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Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Purdue Unveils a Tricorder
* First Dynamically Balancing Biped Robot
* Dell To Linux Users — Not So Fast
* Star Trek To Return Christmas 2008
* Chinese Develop Remote Controlled Pigeons
* Google Ads Are a Free Speech Issue
* Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Drawing Near
* Golf-Ball Sized Hail Damages Shuttle
* Do-It-Yourself Steampunk Keyboard
* Dow Jones Plunge Fueled by Overwhelmed Computers
* Online Storage 2.0: Six Sites Reviewed
* DRM Free Music is Everywhere
* CompUSA Closing More Than 50 Percent of Stores
* How Open is Open Source Really?
* BitTorrent Video Download Store Falls Flat
* Canada Rejects Anti-Terror Laws
* Groovy in Action
* Patent Office Head Lays Out Reform Strategy
* Audio Watermark Web Spider Starts Crawling
* First Graphene Transistor
* RIAA Announces New Campus Lawsuit Strategy

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Purdue Unveils a Tricorder |
| from the beam-me-up dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 27, @20:23 (Sci-Fi) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/27/2229216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

aeoneal writes "According to Science Daily, mass spectrometry is no
longer limited to what can be taken to the lab. [0]Purdue researchers
have created a device they liken to a tricorder, a handy 20-lb. device
that combines mass spectrometry with DESI (desorption electrospray
ionization), allowing chemical composition to be determined outside of a
vacuum chamber. Purdue suggests this could be useful for everything from
detecting explosive substances or cancer to predicting disease.
Researcher R. Graham Cooks says, 'We like to compare it to the tricorder
because it is truly a hand-held instrument that yields information about
the precise chemical composition of samples in a matter of minutes
without harming the samples.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/27/2229216

Links:
0. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070227104038.htm


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Dynamically Balancing Biped Robot |
| from the mister-rossum-on-line-1 dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 27, @21:49 (Robotics) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/010256 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

damg writes "[0]Anybots, which is three guys led by Trevor Blackwell, has
developed the first robot that walks like we do, by [1]dynamically
balancing itself rather than being pre-programmed for walking like Asimo.
The video shows the robot walking and being pushed by another 'bully'
robot to demonstrate that it can't easily be pushed over."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/010256

Links:
0. http://anybots.com/
1. http://paulgraham.com/anybots.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dell To Linux Users — Not So Fast |
| from the still-with-the-Windows-tax? dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 27, @23:12 (Linux Business)|
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/0115255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]PetManimal writes to tell us that after all the hubbub over [1]Dell's
note about manufacturing Linux-friendly Dells and choosing distros, the
company is now telling users [2]not to expect factory-installed Linux
laptops and desktops anytime soon. According to the article, Dell says
that lining up certification, support, and training will 'take a lot of
work.' "The company said today that the note was just about certifying
the hardware for being ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux, not an
announcement that the computers would be loaded and sold with the
operating system in the near future..."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/0115255

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/blog/19
1. http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/2110219&tid=163
2. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=linux_and_unix&articleId=9011907&taxonomyId=122&intsrc=kc_top


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Star Trek To Return Christmas 2008 |
| from the beaming dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 28, @02:09 (Sci-Fi) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/0120220 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Tycoon Guy writes "Paramount today announced the [1]new Star Trek film
is scheduled for release on Christmas Day 2008. The studio also confirmed
the film will be directed by J. J. Abrams, who said the film will
'embrace and respect' Trek canon, but will also 'chart its own course.'
Also today, [2]rumors are out claiming Matt Damon, Adrien Brody and Gary
Sinise will play Kirk, Spock, and Scotty, respectively."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/0120220

Links:
0. mailto:tycoon_guy20@hotmail.com
1. http://www.trektoday.com/news/270207_02.shtml
2. http://www.trektoday.com/news/270207_01.shtml


