Technology News 31st March 2008 « Technology News on SlashDot.org

Technology News 31st March 2008

Posted in Technology by GauharJK on the March 31, 2008
Tags: Slashdot, Technology

In this issue:
* Canadian ISPs Limiting Access To CBC Shows
* Amazon Insists Publishers Use Their On-Demand Printer
* Iceland Woos Data Centers As Power Costs Soar
* Swiss Bank Secrecy Under Renewed Attack
* Study Shows Males Commonly Mistake Sexual Intent
* China Could Be Another Hurdle In MS Yahoo Bid
* Stroustrup Says C++ Education Needs To Improve
* Record Setting Silicon Resonator Reaches 4.51 GHz
* 11-Year-Old Becomes Network Admin for Alabama School
* Practical Experience As a Beginning Programmer?
* Photoshop Express Terms of Use Cause Stir, Will Be Revised
* Newspapers Are Dying, Blog At 11
* Sony BMG Sued For Using Pirated Software
* Alternate Baseball Universes
* Comcast Puts the Screws To HDTV
* Hands-On With the Windows XP-Based Asus Eee PC

+—————————–

—————————————+
| Canadian ISPs Limiting Access To CBC Shows |
| from the hey-we-paid-for-that dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday March 29, @20:12 (Censorship) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/29/2217231 |
+——————————————————————–+An anonymous reader sends word that, even as ISP interference with
BitTorrent traffic is [0]easing in the US, the issue is heating up in
Canada. Major Canadian ISPs are [1]limiting access to the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation’s shows, made available online using BitTorrent.
This issue has burst onto the scene due to smaller ISPs, such as
Teksavvy, blowing the whistle on the fact that Bell was expanding its
traffic-shaping policies to smaller ISPs that rent Bell’s network. These
events have sparked a [2]formal complaint by the National Union of Public
and General Employees, which represents more than 340,000 workers across
Canada, to the regulatory body, CRTC, and calls for change in Parliament.Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/29/2217231

Links:
0. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/27/149253&tid=95
1. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/03/26/bittorrent-cbc.html
2. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/03/28/tech-netneutrality.html

+——————————————————————–+
| Amazon Insists Publishers Use Their On-Demand Printer |
| from the why-that’s-blackmail dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday March 29, @22:15 (Books) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/29/2240209 |
+——————————————————————–+

[0]Lawrence Person writes “According to a story up on Writer’s Weekly,
Print on Demand publishers are being told to use Amazon’s own BookSurge
POD printer or else Amazon will [1]disable the ‘buy’ button for their
books. After hemming and hawing, an Amazon/BookSurge rep ‘finally
admitted that books not converted to BookSurge would have the “buy”
button turned off on Amazon.com, just as we’d heard from several other
POD publishers who had similar conversations with Amazon/BookSurge
representatives… their eventual desire is to have no books from other
POD publishers available on Amazon.com.’ So much for Amazon’s Vision
Statement: ‘Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to
build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they
might want to buy online.’”

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/29/2240209

Links:
0. http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html
1. http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html

call-me-kenneth writes “Business Week covers the [0]soaring demand for
power and cooling capacity in data centers. Electricity consumption for
US data centers more than doubled between 2000 and 2006. Among the other
stats: for every dollar spent on computing equipment in data centers, an
additional half dollar is spent each year to power and cool them; and
half the electricity used goes for cooling. Iceland, with its cool
climate and abundant cheap power, is [1]courting big users like Google
and Microsoft as a future data center location. (Can’t help thinking
[2]they’re gonna need a bigger cable first, though.)”

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/29/2331218

Links:
0. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_13/b4077060400752.htm?campaign
1. http://www.invest.is/Key-Sectors/Data-Centers-in-Iceland/
2. http://www.telegeography.com/products/map_cable/images/Cable_Map_big.gif

+——————————————————————–+
| Swiss Bank Secrecy Under Renewed Attack |
| from the havens-drying-up-like-vernal-ponds-in-global-warming dep|
| posted by kdawson on Sunday March 30, @03:03 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/017208 |
+——————————————————————–+

