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

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Army Opens New Office of Videogames
* Ice Age Beasts Blasted from Space
* Switching Hospital Systems to Linux
* CDN Forces Reactor Online Against Safety Regulations
* Boeing 12,000lb Chemical Laser Set to Fry Targets
* Group Plans to Bring Martian Sample to Earth
* A Child's View of the OLPC
* Movable Type Goes Open Source
* Vista SP1 Release Candidate Available
* Opera Files EU Complaint Against Microsoft
* The Setup Behind Microsoft.com
* Scientists Trap Light In Nano-Soup
* Toshiba To Launch "Super Charge" Batteries
* Why US Wireless Isn't Wide Open
* Congressman Hollywood Wants To Make DMCA Tougher
* Microsoft Re-Brands PlaysForSure
* TV Industry Using Piracy As A Measure Of Success
* Does Active SETI Put Earth in Danger?
* Recent Human Evolution May Have Been Driven By Self-Selection
* Google Keeps What Ask.com Erases
* How We Might Have Scramjets Sooner than Expected
* Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon vs. Mac OS X Leopard

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Army Opens New Office of Videogames |
| from the johnny-get-your-joystick dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 12, @19:19 (The Militar|
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/12/2314204 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "For the first time, the Army has set up a
project office, just for [0]building videogames. The military has been
training troops with games for [1]decades, of course. But this is the
first wing of the armed forces dedicated exclusively for gaming. One of
the first projects: a tool kit that would let soldiers "build and
customize their own training scenarios ?€? just like the Marines' did,
adapting [2]Armed Assault for military purposes."

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/12/2314204

Links:
0. http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/12/armys-new-offic.html
1. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.04/ff_doom_pr.html
2. http://www.armedassault.com/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ice Age Beasts Blasted from Space |
| from the the-galactic-shotgun dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 12, @20:46 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/12/2317237 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

ianare writes "Eight tusks and a bison skull all show signs of having
being [0]blasted with iron-nickel fragments, typical meteorite material.
Raised, burnt surface rings trace the point of entry of high-velocity
projectiles; and the punctures are on only one side, consistent with a
blast coming from a single direction. But the team was astonished to find
the animal remains were about 35,000 years old, rather than from the
known [1]impact of 13,000 years ago."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/12/2317237

Links:
0. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7130014.stm
1. http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070602/fob1.asp


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Switching Hospital Systems to Linux |
| from the open-sores dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 12, @22:08 (Red Hat Sof|
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/12/2320254 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]jcatcw writes "Health care software vendor McKesson Provider
Technologies is focusing on ways to cut IT costs for customers, including
hospitals and medical offices. The cure is moving many of McKesson's[1]
medical software applications to Linux, which can then be used on less
expensive commodity hardware instead of expensive mainframes. A deal with
Red Hat allows McKesson to offer its software in a top-to-bottom package
for mission-critical hospital IT systems."

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/12/2320254

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052142


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CDN Forces Reactor Online Against Safety Regulations |
| from the the-great-white-glowing-north dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 13, @00:04 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/12/2329216 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Socguy writes "The Canadian government has passed legislation that
will [1]reopen an Ontario nuclear reactor that produces most of the
world's supply of critical medical isotopes, even though the site has
been shut down for safety maintenance. Witnesses and experts were called
in to the House to face questions about safety concerns and all parties
eventually voiced support for the bill, which would effectively suspend
CNSC's oversight role for 120 days. The Chalk River reactor ceased
operating on Nov. 18. Pressure on the government to restart operations
began to build after delays in the shutdown of the government-run site,
which generates two-thirds of the world's radioisotopes, began to cause a
critical shortage of radioisotopes."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/12/2329216

Links:
0. mailto:bdouglasm2002@yahoo.com
1. http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/12/11/radioisotope-legislation.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Boeing 12,000lb Chemical Laser Set to Fry Targets |
| from the houseful-of-popcorn dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 13, @03:00 (The Military|
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/0315230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]coondoggie writes "Boeing this week completed work on and installed a
[1]12,000-pound chemical laser in a C-130H aircraft. Boeing's Advanced
Tactical Laser (ATL) which is being developed for the Department of
Defense, will destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no
collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban
operations."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/0315230

