caitriona81 - Slashdot User

Journal Journal: Nuclear Capable Missile Forces Passenger Jet Diversion

Journal by Scott7477 on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @04:05PM

Aero News Network says that
"A Garuda Indonesia Boeing 747 carrying several hundred passengers last week was forced to turn around when controllers told the pilots a nuclear-capable ballistic missile had been launched in their vicinity."

Submission + - Apache Sends Open Letter To Sun

Submitted by

IIO

on Saturday April 14, 2007 @10:52AM

IIO writes: "The Java portion of the blogosphere was abuzz in the last several days over an open letter that Geir Magnusson Jr. of Apache Software Foundation sent to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems. At issue is the "field of use" restriction in the licensing terms of Sun's Java Compatibility Kit that Sun offers to Apache, which Apache deems "totally unacceptable." Sun's response is here. A unbiassed analysis of the dispute can be found here."

Submission + - SQL-Ledger Relicensed, Community Gagged

Submitted by

Ashley Gittins

on Saturday April 14, 2007 @10:07AM

Ashley Gittins writes: "Users of the popular accounting package SQL-Ledger are being kept in the dark about a recent license change. Two weeks ago a new version of the software was released but along with it came the silent change of license from GPLv2 to the "SQL-Ledger Open Source License" — presumably in an effort to prevent future forks like LedgerSMB. As it turns out, the author is making deliberate attempts to prevent the community from finding out about the license change. All posts to the SQL-Ledger mailing lists asking about the license change are being censored and direct questions to the author are going unanswered. This behaviour is not a first for this particular project, and is part of the reason for the original LedgerSMB fork. So, does a project maintainer have an ethical obligation to notify his or her community of a license change? What about a legal obligation?"

Submission + - Dovecot mail server reaching 1.0.0

Submitted by spinash on Saturday April 14, 2007 @03:02AM

spinash writes: Timo Sirainen and a crew of developers announced the release of Dovecot 1.0.0. It took almost 5 years, but it's finally ready ! Dovecot is an open source IMAP and POP3 server for Linux/UNIX-like systems, written with security primarily in mind. Dovecot is an excellent choice for both small and large installations. It's fast, simple to set up, requires no special administration and it uses very little memory.

Submission + - High-tech shuttle protected by low-tech traps

Submitted by Cerlyn on Saturday April 14, 2007 @01:06AM

Cerlyn writes: The Kennedy Space Center, where the high-tech Space Shuttle launches and can land, is actually part of a wildlife sanctuary. But in order to deal with the alligators, coyotes, wild boar, and other animals which pose a risk to the space facility, NASA takes an extremely low-tech approach.

The Miami Herald has an article on John Tanner, who has been in charge of trapping wildlife around the Kennedy space center for over 40 years. So whether you have an alligator beneath an ice machine or inside of a missile silo, Tanner's your best bet.

Submission + - Sperm made from human bone marrow

Submitted by

Burlador

on Friday April 13, 2007 @07:29PM

Burlador writes: "The BBC reports that German scientists have converted stem cells into sperm. From the article: 'If these can be grown into fully developed sperm, which the researchers hope to do within five years, they may be useful in fertility treatments.'"

Submission + - High Tech School shut down

Submitted by fermion on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @12:06AM

fermion writes: In the continuing story of corporations attempting to reform education, High Tech High in Redwood City has been shut down two years into a five year project, leaving bewildered parent and students behind. I guess this shows that educating the masses is not as simple as running a corporation. The threat of layoff cannot be used to bring unmotivated kids into line. The pipe dream of stock options cannot be used in place of genuine concern for the child. And the scores on standardized test cannot be fabricated as easily as the numbers in an SEC filing. As much as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation wants to do good, they and others in the corporate world must discover that educating the populous is not a activity that will bend toward the standard corporate buzz words.

Submission + - Legal Battle For AACS Begins

Submitted by henrypijames on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:14PM

henrypijames writes: As widely expected, the MPAA has learned nothing from the debacle of its failed prosecution against DVD Jon (of DeCSS) and is now releasing its army of lawyers to fight against the circumvention of AACS (the successor of CSS): Upon the reception of a DMCA takedown notice, SourceForge has immediately terminated its hosting of BackupHDDVD (a tool to backup HD DVD movies, as its suggestes). The project leader is seeking advice on how to proceed.

