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NASA

Submission + - NASA wants new space net to sustain big data dumps; moon and Mars trips (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "What kind of network can support future commercial and government space trips around Earth and support bigger distances to the moon and Mars? NASA is in the process of exploring exactly what technology will be needed beyond 2022 in particular to support future space communication and navigation. The agency recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) to begin planning for such a new architecture."
Games

Submission + - Following 800 poor reviews, Amazon stops selling download copies of SimCity (geek.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In what must be a big blow for EA and Maxis, Amazon has stopped selling download copies of the just released SimCity. The game has at time of writing received 833 reviews on Amazon, and has an average rating of just one star. That’s because 740 of those are one star reviews. Only 20 people gave it 5 stars. There’s few better ways to gauge how a game has been received, and this is pretty damning as to how EA has handled the launch.
Japan

Submission + - Japan Is Going to Restart Its Nuclear Power Plants, But Don't Freak Out About It (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "Areva, the French nuclear fuel company, helps supply Japan with a lot of its juice. And Areva's chief executive says that Japan is going to restart up to six reactors by the end of the year. Eventually, it's going to power up at least two thirds of them. Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe has been a little cagey, but he recently told the press that yes, despite the upcoming March 11th anniversary of the Fukushima crisis, the nuke plants are coming back online.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that "half a dozen reactors may restart by the end of this year in addition to the two that resumed operations in 2012." Luc Oursel, the Areva CEO, said at a press conference that “I think two-thirds of reactors will restart” within several years. This is probably a good thing:

First, consider Japan's alternative: loads of coal, oil, and gas power. Japan has been importing fossil fuels to make up for the lost supply; burning all of the above pumps out climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, Japan is entertaining plans to build 12.5 gigawatts worth of coal-fired power. That would be a disaster in climate terms. Eventually, solar and wind could feasibly pick up the slack, but it takes years to build out that kind of infrastructure."

Submission + - How to deal with service providers that make it purposely hard to leave?

Submitted by DrHappyAngry
DrHappyAngry writes: After calling Tmobile to look at getting out of my contract for unnacceptable service throughout Downtown Seattle, I found that they require a snail mail letter or fax. They also require a copy of ID or utility bill showing my address, which would not even show the locations that are problematic, such as my office. The service quality is at the point where most buildings in the core of a major city are not even able to be serviced by their network. How do you deal with a provider that is out to make it as impossible to leave as they can? Asides from posting this to /. how else can they be publicly shamed? I was very upset when they told me this, and in fact told them "This isn't 1980, nobody uses that anymore, and this is for the sole purpose of making it more difficult to terminate the contract."
Windows

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How best to set up a parent's PC? 2

Submitted by CodingHero
CodingHero writes: My mother uses a recent enough PC running Windows XP and has a broadband connection, but her primary method of interacting with the online world remains the AOL software. She also likes to download and use various seasonal wallpapers, screensavers, etc. Usually all this works fine and I don't get family tech support calls, but occasionally something big goes wrong. Since she lives 400 miles away, that means I get to provide phone tech support. While I can usually get something fixed through simple instructions, sometimes it's just too complicated to properly diagnose and explain over the phone (e.g., a trojan infection that anti-virus won't get rid of on its own). I'd like to set up the system so that her account is not an Administrator and that I can easily (and securely) remotely connect to fix problems, install stuff she really wants to use (after proper vetting of course), and so on. Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option. Upgrading the system to Windows 7 and breaking the AOL habit, while seemingly the best course of action, is going to mean a lot of my time up front to explain how to do things all over again, time that I don't have a lot of right now. Has anyone else had a similar experience? If so, what did you find was the best way to re-educate a parent and/or set up a method to securely remotely manage a system, or at least lock it down to better protect it?

Comment Re:Yeah! (Score 1) 121

by trogdor8667 (#42383739) Attached to: Google Chrome 25 Will Disable Silent Extension Installation

All my extensions were disabled by the dev channel when that update came through. It gave me a messagebox when it ran the update letting me know it disabled them, and it doesn't give you a way to re-enable them. You do have to dig through the menu to re-enable them. This is after a previous version already made it so to distribute them internally you had to save the crx file, open the extensions page, and drag it on there.

I understand the point is security, but they're making legit purposes harder to deal with.
Windows

Submission + - VLC running Kickstarter campaign to fund native Windows 8 app (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by aaron44126
aaron44126 writes: Some VLC developers have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of a native port of VLC as a Windows 8 app. The goal is to create an app with a UI that fits into the rest of the Windows 8 ecosystem that supports the playback of all of the types of files that VLC already supports. Playback of optical media (DVD/VCD/BD) is also on the list. They hope to use as much existing code as possible while doing whatever necessary to get VLC running in the "metro" environment and meet Microsoft's requirements for distribution through the Windows Store. Porting to ARM so that it can run on Windows RT devices will happen after the Windows 8 app is complete. The campaign has actually been going on for almost two weeks but they published their first update today, in which they announced their intent to produce a Windows Phone 8 port as well.

