Miraba - Slashdot User

Comment Re:And so my book won't be published either (Score 1) 521

by Miraba on Wednesday September 10, 2008 @11:03PM (#24956651) Attached to: J. K. Rowling Wins $6,750 In Infringement Case

Your publisher is a moron. The Lexicon book failed because it stole too many quotes from her books and failed to provide enough commentary to justify the practice. Your book sounds rather similar to this one, which is quite acceptable (and highly rated). Find yourself another publisher.

Submission + - 3D Animations in Mid-Air Using Plasma Balls (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15, 2007 @04:44AM

An anonymous reader writes: Japanese boffins are now making animations by creating small plasma balls in mid-air. The technology doesn't use vapor or strange gases, just lasers to heat up oxygen and nitrogen molecules: up to 1,000 brilliant dots per second, which makes smooth motion possible. They could be used as street signs, advertising or to create giant plasma monsters to destroy entire cities. Maybe.

Submission + - Drive for Altruism is Hardwired, Like Sex or Food

Submitted by

Dekortage

on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @10:08AM

Dekortage writes: "Your brain is pre-wired to enjoy placing the interests of others ahead of your own. At least, that's what neuroscientists are claiming in the Washington Post. In studies, "generosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food or sex.... Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable." Such neuroscience "has opened up a new window on what it means to be good," although many philosophers over recorded history have suggested similar things. Are you hardwired for good?"

Submission + - 28 new planets found outside solar system

Submitted by elkcsr on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @08:22AM

elkcsr writes: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-05/29/conte nt_6166967.htm "BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhuanet) — A leading team of planet-seekers has announced the discovery of 28 new planets outside solar system, increasing the number of known exoplanets to 236, at the annual meeting of American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Monday."

Submission + - Microsoft cancels major developers' conference

Submitted by

Kurtz'sKompund

on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:20AM

Kurtz'sKompund writes: "Microsoft has cancelled its autumn Professional Developers Conference, citing bad timing in light of the launch of important infrastructure and platform products. http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/developm ent/software/news/index.cfm?RSS"

Submission + - Does SPF really work?

Submitted by

Intelopment

on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @12:08AM

Intelopment writes: "My Domain name has recently been used a lot as the REPLY field by some inconsiderate spammer and my ISP has suggested that I consider using the Open SPF service (http://openspf.org/) as a way to stop spammers from using my domain name for their REPLY field. From what I can tell it requires the receiving mail server to actually participate in the SPF service, which is where I get my doubts. Does anyone have any experience with this service? Does it work? Are many ISPs using openSFP?"

Submission + - The First Terabyte Hard Drive--Review

Submitted by

mikemuch

on Thursday May 17, 2007 @12:04PM

mikemuch writes: "ExtremeTech has a review and benchmarks of the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB Hard Drive, which ushers in the terabyte age. It performs well on HDTach and PCMark benchmarks, though not as speedily as professional-grade drives. It could be just the ticket for digital media junkies."

Submission + - Vonage may have way around Patent disputes

Submitted by

nevillethedevil

on Thursday May 10, 2007 @12:53PM

nevillethedevil writes: "Bloomberg is reporting on that Vonage may have found a way around the current patent issues they have been facing with Verizon and others. From the article:
"Vonage's new technology can be installed through software downloads and shouldn't be costly to deploy, Citron said. The company will continue to appeal the court decision that requires it to pay Verizon damages for infringing patents on technology that translates Internet-based calls to standard lines.""

Submission + - Warner Brothers Pulls Canadian Previews

Submitted by florescent_beige on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @10:56AM

florescent_beige writes: Reuters and others are reporting that Warner Brothers is canceling movie previews in Canadian theaters, starting with Ocean's Thirteen.

Darcy Antonellis, Warner Brothers VP of worldwide anti-piracy operations, said "Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up."

Recently, the International Intellectual Property Association (IIPA) placed Canada on it's Priority Watch List, along with the likes of Argentina, China, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela.

