Slashdot Mirror

SatanIsHere writes: "A memo (here, here, here, and here) dated September 19th, 2002 from the Department of the Interior's Acting CIO notes the new policy of a "Department-wide standard for computer operating systems (desktop and server)" Of course the good news is that this will herald a new era in government transparancy for the Department of the Interior. SatanIsHere Continues: "On September 13, 2002, the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget signed the attached Findings and Determination establishing Microsoft Corporation's enterprise desktop and server software as the Department-wide standard for computer operating systems (desktop and server), office automation, and asset management software.... Benefits of establishing this new Department-wide standard include:

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership for the desktop, including lower user training costs.
• Centralized and efficient security policy administration
• Greater flexibility and management functionality from products that offer a broader range of management solutions that integrate with non-Microsoft environments
• Greater productivity and reliability attributed to less downtime.
• Extended support for a large base of software applications.

Business specific application software requirements (such as Sun/Solaris, IBM, AIX, etc.) outside the established Microsoft standard may be addressed through the OCIO waiver process."

This looks to freeze out an entire Federal Department (70,000+ employees) from non-Microsoft solutions, requiring a "waiver" to use anything non-MS. One more step to complete Microsoft World Domination. This is particularly ironic considering the problems DOI has had recently regarding IT security. If this isn't leveraging a desktop monopoly into other areas I don't know what is. :-P"

sdmartin101 writes "The BBC is carrying a story on the economic costs (to the obvious candidates like Internet cafes, and others) of the Chinese government's vigorous Internet filtering program. The story also includes a brief interview with the head of Safeweb, an organization which helps users circumvent governmental censorship on the Web."

lewiz writes "Over at BBC News they have an update on the MIT initiative to give away all course material for free over the Internet that we read about on Slashdot quite a while ago. The full story details how they are doing it in the hopes that other Universities will follow suit. This seems an amazing thing considering the more recent moves toward pay-per-use services but definitely a good thing and I wish them the best of luck. The only question I see is whether or not this will help in the way of "official qualifications" - what if we know a large portion of a certain course... how do we go about proving it?"

lewiz writes "Over at BBC News they have an update on the MIT initiative to give away all course material for free over the Internet that we read about on Slashdot quite a while ago. The full story details how they are doing it in the hopes that other Universities will follow suit. This seems an amazing thing considering the more recent moves toward pay-per-use services but definitely a good thing and I wish them the best of luck. The only question I see is whether or not this will help in the way of "official qualifications" - what if we know a large portion of a certain course... how do we go about proving it?"

babycakes writes "The BBC has an article about the concealment of mobile phone antennae in the UK, where the masts have been disguised as clock face hands, chimneys and so on. The company behind them, The Undetectables (flash site) aim to 'eradicate this architectural acne' - pics available."

babycakes writes "The BBC has an article about the concealment of mobile phone antennae in the UK, where the masts have been disguised as clock face hands, chimneys and so on. The company behind them, The Undetectables (flash site) aim to 'eradicate this architectural acne' - pics available."

Mr]-[at writes "Nokie "has condemned as theft the placing of chalk symbols on walls and pavements at places where people can use wireless net access."" Ok I guess if you wanna be technical about it ;)

Izeickl writes "The BBC is reporting Here about scientists in the Cern particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland have mass produced over 50,000 atoms allowing them to test basic Physics using them, however "Harvard physicist Gerald Gabrielse said: "Our long experience with these very difficult experiments warns that antihydrogen may not have really been produced.""

tonywestonuk writes "The Beeb are reporting that The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series will be made into a Hollywood Movie. Apparently they are getting some other script writer to finish off Douglas Adams' final installment (I pessimistically wonder how awful this will make it.). It seems a shame that Hollywood had to wait until his death before they took him seriously...."

evilocity writes "A BBC story reports that scientists are now using satellite radar to study earthquakes and fault lines, gathering more data than was ever before possible. Already the findings are challenging current theories, but the practical goal of course is earthquake forecasting."

phich65 writes "People could soon be sending e-mail from the hillsides, roadsides and rooftops of the south Wales valleys with the expansion of Europe's densest wireless internet network. See this BBC story for details."

