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==============================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* How Google Earth Images Are Made
* New Submarine Cable Planned Between SE Asia and US
* Qantas Ditches Linux for AIX
* The Future of Cinema – ‘Real’ 3D
* Want To Work At Google?
* Court Rules Playlist Customization Is Not Interactive
* Iran to Filter ‘Immoral’ Mobile Messages
* BBC To Create ‘Catch-Up TV Player’
* Google Shareholder Proposal to Resist Censorship
* Web 2.0 Threats and Risks for Financial Services
* How to Stop Digg-cheating, Forever
* Supreme Court Weakens Patents
* Mercury Contamination Vs. Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs
* Home Secretary Requests Fingerprint-Activated iPods
* A New Wireless Power Transmission Sheet
* Mixed News for Nintendo, Microsoft
* Has Open Source Jumped the Shark?
* Linux Appliance Design
* How Will Governments Keep Up With Technology?
* Supreme Court Sides With Microsoft Over AT&T
* Lone Programmer Writes 352 Webcam Drivers For Linux
* Buildings Could Save Energy By Spying On Workers
* Apple To Grant All Labels DRM-Free Distribution
+—————————–
| How Google Earth Images Are Made |
| from the it’s-all-in-the-f-stop dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday April 29, @22:41 (Google) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “The Google Librarian Central site has up a
piece by Mark Aubin, a Software Engineer who works on Google Earth. Aubin
[0]explains some of the process behind capturing satellite imagery for
use with the product. ‘Most people are surprised to learn that we have
more than one source for our imagery. We collect it via airplane and
satellite, but also just about any way you can imagine getting a camera
above the Earth’s surface: hot air balloons, model airplanes – even
kites. The traditional aerial survey involves mounting a special
gyroscopic, stabilized camera in the belly of an airplane and flying it
at an elevation of between 15,000 feet and 30,000 feet, depending on the
resolution of imagery you’re interested in. As the plane takes a
predefined route over the desired area, it forms a series of parallel
lines with about 40 percent overlap between lines and 60 percent overlap
in the direction of flight. This overlap of images is what provides us
with enough detail to remove distortions caused by the varying shape of
the Earth’s surface.’
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.google.com/libraria
+—————————–
| New Submarine Cable Planned Between SE Asia and US |
| from the keeping-us-in-the-loop dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday April 30, @00:07 (Communications) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
el_flynn writes “BusinessWeek is reporting on [0]a new submarine cable
system that will link South East Asia directly with the USA. Designated
Asia-America Gateway (AAG), the project will involve a consortium of 17
international telcos, including AT&T Inc, India’s Bharti AirTel, BT
Global Network Services, CAT Telekom (Thailand), Eastern
Telecommunications Philippines Inc (Philippines), Indosat (Indonesia) and
Pacific Communications Pte Ltd (Cambodia). Led by Telekom Malaysia
Berhad, the project is slated for completion in 2008, where 20,000km of
cables will be providing a capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per second of
data bandwidth. Interestingly, the fibre-optic cable system will be
taking a different route from many existing cables to avoid quake-prone
areas and a repeat of the disruption to Asian web access caused by a
tremor off Taiwan four months ago.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.businessweek.com/ap
+—————————–
| Qantas Ditches Linux for AIX |
| from the hope-that-penguin-has-a
| posted by Zonk on Monday April 30, @02:26 (Linux Business) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “Australia’s No. 1 airline Qantas will shift
their underlying platform running its internal finance systems [0]from
Linux to IBM’s AIX next month as part of a wide-ranging technology
transformation project. ‘We’re moving from a Linux platform to an IBM AIX
environment — we did that to address some stability issues we were
having’, said Suzanne Young, Qantas group general manager for finance
improvement and segmentation. The decision was made last year, as part of
the planning for the rollout.”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news
+—————————–
| The Future of Cinema – ‘Real’ 3D |
| from the shark-still-looks-fake dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday April 30, @04:35 (Movies) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
GunSlinger writes “The IGN movies site is running a story on an old movie
concept seeing a resurgence. [0]3D movies are making a cinematic comeback
via new, more sophisticated techniques. Yes, you still wear glasses. No
you don’t get a headache. Yes, the effect is fantastic. This story looks
at the technology, past and future projects, and why just about every
major studio is now planning in three dimensions. ‘There is indeed a
revolution in cinema taking place. It’s quietly slipped under the radar
of most technophiles, beginning its assault on the way we consume media
clothed in thoroughly unassuming garb — the Disney Digital 3-D film,
Meet the Robinsons … no, we don’t blame you for being skeptical. Most
people in their mid-20s or later think of 3-D movies from the old school
perspective — goofy red and blue coloured glasses, strained eyes,
possible migraines. And most importantly, a so-so 3-D effect. No more.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://au.movies.ign.com
+—————————–
| Want To Work At Google? |
| from the bread-and-circuses dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday April 30, @06:24 (Google) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
ramboando writes “In an article on the ZDNet site ‘chief culture officer’
and HR boss Stacy Savides Sullivan describes [0]the kind of traits that
she’s looking for in potential Google employees. If you’re thinking about
