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Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Tour my floor (jaycharles.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Concept is simple. Some dude rigged up a webcam to an R/C car and wrote some funky backend code with a Flash interface so you can control his R/C car online, from anywhere and take a tour around his room. And the best bit about it... no cops or speed cameras anywhere!
The Matrix

Submission + - Surfer's Theory of Everything Stuns Physicists (arxiv.org)

Submitted by
Baldrson
Baldrson writes: "The UK Telegraph reports that: A surfer dude named Garrett Lisi has come up with a new theory of everything which physicists are calling "fabulous", "incredibly beautiful", "profound" and "most compelling". Lisi's peer-reviewed paper titled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" is being published with the New Scientist. The Telegraph article continues: "Lisi is now calculating the masses that the 20 new particles should have, in the hope that they may be spotted when the Large Hadron Collider starts up.""
Editorial

Submission + - NFL Football Odds - Week 11 picks (wagerweb.com)

Submitted by
sportsfreakmc
sportsfreakmc writes: "Sports Betting at WagerWeb Online Sportsbook Week 11 in the NFL sees the Patriots continuing their quest for perfection coming off a bye week, while the Dolphins, surprise!, are a big underdog again as they stare at 0-10. Not a lot of top matchups this week elsewhere, with Giants-Lions probably the best in the NFC and Chargers-Jaguars the same in the AFC. San Diego (+3) at Jacksonville: The Chargers are coming off a fortunate win over Indianapolis, but Philip Rivers just isn't the same QB as last year. They'll try to pound LaDainian Tomlinson, but the Jags, even without Marcus Stroud, are tough against the run. Meanwhile, Jacksonville gets starting QB David Garrard back after he missed three games due to injury."Barring any setbacks, we anticipate him being our quarterback Sunday,"Coach Jack Del Rio said. The pick: Jacksonville. Kansas City (+14.5) at Indianapolis: Brodie Croyle starts for the Chiefs at quarterback, but they still be without star running back Larry Johnson. The Colts have barely any healthy bodies. Dwight Freeney is done for the year, while receiver Marvin Harrison likely will be out again. Don't expect another six-interception game from Peyton Manning, but the Chiefs should keep it somewhat close. The pick: Chiefs cover. Oakland (+5.5) at Minnesota: Daunte Culpepper is back at quarterback for the Raiders, and it's fitting he returns at the Metrodome, where he used to be one of the best in the league. Minnesota, meanwhile, lost about 80 percent of its offense when Adrian Peterson was hurt last week. Chester Taylor is a good backup, but the Vikings can't pass. This game should be very low scoring. The pick: Vikings. Cleveland (-2.5) at Baltimore: Who would have thought that Cleveland would be favored at Baltimore when the season began? But the Browns, behind Derek Anderson, can score, while the Ravens can't. Kyle Boller starts at QB for Baltimore over Steve McNair. Not sure that matters much. The pick: Cleveland. Pittsburgh (-9.5) at New York Jets: For all intents and purposes, this game shouldn't be close. The Jets have lost six straight and will start Kellen Clemens against one of the league's better defenses. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, has won three in a row, and you know the Steelers won't let this one slip away. The pick: Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay (-3) at Atlanta: The Bucs have never been very good in a dome, and Atlanta is actually playing better of late, winning two in a row. However, that was behind QB Joey Harrington. Byron Leftwich returned to full practice this week and is expected to start at QB for Atlanta ahead of Harrington, which is a tad curious. The pick: Tampa Bay. Arizona (+3) at Cincinnati: Two perplexingly similar teams in that the offenses should be dynamic, but the defenses ... well, you get the idea. The Bengals have been decent at home (2-2), while Arizona is bad on the road (1-4). That's enough for me. The pick: Cincinnati. Miami (+10) at Philadelphia: The Eagles are coming off one of their best quarters of the season in winning at Washington, while Miami is ... Miami. Rookie John Beck starts at QB for the Dolphins. No way Philly loses this game, but could Miami cover? It's possible. The pick: Eagles (buy down to 9.5). New England (-16) at Buffalo: There was a similar line on the teams' earlier meeting, which seemed high, but the Patriots covered with ease. We all know how good the Pats are, while the Bills have been playing very well of late. J.P. Losman starts at QB for Buffalo, but the Bills' key loss likely will be Marshawn Lynch. The rookie running back almost certainly won't play. Still, I look for Buffalo to pound the ball with Anthony Thomas and Dwayne Wright and keep the Pats' offense off the field. Will Buffalo win? No, but the Bills should cover at home. The pick: Bills cover. Washington (+10.5) at Dallas: Hard to believe the Redskins are getting this many points despite playing at Dallas. The Redskins will be without star WR Santana Moss as well as WR James Thrash, but as long as Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts are playing, Washington can keep it close. The pick: Redskins cover. New Orleans (+1) at Houston: This game should be a shootout. New Orleans reverted to early-season form last week against the Rams, while Houston has been sliding but gets back WR Andre Johnson and QB Matt Schaub. I expect those two to be a bit out of sync, however. The pick: New Orleans. Carolina (+9.5) at Green Bay: David Carr was back at practice this week for the Panthers, which means he will probably get the not over Vinny Testaverde at QB. We all know who starts under center for the Packers, but Green Bay may have found a running game, finally, with Ryan Grant. The pick: Green Bay. New York Giants (-3) at Detroit: This seems like the lock of the week to me. The Giants are arguably the NFL's most overrated team, and the Cowboys exposed them again last week. This team has a history of folding in the second half of the season, and Detroit is a completely different club in the dome. Jon Kitna will have his way with the Giants' secondary much the way Tony Romo did last week. The pick: Detroit. St. Louis (-3) at San Francisco: The 49ers are likely the worst team in football not residing in south Florida. They were pathetic on Monday night against Seattle, and the Rams finally seem to be getting healthy. Even Isaac Bruce, who tweaked his hamstring last week, is likely to play. The pick: St. Louis. Chicago (+6) at Seattle: When the 2007 schedule was released, this looked like a potential NFC Championship Game matchup. But the Bears are plodding along at 4-5, and the Seahawks haven't really had a signature win. Rex Grossman returns at QB for Chicago, but you never know which Rex will show. Seattle will get WR Deion Branch back after he missed four weeks with a foot sprain. The pick: Bears. Tennessee (+2) at Denver: This game should be low scoring. Tennessee has no passing game whatsoever (sorry, Vince Young), and the Titans' normally stout run defense missed Albert Haynesworth big time last week in a loss to Jacksonville. He could return Monday night, while the Broncos may or may not have RB Travis Henry. The pick: Denver."
Networking

