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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Investment Companies Backing Patent Trolls
* Earthlike Planet Orbiting Nearby Star
* Digital Camera Vs. Camera Phone
* Virtues of Monoculture, Or Why Microsoft Wins
* In Net Neutrality, It’s Jeffersonet Vs. Edisonet
* When the Earth Was Purple
* Help Make Firefox On Mac Suck Less
* Must-Have Extensions for Thunderbird 2.0
* Gallery of the Lamest Technology Mascots Ever
* Spinal Tap to Reunite for Live Earth
* Eben Moglen Leaving the FSF
* Google Releases MySQL Enhancements
* 8-Core Dual Xeon “V8″ Test Rig Performance
* Does Moore’s Law Help or Hinder the PC Industry?
* How Wii Is Creaming the Competition
* Karl Auerbach — ICANN the USSR of the Internet
* Wikipedia Releases Offline CD
* Wordpress Complete
* Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics
* Thin Water Acts Like a Solid
* Seven Reasons Microsoft Loves Open Source
* EU Moving to Ban Online Hate Speech
* Why Are T1 Lines Still Expensive?
* Ohio University Blocks P2P File Sharing
* Virus Writers Target Google’s Sponsored Links
+—————————–
| Investment Companies Backing Patent Trolls |
| from the arms-merchants-in-the-patent
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 24, @20:01 (Patents) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
greenbird sends us to Forbes for an account of [0]billions in investments
flowing to US patent troll companies. One example is [1]DeepNines, who is
suing McAfee over a [2]patent that covers combining an IDS and firewall
in a single device. The patent was filed on May 17, 2000 and issued on
June 6, 2006. No prior art for that, no siree. DeepNines is funded by “an
$8 million zero-coupon note to Altitude Capital Partners, a New York City
private equity firm, promising in return a cut of any winnings stemming
from the lawsuit. The payout is based on a formula that grants Altitude a
percentage that decreases with a bigger award.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.forbes.com/free
1. http://www.deepnines.com/
2. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi
+—————————–
| Earthlike Planet Orbiting Nearby Star |
| from the 13-days-a-year dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 24, @21:27 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]The Bad Astronomer writes “Astronomers in Europe have announced the
discovery of [1]a planet with only 5 times the Earth’s mass, orbiting a
red dwarf star 20 light years away. It orbits the star so closely that it
only takes 13 days to go around… but the star is so cool that the
temperature of the planet is between 0 and 40 Celsius. At this
temperature there could be liquid water. Models indicate the planet is
either rocky like the Earth or covered in an ocean. While it’s not known
if there actually is liquid water on the planet, this is a really big
discovery, and indicates that we are getting ever closer to finding
another Earth orbiting an alien star.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto:thebadastronomerNO@SPAMgmail
1. http://www.badastronomy.com
+—————————–
| Digital Camera Vs. Camera Phone |
| from the gonna-sell-a-lot-of-N95s dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 24, @22:50 (Communications) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “CNet.co.uk has done some simple head-to-head
testing of [0]camera phones alongside digital cameras to see which device
takes the best quality pictures. The results are surprising, with Nokia’s
latest handset, featuring a built-in 5-megapixel camera, taking more
vibrant pictures in medium light conditions than a 10-megapixel dSLR. Of
course, the pictures aren’t fully representative of how the images would
look at full size; but given that most people resize images to put on
Flickr, we could start to see a decline in dedicated digital cameras
sales and an increase in camera phone sales.”
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://crave.cnet.co.uk
+—————————–
| Virtues of Monoculture, Or Why Microsoft Wins |
| from the nice-tools-in-the-cathedral dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 25, @00:17 (Programming) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
[0]blackbearnh writes to ask, “Why does Microsoft win the development
environment war so often, when we all know it’s a lifetime lock-in to
Windows? Perhaps it’s because the [1]open source community offers too
much choice.” From the post: “Microsoft offers the certainty of no
choices. Choice isn’t always good, and the open source community
sometimes offers far too many ways to skin the same cat, choices that are
born more out of pride, ego, or stubbornness than a genuine need for two
different paths. I won’t point fingers, everyone knows examples… The
reality is that there are good, practical reasons that drive people into
the arms of the Redmond tool set, and we need to accept that as a fact
and learn from it, rather than shake our fists and curse the darkness.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.onlamp.com/
1. http://www.oreillynet.com
+—————————–
| In Net Neutrality, It’s Jeffersonet Vs. Edisonet |
| from the fears-for-tiers dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 25, @01:41 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]PetManimal writes “Curt Monash has a [1]middle way on the Net
neutrality debate. He writes that the classic ‘Jeffersonet’ — which
includes e-mail, instant messaging, much e-commerce, and most websites
created in the first 13 or so years of the Web — is ‘the greatest tool in
human history to communicate research, teaching, news, and political
ideas, or to let tiny businesses compete worldwide,’ and cannot be
compromised by a tiered Internet. On the other hand, a reliable, tiered
scheme is required for what he calls the ‘Edisonet’ — which consists of
‘communication-rich applications such as entertainment, gaming,
telephony, telemedicine, teleteaching, or telemeetings of all kinds.’