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Chinese Develop Remote Controlled Pigeons |
| from the better-than-sharks-with-lasers dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 28, @05:01 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/27/2327250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Many readers sent us links to the story about [0]Chinese scientists
developing pigeons whose flight can be controlled remotely. [1]The best
coverage may be Wired's, both because they link to the English language
version of the original Peoples Daily Online release, and because of the
(disturbing) photos. The birds can be commanded to fly left, right, up,
or down. Reader KDan writes, "A number of obvious uses jump out to me...
the remote-controlled pigeons will finally allow us to create an
efficient implementation of [2]RFC 1149 and [3]RFC 2549."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/27/2327250

Links:
0. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/27/china.pigeon.reut/index.html
1. http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/cyborg_flying_r.html
2. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149
3. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Ads Are a Free Speech Issue |
| from the free-as-in-not-speaking dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 28, @07:56 (Censorship) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/0139222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]WebHostingGuy writes "A US Federal Court recently ruled that [1]ads
displayed by search engines are protected as free speech. In the case at
issue, Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft were sued by an individual demanding
under the 14th Amendment that the search engines display his
advertisements concerning fraud in North Carolina. The Court flatly
stated that the [2]search engines were exercising their First Amendment
right of free speech in deciding what ads they want to display."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/0139222

Links:
0. http://www.e3servers.com/
1. http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2007/02/search_engines_3.htm
2. http://claranet.scu.edu/tempfiles/tmp31170/langdongoogleopinion.pdf


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Drawing Near |
| from the millions-rejoicing-in-the-street dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, @08:40 (Linux) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1311229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

daria42 writes "Ubuntu developers [0]are finalizing preparations for the
release of the next version ?€? dubbed Feisty Fawn ?€? of the popular Linux
distribution in mid-April. Overnight, Ubuntu developer Tollef Fog Heen
announced Ubuntu's main software repository had been frozen ?€? with no
changes allowed to the code ?€? as developers got ready to issue a fifth
major test version ("Herd 5") of the next version of Ubuntu."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1311229

Links:
0. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Ubuntu_Feisty_Fawn_a_step_closer/0,130061733,339273880,00.htm


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Golf-Ball Sized Hail Damages Shuttle |
| from the don't-make-me-stop-this-thing dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, @09:15 (NASA) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1327211 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]MattSparkes writes "The Shuttles March launch has been delayed to late
April after golf-ball sized hail caused [1]7000 pits and divots in the
foam that shields the fuel tank. NASA say it's the worst damage of its
kind that they have ever seen, but hail is not a new problem for the
agency. In 1982, a hailstorm damaged the sensitive heat shield tiles on
the Columbia's wings. The damaged tiles then absorbed about 540 kilograms
of rain. Once in space, the orbiter faced the Sun to allow the tiles to
dry out."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1327211

Links:
0. http://mattsparkes.org/
1. http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11270?DCMP=Matt_Sparkes&nsref=hail-damage


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Do-It-Yourself Steampunk Keyboard |
| from the because-you-can dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, @09:55 (Hardware Hac|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1337236 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Who said there's no use for your old IBM "M
Series" keyboards anymore? This [0]creative fellow shows us step by step
how to convert the keyboards of yesteryear into keyboards of an even
further distant, fictional time. H. G. Wells would be proud."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1337236

Links:
0. http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dow Jones Plunge Fueled by Overwhelmed Computers |
| from the sure-always-blame-the-it-guys dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, @10:31 (The Almighty|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1416236 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]cloudscout writes "The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 400
points today. While there were various valid financial reasons for such a
decline, some of the blame is being placed on [1]computer systems that
couldn't keep up with the abnormally high volume at the New York Stock
Exchange and the resulting tremor as they switched over to a backup
system."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1416236

Links:
0. http://www.cloudscout.com/
1. http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S33513.shtml?cat=1


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Online Storage 2.0: Six Sites Reviewed |
| from the who-needs-hard-drives dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, @11:03 (Data Storage|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1543255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]mikemuch writes "Services like [1]box.net, [2]openomy, and [3]eSnips
are more than just places to access your files from the web. Some include
media organization tools, Windows shell integration, drag-and-drop
uploading, tagging, and social content sharing. ExtremeTech has a
[4]review up of six online storage services with Web 2.0 twists."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1543255

