Julie188 - Slashdot User

Submission + - NSA Hackers Helping Banks With Cybersecurity (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Thursday October 27, 2011 @03:37PM

jfruhlinger writes: "The National Security Agency was founded during the Cold War for defense purposes, but it's slowly branched out into the cybersecurity realm. Now its hackers are consulting with private banks to help them harden their security practices. While protecting the financial system is definitely in the US's best interest, people who believe in "following the money" might be interested to know that the NSA doesn't do the same for, say, utility companies."

Submission + - Facebook Immune System Checks 25 Billion Actions D

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27, 2011 @02:26PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Facebook Immunity System (FIS) processes and checks 25 billion actions every day, or 650,000 actions every second. The social networking giant’s cybersecurity system was developed over a three-year period to keep the service’s users safe from spam and cyberattacks. FIS scans every click on Facebook for patterns that could suggest something malicious is spreading across the social network.

Submission + - Happy Tenth Birthday, XP. Now Please Die (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

Julie188

on Tuesday October 25, 2011 @03:17PM

Julie188 writes: "Windows XP – the XP stood for "Experience" — was released October 25, 2001. With Windows XP, Microsoft hoped to have one codebase that would span everything from consumers to corporate desktops. Microsoft was fairly ambitious with XP. There was an embedded version that went everywhere, from phones to information kiosks. Banks in particular embraced it as a way to migrate off IBM's dead-end-but-once-great OS/2. Consumers have been quicker to ditch XP for Windows 7 while businesses hem and haw and slowly test a decade's-worth of custom apps on Windows 7. Some estimates show that XP still has a hold on 48% of the Windows market."

Submission + - Cloud driving Microsoft to open source? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

Julie188

on Monday October 10, 2011 @01:04PM

Julie188 writes: "Sam Ramji thinks the days where Microsoft's, (and Apple's, and Oracle's) love-hate relationship with open source are numbered, thanks to to the cloud. Whereas some open source advocates say the cloud may kill open source, because users won't have access to the source, Ramji says the cloud will be its salvation. Ramji, Microsoft's original internal open source dude, thinks companies building clouds won't be able to keep up if they don't participate in open source communities because that's where the developers building new cloud infrastructure are doing most of their work. The main thing standing in the way by both cloud builders and users of free software are legal fears, he contends. These include fears of the GPL's copyleft provision and fears of being sued by downstream users. Is he right ... or full of FUD?"

Submission + - Gluster drags Red Hat into OpenStack (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

Julie188

on Tuesday October 04, 2011 @06:51PM

Julie188 writes: "One of the more interesting aspects of Red Hat's acquisition of virtual storage vendor Gluster on Tuesday is how it drags Red Hat into bed with its cloud competitor OpenStack. Red Hat made waves over the summer in the open source community when one of its executives threw punches at OpenStack's community saying the community amounted to not much more than a bunch of press releases. In July, Gluster contributed its Connector for OpenStack. It enables features such as live migration of VMs, instant boot of VMs, and movement of VMs between clouds on a GlusterFS environment. While Fedora has already said that its upcoming Fedora 16 would support OpenStack, Fedora is a community distro and "maverick" from Red Hat, if you'll forgive me for quoting Sara Palin. However, Red Hat today promised that it would continue to support and maintain Gluster's contribution to OpenStack. It didn't, however, to promise to quit the smack talk."

Submission + - Copper Nanowires Could Mean Cheaper Electronics (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula on Tuesday September 27, 2011 @10:20AM

Zothecula writes: In 2010, researchers at Duke University developed a technique for producing copper nanowires at a scale that could make them a potential replacement for rare and expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) in touch screens and solar panels. However, the water-based production process resulted in the copper nanowires clumping, which reduced their transparency and prevented the copper from oxidizing, thereby decreasing their conductivity. The researchers have now solved the clumping problem and say that copper nanowires could be appearing in cheaper touch screens, solar cells and flexible electronics in the next few years.

Submission + - Can Newegg Survive The Post-PC Future? (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Tuesday September 27, 2011 @09:29AM

jfruhlinger writes: "Upgrading your desktop PC's video card was once a rite of passage for many Slashdot readers — and could also be a gateway to building your own computer from the motherboard up. And more often than not, you bought the components from Newegg. But the tablets and ultrathin laptops that are today's hot sellers don't let you so much as swap in more RAM. What's a component retailer to do in world without user-serviceable components?"

