tulare - Slashdot User

Submission + - CCP's EVE-Online patch overwrites boot.ini 1

Submitted by Nobo on Thursday December 06, 2007 @01:14AM

Nobo writes: CCP's latest major patch to the EVE-Online client, Trinity, comes with an optional DX9-enhanced graphics patch which dramatically improves the visual quality of the in-game graphics through remade models, textures, and HDR. It also has an unfortunate bug. Due to the incredibly stupid choice of boot.ini as a game configuration file, coupled with an errant extra backslash in the installer configuration, anyone who installs the enhanced graphics patch overwrites the windows XP c:\boot.ini file with the EVE client configuration file, bricking the machine on the next boot. Discussion on the forums is becoming understandably heated.

Submission + - Mac OS X Leopard's firewall wide open! (heise-security.co.uk)

Submitted by rpp3po on Monday October 29, 2007 @05:03PM

rpp3po writes: German tech magazine Heise analyzed Leopard's new firewall and made some shocking discoveries. Even when you set it to "block all incoming connections" at least 4 ports are left wide open (ntpd, netbios, mdns). Additionally "Apple uses ntpd 4.2.2, the current version is 4.2.4. It is not clear whether any of the bug fixes are relevant in this scenario and if Apple back-ported fixes from more recent versions."

Submission + - Terry Jones Accuses Iran of Being Uncivilized

Submitted by

SetupWeasel

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @04:38PM

SetupWeasel writes: "At the Guardian, Terry Jones has written a scathing assessment of Iran's treatment of British hostages. From the column: "And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.""

Submission + - Microsoft to build Smashed Chair monument

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @04:25PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "According to a fresh press release, Microsoft is to build
a statue at their Redmond, WA premises of a smashed chair, forming
part of their new aggressive Employee Integrity campaign. The purpose
is said to be to incite fear following the recent surge in the
number of employees leaving MS. At least 5 employees
have decided against walking over to Google following the announcement.
Analysts are speculating that this is an attempt by MS to make
Steve Ballmer's chair throwing incident seem to have been a rational move
that coincided with this future plan all along."

Submission + - Microsoft Penguin Adoption 2007

Submitted by

Tim Kress-Spatz

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @03:49PM

Tim Kress-Spatz writes: "In a heartwarming act of corporate citizenship, Microsoft announces its Penguin Adoption 2007 program.

http://port25.technet.com/archive/2007/04/01/micro soft-penguin-adoption-2007.aspx"

Submission + - RIAA Files for Bankruptcy; CEO Commits Suicide

Submitted by

mrs clear plastic

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @03:25PM

mrs clear plastic writes: "Late Friday afternoon, the Recording Industry Association of America filed for bankrupcy protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy court in Manhattan. The numerous pending lawsuits by some defendants of the RIAA's previous campaign to bring litigation against file sharers were just one factor behind Friday's filing, RIAA's attorney, Mitch Wickenden, told reporters outside the bankruptcy courtroom. He did say, however, that a major contribution was the significent decline in sales of music CDROMs.

Sales have been declining for the past several years. The RIAA had claimed that it was due to the unauthorized copying of music on line. Arthur Rosenburg, president of the Independant Music File Sharing Collective, said that the RIAA was not keeping up with the times and had not adapted to the changing, peer based market for music.

On a personal note, during church services today, we were all asked to pray for the family of Mitch Bainwol, RIAA's prsident. His son, Jaims Bainwol, is a member of the choir in my church. Mitch was found dead Saturday morning, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was discovered by his son in his car, with the engine running, in the garage with the door closed.

Former president Hilary Rosen, quickly appointed by the board to be interim president, expressed condolences to Bainwol's family on Saturday afternoon."

Submission + - News.com Story on Slashdot Story on BSD Demon

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Sunday April 01, 2007 @03:23PM

eldavojohn writes: "News.com is reporting[right hand column] that Slashdot is reporting on Pat Robertson leading a Berkeley rally against 'demonic' BSD mascot. Also in News.com's headlines is the story of the brave Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who was recently diagnosed with cataracts and "invited the first 100 people who show up at his home to perform surgery. "There may be some trial and error, but I'm confident the community will make the right decisions," Wales said." News.com also has some very insightful stories on the possibility of MySpace being the internet's 'next big thing' and also the possibility of phishing being a problem for eBay."

