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Comment Re:If humanties are required anyway, then why not? (Score 1) 639

by infinityxi (#26419071) Attached to: Class Teaches Nerds Social Skills

They do help socially unless you plan on only socializing with Engineers. You are going to meet people from other fields and some of them will probably know a little something about literature, art, etc. Who knows, you might like it, and it may be a good conversation spark.

Speaking for myself, I went to Brooklyn Polytech University and there was a requirement for Humanities classes each semester to complement your concentration classes. You know what? I actually enjoyed those classes for a few reasons. It gave me insight and actually interested me, and it actually gave my mind a little bit of time to unwind, not to say Humanities classes are bullshit or anything, but there is a different gear shift going from Computer and Electrical Engineering classes to something like Art History. I would say being well rounded in things you aren't really majoring in does help you in the real world, especially if it is something like history or the arts.
The Courts

SCO Proposes Sale of Assets To Continue Litigation 290

Posted by Soulskill from the know-when-to-fold-'em dept.
gzipped_tar sends in this excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune: "The embattled SCO Group Inc. is proposing to auction off its core products and use proceeds to continue its controversial lawsuits over the alleged violations of its copyrights in Linux open-source software. The Lindon company has filed a new reorganization plan with the federal court in Delaware where it sought bankruptcy protection from creditors after an adverse ruling in the Linux litigation. If approved by a bankruptcy judge, the plan could mean SCO's server software and mobile products lines are owned by other parties while SCO itself remained largely to pursue the lawsuits under the leadership of CEO Darl McBride. 'One goal of this approach is to separate the legal defence of its intellectual property from its core product business,' McBride said in a letter to customers, partners and shareholders. Jeff Hunsaker, president and COO of The SCO Group, said the litigation had been distracting to the company's efforts to market its products. 'We believe there's value in these assets and in order for the business to move forward it's imperative we separate it from our legal claims and we allow our products business to move forward,' he said Friday."

Comment Re:Chrome supports a company that sells ads. (Score 1) 326

by infinityxi (#26393881) Attached to: Google Releases Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta

Well I think the solution is for a 3rd party to write the ad block software. I mean if there is enough of a demand I am sure someone will write it in. I don't think Google should bother with writing it themselves as it is firefox's strength that plug-ins can be written by someone non-affiliated with them and as such is out of the control of Firefox. Google Chrome is also open source, which means, if Google were to do something such as intentionally cripple the Adblock when it pertains to google's ads someone could just fork Chrome or just ditch it. It isn't the most elegant solution but with the browser market having so many alternatives these days, why would Google risk something like that?
Censorship

Submission + - Linux Users Can't Sell On eBay (ubuntuforums.org) 2

Submitted by bobintetley
bobintetley writes: Many Linux/Firefox users are reporting problems uploading images to eBay. Having tested this myself, it is indeed completely broken. Why eBay would break standard HTTP uploads by using IE specific javascript to "check the file exists" boggles the mind. This problem has been reported to eBay since late October, but so far with no resolution. eBay have since stated that only IE is supported. I guess when you have no real competition you can pull stunts like this.
United States

Submission + - "Libertarians are Terrorists" says Alabama

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: In a surprise move, the Alabama Department of Homeland Security (ALDHS) has seen fit to redefine terrorists as those who oppose a strong and dominant government, which includes Libertarians.

The original article at www.homelandsecurity.alabama.gov/tap/anti-gov_grps .htm [404] has been removed but an archived copy can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20060421160851/www.home landsecurity.alabama.gov/tap/anti-gov_grps.htm .

A disturbing sign of things to come or a hilarious display of government incompetence? Only time will tell.
Music

Submission + - Ubuntu Studio Released!

Submitted by joshsherman
joshsherman writes: The Ubuntu Studio team is proud to announce its first release: 7.04 for Intel i386-compatible processors. We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination.
Security

Submission + - Windows Update downloader used to carry Trojans

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Computerworld reports that the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), which Windows Update uses to deliver patches to XP, Vista, and Windows Server 2003, is being used by Trojan makers to bypass firewalls and install malware on target systems. Symantec, which is the source of the news, described the exploit in its group blog:

Using BITS to download malicious files is a clever trick because it bypasses local firewalls, as the download is performed by Windows itself, and does not require suspicious actions for process injection. In fact, the malicious Downloader sample in this case gets access to the BITS component via the COM interface with CoCreateInsance(), and it uses CreateJob() and AddFile() methods to configure the file to download and the destination path.
Unfortunately, there's no way to get around this BITS flaw, but Elia Florio, the Symantec researcher who described the exploit, says "... The BITS interface should be designed to be accessible only with a higher level of privilege, or the download jobs created with BITS should be restricted to only trusted URLs.""
Security