Submission + - Brazilian police arrests top Cisco execs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to various Brazilian news agencies, top executives from local Cisco operation have been arrested today in what was called "Operation Persona". There's evidence of huge tax fraud (at least R$1,5B, roughly US$830M) involving Cisco (mostly) and others companies. Hardware was imported below its price to evade customs taxes. There's already many links covering this story, as it's still developing (just portuguese for now, sorry).
Security

Submission + - Surveillance cameras coming to New York (cnn.com)

Submitted by yapplejax
yapplejax writes: New York City seeks funding for multi-million dollar surveilance system in Lower Manhattan.
Steven Swain from the London Metropolitan Police states "I don't know of a single incident where CCTV has actually been used to spot, apprehend or detain offenders in the act". The statement is countered by New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, stating the unprovable "We don't know acts that may have been planned that — because of the surveillance and deterrence systems that are in place — did not go forward."
And as the story also states, does a terrorist who is about to embark on a suicide mission really care if he gets caught on camera?
Do you have any expectation of privacy in a public area? Do you care if you are being filmed by a network of cameras while you walk around a major city? What if it was your home town?
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Abuse of foreign worker programs (youtube.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This video depicts a law firm explicitly discussing ways firms can avoid hiring US workers so they can bring in foreign workers. If there is a shortage of qualified US workers, as is claimed by many tech companies doing this, why do they have to hire law firms to help them avoid hiring Americans?
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - New water-cooled hard drives coming (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by CoolHandLuke
CoolHandLuke writes: NEC and Hitachi are teaming up on a liquid cooling system for hard drives. The goal is to cut down on noise levels while providing more efficient cooling. 'Hitachi and NEC are developing the water-cooled hard drive systems for desktop computers mainly to reduce noise levels to 25 decibels, 5 decibels quieter than a whisper. To do this, NEC and Hitachi actually wrap the hard drive in "noise absorbing material and vibration insulation." According to Hitachi and NEC, the cooling cold plate they're planning to use is the most efficient plate ever used for heat conduction, which means they'll be able to cool the hard drives quicker and more efficiently.'
Security

