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======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Rerouting the Networks
* Dell Linux Details
* The Palm OS Ends With a Whimper
* Piracy Economics
* Unicode Encoding Flaw Widespread
* CERN Collider To Trigger a Data Deluge
* RIAA Seeks Royalties From Radio
* Microsoft Will Not Sue Over Linux Patents
* How Bad Can Wi-fi Be?
* Site Claims to Reveal 'Tattle-tales'
* ISPs Hate P2P Video On-Demand Services
* Intel Sees Communications As Company's Next Frontier
* PC World 's Best 100 Products of 2007
* Smithsonian 'Toned Down the Science' In Climate Change Exhibit
* StarCraft, Nothing But StarCraft
* First OpenOffice Virus, Not In the Wild
* A Mighty Number Falls
* Big Releases Heat Up High-Def Format War
* MS-Funded Study Attacks GPL3 Draft Process
* Municipal Wi-Fi Networks In Trouble
* Ethanol Demand Is Boosting Food Prices Worldwide
* Nortel Strong-Arms Open Source Vendor Fonality
* MS Wants To Identify All Web Surfers
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Rerouting the Networks |
| from the coding-around-damage dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday May 21, @20:37 (Networking) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/21/2227240
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]prostoalex writes "Scientific American looks at [1]a new approach to
clearing networking jams, in research funded by the US military. Instead
of using routers to route the packets from point A and point B, thus
making some hop in the sequence critical for delivering the message,
researchers are exploring a new approach called 'network coding.' (Here
is the [2]illustration cited in the article.)" Quoting: "[Four
researchers] then at the University of Hong Kong published groundbreaking
work that introduced a new approach to distributing information across
shared networks. In... network coding, routers are replaced by coders,
which transmit evidence about messages instead of sending the messages
themselves. When receivers collect the evidence, they deduce the original
information from the assembled clues. Although this method may sound
counterintuitive, network coding, which is still under study, has the
potential to dramatically speed up and improve the reliability of all
manner of communications systems and may well spark the next revolution
in the field. Investigators are, of course, also exploring additional
avenues for improving efficiency; as far as we know, though, those other
approaches generally extend existing methods.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/21/2227240
Links:
0. http://www.moskalyuk.com/blog
1. http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=77129353-E7F2-99DF-37738629167B4856
2. http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?articleid=77129353-E7F2-99DF-37738629167B4856
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dell Linux Details |
| from the at-last dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday May 21, @21:48 (Linux Business) |
|
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/0142255
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
jon_anderson_ca writes "Dell, through their direct2dell website, has
released some [0]details of their soon-to-be-available Linux machines.
Among the highlights: Only hardware that works with Linux is offered;
open-source drivers are used where possible; binary drivers for Intel
wireless cards, etc.; and no support for proprietary media codecs. Seems
reasonable, but it's too bad that Click2Run isn't in Ubuntu 7.04 for the
sake of those wanting to (legally) play DVDs, use AVI files, etc." The
direct2dell site divulges no details on [1]what models will be offered
with Linux. For those we turn to linuxquestions.org, where proprietor
Jeremy published a scoop last week: "We will be launching a Linux based
OS (Ubuntu) on the E520, 1505 and XPS 410 starting next Thursday, 5/24."
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/0142255
Links:
0. http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/21/15563.aspx
1. http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/2007/05/18/dell-announces-the-models-for-ubuntu/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Palm OS Ends With a Whimper |
| from the hands-down dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday May 21, @22:46 (Handhelds) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/0033257
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]PetManimal writes "Computerworld reviews the Palm Treo 755p, the last
Palm device with the Palm OS, and concludes that [1]the OS is going out
not with a bang but with a whimper. The article says there are some
useful improvements (better integration with Exchange and IM, limited
speech recognition, etc.) but 'nothing that will make you sit back and
say "wow."' Palm already has at least one device with Windows Mobile (the
700w) and soon will make a big push to Linux devices, maybe by the end of
the year. But the Palm OS, which was top dog for a while back in the
1990s, and is still used by many people who own Palm Pilots or Treos, is
going to quickly fade, it seems."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/0033257
Links:
0. mailto:ian_lamont@computerworld.com
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9019758&pageNumber=1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Piracy Economics |
| from the lawsuits-make-a-poor-marketing-strategy dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday May 21, @23:48 (The Almighty Buck) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/0046258
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Reader Anonymous Coward the younger sends in a link to an article up at
Mises.org on the [0]market functions of piracy. The argument is that
turning a blind eye to piracy can be a cheap way for a company to give
away samples ��� one of the most time-proven tactics in marketing. The
article also suggests that pirates creating knock-offs might just be
offering companies market feedback that they ought to attend to.
