Prenons Crise - Slashdot User

Submission + - Google Summer of Code Program Overhauled

Submitted by

lisah

on Friday February 23, 2007 @10:35AM

lisah writes: "Though at first glance Google's Summer of Code (SOC) 2007 looks pretty much the same as last year's event, it turns out much of the program has been overhauled based on feedback from past participants. The biggest change is the amount of lead time given to applicants and mentoring organizations in the hopes of increasing the applicant pool and allowing everyone to be better organized once the program gets officially underway on May 28. SOC organizers say they are also aware that slow payment to last year's participants has been a bone of contention and they are taking steps to 'make sure that the problem is diminished or will not happen again.'""

Submission + - War 2.0: Open Source IEDs vs. Platoon Wikis

Submitted by dasbeh on Friday February 23, 2007 @09:50AM

dasbeh writes: OSS, Wikipedia and other forms of net-based "peer production" can help us understand how modern Guerilla warfare is organized — and what the military must do to win War 2.0. At least, that is the argument of a "Web Special" at Policy Review. It shows how the internet has shifted the strategic balance in favor of small, decentralized groups that share tactical information, ideology and military doctrine over the web- and how today's insurgents honor such OSS mantras as "release early, release often", "the permanent beta version" and "open standards". From TFA: 'War's changing character is not only augmented by the emergence of the new media; the way the web and today's communication devices are used to organize lives also instructs our understanding of how killing is organized'

Submission + - Which language would you use in 3000 AD?

Submitted by

CSLarsen

on Friday February 23, 2007 @08:32AM

CSLarsen writes: "You are in the year 3000. At your hands is a computer that:

Is infinitely fast

Has infinite storage

Which programming language would you use to program it?

If you propose a currently non-existing language, what kind of characteristics would it have?"

The BlackBerry Orphans 228

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 08, 2006 @05:43PM from the dad-daddy-mommy-lol'd-at-me dept.

theodp writes "The WSJ reports that the growing use of email gadgets is spawning a generation of resentful children. In addition to feeling neglected, kids fear BlackBerrys and Treos can put their lives in jeopardy as Mom and Dad type away while driving." From the article: "Like teenagers sneaking cigarettes behind school, parents are secretly rebelling against the rules. The children of one New Jersey executive mandate that their mom ignore her mobile email from dinnertime until their bedtime. To get around their dictates, the mother hides the gadget in the bathroom, where she makes frequent trips before, during and after dinner. The kids 'think I have a small bladder,' she says. She declined to be named because she's afraid her 12- and 13-year-old children might discover her secret."

The Hacker Profiling Project 122

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @02:10PM from the they-know-who-you-be-lads dept.

NewsForge writes "NewsForge is running a story about a project aiming to profile hackers like the police do with common criminals. Not based out of the U.S. per se, this project falls under the auspices of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). The project was co-founded by Stefania Ducci, in 2004, along with Raoul Chiesa." From the article: "NewsForge: What would the project concretely produce as final output? Stefania Ducci: The final goal is a real and complete methodology for hacker profiling, released under GNU/FDL. This means that, at the end of our research project, if a company will send us its (as detailed as possible) logs related to an intrusion, we — exactly like in the TV show C.S.I. when evidence is found on the crime scene — will be able to provide a profile of the attacker. By 'profile' we mean, for example, his technical skills, his probable geographic location, an analysis of his modus operandi, and of a lot of other, small and big, traces left on the crime scene. This will also permit us to observe and, wherever possible, preview new attack trends, show rapid and drastic behavior changes, and, finally, provide a real picture of the world of hacking and its international scene."

Engineering Food at the Molecular Level 297

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @11:37AM from the nano-food-mmm dept.

