Comment Freespace! (Score 1) 630
I'd be some sort of criminal if I didn't mention FreeSpace SCP, which is an open-sourced space sim with no DRM whatsoever.
And a very very good game. And multi-platform. Now go download it.
Slashdot's Disagree Mail 426
Everyone likes to belong to something. Whether it be for fun, a sense of belonging, or a need for attention, a group gives you a feeling of solidarity. Surrounding yourself with people that share common goals and ideas can be comforting. Sometimes however, you realize that you hate the people you've surrounded yourself with. Your religion doesn't allow you to read anything that has profanity or you've subscribed to Slashdot thinking you could learn more about hockey. This week's collection is composed of people who don't want to play, read, or be associated with us anymore. Read below to find out how bad they want out.
MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed 299
Billosaur writes "Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."
Submission + - Can Govt Study Says P2P Downloaders Buy More Music 2
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Geist reports
that a newly study commissioned by the Government of Canada, which
includes some of
the most extensive surveying to date of the Canadian population on
music purchasing habits, finds what many have long suspected — there is a positive correlation between
peer-to-peer downloading and CD purchasing. The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P
File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study For Industry Canada
was conducted collaboratively by two professors from the University of
London, Industry Canada, and Decima Research, who surveyed over 2,000
Canadians on their music downloading and purchasing habits.
Comment google (Score 1) 252
google because their european maps are much,much more detailed,
Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Interoperability 238
AlexGr sends us to Todd Bishop's blog in the Seattle PI for news that Microsoft has brought someone aboard to serve as its Director of Linux Interoperability and head up the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab. "...his name will be familiar to people in the open-source community. In an e-mail late Thursday night, a Microsoft representative said the role will be filled by Tom Hanrahan, who was most recently the director of engineering at the Linux Foundation, the group created through the recent combination of the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs."
Bookmark When Worlds Collide: The Promise and Peril of Remaking a Classic (associatedcontent.com)
Submission + - Microsoft defeats pro-ODF legislation (computerworld.com)
ajanp writes: Computerworld discusses the defeat of legislation in the states of California, Florida, Texas, Oregon, and Connecticut which "would have required state agencies to use freely available and interoperable file formats, such as the Open Document Format (ODF) for Office Applications, instead of Microsoft Corp.'s proprietary Office formats," although a bill in Minnesota that would have called for the state agencies to start using an open, XML-based format was changed to instead study the issue.
There was heavy lobbying being done in private on both sides with one problem being "the jargon-laden disinformation that committee members felt they were being fed by lobbyists for both IBM and Microsoft. Although lobbyists would tell the committee one thing in private, they got cold feet when asked to verify the information publicly, under oath."
However, "Despite the string of defeats, Marino Marcich, executive director of the Washington-based ODF Alliance, said the legislative fight has only begun."
Submission + - Latest AACS revision defeated a week before releas
stevedcc writes: "Ars Technica is running a story about next week's release of AACS, which is intended to fix the current compromises. The only problem is, the patched version has already been cracked. From the article:
"Despite the best efforts of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Administration (AACS LA), content pirates remain one step ahead. A new volume key used by high-def films scheduled for release next week has already been cracked.
Submission + - The First Terabyte Hard Drive--Review
mikemuch writes: "ExtremeTech has a review and benchmarks of the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB Hard Drive, which ushers in the terabyte age. It performs well on HDTach and PCMark benchmarks, though not as speedily as professional-grade drives. It could be just the ticket for digital media junkies."
Submission + - Firefox going the big and bloated IE way?
abhinav_pc writes: Wired is carrying an article on Firefox becoming big and bloated much like its bête noire competetor, IE. From the article: "... with Firefox 3.0 poised for release this summer, the "IE killer" is in danger of morphing into an early Fat Elvis ...
Submission + - A Threat to Free Legal Guitar Tab Online
An anonymous reader writes: Recently Hal Leonard Corporation (the world's largets songbook publisher) sent an E-Mail to the music publishing and copyright community urging them not to license guitar tablature for free, advertising supported use online. The e-mail includes a number of factual errors and was potentially very damaging to the potential for a free, legal and licensed destination for guitar tab online. Musicnotes and MXTabs have posted the full letter, plus their response here: Hal Leonard Corporation's E-Mail to Music Publishing Community, Plus Response from MXTabs
Comment GSM network (Score 2, Interesting) 642
At least based on this site, there is absolutely no GSM reception above 650m (2100ft). So I guess the plane would need an own GSM base station for the cell phones to work.
Submission + - Monster squid caught in Antarctica
zakkie writes: "New Zealand fisherman have caught a massive 450 kg colossal squid fishing in the Antartic waters. This is by far the biggest yet found, measuring over 10 metres in length and weighing 450 kg. It has been taken back to New Zealand to be studied."
Submission + - New Software Stops Mars Rover Confusion
MattSparkes writes: "The Mars rover Spirit used to get quite confused when it came upon a rock. Because it could only plan routes of a metre or two it couldn't understand how to navigate around large objects, and frequently used to rock back and forth for hours trying to figure it out. NASA have written new software called D* for the rover Opportunity, which should allow it to autonomously plan routes up to 50 metres long. The new software still won't be able to avoid sand-traps though."
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How long does it take a DEC field service engineer to change a lightbulb? It depends on how many bad ones he brought with him.
