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Sci-Fi

Submission + - Hunt for elusive Sasquatch (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by
Raver32
Raver32 writes: "Researchers will visit Michigan's Upper Peninsula next month to search for evidence of the hairy manlike creature known as "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch." The expedition will centre in eastern Marquette County, following the most recent Bigfoot eyewitness account, said Matthew Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. "We'll be looking for evidence supporting a presence.... We hope to meet local people who might have seen a Sasquatch or heard of someone else who had an encounter," Mr. Moneymaker told the Daily Press of Escanaba. Most experts consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes, but there are a number of authors and researchers who think the stories could be true."
The Courts

Submission + - Teacher granted new trial in porno pop-up case (norwichbulletin.com)

Submitted by ZigmundRat
ZigmundRat writes: A Superior Court judge today ordered a new trial for Julie Amero, the former Norwich substitute teacher who claims pornographic images on her classroom computer were the result of pop-up ads. Forensic investigation into Amero's computer at the state police crime laboratory and by the defense team turned up the possibility of "erroneous" facts presented to jurors by the prosecution's expert computer witness. (So much for 'Expert Witness' testimony, and the fact that Herb Horner the defense expert was not allowed to testify about porn storms at the trial.) Better late than never, I suppose. But it's a travesty that this ever got to the sentencing phase or that charges were even filed to begin with. Best wishes to Julie and for a quick end to this nightmare.
Education

Submission + - CS professor named new Harvard Dean (thecrimson.com)

Submitted by
mclove
mclove writes: "Michael D. Smith, a computer hardware professor, was just named Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Harvard, in charge of the college and the non-professional graduate schools. A bit suspicious that this is happening the same week Bill Gates is getting an honorary degree, but a great sign for the future of CS in academia."
Republicans

Submission + - Integrity of Science: White House Misuse of Data (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by
Science data nerds
Science data nerds writes: "The White House is consistently and persistently claiming that the US is doing better than Europe in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This turns out to be false — their claim is purely based on carefully selecting the only subset of data that shows this. When all the data are used, Europe emissions have declined substantially; the US emissions have grown substantially. This story, and the linked analysis, debunk the White House claims."
Programming

Submission + - Five AJAX frameworks reviewed

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "Dr. Dobb's Journal reviews 5 AJAX frameworks: Dojo 0.3.1, Prototype and Scriptaculous 1.4, Direct Web Reporting 1.0, Yahoo! User Interface Library 0.11.1 and Google Web Toolkit 1.0. Each framework was tested in two basic scenarios — writing a "hub" (titled collapsible link list frequently seen on sidebars of many Web sites) and a "tab panel" (horizontal tabbed navigation bar). During the process, Dr. Dobb's Journal reviewers noted that "Dojo provides more features and HTML widgets than YUI and Prototype" but eventually "settled on the Yahoo! User Interface Library"."
Slashback

Submission + - Response to CLF Mercury Levels

Submitted by theNetImp
theNetImp writes: The Consumerist has written a response to the the article linked to the other day from this slashdot article regarding the safety of CLFs. "

A woman in Maine broke a CFL and, rather than carefully cleaning the mess up herself, she called Home Depot. They told her not to vacuum, and directed her to call Poison Control. Poison Control directed her to the Maine DEP, who then sent an agent. The agent told her to call in a toxic waste team to give an estimate. Naturally, they told her it was going to be around $2,000. She heard that number, walled off the bedroom and alerted the local media.

Enter Fox News, where Steven "Junk Science" Milloy a well known, self-appointed "Junk Science expert" and global warming denier, writes an editorial extolling the dangers of CFLs to you, me, and our precious, precious babies.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Slashdot site typo?

Submitted by
alberion
alberion writes: "This is not a Story. In the Submit session there is a typo:
"...submit a story a story to Slashdot for story consideration."

I don't know the proper channel for this kind of information, but i thought you might like to know."
Power

Submission + - Getting cold from heating

Submitted by
bananaendian
bananaendian writes: "Several news source in Sweden are reporting a problem with geothermal energy. The people of Hudiksvall community have installed so many geothermal pumps to heat their houses that the ground temperature has begun to sink, as much as 2-3 degrees C (4-5F). None of the experts know what this lowering of ground temperature could lead to. Boreholes have been drilled into the bedrock, sometimes every 10-20 meters (32-64ft), and it is feared that this could lead to the freezing of ground water during winter. Geothermal energy has become very popular form of heating in Sweden because it is a lot cheaper then oil and is thought to be more ecological."
Input Devices

Submission + - Apple pulls Isight?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Recently I've been looking for the Isight at Apple, and they seem to have pulled it from their stores and online store, both here and in Australia. It seems like a pretty valuable product to simply stop making it — and I suspect there's more to the story than I've been able to find. Anyone able to fill in the rest of the picture?
United States

Submission + - Is America going fascist?