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a New York Times article about the possibility of manipulating food at a molecular level. Though some of the initial suggestions are a little pointless (lower-fat ice cream, harder-to-melt M&Ms), weighter goals could eventually be achieved here as well. From the article: "Given the uncertainty about the risks of consuming new nano products, many analysts expect near-term investment to focus on novel food processing and packaging technology. That is the niche targeted by Sunny Oh, whose start-up company, OilFresh, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is marketing a novel device to keep frying oil fresh. OilFresh grinds zeolite, a mineral, into tiny beads averaging 20 nanometers across and coats them with an undisclosed material. Packed into a shelf inside the fryer, the beads interfere with chemical processes that break down the oil or form hydrocarbon clusters, Mr. Oh says. As a result, restaurants can use oil longer and transfer heat to food at lower temperatures, although they still need traditional filters to remove food waste from the oil. Mr. Oh said OilFresh will move beyond restaurants into food processing by the end of the month, when it delivers a 1,000-ton version of the device to a 'midsized potato chip company' that he said did not want to be identified. "

Vista to Include Stepped up Anti-Piracy Measures 549

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday October 04, 2006 @04:53PM from the only-os-that-comes-with-crutches dept.

snuffin writes to tell us the Washington Post is reporting that Microsoft announced stepped up anti-piracy measures being implemented in their latest operating system, Vista. From the article: "If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager." Ars Technica also has coverage available on this new development.

FreeBSD Vows to Compete with Desktop Linux 370

Posted by Zonk on Saturday May 13, 2006 @09:19AM from the moving-on-up dept.

AlanS2002 writes "FreeBSD developer Scott Long is being reported as saying that FreeBSD is quickly approaching feature parity with Linux. Apparently this is being achieved through efforts to more tightly integrate GNOME with FreeBSD, with one of the priorities being to 'GNOME's hardware abstraction layer--which handles hardware-specific code--working with FreeBSD'."

Senate Bill May Ban Streaming MP3s 503

Posted by Zonk on Thursday April 27, 2006 @03:58PM from the i-like-the-streaming dept.

Silverhammer writes "According to the EFF, a new Senate bill (S. 2644) sponsored by Senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Graham (R-SC) would effectively ban streaming MP3 for licensed music by requireing 'casters to use the most restrictive streaming format available (e.g., Windows Media or Real) rather than simply the most restrictive features of a chosen streaming format (e.g., Shoutcast or streaming MP3)." From the article: "The PERFORM Act would ... requir[e] webcasters to use DRM that restricts the recording of webcasts. That means no more MP3 streams if you rely on the statutory license. Under the bill, the statutory license would only be available to a webcaster if: [114(d)(2)(C)(vi)] the transmitting entity takes no affirmative steps to authorize, enable, cause or induce the making of a copy or phonorecord by or for the transmission recipient and uses technology that is reasonably available, technologically feasible, and economically reasonable to prevent the making of copies or phonorecords embodying the transmission in whole or in part, except for reasonable recording as defined in this subsection."

Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle 495

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday April 05, 2006 @03:41PM from the mental-health-beyond-repair dept.

jonasj writes "A doctor and former programmer has written a good article on common geek health problems. From the article: 'If I were to go and try to run a few miles this weekend, I would not be able to easily do so. [...] However, if you take one of the these college basketball athletes, any of them would be able to run miles without even breathing heavy. However, if you made them sit down and try to learn Java for 12 hours a day, most of them would be asleep at their desk before lunch. The typical geek trains their brain to be heavily focused while multitasking day after day. Is it surprising that this same brain does not do well when forced to isolate down to one task?'"

SCOTUS To Hear Patentable Thought Case 394

Posted by Zonk on Sunday March 19, 2006 @02:45PM from the get-out-of-my-head dept.

skayell writes "The Supreme Court of the United States will hear a landmark patent case involving whether or not thoughts and relationships are patentable. Michael Crichton's essay in the New York Times attempts a thoughtful summary of Metabolite's primary assertion: they not only own the connection between homocysteine levels in the blood and vitamin B12 deficiency, but also any thought connecting the two."

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