AlfaNatic writes "Seems like a new company has developed the technology to turn a cellular network into a peer-to-peer network. Soon you'll be able to share music and files off of your cell. Gotta love it!"

jukal writes "An article at BBC about the UK's DNA database as a privacy threat. 'More than 1.5 million DNA profiles are now held on the £187m National DNA Database and the target is to have about three million profiles stored by April 2004. '... this has alarmed the inventor of DNA fingerprinting (Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys), who has now 'launched an outspoken attack on the way the genetic profiles of suspects in the UK who have been cleared of any crime are still stored by the authorities'."

jukal writes "An article at BBC about the UK's DNA database as a privacy threat. 'More than 1.5 million DNA profiles are now held on the £187m National DNA Database and the target is to have about three million profiles stored by April 2004. '... this has alarmed the inventor of DNA fingerprinting (Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys), who has now 'launched an outspoken attack on the way the genetic profiles of suspects in the UK who have been cleared of any crime are still stored by the authorities'."

HobbySpacer writes: "The BBC reports that waste CO2 from methane extraction in the North Sea has been succesfully pumped back into the pourous sandstone beneath the ocean for the past 6 years without any signs of leaking. Carbon sequestration techniques like this are looking increasingly practical. CO2 is being pumped back into depleted oil fields, where it also helps extract remaining oil deposits, and into coalseams. The ocean is the biggest natural bank of CO2 but tests of ocean sequestration in Hawaii and Norway have been blocked by environmentalists who hate this kind of quick fix approach to the CO2 problem. But with developing countries like India and China certain to rely on their large coal reserves, sequestration may be the only realistic approach to reducing their CO2 output. An Economist article discusses currently available steam reformation technology that could allow a coal plant to output power and neatly separated CO2 and hydrogen. The non-polluting hydrogen is then available for cars with fuel cells while the CO2 is stuffed away."

tetrad writes "The BBC reports that a new object has been discovered orbiting Earth. It's possible that it's just a piece of space junk, but more likely it is a rock that has been recently (in the last year) captured by our planet's gravitational field. If the object is confirmed to be natural, this would be Earth's third moon. (Did you know there were two already?)" Here's our earlier mention of Earth's alleged second moon. Update: 09/12 04:52 GMT by T : Reader cscx adds a link to an article running on space.com which says this newfound object may be some trash from the Apollo missions.

Slashback is loaded with updates to recent (and not-recent) Slashdot postings. More opportunity to hot-rod your Dreamcast with an ethernet adapter, continuing seed-patent madness, more stolen moon rock, an update to Chrisd's favorite MP3 player and more, all below.

Not a paperweight. 13Echo writes: "CSI, the manufacturer of the Dreamcast broadband adapter, is extending its reservations option by another week. They wish to meet a goal of 1,000 units before production will start. A rough Babelfish translation can be found here. This device is very beneficial in Dreamcast home-brew software development, and is also supported in the various Linux and BSD distributions on the Dreamcast. It is available for pre-order from this page at NCSX, or other import shops at a price of US $49.00. If any other Slashdotters are interested, now is the last time that we will be able to get one of these things. I've already placed my order with NCSX."

How about sell moon bits to sponsor the trips up there? Anonymous Coward points to this AP report which begins: "Four grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Sweden, a museum official said."

Will the stolen moon rock madness ever end?

The race is on, Apple. SailorBob writes "The NexII got good reviews on slashdot (Review: Nex II CF MP3 Player) a while back and now a newer version named the NexIIe is shipping. Some nice functionality has been added such as drawing power from the usb while copying files and being able to hook to an external AC adapter. They've also told me via e-mail that they're considering adding Ogg Vorbis support, which wouldn't be a problem after the fact since the player can be updated for new formats with a firmware update."