applying, she also goes over what kind of questions one might be asked in
an interview, Google’s ‘happiness survey’ and the best perks that makes
employees tick and stay with the company (Google ski-trips or paid
paternity leave, anyone?). ‘I think one of the hardest things to do is
ensure that we are hiring people who possess the kind of traits that
we’re looking for in a Google-y employee. Google-y is defined as somebody
who is fairly flexible, adaptable and not focusing on titles and
hierarchy, and just gets stuff done. So, we put a lot of focus in our
hiring processes when we are interviewing to try to determine first and
foremost does the person have the skill set and experience potential to
do the job from a background standpoint in addition to academics and
credentials.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.zdnet.com.au
+—————————–
| Court Rules Playlist Customization Is Not Interactive |
| from the licensing-makes-so-much-sense dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday April 30, @07:08 (Music) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]prostoalex writes “Is music played via customized playlist delivered
interactively (i.e., via user participation) or non-interactive (i.e.,
decisions are made on the server side)? The question does seem
metaphysical, but it took Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Yahoo! [1]six
years to figure it out via a protracted legal battle. User-driven
playlists are bucketed with on-demand music services, while server-driven
playlists are equaled to broadcasts, thereby causing different licensing
mechanisms to take place. Yahoo! inherited the legal wrangle when it
purchased a music startup Launch, which [2]built a music recommendation
feature. The court decision determined that recommendation algorithms
that rely on usage data to build playlists server-side are still eligible
for broadcast license, thereby substantially lowering the costs of
operating a music recommendation site.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.moskalyuk.com/blog
1. http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz
2. http://boulter.com/blog/2007
+—————————–
| Iran to Filter ‘Immoral’ Mobile Messages |
| from the go-go-govt dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @08:32 (Censorship) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
jb.cancer noted an article running on eweek about plans in Iran to
[0]censor phone messages sent within the country. At least it’s not quite
that bad here yet. But give it a few years!
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.eweek.com/article2
+—————————–
| BBC To Create ‘Catch-Up TV Player’ |
| from the now-thats-a-good-idea dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @09:09 (Television) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]grouchal writes “The BBC Trust (a semi independent regulator) has
[1]just approved the BBC’s efforts to launch [2]iPlayer (no new info on
this link yet). This means that UK residents can watch broadcast BBC
programs out of sync with the broadcast schedule by up to 30 days for
free. The iPlayer will launch for the PC but is expected on Media Center,
Xbox 360 devices in the near future. The approval also included some
constraints.” This would really have made my life a lot simpler when my
tivo died a couple of weeks ago.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. mailto://slashdot [Email address: //slashdot #AT# albriggs.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/imp/
+—————————–
| Google Shareholder Proposal to Resist Censorship |
| from the vote-if-you-got-em dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @09:47 (Google) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
buxton2k writes “Slashdot has had plenty of stories about technology
companies like Google kowtowing to repressive political regimes such as
China’s. I’m an (extremely) small shareholder in Google, and I looked at
their [0]proxy statement today. Most of the time, shareholders’ meetings
don’t deal with anything other than rubber-stamping the board of
directors, but Google’s upcoming meeting has a interesting [1]shareholder
proposal dealing with free speech and censorship to be voted on at the
May 10 meeting.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.sec.gov/Archives
1. http://www.sec.gov/Archives
+—————————–
| Web 2.0 Threats and Risks for Financial Services |
| from the where-is-my-foil-hat dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @10:22 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “Companies are tuning into Web 2.0 but are
simultaneously [0]exposing their systems to next generation threats such
as Cross site Scripting, Cross Site Request Forgery and Application
interconnection issues due to SOA. With regard to security, two
dimensions are very critical for financial systems — Identity and Data
privacy. Adopting the Web 2.0 framework may involve risks and threats
against these two dimensions along with other security concerns. Ajax,
Flash (RIA) and Web Services deployment is critical for Web 2.0
applications. Financial services are putting these technologies in place;
most without adequate threat assessment exercises.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.net-security.org
+—————————–
| How to Stop Digg-cheating, Forever |
| from the good-luck-with-that dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @11:00 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
The following was written by frequent Slashdot editorial contributor
[0]Bennett Haselton. He writes “Recently author [1]Annalee Newitz created
a bit of a stir with the revelation that she had [2]bought her way to the
front page of the story-ranking site [3]Digg. Since Digg allows any
registered user to go to a story’s URL and “digg it” in order to push it
upward through the story-ranking system, it was inevitable that services
like [4]User/Submitter would come along, where a Digg user can pay for
other users to cast votes to push their story up to the top.
