Slashdot Mirror

Big Nothing asks: "My company is building a PDA solution for a company that makes industrial machines. Currently, all service technicians (some 1500 people) are handling the work orders and service reports by paper, and clerks are manually punching the data into the computer systems. The idea is that this that this could all be done on PDA's via GSM. When connecting to the company server, finished job reports are uploaded and new job orders are downloaded. Some time ago, I read an article in the NYTimes [free reg. required] on medical doctors using PDA's in their daily work . The impact of PDA's on various industries seems to be enormous, and I'm curious to learn about other success stories on PDA's and to hear your thoughts on possible uses of PDA's in the industry?"

The Fanfan sends us this: "A very interesting article in today's New York Times on how home studios are breaking the stronghold of recording companies on music production. Nowadays, anyone with some talent, a PC and a couple of peripherals and good mikes can produce music which would have required spending weeks in an expensive professional recording studio five years ago. Only recording companies could pay those expenses. So, the same way Napster and the Net at large have already seriously eroded their monopoly on distribution, are home studios the other (unsung) heroes of the war against BMG, EMI, Sony and altars?" This fits in well with the article we just posted.

The Fanfan sends us this: "A very interesting article in today's New York Times on how home studios are breaking the stronghold of recording companies on music production. Nowadays, anyone with some talent, a PC and a couple of peripherals and good mikes can produce music which would have required spending weeks in an expensive professional recording studio five years ago. Only recording companies could pay those expenses. So, the same way Napster and the Net at large have already seriously eroded their monopoly on distribution, are home studios the other (unsung) heroes of the war against BMG, EMI, Sony and altars?" This fits in well with the article we just posted.

Eric_Grimm writes "Carl Kaplan of the New York Times has done an interesting story on a draft law review article (click the "download paper" icon for a PDF version) relating to the metaphors that should be employed to assist legislators in understanding the personal data protection or "electronic privacy" debate currently raging in Congress and state legislatures. Both Kaplan's story and the law review article are well worth a read."

fenrissmurf writes: "The New York Times reports on new measurements of muons, done at the Brookhaven National laboratory. The muons didn't behave as expected, and scientists are saying that the "classical model" is now in doubt." We just posted another story about this, but the NYTimes article is good. There's another NYT article about a certain quantum force that I thought was interesting, too.

fenrissmurf writes: "The New York Times reports on new measurements of muons, done at the Brookhaven National laboratory. The muons didn't behave as expected, and scientists are saying that the "classical model" is now in doubt." We just posted another story about this, but the NYTimes article is good. There's another NYT article about a certain quantum force that I thought was interesting, too.

Anonymous Coward writes: "According to this article in The New York Times (free registration required), a trick enables someone to essentially bug an e-mail message so that the spy would be privy to any comments that a recipient might add as the message is forwarded to others or sent back and forth. The vulnerability could facilitate the harvesting of e-mail addresses. Widely used e-mail programs that are vulnerable to the exploit (because they enable JavaScript) include Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Netscape 6." A snippet from the article: "The potential for such e-mail spying was first discovered by Carl Voth, an engineer in British Columbia. 'What bothers me is that in this case, my vulnerability is a function of what you do,' Mr. Voth said. 'I can be careful, I can take every precaution, I can turn off JavaScript, and it doesn't matter. If my neighbor isn't diligent and I send him an e-mail, I'm still vulnerable.'" "The Privacy Foundation, an educational and research organization based in Denver, plans to publicize and demonstrate the technique today."

Logic Bomb, standing in for a crowd of submittors, writes: "The New York Times has an interesting profile (free reg req) of John T. Draper, a long-time phreaker and hacker. He's had quite a career, but is probably best known for figuring out that a freebie toy whistle from a cereal box generated the right tone to make free calls at pay phones. It's an entertaining read." As sachsmachin puts it, "Crunch is apparently trying to redeem his blue-box-filled past by working as a white-hat hacker in the Web security industry -- his company, "ShopIP," does OpenBSD-based firewalls." Draper is also well-known for writing the first word processor for the IBM PC, (EasyWriter) among other things.

