Come join us in Columbus Ohio for the Ohio LinuxFest - 40 Years of UNIX
celebration. There on September 26, Dr Doug McIlroy, the genius behind C
and UNIX, will keynote. From netbooks to telephones, from high performance
clusters to the very webserver that thinkgeek.com uses: Linux is everywhere.
Be part of history. Free registration is on our website.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/ohiolinux
======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Tracking Stolen Gadgets — Manufacturers' New Dilemma
* Indie Game Dev On the Positive Side To DRM
* Geist On Copyright As Canada Consult Nears End
* $358 Million Patent Judgment Against Microsoft Overturned
* Why Users Drop Open Source Apps For Proprietary Alternatives
* A History of Wiretapping
* Sam Ramji, Microsoft's Open Source Guru, Is Moving On
* Google Getting Into the Solar Mirror Business
* Russia's New Official Holiday — Programmer's Day
* First Algae Car Attempts To Cross the US On 25 Gallons of Fuel
* First Botnet of Linux Web Servers Discovered
* New iPod Touch Has an 802.11n Chip
* Parallel Processing For Cardiac Simulations Using an Xbox 360
* Scientists Clone Oldest Living Organism
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tracking Stolen Gadgets — Manufacturers' New Dilemma |
| from the big-brother-is-on-call dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday September 11, @21:59 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/11/2317240/Tracking-Stolen-Gadgets-mdash-Manufacturers|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]heptapod sends in a story from the NY Times about a growing problem
for the makers of high-tech gadgets: deciding [1]when and how it's
appropriate to track a stolen device. With the advent of ubiquitous GPS
and connections to services like the Kindle book store, the companies
frequently have a way to either narrow down a user's location or impede
use of the device. But some, like Amazon, are drawing a hard line when it
comes to establishing that the device was actually stolen. "Samuel
Borgese, for instance, is still irate about the response from Amazon when
he recently lost his Kindle. After leaving it on a plane, he canceled his
account so that nobody could charge books to his credit card. Then he
asked Amazon to put the serial number of his wayward device on a kind of
do-not-register list that would render it inoperable ��� to 'brick it' in
tech speak. Amazon's policy is that it will help locate a missing Kindle
only if the company is contacted by a police officer bearing a subpoena.
Mr. Borgese, who lives in Manhattan, questions whether hunting down a
$300 e-book reader would rank as a priority for the New York Police
Department."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/11/2317240
Links:
0. mailto:heptapod@gmail.com
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/technology/07kindle.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Indie Game Dev On the Positive Side To DRM |
| from the it's-an-excellent-whipping-boy dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @00:02 (Games) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/0057200/Indie-Game-Dev-On-the-Positive-Side-To-DR|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]spidweb writes "The online backlash against DRM has gotten a bit
excessive, especially since the purpose of DRM is entirely admirable: to
stop thieves and free riders and to [1]help creators actually get paid
for their work. This blog entry calls attention to XBox Live, a place
where strong DRM is helping to encourage quality games at low prices
which make money for their developers. Quoting: 'If I could snap my
fingers and give myself the same absolute control over the games I make
that XBox Live has over theirs (in return for lower prices), I would. The
freedom of the current system is nice, but it comes at too high a cost.
Honest people need to pay extra to subsidize thieves. The unfairness is
just this side of intolerable, and it's only getting worse. DRM is fair
if, for what the corporations take, we get something in return.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/0057200
Links:
0. mailto:spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com
1. http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2009/09/some-kind-words-about-drm-for-once.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Geist On Copyright As Canada Consult Nears End |
| from the quick-finish-it-before-hockey-starts dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @02:08 (The Internet) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/0213223/Geist-On-Copyright-As-Canada-Consult-Nears-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Canadian law professor Michael Geist, who has
been leading the charge on the national copyright consultation with his
SpeakOutOnCopyright.ca site, has [0]posted his own submission to the
consultation. Geist focuses on issues like fair use and circumvention,
and warns against a Canadian DMCA, copyright term extension, and
three-strikes program. 'If copyright veers too far toward specific
technologies by mandating new protection for specific business models or
technological innovations, those rules risk being overtaken as the
technologies and marketplace evolve. ... It should only be a violation of
the law to circumvent a technological protection measure if the
underlying purpose is to infringe copyright.' He also pointed out a few
days ago that Bell Canada seems to be [1]advising content owners to sue
its own customers. The public consultation ends on September 13th."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/0213223
Links:
0. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4377/125/
1. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4370/125/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $358 Million Patent Judgment Against Microsoft Overturned |
| from the ain't-over-till-it's-over dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @05:10 (Microsoft) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/0247236/358-Million-Patent-Judgment-Against-Microso|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]eldavojohn writes "Last year, Microsoft was ordered to [1]pay
Alcatel-Lucent hundreds of millions of dollars for patent infringement.
Well, [2]that award has just been overturned by the United States Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, saving Microsoft a considerable sum.