Submission + - Microsoft plays research games on Facebook (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk on Tuesday September 27, 2011 @09:25AM

mikejuk writes: The Research Games team at Microsoft Research is a very strange outfit from the general programmer's point of view. Its members create games, not so much because they want people to play them, but more because they want to know how people play them:
The idea is that for years game theory has been tested by psychology grad students and who knows this might mean it's all wrong. By setting up a game on Facebook — Project Waterloo — they hope to get millions and millions of "ordinary" people playing and so reveal the true nature of the strategies in use in everyday life. I can't resist saying it — it could be a game changer..

Submission + - Meg Whitman Named HP CEO 2

Submitted by adeelarshad82 on Thursday September 22, 2011 @04:41PM

adeelarshad82 writes: Hewlett-Packard on Thursday confirmed that Léo Apotheker is out as its CEO, and former eBay chief Meg Whitman will take his place.

Submission + - How Microsoft can lock Linux off W8 PCs (networkworld.com) 3

Submitted by

Julie188

on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @07:20PM

Julie188 writes: "Windows 8 PCs will use the next-generation booting specification known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). And actually Windows 8 logo devices will be required to use the secure boot portion of the new spec. Secure UEFI is intended to thwart rootkit infections by using PKI authentication before allowing executables or drivers to be loaded onto the device. Problem is, unless the device manufacturer gives a key to the device owner, it can also be used to keep the PC's owner from wiping out the current OS and installing another option, such as Linux."

Submission + - Netflix's Qwikster Scheme Not Necessarily Insane (discovery.com)

Submitted by disco_tracy on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @05:41PM

disco_tracy writes: Netflix wants to kill off its DVD business to clear the way for streaming. The company now has far more subscribers to its streaming service, in which movies play back live over the Internet, than to its DVD option--and the trend was accelerating even before the price hike. Netflix just needs to convince the movie studios to release more studios for streaming. One way is to show that they won't have any other viable way to reach home viewers.

Submission + - NASA unbolts open source applications challenge (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @03:46PM

coondoggie writes: "NASA today said it would host an open source-based application competition that it hopes will deliver a new generation of software that can address space, weather and economic issues.

NASA said it will coordinate with other interested space agencies around the world on an International Space Apps Challenge that will encourage scientists and concerned citizens from all seven continents — and in space — to create, build, and invent new applications that can address world-class issues."

Submission + - Windows Server 8 a radical departure (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

Julie188

on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @12:46PM

Julie188 writes: "While the world is distracted with the Window 8 client, Microsoft is simultaneously working on Windows Server 8. At BUILD, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation server OS under heavy secrecy to a room full of analysts and product testers. WS8 is radically different thanits predecessors. There's an argument to make that it's notactually Windows. The code they saw was pre-beta and an obvious attempt to put an arrow in the heart of former-'softie-turned-VMware-CEO Paul Maritz. Windows 8 Server editions are to be run in Server Core format — the GUI will be optional. PowerShell has gotten an overhaul and its command list will exceed 2,300native commandlets in Windows Server 8. Hyper-V has also been revamped and will become massively scalable in the number of VMs supported and in the size of each VM."

Submission + - Toshiba Adds Two-Way Wi-Fi To SD Card (eweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by

judgecorp

on Friday September 02, 2011 @12:05PM

judgecorp writes: "Toshiba has announced an SD card with Wi-Fi. This is an advance on previous products such as Eye-Fi Pro X2, as it allows two-way transfers over Wi-Fi. This will be a very convenient feature. It has been labelled a security worry — but most of us already have cameras with wireless connections... called phones."

Submission + - Intel To Halt MeeGo Development? (itworld.com)

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Friday September 02, 2011 @10:39AM

itwbennett writes: "Taipei-based DigiTimes is reporting that Intel will 'temporarily discontinue development of its MeeGo OS due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform from handset and tablet PC vendors. Instead, Intel will focus on hardware products, with its handset platforms to be paired with either Android or Windows Phone in 2012.' While Intel is taking the 'no comment' route, there are a couple of reasons to believe the rumor, says blogger Brian Proffitt: First, 'DigiTimes is located very close to the actual manufacturing plants in Taiwan and typically they have a pretty good handle on what's going on in the electronics industry because of that proximity. Second, the MeeGo operating system has really made near-zero progress on smartphones and tablets.'"

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