Slashdot Mirror

theodp writes "It came as no surprise to Tim O'Reilly that Nielsen BuzzMetrics found 'Web 2.0' the most cited Wikipedia article of the year (as measured by blog mentions). After all, says Tim, 'the Wikipedia article on Web 2.0 is indeed pretty darn good.' IIRC, the Web 2.0 Trademark Scandal was also good for a citation or two. BTW, the material in the article crediting O'Reilly & Co. with originating the term 'Web 2.0' was first contributed by '209.204.147.33', which is coincidentally an O'Reilly IP address."

theodp writes "Microsoft said you could count on them to improve patent quality. For an example of how they're raising the bar on innovation, check out this just-published patent application for Emotiflags, which Microsoft explains solves the problem of indicating an emotion associated with an email message. At the risk of infringing on the patent, this one Makes Me Mad!"

Verunks writes "Parallels has released a new beta of its virtualization product for Mac OS X. This new release includes one major new feature, something Parallels calls Coherency: "Shows Windows applications as if they were Mac ones. Try it and enjoy best of both worlds truly at the same time. No more switching between Windows to Mac OS." Check out this Screenshot" More interesting to me is the Boot Camp support so you can have a single partition to run IE7 in Parallels to test compatibility of a website but reboot to play video games that need a little more juice.

E IS mC(Square) writes "Opera Mini 3.0 is out of beta. The feature list includes RSS integration, a user-interface geared towards mobile devices and small screen size, and it's fast for relatively slower mobile data connections (with picture upload/sharing if you are into it). Requirement for using it: You must have a phone capable of running Java mobile applications and are using an Internet connection (officially supported devices are listed)."

eastbayted writes "A man from Berkeley, Calif. had his cell phone swiped. Soon after, the ShoZu starting uploading pictures to his Flickr account taken by the thieves — for the world to see. There's one of an unidentified woman eating something chocolatey, and a couple of either a chihuahua or a large rat. Seems this guy had installed some software on his phone to automatically perform those photo uploads, and whoever took his phone didn't realize it That's his story, anyway ... some people doubt it. He's a Yahoo employee. Yahoo owns Flickr. This is all pretty good PR for the photo site, no? He claims: 'People assume I'm doing it for self-promotion, marketing, a hoax or something like that. I'm talking to you because I want it to be known that it's not a hoax. I'm just too ordinary. I'm just too unclever for that.'" Update: 09/02 05:48 GMT by Z : Made the quote more obvious.

eastbayted writes "A man from Berkeley, Calif. had his cell phone swiped. Soon after, the ShoZu starting uploading pictures to his Flickr account taken by the thieves — for the world to see. There's one of an unidentified woman eating something chocolatey, and a couple of either a chihuahua or a large rat. Seems this guy had installed some software on his phone to automatically perform those photo uploads, and whoever took his phone didn't realize it That's his story, anyway ... some people doubt it. He's a Yahoo employee. Yahoo owns Flickr. This is all pretty good PR for the photo site, no? He claims: 'People assume I'm doing it for self-promotion, marketing, a hoax or something like that. I'm talking to you because I want it to be known that it's not a hoax. I'm just too ordinary. I'm just too unclever for that.'" Update: 09/02 05:48 GMT by Z : Made the quote more obvious.

An anonymous reader writes "With the Apple WWDC looming on Monday, the internet once again beats itself silly over what Steve Jobs has in store. At the most fanciful end of the scale, there's talk of the Apple iPhone, to which CNET says, 'keep on dreaming', and Gizmodo says, 'no visible evidence'. The only solid evidence of an iPhone, beyond the endless mocked-up images, is the discovery of hidden phone-related code in a recent iPod updater. Macrumors has some info on what the keynote may contain -- and there's no mention of an iPhone. So, as the rumor mill continues to grind over the weekend, let the predictions begin. Is there an Apple iPhone, or is there not?"

