Comment Re:Aw... don't feel bad SCO... (Score 1) 89
Isn't that what bankruptcy court is for?
Submission + - Catching Spammers in the Act (technologyreview.com) 1
wjousts writes: Technology Review has a piece on new research aimed at determining how spammers get your e-mail address.
The researchers exposed 22,230 unique e-mail addresses over five months. E-mail addresses in comments posted to a website had a high probability of getting spammed, while of the 70 e-mail addresses submitted during registration at various websites, only 4 got spammed.
The researchers exposed 22,230 unique e-mail addresses over five months. E-mail addresses in comments posted to a website had a high probability of getting spammed, while of the 70 e-mail addresses submitted during registration at various websites, only 4 got spammed.
Submission + - Did we lose the art of software engineering? (computerweekly.com) 1
bossanovalithium writes: "There's something to be said for looking back on the Apollo 11 moon landing, and comparing with the state of software engineering today. The engineers that created the code for the 1969 landing were tasked with creating what at that point was the most comprehensive and complicated piece of code ever written. That code was 6meg in size, yet worked flawlessly to take men to a different world. Compare that with Windows 7 RC1, which is around 2.3gig in size, and is capable of blue screening on a regular basis. Did we lose sight of the art of engineering code, and focus on merely writing it?"
Comment I dont remember any of these features (Score 1) 241
back when I was programming in RPG. Next thing you'll be telling me that they've eliminated the fixed-column format.
Comment What about the RFI? (Score 1) 101
Running servers naked is likely to make them a larger spewer of RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). All those computers are nice until the FCC comes along and says you have to shut it down because you're interfering with the neighbors.
Comment Re:Dang... (Score 1) 716
I believe that's called a 'state-based-learning effect'. Some substances exhibit this effect, where if you learn something while on the substance, you'll require being on that substance to make use of that learning, and if you need to do it while while *not* on the substance, you'll have some relearning to do. I also understand that caffeine exhibits slight state-based-learning effects, which might explain part of the 'productivity goes down when I'm not caffeinated' phenomenon.
Comment Re:What could possible go wrong? (Score 1) 541
anything that involves trying to recreate big bangs is not a good idea.
Try telling that to the guys at MythBusters.
Submission + - SPAM: Criminals Pay Top Money for Hackable Nokia Phone
narramissic writes: "What's so special about the discontinued Nokia 1100 phone that criminals would pay $32,413 for one? Nothing... unless it was made in a factory in Bochum, Germany. The Bochum-made 1100 phones contain Nokia software from 2002 that is apparently vulnerable to tampering and can be reprogrammed to use someone else's phone number. Criminals can then intercept the transaction authentication number (TAN) and illegally transfer money into a criminal's account, says Frank Engelsman of Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations. Ultrascan is trying to obtain the affected 1100 model to verify if the attack works as described, Engelsman said."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - BBC iPlayer about to offer HD streams
arkhan_jg writes: The BBC's iPlayer offers British residents the chance to stream or download recently broadcast BBC programmes for free, even without paying for a TV licence. Now, the BBC is to start offering high definition versions of some programmes. While BBC HD content has been available as a premium option for some time on Sky satellite and Virgin cable TV, and as a recently free option via Freesat, takeup remains relatively low at less than 1/3 of households with even a basic subscription service. Over-the-air HD freeview broadcasts are still years away in the UK. The viewing of programmes over the internet via iPlayer has proved exceedingly popular though (387 million requests to stream or download since it launched on Christmas Day 2007), and for many this will be their first legitimate free exposure to BBC HD programmes.
Yet this news will not be popular with everyone. Almost all ADSL ISPs have low bandwidth quotas on their packages, often ranging from 5GB for the cheapest to 50GB for the premium packages. The BBC and ISPs have already clashed over the iPlayer, with ISPs claiming the on-demand TV service is putting strain on their networks, which need to be upgraded to cope. Tiscali suggested that they should be paid by the BBC to carry iPlayer traffic. Late last year, the BBC's head of digital media technology Anthony Rose suggested that iPlayer access should be part of tiered packages, and available to customers for an additional fee.
With such clashes over who's going to pay for the increased capacity needed to deliver the growing legitimate content demands of British customers, the new BBC iPlayer HD streaming is bound to intensify them.
