muncadunc - Slashdot User

Submission + - You can't run from the cop car of the future (msn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04, 2011 @08:04PM

An anonymous reader writes: Police cars of the very near future will be scary smart. Equipped with eight cameras, voice commands, incredibly intelligent software, and LTE radios, perps won't get away with anything.

Motorola Solutions isn't working on building the latest and greatest Droid — that's Motorola Mobility. These guys have their fingers more in corporate and governmental pots. Engineers have done hundreds of ride-alongs, surveys, and simulations, and have applied all of their wireless knowledge into designing a police car that is so advanced it's actually very unsettling.

Submission + - The Personal Computer is Dead

Submitted by theodp on Saturday December 03, 2011 @05:37AM

theodp writes: Richard Stallman rankled many with his good riddance to Steve Jobs' 'malign influence on people's computing.' But now RMS gets an amen-of-sorts from Harvard Law School Prof Jonathan Zittrain, who explains in The Personal Computer is Dead why you should be afraid — very afraid — of the snowballing replicability of the App Store Model. 'If we allow ourselves to be lulled into satisfaction with walled gardens,' warns Zittrain, 'we'll miss out on innovations to which the gardeners object, and we'll set ourselves up for censorship of code and content that was previously impossible. We need some angry nerds.' Searchblog's John Battelle, who's also solidly in the tear-down-this-walled-garden camp, adds: 'I'm not a nerd, quite, but I’m sure angry.' Are Stallman's views on their way to becoming positively mainstream?

Comment Another browser would've shown up (Score 1) 246

by muncadunc on Friday October 28, 2011 @04:55PM (#37873708) Attached to: Microsoft Tried To Buy Netscape: Suppose They Had?

This is kind of a silly conjecture. It's not as if some other browser wouldn't have arisen to challenge MS-Netscape.

SourceForge Removes Blanket Blocking 147

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 08, 2010 @01:12PM from the power-to-the-people dept.

Recently there was much gnashing of teeth as SourceForge (which shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) started programmatically blocking users in certain countries to comply with US export restrictions. Thankfully they didn't let it end there and have found a way to put the power back in the hands of the users. "Beginning now, every project admin can click on Develop -> Project Admin -> Project Settings to find a new section called Export Control. By default, we've ticked the more restrictive setting. If you conclude that your project is *not* subject to export regulations, or any other related prohibitions, you may now tick the other check mark and click Update. After that, all users will be able to download your project files as they did before last month's change."

Comment Yes and no. (Score 1) 2

by muncadunc on Monday January 11, 2010 @02:07AM (#30720296) Attached to: Full body scanners are detailed depthmap makers

Yes and no.
You can most certainly use the image from such a scanner to create a depth-map. The quality of the image, certainly of any image you'd get from a TV screen, isn't very much use in making a good 3D model, though.
The suggestion that such a model could be "animated" seems a bit... naive. Are they concerned about the Internet Perverts wanking to one?
As well, the point made that "This was done on a very slow computer" is pretty much irrelevant. Of course you don't need a fast computer to make models from depth maps. It just takes time. Again, the video comes across as a little naive, a little overly outraged.
There's very real reasons to be mad about these devices. Worrying about skinnable 3D models being made from them does not seem like one of them.

After Berlusconi Attack, Italy Considers Web Censorship 160

Posted by timothy on Friday December 18, 2009 @07:27AM from the streisand-should-charge-a-consulting-fee dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Italian government has proposed introducing new restrictions on the Internet after a Facebook fan page for the man who allegedly attacked Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday drew almost 100,000 users in under 48 hours. However, the planned clampdown on Internet hate speech sparked a heated debate over censorship and freedom of expression, leading Interior Minister Roberto Maroni to execute a partial U-turn."

Lack of Manpower May Kill VLC For Mac 398

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @05:53PM from the vlc-generally-rocks dept.

plasmacutter writes "The Video Lan dev team has recently come forward with a notice that the number of active developers for the project's MacOS X releases has dropped to zero, prompting a halt in the release schedule. There is now a disturbing possibility that support for Mac will be dropped as of 1.1.0. As the most versatile and user-friendly solution for bridging the video compatibility gap between OS X and windows, this will be a terrible loss for the Mac community. There is still hope, however, if the right volunteers come forward."

