Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Brad Stone Ruins a Near Perfect Blog

Submitted by mattatwork
mattatwork writes: NY Times writer Brad Stone figured out the real identity of Fake Steve Jobs. With classic nick names like 'freetards' and 'beastmaster' Fake Steve captured an audience of 700,000 visitors to the site and around 50 emails a day. There is no definite plan for the future of FSJ, according to Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine who maintained the blod himself....
NASA

Submission + - Mercury May have molten hot magma at it's core

Submitted by
mattatwork
mattatwork writes: "According to ScienceDaily, NASA has come to the conclusion that the planet Mercury may have a molten core after all, based on high-precision planetary radar readings. You may (or may not) remember the Mariner 10 probe making 3 passes by Mercury between March 29th, 1974, September 21st 1974 and March 16, 1975. Interesting development...I for one still won't be setting up a colony there anytime soon...."
Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Claims iPhone Will Be Bust 463

Posted by Zonk from the biased-source-just-maybe dept.
Theaetetus writes "In an interview with USA Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed there is no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. The article also deals with Microsoft's friction with the Justice Department, friction with Google, and the profitability of MSN. 'No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get. In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job. But it's not like we're at the end of the line of innovation that's going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I'll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we'll get him to own a Zune.'"

Feed Dell "designs," you decide: lame or very lame? (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Desktops

Can't help but chuckle at Dell's semi-admirable attempts at "community involvement" in product design decisions. To its credit, Dell does seem to be listening up on the Linux issue -- though we have to wait and see how well the execution goes -- but this latest "You Choose" question posed to the Dell IdeaStorm community isn't exactly going to change the world. Dell wants your vote on two different clear sidepanel designs for its XPS 710 H2C desktop which was unveiled at CES. Sounds like a good idea, unfortunately, the options are laughable: you can vote for a decent but perhaps over the top "X" design, or a square window that was clearly drummed up after the marketing team decided it'd be a good thing to "ask the community" in an attempt to generate interest. In the end, it's all pretty silly -- don't they know that what the people really want is to pay double the price for a gaming desktop with pretty pictures on it?

[Via Geekzone]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Software

Submission + - Lone Programmer Writes 253 Webcam Drivers for Linu

Submitted by mrneutron2004
mrneutron2004 writes: We ran across this interview/story today and felt compelled to repost it. A French physician and ardent linux support is the ONE MAN you can all thank for adding support for 253 webcam's in Linux. The Open Source OS world may still be a bit of a mess when competing with the ease of Windows, but efforts like this make you wonder. One man with drive, tenacity, and no funding does what noone else can do. And none of the major linux distributions back this guy's efforts, even the big players dipping into the corporate worlds coffers. http://www.fastsilicon.com/latest-news/lone-progra mmer-writes-253-webcam-drivers-for-linux.html?Item id=60
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple grants DRM-free distribution to all labels

Submitted by SexCaptain
SexCaptain writes: AppleInsider gives details of a letter circulated by Apple to all producers of content for the iTunes Store, announcing that from May onwards they can sell their music at higher quality and free of DRM. Hopefully this opens the doors for labels like Netwerk, and although its unclear exactly what Apple means by 'higher quality', and there is no mention of price changes, this is a big step in the right direction.

"Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher quality and DRM-free," Apple wrote in the communication. "Starting next month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and DRM-free music videos to all customers."
Power

Journal Journal: A truly inconvenient Truh 1

Journal by mattatwork
I received an interesting email from my mother-in-law, and then had it forwarded again by my wife. According to WorldNetDaily, Compact Flourescent lamps (or CFL's) contain a significant amount of Mercury. While you're saving the world from global warming, you're also putting yourself and o
Sci-Fi

Ashes of Doohan Sent Into Space 112

Posted by CmdrTaco from the no-original-jokes-left dept.
Stephen Samuel writes "The CBC is reporting that Star Trek actor James Doohan ("Scotty") achieved his hopes of having his ashes launched into space when a package containing some of his ashes, ashes of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and about 200 other people were carried into sub-orbital space by a 6 meter (20') rocket. The rocket was launched by UP Aerospace from "Spaceport America", a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert."
Technology (Apple)

Journal Journal: IPhone will test loyalty of cellular customers

Journal by iphonestory
AT&T will use iPhone to lure customers? Some analysts say that AT&T is attempting to use the iPhone to radically change the loyalties of cellular subscribers. These analysts note that while most subscribers aren't very loyal to their cellular operator, many people are fiercely loyal to Apple and its iPod media players.
Music

EFF Jumps in Against RIAA for Copyright Misuse 147

Posted by Zonk from the big-guns-call-for-bigger-guns dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Arguing that the RIAA and big record labels may be misusing their copyrights, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has jumped in on the defendant's side in a White Plains, New York, court conflict. The case is Lava v. Amurao, and the EFF will be defending Mr. Amurao's right to counterclaim for copyright misuse. EFF argued that the RIAA, by deliberately bringing meritless cases against innocent people based on theories of 'secondary liability', are abusing their copyrights. In its amicus brief, EFF also decried (just as when it joined the ACLU, Public Citizen, and others on the side of Debbie Foster in Capitol v. Foster) the RIAA's 'driftnet' litigation strategy. They argue that the declaratory judgment remedy must also be made available to defendants, in view of the RIAA's habit of dropping the meritless cases it started but can't finish."
The Courts

MySpace is Free Speech, Case Overturned 242

Posted by Zonk from the myspeech dept.
eldavojohn writes "The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that a judge violated the constitution after placing a juvenile on probation for an expletive laden MySpace entry on the principal. The court decided that the juvenile's free speech rights had been unconstitutionally revoked, and the original judge had suppressed politically motivated free speech since the comments were directly attacking school policy. I think we are starting to see a fine line develop online as it did with print — bullying & slander are punishable while we have to allow criticism of ideas no matter how harsh it is."
Space

Water Found in Exoplanet's Atmosphere 185

Posted by Zonk from the so-close dept.
anthemaniac writes "Astronomers have long suspected that water should exist in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. Now they have evidence. Water has been discovered in a planet called HD209458b, which was previously found to have oxygen. From the article: 'The discovery ... means one of the most crucial elements for life as we know it can exist around planets orbiting other stars.' But don't go looking for little green men. You might remember HD209458b as a 'hot Jupiter' that boils under the glow of its very nearby star."

Slashdot Top Deals

"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to create him." -Arthur C. Clarke

Close