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US Grants Home Schooling German Family Political Asylum 1324

Posted by samzenpus from the come-get-you-some-learnin dept.
A US judge has granted political asylum to a family who said they fled Germany to avoid persecution for home schooling their children. Uwe Romeike and his wife, Hannelore, moved to Tennessee after German authorities fined them for keeping their children out of school and sent police to escort them to classes. Mike Connelly, attorney for the Home School Legal Defence Association, argued the case. He says, "Home schoolers in Germany are a particular social group, which is one of the protected grounds under the asylum law. This judge looked at the evidence, he heard their testimony, and he felt that the way Germany is treating home schoolers is wrong. The rights being violated here are basic human rights."

Comment History behind Super Mario Bros Wii and other info (Score 4, Interesting) 164

by PhiberOptix (#30902982) Attached to: <em>New Super Mario Bros. Wii</em> Tops 10 Million Sales

On the latest Iwata Asks (where the president of Nintendo interviews his staff) there's a lot of interesting info about how Miyamoto came up with the sound effect for the propeller mario, why mario wears overalls, why use a mushroom as a powerup, why turtles as opponents and other interesting info.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/nsmb/vol1_page1.jsp
Google

Google Unofficially Announces GDrive By Leaked Code 342

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the more-than-speculation dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Google has unofficially announced the GDrive by source code. In an in-direct way, Google has publicly advertised the new, much-anticipated online storage drive called the GDrive. If you take a look at the source code of some javascript within the Google Pack, you will clearly see the GDrive referenced. The code categorizes the GDrive as an 'Online file backup and storage' device. It also provides the following descriptions; 'GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents' and 'GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device — be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.'"
The Internet

We're In Danger of Losing Our Memories 398

Posted by kdawson from the black-hole-of-history dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The chief executive of the British Library, Lynne Brindley, says that our cultural heritage is at risk as the Internet evolves and technologies become obsolete, and that historians and citizens face a 'black hole' in the knowledge base of the 21st century unless urgent action is taken to preserve websites and other digital records. For example, when Barack Obama was inaugurated as US president last week, all traces of George W. Bush disappeared from the White House website. There were more than 150 websites relating to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney that vanished instantly at the end of the games and are now stored only by the National Library of Australia. 'If websites continue to disappear in the same way as those on President Bush and the Sydney Olympics... the memory of the nation disappears too,' says Brindley. The library plans to create a comprehensive archive of material from the 8M .uk domain websites, and also is organizing a collecting and archiving project for the London 2012 Olympics. 'The task of capturing our online intellectual heritage and preserving it for the long term falls, quite rightly, to the same libraries and archives that have over centuries systematically collected books, periodicals, newspapers, and recordings...'" Over the years we've discussed various aspects of this archiving problem.
Networking

Ubuntu Download Speeds Beat Windows XP's 515

Posted by timothy from the aggregated-circumstances dept.
narramissic writes "Doing a download speed test of his Time Warner cable connection, James Gaskin discovered something odd, something that he is quick to note isn't a rigorous benchmarked lab test. The discovery: His Ubuntu machine 'returned a rating from the Bandwidth.com test of 22-25mbps over several tests' while the same test done from a Windows XP PC returned a rating of 12-14mbps. The two computers used in the test are 'almost identical: both off-lease Compaq small form factor D515s, part of the very popular corporate desktop D500 family. Both have Pentium 4 processors running at 2GHz. The Ubuntu machine has 768MB of RAM, while the XP box has only 512MB of RAM. Both run Firefox 3 as their browser.' Gaskin's question: Can a little extra RAM make that much difference in Internet download speeds or does Ubuntu handles networking that much faster than Windows XP?"
Book Reviews

Head First SQL 210

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Anita Kuno writes "On a Sunday, a fellow user-group member suggested I learn SQL. The next day, an opportunity to review Head First SQL arrived in my email. Who was I to question? Prior to opening the couriered package, I had no knowledge of SQL, I knew databases were important, and I had seen the Head First website once or twice. Now, I can design and create databases, use mySQL databases, and understand questions and accompanying code posted to forums. The credit goes to Head First SQL's style, which introduces small bits of information, supported through multiple channels (such as photos with humorous dialogue, stick-men and stick-women, and input from critical personalities whose photos and input pop up throughout the book) regular tests and exercises so the new bit of data can find a home and settle into your memory. The regularly tested pieces of information are now in my brain so I don't have to look up the basic stuff." Read below for the rest of Anita's review.
Google

Free IMAP On Gmail 440

Posted by kdawson from the bout-time dept.
A number of readers are writing in to tell us that Google is rolling out IMAP support for Gmail accounts. Several people say that some of their gmail accounts offer the IMAP option (in Settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP) and others do not.
Handhelds

Man Claims iPod Set His Pants Aflame 270

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the lighter-and-gasoline-in-his-pocket-had-nothing-to-do-with-it dept.
alphadogg writes to mention that an Atlanta man is claiming an iPod Nano actually caught fire in his pants creating flames that lasted 15 seconds and reached up as far as his chest. Apple hasn't responded to the claims yet other than sending him a packet to return the iPod.

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