Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Education

Submission + - Interesting Comp Sci research for Masters?

Submitted by yters
yters writes: I have just started a computer science masters degree at the Air Force Institute of Technology. I'm interested in researching and writing a thesis on intelligent agent architectures that use evolutionary algorithms, partially because these are all very interesting fields for me, and because I think agent architectures are the cutting edge for both the military and the commercial sector. As I've read on /., distributed computing algorithms are the wave of the future. But, before committing loads of time and thought to my own singular vision, I would like to poll the wisdom of /. What topic would you recommend and why? Also, if you have any particularly interesting insight into the fields I've mentioned, I'd like to hear it. Thank you, you brilliant, beautiful denizens of the 'net!
Books

Submission + - God Wants You Dead (godwantsyoudead.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: There is a new book out entitled "God Wants You Dead" by Sean Hastings and Paul Rosenberg.

Sean Hastings was the founding CEO of HavenCo the Sealand Datahaven company.

Paul Rosenberg is the author of "A Lodging of Wayfaring men" an underground hit in pro liberty and technology circles — originally published anonymously there has previously been some speculation as to who the author of this book might be, and he has only recently started claiming credit for the work.

The blurb on the publisher's website reads:

This book is about the past, present and future evolution of human ideas. Its primary emphasis is on parasitic collectivist ideologies. It examines where they come from, how they harm us and how we can remove them from our own minds and from the culture around us. Finally, it tells us the amazing things that will become possible for humanity when they are gone. Not only religions, but also nation states, racial groups, corporations and other collectives are targeted for clear minded observation and criticism.
Editorial

Submission + - Borderline personality caused by fear? (nih.gov)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Borderline personality disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by intense fear of abandonment and/or rejection, problems controlling emotions, troubled relationships, impulsive or reckless behaviors, and other symptoms. The disorder affects roughly 36.2 percent of adults ages 18 and older in the world.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/hazlett-bpd_startle. cfm
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/hazlett-bpd_startle. cfm
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/hazlett-bpd_startle. cfm
Space

Lunar Eclipse Next Tuesday Morning 50

Posted by CowboyNeal from the mooninites-are-excellent-spellers dept.
Raver32 writes "Tuesday morning, Aug. 28 brings us the second total lunar eclipse of 2007. Those living in the Western Hemisphere and eastern Asia will be able to partake in at least some of this sky show. The very best viewing region for viewing this eclipse will fall across the Pacific Rim, including the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand and eastern Australia. All these places will be able to see the complete eclipse from start to finish. Europeans will miss out on the entire show, as the Moon will be below the horizon during their mid and late morning hours."
The Internet

Submission + - Did Microsoft Buy Netcraft? (linuxjournal.com)

Submitted by
jeevesbond
jeevesbond writes: "Linux Journal has a story noting the discrepancies between the Web server surveys from Netcraft and Security Space.

While Netcraft says Apache represents 51% market share and rapidly shrinking, Security Space puts Apache at 74% and growing! Netcraft says Microsoft IIS has 34% market share and is rapidly growing, Security Space pegs Microsoft IIS at 20% market share, as it continues to shrink.
"
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Time for the "Slashdot Party"? 2

Submitted by
evil_aar0n
evil_aar0n writes: "(I didn't see a "Your Rights On-line" topic, so I went with Slashdot.org.)

Is it time to form a "Slashdot Party"? It's clear we can't sit idly by and do nothing while career politicians, at the behest of their corporate masters — see recent story re: Google and their nascent lobbying efforts — run this country, and the rest of the world, into the gutter, all in the name of greed.

I've read Slashdot for years and one thing that continually amazes me is the breadth and depth of knowledge contained within this community. It's a shame — almost criminal — not to organize and harness this staggering accumulation of brain-power (don't let the compliments go to your head, though). I think we, the Slashdot crowd, could actually solve some of the problems in this world. It's just one technical issue after another, right? Just a day at work for us.

Some questions I have:

How would we do this? How would we organize our "nerd forum" into a political force?

Would it kill Slashdot as we know it? I think not. We're already somewhat fractious and disjoint in our opinions, anyway; that's what makes the site interesting. We just mod people down when they get a little too "out there." In fact, I suspect it would make us stronger: our opinions would actually carry some weight.

