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Software

Format Standards Committee "Grinds To a Halt" 271

Posted by kdawson from the collateral-damage dept.
Andy Updegrove writes "Microsoft's OOXML did not get enough votes to be approved the first time around in ISO/IEC — notwithstanding the fact that many countries joined the Document Format and Languages committee in the months before voting closed, almost all of them voting to approve OOXML. Unfortunately, many of these countries also traded up to 'P' level membership at the last minute to gain more influence. Now the collateral damage is setting in. At least 50% of P members must vote (up, down, or abstain) on every standard at each ballot — and none of the new members are bothering to vote, despite repeated pleas from the committee chair. Not a single ballot has passed since the OOXML vote closed. In the chairman's words, the committee has 'ground to a halt.' Sad to say, there's no end in sight for this (formerly) very busy and influential standards committee."
Power

Submission + - Saving Energy With 100 Ideas (hexus.net)

Submitted by unts
unts writes: The UK's Centre for Sustainable Energy has a demonstration house showing how people can save energy without affecting the way they live — even making life easier. HEXUS paid the 100 Ideas House a visit on its tour of Bristol to see if the ideas are geek compatible:

Less junk mail will make everyone happy, while auto power-off sockets appeal to our lazy side, and a flow restricting tap nozzle can save on both water and gas bills.

Let it be known, nerds, that not only is the energy efficient home compatible with a digital lifestyle — it embraces it, using technology to help world and wallet.
Power

Submission + - Hydrogen Power: Out of the Frying Pan... (newscientist.com) 3

Submitted by macduffman
macduffman writes: In the last several years, we've been hearing a lot about the possibilities of extracting hydrogen from water (article is a several-paragraph preview for non-subscribers) as a source of alternative power.

But while water covers the planet, isn't it truly just another finite resource? Is this honestly a safe mass alternative to current forms of power? Can anyone guide us here?

On the bright side, perhaps we could stave off the (scientifically possible if not a fact of life) rising oceans from global warming with this technology...
Communications

Scientists Deliver 'God' Via A Helmet 1020

Posted by Zonk from the don't-forget-the-devil-in-the-details dept.
prostoalex writes "Scientific American is reporting on scientific work done to map the euphoric religious feelings within the brain. As a result, it's now quite possible to experience 'proximity to God' via a special helmet: 'In a series of studies conducted over the past several decades, Persinger and his team have trained their device on the temporal lobes of hundreds of people. In doing so, the researchers induced in most of them the experience of a sensed presence — a feeling that someone (or a spirit) is in the room when no one, in fact, is — or of a profound state of cosmic bliss that reveals a universal truth. During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and religious language — terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or the wonder of the universe.""
United States

Googlestalking For Covert NSA Research Funding 150

Posted by Zonk from the because-what-else-are-you-going-to-do dept.
James Hardine writes "Wikileaks is reporting that the CIA has funded covert research on torture techniques, and that the NSA has pushed tens or hundreds of millions into academia through research grants using one particular grant code. Some researchers try to conceal the source of funding, yet commonality in the NSA grant code prefix makes all these attempts transparent. The primary NSA grant-code prefix is 'MDA904'. Googling for this grant code yields 39,000 references although some refer to non-academic contracts (scolar.google.com 2,300). The grants issue from light NSA cover, the "Maryland Procurement Office" or other fronts. From this one can see the broad sweep of academic research interests being driven by the NSA."
Quickies

OOXML Critic Fired From Finnish Standards Board 200

Posted by kdawson from the don't-get-caught-saying-what-you-think dept.
Shirke writes "A Finnish computer magazine reports that Finnish Standards Association has fired Mr. Lassi Nirhamo (article in Finnish). Some excerpts: Mr. Nirhamo was chairing the OOXML standard proposal meeting. During the meeting Mr. Nirhamo asked other board members to be excused of his duties and voice his opinion as a private citizen. After this was granted he criticized the standard proposal and resumed his duties as chairman. Mr. Nirhamo has now been let go due to a 'lack of trust.' Independent observers have assessed his chairmanship as 'excellent' and 'one of a kind.' The Association is accepting applications for the position. Anyone interested?"
Power

Submission + - Water as a fuel source? 4

Submitted by WallaceAndGromit
WallaceAndGromit writes: Watching the news today, I saw a report about a cancer researcher who has discovered a way to burn salt water while exposing it to radio waves. To quote from a news release here http://www.yorkdispatch.com/pennsylvania/ci_6851885, "John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn." There is a video on YouTube that illustrates the phenomena here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGg0ATfoBgo and is quite impressive. As stated in the York Dispatch article, "The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery." Could this be real? Wouldn't that be great if it was. Imagine, run your Prius on H2O, and really stick it to the man.
AMD

AMD Releases 900+ Pages Of GPU Specs 325

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the out-in-the-open dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Ending off the X Developer Summit this year, Matthew Tippett handed off ATI's GPU specifications to David Airlie on a CD. However, the specifications are also now available on the X.org site. Right now there is the RV630 Register Reference Guide and M56 Register Reference Guide. Expect more documentation (and 3D specifications) to arrive shortly. The new open-source R500/600 driver will be released early next week."
Microsoft

de lcaza calls OOXML a "Superb Standard" 615

Posted by kdawson from the say-it-ain't-so-miguel dept.
you-bet-it's-not-out-of-context writes "A blogger on KDE Developer's Journal has found an interesting post by Miguel de Icaza, the founder of GNOME and Mono, in a Google group dedicated to the discussion of his blog entries. Six days ago Miguel stated that 'OOXML is a superb standard and yet, it has been FUDed so badly by its competitors that serious people believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with it.' In the same post he says that to avoid patent problems over Silverlight, when using or developing Mono's implementation (known as Moonlight), i's best to 'get/download Moonlight from Novell which will include patent coverage.'"
Software

Open Letter to ISO Calls For Standardization of Process 108

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the corruption-arms-race dept.
In a recent open letter to the ISO FreeCode CEO Geir Isene calls for standardization in the processes used by the ISO to help prevent future OOXML blunders. "It seems ISO is not prepared for a politicized process where a big and influential commercial enterprise will use any means possible to push its own standard through to certification. Committees are flooded by the vendor in support of the standard. Votes are bought and results are hijacked. Several national bodies have flawed and skewed procedures open for corruption."

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