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======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian Translator Created
* LiveJournal Says Users are Responsible for Content of Links
* Record Company Collusion a Defense to RIAA Case?
* Solar Powered Wi-Fi
* Thieves Hacking Security Cameras?
* Viacom Says User Infringed His Own Copyright
* GPL Violations On Windows Go Unnoticed?
* NZ, Sweden, Hungary Reflect OOXML Turmoil
* HMV Canada Cuts Music CD Prices
* Vista SP1 Coming In Q1 2008
* 200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way
* San Francisco Free Wi-Fi Plan Fails
* Google and Microsoft Help To Defend Fair Use
* DOJ Still Looks To Have Suit Against Verizon Tossed
* What Vista SP1 Means To You
* Artificial Life May Be Possible Within Ten Years
* Big Box Store Reps Push Unnecessary Recovery Discs
* Sweden's Vote on OOXML Invalidated
* One Species' Genome Discovered Inside Another's
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian Translator Created |
| from the what-does-the-clay-tablet-say dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 29, @21:21 (Software) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/29/2311201
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
DrJackson writes "A new online translator that can [0]translate Assyrian,
Babylonian, Sumerian and Egyptian hieroglyphics (1 of the 3 types anyway)
has been developed. This is the first time I ever saw a translator for
cuneiform. Something like this would be great for translating interesting
historical records like the Amarna Letters."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/29/2311201
Links:
0. http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=763333
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| LiveJournal Says Users are Responsible for Content of Links |
| from the who's-to-blame dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 29, @22:54 (The Internet)|
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/29/2319240
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Many of you might remember the [0]previous story about LiveJournal
erroneously deleting hundreds of users as suspected paedophiles, spurred
on by pressure from the group, [1]Warriors for innocence. Since then,
they've been taking action against users hosting material on their
servers that they believe to be illegal. Today, LiveJournal management
have demonstrated a serious lack of understanding in how the internet
works, declaring that users are [2]responsible for the content of the
webpages that they link to in their blog entries. A user points out the
obvious flaw: "I get ToS'd because the link's been redirected to a page
full o' porn, even though context clearly shows that when I originally
put up the link that it didn't actually land on a page of porn?" One
wonders how such a long-established blogging company can be so ignorant
about the nature of the world wide web.
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/29/2319240
Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/0329200&tid=153
1. http://www.warriorsforinnocence.org/
2. http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/288425.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Record Company Collusion a Defense to RIAA Case? |
| from the fight-the-power dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 30, @00:23 (The Courts) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/29/2326214
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Is collusion by the record companies a
defense to an RIAA case? We're about to find out, because the RIAA has
[1]made a motion to strike the affirmative defense of Marie Lindor, who
alleged that "the plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting
collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by
tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling
all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among
themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a
uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the
bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have" in [2]UMG v.
Lindor."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/29/2326214
Links:
0. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/
1. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/08/riaa-moves-to-strike-copyright-misuse.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Solar Powered Wi-Fi |
| from the wireless-anywhere dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 30, @03:59 (Power) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/0314204
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]inkslinger77 writes "A small US startup has announced it has created a
system for [1]running Wi-Fi routers in remote places using only the power
of the sun. Among the first round of products from Solis Energy is the
Solar Power Plant, touted as being capable of supplying 12, 24 and 48
Volts DC for use in stand-alone applications such as surveillance cameras
and outdoor Wi-Fi."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/0314204
Links:
0. mailto:inkslinger77@gmail.com
1. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;209822754;fp;16;fpid;1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Thieves Hacking Security Cameras? |
| from the steal-from-home dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 30, @08:04 (The Internet) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/0321232
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
The [0]FBI is investigating fifteen store robberies in eleven states,
committed via phone and internet. The perpetrators hack the store's
security system so they can observe their victims. They then make
customers take their clothes off and get the store to wire money. From
the article, "A telephone caller making a bomb threat to a Hutchinson,
Kan., grocery store kept more than 100 people hostage, demanding they
disrobe and that the store wire money to his bank account. ... officials
were investigating whether the caller was out of state and may have
hacked into the store's security system. "If they can access the
Internet, they can get to anything," Hutchinson Police Chief Dick
Heitschmidt said. "Anyone in the whole world could have access, if that's
what really happened.""
