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Submission + - ask slashdot: Do You Test Your New Hard Drives?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Any /. thread about drive failure is loaded with good advice about EOL, but what about the beginning? Do you normally test your new purchases as thoroughly as you test old, suspect drives? Has your testing followed the proverbial "bathtub" curve of a lot of early failures, but with those that survive the first month, surviving for years? And have you had any Return problems with new failed drives, because you re-partitioned it, or "ran Linux", or used stress-test apps?
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook job applicant shares frustrating experience (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It may be hard for Facebook HR infrastructure to keep up with the rapid growth of the company, so scheduling and performing Skype screening interviews with the prospective new developers appears deteriorating into disorderly jumble. In a blog post, a recent candidate for a development job at Facebook has shared his excruciation at coordinating and then having this preliminary interview, pointing out the unhelpfulness of HR staff at Facebook during all stages of the process. Hampering the first step of getting a dream job at Facebook, is this gratuitous annoyance only an HR fault, or is it purposeful to filter out all but the most motivated for joining the company?
The Internet

Submission + - Internet Archive Needs Donations, has Matching Donor (archive.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An anonymous donor is matching $3 for every $1 given (up to $450,000) until December 31. 1 petabyte has been paid for so far and the archive is looking at getting 3 more. "These massive servers are the backbone of the Archive, and critical to our continued growth. To all of you who’ve contributed to our fundraising drive, thanks from all of us here at the Internet Archive. "
Piracy

Submission + - Producers Of Minecraft Documentary Offer The Film for Free On The Pirate Bay

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 2 Player Productions, the producers of Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, on Saturday uploaded the documentary to The Pirate Bay. The news comes as a surprise move after an announcement earlier this week that the film is premiering today for free on Xbox Live to Gold subscribers. You can download it here.
Security

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How to convince TPTB to take vulnerability management seriously? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I work for an electric utility in the mid-west. We're primarily a Windows shop, our users have local admin rights, though we do have a fair share of Linux, UNIX, and lots of SCADA devices (though they're not on our main network thankfully).

We've got LOTS of vulnerabilities throughout our entire Company but Management is anaemic to wanting to get the problems fixed because they're afraid the cure will be worse than the disease.

It's just a matter of time before we're completely pwned. In fact we may already be and we just don't know it.

We scan for vulnerabilities periodically but every time we do the number of vulnerabilities increases.

Now management is thinking about having us do away (or cut back even further) on our scanning because in their eyes it's only making them look bad.

But here's the kicker — I don't have the authority to compel the business to fix the issues and have almost zero backing from my management for wanting to get the problems fixed.

I know that when (not if) something happens I'm probably going to be the one blamed for "not doing enough" yet I don't have the authority or capacity to do anything other than submit my TPS reports which get rubber stamped and filed away.

My question to the Slashdot community is this — How can I convince my management to see the value in vulnerability management and the need and necessity for fixing vulnerabilities that are discovered in a timely fashion?

Thanks!

P.S. I'm submitting this as an anonymous coward for obvious reasons.

Submission + - Specific Gut Bacteria May Account for Much Obesity (nature.com) 1

Submitted by
resistant
resistant writes: "A limited study from China offers the tantalizing possibility that targeting specific gut bacteria in humans could significantly reduce the scope of an epidemic of obesity in Western countries:

"The endotoxin-producing Enterobacter decreased in relative abundance from 35% of the volunteer’s gut bacteria to non-detectable, during which time the volunteer lost 51.4kg of 174.8kg initial weight and recovered from hyperglycemia and hypertension after 23 weeks on a diet of whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods and prebiotics."

