Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Population density (Score 1) 424

by anticlimate (#31307566) Attached to: How Slums Can Save the Planet

Almost everyone outside US disagrees, and laughs at how Americans yearn for bucolic rural lifestyle [...]

Almost everyone except for me, who live in a city in Europe (although on the less glamorous, Eastern side of the EU). But I agree: longing after rural harmony and destroying that beloved quietness every day driving a big car to the hated city is ironic.

Comment Re:Where do the authors live? (Score 2, Insightful) 424

by anticlimate (#31304836) Attached to: How Slums Can Save the Planet
While I share Your feelings about extreme Malthusians (I mean the people, who publicly welcome any catastrophe because it lowers population) - I have yet to meet any "eco-extremists" (or "dark greens" as others like to label those people). In the same time every related discussion is ripe with hate towards e.g. "Al Gore's followers" (rutinely used to those who accept the science of anthropogenic global warming) or those anecdotal "eco-extremists". But it's just my impression, I'm not American (I guess You are) maybe we are just surrounded by different types of people.

Comment Re:Population density (Score 1) 424

by anticlimate (#31304752) Attached to: How Slums Can Save the Planet
That is my main problem with cities in general. You can eliminate pollution, make the city bike- and walk-friendly, reduce crime etc., but living together with tens of thousands of people tends to increase psychological stress. Well at least it increases my level of stress living in a city, but I guess I'm not alone.

Another factor against large cities sounds rather strange, (and I'm not really sure it should be decisive choosing your place of living): resistance to disaster - be it a flood, earthquake or a war. I remember seeing a presentation somewhere from the '50s which recommended developing suburb-like living areas because human casualties would be lower there in case of a nuclear explosion, than in a dense city.

That said I think there are major factors, other than wether you will live near a target if a nuclear war breaks out, or if Gozilla will stomp over your apartment (those monsters just love dense cities :)
Botnet

Submission + - Chuck Norris attacks Linux-based routers, modems (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Discovered by Czech researchers, the Chuck Norris botnet has been spreading by taking advantage of poorly configured routers and DSL modems. The malware got the Chuck Norris moniker from a programmer's Italian comment in its source code: "in nome di Chuck Norris," which means "in the name of Chuck Norris." Chuck Norris is unusual in that it infects DSL modems and routers rather than PCs. It installs itself on routers and modems by guessing default administrative passwords and taking advantage of the fact that many devices are configured to allow remote access."
Games

Submission + - Fantastic video game weapons vs their real-life eq (gamesradar.com)

Submitted by antdude
antdude writes: This two pages GamesRadar article compares the fantastic computer/video game weapons and their real-life equivalents — "There are certain things we just accept in video games. An overweight pipe technician can jump five times his own height. A first aid kit will instantly heal bullet wounds and replace lost blood. And any theoretical physics model can be cleanly packaged into a lightweight, handheld weapon with the minimum of fuss. But in certain cases, that last one isn't too far off the truth.

As guano loopy as most game weaponry is, some of it definitely isn't implausible. In fact some of it exists already. Kind of. Stick with us, and we'll talk you through the exciting/mortifying truth of what could be just around the technological corner..."

Seen on Blue's News.
Security

Submission + - How Banker Trojans Steal Millions Every Day (threatpost.com) 1

Submitted by redsoxh8r
redsoxh8r writes: Banker trojans have become a serious problem, especially in South America and the U.S. Trojans like Zeus, URLZone and others are the tip of the iceberg. These toolkits are standard-issue weapons for criminals and state-sponsored hackers now. Just like Zeus, URLZone is also created using a toolkit (available in underground markets). What this means is that the buyer of this toolkit can then create customized malware or botnets with different CnCs and configurations but having all the flexibility and power of the original toolkit. Having such a tool kit in the hands of multiple criminal group paints a scary picture. It's simply not enough to eliminate a particular botnet and criminal group to solve this problem.
Security

Submission + - Twitter Hit By BZPharma LOL Phishing Attack (sophos.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Twitter users are being warned not to click on messages saying "lol, this is funny" as they can lead to their account details being stolen.

A widespread attack has hit Twitter this weekend, tricking users into logging into a fake Twitter page — and thus handing their account details over to hackers.

Messages include

Lol. this is me??
lol , this is funny.
ha ha, u look funny on here
Lol. this you??

followed by a link in the form of

http://example/ [dot] com/?rid=http://twitter.verify.bzpharma [dot] net/login

where 'example.com' can vary. Clicking on the link redirects users to the second-half of the link, where the fake login page is hosted.

In a video and blog entry, computer security firm Sophos is warning users that it is not just Twitter direct messages (DMs) that carry the poisoned links, but they are appearing on public profiles due to services such as GroupTweet which republish direct messages.

Sophos also reports that the site being used for the Twitter phishing has also been constructed to steal information from users of the Bebo social network.

