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Networking

Network Adapter Keeps Talking While a PC Is Asleep 188

Posted by timothy from the would-make-me-feel-better-about-keeping-a-server-on dept.
Al writes "Researchers at Microsoft and the University of California, San Diego have developed a network adapter that lets a computer enter sleep mode without disrupting the network connection. The adapter, dubbed Somniloquy (meaning to talk in one's sleep), consists of a gumstix running embedded Linux, 64MB of RAM and a 2G SD memory card, connected via USB. The adapter keeps the network connection going and the researchers have also developed a simplified IM client and bittorrent client that carry out more complicated tasks autonomously, only waking the computer if, for example, an actualy IM is received or a download is completed."
Robotics

Neural Networks-Equipped Robots Evolve the Ability To Deceive 116

Posted by timothy from the I-never-blinked-that dept.
pdragon04 writes "Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have found that robots equipped with artificial neural networks and programmed to find 'food' eventually learned to conceal their visual signals from other robots to keep the food for themselves. The results are detailed in a PNAS study published today."

Is Typing Ruining Your Ability To Spell? 494

Posted by Soulskill from the my-spellchecker-sure-thinks-so dept.
NSN A392-99-964-5927 writes "My handwriting abilities have deteriorated over the years. Putting a real pen to paper, I get frustrated over how to spell correctly, as I am so accustomed to using a keyboard and knowing where the letters are. Having spoken to a few friends, I've found that this has become apparent to them, too. I've noticed that my grammar is also affected; maybe this is because I spent too much time on IRC and lowered my standards. Hand-written words are now becoming obsolete. There is often no need to think about writing anymore, or about how something is spelled. Are other Slashdotters having the same problem? (I'm used to Telex machines, which should give you an indication of how old I am.)"
Networking

How To Build a 100,000-Port Ethernet Switch 174

Posted by kdawson from the stretching-the-fabric dept.
BobB-nw writes "University of California at San Diego researchers Tuesday are presenting a paper (PDF) describing software that they say could make data center networks massively scalable. The researchers say their PortLand software will enable Layer 2 data center network fabrics scalable to 100,000 ports and beyond; they have a prototype running at the school's Department of Computer Science and Engineering's Jacobs School of Engineering. 'With PortLand, we came up with a set of algorithms and protocols that combine the best of layer 2 and layer 3 network fabrics,' said Amin Vahdat, a computer science professor at UC San Diego. 'Today, the largest data centers contain over 100,000 servers. Ideally, we would like to have the flexibility to run any application on any server while minimizing the amount of required network configuration and state... We are working toward a network that administrators can think of as one massive 100,000-port switch seamlessly serving over one million virtual endpoints.'"

Comment why should they? (Score 1) 730

by mistahkurtz (#29059551) Attached to: Why Should I Trust My Network Administrator?
why should they have the keys to the city? who are they? what do you know about them? unless there are legal, binding contracts, NDAs, and more in place, why not require that they earn remote access rights?

also, if you are looking for someone to be your local net admin, why are you considering companies that will only do it remotely?
Social Networks

Twitter Offline Due To DDoS 398

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hate-when-that-happens dept.
The elusive Precision dropped a submission in my lap about a DDoS taking down Twitter running on CNet. It's been down for several hours, no doubt wreaking havoc on the latest hawtness in social networking. Won't someone please think of the tweeters? Word is that both Facebook & LiveJournal have been having problems this AM as well.
Books

xkcd To Be Released In Book Form 198

Posted by kdawson from the my-normal-approach-is-useless-here dept.
History's Coming To writes "xkcd creator Randall Munroe has revealed on his blag that the acclaimed stick-figure comic will be produced in real dead-tree book form. Fantastic news for all fans of comedy, maths, science, and relationship screw-ups — especially given that the book will be sold in aid of the charity 'Room To Read.' Rumors that the book contains a joke in the ISBN remain unconfirmed." The NY Times article that Munroe links (registration may be required) is from April of this year, and I am amazed that this community didn't note the story at that time. The book will be published by breadpig, which was created by Alexis Ohanian, one of the founders of reddit.
Media