As usual, sensationalist reports have been exaggerating the import of this very early investigation, and one wonders about that "diet of whole grains." Still, there could be meat in the idea of addressing pathogenic bacteria for the control of excessive weight gain. After all, it wasn't too long ago that a brave scientist insisted in the face of widespread ridicule that peptic ulcers in humans usually are caused by bacterial infections, not by acidic foods."
Firefox

Submission + - Mozilla Brings Back Firefox 64-Bit For Windows Nightly Builds

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last month, Mozilla Engineering Manager Benjamin Smedberg quietly announced that the 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows would never see the light of day. After what he referred to as “significant negative feedback,” Smedberg has announced he has reviewed that feedback, consulted with his release engineering team, and has decided on a modification to the original plan: Firefox 64-bit for Windows may still never be released, but nightly builds will live another day.
Games

Submission + - Game on War in Syria Explores Ongoing Conflict (gameswarp.com)

Submitted by
arclightfire
arclightfire writes: "So while games have come under spotlight via the debate about the causes of the tragic school shootings in the US, it is worth remembering that games are now a broad medium and far from all games are FPS games. Even those about war arre not now just about shooting as the Endgame:Syria shows by covering an ongoing war; 'The subject matter for Endgame: Syria should not however be looked on from a trivialized angle; people and civilian casualties are dying everyday over in Syria. Hopefully with this unique gamification approach, it will make more people aware of what is happening today in the beleaguered country of Syria.'"
Space

Submission + - Asteroid '2011 AG5' will miss Earth in 2040 (cnn.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: CNN reports: 'On a day when global doomsday predictions failed to pan out, NASA had more good news for the Earth: An asteroid feared to be on a collision course with our planet no longer poses a threat. Uncertainties about the orbit of the asteroid, known as 2011 AG5, previously allowed for a less than a 1% chance it would hit the Earth in February 2040, NASA said. To narrow down the asteroid's future course, NASA put out a call for more observation. Astronomers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa took up the task and managed to observe the asteroid over several days in October. "An analysis of the new data conducted by NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shows that the risk of collision in 2040 has been eliminated," NASA declared Friday. The asteroid, which is 140 meters (460 feet) in diameter, will get no closer to Earth than 890,000 kilometers (553,000 miles), or more than twice the distance to the moon, NASA said. A collision with Earth would have released about 100 megatons of energy, several thousand times more powerful than the atomic bombs that ended World War II, according to the Gemini Observatory.'
Censorship

Submission + - Israel to try and block gambling and child porn websites, again. (2jk.org)

Submitted by
jonklinger
jonklinger writes: "Israel is to attempt, again, to pass a bill that authorizes police officers to issue warrants to Internet service providers to block or restrict access to specific websites involved either in gambling, child pornography or copyright infringement. The bill itself proposes that such administrative procedures shall be clandestine and that court decisions shall be made ex-parte, where some of the court’s ruling will not be even dislosed to the owner of the website, and the court may hear and use inadmissible evidence."
The Internet

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Dealing with Anti-Spam service extortion? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I work for a European ISP, and lately we're receiving quite a few complaints from customers about not being able to send emails because of UCEProtect's listings. After checking with their site, we found out that our whole AS (!) was blacklisted. Their "immediate removal policy" asks for money, around 90 euros Per IP for end users and 300 euros for ISPs, and their site has bold statements like "YOU ARE LOSING YOUR RIGHT TO EXPRESSDELIST YOUR IP IF YOU ARE STUPID AND CLAIMING THIS WOULD BE BLACKMAIL, EXTORTION, SCAM OR SIMILAR BULLSHIT."
Could this be considered extortion-blackmail ? Has anyone else in Slashdot dealt with this service before ?

Submission + - I don't Read Code Anymore - Linus Torvalds

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There is a excellent interview over at the H with Linus Torvalds. Glyn Moody's second interview with Linus since 1998 is both informative and revealing. Linus response to his role as the kernel maintainer has this interesting tidbit: "Well, the big thing is I don't read code any more... when it comes to the major subsystem maintainers, I trust them because I've been working with them for 5, 10, 15 years, so I don't even look at the code." The interview goes on to talk about Amazon, Google, phones tablets and the cloud. Further on the topic of coding, the interview ends with Linus stating: "When I was twenty I liked doing device drivers. If I never have to do a single device driver in my life again, I will be happy. Some kind of headaches I can do without." Like all of us, Linus is getting older and taking a less hands on approach to the development of the kernel. Of course this is understandable. Even the great Git himself is a slave to the passage of time, but thankfully for us, his creation is not.
Security