(Microsoft, [1]are you listening?)
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/0046258
Links:
0. http://mises.org/story/2590
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/20/2046246&tid=109
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Unicode Encoding Flaw Widespread |
| from the sneaking-past-the-IDS dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @02:33 (Security) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/0117203
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
LordNikon writes "According to this [0]CERT advisory: 'Full-width and
half-width encoding is a technique for encoding Unicode characters.
Various HTTP content scanning systems fail to properly scan
full-width/half-width Unicode encoded HTTP traffic. By sending
specially-crafted HTTP traffic to a vulnerable content scanning system,
an attacker may be able to bypass that content scanning system.' A
[1]proof of concept affecting IIS is already [2]being posted to security
mailing lists. [3]Cisco IPS and other IDS products are also affected."
The CERT advisory lists 93 systems, with 6 reported as vulnerable
(including 3com, Cisco, and Snort), 5 known not vulnerable (including
Apple and HP), and the rest unknown.
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/0117203
Links:
0. http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/739224
1. http://www.webappsec.org/lists/websecurity/archive/2007-05/msg00092.html
2. http://www.webappsec.org/lists/websecurity/archive/2007-05/msg00091.html
3. http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sr-20070514-unicode.shtml
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CERN Collider To Trigger a Data Deluge |
| from the things-that-go-bang dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @05:18 (Networking) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/009216
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]slashthedot sends us to High Productivity Computing Wire for a look at
the effort to [1]beef up computing and communications infrastructure at a
number of US universities in preparation for the data deluge anticipated
later this year from two experiments coming online at CERN. The collider
will smash protons together hoping to catch a glimpse of the subatomic
particles that are thought to have last been seen at the Big Bang. From
the article: "The world's largest science experiment, a physics
experiment designed to determine the nature of matter, will produce a
mountain of data. And because the world's physicists cannot move to the
mountain, an army of computer research scientists is preparing to move
the mountain to the physicists... The CERN collider will begin producing
data in November, and from the trillions of collisions of protons it will
generate 15 petabytes of data per year... [This] would be the equivalent
of all of the information in all of the university libraries in the
United States seven times over. It would be the equivalent of 22
Internets, or more than 1,000 Libraries of Congress. And there is no
search function."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/009216
Links:
0. http://www.osgeek.blogspot.com/
1. http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1572567.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| RIAA Seeks Royalties From Radio |
| from the deja-vu-all-over-again dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @08:01 (Music) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/028242
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]SierraPete writes "First it was Napster; then it was Internet radio;
then it was little girls, grandmothers, and dead people. But now our
friends at the RIAA are going decidedly low-tech. The LA Times reports
that [1]the RIAA wants royalties from radio stations. 70 years ago
Congress exempted radio stations from paying royalties to performers and
labels because radio helps sell music. But since the labels that make up
the RIAA are not getting the cash they desire through sales of CDs, and
since Internet and satellite broadcasters are forced to cough up cash to
their racket, now the RIAA wants terrestrial radio to pay up as well."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/028242
Links:
0. http://www.picturesfromiceland.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Will Not Sue Over Linux Patents |
| from the what's-with-the-saber-rattling-then dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @09:01 (Microsoft) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1224259
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
San Muel writes "In an official statement, Microsoft has said [0]it has
no immediate plans to sue after alleging patent infringements by
open-source vendors for the time being. The company goes on to say that,
essentially, it could have done that any time in the last three years if
it wanted to. So what's the purpose of these bold announcements? '[John
McCreesh, OpenOffice.org marketing project lead] added that while
Microsoft may not have plans to sue, it could be using the threat of
litigation to try to encourage corporate customers to move to those
open-source product vendors with whom it had signed licensing agreements,
such as Novell. "Microsoft has spent time and money accumulating patents.
Maybe it has started using that armory to move corporate customers to
open-source software that Microsoft approves of."'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1224259
Links:
0. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62014865,00.htm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How Bad Can Wi-fi Be? |
| from the good-thing-we-have-real-experts-here dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @09:38 (Wireless Networking) |
|
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1230231
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Sunday night in the UK, the BBC broadcast an
alarmist Panorama news programme that suggested [0]wireless networking
might be damaging our health. Their evidence? Well, they admitted there
wasn't any, but they made liberal use of the word 'radiation', along with
scary graphics of pulsating wifi base stations. They rounded-up a handful
of worried scientists, but ignored the majority of those who believe wifi
is perfectly harmless. Some quotes from the BBC News website companion
piece: 'The radiation Wi-Fi emits is similar to that from mobile phone
masts ... children's skulls are thinner and still forming and tests have
shown they absorb more radiation than adults'. What's the science here?
