Slashdot Mirror

A while back we mentioned that Missouri pulled violent games from prisons on the basis that hardened criminals shouldn't be practicing their sharpshooting technique. Now, the new governor has removed all video games from the MO prison system. From the AP story: "Blunt, a Republican who took office two weeks ago, called video games 'a luxury that inmates should not be allowed to enjoy.'"

JimboG1 asks: "Yahoo News has posted a Reuters story looking at the relative positions of the cable companies and the telecos in Europe by 2010. Market analyst Lars Godell of Forrester predicts that the cable companies will fall behind the telecos in coming years as their lack of capital and bad reputations catch up with them. Does Slashdot feel this is realistic, considering telecos across Europe are failing to meet their penetration targets? More broadly, what will the European broadband market look like in 2010?"

JimboG1 asks: "Yahoo News has posted a Reuters story looking at the relative positions of the cable companies and the telecos in Europe by 2010. Market analyst Lars Godell of Forrester predicts that the cable companies will fall behind the telecos in coming years as their lack of capital and bad reputations catch up with them. Does Slashdot feel this is realistic, considering telecos across Europe are failing to meet their penetration targets? More broadly, what will the European broadband market look like in 2010?"

chriskzoo5 writes "The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is pledging $750M to vaccinate children worldwide over the next 10 years. Much maligned for his business practices, is this proof that sometimes the ends justify the means? Let's see if the Linux community can match his generosity."

chriskzoo5 writes "The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is pledging $750M to vaccinate children worldwide over the next 10 years. Much maligned for his business practices, is this proof that sometimes the ends justify the means? Let's see if the Linux community can match his generosity."

flinderhans writes "Jeff Pulver, the guy who started Free World Dialup (free VoIP network) and had the germ of the idea that turned into Vonage, has launched a P2P network called Bellster that allows users to share their private lines to make calls anywhere on the public-switched telephone network. Interesting stuff, even if it doesn't look quite ready for prime-time."

irishdaze writes "ABC News is reporting that apparently only 18% of adult web searchers can tell the difference between actual search results and advertisements. In addition to this astounding conclusion, the Pew Internet and American Life Project's survey of 2,200 adults (only 1,399 of which are actual internet users, mind you) also indicates that 92% of web searchers feel they are confident in their own searching abilities."

Ec|ipse writes "Microsoft has decided not to appeal the European court order to implement antitrust sanctions, Instead, Microsoft hopes to win their main appeal that they (Microsoft) had abused their software dominance."

Jay Langhurst writes "Learn more about the roots of Firefox and about the 19-year-old who co-created the browser in this article. 'To take an internship at Netscape during the summer of 2001, Ross moved with his mother to a rented apartment near Netscape's offices in Mountain View, Calif. She drove him to work each morning.'"

ball-lightning writes "This article attempts to decipher the patent filed by the STI group (IBM, Sony, and Toshiba) on their upcoming Cell technology (most notably going to be used in the PS3). If it's as good as this article claims, the Cell chip could eventually take over the PC market."

An anonymous reader writes "In what seems to be in opposition to the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI is seeking to limit document searches. It seems since now that a lot of documents are in electronic form, searching them is much easier than before, and for that reason the FBI is taking this action."

VegeBrain asks: "I was reading the description for for a new book, Pragmatic Version Control using CVS and was shocked to read that 'Half of all project teams in the U.S. don't use any version control at all...' Is this true? If so, why? I can't imagine being without one so I'm wondering why anybody would avoid using one, especially now when so many are available for free. Am I missing something here and there really are reasons to not use a VCS?"

happyslayer writes "Matthew Fordahl has written a review of Microsoft's anti-spyware tool and has declared it, in a word, 'ineffective.' Though the methodology isn't carried out completely (he uses another anti-virus program after trying MS's tool, but doesn't do the same with the anti-spyware tool), it's a fairly good anecdote on the MS product's usefulness."

