Journal Journal: Slashdot: The Flowchart 2
This week's miscellanea comic details my experiences on slashdot in flowchart form.
Submission + - PGP for HTTP: The death of phishing and mitm?
Mike Haningth writes: I was reading an
interview
published in the Free Software Magazine about Enigform. Author claims that signed http requests
can stop man in the middle and phishing. So far, it looks to be a firefox extension using gnupg, and
an apache module for the server-side. I think it is quite cool! (resubmitted to Index instead of
Askslashdot)
Submission + - Writing a novel in a wiki?
An anonymous reader writes: Wikis are a great tool for online collaboration. But this guy took it one step further and wrote an entire novel in a wiki, and then got it published. It's possible that this is the first published work of fiction that was written entirely in a wiki.
Submission + - Novablade.com stolen, sold to highest bidder
hidingintheclosetwithaplatypus writes: Damien & Trisha Buchwald (previously) from Novablade.com have loosed the dogs of war after their registrar, Network Solutions, refused to allow them to renew or transfer their domain name and who have now sold it to another company to be auctioned off. Apparently the name's worth around US$16,000, and the Buchwalds are looking for help from anywhere they can get it.
We are infuriated, upset, and feel like we have had our very souls stolen from us and sold. This is a very disgusting, underhanded act that deserves justification.
Submission + - Hawking Enjoys Zero-G Ride
user24 writes: "TimesOnline reports: "For more than 40 years, Stephen Hawking has studied the mysteries of the universe from his wheelchair. Last night, he broke free of his disability and indulged his passion for gravitational phenomena in a finely stage-managed operation 32,000 feet above the Atlantic.
"It was amazing," he said after he returned from his experience of weightlessness. "The zero-g bit was wonderful . . . I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come."""
"It was amazing," he said after he returned from his experience of weightlessness. "The zero-g bit was wonderful . . . I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come."""
Submission + - Escort agency launches virgin service for geeks
6Yankee writes: A Dutch escort agency is offering a "virgin service" — and most of the customers work in IT. Says boss Zoe Vialet: "They are very sweet but are afraid of seeking contact with other people. They mean it very well but are very scared." In what might be considered a very cunning move, the three-hour-minimum appointment includes — a bath.
Submission + - New approach to building intelligent machines
An anonymous reader writes: The site is very crude, but there are lots of interesting articles. Evidently this fellow wants to work on developing a model for how the brain works — with the intent of building truly intelligent machines. He's requesting support for his research by selling a share in any profits that result from his theory.
Submission + - Gunman Kills NASA Worker and Himself
hsdpa writes: "A NASA engineer Friday shot and killed another engineer and then turned the gun on himself at the Johnson Space Center, police and NASA officials said."
Submission + - Atlantis destroyed by a tsunami ?
An anonymous reader writes: Research on the Greek island of Crete suggests that one of Europe's earliest civilisation [Alantis], which flourished until about 3,500 years ago, was destroyed by a giant tsunami.
From the article:
"The ancient Minoans were building palaces, paved streets and sewers, while most Europeans were still living in primitive huts.
But around 1500BC the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic end may finally have been solved.
A group of scientists have uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared.
"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
"Minoan building material, pottery and cups along with food residue such as isolated animal bones were mixed up with rounded beach pebbles and sea shells and microscopic marine fauna.
"The latter can only have been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism — a powerful tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive swoop," says Professor Bruins.
The deposits are up to seven metres above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves.
"An event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins.
The wave would have been as powerful as the one that devastated the coastlines of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing day 2004 leading to the loss of over 250,000 lives.
But if this evidence is so clear why has it not been discovered before now?
Tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of Southern California, says that the study of ancient tsunamis is in its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look for.
Submission + - Researchers win $10000 in OS X Security Challenge
crackman writes: Today at the CanSecWest security conference, Shane Macaulay demonstrated a client side vulnerability and exploit developed overnight by Dino Dai Zovi of Matasano Security to win the PWN 2 0WN contest. The pair walks away with the recently raised bounty of $10000 as well as the MacBook used in the demonstration. Matasano has promised details of the vulnerability will be disclosed at a later date.
Submission + - MySpace takes on Google News and Digg
cyberianpan writes:
MySpace is going into the news business with a service that will scour the internet for news stories and let users vote on which ones receive the most exposure.
This approach blends elements of Google News and sites such as Digg and Netscape, which rely on readers to submit stories and determine their prominence
This could be the holy grail of internet news, not merely will you be able to tap into the wisdom of the crowds but ultimately your recommended stories could be influenced/suggested by your friend's taste/choices or better still your hero's. Myspace may then become the dominant internet portal.
CS Programs Changing to Attract Women Students 596
Magnifico writes "The New York times is running an article about a push by American universities to actively recruit women into Computer Science courses. The story, 'Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold', explains that the number of women in CS is shrinking: 'Women received about 38 percent of the computer science bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States in 1985, the peak year, but in 2003, the figure was only about 28 percent, according to the National Science Foundation.' One of the largest barriers to recruiting women to the field is the nerd factor. To attract women students to the CS field, 'Moving emphasis away from programming proficiency was a key to the success of programs Dr. Blum and her colleagues at Carnegie Mellon instituted to draw more women into computer science.' Changes at CMU increased women students in the CS program from 8 percent to nearly 40 percent."
Submission + - Technical and Legal Hypothesis of Turnitin.com
Don'tTakeMyPaperPlease writes: I was excited when I read that some students were taking Turnitin.com to court regarding the company's use of the students' copyrighted papers. I've always felt that the service was quite possibly infringing on students' copyrights and we may finally find out if that is, legally, the case. Here is one theory of how the service operates based on Turnitin.com's assertions, and the resulting implications under copyright law.
Submission + - AMD's New DRM
DefectiveByDesign writes: "Remember how AMD said they'd make use of ATI's GPU technology to make better technology? Well, not all change is progress. InfoWorld is reporting that AMD plans to block access to the framebuffer in hardware to help enforce DRM schemes, such as allowing more restricted playback of Sony Blu-Ray disks. They can pry my print screen key out of my cold, dead hands."
Gates to join Simonyi in Space? 208
gadgetopia writes "On Russian state television, cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin tells journalists in a live video interview from the ISS that "Charles said that Bill Gates is also preparing to visit space"." Gotta wonder what that insurance premium is going to look like.
