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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* More Videogames, Fewer Books at Some Schools?
* Global Space Agencies Gather For Collaboration
* 2007 ACM Contest Winners Announced
* P2P File Sharing Ruining Physical Piracy Business
* Scoble Bites The Hand That Fed Him
* Gas-Powered Boots As Metaphor For Cold War
* The Business Case for Open Source Software
* Linked List Patented in 2006
* E8 Structure Decoded
* Magnetic Trunk Could Collect Moon Dust
* eSATA Connectors
* Companies Asked to Donate Unused Patents
* Video Racing Games May Spur Risky Driving
* Ian Murdock: Debian “Missing a Big Opportunity”
* IT Braces for ‘J-SOX’ Rules
* Robotic Telescope Unravels Cosmic Blast Mystery
* Ask Sony’s Phil Harrison About PS3 and Games
* Q&A With James Gosling, Father of Java
* Adobe Releases Cross-Operating System Runtime
* IT Manager’s Handbook
* Data Centers Breathe Easier With Less Oxygen
* SpaceX to Attempt Launch of Falcon 1 Today
* The Air Car Nears Completion
* Internet2 and National LambdaRail To Merge
+—————————–
| More Videogames, Fewer Books at Some Schools? |
| from the if-you’ll-turn-to-level-3-3-in
| posted by Zonk on Sunday March 18, @20:16 (Education) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
A News.com article highlights a plan that may please word-weary students:
[0]more games, fewer books in some educational settings. That’s one plan
put forth by some educators who feel that current learning plans don’t
fully engage today’s classes. By offering real-world dilemmas in a
virtual setting (‘discover why fish are dying in a park’), teachers hope
that games will turn kids onto the idea of learning, and eventually lead
them back to books. The article covers several of the projects geared
towards exploring this idea, as well as research on the subject. “A game
designer, Salen is working with a group called New Visions for Public
Schools to establish a school in New York City for grades 6 through 12
that would integrate video games into the entire curriculum. ‘There’s a
lot of moral panic about addiction to games. There’s a negative public
perception, and we know we have to deal with that. But teachers have been
using games for years and years.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://news.com.com/More+video
+—————————–
| Global Space Agencies Gather For Collaboration |
| from the united-federation-of-planet
| posted by Zonk on Sunday March 18, @22:33 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]UltimaGuy handed us a link to a story on the Register site, covering
NASA’s plan to [1]create a collaborative space effort across the globe.
Agencies from ‘Italy, Japan, China, Britain, France, America, India,
Korea, Ukraine, Russia, Canada, Germany, Australia and the ESA’ got
together for the first time since the formation of the [2]Global
Explorations Strategy team last year. “This year, they met in Kyoto to
discuss a draft Framework for Collaboration, which will set out how the
various agencies will work together. The team has agreed that its main
focus should be robotic exploration of the solar system, particularly of
the moon, Mars and the near-Earth asteroids. It has also proposed a
non-binding collaboration mechanism which would allow all agencies to
share their plans, and look for opportunities to work together. This
would also provide a route for agencies to share the data from their own
missions with scientists from other agencies.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://UltimaGuy [Email address: //UltimaGuy #AT# gmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.theregister.co.uk
2. http://www.nasa.gov/home
+—————————–
| 2007 ACM Contest Winners Announced |
| from the they-are-the-winner dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday March 19, @00:32 (Programming) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
[0]prostoalex writes “2007 [1]ACM International Collegiate Programming
Contest is over with Warsaw University (Poland) [2]winning it this year
and solving all of the problems. The runner-up, Tsinghua University
(China), finished with 7 problems solved, while St. Petersburg University
of IT, Mechanics and Optics (Russia) and MIT (USA) are tied up for the
third place with 6 problems solved. There were 6000 teams initially in
the running, and in the final round of the competition only 88 remained.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.moskalyuk.com/blog
1. http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc
2. http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc
+—————————–
| P2P File Sharing Ruining Physical Piracy Business |
| from the innovate-or-die dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday March 19, @02:22 (The Courts) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
TorrentFreak has a short post up talking with a former physical data
pirate, who sold his wares in flea markets and made buckets of money in
the 90s. By the end of the last decade, his money flow had dried up, and
he places the blame [0]squarely on the shoulders of P2P file sharing.
“Tony is very clear about why his rags to riches story has gone back to
rags again. ‘File-sharing, P2P – call it what you like. When you asked a
customer why he wasn’t buying anything, 9 times out of 10 it was
BitTorrent this, LimeWire that …’ P2P is a very powerful machine and
although Tony could see that his operation was feeling its effects, he
admits that he sat back and did nothing about it and consequently, his
business has paid the ultimate price. Other industries affected by P2P
should take note: Don’t be a Tony. Overhaul your business model.
