daqhath - Slashdot User

Worrying About Employment Contracts? 98

Posted by Cliff on Friday April 27, 2007 @02:35PM from the read-before-you-sign dept.

An anonymous reader wonders: "I was preparing to accept a software developer job at a California company and was put off by the contract which claimed ownership of any ideas I create (on my own time or at the company) during my stay at the company and required me to inform them of any ideas (related to the company or not) during my employment and for a year afterwards. I've found references to a couple of instances where this became a legal problem for the developer. Is this something to worry about?"

Why Are T1 Lines Still Expensive? 556

Posted by Cliff on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @05:55PM from the unpredictable-market-forces dept.

badfrog asks: "Over the last 10 years, DSL and cable modem has upped its speed (although in some instances only slightly) and dropped its price. However, the price of a T1 has stayed almost exactly the same. If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have predicted any geek that wanted to would have fiber or their own T1 line to the house by now. What is with this sad state of affairs that a 'business class' 1.544Mbit connection is hundreds of dollars more than a 6Mbit cable connection? Is it a legitimate case that a high upload rate should increase cost so significantly?"

Golf-Ball Sized Hail Damages Shuttle 118

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @10:15AM from the don't-make-me-stop-this-thing dept.

MattSparkes writes "The Shuttles March launch has been delayed to late April after golf-ball sized hail caused 7000 pits and divots in the foam that shields the fuel tank. NASA say it's the worst damage of its kind that they have ever seen, but hail is not a new problem for the agency. In 1982, a hailstorm damaged the sensitive heat shield tiles on the Columbia's wings. The damaged tiles then absorbed about 540 kilograms of rain. Once in space, the orbiter faced the Sun to allow the tiles to dry out."

Submission + - Samba Success in the Enterprise?

Submitted by

gunnk

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @10:11AM

gunnk writes: "We've deployed a Samba server here to replace some aging Novell Netware boxes. It works great: fast, secure, stable. However, we have one VIP that feels that Samba is "amateur" software and that we should be buying Windows servers. I've been searching with little success for large Samba deployments in enterprise environments. Anyone out there care to share stories of places that are happily running large Samba installations for their file servers? Or not so happy, for that matter — better to be informed!"

Feed Darpa's Ultrasonic Cloak (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @05:12PM

The Pentagon's way-out researchers want to use a screen of directed sound to turn noisy tanks and Humvees quiet and stealthy. In Danger Room.

British Government Slashes Scientific Research 168

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 26, 2007 @06:49PM from the no-soup-for-you dept.

asobala writes "The British Government has slashed the funding of scientific Research Councils by £68 million. The Research Councils most affected by this include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which has been hit by a £29 million reduction in funding, and the Medical Research Council, which is seeing a £10.7 million reduction in funding. The response of the BBSRC biological research council announces that the council will have to cut 20 new grants and reduce expenditure on new equipment."

Submission + - The ghost of the Newton haunts Apple's iPhone

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Monday February 26, 2007 @06:28PM

PetManimal writes: "David Haskin has looked back at why the Newton failed to succeed in the early PDA market, and warns that Apple may be setting itself up for a similar failure with the iPhone. The iPhone appears to have a revolutionary interface, and the product has generated tons of interest from the Mac community — just like the Newton did, back in the 1990s. But the iPhone also shares with the Newton a hefty starting price — $500 for the iPhone, vs. $700 (in 1993 dollars) for the Newton. And Joe Public may not be so keen on the cost, as recent survey data suggests (see Slashdot discussion). Moreover, Haskin notes that the iPhone will have to deal with two additional factors that were not issues for the Newton: Competition, and wireless service providers: 'Besides overcharging for iPhone, Apple faces significant competition, something it didn't face in 1993 when it launched Newton. And you can bet that competition from the likes of Samsung and LG will both be good (although probably not as good as iPhone) and most assuredly cheaper. It's also becoming clear that Apple may be suffering from excessive hubris. That is evident by its strong demands on its partner in the U.S., Cingular/AT&T. The demands, including a slice of the cellular revenues and control of the sales channel, were so strong that Verizon Wireless turned the deal down. I'm more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular. If Apple doesn't respond quickly by lowering the price and making nice to AT&T, which surely will be ticked off, iPhone may well become Apple's next Newton. Remember that two years after Newton was introduced, a smaller, cheaper PDA appeared — the Palm Pilot — which truly did rock the world.'"

Submission + - TMobile bans OperaMini and GoogleMaps on cells

Submitted by

cshamis

on Monday February 26, 2007 @03:33PM

cshamis writes: "TMobile has recently changed their policies which now make it impossible for customers WITH appropriate data plans AND Java-Micro-App-capable phones from running third-party network applications. You can, of course, still use the incredibly clunky and crippled built-in WAP browsers, but GoogleMaps and OperaMini are left high and dry. Would anyone care to speculate if this move is likely to RETAIN or REPEL customers when the iPhone and Cingular's accompanying liberal network policies come out this summer? http://www.gearlog.com/2007/01/tmobile_disses_oper a_says_get.php"

Comment Madwifi Proprietary HAL ar5k (Score 1) 229

by daqhath on Monday January 01, 2007 @01:37PM (#17422972) Attached to: The Problem With Driver-Loaded Firmware

Despite what the fine article seems to lead the reader to understand, the ar5k open "HAL" is not functionally equivalent to the Atheros/Sam Leffler HAL. The proprietary HAL has support for multiple VAP structures (IE, you can have the same card be an AP, and a station, and a monitor all at the same time.) The proprietary HAL also supports more chipsets and more of the cool features like XR, and quarter and half bandwidth channels. There are some internal political reasons that Madwifi uses the Atheros HAL, and I don't expect or desire it to change soon.

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