Comment Re: So fellow Slashdotters, has Google crossed the (Score 1) 535
Google crossed that line a long time ago.
Comment Re:Mac! (Score 5, Funny) 247
Yay I can watch on my overpriced Mac! Unlike Netflix.
Or you could sell your overpriced mac, buy a computer that can view amazon and netflix; and still have money left over for a pony.
Submission + - China might be another hurdle in MS yahoo bid (iht.com)
wattrlz writes: "
Microsoft's hostile-takeover attempt against Yahoo may encounter an unexpected hurdle in August after a Chinese antimonopoly law takes effect that will extend the nation's economic influence far beyond its borders...Nathan Bush, an antitrust law specialist with O'Melveny & Myers in Beijing, said the law represented the ascendance of China "as another regulatory capital contending for influence with Brussels and Washington."
"
Submission + - New City Provided Wi-Fi Banned Due to Crazies (pressdemocrat.com) 1
exphose writes: "A small town in Northern California, Sebastopol (map), had made an agreement with Sonic.net to provide downtown wireless access via wi-fi for free to everyone. However, not everyone in this admittedly hippie friendly town was pleased. Why would anyone be against free downtown wifi access? Well apparently according to Sebastopol Mayor Craig Litwin, citizens had voiced concerns that "create enough suspicion that there may be a health hazard." and so they canceled their contract with Sonic.net. I found some more details at the here blog of Sonic.net's CEO for some more detail.
What does Slashdot think of these petitioners and the claims of Wi-Fi health risks. Are there actually any studies anywhere that corroborate the risks or is it just a bunch of tin foil hat madness? How upset would you be if your city stopped it's rollout of free Wi-Fi or similar services due to such concerns?"
Submission + - IBM sues company selling fake, flammable batteries (computerworld.com.au)
Bergkamp10 writes: A Computerworld article reporting that IBM is suing Shentech for selling laptop batteries that catch on fire and sport allegedly fake IBM logos.
IBM apparently followed up on a claim by a customer that an "IBM" laptop battery bought at Shentech caught on fire and damaged his laptop. The customer reported the problem to Lenovo (who license Big Blue's trademark) who subsequently ordered 12 batteries from Shentech and found them all to be fakes. IBM is asking for US$1 million in damages for each dodgy battery sold.
Submission + - Keeping Cool on Venus
Hugh Pickens writes: "In the 1970s and 80s, several probes landed on Venus and returned data from the surface but they all expired less than 2 hours after landing because of Venus' tremendous heat. It's hard to keep a rover functioning when temperatures of 450 C are hot enough to melt lead but NASA researchers have designed a refrigeration system that might be able to keep a robotic rover going for as long as 50 Earth days using a reverse Stirling engine. The rover's electronics would be packed in a ceramic-based insulator and placed it inside a metal sphere about the size of a grapefruit. Heat would then be pumped out of the sphere by compressing and then expanding a gas with a piston. When the gas expands, it absorbs heat from the electronics chamber then, as the gas is compressed and its temperature rises, the heat is allowed to dissipate in the atmosphere via a radiator. NASA has not committed to a Venus rover mission, but a 2003 National Academies of Science study recommended that high priority be given to a robot mission to investigate the Venusian surface helping to answer such questions as why Venus ended up so different from Earth and if the changes have taken place relatively recently."
Submission + - Virtuosic scientists shatter virii with laser (wired.com)
wattrlz writes: In a development reminiscent of nineteenth century pseudo-science the father-son team of Kong Thon and Shaw Wei Tsen recently demonstrated that the tobacco mosaic virus can be destroyed in vitro by nano-scale mechanical resonant vibrations induced by repeated ultra-short pulses from a laser. The total energy required is reportedly far below the threshold for human tissue damage and the technique should generalize to human pathogens.
Submission + - Russian mob doesn't like spam either. (rlslog.net)
wattrlz writes: "Apparently the current champion of v1*gr4 spamming solicitted some of the wrong email boxes. Alexy Tolstokozhev was recently found murdered in his palacial spam-bought estate near Moscow. The implications of this hands on method of system administration are staggering."