Simon Clement writes "Decided to add to the Apple product line with the iPod Hi-Fi mini. Here's the web page detailing its features, and there's also a link to a Flickr set showing how to build your own."

eobanb writes "The Yahoo-owned photo sharing site Flickr has come under fire recently for the perceived 'lock-in' that their API creates. Flickr's terms of service state clearly that all photos uploaded to Flickr by users are owned by their respective users, yet Flickr's API only allows uploading, not exporting. Surprisingly, Flickr developer Stewart Butterfield posted in the thread on Flickr: "I actually had a change of heart and was convinced by Eric's position that we definitely should approve requests from direct competitors as long as they do the same. That means (a) that they need to have a full and complete API and (b) be willing to give us access." This means that users will soon be able to freely move data between different photo-sharing sites, like Zooomr (which has already implemented the Flickr API), Google PicasaWeb, 23hq, or Tabblo."

boarder8925 writes "According to CNET, Congress has set its sights on 'the purported problem of violent and sexually explicit video games.... A U.S. House of Representatives committee on consumer protection says it will hold a hearing on the topic later this month, with a focus on 'informing parents and protecting children' from the alleged dangers of those types of games.' " The article goes on to describe seven bills under consideration that either attach fines to the sales of Mature titles to children, or study "the effect of electronic media on youths." Five of them are sponsored by Democrats.

theodp writes "On May 16, the USPTO notified CMP Media, which co-presents the Web 2.0 Conference with O'Reilly, that its trademark for Web 2.0 was entitled to be registered. Eight days later, CMP sicced its lawyers on not-for-profit IT@Cork, taking the networking organization to task for not only using the term Web 2.0 for its free conference, but also for linking to a What is Web 2.0 article penned by Tim O'Reilly." It should be noted that their trademark only applies to the titles of industry events (CMP is a show organizer).

An anonymous reader noted that MITs $100 laptop was unveiled at the Seven Countries Task Force Meeting. It runs a special version of the Fedora linux and it comes with native wireless lan support. You can see the photo album, and you can pledge to buy one at triple price... in order to donate 2 of them to children.

Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories including the Supreme Court declines Falwell's appeal, GP2X now shipping in the US, a new version of Systrace released, Lessig and Stallman look back at Sun's OpenDRM, NASA jumps on the anti-matter propulsion bandwagon, GoDaddy donates $10,000 to OpenSSH, Ellison explains why he would NOT acquire Novell or Red Hat, and pictures of the Ball State wireless 'sculpture' -- Read on for details.

The Supreme Court declines Falwell's Appeal. yEvb0 writes "The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Jerry Falwell, who claims that "gripe site" http://www.fallwell.com/ infringes on his trademark by luring surfers away from his own site. Despite winning a case in federal court, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Falwell last year and said that operator Christopher Lamparello was free to operate his site about Falwell's views on gays because he 'clearly created his Web site intending only to provide a forum to criticize ideas, not to steal customers.'"

GP2X now shipping in the US. An anonymous reader writes "The Gamepark GP2X, a Linux-based handheld gaming platform that runs native and emulated games, is now shipping in the US, according to LinuxDevices. The device can reportedly run more than a thousand classic arcade games, through open-source console game emulators such as MAME, SNES, Genesis, and PC Engine. It has a 3.5-inch QVGA (320x240) color TFT LCD screen, and includes a media player supporting MPEG, JPEG, and MP3 formats."

New version of Systrace released. Niels writes "I just recently released a new version of Systrace that runs on Linux without requiring any kernel patches. I termed it the Phoenix release because it has been almost three years since I did any work on Systrace. However, I finally had the need to do some sandboxing on Linux without being able to change the kernel. So, voila, after a few late nights, here we go: Systrace for Linux using a ptrace back end."

Lessig and Stallman look back at Sun's OpenDRM. H4x0r Jim Duggan writes "The Register has an excellent article featuring Lessig and Stallman on 'Open Source' DRM. The spark for the article came from comments made about Sun's 'OpenDRM' by Lessig which were not wholly negative and were interpreted by some as an endorsement. Lessig clarifies: 'There's no disagreement about where we should end up - No DRM.'"