Stanislav_J writes “All you wealthy Slashdotters better start making
alternate arrangements for stashing your millions. Switzerland’s storied
role as discreet banker to the world’s tax-avoiding wealthy is [0]under
threat like never before, and this time the country ultimately may not be
able to stop the rest of the world from prying into those legendary
’secret’ accounts, said to contain between $1 trillion and $2 trillion. A
massive German tax-evasion scandal is putting pressure on the Swiss to
cooperate, and the rest of Europe is also hardening their resolve to
force change upon them. Per the article, ‘The official Swiss reaction has
been self-conscious detachment, which they hope will deflate the issue,’
but even their own citizens are not too concerned about those outside
their borders: 80% of Swiss support the banking confidentiality law, but
that number drops into the 40s when it is applied to foreigners. Pressure
is also coming from US pols — not the ‘let’s pry into everyone’s
business’ Republicans, but the ‘make the rich pay their fair share’
Democrats, including Illinois Senator (and presidential candidate) Barack
Obama.”

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/017208

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/worldbusiness/29swiss.html

+——————————————————————–+
| Study Shows Males Commonly Mistake Sexual Intent |
| from the ask-any-woman-in-a-bar dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday March 30, @05:50 (It’s funny. Laugh.|
| http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/0028211|
+——————————————————————–+

[0]seattle-pk writes “Males are apparently [1]clueless when it comes to
interpreting sexual intent from females, according to a [2]recent study
(PDF) from Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain
Sciences. Men were found commonly to perceive more sexual intent in
women’s behavior than women were intending to convey. (A campus survey
showed that 68% of college females had an experience where a male mistook
signs of friendliness for affection.) However, the study also shows that
men were quite likely to misperceive sexual interest as friendliness.
‘Rather than seeing the world through sex-colored glasses, men seemed
just to have blurry vision of sorts, overall,’ according to the article.
If you’re a male who ever mistook the meaning of a barista’s smile, looks
like you’re not alone.”

Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/0028211

Links:
0. http://www.coffee.net./blog/
1. http://www.livescience.com/health/080320-clueless-guys.html
2. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/ps/19_4_inpress/Farris.pdf

[0]wattrlz points out a NYTimes piece on the clout China could soon wield
on antitrust matters and the [1]impact it could have on Microsoft’s Yahoo
bid. A new Chinese anti-monopoly law takes effect in August that will
extend the nation’s economic influence far beyond its borders. Nathan
Bush, an antitrust law specialist in Beijing, said the law represents the
ascendance of China “as another regulatory capital contending for
influence with Brussels and Washington.” The article makes it clear that
no one knows how China will play its burgeoning antitrust influence —
conciliatory or nationalistic.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/0052210

Links:
0. mailto:wattrlz@hotmail.com
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/technology/28yahoo.html

+——————————————————————–+
| Stroustrup Says C++ Education Needs To Improve |
| from the educating-the-edumicators dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 30, @09:15 (Programming) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/1155216 |
+——————————————————————–+

[0]simoniker writes “Over at Dr. Dobb’s, C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup
has given an in-depth interview dealing with, among other things, the
upcoming C++0x programming standard, as well as his views on the past and
future of C++. He comments in particular on some of the [1]difficulties
in educating people on C++: ‘In the early days of C++, I worried a lot
about “not being able to teach teachers fast enough.” I had reason to
worry because much of the obvious poor use of C++ can be traced to
fundamental misunderstandings among educators. I obviously failed to
articulate my ideals and principles sufficiently.’ Stroustrup also notes,
‘Given that the problems are not restricted to C++, I’m not alone in
that. As far as I can see, every large programming community suffers, so
the problem is one of scale.’ We’ve [2]discussed Stroustrup’s views on
C++ [3]in the past.”

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1155216

Links:
0. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/
1. http://www.ddj.com/article/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000124&dept_url=/cpp/
2. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/11/1134203&tid=156
3. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/02/25/1034222&tid=156

+——————————————————————–+
| Record Setting Silicon Resonator Reaches 4.51 GHz |
| from the faster-equals-better dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 30, @10:17 (Technology) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/1349232 |
+——————————————————————–+

[0]bibekpaudel brings news that researchers from Cornell University have
developed a [1]very small silicon microresonator that vibrates at the
highest frequency ever recorded for such a device: 4.51 GHz. Typical
[2]quartz-crystal oscillators, commonly used in electronics as clock
signals, are about a millimeter wide and operate in the KHz - MHz range.
The newly developed microresonator measures 8.5 micrometers long and 40
micrometers wide, making it ideal for use in smaller circuits and
microprocessing. Quoting: “One of the advantages of silicon
microresonators is that they can be integrated directly into microchips
using conventional manufacturing techniques, making them cheaper to
produce and easier to fabricate small. Also, multiple resonators of
different frequencies could be put on the same chip, says Ville
Kaajakari, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Louisiana
Tech University. In a cell phone, for example, high-frequency resonators
could filter out interference from other sources of radio signals.”

