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Submission + - Vendors selling your contact info?

Submitted by
Sorthum
Sorthum writes: "I ordered a memory card from Tiger Direct using a dedicated email address a few days ago. The card hasn't even arrived yet, and yet I found something VERY interesting in my inbox this morning: a lottery scam email to that tagged address, relayed through Cox's outbound servers. Apparently TigerDirect is either compromised, or selling their addresses to spammers — this address has never received a hit until I placed the order, and no one else has it. There is no evidence of a dictionary attack in the server logs either. My call to their customer service line proved to be fruitless — their drone refused to escalate the call, or provide a satisfactory response. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?"
Sci-Fi

Submission + - France opens secret UFO files covering 50 years

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: France became the first country to open its files on UFOs Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades. Here's an interesting tidbit from the article: A phalanx of beefy security guards formed a barrier in front of the space agency (CNES) headquarters where the announcement was made, "to screen out uninvited UFOlogists," an official explained. Website at: http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft

Submitted by
Dekortage
Dekortage writes: "According to Microsoft, Google "takes a cavalier approach to copyright protection." As reported by the New York Times, Thomas Rubin (Microsoft's associate general counsel) gave a speech to the Association of American Publishers, saying "Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people's content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue and I.P.O.s... Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop." On the other hand, he says, Microsoft always asks for permission. Is this Microsoft's thinly veiled flirtation with the U.S. publishing industry? Can you say "digital book DRM"?"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Slashdot Easter egg in the Opera browser

Submitted by patro
patro writes: Opera Watch mentions that the Opera browser has a Slashdot easter egg in it. Type a slash and a dot in the address bar, press Enter and look what happens. How cool is that?
Censorship

Journal Journal: RIAA kills internet radio

Journal by Reavantos
I am A internet radio DJ for DNDRadio.com (ddo.mmoradio.com) and i want to bring to your attention that the RIAA is at it again. this time, they are killing internet radio! "direct qoute from our website" The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet Radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters (an MMORadio) and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange (a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).
Software

Submission + - US Air finds database hard to swallow!

Submitted by bbsguru
bbsguru writes: Anyone who has ever tried to combine two IT departments following a takeover or merger knows a version of this story:

The 2005 merger of US Air and West Holdings Group finally got to the point of combining flight reservations systems, with calamitous results.

FTA: "US Airways' kiosks at Charlotte and four regional hubs couldn't communicate with the reservation network for several hours after the systems were unified as part of a 2005 merger of the two airlines, causing lines and missed flights."
Upgrades

Submission + - Swiftness of Dow Drop Due to Computers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sorry I dont know where to file this but "A computer glitch triggered a sudden plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average at mid-afternoon Tuesday, turning an already bad day in stocks into a head-turning spectacle. Dow Jones & Co., the media company that manages the well-known index of 30 blue chip stocks, said it discovered shortly before 2 p.m. that its computers weren't properly handling the day's huge volume in trades at the New York Stock Exchange. It switched to a backup computer, and the result was a massive swoon in the index as the secondary system took over processing shortly before 3 p.m. " Interesting how NAsdaq, which uses Microsoft SQL didnt have any issues http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070228/dow-jones -computers.htm
Businesses

Submission + - Stock Market Drop Blamed on Computer Error

Submitted by
WebHostingGuy
WebHostingGuy writes: "Today the Dow Jones Industrial Index dropped a little over 3% in value. Stock market swings come and go but it is interesting that the sudden drop in the stock market is the result of a computer glitch. According to MSNBC, the computers running were not properly calculating trades. This led to the switch to a backup system which led to several seconds delay which impacted the Dow. Even now after the close of the market spokesmen for the NYSE Group Inc. could not confirm if all closing share prices were even valid."
Security

Submission + - "Police blow up foul-mouthed CDs"

Submitted by FirmWarez
FirmWarez writes: CNN is reporting that a bomb squad in Santa Fe, New Mexico, blew up three CD players containing home burned CDs spewing forth "foul language and pornographic messages" in a Catholic church. The CD players had been taped under pews and were louding relaying their audio messages during Ash Wednesday services.

