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Comment Re:The real question is... (Score 1) 454

by Kindgott (#29637269) Attached to: Do Retailers Often Screen User Reviews?

Whenever I come across a review on Newegg where the reviewer obviously didn't know what he was talking about, I use their review feedback system. Eventually, some of the more blatantly incorrect / uninformed reviews wind up having a line below them saying "0 out of N users found this review useful," or something similar. I don't think it will remove the review from the site, but at least it allows people to have a general idea of whether a reviewer knew what they were talking about or not. The better reviews usually wind up with a feedback tag ranking somewhere like 23 out of 25 users found this review useful.
Security

Nmap 5.00 Released, With Many Improvements 73

Posted by timothy from the ok-now-release-another-nsfw-introduction dept.
iago-vL writes "The long-awaited Nmap Security Scanner version 5.00 was just released (download)! This marks the most important release since 1997, and is a huge step in Nmap's evolution from a simple port scanner to an all-around security and networking tool suite. Significant performance improvements were made, and dozens of scripts were added. For example, Nmap can now log into Windows and perform local checks (PDF), including Conficker detection. New tools included in 5.00 are Ncat, a modern reimplementation of Netcat (with IPv6, SSL, NAT traversal, port redirection, and more!), and Ndiff, for quickly comparing scan results. Other tools are in the works for future releases, but we're still waiting for them to add email and ftp clients so we can finally get off Emacs!"

Comment Re:Not only act of idiocy (Score 1) 445

by Kindgott (#28681139) Attached to: Wells Fargo Bank Sues Itself

I know all about the Verizon deal!

The company I work for recently switched from Verizon landlines to some sort of business VOIP service they were offering, ostensibly to save money.

The switch happens, with a few hitches not relevant to this discussion, and everything is running fine. Then, we get our Verizon bill, which contains a contract termination fee from Verizon. Apparently, our copper was being services by one arm of Verizon, and the FlexIP VOIP service was another arm of Verizon entirely.

Management has been fighting for over a week to get the termination fee waived, hopefully it'll get sorted out.
Image

Passenger Avoids Delay By Fixing Plane Himself 178

Posted by samzenpus from the flying-the-diy-skies dept.
It would be a shame if an engineer on a recent Thomas Cook Airlines flight doesn't get a complimentary first class upgrade every time he flies. The engineer was on flight TCX9641 when it was announced that the trip would be delayed eight hours, while a mechanic was flown in to fix a problem. Luckily for the other passengers, the engineer happened to work for Thomsonfly Airlines, which has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook. After about 35 minutes the man fixed the problem and the flight was on its way. A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said, "When they announced there was a technical problem he came forward and said who he was. We checked his licence and verified he was who he said he was, and he was able to fix the problem to avoid the delay. We are very grateful that he was on the flight that day."
Image

Iran Tries To Pacify Protesters With Lord of The Rings Marathon 419

Posted by samzenpus from the chip-the-glasses-and-crack-the-plates-that's-what-Ahmadinejad-hates dept.
Iranian state television's Channel Two is playing a Lord of the Rings marathon in an attempt to keep people inside watching hobbits and not protesting in the streets. Normally, people in Tehran are treated to one or two Hollywood movies a week, but with recent events the government hopes that sitting through a nine-hour trilogy will take the fight out of most of the protesters. Perhaps this was not the best choice in films if you want your people not to believe that "even the smallest person can change the course of the future."
Space

Pulsar Signals Could Provide Galactic GPS 146

Posted by kdawson from the pioneer-10-was-there-first dept.
KentuckyFC writes "We're all familiar with GPS. It consists of a network of satellites that each broadcast a time signal. A receiver on Earth can then work out its position in three-dimensional space by comparing the arrival times of the signals from at least three satellites. That's handy, but it only works on Earth. Now astronomers say that the millisecond signals from a network of pulsars could allow GPS-style navigation on a galactic scale. They propose using four pulsars that form a rough tetrahedron with the Solar System at its center, and a co-ordinate system with its origin at 00:00 on 1 January 2001 at the focal point of the Interplanetary Scintillation Array, the radio telescope near Cambridge in the UK that first observed pulsars. The additional complexity of working with signals over these distances is that relativity has to be taken into account (which is why the origin is defined as a point in space-time rather than just space). The pulsar GPS system should allow users to determine their position in space-time anywhere in the galaxy to within a few nanoseconds, which corresponds to an accuracy of about a meter." Pulsars slow down over time, and the arXiv paper doesn't seem to mention this. The paper is mainly about establishing a coordinate system and a reference selection of pulsars. Any proposed Galactic Positioning System would have to take the slowing into account, and since it is poorly understood and not completely predictable, this would limit accuracy.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Team Fortress 2 Update To Bring Maps, Sniper and Spy Upgrades 88