madro writes: "An article in the New York Times (registration req'd) discusses the emergence and influence of anime throughout recent 'children's' programming. Stuff goes way beyond the Power Rangers stuff that some parents groups protested long ago, but people don't seem to mind so much now. Funniest bit? A programming exec anticipates the end of anime thusly: 'But then it gets to the point where even the nerd gets into it, and then the cool kids have to move on to something else.'" Apparently the author watched the chimpokomon episode of South Park to get his conclusion *grin*. Actually the article is pretty funny, but I doubt that was the author's intention.

madro writes: "An article in the New York Times (registration req'd) discusses the emergence and influence of anime throughout recent 'children's' programming. Stuff goes way beyond the Power Rangers stuff that some parents groups protested long ago, but people don't seem to mind so much now. Funniest bit? A programming exec anticipates the end of anime thusly: 'But then it gets to the point where even the nerd gets into it, and then the cool kids have to move on to something else.'" Apparently the author watched the chimpokomon episode of South Park to get his conclusion *grin*. Actually the article is pretty funny, but I doubt that was the author's intention.

Karl Chang writes: "The New York Times Magazine cover story on AIDS is basically an expose on how the drug companies are trying to keep their profits at the expense of the lives of those in the third-world. Some shocking statistics are included about the spread of the epidemic and the markup on the drugs. Interestingly enough, the claim of patents being needed to finance new research is rebutted with the statistic that two-thirds of the drug companies costs are in marketing and administration; the bulk of their costs aren't in R&D. Read the story."

Calle Ballz writes "According to an article on Despair's Website, they are suing 7,000,000 email users over trademark infringment for using the :-( 'emoticon'. I can't tell if it is a joke or not, I would like for it to be. The trademark registration is valid and is listed here. *sigh*" I would just like to say that our use of :-) is covered by fair usage. And that this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.Update: 01/26 04:18 PM by H :Check out the press release about it - that's one of the best pieces of satire I've seen in a while. Kudos to Despair for making a mockery of trademarks. Update: 01/29 04:52 PM by CT : Apparently a bunch of retarded Slashdot readers couldn't discern that this was parody and mailed despair to complain. Little itchy on the flaming finger guys? Here's the NY Times story

fat_hot writes: "The New York Times has an article [here] (registration required) about specialized search engines which try to drill into the submerged mass of the Internet iceberg to try to limit searches to particular subjects (and hopefully thereby increase coverage of the limited scope)." Considering that a google search for friends' web sites and other good stuff usually turns up more dirt than paydirt, it's pleasant to contemplate more relevance in search engines.

Masem writes: "The NYTimes (free reg req) has a story on work that is being done to determine whether animals dream. The evidence for brain activity and REM is there, but researchers have now found that with 4 test mice which have run a maze several times, their brain activity while they sleep strongly mimiced that of when they are running that particular maze, as opposed to brain patterns when doing other tasks including running a different type of maze. It suggests that the biological function that controls dreaming is related to memory somehow."

Max Entropy writes: "This article in The New York Times (free reg. req'd) discusses new research into the atmosphere of the planet Venus. First scientists believed it was electromagnetically active--lightning storms, etc.--and now they're not so sure. Also, the scientists at SRI International have discovered a green glow on the nighttime side of the planet that is attributable to the presence of a concentration of excited oxygen atoms, whereas Russian spacecraft detected no such atoms 25 years ago. The sun is theorized as a possible culprit-- its high point in its 11-year cycle might be responsible for charging the atoms and making them glow green."

damiangerous writes: "This NY Times story reports the controversial decision by the American Museum of Natural History to no longer list Pluto among the planets. Although they don't actually declare Pluto's loss of planetary status outright, their newly opened planetarium classifies Pluto simply as a Kuiper Belt object. A staff member says only 1 in 10 people ask about the 'missing' planet."

Coolvibe writes: "Apple has updated their Mac OS X page. There's screenshots of the final version there. I myself am still running the Public Beta and the stuff that's shown there is just a *tad* different than what I am using right now :) For instance, the dock now has a context menu, as shown here." And speaking of Apple's core, Justin0407 directs your attention to this NYTime article on Steve Jobs, in which "Jobs gives us his insight on how he's going to save Apple and try and keep it afloat. Building on other's ideas of a PC or Mac being the 'hub' for all digital appliances, Jobs says Apple will embrace this concept."

Logic Bomb writes: "The New York Times has a story (free reg req) on the latest twist in the battles over High Definition Television. The FCC has concluded that cable companies can not be compelled to carry both the digital and analog versions of a broadcast station's signal. This will definitely make the transition period to full digital even more turbulent, since in individual markets people who have or have not updated their viewing equipment may end up watching different channels." deebaine points also to this CNN story on same; all this HDTV is going to get worse before it gets better.

