Slashdot Mirror
Domain: yahoo.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to yahoo.com.
Stories · 5,662
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Software - Different Traits for Manufacturing vs Service?
tachin asks: "We've all been hearing about software as a service industry as opposed to manufacturing, there are some differences that favour that view, but I wonder if the type of industry affects the fundamental design of a software system. Considering the differences between those two types, are there some software constructs that are appropriate for one type of industry but would be undesirable for the other? As economies everywhere are becoming more service-oriented, what are the main characteristics a software system must provide to work well in such environments?" -
Wal-Mart Relaunches Online Music Store
ack154 writes "The latest competitor in the paid music download business will now open its 'doors,' as Walmart begins selling songs at 88 cents online. It had recently finished a three month testing period and now will open to everyone. According to CNN, however, they don't care so much about selling music, 'Analysts have said the goal for Wal-Mart is to bring more people to its Web site.' Maybe they're taking cue from Apple in trying to sell something (iPod) else by using a music store? Articles can be found at Reuters, CNN and others." amichalo points out that this is really a re-entry, writing "The service was previously launched last December. No explanation as to the re-launch (cough-poor-sales-cough) other than the addition of exclusive artists." -
EU Fines Microsoft $613 Million, Officially
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by CNN.com, the European Union has hit Microsoft with a record US$613 million fine after a five-year investigation, finding the company guilty of abusing the 'near-monopoly' of the Windows operating system. Microsoft has been given 90 days to make a European version of Windows available without a media player and 120 days to give programming codes to rivals in the server market to allow 'full interoperability' with desktops running Windows. Microsoft plans to appeal the decision." Other readers point to coverage at the BBC, ZDNet, Reuters (here carried by Yahoo!), and abc.au.net. -
Opera Promises Voice-Operated Web Browser
unassimilatible writes "Opera's latest browser talks and listens, according to AP. The new browser incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and "listen" to the request. "Hi. I am your browser. What can I do for you?" asked a laptop with the demonstration versions of the browser. The message can be personalized, such as greeting users by name. The computer learns to recognize users' voices, accents and inflections by having them read a list of words into a microphone. Opera plans to first launch an English version of the voice browser for computers running the Windows operating system. Versions for other systems, including handhelds, will follow. Opera's press release has more details, including Opera's hopes that people will adopt this technology for presentations - and to replace PowerPoint." -
MSN Rolling Out New Search Engine In July
X writes "Looks like Microsoft is going to release its new search technology soon. The online search world is about to get very interesting...." July launch; looks like they will continue to use Overture for a while, but the competition for dollars and users will definitely heat up. -
Astronauts, Robots to Save Hubble
BungoMan85 writes "Astronauts who serviced the Hubble Space Telescope, among others, feel that NASA's administrator Sean O'Keefe shouldn't be too quick to abandon the now 14 year old space telescope because of safety concerns arising from the Columbia disaster." And an anonymous reader writes "At the insistance of congress, NASA is looking for a way to save the Hubble. "It's the most unpopular decision I could have made," Sean O'Keefe said of his decision to cancel the shuttle mission planned to fix Hubble. He has authorized his engineers to pursue the possiblity of a robotic rescue mission. This could be a great opportunity for private industry contractors." -
Epic Cracking Down On UT2K4 Cheaters Already
qasimodo writes "Gamespot.com is reporting that Epic has banned the first cheater from Unreal Tournament 2004. You can read the thread explaining this on the official Atari forums for the game. DrSin, one of Epic's programmers started the thread as a warning to fellow users, and so far everybody seems to be happy. I agree with that, we need to stop the cheaters before they ruin every game out there. But the question remains: How can they stop them completely? Surely, script kiddies will just stop and go somewhere else, but how about the guys who write all the tools? They won't stop so easily." Elsewhere, nerdb0t points to an ACM Queue editorial on the subject of cheating in online games, arguing: "Perhaps game developers don't realize they're enabling roving gangs of sociopaths who are effectively destroying the virtual world the developers have worked so hard to create." -
TiVo Will Die
Espectr0 writes "Yahoo! News has a PC Magazine-reprinted story about why they think the TiVo will die because of rising competition. From the article: 'It's always hard to write an obituary, especially when the subject is still alive. It's especially hard for me, because I love the little guy like a brother. But, alas, TiVo will die. I was one of the first reviewers to get my hands on an early TiVo box. I compared TiVo with ReplayTV, and although I really wanted to like ReplayTV, TiVo won my heart over.'" -
Massachusetts Builds Open-Source Public Repository
An anonymous reader writes "Massachusetts on Wednesday took the wraps off a new software repository designed to let government agencies make more efficient use of open-source software. The repository will be managed by the Government Open Code Collaborative, a newly formed group of seven states and four municipalities that will contribute and download open-source software and proprietary software designed by government agencies for their use." -
Prior Art for Hyperlink Order Tracking in Email?