NASA jumps on the anti-matter propulsion bandwagon. steveo777 writes "NASA has an interesting read about creating yet another form of rocket propulsion. They plan on using Anti-electrons (positrons) combine with normal electrons to release enough energy to fuel the way to Mars and back. Its byproduct will be lower energy gamma radiation. From the article, '"Our advanced designs, like the gas core and the ablative engine concepts, could take astronauts to Mars in half that time, and perhaps even in as little as 45 days," said Kirby Meyer, an engineer with Positronics Research on the study.'"

GoDaddy donates $10,000 to OpenSSH. wcbrown writes "Go Daddy has donated $10,000 to the OpenSSH project, which is apparently used extensively within the company." This is another great donation in what hopefully will continue to be a trend within the community. No word on when the blinking will stop.

Ellison explains why he would NOT acquire Novell or Red Hat. Robert writes to tell us CBROnline is reporting that a recent statement by Larry Ellison covered so extensively in the news regarding speculation about why Oracle might be "planning to buy Novell or Red Hat" may have been a little off base. The full transcript of his interview with the FT is illuminating precisely because it reveals why the company would NOT acquire either Novell or Red Hat, and - apparently - why the company did not buy JBoss.

Pictures of the Ball State Wireless 'sculpture'. popeguilty writes "Slashdot readers may recall the story about the Wireless 'Sculpture' at Ball State University. The artwork is up and running, and I've got a few pictures posted for general consumption."

jeffb writes "I just finished a DIY project and thought you guys would enjoy a look. An improved upon idea: a redux of the wireless guitar hero controller, this time with perfectly functioning whammy bar, rechargeable NiMH pack onboard which can be charged from the PS2's built-in USB ports (for charging, and/or playing while docked), wireless link/activity indicator, and assembled with a nod towards a clean, and professional looking job. Complete how-to with parts list included. Best regards, rock out, and happy soldering! " The original piece on this as well.

jeffb writes "I just finished a DIY project and thought you guys would enjoy a look. An improved upon idea: a redux of the wireless guitar hero controller, this time with perfectly functioning whammy bar, rechargeable NiMH pack onboard which can be charged from the PS2's built-in USB ports (for charging, and/or playing while docked), wireless link/activity indicator, and assembled with a nod towards a clean, and professional looking job. Complete how-to with parts list included. Best regards, rock out, and happy soldering! " The original piece on this as well.

jeffb writes "I just finished a DIY project and thought you guys would enjoy a look. An improved upon idea: a redux of the wireless guitar hero controller, this time with perfectly functioning whammy bar, rechargeable NiMH pack onboard which can be charged from the PS2's built-in USB ports (for charging, and/or playing while docked), wireless link/activity indicator, and assembled with a nod towards a clean, and professional looking job. Complete how-to with parts list included. Best regards, rock out, and happy soldering! " The original piece on this as well.

VonGuard writes "The ACCRC is the relatively famous computer recycling non-profit in Berkeley that builds clusters out of old hardware. Make Blog has an article about the Center's plans to build a cluster out of the equipment people bring to recycle at Make Faire later this month. The ACCRC geeks are now able to integrate PII's or better into the cluster, which will be powered by Vegetable Oil and run Parallel Knoppix."

boarder8925 writes "An MIT student accused of copyright infringement has been documenting her struggles with the RIAA. Upon trying to negotiate her settlement, a representative told her that "the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.""

Brill writes "Ars Technica is reporting that a member of the 'WinXP on Mac' forums called narf2006 may have succeeded at the impossible. He's submitted his solution to get XP on an Intel Mac, for the $12,000 prize, but for now the only proof available is a blurry Flickr collection of photos that could be faked with virtual PC. His reputation on the forums however is strong, and he's already calling for testers." We've had people write in to say this has been announced a hoax on the contest page. The contest page is, of course, down due to bandwidth reasons. Engadget's conversation about this announcement has several theories on how this may have been faked. What's the verdict? Real or Fake?

