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IT

Submission + - Testing an Employee

Submitted by techreader99
techreader99 writes: After the departure of my former boss, I have just been promoted from programmer to IT Manger at my company. Because we have such a small team (9 members), this leaves us a programmer down. Normally, I would simply post the job online, but a different member of my team is interested in switching from being a technician to being a programmer. The only problem is, I have no idea if they are capable. Sure he has a CS degree, but it is from 10 years ago and a degree is not a guarantee that he can keep with the times. Does anyone here have a way I can test this employee (taking less than 2 weeks to do so)? Any ideas are great and if it helps we mainly use HTML, PHP, JS, jQuery and MSSQL
Government

Submission + - McKinnon extradition decision due (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: The UK Home Secretary Theresa May is due to announce whether computer hacker Gary McKinnon will be extradited to the US.

Mr McKinnon, who admits accessing US government computers but claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs, has been fighting extradition since 2006. The 46-year-old, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, could face 60 years in jail if convicted in the US.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that Mrs May will also announce changes to Britain's extradition arrangements with the US.
Hardware

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How do SSDs die? 1

Submitted by kfsone
kfsone writes: I've experienced, first hand, some of the ways in which spindle disks die, but either I've yet to see an SSD die or I'm not looking in the right places. Most of my admin-type friends have theories on how an SSD dies but admit none of them has actually seen commercial grade drives die or deteriorate.

In particular, the failure process seems like it should be more clinical than spindle drives. If you have X many of the same SSD drive and none of them suffer manufacturing defects, if you repeat the same series of operations on them they should all die around the same time.

If that's correct, then what happens to SSDs in RAID? Either all your drives will start to fail together or at some point, your drives will become out of sync in-terms of volume sizing.

So, have any slashdotters had to deliberately EOL corporate grade SSDs? Do they die with dignity or go out with a bang?
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Removal Instructions for Mac OS X Flashback Trojan Virus (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
nades5000
nades5000 writes: "Over 600,000 Apple Mac computers running on OS X have been infected with a flashback Trojan virus called BackDoor.Flashback.39, of which 56.6 percent of Macs infected in the United States. The virus, calledTrojan BackDoor.Flashback,appears on machines with an unknown language and can enter Macs without a password needed. Users are "redirected to a bogus site from a compromised resource or via a traffic distribution system." Links embedded in Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) exploit three Java components in Mac OS X and caught the machine to become infected with BackDoor.Flashback.39. Mac users should download a security update from Apple atsupport.apple.com/kb/HT5228to prevent infections from the flashback Trojan virus.But how can you tell if your Mac has been infected with the Flashback Trojan virus? Here is a guide how to determine if you have the virus along with step-by-step removal instructions."
Japan

Submission + - World is ignoring most important lesson from Fukushima (csmonitor.com)

Submitted by
mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "Kenichi Ohmae, an MIT-trained nuclear engineer also widely regarded as Japan’s top management guru, is dean of Business Breakthrough University. In the CSM he writes:

"Fukushima's most important lesson is this: Probability theory (that disaster is unlikely) failed us. If you have made assumptions, you are not prepared. Nuclear power plants should have multiple, reliable ways to cool reactors. Any nuclear plant that doesn't heed this lesson is inviting disaster.""

Submission + - Free Multi-user Remote Desktop Management

Submitted by digitalderbs
digitalderbs writes: I'm setting up a research lab in physical chemistry, and as part of my setup, I'd like to get a server with 8-12 cores that can be used by my students and post-docs. I'd like to give desktop (GUI) access to each of my users so that they may use software licensed only for that computer. I've tried X-forwarding with ssh on a fast network, and performance is definitely an issue. I'm looking for a free (and preferrably open sourced) system for managing multiple remote desktop sessions. VNC is of course the standard, and it works well but, from what I can tell, lacks multi-user session management. The NoMachine NX server works wonderfully on both low and high latency networks, but it's limited to two concurrent users. Alternative NX server implementations exist, including FreeNX, x2go and Google's neatx. What are your recommendations for remote desktop management client and server software for 6-12 concurrent users over a high (100Mbps) or low (1Mbps) bandwidth connection?
Hardware

Submission + - Heat pulses enable 200Gb/s hard drives (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today we are stuck with 6Gb/s SATA transfer speeds, but that could jump to 200Gb/s in the near future due to a breakthrough in how to write data to a magentic disc. Research being carried out at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland has discovered you don't need a magentic field to switch the poles of a magnet. Instead, you can use a heat pulse shot from a short range laser.

