setirw - Slashdot User

Submission + - GPL to shine on Solaris

Submitted by

kspiteri

on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @10:48AM

kspiteri writes: "eWeek is claiming that Sun will dual license Solaris using the GPL3 once the license is ready. As arstechnica points out, it seems unlikely that code mingling with Linux will be facilitated, especially considering that there are no plans to migrate Linux from GPL2 to GPL3."

Submission + - German govt plans to bug and online search PCs

Submitted by

gd23ka

on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @10:48AM

gd23ka writes: "Heise Online News is carrying an article the German Government plans to create
trojan software to penetrate privately owned computers and search them online. Infecting computers
with government malware is not new, the only question is how will American spyware and antivirus detection
kits deal with it. Oh and of course the entire concept of secretly searching computers opens a can of
worms for itself, the infection mechanism could for example be installed at one of the few big national internet
providers like T-Online and be triggered by whatever you choose to do with your internet connection.
As always the babelfish is your friend but I'm also providing a translation of the article:

In its answer to a minor inquiry of the Die Linke ("The Left") party on the lawfulness of searching the contents of
computers online the government of Germany has published details to the "Bundestrojaner" (Federal Trojan) it has
planned. The inofficial Federal Trojan designation refers to parts of a program that will infect a PC with spyware
code in order to allow police authorities and secret services to search computers online. ...
As far as the lawfulness of such an online search is concerned, the German government points towards a lawsuit that is
held in German Federal Court. Early december one of the investigating judges had ruled online searches of computers
illegal however the General Federal Attorney Harms immediately filed an objection to this ruling. ...
All told, the answer of the government to the inquiry leaves no doubt that the online search of computers will be an
indispensable instrument of criminal investigators and in-land security agencies. One advantage in contrast to
the physical search of a computer is that the accused does not know of the investigations conducted against them
and can't interfere with the investigation. ...
According to the German government there has not been an online search of a computer since due to the fact that
the only known incident that was authorized by an investigating judge in Bonn was stopped through a motion
filed at the German Federal Court. ..."

Submission + - Which phone caused the fire? Help solve mystery.

Submitted by

netbuzz

on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @10:47AM

netbuzz writes: "It's the morning after a worldwide press blitz about the so-called "exploding cell phone" that seriously injured a California man. And despite the voluminous headlines and TV chatter we still don't know who made the phone or what model it was — because fire officials refuse to tell. Correcting this wrong seems to be a perfect opportunity for "community journalism" to shine. Network World is inviting any and all to call their own cell-phone suppliers and ask the simple question: "Was my phone involved?" Let the magazine know what you learn.

http://www.networkworld.com/community3/?q=node/105 05"

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."

After 100M IE7 Downloads, Firefox Still Gaining 425

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @08:27AM from the denting-the-monopoly dept.

Kelson writes "Internet Explorer 7 hit the 100 million download mark last week. Yet in the three months it's been available, Firefox's market share has continued to grow. InformationWeek reports that nearly all of IE7's growth has been upgrades from IE6. People don't seem to be switching back to IE in significant numbers, prompting analysts to wonder: has Microsoft finally met its match?"

FUSE Port Brings NTFS Support To OS X 150

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @05:43AM from the circuit-breaker dept.

sciurus0 writes "In his session at Macworld on OS X filesytems, Google's Amit Singh announced that he has ported Linux's FUSE module to OS X. The port is called MacFUSE and it is available in source form and as a pre-compiled kernel extension with associated tools. Many FUSE filesystems such as sshfs and ntfs-3g are reported to work."

Submission + - isohunt taken down by ISP pending legal action

Submitted by on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @01:21AM

An anonymous reader writes: isohunt.com is down pending the outcome from their legal wrangle with the MPAA. How long before all torrent distributions are taken down?

Submission + - 10 people fired over Wii radio contest

Submitted by Skadet on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @12:49AM

Skadet writes: 10 people have been fired in the aftermath of the tragic death of one of the contestants for Sacramento radio station 107.9 The End's "Hold your Wee for a Wii" promotion (first covered on Slashdot here).

From TFA:

The hosts of KDND-FM's "Morning Rave" — who go by the on-air names Trish, Maney and Lukas — were fired a day after the station announced it was suspending the show and investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Jennifer Lea Strange. [...] John Geary, vice president and general manager of KDND parent company, Entercom/Sacramento, made the announcement Tuesday in an e-mail to reporters.

"Effective immediately, the 'Morning Rave' program is canceled and ten employees are no longer with the station."

A company spokesman, Charles Sipkins, confirmed the three DJs, as well as two other on-air personalities, "Carter" and "Fester," were among those fired. Five other employees who worked on the "Morning Rave" also were let go. All 10 were fired, the spokesman said, for violating terms of their employee agreements.

I used to work at a corporately owned radio station (full disclosure: not for Entercom, KDND's owner. I was a techie in radio in a previous life). But I can tell you from experience that most of the people fired were most likely not responsible for this event. At my station group, no events happened without the express consent of #1, the station manager, and #2, the promotions director. They're the ones ultimately responsible. So why isn't John Geary the one getting the boot? Is this just an example of Corporate America scapegoating the peons? What if you had been commissioned by your boss to write code that ended up being a danger? Would you be culpable, or your boss?

Submission + - 1UP's Top 10 WTF moments of 2006

Submitted by MasterPoof on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @03:30PM

MasterPoof writes: From Scott Sharkey 1UP's Top 10 : "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but mostly, it was the what the f***iest of times. Barely a day went by this year when something absoludicrous didn't assault us from our own news page. Given the relentless march of progressively more insane events and the dilated nature of internet time some of this stuff has already begun to fade from collective memory. But it happened, no matter how much the shriveled rational halves of our brains try to tell us that it didn't." Though must of you probably know what half of these already are, its still worth a read (or at the very least a cheap laugh).

Submission + - Seagate claims 2.5" SCSI drive is world's fast

Submitted by

theraindog

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @03:07PM

theraindog writes: "Seagate has announced a 2.5" SCSI hard drive that spins at an astounding 15,000RPM. The Savvio 15K is the first 2.5" hard drive with a 15K-RPM spindle speed, but what's more interesting is that Seagate claims it's the fastest hard drive on the market. Indeed, the drive boasts an impressive 2.9ms seek time, which is more than half a millisecond quicker than that of comparable 3.5" SCSI drives. The Savvio 15K also features perpendicular recording technology and a claimed Mean Time Between Failures of 1.6 million hours."

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