Graphomania has a name, and it is Orson. Binestar writes "Author Orson Scott Card has released his latest book, Shadow Puppets. As usual, the first 3 chapters are available online. He's definitely one of my favorite authors."

Just kidding, folks -- just kidding. Afraid to play video games in Greece? Elonka indicates this BBC story (Court Allows Greek gamers to play on), excerpting: "In reference to the recent law enacted in Greece which bans all computer games, a court in northern Greece today threw out the case against two internet cafe owners who were arrested for allowing clientele to play Counter-Strike and online chess. The court said the law was unconstitutional."

Monsanto should invest in helicopters and lawyers for a whole new revenue stream. dwprice writes "A Saskatchewan farmer loses a patent infringement case when it turns out patented canola is growing in his fields and he didn't pay for it. He claims it blew into his field." When this farmer, Percy Schmeiser, lost the first round, I figured it was a simple lapse of sanity and would be overturned on appeal. No such luck.

Best TV news I've heard in a while. Masem writes "Offical word has been announced that Futurama will be shows on Cartoon Network (most likely as part of the Adult Swim Comedy block) starting in Jan 2003, according to Cartoon Reasearch. No indication of new episodes, but CN will have all 72 episodes that have been made."

Mr Natural writes "The BBC are reporting that the great firewall of china has blocked a second seach engine, AtlaVista.com, only a week after google was blocked. Here is the article."

Richard Bown writes "Continuing their current trend of only giving you half the story the BBC have this article on how fair and equitable Microsoft are these days. No mention of EULA changes."

Circuit Breaker writes "A short history of Aimster: Got noticed by the RIAA, lost their domain name to AOL, changed their name to Madster. More recently, a preliminary injunction has been issued against them, according to BBC News and Associated Press. Who's next?" Aimster declared bankruptcy months ago, so this is really a formality: beating a dead horse.

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports how a newly developed AI system 'learns' your playing behavior and can even play for you when its time to take out the garbage or do other non-essential things around the house. My only question is if it could even learn to bs for me on those laggy starcraft 3v3 games."

Boojum137 writes " ExtremeTech has an article on a robotic wedding photographer named Lewis. Lewis's hardware stats are modest, so he uses a clever trick to locate people based on skin tone, which is also independent of race. After locating potential subjects with a myriad of sensors, including sonar, laser range finders, and infra-red, he tries to frame the shot according to photographic rules of composition. But the real innovation behind this "red trashcan" is its ability to fade into the background. According to Lewis's creators at Washington University's Media and Machines lab, because of the robot's passive nature, people tend to ignore it after short period of ogling. This allows for some great natural shots, instead of the typical forced and self-conscious shots from human wedding photographers. And, in case you were wondering, Lewis is going to live up to his name in November."

infonography notes that the "BBC is reporting about using tattoos to monitor the state of a diabetics' health. While TV's the Invisible Man series had this, this is actually real. Designed by Gerard Cote, of Texas A&M University they are made of polyethylene glycol beads that are coated with fluorescent molecules. Likely this will start to change the attitudes of parents who have been resisting the urging of their kids to get Tattoos."

Junior Barns writes "This article on the BBC News site reports on the development of a robot that imitates primitive life forms. This project led by researchers from the robotic life group at the MIT media lab is intended to study how people will try to interact with and relate to an "alien" creature that seems organic but is not anthropomorphic. Let's just hope no one tries to kill and eat it."

Junior Barns writes "This article on the BBC News site reports on the development of a robot that imitates primitive life forms. This project led by researchers from the robotic life group at the MIT media lab is intended to study how people will try to interact with and relate to an "alien" creature that seems organic but is not anthropomorphic. Let's just hope no one tries to kill and eat it."

dankelley writes: "The BBC is reporting that the European Space Agency has successfully launched the first of a new generation of weather satellites. This is 25 years after the first weather satellite, meteosat. This new generation will supply images at 15 minutes, compared with 30 minutes in the first generation. This should help with rapidly-developing weather events. Also, the 'view' will be in 12, rather than 3, visible/IR wavelength bands. The improved spectral resolution is hoped to facilitate climate modelling. Details are available on the ESA webpage devoted to the launch."

redcliffe writes "The BBC has a story about a 14 year old North Yorkshire girl who was hit, on the foot, by a meteorite. Where's Bruce Willis when you need him?" The young Miss Carlton notes: "This does not happen that often in Northallerton"; no doubt the City of York is where most meteorites land.