Can skulls really 'absorb' EM radiation? The wifi signal is in the same
part of the EM spectrum as cellphones but it's not 'similar' to mobile
phone masts, is it? Isn't a phone mast several hundred/thousand times
stronger? Wasn't safety considered when they drew up the 802.11 specs?"
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1230231
Links:
0. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6674675.stm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Site Claims to Reveal 'Tattle-tales' |
| from the true-capitalism-in-action dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @10:19 (Privacy) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1234229
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Dekortage writes "Have you ever ratted somebody out? If it was a legal
case, you might end up on [1]Who's A Rat, an online database of police
informants and undercover agents, identified through various
publicly-available documents such as court briefings. The data-mined
information is [2]now available online at a price. As reported in the New
York Times, 'The site says it has identified 4,300 informers and 400
undercover agents, many of them from documents obtained from court files
available on the Internet.' Understandably, U.S. [3]judges and law
enforcement agents are upset, although defense lawyers seem to like the
idea. Where do you draw the line between legal transparency and secrecy?"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1234229
Links:
0. http://www.cheapcheap.biz/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/washington/22plea.html?th&emc=th
3. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-30-informants_x.htm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ISPs Hate P2P Video On-Demand Services |
| from the two-great-tastes-that-hate-each-other dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @11:08 (The Internet) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1422254
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Scrumptious writes "CNET is running an article that highlights the
problems associated with video on-demand services that rely on P2P
technology to distribute content. The article points out that ISPs who
throttle traffic on current generation broadband, and negate network
neutrality by using packet shaping technology, are [0]hindering any
possible adoption of the services offered nervously by content companies.
Many broadband consumers are unaware of how hindered a service they may
receive because of the horrendous constraints enforced by telephone
network operators. This was a topic [1]widely covered in 2006 in the US,
but is now practiced as a common method within the United Kingdom."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1422254
Links:
0. http://crave.cnet.co.uk/televisions/0,39029474,49290573,00.htm
1. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060706_261837.htm
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Intel Sees Communications As Company's Next Frontier |
| from the stepping-it-up dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @11:44 (Communications) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/151229
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]WSJdpatton writes "Intel is mounting a long-term campaign to turn
personal computers into [1]more reliable tools for calling and
conferencing. Intel business-client architecture director Steve Grobman
argues that instead of exploiting the Internet to lower communications
costs, the next phase is about adding new features. Among the benefits
for business: broader access to online meetings with advanced features
such as TiVo-style playback, instant captioning of conversations ��� or
even translation into multiple languages. 'That technology could be a
foundation for companies to add improvements such as the ability to
identify the current speaker during a conference call ... He eventually
expects advanced features -- such as automatic transcription or
translation of conferences. Intel has used deals to advance its plans. A
February 2006 partnership with Skype included joint development to tailor
the service for Intel's dual-core chips, and free PC-based conferencing
for as many as 10 participants.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/151229
Links:
0. http://wsj.com/free
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PC World 's Best 100 Products of 2007 |
| from the have-to-love-those-product-lists dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @12:18 (Software) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1522247
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]javipas writes "The popular PC World magazine has published its
[1]annual list of the 100 best products of the year, with a few surprises
on it. Google Apps Premiere Edition ranks first, with 4 other service
products on the list. Apple has six products on it, with Tiger ��� a
two-year old OS ��� on the ninth position. Microsoft and Dell have four
each, and Canon and Nikon, three. Ubuntu 7.04 has made it, and has
entered on the 16th position. That makes you think about the kind of
ranking process, doesn't it?"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1522247
Links:
0. http://www.javipas.com/
1. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131935-page,13/article.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Smithsonian 'Toned Down the Science' In Climate Change Exhibit |
| from the pre-emptive-censorship dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @13:04 (Science) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1610220
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "According to an International Herald Tribune
article, the Smithsonian pre-emptively [0]toned down the scientific
content of a climate change exhibit put into place last year. The
changes, including removal of scientist conclusions and muddying of
displayed data, were made to ensure that the exhibit would not offend the
Congress or the White House. Pressure brought to bear by Institute
officials resulted in the resignation of Robert Sullivan, a sixteen year
veteran of the organization. 'This is not the first time the Smithsonian
has been accused of taking politics into consideration. The
congressionally chartered institution scaled down a 1995 exhibit of the
restored Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
after veterans complained it focused too much on the damage and deaths.