SDurham writes "Americans love trivia. From the bookish facts of Jeopardy! to the daily dose of ESPN Sportscenter, trivia is as much a part of our pop culture as hot rods or baseball. Few sources contain as much fact (or trivia) as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and in The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs chronicles his attempt to read this collection of knowledge. At 33,000 pages, Jacobs' task is not one to be taken lightly. Jacobs manages not only to complete this challenge, but to weave an engaging account of his year-long obsession in Know-It-All." Read on for Durham's review. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World author A. J. Jacobs pages 369 publisher Simon & Schuster rating 7 reviewer SDurham ISBN 0743250605 summary An account of a single-minded approach to mind expansion.

Jacobs is certainly suited to his task. A former editor at Entertainment Weekly and now a senior editor at Esquire, Jacobs' day-to-day work brings him into contact with a variety of American obsessions. After the first few chapters, however, it becomes clear that this is more than an account of consuming such a massive amount of information. The book is divided into chapters based on each section of the Britannica, and Jacobs' tale unfolds under headings that link his reflections to related Britannica entries. These reflections begin to reveal several themes that emerge throughout the book: Jacobs' struggle to match, or at least come to terms with, his father's accomplishments, the ongoing attempts of Jacobs and his wife to become parents, and the nature of intelligence and intelligent people.

Know-It-All reads easily, and Jacobs has a knack for humorous writing. Throughout the book Jacobs encounters a wide array of interesting, if not mildly eccentric, individuals. From Mensa members to the actual editors of the Britannica, Jacobs successfully humanizes many people normally viewed as stiff or uncharismatic. He tries to glean bits of wisdom as he goes, and these encounters best transmit Jacobs' message.

One recurring character in Jacobs' life often appears as his nemesis. Jacobs' brother-in-law Eric is described as a thoroughly knowledgeable Mr. Perfect, whose career -- from an Ivy League education to the U.S. Foreign Service to Wall Street -- constantly antagonizes Jacobs in some small way. With his newly acquired Britannica knowledge, Jacobs searches for ways to finally one-up Eric.

In one early encounter, he tries to apply what he has learned about aerodynamics in a tennis match against Eric. These encounters rarely end as Jacobs hopes, but they almost always provide humorous interludes between Jacobs' more serious discussions about the Britannica and its contents. This is not an overly serious book, however; Jacobs manages to infuse his humor into almost every entry in the book.

One theme within Know-It-All that is more serious in tone follows Jacobs and his wife's attempt to become parents. Even in this area of Jacobs' life he tries to apply his rapidly growing Britannica knowledge. Jacobs notices a plethora of fertility gods and goddesses as he reads through each volume, and the couple adopts a new one each week as a sponsor. Julie, Jacobs wife, describes herself as a 'Britannica widow' during Jacobs' project because of the hours he spends reading. It is in Julie that Know-It-All becomes a successful book. While readers may scoff at Jacobs' neglect of his wife (as he portrays it) during his project, the relationship between the two raises Know-It-All above a simple intellectual pursuit.

A surprising number of typographical errors are scattered through the book. Surprising, because Jacobs is an editor, and the book is clearly meant to appeal to an inquisitive, intelligent audience. These errors do little to detract from the overall experience of Know-It-All, however, and it is a solid, worthwhile read. For anyone who finds himself answering TV trivia questions in his head, or enjoys browsing through all sections of a bookstore, this book is a fun weekend read.

You can purchase The Know It All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

gollum123 writes "AP writes on an article in the journal Science where an ancient version of global warming may have been to blame for the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history. 'In an event known as the "Great Dying," some 250 million years ago, 90 percent of all marine life and nearly three-quarters of land-based plants and animals went extinct. Researchers think the answer is Massive volcanic flows in what is now Siberia, and believe the extinctions were caused by global warming and oxygen deprivation over long periods of time."

cellullama writes "Some of the leading video-game researchers are saying that games are better for teaching than textbooks. Three University of Wisconsin professors just said schools and corporate trainers should learn something from Halo 2 and Half-life. My workplace is already doing this (but don't tell my boss.)"

jdray writes "An experiment onboard the Huygens probe didn't run as planned because someone forgot to turn it on. The team lead for the experiment has put eighteen years of his life into the project, just to watch it not happen after a seven year ride to its destination on Titan."