Submission + - NYPD to Identify 'Deranged' Gunmen through Internet Chatter

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Michael Wilson writes in the NY Times that top intelligence officials in the New York Police Department are looking for ways to target “apolitical or deranged killers before they become active shooters" using techniques similar to those being used to spot terrorists’ chatter online. The techniques would include "cyber-searches of language that mass-casualty shooters have used in e-mails and Internet postings,” says Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. “The goal would be to identify the shooter in cyberspace, engage him there and intervene, possibly using an undercover to get close, and take him into custody or otherwise disrupt his plans.” There are also plans to send officers to Newtown and to scenes of other mass shootings to collect information says the department’s chief spokesman Paul. J. Browne adding that potential tactics include creating an algorithm that would search online “for terms used by active shooters in the past that may be an indicator of future intentions.” The NYPD’s counter-terrorism division released a report last year, "Active Shooter," after studying 202 mass shooting incidents (PDF). “So, we think this is another logical step,” says Kelly."

Submission + - Drawings Of Weapons Led To New Jersey Student's Arrest (cbslocal.com) 1

Submitted by
gannebraemorr
gannebraemorr writes: "'The Superintendent of the Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District said around 2 pm Tuesday, a 16 year old student demonstrated behavior that caused concern. A teacher noticed drawings of what appeared to be weapons in his notebook. School officials made the decision to contact authorities. Police removed the 16-year-old boy from Cedar Creek High School in Galloway Township Tuesday afternoon after school officials became concerned about his behavior. The student was taken to the Galloway Township Police Department. Police then searched the boy’s home on the 300 block of East Spencer Lane and found several electronic parts and several types of chemicals that when mixed together, could cause an explosion, police say. The unidentified teen was charged with possession of a weapon an [sic] explosive device and the juvenile was placed in Harbor Fields.'

If 'chemicals that when mixed together, could cause an explosion' is a crime, I'm pretty sure everyone's cleaning cabinets are evidence just waiting to be found. Bottle of Coke and Mentos... BRB, someone knocking at the door."
Enlightenment

Submission + - E17 Released (enlightenment.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: E17 has, after many years of being called "vaporware" and "'the thing that shall not be released", been released.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot : how to persuade management to keep out of a new project

Submitted by miserly_content
miserly_content writes: I work in a large, hierarchical technology company. I have been developing technical specs for a new strategic and challenging software project, and the project is slowly gathering steam and support. This is already a career building success for me, and everyone acknowledges my technical capabilities. But the program manager is an MBA-type, and wants to bring in new multiple team leaders and consultants. This is not really a surprise, but i feel we are sliding towards a too-many-chiefs-too-few-indians scenario, especially at this early stage. How can i pitch upper management about this issue, without appearing selfish or disruptive ? What positive approach can i try with the PM with which i have a good working relationship?
Science

Submission + - Ancient Bones Show That Caring for the Disabled Is as Old as Society Itself (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At a site known as Man Bac, archaeologists discovered 15 or so bodies. Most were buried with their bodies straight, with the exception of Burial 9 that was buried in the fetal position. Subsequent research indicated that the man was buried as he lived, as his fused vertebrae and brittle bones left him hunched over by his disease. Researchers eventually came to the conclusion that his form was the result of a congenital disorder called Klippel-Feil syndrome, which paralyzed him from the waist down, mostly robbed him of use of his arms, and would have meant that he would have been unable to feed and clothe himself.
However, he lived 10 years after the onset of his paralysis. That meant that his community, which lived by fishing, hunting, and raising pigs, would have catered to his every need, rallying him to give him some semblance of comfort.
Indeed, a growing pool of archaeologists are finding evidence that, even in ancient times, humans have banded together in order to take care of severely ailing and disabled people, many of whom were unable to take care of themselves.

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