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Music

Submission + - The music of proteins

Roland Piquepaille writes: "I'm always bluffed by the imagination of scientists. Microbiologists from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have converted DNA sequences of human proteins into music, so you can listen to the sound of proteins. One of the researchers, who is both a microbiologist and a skilled pianist, found a way to "cram the 20 standard amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) into just 13 notes." And the generated music got rhythm too... Amazing! But read more for additional references and a picture of a musical partition of a human protein."
The Courts

Submission + - Prosecutor announces charges against Pirate Bay

paulraps writes: Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant. They will be prosecuted for various breaches of copyright law, reports The Local. But a Pirate Bay spokesman was defiant, saying, "I think they feel they have to do it. It would look bad otherwise, since they had 20 to 30 police officers involved in the raid."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Tops Innovative Company List

SnapperHead writes: "Businessweek compiled their 2007 list of the 50 most innovative companies.

Apple leads the pack for the third year in a row. As our first-place innovator for the third year in a row, Apple reigns again. The iPod creator is a master of superb product, store, and experience design. Now that it's invading the living room and the cell-phone market, will it continue the winning streak?

The list was compiled based on volunteer surveys sent to executives of the 1,500 largest global corporations.

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed by Forbes that despite an official $1/year salary, Apple's Steve Jobs is the highest compensated CEO in America this year at $646 million."
Software

Submission + - No emulation software for Dell's Linux machines

Anonymous Coward writes: "Dell will not include open-source software such as Wine, which lets users run Windows programs on Linux, with the PCs it plans to bundle with Ubuntu Linux, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu and its commercial sponsor Canonical, told eWeek (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2125848,00.a sp). He is quoted in the article as saying the reason for this is that he does "not want to position Ubuntu and Linux as a cheap alternative to Windows." While Linux is an alternative to Windows, it is not cheap Windows, he says, adding that Linux has its own strengths, and users should want it because of those strengths and not because it's a cheap copy of Windows."
Games

Submission + - Microsoft and Razer Release Gaming Keyboard

ThinSkin writes: "The second offspring of the recent Microsoft and Razer partnership has come in the form of the Reclusa Gaming Keyboard, which includes ten macro keys, two 360 degree jog dials, blue LED backlighting, and a sexy design. While these are all features many gamers will probably enjoy, ExtremTech's review of the Reclusa doesn't sound convincing that hardcore gamers will be that impressed, considering its shorter supply of macro keys compared with other gaming keyboards, its limitations in the software, and key arrangement that doesn't cater to specific games."
Software

Submission + - Princeton Comp. Sci. Homework is U.S. State Secret

KSim writes: "According to this blog post ( http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/blogs/prox/2007/0 5/treasonous_use_of_comp_sci_hom.html ), an intro level computer science assignment at Princeton is legally prohibited by U.S. law from being shared with certain other nations:

Legal notice. It is a violation of US law to export your solution for this assignment to foreign governments or embargoed destinations (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Serbia, Sudan, Syria, and Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan as of January 2000). It is also illegal to import your solution into several countries, including France, Iran, Iraq, and Russia.
The assignment has students write a "Public Key Cryptosystem" described here:

"The RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptosystem is widely used for secure communication in browsers, bank ATM machines, credit card machines, mobile phones, smart cards, and the Windows operating system. It works by manipulating integers. To thwart eavesdroppers, the RSA cryptosystem must manipulate huge integers (hundreds of digits). The built-in C type int is only capable of dealing with 16 or 32 bit integers, providing little or no security. You will design, implement, and analyze an extended precision arithmetic data type that is capable of manipulating much larger integers. You will use this data type to write a client program that encrypts and decrypts messages using RSA."
"
Sony

Submission + - Sony to unveil PS4 in 2008?

njkid1 writes: "In an interview posted on GamePro last week, former Sony CEO Ken Kutaragi stated that ideas for PlayStations 4, 5, and 6 have already been conceptualized. However, new, yet still unverified sources now claim that his recent retirement has enabled him to streamline plans for a PS4 prototype sooner than anybody thought."
Privacy

Submission + - Are electronic speeding tickets going to far?

coondoggie writes: "No one likes to get a speeding ticket and lord knows most traffic citations are irritating in general, but do you want to see them move into the digital age? The question may be moot in certain parts of the country in fact. According to a story on Stateline.org, the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, home to Microsoft and other high-tech icons, is the latest to join the e-citation trend. It's outfitting several state police cars with devices that permit traffic citations to be processed electronically. Other states are looking into similar systems, Maryland for example recently said it would be implementing an "e-citation" program soon. North Carolina and Alabama already have them and a study by the U.S. Department of Transportation said at least 27 states were handling citations electronically in some form. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1486 5"
Music

Submission + - iTunes-only Track Debuts in the Top Ten

hondo77 writes: Carrie Underwood's new single, "I'll Stand By You", has debuted at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over 100,000 copies in less than a week. The reason to care is that this single is only available on iTunes. Macworld reports that this is the first time an iTunes-only single has debuted in the Top Ten. The icing on the cake is that all proceeds from the sales go to charity as part of the Idol Gives Back program.
Businesses

Submission + - Comcast and logic don't mix: disconnected

marcmerlin writes: If comcast decides that you are using too much data on your cable modem, they will disconnect you. Of course, they do not say what too much is, that's for you to guess.
Now, they do actually attempt to give you a chance to fix your overusage by warning you once, except in my case, they warned me half way through the month, and then shut me down for the good the next month due to the traffic that had gone out before they warned me. They warned me in a way that they were unable to measure the drastic traffic decrease after I fixed the problem, and they had to shut me down anyway. Their support people actually acknowledged that in my case there was indeed nothing I could have done, but they also said there was nothing they could do either due to the way their system works.
Until they fix their warning system to match logging cycles, or honor the one month grace period they promised me, and then pretended they never had, I can see how they're going to get many other people shut down that way.
If comcast is actually meaning to give their customers a chance to fix a usage over an arbitrary limit they won't disclose, they have some serious fixing to do, starting by not putting their customers in the criminal/DMCA pile that their regular support folks are not even allowed to help.
Censorship

Submission + - Fort Bend Profiling

Melignus writes: "http://www.joystiq.com/ has been covering a story that involves a 17 year old Chinese kid at Clements High School in Fort Bend Texas. The kid has been detained under suspected terrorism for recreating his school in a CS:S map for his friends to play on. I really think that this is something that should be all over the net at this point. I see this as the "just the beginning" for racial profiling in the wake of the VT shootings. I am encouraging people I know to send letters to the school expressing our feelings toward this rather blatant example of profiling."
Education

Submission + - McGill Wins Inaugural Formula Hybrid Competition

syguy writes: "The McGill Hybrid Racing Team won the inaugural Formula Hybrid International Competition held May 1-3, 2007 at the New Hampshire International Speedway, Loudon, NH, USA. College and university students from the US and Canada took up the challenge to construct and race gasoline-hybrid powered, open-wheel racecars."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft eyeing deal to buy Yahoo

rawr99 writes: Microsoft is once against rumored to be in talks with Yahoo, after an initial spur-out and scorn several months ago, in acquisitions of it's whole company. Microsoft has proposed an estimated 50$ billion price tag on Yahoo. Could this be Microsoft's answer to Google's Doubleclick buy-out, and shortly there after Microsoft's signaling for an antitrust protest?

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