WeAz writes "According to an article via Yahoo's news service, Sony is reporting that they have sold 800,000 PSP units since the system's release last month. Demand for the system is so strong that there's already a shortage arising. To combat this, Sony 'would increase monthly PSP production by 100,000 units to one million in April, as it prepared to launch the product in the United States and Europe.' Ken Kutaragi, Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO said that monthly production of the PSP will eventually rise to 3 million units."

Soldrinero writes "After a tough legal battle that began in 2002 (mentioned in a previous Slashdot story), Stan Lee will finally get his due. A recent court decision says that Marvel owes Lee 10% of their profits for works based on his creations. Since three recent Marvel-based movies are in the all-time top 100 for box-office gross, this will be a sizable chunk of change."

editingwhiz writes "Bob Mims of the Salt Lake Tribune has the scoop straight from the courthouse steps: 'A federal magistrate has handed a partial victory to Utah's SCO Group, ordering computer giant IBM to turn over more of its Linux operating system-related program codes. U.S. Magistrate Brooke Wells' ruling, released just minutes after Salt Lake City's federal courthouse closed Wednesday, came in the Lindon software company's contractual suit stemming from Big Blue's alleged distribution of Linux applications purportedly tainted with SCO's proprietary Unix code.' If at all possible, SCO's going to be even more insufferable now -- it has a glimmer of hope."

Oscar writes "The European Union has approved frequencies for short-range radars that can detect collision dangers and automatically apply cars brakes. The technology should be available by mid-2005. 'Short-range radar can save lives,' said Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner responsible for the decision, which opens radio bands while preventing radio interference to other essential users of these frequencies. Full text of the legislation is available in English, French, and German in PDF format."

af_robot writes "There's an announcement of a secure, DivX video-on-demand service for first-run movies, but only for Bollywood movies. 'Each new Bollywood film is released on the public Internet a day before or on the same day of its theatrical release, through piracy on multiple illegal movie download web sites,' said Al Mason, CEO of Cinema on Web. 'Our partnership with DivXNetworks represents the future of entertainment on the Internet. Soon virtually all new major Bollywood and Hollywood movies, including entertainment will be distributed digitally with secure VOD solutions like the one created by DivXNetworks, simultaneously defeating piracy and generating additional revenue for film studios and producers.'"

Neil Halelamien writes "As reported on robots.net and other sources, researchers at Tokyo have used the HRP-2 Promet humanoid robot to help preserve moves from ancient Japanese dance for future generations. The researchers used motion capture to record the movements of a dancing master, then encoded and replayed them on the robot. The HRP-2 Promet robots are themselves quite interesting, capable of standing up after lying down and non-autonomously operating a backhoe. The external appearance was created by a designer known for his work on several anime series."

dshatto writes "Help! This posting is to everyone who supports open source science: The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) will start taking shape in the next few months. This is the organization that will be spending $3 billion on stem cell and related research over the next 10 years. California has a chance to set a new model for scientific research. Models to consider for its intellectual property (IP) include open source models. I'm announcing a project that hopefully will:" Read more below... "

1. 1) Demonstrate the power, speed, and effectiveness that open source principles and distributed collaboration offer.

   2) Produce a temporary community of advocates for open source science that links supporters together in a self-organized network aspiring to the common good.

   3) Develop information resources that the Committee setting up the CIRM can use in its consideration of open source models for intellectual property.

