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Education

Kids Review the OLPC 193

Posted by kdawson from the mouths-of-babes dept.
A. N. Onymous sends us to OLPCNews for an account of kids' reactions to the OLPC XO, and comments: "My first impression is, it's just like when you give a kid a box of Lego." The video of a 10-year-old and his younger sister replacing a mobo is pretty cool.
Software

Does ODF Have a Future? 402

Posted by Zonk from the answer-hazy-ask-again-later dept.
qedramania writes "Linuxworld seems to think ODF is a dead duck. Is the Windows monopoly too big and too entrenched? Other than diehard Linux fans, does anyone really care if they have to keep paying Microsoft to do basic word processing? It seems as though the momentum is towards a complete Microsoft monoculture in software for business and government. You can bet that big business and governments will want more than just reliability from Microsoft in return for their acquiescence. Does ODF have a future?"
The Internet

Are In-Depth Articles Better Than Blog Postings? 157

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the think-before-you-speak dept.
athloi writes to tell us usability expert Jakob Nielsen is stressing the importance of well-thought-out articles as opposed to off-the-cuff blog postings. "Blog postings will always be commodity content: there's a limit to the value you can provide with a short comment on somebody else's comments. Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they're definitely easy to write. But they don't build sustainable value. Think of how disappointing it feels when you're searching for something and get directed to short postings in the middle of a debate that occurred years before, and is thus irrelevant."
Communications

Submission + - Open Source Linux Phone Released (openmoko.com) 1

Submitted by
andyfrommk
andyfrommk writes: "The worlds first truly open phone has been released. the Neo 1973 has been designed for the open source hacker.
From the website

The Neo 1973 boasts the following hardware specifications

* 2.8" VGA TFT color display
* Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
* 266HZ Samsung System on a Chip (SOC)
* USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (unpowered)
* Integrated AGPS
* 2.5G GSM — quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
* Bluetooth 2.0
* Micro SD slot
* High Quality audio codec
"
Security

Submission + - Spammers overcome Hotmail/Yahoo CAPTCHA systems

Submitted by thefickler
thefickler writes: It appears that spammers have found a way of automatically creating Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts, having already created more than 15,000 bogus Hotmail accounts, according to security company BitDefender.p>

BitDefender says that a new threat, dubbed Trojan.Spammer.HotLan.A, is using automatically generated Yahoo and Hotmail accounts to send out spam email, which suggests that spammers have found a way to overcome Microsoft's and Yahoo's CAPTCHA systems.p>
The Internet

Submission + - The new woneders picked mostly from Latin America (new7wonders.com)

Submitted by
frankwolftown
frankwolftown writes: "With the new Seven Wonders picked finally they do show a pattern that I'm not too sure anyone else has noticed. Three of the Seven Wonders have come from Latin American countries. Mexico's Chichen Itza, Peru's Machu Picchu, and Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer three of the seven new wonders. The voting was mostly done online and via SMS could the recent upsurge in broadband uptake in Latin American countries have caused this? A recent article in Smartmoney would say so.

Broadband grew at an annual rate of around 54% in 2006, making Latin America one of the world's fastest growing regions in terms of broadband uptake . But broadband penetration at end-2006 was only 2.5%, considerably less than the global average of 5.4%. With its level of GDP per capita, Latin America should in principle have ended 2006 with a broadband penetration of 3.5%.
Sounds like a pretty big factor doesn't it?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Xbox 360 Repairs Will Cost Microsoft $1B (ap.org)

Submitted by
* * Beatles-Beatles
* * Beatles-Beatles writes: "http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_X BOX_WARRANTY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
the company says it is planning to spend at least $1 billion to repair serious problems with its Xbox 360 video game console.

Microsoft declined to detail the problems that have caused an onslaught of "general hardware failures" in recent months but said Thursday it will extend the warranty on the consoles to three years."

Feed Engadget: Sony lightens PS2 components by almost a third (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Gaming

Unlike Microsoft, which dropped the original Xbox in favor of the Xbox 360 in manner similar to Paris Hilton dropping her old cellphone, Sony has continued to maintain the PlayStation 2. Somehow, Sony has managed to make a new iteration of the PS2 that decreases the console's weight by almost a third: they've trimmed the console itself down to 600 grams from 900 grams, and the power adapter to 250 grams from 350 grams. The external design of the console is unchanged, but the lower weight and the new components should decrease production and shipping costs. Not bad for an old console that continues to sell well (and sell for more than the value of its components, at that).

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Announcements

Submission + - Elderly Woman Jailed for Not Watering Lawn

Submitted by i_like_spam
i_like_spam writes: BBC news is running a story about Betty Perry, a 70-year-old resident of Orem, Utah. Betty was cited and sent to jail for not watering her lawn. Like many other communities around the country, Orem (aka 'Family City USA') has rules mandating that residents maintain and water their lawns. In terms of privacy, is it right for communities to enforce lawn maintenance? And, in this day and age of energy and water conservation, shouldn't well-manicured lawns be a thing of the past?

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