EyesWideOpen writes "Scientists preparing for Nasa's next Mars mission have created a website to help them choose potential landing sites on Mars. Marsoweb enables scientists to view more than 44,000 high-resolution images of the red planet; the images combine all the available data about the surface of Mars."

simoncito writes "Ever wondered where that old useless printer ended up? BBC has a photo report about chinese villagers building ramshackle systems out of used and discarded first world computer parts. The effects on their surroundings are drastic - I never knew hardware was so poisonous." Worth a look if you aren't desensitized to suffering. Anyone know the proper way to dispose of a monitor?

Albanach writes: "According to this story from the BBC bids are being invited to lay a fibre-optic cable some 1600 kilometres over polar ice, linking researchers at the South Pole with the rest of the planet. Currently, researcher's communications rely upon older satellites that have drifted from their geostationary orbits into ones that are now at least partly visible from the pole. The new cable will be laid on top of the 4km ice cap, and will have to cope with repeated freezing and stretching as the ice moves."

Spudley writes "It seems like the infamous Region Encoding system used by DVD manufacturers to prevent us buying disks from overseas is about to collapse - due to widespread flaunting of the system. This article on the BBC doesn't go into much technical detail, but does include an interview with a company that manufactures DVD players ("You can find codes for more or less all brands of DVD player including ours") and some speculation on the future." It always seemed like an idea destined to fail.

RedPhoenix writes "A few friends & I got together this morning to visit the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication station open day, just outside of Canberra Australia. One of the NASA team mentioned that there have been indications early this morning (AESTime) of a contact with the 'Contour' probe, that has been reported to have broken in two. Perhaps some cause for optimism? The most interesting part of the day though, was probably the little old wooden crate out the back of one of the warehouses, stamped with 'NASA Voyager 1 Mission' ... Now that would look nice as a geek coffee-table."

nobilid writes: "Well-meaning wireless activists have caught the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of its agents has issued a warning about the popular practice of using chalk marks to show the location of wireless networks."

linuxwrangler writes: "According to this article in the SF Chronicle, NASA lost contact with the Comet Nucleus Tour ('Contour') satellite just after firing engines to boost it out of orbit. The spacecraft was launched July 3 with the mission to probe comet Encke in 2003, Schwassman-Wachmann 3 in 2006 and perhaps d'Arrest in 2008. NASA is calculating possible trajectories in an attempt to search for and contact the probe. Let's hope they regain contact/control. This sounded like a cool project." Liquor adds: "The BBC has a report that indicates that the launch window for the $159M spacecraft closes tomorrow. If it hasn't successfully fired the engine by then, it can't make the planned mission."

Mattygfunk writes "Hong Kong has launched what's believed to be Asia's first location-based service which enables companies to locate their employees via their mobile phones signals." And in a semi-related story, Son-of-a-Geek writes "The BBC is reporting on a new GPS device for kids from Wherify Wireless. With the new device parents can track junior or he can call for help by pushing a panic button. Available only in the US for one penny less than 400 dollars it is a pager as well."

Mattygfunk writes "Hong Kong has launched what's believed to be Asia's first location-based service which enables companies to locate their employees via their mobile phones signals." And in a semi-related story, Son-of-a-Geek writes "The BBC is reporting on a new GPS device for kids from Wherify Wireless. With the new device parents can track junior or he can call for help by pushing a panic button. Available only in the US for one penny less than 400 dollars it is a pager as well."

The Linuxworld Expo is now in full swing, and there's a variety of news. The BBC has an overview. Microsoft has a booth at the Expo in the section intended for "new, up-and-coming companies". Sun is rolling out servers running Linux. And VA Software - Slashdot's owner - is moving Sourceforge.net to IBM's database software.