Please go here for details:
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~dshatto/PROSODICOL.html

Slashdot gets the scoop on this - I won't post it anywhere else until I gauge your response. Why? Because, well, I think it's cool, and I think it's the right community to get this project going.

I believe that together we can make a lasting impact on science.
David"

theodp writes "27-year-old graphic artist Jeff Tweiten lives on a periwinkle blue, fold-out futon on the sidewalk in front of the Cinerama Theatre in downtown Seattle. He is not homeless, but camping out for 139 days. Waiting. For what, you wonder? Tweiten is waiting for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, which opens May 19. And yes, he's keeping a blog. 14 days down. 125 to go." In other Star Wars news: dbottaro writes "Who wants a JL421 Badonkadonk? NAO Design has built a functional Sandcrawler, ala Star Wars Episode IV. Complete with blaster-deflecting sidewalls, full interior carpeting, seating for five and a 400 watt stereo system." Reader dankinit writes "For all you Star Wars fans, a Darth Tater Mr. Potato Head will be released in February by Hasbro Inc. The new covers for the Episode III books due out a month before the movie were also posted today."

Trx asks: "Many of us regularly exchange digital images from our loved ones, but the disabled are often left on the dark side of this digital divide. My dad is quadriplegic, and I've been looking into ways I might outfit his room with an automated download of images to his television. Have any Slashdot users attempt something of this sort? He lives in an assisted living facility, with personal telephone/cable lines. He has special response buttons for control of television channels and phone. Due to high staff-turnover, training-in staff to help him download emails or images hasn't worked out. I am stationed overseas, and can only get back once every 6 months if I'm lucky, so low-maintenance is key. WebTV would be an option if it didn't require mouse or keyboard. We've also considered investing in a laptop DVD player, and mailing disks. Any suggestions?"

ciph3r writes "The Phoenix Mars Polar Lander mission has just launched their public website. '[The] mission is to land in the northern polar region of Mars (about 70 N latitude) in May 2008 and to expose the upper few feet of surface material using a robotic arm to find the ice that was discovered by the Odyssey mission in 2002. The history of this ice and its interaction with the martian atmosphere will be studied throughout the 3-month primary mission. This ice-rich soil may be one of the few habitable environments on Mars where a biological system can survive.'"

Details have emerged regarding several EA takeover related stories. The long running dispute with Digital Illusions may be coming to an end as EA has waived the requirement to own majority shares in the company. They still plan to purchase as many shares of the company as possible. Ubisoft announced that they have a defense planned against a hostile takeover bid from EA, should it arise. No mention of what this plan is, of course. In reaction to the recent press coverage of their move to purchase Ubi stock, EA has announced that their purchase was not hostile, and that they'd spoken often with Ubi representatives. From the article: "Florin reiterated that Electronic Arts was not asking for a seat on Ubisoft's board. 'We had the opportunity to buy a 20 percent stake in Ubisoft and we haven't asked for anything... That's not hostile. In our industry, one doesn't make hostile moves because our value lies with people,' he added."

Friar_MJK writes "Now even traditionally non-tech-savvy farmers are getting the rap for piracy. This isn't your grandma's p2p filesharing, but rather replanting bio-engineered seeds. Somehow the powers-that-be got the idea that replanting seeds grown from your own soil is a crime. A company called Monsanto sells those specially engineered seeds, and according to their license agreements, they make it illegal to replant the seeds harvested from a previous crop. To enforce this, they have brought many hard-working farmers to court and even thrown some in jail. According to the story, the company has not lost a case yet." We've had a couple of stories about Monsanto suing a Canadian farmer, but there hasn't been a lot of U.S. press devoted to the issue.

drylight asks: "When writing a CV, what do people find to be an effective format that gets possible employer's attention and/or the desired job? Is Keeping things short, preferable or will two or more pages be acceptable? Is a complete work history desired, or would a list of applications and projects that you've been involved in a better idea? Any links to online examples of good CVs would be greatly appreciated. What are some other tips on how to get someone's attention when applying for a job?"

