Comment Re:Do you believe in Coincidence? (Score 0) 85
I find it highly unlikely that the power plant with the second highest generation capacity in the world can be totally shut down from the internet.
Comment Re:SQL injection? (Score 1, Insightful) 85
Not if they have been politically appointed, something very common in brazilian state-run companies.
Comment Re:So, the question is... (Score 0) 773
Give me 1/10 of that and I'm out of Google forever and ever.
Comment Re:Why not open source it? And the human flaws? (Score 0) 143
But, as I tried to mention, last time I checked (last elections) there was no assurance the signed binaries were actually the audited code. There's noone auditing the compilation of the binaries.
Comment Why not open source it? And the human flaws? (Score 0) 143
I still have serious concerns about the current voting system.
Heck, last time I heard, the version which had its source inspected by the Supreme Court wasn't necessarily the final version. If they don't really know what's in there, who does? How hard would it be to bribe someone in the company.
And, worse than technological flaws, are always the human flaws. Cases of people who work at the polling stations (they do unpaid compulsory work) voting for people who didn't vote are not unheard of. Besides, the statistical samples taken to avoid frauds are VERY, VERY weak.
Comment Re:Short résumé (Score 0) 579
I'm just a mindless borg drone.
Comment Re:Anonymous coward (Score 1, Insightful) 154
Some americans have some pretty funny ideas about things which they don't have well implemented but work quite well elsewhere.
Where the hell do you get these ideas about public transport?
A car is in 99.9% of all cases more risky and more expensive for the owner. Of course you don't have as much freedom as with a car and, unless the place you're going to has no parking spots, a car will always be faster, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't have a good subway network.
Submission + - Cisco has really gotten under this guy's skin (networkworld.com)
Julie188 writes: "The problem with tattooing the name of a loved one to your arm is that, if the relationship fails, you are stuck with a permanent reminder (and your next significant other might not be too pleased about it). In 1999, Mitch Barrie tattooed the logo of his employer, Cisco Systems, to his arm. He even named his dog Cisco. In 1999, Cisco was a company the world adored. Times have changed for Cisco but the tattoo, unfortunately for Barrie, remains."
Comment Re:What's a gr? (Score 0) 46
Yes, as that is the standard unit for weight (at this scale, the s) in most parts of the world.
Stupid imperial measurement system.
Comment Re:A win for open-source? Only if AT&T opens i (Score 0) 139
Symbian will soon be open sourced by Nokia (who has completely acquired the system).
Comment Re:Symbian (Score 0) 139
You don't even know what you're talking about. Symbian has the biggest market share of any of the systems you mentioned and it powers excellent phones such as the N95 and the upcoming N97 (and also the E series for businesses).
Everywhere in the world (perhaps except in the US cause of CDMA phones) Symbian is far ahead of any of its competitors.
Also, did I mention the thousands of applications that are available for S60 phones?
x86 Evolution Still Driving the Revolution 82
An anonymous reader writes "The x86 instruction set may be ancient, in technology terms, but that doesn't mean it's not exciting or innovative. In fact the future of x86 is looking brighter than it has in years. Geek.com has an article pointing out how at 30 years old x86 is still a moving force in technological advancement and, despite calls for change and numerous alternatives, it will still be the technology that gets us where we want to go. Quoting: 'As far as the world of the x86 goes, the future is very bright. There are so many new markets that 45nm products enable. Intel has really nailed the future with this goal. And in the future when they produce 32nm, and underclock their existing processors to allow the extremely low power requirements of cell phones and other items, then the x86 will be the power-house for our home computers, our notebooks, our cell phones, our MIDs and other unrealized devices today.'"
Submission + - Gamers to Help Design HIV Vaccines
Hugh Pickens writes: "For years, biochemists have reengineered naturally occurring proteins by growing them in viruses and single-celled organisms in a process called directed evolution. Now David Baker, a leading protein scientist at the University of Washington, has demonstrated the first algorithm for building novel, functioning enzymes from scratch and wants to enlists gamers to improve three-dimensional protein structures, using graphical representations of real protein chemistry. Baker's game, called Foldit which is avaiable for download, uses humans, who are better at seeing the big picture than computers are, to improve computer-designed proteins. The first several levels of Foldit are designed to teach players what good proteins look like and how to manipulate them using the tools of the game. After improving the designs of a few test proteins, players can advance into competitive play, working in teams or alone. By making the game available to anyone over the Web, the researchers expect to find people they call protein savants — people who are very good at solving protein structures and who will spend several hours a week playing the game."
US Court Orders Company to Use Negative Keywords 177
A US court has ordered a firm to utilize negative adwords in their internet advertising. "Orion Bancorp took Orion Residential Finance (ORF) to court in Florida over ORF's use of the word 'Orion' in relation to financial services and products, arguing that it had used the term since 2002 and had held a trade mark for it since then. [...] The judge in the case went further, though, restraining ORF from 'purchasing or using any form of advertising including keywords or "adwords" in internet advertising containing any mark incorporating Plaintiff's Mark, or any confusingly similar mark, and shall, when purchasing internet advertising using keywords, adwords or the like, require the activation of the term "Orion" as negative keywords or negative adwords in any internet advertising purchased or used.'"
Submission + - New way to ID invisible intruders on wireless LANs (computerworld.com.au)
Bergkamp10 writes: Australia's University of Technology in Queensland (QUT) has created a groundbreaking new system that can detect invisible intruders on wireless LANs. Wireless networks have been almost impossible to thoroughly secure as they possess no clearly defined boundaries, instead they are defined by the quality and strength of the receiving antenna. QUT Information Security Institute researcher Dr Jason Smith has invented a new system to detect eavesdropping on unencrypted networks or active hijackings of computer sessions when a legitimate user who is logged onto the network leaves the connection. Smith has created a series of monitoring techniques that when used together can detect both attackers and configuration mistakes in network devices. According to Smith, ""the strength of the signal travelling in a wireless network and the round trip time of the signal are both monitored because they will change if an intruder enters the network. Separately monitoring the signal and round trip time is unreliable, but correlating them against each other makes the system accurate," he said. Smith goes on to list further features and benefits of the new system and how threats can be responded to.