JimPooley writes "The European Space Agency are conducting a feasibility study into a future mission to knock an asteroid off course. A Spanish company are planning the 'Don Quixote' mission to launch a pair of spacecraft at an asteroid. One hits the asteroid, while the other monitors it to see what happens."

seldo writes "The BBC is carrying a story about a funky-looking robotic hand with the full range of 24 hand movements (NASA's best effort so far has 12, apparently). It's supposed to be for the disabled, although a spokesman for the British Council of Disabled People points out that everyday tasks are not really what the disabled need help with anymore. I just want one to play with :-)" Update: 08/08 17:58 GMT by T : You may be reminded of the DIY robot head from several months ago -- a perfect match?

seldo writes "The BBC is carrying a story about a funky-looking robotic hand with the full range of 24 hand movements (NASA's best effort so far has 12, apparently). It's supposed to be for the disabled, although a spokesman for the British Council of Disabled People points out that everyday tasks are not really what the disabled need help with anymore. I just want one to play with :-)" Update: 08/08 17:58 GMT by T : You may be reminded of the DIY robot head from several months ago -- a perfect match?

corleth writes "The BBC reports that a NASA spacecraft has begun its second phase of collecting interstellar dust grains to be returned to Earth in 2006 for analysis. In 2004, Stardust will rendezvous with comet Wild 2 to collect gas and dust. This will make it the first mission since the Apollo programme to collect and return materials from an extra-terrestrial body. The JPL press release can be found here." The Aerogel that they're using is nifty stuff.

rob.sharp writes: "The BBC have some history lessons for wireless networks ...", pointing to an article about a wireless phone service called Rabbit, which relied on access areas similar in concept to the WiFi "hot spots" ISPs and business are experimenting with around the globe right now. ("Subscribers to the service, backed by Hutchison Whampoa, could make mobile calls when they were within 100 metres of a Rabbit transmitter.") Rabbit didn't work out well, though, and the article questions whether 802.11 access providers can do any better.

Slashback tonight with a larger passel than usual of updates, corrections, clarifications, etc. -- among them, Boeing's reaction to anti-gravity hype, the sad truth about one man's powerline data-delivery claims, and the steady climb of the Blender Fund's money meter.

Next they'll tell us they're not involved with Areas 51-63! Louis_Wu writes: "Space.com says that Boeing isn't really working on Anti-Gravity, regardless of previous news from the the BBC or Jane's Defence. It seems that the rumors spread because some people in Boeing were thinking of developing a relationship with the Russian scientist who did anti-grav research a few years ago, Dr. Evgeny Podkletnov.

Boeing spokesman:

'The recent report that we are [involved in anti-grav research] is based on a misinterpretation of information. For instance, GRASP is not a codename for a current project but rather an acronym for a presentation entitled "Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion," in which a Boeing engineer explains Podkletnov's theory and proposes that we should continue to monitor this work and perhaps even conduct some low-cost experiments to further assess its plausibility. No steps have been taken beyond this point by Boeing.'

Jane's also mentions theorized weapons 'capable of producing a beam of "gravity-like" energy that can exert an instantaneous force of 1,000g [1000 Gravities, not grams] on any object -- enough, in principle, to vaporise it, especially if the object is moving at high speed.'

Don't tell Einstein. :)"

And here's the part where I skip town. Planetes writes "The Florida Times Union (Jacksonville, FL) has an interesting article about a lab testing company that has discounted his claims about some technology previously discussed on /.

Personal favorite paragraph:

'Lawyers for the company, Intertek Testing Services, discounted almost every aspect of a three-page letter that appears to validate an invention that sends high-speed data over electrical power lines. The letter is addressed to Madison Priest, a St. Augustine man whose disputed communications technologies were the subject of a sweeping Times-Union investigation this year.'"