Masem sent in a link to a NYTimes story (free blah blah required. Why is the Times so lame that they don't realize that hundreds of people are registered with my address?) on self adaptive websites. It talks about us, Everything2 (which IMHO is among the best examples of the genre out there, but since I helped create it, I'm biased ;) and of course the recently announced (and Slashcode Based) suck/feed Slashclone, Plastic. I found at least one mistake, but besides that, its not a bad piece, although it probably isn't saying anything that a regular Slashdot reader doesn't know already.

The New York Times has an article about applications that spy on you and send data home to the mothership. It's not terribly in-depth, but I think that this is a good sign - if the NYT is covering it, word is getting out.

parvati writes: "The New York Times is reporting that two separate research teams, both from Cambridge, MA, have managed to slow, stop, and then reconstitute light. The ability to stop and then accurately restore a beam of light has implications for quantum computing and communication in that it may provide a mechanism to store the information coded by single photons."

Slashback tonight brings you updates on: that silly plastic barcode scanner by that company, what's-it-called ... oh yeah, "Digital Convergence;" how to spread your genetic code the polite way; and why you won't be voting on an MS-Dell-Unisys machine unless things change from vapor to reality, soon.

Aren't you ever gonna get that thing declawed? AnonymousCowhand pointed to this NYTimes story on the CueCat. The article is a nice overview of the way the little-bar-code-reader-that-could (that could track users by serial number, that is) came to be mailed out to hundreds of thousands of people, and how successful it's been. A hint: " After partners like Forbes, Wired and other publishers distributed the CueCat device to several million subscribers, the technology was criticized by reviewers and consumers for being impractical and of limited benefit."

I'd be nearly as willing to vote with a fake machine ... Anonymous Coward writes "Forbes reports that the Microsoft, Unisys, & Dell plan to build a new voting solution is 'phony'. A Microsoft spokesman denies that the company is part of such a partnership."

My favorite line in a long time is this one: "When Unisys says it's "offering a fully integrated approach to election management," it does not mean it has something specific to offer." Well, then, just so that's clear.

Like, OMG! Chuck Borromeo wrote in response to the story that hemos posted the other day about XML, bioinformatics, and markup languages for genetic information.

He says: "I noticed your posting on Slashdot. You're right, XML will be very helpful in the Bioinformatics field. However, there is another gene expression XML DTD in the works. It's being proposed by an OMG group called MGED (www.mged.org). GEML is proprietary and is being supported by its creator Rosetta Pharmaceuticals. MGED is going to become an OMG standard and already enjoys support and contributions from a wide variety of academic and industrial leaders."

Another installment in the reprint of Jon Katz' series of columns, emails and comments is online for your perusal.

scratch writes: "Computing pioneer and all 'round good guy Bill Hewlett has died. NYT obit is here ." Hewlett-Packard: responsible for confusing generations of calculator users.

milomilo writes "Extending on the eBay vs. Bidder's Edge case, the NY Times reports (free registration required) that a Manhattan judge has granted a preliminary injunction against Verio from using 'bots to harvest up-for-renewal prospects from Register.com's WHOIS. The theory's that bots use up a piece of the target system's resources, denying its use to the owner. (Question: would search engines be different, presumably because they also confer a benefit on the target by making it findable?)"

jeffsenter writes "The NYTimes (free reg. req.) has coverage of two new outlandish planetary systems announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. One system has a planet x17 as big as Jupiter, the largest ever. The other is around a red dwarf only 15 lightyears away. It has two jupiter class planets in synchronized orbits." I'm not happy when astronomers describe things as "frightening".

jeffsenter writes "The NYTimes (free reg. req.) has coverage of two new outlandish planetary systems announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. One system has a planet x17 as big as Jupiter, the largest ever. The other is around a red dwarf only 15 lightyears away. It has two jupiter class planets in synchronized orbits." I'm not happy when astronomers describe things as "frightening".

ssajous writes "This is an interesting article in the NY times which talks about PDAs quickly finding their place in the world of medical billing and keeping track of patient's care, there is a lot of money in the medical field, but also currently a lot of unnecessary paper work. I like what I see!!!" I don't think Palm makes a tricorder card yet, but it's only a matter of time. The last time I saw a doctor, he was doing things the old-fashioned way - I would guess it will take a while before this sort of technology is widely used.