Submission + - Data-storing bacteria could last millenia

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:52PM

PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has a story about a new technology developed by Keio University researchers that creates artificial bacterial DNA that can carry more than 100 bits of data within the genome sequence. The researchers claimed that they encoded "e= mc2 1905!" on the common soil bacteria, Bacillius subtilis. The bacteria-based data storage method has backup and long-term archival functionality:

While the technology would most likely first be used to track medication, it could also be used to store text and images for many millennia, thwarting the longevity issues associated with today's disk and tape storage systems ... The artificial DNA that carries the data to be preserved makes multiple copies of the DNA and inserts the original as well as identical copies into the bacterial genome sequence. The multiple copies work as backup files to counteract natural degradation of the preserved data, according to the newswire. Bacteria have particularly compact DNA, which is passed down from generation to generation. The information stored in that DNA can also be passed on for long-term preservation of large data files, the scientists said.
"

Submission + - Open Graphics Round Table

Submitted by

cranos

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:41PM

cranos writes: "In this fortnights episode of Open Source On The Air, I sit down with three Graphic Artists who have based their entire work flow on Free and Open Source Software.

We talk about the state of the current FOSS graphics toolset, how this has affected things like barriers to entry, as well as discussing the growing interaction between the audience and the graphic artists.

You can find the full show here: http://localfoss.org/OSOTA/Episode_16"

Submission + - Robots for the Aging Population

Submitted by

QuantumCrypto

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:41PM

QuantumCrypto writes: "University of Tokyo is exploring the possibility of making robots to be better servants. The researchers there are hoping to use these robots in the care of the fast aging population, as well as the sick and the bedridden. As a demonstration of their latest advancement, they showed off a robot that can serve tea. Interestingly, tea-serving robots have been around for 400 years."

Feed Lawmakers Tout DMCA Killer (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:12PM

The Fair Use Act would free honest consumers to pick the electronic locks on their digital media, under certain circumstances. A congressman says it's a good first step. Luke O'Brien reports from Washington.

Submission + - Voting systems company threatens Dutch state

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:03PM

An anonymous reader writes: Voting systems company threatens Dutch state: "Buy my company now or you won't have provincial elections" http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/Engli sh/Groenendaal

Submission + - Microsoft not gaining ground in search

Submitted by klblastone on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:25PM

klblastone writes: Despite Microsoft's massive investment in promoting and improving web-based search, the company still has less than ten percent of search engine marketshare. By comparison, Google is hitting about 50 percent, and still growing. Obviously, gimmicks like the interactive Ms. Dewey aren't helping Microsoft compete with Google in the search arena. Microsoft's deep pockets don't seem to be of much use in the highly competitive and dynamic web services market. As the web 2.0 revolution pushes more and more software online where open standards dominate and Microsoft can't leverage its desktop software monopoly, will the company start lose relevance?

Submission + - RIAA slams FAIR USE Act

Submitted by Tyler Too on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:18PM

Tyler Too writes: The RIAA has weighed in on the just-introduced FAIR USE Act, and to no one's surprise, they're not at all happy with it. 'The FAIR USE Act "would repeal the DMCA and legalize hacking," says the RIAA. "It would reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Grokster and allow electronics companies to induce others to break the law for their own profit."' Looks like the CEA's lobbyists and the RIAA's lobbyists will be battling it out on Capitol Hill.

Submission + - Free global virtual scientific library

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:02PM

An anonymous reader writes: More than 20,000 signatures, including several Nobel prize winners and 750 education, research, and cultural organisations from around the world came together to support free access to government funded research, "to create a freely available virtual scientific library available to the entire globe. The European Commission responded by committing more than $100m (£51m) towards facilitating greater open access through support for open access journals and for the building of the infrastructure needed to house institutional repositories that can store the millions of academic articles written each year. From the BBC article: "Last month five leading European research institutions launched a petition that called on the European Commission to establish a new policy that would require all government-funded research to be made available to the public shortly after publication. That requirement — called an open access principle — would leverage widespread internet connectivity with low-cost electronic publication to create a freely available virtual scientific library available to the entire globe." Isn't this the way its suppose to be?

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