Links:
0. http://networkworld.com/
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/22975


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Group Plans to Bring Martian Sample to Earth |
| from the plot-to-a-made-for-tv-movie dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 13, @07:56 (Space) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/0318223 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]sm62704 (mcgrew) writes "New Scientist has a story about IMARS (the
International Mars Architecture for Return Samples) planning to [1]bring
samples of Martian soil to earth. The robotic mission would be a needed
precursor to manned trips to the red p***t. Also, international
cooperation is necessary since the US has already nixed bankrolling
manned Mars missions."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/0318223

Links:
0. http://www.mcgrew.info/
1. http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13037-global-group-aims-to-return-martian-soil-to-earth.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A Child's View of the OLPC |
| from the all-this-and-games-too dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @08:36 (Education) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/0415245 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Finallyjoined!!! sends us a BBC account of a dad who traveled to Nigeria
and brought back an XO laptop for his 9-year-old, Rufus. Here is Rufus's
review, [0]a child's view of OLPC. "Because it looks rather like a simple
plastic toy, I had thought it might suffer the same fate as the
radio-controlled dinosaur or the roller-skates he got last Christmas -
enjoyed for a day or two, then ignored. Instead, it seems to provide
enduring fascination... With no help from his Dad, he has learned far
more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago, and the XO
appears to be a more creative tool than the games consoles which occupy
rather too much of his time."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/0415245

Links:
0. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7140443.stm


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Movable Type Goes Open Source |
| from the blog-this dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @09:18 (Software) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1412250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

jamie forwarded a link to the announcement that [0]Movable Type has been
released as open source under the GPLv2. Here's [1]the FAQ. Given that
Wordpress, textpattern, and many others have been open source for years,
how big a splash will Six Apart's announcement make?

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1412250

Links:
0. http://www.movabletype.org/2007/12/movable_type_open_source.html
1. http://www.movabletype.org/opensource/faq.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Vista SP1 Release Candidate Available |
| from the get-it-while-it's-hot dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @09:57 (Windows) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1435232 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Microsoft has made available the [0]release candidate for Vista SP1,
after a limited beta begun last September. Informationweek points out
white papers telling business users that if they were waiting for SP1 to
solve application compatibility issues, they needn't bother waiting:
[1]SP1 won't solve them, and in fact might cause applications to break
that were running under Vista. Techworld outlines the [2]hoops users will
have to jump through to get SP1 installed.

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1435232

Links:
0. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9de6260e-4275-482d-9524-de850c4dd91c&DisplayLang=en
1. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204801084
2. http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=10924


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Opera Files EU Complaint Against Microsoft |
| from the reopening-the-browser-wars dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @10:35 (The Courts) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1524233 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

A number of readers have sent word about [0]Opera Software ASA's
antitrust complaint against Microsoft filed with the EU. Here is
[1]Opera's press release on the filing. The company wants the EU to
"obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or
carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop" and to "require
Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the
Web-authoring communities." The latter request makes this a case to
watch. Will the Commissioner take the [2]Acid2 test using IE7?

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1524233

Links:
0. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700ap_eu_microsoft_browser_wars.html
1. http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2007/12/13/
2. http://www.webstandards.org/acid2


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Setup Behind Microsoft.com |
| from the matter-of-scale dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @11:14 (Microsoft) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1535206 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Toreo asesino writes "Jeff Alexander gives an insight into [0]how
Microsoft runs its main sites. Interesting details include having no
firewall, having to manage 650 GB of IIS logs every day, and the use of
their yet unreleased Windows Server 2008 in a production environment.