As a localized political entity, should we allow people from other parts of the world to contribute? Actually, as we, as a society, become more and more global, the boundaries between countries become blurry. Certainly, the actions of one country are less and less contained to just that country. I think, since all of us have to live with the consequences, we should all be given a say. How 'bout we leave it open for debate?"
Printer

Submission + - InkJet Printers lying, or mistaken? (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by akkarin
akkarin writes: An interesting 'study' (how scientific, I wonder?), is calling InkJet Printers "filthy, lying thieves".
They claim that even the most advanced printers misinform their users of their ink levels, which is wasting 100s of pages worth of ink. From the article:


A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink.
Hype, or truth? http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070618-stud y-inkjet-printers-are-filthy-lying-thieves.html
Censorship

Submission + - Illegal Monitoring at School

Submitted by
WyllDez
WyllDez writes: "I had an incident today an a high school in Toronto (Northern Secondary School), and I am unsure how to act. The computers in our library are monitored using Net Support School (http://www.netsupportschool.com/ ). I was completely unaware until our librarian came up to me, showed me a print out of my browsing history, programs I ran, and all of my key strokes, including my passwords to several websites. I have talked to quite a few students at our school, and all of them where unaware that they have been monitored. I looked throughout the library, and there are no signs anywhere mentioning that they are being monitored. In our usage agreement, it said that we would be monitored at the board level, and only browsing history would be monitored through the board proxies. It should also be noted that all of the key logs are available to anyone who finds the folder! What can we do about this?"
Games

Redistricting Videogame Shows Problems in the System 322

Posted by CmdrTaco from the see-games-are-smart-too dept.
An anonymous reader writes "This is a cool redistricting game that was launched out of the capitol building in Washington DC last week. It was created by the USC Game Innovation Lab and has been getting lots of press. It's about time someone took on a tough issue like redistricting reform using the power of the internet." It's crazy that gerrymandering is actually good fodder for a video game.
Privacy

Submission + - Keylogger Hardware Embedded in New Dell Laptop (virus.org.ua)

Submitted by
kendbluze
kendbluze writes: "Here's an EE who was doing a simple repair to a nearly-new Dell 600m laptop when he noticed something a bit curious. Turns out he found a hardware keylogger sitting between the keyboard and ethernet controllers! See what Homeland Security didn't have to say about it."
Programming

Submission + - Joining an existing Open Source Project

Submitted by Tathagata
Tathagata writes: I have been using GNU/Linux for quite sometime now. Though I'm from Computer Science background, getting into a project that really involves you into programming was not possible, as people(read teachers) run away, if you utter the word "linux". Being least bothered about mentoring an exciting project, they would suggest you to get settled with visual basic, .NET, — and would prefer a 24 hour solution when it comes to programming.(I'm a student in my final year, from a West Bengal, India). So my programming endeavours have remained limited to writing few lines of C/C++, Java. For last few days I've been googling, and trying to read how to join an existing open source project, and avoid reinventing the wheel by starting yet another. I read people suggesting to start by submitting patches, fixing bugs, becoming package maintainer — but most are overloaded with jargon like upstream/downstream, nightly builds, etc. Added to that how does joining the mailing list, or irc channel help when you don't even understand their slangs, forget about the tech discussion? Distributed/centralised scm, track, bugzilla, launchpad, with sourceforge or freshmeat laden with an unlimited number of projects regarding everything you have ever come across — it quite an overwhelming world to step in. Could you suggest a road map, links to essential tools or a few projects, for people like me, who would want to improve their skills by contributing FOSS?
Republicans

Submission + - Congressman Orrin Hatch caught pirating software

Submitted by
Rocketship Underpant
Rocketship Underpant writes: "Orrin Hatch, the Congressman viewed by many as a shill for corporate copyright interests, recently stated that people who download copyrighted materials should have their computers destroyed as punishment. However, as Wired.com reports, Hatch's own website uses copyrighted software without permission — a Javascript menu system developed by a British company. Is Mr. Hatch accepting volunteers to go through his home and office destroying all his computers, or were his comments to Congress just a bunch of hypocritical hot air?"
Democrats

Submission + - Who to thank for the Daylight Savings Time Change

Submitted by steverar
steverar writes: If you're in IT and having "fun" making sure everything's (OS, phone system, patient monitors, Blackberries, etc. ) updated/patched for the new Daylight Saving Time change coming March 11th, please thank Rep. Ed Markey. He sponsored and attached the amendment to the Energy Act of 2005. Read about him here http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=2624&Itemid=141
United States

Submission + - US copying laptop hard disks+password upon entry

Submitted by
Flo
Flo writes: "According to Fefe, a German blogger, U.S. officials copy hard disks of laptops upon entry. They even insist on the disclosure of passwords so they can decrypt files. Allegedly they even take people into coercive detention to retrieve the passwords. Fefe's sources are one member of the (German) Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and one employee of SAP. He also claims to have received confirmation for this from "two other large companies"."
Music

Submission + - Boycott the RIAA in March

Submitted by
bblboy54
bblboy54 writes: "Gizmodo has declared March the month to boycott the RIAA. Sound The Sirens and p2p.net have both already shown their support for this.
From the article:
Gizmodo is declaring the month of March Boycott the RIAA month. We want to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible that we can all send a message by refusing to buy any album put out by an RIAA label. Am I saying you should start pirating music? Not at all. You can continue to support the artists you enjoy and respect in a number of ways."

Slashdot Top Deals

"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds

Close