Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Once Slashdot beta has been foisted upon me, what site should I use instead? 2

Submitted by somenickname
somenickname writes: As a long time Slashdot reader, I'm wondering what website to transition to once the beta goes live. The new beta interface seems very well suited to tablets/phones but, it ignores the fact that the user base is, as one would expect, nerds sitting in front of very large LCD monitors and wasting their employers time. It's entirely possible that the browser ID information gathered by the site has indicated that they get far more hits on mobile devices where the new interface is reasonable but, I feel that no one has analyzed the browser ID (and screen resolution) against comments modded +5. I think you will find that most +5 comments are coming from devices (real fucking computers) that the new interface does not support well. Without an interface that invites the kind of users that post +5 comments, Slashdot is just a ho-hum news aggregation site that allows comments. So, my question is, once the beta is the default, where should Slashdot users go to?

Submission + - Slashdot beta sucks 9

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Maybe some of the slashdot team should start listening to its users, most of which hate the new user interface. Thanks for ruining something that wasn't broken.
Data Storage

Submission + - Transparent, flexible memory chips could replace flash (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: According to Dr. James M. Tour, a synthetic organic chemist at Houston’s Rice University, flash memory devices can only be built smaller for another six to seven years – at that point, they will reach a technological barrier. Already, however, Tour and his colleagues have developed a new type of memory chip, which they believe could replace flash in thumb drives, smartphones and computers. Not only does their chip allow more data to be stored in a given space, but it can also be folded like paper, withstand temperatures of up to 1,000F (538C), and is transparent – this means that devices’ screens could also serve as their memory.
Google

Submission + - Google found guilty of deceptive advertising (abc.net.au)

Submitted by solanum
solanum writes: The Australian Federal Court have found Google guilty of providing misleading links in its search results. They have been found responsible for Adwords based around four companies names, purchased by rival companies to take their search results. A Google statement said "Google AdWords is an ads hosting platform and we believe that advertisers should be responsible for the ads they create on the AdWords platform." But the court disagreed. The origin of this case goes back some time and was covered in 2007.
Data Storage

Submission + - First 4TB Enterprise Hard Drive (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: HGST introduced the first 4TB enterprise-class hard drive family, the Ultrastar 7K4000. The Ultrastar 7K4000 family features a 6Gb/s SATA interface and a 64MB cache buffer. It is an Advanced Format drive, using 4096-byte sector size, and is backward compatible with legacy 512-byte sector size by offering built-in 512-byte emulation through the SATA interface. Now IT managers can get 2.4 PBs in the footprint of a standard 19-inch storage rack by stacking ten 4U, 60-bay enclosures. The Ultrastar 7K4000 achieves a 59 percent reduction in watts from peak usage during low RPM idle mode, and uses less than 1W during standby/sleep modes.
AI

Submission + - A researcher at the University of Toronto wins prize for artificial brain (thestar.com)

Submitted by Oldcynic
Oldcynic writes: Geoffrey Hilton has won the 2012 Killam Prize for his work in artificial intelligence that is designed to mimic the human brain.
    From TFA
"Microsoft, Google, IBM and other tech giants have used Hinton’s ideas to improve onscreen character recognition, data compression, search engine speeds and other pattern-dependent tasks. His work also raises questions that were once the purview of science fiction. "
    I'll believe that it is human when it starts to whine about something.
Security

Submission + - Unusual Penetration Testing Situations (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: SANS Institute author and instructor Raul Siles talks about unusual and interesting situations he encountered while working as a penetration tester, outlines practical tips for those interested in a penetration testing career, lists his favorite tools, and much more. Raul remembers: "On the funny side, I remember a penetration test where we got access to one of the target Unix servers, we found it was previously compromised. The attacker had established it as his basement repository for warez (illegal software) and movies. As soon as we notified the customer about the findings, the first thing he did was to request us a copy of all the movies before proceeding to delete them."

Comment Re:Its a SWISS, not a Swedish firm (Score 1) 528

by dysfunct (#39155777) Attached to: North Korea's High-Tech Counterfeit $100 Bills

As an Austrian, if you asked me what language I speak I'd probably either say Austrian or German with a Viennese accent. The differences in pronunciation and vocabulary compared to regular German (as well as pretty much all accents spoken in Germany and Switzerland) are large enough that our language seems to be an important part of our national identity.

And honestly, there's quite the language barrier between Austrians and Germans and communicating might take a conscious effort on both sides to speak the agreed-upon "standard German". And even then you might find out that regular words you use all the time are unknown to the other party.

Hell, even some friends and I sometimes have trouble understanding each other because of differences in dialects, and we only live 200km (~120 miles) apart. Never mind weird parts of the country like Vorarlberg where even a friend who's into linguistics couldn't understand any freaking thing they were saying.

Comment Everything runs Linux here (Score 1) 432

by dysfunct (#36400282) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Linux Support In Universities?
At the University where I study, pretty much everything runs on Linux or other UNIX-based systems. Even a large amount of the student population runs Linux as their preferred OS.

Students and staff have an LDAP account. All mails go to your .maildir and you can upload your personal website to your public_html folder in your home directory. Wherever you go, chances are there's a number of headless PXE booting terminals that boot a Linux environment according to your status and privileges and also mount your central home directory.

Local WLAN offers 802.1x authentication, VPN and IPSec and unencrypted access with a web-based authentication gateway. To remotely access resources, you can either use VPN and mount your home directory via NFS or ssh to a public student server and do ssh forwarding from there or use X11 forwarding.

Pretty much all operating systems are supported. Detailed instructions and support are provided for Windows, Linux, OS X.

I am aware that this setup is not very common, but it does prove that it is indeed possible to run the IT of an entire university with thousands of students on Linux and support every major operating system.

I'm also sure that you university could easily support Linux if they only wanted to. Linux already supports nearly every protocol you could throw at it and most Linux users know what they are doing. Just enable some non-proprietary protocol, post an example configuration file and you should be good to go.

Some examples of how good Linux support looks like can be found here and here.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Protozoa are small, and bacteria are small, but viruses are smaller than the both put together."

Close