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[Slashdot] Stories for 2008-12-01
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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* An Ethical Question Regarding Ebooks
* Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer Source Is Released
* MS Says Windows 7 Will Run DirectX 10 On the CPU
* Royal Society of Chemistry Slams UK Exam Standards
* Diet of Fast Food and Candy May Cause Alzheimer's
* Linux Foundation Says All Major Distros Are IPv6 Compliant
* iPhones, FStream and the Death of Satellite Radio
* Should Taxpayers Back Cars Only the Rich Can Afford?
* Solving the Knight's Tour Puzzle In 60 Lines of Python
* "Reality Mining" Resets the Privacy Debate
* Recourse For Poor Customer Service?
* Groklaw Summarizes the Lori Drew Verdict
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| An Ethical Question Regarding Ebooks |
| from the cui-bono dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday November 29, @20:49 (Books) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/29/2036204 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]tytso writes "Suppose there is a book that you want to read on your
ebook reader, but it is out of print (so even if you purchase the
dead-tree version of the book used, the author won't receive any
royalties) and the publisher has refused to make it available as an
ebook. You can buy it from Amazon as a used book, but that isn't your
preferred medium. It is available on the internet as a pirated etext,
however. This blog post outlines a few possibilities, and then asks, '[1]What
is the right thing to do? And why?' I'm also curious if the answers
change depending on whether you are a Baby Boomer, or a Gen X, Gen Y,
etc. ?€? I've noticed that attitudes around copyright seem to change
depending on whether someone is a college student or a recent college
graduate, versus someone who can remember a time when the Internet did
not exist."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/29/2036204
Links:
0. mailto:tytso@mit.edu
1. http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2008/11/29/an-ethical-question-involving-ebooks/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer Source Is Released |
| from the no-blobs-here dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday November 29, @23:20 (Wireless Netwo|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/29/2047230 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
chrb writes "With the recent discussion here on [0]proprietary blobs in
the Linux kernel, it's nice to see that today Sam Leffler has [1]released
the source for the Atheros Hardware Abstraction Layer under the [2]ISC
license, which is both GPL and BSD compatible. The Atheros chipset is
used in many laptops, so this is another important step towards running a
completely free distribution."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/29/2047230
Links:
0. http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/28/2339242&tid=166
1. http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/news/20081129/sam-leffler-releases-hal-source
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISC_license
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MS Says Windows 7 Will Run DirectX 10 On the CPU |
| from the aero-capable dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, @02:48 (Microsoft) |
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/29/2058259 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]arcticstoat writes "In what could be seen as an easy answer to the
Vista-capable debacle, Microsoft has introduced a 'fully conformant
software rasterizer' called WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization
Platform) 10, which [1]does away with the need for a dedicated hardware
3D accelerator altogether. Microsoft says that WARP 10 will support all
the features and precision requirements of Direct3D 10 and 10.1, as well
as up to 8x multi-sampled anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and all
optional texture formats. The minimum CPU spec needed is just 800MHz, and
it doesn't even need MMX or SSE, although it will work much quicker on
multi-core CPUs with SSE 4.1. Of course, software rendering on a single
desktop CPU isn't going to be able to compete with decent dedicated 3D
graphics cards when it comes to high-end games, but Microsoft has
released some interesting benchmarks that show the system to be quicker
than Intel's current integrated DirectX 10 graphics. Running Crysis at
800 x 600 with the lowest quality settings, an eight-core Core i7 system
managed an average frame rate of 7.36fps, compared with 5.17fps from
Intel's DirectX 10 integrated graphics."
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/29/2058259
Links:
0. http://www.russell-crow.com/
1. http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/605271/windows-7-allows-directx-10-acceleration-on-the-cpu.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Royal Society of Chemistry Slams UK Exam Standards |
| from the easy-button dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, @06:01 (Education) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/29/2121201 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
cheesethegreat writes "The Royal Society of Chemistry has [0]sharply
criticized the 'catastrophically' falling standards for UK school exams
in the sciences. The RSC had 1,300 highly achieving students take an exam
made up of questions taken from the last 50 years. The students averaged
an appalling 15% on 'hard' numerical questions set in the 1960s, but
managing much higher marks on the more recent 'soft' non-numerical
questions. This latest report has garnered mainstream media attention.
