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Submission + - Dell blocks installation of standard components 1

Submitted by

Loh Phat

on Friday July 27, 2007 @04:15AM

Loh Phat writes: "Hardware vendors voiding warranties or not providing support is a standard caveat across the industry, but yesterday Dell showed that withholding a $5 part is more important that future sales or bad press.

Our company purchased a Dell PowerEdge 3250 (Dual CPU Itanium) less than two years ago (still under warranty BTW) for cross platform development (yes, our customers demand support for that platform). So we purchased a unit with a single drive in a two drive system.

Its spec sheet specifies U320 SCSI drive support — a standard. See for yourself http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedg e/en/3250_specs.pdf

So when we wanted to add storage we purchased a standard U320 compatible drive and went to install it, however when we pulled the hot-swap drive sled out we noticed that it lacked mounting facilities for the drive; it curiously didn't match the existing sled in the occupied bay. They are 99% identical except for the lack of facility to actually attach a drive.

During a call to Dell "support" it seems that a year ago (a year after we bought the server and before the warranty expires) they stopped selling the drive sled capable of mounting a drive as a separate component — you can only get them, wait for it, attached to a Dell SCSI drive.

So it seems that it's OK to advertise the compatibility with industry-standard components, you just can't use them. With no pre-sales caveat that you will not be allowed to install anything standard unless it comes from Dell. Funny, the drive sled has its own part number H7206 but Dell *refused* to sell it to me.

The term "bait-and-switch" comes to mind. I'm all for caveat emptor, but a full declaration of terms is not unreasonable.

I don't mind having the freedom to be denied service or support of using non-vendor supplied parts (well, I do actually but I least know that before I buy) but in this case I'm physically prevented from doing so after the purchase.

So the question remains: are there grounds to file an anti-trust or some other complaint with the State regarding this deceptive business practice?

Regardless, they're now off the vendor list (actually I inherited the server as I would have selected another vendor in the first place). Good forward thinking there guys."

Submission + - Is Google Evil?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10, 2007 @11:57PM

An anonymous reader writes: Absolutely! Their motto is just a marketing ploy!
Yes, but just since the IPO.
Almost; just a few more stories to go...
Not really, but heading that route.
Never! I love the Google!

Submission + - Good Service -- Bad Software (humanized.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Sunday June 10, 2007 @11:26PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Open source software is generally painful to setup and maintain. And it's likely to stay that way because it's open source. Of course, I could hire someone to set it up for me. That's what the service-oriented market is all about. I can get my software for free, try it out, and pay someone for support when I run into trouble. But there's something nagging... setting up sendmail (or qmail, or any of the half-dozen email solutions I've tried) shouldn't be as hard as it is. Why, over the numerous years — as it's been worked on by a brilliant body of hackers — has it remained so obtuse? Read more..."

Submission + - Warnings from the FDA for two diabetes drugs (dogflu.ca)

Submitted by firesquirt on Sunday June 10, 2007 @10:20PM

firesquirt writes: From an article at dogflu. http://www.dogflu.ca/06102007/21/black_box_warning s_for_diabetes_drugs The FDA has sent letters to the makers of two popular diabetes drugs Avandia and Actos, requesting that they be given black box warnings due to a link between them and congestive heart failure The FDA has sent letters to the makers of two popular diabetes drugs Avandia and Actos, requesting that they be given black box warnings due to a link between them and congestive heart failure It is being reported that two diabetes drugs have received black box warnings from the FDA due to an increased risk of congestive heart failure in diabetics who take them. The drugs that will receive black box warnings are Avandia made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Actos which is made by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach stated that the FDA had sent letters to the makers of the two drugs, requesting that black box warnings be added to their labels. The warnings are meant to "more prominently address the risks of congestive heart failure associated with the use of these drugs in certain patients." The black box warnings are in response to recent studies that were made public that showed that Avandia use put a patient at a 43% increase of having a heart attack, and an increased risk of congestive heart failure. "Avandia is a case study of the need for reform of our drug safety laws," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "FDA needs the will, the resources and the authority to be a more effective watchdog of drug safety."