Quickly.” One would imagine overseas media sellers will have similar
issues, as P2P networks become more common outside of the Western world.
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://torrentfreak.com/p2p
+—————————–
| Scoble Bites The Hand That Fed Him |
| from the define-sucks dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday March 19, @04:15 (Microsoft) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “The Times Online points out a post that
Robert Scoble, former Microsoft blogger, put up on his site recently. In
essence, Scoble has moved 180 degrees from his former blogging tone,
saying that ‘[0]Microsoft Sucks’. More specifically, he is [1]highly
critical of Microsoft’s online policy. In Scoble’s words: ‘Microsoft’s
Internet execution sucks (on whole). Its search sucks. Its advertising
sucks (look at that last post again). If that’s in it to win then I don’t
get it. … Microsoft isn’t going away. Don’t get me wrong. They have
record profits, record sales, all that. But on the Internet? Come on.
This isn’t winning. Microsoft: stop the talk. Ship a better search, a
better advertising system than Google, a better hosting service than
Amazon, a better cross-platform Web development ecosystem than Adobe, and
get some services out there that are innovative (where’s the video RSS
reader? Blog search? Something like Yahoo’s Pipes? A real blog service? A
way to look up people?) That’s how you win.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://business.timesonline.co
1. http://scobleizer.com/2007/03
+—————————–
| Gas-Powered Boots As Metaphor For Cold War |
| from the always-good-to-see-ye-olde
| posted by Zonk on Monday March 19, @06:29 (Technology) |
| http://politics.slashdot.org
+—————————–
News.com has a piece up looking at a set of gas-powered boots that were
developed during the cold war. While the technology itself is
interesting, article author Andrew Kramer uses it as a launching point
for a discussion of [0]Russia’s technological stagnation during the cold
war. Outside of military applications, many of the innovative ideas
developed in the former USSR during the 80s and early 90s were left to
rot on the drawing board. The boots were eventually brought to market,
but failed sometime last year. They do, of course, also go into how the
boots work: “Taking a step down will compress air in the shoe–as in a
typical sneaker, said Enikeev, who was a designer on the project. But
then, a tiny carburetor injects gasoline into the compressed air and a
spark plug fires it off. Instead of fastening a seat belt, the
institute’s test runner, Marat D. Garipov, an assistant professor of
engineering, strapped on shin belts at a recent demonstration. Then he
flicked an ignition switch.”
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| The Business Case for Open Source Software |
| from the exciting-time-to-like-penguins dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday March 19, @07:11 (Businesses) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “An InfoWorld blog entry [0]makes a business
case for open source software, and attempts to explain the business
benefits of OSS to management and business owners. The primary benefits
the piece uses to argue in favor of OSS include no licensing fees, and no
license keys. The article also argues that OSS results in freedom from
‘ownership’ by software vendors. ‘Never again will you fear the BSA
(Business Software Alliance) [1]knocking on your door wanting to
[2]perform a software audit. The BSA even takes out advertisements on
Google search pages for and up to $200,000 reward a disgruntled
ex-employee can receive for reporting your company to the BSA! That’s
quite a powerful motivator…’”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://weblog.infoworld.com
1. http://news.com.com/2008-1082
2. http://www.marketwatch.com
+—————————–
| Linked List Patented in 2006 |
| from the good-thing-that’s-protected
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @08:11 (Patents) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “Congratulations are in order to Ming-Jen Wang
of LSI Logic Corporation who, in patent [0]#10260471 managed to invent
the linked list. From the abstract, “A computerized list is provided with
auxiliary pointers for traversing the list in different sequences. One or
more auxiliary pointers enable a fast, sequential traversal of the list
with a minimum of computational time. Such lists may be used in any
application where lists may be reordered for various purposes.” Good-bye
doubly linked list. We should also give praise to the extensive patent
review performed by Cochran Freund & Young LLP.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.patentstorm.us
+—————————–
| E8 Structure Decoded |
| from the get-it-down-on-paper dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @08:57 (Math) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
arobic writes “A group of mathematicians from US and Europe succeeded in
[0]mapping the E8 structure, an example of a Lie group. These were
developed by the well-known mathematician Sophus Lie (pronounce Lee) in
the last century and are used for many applications, mainly in
theoretical physics. This is an important breakthrough as it could help
physicists working on Grand Unified Theories (aka GUTs).”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice
+—————————–
| Magnetic Trunk Could Collect Moon Dust |
| from the the-lunar-dustbuster dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @09:38 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Matthew Sparkes writes “Astronauts living on the Moon will need lots
of water, oxygen and other resources that can be extracted from the lunar
soil. Collecting this in a mechanical way could throw up lots of dust
that could harm equipment and astronauts health, as well as ruining the
view. The answer may be to create a [1]flexible tube with magnetic coils
spaced at regular intervals along its length that could suck up the
iron-heavy dust. The research was presented on Thursday at the Lunar and
Planetary Society Conference in Houston, Texas. Another study suggests
burying lunar habitats with packaged moon dust could help regulate their
temperature. On the airless Moon, the surface bakes to over 100 Celsius
during the day and plunges to a frigid -150 C at night.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://mattsparkes.org/
1. http://space.newscientist.com
+—————————–
| eSATA Connectors |
| from the feel-the-excitment dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @10:24 (Networking) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
buffalocheese writes “Since the introduction of the Serial ATA 1.0a
specification in 2002, many manufacturers have introduced PCI and CardBus
cards with both internal and external SATA connections. At first these
internal and external connectors were completely identical, but later,
external connectors started to appear which were still fully compatible
with the internal sockets but featured added extra screening for external
use. With the introduction of the SATA II specification in mid 2004 a new
external SATA connector was defined. These new external (eSATA)
connectors are not compatible with the original internal SATA connection.