An unnamed correspondent writes: "The New York Times has a story about how an anti-trade group conned a trade conference into inviting a talk from a member using a page at www.gatt.org that looks like a legitimate WTO/GATT page with a bogus e-mail link to the WTO's director-general. It seems like domain hijacking to me, but the real WTO 'respects the nature of the Internet' and is playing it cool. Funny for those amused by pranks and hoaxes." (Yes, it's the New York Times, so no-login URLs will doubtless soon appear.) I must admit, this made me think about from which misleading domain names it would be coolest to receive such misdirected mail.

cheese63 asks: "I was reading an article in the New York Times about the usage of geothermal energy for homes. Does anybody out there use this type of energy? If so, how viable is it in reality?"

dinosaur writes "This Week The US Federal Communications Commission failed to meet a deadline schedule proposed in October by President Clinton on the rules for identifying additional airwaves for the deployment of third-generation high-speed wireless services. Mark Rubin, FCC Wireless Bureau spokesman, said the proposed rules should be released this week. The FCC expects a final report and interim studies on the third-generation airwaves by March 1, 2001. The New York Times has a story on it (lamerator reg required) while NewsBytes hs another summary without the registration required."

An AC pointed sent us this: "In this extremely well written and technical article, the author points out the various mistakes that Intel made with the production of the Pentium IV, the fact that Intel and other manufacturers have been misleading customers about the performance of the Pentium IV, and the amount of work that will be pushed onto software developers backs to get a piece of software to run at a reasonable speed." Beginning section readable by anybody; by the end you need to know a little more assembly language than is healthy for anyone, but excellent overall. For a Cliff's Notes version of the above, try this NYTimes article discussing the chip in non-technical terms. My guess is that most computer buyers will continue to compare only clock speeds, however.

jeffsenter writes "According to this NYTimes article (free reg. req.) Nintendo is actually in talks to buy Sega for about $2B. As you know Sega has been losing money for years and is beaten by the competition from Sony. Rumors of the end of Sega are nothing new. Sega is making money from its arcade business so maybe they will sell to Nintendo and focus on software." But according to a CNNfn story, it isn't happening

lizrd writes "The New York Times is reporting (yeah, yeah, you gotta sign to read it) that several Linux distros will be shipping stable versions of Linux for Intel's new 64-bit Itanium chip on the day that it is released to the public. Microsoft however will not be supplying a version of Windows for Itanium until sometime in the fall of next year, several months after the expected May release of the new processor."

lizrd writes "The New York Times is reporting (yeah, yeah, you gotta sign to read it) that several Linux distros will be shipping stable versions of Linux for Intel's new 64-bit Itanium chip on the day that it is released to the public. Microsoft however will not be supplying a version of Windows for Itanium until sometime in the fall of next year, several months after the expected May release of the new processor."

Slashback has for you tonight the usual tasteful spread of updates, corrections, and things to think about as you settle in to sleep. (And a Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it.)

The world will beat a path to their doors. parvati writes: "This is the follow-up to an unusual contest mentioned on Slashdot a few months ago. A Princeton neuroscientist, John Hopfield, created a neural network modeling how the brain interprets sensory input, posted it on a website, and invited others to deduce the basis behind the way the network "thought". There is now a winner--David MacKay's group at Cambridge University--and the results will be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in a bit. Preprints are available from the website that contains the information about the network."

Cuchulainn also passed on word of this NYTimes story on the two winners of the contest.

Who's spamming who, on the freeway of love? jamie passed on this email from Bennett Haselton, who runs Peacefire.org, as a followup to the recent story of his about the traffic-blocking capabilities (and implementation) of Above.Net.

I've found out why I haven't been getting any email from the gilc-plan or ifea-plan mailing lists for several weeks now.

The hosts where these mailing lists are run is connected to the Internet via HIS.com, which is connected to the AboveNet backbone. Peacefire's ISP is on AboveNet's "boycott list", which means all their downstream customers are blocked from accessing our Web site or sending email to peacefire.org addresses. (To them, it just looks like the site is down -- "the server is not responding...", or "Returned mail: host not responding...")