The RSC has also created a [1]petition on the UK Prime Minister's
official website, calling for urgent intervention to halt the slide,
which has garnered over 3,000 signatures. The issue of declining exam
standards has been an ongoing concern in the UK, with [2]allegations that
exam results have been manipulated by the government to increase pass
rates and meet its own targets."
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/29/2121201
Links:
0. http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2008/Number10Petition.asp
1. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/examstandards
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3254233/GCSE-standards-deliberately-lowered-to-make-sure-pupils-pass.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Diet of Fast Food and Candy May Cause Alzheimer's |
| from the you-are-what-you-eat dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, @08:05 (Medicine) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1143217 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
lurking_giant sends along a Reuters report on research out of Sweden
indicating that a [0]diet rich in fat, sugar, and cholesterol could
increase the risk of Alzheimer's, at least in mice. "'On examining the
brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in
the Alzheimer brain,' [said] Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the
Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center... 'We now
suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with
genetic factors... can adversely affect several brain substances, which
can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's.' ...
These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an
abnormal build-up of the protein tau as well as signs that cholesterol in
food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory
storage."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/1143217
Links:
0. http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AR48G20081128?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Linux Foundation Says All Major Distros Are IPv6 Compliant |
| from the getting-things-done dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 30, @09:35 (Networking) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1326250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
ruphus13 points out news from the Linux Foundation, which announced that
[0]all major Linux distributions meet certification requirements for the
US Department of Defense's IPv6 mandates. The announcement [1]credits
work done by the IPv6 Workgroup, whose members include IBM, HP,
Nokia-Siemens, Novell and Red Hat. Quoting: "Linux has had relatively
robust IPv6 support since 2005, but further work was needed for the open
source platform to achieve full compliance with DoD standards. The Linux
Foundation's IPv6 workgroup analyzed the DoD certification requirements
and identified key areas where Linux's IPv6 stack needed adjustments in
order to guarantee compliance. They collaboratively filled in the gaps
and have succeeded in bringing the shared technology into alignment with
the DoD's standards."
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/1326250
Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081126-linux-distros-compliant-with-dod-ipv6-policies.html
1. http://linux-foundation.org/weblogs/press/2008/11/24/linux-foundation-workgroup-tackles-federal-mandate-for-next-generation-internet-protocol/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| iPhones, FStream and the Death of Satellite Radio |
| from the i-guess-music-wants-to-be-free-too dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 30, @11:07 (Cellphones) |
| http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1458232|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Statesman writes "Only a little over a year ago, the [0]FCC approved the
merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio companies and the combined stock
was trading at $4 a share. Despite being a monopoly ?€? or perhaps because
of it ?€? the company is failing. They are [1]losing subscribers, the stock
is now trading around 22 cents a share (a 97% decline), and they have
[2]written off $4.8 billion dollars in stock value. So, what happened?
The CEO is [3]blaming pretty much everyone except himself and his
business model. But is pay-for-bandwidth even a viable business plan
anymore? With millions of iPhone and gPhone users out there, free
streaming audio applications like [4]FStream, and thousands of Internet
radio stations to access, the question is: why would anyone want to pay
for proprietary hardware and a limited selection of a few hundred
stations all controlled by one company?" Read on for the rest of
Statesman's thoughts.
This story continues at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1458232
Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/1458232
Links:
0. http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/26/0317239&tid=188
1. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081118-sirius-xm-subscribers-revolt-over-merger-induced-changes.html
2. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZyY6BZhDnaCUUbos-ywZAdixgVgD94CR3BO0
3. http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/10/14/the-future-of-sirius-xm-playboy-and-the-pope/
4. http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/fstream_brings_free_radio_to_your_mac_iphone/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Should Taxpayers Back Cars Only the Rich Can Afford? |
| from the five-million-dollars-per-car dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 30, @12:32 (Transportation|
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1620200 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]theodp writes "The NY Times [1]questions the $400M in low-interest
federal loans requested by Tesla Motors as part of the [2]$25B loan
package for the auto industry passed by Congress last year. 'The program
is intended to encourage automakers to improve fuel efficiency, but
should it be used for a purpose like this, as the 2008 Bailout of Very,
Very High-Net-Worth Individuals Who Invested in Tesla Motors Act?' Tesla
says it is assembling about 15 cars a week and has delivered about 80 of
its [3]$109,000 base-price Roadsters to date, many of which have gone to
the [4]Valley's billionaires and centimillionaires who are Tesla
investors as well as early customers. We discussed [5]the company's
financial difficulties last month."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/1620200
Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/30digi.html?ref=business
2. http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2008/09/senate-oks-25-billion-in-loans-to-help-automakers-produce-fuel-efficient-vehicles.html
3. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/05/165246&tid=270
4. http://www.tradevibes.com/company/profile/tesla-motors
5. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/17/1218207&tid=270
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Solving the Knight's Tour Puzzle In 60 Lines of Python |
| from the snakes-and-horsies dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 30, @14:01 (Programming) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1722203 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]ttsiod writes "When I was a kid, I used to play the [1]Knight's Tour
puzzle with pen and paper: you simply had to pass once from every square
of a chess board, moving like a Knight. Nowadays, I no longer play chess;
but somehow I remembered this nice little puzzle and coded a [2]60-line
Python solver that can tackle even 100x100 boards in less than a second.