Davesbud asks: "I'm trying to invalidate a patent that claims to have invented 'placing a hyperlink in an email which in turn provides the recipient with order status or tracking information.' I am searching for any web pages, articles, newsgroup/forum discussions, brochures or the like, published before December of 1997, that describes this idea. You've seen this if you've ordered almost anything online or shipped by FedEx or UPS. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks." -
Congress to Test Air Screening Program
unassimilatible writes "The Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday it will order airlines to turn over passengers' personal records in the next couple of months to test a computerized passenger screening program that could keep dangerous people off airlines, reports Yahoo/AP. The Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, would rank all air passengers according to the likelihood of their being terrorists. Suspected terrorists and violent criminals would be designated as red and forbidden to fly. Passengers who raise questions would be classified as yellow and would receive extra security screening. The vast majority would be designated green and allowed through routine screening. But some say the project would violate privacy rights, while others are concerned it would cost the private sector too much money. The Air Transport Association, the trade group for major airlines, has come up with seven 'privacy principles' that it says the government should follow in implementing CAPPS II." -
Ex-Blizzard Devs Sign With Namco, Blizzard Using BitTorrent
Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release revealing the ex-Diablo creators now at Flagship Studios have signed a publishing deal with Namco, in a move that "marks Namco's official entry into the PC games publishing business" - we've previously covered Flagship Studios' formation on Slashdot Games. Elsewhere, several readers point out Blizzard's official World of Warcraft site, which has announced with regard to the upcoming WoW Beta test: "While we plan on having several ways available to distribute the files to everyone, our primary method will be through the Blizzard Downloader program, which uses BitTorrent technology." Update: 03/18 21:01 GMT by S : There's more discussion on Blizzard and other companies using BitTorrent in a recent mainpage post. -
Rhythmbox Gets iPod Support
Bhondai writes "The latest release of the popular GNOME based iTunes clone, Rhythmbox has, amongst new features, initial support for the iPod. Things are still a little unpolished at this moment (requiring manual mounting of the iPod to /mnt/ipod), but this does look promising. A list of changes and new features in Rhythmbox 0.7.1 is available at Footnotes." -
NASA Develops Tech To Hear Words Not Yet Spoken
alex_guy_CA writes "Yahoo News has a story about technology that comes close to reading thoughts not yet spoken, by analyzing nerve commands to the throat. 'A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal cords do receive speech signals from the brain,' said developer Chuck Jorgensen, of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Jorgensen's team found that sensors under the chin and one each side of the Adam's apple pick up the brain's commands to the speech organs, allowing the subauditory, or 'silent speech' to be captured. The story indicates the method could be useful on space missions or other difficult working conditions." -
Leave a Safe IT Job for Music Tour?
DecisionTime asks: "In this US economy, it took me a whole year to find my current IT job, where I've been for less than a year. It's fairly dull, but pays ok, and I believe it is relatively safe. Now, I've been given the chance to use my talents and tour full time with a band overseas. With the corresponding drop in expenses, my net income on this tour would remain about the same as now. However, music jobs are inherently risky, yet the touring could become long term. On the other hand, I could potentially be IT job searching again within four months with a dubious hole on my resume. I'm single and have no kids or major commitments, but I do not want to destroy my IT career either for the future. I can't get unbiased advice where I am, so perhaps Slashdot can lend me some wisdom?" -
PhatBot Trojan Spreading Rapidly On Windows PCs
prostoalex writes "The Washington Post alerts Windows users about a new peer-to-peer backdoor client that is installed maliciously on broadband-connected computers around Asia and the United States. The client is then used for distributed DOS attacks and sending out large amounts of spam. Phatbot, according to government sources, is installed on hundreds of thousands machines already. Phatbot snoops for passwords on infected computers and tries to disable firewall and antivirus software, albeit it is detectable by antivirus packages." An anonymous reader submits a link to this description of the beast. -
Lockheed's High Altitude Airship
swordboy writes "Lockheed Martin has just awarded a contract to UniSolar Ovonic regarding development and delivery of flexible, lightweight solar cells for the U.S. government's High Altitude Airship security project. The proposed 500-foot-long dirigible is to fly at a stratospheric 70,000 foot altitude - above both jet stream and severe weather. The thin-film solar technology, although low in peak conversion efficiency, can potentially deliver a whopping 2500 watts/kilogram. This is the same technology as the previously discussed GE organic LED project - just with the physics in reverse. Broadband communication blimp, anyone?" -
Who Are My Neighbors, Mr.Search Engine?
