flanksteak - Slashdot User

Submission + - New Florida Governor Wants E-Voting Paper Trail

Submitted by flanksteak on Thursday February 01, 2007 @07:18PM

flanksteak writes: New Florida governor Charlie Crist held a press conference today in which he offered up $32 million to make sure all Florida votes are backed by paper trails by the 2008 election. Election supervisors have the option to retrofit paperless machines if they already have them, but a paper trail will be a requirement.

Submission + - Samba 4 Technology Preview 4 now available

Submitted by

horacerumpole

on Thursday February 01, 2007 @06:50PM

horacerumpole writes: "From http://news.samba.org/releases/4.0.0tp4/:

Samba 4.0.0 TP4 Available for Download

Samba 4 is the ambitious next version of the Samba suite that is being developed in parallel to the stable 3.0 series. The main emphasis in this branch is support for the Active Directory logon protocols used by Windows 2000 and above.

While we welcome your interest in Samba 4, we don't want you to run your network with it quite yet. Please note the WARNINGS in the README and the STATUS file, which aims to document what should and should not work.

With 4 years of development under our belt since Tridge first proposed a new Virtual File System (VFS) layer for Samba3 (a project which eventually lead to our Active Directory efforts), we felt that we should create something we could 'show off' to our users. This is a Technology Preview (TP), aimed at allowing you, our users, managers and developers to see how we have progressed, and to invite your feedback and support.

The uncompressed tarball and patch files have been signed with Jelmer Vernooij's key (ID 1EEF5276). The source code can be downloaded now"

Submission + - Wii is 'impulse buy', says Sony

Submitted by bigdady92 on Thursday February 01, 2007 @05:15PM

bigdady92 writes: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 22506

With millions of Wii's sold, every household clammering to have one, sales are still going steady on ebay while PS3's have dropped and are sitting on the floor of retail merchant stores, Sony claims:

"Karraker went on to compare the PS3 and the Wii, suggesting that Sony's console is much more powerful and should therefore be regarded as being in a different category. "Wii could be considered an impulse by more than anything else," he said."

A $250 impulse buy? Who's got that much floating around to do that?

Submission + - Switzerland bans the use of GPS units in cars.

Submitted by on Wednesday January 24, 2007 @03:55PM

An anonymous reader writes: If you're traveling with a GPS in your car to Switzerland, be very careful! As of January 10th, the Swiss authorities (ASTRA) have forbid the use of GPS systems in cars. They also banned the selling of car GPS units throughout the country.
The reason is that the software running on these devices reveal the location of traffic radars, through which less people have been fined in the recent years and thus Swiss authorities miss a lot of money. The controversial ban has been created a large commotion inside and outside the country, forcing the authorities to put an official document online [pdf — in Germans], with answers to most frequently asked questions.
GPS devices such as TomTom, Garmin, Mio, Navman, Medion, Route 66, Packard stand Ring, Sony and ViaMichelin are all in the banned list.

Submission + - University Tuition Being Auctioned on Ebay

Submitted by scvff on Wednesday January 24, 2007 @11:00AM

scvff writes: Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Oklahoma is auctioning off one years tuition on Ebay. Seriously. Starting February 4, 2007 OWU is opening an Auction on Ebay for tuition, room and board for an academic year at OWU. The winner receives tuition, room, board and applicable fees for next fall and spring at OWU. The winner may take up to 17 credit hours each semester. The person who will attend OWU must meet all admissions standards and apply for all available grants and scholarships. This auction is for tuition, room, and board in the traditional undergraduate program. University Webpage: http://www.okwu.edu/ More Information about the auction: http://community.gospelcom.net/Brix?pageID=20676

Submission + - Senior PC World Editor Shot to Death

Submitted by

Dekortage

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @08:14AM

Dekortage writes: "According to CNN this morning, "A senior editor for PC World Magazine was fatally shot in his home in what authorities said Wednesday was a drug-related attack. Rex Farrance, 59, the San Francisco, California-based magazine's senior technical editor, was shot in the chest after four masked men broke into his home Tuesday evening." Farrance's wife was also beaten. Police suggest the Farrances were involved in illegal drugs; Farrance's teenage son grew medical marijuana in the home with his parent's permission and a doctor's prescription."

Submission + - Experience 1080p HD content now from most PC's

Submitted by

Mr.Tweak

on Thursday January 11, 2007 @07:49AM

Mr.Tweak writes: "You have heard about it, now sample it. We show you some free 1080p HD content available for your viewing pleasure from around the Net and it will work just fine on most computers. Some of the content is truly amazing, especially King Kong which is out of this world!"

Submission + - Have you been Robbed Recently? Check Ebay!

Submitted by

fistfullast33l

on Monday January 08, 2007 @05:02PM

fistfullast33l writes: "A man from Great Neck, Long Island has been arrested on charges of stealing electronic equipment and selling it on Ebay. The police were tipped off when one of his alledged victims was searching for a replacement GPS device and found a perfect match — almost too perfect. A quick check of the serial number (note to cybercriminals: don't post that) showed that it was the exact device that had been stolen. What else gave the theif away? From the article: "Police and prosecutors were hesitant to provide details of how they determined all the devices had been stolen, but at least two of the laptops were stamped "Property of St. John's University.'' Detective Ray Cote noted that the GPS devices specifically had the addresses of the legitimate owners programmed in and police were now contacting those victims to eventually return the items.""