Submission + - Warning of wi-fi Browser Cookie Hijack (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
tgacid
tgacid writes: "Using public wi-fi hotspots has got much riskier as security experts unveil tools that nab login data over the air. Demonstrated at the Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, these new tools make it far easier to steal account details. Identifying files called cookies are stolen in the attack which let hackers pose as their victim. This gives attackers access to mail messages or the page someone maintains on sites such as MySpace or Facebook."
Spam

Submission + - 30 years in the slammer for pharmacy spammer (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by teutonic_leech
teutonic_leech writes: Internet users can count on a few less e-mails about cheap Viagra and Cialis showing up in their junk mail folders, as well-known spammer Christopher Smith has been sentenced to 30 years in jail by a federal judge. The judge referred to the 27-year-old online drugstore owner as a "drug kingpin" when issuing the sentence, according to the Star Tribune. The sentencing is among the longest convictions related to Internet pharmacies in recent history, said Smith's attorney.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Who's a Nerd ?

Submitted by sas-dot
sas-dot writes: Is this nerdiness we know? New York Times carries this article on Who is a nerd?, excerpts from it "What is a nerd? Mary Bucholtz, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been working on the question for the last 12 years. She has gone to high schools and colleges, mainly in California, and asked students from different crowds to think about the idea of nerdiness and who among their peers should be considered a nerd; students have also "reported" themselves. Nerdiness, she has concluded, is largely a matter of racially tinged behavior. People who are considered nerds tend to act in ways that are, as she puts it, "hyperwhite."
Businesses

Submission + - How not to migrate a data center

Submitted by alee
alee writes: Over the last several weeks, Valueweb has been sending email reminders of a pending data center migration (moving the Valueweb servers to Hostway's Tampa data center). The data center migration plan emailed to customers indicated:

"The 12-15 hour outage will take place beginning this Friday July 27th at 8 PM EDT. The outage time will be incremental for customers. Therefore, if your server is taken off line at 8 PM EDT, you should expect your server to be back on line between 8 AM and 11 AM on Saturday July 28th."

That downtime has now exceeded 36 hours. Of the 5000+ servers being moved, Hostway has admitted that currently only 50% of them have been brought online, with no ETA. Support hold times according to their phone queue system show hold times exceeding 3 hrs to talk to a CSR. There are thousands of legitimate businesses hosted at Valueweb that are at the mercy of some of the worst data center migration planning I've ever seen.

While there is no worthwhile SLA to mention as part of the hosting contract, is an email indicating that downtime won't exceed 12-15 hrs considered an addendum to an SLA?
Windows

Submission + - Vista at 60,000,000

Submitted by
westlake
westlake writes: "Since Vista's Jan. 30 consumer release, Microsoft has shipped 60 million copies to PC makers, retailers and customers. The 60 million figure excludes the 42 million PCs covered under corporate volume licenses agreements for Windows. Corporate deployment has been slow, but when it happens the numbers can be an eye-opener. 70,000 copies for the Banco Bradesco in Brazil. Sales of premium-priced Windows in the consumer market are up about 20%. Microsoft expects dollar sales of XP and Vista to — grow — slightly slower next year, at a rate of between 9% and 10%. Seeing a ten percent growth in sales in a mature market where you hold a 90% share is not an uncomfortable place to be. Microsoft Vista ships 60M"

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