boyko.at.netqos writes "Timothy B. Lee (no relation to Tim Berners-Lee), a frequent contributor to Ars Technica and Techdirt, has recently written 'The Durable Internet,' a paper published by the libertarian-leaning CATO institute. In it, Lee argues that because a neutral network works better than a non-neutral one, the Internet's open-ended architecture is not likely to vanish, despite the fears of net neutrality proponents, (and despite the wishes of net neutrality opponents.) For that reason, perhaps network neutrality legislation isn't necessary mdash; or even desirable mdash; from an open-networks perspective. In addition to the paper, Network Performance Daily has an interview and podcast with Tim Lee, and Lee addresses counter-arguments with a blog posting for Technology Liberation Front."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1921223amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1921223"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1921223amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/G5KECJQIVla-GSSWGVCQNV8GeA4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/G5KECJQIVla-GSSWGVCQNV8GeA4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/yhsiDqaFE-4" height="1" width="1"/

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's case in Boston against a 24-year-old grad student, SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum, in which Prof. Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School, along with members of his CyberLaw class, are representing the defendant, may shape up as a showdown between the Electronic Frontier and Big Music. The defendant's witness list includes names such as those of Prof. Lawrence Lessig (Author of 'Free Culture'), John Perry Barlow (former songwriter of The Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation), Prof. Johan Pouwelse (Scientific Director of P2P-Next), Prof. Jonathan Zittrain (Author of 'The Future of the Internet mdash; And How to Stop It'), Professors Wendy Seltzer, Terry Fisher, and John Palfrey, and others. The RIAA requested, and was granted, an adjournment of the trial, from its previously scheduled December 1st date, to March 30, 2009. (The RIAA lawyers have been asking for adjournments a lot lately, asking for an adjournment in UMG v. Lindor the other day because they were so busy preparing for the Tenenbaum December 1st trial ... I guess when you're running on hot air, you sometimes run out of steam)."pa href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1830237amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1830237"/a/ppa href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1830237amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-QAkinJlyNthxiDhEG9bOixu1qA/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-QAkinJlyNthxiDhEG9bOixu1qA/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/oAOHqFg9s-M" height="1" width="1"/

20 November 2008 (Food companies disguising price increases)

Many food companies are shrinking containers or wasting space in them, to disguise price increases.

The European Union has addressed this problem with a system of standard product weights. I don't know how well the solution works.

20 November 2008 (CO2 emission permissions)

The UK is auctioning off some permissions to keep emitting CO2, rather than just giving away permissions. Making those companies pay is a good thing, but the money should be used to fund energy savings.

The job to be done to end global warming is so big that a few good steps are not enough.

20 November 2008 (Iraqi soldiers arrested)

In a man-bites-dog case, the British Bush forces arrested some Iraqi soldiers for murdering British soldiers who were their prisoners. Now the question is whether the Iraqi government would give them a fair trial, or torture them and kill them.

20 November 2008 (Saudi plan for peace)

Rumor has it that Obama will support the Saudi plan for peace between Israel and all Arabs.

On the other hand, his appointment of Rahm Israel as chief of staff suggested that Obama is going to bow to the powerful Israeli Hawks' Lobby.

I hope the former will be true and the latter false.

pparsons writes "Bell Canada Inc. will not have to suspend its practice of "shaping" traffic on the Internet after a group of companies that resell access to Bell's network complained their customers were also being negatively affected. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today released a decision that denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request that Bell be ordered to cease its application of the practice to its wholesale customers."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1633231amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1633231"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1633231amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mB3akSX0jAbQctCgFk-eEWOO_7M/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mB3akSX0jAbQctCgFk-eEWOO_7M/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/-B7CyE6VEwY" height="1" width="1"/

Blue's News pointed out a report about a study sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation which found that online gaming and social networking are beneficial to children, teaching them basic technical skills and how to communicate in the Information Age. The study was conducted over a period of three years, with researchers interviewing hundreds of children and monitoring thousands of hours of online time. The full white paper (PDF) is also available. "For a minority of children, the casual use of social media served as a springboard to them gaining technological expertise mdash; labeled in the study as 'geeking out,' the researchers said. By asking friends or getting help from people met through online groups, some children learned to adjust the software code underpinning some of the video games they played, edit videos and fix computer hardware. Given that the use of social media serves as inspiration to learning, schools should abandon their hostility and support children when they want to learn some skills more sophisticated than simply designing their Facebook page, the study said."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1755213amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1755213"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1755213amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/lwR1m91ae1ikXuG-R2qoicn52-c/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/lwR1m91ae1ikXuG-R2qoicn52-c/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/VWNTA0S9dR4" height="1" width="1"/

Iddo Genuth writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently won a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to design quieter, more energy efficient, and more environmentally friendly commercial airplanes. The two million dollar contract from NASA is just an initial step in bringing green technologies to the sky."pa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1625232amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1625232"/a/ppa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1625232amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/VnMcWOKV2KGLbqAlER1W-2PoLLo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/VnMcWOKV2KGLbqAlER1W-2PoLLo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/9je43OYP_q0" height="1" width="1"/

Stack Overflow Podcast episode 30 is up, with special guest Richard White of UserVoice.

