Comment Re:Who's We? (Score 1) 359
Please let me know from what nationality a poster to Slashdot actually believes his is the only one represented on this website
United Federation of Planets, duh
Submission + - Britain's Apology to Alan Turing
ExE122 writes: "British PM Gordon Brown gives a posthumous apology to mathematician, chemist, logician, cryptanalyst and the father of computer science, Alan Turing. For slashdotters, Turing is probably best known for the Turing Machine, a device which has laid the groundwork for modern computer algorithms. To the rest of the world, he is commonly known as a World War II hero, deciphering several German crypts including that used by the Enigma machine. Though his contributions to science and the war efforts put him among the most influential men of the 20th century, Turing was criminally prosecuted in Britain in 1952 because of his lifestyle. Alan Turing was a homosexual, which at that time was a criminal illness and was punished by chemical castration. He committed suicide in 1954 at the age of 41. On Sept 10, 2009, Britain's Prime Minister gave a public apology for the "appalling" post-war treatment of Alan Turing, and acknowledged his contributions to the war effort."
Comment Re:The Myth of the Isolated Colenel Hacker (Score -1, Offtopic) 282
Linux just isn't ready for the desktop yet.
Translation: I haven't tried it.
the average computer user isn't going to spend months learning how to use a CLI and then hours compiling packages so that they can get a workable graphic interface to check their mail with
I've always thought Ubuntu has very extensive driver support, as do many other distros. Who needs the CLI when there are multiple desktop environments to choose from? How many does Windows have? Oh, right, one...
I'm not the only one who thinks they are user-friendly... Already many big-name vendor laptops are coming out with some form of Linux pre-loaded. Take a look at the HP laptops that are now being offered with Mobile Internet O/S... from the page: " Mobile Internet is a user-friendly, all-inclusive interface built on Linux."
especially not when they already have a Windows machine that does its job perfectly well
haha, good one!
and is backed by a major corporation as opposed to Linux which is only supported by a few unemployed nerds living in their mother's basement somewhere.
Red Hat is a major corporation. It's publicly traded on the NYSE (ticker: RHAT) and doing rather well. You should consider investing. You should also know that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a fully supported release which offers several high availability service contracts... which is why a lot of US Government systems are now running RHEL. Not to mention it's faster, less expensive, and more secure.
The last thing I want is a level 5 dwarf (haha) providing me my OS.
I don't blame you, I'd want at least a level 12 mage!
Comment The Myth of the Isolated Colenel Hacker (Score 4, Funny) 282
Captain Benjamin Willard was not a myth!
Comment you young whippersnappers... (Score 2, Insightful) 106
Perhaps the real problem is a lack of understanding. It seems that many lawmakers who try to deal with internet law have next to no technological knowledge about how the internet works, especially when it comes to e-commerce. (this looks like a good place for the obligatory 'tubes' link).
It seems like a lot of these laws are made with "good intentions" in that they are trying to prevent something they see as wrong: It sounds like the Maine law was trying to control the personal information dispersal of minors, and the law in New York was trying to keep it's residents from evading state taxes. They don't realize that the Maine law destroys a huge teenage market base in an already struggling economy, and that the New York law stifles e-commerce and causes a hastle for everyone outside of the state.
Unfortunately it looks like a lot of these laws are being proposed by individuals (I had originally written 'old farts' here but deleted it because it's unfair to old people... and to farts) have too narrow of a view to fully grasp the repercussions.
It's the same old complaint, I know (-1 Redundant) but I guess as long as there's slashdot, there will always be a place to bitch about it.
It seems like a lot of these laws are made with "good intentions" in that they are trying to prevent something they see as wrong: It sounds like the Maine law was trying to control the personal information dispersal of minors, and the law in New York was trying to keep it's residents from evading state taxes. They don't realize that the Maine law destroys a huge teenage market base in an already struggling economy, and that the New York law stifles e-commerce and causes a hastle for everyone outside of the state.
Unfortunately it looks like a lot of these laws are being proposed by individuals (I had originally written 'old farts' here but deleted it because it's unfair to old people... and to farts) have too narrow of a view to fully grasp the repercussions.
It's the same old complaint, I know (-1 Redundant) but I guess as long as there's slashdot, there will always be a place to bitch about it.
Comment The next Age of Conan expansion... (Score 1) 47
...will be known as "The Tonight Show"
Comment Re:Cool (Score 3, Informative) 121
I didn't look at individual pricing, but the AMD Turion Neo X2 L625 is alread being offered in a laptop from HP - listed at a base of $569.99 but the processor is a $75 upgrade... or so you think, as soon as you select it you are told you need to upgrade the video card as well!
Either way, they wasted no time getting this on the market. The price seems competetive with the Intel Atom model.
I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Intel one-ups them though.
Either way, they wasted no time getting this on the market. The price seems competetive with the Intel Atom model.
I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Intel one-ups them though.