Commenting on Monash’s proposal, blogger Richi Jennings points to a
[2]lack of investment in Internet infrastructure and IPv6 technologies at
the root of the problem: ‘…if an application writer makes assumptions
that ignore realities such as the speed of light or temporary congestion,
their application’s going to behave badly. But no premium QoS in the
world is going to help that. My sense is still that the ISPs that are
complaining about net neutrality are simply being greedy and don’t want
to invest money to cope with the growth in usage.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com
1. http://www.monashreport.com
2. http://richi.co.uk/blog/2007
+—————————–
| When the Earth Was Purple |
| from the how-violet-was-my-valley dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 25, @04:38 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Ollabelle writes “It’s always been a bit of a mystery why plants absorb
red and blue light, reflecting green, when the sun emits the peak energy
of the visible spectrum in the green. A new theory offers one possible
answer: that the first chlorophyll-utilizing microbes evolved to
[0]exploit the red-and-blue light that older green-absorbing microbes
didn’t use, eventually out-competing them through [1]greater efficiency
and the rise of oxygen.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.livescience.com
1. http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Help Make Firefox On Mac Suck Less |
| from the native-fox dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 25, @07:46 (Mozilla) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]bluephone writes “Colin Barrett, one of the new Mac geniuses, and an
Adium developer, has posted an entry on his blog offering an [1]open call
to all Mac users of Firefox asking them, ‘What sucks about Firefox on the
Mac?’ He says he already knows about and is trying to solve such things
as: ‘Native Form Widgets (currently scheduled for Firefox 3), Keychain
Integration, Firefox should have a Unified toolbar (not completely
hopeless, it turns out), Performance…’, but he wants to hear what else
Mac users want from Firefox. So please, if you’re a user of Macs and the
interwebs, then RTFA, unclog your tubes, and send him your ideas.”
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://gro.snortceletnrubtayer
1. http://iamthewalr.us/blog/2007
+—————————–
| Must-Have Extensions for Thunderbird 2.0 |
| from the for-some-definition-of-must dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 25, @08:29 (Mozilla) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
Operator writes “While Firefox has been in the spotlight for some time
now, Thunderbird has yet to enjoy the same wide adoption or glowing
praise despite being an excellent email client. It’s no surprise that a
popular topic has been Firefox’s best (and worst) extensions while
Thunderbird add-ons have gone largely unnoticed. In celebration of the
recent release of Thunderbird 2.0 here are the [0]best extensions for the
program along with some honorable mentions.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.xyzcomputing.com
+—————————–
| Gallery of the Lamest Technology Mascots Ever |
| from the some-surprises dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 25, @09:18 (Graphics) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
Wired has a gallery of their [0]Lamest Technology Mascots which features
some trollish links including Tux and a certain adorable devil. Also
featured is the old Java mascot Duke which I always liked, and of course
Clippy who these days pretty much exists only in cheesy Top X lists.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://feeds.wired.com/~r
+—————————–
| Spinal Tap to Reunite for Live Earth |
| from the tap-into-tomorrow dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 25, @09:58 (Music) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
Maximum Prophet noted that one of the most influential and loud rock
bands in the history of music is coming back together to perform at Live
Earth this summer. Yes, that’s right [0]Tap is Back. The article has some
good news (a new single is coming) and some bad news… apparently Derek
is in rehab for addiction to the Internet. Best wishes to him on his
recovery- I’m sure it won’t impact the performance… if Spinal Tap is
anything, they are a band.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.wtopnews.com/index
+—————————–
| Eben Moglen Leaving the FSF |
| from the he’ll-be-missed dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 25, @10:37 (GNU is Not Unix|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “Eben Moglen, general counsel and board member
of the [0]FSF and chairman of the [1]SFLC, has announced on his blog that
[2]he will be resigning from his leadership position with the FSF now
that [3]GPLv3 draft 3 is out the door. ”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.fsf.org/about
1. http://www.softwarefreedom.org
2. http://emoglen.law.columbia
3. http://gplv3.fsf.org/draft/
+—————————–
| Google Releases MySQL Enhancements |
| from the what-an-exciting-morning-this
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 25, @11:19 (Google) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader noted that “Google has released its internally
developed [0]enhancements to MySQL to the open source community this
week. Changes include improvements in replication, high availability
configuration, and performance.” It’ll be interesting to see if the
changes they made are of interest to other places using MySQL.
Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.informationweek.com
+—————————–
| 8-Core Dual Xeon “V8″ Test Rig Performance |
| from the bet-it’s-faster-than-your-box dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 25, @12:00 (Intel) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]MojoKid writes “Back in January at this year’s CES show, Intel was
giving the press glimpses of a rig in their booth dubbed the [1] V8. It
was essentially a dual-socket workstation platform outfitted with a pair
of quad-core Xeon processors for a total of eight cores — hence the “V8″.
The enterprise platform that this box was built around is based on
Intel’s 5000X chipset, aka Blackford, and it supports up to 32GB of
FBDIMM serial memory. HotHardware has [2] a component build-up of a more
current Intel V8 machine here, with preliminary benchmarks, pictures and
more details on this 8-core dual Xeon powerhouse.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.hothardware.com/
1. http://www.hothardware.com
2. http://www.hothardware.com
+—————————–
| Does Moore’s Law Help or Hinder the PC Industry? |
| from the start-counting-the-misquotes dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @12:43 (Technology|
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes to mention two analysts recently [0]examined
Moore’s Law and its effect on the computer industry. “One of the things
both men did agree on was that Moore’s Law is, and has been, an
undeniable driving force in the computer industry for close to four
decades now. They also agreed that it is plagued by misunderstanding.
‘Moore’s Law is frequently misquoted, and frequently misrepresented,’
noted Gammage. While most people believe it means that you double the
speed and the power of processors every 18 to 24 months, that notion is
in fact wrong, Gammage said. ‘Moore’s Law is all about the density…the
density of those transistors, and not what we choose to do with it.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.extremetech.com
+—————————–
| How Wii Is Creaming the Competition |
| from the my-favorite-flavour-of-competi
| posted by Zonk on Wednesday April 25, @13:11 (Wii (Games)) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
CNN has a report on [0]the Wii’s success in the games marketplace right
now, referring to their sales dominance as ‘creaming the competition’.
The article tries to break down exactly why Nintendo’s console has sold
so successfully, discussing the system’s marketing, engineering, and
philosophy. “Next, engineers settled on a new approach for the Wii’s
looks. Just as the DS shunned the Game Boy name to appeal to a broader
audience, the Wii would adopt a sleek white exterior instead of the
toylike loud colors used on the GameCube. Even CEO Iwata got involved in
the design process; at one point he handed engineers a stack of DVD jewel
cases and told them the console should not be much bigger. Why so small?
To work with the motion-sensitive wireless controller Nintendo planned,
Iwata reasoned, the console would have to sit directly beside the TV.
Make it any larger and customers would hesitate to leave it there. ”
Their sales strategy is working in spades. CVG reports that at least one
analyst thinks that [1]Wii demand won’t be met until 2009. This past
weekend Chris Kohler had an interesting comment on the ‘ambassador
programs’ Nintendo ran in advance of the Wii’s launch, and [2]how that
might tie in to the system’s financial success.
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://money.cnn.com/magazines
1. http://www.computerandvideogam
2. http://blog.wired.com/games
+—————————–
| Karl Auerbach — ICANN the USSR of the Internet |
| from the back-in-the-ussr dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @13:25 (The Intern|
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
gnaremooz writes to tell us that The Register recently [0]sat down with
Karl Auerbach, the last publicly elected member of the ICANN board, and
discussed some of the more recent developments. “Perhaps my main point of
view regarding what I want to do for the net is expressed in my
[1]presentation [PPT] “From Barnstorming to Boeing - Transforming the
Internet Into a Lifeline Utility” ([2]speakers notes avilable [PDF]).
I’ve long been interested in making the net a solid utility, and I have a
great deal of sympathy for the folks who have to go out and fix things at
3am. I’m very interested in building tools for those folks.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.theregister.com
1. http://www.cavebear.com/rw
2. http://www.cavebear.com/rw
+—————————–
| Wikipedia Releases Offline CD |
| from the vandalize-to-your-hearts
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @14:08 (The Intern|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “[0]WikipediaOnDVD, with cooperation with the
[1]Wikipedia community, has released its first offline test version. The
articles were selected by Wikipedians and reviewed for accuracy,
vandalism, and importance. Nearly 2,000 core Wikipedia articles will be
sold on compact disc to give people without a net connection access to
highlights of the popular web resource. The CD can be purchased or
downloaded online via their site or the [2]torrent.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.wikipediaondvd.com
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
2. http://nominaladversary
+—————————–
| Wordpress Complete |
| from the blog-this dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 25, @14:51 (Book Reviews) |
| http://books.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Ravi writes “In recent times, blogs have empowered numerous
individuals and groups by allowing them a platform to air their thoughts.