Submission + - Free Rootkit with Every New Intel Machine

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10, 2007 @09:02PM

An anonymous reader writes: Have you ever wondered about the security of Intel's active management technology (AMT) or your Intel vpro desktop? Security expert Peter Guttman has and he considers it a way to get a free rootkit on every Intel machine. See here for the details.

Submission + - Beryl and Compiz are merging (beryl-project.org)

Submitted by firesquirt on Sunday June 10, 2007 @08:47PM

firesquirt writes: From the Beryl-project website http://www.beryl-project.org/ Beryl and Compiz (at least the plugins part of compiz) are now merging, in the hope of a better future. No name has been decided yet but there's a vote going on. The forums are currently at http://www.opencompositing.org/ and everyone currently using Beryl should check it in the next days or weeks to find information about the new merged project (setup instructions, etc) when they are available.

Submission + - What are the best Video Glasses for under $500

Submitted by

freedom_india

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @04:23AM

freedom_india writes: "I use my iPod Video to view movies during the long haul flights, and also at home when the remote is snatched from me.

The recent batch of innovations of Video Glasses which allow me to watch a GIANT 70 inch screen via a pair of glasses is appealing! (Imagine watching jenna!)

However with so many products available (myVU, iTheater) http://www.coolbuzz.org/entry/top-10-video-glasses / i can't decide which would be the best to buy under $500 (my budget).

Can you all suggest your experiences and why you bought your video glasses?"

Submission + - The Xbox 360 get its own LiveCD

Submitted by eZtaR on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @05:17PM

eZtaR writes: The guys over at the Free60 project have released a working, gentoo-based linux live cd for the xbox 360. Sporting the gnome desktop and various applications such as Firefox and Evolution, one can pop the CD in and enjoy ones triplecore powerpc doing simpler tasks such as checking up on the latest news here on slashdot. Although it lacks features such as sound and hardware acceleration (which the developers blame on lack of hardware-docs) it's currently working on firmware versions 4532 and 4548, without risking breaking your warranty.

Submission + - Fatal PSP update & lack of support

Submitted by

Badle

on Thursday May 03, 2007 @02:49AM

Badle writes: "This is my first article on Slashdot, so please forgive me if its not up to the usual standards..

Anyways, I'm posting to let people know how Sony is still screwing its customers. I have been a fan of Sony electronics for years. My first purchase being one of their Net Mini Disc players back when they were first coming out. I loved how I could rip my CD collection & have 3 or 4 discs with lots of songs on it. My latest purchases now being their PS3 & the PSP.

Sadly my dismay with them comes with the PSP & the PS3.

I was happy to read that I could hook my PSP to the PS3 and download old PS1 games to play on my portable. Having enjoyed many hours of gaming on their systems in the past I was very excited. I hooked my PSP up to the PS3 and proceeded to let the system do its thing updating. This is when everything went wrong. I was about 75% done updating when the unit went black. (and yes my PSP was plugged in at the time) I left it for awhile & went to get some supper. Came back after supper and still no picture. I unplugged the unit, and tried turning it off & on. Still black. I pulled out the battery turned it off & on, then put the battery in (I figured that this would reset the unit, as most electronics when they lock up taking the power away generally fixes the problem) Still nothing. So I searched online at Sony's website for trouble shooting. Their site said to try pulling the battery out & leaving it for awhile. So I did. A day later I popped the battery back in & still nothing. Frustrated I called Sony. Their operator came online & had me try again cycling the power, plugging it in, taking out the battery, & unhooking the power. Nothing. So they say that I need to send my unit in for repair. When I asked them why it doesn't turn on, they said they didn't know, only that my PSP is damaged & that they can fix it for $120. I said WTF?! This is my baby, what about warranty. They had me dig out my receipt and then said nope, your 3 months off warranty, so we will need $120 to repair your PSP. This is when I got upset & asked to speak to a manager. I explained what I had done, hooking my PSP up to the PS3, and they said that it probably died during an update, and that because I am 3 months off warranty I would need to pay $120 to have it fixed. This chokes me up, because my PSP was working fine until I plugged it into their PS3. And following their own instructions (make sure the unit is fully charged, and plugged in before updating) the unit died. As far as I'm concerned I did nothing wrong other than follow their own instructions and ended up with a dead PSP. Yet they still want money from a long time customer. WTF!? Is it me, or does this seem like a defect in their design of the unit & just another way to screw users as they have been doing with their DRM bullsh*t?