RIAA Says "Don't Expect DRMed Music To Work Forever" 749

Posted by timothy from the just-ask-what-and-whether-you're-buying-or-renting dept.
Oracle Goddess writes "Buying DRMed content, then having that content stop working later, is fair, writes Steven Metalitz, the lawyer who represents the MPAA, RIAA in a letter to the top legal advisor at the Copyright Office. 'We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works.' In other words, if it stops working, too bad. Not surprisingly, Metalitz also strongly opposes any exemption that would allow users to legally strip DRM from content if a store goes dark and takes down its authentication servers."
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Blocks Select 4chan Boards (spectralcoding.com) 3

Submitted by
SmarkWoW
SmarkWoW writes: "In what appears to be the first major steps toward stifling Net Neutrality, AT&T blocks a select few boards from the major imageboard 4chan. First reported by the official 4chan Status Blog, it appears that those who have residential AT&T DSL connections are unable to view certain boards on 4chan. The boards in question are /rk9/ and the infamous /b/. As most readers know, /b/ is the home of Anonymous, a large group of computer users responsible for spawning many memes such as RickRolling and LOLcats. Sources estimate that 15.5% of all internet users user AT&T DSL. A few short hours after reports of the blockage surfaced, members of /b/ have already begun to retaliate. The first strike appears to be toward the AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson. Needless to say, this is going to get ugly."
Security

Security Certificate Warnings Don't Work 432

Posted by timothy from the for-the-same-reason-most-people-ignore-etruscan dept.
angry tapir writes "In a laboratory experiment, researchers found that between 55 percent and 100 percent of participants ignored certificate security warnings, depending on which browser they were using (different browsers use different language to warn their users). The researchers first conducted an online survey of more than 400 Web surfers, to learn what they thought about certificate warnings. They then brought 100 people into a lab and studied how they surf the Web. They found that people often had a mixed-up understanding of certificate warnings. For example, many thought they could ignore the messages when visiting a site they trust, but that they should be more wary at less-trustworthy sites."
Government

Submission + - Should Copyright Of Academic Works Be Abolished? (harvard.edu)

Submitted by
Dr_Ken
Dr_Ken writes: "From the Tech Dirt summary of this Harvard Cyber-Law Center study: "I've even heard of academics who had to redo pretty much the identical experiment because they couldn't even cite their own earlier results for fear of a copyright claim. It leads to wacky situations where academics either ignore the fact that the journals they published in hold the copyright on their work, or they're forced to jump through hoops to retain certain rights. That's bad for everyone." Indeed it is and especially so given the huge amounts of tax dollars spent doing research that then gets published in proprietary journals where it can't be accessed without payment."
Space

Pics of the Longest Solar Eclipse of the Century 97

Posted by samzenpus from the dark-day dept.
Vinod writes "Yesterday thousands of people around Asia witnessed the longest solar eclipse of the century. Although it was not clearly visible in some parts due to overcast weather, thousands of people gathered to view this spectacular event. Yesterday's solar eclipse lasted for 6 to 7 minutes, making it the longest solar eclipse of the century. Here is a collection of 33 beautiful images of the solar eclipse from around the world."

Comment Re:Spoiled ! (Score 4, Funny) 412

by mistahkurtz (#28776911) Attached to: Under my immediate control are X USB drives; X=

010000010110111 001100100001000 000111100101100 101011100110010 110000100000011 110010110111101 110101001001110 111001001100101 001000000111010 001101000011001 010010000001101 111011011100110 110001111001001 000000110111101 101110011001010 010000001110111 011010000110111 100100111011100 110010000001110 010011001010110 000101100100011 010010110111001 100111001000000 111010001101000 011010010111001 100100000011011 100110111101110 111001011100010 111000101110

i feel so alone.
Microsoft

The Hidden Costs of Microsoft's Free Office Online 174

Posted by Soulskill from the free-ain't-cheap dept.
Michael_Curator writes "Despite what you've heard, the online version of Office 2010 announced by Microsoft earlier this week won't be free to corporate users. Business customers will either have to pay a subscription fee or purchase corporate access licenses (CALs) for Office in order to be given access to the online application suite (Microsoft already does this with email — the infamous Outlook Web Access). But wait — there's more! A Microsoft spokesperson told me that customers will need to buy a SharePoint server, which ranges from $4,400 plus CALs, or $41,000 with all CALs included, if they want to share documents created using the online version of Office 2010."

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