Fennie writes "Designtechnica has published their 2006 Best of Web 2.0 list. Some of the sites include Flickr.com, Vimeo.com and Writeboard.com. From the piece: 'The next generation of the web is here! With new kinds of desktop-like applications being released left and right, how will you know where to go and what to use? That's why we're here: To show you the best of Web 2.0 sites that you can get the most out of. No matter the task, video, audio, or photos, we have a site that works great for what you want to do and uses all the great features of Web 2.0 technology.'"

Jerry23 writes "This Saturday The Happening will bring Second Life to first life. The Electric Sheep Company, a new metaverse developer, has virtually recreated R&B Coffee in Washington DC for use in a mixed-reality party and benefit for the DC art scene and several local nonprofits. Real people will mingle with avatars via realtime video projections in the real and virtual R&B spaces, and MAKE Magazine's Phillip Torrone will be on-hand showing off his homemade Virtual Reality headsets and gloves. The whole world is invited to attend in DC or Second Life, whichever's closer for you." This is just conceptually a weird idea to me.

prostoalex writes "Joshua Schachter, a Wall Street programmer by day, and a del.icio.us hacker by night, is interviewed by Guardian. The article also provides a little background story on del.icio.us, how it got started, and how Schachter convinced Stewart Butterfield of Flickr to add tagging to the photo sharing site. Both del.icio.us and Flickr are currently members of the Yahoo! family."

ptorrone writes "We podcasted live, we posted over 100 photos real time via a WiFi camera + EVDO as we walked around and now we've picked the top 5 products we liked the most at Macworld San Fran 2006. It's safe to say our picks aren't likely to be the same ones you'll see in the usual "best of" lists. We gave top marks to products, services and software that we think fit the "Maker" mindset - technology on your time and a bit of news from the future... Here they are..."

Doug writes "An enterprising hardware guy known as JavaMoose on Flickr has created an amazing case mod for his iPod by modifying an old Geiger counter to house the iPod and remote. The photos are up on Flickr with descriptions along the way. Very cool, if a little big to fit in ones pocket"

Barry Norton writes "The Guardian has quite an insightful article about recent Yahoo acquisitions Delicious and Flickr. They quote Joshua Schachter, Delicious' creator: 'We're excited to be working with the Yahoo search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. We're also excited to be joining our fraternal twin, Flickr!' And why Yahoo's interest? The article opines: 'It takes a lot of the hard work out of searching the web. The very clever thing about social software is that it puts the burden on to the user, not the provider.'"

Eli Gottlieb writes "It would appear that the Sony Corporation (known for their world-class rootkits) paid graffitists to paint pictures of children using their new PSPs on city walls. Sony "artists" (corporate operatives?) have even been caught in the act of painting advertising campaigns on public walls. Note that these are not paid-for billboards or advertising media, but illegal graffiti in the first place. Beyond that, Sony is attempting to co-opt the subculture and possibly even artistic integrity of real graffists to sell more PSPs! Luckily, people have started to paint back and show that corporate vandals are not welcome." Though it does appear the vandal depicted is copying the image off of a sheet of paper, there's no real proof of Sony's complicity. Take with a grain of salt.

fmwap writes "There have been several postings over at Xbox-scene complaining of crashing Xbox's on new games, with default settings on single player. Crashes on Xbox Live and on startup have been reported too, and Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before finishing the first lap. Screenshots and Video are available showing the crash."

Philipp Lenssen writes "Yahoo put up a life-size alpha geek statue in honor of the Yahoo Mail team, which they think beat the Gmail team. The statue's plaque says it's presented "in recognition of tremendous intellectual efforts put forth in order to defeat Gmail", and: "Not since the code breakers in Britain's Bletchley Park deciphered Germany's Enigma code during World War II has so much brainpower been focused on kicking an enemy's ass." Flickr has a photo." It's a nice little article on the difference between two of the net's superpowers.