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1535206

Links:
0. http://blogs.technet.com/jeffa36/archive/2007/12/13/microsoft-com-what-s-the-story.aspx


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Scientists Trap Light In Nano-Soup |
| from the confusing-the-photons dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @11:52 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1543226 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Physicists at the Bhavnagar University in
Gujarat, India have [0]trapped light in a nano-soup concoction. The
chance discovery could pave the way for lab-on-a-chip devices for
processing optical information. As of now there is no theoretical
explanation for why the fluid has the effects it does on laser light."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1543226

Links:
0. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/December/10120701.asp


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Toshiba To Launch "Super Charge" Batteries |
| from the fill-'er-up dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @12:30 (Power) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1714258 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

ozgood writes in to let us know about Toshiba's announcement that it has
developed a new type of rechargeable battery dubbed the Super Charge ion
Battery, or SCiB. Toshiba claims the new battery will mainly target the
industrial market, though they hint the technology may eventually find a
home in electric vehicles. The SCiB can [0]recharge to 90% of total
capacity in under five minutes, and has a life span of over 10 years.
"Toshiba also says the battery has excellent safety with the new negative
electrode material having a high level of thermal stability and a high
flash point. The battery is also said to be structurally resistant to
internal short-circuiting and thermal runaway."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1714258

Links:
0. http://www.dailytech.com/Toshiba+to+Launch+SCiB+Batteries+in+March/article9984c.htm


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Why US Wireless Isn't Wide Open |
| from the tone-available-but-not-to-you dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday December 13, @13:11 (Communications|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1756213 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Geoffery B tips a story in Business Week about why the US cellular
carriers' talk about [0]opening up their networks rings hollow. "Even as
the wireless industry chants a new gospel about opening mobile phone
networks to outside devices and applications, some of the biggest US
carriers are [1]quietly blocking new services that would compete with
their own. Would-be mobile-service providers, ranging from startups to
major banks to eBay's PayPal, have encountered these roadblocks, erected
by the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. In some cases, cellular
carriers have backed down, but only after inflicting costly delays on the
new services."

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1756213

Links:
0. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/27/1818251&tid=269
1. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2007/tc20071210_625653.htm?chan=search


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Congressman Hollywood Wants To Make DMCA Tougher |
| from the who-elects-these-guys dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @13:53 (The Internet) |
| http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/180255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Stormy seas writes "Congressman 'Hollywood' Howard Berman (D-CA) used a
House subcommittee hearing today to [0]express his view that the DMCA was
in need of a rewrite. In his view, it doesn't go far enough. During his
opening remarks for a hearing on the [1]PRO-IP Act, Berman said that the
DMCA's Safe Harbor needs further scrutiny and that it might be time to
make filtering mandatory. There's more: Berman also 'wants to examine the
"effectiveness of takedown notices" under the DMCA, and he'd like to take
another look at whether filtering technology has advanced to the point
where Congress ought to mandate it in certain situations.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/180255

Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071213-time-to-revisit-the-dmca.html
1. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/07/0647207&tid=149


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Re-Brands PlaysForSure |
| from the always-a-pleasure-doing-business dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @14:34 (Microsoft) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1831213 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]mikesd81 writes "Information Week writes about a licensing change
[1]intended to 'beat Apple at their own game'. They're going to use a
combination of branding and DRM, and replace the "PlaysForSure" logo with
a "Certified for Windows Vista" tag.'The certification is used to
guarantee compatibility with Microsoft's copyright-protection software
and is the same logo used for the company's Zune player. The problem,
however, is that music and video bought from the online Zune Marketplace
won't play in their native format on other devices, including those that
will carry the new logo.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1831213

Links:
0. mailto:mikesd@nospAm.ptd.net
1. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204802192


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| TV Industry Using Piracy As A Measure Of Success |
| from the talking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-face dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @15:12 (Television) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/1848207 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

mrspin writes "Last100 has an interesting post from Guinevere Orvis, a
web producer who works in the broadcast industry, who describes the way
in which 'unofficial' but sanctioned BitTorrent leaks are [0]being used
as a measurement of a TV show's likely success. Orvis writes:
'Broadcasters aren't posting their shows directly on PirateBay yet, but
they are talking informally and giving copies of shows to a friend of a
friend who is unaffiliated with the company to make a torrent ... it's
partially an experiment, but the hope is that distribution of content
this way will lead to new viewers that wouldn't have been reached through
traditional marketing means.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/1848207

