======================================================================
The Importance of Email Continuity
Access to email systems is critical and must remain continuously
available. Outages create problems for users, as well as the business
process. Organization should implement an email continuity solution to
ensure that email remains operational as close to 24x7 as possible.
Failure to do so can have serious repercussions. Read More>>>
http://p.sf.net/sfu/googleapps-sdnl======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Espionage In Icelandic Parliament
* Underwater Nuclear Power Plant Proposed In France
* Australian Government Denies Microsoft Bias In OOXML Choice
* FSF Announces Support For WebM
* New <em>Red Dwarf</em> Series Threatened By the Twitter Era
* Blizzard Won't Stop <em>World of StarCraft</em> Mod
* UK ID Card Scheme Data Deleted For £400K
* PC Gaming Alliance's New President Talks DRM, System Requirements
* Electronics In Flight — Danger Or Distraction?
* Verizon Sues FCC Over Net Neutrality Rules
* Daniel Ellsberg On WikiLeaks, Google and Facebook
* <em>Duke Nukem Forever</em> Release Date Revealed
* The Case of Apple's Mystery Screw
* J.J. Abrams Promises 'Fringe' Will Die Fighting
* Does Google Pin Copyright Violations On the ASF?
* Sony Planning Serial Keys For PS3 Games?
* Experiment Shows Not Washing Jeans for 15 Months is Disgusting But Safe
* RIAA Threatens ICANN Over Music-Themed gTLD Standards
* Woman's Voice Restored After Larynx Transplant
* Foundation Drupal 7
* Google Fires Back About Search Engine Spam
* Mozilla Flips Kill-Switch On Skype Toolbar
* Euler's Partition Function Theory Finished
* Compromised Government and Military Sites For Sale
* Ballmer Says 90% of Chinese Users Pirate Software
* Graphene Won't Replace Silicon In CPUs, Says IBM
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Espionage In Icelandic Parliament
| from the maybe-it's-just-the-porn-server dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday January 20, @19:35 (Security)
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0035221/Espionage-In-Icelandic-Parliament?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bumburumbi writes "An unauthorised computer, apparently running encrypted
software, was [0]found hidden inside an unoccupied office in the
Icelandic Parliament, Althingi, connected to the internal network.
According to the Reykjavik Grapevine article, serial numbers had been
removed and no fingerprints were found. The office had been used by
substitute MPs from the Independence Party and The Movement, the
Parliamentary group of Birgitta Jonsdottir, whose Twiiter account was
recently subpoenaed by US authorities. The Icelandic daily Morgunbladid,
under the editorship of Mr David Oddsson, former Prime Minister and
Central Bank chief, has suggested that this might be an operation run by
Wikileaks. The reporter for the Reykjavik Grapevine, Mr Paul Nikolov is a
former substitute MP, having taken seat in Parliament in 2007 and 2008."
Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0035221/Espionage-In-Icelandic-Parliament?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Mysterious-Spy-Computer-In-Parliament-Works-Differently-Than-Being-Reported-Tech-Expert-Says
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Underwater Nuclear Power Plant Proposed In France
| from the precooked-seafood dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday January 20, @20:23 (Power)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0116207/Underwater-Nuclear-Power-Plant-Proposed-In-France?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
nicomede writes "The French state-owned DCNS (French military shipyard)
announced today a concept study for an [0]underwater nuclear reactor
dedicated to power coastal communities in remote places. It is derived
from nuclear submarine power plants, and its generator would be able to
produce between 50 MWe and 250MWe. Such a plant would be fabricated and
maintained in France, and dispatched for the different customers, thus
reducing the risk for proliferation."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0116207/Underwater-Nuclear-Power-Plant-Proposed-In-France?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN_Deep_sea_fission_2001111.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Australian Government Denies Microsoft Bias In OOXML Choice
| from the have-you-never-heard-of-coincidence dept.
