simos - Slashdot User

Submission + - How Norway Fought Staph Infections (yahoo.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Saturday January 02, 2010 @08:46PM

eldavojohn writes: Studies are showing that Norway's dirtiest hospitals are actually cleaner than most other countries and the reason for this is that Norwegians stopped taking antibiotics. A number of factors like paid sick leave and now advertising for drugs make Norway an anomaly when it comes to diseases like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A Norwegian doctor explains, 'We don't throw antibiotics at every person with a fever. We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.' Norway is the most MRSA free country in the world. In a country like Japan where 17,000 die from MRSA every year, 'doctors overprescribe antibiotics because they are given financial incentives to push drugs on patients.' Is it time to rethink our obsession with medication in the US?

Submission + - Soviet Scientist Turns Foxes Into Puppies (overpill.com)

Submitted by gamebittk on Friday December 25, 2009 @01:32PM

gamebittk writes: In the 1950s, Soviet scientist Dmitri Belyaev set out to breed a tamer fox that would be easier for their handlers in the Russian fur industry to work with. Much to the scientist's shock, changes no one had expected emerged after just 10 generations. The foxes began behaving playfully, were smaller in size, and even changed color — much like dogs.

Submission + - How do I keep my privacy while using Google? 5

Submitted by hubert.lepicki on Saturday December 12, 2009 @05:25AM

hubert.lepicki writes: I use Google all the time. I keep two GMail tabs open when I browse Internet (one is private, another corporate account), I use Google search and recently I switched to Chromium browser. Google's services are fast, easy to use and usually reliable. At the same time I know Google is tracking everything I do, I can see it in search results or their ads on web pages, that tend to match my interests. After recent article posted on private blog by Mozilla's community director (http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2009/12/if_you_have_nothing.html), I started to... "google" ways of keeping my private data safe while browsing and using Google services. The results weren't very helpful (what a supprise), so I ask you — Slashdotters: how do I stay anonymous to Google while using their services?

Submission + - Open Hardware Licensing (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by Glyn Moody on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @06:03AM

Glyn Moody writes: At a recent Open Hardware Camp in London, it became clear that one of the main obstacles to applying open source principles to hardware was licensing. For example, should competing big companies be allowed to use their economies of scale to make and sell cheaper products based on open hardware designs developed by small start-ups without payment? There's also the problem that hacking designs for physical objects like open source cars may have safety implications, which raises questions about liability. So what's the best way to address these issues?

Submission + - Nature Journal Finds Nothing Notable in CRU Leak (nature.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Friday December 04, 2009 @02:35PM

eldavojohn writes: Amid all the buzz and fallout of the CRU e-mail leak, the peer reviewed journal of Nature finds 'no scientific conspiracy.'

Submission + - Virgin Media to trial filesharing monitoring (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Shokaster on Thursday November 26, 2009 @07:56AM

Shokaster writes: The Register reports that Virgin Media are to begin monitoring file sharing using a deep packet inspection system, CView, provided by Deltica, a BAE subsidiary. The trial will cover about 40% of customers, although those involved will not be informed. CView's deep packet inspection is the same technology that powered Phorm's advertising system.
Initially Virgin Media's implementation will focus on music sharing and will inspect packets to determine whether the content is licensed or unlicensed, based on data provided by the record industry. Virgin Media emphasised that records will not be kept on individual customers and that data on the level of copyright infringement will be aggregated and anonymised.

Submission + - US Air Force Buying another 2200 PS3. 1

Submitted by bleedingpegasus on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @05:51PM

bleedingpegasus writes: US Air Force apparently buying another batch of PS3, 2200 to be exact. This is after a machine that under development by the Air Force, codenamed "Roadrunner" rumoured to have bought 300 PS3 (old-big version) only to be dismantled and its Cell processor combined to make some kind of neuromorphic brain for combining images to form higher resolution radar's results looks to be successful.

What tickles me most is not the idea behind it — but why Cell processor by Sony? And why not just buy the processor directly, won't that be any cheaper?

Submission + - Microsoft denies it built 'backdoor' in Windows 7 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike on Thursday November 19, 2009 @04:50PM

CWmike writes: Microsoft has denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency (NSA) official testified before Congress that the agency had worked on the operating system. "Microsoft has not and will not put 'backdoors' into Windows," a company spokeswoman said, reacting to a Computerworld story Wednesday. On Monday, Richard Schaeffer, the NSA's information assurance director, told the Senate's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security that the agency had partnered with the developer during the creation of Windows 7 "to enhance Microsoft's operating system security guide." Thursday's categorical denial by Microsoft was accompanied by further explanation of exactly how the NSA participated in the making of Windows 7. "The work being discussed here is purely in conjunction with our Security Compliance Management Toolkit," said the spokeswoman. The company rolled out the Windows 7 version of the toolkit late last month, shortly after it officially launched the operating system.