Links:
0. http://www.extremetech.com/
1. http://box.net/
2. http://www.openomy.com/
3. http://www.esnips.com/
4. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2099014,00.asp


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DRM Free Music is Everywhere |
| from the do-you-hear-what-i-hear dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 28, @11:51 (Music) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1633233 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

guisar writes "I continue to endure stories on Slashdot and elsewhere
complaining about EMI, itunes and other organizations maybe (or maybe
not) releasing material in DRM free format. Well- here's some news
there's LOTS of material out there. So instead of complaining, [0]
download what you like. There are plenty of artists releasing their
material in FLAC and other DRM free format. Just look around. Most
artists are doing their part by releasing their music in the hopes they
can gain enough exposure to earn a living at what they love. If you're
complaining about major labels not releasing material, it's probably too
late and you are part of the problem." I think this point is often
unfairly ignored: the existence of DRM is a fantastic chance for new
distribution to reveal new bands. Unfortunately this music is difficult
to find because there is simply so much of it.

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1633233

Links:
0. http://www.werkshop.com/store/item.action?artist_id=482&cat_id=1&item_id=4360


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CompUSA Closing More Than 50 Percent of Stores |
| from the trouble-in-paradise dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @12:34 (Busines|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1510229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Zurbrick writes to tell us that CompUSA hs announced that they are
[1]closing the doors on over half their stores over the next three
months. "CompUSA said in a statement it would close 126 of its stores and
would receive a $440 million cash capital infusion, but it was not
specific as to the source of the cash. The company also said it would cut
costs and restructure. The company operates 225 stores, which its Web
site says are located in the United States and Puerto Rico. "

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1510229

Links:
0. mailto:don@zurbrick.com
1. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2099068,00.asp


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How Open is Open Source Really? |
| from the buzzwords-and-the-companies-that-kill-them dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @13:16 (Softwar|
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1537214 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

jg21 writes to tell us that several industry leaders have [0]chimed in
with a response to Nat Torkington's recent piece "[1]Is 'Open Source' Now
Completely Meaningless". In the original piece Torkington raised the
question of whether the term "open source" had lost any meaning because
of companies that use the label yet largly restrict user interaction.
Sun's Simon Phpps chimed in by stating: "I see open source as a term
relevant to the way communities function and I'd support the
reunification of the terms 'Free' and 'open source' around the concept of
Free software being developed in open source communities. On that basis
it's not dead."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1537214

Links:
0. http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/342346.htm
1. http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/is_open_source_1.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BitTorrent Video Download Store Falls Flat |
| from the working-as-intended dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @13:58 (Movies)|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/187258 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

seriously writes "We've all heard about [0]BitTorrent going legit this
week with legal movie and TV show downloads. Ars Technica took a [1]look
at the service to see how usable it was and ran into a few snags,
including not being able to download or even open the video files on some
computers. However, the ones that they did manage to open varied a lot in
quality. Overall, they blame DRM: 'Without knowing whether browser
compatibility and dysfunctional video files are a rare occurrence or not,
it's hard to say whether BitTorrent's service is a good one overall. Our
initial experiences have been disappointing and frustrating, and guess
what the culprit is once again? DRM. Why the DRM failed to work on 50% of
our purchases is not clear, but whatever the cause, it's simply
unacceptable.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/187258

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/26/1224238&tid=95
1. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070227-8929.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Canada Rejects Anti-Terror Laws |
| from the shot-down dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @14:39 (Politic|
| http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/196259 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Coryoth writes "The Canadian parliament has [1]voted against renewing
anti-terror laws that had been introduced after September 11, 2001. The
rejected laws included provisions to hold terror suspects indefinitely,
and to compel witnesses to testify, and were in some sense Canada's
version fo the Patriot Act. The laws were voted down in the face of
claims from the minority Conservative government that the Liberal Party
was soft on terror, and despite the fact that [2]Canada has faced active
terrorist cells in their own country. The anti-terror laws have never
been used, and it was viewed that they are neither relevant, nor needed,
in dealing with terrorist plots. Hopefully more countries will come to
the same conclusion."