Phoe6 writes "'Google's goal is to connect searchers with the information they need whether it's halfway around the world or in their neighborhood,' said company co-founder Sergey Brin, as Google is unveiling its location-based search tool local.google.com. This is going heads on with Yahoo, as it put its SmartView content on its maps." Phoe6 also points to this AP story carried by the Houston Chronicle about "Verizon Communications' SuperPages.com, overhauled to deliver more useful local results." Google's service seems to work pretty well -- I've just located a few coffee shops with free wireless within easy walking distance. Update: 03/17 18:33 GMT by T : Here's a no-reg link to the same AP story. -
Sci Fi Channel Plans 'Earthsea' Miniseries
Gumpy writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has started producing a TV miniseries based on the first two books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. The Earthsea miniseries is supposed to start on the Sci Fi Channel in December 2004." -
Sub-atomic Particles Used To Map Pyramid
firegate writes "Yahoo News is reporting on a pyramid-mapping project focusing on an ancient Aztec site in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Scientists are attempting to map an ancient pyramid by detecting muons - sub-atomic particles which are left as remnants of ancient cosmic rays. A similar method was used to scan Egypt's Khephren Pyramid in the 1960's." -
SpaceShipOne Back in Action
JoeSilva writes "After a 3 month wait, Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne is back in the skies above Mojave! Not only is it patched up from a failed landing gear, it's got a 'thermal protection system' installed. Looks like high temp insulation on the leading edges. Also they have a picture of it with 'the rocket motor for the flight 13p'. This was the 12th SpaceShipOne flight." -
Sedna May Have A Moon
ArrayIndexOutOfBound writes "The newly found planet Sedna may have a moon. It appears that most astronomers argue that Sedna is only another proof that neither Sedna nor Pluto are really planets. Interestingly, the planet has been found by an 'automated sky survey telescope'..." SYSS Mouse points to a NASA page with more information about "our potential 10th planet. ... It is 130 billion miles away from the sun (900 times Earth's distance from the sun) and has a 10,500 years orbit, compared to Pluto's 230 years around the sun." -
Review Of Verizon's New Wireless Network
jagger writes "The service gives you the speed of broadband, the ease of WiFi and the coverage of cellular... sort of. The service is currently rolled out in Washington D.C. and San Diego, CA but offers speeds comparable to broadband. Read the full review from Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post at Yahoo News." -
MS Hotmail Offline For Hours
chalker writes "According to CNN, and others, the Hotmail online e-mail service, operated by Microsoft, was down for most of the working day on Friday, affecting 'a significant portion of MS customers.' People are also having trouble accessing products such as the MSN Messenger instant messaging program. The company said it was an internal problem rather than an attack on its system and that it hoped to have service restored by 5:30 p.m. PST. As of 8:15 PM EST, Hotmail appears to be online again." -
I, Robot Trailer Available
thehomeland writes "A new 'I, Robot' movie is coming out based on the Isaac Asimov book series, starring Will Smith. I saw a teaser at the theatre back at the LOTR:ROTK showing, but it looked so much like a commercial I didn't even realize it was a trailer until I saw a logo that said '3 Laws Safe'. Now there's a regular trailer as well as a nice featurette for better details." -
Spam Bits
Let's mush a few things together into a nice pink rectangular solid: ipandithurts writes "The FTC Chair Timothy Muris doubts the ability of the "CAN SPAM" law to stop SPAM." ElementCDN writes "The Ottawa Citizen has a story on Bernard Balan the King of Spam. Bernard has closed up shop and moved to cottage country near Huntsville, Ontario." CactusMan writes "CTV (among others) is reporting that a Ontario trio has been named in a suit filed by Yahoo under the new CAN-SPAM legislation. Yahoo is claiming that the father and two sons were 'responsible for sending millions of unsolicited messages to users of the company's e-mail service.'" ilsa writes "According to this AP article, as much as 19% of e-mail sent by commercial entities never reaches its destination. 'Promotions and greeting cards were the types of messages most likely to disappear, the study found.' Although this study may have been intended to be alarming, forgive me for thinking this may not be a bad thing." Reader chrisbtoo responds to an earlier spam story: "In today's story about Spam solutions, monstroyer challenged people to crack the Spam Interceptor Captcha. Turns out it was pretty easy." Finally, we can't fail to mention an attempt at making the world's largest spam musubi. -
Repositories for IT White Papers?