Katamari. Since the launch of the original title, it's been a hat, a cake, and now it's another game. Even then, saying it is another game is a stretch. For the most part the aptly titled We Love Katamari is a mission pack for the original game with an expanded multiplayer component. I don't really care, and anyone who has had the chance to play the original isn't likely to care either. The game is pure PS2 gold, just as much fun as the first foray into star-making. We Love Katamari is pure fan service from the man who doesn't even like games that much anyway. Read on for my impressions of the sequel to the original star-creation-through-rolling simulator.

• Title: We Love Katamari
• Developer: Namco
• Publisher: Namco
• System: PS2
• Reviewer: Zonk
• Score: 8/10

The original Katamari Damacy came out about a year ago, and the buzz surrounding the game was immediate and enthusiastic. The low budget look, excellent soundtrack, and inordinately fun gameplay was exactly what players tired of rehashed sequels and inane licensed games were looking for. The critical success of the title didn't turn into blockbuster sales figures, but the response was good enough to prompt Namco to go for a sequel. The developer of the original game, Keita Takahashi, stepped in to ensure that the new game would live up to the standards of the original. The resulting title is a love letter to fans of ball rolling and whacked out Kings of the Cosmos.

If you've played Katamari Damacy, you'll be quite adept at using the controls for We Love Katamari. There have been no real changes to the two thumbstick schema. Using the joysticks in concert, you push the Katamari and it gathers stuff. The more stuff you gather, the larger the Katamari gets. Missions are given to you by the King of All Cosmos, who usually tasks you with achieving a certain size of Katamari within a time limit. Added components to the gameplay are basically just new settings and mission objective types. For example, there are underwater levels now. Aside from some limited verticality, they're just missions with a lot of fish. The new objective types are slightly more interesting. One level lights your Katamari on fire, and requires you to keep it lit by continuously rolling up stuff. You pause too long, your Katamari goes out, and your dad shoots you with laser beam eyes. Tough love, indeed. Another level pits you against a second player in a race to assemble a snowman.

That integrated second player mission is part of the multiplayer emphasis in the second game. In addition to a few two player vs. missions, there is a head-to-head mode similar to the multiplayer mode in the first Katamari. It is better developed than in the first game, though, with a few different arenas of play available. The head-to-head mode emphasizes strategy as well, by requiring each player to gather more of a specific object that their opponent. The most enjoyable aspect of We Love Katamari's multiplayer is cooperative play. Two people working together can play every mission in the game. At least, working together is the idea. Moving the Katamari efficiently with two people operating requires a little getting used to, but with a duo working together you can really get the ball moving. It's also hilarious getting into a groove. "Go Backwards!" "I am going backwards!" "No, left backwards."

The fun factor of the game is still very high, even after a year spent playing the first title. There's an immense satisfaction in adding mass to your Katamari, and a sick pleasure in having your work transformed into a stellar object. The "purpose" of the game, if there can be said to be one, is to please fans of the original Katamari and assist the King of the Cosmos in refilling the rest of the sky. Completing missions is interspersed with extremely disconcerting cut-scenes about The King of the Cosmos' past. Starting with his youth, the cut-scenes give us background on exactly what makes the King tick. Because, of course, not knowing kept us up at nights. The fan service is literal and unabashed. The denizens of the mission select field cavort among the trees, giant birthday cakes, and oddly tapping birds. When you pass nearby they call out for attention, requesting that you see to their idiosyncratic whims. Various moments during the game will see you gathering up sweets for a sugar-rush seeker, cleaning up a kid's room for a lazy parent, and entertaining a class full of students by rolling up the contents of their school. Of course, I have to sit here wondering if they were all that entertained. After all, they ended up as part of a star.

The game has the same shaped-Lego look of the first title, with everything from penguins to people represented in the somehow appealing format. The game has its own beauty, but it will hardly stretch your PS2's capabilities. The enjoyment factor of the game's presentation lies in the variety and sheer amount of stuff that exists within the mission spaces. Every time your Katamari accrues mass and the game's scale shifts, you gain a new appreciation of the minimalist style. One vaguely frustrating change in the game is the addition of in-mission load times. The increased mission size has resulted in the need to load up additional materials in order to gain access to new parts of the map. An understandable but somewhat frustrating limitation.

