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Submission + - Polls

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "Slashdot polls should be replaced after
1) 50,000 votes
2) 60,000 votes
3) 70,000 votes
4) after CowboyNeal votes"
Education

Submission + - Potential employers consider university prestige?

Submitted by PocketProtector
PocketProtector writes: It's about that time of year when high school seniors around the country are starting to apply for their university of choice. I am just one of those people. Like most other people on Slashdot, I am a technology-minded individual and as a result wish to go into a technology-orientated profession. Of course, the days are long gone when jobs were available to anyone with a diploma, so the question then becomes: where is the best place to receive one's degree? I am in a position where I could get a full ride at any of the state universities or be accepted to most universities around the country. If I attend any out of state universities, however, I will not only be punished with out of state tuition increases but will also not receive as much scholarship money as a result of the highly competitive nature of these universities. Is a degree from a more prestigious university (e.g. UC Berkeley of BSD fame) worth the large amount of debt I will acquire? Do potential employers prefer some applicants over others because of the university they got their degree from?
Privacy

Submission + - UK Tax officials lose details of 25M Taxpayers

Submitted by Nefarious Wheel
Nefarious Wheel writes: Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs has admitted to losing the details of 25 million individuals, with 7.25 million U.K. families potentially affected. "This is the biggest privacy disaster by our government," said Jonathan Bamford, assistant information commissioner.

In a speech to Parliament on Tuesday, the chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, told of the loss of two discs containing the details of everybody in the U.K. who claims and receives child benefits. Story at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6219772.html?tag=nl.e550
Security

Submission + - An inconvenient hack: Al Gore's Web site hacked (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Bergkamp10
Bergkamp10 writes: Hackers it would seem are not without a sense of irony. A blog to promote former US Vice President Al Gore's celebrated documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has been hacked to host links to web sites selling online pharmaceuticals. According to the story the links appear to have been created as part of a scheme to boost the Web traffic for sites that promote the drugs, security experts said. They contain titles such as "Xanax On Line," "Viagra," and "Buy Valium Online." The technique is common among cyber scammers who bombard the site with links to their products in the hope of increasing traffic and boosting their search engine rankings. The links point to Web pages on a site run by Westmont College, a small Christian college based in Santa Barbara, California. The Westmont College Web site also appears to have been hacked, a security expert said.
United States

Submission + - Steve Fosset's wife asks court to declare him dead

Submitted by Lev13than
Lev13than writes: In the strongest signal yet that hope has faded for missing millionaire Steve Fossett, his wife has asked the court to declare the adventurer legally dead. "As painful as it is for Mrs. Fossett, other members of the family and his many friends, it is time to initiate this process," said attorney Michael A. LoVallo, who filed the petition in Cook County Circuit Court. Fossett's disappearance has been covered previously on Slashdot.
The Internet

Submission + - Top Australian ISP removes OpenOffice.org 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Australia's biggest ISP Bigpond, part of the largest telco Telstra, has removed all OpenOffice.org downloads from their free downloads mirror Bigpond Files Library. The Library main page indicates that the reason for this was to promote their new Java-based hosted office suite Bigpond Office, adding that "BigPond has launched a number of new applications that provide similar functionality to some existing application files in the file library and therefore those files have been removed". With the OO.o files no longer available as free downloads, Bigpond OO.o users will be forced to download from other locations and have those downloads count against their quota. Bigpond's quotas are among the most severe in the world according to a recent OECD report (30 KB XLS) , and with typical OO.o downloads amounting to over half the quota of Bigpond's least expensive (and most popular) plan, download costs of about AUS$15 for OO.O are possible.
Wireless (Apple)

Submission + - Leave the country, get a $1000+ iPhone bill?

Submitted by elistan
elistan writes: US owners of the iPhone are subject to the standard ATT international rates. For example, in Canada they pay $0.59 per minute and $0.0195 per KB. The problem is that the iPhone is chatty. VERY chatty. Not only is there the normal data downloaded while browsing the "real Internet," it likes to do things like make multi-MB transmissions in the middle of the night while its owner is asleep. (Examine one of those multipage iPhone bills if you get a chance, look for large data sessions at odd hours.) 5000 KB would end up costing $97.50 USD, for example. Traveling to another country could get very expensive very quickly, with the iPhone owner not realizing what's happening. Posts at MacRumors have started of people realizing just that issue. How does $3000 sound? Can these users only blame themselves for not checking the iPhone usage more closely? Was it reasonable for them to assume that limiting their usage would involve only a reasonable fee? In either case, as it stands the iPhone is unsuitable as an internationally roaming phone. Are ATT's usage rates being outdated by Apple's new technology? Or is it Apple's responsibility to make the phone workable within ATT's fee structure?
Digital