Anyways, needless to say I'm not paying them to fix my PSP, I'm probably going to return my PS3, and If I do anything with the PSP I will have a local electronics shop see if they can repair it, as I have heard from friends that for $60 I can get it fixed up with a new motherboard.

Anyone one else who has ran into similar troubles please feel free to comment on how they were treated when talking to Sony. I myself as you can read, am very pissed off at them. If my Sony Net MD, & Trinitron TV weren't so old, I would be taking them back as well."

Submission + - Quantum Cryptography Hacked

Submitted by mrbluze on Monday April 30, 2007 @06:45AM

mrbluze writes: Nature reports on a eavesdropping technique developed by researchers at MIT for intercepting quantum-encrypted messages:

To listen in, the team used a quantum-mechanical principle known as entanglement, which can link together two different traits of a particle. Using an optical setup, the team was able to entangle the transmitted photon's polarization with its momentum. The eavesdropper could then measure the momentum in order to get information about the polarization, without affecting the original polarization.
This stuff is beyond me, but I can't wait to read Slashdot's explanation!

Submission + - $10,000 Mac hack affects Windows too

Submitted by

taoman1

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @04:00PM

taoman1 writes: "The bug that helped security researcher Dino Dai Zovi claim a $10,000 prize at last week's CanSecWest security conference affects Windows systems too. That's because the flaw isn't a Safari problem, as orginally reported, it actually lies in the way Apple's QuickTime Media Player works with the Java."

Feed Bob Metcalfe re-evaluates open source (newsforge.com)

From feed by nffeed on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @03:12PM

Bob Metcalfe may not have invented the Internet, but few people's technical achievements have done more to make it popular and accessible than the father of Ethernet and founder of 3Com. Metcalfe and the open source community got a little bit sideways with each other last century, but that appears to be all in the past now.

Submission + - Student arrested for quoting Columbine Killers

Submitted by

HoodCrowd

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @02:35PM

HoodCrowd writes: "Yuri Wainwright, 25, of Purvis, Mississippi was arrested last week for allegedly posting threatening messages on his MySpace Web page. He quoted the Columbine killers and posted other bulletins that the University of Southern Mississippi police force deemed dangerous. Those quotes can be found here. There is also an opinion piece from the enlightened student editor here. Has the good ole USA gone to the wimps? Is what he posted really worth holding him in prison for $1,000,000 bond. I am surly going to jail for the things I have posted on Slashdot."

Submission + - RIAA Secretly Tries to Get ISP Subscriber Info

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @01:30PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA secretly went into federal district court in Denver, Colorado, the home town of its lawyers, and — in an attempt to change the rules of the game — made an ex parte application to a federal judge there, asking him to rule (pdf) that the federal Cable Communications Policy Act does not apply to the RIAA's attempts to get subscriber information from cable companies. ("Ex parte" means application was secret, no one else — neither the ISP nor the subscribers — were given notice that this was going on.). They were, in effect, asking the Court to rule that the RIAA does not need to get a court order to be able to force an ISP to disclose confidential subscriber information. The Magistrate Judge declined to rule on the issue (pdf), but did give them the ex parte discovery order they were looking for."

Submission + - Sams Club starts offering 360 HDDVD Drive for 72$

Submitted by

NexTechNews

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @12:42PM

NexTechNews writes: "Talk about a huge pile driver to the ps3's head! Sams Club members can now get a HDDVD drive for $72.54, yep as you can see above, sams club members are offloading the hddvd drive for 72$. Don't forget this baby works with the 360 and your PC!

Yes thats right not only is walmart getting ready to sell 200-299$ standalone hddvd players while bluray is still at over 500-600$. But now Sams Club is giving us PC/360 compatable HDDVD addons for 72$, this is definitly enough to showcase that"

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