Valthan - Slashdot User

Submission + - How to crash an in-flight entertainment system

Submitted by

rabblerouzer

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:18AM

rabblerouzer writes: "Hugh Thompson, who was interviewed by Slashdot on the dangers of e-voting, now has a cool blog entry on how he was able to bring down the gaming/movie console on an airplane. He calls it one of the most interesting examples of a software "abuse case" he has ever seen."

Submission + - Symantec 'borrowing' from independent researchers?

Submitted by on Monday February 19, 2007 @12:05PM

An anonymous reader writes: Symantec posted a paper late last week on what they called Drive-By Pharming; attacks on home network hardware via a user's browser. Interesting stuff.

What is perhaps just as interesting is that the exact techniques described by Symantec appeared here in Joe Walker's blog over a week earlier. Are Symantec borrowing other peoples' research without giving credit or is this just a coincidence?

Submission + - Ruby Implementations Shootout

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:56AM

An anonymous reader writes: Ruby has an ever growing number of alternative implementations, and many of these attempt to improve the suboptimal performance of the current mainstream interpreter. Antonio Cangiano has an interesting article in which he benchmarks a few of the most popular Ruby implementations, including Yarv (the heart of Ruby 2.0), JRuby, Ruby.NET, Rubinius and Cardinal (Ruby on Parrot). Numerical evidence is provided rather than shear opinions. The tests clearly show that Yarv is the fastest implementation and that it offers a promising future when it comes to the speed of the next Ruby version.

Submission + - Pirates Blamed for Low Vista Sales

Submitted by Toxicgonzo on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:56AM

Toxicgonzo writes: In a recent conference call, Steve Ballmer admits the sales forecast for Vista had been "overly optimistic". He explained the slow sales by saying, "Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth, and I think we'll make some piracy improvements this year." He plans to "dial-up" anti-piracy measures with a tougher version of Windows Genuine Advantage. Also, he promises Microsoft "..won't go five years ... between big Windows releases."

Submission + - Virtual war helps US soldiers deal with trauma

Submitted by

Novotny

on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:55AM

Novotny writes: "The Guardian is reporting on the use of the game engine for Full Spectrum Warrior, alongside 8 smells (including gunpowder, cordite, burning rubber, Iraqi spices, barbecued lamb and body odour) in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Iraq veterans. Whilst anything that helps our soldiers get over undoubtably harrowing experiences is worth trying, I wonder how long it will be until Jack Thompson pipes up claiming this is further evidence that video gaming is a bad experience for anyone, nevermind kids?"

Submission + - The Recording Industry's Failed Digital Strategy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:47AM

An anonymous reader writes: The Toronto Star has a terrific article by Michael Geist on the recording industry's failed digital strategy. The article links together the misplaced reliance on DRM and the advocacy for copyright levies to demonstrate how the record labels got the Internet completely wrong.

Submission + - Hard Disk Study Leaves Google Surprised

Submitted by bugg_tb on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:47AM

bugg_tb writes: The BBC is reporting on a study performed by Google engineers on regular 'off the shelf' hard drives that Google uses for caching data and how they perform and the likelyhood of them to fail. The author states: "We expected to notice a very strong and consistent correlation between high utilisation and higher failure rates. "However our results appear to paint a more complex picture. First, only very young and very old age groups appear to show the expected behaviour." The report concludes that: there was a clear trend showing "that lower temperatures are associated with higher failure rates". "Only at very high temperatures is there a slight reversal of this trend." You can see the full report here

How A "Superbaby" Is Helping To Find Muscular Dystrophy Treatments 93

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:45AM from the hercules-hercules dept.

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that a baby boy with unusually big muscles — caused by a gene mutation — is helping scientists to discover new muscular dystrophy drugs. "Myostatin was discovered in mice in 1992 in Lee's Johns Hopkins lab. In 1996 he proved its importance by showing that mice without the myostatin-producing gene got twice as big. The next year he discovered that the bulging Belgian Blue cow was a myostatin mutant, the first of eight prized cattle breeds later found to have the mutation. The company he had co-founded, MetaMorphix, is working on manipulating myostatin to beef up livestock. Wyeth picked up the rights to develop a drug for humans. Its experimental antibody drug produced bulked-up mice in 2002, and results of a trial in adults with muscular dystrophy are expected as early as March."