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/0321232
Links:
0. http://www.kpho.com/news/13996055/detail.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Viacom Says User Infringed His Own Copyright |
| from the catch-44 dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @08:46 (Media) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/128226
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Chris Knight writes "I ran for school board where I live this past
fall and created some TV commercials [1]including this one with a 'Star
Wars' theme. A few months ago VH1 grabbed the commercial from YouTube and
featured it in a segment of its show 'Web Junk 2.0.' Neither VH1 or its
parent company Viacom told me they were doing this or asked my permission
to use it, but I didn't mind it if they did. I thought that Aries
Spears's commentary about it was pretty hilarious, so I posted a clip of
VH1's segment on YouTube so that I could put it on my blog. I just got
[2]an e-mail from YouTube saying that the video has been pulled because
Viacom is claiming that I'm violating its copyright. Viacom used my video
without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that
I am infringing on their copyright for showing the clip of the work that
Viacom made in violation of my own copyright!"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/128226
Links:
0. http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/
1. http://youtube.com/watch?v=nLi5B0Iefsk
2. http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007/08/viacom-hits-me-with-copyright.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GPL Violations On Windows Go Unnoticed? |
| from the not-in-my-back-yard dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @09:29 (GNU is Not Unix)|
|
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1221225
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Scott_F writes "I recently reviewed several commercial, closed-source
slideshow authoring packages for Windows and came across an alarming
trend. Several of the packages I installed included GPL and LGPL software
without any mention of the GPL, much less source code. For example, DVD
Photo Slideshow ([0]www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com) included mkisofs,
cdrdao, dvdauthor, spumux, id3lib, lame, mpeg2enc, and mplex (all of
which are GPL or LGPL). The company tried to hide this by wrapping them
all in DLLs. There are other violations in other packages as well. Based
on my testing of other software, it seems that use of GPL software in
commercial Windows applications is on the rise. My question is how much
are GPL violations in the Windows world being pursued? Does the FSF or
EFF follow up on these if the platform is not GPL? How aware is the
community of this trend?" This [1]new method of detecting GPL violations
could help here.
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1221225
Links:
0. http://www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com/
1. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/25/1648253&tid=117
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NZ, Sweden, Hungary Reflect OOXML Turmoil |
| from the buying-a-standard dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @10:12 (Microsoft) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1323216
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
A number of readers are sending news of the progress of Microsoft's
attempt to get OOXML standardized by ISO. First off, [0]New Zealand has
voted "no" on the question. In Sweden, after [1]the uproar following the
"yes" vote there, a Microsoft representative has [2]admitted buying
Swedish OOXML votes (link in Swedish ��� follow the Read More... link below
for some translated quotes). Computerworld has also [3]picked up the
Sweden story. Finally, from Hungary, reader [4]ens0niq writes that the
Minister of Economy and Transport has sent a letter to the General
Director of the Hungarian Standards Institution [5]requiring that the
June 25 "yes" vote be re-done because of irregularities. Our
correspondent notes, however, that many Microsoft partners have joined
the voting committee in the meanwhile, so the result could be a replay of
Sweden's experience.
This story continues at:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1323216
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1323216
Links:
0. http://www.standards.co.nz/news-and-seminars/current-news/New+Zealand+casts+Open+XML+vote.htm
1. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/28/1237255&tid=109
2. http://www.nyteknik.se/art/52026
3. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033701
5. http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-18042/hungarian-standards-institution-to-reconsider-its-vote
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| HMV Canada Cuts Music CD Prices |
| from the signs-of-sanity dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @10:55 (Music) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1442223
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
umStefa notes a CBC story reporting that the largest music retailer in
Canada, [0]HMV, has slashed prices on CDs and is attributing the move to
demand by customers for lower prices. The back catalog of popular artists
will see price cuts of up to 33%; the cuts average 20% across the board.
