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Comment Re:I saw a study on this... (Score 1) 214

by Saroful (#31360520) Attached to: Earliest "Writing" On 60,000-Year-Old Eggshells

The thought that humans 60 000 years ago may be smarter than us today amused me. I've not read any study on the subject and the larger brain thing is just something I've heard with a foot note that larger != better tacked on. I do suspect that an agricultural lifestyle with husbandry requires more synapses than a nomadic hunter lifestyle since wolfs, bears, etc, can manage the latter, but it would still be amusing if the OP's joke was correct in that we've gotten dumber since then (Hey, when you regularly face down grizzlies with only a stick you need smarts :).

Either smarts or cajones the size of grapefruit.

Submission + - Scientists to Breed the Auroch from Extinction (telegraph.co.uk) 1

Submitted by ImNotARealPerson
ImNotARealPerson writes: Scientists in Italy are hoping to breed back from extinction the mighty auroch, a bovine species which has been extinct since 1627. The auroch weighed 2,200 pounds (1000kg) and its shoulders stood at 6'6". The beasts once roamed most of Asia and northern Africa. The animal was depicted in cave paintings and Julius Caesar described it as being a little less in size than an elephant. A member of the Consortium for Experimental Biotechnology suggests that 99% of the auroch's DNA can be recreated from genetic material found in surviving bone material. Wikipedia mentions that researchers in Poland are working on the same problem.

Submission + - Good Hackers finish Last ! Should I go Black Hat ? 2

Submitted by star3am
star3am writes: Happy New year Slashdotters ! May 2010 exceed your wildest expectations :)

I'm a Systems Administrator from South Africa. Recently I registered for a service to have emails sent to MSISDN@serviceprovider.com delivered to my phone as an SMS. Whilst registering I noticed a cert that expired, long story short, after 5 minutes, and very little effort, I hacked their server. This is a major WASP. When I notified the Systems Administrator, he got back to me with a thanks.

My question to Slashdot is, I could have made off with a lot of their data, MSISDN lists, and made some money for my effort that way. Obviously, something more than a thanks would have been great :\

Just now, I got into another server, any advice from you guys ?
Google

Submission + - Google Using Spyware to Bilk Advertisers (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: A prominent anti-spyware researcher is calling on Google to sever its ties with an advertising partner that covers popular sites with pop-up PPC advertisements promoting those same sites. According to Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School and a staunch anti-spyware advocate, Google is charging advertisers for what he described as "conversion-inflation" traffic from the WhenU spyware program. Edelman's expose includes several screenshots, video, and packet log to show that WhenU continues to cover web sites with pay-per-click popups. Crucially, those popups show Google ads — often promoting the very same sites users are already browsing.
Space

Submission + - Faster-Than-Light Pulsar Phenomena (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by Matt_dk
Matt_dk writes: Observational data from nine pulsars, including the Crab pulsar, suggest these rapidly spinning neutron stars emit the electromagnetic equivalent of a sonic boom, and a model created to understand this phenomenon shows that the source of the emissions could be traveling faster than light. The sources could be traveling up to six times light speed, or 1.8 million km per second. However, although the source of the radiation exceeds the speed of light, the emitted radiation travels at normal light speed once it leaves the source. This is not science fiction, and no laws of physics were broken in this model.

Comment Re:Stop being a douche (Score 1) 539

by Saroful (#30559010) Attached to: Preventing My Hosting Provider From Rooting My Server?
(IANAL) You definitely need to check the TOS to see the extent of your rights vs theirs. If they have no conditions on the lease agreement (such as they can access it without your permission), then you inherit all the rights as a lessee as they hold under their lease agreement with their lessor. If they don't have some clause in the TOS allowing them root access, then they are violating your rights or sole use. I would bet there is such a clause, though. I think a better analogy for your situation is a house rental. When there is a problem, you call the landlord to come fix it. Yes, you have the right of sole use of the property, but you can't reasonably expect him to fix the problem without allowing him access to the property.