Yet this news will not be popular with everyone. Almost all ADSL ISPs have low bandwidth quotas on their packages, often ranging from 5GB for the cheapest to 50GB for the premium packages. The BBC and ISPs have already clashed over the iPlayer, with ISPs claiming the on-demand TV service is putting strain on their networks, which need to be upgraded to cope. Tiscali suggested that they should be paid by the BBC to carry iPlayer traffic. Late last year, the BBC's head of digital media technology Anthony Rose suggested that iPlayer access should be part of tiered packages, and available to customers for an additional fee.
With such clashes over who's going to pay for the increased capacity needed to deliver the growing legitimate content demands of British customers, the new BBC iPlayer HD streaming is bound to intensify them.
Submission + - South Korean Economic "Prophet of Doom" Ac (nytimes.com)
Anonymusing writes: Park Dae-sung, the unemployed South Korean blogger who was arrested for maliciously spreading false information under the psuedonym Minerva, has been acquitted and released from jail. Because some of his posts about the economy contained factual errors, the South Korean government accused him of undermining financial markets. The judge wrote that there was no proof that Mr. Park had the intention to undermine public interest and that it was difficult to believe that Mr. Park knew that some of his statements were false at the time he wrote them.
Submission + - Miss a car payment and your car won't start. (inquisitr.com)
revjtanton writes: ""People all around are experiencing financial hard times and having to make daily decisions about which bills get paid and which get passed on until the next month. Unfortunately if you have bought a car recently missing that payment could find you sitting on the side of the road with a dead hunk of plastic and steel in place of your car."
This raises a question of ownership. If you miss car payments your auto can be repossessed but to me this seems to cross a line. If your name is on the title, and you generally pay your bill, shouldn't you have a right to flexibility and privacy?"
This raises a question of ownership. If you miss car payments your auto can be repossessed but to me this seems to cross a line. If your name is on the title, and you generally pay your bill, shouldn't you have a right to flexibility and privacy?"
Submission + - Congress Submiting Internet Security Act (govtrack.us) 1
Anonymous Coward writes: "This Law will give Obama the right to shut off the Internet. I don't think this will be a good thing. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-773"
Submission + - Best Way to Track Projects?
BFlatSeven writes: I work in the IT department of a mid-sized manufacturing company, and we are currently looking for a better way to track the time we spend working on projects. There are a million options out there, but I'd like to hear from the Slashdot crowd if there's anything you've used that you would actually recommend. Most of our projects involve either a single person or a small team of two or three people. Projects are generally divided into specific tasks that are assigned to specific individuals, so there is an element of coordination and task inter-dependency that will have to be supported, but not too much. Due to the nature of corporate IT, priorities have a tendency to shift and new tasks are always being added to the queue either in the form of Help Desk tickets or special requests from senior management. We have four main objectives:
1) Quickly and clearly communicate to each employee which tasks have been assigned to them and the relative priority of each of those tasks
2) Provide a way for the employees to give us real-time feedback regarding project/task status
3) Provide a way for members of the corporate user community to check on the progress of the projects/tasks that they have requested
4) Give ourselves some way to summarize how each employee has spent their time so that we can effectively manage the team
We want the system to be as lightweight and unobtrusive as possible so that we can spend our time working on projects, not entering our time. So, Slashdot, what would you recommend?
1) Quickly and clearly communicate to each employee which tasks have been assigned to them and the relative priority of each of those tasks
2) Provide a way for the employees to give us real-time feedback regarding project/task status
3) Provide a way for members of the corporate user community to check on the progress of the projects/tasks that they have requested
4) Give ourselves some way to summarize how each employee has spent their time so that we can effectively manage the team
We want the system to be as lightweight and unobtrusive as possible so that we can spend our time working on projects, not entering our time. So, Slashdot, what would you recommend?
Submission + - Twitter via telepathy. (wired.com)
revjtanton writes: ""Early on the afternoon of April 1, Adam Wilson posted a message to Twitter. But instead of using his hands to type, the University of Wisconsin biomedical engineer used his brain. "USING EEG TO SEND TWEET," he thought."
All the language used while setting up the "EEG" (as in, "JUST WORK YOU STUPID PIECE OF ****) were deleted."
All the language used while setting up the "EEG" (as in, "JUST WORK YOU STUPID PIECE OF ****) were deleted."
Submission + - Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away (news.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: Interesting article explaining that while the 'western' section of the Antarctic is warming and there is ice loss. The 'eastern' section is getting colder and the ice is actually growing: "..sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica."
Maybe the world is not ending after all...
Maybe the world is not ending after all...