Amid the oil-drilling debate in 2003, a photo exhibit of Alaska's Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge was moved to a less prominent space.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1610220
Links:
0. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Climate-Change.php
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| StarCraft, Nothing But StarCraft |
| from the power-overwhelming dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 22, @13:30 (Real Time Strategy (Gam|
|
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1731211
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Now that the news has been out for a few days and game journalists have
had a chance to chat with the folks at Blizzard, there are a number of
new stories detailing parts of the StarCraft II world. A massive [0]press
briefing about the game fills in a few more details on the game; only
three factions, no new races, the game is built with competitive play in
mind, and will run on both XP and Vista. For more nitty-gritty elements,
the company held panel discussions on the [1]art design and [2]gameplay
elements of the upcoming game. Video from the event is now widely
available as well; check out the [3]official trailer, some [4]example
gameplay, or the [5]epic 22-minute long developer walkthrough.
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1731211
Links:
0. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171172.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;1
1. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171176.html
2. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171178.html
3. http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=19777&type=mov&pl=game
4. http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=19769&type=mov&pl=game
5. http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?r=1&type=wmv&id=19827
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First OpenOffice Virus, Not In the Wild |
| from the raucous-laughter-in-Redmond dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @13:45 (Security) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1656233
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]NZheretic writes "According to APCmag, the [1]first cross-platform
OpenOffice.org virus ��� '[2]SB/Badbunny-A' ��� was emailed directly to
Sophos from the virus developers. The proof-of-concept virus affects
Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems and uses different methods on each.
It has not yet been seen in the wild. Despite Sun's OpenOffice.org
developer Malte Timmermann's [3]claims to the contrary, this kind of
embedded scripting attack represents a real threat to OpenOffice.org
users. Back in June 2000 when Sun first announced the open sourcing of
OpenOffice.org, the twelfth email to the open discussion list put forward
[4]a two-part solution for providing OpenOffice users with Safe(r)
Scripting using restricted-mode execution by default and access by signed
digital certificates. In October 2000 the issue of [5]treating security
as an 'add-on' feature rather than as a 'system property' was again
raised. Is it time to now introduce such measures to the OpenOffice.org
Core to greatly reduce any future risk from scripted infections?"
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1656233
Links:
0. http://itheresies.blogspot.com/
1. http://apcmag.com/6162/first_openoffice_virus_emerges
2. http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/sbbadbunnya.html
3. http://blogs.sun.com/malte/entry/my_comments_on_on_the
4. http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?listName=discuss&msgNo=12
5. http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=discuss&msgNo=2172
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Mighty Number Falls |
| from the time-to-generate-new-keys dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @14:28 (Math) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1815208
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
space_in_your_face writes "An international team has [0]broken a
long-standing record in an impressive feat of calculation. On March 6,
computer clusters from three institutions (the EPFL, the University of
Bonn, and NTT in Japan) reached the end of eleven months of strenuous
calculation, churning out the prime factors of a well-known,
hard-to-factor number ��� 2^1039 - 1 ��� that is 307 digits long." The lead
researcher believes "the writing is on the wall" for 1024-bit encryption.
"Last time, it took nine years for us to generalize from a special to a
non-special hard-to factor number (155 digits). I won't make predictions,
but let's just say it might be a good idea to stay tuned."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1815208
Links:
0. http://actualites.epfl.ch/presseinfo-com?id=441
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Big Releases Heat Up High-Def Format War |
| from the still-a-dead-heat dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @15:13 (Media) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/1848236
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Choosing sides in the high-def format war
becomes that much harder today, as two powerhouse movie franchises hit
store shelves on opposing formats. Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two
'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two
different configurations of the 'Matrix' Trilogy. So which format wins
this battle? According to High-Def Digest, [0]this one's a draw. The
article has capsule reviews of the four releases ('The Ultimate Matrix
Collection' & 'The Complete Matrix Trilogy' on HD DVD, and 'POTC: Curse
of the Black Pearl' & 'POTC: Dead Man's Chest' on Blu-ray) with links to
excruciatingly in-depth reviews. In the end the site says both sets of
releases boast benchmark video and audio, but a preponderance of
standard-def supplements prevent all of the above from being the perfect
high-def package."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/1848236
Links:
0. http://www.highdefdigest.com/feature_matrixvspirates_052007.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MS-Funded Study Attacks GPL3 Draft Process |
| from the academic-astroturf dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @15:53 (GNU is Not Unix) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/192231
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
QCMBR writes "A [0]new Microsoft-funded study by a Harvard Business
School professor concludes that developers don't want extensive patent
licensing requirements in the GPL3. There are significant problems with
the study, however, especially given the very small sample size.