AboveNet does not publicize that they do this, and in fact I called AboveNet pretending to be a naive customer and asked them whether they blocked their users from accessing anything on the Web. All five employees that I talked to in sales and tech support, said "No". Although when I talked with a high-level technician and showed him the evidence, he did admit that AboveNet blocked sites on the boycott list.

I talked to several AboveNet users affected by the block, and they had no idea that AboveNet was filtering their Web access; most were pretty pissed off about it.

When Slashdot published a story about this, AboveNet immediately re-opened their customers' to our ISP's web sites: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/12/13/1853237 but I don't know if the un-ban is temporary or permanent. Currently we are detecting when customers connect to our site from an AboveNet-controlled IP address, and opening a separate window to warn them that AboveNet has been blocking their Internet connection for the last several months, and that they may be entitled to sue AboveNet for censoring their connection without their knowledge.

AboveNet is participating in a boycott of our ISP, organized by the Mail Abuse Prevention System, because of sites like http://209.211.253.69/ which sell mass email software (but does not spam or use spam for advertising). I think this distinction is important (there are many sites that host software programs with far less ethical uses, however, the hosting ISP's aren't the ones responsible), but never mind -- there's nothing wrong with a boycott as long as it's voluntary. AboveNet, however, is co-opting their users into the boycott involuntarily, knowing that 90% of their customers would never agree to have their Web access censored if they knew what was going on. AboveNet admitted it has nothing to do with protecting customers from spam (obviously, since they're blocking Web sites, and the targeted servers aren't spamming anyway); it's just a way of putting pressure on the ISP by threatening to cut off their customers' access to their sites.

We also contacted the boycott organizers to ask why they didn't just remove Peacefire's IP address from the list and block the others in the same range, and they said it was technically possible, but they wouldn't do it -- unless we joined the boycott by going to another ISP.

For the time being, I can get mails from the gilc-plan and ifea-plan lists. If AboveNet re-instates the ban after the controversy dies down, I'll re-subscribe to the lists under a different email address.

-Bennett
bennett@peacefire.org http://www.peacefire.org

Anyone care to ante up 1/6 for an MP3? minard writes: "I have on my shelf an example of a wax drum (forerunner of the vinyl record) that had been sold in Britain circa 1905. I just noticed a label on the side I hadn't really paid attention to before. It says:

"This record is sold by the National Phonograh Co Ltd upon the condition that it may not be sold or offered for use by the original or any subsequent purchaser (except by an authorized factor to an authorized retail dealer) for less than 1/6 each. Upon any breach of said condition the license to use and vend this record implied from such sale immediately terminates."

1/6, by the way, would be about 10c. Not sure how much that would be today. Basically this is a license restriction that enforces pricing controls (completely legal at the time). I'd always assumed these were a new thing. Guess not."

You look a little down in the Mouth ... The seventh in our continuing reprint of Jon Katz's "Voices From the Hellmouth" series is now online.

It was supposed to be done by September 30, but Congress finally finished its budget for this year. Because it works best with our sometimes-bizarre legislative system, this year, like every year, hundreds of unrelated measures were rolled up into one massive package and crammed through the door. Your grandchildren may look up at you with a puzzled expression, fifty years from now, and say "grampa" (or gramma), "did you really use an unfiltered internet, back in the olden days? Wasn't that scary? How did you ever survive with all that porn jumping out at you?" If that happens, just sigh, and think back to the olden days -- December2000 -- before censorware became mandatory in public institutions nationwide.

The massive spending bill has been passed by the House and Senate, and President Clinton is expected to sign it soon. Despite some noises from the Clinton administration mildly protesting censorware, the small amendment making it mandatory is not considered to be an important enough issue to veto an entire appropriations bill.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime proponent of censorware, introduced the amendment.

As the ACLU says,

Earlier this year, an 18-member commission appointed by Congress rejected the idea of mandating the use of blocking software, which is notoriously clumsy and inevitably restricts access to valuable, protected speech. A wide spectrum of organizations have opposed blocking software mandates, including the American Library Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the conservative Free Congress Foundation and state chapters of the Eagle Forum and the American Family Association.

"There was an Alice in Wonderland quality to this debate," said Marvin Johnson, a Legislative Counsel with the ACLU's Washington National Office. "With its vote, Congress rejected the advice it asked for from the panel it appointed."

The "wide spectrum of organizations" extends from educators to The New York Times to strongly conservative political/religious groups. For more on the COPA Commission and its recommendations, see our stories from July and August.

