EtoilePB - Slashdot User

Submission + - Thunderbird in crisis?

Submitted by

Elektroschock

on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:35PM

Elektroschock writes: "The two core developers of Thunderbird leave Mozilla. Scott McGregor made a brief statement: "I wanted to let the Thunderbird community know that Friday October 12th will be my last day as an employee of the Mozilla Corporation." and David blogged "Just wanted to let everyone know that my last day at The Mozilla Corporation will be Oct. 12. I intend to stay involved with Thunderbird... I've enjoyed working at Mozilla a lot, and I wish Mozilla Co and the new Mail Co all the best." I am scared. A few month ago Mozilla management considered to abandon their second product and set up a special corporation just for the mail client. Scott was more or less supportive. David joined in. While Sunbird just released a new version no appropriate resources were dedicated to the missing component. And while Thunderbird became the most used Linux mail client it is abandoned by Mozilla for 'popularity reasons'. Both messages from David and Scott do not sound if they as founders will play any role in the Thunderbird Mail Corporation. What happened to Mozilla? Is it a case of pauperization through donations?"

Submission + - Space Travel at 50 (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by

longacre

on Thursday October 04, 2007 @01:19PM

longacre writes: "On the 50th anniversary of mankind's first venture into space with the launch of Sputnik 1, Popular Mechanics takes a look back at where we've gone with an amazing interactive Flash movie detailing every one of the 6,038 launches (through June 2007) since. Plus a look at the future of space travel, including Q&A with a dozen experts, a rundown of the progress being made by private space ventures such as Virgin Galactic, plans for settling the Moon and how we'll get to Mars."

Submission + - Perhaps the most diturbing use for human remains (scriptkiddie.info)

Submitted by tecknoh on Thursday October 04, 2007 @01:09PM

tecknoh writes: Ok, so a friend of mine sent me a link he thought may give me a chuckle. Perhaps the most disturbing use ever created for human and animal remains. The jist is this:

A website called http://www.InkAfterLife.Com is offering one of the most disturbing services I have ever seen. You can send in cremated remains of a loved one or pet. They will then create a "custom ink formulation" and create a "beautiful memorial photo using that blended ink." So, good ole Dad could hang around on your living room wall keeping an eye on you, literally!

I am not sure what is worse. The fact that someone thought to do this for a living, or the thought that there is enough of a demand for this service that someone was able to create the business. Whats next, Tattoos after life?

Submission + - NSA to Police Internet (baltimoresun.com)

Submitted by

Novus Ordo Seclorum

on Friday September 21, 2007 @10:30PM

Novus Ordo Seclorum writes: "The NSA has a new assignment. No longer merely responsible for signals intelligence, the NSA now has the task of defending against cyber attacks on government and private networks. Hopefully, that means they'll do something about the massive botnets running wild on the internet."

Submission + - 802.11n May Never Happen Due to Patent Concerns

Submitted by afabbro on Friday September 21, 2007 @06:39PM

afabbro writes: The Register is reporting that the 802.11n standard is imperiled because the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization has refused to submit a Letter of Assurance, promising not to sue those who implement the standard. "...the realisation that CSIRO holds essential patents, and has failed to provide a Letter of Assurance as required by the IEEE, could prevent the standard ever being finalised."

Submission + - Mystery Illness After Meteorite Crash

Submitted by xynopsis on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @08:28AM

xynopsis writes: Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday. Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP. Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized.

Submission + - Sports-based MMO coming to market (hexus.net)

Submitted by Corbets on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @08:25AM

Corbets writes: Ok, let's be clear from the start — I work for the company, so this is probably going to be considered a shameless plug. Still, I've been reading all kinds of stories about MMOs on Slash for years, and I've yet to see anything mentioned about our game, so here's a link. People here have been talking about "seeing something different" in MMOs for a while now — and our game is definitely unique. True avatar evolution, an advanced metabolism system and its sport focus are just some of the fascinating aspects of the game. Beta test starting soon, guys and gals. ;)

Submission + - Patent Peer Review is now operational (peertopatent.org)

Submitted by

Carl Oppedahl

on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @07:53AM

Carl Oppedahl writes: "USPTO's pilot program for peer review of pending patent applications is now operational (the early stages of which were discussed in Slashdot here, here, here, and here), and you can see how it actually works. Not every pending US patent application is eligible — only applications on particular subjects that were published within particular date ranges qualify for inclusion.

As you can see some patent applications have had quite few comments posted.

My patent law firm has thus far volunteered two of our clients' patent applications for review in this program. One of them has received one comment so far (it has 77 days left for comments), and the other one has not received any comments so far (it has 43 days left).