itsAsony asks: "What are the free and paid repositories / portals where I can present my technical white papers (IT papers) that appeals and reaches a wide network of IT personnels such as engineers, technical management, IT sales, in the area of eBusiness & eBilling. I know of one such portal: ZDNet. Basically I am looking for an online portal and print & media source thru which I can present my case to the peer group, not a B-2-C, but peer-2-peer. Thanks for your help." -
Game Over CG Sitcom Debuts, Censored, Gets Machinima
Thanks to GamePro for its interview with the creator of UPN's new CG videogame-related sitcom, Game Over, which debuted last night. The interview notes: "For gamers, it's great to see in-jokes and cameos - like when the entire cast of Oddworld shows up in the first episode. But is prime time ready for a gaming 'toon?" Even before debuting, "Game Over has fallen prey to network censors", with dialog and risque CG nudity cut, and reaction to the show is mixed, but to promote it, UPN is giving away an interactive PC game/machinima download in conjunction with Fountainhead Entertainment, so "players are able to use ['Game Over' character Raquel] in interactive and non-interactive ways by employing Machinimation tools" - the download is available via FilePlanet. Update: 03/12 04:10 GMT by S : Reuters are reporting disappointing ratings for the debut episode. -
Baystar Confirms Microsoft Behind SCO Investment
Bruce Perens writes "Business Week has confirmed that Microsoft arranged the Baystar investment in SCO. A managing partner of Baystar says the call wasn't from Gates or Ballmer. But it wouldn't have to be, would it? Obviously, there's more investigation to do." Reader skreuzer writes "Yahoo Finance is reporting that SCO announced that the company's board of directors has authorized management, in its discretion, to purchase up to 1.5 million shares of SCO's common stock over the next 24 months. SCO has approximately 14.4 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Any repurchased shares will be held as treasury stock and will be available for general corporate purposes." Newsforge (which is also part of OSDN) is also following the story. -
Pop Up Ads in Space
modder writes "A Russian inventor has patented ads in space. Shouldn't this violate some sort of International Space Law?" Remember the first time your dad took you out at 1am into the backyard with a telescope? With Your kids the conversation will be something like "Follow the Swoosh to Arcturus, Drive a Spike to the AT&T Logo" -
Apple Sued in France for iPod Music Royalties
alex_guy_CA writes "A musicians rights group in France is suing Apple Computer for back royalties due from iPod sales. It seems in France, all CDs, hard drives, and the like owe musicians money in case any of it is used for piracy. Only Apple isn't paying up." I want compensation from sales of Microsoft Windows just in case it is used for spreading viruses. -
Orange County: More E-Ballots Cast Than Voters
Nofsck Ingcloo writes "Orange County, California has discovered the joys of electronic voting. The story originated in the LA Times, which requires registration to view it. Yahoo News has a copy here. Problems occurred in races throughout the county. Among the symptoms of the problem were turnouts exceeding 100%." Read on for more."David Hart, chairman of Texas-based Hart InterCivic, which manufactured Orange County's voting system, said it would be impossible to identify which voters cast ballots in the wrong precincts because of steps the company had taken to ensure voter secrecy. For this reason, an exact account of miscast ballots is impossible. The good news, if the folks there can be believed, is that there is no evidence yet that any result is in jeopardy. In a masterpiece of understatement, elections system analyst Kim Alexander is quoted as saying, "Certainly this kind of problem that's occurred in Orange County doesn't do anything to contribute to greater confidence in electronic voting systems." Steve Rodermund, Orange County's registrar of voters, is quoted as saying that despite the problems, he is satisfied with the performance of Orange County's new electronic voting system."
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Looking to Move from EV1?