User/Submitter says they are currently [5]backlogged and not taking new
orders, but they say the service will return and will soon feature
services for manipulating similar sites like Digg competitor [6]reddit.
Even if the new U/S features are vaporware, it probably won’t be long
before other companies offer similar services. But it seems like all of
these story-ranking sites could prevent the manipulation by making one
simple change to their voting algorithm.”
This story continues at:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. mailto://bennett [Email address: //bennett #AT# peacefire.org/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.techsploitation.com
2. http://www.wired.com/techbiz
3. http://www.digg.com/
4. http://www.usersubmitter.com/
5. http://www.usersubmitter.com
6. http://www.reddit.com/
+—————————–
| Supreme Court Weakens Patents |
| from the any-lawyers-on-the-plane dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @11:40 (Patents) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
ajakk writes “The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion,
[0]overturned the decades old test for determine whether a patent is
obvious. The Court ruled that the Court had looked at obviousness in a
“narrow, rigid manner.” This should allow patents to be more easily
invalidated because they are obvious.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps
+—————————–
| Mercury Contamination Vs. Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs |
| from the why-can’t-it-just-be-easy dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 30, @12:26 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]phyrebyrd writes “How much money does it take to screw in a compact
fluorescent lightbulb? About US$4.28 for the bulb and labor — unless you
break the bulb. Then you, like [1]Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine,
could be looking at a cost of about US$2,004.28, which doesn’t include
the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://phyrebyrd [Email address: //phyrebyrd #AT# yahoo.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.canada.com/national
+—————————–
| Home Secretary Requests Fingerprint-Activated iPods |
| from the losing-battles-to-fight dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @13:08 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
John Reid, Home Secretary, has called upon tech manufacturers to improve
the [0]security on their gadgets to help with his recent push to
frustrate criminals. Inviting Apple, Sony, and several others to his
crime fighting summit Reid hopes to attack the rising robbery numbers in
the most recent Home Office figures.
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.theregister.co.uk
+—————————–
| A New Wireless Power Transmission Sheet |
| from the electric-blanket dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @13:51 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Roland Piquepaille writes “Several companies have started to sell
power ‘pads’ that can charge your cellphone when you put it on the pad’s
surface. But these silicon-based pads are expensive — and relatively
‘specialized.’ Now, Japanese researchers have built a plastic sheet which
could [1]power all the devices placed close to it. So far, this 4-layer
sheet, which uses printed organic transistors and plastic MEMS switches,
can deliver up to 40 watts of power — enough for some laptops. The
technology is apparently efficient and inexpensive to produce. But as the
devices to recharge will need to incorporate a special receiver, don’t
expect to see these plastic power sheets on sale before several years.”
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.primidi.com/
1. http://www.nature.com/news
+—————————–
| Mixed News for Nintendo, Microsoft |
| from the take-the-bad-with-the-good dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Monday April 30, @13:57 (Nintendo) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
If you were to just look at downloadable content this week, Wii and 360
owners would have a lot to cheer about. [0]Virtual Console downloads
include the (under-appreciated) Legend of the Mystical Ninja and the
original Castlevania. Xbox 360 owners can finally sink their teeth into
the board-game spectacular that is Settlers of Catan. Classic titles
Millipede and Centipede will [1]also be on offer via Xbox Live Arcade.
Unfortunately, there are some less cheery things to discuss as well.
[2]Virtual Console sales are down, apparently, and some analysts are
questioning whether [3]Nintendo’s success may be bad for the industry
overall. As for the 360 … the [4]Elite may be bringing back some old
problems. ‘Red Rings of Death’ have already been reported with the
just-released consoles, and [5]DRM issues with Live Arcade titles on the
‘upgraded’ system are making some new owners frustrated.
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStor
1. http://arstechnica.com/journal
2. http://blog.wired.com/games
3. http://www.next-gen.biz/index
4. http://news.spong.com/article
5. http://arstechnica.com/journal
+—————————–
| Has Open Source Jumped the Shark? |
| from the 100-yard-shark-hurdles dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @14:34 (Software) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]AlexGr writes to tell us that Jeff Gould has a somewhat jaded look at
the [1]commercial push of Open Source and what that may be doing to the
overall Open Source movement. “I’ve been a Linux fan for years, but
lately I wonder if the drum beating from the big IT vendors in favor of
open source hasn’t finally slipped over the edge from sincere enthusiasm
to meaningless — or in some cases downright hypocritical — sloganeering.