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/196259

Links:
0. http://jedidiah.stuff.gen.nz/wp/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6403241.stm
2. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/06/03/canada.terror/index.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Groovy in Action |
| from the look-at-all-the-colors dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 28, @15:21 (Book Review|
| http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1435250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Simon P. Chappell writes "I missed the partying in the 70's and so was
not exposed to the full groovy experience that was available. You could
say that I was a late developer (pun intended). Thankfully, I am now able
to make up for lost time by learning the [1]Groovy scripting language.
For those of you not familiar with Groovy, it is a dynamic language
designed to run on a Java Virtual Machine and be easy for Java
programmers to work with; it looks very similar to Java and will freely
inter-operate with Java objects and libraries. I've been tinkering with
Groovy on and off for about two years now; learning Groovy in the old
days, prior to this year, was a challenge with all of the design changes
that were taking place. Groovy in Action (GinA) is the book that I'd
wished was available back then. Dierk K??nig, a committer for the Groovy
project, has written this definitive guide to Groovy and after what has
seemed an eternity to those of us on the Groovy mailing list, it is
finally available." Read below for the rest of Simon's review.

This story continues at:
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1435250

Discuss this story at:
http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1435250

Links:
0. http://techbook.info/
1. http://groovy.codehaus.org/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Patent Office Head Lays Out Reform Strategy |
| from the long-overdue dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @16:02 (Patents|
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1931222 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]jeevesbond writes to tell us that Jon Dudas, the Under Secretary of
Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the US Patent and
Trademark Office has laid out a [1]plan for patent reform. "Speaking at
the Tech Policy Summit in San Jose, Dudas said that characterizing the
patent system as hurting innovation is a 'fundamentally wrong' way to
frame the debate. 'I have traveled around the world, and every nation is
thinking how it can model [intellectual property governance] after the
U.S,' Dudas said. 'It's a proven system, over 200 years old. The Supreme
Court, Congress and policy makers are involved [in cases and legal
reforms] not because the system is broken. It's not perfect, and we
should be having the debate on how to improve.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1931222

Links:
0. http://www.apaddedcell.com/
1. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4562


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Audio Watermark Web Spider Starts Crawling |
| from the now-it-just-needs-to-serve-you-papers-automatically dept|
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @16:44 (The Int|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/1949239 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

DippityDo writes "A new web tool is [0]scanning the net for signs of
copyright infringement. Digimarc's patented system searches video and
audio files for special watermarks that would indicate they are not to be
shared, then reports back to HQ with the results. It sounds kind of
creepy, but has a long way to go before it makes a practical difference.
'For the system to work, players at multiple levels would need to get
involved. Broadcasters would need to add identifying watermarks to their
broadcast, in cooperation with copyright holders, and both parties would
need to register their watermarks with the system. Then, in the event
that a user capped a broadcast and uploaded it online, the scanner system
would eventually find it and report its location online. Yet the system
is not designed to hop on P2P networks or private file sharing hubs, but
instead crawls public web sites in search of watermarked material.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/1949239

Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070227-8937.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| First Graphene Transistor |
| from the cool-under-pressure dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 28, @17:25 (Hardwar|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/2050204 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "UK researchers are announcing the first ever
workable [0]transistor made of graphene ?€? that's one layer of carbon
atoms. It's thinner and smaller than a silicon transistor can ever be,
and it works at room temperature. When silicon electronics are dead, this
is what many speculate is going to take over. There's [1]slight
controversy as they decided to announce their results via a review
article, rather than wait for their (submitted) peer review paper to come
out."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/2050204

Links:
0. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070226/full/070226-10.html
1. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/February/28020703.asp


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| RIAA Announces New Campus Lawsuit Strategy |
| from the tell-us-everything dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 28, @18:34 (Music) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/28/2317212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA is once again revising their lawsuit
strategy, and will now be sending college students and others "[0]pre-lawsuit
letters." People will now be able to settle for a discount. How nice."

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/28/2317212

Links:
0. http://www.slyck.com/story1422.html



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