But Microsoft isn't in the clear yet; the appellate court said that they
did infringe on Alcatel-Lucent patents, but that those infringements did
not warrant $358 million in damages. The case needs to be retried."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/0247236
Links:
0. mailto:my/.username@@@gmail.com
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/05/040228&tid=473
2. http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE58A4Q120090911
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Why Users Drop Open Source Apps For Proprietary Alternatives |
| from the have-you-tried-this-foxfire-thing dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @08:15 (Software) |
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/0634251/Why-Users-Drop-Open-Source-Apps-For-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]maximus1 writes "Hard as it may be to imagine, 'free' is not always
the primary selling point to open source software. This article makes
some interesting points about [1]subtle ways Open Source projects might
lose to the competition. Lack of features is a common answer you'd
expect, but the author points out that complicated setup and
configuration can be a real turn-off. Moreover, open source companies may
not do enough to market major upgrades. If they did, they might lure back
folks who tried and dumped the earlier, less polished version. This
raises the question: what made you dump an open source app you were
using? What could that project have done differently?"
Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/0634251
Links:
0. mailto:jnaze07@gmail.com
1. http://www.itworld.com/open-source/77409/why-users-dumped-your-open-source-app-proprietary-software
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A History of Wiretapping |
| from the i-blame-the-telegraph dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @09:16 (Privacy) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1123204/A-History-of-Wiretapping |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]ChelleChelle writes "Wiretapping technology has grown increasingly
sophisticated since the police first began to utilize it as a
surveillance tool in the 1890s. What once entailed simply putting clips
on wires has now evolved into building wiretapping capabilities directly
into communications infrastructures (at the government's behest). In a
modern society, where surveillance is often touted as a way of ensuring
our safety, it is important to take into consideration the risks to our
privacy and security that electronic eavesdropping presents. In this
article, Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau examine these issues,
attempting to answer the important question: [1]does wiretapping actually
make us more secure?"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1123204
Links:
0. mailto:silvarae@msn.com
1. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1613130
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sam Ramji, Microsoft's Open Source Guru, Is Moving On |
| from the onward-and-upward dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @10:18 (Businesses) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1315201/Sam-Ramji-Microsofts-Open-Source-Guru-Is-M|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]barking_at_airplanes writes "Some called him crazy a few years ago
when he joined Microsoft to run the Open Source Software Lab, but Sam
Ramji endured and made real differences to how Microsoft treats open
source and how open source people view Microsoft. [1]Ramji is now heading
back to Silicon Valley to join a cloud computing startup. Sam comments in
his announcement: '46 months later, I am amazed at the changes that have
occurred for the company, for the team I belonged to, and the sentiments
of the industry.' It's a statement which, 46 months ago, few Slashdotters
would have thought could come true! With Sam leaving, can Microsoft's
positive momentum into open source continue successfully? Bill Hilf says
they're '[2]actively seeking someone to fill Sam's shoes.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1315201
Links:
0. mailto:rodney@interopsystems.com
1. http://samus.typepad.com/what/2009/09/moving-on-and-the-codeplex-foundation.html
2. http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/09/10/Sam-Ramji-is-leaving-microsoft.aspx
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Getting Into the Solar Mirror Business |
| from the reflects-well-on-them dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @11:17 (Google) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1442207/Google-Getting-Into-the-Solar-Mirror-Busin|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]adeelarshad82 writes with this excerpt from a Reuters report: "Google
is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the
green technology sector, but the company is [1]working to develop its own
new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar
thermal plants by [25%] or more. The company's engineers have been
focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun's energy is used to
heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. Mirrors focus
the sun's rays on the heated substance. ... Google hopes to have a viable
technology to show internally in a couple of months, Bill Weihl said. It
will need to do accelerated testing to show the impact of decades of wear
on the new mirrors in desert conditions."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1442207
Links:
0. mailto:adeelarshad82@gmail.com
1. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352748,00.asp
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Russia's New Official Holiday — Programmer's Day |
| from the feel-free-to-take-sunday-off dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @12:15 (Programming) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1548245/Russias-New-Official-Holiday-mdash-Program|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Glyn Moody writes "Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, has [1]decreed
a new holiday for his country: Programmer's Day. Appropriately enough, it
will be celebrated on the 256th day of the year: September 13th
(September 12th for a leap year). Do programmers deserve their own
holiday ahead of other professions? Should the rest of the world follow
suit?"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1548245
Links:
0. mailto:glyn.moody@gmail.com
1. http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/09/russias-new-holiday-programmers-day.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Algae Car Attempts To Cross the US On 25 Gallons of Fuel |