The Canadian version of the RIAA is spinning the news as being a direct
result of music piracy.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1442223
Links:
0. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2007/08/28/cds-prices.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Vista SP1 Coming In Q1 2008 |
| from the quicker-than-XP's dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @11:36 (Windows) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1424252
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Many readers sent in word of Microsoft's [0]announcement of the schedule
for Vista SP1. The Beskerming blog has a [1]good summary. Up to 15,000
people will get access to a beta of SP1 by the end of September; general
release is targeted (not promised in stone) for early 2008. The service
pack is said to improve performance and stability, not to add features.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1424252
Links:
0. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/aug07/08-29vistasp1beta.mspx
1. http://www.beskerming.com/commentary/2007/08/30/262/Windows_Vista_SP_1_Slips_to_2008
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way |
| from the axis-of-opportunity dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @12:19 (Space) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1516224
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]KentuckyFC sends us to arXiv, as is his wont, for a paper ([1]abstract;
[2]PDF preprint) making the claim that 200,000 elliptical galaxies are
aligned in the same direction; the signal for this alignment stands out
at 13 standard deviations. This axis is the same as the controversial
alignment found in the cosmic microwave background by the WMAP
spacecraft.
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1516224
Links:
0. http://www.arxivblog.com/
1. http://arxiv.org/abs/0708.4013
2. http://arxiv.org/pdf/0708.4013
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| San Francisco Free Wi-Fi Plan Fails |
| from the no-money-in-it dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, @13:04 (Wireless Network|
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1617226
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Reader r writes with news from San Francisco that [0]Earthlink has backed
out of contract negotiations to blanket the city with free Wi-Fi, citing
money problems. Seems like only yesterday that [1]Chicago's Wi-Fi deal
fell apart for much the same reason. Quoting: "The contract, which was
three years in the making, had run into snags with the Board of
Supervisors, but ultimately it was undone when Atlanta-based EarthLink
announced Tuesday that it no longer believed providing citywide Wi-Fi was
economically viable for the company... EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso
said that EarthLink was willing to work with San Francisco but had
decided that it 'was not willing to work in the business model where
EarthLink fronts all the money to build, own and operate the network.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1617226
Links:
0. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/30/MNEJRRO70.DTL
1. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/29/1325209&tid=193
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google and Microsoft Help To Defend Fair Use |
| from the fighting-the-good-fight-via-proxy dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @13:48 (Google) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1731240
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "The Computer & Communications Industry
Association filed a complaint this month with the FTC 'alleging that
professional sports leagues, Hollywood studios, and book publishers were
all using copyright notices that misrepresented the law'. That is, they
were aggressively pursuing 'right' that they were not entitled to. Now a
group, backed by companies like Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Sun,
and Red Hat, has launched a web site called Defend Fair Use that shows
[0]they are serious about making the complaint stick. From the article:
'In contrast to copyright notices that take no account of fair use and
claim control over "all accounts and descriptions" of a game, the CCIA
offers a different copyright notice of its own. "We recognize that
copyright law guarantees that you, as a member of the public, have
certain legal rights," it says, "You may copy, distribute, prepare
derivative works, reproduce, introduce into an electronic retrieval
system, perform, and transmit portions of this publication provided that
such use constitutes 'fair use' under copyright law, or is otherwise
permitted by applicable law."'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1731240
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DOJ Still Looks To Have Suit Against Verizon Tossed |
| from the protecting-the-soldiers dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @14:38 (Privacy) |
|
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/184219
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "With Director of National Intelligence Mike
McConnell acknowledging that the 'private sector' had a hand in assisting
the president's warrantless wiretapping initiative, the DOJ is ever more
strenuously demanding that the [0]suit against Verizon be dropped. 'The
Justice Department attorneys argue McConnell's statements did nothing to
change the fact that it hasn't ever confirmed any of the activities
alleged by the class action plaintiffs--and has, in fact, denied the
existence of any sort of "dragnet." The arguments made by the class
action plaintiffs rest on nothing but "speculation," the attorneys wrote.