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1349232

Links:
0. http://blog.bibekpaudel.com.np/
1. http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20452/?nlid=966
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator

+——————————————————————–+
| 11-Year-Old Becomes Network Admin for Alabama School |
| from the hope-he’s-salaried dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 30, @11:19 (Security) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/1443202 |
+——————————————————————–+

alphadogg points out a story about 11-year-old Jon Penn, who [0]took over
control of a 60-computer school network in Alabama after the old
administrator suddenly left. Penn provides technical support, selects
software, and teaches his classmates about computers. From NetworkWorld:
“The first thing Jon found as he leapt into the role of network manager
was that he had to map out the network to find out what was on it. He
bought some tools for this at CompUSA and realized there was an ungodly
amount of computer viruses and spam, so he pressed the school to invest
in filtering and antivirus protection. ‘These computers are so old they
don’t support all antivirus programs,’ Penn says. The school took
advantage of a Microsoft effort called Fresh Start that offers free
software upgrades for schools with donated computers, switching from
Windows 98 to Windows 2000.”

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1443202

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi?pagetosend=/export/home/httpd/htdocs/news/2008/032708-netkid.html&pagename=/news/2008/032708-netkid.html&pageurl=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032708-netkid.html&site=datacenter

+——————————————————————–+
| Practical Experience As a Beginning Programmer? |
| from the i-hear-google-needs-people dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 30, @12:18 (Programming) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/1534247 |
+——————————————————————–+

[0]LuckyLefty01 writes “I’m 21, going to college, and working part time
doing odd jobs like math tutoring. In the past nine months or so, I’ve
discovered and taken to programming (so far mostly C/C++/Obj-C). I am now
looking seriously at something in this area as an eventual full time job.
Since I don’t have much scheduled this coming summer, it would be great
to try to get a job of some sort at a tech-related company in order to
get some practical experience in the field. Even if I don’t have the
background to get a job involving actual programming, I think that the
knowledge of how such a company works would be valuable. Fortunately, I
live in the SF Bay Area, so there should be plenty of companies around.
I’m flexible about what I’m going to be doing, and very willing to learn
just about anything anybody cares to teach me. If there’s some (or even
quite a bit of) boring grunt work involved, I can do that too. What type
of job would benefit an aspiring but inexperienced programmer the most?
What methods might I use to find such a job?”

Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1534247

Links:
0. mailto:luckylefty01@gmail.com

+——————————————————————–+
| Photoshop Express Terms of Use Cause Stir, Will Be Revised |
| from the read-the-fine-print dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 30, @13:20 (Graphics) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/1628225 |
+——————————————————————–+

Earlier this week, we discussed Adobe’s beta launch of [0]Photoshop
Express, a free, online version of the popular image editing software.
However, as a number of readers pointed out, the terms of use included
language which granted Adobe a wide range of rights to any photos that
were made available on the site. Now, after receiving a great deal of
feedback from potential users, Adobe has stated their intent to
[1]rewrite the terms of use, as Ars Technica reports. David Morgenstern
of ZDNet also notes the impending change, and briefly discusses the
[2]privacy and ownership concerns involved with content you post online.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1628225

Links:
0. http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/27/2015220&tid=185
1. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080329-adobe-joins-list-of-companies-not-reading-own-eulas.html
2. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1477

The New Yorker is running a long and thoughtful piece by Eric Alterman on
the [0]death and life of the American newspaper. It’s not news that
newspapers are dying, but the acceleration of the process in the last few
years is startling: “Independent, publicly traded American newspapers
have lost forty-two per cent of their market value in the past three
years… The columnist Molly Ivins complained, shortly before her death,
that the newspaper companies’ solution to their problem was to make ‘our
product smaller and less helpful and less interesting.’” The article goes
on to profile The Huffington Post as exemplar of what is replacing paper
and ink. “The Huffington Post’s editorial processes are based on what
Peretti has named the ‘mullet strategy.’ (’Business up front, party in
the back’ is how his trend-spotting site BuzzFeed glosses it.)
‘User-generated content is all the rage, but most of it totally sucks,’
Peretti says. The mullet strategy invites users to ‘argue and vent on the
secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking
sharp.