Submission + - But my HDMI cable worked yesterday?! (audioholics.com)

Submitted by
mrnomas
mrnomas writes: "While the HDMI format keeps changing, manufacturers are scrambling to keep up an article at Audioholics points out. While short lengths of cable will probably be ok, those end users that have installed HDMI cables in their walls may be looking at having to add a signal booster or something similar or perhaps ripping the cable out and re-running it! All this for an HDMI spec that is now so advanced it only exists on paper. While I'm sure the long term benefit of a cable that can carry 3.4 Gbit/s will be realized, isn't changing the spec so often on the onset just going to alienate early adopters?

"So what's so special about certification? Nothing, if you're running a 3 foot HDMI from the DVD player to an LCD panel. Just about any old cable will do... The interesting thing about certification, however, is that HDMI Licensing, LLC doesn't even account for the real-world situation where chip manufacturers don't fully support 3.4 Gbit/s bitrates. No one we know of supports the theoretical maximums. As a result, the real-world bit-rates of 2.2275 for 1080p at 12-bit color needs to be tested using the same criteria as the 1080i cable that only needs to pass 742.5 Mbit/s. That's right, there is currently no certification for 1080p at 12-bit. Are you scared? You should be.""
Censorship

Submission + - Fox News Censors Iowa Straw Poll Results (chrisbrunner.com)

Submitted by
Chris Brunner
Chris Brunner writes: "If you don't already know, the Iowa Straw Poll, seen as a first test of organizational strength by news media and party insiders, took place yesterday. The results weren't too surprising, considering that McCain, Fred Thompson, and Giuliani all boycotted the event. What was surprising, however, is that Fox News blatantly cut certain candidates out of the results they reported. They didn't just stop listing candidates after a certain point. They listed positions one through three, skipped four and five, and then continued with positions six through eight."
The Courts

Submission + - Radioactive Boy Scout - Smoke Detector Thefts. (foxnews.com)

Submitted by
Sniper223
Sniper223 writes: "A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager has been charged with stealing 16 smoke detectors. Police say it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials.

David Hahn, 31, was being held Friday on a $5,000 bond in the Macomb County Jail after he was arraigned Thursday on felony larceny charges. Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Maierle said Hahn denied the charges.

A district court clerk on Friday said Hahn did not have an attorney. The Associated Press called the jail in an effort to speak to Hahn, but a sheriff's spokesman said the jail does not give messages to inmates. His preliminary examination was scheduled for Aug. 13.

Investigators say Hahn was arrested Wednesday after a maintenance worker saw him stealing a detector from a ceiling in an apartment complex where he lived. They later found the other detectors in his apartment in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township.

Police say that Hahn's face was covered with open sores, possibly from constant exposure to radioactive materials.

Click here for more on this story from MyFOXDetroit.com

Hahn learned that a small amount of a radioactive isotope could be found in smoke detectors during his experiments in the 1990s, according to a 1998 article in Harper's Magazine that later expanded into a book by journalist Ken Silverstein.

Maierle said his department evacuated the apartment complex and called the state police bomb squad, which found no hazardous materials.

He said officials learned in January that Hahn had returned to the area after serving in the U.S. Navy.

"Because of his past, we were a tad bit concerned," he said, adding his department alerted the FBI when they found out he was back in Michigan. "We didn't want any other radioactive sites to pop up."

Hahn's first brush with authorities came in August 1994, after police stopped him during an investigation into neighborhood tire thefts. Officers found radioactive materials, chemicals, rocks, plastic and glass bottles and two exploded pipes in his car, Maierle said.

In a subsequent interview with a state health official, Hahn said he had been trying to produce energy and hoped it would help him earn his Eagle Scout badge, according to the Harper's article. Hahn also acknowledged having a backyard laboratory in a potting shed at his mother's home in Oakland County's Commerce Township, the article said.

Authorities declared the structure a hazardous materials site and sealed it. Crews from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency led a Superfund cleanup in 2005 that included dismantling the shed and shipping its remains to be buried at a low-level radioactive waste site in Utah, the article said.

