Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - American Science & Surplus is fighting for its life

Submitted by Tyler Too
Tyler Too writes: One of the few major, independent science-surplus/DIY outlets left is American Science & Surplus. They've recently launched a GoFundMe campaign to ensure their survival. From Ars Technica:

Now, nearly 90 years after its launch selling "reject lenses" as American Lens & Photo, American Science & Surplus is facing an existential threat. The COVID-19 pandemic and increased costs hit the business hard, so the store has launched a GoFundMe campaign looking to raise $200,000 from customers and fans alike. What's happening in suburban Chicago is a microcosm of the challenges facing local retail, with big-box retailers and online behemoths overwhelming beloved local institutions. It's a story that has played out countless times in the last two-plus decades, and owner Pat Meyer is hoping this tale has a different ending.

Submission + - Judge rejects SCO's motion for a new trial (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A judge has rejected SCO's motion for a new trial in the company's dispute over UNIX intellectual property ownership. The ruling validates a verdict that was issued in April by a jury which determined that Novell, and not SCO, is the rightful owner of the UNIX SVRX copyrights. This means that SCO cannot continue to pursue its litigation against IBM and other Linux users. "There was substantial evidence that Novell made an intentional decision to retain ownership of the copyrights," the Judge wrote in his decision. "The Court finds that the verdict is not clearly, decidedly, or overwhelmingly against the weight of the evidence. Therefore, SCO is not entitled to a new trial."

Submission + - Tentacular, tentacular! (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Tyler Too
Tyler Too writes: "Beware, mortals: Cthulhu has returned, and he's armed with bacon and an unhealthy obsession with geek brains." It's a really bizarre and hilarious choose your own adventure saga starring the Great Old One himself, Sergey Brin, Anonymous, David Pogue, and non-Euclidian tacos with bacon.

Submission + - Ubuntu dumps the brown, gets new visual identity (arstechnica.com) 4

Submitted by buntcake
buntcake writes: Canonical has launched a new visual identity for the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Ubuntu is shedding its previous brown look and adopting a more professional color scheme with purple and orange. The colors will be used in a new GNOME theme and boot splash for Ubuntu 10.04. According to updated design documents that were published in the Ubuntu wiki, "light" is the underlying concept behind the new visual identity. It displaces the "human" concept that has been part of Ubuntu's theming and brand vernacular for the past five years. Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon has posted a screenshot and additional information.
Television

Submission + - MPAA pushes for HD-disabling SOC once again (arstechnica.com) 2

Submitted by Tyler Too
Tyler Too writes: The MPAA is once again trying to badger the FCC into approving Selectable Output Control, which would plug the 'analog hole' during broadcasts of some prerelease HD movies. MPAA bigshots met with seven staffers from the FCC Media Bureau last week, calling the petition a 'pro-consumer' move designed to 'enable movie studios to offer millions of Americans in-home access to high-value, high definition video content.' At least the studios are now acknowledging that SOC would break the functionality of some HDTVs, an admission they were previously unwilling to make: 'What's interesting about the group's latest filing, however, is that it effectively concedes that the output changes it wants could, in fact, hobble some home video systems. "The vast majority of consumers would not have to purchase new devices to receive the new, high-value content contemplated by MPAA's" request, the group assures the FCC.'
Google

Submission + - Google brings 3D to web with open source plugin (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by maxheadroom
maxheadroom writes: Google has released an open source browser plugin that provides a JavaScript API for displaying 3D graphics in web content. Google hopes that the project will promote experimentation and help advance a collaborative effort with the Khronos Group and Mozilla to create open standards for 3D on the web. Google's plugin offers its own retained-mode graphics API, called O3D, which takes a different approach from a similar browser plugin created by Mozilla. Google's plugin is cross-platform compatible and works with several browsers. In an interview with Ars Technica, Google product manager Henry Bridge and engineering director Matt Papakipos say that Google's API will eventually converge with Mozilla's as the technology matures. The search giant hopes to bring programs like SketchUp and Google Earth to the browser space.
Windows

Submission + - In-depth with the Windows 7 public beta (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Dozer
Dozer writes: With the Windows 7 public beta out, Ars Technica has an in-depth look at the release. There's praise for Windows 7's UI changes and polish as well much-needed changes to UAC, but also a warning that those who have problems with Vista won't like Windows 7 much better. 'If you couldn't stand Vista's UI (whether it's because you didn't like Explorer, Aero, Control Panel, UAC, or anything else), Windows 7 is unlikely to do much to help, as it builds on the same UI. If Vista's hardware demands were too steep, Windows 7 will likely cause you the same grief, as its hardware demands match. And if Vista didn't work with a program or device you need to use, Windows 7 will offer no salvation, as its compatibility is virtually identical.'
Education