This has been made possible because of the development of numerous
blogging tools. One which has gained mass appeal in the blogging
community is Wordpress. What is exciting about this tool or blog engine
is that even a lay person can easily master its use and get his or her
blog up and running in no time.”
This story continues at:
http://books.slashdot.org
Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/
+—————————–
| Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics |
| from the math-be-tough-let’s-go-shoppin dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @15:33 (Education)|
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Coryoth writes “The BBC is reporting that students in the UK are being
[1]encouraged to drop math at the senior levels. It seems that schools
are seeking to boost their standing on league tables by encouraging
students not to take ‘hard’ subjects like mathematics, in favor of easier
subjects in which they are assured good grades. The result is
Universities being forced to provide remedial math classes for science
students who haven’t done math for two years. The BBC [2]provides a
comparison between Chinese and UK university entrance tests — a
comparison that makes the UK look woefully behind.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://jedidiah.stuff.gen.nz/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk
+—————————–
| Thin Water Acts Like a Solid |
| from the mash-downs dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @16:17 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Roland Piquepaille writes “What happens when you compress water in a
nano-sized space? According to Georgia Tech physicists, [1]water starts
to behave like a solid. “The confined water film behaves like a solid in
the vertical direction by forming layers parallel to the confining
surface, while maintaining it’s liquidity in the horizontal direction
where it can flow out,” said one of the researchers. “Water is a
wonderful lubricant, but it flows too easily for many applications. At
the one nanometer scale, water is a viscous fluid and could be a much
better lubricant,” added another one.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.primidi.com/
1. http://www.gatech.edu/news
+—————————–
| Seven Reasons Microsoft Loves Open Source |
| from the conference-trolls dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @17:01 (Microsoft)|
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
[0]tlockney writes “Next week at [1]Microsoft’s MIX, whurley will be
leading a discussion on ‘Open Source, the Web, Interoperability, and
Microsoft’. To kick off a bit of pre-session discussion and enlist the
help of others in putting Microsoft on the spot, whurley, king of all
things open source at BMC has written an article entitled ‘[2]Seven
Reasons Microsoft Loves Open Source’.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://opposable-thumbs.net/
1. http://www.microsoft.com
2. http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog
+—————————–
| EU Moving to Ban Online Hate Speech |
| from the slippery-slopes dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @17:44 (The Intern|
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]WED Fan writes “Several members of the EU Parliament are [1]moving to
ban online hate speech. ‘The draft of the declaration, which heise online
has seen, calls on providers in somewhat vague language to make
provisions against “hate pages” part of their standard terms and
conditions.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://akahigeatgmaildotcom/
1. http://www.heise.de/english
+—————————–
| Why Are T1 Lines Still Expensive? |
| from the unpredictable-market-forces dept. |
| posted by Cliff on Wednesday April 25, @17:55 (Networking) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org
+—————————–
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?”
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Ohio University Blocks P2P File Sharing |
| from the forward-thinking-at-its-best dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 25, @18:27 (The Intern|
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
After receiving the [0]highest number of notices from the RIAA about P2P
file sharing, Ohio University has announced a policy that [1]restricts
all fire sharing on the campus network. Some file-sharing programs that
could trigger action are Ares, Azureus, BitTorrent, BitLord, KaZaA,
LimeWire, Shareaza and uTorrent. Claiming that this effort is ‘to ensure
that every student, faculty member and researcher has access to the
computer resources they need,’ is this another nail in the coffin of
internet freedom in American universities or a needed step to prevent
illegal fire sharing?
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org
1. http://www.ohio.edu/students
+—————————–
| Virus Writers Target Google’s Sponsored Links |
| from the snake-in-the-grass dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 25, @19:36 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “It looks like the bad guys are gaming
Google’s sponsored links to [0]spread their junk to people who click on
the ads with unpatched versions of Internet Explorer. Attackers
apparently bought the rights to several high profile search terms,
including searches that would return results for the Better Business
Bureau, among others. The story notes this was bound to happen, given the
way Google structures sponsored links: “The bad guys behind the attack
appeared to capitalize on an odd feature of Google’s sponsored links.
Normally, when a viewer hovers over a hyperlink, the name of the site
that the computer user is about to access appears in the bottom left
corner of the browser window. But hovering over Google’s sponsored links
shows nothing in that area. That blank space potentially gives bad guys
another way to hide where visitors will be taken first.”"
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://blog.washingtonpost.com
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