SNR monkey - Slashdot User

Submission + - US Air finds database hard to swallow!

Submitted by bbsguru on Monday March 05, 2007 @11:58AM

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."

Submission + - Swiftness of Dow Drop Due to Computers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @07:27AM

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

Submission + - Stock Market Drop Blamed on Computer Error

Submitted by

WebHostingGuy

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @08:51PM

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."

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

Submitted by FirmWarez on Friday February 23, 2007 @10:33AM

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?

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

Submitted by MyStuff on Friday February 23, 2007 @09:55AM

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.

Submission + - What is your favourite filesystem?

Submitted by

mu22le

on Friday February 23, 2007 @09:52AM

mu22le writes: "What is your favourite filesystem?

ext2/ext3

reiserfs/reiser4

xfs

jfs

fat32

ntfs

"

Submission + - European PS3 to feature new hardware specification

Submitted by

jtorry

on Friday February 23, 2007 @07:13AM

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"

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

Submitted by Julie188 on Wednesday February 21, 2007 @02:28PM

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

Submission + - Austrailia to ban incandescent light bulbs

Submitted by

Y Ddraig Goch

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @12:46PM

Y Ddraig Goch writes: "In the article http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8NDH KEG0.htm Australia plans on outlawing incandescent light bulbs over the next several years."

Submission + - Vista loophole allows for cheap install

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:59AM

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."

Submission + - The Top 100 Alternative Vendors

Submitted by

Anonymous

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @09:34AM

Anonymous writes: "Everyone can name the market leaders in different technology segments. HP has overtaken Dell in PCs and is the undisputed market-share leader in printers. Microsoft holds the title for operating systems. Symantec stands at the top of the hill for antivirus software. Cisco is king in data and voice networking. And EMC ranks ahead of all others in storage hardware. Alternative vendors? They're everyone else, with innovative technologies that complement hardware and software offered by market-share leaders. And, according to VARBusiness.com, they often offer higher margins and better sales opportunities. Here are 100 you should know across 10 key technology segments."

Submission + - Singapore holds "Terminator" robotics comp

Submitted by

duc0n

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:29AM

duc0n writes: "Singapore's Defence Science and Technology Agency has just recently started a robotics competition named "TechX". The goal? Design a robot capable of entering an urban proving ground, navigating obstacles such as stairs, elevators and doors, and able to recognize and engage a specific target (using "a means that [they] will provide for the robot to mark the target"). All this is, of course, hauntingly similar to the Samsung sentry robot story from awhile back. Applications have been open since January, but the final event is not set to take place until August 2008."

Submission + - vast water reservoir revealed

Submitted by

Agent Provocateur

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @07:28AM

Agent Provocateur writes: "WUSTL has a news bulletin about research which has shown a hidden ocean the size of the Artic. A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis has made the first 3-D model of seismic wave damping — diminishing — deep in the Earth's mantle and has revealed the existence of an underground water reservoir at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean. It is the first evidence for water existing in the Earth's deep mantle. Full report here."

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 + - Wikipedia Deletion of Webcomics

Submitted by

clockinreverse

on Monday February 19, 2007 @09:12PM

clockinreverse writes: "The creator of the webcomic Starslip Crisis recently tried to prove that the editors of Wikipedia were biased agianst webcomics by attempting to delete his own strip. In doing so he discovered that the editors were striking votes of people who were cheating by using multiple accounts and voting "keep", but were not striking the votes of his own multiple accounts that were voting to delete."

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