Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Government

Submission + - Tim Berners-Lee Unveils Government Data Project (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Sri.Theo
Sri.Theo writes: For a long time the UK hasn't had the default access to Government information as the US has, but a campaign by Tim Berners-Lee finally yielded results with a website containing access to masses of local information being made available. The hope is that this will make access to government services easier and more useful for everyone. Crucially its not just for developers, everyone can submit and commit on ideas for use of the data and hopefully other like minded individuals can take it up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8470797.stm (BBC news story on the announcement)
http://data.gov.uk/ (The website containing the data.)

Submission + - Iran to switch on first nuclear reactor in March (reuters.com)

Submitted by dotancohen
dotancohen writes: It appears that an Iranian nuclear power plant will be operational in about two month's time. Just in time for the Iranian New Year. As an Israeli, I am both happy for Iran that they are achieving energy independence (they can hardly refine their own oil), yet frightened by the threat of a nuclear-armed country who has repeatedly stated that we will be "wiped from the pages of time". Does the tinfoil hat go under or over the ABN mask?
Linux

Submission + - Linux in Real Life - Uses Around the World (blogspot.com)

Submitted by JeffHoogland
JeffHoogland writes: Even with its slowly growing popularity, Linux is still a largely unknown thing to many people. Why should Average Joe care about Linux? This alternative operating system doesn't affect his life at all — or does it? The truth of the matter is this: Almost every adult who uses technology in today's world uses or has used something that is Linux powered.
Security

Submission + - Declining Confidence In Social Networking Security (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new RSA survey polled more than 4,500 consumers regarding their awareness of online threats, concerns with the safety of their personal information online and their willingness to share it, and desire for better identity protection. Social networking websites have become a hotbed for online criminals because of their global reach and the participation by hundreds of millions of active users from all walks of life. This makes these communities prime targets for exploitation by criminals who seek to steal personal information through socially engineered attacks. Reflective of this trend, the survey exposed that four out of five (81 percent) people using social networking websites displayed concern with the safety of their personal information online.
Security

Submission + - 80% of .gov Web sites miss DNSSEC deadline (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: Four out of five U.S. federal agencies — including the Department of Homeland Security — have missed a Dec. 31, 2009 deadline to deploy DNS Security Extensions, a new authentication mechanism designed to prevent hackers from hijacking Web traffic. Experts disagree as to whether this level of deployment represents a failure or reasonable progress toward meeting a mandate set by the Office of Management and Budget in the summer of 2008.
Networking

Submission + - Game Developers Note NetNeutrality Concerns to FCC (gamepolitics.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: A list of notes among game developers[PDF] was sent in a letter to the FCC consisting of minutes between FCC representatives and six representatives of game development companies consisting of a discussion about Net Neutrality. Game Politics sums it up nicely but the surprise is that developers are concerned with latency, not bandwidth like so many Net Neutrality discussions have been focused on. Among concerns that each and every game developer will need to negotiate with each and every ISP to ensure their traffic achieves acceptable levels of latency for users, Mr. Dyl of Turbine stated that 'ISPs sometimes block traffic from online gaming providers, for reasons that are not clear, but they do not necessarily continue those blocks if they are contacted. He recalled Turbine having to call ISPs that had detected the high UDP traffic from Turbine, and had apparently decided to block the traffic and wait to see who complained.' It seems a lot of the Net Neutrality discussions have only worried about a fraction of the problem — Netflix, YouTube and P2P — while an equally important source of concern went unnoticed: latency in online games.
Space

Submission + - Space photos taken from shed stun astromoners (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by krou
krou writes: Amateur astronomer Peter Shah has stunned astronomers around the world with amazing photos of the universe taken from his garden shed. Shah spent £20,000 on the equipment, hooking up a telescope in his shed to his home computer, and the results are being compared to images taken by the Hubble Telescope. "Most men like to potter about in their garden shed," said Shah, "but mine is a bit more high tech than most. I have fitted it with a sliding roof so I can sit in comfort and look at the heavens. I have a very modest set up but it just goes to show that a window to the universe is there for all of us – even with the smallest budgets. I had to be patient and take the images over a period of several months because the skies in Britain are often clouded over and you need clear conditions." His images include the Monkey's head nebula, M33 Pinwheel Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and the Flaming Star Nebula, and are being put together for a book.
Programming

Submission + - Patching/Extending existing open source software?

Submitted by
zerointeger
zerointeger writes: "I am still fairly new to programming in C but was asked to extend an Open source authentication module by my employer. The project is complete, testing has been done and it works as designed. The original code was created and is currently maintained by another. The extended/patch I have created is fairly robust as it includes optional configuration options, additional help files, and several additional files. The problem is I have attempted to contact the original developer/current maintainer without success of having this feature added. I think the only reason why I would like to see this included is to prevent any patching of later revisions. Myself as well as a few others I have spoken with agree that the patch/extension would benefit administrators attempting to push linux onto the desktop as we have done at the University I am currently employed by. Has anyone else submitted patches/extensions to what seems to be a black hole?"

Comment Well lets add this one to the list eh? (Score 0) 891

by zerointeger (#28543511) Attached to: GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fue l Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

Tax me driving (NEW!!!)
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago... and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Sometimes insanity is the only alternative" -- button at a Science Fiction convention.

Close