Get on the boat - Slashdot User

Submission + - Small East Texas Companies Targeted by Patentees

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23, 2009 @11:10PM

An anonymous reader writes: In a sign that patent trolls are getting desperate to keep their cases in East Texas, some have taken to suing tiny, no-name companies that are run by East Texas residents. The hope is that the judge will keep the entire case in East Texas if at least one defendant is located there. Nate Neel, a Longview, Texas resident with a small open source software company called CitiWare, was sued by Bedrock Computer Technologies in June despite (he claims) having no customers or other meaningful operations of any kind. In response, Mr. Neel has posted a strongly worded letter to Bedrock's attorneys on his website. It will be interesting to see how East Texas judges respond to this abuse of process perpetrated against their own residents.

Submission + - USPTO Gives Microsoft Credit for Lotus' Homework

Submitted by

theodp

on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @11:56PM

theodp writes: "On Tuesday, the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent for 'Email Emotiflags' despite ample evidence of a circa-1996 Lotus Notes precedent called Mood Stamps, sender-chosen emoticons that appear next to inbox messages. Among those seemingly aware of the existence of Mood Stamps is Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, who appears to have fielded questions about the feature while at Lotus. While simply Googling for 'Email Emotiflags' would have turned up evidence of this prior art (including a /. discussion), the USPTO came up empty after instead going with the more-upscale Google Scholar and patent databases for its search effort. Can we count on Ozzie to do-the-right-thing and give the USPTO a heads-up?"

Submission + - Shoud I go back and finish my CS degree?

Submitted by ShiftingBits on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @10:25PM

ShiftingBits writes: I dropped out of school 12 years ago because work was more interesting (and paid too darned well). I eventually rode that wave to a director level position at a mid-sized company, managing over 20 people, and making over $150,000 per year. Nine months ago I was down-sized. I've been doing well working as a contract programmer, but the last month has been almost completely dry. I apply for contracts that I'm completely qualified for, but rarely get any type of response. I don't really want an actual employee-type job, but I've been applying to things just to keep my options open — again, only things that I've got the resume and portfolio to back up. And still I can't even get an interview. Now maybe it is the economy or maybe I'm suddenly a lousy resume writer but I'm thinking about going back to finish my degree — maybe get an MS or MBA while I'm at it. The question I pose to you, oh great slashdot community, is: Do you think it is likely to pay off in the long run, or am I just delaying the inevitable? Meaning if I can't get a job with all of the experience I already have, will a degree actually make any difference?

Submission + - Hacking Nuclear Command And Control

Submitted by

The Walking Dude

on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @09:18PM

The Walking Dude writes: "The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) has released an unclassified report exploring the possibility of cyber terrorists launching nuclear weapons. Ominous exploits include unreliable early warning sensors, unsecure nuclear weapons storage, transportation blunders, breaches in the chain of command, and the use of Windows on nuclear submarines. A traditional large-scale terrorist attack, such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks, could be combined with computer network operations in an attempt to start a nuclear war. Amidst the confusion of the traditional attack, communications could be disrupted, false declarations of war could be issued on both sides, and early warning sensors could be spoofed. Adding to this is the short time frame in which a retaliatory nuclear response must be decided upon, in some cases as little as 15 minutes. The amount of firepower that could be unleashed in these 15 minutes would be equivalent to approximately 100,000 Hiroshima bombs."

Submission + - PDF exploit in the wild (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

carusoj

on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @03:16PM

carusoj writes: "Symantec Security Response is warning that it has found an Adobe Acrobat PDF file that exploits a known vulnerability. When a user opens the file, it drops malicious code onto the user's system and executes it. Symantec says it is working with Adobe on the issue and encourages users to make sure their antivirus definitions are up to date."

Comment Re:Repeat (Score 1) 298

by Get on the boat on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @11:45AM (#28782677) Attached to: Sam Raimi To Direct <em>World of Warcraft</em> Movie

Why spend the time to watch it yourself? Pay a few bucks to a dozen people to watch it for you so you can get to the end faster.

Submission + - Mobile company sends spyware to BlackBerry users (calgaryherald.com)

Submitted by

SpaceAdmiral

on Wednesday July 22, 2009 @11:25AM

SpaceAdmiral writes: "Research in Motion has confirmed that Etisalat, a cellular service company based in the United Arab Emirates, forced a performance update on their Blackberry customers that was actually spyware. The software could covertly record e-mails, text messages, and instant messages. RIM has released a removal tool for those affected."

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