Sound plays an important role in every game, and the brain-crushingly entertaining soundtrack from the first game has a successful successor in We Love Katamari. Catchy tunes with jazz, J-Pop, techno, and swing backgrounds round out the audio environment you roll around in. The main theme has several incarnations on the soundtrack, and all of the songs are enjoyable ear candy. The catchiness level of the first game has been toned down in favour of some more worked out pieces, but the experience is still thoroughly Katamari.

Fan service and catchy tunes. Fun and innovative gameplay. A game guaranteed to keep your raver buddy amused for hours on end. There are so many pleasant things you can credit We Love Katamari with. My only two big complaints are that it's basically the same game as the original, and it's very, very short. The game is well worth playing, but a bit more expansion of the concept would have been appreciated. As it's so similar to the first title, it shares the problem that once you've mastered the controls it is not very hard to work your way through the game in a frustratingly short amount of time. Nothing is perfect, though, and I'll take my fun where I can get it. If you've played Katamari Damacy and enjoyed it, there is no way you won't like We Love Katamari. If you haven't, it's well worth taking a look just so you can get a taste of what all the fuss is about.

ickoonite writes "The BBC is reporting that wi-fi enabled Pocket PCs running open source software are being used as digital textbooks in classrooms in Kenya, where 'real' books are hard to come by. The story says that the scheme, in its trial stages, currently only affects 54 pupils, but all of them are enthralled by the devices - unsurprising in a country where electricity is a scarce commodity. The article does not make it clear what is running on the Pocket PCs, but this seems a wonderful example of how the free and open spirit of open source can make a real difference." A follow-up to a story from March.

sebFlyte writes "Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's COO and president, said at JavaOne that 'the most important initial in free and open source software, to me, if you want to reach the broadest marketplace in the world there's one price that works for everyone, and that's free". As you can imagine, this interpretation of 'free' in terms of software has angered a few people somewhat, including Richard Stallman..." From the article: "The free software movement stands for 'free' as in freedom. The open source campaign doesn't present freedom as an ethical issue, but it still formulates its criteria in terms of what users are permitted to do,"

Cros13 writes "Google has released a beta of it's Google Earth software to subscribers of the existing Keyhole service. New features include 3D models of buildings in selected cities, input from your gps receiver and a better search system. I have posted screenshots here and here." This product is in competition with Microsoft's Virtual Earth, as we reported earlier.

Cros13 writes "Google has released a beta of it's Google Earth software to subscribers of the existing Keyhole service. New features include 3D models of buildings in selected cities, input from your gps receiver and a better search system. I have posted screenshots here and here." This product is in competition with Microsoft's Virtual Earth, as we reported earlier.

herberts writes "Looks like the amusement factor of 'transparent' screen background is getting bigger and bigger. The french Mac fan site Mac Bidouille opened up a dedicated part of their web site where fans can post shots of their transparent backgrounds." Other great transparent background shots can be found at Flickr.

FLickLover writes "Yahoo is buying Flickr for an undisclosed amount. The rumors of the deal have been doing the rounds for weeks now. On the Flickr Blog Ludicorp folks are talking about the deal and how it impacts the community. "We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks! Woohoo! " This is the third high profile Blog/RSS related buyout of 2005. Live Journal was bought by Six Apart, while Ask Jeeves snapped up Bloglines." Update: 03/21 12:49 GMT by H : And my favorite comment on it comes from Ben Hyde's blog. Genius.

theodp writes "Can't get enough pictures of dogs' noses? Circular objects framed within squares? Newsweek reports on photo-sharing sites and picture blogs, where amateur shutterbugs looking to share their passions with the world happily blast their photos out to millions of people. Fotolog CEO Adam Seifer, who posts a picture of every meal he eats on Get In My Belly!, calls the Fotolog-Flickr-HeyPix-Smugmug phenomenon 'a million reality TV shows, only without the pain and humiliation.'" Update: 03/14 07:09 GMT by T : Reader onethumb points out an important aspect of such sites: "The new breed of photo-sharing services expose their APIs for geeks everywhere to enjoy. Both Flickr and Smugmug have growing APIs with thriving communities around them. Write your own photo-sharing application, sister web service, or software toy today!" (Here's a link to Flicker's API, and one to smugmug's.)

