Comment Arbitrary (Score 5, Informative) 354
Twitter is essentially an SMS aggregation and redistribution tool. SMS is limited to 140 character messages. I do not think you understand the meaning of the word "arbitrary".
Comment Re:Compared to doing what? (Score 1) 876
...or their arable land was, say, destroyed by the Three Gorges Dam project, which has displaced millions of people
Submission + - Apple, Cisco settle iPhone trademark lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes: Cisco and Apple have settled the trademark-infringement lawsuit over the use of the iPhone name for Apple's new multimedia phone. The agreement allows Apple and Cisco to use the iPhone brand on their own products. Also, the companies said they would explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, consumer and business communications.
Submission + - Microsoft Hiring Student Propagandists
Ed writes: "It seems Microsoft is looking to hire students for "word of mouth advertising" on college campuses. The marketing service's code of ethics stresses the importance of honesty, but somehow I doubt they'd be willing to pay me to give my honest opinions..."
Submission + - Why Digg Failed (or may)
beakerMeep writes: David Marcus, a user on Kuro5hin, recently put together an excellent piece on the perils and faults behind the workings of Digg.com. From the article: 'As I write, the top story on Digg is "Transparency in Social News", a newspaper-as-blog item that the Digg community have used as a little self-congratulatory pat on the back. I understand why Digg's users feel like they deserve to toast themselves now and then — after all, they've made the place one of the Web's Top 100 sites, and they've made Digg, Inc. upwards of $200 million.' Incidentally, as I submit this story to Slashdot, Digg has appears to have removed the story from the list of upcoming stories.
Submission + - Telstra to Apple: 'stick to your knitting'
Whiney Mac Fanboy writes: "Australia's monopoly Telecommunications provider Telstra has ruled out carrying Apple's iphone, in a rather stinging attack on Apple, the Telco's spokesman said:
It should be noted that Telstra has the only cell network (2.5G) in Australia that is capable of supporting the iPhone. Does this mean Australian's will not be getting iPhones at all?""There's an old saying — stick to your knitting — and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that's not their knitting," Mr Winn told AAP. "You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality."
Submission + - EMI Considering Selling Entire Collection as MP3s
BobbyJo writes: According to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required], EMI has been pitching the possibility of selling its entire music collection to the public in MP3 form, without all of the pesky DRM protection that we are all such big fans of. According to the article, several other major music companies have considered this same route, but none as far as EMI. From the article:
The London-based EMI is believed to have held talks with a wide range of online retailers that compete with Apple's iTunes. Those competing retailers include RealNetworks Inc., eMusic.com, MusicNet Inc. and Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks. People familiar with the matter cautioned that EMI could still abandon the proposed strategy before implementing it. A decision about whether to keep pursuing the idea could come as soon as today.
Journal Journal: NSA CryptoKids Website
Most love to ponder the inner workings of intelligence agencies, and the link on the NSA's website (http://www.nsa.gov/) labeled "Kids Page" is no exception. Hardball recruiting practices aside, I wonder how long it will be before someone either a) tells the story of how they first became interested in cryptography when they were just a "CryptoKid", or b) writes a screenplay based on some ridiculous scenario where an adolescent genius hacks into the NSA's comput
Submission + - Ada inventor Jean Ichbiah dies
An anonymous reader writes: Jean Ichbiah, French inventor of the programming language Ada, died Jan. 26, at age 66. He suffered from brain cancer.
Ada, created at the end of the 1970s, was the first object-oriented language to become an international standard, in 1995. It is still widely used today, mainly for real-time systems in the aeronautical industry; the code is embedded in the Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters and in the Boeing 777 airliner.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9010058&intsrc=new s_ts_head
Ada, created at the end of the 1970s, was the first object-oriented language to become an international standard, in 1995. It is still widely used today, mainly for real-time systems in the aeronautical industry; the code is embedded in the Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters and in the Boeing 777 airliner.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?co
Submission + - Canadian coins not bugged after all
Foobar_ writes: The Defense Security Service (an agency of the Department of Defense) has retracted its claims that it found tiny transmitters hidden inside Canadian coins, as previously reported on Slashdot and just about everywhere else. From the release:
"This statement was based on a report provided to DSS. The allegations, however, were found later to be unsubstantiated following an investigation into the matter. According to DSS officials, the 2006 annual report should not have contained this information."
Canada.com reports further.
Sun Is Giving Away Solaris 10 DVDs 248
Tarmas writes "For a limited time only, just like Ubuntu's ShipIt service, Sun Microsystems lets you order Solaris 10 absolutely free of charge. The operating system comes on a single DVD supporting both the x86 and SPARC versions. Also included is Sun Studio 11."
Submission + - FreeBSD 6.2 released
An anonymous reader writes: FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE has now been made available. It is around 2 months behind schedule, but the ISO images of the CD's are now available at ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD.
Submission + - PBS asking viewers to choose new Science show
chinmay7 writes: PBS has posted three different pilots for a new science show, that they want viewers to weigh in on and help choose one as a regular science show. All three pilots are viewable as
vodcasts.
Wired Science aired on January 3rd. The pilot certainly is polished as expected from Wired Magazine, and deals with interesting topics: "Meet rocket-belt inventors, stem cell explorers and meteorite hunters."
Science Investigators (Air date: January 10) seems to be the most 'science' show: "The investigators examine 30,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA, vanishing frogs, mind-boggling baseball pitches and more."
22nd Century (Air date: January 17) is pretty gimmicky and loud (for my tastes, at least) but delivers interesting content — "In the coming decades will all our brains be wired together like networked computers?"
So watch and vote. Choose our new public TV science show.
Wired Science aired on January 3rd. The pilot certainly is polished as expected from Wired Magazine, and deals with interesting topics: "Meet rocket-belt inventors, stem cell explorers and meteorite hunters."
Science Investigators (Air date: January 10) seems to be the most 'science' show: "The investigators examine 30,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA, vanishing frogs, mind-boggling baseball pitches and more."
22nd Century (Air date: January 17) is pretty gimmicky and loud (for my tastes, at least) but delivers interesting content — "In the coming decades will all our brains be wired together like networked computers?"
So watch and vote. Choose our new public TV science show.