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1828252

Links:
0. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman?currentPage=all

An anonymous reader sends us to ZeroPaid, which seems to be the only site
in English to have picked up a story out of France involving Sony and
piracy. Except this time the [0]shoe is on the other foot. The small
software company PointDev learned that Sony BMG was using a pirated
license for one of its system administration tools. PointDev got bailiffs
to raid a Sony property and they found pirated software on four servers.
The [1]source article (link is to a Google translation of [2]French
original) quotes PointDev’s spokesman claiming that the BSA believes 47%
of software used in corporations to be illegal — whether he is referring
to Sony in particular is not clear in the translation.

Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/1856232

Links:
0. http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9362/Sony+BMG+Sued+for+Software+Piracy+-+Assets+Seized
1. http://www.01net.com/editorial/374727/la-major-sony-bmg-poursuivie-pour-contrefacon-de-logiciel/
2. http://209.85.135.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=fr%7Cen&u=http://www.01net.com/editorial/374727/la-major-sony-bmg-poursuivie-pour-contrefacon-de-logiciel/

Jamie found a NYTimes op-ed by a grad student and a professor from
Cornell, outlining some research they did into [0]alternate baseball
universes. The goal was to find out how unlikely in fact was Joe
DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, played out in the 1941 season. No one
since has even come close to that record. The math guys ran simulations
of the entire history of baseball from 1885 on — 10,000 of them. For each
simulation they put each player up to the plate for each at-bat in each
game in each year, just like it happened; and they rolled the dice on
him, based on his actual hitting stats for that season. (Their algorithm
sounds far simpler than whatever the [1]Strat-O-Matic guys use.) The
result: Joltin’ Joe’s record is not merely likely, it’s basically a sure
thing. Every alternate universe produced a steak of 39 games or better;
one reached 109 games. Joe DiMaggio was not the likeliest player in the
history of the game to accomplish the record, not by a long shot.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/2025258

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/opinion/30strogatz.html
1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4605290

[0]Todd Spangler writes “Comcast, like every video distributor,
compresses its digital video signals. But to fit in more HDTV channels,
Comcast is [1]squeezing some signals more than others. The cable operator
claims it is using improved compression techniques, so that most
subscribers won’t see any drop-off in picture quality. But A/V buff Ken
Fowler claims the differences between some of Comcast’s more highly
compressed channels and Verizon’s FiOS TV are indeed noticeable. He’s
posted his [2]comparative test results on AVSForum.com — and the results
are not pretty.”

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/2113218

Links:
0. http://www.multichannel.com/
1. http://www.multichannel.com/blog/100000410/post/1150024115.html
2. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271

+——————————————————————–+
| Hands-On With the Windows XP-Based Asus Eee PC |
| from the not-bad-for-400-bucks dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Sunday March 30, @19:38 (Portables) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/2126243 |
+——————————————————————–+

[0]MojoKid writes “Though the Asus Eee PC Windows XP variant isn’t due
out until sometime in April, HotHardware was able to [1]get their hands
on a full retail bundle before they hit store shelves in the US. The
standard assortment of accoutrements is included in the bundle, along
with a couple of notable upgrades. Asus took the initiative to provide an
additional 4GB SD card from Adata, a healthy storage expansion for the
system. In addition, an Asus-branded optical mouse was thrown in for good
measure. Microsoft’s Windows Live messenger, photo gallery and email
suite are [2]pre-installed on the the machine for collaborative and
social networking capability, in addition to Microsoft Works for word
processing, spreadsheets, and calendar functionality.”

Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/30/2126243

Links:
0. mailto:davea@hothardware.com
1. http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Asus_Eee_PC_4GX_Windows_XP_Unboxing_Preview/
2. http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Asus_Eee_PC_4GX_Windows_XP_Unboxing_Preview/?page=2

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Technology News 31st March 2008

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