scooter.higher - Slashdot User

Submission + - Why you haven't heard of cell phone repeaters

Submitted by

SinaK

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:28PM

SinaK writes: "Millions of people in the US have poor cell phone reception, whether because they are too far from a cell tower, or due to interference effects. A simple solution has existed for quite some time: cell phone repeaters. But most consumers haven't heard of them simply because current FCC regulations prevent networks from selling cell repeaters directly to customers."

Submission + - Who's the best 2008 candidate for cyber security?

Submitted by

Luke

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:18PM

Luke writes: "We've all seen their web site rankings, and we know that McCain's already disqualified, but which candidate has the best record in terms of cyber security? The war on terror rages in the Middle East, but I haven't heard much about steps the government has taken to guard against cyber terrorism (which many believe has the potential to be the most deadly form). What cyber security obligations should be felt by the US Government, and which candidate is the most qualified to make sure those obligations are met?"

Submission + - Album giveaway could ignite music revolution

Submitted by Denyer on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:16PM

Denyer writes: A couple of years ago, Seattle group Harvey Danger released their album Little By Little online, free, forever. Now press elsewhere are increasingly giving coverage to the idea that music serves better as the advertising for live shows and merchandise, and UK band The Crimea have thrown themselves into the ring with their second album, Secrets of the Witching Hour. What do Slashdot readers think: is there value in recordings themselves any more, or are they mostly something to be shared and attract attention to a band's other endeavours?

Submission + - Pre-loaded Linux = Increased adoption?

Submitted by

E. Stride

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:11PM

E. Stride writes: "Dell announced it will sell Ubuntu on its laptop and desktop computers. Will this increase adoption? Yes, but not because end users comfortable with Windows will decide to switch, says one expert."

Submission + - Death Knell for DoS Extortion?

Submitted by

Ron

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:05PM

Ron writes: "An Infoworld article reports that Yazan Gable, a security researcher, has put forward an explanation as to why the numbers of denial of service attacks have been declining. His theory is that DoS attacks are no longer profitable to attackers. While spam and phishing attacks directly generate profit, he argues that extortion techniques often used with DoS attacks are far more risky and often make an attacker no profit at all. He writes:

So what happens if the target of the attack refuses to pay? The DoS extortionist is obligated to carry out a prolonged DoS attack against them to follow through on their threats. For a DoS extortionist, this is the worst scenario because they have to risk their bot network for nothing at all. Since the target has refused to pay, it is likely that they will never pay. As a consequence, the attacker has to spend time and resources on a lost cause.
"

Submission + - iPhone shortage of PS3 proportions?

Submitted by mattatwork on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:01PM

mattatwork writes: According to DigiTimes, Apple has put in a request to Samsung (and other NAND manufacturers) for upwards of 400-500 million 4 Gb NAND flash chips. The various parties involved in providing the memory have balked at the amount required and the risk involved in the case that the phone succeeds or tanks when it goes on sale. Is the concern surrounding the buzz about the iPhone credible or is this just leftover paranoia from the PS3 shortage?

Submission + - Microsoft v. AT&T text of decision

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:56PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "The complete text (in Wikisource html) of yesterday's 30 page PDF decision is now available on Wikipedia/Wikisource at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._AT%26T."

Submission + - Music Decoded from 600 Year Old Engravings

Submitted by RulerOf on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:50PM

RulerOf writes: Musicians recently unlocked a 600 year old mystery that had been encoded into the walls of the Rosslyn Chapel that was featured in "The Da Vinci Code." The song was carved into the walls of the chapel not using traditional notes, but in the form of geometric shapes known as cymatics, or Chladni patterns. After the entire song was decoded, it was set to traditional lyrics and recorded, and can be heard in a video featured here, at the musicians' website. The video also gives a visual representation of how the engravings match up to the cymatic patterns.

From the article:

"The music has been frozen in time by symbolism...They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here." The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody.

Lastly, a direct link to the video.

Submission + - Long Block Data standard finalized

Submitted by

Anonymous

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:47PM

Anonymous writes: "IDEMA has finally released the LBD (Long Block Data) standard. This standard increase the length of the data blocks of each sector from 512 bytes to 4,096 bytes. This is an update that has been requested for some time by the harddrive industry and the development of new harddrives will start immediately. The new standard offers many advantages where the improved reliability and higher transfer rates are the two most obvious. While the reliability is stated to increase as much as ten fold by some manufacturers, the performance improvements are a bit more elusive. Overall improvements include, besides the previous mentioned, shorter maintenance, time for format and more efficient data transfers due to less overhead per block during read and write operations."