Try beating this, fellow coders!"
Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/1722203
Links:
0. http://ttsiodras.googlepages.com/index.html
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight's_Tour
2. http://ttsiodras.googlepages.com/knightstour.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Reality Mining" Resets the Privacy Debate |
| from the macnealy-was-prophetic dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, @15:33 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/1850229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader sends us to the NYTimes for a sobering look at [0]the
frontiers of "collective intelligence," also called in the article
"reality mining." These techniques go several steps beyond the pedestrian
version of "data mining" with which the Pentagon and/or DHS have been
flirting. The article profiles projects at MIT, UCLA, Google, and
elsewhere in networked sensor research and other forms of collective
intelligence. "About 100 students at MIT agreed to completely give away
their privacy to get a free smartphone. 'Now, when he dials another
student, researchers know. When he sends an e-mail or text message, they
also know. When he listens to music, they know the song. Every moment he
has his Windows Mobile smartphone with him, they know where he is, and
who's nearby.' ... Indeed, some collective-intelligence researchers argue
that strong concerns about privacy rights are a relatively recent
phenomenon in human history. ... 'For most of human history, people have
lived in small tribes where everything they did was known by everyone
they knew,' Dr. Malone said. 'In some sense we're becoming a global
village. Privacy may turn out to have become an anomaly.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/1850229
Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/30privacy.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Recourse For Poor Customer Service? |
| from the in-harm's-way-a-long-way-from-home dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, @17:06 (Businesses) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/2025203 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]eleventypie writes "I am in the Army and currently stationed in
Afghanistan. Recently I found myself without a laptop so I decided to
build a studio 17 from Dell. I designed/customized my laptop on
2008-09-17 and placed my order, which totaled approximately $1,700. The
laptop was built and apparently shipped on 2008-09-28. Given my APO
address, I know mail can sometimes take a little while to get here,
though 7-10 days is normal. Dell said to give my laptop 6-8 business days
and occasionally, it might take as much as 4-6 weeks. So on 2008-11-12 I
sent another email to Dell informing them I still had not received my
laptop. One person said to give it more time, while another person
responded to my message telling me to send my address again and they
would send me a replacement. So I sent my address immediately and never
got a response. It is now the 30th of November and I still have no laptop
and Dell seems to have quit responding to my emails. This is very
frustrating being out $1,700 and not having a laptop to talk to my
friends and family and do school work. Phone calls aren't easy so calling
them is pretty much out of the question. Any advice on what I can or
should do at this point to get the computer I ordered or get my money
back?"
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/2025203
Links:
0. http://www.eleventypie.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Groklaw Summarizes the Lori Drew Verdict |
| from the unpredictable-and-retroactve dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday November 30, @18:37 (The Courts) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/30/2014248 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bootsy Collins writes "Last Wednesday, the Lori Drew 'cyberbullying' case
ended in [0]three misdemeanor convictions under the Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act, a 1986 US Federal law intended to address illegally accessing
computer systems. The interpretation of the act by the Court to cover
violations of website terms of service, a circumstance obviously not
considered in the law's formulation and passage, may have profound
effects on the intersection of the Internet and US law. Referring to an
amicus curiae brief filed by online rights organizations and law
professors, PJ at Groklaw [1]breaks down the implications of the decision
to support her assertion that 'unless this case is overturned, it is time
to get off the Internet completely, because it will have become too risky
to use a computer.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/11/30/2014248
Links:
0. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/26/2036231&tid=123
1. http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20081128005538214
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