password
username
Sponsored by CakeMail, an email marketing software.
Newsletter preview


======================================================================
A Better Job is Waiting for You??Find it Now.
Check out Slashdot??s new job board. Browse through tons of technical
jobs posted by companies looking to hire people just like you.
http://jobs.slashdot.org/
======================================================================

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Council of the EU Says "We Cannot Support Linux"
* Birth of an Island
* Vista and the Music Industry
* Geeks In Asia Use Clever Hacks To Get Slashdot
* HTML Encoded Captchas
* What Are You Optimistic About?
* Wikipedia Blocks Qatar
* Games On Demand Service For Mac
* GMail Vulnerable To Contact List Hijacking
* 2007: Best Yet For PSP & DS
* The Problem With Driver-Loaded Firmware
* U.S. Mass Declassified Documents At Midnight
* The World's Most Powerful Diesel Engine
* OLPC's UI To Be Kid-Tested In February
* Flying To the US? Pay In Cash
* How One Small Business Switched to Ubuntu
* The D Programming Language, Version 1.0
* Scientist Organizes Resistance To Polygraphs
* Mars Rovers' Software Upgraded
* RIAA Goes for the Max Against AllofMP3

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Council of the EU Says "We Cannot Support Linux" |
| from the penguins-need-not-apply dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday December 31, @20:30 (Linux) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/1950225 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The Council of the EU has a [0]streaming
service so that we can watch its meetings ?€? but the service can only be
accessed by Mac or MS Windows users. This is because they employ WMV
format for the videos. In the [1]FAQ they express a really strange
opinion about this: 'The live streaming media service of the Council of
the European Union can be viewed on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh
platforms. We cannot support Linux in a legal way. So the answer is: No
support for Linux.' An [2]online petition has been set up to create
pressure to convince the EU council to change its service to one that is
platform independent."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/1950225

Links:
0. http://ceuweb.belbone.be/
1. http://ceuweb.belbone.be/faq.php?lang=EN
2. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/eu_streaming_service_for_everybody


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Birth of an Island |
| from the rising-in-fire dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday December 31, @22:47 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/2017216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

slashmojo writes that while [0]some islands are sinking, last August
another [1]rose from the ocean, formed by volcanic activity and caught in
the act by a passing yacht. From the article: "What looked like a brown
stain on the South Pacific turned out to be a spectacular drift of
floating pumice stones stretching more than 16 km ?€? and an indication an
island was being born nearby... 'We are getting emails from
volcanologists saying this is so rare.'" Here is the blog post of the
[2]yachtsman who photographed the nascent island.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/2017216

Links:
0. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/25/0458231&tid=14
1. http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/12/post_3.html
2. http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Vista and the Music Industry |
| from the locked-down dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @01:54 (Windows) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/2150255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

BanjoBob writes "Vista locks down all the DRM functionality and actually
[0]reduces the quality of playback of some media. This includes both
audio and video content. As a company creating music and video products,
how can we use Vista to create, distribute, and use legal media? I have
read nothing to indicate that Vista has a model to allow 'authorized' use
without causing problems. Currently we use Windows 2000 and Linux
products. If what we understand is true, Vista and future Microsoft
products won't be viable options for us since prior to publication, media
must be copied multiple times, edited, moved around, re-edited and often
modified into various forms (trailers, etc.) before, during, and after
production. This naturally includes backups and recovery. If Vista is
intent on prohibiting these uses, then Microsoft is intent on keeping
their products out of the realm of content creation and editing. How do
others deal with these issues?"

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/2150255

Links:
0. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/25/2034238&tid=164


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Geeks In Asia Use Clever Hacks To Get Slashdot |
| from the whatever-it-takes dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @05:02 (Programming) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/2321235 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Daedius writes "My comrade Hugh Perkins is living in Asia and he has
been [1]without reliable internet connectivity for many days. He uses
l33t hacks to get his [2]daily dose of Slashdot in desperate times." From
the posting: "The Taiwan earthquake has brought telecommunications in the
Taiwan/Hong Kong region to a standstill. I am living in Shenzhen and am
unable to read Slashdot directly for several days. Gmail and Google have
privileged bandwidth and local servers and both continue to work
perfectly from the region. Could there be some way to use Google or Gmail
to read Slashdot? A solution was to upload an executable to my web
hosting in America that would receive zipped executables by email,
execute them, then email me the results."

