Spookticus - Slashdot User

Submission + - Nightmare web design clients

Submitted by

Mathew Browne

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @11:25PM

Mathew Browne writes: "I recently wrote an article about web design clients who have proved a little troublesome — see http://www.mbwebdesign.co.uk/blog/nightmare-web-de sign-clients/ You know the kind — "we can't afford to pay you but we'll let you have a link back to your site", "I want to be #1 on Google for [insert generic term here]", "let's use Comic Sans as the font", et cetera. This article lists 10 clients I've encountered who you want to avoid."

Submission + - Identification through Reverse DNS?

Submitted by on Sunday May 27, 2007 @07:27PM

An anonymous reader writes: I've recently noticed that the reverse DNS name given to my IP from my ISP contains my mac address. It seems to me that regardless of IP address/dhcp logs that this could serve as a permanent unique identifier for a person. How many other ISPs do this? Are we clearing our google cookies periodically for nothing? Is this a privacy hole that should be closed up? I can see the ISPs internally being able to recognize their clients uniquely, but to the rest of the Internet is it a security violation for people to be tracked by an unchanging hostname?

Submission + - Is 200kbps Broadband ?

Submitted by

ppadala

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @03:53PM

ppadala writes: "Why is every thing above 200kbps considered Broadband ? Shouldn't there be more categories for defining some high-bandwidth video pipes ? From PCWorld,

Senator Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat and chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, introduced the Broadband Data Improvement Act Thursday, along with five Democratic cosponsors. The bill would require the FCC to re-evaluate whether 200K bps (bits per second) is sufficient bandwidth to justify being called broadband, and it would require the agency to create a new measurement known as second-generation broadband to identify networks capability of transmitting high-definition video.
The move is praised by Open Internet Coalition, which is arguing that US is behind other countries in Broadband deployment."

Submission + - Promissing cancer cure at University of Alberta

Submitted by

dsieme01

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @03:21PM

dsieme01 writes: "Human trials will start in the near future is the goal. It's exciting to see research that should provide for a low cost, simple method. Unfortunately big drug companies appear not to be interested.

Quoting from http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/

DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic, small molecule. And researchers at the University of Alberta believe it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer.

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors.

Michelakis and his colleagues, including post-doctoral fellow Dr. Sebastian Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell.

Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present.

Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis, a cardiologist, questioned this belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, as a way to "revive" cancer-affected mitochondria.

The results astounded him.

Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA normalized the mitochondrial function in many cancers, showing that their function was actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged by it.

More importantly, they found that the normalization of mitochondrial function resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth both in test tubes and in animal models. Also, they noted that DCA, unlike most currently used chemotherapies, did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissues.

"I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a fundamental process in cancer development that is unique to cancer cells," Michelakis said. "One of the really exciting things about this compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of cancer".

Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, being so small, it is easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat brain cancers, for example.

Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy people and sick patients with mitochondrial diseases, researchers already know that it is a relatively non-toxic molecule that can be immediately tested patients with cancer."

Submission + - An Introduction to Haskell

Submitted by

blackbearnh

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @02:11PM

blackbearnh writes: "Over at O'Reilly's ONLamp site, a two part series is running that introduces the Haskell functional programming language. From the article:

Of course, it's not necessary to use a functional programming language to use these techniques. Because ideas from the functional programming world are appearing in mainstream languages, it is more important than ever to understand these techniques. Tom Christiansen said it best:

A programmer who hasn't been exposed to all four of the imperative, functional, objective, and logical programming styles has one or more conceptual blindspots. It's like knowing how to boil but not fry. Programming is not a skill one develops in five easy lessons.

Many programming languages offer a mixture of styles. Most object oriented languages have an imperative core, where classes, objects and methods provide a thin veneer over a language that is little more than a slightly improved version of C. Many functional programming languages mix functional, imperative, and object-oriented styles together in a manner that makes it difficult to tell them apart.

Haskell, on the other hand, is a purely functional language that restricts itself to the functional style of programming. Learning and using Haskell makes it easy to see the power and benefits of lambda calculus and functional programming.

"

Journal Journal: Joan of Arc's relics exposed as forgery

Journal by mapkinase on Monday April 16, 2007 @11:44AM

Perfume experts help unmask remains as Egyptian mummy.

The relics of St Joan of Arc are not the remains of the fifteenth-century French heroine after all, according to European experts who have analysed the sacred scraps. Instead, they say the relics are a forgery, made from the remains of an Egyptian mummy.