I'm beginning to wonder if somehow the war on terror has been combined with some evangelical Republic an agenda to rid the world of obscene gestures and comments. First "lite brites" and now CD players. With all the "WTF" comments on-line, is your server next?
Windows

Submission + - Windows Vista - 19 months of usage and counting

Submitted by MyStuff
MyStuff writes: ZDNet blog Hardware 2.0 looks at the effect of having been using Windows Vista for over 18 months. It Windows Vista the indispensable upgrade that Microsoft wants you to think it is? This quote says it all:

Having been using Vista for over 18 months I believe that it's a huge improvement over XP and even though I still use XP I find that I miss many of the features that Vista offers.

However, I wouldn't call any of the changes earth-shattering. When I'm using XP systems I miss some of the features but not so much that they push me to upgrade any faster. Microsoft wants users to put down a lot of money for Vista when XP still has plenty of life in it. If you like living on the edge and want the latest then Vista is a must, but if you're happy with XP or you are the kind of person that doesn't actually use the OS that much, then you're probably safe holding back and waiting until you buy a new PC before getting Vista.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - European PS3 to feature new hardware specification

Submitted by
jtorry
jtorry writes: "Sony issued a press released today announcing that the PlayStation 3 to be launched in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia on March 23 will utilise a new hardware specification. The European PS3 will ship complete with a 60GB hard drive, Blu-ray Disc player, built-in WI-Fi, a Sixaxis wireless controller and will be compatible with a "broad range of original PlayStation titles and a limited range of PlayStation 2 titles."

"PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system," said David Reeves, President of SCEE. "Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology."

Sony notes that some additional PS2 titles will become compatible on the PS3 via regular downloadable firmware update made through the PlayStation Network, playstation.com or via PS3 game discs. The first update will be available for launch on March 23. Gamers can check specific title compatibility using the Sony service found on eu.playstation.com. This site will be available on March 23.

To put this all into terms we can understand, the European PS3 will not feature as good backwards compatibility as the US and Japanese PS3. A Sony spokesperson told Reuters: "The backwards compatibility is not going to be as good as in the US and Japanese models."

As for a new hardware specification, analyst Datamonitor believes the Euro PS3 will feature a new cost-reducing chassis.

"By launching the PS3 in Europe with the new chassis, Sony has at a stroke removed one of the barriers to future price reductions, and providing it can make enough units available, Datamonitor believes there will be sustained growth in PS3 ownership as new users seek to benefit from the PS3's enhanced features and functionality," said the analyst.

http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/23-02-2007-4854.html"
Software

Submission + - Six advanced-technology open source projects - Net

Submitted by Julie188
Julie188 writes: I'm always on the lookout for cool open-source technologies and I hadn't heard about several of the ones listed in this story before. Some of the projects are just beta code, but interesting all the same. The open-source projects in the article do automated server provisioning, intrusion detection, something called "grid storage" (hard to explain, you have to read about it), network-attached storage, a "messaging framework" for SOAs and secure telephony (interesting because it helps get around encryption laws that allow governments to spy on VoIP calls). http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2007/ndc1/021907- ndc-best-of-open-source-tools.html
Windows

Submission + - Vista loophole allows for cheap install

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "A loophole in Vista's activation scheme that lets users install an upgrade version of Vista on Linux machines and save up to $140 is spreading over the Internet and causing Microsoft a fair amount of embarrassment. The trick involves installing Vista twice but not entering the product key the first time, which effectively fools Vista into upgrading itself. While most home users are unlikely to try this, it may appeal to some PC DIYers and other power users:

The type of person most likely to benefit from this workaround are power users and hobbyists who own multiple computers running Windows as well as Linux and Mac OS X. Indeed, one concrete scenario would be someone with a used PC that's just one or two years old running either Linux or OS X who decides to convert it to Vista and buys the upgrade version of the OS to do so.
According to the last article, Microsoft is aware of the scheme and says it violates the Vista EULA."

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