The example that brought this gloomy thought to mind was a recent IBM
press release touting a ‘new open client solution’ as an ‘alternative to
vendor lock-in’. Wow. Imagine that. An alternative to vendor lock-in.”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://alexgr [Email address: //alexgr #AT# verizon.net/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://jeffgould.findtechblogs
+—————————–
| Linux Appliance Design |
| from the do-it-yourself dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Monday April 30, @15:15 (Book Reviews) |
| http://books.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]s1axter writes “A week and a half ago I received Linux Appliance
Design by Bob Smith, John Hardin, Graham Phillips and Bill Pierce,
published by No Starch Press. This is one of No Starch’s latest titles
and was released in the beginning of April. As a hardware/embedded
systems guy I was really eager to get my hands on the book. For those who
don’t know what the book is about, it’s about making an application
specific utility, an electronic tool or “appliance” that can be used for
a specific task. The book defines an appliance as “A device designed to
primarily perform a single function” and that’s exactly what they do.”
Read on for the rest of S1axter’s review.
This story continues at:
http://books.slashdot.org
Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://geeksinside.com/
+—————————–
| How Will Governments Keep Up With Technology? |
| from the just-like-a-large-poorly
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @15:58 (The Internet)|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]Andy Updegrove writes “Governments are beginning to realize that
perhaps the Internet really has changed everything, at least for them,
and that they are going to have to [1]deal with new responsibilities in
this area. How will they deal with financial and medical data breaches?
What can they do to ensure that first responders will be able to
communicate the next time that terrorists strike in the Homeland, and how
will the refugees of the next Katrina be able to access their electronic
medical records? And what must governments do to ensure that public
records will be available in fifty years, if they no longer maintain
paper archives? Whether government should incline towards leading,
following or simply getting out of the way is a matter upon which there
are likely to be strongly held differences of opinion. It’s also likely,
though, that government will not have the luxury of opting for the third
choice in some of the areas just mentioned. How well government chooses
among those roles, and how well it executes when it chooses to lead, will
likely have a profound impact on our lives in the years ahead.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.gesmer.com/attorney
1. http://www.consortiuminfo.org
+—————————–
| Supreme Court Sides With Microsoft Over AT&T |
| from the fluent-in-loopholeanese dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @16:41 (Microsoft) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
The Supreme Court today [0]sided with Microsoft in another important
patent case filed by AT&T. The case centered around whether selling
Windows overseas infringed on AT&T’s patents that are in Windows.
[1]Microsoft argued [PDF] that the copies being sold in Asia were “…not
technically supplied from the United States because overseas
manufacturers of its computers made copies of the software from a master
disk and installed those copies into the operating system. Microsoft said
it could not be considered a supplier since the copies, not the original
software, were in the computers built abroad.” Now, while I support the
weakening of software patents in general, by this logic, would that mean
that MS’s patents don’t apply to those that use pirated copies of
Windows?
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://money.cnn.com/2007/04
1. http://www.supremecourtus.gov
+—————————–
| Lone Programmer Writes 352 Webcam Drivers For Linux |
| from the twelve-cases-of-ballz-later dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @17:23 (Software) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
mrneutron2004 writes “A French physician and ardent Linux supporter is
the one man you can all thank for [0]adding support for 352 webcams in
Linux. The Open Source OS world may still be a bit of a mess when
competing with the ease of Windows, but efforts like this make you
wonder. One man with drive, tenacity, and no funding does what no one
else can do. And none of the major Linux distributions back this guy’s
efforts, even the big players dipping into the corporate world’s
coffers.”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.theinquirer.net
+—————————–
| Buildings Could Save Energy By Spying On Workers |
| from the tracking-everyone-driving-down
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, @18:07 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Galactic_grub writes “In the future, your place of work (or apartment)
may very well spy on you. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be able to name and
shame you for all your nasty habits. Researchers at Mitsubishi Electric
Research Laboratory (MERL) have devised a ‘dumb’ surveillance system that
[0]monitors the movements of workers without identifying them
individually. The idea is to have a computer system automatically
configure the air-conditioning to save money, or illuminate the most
appropriate escape signs in an emergency.”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Apple To Grant All Labels DRM-Free Distribution |
| from the you-asked-for-it dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday April 30, @19:06 (Music) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org
+—————————–
SexCaptain writes “MacRumors.com reveals a letter circulated by Apple to
all producers of content for the iTunes Store, announcing that from May
onward they can [0]sell their music at higher quality and free of DRM.
Hopefully this opens the doors for labels like Netwerk. This is a big
step in the right direction, although it’s unclear exactly what Apple
means by ‘higher quality,’ and there is no mention of price changes.
(Apple charges $0.30 more per song for [1]DRM-free content from EMI and
encodes it at 256K.) Quoting from the letter: ‘Many of you have reached
out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher
quality and DRM-free,” Apple wrote in the communication. “Starting next
month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and
DRM-free music videos to all customers.”
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.macrumors.com/2007
1. http://apple.slashdot.org
Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.
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