Essentially it says that any school or library which receives federal funds to build its network must install censorware. Since these funds are the chief way that poor and middle-income areas bring the internet into public institutions, effectively this means that only rich counties will have the option of an uncensored internet.

The text of the self-declared "Children's Internet Protection Act" is available from CDT. It uses the term "technology protection measure" to describe the software.

In related news, Peacefire, an advocacy group for youth free-speech rights, released a tool to provide one-click disabling of some popular censorware programs.

Meanwhile, the ACLU will be suing to stop this bill from taking effect. This is not a slam-dunk like the CDA was. They're in for a tough fight. Here are three reasons why:

1. The CDA's language was very broad. This bill targets its material precisely: obscenity, child pornography, and "harmful to minors" material. Of course there is no "technology protection measure" in existence which can censor only this material, or even claim to censor only this material.

2. The CDA covered speech. This bill addresses the right to read that speech in a public institution.

3. This bill regulates institutions which are taking public money and how they may use it. Legally, and also in many people's minds, it is more permissable to enact regulations which go against the grain of the Constitution if they are tied to acceptance of public funds.

(The classic example is that the Fourth Amendment protects our homes from unreasonable search and seizure, but when the government provides public housing, it sometimes tries to say that the 4th Amendment does not apply. Same situation, different Amendment.)

Brock Meeks is more optimistic, saying the bill is "doomed." The key issue, I think, will be whether censorware can work. If it does not work, if it cannot work, then the language of the bill is irrelevant; our Congress might as well have demanded a "technology protection measure" to give all our kids 200 IQs and an lifetime supply of free donuts.

When I get in the mood to be optimistic, I think about all the stories we hear from students who are already forced to use this software. It seems like everyone has an anecdote about how they were blocked from doing legitimate research for school.

So maybe if this legislation survives, in ten years, all the kids who grew up with first-hand experience with censorware will start to vote. That's about the only bright side I can see.

For now, Brown v. Board of Education is the example I'm keeping in mind. The Supreme Court, after a half-century of segregated schools, decided that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" -- the theory might be OK, but it had failed in practice.

The courts should evaluate the "technology protection measures" by what they do, not by what the law demands they do. The theory might be OK, but in practice, all the technology that I've looked at blocks much more than it should. I'll be hoping for a verdict that reads: "technology protection measures are inherently censorship."

And, hopefully, now -- not after a half-century.

Elvis Maximus writes " An article in today's New York Times describes how Iridium satellites' orientation sensors are being used to track currents in the Earth's magnetic field." The NYC Times, of course, wants registration info, so you'll have to make another account - but it's good to see at *someone* is using Iridium, cuz the customers certainly didn't.

Masem writes "NYTimes has summary (CT:El Lamo free registration required) of how on-line advertizing is going to change in the near future. Banner ads have been found to be effectively ignored, so the next step is to visibly replace the content with ads for a brief period of time, as is currently done on radio and tv. The three methods described are pop up windows, redirect links that take you to an ad with the link to the final destination (aka "interstitials"), and a new technology that downloads the ad while you read the content, then displays the ad when you leave the page (aka "superstitials"). Unless you're running an ad blocker proxy, it's going to get really hard to ignore ads on the web soon."

Bates writes "In the New York Times (free reg required) there is an article telling about a gene in fruitflies that when disabled doubles the lifespan of the fruitfly. The gene has been affectionately nicknamed "I'm Not Dead Yet." The gene actually manipulates your metabolism by makeing it so the LESS of your food is converted into calories. The article speculates about the possibility of a pill for humans that will partialy disable the same gene in humans. Maybe someone will beat Methuselah sometime in the future."

Bates writes "In the New York Times (free reg required) there is an article telling about a gene in fruitflies that when disabled doubles the lifespan of the fruitfly. The gene has been affectionately nicknamed "I'm Not Dead Yet." The gene actually manipulates your metabolism by makeing it so the LESS of your food is converted into calories. The article speculates about the possibility of a pill for humans that will partialy disable the same gene in humans. Maybe someone will beat Methuselah sometime in the future."

pq writes: "The NYT is reporting that Microsoft has settled its 'Permatemp' case for $97 million. Another bullet, successfully dodged. 'Microsoft continues to be a great place to work,' said their VP." For those not following, the suit alleged that Microsoft was using not-very-temporary employees secured by temporary placement agencies to avoid giving them the benefits for which other Microsoft employees were eligible.

yuggoth writes "According to this NY Times article, a father is being sued for negligence because his under-age son created a defamatory web site about a classmate. The classmate seeks damages of more than $50.000 because the father didn't always supervise his son while surfing on the 'net." Sounds like the plaintiff is grasping at straws.

