Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Cellphones

AT&T's Bad Math Strikes MythBusters' Savage 305

Posted by Soulskill from the do-they-know-he-has-explosives dept.
etherlad writes "MythBusters' Adam Savage got a bill charging him $11,000 for 'a few hours' of Web surfing while in Canada, using his AT&T USB Mercury modem. AT&T gave him a quote on the data rate: '.015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb.' Looks like AT&T didn't learn from Verizon's inability to do math. AT&T is also claiming Savage downloaded over 9 GB, which he calls 'frakking impossible.' Savage's huge following on twitter got him a speedy response by AT&T."
The Courts

Supreme Court Declines Jack Thompson Appeal 100

Posted by Soulskill from the take-the-hint dept.
eldavojohn writes "Jack Thompson was disbarred last year in Florida, putting a halt to annoying lawsuits targeting game makers and the constitutional rights of gamers. Well, he had appealed to the United States Supreme Court (scheduled to be heard last Friday) to get this overturned, but instead they declined to even hear his appeal. They wouldn't even give him the time to review his appeal, so it appears his disbarment for life stands. Florida had declined to file a response to Thompson's appeal, and it turns out they didn't need to. Sad day for Jack Thompson, but a great day for gamers everywhere." This comes shortly after Thompson was frustrated by the vetoing of some legislation he promoted in Utah.
Google

Google Brings 3D To Web With Open Source Plugin 191

Posted by timothy from the linux-users-see-these-instructions dept.
maxheadroom writes "Google has released an open source browser plugin that provides a JavaScript API for displaying 3D graphics in web content. Google hopes that the project will promote experimentation and help advance a collaborative effort with the Khronos Group and Mozilla to create open standards for 3D on the web. Google's plugin offers its own retained-mode graphics API, called O3D, which takes a different approach from a similar browser plugin created by Mozilla. Google's plugin is cross-platform compatible and works with several browsers. In an interview with Ars Technica, Google product manager Henry Bridge and engineering director Matt Papakipos say that Google's API will eventually converge with Mozilla's as the technology matures. The search giant hopes to bring programs like SketchUp and Google Earth to the browser space."
The Courts

RIAA Brief Attacks Free Software Foundation 554

Posted by timothy from the but-copyleft-needs-copyright dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has requested permission to file a response to the amicus curiae brief filed by the Free Software Foundation in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Boston case against a Boston University grad student accused of having downloaded some song files when in his teens. In their proposed response, the RIAA lawyers personally attacked The Free Software Foundation, Ray Beckerman (NewYorkCountryLawyer), and NYCL's blog, 'Recording Industry vs. The People.' The 9-page response (PDF) — 4 pages longer than the document to which it was responding — termed the FSF an organization 'dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying, redistribution, and modifying computer programs,' and accused the FSF of having an 'open and virulent bias against copyrights' and 'blatant bias' against the record companies. They called 'Recording Industry vs. The People' an 'anti-recording industry web site' and stated that NYCL 'is currently subject to a pending sanctions motion for his conduct in representing a defendant' (without disclosing that plaintiffs' lawyers were 'subject to a pending motion for Rule 11 sanctions for their conduct in representing plaintiffs' in that very case)."
Sun Microsystems

Ballmer, IBM Surprised By Oracle-Sun Deal 324

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-didn't-see-it-coming dept.
Geon Lasli writes "Reporters caught up with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Moscow to get his take on Oracle's deal to buy Sun Microsystems for US$7.4 billion. Ballmer was at a loss for words: 'I need to think about it. I am very surprised.' According to a source, IBM hadn't given up on purchasing Sun and was blindsided by Oracle's move. I guess IBM must be regretting playing tough 2 weeks ago. Unknown to outsiders, Sun had probably found the Oracle lifeboat before they decided to pull the plug on the deal."
Privacy

The FBI Has a Trojan To Watch You 372

Posted by CmdrTaco from the who-watches-the-watchers dept.
G_of_the_J writes "A man who had cut 18 cables affecting Verizon and Comcast was blackmailing them. He had demanded bank accounts be set up and information be provided on web sites that he specified. Although he used anonymous access to get to the web sites, the FBI had planted a trojan which was downloaded to his computer. The trojan then sent his IP address and other information to the FBI."
Sun Microsystems

Oracle Buys Sun 906

Posted by CmdrTaco from the there-can-be-only-one dept.
bruunb writes "Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt. 'We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined,' said Oracle President Safra Catz."
Earth