Hahn received a Scouting merit badge for atomic energy in 1991, the article said.

Maierle said Hahn's 1994 arrest was expunged in 1996. His arrest this week was reported by The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens."
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista SP1, XP SP3 Leaked. (neosmart.net)

Submitted by
Sniper223
Sniper223 writes: "It's probably very safe to say that Microsoft's two upcoming service packs are the most eagerly-awaited products due to ship out of Microsoft's camp anytime soon, at least as far as most end-users are concerned..

Windows XP SP3 has been through the (rumor) mill for a couple of years of now, with enough fake leaks and "this-is-what-it's-going-to-be" downloads plaguing the net for quite a long time. Most people looking forward to Windows XP SP3 are hoping to get that last bit of performance boost and maybe a reliability update or two — and to resolve a couple of outstanding issues that have been patched but never officially released; addressing some software issues, chronic bugs, and hidden nasties. But, for the most part, Windows XP SP3 is intended to wrap those hundreds of patches, hotfixes, and security releases that have been released since Windows XP SP2 first made it's (much-welcomed) presence known on August 6th, 2004.

Windows Vista SP1, though, is — without a doubt — what's on everyone's minds today. Ever since the fiasco (a.k.a. Vista RTM) that was pre-maturely (yet after much delay) released on November 8th, 2006; Windows Vista has been plagued with endless issues from terrible hibernation support, FireWire issues, HD-Audio problems, unexpected crashes and reboots, incredibly slow I/O and LAN activity, buggy UAC, and a lot, lot more.

Since November of last year, Microsoft has been steadily fixing bugs and addressing performance and reliability issues it encountered as they work up to the release of Windows Longhorn Server. In our own testing, some these patches are of the utmost importance to reliability and performance, enabling users to actually use the sleep features of Windows Vista, listen to audio the way they like, and be able to — at the very minimum — browse their LAN without suffering fateful explorer.exe crashes. However, like all other patches and hotfixes unofficially released on support.microsoft.com, they weren't recommended for general use — mostly due to incomplete regression testings and possible conflicts with certain setups.

But now both Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 betas have been leaked to the online world, just a couple of days apart. First it was Windows XP SP3 build 3180, and now it's Windows Vista SP1 build 6001 (both are alpha/beta builds and to be treated as such!). And, of course, two big questions:

      1. When will the official public/private beta begin for these two service packs? And the official release?
      2. How did these leaks happen? And by Whom?

To the casual viewer, it would seem these are just two big mistakes that Microsoft is probably bashing its head against the wall because of, but when you get down to it: just how likely is it that the two most valuable products still in development and without a single official release would leak to the internet just days apart? Especially when the Windows Vista build ships as a time-bombed release, it makes us wonder: Is Microsoft really in the practice of time-bombing internal development releases that only exist in the hands of people who have access to hourly builds?

The obvious answer is no. Either these were private builds intended for redistribution outside of Microsoft or they were part of a very smart plan: Leak it. Get the (unofficial) response. Get a real beta out. Vista has been under scrutiny and criticism far more than any past version of Windows — Microsoft cannot afford for SP1 to be a flop, even in early beta form. So they "put out" an unofficial version, get the unofficial response, and fix the soon-to-be-nonexistent bugs. Then they release the beta and prepare for world domination er, system stability.

It's just way too big of a coincidence to be one: two leaks in 3 days? For the two most high-profile projects currently going on in Microsoft's camp? Especially since the only people getting their hands on the initial releases outside of Microsoft are people Microsoft wants to keep happy and they want to keep Microsoft happy too: nVidia, ATi/AMD, Intel, and a chosen few software producers. Plus, there most definitely is a chain-of-custody for these builds, and it wouldn't take long to find out who leaked it — if it wasn't part of Microsoft's plan for this to happen.

Microsoft's been in the business of keeping things officially secret for a while now, keeping all official information about XP SP3 and Vista SP1 tightly under wraps — but that doesn't mean they (or someone at Microsoft) doesn't want the public to know — after all, this is the kind of news that gets those stocks up, makes people think more-highly of Windows, and most importantly, gives Microsoft a chance to right a big wrong.

At any rate, whether this leak was part of Microsoft's master-plan for spreading Vista around and quelling the rather many uprisings since Vista RTM or if it was really just an (dis)honest leak; we're in the process of reviewing this pre-Beta SP1 release and we'll let you know what we find as soon as we're ready."

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