juntunen - Slashdot User

UK Schools At Risk of Microsoft Lock-In 162

Posted by kdawson on Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:51PM from the apple-for-the-teacher dept.

Robert writes "UK schools and colleges that have signed up to Microsoft Corp's academic licensing programs face the significant potential of being locked in to the company's software, according to an interim review by Becta, the UK government agency responsible for technology in education. The report also states that most establishments surveyed do not believe that Microsoft's licensing agreements provide value for money." In a separate report, Becta offered the opinion that schools should avoid Vista for at least another year, since neither Vista nor Office 2007 offers any compelling reasons for schools to upgrade.

Submission + - Networking in Extreme Conditions?

Submitted by

222

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:33PM

222 writes: "Mission: Create an intermediate distribution frame. Difficulty: A few feet away, industrial equipment will be generating roughly 2000 degree heat. Bonus: Keep the network switches inside the IDF from melting.
Does anyone have experience in making IT work in such extreme conditions? Is there an enclosure in existence that can handle this type of abuse? This is essentially what I've been asked to accomplish, and now I'm asking my Slashdot brethren the questions; "Can it be done? Do we have the technology?""

NMR Shows That Nuclear Storage Degrades 385

Posted by kdawson on Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:13PM from the quarter-million-years dept.

eldavojohn writes to point out recent research using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imagery that shows that certain nuclear waste storage containers may not be as safe as previously thought. From the article: "[R]adiation emitted from [plutonium] waste could transform one candidate storage material into less durable glass after just 1,400 years — much more quickly than thought... The problem is that the radioactive waste damages the matrix that contains it. Many of the waste substances, including plutonium-239, emit alpha radiation, which travels for only very short distances (barely a few hundredths of a millimeter) in the ceramic, but creates havoc along the way."

Submission + - P World Editor Slain At California Home

Submitted by Petersko on Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:08PM

Petersko writes: "A senior editor for PC World Magazine was fatally shot in his home in what authorities said Wednesday was a drug-related attack. Rex Farrance, 59, the San Francisco, California-based magazine's senior technical editor, was shot in the chest after four masked men broke into his home Tuesday evening, Pittsburg police said."

Submission + - Worlds smallest Vista-capable PC

Submitted by

AlHunt

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:04PM

AlHunt writes: "iTwire.com is reporting the "world's smallest Vista Capable PC:

By the end of Q1, 2007, OQO will launch a tiny, fully powered PC that runs Windows Vista, comes with EVDO wireless, plays music and videos, runs standard desktop applications, has 30Gb or 60Gb of space, a tablet interface, an inbuilt keyboard and runs for 3 or 6 hours depending on which battery you choose.

Some specs on the OQO model 2: it weighs only a pound, and will fit into a pocket. The processor is either 1.2 of 1.5Ghz, with a claimed six times increase in speed over the OQO model 1, can take up to 1Gb of memory and has a display more than six times brighter than its predecessor.

All this and starting at only $1499!"

Submission + - Sun Microsystems, the begrudging Linx vendor

Submitted by OSS_ilation on Thursday January 11, 2007 @12:04PM

OSS_ilation writes: The Sun Microsystems marketing machine has been hard at work promoting its Solaris 10 operating system as of late, with special events for the press and analyst community. But market data suggests that it's Linux — not Solaris — that Sun customers want. How big is the demand for Linux on Sun boxes? According to the article, it's more than 60% of all Galaxy boxes shipped. Analysts see no indication that that will change, either. "I don't see this dynamic changing," said Gordon Haff, senior analyst with Nashua, N.H.-based Illuminata Inc. "I don't see the world rethinking Linux as some passing fad and going back to Solaris. Expect Linux to remain a significant portion of Sun's x64 business for some time.

Submission + - Is it dangerous to share my 802.11b/g?