| posted by timothy on Thursday January 20, @23:18 (Australia)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0145251/Australian-Government-Denies-Microsoft-Bias-In-OOXML-Choice?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like the Australian Government is
not taking criticism of its [0]decision to mandate Microsoft's Office
Open XML standard lying down. 'The policy is vendor-neutral which
[1]allows its principles and standards to be used across any platform,'
they said this week. Yup ... except for the fact that almost no other
office suite apart from Microsoft Office supports writing to the
standard. And as for Firefox? Turns out 96 percent of Australian
Government desktops use Internet Explorer. Looks like bureaucracy is
winning here."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0145251/Australian-Government-Denies-Microsoft-Bias-In-OOXML-Choice?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/19/0059209/Australia-Mandates-Microsofts-Office-Open-XML
1. http://delimiter.com.au/2011/01/21/were-open-agimo-denies-microsoft-bias-2/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| FSF Announces Support For WebM
| from the in-good-company dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday January 21, @00:53 (GNU is Not Unix)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0510215/FSF-Announces-Support-For-WebM?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "The Free Software Foundation has [0]signed up
as a supporter of the WebM Project. They write, 'Last week, Google
announced that it [1]plans to remove support for the H.264 video codec
from its browsers, in favor of the WebM codec that they recently made
free. Since then, there's been a lot of discussion about how this change
will affect the Web going forward, as HTML5 standards like the video tag
mature. We applaud Google for this change; it's a positive step for free
software, its users, and everyone who uses the Web.' The FSF's [2]PlayOgg
campaign will be revamped to become [3]PlayFreedom."
Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0510215/FSF-Announces-Support-For-WebM?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.fsf.org/news/supporting-webm/
1. http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html
2. http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/en/
3. http://playfreedom.org/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| New <em>Red Dwarf</em> Series Threatened By the Twitter Era
| from the wouldn't-that-be-good-buzz? dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday January 21, @02:11 (Communications)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0057232/New-Red-Dwarf-Series-Threatened-By-the-Twitter-Era?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "The announcement that the new series of Red
Dwarf is likely to be shot in front of a studio audience, which hasn't
happened for the show since 1998, has made one of the show's actors
[0]wary of the practicality of it. Commenting on his blog, Robert
Llewellyn, who plays servile robot Kryten in the hit British SF comedy
show notes: 'The fear among the producers now is that it's impossible to
imagine an audience of around 400 people at the recording of a TV show
like Red Dwarf, where nobody does a bit of a hint on Twitter, or sneaks a
picture on Facebook or posts a bit of badly shot video on YouTube.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0057232/New-Red-Dwarf-Series-Threatened-By-the-Twitter-Era?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.shadowlocked.com/201101201314/news/new-series-of-red-dwarf-confirmed.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Blizzard Won't Stop <em>World of StarCraft</em> Mod
| from the uncrossing-wires dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @03:26 (Real Time Strategy (Games))
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0556242/Blizzard-Wont-Stop-World-of-StarCraft-Mod?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Wednesday we discussed news of an impressive-looking mod for StarCraft
II that transformed the game into a WoW lookalike, which quickly [0]drew
a copyright infringement warning from Activision Blizzard. The company
has now released an official statement [1]green-lighting the mod for
continued development. "'It was never our intention to stop development
on the mod or discourage the community from expressing their creativity
through the StarCraft II editor,' Blizzard said in a statement. 'As
always, we actively encourage development of custom maps and mods for
StarCraft II, as we've done with our strategy games in the past.'
Blizzard went on the say that it's looking forward to seeing development
of the mod continue, and that it has invited Winzen to the company's
campus to meet the game's development team."
Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0556242/Blizzard-Wont-Stop-World-of-StarCraft-Mod?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/19/191257/World-of-StarCraft-Mod-Gets-CampD-From-Blizzard
1. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32562/Blizzard_No_Intention_To_Stop_World_of_StarCraft_Mod_Development.php
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| UK ID Card Scheme Data Deleted For £400K
| from the mere-pocket-change dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday January 21, @05:09 (Government)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/017256/UK-ID-Card-Scheme-Data-Deleted-For-pound400K?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaveNJ1987 writes "It will cost the British government [0]only ��400,000
to destroy the data for its failed ID card initiative. The data compiled
by the National Identity Register, which was scrapped last year by the
coalition government, will be disposed of for the relatively small sum ���
in government figures ��� Home Office minister Damian Green confirmed."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/017256/UK-ID-Card-Scheme-Data-Deleted-For-pound400K?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/20/id_card_costs/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PC Gaming Alliance's New President Talks DRM, System Requirements
| from the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately-or-ever dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @06:17 (PC Games (Games))
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0631223/PC-Gaming-Alliances-New-President-Talks-DRM-System-Requirements?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
arcticstoat writes "It's been nearly three years since the PC Gaming
Alliance announced its formation at GDC 2008, promising to 'advance the
PC as a worldwide gaming platform.' Since then, Activision-Blizzard has
publicly left the alliance, Sony DADC ��� developer of the controversial
SecuROM DRM software ��� has signed up and some people are [0]wondering if
the PCGA is really acting in the best interests of PC gamers. However, in
December 2010 the alliance appointed a new president ��� Intel's Matt
Ployhar ��� who's promising to make some changes. In this in-depth
interview, Ployhar reveals that he wants to tempt Activision Blizzard
back to the alliance, saying that 'Activision's Kotick and Blizzard's
Morhaime may be more aligned with our future objectives than they may
realize.' He also discusses Sony DADC's role in the alliance, and the
group's [1]stance on DRM, explaining that its research can 'really help
to influence Sony DADC's and other members' awareness of key trends
taking place in the PC gaming ecosystem. Given the trend of retail's
diminishing presence, free-to-play, games moving towards authentication,
game streaming and so on, it's really hard to divine where DRM solutions
fit into this equation in the future.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/0631223/PC-Gaming-Alliances-New-President-Talks-DRM-System-Requirements?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2011/01/20/pcga-matt-ployar-interview/1
1. http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2011/01/20/pcga-matt-ployar-interview/4
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Electronics In Flight — Danger Or Distraction?
| from the ways-to-get-tackled-by-stewardesses dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @08:10 (Transportation)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1231250/Electronics-In-Flight-mdash-Danger-Or-Distraction?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
another similar writes "IEEE Spectrum has a blog post revisiting the
debate on [0]whether electronic devices pose a risk to flight avionics
spurred by a NY Post article about Arianna Huffington's [1]refusal to
power down her Blackberry during takeoff. The post points out the EU's
removal of their own ban on cell phone use in 2007 and the likelihood of
significant non-compliance daily in the US ��� and curiously, planes
haven't been falling from the sky at a similar rate. While the potential
exists for there to be a problem, it would appear the risk is low. Ever
bent the rules? Is an app for landing commercial jets somewhere in our
future?"
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1231250/Electronics-In-Flight-mdash-Danger-Or-Distraction?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/aerospace/aviation/electronic-devices-airplanes-and-interference-significant-danger-or-not
1. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/getting_huffy_on_jet_gcBGEKfO7Q0LOzGKHryD1M
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Verizon Sues FCC Over Net Neutrality Rules
| from the you're-not-the-boss-of-us dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @08:53 (Communications)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1325203/Verizon-Sues-FCC-Over-Net-Neutrality-Rules?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Post reports that Verizon has [0]filed a lawsuit against
the Federal Communications Commission over the net neutrality rules they
[1]adopted last month. Quoting: "Verizon argues that the FCC does not
have the legal authority to mandate how Internet service providers treat
content on their networks. A legal challenge was widely expected, and the
FCC has said it thinks Congress enabled the agency to pursue its rules
under several interpretations of telecommunications laws. The FCC's rules
are supported by consumer groups and Web giants such as Google and
Facebook. Verizon filed its case in the same federal court ��� the US Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia ��� that ruled last April that the
FCC [2]overstepped its authority in trying to sanction Comcast for
blocking Web traffic. 'We are deeply concerned by the FCC's assertion of
broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the
Internet itself,' said Michael E. Glover, Verizon's senior vice president
and deputy general counsel. 'We believe this assertion of authority goes
well beyond any authority provided by Congress, and creates uncertainty
for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1325203/Verizon-Sues-FCC-Over-Net-Neutrality-Rules?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012006163.html
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/21/1510232/Obama-FCC-Caves-On-Net-Neutrality
2. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/1535226/Net-Neutrality-Suffers-Major-Setback
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Daniel Ellsberg On WikiLeaks, Google and Facebook
| from the locking-out-big-brother dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @09:35 (Privacy)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1348244/Daniel-Ellsberg-On-WikiLeaks-Google-and-Facebook?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]angry tapir writes "The Silicon Valley companies that store our
personal data have a growing responsibility to protect it from government
snooping, according to Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon
Papers. Discussing the growing role of Internet companies in the public
sphere, Ellsberg said companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter
[1]need to take a stand and push back on excessive requests for personal
data." Ellsberg spoke as part of a panel at an event from the
[2]Churchill Club, which included Clay Shirky, Jonathan Zittrain and
others [3]discussing the WikiLeaks situation.