Currently there are add-on cards and drive housings available which
feature both types of SATA connection for external use. Gradually the
older types will disappear and all new SATA cards will feature the
[0]eSATA connector for external drive connections.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.lindy.com/uk/tips
+—————————–
| Companies Asked to Donate Unused Patents |
| from the bring-out-yer-dead dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @11:07 (Patents) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Radon360 writes “There are countless patents that are promising but
sitting idle, stowed in the corporate file room. In fact, about 90
percent to 95 percent of all patents are idle. Countless patents sit
unused when companies decide not to develop them into products. Now,
[0]not-for-profit groups and state governments are asking companies to
donate dormant patents so they can be passed to local entrepreneurs who
try to build businesses out of them. ”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap
+—————————–
| Video Racing Games May Spur Risky Driving |
| from the get-out-of-my-way dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @11:48 (PC Games (Games)) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
kiwimate writes “A study concludes that people who play [0]car racing
games may be more likely to take risks and drive aggressively when
driving in real life. According to the article, “The study appeared in
the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the
American Psychological Association”.” Just because after I play Grand
Theft Auto I want to ram other cars does not mean I’m a worse driver.
Honest.
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm
+—————————–
| Ian Murdock: Debian “Missing a Big Opportunity” |
| from the tsk-tsk-tsk dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday March 19, @12:15 (Debian) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Natester writes “While Debian struggles to get its next release (Etch)
out the door, the project’s founder, Ian Murdock, [0]has spoken out about
politics, the lack of firm leadership, and Ubuntu’s meteoric rise in
prominence. Murdock believes that Debian is “process run amok” — nobody
feels empowered to make decisions, leading to the sluggish rate of
progress.”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.linuxformat.co.uk
+—————————–
| IT Braces for ‘J-SOX’ Rules |
| from the more-reasons-not-to-be-profita
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @13:02 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
[0]jcatcw writes to mention that Japan-based businesses are prepping for
new requirements, [1]called J-SOX, similar to Sarbanes-Oxley in the
United States. Even though details are not expected until next month,
many IT managers are already working on implementing controls to handle
the expected regulations. “Marios Damianides, an IT risk management
consultant and partner at Ernst & Young LLP in New York, said he expects
that the relaxation of some Sarbanes-Oxley requirements by the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board in the U.S. late last year should help
ensure that the J-SOX rules won’t be excessive for businesses.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com
1. http://www.computerworld.com
+—————————–
| Robotic Telescope Unravels Cosmic Blast Mystery |
| from the eagle-eye dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @13:43 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “The Register is reporting that scientists
from Liverpool John Moores University have used their [0]robotic
telescope in the Canary Islands to measure the polarization of light from
a [1]Gamma Ray Burst just 203 seconds after its detection by [2]NASA’s
Swift Gamma Ray Observatory Satellite. The result suggests that the
emitting material flowing out from the explosion may not be highly
magnetized in the way that some theories had predicted.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/
1. http://www.theregister.co.uk
2. http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov
+—————————–
| Ask Sony’s Phil Harrison About PS3 and Games |
| from the everybody-be-cool dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday March 19, @14:21 (PlayStation (Games)) |
| http://interviews.slashdot.org
+—————————–
During GDC Sony made an effort to [0]answer questions directly from the
gaming community, taking steps to put aside the problems of the past
several months. Today, we have a chance to take another step in the right
direction with the company. Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer
Entertainment Worldwide Studios, has been the face of the PlayStation 3
here in the United States since before the machine launched. He’s agreed
to answer questions from the Slashdot community about the PlayStation 3,
the console since launch, and their recent announcements about [1]
LittleBigPlanet and Home. I’ve linked a trio of other interviews he’s
done recently below, to give you an idea of topics that he’s already
covered. I’m sure there are plenty of questions we might ask that have
yet to be put forward in a public forum. So – feel free to ask away. One
question per comment, please, and keep in mind that Mr. Harrison is here
to answer questions about the PS3 and games only; any other Sony-related
questions are outside the scope of this interview. The highest-rated
comments will be passed on, and we’ll post his answers as soon as we get
them.
