http://alterslash.org the unofficial SlashDot digest http://alterslash.org/#How_a_Guy_Found_4_New_Planets_Without_a_Telescope Peter Jalowiczor is a gas worker from South Yorkshire, England. He’s also the discoverer of four giant exoplanets, according to the University of California’s Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team. http://alterslash.org/#Why_Digital_Newsstands_Stink As Google prepares to compete with Apple in the digital newsstand business, both companies seem to be glossing over the fact that consumer demand for digital magazines is dropping. ‘Wired’s collapse from 100,000 iPad copies in June to 23,000 in November was most dramatic, but the story is not much different at Glamour, Vanity Fair, GQ or Men’s Health.’ Meanwhile, issues of subscriber privacy continue to crop up — Google has reportedly told publishers it will supply certain information about subscribers, and it’s not clear whether users will have the ability to opt-out. http://alterslash.org/#Using_Technology_To_Enforce_Good_Behavior With the new year upon us and resolutions being made to change unwanted behavior, many tools are now available to help people stay in line, such as a GPS-enabled app that locks down texting once a car gets rolling and a program that cuts off credit-card spending. Another device monitors your workout and offers real-time voice feedback. http://alterslash.org/#Researchers_Claim_1_000_Core_Chip_Created Remember a few months ago when the feasibility was discussed of a thousand core processor? By using FPGAs, Glasgow University researchers have claimed a proof of concept 1,000 core chip that they demonstrated running an MPEG algorithm at a speed of 5Gbps. http://alterslash.org/#Does_Windows_Phone_7_Have_a_Data_Transmission_Bug Microsoft commentator and Windows Phone 7 Expert Paul Thurrott has reported a serious bug that indicates Windows Phone 7 is uploading up to 50 MB of unidentified data every day. The phone operating system apparently ignores Wi-Fi connections for sending this data, leading some Windows Phone 7 owners hitting their 2 GB plan data limit while doing little more than checking email and social networking sites. http://alterslash.org/#Wikipedia_Meets_16M_Budget_Goal Thanks to some 630,000 individual contributions that averaged $22 apiece, Wikipedia has reached its fundraising goal of $16 million, founder Jimmy Wales announced over the weekend. Writes Wales, ’… this year is a little more incredible than most because this year we celebrate Wikipedia’s tenth anniversary. http://alterslash.org/#Apple_Support_Company_Sues_Customer_For_Complaint An Apple authorized Service Provider called System Graph is suing a customer who complained online about poor service from them. The customer Dimitrios Papadimitriadis took his iMac to them because he was seeing gray spots on his LED panel. http://alterslash.org/#Google_Nexus_S_Processor_Overclocked_To_1_2GHz Though Google’s Nexus S is powered by a single core Hummingbird processor, it looks like the one core would be enough to put LG’s dual-core processor powered Optimus to shame. An XDA Forums user morfic has overclocked the processor on Nexus S up to 1.2GHz in a new kernel based on the Bionix NS1 mod.” http://alterslash.org/#Battle_Escalates_Between_Airlines_and_Online_Agents The Epoch Times reports that online travel booking giant Expedia has removed American Airlines from its travel website over disagreements with American’s fee structure in the latest incident in an escalating battle between airlines and online travel agents. Although American gets roughly two-thirds of its revenues from third-party travel agents like Expedia, American has been looking for online agents to cut their fees as one way to lower fares — something that Expedia was not prepared to do.