IgD asks: "Our small company has been a customer of EV1 for well over a year. We have a single dedicated server (a Red Hat box) and pay about $150/month. We get about 400 gigabytes per month for our bandwidth limit. Up until the SCO fiasco, we had been generally pleased with EV1. For obvious reasons we decided to move on. We didn't make the decision lightly. Migrating our server is going to result in a terrible inconvenience. The subject of EV1 and SCO has been covered in multiple articles here on Slashdot. Many have discussed moving to other providers such as ServerMatrix.com and ServerBeach.com. Dear Slashdot, where should we take our business?" -
Sell Your Wireless Bandwidth
BilSabab writes "Yahoo! News is reporting on the release of LinSpot 1.0 for Mac OS X. Linspot enables users to sell access to their wireless network to anyone who enters the hot zone." The software is free, but LinSpot takes a cut of the action. -
Viacom and DishNetwork Battle On Air Over Contract
An anonymous reader writes "This weekend, Viacom stations began scrolling messages on their cable stations(MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, etc) stating that DishNetwork may soon be removing the channels from its lineup and urging subscribers to call DishNetwork. DishNetwork subscribers(me!) may have begun to see black bars cover the messages and calls to DishNetwork regarding the messages were greeted with a recording telling subscribers to call the President and GM of KCBS. These antics stem from lawsuits here. I, for one, will be switching to DirecTV if they don't get this figured out." -
Latest SnapStream PVR App Reviewed
martensitic writes "Yahoo! posted this positive AP review of the newest version of a third-party PC app designed to compete with TiVo and Microsoft's Media Center. SnapStream 's 'Beyond TV 3' (sounds like something Fox would produce) allows streaming to standard web browsers for watching on other computers in your home, and promotes automatic commercial break recognition that has been downplayed in other products. (Previously mentioned here.)" -
Australia-U.S. Trade Agreement Contains DMCA-like Provisions
femto writes "The text of the US-Australian Preferential Trade Agreement has been released. It has significant implications for Free Software and the Public Domain within Australia. Implications include extension of copyright terms (death to the Public Domain & Gutenberg Australia), software patents (death to Free Software) and the DMCA (death to fair use). It is not yet law. The Europeans have shown that software patents are not a done deal. Now is the time to write letters to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Join the EFA. Contact your local library. Sign up to the mailing list to organise opposition. Just make a noise during this year's federal election." -
Sony's PS2 Online Lays Claim To TV Generation
Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a Sony press release in which they claim online gaming using the PlayStation 2 is taking away viewers from the TV, noting that "...the audience for online gaming with the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system grew to 2.6 million this month" - though that figure seems to be the number of PS2 systems with online adapters, not the amount actually online. Elsewhere, Sony notes that online play is "...up 239 percent when compared to February of last year, with 67,708 new gamers registering during the 29 day month", and that some games have extremely committed players: "SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs players spend an average of 4.2 hours a day playing the game online." This comes shortly after news that 25 million PS2s have been sold in North America, a figure "contributing to overall worldwide shipments of more than 70 million units" - meanwhile, GI.Biz notes that Xbox Live "has been celebrating having 750,000 Xbox Live users [in the States], with a target of a million by June." -
Sony's PS2 Online Lays Claim To TV Generation
Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a Sony press release in which they claim online gaming using the PlayStation 2 is taking away viewers from the TV, noting that "...the audience for online gaming with the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system grew to 2.6 million this month" - though that figure seems to be the number of PS2 systems with online adapters, not the amount actually online. Elsewhere, Sony notes that online play is "...up 239 percent when compared to February of last year, with 67,708 new gamers registering during the 29 day month", and that some games have extremely committed players: "SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs players spend an average of 4.2 hours a day playing the game online." This comes shortly after news that 25 million PS2s have been sold in North America, a figure "contributing to overall worldwide shipments of more than 70 million units" - meanwhile, GI.Biz notes that Xbox Live "has been celebrating having 750,000 Xbox Live users [in the States], with a target of a million by June." -
Scientific-Atlanta Mulling Video Game Set-Top Box
NickNiel writes "According to Yahoo, Scientific-Atlanta (a digital cable set-top box manufacturer) is 'planning to develop television set-top boxes with high-performance video game capabilities, which could compete with game consoles such as Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2.' My favorite quote, from CEO James McDonald: 'I can give (game players) the same performance you get out of those game boxes," he added. 'There is no question that games is one... market we will be in.'" -
Firefly Movie Gets The Green Light
An anonymous reader writes "According to FireflyFans.net and Ain't It Cool News, Universal has greenlit production of 'Serenity,' the motion picture based on Joss Whedon's cancelled TV series 'Firefly.' Both sites point to an article from Variety that says the film will start production in June, and be ready for release in 2005." The informative Whedonesque weblog is also monitoring developments regarding this much-deserved resurrection. -
Courts Overturn FCC - Return of the Monopoly?
