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Submission + - Usage Based Billing in Canada to be Rescinded (thestar.com)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: The Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Industry are set to reverse a ruling by the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Television Commission) allowing big Cable and Telecom companies to charge based on bandwidth usage. The ruling applied to both retail customers and smaller ISPs buying bandwidth wholesale from the major companies. The head of the CRTC has been called to testify before cabinet on why they want to allow the big internet providers to do this. In this case the elected government agrees with the very large number of angry Canadians that this was bad for competition. Most Canadians see this as a bureaucracy aided cash grab with very suspect timing since companies like Netflix are starting to move into the Canadian market (big cable companies lowered caps and increased usage fees a week before Netflix started Canadian operations). The CRTC has a fair number of ex-'industry' executives on the board.

Submission + - Ski lifts can get all cargo traffic off the road (lowtechmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: These days, we use them almost exclusively to transport skiers and snowboarders up snow slopes, but before the 1940s, aerial ropeways were a common means of cargo transport, not only in mountainous regions but also on flat terrain. An electrically powered aerial ropeway is one of the cheapest and most efficient means of transportation available. Some generate excess energy that can be used to power nearby factories or data centers. An innovative system called RopeCon (not to be confused with a role-playing convention held annually in Finland) can move up to 10,000 tonnes of freight per hour.

Submission + - My GPL code has been... patented! 4

Submitted by ttsiod
ttsiod writes: Back in 2001, I coded HeapCheck, a GPL library for Windows (inspired by ElectricFence) that detected invalid read/write accesses on any heap allocations at runtime — thus greatly helping my debugging sessions. I published it on my site, and got a few users who were kind enough to thank me — a Serbian programmer even sent me 250$ as a thank you (I still have his mails). After a few years, Microsoft included very similar technology in the operating system itself, calling it PageHeap. I had more or less forgotten these stuff, since for the last 7 years I've been coding for UNIX/Linux, where valgrind superseeded Efence/dmalloc/etc. Imagine my surprise, when yesterday, Googling for references to my site, I found out that the technology I implemented, of runtime detection of invalid heap accesses, has been patented in the States, and to add insult to injury, even mentions my site (via a non-working link to an old version of my page) in the patent references! After the necessary "WTFs" and "bloody hells" I thought this merrits (a) a Slashdotting, and (b) a set of honest questions: what should I do about this? I am not an American citizen, but the "inventors" of this technology (see their names in the top of the patent) have apparently succeeded in passing this ludicrous patent in the States. If my code doesn't count as prior art, Bruce Perens's Efence (which I clearly state my code was inspired from) is at least 12 years prior! Suggestions/cursing patent trolls most welcome.
Science

Submission + - Scientists fight back in Canada (pipsc.ca)

Submitted by Trufagus
Trufagus writes: The current Canadian government is widely regarded as 'anti-science' and this year they have stepped up their efforts to undermine scientists and control their contact with the media. But now the federal scientists are fighting back and have just launched their own website at http://www.publicscience.ca/. Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said "If science isn't supported then you're going to find that decisions are going to be made more at the political level," on Monday as the union launched their website. The launch of the new website has received wide coverage including articles at the Globe & Mail here http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/federal-scientists-go-public-in-face-of-restrictive-media-rules/article1761624/ and at the CBC here http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/10/18/federal-union-government-science.html.

Submission + - Is Google messing with Beck's gathering? 1

Submitted by
John3
John3 writes: "Searching Google Maps for the Lincoln Memorial is returning the location of the FDR Memorial instead. Conservative bloggers smell a conspiracy since Glen Beck is holding his Restoring Honor gathering at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow (August 28). Notes for the map listing on Google state "This place has unverified edits", so did someone claim the listing and edit the location?"
Apple

Submission + - Hardware hackers reveal Apple's charging secrets (ladyada.net)

Submitted by
ptorrone
ptorrone writes: "In this 7 minute video we explore "The mysteries of Apple device charging". Usually device makers need to sign a confidentially agreement with Apple who want to say "works with iPhone / iPod" and never talk about how the insides work. If you don't put these secret resistors on the data lines to you get the dreaded "CHARGING IS NOT SUPPORTED WITH THIS ACCESSORY". We demonstrate how anyone can do this and make their own chargers that work with iPhone 4, 3Gs, etc."

Submission + - RIAA Accounting: How Labels Avoid Paying Musicians (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last week, Slashdot posted Techdirt's story about "Hollywood Accounting" which showed how movies like Harry Potter still officially "lose" money with some simple accounting tricks. This week, Techdirt is taking on RIAA accounting, and showing why most musicians (even multi-platinum recording stars) may never see a dime from their album sales. The major labels basically give you a loan, but then demand the first 63% of any dollar you make, get to automatically increase the size of the "loan" by simply adding in all sorts of crazy expenses (did the exec bring in pizza at the recording session? that gets added on), and then tries to get the loan repaid out of what meager pittance they've left for you. Oh, and after all of that, the record label still owns the copyrights. The average musician on a major record deal "gets" about $23 per $1,000 made... and that $23 still never gets paid because it has to go to "recouping" the loan... even though the label is taking $630 out of that $1,000, and not counting it towards the advance. Remember all this the next time a record label says they're trying to protect musicians' revenue.
Patents

The Unexpected Patents of Steve Jobs 198

Posted by CmdrTaco from the who-patents-a-staircase dept.
Harry writes "It's no surprise that Steve Jobs' name is among those credited in Apple's patents for MacBooks, iPods, and other iconic gadgets galore. But the man holds patents for packaging, a staircase, iPod cases, and several intriguing products that Apple hasn't built to date. They all add up to an interesting portrait of the world's most famous tech CEO."

Comment Not quite (Score 1) 334

by Nefron (#28112753) Attached to: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Released

Obviously someone watched Angels and Demons last night...

Actually I'm the son of a minister that had an interest in astronomy as a child. It was the first comparison that sprang to mind.
Not that it matters, but I haven't read or watched any of Dan Brown's works.

Comment Finally, I can torrent from windows (Score 5, Informative) 334

by Nefron (#28108443) Attached to: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Released

SP2 removes the limit of 10 half open outbound TCP connections. By default, SP2 has no limit on the number of half open outbound TCP connections.

I can't believe MS finally (almost) admitted they made a mistake. It may have taken almost as long, in technological terms, as it took the Catholic Church to admit it's mistakes with Galileo, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Comment Re:let's get this out of the way first (Score 1) 1595

by Nefron (#7926144) Attached to: Bush To Announce Manned Trip To Moon, Mars

3. There may be immediate tangible benefits to a moon base: mining, factories, observatories, astronaut training, research.

Well mining probably won't be one of the benefits, the moon has a noticable lack of heavy elements; especially in it's crust. The current theory of the lunar origin is that it was the crust of a mars sized planet that struck earth and then spun off to form the moon. The crust would have lacked most of the heavy elements that had already sunk to it's core. Hence the moon has few heavy elements (metals)

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