Submission + - Data Industry Shifts from No Freeze to High Fees

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Washington Post is running a longish story about laws enacted in some 33 states now that allow consumers to place a "freeze" on their credit file with the major credit reporting agencies. The piece looks at the challenge advocates faced to enact a freeze in Delaware, easily the most business- and bank-friendly state. The data industry, represented by lobbyists with the Consumer Data Industry Association, originally fought the state efforts, but as more states piled on, the CDIA changed its focus. From the story: "Goldberg, who has worked with advocates in more than a dozen states to enact freeze legislation, said that in 2005 the CDIA and the credit-reporting agencies shifted their strategy. They no longer were outright opposed to credit-freeze laws; instead, they worked to convince states to allow the bureaus to charge as much as possible when consumers place, lift or remove credit freezes.
Enlightenment

Submission + - NASA says extreme summer warming ahead

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new study by NASA scientists says that greenhouse-gas warming may raise average summer temperatures in the eastern United States nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2080s. Say the researchers: "Using high-resolution weather prediction models, we were able to show how greenhouse gases enhance feedbacks between precipitation, radiation, and atmospheric circulations that will likely lead to extreme temperatures in our not so distant future."
Graphics

Submission + - ATI to go opensource ?

Submitted by BESTouff
BESTouff writes: As seen on Chris Blizzard's blog: The ATI marketing guy on stage (Henri Richard) at the Red Hat Summit just committed to fixing the ATI problems with open source. To paraphrase "most people are worried about what they will lose...IP, etc...we're worried about what we can win." They know it's a problem and they are committed to fixing it.
Privacy

Submission + - Chips on DVDs could prevent theft

Submitted by Kiralan
Kiralan writes: New technology designed to thwart DVD theft makes discs unplayable until they're activated at the cash register. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_hi_te/te chbit_dvd_theft From the story: "A chip smaller than the head of a pin is placed onto a DVD along with a thin coating that blocks a DVD player from reading critical information on the disc. At the register, the chip is activated and sends an electrical pulse through the coating, turning it clear and making the disc playable." This appears to be a decent use of security technology, but what is the potential of this being the new DIVX?
United States

Submission + - Anti-ID theft measures fought by credit industry

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Brian Krebs of the Washington Post has a very interesting article about the credit industry's fight against consumer rights measures that would force credit bureaus, credit card companies, retailers, banks and even private investigators to protect citizens from having their credit data accessed, by taking measures such as restricting access to credit reports and freezing new lines of credit. While several states have tried to enact consumer-friendly laws, the industry has lobbied hard on the state and national level to water down, eliminate, or reverse them and keep open access to easy credit.

'The banks, the insurance companies, credit bureaus and retailers really came out of the woodwork and fought hard against it,' [activist George Fitzgerald] said. 'I thought it was good for them and the banks. I thought with all the ID theft going on, people might even get to the point where they'd be afraid of using the [banking] system. I thought that since the credit bureaus were making a bundle of money off of trading consumers' information ... that they should offer a way to protect that information.'
The article says that the industry has backed down in some states and some credit-freeze laws have passed, but with conditions and business-friendly exceptions — for instance, Delaware had to eliminate a provision that included fines for merchants that failed to secure customer data, before the law could be passed."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Tux 500 project aims for Linux-team at Indy 500

Submitted by
Hans Kwint
Hans Kwint writes: "Marketing Linux has always been a tricky proposition. As a community, we have relied on corporations who have a stake in the Linux operating system to market Linux to the world at large. Today, we have an opportunity to change that, and make Linux marketing as much a community effort as Linux development. That effort begins with the Tux 500 project.

Our goal is simple: we want to collect community donations to enter a Linux sponsored car in the 2007 Indianapolis 500. If less than 1% of the Linux community donates $1, this will happen... Already about $5,000 was collected, and only 5 weeks are left.

Read on

For everybody who doesn't think this is a good idea: You don't have to donate, but please don't get in the way of people wanting to help, and read the FAQ before complaining)"
Enlightenment

Submission + - The Earth is Growing

Submitted by icemanidd
icemanidd writes: A controversial theory has recently resurfaced suggesting that the Earth is growing. The theory explores evidence for continental matching on both of the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the globe, geological implications of a changing surface curvature — and a smaller, lower-gravity Earth's contribution to the size of dinosaurs. Growing Earth Theory also attempts to put forth, through existing scientific evidence, a mechanism by which new mass is created within the core of the Earth, to facilitate the Expanding Earth model of the late Australian geologist S. Warren Carey. I wonder why this has never been brought to light earlier?

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