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/2321235

Links:
0. mailto:richard.anaya@gmail.com
1. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/29/1342234&tid=95
2. http://manageddreams.com/slashdotviagmail/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| HTML Encoded Captchas |
| from the type-this dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @08:03 (Spam) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/31/2359227 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]rangeva writes to tell us about a twist he has developed on the common
[1]Captcha technique to discourage spam bots: HECs [2]encode the Captcha
image into HTML, thus presenting an unsolved challenge to the bots'
programmers. From the writeup: "The Captcha is no longer an image and
therefore not a resource they can download and process. The owner of the
site can change the properties of the Captcha's HTML, making it
unique,... add[ing] another layer of complication for the bot to crack."
HECs are not exactly lightweight ?€? the one on the linked page weighs in
at 218K ?€? but this GPL'd project seems like a nice advance on the state
of the art.

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/31/2359227

Links:
0. http://www.omgili.com/
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
2. http://www.omgili.com/captcha.php


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What Are You Optimistic About? |
| from the explain-yourself dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday January 01, @08:43 (Editorial) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1245244 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

vix86 writes "Last year's "[0]World Question" from [1]The Edge was "What
is your Dangerous Idea?" So to kick off the off the new year: As an
activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally optimistic.
Science figures out how things work and thus can make them work better.
Much of the news is either good news or news that can be made good,
thanks to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient and powerful
tools and techniques. Science, on its frontiers, poses more and ever
better questions, ever better put. What are you optimistic about? Why?
Surprise us! "

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1245244

Links:
0. http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_index.html
1. http://www.edge.org/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wikipedia Blocks Qatar |
| from the the-law-of-unintended-consequenceas dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday January 01, @09:30 (The Internet) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1248251 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]GrumpySimon writes "Wikipedia has [1]blocked the entire country of
Qatar from editing pages. Whilst the ban is due to spam-abuse coming from
the IP address in question, the fact that this belongs to the country's
sole high-speed internet provider has the unintended consequence of
stopping Qatarese from editing the wiki. The ban has raised concerns
about impartiality ?€? [2]the majority of Al Jazeera journalists operate
out of Qatar, for example. This raises a number of issues about internet
connectivity in small countries ?€? what other internet bottlenecks like
this exist?"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1248251

Links:
0. http://henry.simon.net.nz/
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:82.148.97.69
2. http://english.aljazeera.net/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Games On Demand Service For Mac |
| from the try-before-you-buy dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday January 01, @09:49 (Classic Games (Game|
| http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/140212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Torrey Clark writes "[1]MyMacGames is preparing to launch a new
[2]'games on demand' service for Mac users ($8-20 per month) in the third
quarter of 2007 that will feature roughly 100 games at launch. They are
currently offering a free beta."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/140212

Links:
0. http://tech-tv.blogspot.com/
1. http://www.mymacgames.com/
2. http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/12/28/reviews.games.on.demand/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GMail Vulnerable To Contact List Hijacking |
| from the in-special-circumstances dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday January 01, @10:09 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1350219 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Anonymous Coward writes "By simply logging in to GMail and visiting a
website, a malicious website can [1]steal your contact list, and all
their details. The problem occurs because [2]Google stores the contact
list data in a Javascript file. So far the attack only works on Firefox,
and doesn't appear to work in Opera or Internet explorer 7. IE6 was
un-tested as of now."

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1350219

Links:
0. http://www.quickrss.net/
1. http://cyber-knowledge.net/blog/2007/01/01/gmail-vulnerable-to-contact-list-hijacking/
2. http://docs.google.com/data/contacts?out=js&show=ALL&psort=Affinity&callback=google&max=99999


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2007: Best Yet For PSP & DS |
| from the good-case-to-be-made dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday January 01, @10:43 (Portables (Games)) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1357256 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

ElFozzie writes "From a handheld perspective, Pocket Gamer has posted a
couple of features offering a positive viewpoint on the reasons why both
PSP and DS might have a very happy new year. Tellingly, whilst [0]the PSP
piece focuses on a range of new potential developments from new
peripherals and downloadable video content to price drops and even a new
version of the handheld system, [1]the DS article simply highlights 10
top games titles due to hit the streets in the next 12 months. On one
level this could be argued as a reflection of the divergent strategies of
the two devices and companies, with Sony trying to establish all-singing,
all-dancing, all movie-music-and-gaming 'entertainment platforms',
whereas Nintendo have focused solidly upon one core area. However a
simpler argument would suggest it's merely underlining why Nintendo has
raced ahead this year and the lesson Sony are going to have to learn if
they are to have any chance of a truly prosperous 2007 ?€? "It's about the
games stupid!""