An AC sends news of this New York times article on trying to use photons instead of electrons to make much faster chips. "Not available in stores near you".

Masem writes "The NYTimes is reporting that MP3.com will reopen the My.mp3.com program today, but with changes reflected by their recent court battles with RIAA groups. Namely, the service will now cost $45/yr, though you still can only listen to songs that you own. However, they plan to offer an ad-based service that allows up to 25 CDs stored for free. To prevent borrowing of CDs, you'll have to reinsert CDs at random and periodic intervals to prove ownership. Given that Napster may be going to a $5/mnth for unlimited use, it seems that my.mp3.com in this new format will become obsolete. Additionally, I wonder about being double-charged for the same CD; if you've already got the CD, you should already have free access to the mp3 of it, since you lose content (mind you, only at the extreme frequencies) and therefore there's no value added." This doesn't look good.

jeffsenter writes: "Another new planet (2000 WR106) in our solar system was discovered last week by a U. of Arizona astronomer. The NYTimes has the story (free reg. req.). Like the planetlet (2000 ED173) found in October, this object lies between Neptune and Pluto. The difference is this one is bigger, up to 1/2 the size of Pluto perhaps." Or try this link instead. Once you get into the hundreds, I think "planetlet" starts making more sense than "planet."

zoomba writes: "An article from the New York Times [free reg required] today sheds a little bit of light on what is being done to regulate these new domains recently approved by ICANN. According to the article, the .coop domain is now under the charge of National Cooperative Business Association. Hey, could this mean that sites with the .coop domain will actually BE Cooperative Businesses? A fresh change from organizations registering under .com, or companies under .net." (The "partners" link appears not to work; does it for anyone else?)

zoomba writes: "An article from the New York Times [free reg required] today sheds a little bit of light on what is being done to regulate these new domains recently approved by ICANN. According to the article, the .coop domain is now under the charge of National Cooperative Business Association. Hey, could this mean that sites with the .coop domain will actually BE Cooperative Businesses? A fresh change from organizations registering under .com, or companies under .net." (The "partners" link appears not to work; does it for anyone else?)

Logic Bomb writes: "The New York Times has an extensive article [free reg req] about the move from film, invented in the 19th century, to digital cameras and projection in the movie business. It sounds like the shift is building a lot of momentum, with a nice push from George Lucas' decision to shoot Episode II of Star Wars entirely using digital cameras. The article covers both the technological developments making it possible as well as the business alliances. One neat detail is that if a distribution system based on streaming (instead of data on DVDs, for example) is set up, theaters could show things like live concerts or other performances as they happen. Sounds great to me." Rather neat the impact that George Lucas is making in this area by filming episode II all digital. Could theaters gain back with exclusivity some of what they've lost to Blockbuster and NetFlix? And how soon till the equivalent of soundboard recordings are squished onto MP4 before the credits are through?

Logic Bomb points to "[a] New York Times article [free reg req] detailing this rather incredible bit of technological progress. From the article: 'This is the first true nano machine,' said Dr. Carlo D. Montemagno, professor of biological engineering at Cornell and senior author of the Science paper.' Nuff said." Well, perhaps not -- surely it's not the first tiny mechanical device. Stuff That Matters links to this brief ZDNet coverage of the same thing, a bit more breathless.

thue writes: "According to this story (reg. required) in the NY times "golden rice", ie genetically modified rice which contains beta carotene, could save a million children each year who would otherwise have died from malnutrition. The main reason golden rice is not yet in use is that the methods used in the creation was covered by patents, and getting a deal with the patent holders has delayed them one year (1,000,000 dead as a result!?). But the article also describes great resistance to everything GMO, even something as harmless and beneficial as this. Caution is understandable when dealing with powerful traits such as various kinds of resistance, but beta carotene...?" What I liked about it was that the developers hadn't crippled the strain's ability to reproduce. Genetically-engineered wheat is generally crippled, forcing farmers to buy new seed from the company year after year.