Links:
0. http://www.last100.com/2007/12/13/television-industry-is-piracy-a-good-measure-of-success/


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Does Active SETI Put Earth in Danger? |
| from the omg-greys dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @15:56 (Sci-Fi) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/207235 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Ponca City, We Love You writes "There is an interesting story in Seed
Magazine on active SETI ?€? [1]sending out signals to try to contact other
civilizations in nearby star systems. Alexander Zaitsev, Chief Scientist
at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Radio Engineering and
Electronics, has access to one of the most powerful radio transmitters on
Earth and has already sent several messages to nearby, sun-like stars.
But some scientists think that Zaitsev is not only acting out of turn by
independently speaking for everyone on the entire p***t but believe
there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the
unknown darkness. This ground has been explored before in countless works
of science fiction most notably "The Killing Star," a 1995 novel that
paints a frightening picture of [2]interstellar civilizations
exterminating their neighbors with relativistic bombardments, not from
malice, but simply because it is the most logical action."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/207235

Links:
0. http://poncacityweloveyou.com/
1. http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/12/who_speaks_for_earth.php?page=all&p=y
2. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6DD1731F937A25756C0A963958260


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Recent Human Evolution May Have Been Driven By Self-Selection |
| from the masters-of-our-domain dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @16:31 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/2122259 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Slur writes "The New York Times reports [1]an insightful theory of
Human evolution that gives credit for [2]our accelerated evolution to the
evolving brain. By virtue of our aesthetic and utilitarian preferences we
ourselves have been responsible for molding the present human form and
consciousness. Applied to other species we call it 'artificial
selection,' but the new theory implies we did it all quite naturally,
unconsciously, and that the exponential evolutionary acceleration we have
achieved as a species in recent time is just what you'd expect. It also
suggests that the current lull in our physical evolution is by 'choice'
as well."

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/2122259

Links:
0. mailto:slur@thinkyhead.com
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11gene.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
2. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/11/0428202&tid=14


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Google Keeps What Ask.com Erases |
| from the murky-waterse dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @17:10 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/2125251 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Stony Stevenson passed us an ITNews article on the [0]AskEraser service
we discussed the other day. The Ask.com service is intended to obscure a
user's search data - but [1]does it really go away? "AskEraser may remove
user search query data from Ask.com's servers, but deleted data may live
on, in part at least, on Google's servers. That's because Google delivers
the bulk of the ads on Ask.com, based on information provided by Ask ...
It may well use the information for other purposes, such as measuring the
responsiveness of its systems. However, Leeds said he could not disclose
the specifics of the contractual relationship between Ask and Google."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/2125251

Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/11/1646257&tid=158
1. http://itnews.com.au/News/66867,google-keeps-what-askcom-erases.aspx


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How We Might Have Scramjets Sooner than Expected |
| from the zooom-zippy-fast dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @17:52 (Transportation) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/2248214 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

loralai writes "Recent breakthroughs in scramjet engines [0]could mean
two-hour flights from New York to Tokyo. This technology, decades in the
making, could redefine our understanding of air travel and military
encounters. 'To put things in context, the world's fastest jet, the Air
Force's SR-71 Blackbird spy p***, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990
when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in just over an hour.
That's about the limit for jet engines; the fastest fighter p***s barely
crack Mach 1.6. Scramjets, on the other hand, can theoretically fly as
fast as Mach 15--nearly 10,000 mph.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/2248214

Links:
0. http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/a3bfe2e6fb5c6110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon vs. Mac OS X Leopard |
| from the who-is-king-of-the-jungle dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, @18:31 (OS X) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/2225208 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]walterbyrd writes "Linux magazine has up a decent article [1]comparing
Gutsy Gibbon to Leopard. 'The stereotype for each OS is well known: Mac
OS X is elegant, easy-to-use, and intuitive, while Ubuntu is stable,
secure, and getting better all the time. Both have come a long way in a
short time, and both make excellent desktops. So we have two great
desktop operating systems out at roughly the same time. Let's see how
they stack up against each other.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/13/2225208

Links:
0. mailto:walterbyrd@yahoo.com
1. http://www.linux-mag.com/id/4641/



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