theodp writes "Can't get enough pictures of dogs' noses? Circular objects framed within squares? Newsweek reports on photo-sharing sites and picture blogs, where amateur shutterbugs looking to share their passions with the world happily blast their photos out to millions of people. Fotolog CEO Adam Seifer, who posts a picture of every meal he eats on Get In My Belly!, calls the Fotolog-Flickr-HeyPix-Smugmug phenomenon 'a million reality TV shows, only without the pain and humiliation.'" Update: 03/14 07:09 GMT by T : Reader onethumb points out an important aspect of such sites: "The new breed of photo-sharing services expose their APIs for geeks everywhere to enjoy. Both Flickr and Smugmug have growing APIs with thriving communities around them. Write your own photo-sharing application, sister web service, or software toy today!" (Here's a link to Flicker's API, and one to smugmug's.)

wiggles writes "The City of Chicago recently completed a $475 million park/civic center known as Millennium Park. One of the central features is a sculpture officially called Cloud Gate and unofficially called "The Bean". The Bean is a giant, 3 story, 110-ton hunk of highly reflective steel. Photographers taking pictures of the sculpture have been charged money by the city. The park district is claiming that pictures of the park violate the designers' and artists' copyrights. Quoth Karen Ryan, the press director for the park's project, "The copyrights for the enhancements in Millennium Park are owned by the artist who created them. As such, anyone reproducing the works, especially for commercial purposes, needs the permission of that artist." In response, Chicagoland bloggers have been posting as many pictures as they can get of The Bean."

Ian@FalsePositives.com writes "Technorati (a search engine for blogs) has a new 'tag' service. If your blog tool of choice uses Categories, has a RSS/Atom feed, and pings technorati, then you're done. If not, you can add tags via a new tag markup. The twist is that Technorati is working with Del.icio.us (a social/sharing bookmark manager website) and Flickr (a social/sharing photo web site) to read their tagged content! So Flickr pictures, Del.Ico.us bookmarks, and blog posts all on one page! Here's an example result for the tag Toronto. There is some documentation as well. One current limitation is that there is no way to do tag intersection as with del.icio.us (i.e. http://del.icio.us/tag/toronto+food ) like http://www.technorati.com/tag/toronto+Food. Tagging (also know as Folksonomies) was the topic recently on Slashdot: Folksonomies In Del.icio.us and Flickr."

dr-vjk asks: "I just bought a new *unlocked* HP iPaq h6315 PocketPC. This phone/PDA supports quad-band GSM, Bluetooth and Wifi. This is a huge improvement over my old travel kit (Sony P900, h4315 iPaq, and Apple iBook). I needed an unlocked unit as the standard h6315's are locked to the T-Mobile network which charges over a buck a minute to roam outside the U.S. I have tested it in Europe and Africa with pre-paid local SIM cards and it works great. It works out of the box with GSM networks around the world for voice and GPRS for IP Data. I loaded SJPhone in order to access my Vonage account over WiFI (Skype doesn't work on this unit yet). It was great talking as long as I wanted with friends back in the U.S. with no concern for long distance charges. They could also call my Vonage number in the U.S. and my PDA would ring in Europe." "I would love to hear if any Slashdot readers have their own all-in-one device they would recommend for world travelers. At a minimum, I think such a device would need GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wifi support. As a physician I need Windows Mobile for the O.S. today but would be willing to look at other solutions (especially open source)."

kschoenwandt writes "I have been an early fan of Flickr and while I am by far not as much of a shutter bug as most users seem to be, I enjoy the features and use it regularly. Taking some time out reading, I noticed that I am not the only one impressed: The Globe and Mail published a piece on it as did The Christian Science Monitor. Cool!"