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Submission + - What does your dead man's switch do?

Submitted by
LqdEngineer
LqdEngineer writes: "How many of the Slashdot crowd use or have used a Dead Man's Switch designed to perform some action if you don't check in for a certain amount of time? Recently, I decided to put one together using MySQL and some Cron jobs, but I wanted to see what others have their Switches set up to do in the event you fail to check in. E-mails to loved ones? Send encryption keys to friends/family? Hate mail to your boss? Has anyone ever been on the receiving end of a Dead Man's e-mail? I can't even imagine how creepy that would feel."
Space

Submission + - NASA Will Go Metric on the Moon

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Space.com is reporting that NASA has decided to use the metric system for its new lunar missions. NASA hopes that metrication will allow easier international participation and safer missions. The loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter was blamed on an error converting between English units and metric units. 'When we made the announcement at the meeting, the reps for the other space agencies all gave a little cheer,' said a NASA official.
Graphics

Submission + - Pledge drive to fund free NVidia drivers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two months ago, David Nielsen started a pledge drive (http://www.pledgebank.com/nouveaudriver) to raise $10 000 to help speed up development of the nouveau (http://nouveau.freedesktop.org) project, which is an attempt to produce reverse-engineered free drivers for NVidia. Now, with one month left to go before the deadline, the pledge drive is well on its way to success, and may provide an interesting precedent for free software development.
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista Beta Users Get First Taste of DRM

Submitted by
darkonc
darkonc writes: "Some people testing Microsoft's Windows Vista got an unexpected holiday surprise: their TVs stopped working.... Microsoft blames this on the fact that they only licensed the MPEG2 CODED for RC1 until the end of 2006 (Beta users were told that the software was good until April), but even people with third party decoders can't access their content (both live and stored). This is how "Trusted Computing" is supposed to work. If somebody in Redmond (or elsewhere) decides that you can't use certain content, nothing that you try to do should allow you access — Owning the content, or obtaining the rights by some other path, is no defense.

5 million people downloaded RC1, and some have access to Vista Final or RC2 (100K copies downloaded). The rest will have to wait until the end of January to access their suddenly banned content."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Sealand put up for sale

Submitted by antic
antic writes: The Principality of Sealand is up for sale. The 550 square metre steel platform boasts "uninterrupted sea views", complete privacy and has been mentioned on Slashdot in the past for its offers of hosting outside the jurisdiction of (some) traditional laws.

ABC News has more

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Money is the root of all evil, and man needs roots.

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