WindowsTroll writes "Since it seems that science doesn't appeal to the youth of today, physicists are trying to make physics kid friendly. From the article, 'Bicycle stunts, rap music and modern dance -- all in the name of Einstein.' I am particularly interested in the modern dance, thinking that this is probably a better approach of studying oscillations than the springs that I used when I was in college."

Spy Handler writes "After 4 years and half a billion dollars, FBI's attempt to create new information sharing software - called Virtual Case File - simply didn't work.

ink_polaroid writes "NASA has released its Educational Global Climate Model (EdGCM) for high school and university desktop computers. The software incorporates a 3-D climate model developed at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York. It wraps complex computer modeling programs with a graphical interface familiar to most PC users."

dapyx writes "As part of the shift away from the fossil fuels, Iceland began its switch to hydrogen-powered buses, which are now used on the streets of the capital, Reykjavik. About 70 percent of Iceland's energy is already met by green power. Iceland plans to become the first oil-free country by 2050."

redkingca writes "The New York Times (reg required) has an article about an $8.1 million settlement in the blue-LED royalty case. Mr. Nakamura created the blue LED while working for the Nichia Corporation but never received any bonuses or royalties for his invention. A lower court had awarded 20 billion yen, nearly $200 million, and ordered Nichia to pay Mr. Nakamura last year. The settlement came after the company appealed that ruling."

Digitalommm writes "Paul Thurrott has a story on the latest developments on Windows XP Starter Edition. There are some very good points that the Linux community could adopt. An example is end-user training videos such as how to use a mouse." This is an optimistic, even glowing look at the Starter Edition, which even for Thurrot was not available for unsupervised use, only demonstrated by Microsoft for him. (For using-a-mouse videos, I would suggest also Roblimo's book Point and Click Linux .)

Rolan writes "Yahoo! has released to BETA their Desktop Search Tool. It has a much longer list of file types that it will search, including compressed files, than the Google Desktop Search Tool. Though, the usefulness of a good number of those file types would come into question for most people."

Rolan writes "Yahoo! has released to BETA their Desktop Search Tool. It has a much longer list of file types that it will search, including compressed files, than the Google Desktop Search Tool. Though, the usefulness of a good number of those file types would come into question for most people."

Rolan writes "Yahoo! has released to BETA their Desktop Search Tool. It has a much longer list of file types that it will search, including compressed files, than the Google Desktop Search Tool. Though, the usefulness of a good number of those file types would come into question for most people."

Ant writes "A study, published Monday, found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it's time to find if more sleep will fight obesity. Monday's study from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk covered 1,000 people and found that total sleep time decreased as body mass index -- a measure of weight based on height -- increased. Men slept an average of 27 minutes less than women and overweight and obese patients slept less than patients with normal weights, it said. In general the fatter subjects slept about 1.8 hours a week less than those with normal weights."

A new study by the Entertainment Software Association reveals that, amazingly, gamers are regular human beings. The study shows that avid game players are just as religious, artistic, and social as anyone else. From the article: "Gamers are everywhere and they're everyone. They are your friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and kids, they lead responsible and caring lives, balancing their enjoyment of interactive entertainment with many other activities important to a well-rounded lifestyle...Indeed, those who continue to portray the game population as single-minded loafers are living in their own fantasy world."

quizdog writes "The latest issue of Wired has a story on Sir Richard Branson and the history of the Virgin Empire, focusing on his latest venture of partnering with Scaled Composites and Burt Rutan to bring the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne hybrid rocket technology to the point where paying passengers can slip those 'surly bonds' of the atmosphere. Starting at just $200,000 a pop - any chance of a volume discount?" We first mentioned this a while back, but Wired's coverage is nice to see as well.

