benhocking - Slashdot User

Submission + - Has anybody got a 491 scam via the postal service?

Submitted by adaminnj on Thursday January 18, 2007 @01:50PM

adaminnj writes: I just picked up the Mail and found an envelope with a stamp from Spain on it and no return address addressed to my wife.

I called her to ask if she knew anybody in Spain and told her about the envelope. She then asked me to open it and much to my surprise it was from the INTERNATIONAL LOTTO COMMISSION and FINAL AWARD NOTIFICATION and the mix up, and On and On (we all know the spiel).

I get about 7 to 12 of this kind of scam in my email box every day but I have never seen or received this scam in the postal services.

We have recently moved to Canada from the US and I was wondering if anybody in either the US or Canada on /. has ever seen this scam move out of their email inbox and into there snail mail box?

I have googled all the identifying characteristic of the letter I received and only found info for the email type scam.

The community I live in is full of immigrants who may not have the English skills or computer knowledge it would take to identify this as a scam.

I'm going to do what I can to spread the word but I don't want to seem like chicken little either.

what dose slashdot think is this common?

Feed Deadly Blast From the Past (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Thursday January 18, 2007 @01:12PM

Scientists resurrect viruses from the 1918 influenza pandemic and infect monkeys with them to see what made the flu so dangerous.

Journal Journal: Slashdot is a lobbyist

Journal by mdsolar on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @03:14PM

I've come across this site http://www.grassrootsfreedom.com/ which hopes to stop the lobbying reform, which is part of the first 100 hours package the democrats are passing, from applying to normal political organizing. Basically, you'd have to report to the government if you asked people to contact their representatives. So, on issues like net neutrality, or GPL'd software or intelectual property slashdot might be considered a lobbyist. The Nat

Submission + - New Rocket Engine Successfully Tested

Submitted by

inetsee

on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @12:09PM

inetsee writes: "XCOR Aerospace announced that their new methane-oxygen rocket engine was tested successfully. This is reported to be the first successful test of an engine using the combination of methane and oxygen as fuel. The fuel has higher specific impulse than kerosene and oxygen, but until now has been thought to have too much "technology risk". The XCOR Aerospace press release is here, including some impressive pictures."

Submission + - Windows based installer for Linux

Submitted by Verunks on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @09:58AM

Verunks writes: The guys at ubuntu are working on a easier way to install linux for windows users:
"The aim of this installer is to provide an easier way for a Windows user to install Ubuntu without having to know how to burn a cd iso, set the bios to boot from cd, repartition the disks, set up a multiboot system, etc. It will not replace any of the current Ubuntu installation options, and will not require that windows is installed prior to the installation of Ubuntu."

Submission + - Largest Twin Prime Yet Discovered

Submitted by

Chris Chiasson

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @07:03PM

Chris Chiasson writes: "The Twin Internet Prime Search and PrimeGrid have recently discovered the largest known twin prime. A twin prime is a pair of prime numbers separated by the integer two. The pair discovered on the 15th was 2003663613*2^195000±1."

Submission + - HP to vastly increase chip logic density

Submitted by

werelnon

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @05:45PM

werelnon writes: "HP seems to have discovered a way to eliminate the space that signal routing wires take up on conventional chips (signal routing wires currently take up to 90% of the chip die). This should result in chips that can pack up to 8 times more logic transistors than a conventional chip. This should result in cheaper, more powerful, and more efficient chips sooner than Moore's law would predict."

Submission + - HP advances fight to keep Moore's Law healthy

Submitted by jcatcw on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @05:29PM

jcatcw writes: "HP Labs today said it created a method of using a "crossbar switch" that more efficiently routes signals inside a common kind of chip called a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The technology could lead to the creation of chips packed with far more transistors on board, leading to faster computing times. HP calls its new technology field programmable nanowire interconnect (FPNI). The lab hopes to make an actual prototype chip using the technology within a year, and HP believes it could produce chips that contain a 15-nanometer crossbar by 2010."

Submission + - 10 Great RSS Tips and Tricks

Submitted by

charlesrh

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @04:22PM

charlesrh writes: "FranticIndustries posted a great article regarding how to manage and use 'blended' RSS feeds."

Submission + - Holy API Batman--MS had 100s of undocumented APIs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15, 2007 @11:20AM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft used undocumented Windows APIs — Iowa testimony http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/101947/microsoft-used- undocumented-windows-apis-iowa-testimony.html

Submission + - Lost Moon landing tapes discovered

Submitted by de_smudger on Monday January 15, 2007 @10:20AM

de_smudger writes: For years 'lost' tapes recording data from the Apollo 11 Moon landing have been stored underneath the seats of Australian physics students. A recent search has uncovered them.

Recorded on telemetry tapes, they are said to be the best quality images of the landing (unconverted slow scan TV) yet to be seen by a public still fascinated by the early space race. These tapes were mislaid in the early 1980s on their way to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Submission + - Teacher guilty in porno popups case

Submitted by

Alhazred93

on Monday January 15, 2007 @09:54AM

Alhazred93 writes: "A jury in Norwich found teacher Julie Amero guily of risking injury to a minor when she failed to stop the continuous porno popups from the malware that infected her classroom computer. A court heard that "she could not control the graphic images appearing in an endless cycle..." She faces up to 40 years in jail."

Submission + - YouTube angers I&B with its tasteless Gandhi v

Submitted by

priyank_bolia

on Sunday January 14, 2007 @01:17PM

priyank_bolia writes: "A tasteless video clip on Mahatma Gandhi by New York-based NRI comedian Gautham Prasad has got the government's knickers in a twist. Outraged by the video, the government is seeking to shoot the medium — YouTube, currently the hottest video sharing website. I&B ministry is understood to have taken up the matter with the IT ministry for 'action' against YouTube. While some I&B ministry sources said that YouTube would be blocked, some others said that YouTube would be asked to take off the offending video."

Submission + - A 2-nanometer-high Solomon's knot

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Sunday January 14, 2007 @01:14PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "UCLA chemists have built a molecular Solomon's knot at the nanoscale. The Solomon's knot is composed of two rings that interlace each other four times, with alternating crossing points that go over, under, over and under as one traces around each of the rings. This nano-version is roughly 2 nanometers high by 1.2 nanometers wide. And what would it be useful for? The project's leader offers a refreshing answer: "There is often a connection between the beauty and elegance of a chemical structure and its potential usefulness, and this Solomon knot structure is quite beautiful and elegant." Good luck to her! Read more for additional details and a picture."

Submission + - 3d printer to build houses

Submitted by gbjbaanb on Sunday January 14, 2007 @11:44AM

gbjbaanb writes: Ok, its not quite like the 3d printer, even if it is inspired by it, but this is still cool: , from the Sunday Times, a robot is being developed to build houses.

The first prototype — a watertight shell of a two-storey house built in 24 hours without a single builder on site — will be erected in California before April. The robots are rigged to a metal frame, enabling them to shuttle in three dimensions and assemble the structure of the house layer by layer. The sole foreman on site operates a computer programmed with the designer's plans.

Inspired by the inkjet printer, the technology goes far beyond the techniques already used for prefabricated homes. "This will remove all the limitations of traditional building," said Hugh Whitehead of the architecture firm Foster & Partners, which designed the "Gherkin" skyscraper in London and is producing designs for the Loughborough team. "Anything you can dream you can build."

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