In the Justice Department's view, litigating the case would still require
exposing how the program actually does work--which, it says, would in
turn endanger national security.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/184219
Links:
0. http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9768991-7.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What Vista SP1 Means To You |
| from the see-your-doctor dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @15:32 (Windows) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1854253
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Geek.com has an interview with Nick White,
Microsoft's Vista Product Manager, covering the upcoming release of Vista
SP1. The interview goes over some of the new features, how the change
will affect admins, and how Microsoft decides if a change should be
rolled out as an update or as part of the service pack. One of the most
interesting questions asks whether people should feel that they [0]have
to wait until SP1 to upgrade to the operating system, a common practice
with Windows users. White writes off this practice as no longer being
necessary and notes how Windows Update has lessened the importance of the
release of a service pack. Just the same, a News.com article explores the
possibility that this update will [1]finally begin driving users to Vista."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1854253
Links:
0. http://www.geek.com/windows-vista-sp1-what-it-means-to-you/
1. http://news.com.com/Will+update+drive+Vista+use/2100-1016_3-6205124.html?tag=nefd.lede
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Artificial Life May Be Possible Within Ten Years |
| from the want-me-my-own-ninja-squirrel dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @16:21 (Biotech) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/1859210
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
CapedOpossum writes "According to an article from a few weeks back on
CNN, researchers in the field of genetics and biology think that we may
be able to [0]artificially create life within the next decade. From the
article: 'Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create
life from scratch and they're getting closer. Experts expect an
announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now
little-known field of 'wet artificial life. "It's going to be a big deal
and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating
officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. Bedau
said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could run
amok, but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long
time before that is a problem.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/1859210
Links:
0. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/20/artificial.life.ap/index.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Big Box Store Reps Push Unnecessary Recovery Discs |
| from the cha-ching dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @17:12 (The Almighty Buck) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/2014258
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Ed Albro, PC World writes "At PC World, we've got a story today on
salespeople at Best Buy and Circuit City pushing consumers to [1]pay the
stores' technicians to create recovery discs for their new laptops.
Recovery discs are important to have, of course, but the fact is that
they're easy to make yourself. Or you can get them from the manufacturer
of your PC, often for half of what Best Buy and Circuit City charge you.
The salespeople often tell you that you can buy from the manufacturer ���
but they claim you'll pay twice as much as the stores charge."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/2014258
Links:
0. http://www.pcworld.com/
1. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136496/article.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sweden's Vote on OOXML Invalidated |
| from the that's-what-you-get-when-you-cheat dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @18:04 (Microsoft) |
|
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/211227
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Groklaw Reader writes "Just days after Microsoft's [1]attempt to buy
the Swedish vote on OOXML came to light, [2]SIS declared its own vote
invalid. The post at Groklaw references a ComputerWorld article with
[3]revelations from Microsoft: 'Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that
an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to
partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format's
approval as an ISO standard. Microsoft said the offer, when discovered,
was quickly retracted and that its Sweden managers voluntarily notified
the SIS, the national standards body. "We had a situation where an
employee sent a communication via e-mail that was inconsistent with our
corporate policy," said Tom Robertson, general manager for
interoperability and standards at Microsoft. "That communication had no
impact on the final vote." ...'"
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/211227
Links:
0. http://www.groklaw.net/
1. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/28/1237255&tid=109
2. http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070830155109351
3. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033701
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| One Species' Genome Discovered Inside Another's |
| from the it's-a-mad-house-a-mad-house dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday August 30, @19:01 (Sci-Fi) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/30/2116232
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]slyyy writes "The Universtiy of Rochester has discovered the complete
genome of a bacterial parasite [1]inside the genome of the host species.
This opens the possibility of exchanging DNA between unrelated species
and changing our understanding of the evolutionary process. From the
article: 'Before this study, geneticists knew of examples where genes
from a parasite had crossed into the host, but such an event was
considered a rare anomaly except in very simple organisms. Bacterial DNA
is very conspicuous in its structure, so if scientists sequencing a
nematode genome, for example, come across bacterial DNA, they would
likely discard it, reasonably assuming that it was merely
contamination--perhaps a bit of bacteria in the gut of the animal, or on
its skin. But those genes may not be contamination. They may very well be
in the host's own genome. This is exactly what happened with the original
sequencing of the genome of the anannassae fruitfly--the huge Wolbachia
insert was discarded from the final assembly, despite the fact that it is
part of the fly's genome.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/08/30/2116232
Links:
0. mailto:jmaris@orange.nl
1. http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2963
Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.
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