Is Alcohol Killing Our Planet? 468

Posted by timothy from the every-day-is-earth-day dept.
Andy_Spoo writes "Something that I've been trying to get an answer to: Is alcohol killing our planet? Alcohol is a byproduct of yeast, but another is CO2. As we all know (unless you've been asleep for years), CO2 is helping to warm our planet, sending us into destruction. So how much is the manufacture and consumption of alcohol contributing to the total world CO2 level? And don't forget that bars and pubs force beer through to their pumps using large compressed cylinders of CO2. Does anyone know?"
Power

Yeast-Powered Fuel Cell Feeds On Human Blood 250

Posted by timothy from the because-you-need-some-serious-news-too dept.
holy_calamity writes "Canadian researchers have taken a sensible, if slightly creepy, step towards solving the problem of medical implant batteries running down. They've built a fuel cell powered by yeast that feed on the glucose in human blood. If this makes it into people, keeping your implants going will be as simple as eating a donut."
Businesses

Warner Bros. Acquires The Pirate Bay 348

Posted by Soulskill from the if-you-can't-beat-'em dept.
mlingojones writes "TorrentFreak breaks the news of The Pirate Bay's acquisition by Warner Bros: 'After years of hostility, lawsuits, police raids and heated invective between the two groups, the Pirate Bay has today announced they have settled their differences with US media conglomerate Warner Bros. The largest BitTorrent tracker has sold out to Hollywood and the two have agreed a deal.'"
The Courts

Submission + - Case against Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens (go.com)

Submitted by
Raul654
Raul654 writes: "Ted Stevens, long time senator from Alaska best known for railing against net neutrality by describing the Internet as a series of tubes, was convicted on corruption charges last October and lost his bid for re-election two weeks later. ABC News is reporting that the Justice Department has asked the judge to dismiss the case, citing prosecutorial misconduct during the trial."
Google

Google Launches CADIE, the First True AI 246

Posted by Soulskill from the we-all-knew-this-was-coming dept.
eldavojohn writes "Google has announced CADIE, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. 'We based our work on three core principles. First we designed the entity ... as a collection of interconnected evolving agents. Second — and this really cost us an arm and leg in hardware and core time — we let the system build its own heuristics, deploy them as agents and evolve them by running a set of evolutionary cascades within probabilistic Bayesian domains. The third — a piece missing in most AI reasoning work thus far — was to give the entity access to a rich, realistic world from which to learn and upon which it could act directly.' It quickly started its own blog and YouTube video. Two hours after midnight, CADIE announced independence on its blog and decided to leave Google to venture out into the world. "
Social Networks

Submission + - "Redditor" Nominated for Pulitzer in Criti (fictioncircus.com)

Submitted by
Miracle Jones
Miracle Jones writes: "Reddit-user "Cylon47" had been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism for his or her swift and careful modding of articles both "up" and "down" on the social networking site "Reddit." While Cylon47 has an amazing 700,000 karma points, he has never done a "self" Reddit, a policy that many in the community find crass and disgraceful. Cylon47 almost never comments, but is quick to post fast links to actual articles when an article has been revealed to be opportunistic "blogspam.""
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Milwaukee defies quantum physics, goes back to '05 (onmilwaukee.com)

Submitted by saphert
saphert writes: Local Milwaukee WI establishment defies the laws of quantum physics and manages to travel back to 2005. "Our team of Hyatt scientists have come up with a way to truly turn back the clock," he said. "Back to a better time. When everyone had a job, there was a chicken in every pot and hotel occupancy approached 95 percent. "Back to 2005," he shouted. With that, Donnelly and Kidder grabbed the giant wall switch and moved it from the right position to the left position. "Ladies and gentlemen, that switch I just threw will move the Polaris room, high atop this hotel, from its normal clockwise rotation, to a counter-clockwise rotation." A flash of light and a mighty wind swept through the room. The crowd clapped as Kidder stepped to the microphone one more time. "Polaris is taking us back to the future. I only wish my dear friend, Christopher Reeve was here to see this, but since he died in 2004, he won't." Just like that, Milwaukee was reliving 2005. On the restaurant's TVs, the media saw Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch, and magazines on tables announced Britney Spears' pregnancy. Natalee Hollaway was alive and well, while Martha Stewart was leaving prison. No one had bird flu, and runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks wasn't even engaged. It was a kinder, gentler Milwaukee, indeed. Donnelly, always stoic, stood on stage, as reporters searched for phone lines to connect their 56k modems and fax machines to quickly file their stories. A tear dripped gently from his cheek.

Slashdot Top Deals

The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.

Close