Submission + - Firefox 3.0 Opens Door to Web Apps, Mozilla Says

Submitted by MilwaukeeCharlie on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @09:01PM

MilwaukeeCharlie writes: CIO Magazine is reporting some buzz about Firefox 3.0, due to be released later this year.

Some of the likely new features include:

Offline support for web apps

New paradigm for "bookmarks" and "history"

Built-in database (SQL Lite), used for full-text indexing of the cache

Support for Javascript 2

Submission + - Webmail at Work

Submitted by

rtobyr

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @04:57PM

rtobyr writes: "I don't allow users at my organization to use any third party e-mail. When users complain, I point out that we can't control the security policies of outside systems. End users tend to think that big business will of course have good security; so I ran a test of the "Big Four:" Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, and GMail. Yahoo Mail was the only webmail provider to allow delivery of a VBS script. GMail was the only provider to block a zipped VBS script. End users also tend to think that a big business would never pull security features out from under their customers. We Slashdotters know that AOL and Microsoft have both compromised the security of their customers. I don't know of any security related bad press for Yahoo or Google. Three of my Big Four either allow VBS attachments or have a poor security track records. So my Ask Slashdot question is this: If you are a network administrator, do you limit your users' ability to use third party e-mail, and if so, do you allow for GMail or other providers that you've deemed to have secure systems and repuations?"

Submission + - Spam Fighting: A Guide for the PHB

Submitted by

Kelson

on Friday February 16, 2007 @01:49PM

Kelson writes: "Esther Schindler of CIO Magazine asked spam fighters and mail administrators a question: What's the one thing about spam fighting that you most want you boss to understand? The resulting article is Getting Clueful: Five Things You Should Know About Fighting Spam. Top of the list is the prime directive: Lose No Mail — followed up with the arms-race nature of the problem (split into two points), basics of email technology, and understanding that spam isn't just an annoyance, it's a business. The findings should come as little surprise to most readers here, but if you need to explain to your manager why you can't just set up a filter and walk away, this is a good place to look."

Submission + - ATI is not supporting the All-in-Wonder in Vista

Submitted by Working-Person on Friday February 16, 2007 @12:36PM

Working-Person writes: Thinking about using your expensive All-in-Wonder with Vista? Think again. Here's the response from ATI when looking for Vista drivers "The product you purchased was not advertised or broadcasted as Vista Compliant it is fully functional and supported on the specified Operating Systems. The tuner on the board doesn't meet Windows Vista's requirements and is not compatable. That means it will not be supported and there will be no drivers or software release for the tuner on the ALL IN WONDER Board."

Submission + - Inkless printers to be built into digital cameras

Submitted by

MattSparkes

on Friday February 16, 2007 @10:18AM

MattSparkes writes: "A revolutionary way to print pictures without ink has been invented by a US company called Zink Imaging. The company, a spin-off of Polaroid, says it will use the technology to make hand-held printers that can be integrated into mobile phones and digital cameras. "The key to creating the devices is doing away with ink, using a new type of digital printing that changes colour of paper when heat is applied.""

Submission + - 63 Million More OpenIDs Today

Submitted by on Friday February 16, 2007 @10:09AM

An anonymous reader writes: As rumored last week, AOL's John Panzer has now announced support for OpenID for all AOL/AIM users. He begins, "I think that user-centric, interoperable identity is hugely important to enable the social experiences we're trying to provide. This is a work in progress, but things are coming along thanks to our authentication team's diligent effort." With AOL joining Microsoft and (unofficially) Yahoo! in supporting OpenID, will Google be next?

Submission + - MythTV better than Series 3?

Submitted by

gizmateer

on Friday February 16, 2007 @09:59AM

gizmateer writes: "Does an open source solution like MythTV stand a chance against TiVo's Series 3?

According to this article MythTV actually has several features that a TiVo will never be able to compete with but is considerably harder for the non-geek to initially setup and then maintain. A huge ding against MythTV is the fact it does not support CableCARD like the Series 3. Since I'm OTA, that's not as big of a deal, but what are your thoughts? MythTV vs Series 3?"

Slashdot Top Deals