Submission + - Finnish computer store buys a teen's name 1

Submitted by

jones_supa

on Monday November 09, 2009 @08:25AM

jones_supa writes: "Sheboygan Press tells a story of an american youngster called Calvin Gosz who was selling a right to his name in eBay. The auction site later removed the item as unappropriate. However, the "Newegg of Finland", Verkkokauppa.com caught on the idea and contacted Calvin via Facebook. For $5,000 Mr. Gosz changed his name to Verkkokauppa Com. Gosz, who moved to Sheboygan from Florida in September, said the name change was an idea to raise money after many unsuccessful attempts in finding a job. "That company has been great to me. I was just surprised they actually transferred the money. Nice of them to help me out like that.", Calvin comments. He is eligibled to change his name back after two months."

Submission + - Microsoft Borrows GPL Code for Windows 7 Utility (withinwindows.com)

Submitted by

Goatbert

on Saturday November 07, 2009 @02:28AM

Goatbert writes: "Rafael Rivera over at WithinWindows.com has found evidence that Microsoft has potentially stolen code from an open source/GPL'd project (ImageMaster for a utility made available on the Microsoft Store to allow download customers to copy the Windows 7 setup files to a DVD or USB Flash Drive. If Rivera's evidence holds up, this could be some serious egg in the face for Microsoft at a time when they're getting mostly good press from the tech media."

Submission + - Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad. (boingboing.net)

Submitted by

jamie

on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @08:47AM

Submission + - Microsoft Freeloading in Washington State Courts (reifman.org)

Submitted by reifman on Monday October 26, 2009 @03:42AM

reifman writes: For tax purposes, Microsoft reports that it’s earned its estimated $143 billion in software licensing revenue in Nevada, where there is no licensing tax. However, for legal purposes, Microsoft relies on Washington law and its underfunded courts to defend its contracts as it did in Microsoft Licensing GP vs. TSR Silicon. Application of common legal doctrines such as nexus, the step doctrine and alter ego theory may lead to findings that Microsoft owes the state more than $1 billion in taxes, interest and penalties. Covered previously by Slashdot here.

Submission + - Google Data Liberation Group Seeks to Unlock Data

Submitted by on Monday September 14, 2009 @01:55PM

An anonymous reader writes: Several sources are reporting that The Data Liberation Fron, a new engineering group within Google, is trying make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. They have already "liberated" about half of Google's offerings (including Blogger and Gmail) and have plans to liberate Google Sites and Google Docs in the near future. "In a blog post this morning, Data Liberation engineering manager Brian Fitzpatrick, uses a good analogy to explain why the company sees this is an important step: 'Imagine you want to move out of your apartment. When you ask your landlord about the terms of your previous lease, he says that you are free to leave at any time; however, you cannot take all of your things with you — not your photos, your keepsakes, or your clothing. If you're like most people, a restriction like this may cause you to rethink moving altogether. Not only is this a bad situation for you as the tenant, but it's also detrimental to the housing industry as a whole, which no longer has incentive to build better apartments at all. Although this may seem like a strange analogy, this pretty accurately describes the situation my team, Google's Data Liberation Front, is working hard to combat from an engineering perspective.'"

Submission + - Windows 7 Touch: Dead on Arrival (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday September 14, 2009 @12:53PM

snydeq writes: "Ongoing Microsoft hype around its Surface touch technology has suggested that, with Windows 7, a touch-based UI revolution is brewing. Unfortunately, the realities of touch use in the desktop environment and the lack of worthwhile development around the technology are conspiring against the notion of touch ever finding a meaningful place on the desktop, as InfoWorld's Galen Gruman finds out reviewing Windows 7's touch capabilities. 'There's a chicken-and-egg issue to resolve,' Gruman writes. 'Few apps cry out for a touch UI, so Microsoft and Apple can continue to get away with merely dabbling with touch as an occasional mouse-based substitute. It would take one or both of these OS makers to truly touchify their platforms, using common components to pull touch into a great number of apps automatically. Without a clear demand, their incentive to do so doesn't exist.'"

OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10 688

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, 2009 @03:57PM from the but-how-do-they-run-as-vms dept.

BeckySharp writes "With the nearly simultaneous release of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard' (available right now) and Microsoft's Windows 7 (available Oct. 22), you get the inevitable debate: Which is the better operating system, Windows 7 or Snow Leopard? To help determine that, Computerworld's Preston Gralla put both operating systems through their paces, selected categories for a head-to-head competition, and then chose a winner in each category." Relatedly, Phoronix has posted Snow Leopard vs. Ubuntu 9.10 benchmarks. They ran tests from ray tracing to 3D gaming to compilation. Their tests show Ubuntu 9.10 winning a number of the tests, but there are some slowdowns in performance and still multiple wins in favor of Snow Leopard, so the end result is mixed.

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