Submission + - Sealand For Sale

Submitted by coaxial on Thursday January 04, 2007 @07:17PM

coaxial writes: Everyone's favorite digital haven and nation of questionable legitimacy, Sealand is up for sale. (Link in Spanish only.) Technically you're not buying the countyr, but rather "custodianship" of the platform and all property within the "country". All of which can be yours for the low low price of 750 million euros.

Submission + - Help: How to replace batteries with AC power

Submitted by

Xanthvar

on Thursday January 04, 2007 @04:17PM

Xanthvar writes: "I am looking for a way to replace batteries in several small devices, with a power pack that can be plugged into an AC power source (like a wall outlet).

I don't know if such an animal exists commercially, but I have been unable to find it while searching the internet.( Of course this may be do to poor search phrase construction, but I haven't found the right combo yet)

I have several small device (one of those hand held games that have classic video games that you connect to your TV, for example) that uses 2-4 AA batteries, and it devours them a tremendous rate.

I would like to find an adapter that would insert into the battery compartment, and allow me to connect it to a power adapter (like those universal dial a voltage adapters that you can get from radio shed). I also have a couple of them that use 2 AAA batteries.

I have heard that there used to be something like this available for 9 volt batteries, but I cannot find them.

Now, aside from the obvious solutions like:
1. You should have purchased a device that had an AC adapter jack built into it (oops, I guess I shouldn't have been so cheap, but I am)
Or
2. You should use rechargeable batteries ( I am, but it is a huge pain to change them out all the time)

Does anyone know of a device that I can purchase that will do this, or of a relatively simple way to build such a device (preferably without the use of solder, as I don't have much experience with it, and don't have a good area to work on such a project as there are children around most of the time)?

I am not opposed to frankensteining something together, as I am sure that it will be a great learning opportunity, but I am not looking to reinvent the wheel if I don't have too.

Thank you"

Submission + - Mystery Rock Crashes Through House

Submitted by

silic0nsilence

on Thursday January 04, 2007 @02:26PM

silic0nsilence writes: "According to CNN, a rock suspected to be a small piece of a meteor crashed through the roof of a house into a bathroom, crushing the tile. Police are baffled, but have said it is not radioactive. The FAA also added that it is not a piece of aircraft."

Submission + - HDTV retro-gaming blues

Submitted by MadHatter on Thursday January 04, 2007 @02:22PM

MadHatter writes: I am a proud new owner of a LG 42 inch Plasma HDTV (42PC3D). However I was disturbed to find out that when I plugged my classic NES into it to play Mario on the big screen, I noticed a lag between the time I pressed the buttons and when he jumped. I thought maybe this was a bad controller, but after I tried the other one, the same thing happened. I tried different ratio aspects... no change. I started doing some research and found out that there is a large problem with HDTV's and older generation consoles. It has to do with the time it takes to upscale the image to the native resolution of the tv. Some tv's have a "game" mode that help a little, but mine does not. This seems to me a big problem that more people should know about when buying a HDTV — even some games on systems as new as PS2 have problems with it. I have read on some forums about VGA upscalers, but these are expensive themselves. Has anyone had any success with these and is it worth it to buy one? How have other people had success playing retro consoles on HDTV?

Submission + - Most managers' info searches are useless

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Thursday January 04, 2007 @01:50PM

coondoggie writes: "Managers waste hours every day looking for information that often turns out to be useless, according to a report from consulting firm Accenture. In a survey of 1,000 middle managers at large companies in the United States and United Kingdom, Accenture found that managers spend as long as two hours a day searching for information and more than half of the data they find has no value to them. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/010407-study -most-managers-info-searches.html"

Submission + - Dodging patents and thus helping millions

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02, 2007 @05:02PM

An anonymous reader writes: In a cunning move Sunil Shaunak of Imperial College London and colleague Steve Brocchini of the University of London's School of Pharmacy have outwitted chemical giants Hoffman-La Roche and Schering Plough who have held key patents for treating hepatitis C. Not only have they managed to work around the blocking effects of patents but they've managed to create an innovative drug delivery system which seemingly cures the decease as well as opens up the possibility of creating more effective therapies for other diseases. Finally and most noteworthy is that the techniques developed enables a lower production price http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10873& feedId=online-news_rss20 Many small step taken by men — one giant leap for mankind!!! Kudos to people like this working for the betterment of the world...

Submission + - Cameras Help Cops Capture Cold-blooded Killer

Submitted by CrazedWalrus on Tuesday January 02, 2007 @04:34PM

CrazedWalrus writes: Philadelphia police recently captured a serial killer using a combination of Homeland Security and private surveillance cameras. Police pieced together relevant video from twelve different cameras, and eventually were able to identify the murderer. Once caught, he confessed to several other murders spanning the past eight years. Without these cameras, this killer would probably be lurking the streets of Philadelphia today. With results like that, is there really a good basis for argument against these cameras?

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