UK Government Seeks New Web Censorship Powers 187

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @01:42PM from the well-that's-not-good dept.

oldandcold writes "Given the recent coverage and controversy over Australia's forthcoming web censorship system, it is somewhat surprising (and worrying) that Clause 11 of the UK's proposed Digital Economy Bill seems to have gone by largely unnoticed. It amends the Communications Act 2003 to insert a new section 124H that could give the Secretary of State powers to order ISPs to block pretty much any website for pretty much any reason. Such orders would not require the scrutiny of parliament, or anyone else for that matter, because the Secretary of State would not be required to publish them."

Israeli Border Police Shoot US Student's Laptop 929

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @06:37AM from the no-less-no-more dept.

zerothink writes "American student Lily Sussman, 21, upon entry into Israel from Taba (Egypt, Sinai) caught Israeli border police in grumpy mood — after two hours of questions and searching through her belongings they decided to put three bullets through her laptop. Explanation? 'I'm sorry but we had to blow up your laptop.' Haaretz also covered the story." All three bullets missed the hard disk.

Dying Star Mimics Our Sun's Death 149

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @03:59AM from the telltale-heart dept.

coondoggie writes "In about 5 billion years, our Sun will face a nasty death. Scientists with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics this week released dramatic new pictures of a dying star much like the Sun, about 550 light-years from Earth. According to the researchers, Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that if it were in our solar system it would swallow every planet out to Mars and cook the asteroid belt. The star has started to pulse dramatically, beating like a giant heart with a period of 408 days." The research team produced a video of the pulsating star, using infrared images captured via very long baseline interferometry.

Submission + - Angry AT&T customers may disrupt service 1

Submitted by g0dsp33d on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @02:02AM

g0dsp33d writes: Fake Steve Jobs, the alter-alias of Newsweek's Dan Lyons, is calling disgruntled AT&T users to protest comments from AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega that smart phone (specifically iPhone) usage is responsible for their network issues and his plan to end unlimited data plans. The post, dubbed "Operation Chokehold" wants AT&T customers to use as much data service as they can on Friday, December 19th at noon.

While Fake Steve Jobs is notable for its satire, many Twitter and Facebook users seem to be rallying to its cry. It is unclear if there will be enough support to cause a DDOS.

Hackers Counter Microsoft COFEE With Some DECAF 154

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @11:36PM from the please-mister-moto dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Two developers have created 'Detect and Eliminate Computer Assisted Forensics' (DECAF). The tool tries to stop Microsoft's Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), which helps law enforcement officials grab data from password-protected or encrypted sources. After COFEE was leaked to the Web, Microsoft issued takedown notices to sites hosting the software." The article notes that DECAF is not open source, so you aren't really going to know for sure what it will do to your computer.

Submission + - Compulsory Australian Internet Filter Coming Mid-2 (lifehacker.com.au) 1

Submitted by some_guy_88 on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @11:12PM

some_guy_88 writes: The government yesterday announced plans to introduce legislation requiring all RC-rated material online to be blocked by all ISPs, effectively declaring its trial of mandatory filtering a success.

Submission + - Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear (vanityfair.com)

Submitted by GilliamOS on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @10:19PM

GilliamOS writes: Living in Iowa, escaping corn is no easy feat; Escaping Monsanto is even harder. Every farmer I know and have talked to say they cannot escape them, even if they give them no business. They are to farming what Microsoft is to computers, except they are allowed to kill, poison, and pollute on a scale that can make even the least of us concerned about the environment cringe. Allowed by the US Patent system, they have turned seed research that used to done by public universities into IP and patented technology, and they stop at nothing to protect their seeds. Saving seeds, a practice that allowed farmers to ensure they can plant crops in the next season, is no longer permitted. They are the inventors of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Dioxin, two of the most toxic non-military chemicals known to man, yet they also control some 90% of our seed for crops.

Submission + - Cherrypal Launches $99 Computer (gearlog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @09:53PM

An anonymous reader writes: Cherrypal surprised most of the technology industry by announcing the CherryPal Africa, a $99 computer. Cherrypal has begun taking orders for the device on its website, where the small computer is described as "small, slow, sufficient". The Africa uses either Windows CE or Linux. It's also small, with just a 7-inch, 800-by-600 display; in total, the Africa measures 213.5 mm by 141.8 mm by 30.8 mm, and weighs 1.2 kilograms or 2.64 pounds.

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