'Although 332 emails were sent to various developers, only 34 agreed to
participate in the survey ��� an 11 percent response rate. Of the 34
developers who responded, many of them are associated with projects like
Apache and PostgreSQL that don't even use the GPL.' Ars points out that
the GPL3 draft editing and review process is highly transparent and
inclusive 'to an extent that makes MacCormack's claims of
under-representation seem difficult to accept given the small sample size
of the study and the number of respondents who contribute to non-GPL
projects.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/192231
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Municipal Wi-Fi Networks In Trouble |
| from the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @16:33 (Wireless Networking)|
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/2010213
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
imamac writes "According to an AP story, [0]municipal Wi-Fi is going
nowhere fast. A think tank research director quipped, 'They are the
monorails of this decade: the wrong technology, totally overpromised and
completely undelivered.' Subscriptions to the services are much lower
than expected and lawmakers are concerned that millions of dollars will
have gone to waste that could have been better spent on roads or
crime-fighting. Satisfaction with the quality of service has also been
low, which give some insight into the low adoption rate. Is municipal
Wi-Fi just a bad idea, has it been poorly implemented, or is the
technology just not there to support such an endeavor?"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/2010213
Links:
0. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274728,00.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ethanol Demand Is Boosting Food Prices Worldwide |
| from the may-sound-corny dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @17:12 (Power) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/2045228
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
hereisnowhy writes "The rising demand for corn as a source of
ethanol-blended fuel is [0]largely to blame for increasing food costs
around the world, the CBC reports. Increased prices for ethanol have
already led to bigger grocery bills for the average American ��� an
increase of $47 US compared to July 2006. In Mexico last year, corn
tortillas, a crucial source of calories for 50 million poor people,
doubled in price; the increase forced the government to introduce price
controls. The move to ethanol-blended fuel is based in part on widespread
belief that it produces cleaner emissions than regular gasoline. But a
recent Environment Canada study found no statistical difference between
the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent
ethanol-blended fuel. Environmental groups have argued that producing
ethanol ��� whether from corn, beets, wheat, or other crops ��� requires more
energy than can be derived from the product."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/2045228
Links:
0. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/05/22/corn.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nortel Strong-Arms Open Source Vendor Fonality |
| from the can't-be-better-than-ours dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @17:52 (Businesses) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/2136233
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]leecidivo alerts us to Tom Keating's blog, where he writes about how
[1]Nortel forced a former subsidiary to return its open source-based
phone system (Fonality) after the subsidiary went public with how happy
they are with the Fonality phone system compared to Nortel. Quoting:
"What happens when a VoIP blog (yours truly) writes about the fact that a
former Nortel subsidiary (Blade Network Technologies) went looking for a
new phone system, chose an open-source Asterisk-based solution from
Fonality instead of using Nortel's own PBX and then agreed to go on
record on the VoIP & Gadgets blog about why they made such a shocking
decision? A) Nothing ��� it's a VoIP blog ��� who cares? Nortel is an $11
billion dollar company that certainly doesn't read blogs for their news.
B) Nortel reads the blog post, is a little peeved, but other than some
emails sent internally, no one outside Nortel would ever know they were
annoyed. C) A Nortel Board Member flips out over the article, contacts
Blade and then pressures Blade to return the Fonality system and have
Fonality print a retraction to the blog article (and the subsequent press
release)."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/2136233
Links:
0. mailto:leecidivo@yahoo.com
1. http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/nortel-strong-arms-open-source-vendor.asp
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MS Wants To Identify All Web Surfers |
| from the time-to-visit-more-health-sites dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, @19:19 (Microsoft) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/2223236
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Moochman writes "New Scientist reports on a technology Microsoft is
developing to [0]identify users based on their browsing habits. Quote:
'The software could get its raw information from a number of sources,
including a new type of 'cookie' program that records the pages visited.
Alternatively, it could use your PC's own cache of web pages, or proxy
servers could maintain records of sites visited. So far it can only guess
gender and age with any accuracy,' but the aim is to be able to identify
name, occupation and location as well. On a related note, The Inquirer
reports on Microsoft's plans to [1]widen the use of its
identity-verification technology CardSpace, which is built into Windows
Vista and available as an add-on to XP. It's being envisioned as an
identity solution for the entire internet: says Kim Cameron, pioneer of
the technology, 'We feel it has to solve all use cases.' (Aha, so the
anonymous use cases, too, eh?) One might ask, with all of this user-ID
information on hand, how long will it be until the Feds come knocking on
Microsoft's door asking for help? [2]They [3]already [4]have."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/22/2223236
Links:
0. http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg19426046.400&feedId=being-human_rss20
1. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39662
2. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/jul04/07-21NCFTAPR.mspx
3. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6040521.html
4. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/aug05/08-26ZotobArrestPR.mspx
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