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Comment Re:This is normal. (Score 4, Informative) 47

That safety zone is shaped like a pizza box and extends out 15 miles (25 kilometers) to either side, as well as a half-mile (0.75 km) above and below the station.

I wonder why it's shaped like a pizza box?

I guess the forward deflector array must be more effective on the vertical plane but anyone know for sure?

Submission + - Draft Executive Order seeks to sneak SOPA & PIPA in by the back door (jdnash.com)

TrueSatan writes: In a way so underhand that few but the MAFIAA and friends could have contemplated it a new draft Executive Order seeks to implement an equivalent to the failed SOPA/PIPA regulations claiming that SOPA/PIPA themselves only failed due to "industry concerns". The order also gives a clear presumed guilty verdict against any who are accused of infringement.abandoning any pretence of "innocent until proven guilty".
Idle

Submission + - Nazi Budda Came from Space (bbc.co.uk)

mattaw writes: "This "Indiana Jones" style story of Nazi's acquiring this ancient historical statue from Tibet began when scientist Ernst Schafer working for Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS was commissioned to search Tibet for ancient "Aryan" evidence. Himmler was said to believe the Aryan race originated in Tibet and was keen to recover objects from the area.

The icing on the cake is that the statue is made of real meteorite and that scientists have been able to identify the actual one as the Chinga meteorite that fell in the border region of eastern Siberia and Mongolia about 15,000 years ago."

Australia

Submission + - ASIC wants Australian ISPs to store all content visited (smh.com.au)

nemesisrocks writes: "ASIC, Australia's version of the SEC, has called for phone call and internet data to be stored by Australian ISPs, in a submission to the Parliamentary Inquity into mandatory data retention.

Not only does the authority want the powers to intercept the times, dates and details of telecommunications information, it also wants access to the contents of emails, social media chats and text messages."

Microsoft

Submission + - OS Review: Windows 8 RTM (activewin.com)

An anonymous reader writes: I saw over on OSNews that ActiveWin posted a 45-page review of Windows 8 RTM, with a lot of screenshots. There is lot of controversy over the new OS if the metro-style apps will be suitable for a business environment, or flop like Vista did.
Security

Submission + - Penetration Testing for the Masses 2

compumike writes: Every week we read about companies being hacked through insecure websites. Big companies have in-house security teams, but a new browser-based website penetration testing tool can scan, attack, and detect the biggest threats, such as SQL injection, XSS, and other vulnerabilities, finding holes in more than 90% of websites scanned — even in frameworks like Django and Rails. Can expensive security consultants be replaced by an army of machines providing website security for the masses?

Comment Re:Useful replacement (Score 4, Funny) 143

True, I normally use a 8-bit checksum for my hashing for best performance. On passwords in particular some people think hashing and password recovery are incompatible, but on the server I simply maintain a list of 256 complex looking passwords so a match can be quickly looked up and e-mailed back.

Does anyone know if that idea has been thought of before, maybe I should take a patent?

Submission + - Primes cycle around 42n? I need answers.

Cogent91 writes: "For all it's curiosity, the number 42 remains an honest mystery. From ancient Buddhists to Douglas Adams, it's held a significant place for ages. But why?

Some years ago I came across a pattern in that 42n plus individually the primes from 1 to 41 and also 25 creates a list of all possible primes. It's seemingly simple, but I've never found a single academic reference to this pattern. I've also checked it with scripts to several million primes, no exceptions.

What is it that makes that limited range hold true for all prime numbers? And is there an academic significance for this? I've been asking for years, but I'd love Slashdot's help in finally getting this answered!

After n=0, the relevant base is 1,5,11,13,17,19,23,25,29,31,37,41. 2,3, & 7 never repeat. Also, pushed into binaries it makes a great way to compress arbitrarily large primes! The programmer in me wonders about that trait's usefulness to cryptography..."
Privacy

Submission + - Apple UDIDs Stolen From Digital Publishing Firm (itworld.com)

itwbennett writes: "The 1 million Apple device UDIDs that were leaked last week were stolen from digital publisher Bluetoad, the company's CEO Paul DeHart in wrote in a blog post Monday. In describing the theft from its servers, BlueToad downplayed the risk to information types other than UDIDs: 'BlueToad does not collect, nor have we ever collected, highly sensitive personal information like credit cards, social security numbers or medical information,' DeHart said."
Technology

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Is it morally/ethically wrong to ask people to "like" a product? 1

ourlovecanlastforeve writes: Many of the tech blogs I read will sometimes feature a sweepstakes where you can win an iPad, an Android tablet or some other toy or gadget by "liking" them on Facebook or otherwise promoting them in a way that you normally would not do if you weren't trying to win something. Is it morally or ethically wrong for those people to do so? If you're clicking a button that indicates you like something but you really don't care for it, are you lying for personal gain? If so, is the company behind the sweepstakes asking you to lie to promote their product?

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