The switch to heat pulses means a bit of data can be written in several picoseconds as oppossed to the several nanoseconds of today's magentic hard drives. It also means less power is required and more data can be stored in the same space. There really doesn't seem to be any downsides to this technique, and it has already been proven to work using magneto-optical microscopy on thin films.

I wonder if they can somehow collaborate with IBM who is working on those 400TB hard drives?
Crime

Submission + - Senate approves indefinite detention and torture of Americans (rt.com)

Submitted by Artem Tashkinov
Artem Tashkinov writes: The terrifying legislation that allows for Americans to be arrested, detained indefinitely, tortured and interrogated — without charge or trial — passed through the Senate on Thursday with an overwhelming support from 93 percent of lawmakers. Only seven members of the US Senate voted against the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, despite urging from the ACLU and concerned citizens across the country that the affects of the legislation would be detrimental to the civil rights and liberties of everyone in America. Under the bill, Americans can be held by the US military for terrorism-related charges and detained without trial indefinitely.
Earth

Submission + - The $6B Bridge Designed to Absorb an Earthquake

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Henry Fountain writes that the new skyway of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, being built at a cost of over $6 Billion, is designed to last at least 150 years after its expected opening in 2013 and that means the new span will at some point have to survive a major earthquake like the one that destroyed much of San Francisco in 1906 or the one that partly severed the Bay Bridge in 1989. To meet that goal, engineers are planning for the largest motions expected to occur within 1,500 years and have gone with the flow: designing flexible structures in which any potential damage would be limited to specific elements. “We wanted to make this bridge flexible so that when the earthquake comes in, the flexibility of the system is such that it basically rides the earthquake,” says lead designer Marwan Nader. The design includes a 525-foot-tall suspension bridge tower that should sway up to about five feet at the top in a major earthquake. The single tower is split into into four shafts tied together with shear links constructed out of a special grade of steel that deforms more easily than other grades that are placed at specific points along the length of the tower. Nader already knows which shear links will be most damaged in a major earthquake — those that are about two-thirds of the way up the tower. “Based on where you place the shear links, you can tune the dynamic response of your tower,” says Dr. Seible, of the University of California, San Diego. The shear links, measuring 6.6 to 9.8 ft. long and 3.3 ft. deep, stiffen the tower such that it will not sway excessively in a major earthquake but more importantly, the links are like 'structural fuses' that are made to dissipate energy in a seismic event, like what happens after a fender bender. “Your car is perfectly drivable, and it’s designed that way, with a bumper that can take the shock. So you basically stop, just to make sure,” says Nader. “You see everything’s OK and you can come in anytime you want to repair your bumper.”"
Idle

Submission + - Sixteen motor manned electric helicopter flies (suasnews.com)

Submitted by
garymortimer
garymortimer writes: "A German team have managed to fly their super sized hobby inspired platform with a man on-board!

This electrically driven system is quiet, clean and economically cost efficient. A one-hour flight would cost something near to 6 Euro for electricity. In addition, the device holds few parts, which could wear out, making maintenance intervals and cost low and far between.

The control firmware can be integrated with a sophisticated integrated GPS system or obstacle detection. As such, automated flight for predetermined points on a 3D map is possible. In addition to the relieving the pilot of strenuous navigational tasks, unmanned flight would be feasible similar to other devices (drones)."
Open Source

Submission + - Ask Slashdot : Are linux based cell phone an optio 2

Submitted by behemoth64
behemoth64 writes: I am a linux user both at work and at home looking for a first smart phone. My initial instinct was to look for a open source linux based cell phone, this as it turns out isn't a popular choice. So, I'm wondering if an open source linux-based cell phone would allow me to have a real, practical, linux experience? If so, is it enough to offset their dismal popularity?
Hardware

Submission + - Gigabyte's solution to the ASPM bug: use Windows. (phoronix.com)

Submitted by
dotancohen
dotancohen writes: "Gigabyte's response regarding kernel power regression issues due to their BIOS bug:
"...since our products only support Windows OS... We suggest you to install Windows OS to prevent having problems. If you install the Windows OS and still have any problems, please provide the error message screenshot for us, so we can try to see how to help."
I wonder if Gigabyte will provide the unlock keys for the EFI boot loaders with a policy as clear as this?"
Windows

Submission + - iPadian - iPad simulator for windows (google.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: i would like to submit my software iPadian for review , it's a iPad simulator for windows . a standalone adobe air application (35 mb) including many web apps like games ,news, magazing , chats...

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