Submission + - A good technology to use to write an AJAX app

Submitted by orderb13 on Monday April 16, 2007 @11:42AM

orderb13 writes: My friend and I are developing a new website as a fun little side project. We are wanting part of it to be an AJAX application and part of it to be standard HTML/XHTML. We are both versed in standard web-development (he uses Java, I use .Net) but have no experience with AJAX. Neither of us is opposed to learning a new language if one present compelling reasons to switch, as we are firm believers in the right tool for the right job. We were wondering what the slashdot community's experience has been. Is there a programming language/platform that is head and shoulders above the other in terms of ease of programming an AJAX app? Is there a particular toolkit you find useful? Any books or web resources that you used to learn? Are there any pitfalls that we should avoid?

Submission + - Microsoft, Adobe Poised for Battle

Submitted by

David Kesmodel from WSJ

on Monday April 16, 2007 @11:18AM

David Kesmodel from WSJ writes: "Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Inc., which usually stay off each other's turf, are poised to do battle as they introduce software aimed at handling functions like video and animation on the Web, the Wall Street Journal reports. Microsoft today plans to unveil a test version of its Silverlight software that can be used to build advanced programs that run on the Web — an area Adobe has dominated with products like Flash — while Adobe plans to preview new video software called the Adobe Media Player, the WSJ reports."

Submission + - Paid to do nothing?

Submitted by djupedal on Monday April 16, 2007 @03:54AM

djupedal writes: Are you paid to do nothing? Were you hired to do nothing?

Are you paid, yet you don't do any work? This is for anyone, except of course those collecting job benefits. I'm talking about those that come into work and hang out and do nothing whatsoever productive, but still receive regular performance reviews, generic corporate emails and a routine weekly/monthly salary. Maybe you don't even have to show up at the office.

I have a friend who is going on six months since he was asked to do any type of work, yet his (not meager) salary keeps being automatically deposited and the only time anyone from the office checks on him is to make sure he is still alive. How long has it been since you had an assignment or participated in an active project, etc.? What do you do with your time? How long do you think this type of ghost position can continue? Is this a dream job or an ethical burden?

Feed WD touts quieter, smoother drives for video (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed on Monday April 16, 2007 @02:32AM

Bidding for the DVR and set-top box business

Audio-video drives are back on the menu, with Western Digital bringing out a range of IDE and SATA hard disks that goes to a chunky 500GB – enough for up to 30 hours of HD video, reckons WD.

Journal Journal: Stolen joke from a mostly liberal mailing list

Journal by Servo on Sunday March 25, 2007 @01:30PM

One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week." The florist is pleased and leaves the shop.

Next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Submission + - Online Gamers Can Now Pay With Their Blood

Submitted by

Weather Storm

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @12:56PM

Weather Storm writes: "According to weirdasiannews.com, a game company called Moliyo, which runs multiple online games in China, has given roughly 120,000 hackers banned from one of its games, Cabal Online, the chance to play once again. The price? A pint of blood. Any banned player that shows up to a blood drive in Nanjing and donates a pint of blood will have their accounts unlock. In a response to a shortage of donors, Chinese hospitals and Moliyo developed an ingenious method of enticing gamers to give the gift that truly keeps on giving. About a hundred of the guilty have stepped forward."

Submission + - How to Crack a Combination Lock

Submitted by

aacool

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @12:48PM

aacool writes: "This video tutorial shows how to low down the chances of breaking the code from 64.000 to only 100."

Submission + - Scientists solved huge theoretical problem

Submitted by BoredStiff on Sunday March 25, 2007 @12:36PM

BoredStiff writes: The Weekend Edition of NPR Scientists have solved one of the toughest problems in mathematics, performing a calculation to figure out the symmetry of a 248-dimensional object known as the Lie group E8. The solution is so large that it would take days to download over a standard Internet connection. Lie groups were invented in the 19th century by the Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie [pronounced LEE], to express the symmetry of three-dimensional objects like spheres, cones and cylinders.

Submission + - Bankrupt AMD: Means Cheap Chips for Us

Submitted by bagopa on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @02:15PM

bagopa writes: Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) may be planning another round of price cuts and may be looking to tap financial markets to offset its negative cash flow, according to one research analyst. This cant be good for them, but its sure good for the consumer. I'll be picking up my heavily discounted a64 soon.

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