Comment Here's an idea (Score 4, Funny) 158
Why not just tap it into Twitter and utilize an existing system that's stable, easily accessible, and highly availabile? Not to mention you could keep your friends in the loop!
Comment lol cat (Score 5, Funny) 174
I can haz blame?
Submission + - E-Archiving System To Be Tested 1
ExE122 writes: President Bush's departure from the whitehouse will mark a new milestone in archiving as an unprecedented amount of electronic data from the Bush Library will be ingested into the new Electronic Record Archiving (ERA) system for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). They are expecting "a whopping 140TB of data from the current Bush administration, more than 50 times what it received from the Clinton years". The success of this project is being watched closely as it will eventually support congress as well as several federal agencies in the storage, indexing, preservation, and disposition of electronic data under the Federal Records Act. -=ERA's FAQ=-
Comment Doomsday! (Score 1) 439
Dr Strangelove quotes on why I picked the doomsday device:
President Muffley: But this is absolute madness, Ambassador! Why should you *build* such a thing?
Ambassador de Sadesky: There were those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. At the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we had been spending on defense in a single year. The deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap.
President Muffley: This is preposterous! I've never approved of anything like that...
Ambassador de Sadesky: Our source was the New York Times.
Dr. Strangelove: The whole point of a doomsday machine is lost if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?
Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on monday... as you know, the Premier loves surprises!
So why are so many /.ers voting for a villainess? Do they not realize that as the owner of a doomsday device, it would be fully within my capacity to demand first dibs on the batch of nubile women who will be set aside to repopulate the earth?
President Muffley: But this is absolute madness, Ambassador! Why should you *build* such a thing?
Ambassador de Sadesky: There were those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. At the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we had been spending on defense in a single year. The deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap.
President Muffley: This is preposterous! I've never approved of anything like that...
Ambassador de Sadesky: Our source was the New York Times.
Dr. Strangelove: The whole point of a doomsday machine is lost if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?
Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on monday... as you know, the Premier loves surprises!
So why are so many
Submission + - Verizon to Share Customer Information
ExE122 writes: New York Times and Washington Post have reported that Verizon plans to share it's customers' information with "affiliates, agents and parent companies" (The Washington Post article can be found here). From the NYT article, "Verizon plans to share what is known in the industry as consumer proprietary network information, or C.P.N.I, which includes how many calls a customer makes, the geographical destination of the calls and what services the customer has purchased". Customers were recently sent a letter explaining that they had 30 days to "opt out" of C.P.N.I. To opt out, customers can call 800-333-9956 and enter their telephone number when prompted.
Submission + - Oracle offers to buy BEA Systems
ExE122 writes: Bloomberg reports the Oracle has put in a $6.7 billion bid for BEA Systems. The news has caused BEA's stocks jumped 33% before the market opened on friday. From the article "'We have made a serious proposal including a substantial premium for BEA,' Oracle President Charles Phillips said in a statement today. 'We look forward to completing a friendly transaction as soon as possible.'"
Submission + - Free Public Wi-Fi
ExE122 writes: A friend of mine works for a committe in Baltimore, MD which organizes corporations and civil leadership to make improvements throughout the region. One recent issue had to deal with Baltimore's recent addition of a free Wi-Fi network in Baltimore's inner harbor region. My friend has to put together a presentation outlining benefits, drawbacks, and risks of implementing free city-wide internet access. He asked for my opinion, but I admittedly have limited knowledge in all that's involved in wireless networks. Here's a quick rundown of what we came up with:
Benefits:
Security is also a big issue. The general public isn't aware of how network traffic can be monitored and knows very little about encryption. I would think the number of online identity theft cases in the area would sky-rocket.
I was wondering what insight the /. community could provide about these issues and if they see any more plusses/minuses/concerns that should be mentioned.
Benefits:
- Crossing the "digital divide" (welcome to the 21st century)
- Increasing business/local communication.
- Once the technology is in place, it could be upgraded to include private secure networks for government protection services such as police, fire, and rescue.
- Accountability for illegal activities (can't tell who the hell is sharing kiddie pr0n)
- It's difficult to get the local ISPs to go along with the idea
- Security
- IPV6
- Will it run Linux? (jk)
Security is also a big issue. The general public isn't aware of how network traffic can be monitored and knows very little about encryption. I would think the number of online identity theft cases in the area would sky-rocket.
I was wondering what insight the
Staged Hack Causes Generator to Self-Destruct 258
An anonymous reader writes "It has been revealed that in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security exercise codenamed 'Aurora' conducted in March of this year, researchers were able to cause a power generator to self-destruct remotely via a hack which changed the operating cycle of the generator. 'Government sources said changes are being made to both computer software and physical hardware to protect power generating equipment. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is conducting inspections to ensure all nuclear plants have made the fix. Industry experts also said the experiment shows large electric systems are vulnerable in ways not previously demonstrated.'"
