Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
News

Submission + - 25% of car accidents are because of gadgets (winbeta.org) 1

Submitted by
BogenDorpher
BogenDorpher writes: "In a recent study by the Governors Highway Safety Association, driving distractions such as cell phones and other electronic devices, cause as much as 25% of all US car accidents. It is common knowledge that driving while distracted is not a safe thing to do, but now we have some scientific data that goes in-depth on the topic."
Patents

Submission + - Reducing Software Patent Life-spans

Submitted by seattle_coder
seattle_coder writes: Many have advocated for the elimination of software patents. The arguments generally are that software patents are handed out to easily, and that they're too difficult and expensive to fight. Some say that patents just plain don't make sense for software, which is such a dynamic technology. Given that the standard patent lifetime is 20 years, and software changes so rapidly, is the life-span the problem for software patents? Would reducing the software patent lifetime to 5 years or even less be the thing to do?
NASA

Submission + - Researchers Develop Super Batteries From Aerogel (inhabitat.com) 1

Submitted by
greenerd
greenerd writes: "Researchers from the University of Central Florida may have found the most efficient (and most bizarre) battery material yet – ‘frozen smoke’, also known as Aerogel. One of the world’s lightest solids, aerogel contains multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) which each one several thousands thinner than human hair. The researchers, Associate Professor Lei Zhai and Postdoctoral Associate Jianhua Zou, believe that this material could soon become the best energy storage material for capacitors and batteries."
Microsoft

Submission + - IE9 Beta's Implementation of Canvas is Lacking (deviantart.com)

Submitted by mudimba
mudimba writes: Microsoft has made grand announcements about how great their implementation of the HTML5 canvas specification is. However, while I was porting a large HTML5 application to work with IE9 beta I found that there are some key features missing. Workarounds are provided where possible.

Disclaimer: I am the author of the submitted article.
Idle

Submission + - Red Cross: Nurse Outfit Violates Geneva Convention

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Red Cross apparently takes the sanctity of its "red cross" symbol quite seriously. The UK branch of the Red Cross has threatened a patomime theatrical production of Robin Hood, because one of the actresses, playing a nurse, has an outfit that includes the standard red cross. The Red Cross told the producers of the play that using such a costume, no matter how accurate, is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Submission + - Sony files lawsuit aginst Mr. George Hotz! (psx-scene.com)

Submitted by Kayot
Kayot writes: George Hotz or as he is known on the internet, Geohot has been served court papers. Shorty after Team fail0verflow discovered faults in the PS3's TPM's, Geohot and others figured out how to extract the long sought after holy grail encryption keys. Apparently Sony is not pleased and is very keen on defending their poorly defended system with the U.S. legal system. The basis is that Geohot released programs that allow the signing of homebrew which can be used to make PSN like games out of normal PS3 games. However Geohot has never supported any form of piracy and in fact has taken a constant stance against it. Leaving many to wonder, just what is Sony planning.

Additional documentaion
PDF: http://geohot.com/Motion%20For%20TRO.pdf
PDF: http://geohot.com/Proposed%20Order.pdf

Source Site:
http://psx-scene.com/forums/f6/sony-mib-team-full-speed-ahead-lawsuit-filed-against-mr-george-hotz-75467/
Microsoft

Submission + - Does Windows Phone 7 have a data transmission bug?

Submitted by blarkon
blarkon writes: Microsoft commentator and Windows Phone 7 Expert Paul Thurrott has reported a serious bug that indicates Windows Phone 7 is uploading up to 50 MB of unidentified data every day. The phone operating system apparently ignores Wi-Fi connections for sending this data, leading some Windows Phone 7 owners hitting their 2 GB plan data limit while doing little more than checking email and social networking sites. Thurrott has written a book on Windows Phone 7 and is unlikely to be making such a claim unless it has some substance. At the moment no one knows what this data contains or where it is going, though Thurrott suspects it may be related to the Windows Phone Marketplace

Submission + - Reproductive Scientists Create Mice from 2 Fathers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Using stem cell technology, reproductive scientists in Texas, led by Dr. Richard R. Berhringer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, have produced male and female mice from two fathers. The study was posted today (Wednesday, December 8) at the online site of the journal Biology of Reproduction. The achievement of two-father offspring in a species of mammal could be a step toward preserving endangered species, improving livestock breeds, and advancing human assisted reproductive technology (ART). It also opens the provocative possibility of same-sex couples having their own genetic children, the researchers note.
Earth

MIT Unveils Portable, Solar-Powered Water Desalination System 117

Posted by Soulskill from the water-the-chances dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Field and Space Robotic Laboratory has designed a new solar-powered water desalination system to provide drinking water to disaster zones and disadvantaged parts of the planet. Desalination systems often require a lot of energy and a large infrastructure to support them, but MIT's compact system is able to cope due to its ingenious design. The system's photovoltaic panel is able to generate power for the pump, which in turn pushes undrinkable seawater through a permeable membrane. MIT's prototype can reportedly produce 80 gallons of drinking water per day, depending on weather conditions."
Music

Astronaut Sues Dido For Album Cover 264

Posted by samzenpus from the get-me-off-that-thing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Astronaut Bruce McCandless is suing Dido for her album cover that uses a famous NASA photograph of a tiny, tiny, tiny McCandless floating in space. McCandless doesn't own the copyright on the photo, so he's claiming it's a violation of his publicity rights ... except that he's so tiny in the photo, it's not like anyone's going to recognize him."
Science

Submission + - What happened with the supposed proof that PNP (sciencenews.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Remember, about a month ago, when a researcher claimed he had a proof that PNP? () Well, the proof hasn't held up. But Slashdot helped spur a massive, open, collaborative effort on the Internet to understand the paper and to see if its ideas could be extended. This article explains what happened, how the proof was supposed to work, and why it failed.
Australia

Submission + - Aussie gamer loses PS3 court case over "Other OS" (gamepron.com)

Submitted by dotarray
dotarray writes: An Australian man who took Sony to court over the company'(TM)s decision to remove Linux functionality from the PS3 console has lost his claim, with the court clearing the manufacturer of any wrongdoing regarding the upgrade.

Slashdot Top Deals

I've got a bad feeling about this.

Close