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1348244/Daniel-Ellsberg-On-WikiLeaks-Google-and-Facebook?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/
1. http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/374176/ellsberg_wikileaks_google_facebook_must_take_stand/
2. http://www.churchillclub.org/eventDetail.jsp?EVT_ID=892
3. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110120/02542812739/daniel-ellsberg-others-discuss-serious-implications-wikileaks.shtml
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| <em>Duke Nukem Forever</em> Release Date Revealed
| from the restocking-bubblegum dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @09:54 (First Person Shooters (Games))
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1419232/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Release-Date-Revealed?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stupid_is writes with news that Duke Nukem Forever has now [0]gotten a
firm US release date: May 3rd. It will release worldwide three days
later. The game was [1]resurrected last fall by Gearbox Software and 2K
Games after 3D Realms' 12-year attempt at development [2]came to an end
in 2009 when the company closed its doors.
Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1419232/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Release-Date-Revealed?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/01/21/exclusive-duke-nukem-forever-has-a-release-date.aspx
1. http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/09/03/1718204/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Back-In-Development
2. https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/05/07/0146233/Duke-Nukem-For-Never
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| The Case of Apple's Mystery Screw
| from the licensing-the-operation-of-the-circuitry-inside dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @10:19 (Hardware Hacking)
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1442200/The-Case-of-Apples-Mystery-Screw?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Pickens writes "Network World reports that in the past if you wanted
to remove the outer case on your iPhone 4 to replace the battery or a
broken screen, you could use a Phillips screwdriver to remove two tiny
screws at the base of the phone and then simply slide off the back cover.
But now Apple is [1]replacing the outer screw with a mysterious
tamper-resistant 'pentalobular' screw across its most popular product
lines, making it harder for do-it-yourselfers to make repairs. What about
existing products in the field? Pentalobular screws might find their way
into them, too. 'Apple's latest policy will make your blood boil,' says
Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit. 'If you take your iPhone 4 into Apple for any
kind of service, they will [2]sabotage it by replacing your Phillips
screws with the new, tamper-resistant screws. We've spoken with the Apple
Store geniuses tasked with carrying out this policy, and they are ashamed
of the practice.' Of course, only Apple-authorized service technicians
have Pentalobular screwdrivers and they're not allowed to resell them.
'Apple sees a huge profit potential,' says Wiens. 'A hundred dollars per
year in incremental revenue on their installed base is a tremendous
opportunity.'"
Discuss this story at:
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1442200/The-Case-of-Apples-Mystery-Screw?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/012011-the-case-of-apples-mystery.html
2. http://www.ifixit.com/blog/blog/2011/01/20/apples-diabolical-plan-to-screw-your-iphone/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| J.J. Abrams Promises 'Fringe' Will Die Fighting
| from the walternate-for-president dept.
| posted by CmdrTaco on Friday January 21, @11:09 (Sci-Fi)
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1513216/JJ-Abrams-Promises-Fringe-Will-Die-Fighting?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Fringe creator J.J. Abrams has said of the
show's much-maligned move to Friday nights, '[0]Fringe deserves to live
beyond season 3. If we're going to fail, let's go down doing the most bad
***, weirdest, interesting, sophisticated version of a series that we
could possibly do.' Previous announcements about the move were more
defensive, claiming that Fringe's shift to Fridays was an attempt to draw
younger viewers back to the 'dead zone' of Friday nights. But season
three has been confused enough in tone and approach that it's no surprise
to hear yet another contradictory statement about its future..." Good
episodes of Fringe have been great TV. I've really enjoyed the first half
of the season and am looking forward to seeing what they do with it. A
lot of mediocre SciFi has been shut down recently (Caprica? SGU?) and a
lot of bad SciFi continues (V?) but Fringe flirts with greatness with
regularity. I hope it makes it... even though on Friday it's not likely.
