the JoshMeister - Slashdot User

Submission + - USPTO Rejects Eolas Plug-In Patent Claims

Submitted by

theodp

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @11:39PM

theodp writes: "As Microsoft and Eolas work towards settling their long-running web plug-in patent lawsuit that resulted in a $521 million judgment against Microsoft and gave rise to the click-to-activate-and-use-this-control web, the USPTO has issued a non-final rejection of the patent's claims, citing the work of Pei-Yuan Wei as prior art."

Submission + - Desktop computer hacks cost $7bn to US customers (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

Christopher_Blanc

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @05:35PM

Christopher_Blanc writes: "The reality is that viruses, spyware, and other computer threats have cost to US households an estimated $7 billion over the last two years alone, and 25 percent of all households are likely to become a "cybervictim" this year. That's the word from Consumer Reports, which just announced the results of its most recent "State of the Net" survey. If Microsoft doesn't get its act together on security, it's going to have customers defecting — in droves. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070807-the- state-of-the-net-is-not-so-strong.html"

Submission + - Netflix Gets Hacked (tvsquad.com)

Submitted by

Dragontologist

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @05:28PM

Dragontologist writes: "In an interestingly round-about way, a few hackers have posted publicly about how to get around the $17/month fee for Netflix streaming video. It's not particularly easy, you only get 17 hours of video a month, and you can't copy it onto your iPod (not without another hack, anyway), but it's free (assuming you don't mind the whole illegal thing). All I want to know is, who would think to exploit Windows Media Player?"

Submission + - Kittens could kill the spam (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by jcatcw on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @05:20PM

jcatcw writes: Researchers at Microsoft are proposing the use of images of kittens when software gets good enough to decipher captchas, which is inevitable. "It's possible that kittens are the wave of the future," according to Kevin Larson, a researcher at Microsoft's advanced reading technologies group. Humans can identify the image in a picture while software cannot. A beta service, called Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access), of the photo recognition technology is available from Microsoft for free to Web site hosters.

Submission + - 802.11n tests show "unbelievable" results

Submitted by BobB on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @05:02PM

BobB writes: The IT staff at Morrisville State College, where the first large-scale Draft 802.11n wireless LAN is being designed, says the beta gear exceeds expectations. Among the results: a 50MB file uploaded from a laptop to a network drive took 3 minutes, 51 seconds with an 11g connection, but 26 seconds with an 11n connection — nearly nine times faster. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080607-draft -80211n-morrisville-test-results.html?netht=080607 dailynews2

Submission + - Windows 98 Blue Screen of Death tattoo (com.com)

Submitted by

mytrip

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @04:52PM

mytrip writes: "Back in the day, it was skulls, snakes and Iron Maiden's undead mascot, Eddie. In the post-heavy-metal Internet era, to express your anguish, malaise, or traumatic childhood, you have to get a tattoo of the Blue Screen of Death on your arm.

The artist, 23-year-old Sam Rulz of Auckland, New Zealand, has this to say: "Paul's tattoo is based on the Windows 98 error code, which is what you see when your pc is f**ed. ..."

Submission + - First Water on an Extrasolar Planet (tfot.info)

Submitted by

Iddo Genuth

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @04:51PM

Iddo Genuth writes: "Scientists discovered what seems to be the first conclusive evidence for water on an extrasolar planet. The discovery was made by French scientists using data from NASA's Spitzer space telescope and was recently published in the scientific magazine Nature."

Submission + - Education slows learning (in babies)

Submitted by

mcgrew

on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @01:41PM

mcgrew writes: "New Scientist reports that

Educational DVDs may hinder rather than help a young child's learning. Infants who watch DVDs such as "Brainy Baby" and "Baby Einstein" know fewer words than those who do not watch such programmes, a new study suggests.

In recent years the popularity of such infant programmes has soared, particularly in the US. Parents hope the programmes, which typically consist of brief dialogue and picture sequences, will boost the learning ability of children as young as eight months old, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that youngsters not watch television until two years of age.
Well DUH, why do you think they call it the 'boob tube'?"

Bookmark Tech Pulse Podcast (techpulsepodcast.com)

by the JoshMeister on Thursday July 26, 2007 @03:38PM

Submission + - The Learning Curve for iSwitching

Submitted by Psychotic Venom on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @07:34PM

Psychotic Venom writes: After trying for nearly 5 years to acclimate my wife to Linux, it still just isn't happening, so after nearly 2 decades of disdain for the Mac, I think I've finally come around to understanding the elegance and ease of use that Apple seems to put in every product. I am considering buying a 24" iMac and keeping my Linux box as a backup server — but I know noone that owns a Mac as their home PC! What kind of learning curve should I expect (for me, a tech geek)? Has anyone had a good experience with a heterogenous home network of Mac and Linux? What kind of learning curve should I expect for my wife (decidedly non-tech geek)? Are there people who made the switch for their family and wish they hadn't, especially considering the price?

Submission + - Google's FUSE Port Brings NTFS Support to OS X

Submitted by

sciurus0

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @06:49PM

sciurus0 writes: "In his session at Macworld on OS X filesytems, Google's Amit Singh announced that he has ported Linux's FUSE module to OS X. The port is called MacFUSE and is available in source form and as a precompiled kernel extension with associated tools. Many FUSE filesystems such as sshfs and ntfs-3g are reported to work."

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