Takemedown writes "There's a good article on CTZ that talks about Intel and AMD's plans. Intel, continuing on their 18-month chipset refresh rate, will introduce their Glenwood and Lakeport chipsets for the Smithfield dual core desktop microprocessor in 2005. The chipsets will support SATA II, Matrix RAID and a higher system bus speed for the new Pentium 4 name holder. As far as Intel's dual core strategies are concerned, they will most likely bring their dual core additions by the very end of Q2 or Q3 this year, so for those waiting for these next generation chips are better off with a due upgrade. Secondly, if you are hoping for a noticeable performance gain in regular computing tasks are in for a disappointment. Dual core microprocessors are for those who like to do multitasking or work on multithreaded applications. For example, if you are gaming and burning a DVD at the same time, dual core chips will come in handy and will definitely give a smooth computing experience."

jg21 writes "Has the 'return of technology' begun, asks this article in the wake of all the coverage of CES both here on Slashdot and elsewhere. But just as it's difficult to gauge how many swallows make a summer, how do you measure a technology bounceback? JDJ's suggestions include indicators from 2004 such as the doubling of Google's share price in just 6 months, the mega-sucess of the iPod, and the success of the Blackberry." Decent article that asks a good question; you'll have to wade through the ads to get to the real text.

cjsteele asks: "When should kids be introduced to computers and the Internet? I'm torn between the prospect of giving my children a technological edge versus giving them an appreciation for more traditional ways of learning and researching (and entertainment, etc.) Though the question is open for rampant conjecture, what does Slashdot think? Early and often or slow and controlled?" Slightly tangential to an issue that was covered earlier this week, aside from the average video game, what is the ideal age for kids to begin seriously learning about computers. "All of this comes as the result of my kids (3 & 2 years old) getting a Fisher-Price InteracTV for Christmas. This is the first step towards 'e-learning', and after watching my kids adapt to how the system works, I began to wonder in what ways this method of learning shapes later cognitive development. The big concern I have here is that the KIDS had to do the adapting, not the technology -- that means the way THEY think is being affected, which gets me a bit queezy. Any thoughts or advice?"

Various newsbits from the Consumer Electronics Show: Verizon promises cell phone TV; USB flash drives get more useful; Transmeta promises a fanless media center device, sometime; things you can stick on your iPod; and a tech site offers a photographic overview of day 0 of the convention.

l3pYr writes "Based on user submissions, Wired Magazine has posted its 2004 Vaporware Awards. Duke Nukem Forever has garnered the 'Lifetime Achievement Award,' so it doesn't - officially - make the list. Some of the lucky winners this year are: Alienware, Valve, Microsoft, Apple and TiVo."

nomrniceguy writes "Penn State engineers, Pouyan Amirshahi and Mohsen Kavehrad, estimated in a research paper released Wednesday that their system could deliver data at close to one gigabit per second over medium-voltage electrical lines in ideal conditions, with speeds of hundreds of megabits per second available to home users. Their system would uses repeaters placed every one kilometer, (0.62 miles) and requires power lines to have been modified to reduce interference with the data signals. The engineers said their estimates were based on computer models, and that the data speeds available in a real-world version would depend on how many repeaters a power company used."

Sandman writes "The AP is reporting that so called "Spam King" Sanford Wallace has agreed to stop spamming... at least temporarily until the FTC suit is settled" At best this is a precursor of things to come, and at worst it's a nice break.

New developments this week in a few games, with Cryptic Studio's City of Heroes releasing the much anticipated Issue 3 expansion, which adds new archetypes and power sets to the game. Citing increasing costs for running the game Mythic Entertainment has raised the subscription price for Dark Age of Camelot to $14.95 a month, but with a significant discount for long-term subscriptions. Darniaq wrote in to mention that Sony Online Entertainment announced a new Massive title for the PSP at CES, Untold Legends, in what looks to be direct competition to Pocket Kingdoms. Finally, Tobold of Grimwell Online has a nice recap of MMORPGs in 2004, complete with predictions for this year.