Affected users are advised to change their passwords immediately.
The Internet

Submission + - Obama reaffirms support for Net neutrality (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by garg0yle
garg0yle writes: From Ars Technica: "Rampant speculation suggests that the network neutrality rule at the FCC may be watered down significantly, and that the White House has been unhappy with just how radical the proposal is. But in his YouTube Q&A yesterday, President Obama made clear his own commitment to an open Internet."
Science

Submission + - SPAM: Next X-Prize = $10M for a brain-computer interface 1

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: This time it's inner space, as Peter Diamandis holds a workshop at MIT discussing a $10 million X-Prize for building a brain-computer interface. This article includes video of Ray Kurzweil's 36-minute presentation, "Merging the Human Brain with Its Creations," and MIT synthetic neuroscientist Ed Boyden also made a presentation, followed by discussion groups about Input/Output, Control, Sensory, and Learning. Besides the ability to communicate by thought, the article argues, a Brain-Computer Interface X Prize "will reward nothing less than a team that provides vision to the blind, new bodies to disabled people, and perhaps even a geographical 'sixth sense' akin to a GPS iPhone app in the brain." And one software engineer argues the technology could become commercially available within the next 10 years.
Link to Original Source
Google

Submission + - Google Reveals Once-Secret Server Design

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Most companies buy servers from the likes of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, or Sun Microsystems but Google, which has hundreds of thousands of servers and considers running them part of its core expertise, designs and builds its own. For the first time Google revealed the hardware at the core of its Internet might at a conference this week about data center efficiency. Google's big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity. "This is much cheaper than huge centralized UPS," says Google server designer Ben Jai. "Therefore no wasted capacity." Efficiency is a major financial factor. Large UPSs can reach 92 to 95 percent efficiency, meaning that a large amount of power is squandered. The server-mounted batteries do better, Jai said: "We were able to measure our actual usage to greater than 99.9 percent efficiency." Google has patents on the built-in battery design, "but I think we'd be willing to license them to vendors," says Urs Hoelzle, Google's vice president of operations. Google has an obsessive focus on energy efficiency. "Early on, there was an emphasis on the dollar per (search) query," says Hoelzle. "We were forced to focus. Revenue per query is very low.""
The Military

Submission + - Soldiers' Networked Helmets Locate Enemy Shooters 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Engineers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed a system that that can display the location of enemy shooters in three dimensions and accurately identify the caliber and type of weapons they are firing by turning their combat helmets into "smart nodes" in a wireless sensor network. Each node for the ISIS system weighs only slightly more than the four AA batteries that power it and costs about $1,000 to construct using currently available commercial hardware. The system relies on the sound waves produced when a high-powered rifle is fired. These acoustic signals have distinctive characteristics that allow the systems to pick them out from other loud noises and track them back to their source. The ISIS system combines information from a number of nodes to triangulate on shooter positions and improve the accuracy of its location identification process. It also uses a patented technique to filter out the echoes that can throw off other acoustic detection system. "It's strong points are that it isn't limited to locating shots fired in direct line-of-sight, it can pick up multiple shooters at the same time, and it can identify the caliber and type of weapon that is being fired." says Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Albert Sciarretta, who assesses new military technologies in urban environments for DARPA."
Education

Submission + - Australian Govt says no to Linux Netbooks (technologyandbusiness.com.au)

Submitted by teflon_king
teflon_king writes: So this is a somewhat disappointing. The Australian Government is spending millions across the country to buy laptops/notebooks/netbooks for school kids. The funding is Federal but the education departments are run by each state. So each state gets funding, and they then go out and get tenders to supply the gear. According to this report, the state of NSW did consider Linux netbooks but they have awarded the $150 million contract to Lenovo for netbooks running Windows . Now I can understand a government going through a tender process and making this decision. From the comment by Microsoft's Australian country manager it certainly sounds like Microsoft made them a hot deal on the operating systems. Not surprising really because it's great for future Microsoft OS sales once these kids leave school. However it's disappointing from the perspective that these kids won't have the option of really getting into the nuts and bolts of how an operating system is put together. They won't be learning about the shell and so forth. And of course, they won't have access to all the open options for programming that exist on Linux. And I would guess that the machines are going to be very locked down: do you think they are going to be able to use Firefox or install other open source programs. It just sounds to me that one of the main advantages of getting all these machines in the hands of kids should be about giving them the opportunity to explore programming. It should not just be about giving them access to Web browsers and word processors. It would be an interesting follow up to find that out and especially find out if the machines are also going to be bundled with Microsoft Office — it would certainly be a smart move by Microsoft.
Privacy

Submission + - Major drop in internet traffic after new law (thelocal.se) 1

Submitted by
iamnot
iamnot writes: "The new IPRED law came into effect in a big way in Sweden on April 1st. A news report has come out showing that internet traffic dropped by 30% from March 31st to April 1st. A lawyer from the Swedish anti-piracy agency was quoted as saying that the drop in traffic "sends a very strong signal that the legislation works". Is the new law, which allows for copyright holders to request the identification of people sharing files, truly curing people of their evil ways? Or perhaps it is just taking some time for Swedish downloaders to figure out the new IPREDator VPN system from The Pirate Bay."

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Close