Submission + - How to teach a 12 year-old to program? 9

Submitted by
thelordx
thelordx writes: "I've got a much younger brother who I'd like to teach how to program. When I was younger, you'd often start off with something like BASIC or Apple BASIC, maybe move on to Pascal, and eventually get to C and Java. Is something like Pascal still a dominant teaching language? I'd love to get low-level with him, and I firmly believe that C is the best language to eventually learn, but I'm not sure how to get him there. Can anyone recommend a language I can start to teach him that is simple enough to learn quickly, but powerful enough to do interesting things and lead him down a path towards C/C++?"

Submission + - How do I determine a fair salary? (glassdoor.com) 2

Submitted by lawpoop
lawpoop writes: After looking at a few salary sites, it seems that I'm very underpaid in my current position. I'm thinking about striking out on the job hunt, but I have a question. Can I trust information from salary.com, glassdoor, and the like? They might have an interest in me thinking I'm underpaid; I'm more likely to use their services ( which doesn't apply to glassdoor, but might be subject to similar gaming). Also, doesn't not having the exact skillset for the job posting affect the salary you ask for? A lot of what I'm seeing these days has specific tools and libraries. If I don't have that specific set, will I be able to justify the salary for a more general job description?

I couldn't submit this ask without a link. Link is not necessary; mods please remove!
Apple

Submission + - Apple Newton vs. Apple iPhone

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CNET UK has written a head-to-head piece entitled Apple Newton vs Apple iPhone. Despite the Newton being released some 10 years ago, and despite the iPhone being a phone, not a tablet, the site's editors believe the Newton is the more innovative of the two Apple products. The two devices were tied over four rounds, but in the "Special Powers" element, where the iPhone was praised for its iPod capability, the Newton countered with its ability to play MP3s, connect to iTunes and "its ability to work as a phone" because "Blam! Not even the iPhone can do that."
Intel

Submission + - Intel Updates SSDs, Supports Trim, Faster Writes (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Intel has just released a firmware update for their 34nm Gen X25-M solid state drives that not only boosts sequential write performance, but adds support for the TRIM command as well. A performance optimization tool is also being released today, for users of Windows Vista and XP, who won't be able to take advantage of TRIM. After being flashed with the new firmware update, Intel's 34nm Gen 2 X25-M 160GB drive offered increased performance in myriad of benchmarks shown here and sequential write performance was increased on the order of 30%.
Linux

Submission + - Canonical halts Ubuntu CD free-for-all (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: Canonical has announced that it's to begin limiting the number of free Ubuntu CDs people can order. The ShipIt scheme has proved so popular that Ubuntu will now only ship one free CD to users who haven't ordered a disc before. Users will now be required to upgrade to new versions through online upgrades, or by downloading the latest version as an ISO and burning it to CD themselves."While these CDs are often referred to as 'free CDs', they are of course not free of cost to Canonical," says Canonical's chief operating office Jane Silber. "We want to continue this programme, but Ubuntu’s growth means that some changes are necessary."
NASA

Submission + - SPAM: NASA’s future: Now the battle begins

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: When it comes down to it, NASA is the most accomplished space organization in the world but its human spaceflight activities are at a tipping point, primarily due to a mismatch of goals and money. That was the conclusion of the Augustine Review of United States Human Space Flight Plan Committee report delivered to the White House today. The report's 157-pages worth of findings will now be debated and in the end, dictate the future of NASA and space flight operations.According to the report, NASA's fundamental conundrum is that within the current structure of the budget, NASA essentially has the resources either to build a major new system or to operate one, but not to do both. This is the root cause of the gap in capability of launching crew to low-Earth orbit under the current budget and will likely be the source of other gaps in the future. Either additional funds need to be made available or a far more modest program involving little or no exploration needs to be adopted, the repot stated.

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