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Programming

Submission + - BSD coders caught stealing Linux code

Submitted by sproketboy
sproketboy writes: The inquirer has a piece about some Broadcom driver code that was apparently copied into BSD using their license in violation of the GPL. The thread is here. Flame on.
Censorship

Submission + - Turkish Assembly Votes Censoring of Web sites

Submitted by
unity100
unity100 writes: "Cnn has some piece of news about recent a development in turkey, where turkish assembly, totally in lieu with turkey's commitment to european union membership and european ideals, have voted to have sites that "insult" Turkish Republic founder M.Kemal Ataturk censored from entire Turkish population.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/04/06/turkey .youtube.ap/index.html"
Programming

Submission + - Natural language Javascript events

Submitted by
psydeshow
psydeshow writes: "We're in the middle of an amazing Javascript renaissance right now. Unbelievable magic happening, like Ryan Johnson's Event.Behavior.

"A domain specific language for defining events in your JavaScript applications. It approximates how one would describe an event in the english language and allows you to extend it with your own verbs, conditions and events."
So you can write stuff like "show('state_field').when('country').is('United States');", instead of fooling around with connecting and listening and callbacks. Nice!"
Security

Submission + - Vista Protected Processes DRM broken

Submitted by
W2k
W2k writes: "It's a well-known fact that Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system contains DRM features, intended to keep a user from manipulating protected digital content that passes through his system. One core part of the DRM in Vista is Protected Processes. In short, a protected process is given special privileges by the operating system to keep other processes from accessing its memory or injecting their own code into its execution path. For example, running a media player as a protected process would make it theoretically impossible for a hacker to read encryption keys for DRM:ed content from its memory space. Well, not any longer. ReactOS developer and well-known kernel hacker Alex Ionescu has published on his blog a tool that can protect or unprotect any process, no questions asked. Screenshots of the tool in action are provided, but no source code."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - OpenBSD in a GPL violation?

Submitted by
Yenya
Yenya writes: "In a message sent to OpenBSD developers as well as the linux-wireless and bcm43xx-devel lists, Michael Buesch, the main developer of the Linux bcm43xx driver for Broadcom WiFi devices, wrote:

[...]We believe that you might have directly copied code out of bcm43xx (licensed under GPL v2), without our explicit permission, into bcw (licensed under BSD license). There are implementation details in bcm43xx that appear exactly the same in bcw. These implementation details clearly don't come from the open specifications at bcm-specs.sipsolutions.net or bcm-v4.sipsolutions.net.
The bcm43xx driver is being developed as a clean room design, based on the reverse-enginered specs, created by another team. As it seems now, the bcw driver in question might just be removed from the OpenBSD source."
Businesses

Submission + - Verizon Adds 5GB Limit to Unlimited Data Plan

Submitted by
Jason
Jason writes: "For years there have been stories about people getting their unlimited Verizon accounts terminated because of excessive data usage, but Verizon never explicitly said that there is a limit. Now if you dive a into the terms of the Unlimited Data Service plan they have put a section in that specifically states that anything over 5GB of data usage in a one month period is considered abnormal. Since when does 5GB per month equal unlimited? Does Verizon need to hire some new mathematicians?"
Slashdot.org

Submission + - What should I ask Slashdot?

Submitted by
TodMinuit
TodMinuit writes: "Dearest Slashdot: Recently, I've wanted to ask Slashdot something. Unable to come up with a question myself, I thought who better to ask what I should ask Slashdot than Slashdot itself? Surely the very people answering the question are quite capable of coming up with one. So, Slashdot, what should I ask Slashdot?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Performs Illegal Operation, Shuts Down

Submitted by mail.app
mail.app writes: Microsoft Performs Illegal Operation, Shuts Down Microsoft Corp. issued a surprise press release this morning announcing that the company had "performed an illegal operation and would be shut down." Company executives refused to provide further information regarding the cause of the unexpected shutdown, only issuing a cryptic error number of $00038FF577 and advising all interested parties to "contact their system administrator."
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox No Longer Alternative Enough

Submitted by
Kelson
Kelson writes: "The Alternative Browser Alliance, which promotes the use of alternative browsers over Internet Explorer, has stopped promoting Firefox after nearly two years. According to the announcement, Firefox has sold out, gone mainstream, and "is no longer an alternative web browser."

Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""
The Internet

Submission + - Never Mention "hotmail" In Your CV

Submitted by Pete
Pete writes: A guy, who works in the department of a Human Resources consultancy company, says they made a selection process in which, among other things, they asked for a person with ample experience in using the internet (navigation, searches, formats...). They received 50 candidacies, from which 30 came from Hotmail-directions, all of them erased as they entered. The reason: You can't pretend being an internet expert and use a Hotmail account at the same time.
Biotech

Submission + - Can genetic research be a home hobby?

Submitted by
tinkertim
tinkertim writes: "Greetings fellow Slashdotters, especially ones that know something about DNA.

Some friends of mine and I are very curious to get to know more about DNA and want to understand whats 'under our hood' a little more.

We're particularaly interested in some subtle differences between men and women. Some women see things in 4 shades of colors, while men see things in 3. It would be neat to know if two people 'see' the same object the same way, especially amongst friends (and spouses). To know this, we have to be able to look at eachother's DNA and be able to understand what its telling us.

My questions are broad, and I apologize. I hope the nature of these shows those 'in the know' just how very much 'in the dark' the rest of us are.

Labs that do DNA testing have very expensive stuff in them. Is there a less reilable but still informative procedure one can follow using less expensive equipment at home?

Can hobbyists form relationships with testing labs without licenses and other such prerequisites?

Most overall, is this something a reasonably smart person can dive into just for the sake of learning? Lasers at one time were pretty hands off .. but now people have them on keychains. How far into the hands of average people will DNA sequencing technology journey?

Finally, I realize the implications of what I'm asking. For agruments sake, I ask you to to separate the technology from its implications. That being said, please feel free to present any implications that you feel aren't obviated by the question itself.

The question refers only to someone examining their own genetic blueprint for the sake of knowing what it says.

Thanks to all in advance."
Patents

Submission + - Should a startup protect "IP"?

Submitted by
SonOfLilit
SonOfLilit writes: "I'm an 18 year old student thinking about forming a startup around software ideas.

Now, I'm online enough to know all the talk pro- and con- patents and especially those involving software.

I've also read claims that patents are important to software startups and claims that patents are insignificant to software startups and claims that although they are significant, anything that doesn't work without them isn't good enough.

My current view is that patents are essential in the current patent-based market, but my web conscience is bugging me.

What do you think, /.? Should a software startup apply for patents on it's ideas?

PS. I'm not referring to patents like 'triply linked list', more to patents like 'software application to increase your investment profits by saving the Africans from aids'."
User Journal

Journal Journal: I love Ubuntu Linux

Journal by Billly Gates

I just tried upgrading to Ubuntu Linux 7.4 Fiesty Fawn beta 1 last night. I started the update-manager -c to chose to upgrade online. I had one little problem ....

Anne turned off the lightswitch where teh laptop was plugged in during the upgrade. :-( So my laptop is half 6.10 and half 7.4.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Mechanical Hit Counter

Submitted by
Pikoro
Pikoro writes: "Matt over at embeddedether.net has a curious and slightly over-engineered project up at his site.
He has created a Mechanical hit counter for his website.
From the page:


I've always subscribed to the Rube Goldberg School of Engineering Design, the philosophy of which is "simple, elegant solutions are for the unimaginative". These are words I can live by.
Overengineered designs are where Art and Science meet, eye each other up a bit, sink a few pints, and head off to Science's apartment to see his etchings. I tip my hat to Mr. Goldberg, using a machine that tips hats in 22 steps, starting with cracking an egg.
Here, then, is my humble contribution to the rich tradition of overengineering — the Mechanical Hit Counter.
"

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