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

Da Massive writes "Leading Hollywood film studios Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Disney Enterprises are suing Australia's second largest ISP, iiNet, saying it's complicit in the infringement of their copyrighted material. According to a statement of claim, "the ISP knows that there are a large number of customers who are engaging in continuing infringements of copyright by using BitTorrent file sharing technology"."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1411213amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1411213"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1411213amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/hvgWmTU8BVD8V3kux5xLAiIdCKk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/hvgWmTU8BVD8V3kux5xLAiIdCKk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/wjaWJ0PwlTI" height="1" width="1"/

Garabito writes "A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program was lost. The arachnid was sent in order to know if spiders can survive and makes webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container. NASA isn't sure where the spider could have gone. I for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords."pa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1452211amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1452211"/a/ppa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1452211amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/o1ShR965SKx4bXehC06dglMQ_G8/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/o1ShR965SKx4bXehC06dglMQ_G8/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/f_21o0bM1hc" height="1" width="1"/

FornaxChemica writes "In a surprise move, Google announced today, both on-site and in its blog, that it will shut down permanently its 3D virtual world Lively by the end of the year, becoming one of Google's few scrapped products and one of the most short-lived too, barely lasting 6 months. No official reason was given, only that Google wants to 'prioritize his resources and focus more on his core search, ads and apps business.' Lively might have taken too much and given back too little, even by Google's standards."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/144248amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/144248"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/144248amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/W2OxULKMa6CLvOStWMTHynT9D14/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/W2OxULKMa6CLvOStWMTHynT9D14/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/NZlKHlVfjvs" height="1" width="1"/

ric482 writes "With the release of the Mozilla Foundation's 2007 financial report, questions have been raised by the IRS who are due to perform an audit on the non-profit organization behind the massively popular Firefox browser. Last year the Foundation received $66 million of its total $75 million revenue (88 percent) from search engine maestro's Google, so the IRS are looking for blood over the organizations tax exempt status. Back in 2006, Mozilla got $59.5 million from Google mdash; around 85 percent of the organizations revenue. Google and Mozilla are part of a 'you scratch my back, I'll pay your bills' sort of agreement with the Google search bar firmly placed in the toolbar, and on the default homepage. Things were a bit rocky a couple of months back when Google unveiled the Beta-run of its Chrome browser, but Mozilla and Google hugged it out and sealed a deal that will last for a further three years. That deal will expire in November 2011."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1327240amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/1327240"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1327240amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/KR6fkM702vPgLLYLqk1cqNcUWEg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/KR6fkM702vPgLLYLqk1cqNcUWEg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/czLxSy6q-8M" height="1" width="1"/

From Wikileaks:

The PDF document holds a single paged scan of an internally distributed mail from German telecommunications company T-Systems (Deutsche Telekom), revealing over two dozen secret IP address ranges in use by the German intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). Independent evidence shows that the claim is almost certainly true and the document itself has been verified by a demand letter from T-systems to Wikileaks.

geekmansworld writes "From the Washington Post, 'An international team of scientists has reconstructed more than three-quarters of the genome of the woolly mammoth using DNA extracted from balls of hair, the first time this has been accomplished for an extinct species.' Who wants a pet mammoth?"pa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/0410224amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/0410224"/a/ppa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/0410224amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/IZtpTDAAMp7jijHuahQ1bMdcUp0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/IZtpTDAAMp7jijHuahQ1bMdcUp0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/Geon7k3b768" height="1" width="1"/

SCO has withdrawn its a href=http://groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007091822460385Motion/a of the Debtors for an Order Providing that Creditors' Committees are not Authorized or Required to Provide Access to Confidential Information of the Debtors or to Privileged Information, which it filed in September of 2007, when it first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.P Remember that? They filed it back when SCO thought someone might care enough to actually form a creditors' committee. But since that never happened -- the a href=http://groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070914152904577top 20 unsecured creditors/a (a href=http://groklaw.net/pdf/SCOGBK-B.pdfSCO Group's/a and a href=http://groklaw.net/pdf/SCO_CH11-1-B.pdfSCO Operation's list/a, PDFs) being mainly friends and allies of SCO -- it obviates the need to protect SCO's secrets from any such committee. There was supposed to be a hearing on that back in October of 2007, but that never happened, and so now for some unknown reason, they are clearing it off the docket.

