Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - The first suspension bridge connecting mountain peaks

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Switzerland is about to open the first suspension bridge ever built between two mountain peaks.

The bridge, suspended 9,700ft in the air, will also have a partial glass floor to allow visitors a once in a lifetime view of the 6,500ft drop between the Glacier 3000 and Scex Rouge.

It is scheduled to open in November, and is being built in an effort to attract more tourists to the Swiss Alps.

The Military

3 Decades Later, Finnair Pilots Report Dramatic Close Encounter With a Missile 138

Posted by timothy from the don't-tell-them-you're-out-of-coffee-though dept.
jones_supa (887896) writes It has come to light that a Finnair-owned McDonnell Douglas DC-10 passenger jet narrowly avoided being shot down by a missile while en route to Helsinki 27 years ago, claimed the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday. The two co-pilots, Esko Kaukiainen and Markku Soininen, describe how the event happened during a routine flight back to Helsinki from Japan in December 1987. When the plane was crossing the Arctic Ocean, a missile appeared in the distance. The crew thought it was a Russian weather rocket on its way into space, but the missile began heading straight towards the aircraft. Just 20 seconds away from a collision, the missile exploded. The captain, who was resting at the time of the incident, never officially reported the event. The question of who fired the missile has never been definitively answered. But the pilots believe it was launched from either the Soviet Union's Kola Peninsula or a submarine in the Barents Sea. They speculate that the missile could have been a misfire or that the plane was used as training target.
Transportation

3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room 819

Posted by timothy from the what-about-the-armrest-thieves? dept.
The AP reports that American airplane passengers, squeezed by increasingly tight seating aboard planes, are lashing out, actually getting into in-flight fights over knee room: Three U.S. flights have made unscheduled landings in the past eight days after passengers got into fights over the ability to recline their seats. Disputes over a tiny bit of personal space might seem petty, but for passengers whose knees are already banging into tray tables, every bit counts. ... Southwest and United both took away 1 inch from each row on certain jets to make room for six more seats. American is increasing the number of seats on its Boeing 737-800s from 150 to 160. Delta installed new, smaller toilets in its 737-900s, enabling it to squeeze in an extra four seats. And to make room for a first-class cabin with lie-flat beds on transcontinental flights, JetBlue cut the distance between coach seats by one inch.
Privacy

New Usage-Based Insurance Software Can Track Drivers Using Smartphones 137

Posted by timothy from the do-not-necessarily-want dept.
Lucas123 (935744) writes A new software platform released by one of the nation's largest insurance roadside services providers will allow insurers to track drivers through smartphone sensors and geolocation services in order to offer good driver incentives or emergency roadside assistance. The tracking software is similar to technology currently offered by State Farm's In-Drive and Progressive's Snapshot program, but the latter uses a hardware collection device that plugs into a vehicle's standard OBDII onboard diagnostics port. The new software platform from Agero travels with the driver in and out of the car, so that if a customer is in an accident emergency services are still contacted.
The Courts

First US Appeals Court Hears Arguments To Shut Down NSA Database 199

Posted by Soulskill from the good-luck-with-that dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The second of two lawsuits filed against the U.S. government regarding domestic mass surveillance, ACLU vs. Clapper, was heard on Tuesday by "a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit." The proceeding took an unprecedented two hours (the norm is about 30 minutes), and C-SPAN was allowed to record the whole thing and make the footage available online (video). ACLU's lawyers argued that mass surveillance without warrants violates the 4th Amendment, while lawyers for the federal government argued that provisions within the Patriot Act that legalize mass surveillance without warrants have already been carefully considered and approved by all three branches of government. The judges have yet to issue their ruling.

Comment Re:Moving to FreeBSD is probably more a ZFS thing (Score 1) 613

by Wolfrider (#47814137) Attached to: You Got Your Windows In My Linux

--I would dispute you on this. I was running my main backup RAIDZ2 server on PCBSD, and had to break a ports upgrade compile. Ports was irrecoverably broken after that. After about a year I switched to Linux + ZFS, and it runs with BETTER speed on the same hardware. And on top of that, Linux has a better disk-naming system -- as well as a functional fdisk -l.

Comment Re:What's wrong with Windows Server? (Score 1) 613

by Wolfrider (#47813957) Attached to: You Got Your Windows In My Linux

> The shell still sort of sucks (powershell). I wish someone would write a 'native' shell for windows that was cool. I'd event settle for a dos prompt you can resize like an xterm.

--Ever heard of 4dos? Check this one out:

http://jpsoft.com/

--No affiliation, just satisfied user. 1st ran into it back in the 90's when Norton Utilities bundled Ndos. The TCC/LE version is free.
Cellphones

Mysterious, Phony Cell Towers Found Throughout US 237

Posted by Soulskill from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.
Trachman writes: Popular Science magazine recently published an article about a network of cell towers owned not by telecommunication companies but by unknown third parties. Many of them are built around U.S. military bases. "Interceptors vary widely in expense and sophistication – but in a nutshell, they are radio-equipped computers with software that can use arcane cellular network protocols and defeat the onboard encryption. ... Some interceptors are limited, only able to passively listen to either outgoing or incoming calls. But full-featured devices like the VME Dominator, available only to government agencies, can not only capture calls and texts, but even actively control the phone, sending out spoof texts, for example."

Comment Re:Not the correct application for this (Score 1) 107

by Wolfrider (#47813169) Attached to: Raspberry Pi Gets a Brand New Browser

--Submitting personal experience, Palemoon on Linux 64-bit is beating Firefox all hollow WITH THE SAME PLUGINS running.

--In my work environment, Xubuntu 64-bit, Firefox would regularly use ~2GB+ of my 6GB of laptop RAM - and become extremely slow. I open and close tabs all night. Palemoon is *much* more memory efficient - and I haven't noticed the same slowdown effect.

--Right now I have 15 Palemoon windows open and God knows how many tabs, but one of the best changes they made to the Firefox base code is not loading all tabs on browser launch - only when they're active. That said, Palemoon is the better browser in my experience.
Firefox

Firefox 32 Arrives With New HTTP Cache, Public Key Pinning Support 220

Posted by Soulskill from the cache-money dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 32 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include a new HTTP cache for improved performance, public key pinning support, and easy language switching on Android. The Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Changelogs are here: desktop and mobile.

Submission + - Why hackers may be stealing your credit card numbers for years (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by angry tapir
angry tapir writes: The PCI Security Standards Council, which develops PCI-DSS, has recommended that merchants switch to using point-to-point encryption to prevent the largescale siphoning of credit card details from point of sale terminals (think Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels, UPS Store and others). However, retailers often have long technology refresh cycles, so it could be five to seven years before most move to it — not to mention that the fact that PCI-DSS version 3.0 doesn't even mandate the use of point-to-point encryption.

Slashdot Top Deals

The world is coming to an end. Please log off.

Close