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1357256

Links:
0. http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/PSP/Sony+PSP/feature.asp?c=2070
1. http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/DS/Nintendo+DS/feature.asp?c=2067


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Problem With Driver-Loaded Firmware |
| from the crippleware-in-the-physical-world dept. |
| posted by Hemos on Monday January 01, @11:24 (Networking) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/142251 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Kadin2048 writes "If you've gone to a big-box store and purchased a
wireless card recently, you might have had some trouble getting it to
work under Linux, or any non-Windows OS for that matter. One reason for
this is that more and more manufacturers are producing hardware that are
useless without proprietary firmware. While these new designs allow for
lower parts counts and thus lower cost, it presents a serious problem for
F/OSS software because it can sometimes guarantee no out-of-the-box
compatibility. Jem Matzan has produced a detailed article, "[1]The battle
for wireless network drivers," on the subject, including interviews with
manufacturers' representatives and OS developers, including Theo de
Raadt. The bottom line? In general, Asian hardware manufacturers were far
more responsive and liberal about firmware than U.S. manufacturers (Intel
included). Look for more firmware issues in the future, as not only
wireless hardware, but regular [2]wired Ethernet cards, take the
driver-loaded firmware approach."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/142251

Links:
0. mailto:wlfmwre.kadin@xoxy.net
1. http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/293/
2. http://www.broadcom.com/products/Enterprise-Networking/Gigabit-Ethernet-Controllers/BCM5751


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| U.S. Mass Declassified Documents At Midnight |
| from the seekrits dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @12:08 (Security) |
| http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1657224 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Alchemist253 writes "Advocates of open government have another reason to
celebrate New Year 2007: at midnight hundreds of millions of U.S.
government documents that were classified more than 25 years ago got
[0]automatically declassified. Various agencies have applied for
exemptions for specific documents, but nonetheless there should be a
release of a number of interesting papers." From the article: "'It is
going to take a generation for scholars to go through the material
declassified under this process,' said Steven Aftergood, who runs a
project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists."

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1657224

Links:
0. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/21/america/web.1221declassify.php


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The World's Most Powerful Diesel Engine |
| from the zero-to-sixty-eventually dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @12:52 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/177240 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

trex279 writes "The [0]Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke
diesel engine is the world's most powerful diesel engine built to date.
Each cylinder displaces a whopping 111,143 cubic inches (1,820 liters,
equivalent to a cube 4 feet on a side) and produces 7,780 horsepower. The
engine is about the size of a small building." The engine is intended for
use in container ships.

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/177240

Links:
0. http://www.ultimatestupidity.com/pics/1/diesel/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| OLPC's UI To Be Kid-Tested In February |
| from the nice-day-in-the-neighborhood dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @13:38 (GUI) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1735248 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]dfoulger writes "The AP is reporting that [1]kid testing of
Negroponte's '$100 Laptop' starts in February. This article is some of
the first mainstream coverage of just how different the user interface of
the XO Computer is ?€? it ditches the traditional office metaphors in favor
of a 'neighborhood' and an activity-based journaling approach. [2]Video
of Sugar, as the UI is called, has been out on the net for a while, and
Popular Science recently gave the color / monochrome display a [3]'Grand
Award' in its 2006 technology roundup. What do you think of this new UI?"

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1735248

Links:
0. mailto:davis@foulger.net
1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061231/ap_on_hi_te/hundred_dollar_laptop
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwzCsOFxT-U
3. http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2006/product_31.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Flying To the US? Pay In Cash |
| from the emerging-details dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @14:24 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1830244 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

pin_gween writes to point us to a report in the Telegraph that British
travelers using a credit card to purchase their ticket may now have their
[0]credit card and email accounts inspected by US authorities. This has
been true since October, when the US and the EU agreed about what
information the US could demand from airlines and how this information
would be handled. But details of the agreement only recently came to
light following a Freedom of Information request. The US says it will
"encourage" US carriers to reciprocate to any requests by European
governments. From the article: "[T]he Americans are entitled to 34
separate pieces of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data... Initially, such
material could be inspected for seven days but a reduced number of US
officials could view it for three and a half years. Should any record be
inspected during this period, the file could remain open for eight
years...'It is pretty horrendous, particularly when you couple it with
our one-sided extradition arrangements with the US,' said [a human rights
activist]. 'It is making the act of buying a ticket a gateway to a host
of personal email and financial information. While there are safeguards,
it appears you would have to go to a US court to assert your rights.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1830244