Discuss this story at:
http://interviews.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://games.slashdot.org
1. http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Q&A With James Gosling, Father of Java |
| from the never-tell-them-you-have-free
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @15:05 (Java) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Minaloush writes to tell us that in a recent Q&A with Sun’s James
Gosling, the [0]father of Java fielded questions on the GPL, security,
the role of Java in the enterprise. “If you come up with a good software
development tool, that makes life easier for the developers and they can
get their job done quicker, then the first thing the manager says is ‘oh
you’ve got free time on your hands. Do this extra thing’.”
Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://management.silicon.com
+—————————–
| Adobe Releases Cross-Operating System Runtime |
| from the playing-nice-with-everyone dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @15:50 (Software) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes to mention that Adobe released the first
public version of their new [0]cross-operating system runtime today
nicknamed ‘Apollo’. “The software relies on HTML, JavaScript, Flash, and
Adobe Flex. The alpha version, which presently works on Windows and
Macintosh, can be downloaded for free at
[1]http://www.adobe.com/go
users can launch them from their desktops, without using their browser or
connecting online. An Apollo application can connect automatically to
online data or services when an Internet connection is detected, with new
components automatically downloaded and integrated. The user needs the
Apollo runtime to run the apps, just as a Flash player is needed to run
Flash animations.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.newsfactor.com/news
1. http://www.adobe.com/go/apollo
+—————————–
| IT Manager’s Handbook |
| from the follow-the-leader dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday March 19, @16:32 (Book Reviews) |
| http://books.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “I have managed a lot of technical people in
my career, and one thing I know: managing geeks is hard. Rewarding,
interesting, challenging — and hard. Hard to do well. Dealing with all of
the complexities of a modern IT environment is extremely difficult. There
is precious little time, even less (skilled) help, and many, many
“mission-critical” demands. This book is written for that over-worked,
tech-savvy (and perhaps business newbie) IT Manager (and IT Manager
wannabee.) It discusses both sides of the IT department equation: both
the technical, as well as the business issues. It talks about not only
how to write a good SLA but also how to avoid burnout in your employees.”
Read below for the rest of the review.
This story continues at:
http://books.slashdot.org
Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Data Centers Breathe Easier With Less Oxygen |
| from the waiting-for-the-first-casualty
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @17:15 (IT) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
PC World is reporting that some companies are looking at a new method of
fire protection in their server closets, [0]oxygen-deprivation systems.”"Wood
stops burning when the oxygen content falls to 17 percent and plastic
cables between 16 to 17 percent, said Frank Eickhorn, product manager for
fire detection at Wagner Alarm and Security Systems GmbH in Hanover,
Germany. Wagner makes electric compressors that use a special membrane to
remove some of the oxygen from the outside air, a system the company
calls OxyReduct. The excess oxygen is exhausted, and the remaining
nitrogen-rich air is pumped inside the data center.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.pcworld.com/article
+—————————–
| SpaceX to Attempt Launch of Falcon 1 Today |
| from the wtb-ticket-pst dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @17:57 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
fatron writes “After [0]yesterday’s flight readiness review, SpaceX
announced they will be attempting the second launch of their Falcon 1
Spacecraft today. The launch is scheduled for 4:00PM Pacific time with a
[1]webcast available from T-60 minutes until launch.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.spacex.com/updates
1. http://spacex.com/webcast.php
+—————————–
| The Air Car Nears Completion |
| from the whatever-blows-yer-hair-back dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday March 19, @18:42 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
torok writes “According to an article on Gizmag, Tata, India’s largest
automotive manufacturer, has developed a car that [0]runs on compressed
air. It costs less than $3 USD to fill a tank on which it can run for 200
to 300km. The car will cost about USD $7,300 and has a top speed of
68mph. About once every 50,000 km you have to change the oil (1 liter of
vegetable oil). Initial plans are to produce 3,000 cars per year.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://gizmag.com/go/7000/
+—————————–
| Internet2 and National LambdaRail To Merge |
| from the fattest-pipes dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday March 19, @19:42 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “Ars Technica has the story on the
rapproachment of the two main US providers of high-speed networks to
academic and research institutions: [0]Internet2 and National LambdaRail
have agreed to merge. And they’re moving quickly, after tussling over the
details of such an agreement for more than a year. The two groups have
decided to put final merger documents before their respective boards by
April 20, with merger completion to take place by June 29.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.
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