An anonymous reader writes "The DC Circuit Court of Appeals today threw out FCC restrictions which previously forced large regional phone companies to allow companies such as AT&T and MCI the ability to offer local phone service. The court also upheld FCC rules that no longer require large phone companies to share their advanced broadband networks of the future with competitors. The USTA response: 'This is a decisive victory for consumers, for innovation and for free markets.' The AT&T response: 'At a time when consumers and small business owners are just beginning to realize the benefits of competition, the D.C. Circuit today held up a stop sign and halted eight years of progress.' Enough about the Baby Bells already -- how is this going to effect my VoIP phone from VoicePulse (similar to Vonage)? Did I switch to VoIP so I can pay $15/month for my phone bill, but will have to pay $80/month for FTTH or some other form of broadband?" -
SCO Names 1st Lawsuit Target: AutoZone [Updated]
An anonymous reader writes "News.com reports that SCO has filed the first (of two) soon to be infamous lawsuits. This one is aimed against car part retailer AutoZone, a multi-billion, Fortune 500 company according to the site. Who's next?" Another reader excerpts from SCO's posted claim: 'AutoZone violated SCO's UNIX copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating system that contain code, structure, sequence and/or organization from SCO's proprietary UNIX System V code in violation of SCO's copyrights.' Update: 03/03 16:28 GMT by T : njan writes with the news that SCO just announced during their ongoing conference call another lawsuit, this one "to be filed against Daimler-Chrysler, alleging that they are infringing SCO's copyright by using code relating to 'core operating system functionality' of SCO System 5." -
Future Directions Proposed For Mozilla
Ars-Fartsica writes "MozillaZine is now featuring a set of slides regarding future directions for Mozilla that were detailed at the recent Mozilla developers meeting. SVG and integration with programming languages are among the directions discussed." -
SCO Postpones Lawsuit, Now Threatening Two
zzxc writes "In a surprise turn of events, SCO says that they need more time to prepare an announcement of who they are going to sue. According to SCO, the lawsuits will be announced tomorrow morning shortly before a phone-in conference in which will be outlining their financial report. You can call 1-800-818-5264 code 141144 Wednesday at 9:00am MST to join in with your questions, or listen to the webcast. They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses. (EV1.net servers or Lindows?)" -
Super Tuesday Not So Super For Electronic Voting
October_30th writes "It's Super Tuesday in 10 states (including California, New York and Ohio) and various reports are coming in that the equipment built by Diebold and various other manufacturers is proving more troublesome than previously anticipated." -
Video Games Make People Fat and Mean
dblh3l1x writes "Reuters is reporting that a Swedish group finds 'Video games can make children fat and, in the case of violent games popular among teenage and younger boys, aggressive and even criminal.' These articles make me want to hurt someone. If I didn't get out of breath so easily, I'd go hurt someone right now, so instead I'm just going to go play the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo again." -
Double Comet Spectacular... Maybe
jd writes "CNN is reporting that two comets, named NEAT and LINEAR after the obervatories that found them, may both be visible in the sky at the same time. The prediction is that they will first be seen in the southern hemisphere in mid-April, becoming visible in the northern skies in May. This is believed to be the first time these comets have passed through the inner solar system, so astronomers are hedging their bets on how bright they will be. Guesses range from plus infinity to minus infinity." -
Slowing Down Atoms And Biomolecules With Lasers
Tokyokid writes "In an interview on Berkeley Groks, Nobel Laureate Steve Chu talks about cooling atoms down using lasers. In another words, the atoms or molecules are slowed down in this "optical molasses." Scientists now are using these techniques to study the interactions and forces between biomolecules. These studies may give a better understanding of how life works on the molecular level." -
SCO Identifies EV1Servers as Linux Licensee
jasonhamilton writes "EV1Servers.net has been identified as a Linux licensee, giving them the dubious title of being the first dedicated hosting company to have a licence agreement with SCO. Rather than 'eliminating uncertainty from our clients' hosting infrastructure', as Robert Marsh (CEO of EV1Servers) claims, some users of EV1 appear to be somewhat upset."