Links:
0. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=VL4HVZGOUZETRQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/01/01/nusnoop01.xml


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How One Small Business Switched to Ubuntu |
| from the losing-business-the-old-fashioned-way dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @15:08 (Businesses) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/1925212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]firenurse writes to point out a story in The Inquirer about [1]how one
small business switched to Ubuntu. It describes a maddening comedy of
errors, a series of circular screw-ups among Microsoft, HP, and a RAID
vendor. From the article: "You never quite wrap your head around how
anti-consumer Microsoft's policies are until they bite you in the bum.
Add in the customer antagonistic policies of its patsies, HP in this
case, and vendors like Promise, and you have quite a recipe for pain.
Guess what I did today?"

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/1925212

Links:
0. mailto:johnlrn@suite224.net
1. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36635


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The D Programming Language, Version 1.0 |
| from the coming-of-age dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @16:01 (Programming) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/2041256 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

penguinblotter writes in a journal article: "Soon, Walter Bright is
scheduled to release version 1.0 of the [0]D Programming Language. D is a
systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and
high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern
languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs
of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and
reliability. D has appeared on Slashdot a [1]few [2]times [3]before, and
Walter has continued to add more and more features. Most Slashdot
community comments in these articles have been offered on feature X or
spec Y without reading through the extensive D newsgroup archives. It has
been here over the past seven years where extremely gifted and
experienced programmers hashed out discussions and arrived at excellent
implementations of all the ideas discussed." Read on for the rest of
penguinblotter's writeup.

This story continues at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/2041256

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/2041256

Links:
0. http://www.digitalmars.com/d
1. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/15/234223&tid=156
2. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/11/2049217&tid=156
3. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/19/1124204&tid=156


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Scientist Organizes Resistance To Polygraphs |
| from the drugs-lies-and-security-clearances dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @16:53 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/2055249 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]George Maschke writes "Brad Holian, a senior scientist at Los Alamos
National Laboratory, is using a blog to [1]organize resistance to plans
for random polygraph and drug testing of Lab scientists. Holian writes:
'Polygraphy is an insulting affront to scientists, since a committee of
the National Academy of Sciences has declared that, beyond being
inadmissible in court, there is no scientific basis for polygraphs. In my
opinion, by agreeing to be polygraphed, one thereby seriously jeopardizes
his or her claim to being a scientist, which is presumably the principal
reason for employment for many scientists at Los Alamos.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/2055249

Links:
0. mailto:maschke@antipolygraph.org
1. http://lanl-the-corporate-story.blogspot.com/2006/12/dear-readers-brad-holian-sent-this-to.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Mars Rovers' Software Upgraded |
| from the little-bots-that-could dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday January 01, @17:45 (Mars) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/2130230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]cheros writes to note the news that [1]NASA is upgrading the software
in the Mars rovers to make them smarter in a number of ways. From the
article: "The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving
the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars some new capabilities
useful both to these missions and future rovers. Spirit will begin its
fourth year on Mars on Jan. 3 (PST); Opportunity on Jan. 24. In addition
to their continuing scientific observations, they are now testing four
new skills included in revised flight software uploaded to their onboard
computers."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/2130230

Links:
0. mailto:phobos@pobox.com
1. http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20061228a.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| RIAA Goes for the Max Against AllofMP3 |
| from the go-for-the-gold dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 01, @18:37 (Music) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/2215257 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Spad writes "Zeropaid is reporting that as part of its ongoing
lawsuit, the RIAA will be [1]seeking the maximum of $150,000 per song for
each of the 11 million MP3s downloaded from the Russian AllofMP3.com
between June and October last year. This amounts to roughly $1.65
trillion, probably a tad more than AllofMP3 has made in its lifetime. A
representative of AllofMP3 [2]stated: 'AllofMP3 understands that several
U.S. record label companies filed a lawsuit against Media Services in New
York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3 does not operate in New York.
Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing
full well that AllofMP3 operates legally in Russia. In the mean time,
AllofMP3 plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian
laws.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/01/01/2215257

Links:
0. http://www.spad.co.uk/
1. http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8175/RIAA+sues+AllofMP3+for+$1.65+trillion
2. http://www.slyck.com/story1368.html



Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.

======================================================================

You have received this message because you subscribed to it
on Slashdot. To stop receiving this and other
messages from Slashdot, or to add more messages
or change your preferences, please go to your user page.

http://slashdot.org/my/messages

You can log in and change your preferences from there.