Discuss this story at:
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1513216/JJ-Abrams-Promises-Fringe-Will-Die-Fighting?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.shadowlocked.com/201101211321/news/fringe-meets-firefly-but-hopefully-wont-meet-the-same-fate.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Does Google Pin Copyright Violations On the ASF?
| from the plot-thickens dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @11:50 (Google)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/164209/Does-Google-Pin-Copyright-Violations-On-the-ASF?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Florian Mueller [0]claims to have produced
new evidence that he believes supports Oracle's case against Google on
the copyright side of the lawsuit. Oracle originally [1]presented one
example to the court, and that file was found to have been part of older
Android distributions, with an Apache license header. Mueller has just
published six more files of that kind and believes the Apache Software
Foundation will disown those [2]just like the first one because those
were never part of the Apache Harmony code base. Furthermore, various
source files from the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit were found in the Android
codebase, [3]containing a total of 38 copyright notices that mark them as
proprietary and confidential, but Google apparently published their
source code regardless."
Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/164209/Does-Google-Pin-Copyright-Violations-On-the-ASF?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-evidence-supports-oracles-case.html
1. http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2010cv03561/231846/36/10.html
2. http://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/read_beyond_the_headers
3. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/69703120/9-SJWT-copyright-notices
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Sony Planning Serial Keys For PS3 Games?
| from the keep-digging-that-hole dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @12:34 (Piracy)
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1655259/Sony-Planning-Serial-Keys-For-PS3-Games?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stoobalou writes "Rumor has it that Sony is looking to the PC games
market to help solve its growing piracy problem on the PlayStation 3 ���
with [0]the introduction of serial keys to its games. According to 'a
very reliable source' quoted by PS3-Sense, Sony is attempting to address
the recent revelation that it failed to properly secure the private
signing key for its flagship console ��� leading to clever tinkerers
producing third-party firmware that allows unofficial software and
illegitimately downloaded games to run on unmodified hardware ��� by
looking to the PC retail market for solutions. Unlike the PS3, the PC
doesn't have a hardware DRM system built in to it ��� despite attempts by
groups like the Trusted Computing Group, formerly the Trusted Computer
Platform Alliance, to introduce such a thing ��� relying instead on
software-based DRM and a surprisingly old-fashioned guarantee of a game's
uniqueness: a serial key."
Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1655259/Sony-Planning-Serial-Keys-For-PS3-Games?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/1/21/sony-rumoured-be-adding-serial-keys-ps3/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Experiment Shows Not Washing Jeans for 15 Months is Disgusting But Safe
| from the thank-you-science dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Friday January 21, @13:06 (Canada)
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1522251/Experiment-Shows-Not-Washing-Jeans-for-15-Months-is-Disgusting-But-Safe?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dbune writes "Young people who argue with their parents over [0]wearing
the same pair of smelly jeans can now cite the work of a 20-year old
University of Alberta student who wore the same jeans for 15 months
straight. From the article: 'Josh Le wore the same pair of jeans to break
in the raw denim, so it would wrap the contours of his body, leaving
distinct wear lines. He had his textile professor test the jeans for
bacteria before washing them for the first time. The results showed high
counts of five different kinds of bacteria, but nothing in the range of
being considered a health hazard."
Discuss this story at:
https://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1522251/Experiment-Shows-Not-Washing-Jeans-for-15-Months-is-Disgusting-But-Safe?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110119/unwashed-jeans-110119/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| RIAA Threatens ICANN Over Music-Themed gTLD Standards
| from the same-old-song-and-dance dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @13:17 (Music)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1759207/RIAA-Threatens-ICANN-Over-Music-Themed-gTLD-Standards?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
think_nix writes "A [0]letter to ICANN (PDF) from Victoria Sheckler,
Deputy General Counsel for the RIAA, [1]demands modifications to the
future implementation of the .music gTLD, threatening to 'escalate the
issue' if certain concerns about 'wide scale copyright and trademark
infringement' are not addressed by ICANN in compliance with the RIAA.