According to Michael Geist, the industry's claims about Canadian movie camcording are exaggerated.

Submission + - No ad skipping for you!

Submitted by smooth wombat on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @08:00AM

smooth wombat writes: ABC and ESPN have struck a deal with cable operator Cox Communications Inc. to offer hit shows and football games on demand, but with the unusual condition that Cox disables the fast-forward feature that allows viewers to skip ads. This agreement only applies to Cox's video-on-demand service and will not affect viewers using digital video recorders to fast forward through ads.

In addition, the companies will also test technology that will place ads in shows based on ZIP Codes and geographic area.

Submission + - Sprint Nextel vs. 41 schools and non-profits

Submitted by

netbuzz

on Monday May 07, 2007 @03:17PM

netbuzz writes: "A case of corporate bullying, or good network citizenship? ... Sprint Nextel has let loose its lawyers on the FCC and 41 non-profits, most of them school systems, in an effort to get the FCC to stop granting these organizations special dispensation when they fail to renew their wireless spectrum licenses granted as part of the Educational Broadband Service. The school systems argue that they don't have the staff to keep on top of the paperwork and shouldn't be punished — some generate revenue by leasing unused portions of the spectrum to carriers such as Sprint Nextel — for such bureaucratic lapses. That may sound a lot like "the dog ate my homework" to some, and Sprint Nextel makes a fairly compelling case that a greater good would be served if the FCC would stop enabling such tardiness.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1491 4"

Journal Journal: Antikythera Mechanism

Journal by dkoziol on Monday May 07, 2007 @02:10PM

The New Yorker has an article ( http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_seabrook?printable=true ) on the Antikythera Mechanism, a finely crafted mechicanical device from ancient Greece believed to have been used in astronomy.

Submission + - MySpace photo sagas continue

Submitted by gwoodrow on Monday May 07, 2007 @01:42PM

gwoodrow writes: We've all heard the "fired because of myspace" issues, where a simple blog or picture gets someone canned. But even as it's getting worse, the targets are fighting back:

"Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page 'promoting underage drinking.' As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages."

The offending picture? A picture from halloween 2005 of Stacy in a pirate outfit drinking from a cup.

Submission + - Library of Congress irked at Washington Watch wiki

Submitted by BackRow on Monday May 07, 2007 @12:24PM

BackRow writes: Washington Watch, a site devoted to tracking the cost of federal legislation, has raised the hackles of the Library of Congress with a new wiki that makes an unfavorable comparison to the LOC's THOMAS legislative search engine. After Jim Harper, Washington Watch's creator and the director of information policy at the Cato Institute, announced the wiki, he received a nastygram from the director of communications from the LOC. 'After the announcement, he was contacted by Matt Raymond, the Director of Communications at the Library (and the author of the Library of Congress' blog. Raymond said that he possessed "statutory and regulatory authority governing unauthorized use of the Library's name and logo and those of Library subunits and programs," and he asked that Harper stop using the names "Library of Congress" and "THOMAS" in his marketing materials.'

Submission + - Vista vs. XP Game Stability and Performance

Submitted by

boyko.at.netqos

on Monday May 07, 2007 @10:45AM

boyko.at.netqos writes: "HardOCP does a side-by side comparison with a battery of games to check stability and framerates in Windows XP and Windows Vista. In addition to the lowered framerates in Vista, they had stability issues in Need for Speed: Carbon and Prey. From the article:

As you can see, some games fared better than others with the new OS. For some titles, especially Company of Heroes and Need for Speed, we saw dramatic framerate discrepancies. What's more, both of these titles have recently released patches! Other titles showed a slight, but essentially negligible difference, such as BF2142, World of Warcraft, and Prey. Really, there was only one instance where Vista was able to pick up a few more frames than XP — World of Warcraft at greater than 90fps, where the human eye can't even see the difference. To see this overall trend against Vista is very interesting and makes us wonder as to the cause."

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