Not at all what he said. knorthern knight writes: "Crow tastes icky, but here goes. Since I submitted the original citing about the story in The Register, ISPAI have sent a polite note to me. Here it is ...

Subject: ISPAI Reaction on HT News Item dated 27th July '02

Dear Sir,

This is in reference to the front page news article by the Hindustan Times dtd: 27/07/02. Mr Amitabh Singhal, Secretary, ISPAI has denied having made any statements favoring blocking of sites by Indian ISPs.

In reply to Mr. Singhal's letter to Hindustan Times,(copy enclosed) the HT has released the following news clipping at today's news paper http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/01 0802/detECO07.shtml

This is for your informaton and necessary action please.

With regards,

Puneet Tiwari Sr. Executive -ISPAI"

Behind every horde of enemy attackers are the people who thought them up. Anonymous Coward writes "I've finally posted the game binaries and source code to the Indie Game Jam games. The Indie Game Jam is a yearly game design and programming event designed to encourage experimentation and innovation in the game industry. 14 professional game developers created 12 experimental and innovative games in 4 days! The source to the engine and all the game code is GPLed on SourceForge, so enjoy. Remember, they're experimental and a bit rough, not commercial quality games."

One Blender you can buy for forever. kabir writes "The Blender Fund is up around 65K Euro right now... so close, yet still so far! This would be a great time for anyone who was on the fence about donating (wondering if the fund would make it, etc.) to pitch in and help put us over the top." Here's our previous story about this effort to liberate the Blender source. Does anyone have a business which might see a donation here as a good long-term investment?

Buggernut writes "Researchers from King's College in London have found that boys who have a particular version of a gene are much more likely to go off the rails if they suffer maltreatment when young." MAO breaks down a whole class of brain-affecting chemicals, and MAO inhibitors are commonly used to treat depression (but are known to produce mood swings and violence). So if you have a genetic predisposition to low levels of MAO, your resistance to various mood-altering chemicals is lowered. You ever get the feeling that we're tinkering with a hugely complex system and observing only one or two of the most pronounced effects?

murk1e writes "The BBC News service has an article which reveals that the Earth is getting fatter. It is well known that the Earth is slightly wider at the equator than at the poles, it is less well known that for years, the Earth has been becoming more spherical. Now it appears that the trend has reversed, and the Earth is getting more obese (in the sense of shape change rather than changing mass). Perhaps the Earth should sue?"

murk1e writes "The BBC News service has an article which reveals that the Earth is getting fatter. It is well known that the Earth is slightly wider at the equator than at the poles, it is less well known that for years, the Earth has been becoming more spherical. Now it appears that the trend has reversed, and the Earth is getting more obese (in the sense of shape change rather than changing mass). Perhaps the Earth should sue?"

murk1e writes "The BBC News service has an article which reveals that the Earth is getting fatter. It is well known that the Earth is slightly wider at the equator than at the poles, it is less well known that for years, the Earth has been becoming more spherical. Now it appears that the trend has reversed, and the Earth is getting more obese (in the sense of shape change rather than changing mass). Perhaps the Earth should sue?"

murk1e writes "The BBC News service has an article which reveals that the Earth is getting fatter. It is well known that the Earth is slightly wider at the equator than at the poles, it is less well known that for years, the Earth has been becoming more spherical. Now it appears that the trend has reversed, and the Earth is getting more obese (in the sense of shape change rather than changing mass). Perhaps the Earth should sue?"

prester writes "The BBC has an article on an Australian exhibit on its way to the UK about the nasty creatures of prehistoric Australia. Among them the 3m high carnivorous "Demon Duck of Doom" and the "drop croc," a crocodile that was believe to drop out of trees on its victims. And there were people living there at the same time as these things. Yikes!"

prester writes "The BBC has an article on an Australian exhibit on its way to the UK about the nasty creatures of prehistoric Australia. Among them the 3m high carnivorous "Demon Duck of Doom" and the "drop croc," a crocodile that was believe to drop out of trees on its victims. And there were people living there at the same time as these things. Yikes!"