Submission + - Slippery iPhone?

Submitted by mattatwork on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:46PM

mattatwork writes: A brief article on Business 2.0 shed light on little known flaw of the iPhone's design: slipperiness. According to the article:

"Overall," he added, "our source found the iPhone awesome but he mentioned, as a sole negative point, that the material used on the device's case makes it feel even more slippery than the iPod and will probably require the purchase of a protective skin or case so as to avoid unintentionally dropping it."

The article doesn't go on to suggest where the testers were found and what credentials were necessary to participate in testing the iPhones. I for one find it hard to believe Apple would let a product go anywhere near testing with a potential for slipping, falling and getting damaged....

Submission + - When the backup server fails to back up

Submitted by

westlake

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:42PM

westlake writes: "The New York Times reports that the editorial systems of Business 2.0 crashed on April 23, wiping out all the editorial work for the June issue. Good thing the magazine is a monthly. The recovery was made much easier, paradoxically, by a bane of modern business, litigation — or at least the fear of it. The text had all been copy-edited and sent off to the lawyers, so it had been saved as e-mail. The artwork and layouts were truly gone and had to be reconstructed. The night of the crash, the editor said said, "our tech guy was here until 4 o'clock in the morning, but the patient died." Until then, the magazine had never had to rely on its backup server, so no one had noticed that its programming was either obsolete or dysfunctional, or both. Just last November, the magazine had listed off-site backup as being among "the usual precautions." Magazine Learns to Heed Its Own Advice"

Submission + - Magazine loses files when backup fails

Submitted by DysenteryInTheRanks on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:41PM

DysenteryInTheRanks writes: Business 2.0, the Time Inc.-owned tech/business magazine that publishes the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" each year, lost much of the content from its June issue when a server crashed — and the never-tested "backup server" also failed, apparently due to a software issue. There was only one week left before the monthly magazine was to be published. Luckily the text of the articles had been emailed to lawyers and was recovered. Everything had to be laid out again and the graphics recreated. Editors have since followed the advice they once published in their own magazine and begun using an off-site backup server that mirrors every half hour.

Submission + - Blindness - Restoring Vision with Genetic Therapy

Submitted by pizzaman100 on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:37PM

pizzaman100 writes: A clinical trial has begun in the UK to to treat blindness by genetically modifying DNA. The same method has already been used to restore vision to dogs. The treatment works by injecting a genetically modified virus into the retina. The virus attacks the cells in the retina in a beneficial way by inserting good DNA into the cells.

According to the article: Robin Ali at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and colleagues are treating adults and children with Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA), caused by an abnormality in the RPE65 gene. This gene is important in recycling retinol, a molecule that helps the retina detect light. People with LCA usually lose vision from infancy. Ali's team are inserting healthy copies of RPE65 into cells in the retina, using a viral vector. Previously, dogs with LCA have had their vision restored in this way, allowing them to walk through a maze for the first time without difficulty.

Submission + - Sanity Returns to the US Patent System

Submitted by chameleon_skin on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:33PM

chameleon_skin writes: In its most important ruling on patent law in years, the Supreme Court has taken a stand on the crippling effects that obvious patents are having on innovation in the United States. From the article:

If the combination results from nothing more than "ordinary innovation" and "does no more than yield predictable results," the court said in a unanimous opinion, it is not entitled to the exclusive rights that patent protection conveys. "Were it otherwise," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the opinion, "patents might stifle, rather than promote, the progress of useful arts."

This judgement changes the standard needed to overturn a patent from "clear and convincing" evidence to simply "a preponderance" of evidence.

Submission + - Coleman has a Sterling Cycle cooler.

Submitted by

F34nor

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:31PM

F34nor writes: "I for one was very impressed when Coleman introduced a Peltier Thermoelectric Device based cooler back in the 90's. I was deeply conflicted if I should make my beer frosty or tear the thing apart to make a CPU cooler. Now Coleman once again is making the jump from "kind of wacky" science project to tasty beverage in a way that makes me think someone at Coleman listens to just the right amount of Art Bell. The guts are made by a company called Global Cooling based out of the Netherlands. Todd Troutman covered it here, unfortunately the Costco link says no love yet and the manual says it pulls 48w not 24w."

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