Submitted by

oiarbovnb

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:58AM

oiarbovnb writes: "I recently moved into a new house and it took me a while to get my internet connected. For the first couple of weeks, I connected to an unsecured network one of my neighbors provided (they changed the name of the network, so I think they knew what they were doing, but left it open anyway). Now that I have my own internet (cable-modem), what are the problems with sharing this? I already know that they can read any non-encrypted information, but they cannot view information that is sent via https. I also know that I should install a software firewall and have anti-virus going and all that jazz. I named my network "Free!!! Be Nice!" in the hopes that if my neighbors do use my network, they don't try to hose my system. Karma-security I guess you could call it..."

Journal Journal: The Murphy Factor

Journal by Billosaur on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:58AM

Murphy's Law for IT: Systems will inevitably break down the day after your maintenance guy goes on vacation.

He hasn't been gone 24 hours and we've had: 1) a server quit working, 2) a user loses network connectivity to the network for no apparent reason, and 3) the firewalls go wonky.

Submission + - A penny for your thoughts...and location?

Submitted by Dalyryder on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:52AM

Dalyryder writes: CNN is reporting cases of American defense contrators being slipped Canadian coins with RF transmitters.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/11/spy.coins.ap/inde x.html

Submission + - Forwarding corporate mail to Web accounts

Submitted by weil8127 on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:42AM

weil8127 writes: NYT.com has an article on the practice of forwarding your [possibly sensitive] internal emails to a more accessible account. How big a problem does this really pose, and can the risks be mitigated without resorting to Draconian measures? http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/technology/11ema il.html?hp&ex=1168578000&en=552c9e079982fece&ei=50 94&partner=homepage

Submission + - OSS Catalogue Released

Submitted by Maudib on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:36AM

Maudib writes: OSS Catalogue released that rates the enterprise readiness of 260 projects. The ratings are based on the real world experience of OSS developers, but some in the community feel the ratings are still biased.

Proper Ways to Dispose of Spam? 119

Posted by Cliff on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:33AM from the let's-stop-wasting-bandwidth-on-useless-bounces dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "My domain name is being stolen by spammers; they forge outgoing mail using my poor innocent domain name. First, I'd like to plead with mail server administrators out there: please REJECT spam and undeliverable mail. If you reject instead of bouncing then legitimate mail senders will still know there is a problem. Second, do you have any tips for dealing with a flood of spam bounces? Exim is pitching the bounces pretty quickly, but my server is still getting overwhelmed." In the case of stolen sender addresses, SPF attempts to address this problem but has it been effective?

Submission + - Cisco VP Explains Lawsuit Against Apple

Submitted by

Dekortage

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:30AM

Dekortage writes: "The day after Apple announced its iPhone, Cisco sued over the name. Mark Chandler, Cisco's SVP and General Counsel, has posted an explanation of the suit on his blog: "For the last few weeks, we have been in serious discussions with Apple over how the two companies could work together and share the iPhone trademark. ...I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of 'we're too busy.'" What did Cisco want? "[We] wanted an open approach. We hoped our products could interoperate in the future.""

Submission + - Schools told not to deploy Vista

Submitted by ukhackster on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:19AM

ukhackster writes: Microsoft's hopes of making a big splash with Vista in the UK have suffered a blow. Becta, the agency which tells British schools which technology they should buy, has recommended avoiding the operating system for at least another year. According to Becta, there's no compelling reason for schools to move to Vista, or Office 2007 either. Becta was criticised late last year for hampering open source deployment in UK schools, but by cautioning against Vista it may now give Linux a boost.

Submission + - Study Claims Offshoring Doesn't Cost Jobs

Submitted by

SwashbucklingCowboy

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @11:08AM

SwashbucklingCowboy writes: "Infoworld has an article up about a survey by the Software & Information Industry Association claiming that offshoring doesn't cost American jobs.

The article quotes the executive director of the SIIA as saying "[Offshoring] was used almost entirely as a form of expansion, not as a replacement." Well, if a job is created elsewhere that could have been created in the U.S. isn't that a job lost?"

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