Submitted by
Random BedHead Ed
Random BedHead Ed writes: "The Guardian this week has a call to arms, examining the ten steps to fascism and proposing that America is quietly taking virtually all of them. It's not as much of a partisan concern as you might think: many conservative groups have joined forces under a new organization called the American Freedom Agenda, which along with the ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights has been fighting to put pressure on the federal government to pull the country away from what they see as a slippery slope. From the article: "As Americans turn away quite leisurely, keeping tuned to internet shopping and American Idol, the foundations of democracy are being fatally corroded. Something has changed profoundly that weakens us unprecedentedly: our democratic traditions, independent judiciary and free press do their work today in a context in which we are "at war" in a "long war" — a war without end, on a battlefield described as the globe, in a context that gives the president — without US citizens realising it yet — the power over US citizens of freedom or long solitary incarceration, on his say-so alone.""
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - VA Tech Shooter Not a Gamer; No Corrections Coming

Submitted by realinvalidname
realinvalidname writes: The San Francisco Chronicle takes Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil to task for blaming video games for the Virginia Tech shootings before perpetrator Seung-Hui Cho was even identified. "Last week's unfounded attack on gamer culture would be far less frustrating if it weren't something that happens at least once a year. Imagine how ridiculous it would seem if cable news interviewed alarmists who blamed professional wrestling or game shows (two things that Cho reportedly did enjoy in college) for a massacre before a suspect was identified."
Businesses

Submission + - How an Email Rant Jolted a Big HMO

Submitted by Radon360
Radon360 writes: From the WSJ Article:

On a Friday morning last November, Justen Deal, a Kaiser Permanente employee, blasted an email throughout the giant health maintenance organization. His message charged that HealthConnect — the company's ambitious $4 billion project to convert paper files into electronic medical records — was a mess.

Mr. Deal signed the email. Before sending it, he says, he printed out a copy and handed it to his boss. Soon afterward, his office phone was ringing off the hook. IT staffers later arrived to seize his computers, and Mr. Deal was placed on paid leave from his $56,000-a-year job.

Despite Kaiser's efforts to squelch and downplay the incident, the email episode shows that, in the digital age, flicking away whistle-blowers isn't as easy as it once was.
Sony

Submission + - Sony Films Won't Play on Sony DVD Players

Submitted by taxevader
taxevader writes: Sony Films Won't Play on Sony DVD Players, Say Reports
Complaints have begun appearing on some tech websites that copyright-protection coding on new releases from Sony, including Stranger Than Fiction, The Holiday, Casino Royale, and The Pursuit of Happyness, has made them unplayable on certain DVD players. One person complained on an Amazon.com discussion board that when inserted in Sony's DVP-CX995V player, the disks "load up to the splash title screen and then load no further, then after about 60 secs the player turns itself off!" The writer said that when he contacted Sony he was told that the company was aware of the problem and that it was working on a firmware update. The writer then asked Sony, "Would it not be a good idea to test changes you intend to make on your DVDs at least on your own equipment so that if you find a problem you could have the firmware update available instead of not only inconveniencing, but alienating your own customers?"

http://imdb.com/news/sb/2007-04-16/
Media

Submission + - What is the best Media Center software out there?

Submitted by
brm1974
brm1974 writes: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_center

For the product by J. River.
A media center is a computer adapted for playing music, watching movies and pictures stored on a local harddrive or on a (in some cases wireless) network, watching DVD movies and often for watching and recording television broadcasts.

Have You guys tried any of those?
What do you think?

        * SageTV
        * Front Row (Apple)
        * GeeXboX (Linux)
        * GBPVR (Windows)
        * SesamTV (http://www.sesamtv.com)
        * MythTV (Linux)
        * Freevo (Linux)
        * Elisa (Linux) (http://www.fluendo.com/elisa/index.php)
        * My Media System (Linux)
        * MediaPortal
        * TVedia
        * Windows XP Media Center Edition
        * Xbox Media Center (not to be confused with Windows XP Media Center eXtender)
        * Domotix (http://www.mydomotix.com)
        * XLobby (windows) http://www.xlobby.com/"

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