Submission + - Review of Discovery Institute's evolution textbook (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Darwinned
Darwinned writes: Intelligent Design is still a hot topic, as evidenced by recent legislation mandating that it be taught in school. Pro-ID group Discovery Institute has released an evolution textbook for use in schools, but a review shows it to be chock full of bad science and questionable reasoning. 'The book doesn't only promote stupidity, it demands it. In every way except its use of the actual term, this is a creationist book, but its authors are expecting that legislators and the courts will be too stupid to notice that, or to remember that the Supreme Court has declared teaching creationism an unconstitutional imposition of religion.'
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA says: Wanna fight? It'll cost you! (arstechnica.com) 2

Submitted by
jeiler
jeiler writes: "Ars has the details on an RIAA strategy to double the cost of settling copyright infringement suits for students who try to quash the group's subpoenas in court. In a nutshell: settle early, pay $3,000; try to quash the subpoena and the settlement cost rises to $8,000."
Earth

Submission + - DOE pumps $126.6 million into carbon sequestration (news.com)

Submitted by
RickRussellTX
RickRussellTX writes: "The DOE awarded $126.6 million in grants today to projects that will pump 1 million tons of CO2 into underground caverns at sites in California and Ohio. Environmental groups call carbon sequestration "a scam", claiming that it is too expensive and uncertain to be competitive with non-coal alternatives like wind and solar.

I just hope nobody drops a Mentos down the wrong pipe."
Programming

Submission + - In-depth with Qt 4.4 (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by QtPi
QtPi writes: Trolltech has announced the availability of Qt 4.4. Ars Technica has an in-depth look at the release, which include an integrated WebKit-based HTML rendering engine, the new Phonon multimedia framework, support for Windows CE, and significant improvements to the QGraphicsView system. 'Qt 4.4 brings a lot of rich new capabilities to the toolkit that are sure to please open source and commercial software developers. It sounds like Trolltech already has some nice plans for Qt 4.5, and we will hopefully get to hear more about the long-term roadmap after Nokia completes its acquisition.'
Programming

Submission + - How Microsoft dropped the ball with developers (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by cremou
cremou writes: As part of a series on how Microsoft bungled the transition from XP to Vista, Ars Technica looks at some unfortunate decisions Microsoft made that have made Windows an unpleasant development platform. 'So Windows is just a disaster to write programs for. It's miserable. It's quite nice if you want to use the same techniques you learned 15 years ago and not bother to change how you do, well, anything, but for anyone else it's all pain... And it's not just third parties who suffer. It causes trouble for Microsoft, too. The code isn't just inconsistent and ugly on the outside; it's that way on the inside, too. There's a lot of software for Windows, a lot of business-critical software, that's not maintained any more. And that software is usually buggy. It passes bad parameters to API calls, uses memory that it has released, assumes that files live in particular hardcoded locations, all sorts of things that it shouldn't do.'
KDE

Submission + - KDE 4.1 alpha 1 released, looks promising (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Crobain
Crobain writes: The first alpha release for KDE 4.1 is out, and bugs aside, it looks promising. The KDE Plasma desktop shell now has preliminary support for Mac OS X dashboard widgets and SuperKaramba, and panels can be added and removed via contextual menu items. 'This alpha release marks the start of the 4.1 feature freeze, so virtually all of the remaining developer effort between now and the official 4.1 release in July will focus on bug-fixing, polish, and stability. Despite the current breakage, the actual feature set that has been stubbed out for this release is pretty darn good. If the developers can deliver on all of this functionality and make it stable and robust, version 4.1 will offer a much better overall user experience than 4.0, and Plasma will come close to achieving functional parity with the KDE 3.5.x panel system.' The KDE Techbase wiki has a full list of the features planned for the 4.1 release.
Security

Submission + - The state of grayware on the PC (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Checkers and Pogo
Checkers and Pogo writes: Grayware inhabits a murky area between pure malware and useful apps, and it's a growing problem. 38.1 percent of all malicious PC software falls into the grayware category, and so-called 'grayware 2.0' is targeting social-networking sites. 'The "threat" of rogue applications like SuperWall wasn't immediately obvious: they seemed more like annoyances than real security risks. But as users entered more and more personal information into their Facebook accounts, it became clear that the possibilities for abuse were rampant. For example, because Facebook allows users to "tag" photos with the names of friends, it is possible for third-party apps to distribute photos that a user might only want to be seen by their inner circle of friends.'

Slashdot Top Deals

The absence of labels [in ECL] is probably a good thing. -- T. Cheatham

Close