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Comment the /. staff (Score 5, Interesting) 198

by Vorpix (#35494750) Attached to: Jeff & Rob Visit Lucasfilm

I kinda like this sorta post. I used to feel a closer connection with the /. mods back in the day than recently. It didn't always feel like one Apple/Google press release after another like it does nowadays. It seemed like there was more editorial content. (Not that I'm asking for JonKatz to return...)

Comment time (Score 1) 500

by Vorpix (#35357000) Attached to: The Decline and Fall of System Administration

this all comes down to time. i can reapply the data to a fresh VM image in a matter of hours and have it back up and running, pretty much without variation. hunting down a deep, dark problem can take 30 minutes or it might take days, and depending on the problem, that may simply be unacceptable.

the real skill is knowing when to pull the trigger on a rebuild vs knowing when it's something you can find and fix. hunting down problems and fixing them is something many sysadmins crave. at least VM's give us the ability to investigate the broken machine at our leisure, while a working VM can jump into production.

unless management wants to rely solely on rebuilds and the time investment it takes to do them every time, there will always be a need for sysadmins to analyze problems and figure out the "whys" and "hows" that caused them.
Hardware Hacking

The Case of Apple's Mystery Screw 845

Posted by Soulskill from the licensing-the-operation-of-the-circuitry-inside dept.
Pickens writes "Network World reports that in the past if you wanted to remove the outer case on your iPhone 4 to replace the battery or a broken screen, you could use a Phillips screwdriver to remove two tiny screws at the base of the phone and then simply slide off the back cover. But now Apple is replacing the outer screw with a mysterious tamper-resistant 'pentalobular' screw across its most popular product lines, making it harder for do-it-yourselfers to make repairs. What about existing products in the field? Pentalobular screws might find their way into them, too. 'Apple's latest policy will make your blood boil,' says Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit. 'If you take your iPhone 4 into Apple for any kind of service, they will sabotage it by replacing your Phillips screws with the new, tamper-resistant screws. We've spoken with the Apple Store geniuses tasked with carrying out this policy, and they are ashamed of the practice.' Of course, only Apple-authorized service technicians have Pentalobular screwdrivers and they're not allowed to resell them. 'Apple sees a huge profit potential,' says Wiens. 'A hundred dollars per year in incremental revenue on their installed base is a tremendous opportunity.'"

Comment Foursquare (Score 1) 220

by Vorpix (#33277676) Attached to: Facebook Takes On FourSquare

i have been using foursquare for a long time and i absolutely love it. playing the meta-game of acquiring badges has motivated me to travel to all new places and discover things I may never have come across on my own. it's fun, and my buddies and i have gone on some road trips to see places we've found through foursquare to great success. if you have an actual social life, it can be great fun to find which bar or club your friends are at on any given night without having to contact everybody directly. it's nice the way it is. i wouldn't want facebook getting their grubby hands on it.
Google

Google and Verizon In Talks To Prioritize Traffic (Updated) 410

Posted by samzenpus from the preferred-traffic dept.
Nrbelex writes "Google and Verizon are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege. Any agreement between Verizon and Google could also upend the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to assert its authority over broadband service, which was severely restricted by a federal appeals court decision in April. People close to the negotiations who were not authorized to speak publicly about them said an agreement could be reached as soon as next week. If completed, Google, whose Android operating system powers many Verizon wireless phones, would agree not to challenge Verizon's ability to manage its broadband Internet network as it pleased." Update: 08/05 20:03 GMT by T : nr3a1 writes with this informative update excerpted from Engadget: "Google's Public Policy Twitter account just belted out a denial of these claims, straight-up saying that the New York Times 'is wrong.' Here's the full tweet, which certainly makes us feel a bit more at ease. For now. '@NYTimes is wrong. We've not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet.' Verizon's now also issued a statement and, like Google, it's denying the claims in the original New York Times report."

Comment kanji (Score 1) 242

by Vorpix (#33029174) Attached to: The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design

i sorta think the author of TFA is looking at a page full of kanji and is equating that to being a busy mess of a design. I wonder if the same exact page, translated to English, would evoke the same feelings.
Image

Smart Underwear Designed For Military Screenshot-sm 169

Posted by samzenpus from the now-taking-orders dept.
A team of scientists at the University of California San Diego, led by nano-engineering professor Joseph Wang, has designed some high-tech underwear that may save lives. Sensors in the waistband can monitor a person's blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital signs. The designers also hope that one day the underwear can release drugs to relieve pain and treat wounds. From the article: "But the technology's range of application goes beyond the military. 'We envision all the trend of personalized medicine for remote monitoring of the elderly at home, monitoring a wide range of biomedical markers, like cardiac markers, alerting for any potential stroke, diabetic changes, and other changes related to other biomedical scenario,' said Wang. Wearable biosensors can also provide valuable information to athletes or even measure blood alcohol levels."

Comment ad servers really shot themselves in the foot here (Score 2, Interesting) 319

by Vorpix (#31585276) Attached to: Malware Delivered By Yahoo, Fox, Google Ads

the biggest change this has for me is that it has moved installing adblocking software from just 'something i do for my personal computers' to 'something i do on any computer i touch, even professionally'.

it was the ad server's responsibility to regulate what they distribute. instead, they have just become an avenue for zero-day attacks that can spread across the web in no time at all. since they did NOT act responsibly in preventing this type of attack (really, is there NO review process at all on what they serve out to millions of people?), it falls on us, the users, to protect ourselves. when companies complain about lost revenue due to adblocking software, this is your justification.

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