Posted by Soulskill from the intensifying-rivalries dept.
Over the past several days, Valve has been releasing details on an update to Team Fortress 2. They first revealed that the Sniper was taking its turn in a series of class upgrades, getting a bow and arrow that's capable of pinning an enemy to a wall. Next, they showed off a pair of new maps — a sawmill arena map that's in the midst of heavy rainfall and a circular map built around a doomsday weapon. Valve also mentioned a new game mode called Payload Race — it's similar to a regular Payload match, but both teams have a cart to push. The next day brought about an electrified shield for the Sniper, and hinted that the Spy would be getting an update as well. The following announcement confirmed it, introducing a device that would allow the Spy to feign death, and another that lets the Spy remain invisible permanently, only draining their power while in motion.
Medicine

Daydreaming Is Really Complex Problem-Solving 138

Posted by timothy from the how-about-daydreaming-about-girls dept.
beefsprocket writes "ScienceDaily reports that 'A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (abstract), finds that activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander. It also finds that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving — previously thought to go dormant when we daydream — are in fact highly active during these episodes. "Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness," says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream — much more active than when we focus on routine tasks."'"
The Media

Submission + - Fox News smears rivals on Wikipedia (geeksaresexy.net)

Submitted by
boyko.at.netqos
boyko.at.netqos writes: "Changes made to Wikipedia from an IP Address that resolves to Fox News, show a pattern of smearing Fox's rivals, including Al Franken, Keith Olbermann, and CNN, while removing damaging or embarrassing information to it's own reporters. GeeksAreSexy.net pores through the changes to produce a comprehensive list of what Fox News allegedly changed.

An example of the changes:

From: "Many groups and commentators, including [[Media Matters for America]], and liberal broadcasters [[Al Franken]], and [[Keith Olbermann]], have claimed that Hume distorted Roosevelt's views."

To: "Many groups and commentators, including [[Media Matters for America]], and liberal broadcasters [[Al Franken]], and [[Keith Olbermann]], have claimed that Hume distorted Roosevelt's views in an attempt to ride Mr. Hume's coat tails in the ratings race as Mr. Hume hosts the highest rated political program on cable television.""
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Sierra dropping Tribes multiplayer support

Submitted by Interl0per
Interl0per writes: A number of sites have been reporting recently on the quiet announcement Sierra has made that they will no longer provide multiplayer support for a number of titles, including the venerable and influential Starsiege:Tribes. A number of people already host or are voluteering to host a third party master server. There is some ongoing discussion among the community as to how to effectively distribute the new master server info for those who wish to continue playing online.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - British blamed for "Man-Eating" Basra Badg (whitedust.net)

Submitted by Paris The Pirate
Paris The Pirate writes: British forces have denied rumours that they released a plague of ferocious badgers into the Iraqi city of Basra. Word spread among the populace that UK troops had introduced strange man-eating, bear-like beasts into the area to sow panic. But several of the creatures, caught and killed by local farmers, have been identified by experts as honey badgers. The rumours spread because the animals had appeared near the British base at Basra airport. The editorial comments; "We, for one, a) welcome our new man-eating badger overlords, and b) hope for the sake of comedy that the British army -did- release man-eating badgers in Iraq."
Music

Submission + - Multiformat Listening Test at 64kbps 1

Submitted by
prospective_user
prospective_user writes: "Do you think you have good ears? Think again.

The community at Hydrogenaudio has prepared a Public Listening Test for comparison of the most popular audio codecs (AAC, Vorbis, and Microsoft's WMA included) in a battle to see how they stand at compressing audio at 64kbps.

Many of the participants right now have expressed their surprise at being unable to determine which is the original and which is the compressed version of 18 samples covering a vast amount of musical styles.

The results of this test (and other that are conducted at Hydrogenaudio) will be used by the developers of the codecs to further improve the "transparency" and let this kind of test be even harder.

Everyone is invited to participate and show how good your listening is!"

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