Submission + - Japanese Invent New Multi-Skilled Kitchen Robot
Nandini writes: "Professors at Tokyo University has developed a new Kitchen robot that can perform tasks like poring drinks and even clean dishes — http://www.bornrich.org/entry/japanese-invent-new- multi-skilled-kitchen-robot/."
Submission + - Online addict dies after 7 day marathon session
watomb writes: ""BEIJING: An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a "marathon" online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday.
The 150-kg man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending "almost all" of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents."
http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle1.as p?artid=94845"
The 150-kg man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending "almost all" of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents."
http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle1.a
Submission + - Gates under fire for charging for interoperability
aKumudzi writes: "The EU want to fine Gates again — justifiably in my opinion. We're left to wonder what revolutionary protocols in Windows Gates feels warranted to charge for. Microsoft just can't resist an opportunity to cash in on "...interoperability information because it was based on its own innovative work...""
Submission + - Boycotting the RIAA?
An anonymous reader writes: ExtremeTech asks: Will boycotting the RIAA for a month do anything? Is it a practical campaign? Is DRM evil, or is it a tool most often used for evil?
Submission + - Movie adaptation of Darwin biography in the works
ndogg writes: "Annie's Box is a biography on Charles Darwin written by Randal Keynes, and according to CHUD, it's being adapted for the big screen. John Collee, the screenwriter for Master and Commander, is apparently writing the adaptation. Supposedly, it's to be directed by the same director of The Core (yup, this one, unfortunately), Jon Amiel."
Submission + - Plan9 kernel exploit made public
swehack writes: "The month of February saw a very rare case of a kernel exploit for the plan9 operating system made public on the Dailydave mailing list. The author mentions how he kindly waited for Bell Labs to patch the vulnerability but also that the exploit lasted quite a while in private use. One can only speculate what one would do with a private plan9 kernel exploit."
Submission + - Dell censors IdeaStorm Linux dissent
thefickler writes: It seems pointless seeking ideas and feedback if you 're going to ignore and delete the ones you don't like. That's exactly what Dell is doing with its IdeaStorm web site, which has been set up by the company to solicit ideas and feedback. It deleted a post that linked to an article that criticized its handling of the "preinstalled Linux" issue.
Submission + - Fair manufacturer's technical support
VincenzoRomano writes: One year ago I decided to buy some "enterprise grade" hardware, firewalls actually, in order to replace the old ones used by the former ISP.
Before buying them I did a kind of survey. I browsed the product "data sheets" from the manufacturer web sites and in some cases, asked for more details by email.
I finally choose a top product already in the market since one year and a half from a very well known and reputable company.
The product showed a nuber of issues as soon as unpacked and put to work. I mean things like not being able to keep a VPN up and running for more than a bunch of minutes or doing bad IP routing on the LAN.
I've spent the last year to make that equipment working accordingly to both their data sheets and the features expected from an "enterprise grade" product.
Important issues are still open while the technical support is actually relying on my own stuff and setup and on my personal availability in order to do troubleshooting, firmware beta testing and other experiments.
I've finally blamed the product as
What's your opinion about such a behaviour in a company? Is it fair?
Before buying them I did a kind of survey. I browsed the product "data sheets" from the manufacturer web sites and in some cases, asked for more details by email.
I finally choose a top product already in the market since one year and a half from a very well known and reputable company.
The product showed a nuber of issues as soon as unpacked and put to work. I mean things like not being able to keep a VPN up and running for more than a bunch of minutes or doing bad IP routing on the LAN.
I've spent the last year to make that equipment working accordingly to both their data sheets and the features expected from an "enterprise grade" product.
Important issues are still open while the technical support is actually relying on my own stuff and setup and on my personal availability in order to do troubleshooting, firmware beta testing and other experiments.
I've finally blamed the product as
and have requested some kind of compensation for all the job I had to do."far from being ready to market or even usable for beta testers"
What's your opinion about such a behaviour in a company? Is it fair?
Submission + - Lawmakers confused by copyright law
AlHunt writes: "The New York Times is reporting that C-Span recently asked Nancy Pelosi to remove copyrighted material from her website.
From TFA:
From TFA:
"C-Span did contact the speaker's office to have it take down a different clip from her blog — one shot by C-Span's cameras at a House Science and Technology Committee hearing on global warming where Ms. Pelosi testified, Mr. Daly said. (The blog has substituted material filmed by the committee's cameras, he said.)
Submission + - Computer Pros Debate Windows Vista
An anonymous reader writes: As a follow-on to John Welch's widely read review arguing that Mac OS X is superior to Vista, IWeek is running the first in a weeklong series of roundtables where a programmer, networking consultant, and 3 IT managers have a serious technical debate on the pros and cons of Vista. Among the comments:
What's been your experience with Vista? More importantly, do you think it will ever gain traction among corporate users, or is its glitzy Aero interface destined to make it mainly a consumer OS?(negative) "As to the Vista interface and features, I am having problems making the switch from my old XP habits.
(negative)"The Administrator mode that doesn't have all permissions."
(positive)"I am glad to say that the final product is a thousand times better than the beta products I used through the end of last year."
Submission + - Wil Wheaton reviews Linux audio players
ForeverFaithless writes: Wil Wheaton has reviewed several popular audio players on Linux, including XMMS, Amarok, and Banshee. Wil comes to the conclusion that Amarok is his favorite of the bunch, stating "I have never loved a music player as much as I love Amarok, and I've never had as much fun flipping through my library and learning more about my favorite artists."
Submission + - Consumer to Consumer Rental Marketplace Arrives
An anonymous reader writes: Earn money from your shed full of stuff!
The world of consumer-to-consumer hire has been born today by the launch of an online marketplace that lets anyone earn money from the things they own.
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php ?relid=Qzzmz
The world of consumer-to-consumer hire has been born today by the launch of an online marketplace that lets anyone earn money from the things they own.
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.ph
Submission + - Bizarre Virus Threatens to Kill File-Sharers
An anonymous reader writes: TorrentFreak reports:
A strange virus which taunts file-sharers and threatens to report them to the police and even kill them, is being distributed on the Winny network. The virus has two variants Troj/Pirlames-A and Troj/Pirlames-B, masquerades as a screensaver and attacks files with these popular extensions — EXE, BAT, CMD, INI, ASP, HTM, HTML, PHP, CLASS, JAVA, DBX, EML, MBX, TBB, WAB, HLP, TXT, MP3, XLS, LOG, BMP — overwriting them with images of comic book character Ayu Tsukimiya.
It's reported that one of the images, which includes a song about fish-shaped pancakes stuffed with jam, has a telephone number included although it's unclear to whom the number belongs.
Another exclaims "This is a visit from the prevalent Piro virus! Stop P2P! If you don't i'll tell the police!" while another threatens "Ah, I see you are using P2P again......if you don't stop within 0.5 seconds, i'm going to kill you!"