| from the your-dirty-pool-is-now-your-greatest-treasure dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @13:17 (Transportation) |
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/169205/First-Algae-Car-Attempts-To-Cross-the-US-On|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Mike writes "San Francisco recently saw the unveiling of the world's
first algae fuel-powered vehicle, dubbed the Algaeus. The plug-in hybrid
car, which is a Prius tricked out with a nickel metal hydride battery and
a plug, runs on green crude from Sapphire Energy ��� no modifications to
the gasoline engine necessary. The set-up is so effective, according to
FUEL producer Rebecca Harrell, that [1]the Algaeus can cross the US on
approximately 25 gallons of fuel ��� a figure which is currently being
tested on a coast-to-coast road trip."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/169205
Links:
0. http://www.inhabitat.com/
1. http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/09/first-algae-powered-car-attempts-to-cross-us-on-25-gallons/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Botnet of Linux Web Servers Discovered |
| from the shields-up dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday September 12, @14:16 (Security) |
| https://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1413246/First-Botnet-of-Linux-Web-Servers-Discove|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Register writes up a Russian security researcher who has uncovered a
[0]Linux webserver botnet that is coordinating with a more conventional
home-based botnet of Windows machines to distribute malware. "Each of the
infected machines examined so far is a dedicated or virtual dedicated
server running a legitimate website, Denis Sinegubko, an independent
researcher based in Magnitogorsk, Russia, told The Register. But in
addition to running an Apache webserver to dish up benign content,
they've also been hacked to run a second webserver known as nginx, which
serves malware [on port 8080]. 'What we see here is a long awaited botnet
of zombie web servers! A group of interconnected infected web servers
with [a] common control center involved in malware distribution,'
[1]Sinegubko wrote. 'To make things more complex, this botnet of web
servers is connected with the botnet of infected home computer(s).'"
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1413246
Links:
0. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/12/linux_zombies_push_malware/
1. http://blog.unmaskparasites.com/2009/09/11/dynamic-dns-and-botnet-of-zombie-web-servers/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| New iPod Touch Has an 802.11n Chip |
| from the more-and-more-like-a-little-tablet dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday September 12, @15:03 (Wireless Networking) |
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1831207/New-iPod-Touch-Has-an-80211n-Chip |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]eggboard writes "iFixIt has discovered a Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n chip
in the just-announced [1]iPod touch (32 GB and 64 GB) models that uses
single-stream 802.11n. Single-stream doesn't get the full power of N, but
it boosts speed enough that ��� along with space-time block encoding, a
feature coming soon to Wi-Fi access points with two or more radios ��� the
iPod touch could be an effective networked media server, for streaming
and transfer, possibly through the new iTunes Home Sharing feature."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1831207
Links:
0. mailto:glenn@glennf.com
1. http://db.tidbits.com/article/10558
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Parallel Processing For Cardiac Simulations Using an Xbox 360 |
| from the just-watch-out-for-a-literal-red-ring-of-death dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 12, @16:27 (Medicine) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/1628214/Parallel-Processing-For-Cardiac-Simulatio|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Foot-in-Mouth writes "Physorg has an article about a researcher, Dr.
Simon Scarle at the University of Warwick's WMG Digital Laboratory, who
needed to model some cardiological processes. Conventionally, he would
requisition time on a university parallel-processing computer or use a
network of PCs. However, Dr. Scarle's work history included gaming
industry experience as a software engineer at a company associated with
Microsoft Games Studio. His idea was that researchers could use [1]Xbox
360s as an inexpensive parallel computing platform due to the console's
hefty parallel processing-enabled GPU. He said, 'Although major reworking
of any previous code framework is required, the Xbox 360 is a very easy
platform to develop for and this cost can easily be outweighed by the
benefits in gained computational power and speed, as well as the relative
ease of visualization of the system.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/1628214
Links:
0. mailto:nomorespam7@lycos.com
1. http://www.physorg.com/news171893988.html
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Scientists Clone Oldest Living Organism |
| from the knew-ayers-rock-when-it-was-just-a-meteorite dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday September 12, @17:33 (Earth) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/09/12/2015250/Scientists-Clone-Oldest-Living-Organism|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]goran72 sends along the story of the [1]world's oldest living organism,
a shrub that grows in Tasmania and reproduces only by cloning. Tasmanian
scientists have cloned Lomatia tasmanica as part of a battle to save it
from a deadly fungus. From the [2]RTBG's press release (which seems to
load slowly in the US):"The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens [RTBG] is
working towards securing the future of a rare and ancient Tasmanian
native plant... Lomatia tasmanica, commonly known as King's Lomatia, is
critically endangered with less than 500 plants growing in the wild in a
tiny pocket of Tasmania's isolated south west. The RTBG has been
propagating the plant from cuttings since 1994... 'Fossil leaves of the
plant found in the south west were dated at 43,600 years old and given
that the species is a clone, it is possibly the oldest living plant in
the world,' [Botanist Natalie Tapson] said."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/09/12/2015250
Links:
0. mailto:gogix@sezampro.yu
1. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/07/2679005.htm
2. http://www.rtbg.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?sys=News%20Article&intID=1560
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