Today, Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience for Xbox Live. The list of new features includes the streaming of TV shows and movies through Netflix, the ability to install games to the HDD, an avatar system, and the Community Games platform. The launch itself was shaky at first, but most issues have been smoothed out. Sony-owned Columbia Pictures immediately pulled their movie selection, though it may return when a licensing deal gets worked out. Halo 3 developer Bungie pointed out that not all games will run faster when installed to a HDD because of the way the games already interact with the drive.pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/0320210amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/20/0320210"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/0320210amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/O_pZp3HXbycd8-qPZDGrC4EW9zU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/O_pZp3HXbycd8-qPZDGrC4EW9zU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/HzPqUiM35IM" height="1" width="1"/

coondoggie writes "NASA is trying to decide between eight space exploration missions that include further exploring Venus and comet composition as well landing on an asteroid or examining the space around Jupiter. The space agency today began accepting solicitations for these space exploration opportunities and will ultimately pick one of them to begin perusing in 2009 with a launch date targeted at 2018. The solicitations and ultimate expedition are part of NASA's New Frontiers program, which has as its main objective to explore the solar system with medium-class spacecraft missions that will conduct high-quality, focused scientific investigations, NASA said. The first New Frontiers mission was selected in 2003 and will result in the launch of Juno, a Jupiter polar orbiter mission set to blast off in 2011."pa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2341225amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/19/2341225"/a/ppa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2341225amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-0JTbbcc2CUFSmWwYLfSLVt3ZUA/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-0JTbbcc2CUFSmWwYLfSLVt3ZUA/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/qqKyFsk7spY" height="1" width="1"/

20 November 2008 (Israel's attacks against Palestinians)

Israel is increasing its attacks against Palestinians, arresting 30 people in the West Bank

and destroying crops in Gaza

and arresting fishermen from Gaza so close on shore that they can't catch much fish.

Roland Piquepaille writes "In recent months, the concept of 'cloud computing' was all the buzz. European researchers think about another name, the World Wide Grid, which could run on top of the Internet. In an article to appear soon, ICT Results will report about the g-Eclipse project. As the scientists said, 'the g-Eclipse project aims to build an integrated workbench framework to access the power of existing Grid infrastructures. The framework will be built on top of the reliable eco-system of the Eclipse community to enable a sustainable development.' The project started in July 2006 and was successfully completed in June 2008 for a total cost of 2.5 million including a EU contribution of 1.96 million."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2335219amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/19/2335219"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2335219amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/b3FJ9Ntjg6TrQNJcZSgqAnP9K3E/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/b3FJ9Ntjg6TrQNJcZSgqAnP9K3E/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/KjW6jTyDTTc" height="1" width="1"/

20 November 2008 (Israel)

Israel arrested several Palestinian children who got in the way of plans to demolish almost 100 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem to build gardens.

Israel has also ordered the eviction of settler squatters in a house in Hebron. But the settler movement is threatening to fight back a lot more than those Palestinian kids do.

alphadogg writes "Researchers at the University of Maryland say they have discovered a material to replace lead, a potential environmental hazard, in electronics products. The material, bismuth samarium ferrite (BSFO), was found by researchers in the university's A. James Clark School of Engineering. It can be used in products such as biomedical imaging devices and inkjet printers, and if implemented commercially could keep lead out of landfills and the ecosystem, they say. While manufacturers have developed replacements for lead in many products, until now no commercial replacement existed for lead zirconate titanate (PZT) mdash; the material of choice for transducers, actuators, sensors and microelectromechanical systems used in common electronic devices, the university says."pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2330241amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/19/2330241"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2330241amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/TXzHH9Pxyykof0SmKrvvXX4yMck/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/TXzHH9Pxyykof0SmKrvvXX4yMck/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/31O5_HSdA-E" height="1" width="1"/

SnT2k writes "Adobe recently release the beta version of Alchemy which compiles C/C++ code into AS3 bytcode (which runs on AVM2) that can run on the Flash or Flex platform and boasts increased performance for computationally-intensive tasks (but still slower than native C/C++). It was demonstrated last year during the Chicago MAX 2007 to run Quake. A few months later it has been demonstrated to run a Python interpreter and Nintendo Emulator. One interesting tidbit is that the thing is built upon the open source LLVM Compiler Infrastructure."pa href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2321230amp;from=rss"img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/11/19/2321230"/a/ppa href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/19/2321230amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9cxcBpwlCR6G8s4NdiOw7FyXPbc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9cxcBpwlCR6G8s4NdiOw7FyXPbc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/-x_fpljjtoQ" height="1" width="1"/