Submission + - But what about the Malfunctioning and Rigged Voting Machines? (thepragmaticpundit.com)

Submitted by
FayPax
FayPax writes: "Democrats can feel proud of their ability to beat back many of the voter ID laws that swept across the nation, but the truth is voters are still exposed to an even greater culprit...the malfunctioning, hackable voting machines. It isn’t the number of registrations that determine the outcome of an election. The focus should be on making certain that every vote is accurately counted.

If officials were truly concerned about the sanctity of the vote, making certain each vote cast is accurately counted would be first and foremost, but that isn’t the case. Despite overwhelming evidence that the machines are faulty, we continue to use them.

We’re conducting elections on machines that give no receipts and cannot be audited. We frown on recall elections and recounts are virtually impossible. For all of our declarations about liberty and “we the people”, our elections are no better than those of a third world country."

Submission + - Hiring Smokers – Banned In South Florida City (huffingtonpost.com) 3

Submitted by Penurious Penguin
Penurious Penguin writes: On October 2, City Commissioners of Delray Beach finalized a policy which prohibits agencies from hiring employees who use tobacco products. Delray Beach isn't alone though; other Florida cities such as Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, require prospective employees to sign affidavits declaring themselves tobacco-free for 12 months prior to the date of application. Throughout the states, both government and businesses are moving to ban tobacco-use beyond working hours. Many medical facilities, e.g. hospitals, have already, or intend to implement similar policy. In some more-aggressive environments referred to as nicotine-free, employee urine-samples can be taken and tested for any presence of nicotine, not excluding that from gum or patches. Employees testing positive can be terminated.

The primary rationale behind these policies has been frugality, citing greater insurance-costs for smokers, and the savings implied by eliminating them from the workforce. In some less aggressive situations, persistent smokers are imposed a "Tobacco User Surcharge" of $20 per paycheck and offered waived co-payments for smoking-cessation drugs.

Efforts to cut expenses and encourage better health seem perfectly normal. Policy prohibiting activities otherwise legal, but unbefitting a workplace environment also seem normal. However, employers or government defining employee's domestic lifestyles is a relatively new concept, especially when nothing illegal is involved. It would be difficult, if not impossible to argue that smoking is without consequences; but is breeching the boundaries of the household inconsequential?

Times do change, and adaptation is often a necessary burden. But have they changed so much that we'd now postpone the Manhattan project for 12 months because Oppenheimer had toked his pipe? Would we confine our vision to the Milky Way or snub the 1373 Cincinnati because Hubble smoked his? Would we shun relativity, or shelve the works of Tolkien because he and C. S. Lewis had done the same? If so, then where will it stop? Will we soon scan employees for signs of excessive sugar, trans-fats and cholesterol? Will we have authenticated and logged aerobics classes? I, for one, welcome answers from our new salubrious overlords.
Android

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: No comprehensive app for Slashdot yet? (google.com) 4

Submitted by CCarrot
CCarrot writes: While looking for a comprehensive Slashdot app for Android, I was somewhat shocked to find that there isn't one out there (yet). There are plenty of apps that allow you to read stories and comments, including this one that lets you download and read stories and comments offline, however there are none (that I could find) that allow you to a) log in, or even b) post comments, not to mention check on friends' posts, monitor your comment history and replies, moderate posts, etc., etc.

To be fair, the mobile version of the site is very usable on cellphones and such, although html markup is rather a pain on a phone. It just surprises me that nobody has developed a dedicated app for it yet, especially considering that /. is 'news for nerds'. Any thoughts? Is one of the regular readers currently developing one in their oh-so-abundant 'spare' time? Or would anyone even use such an app if it were available? (besides me, of course...)
Android

Submission + - First Android Bootkit discovered in 3rd Party Appstores (nq.com)

Submitted by
EliSowash
EliSowash writes: "Researchers at NQ Mobile have uncovered what they say may be the first Google Android bootkit. Dubbed DKFBootKit, the malware was spotted on third-party app stores.

"DKFBootKit is able to steal personal information from user devices," notes Xuxian Jiang, NQ Mobile's chief scientist. "More alarmingly, it is a bot client that can retrieve and run commands from remote C&C servers." In the past two weeks, DKFBootKit has infected more than 1,657 Android devices."

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