I like the user interface for the system:

it reminds readers that they must actually read and comment upon the claims

it shows how much time is left for comments on each patent application

it lets you subscribe to see activity for a particular patent application

I surely hope that this pilot program will succeed."

Submission + - 54% of CEOs dissastisfied with innovation (cio.com)

Submitted by

athloi

on Friday August 31, 2007 @01:35PM

athloi writes: "Invention is new and clever; innovation is a process that takes knowledge and uses it to get a payback. Invention without a financial return is just an expense. Ideas are really the sexy part of innovation and there's rarely a shortage of them. If you look at the biggest problems around innovation, rarely does a lack of ideas come up as one of the top obstacles; instead, it's things like a risk-averse culture, overly lengthy development times and lack of coordination within the company. Not enough ideas, on the other hand, is an obstacle for only 17 percent. At the end of the day all that creativity and all those ideas have to show on the bottom line. The goal of innovation is to make or save money, and IT should never lose sight of that central fact.

http://www.cio.com/article/134201/"

Submission + - NASA to digitize its 50 years of photos, films (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

Lucas123

on Sunday August 26, 2007 @12:03AM

Lucas123 writes: "Putting the images and film online will allow NASA to more easily share and showcase its achievements, including photos from its Mars rover missions and from its manned and unmanned voyages to the Moon and beyond, according to Computerworld's Todd Weiss. Much of NASA's archived photos and film is currently divided up into more than 20 different imagery categories, making it hard to find specific images or archives unless a user knows exactly where it is. "Much of what is in the collection may be surprising when it is released," according to NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs."

Submission + - Interesting Comp Sci research for Masters?

Submitted by yters on Saturday August 25, 2007 @10:33PM

yters writes: I have just started a computer science masters degree at the Air Force Institute of Technology. I'm interested in researching and writing a thesis on intelligent agent architectures that use evolutionary algorithms, partially because these are all very interesting fields for me, and because I think agent architectures are the cutting edge for both the military and the commercial sector. As I've read on /., distributed computing algorithms are the wave of the future. But, before committing loads of time and thought to my own singular vision, I would like to poll the wisdom of /. What topic would you recommend and why? Also, if you have any particularly interesting insight into the fields I've mentioned, I'd like to hear it. Thank you, you brilliant, beautiful denizens of the 'net!

Submission + - Student suspended for website sues

Submitted by on Saturday August 25, 2007 @06:34PM

An anonymous reader writes: A University of Delaware student suspended for a humor website that a fellow student found 'disturbing' has filed a lawsuit alleging that the University violated his First Amendment rights. A separate site (created for this purpose) has more details. From the complaint, "UD makes available its Internet server for students to create web sites with no restrictions on content... As such, UD may not, consistent with the First Amendment, punish any student based on the content of his or her website, even though the content may have an adverse emotional impact on some readers."

Submission + - Having online fun at work is good for your morale (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

toddatcw

on Friday August 24, 2007 @11:04AM

toddatcw writes: "Wouldn't you know it? Having fun at work can be good for workers and their companies. That's the conclusion of a new study by Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The study found that online fantasy football leagues can create a gridiron quandary for businesses because although they take up employee work time, they also benefit a company by increasing office morale. In a Computerworld story yesterday, a Challenger spokesman argues that while employers may not like the wasted time, all work and no play policies can backfire for employers, leaving workers resentful rather than energized."

Submission + - Whats in a name? 3

Submitted by

StumpMan

on Friday August 24, 2007 @10:13AM

StumpMan writes: "The company I work with currently has eight servers, and just recently purchased two more. We expect to add an additional five within the next year. The naming of the servers has been based upon what application is the main one on each box. I've seen various naming schemes, from Star Trek to Greek Mythology. I am wanting to get the naming under some kind of control, but have been told to 'hold off' by management. My question is this, what are some naming conventions, and at what point should we come up with a 'standard' for the names?"

Submission + - Another man arrested for "wi-fi theft" in (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Nurgled on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @02:31PM

Nurgled writes: The BBC reports that a UK man has been arrested for so-called "wi-fi theft". He was reportedly seen using a laptop outside a house which drew suspicion from the police, and later admitted that he was using an unsecured wireless Internet connection without permission. The article states without question that this is an offence under the UK's "Communications Act 2003". Previously another case in the UK resulted in a West London man getting fined £500 for a similar infraction. Metropolitan Police are reportedly hoping that this arrest will act as a deterrent to others "dishonestly obtaining free Internet access".

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