Belgand - Slashdot User

Submission + - Senate bill bans Net & satellite radio recordi

Submitted by kaufmanmoore on Friday January 12, 2007 @09:56PM

kaufmanmoore writes: The new congress is the same as the old congress as Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) reintroduced a bill that would require internet radio, music offered via digital cable, XM and Sirius to pay "fair market value" to use music libraries under members of the RIAA. FTA: "The proposal says that all audio services — Webcasters included — would be obligated to implement "reasonably available and economically reasonable" copy-protection technology aimed at preventing "music theft" and restricting automatic recording." The act also restricts "manual" recording saying that it should only be done "in a manner that is not an infringement of copyright." The full article is available from Cnet

Submission + - Shatner Leaks Trek XI Details

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 12, 2007 @09:36PM

An anonymous reader writes: The rumors that the next Star Trek movie would revolve around the earliest missions of Kirk and Spock have been confirmed by William Shatner in a Sci Fi Wire interview. J.J. Abrahms (creator of "Lost") will direct, and has confirmed that a draft script is completed.

So, the question is, will Shatner appear as a reminiscing older Kirk in the beginning, setting up the rest of the movie as a flash-back, or will geriatric-Kirk and young-Kirk meet? (Spock to Kirk: "Jim, if you don't go on this mission, we will never meet!").

Submission + - Robert Anton Wilson, dead just shy of 75

Submitted by Thyrsus on Friday January 12, 2007 @09:23PM

Thyrsus writes: Robert Anton Wilson, co-author of the Iluminatus! trilogy, Cosmic Trigger, and many other sources of wisdom, died Thursday. http://reason.com/blog/show/117838.html

Submission + - iPhone 3rd party development support petition

Submitted by Alex Speller on Friday January 12, 2007 @09:01PM

Alex Speller writes: According to http://www.petitiononline.com/iphone/petition.html :

"Apple's major competitors in this space (Palm, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile) were given a thorough drubbing by Steve Jobs during his latest MacWorld keynote. But all of these platforms allow easy, open 3rd-party development by developers large and small. Even the vast majority of non-"smart" mobile phones allow the installation of mobile Java applications, including complex games. In the case of Palm, it is possible to develop and distribute applications with no licensing fees and no software investment. As a result, the thousands of free and shareware applications developed by the community are largely considered the platform's biggest asset.

The software included with the iPhone is incredible, with functionality and user interfaces far superior to the standard software included with any other handheld. But as amazing as it is, it's just not enough. With a tiny investment, any smartphone can be enabled to edit Office documents, connect to chat networks, read electronic books, manage a diet, and play games. All of these activities would be better, easier, faster and more enjoyable on the iPhone, so it breaks our heart to know that, if Apple maintains its closed stance, none of this potential will be realized. "

Submission + - Dell accused of selling defective notebooks-again

Submitted by crowbarsarefornerdyg on Friday January 12, 2007 @08:06PM

crowbarsarefornerdyg writes: Dell's in the courts again, except this time Sony isn't to blame. The lawsuit stems from overheating Inspiron laptops. I own one (I inherited it, ok!) and it has overheated since we got it. Dell's answer? Keep it cleaned out. From TFA:

'A lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court alleges that Dell notebooks suffer from design defects that cause premature failure of the motherboard due to overheating.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of an Ontario owner of an Inspiron PC, according to articles by the Canadian Press and the Associated Press. It claims that Dell knew or should have known of the defects but sold the notebooks anyway.'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/12/inspiron_d efect_lawsuit/

Submission + - Protien in HIV functions as resistor

Submitted by

TwilightXaos

on Friday January 12, 2007 @07:34PM

TwilightXaos writes: "Leor Weinberger and Thomas Shenk, two researchers at Princeton, have discovered a new model for how the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) enters and exits dormancy. They claim it functions as a resistor, this is in contrast to other types of regulation models found in other viruses and animals. From the abstract:

Here we show that a dissipative feedback resistor, composed of enzymatic interconversion of the transactivator, converts transactivation circuits into excitable systems that generate transient pulses of expression, which decay to zero. We use HIV-1 as a model system and analyze single-cell expression kinetics to explore whether the HIV-1 transactivator of transcription (Tat) uses a resistor to shut off transactivation. The Tat feedback circuit was found to lack bi-stability and Tat self-cooperativity but exhibited a pulse of activity upon transactivation, all in agreement with the feedback resistor model.

The research could lead to an effective treatment of the HIV virus, and has the possibility of increasing understanding of other viruses like herpes.
Additionally hindu.com has a article on the findings."

Journal Journal: "Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward"

Journal by flaming error on Friday January 12, 2007 @07:21PM

Reuters reports that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says conditions are closer to doomsday than the used to be:

When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.

Submission + - PS3 piling up in retail stores

Submitted by on Friday January 12, 2007 @07:06PM

An anonymous reader writes: Seems like Playstation are piling up at retail stores around the US. I just called a few Best Buys around the Bay Area and sure enough, they are available, which is shocking given that it is Silicon Valley, plus the Bay Area is richer than most and could probably afford the $600 price tag. Meanwhile Wiis are sold out everywhere. Is Sony's strategy completely failing? Will they have to drop the price soon in order to remain competitive?

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