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The Internet

Submission + - Google nervous about Verizon's open access (thestandard.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Google is so worried about Verizon Wireless' commitment to open access using the 700Mhz spectrum, that it's asked the FCC to get a pledge from Verizon that it will honor the FCC's open-access conditions before it sells the band to the carrier. Verizon won the auction for the nationwide C block of the 700MHz spectrum, but Google points to Verizon's alleged attempts to abandon the conditions, including a filing with the FCC that said the the commission 'could not force the C block winner to allow all applications on the network.' Could this be another expanding front in the Net Neutrality battle, or is time for the carriers to accept the fact that Net Neutrality is essentially a done deal, and carriers need to prepare for the next battle — developing software and services to run on open networks?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Does Ballmer Need to Go? 3

Submitted by
Pickens
Pickens writes: "Microsoft's dramatic decision this weekend to withdraw its offer for Yahoo and not pursue a hostile bid raises an interesting question: If the deal is really dead, does Steve Ballmer need to start looking for a new job? Ballmer has been the big driver behind this deal at Microsoft — some would say to the point of obsession. After the disaster that has been Windows Vista , Ballmer may have realized he needed to redeem himself in the eyes of Microsoft's board. And the "transformative" deal with Yahoo was the way he was going to do it. If Microsoft's board loses patience with him, it might have to ask Blll Gates to temporarily come back as CEO until it finds a replacement. After all, Ballmer has already made a strong and convincing case for why Microsoft needs Yahoo to make its online and advertising strategy work so it not clear how it can achieve its objectives on its own or through other acquisitions. Or maybe Ballmer thinks he can still do the deal by making Yahoo's stock price collapse and come back with a hostile offer. We'll find out later this week."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Why OpenSolaris failed to build a community (thunk.org) 1

Submitted by xtaski
xtaski writes: Ted Ts'o, one of the earliest Linux developers, points out some serious flaws in OpenSolaris — a severe lack of developers for one. Apparently after 3 years the OpenSolaris "developer community" has no means for developers to develop! Oops... Ted also points out some other flaws that make it clear just how disconnected the executives at Sun are from what's really going on in their "open source communities".
Microsoft

Submission + - The Inside Story on Norway's Yes to OOXML (wordpress.com) 1

Submitted by
Steve Pepper
Steve Pepper writes: "The former Chairman of the Norwegian ISO committee, who resigned two weeks ago in protest against his country's vote of Yes to OOXML, tells the inside story of how the decision was reached: how a single bureaucrat from Standards Norway sidelined the overwhelming majority of Norwegian technical experts and changed Norway's vote from No to Yes. The story is so surreal it's hard to believe.

P.S. A topic for "Open standards" would be more appropriate."
Moon

Submission + - SPAM: Will the Earth fry future moon astronauts?

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Researchers working for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission have discovered that the Earth's magnetic tail could be harmful to future astronauts. The moon stays inside Earth's 'magnetotail' for six days every month — during full moon. This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to strong electrostatic discharges, according to one researcher quoted by NASA in 'The Moon and the Magnetotail.' So far, this is pure speculation: no man has been on the moon when the magnetotail hits. As added the same scientist, 'Apollo astronauts never landed on a full moon and they never experienced the magnetotail.' But read more for additional details about how Earth's magnetotail could affect men on the moon."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft giving SMB2 talks at SambaXP

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "I'm not much for writing blog entries, but I thought Slashdot readers might like to know that Microsoft architects and testers are attending SambaXP and have been giving some wonderful talks on how the protocol document testing works, and on the design of SMB2 in order to work well on WAN links. Really interesting technical stuff. Pinch me, I'm back in 1994 and things are really fun again :-).

Cheers,

Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team"
Government

Submission + - 'Judicial Scandal' in Pirate Bay Case (thelocal.se)

Submitted by dr_d_19
dr_d_19 writes: The Local (Swedish online news site in english) as well as others reports that Jim Keyzer, one of the police officers involved in investigating the Pirate Bay case, began working for Warner Bros a few months after 18 month investigation was finished. Peter Sunde, one of the men behind TPB calls this a 'Judicial Scandal'.
Supercomputing

Submission + - New Family of High-Temperature Superconductors (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Physicists are hailing the discovery of a new type of superconductor as a "major advance." The new materials could solve the biggest mystery in condensed matter physics, as well as paving the way for practical magnetic levitation and lossless transmission of energy. "God only knows where it will go," says one Nobel Laureate.
The Courts

Submission + - Court Finds Part of Copyright Act Unconstitutional (stanford.edu)

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "A US District Court in the Southern District of California has found the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act to be unconstitutional. That act is what removes the sovereign immunity for infringement that state workers have in their official capacity, something many argued would jeopardize universities with liability for faculty infringement, not to mention other state agencies. In a rather dense legal ruling (PDF), the Court found that the Clarification Act was not a valid exercise of congressional power under the 14th Amendment. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I just said, I recommend either being glad that a small piece of copyright law may soon bite the dust, or hoping that NYCL will explain this better."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA sues homeless man (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In a Manhattan case, Warner v. Berry, the RIAA sued a man who lives in a homeless shelter, leaving a copy of the summons and complaint not at the homeless shelter, but at an apartment the man had occupied in better times, and had long since vacated. The RIAA's lawyers were threatened with sanctions by the Magistrate Judge in the case, for making misleading representations to the Court which the Magistrate felt were intentional. The District Judge, however, disagreed with imposing sanctions, giving the RIAA's lawyers "as officers of the Court the benefit of the doubt", and instead concluded — in his 6-page opinion (pdf) — that the RIAA's lawyers were just being "sloppy" and had not made the misstatements for an "improper purpose"."
Security

Submission + - Wikileaks Avoids Publishing Public PGP Key (wikileaks.org)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Repeated requests toward the Wikileaks staff regarding their use of PGP have gone unanswered. The current public PGP key posted has been expired since November 2nd, 2007. A response on their PGP talk page notes that the "SSL based mail submission system" will be the secure online method of document submission. At the current time, there is no method to safely encrypt any postal communications with Wikileaks or verify that any given communication actually originated from a Wikileaks staff member.
The Internet

Submission + - Do the blind deserve more effort on the Web? (computerworld.com) 4

Submitted by
dratcw
dratcw writes: "An article posted today about the "maddening" frustrations faced by blind people struggling to use the Web and other computer systems shows how little progress has been made and the inadequacy of solutions such as Microsoft's Narrator screen reader. While the article generated many positive comments, one reader said the disabled should "get a grip" and maintained they "have no more right to demand that others provide for their needs than I, as a diabetic, have a right to demand that sugar no longer be used." Should Web sites and software makers do more, or does the reality of today's economics dictate that the blind/disabled will continue to struggle and learn to live with it?"
Communications

Submission + - Comcast takes high road - proposes self regulation

Submitted by Torodung
Torodung writes: In a recent move, Comcast has proposed a 'P2P Bill of Rights,' joining the ranks of every great monopoly when threatened by government regulation for alleged misbehavior. They have instead proposed comprehensive industry self-regulation and cooperation with major P2P software vendors as a lesser evil:

Comcast is looking to further position itself as proactively — and responsibly — addressing the issue of managing peer-to-peer traffic that traverses its network, announcing Tuesday it will lead an industry-wide effort to create a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" for users and Internet service providers.
It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

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