'Under the current proposed standard, we fear that we will have no
realistic ability to object if a pirate chooses to hijack a music themed
gTLD to enable wide scale copyright infringement of our works,' Sheckler
said."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1759207/RIAA-Threatens-ICANN-Over-Music-Themed-gTLD-Standards?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://forum.icann.org/lists/5gtld-guide/pdfZuXmEV9jtt.pdf
1. http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/01/big-content-to-icann-make-it-easier-for-us-to-challenge-domain-suffixes.ars
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Woman's Voice Restored After Larynx Transplant
| from the wonder-if-she-sounds-like-herself dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @14:01 (Medicine)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1818246/Womans-Voice-Restored-After-Larynx-Transplant?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mvar writes "A woman in the US is [0]able to speak for the first time in
11 years after a pioneering voicebox transplant. Brenda Jensen said the
operation, which took place in California, was a miracle which had
restored her life. Thirteen days after the surgery she said her first
words: 'Good morning, I want to go home.' It is the first time a larynx
and windpipe have been transplanted at the same time ([1]image) and only
the second time a larynx has ever been transplanted. In October, surgeons
at the University of California Davis Medical Center removed the larynx,
thyroid gland and 6cm of the trachea from a donor body. In an 18-hour
operation, this was transplanted into Ms. Jensen's throat and the team
connected it to her blood supply and nerves. Thirteen days later, she was
able to speak her first croaky words and is now able to talk easily for
long periods of time."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1818246/Womans-Voice-Restored-After-Larynx-Transplant?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12228027
1. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50885000/jpg/_50885724_voicebox_transpl_464in.jpg
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Foundation Drupal 7
| from the read-all-about-it dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Friday January 21, @14:43 (Books)
| https://books.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1337228/Foundation-Drupal-7?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Michael J. Ross writes "Of all the better-known content management
systems, [1]Drupal is oftentimes criticized for having the steepest
learning curve. Yet that would only be a valid charge as a result of
Drupal's great power and flexibility ��� particularly in the hands of a
knowledgeable Drupal developer. But how can the interested programmer
begin gaining those skills, as quickly as possible? One approach is to
read and work through the examples of an introductory book, such as
Foundation Drupal 7, written by Robert J. Townsend (except for a chapter
contributed by Stephanie Pakrul)." Read on for the rest of Michael's
review.
This story continues at:
https://books.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1337228/Foundation-Drupal-7?from=newsletter
Discuss this story at:
https://books.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/1337228/Foundation-Drupal-7?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.ross.ws/
1. http://drupal.org/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Google Fires Back About Search Engine Spam
| from the it's-not-me-it's-you dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @15:25 (Google)
| https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/203214/Google-Fires-Back-About-Search-Engine-Spam?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coondoggie writes "The folks at Google are [0]taking issue over spam and
the quality of Google searches, which some claim has gone down in recent
months. Today on Google's official blog, Principal Engineer Matt Cutts
said, 'January brought a spate of stories about [1]Google���s search
quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask
whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that
according to the evaluation metrics that we���ve refined over more than a
decade, Google���s search quality is better than it has ever been in terms
of relevance, freshness and comprehensiveness. Today, English-language
spam in Google���s results is [2]less than half what it was five years ago,
and spam in most other languages is even lower than in English.' Cutts
also explained that the company has made a few significant changes to
their method of indexing."
Discuss this story at:
https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/203214/Google-Fires-Back-About-Search-Engine-Spam?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/google-fires-back-about-search-engine-spam
1. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/01/trouble-in-the-house-of-google.html
2. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-search-and-search-engine-spam.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mozilla Flips Kill-Switch On Skype Toolbar
| from the take-a-time-out-until-you-can-play-nice-with-the-other-kids dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @16:05 (Firefox)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2034215/Mozilla-Flips-Kill-Switch-On-Skype-Toolbar?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Whenever Skype is installed or updated, it
automatically installs the Skype Toolbar add-on for Firefox.
Unfortunately, the add-on causes [0]serious performance problems, slowing
down some operations by a factor of 300 and is one of the [1]top causes
for Firefox crashes. As a result, Mozilla has decided to 'soft-block' the
add-on, effectively killing it on all Firefox installs unless the user
intentionally re-enables it. Given the extreme popularity of Skype, this
has ramifications for millions of users."
Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2034215/Mozilla-Flips-Kill-Switch-On-Skype-Toolbar?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/01/20/blocking-the-skype-toolbar-in-firefox/
1. http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/topcrasher/byversion/Firefox/3.6.13
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Euler's Partition Function Theory Finished
| from the that-was-quick dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @16:29 (Math)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2047229/Eulers-Partition-Function-Theory-Finished?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
universegeek writes "Mathematician Ken Ono, from Emory, has solved a
250-year-old problem: how to [0]exactly and explicitly generate partition
numbers. Ono and colleagues were able to finally do this by realizing
that [1]the pattern of partition numbers is fractal (PDF). This pattern
allowed them to find a finite, algebraic formula, which is like striking
oil in mathematics."
Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2047229/Eulers-Partition-Function-Theory-Finished?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://blogs.plos.org/badphysics/2011/01/20/ono/
1. http://www.aimath.org/news/partition/folsom-kent-ono.pdf
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Compromised Government and Military Sites For Sale
| from the your-tax-dollars-at-derp dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @16:49 (Government)
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2137250/Compromised-Government-and-Military-Sites-For-Sale?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Khopesh writes "Imperva blogged today about [0]the sale of compromised
.gov, .mil, and .edu sites, illustrating that cyber-criminals are getting
bolder. Krebs on Security has an [1]unredacted view of the site list.
Perhaps the biggest threat is yet to come; if an industrious criminal can
break into top government and military sites, so too can
government-backed teams, proving that [2]GhostNet and Stuxnet are just
the beginning."
Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2137250/Compromised-Government-and-Military-Sites-For-Sale?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://blog.imperva.com/2011/01/major-websites-govmiledu-are-hacked-and-up-for-sale.html
1. http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/01/ready-for-cyberwar/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GhostNet
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ballmer Says 90% of Chinese Users Pirate Software
| from the forty-two-percent-also-make-up-statistics dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @17:32 (Microsoft)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2217248/Ballmer-Says-90-of-Chinese-Users-Pirate-Software?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jbrodkin writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used the official state
visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao as an opportunity to complain that
[0]90% of Microsoft software users in China didn't pay for the products.
The comments were part of a discussion with Barack Obama and the Chinese
president about intellectual property protection. According to a [1]White
House transcript, Obama said in a press conference that 'we were just in
a meeting with business leaders, and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft pointed
out that their estimate is that only 1 customer in every 10 of their
products is actually paying for it in China.' Obama didn't detail any
specific measures the US and China would take to help Microsoft and other
vendors fighting software piracy. 'The Chinese government has, to its
credit, taken steps to better enforce intellectual property,' Obama said.
'We've got further agreement as a consequence of this state visit. And I
think President Hu would acknowledge that more needs to be done.'
Microsoft did not say how it calculated the statistic that 90% of Chinese
users aren't paying for Microsoft software."
Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2217248/Ballmer-Says-90-of-Chinese-Users-Pirate-Software?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/012111-ballmer-hu-china-software-piracy.html?hpg1=bn
1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/19/press-conference-president-obama-and-president-hu-peoples-republic-china
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Graphene Won't Replace Silicon In CPUs, Says IBM
| from the job-security-to-die-for dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, @18:15 (IBM)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2239200/Graphene-Wont-Replace-Silicon-In-CPUs-Says-IBM?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
arcticstoat writes "IBM has revealed that graphene can't fully replace
silicon inside CPUs, as a graphene transistor can't actually be
completely switched off. In an interview, Yu-Ming Lin from IBM Research
(Nanometer Scale Science and Technology) explained that 'graphene as it
is [0]will not replace the role of silicon in the digital computing
regime.' Last year, IBM demonstrated a graphene transistor running at
100GHz, while researchers at UCLA produced a graphene transistor with a
[1]cut-off frequency of 300GHz, prompting predictions of silicon marching
towards its demise, making way for a graphene-based future with 1THz
CPUs. However, Lin says, 'there is an important distinction between the
graphene transistors that we demonstrated and the transistors used in a
CPU. Unlike silicon, graphene does not have an energy gap, and therefore,
graphene cannot be "switched off," resulting in a small on/off ratio.'
That said, Lin also pointed out that graphene 'may complement silicon in
the form of a hybrid circuit to enrich the functionality of computer
chips.' He gives the example of RF circuits, which aren't dependent on a
large on/off ratio."
Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/01/21/2239200/Graphene-Wont-Replace-Silicon-In-CPUs-Says-IBM?from=newsletter#commentlisting
Links:
0. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/01/21/ibm-graphene-wont-replace-silicon-cpus/1
1. http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/devices/ucla-builds-fastest-graphene-transistor-yet
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