Submission + - Firefox 3 to support offline apps

Submitted by thinkingpen on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:41AM

thinkingpen writes: Read/Write web is carrying an interesting story about Firefox 3. From the article — "An interesting tidbit came out of the recent Foo Camp New Zealand (which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend). Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla, who is based in NZ but drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox, spoke about how Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This is significant because you'll be able to use your web apps — like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc — in the browser even when offline. I deliberately mentioned all Google web apps there, because of course this plays right into Google's hands." Now thats web 3.0 ?

Submission + - Possible cure for autism

Submitted by Henry V .009 on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:25AM

Henry V .009 writes: New Jersey scientists are claiming that children with autism are unable to metabolize key fatty acids which fight brain-damaging inflammations. They have already developed urine/blood tests to identify at risk children. A preventive cure to autism may be as simple as a 'therapeutic cocktail' of fatty acids.

Submission + - 50 Technologies: Where CIOs Will Spend in 2007

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:20AM

An anonymous reader writes: CIO Insight has released a report, "50 Technologies: Where CIOs are Spending Their Money," that details exactly where companies plan to increase or reduce spending in 2007. The study is based on the responses from 429 senior-level IT people. Some highlights:
* Large companies are increasing their IT spending by almost 8 percent.
* Nearly 9 out of 10 companies plan to invest in operating-system upgrades.
* 17 percent of companies plan to increase budgeting for business intelligence, and spending on analytics is rising faster than any other software category, trailed closely by Web 2.0 technologies and customer self-service applications.

Submission + - Computer history on a postage stamp.

Submitted by

Terry Mitchell

on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:19AM

Terry Mitchell writes: "Computer history on a postage stamp. On 1st March 2007 Bletchley Park Post Office will celebrate one of the most significant events in the history of the computer. It is the creation by British Post Office engineers of the world's first electronic computer in 1943. To coincide with the issue of Royal Mail's "World of Invention" stamps it will issue a first day cover featuring Colossus. This was the World's first semi-programmable electronic computer. That it was designed and built by Post Office engineers is a unique historical twist. The first of these massive room sized machines was installed at Bletchley Park in December 1943. Its job was to crack Adolf Hitler's personal codes ahead of the D-day landings. The limited edition first day cover will feature rare wartime photographs of Colossus in action and the men responsible for this technological breakthrough. The stamps will be cancelled using a facsimile of a Colossus valve. Proceeds from the cover will go towards preserving Bletchley Park as a national heritage site. 1000 covers will be issued at £12.50 plus £1.50 post and packing. A replica of a Colossus computer has been rebuilt at Bletchley Park and completion is expected by mid-summer. It represents years of work by a team of volunteers with little to go on but scraps of drawings and a few photographs. At the end of World War Two Winston Churchill ordered all trace of the Colossi computers destroyed so that such advanced technology did not fall into the hands of a future enemy. The rebuilt machine, which can be viewed at Bletchley Park, is featured on the rear of the first day cover. The first day cover can only be obtained direct from Bletchley Park Post Office, The Mansion, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB, through the web site at www.bletchleycovers.com or by calling +44(0)1908 272690/631797."

Submission + - Quantum Computing

Submitted by

Camaro

on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:19AM

Camaro writes: "CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/02/15/quantum. computer.ap/index.html) is reporting that a company has produced a Quantum Computer but has not yet submitted the technology for peer reivew.
from CNN: "He said all the evidence the company has indicates that the device is performing quantum computations, but he acknowledged there is some uncertainty." Do you think they got their own Heisenberg's joke? I think it went over their heads"

Submission + - new tool for **AA to wage war on the populous

Submitted by torxim on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:14AM

torxim writes: a new content piece of content recognition software has been developed that takes movie clips and identifies if it is material under copyright or not. I just wonder what database the software compares against, and if they will have licenses to all of that material as well.

Submission + - How Steve Jobs Played Hardball in iPhone Birth

Submitted by

Carl Bialik from WSJ

on Monday February 19, 2007 @11:06AM

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes: "Apple bucked the rules of the cellphone industry when creating the iPhone by wresting control away from normally powerful wireless carriers, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Only three executives at the carrier, which is now the wireless unit of AT&T Inc., got to see the iPhone before it was announced. Cingular agreed to leave its brand off the body of the phone. Upsetting some Cingular insiders, it also abandoned its usual insistence that phone makers carry its software for Web surfing, ringtones and other services. ... Mr. Jobs once referred to telecom operators as "orifices" that other companies, including phone makers, must go through to reach consumers. While meeting with Cingular and other wireless operators he often reminded them of his view, dismissing them as commodities and telling them that they would never understand the Web and entertainment industry the way Apple did, a person familiar with the talks says.'"

Slashdot Top Deals