today stressed on why it is not good on the part of developers or open source zealots to force people to use software only the way developers want. Responding to a suggestion that a time limit be set ( 12 months was suggested) after which kernel won't be allowed to load non- GPL tagged module, he said users should be allowed to use software the way they want. He tries to make the difference between use and distribution clear. http://osgeek.blogspot.com/2006/12/linux-on-gpl-ke rnel-modules.html"

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