nlitement - Slashdot User

Submission + - OSC threatten BBC over Microsoft tie-in (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

FireFury03

on Tuesday June 26, 2007 @08:13AM

FireFury03 writes: "After the BBC Trust approved the BBC's development of a Windows-only video-on-demand service in April, the Open Source Consortium is threatening the BBC with a complaint to the European Commission, since it gives Microsoft an unfair advantage and is not in the public interest. They have also complained to the regulator (Ofcom) and the BBC Trust comparing the situation to the BBC only making programmes that can only be watched on one particular brand of television.

As a licence fee payer, I feel that I should have the right to withhold a portion of my licence fee since the BBC obviously feels it appropriate to artificially restrict the content and therefore prevent a proportion of licence fee payers from legitimately accessing it. It is also interesting to note from the article that the BBC seems to consider supporting only Windows and Mac to be "platform agnostic", with no mention of other operating systems."

Submission + - Homer Simpson kidnapped by Malaysian fan (thewestaustralian.com.au)

Submitted by

Cyspeth

on Thursday June 21, 2007 @09:57PM

Cyspeth writes: "Cartoon character Homer Simpson has been kidnapped in Malaysia and Hollywood is offering a reward of 1,000 ringgit for his safe return. Film studio Twentieth Century Fox announced the bounty after a 1.2 metre statue of Simpson was stolen from a cinema display in a mall in the Malaysian capital. It was one of a set of outsize replicas of the family being used to advertise The Simpsons, a movie spinoff of the US television series that is set for release in Malaysia next month. "This guy is really dumb, because he must know that in a mall there are lots of surveillance cameras," said Nor Hayati Yahaya, country manager of the Motion Picture Association that groups major film studios. "We got footage of his car, plate number, his face, everything.""

Submission + - Keylogger Hardware Embedded in New Dell Laptop (virus.org.ua)

Submitted by

kendbluze

on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @02:39AM

kendbluze writes: "Here's an EE who was doing a simple repair to a nearly-new Dell 600m laptop when he noticed something a bit curious. Turns out he found a hardware keylogger sitting between the keyboard and ethernet controllers! See what Homeland Security didn't have to say about it."

Submission + - Newton Predicts World Will End No Sooner than 2060 (cnn.com)

Submitted by Sean H on Monday June 18, 2007 @08:48PM

Sean H writes: Writings of Isaac Newton recently made public include a prediction that the earth will end no sooner than 2060 — among other observations made from interpretations of the Old Testament.

Submission + - Help. American Idol is going after me. (gk2gk.com)

Submitted by

Geek 2 Geek

on Monday June 18, 2007 @01:46PM

Geek 2 Geek writes: "Hi, I was referred to slashdot as a place where I might get help for a problem I'm having. A while ago, I devised a contest for my web site — Geek 2 Geek. It is a "talent" show for geeks in which they submit humorous videos. I called it "Geek Idol". We received a letter from a law firm representing American Idol regarding our contest contest. A complete copy of the letter can be seen at www.gk2gk.com/topten/template20.asp . They express the concern that "... your use of GEEK IDOL will most likely cause confusion, mistake, and/or deception among the consuming public regarding the source or sponsorship of your services, and will give the false impression that your services are associated with ... 'American Idol' in violation of our client's rights. They also say that "... since AMERICAN IDOL is a famous mark, ... your use of GEEK IDOL would also constitute dilution of our client's marks and unfair competion. If we do not withdraw our use of "GEEK IDOL", they say they will seek remedies including, "without limitation, immediate and permanent injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and an award for attorney's fees and costs incurred in obtaining such remedies. I asked our members whether anyone who read about the contest got the impression that it was somehow affiliated with American Idol. Of course, no one would, it was described in a humorous, satirical way, for one thing. The word "IDOL" is hardly a new word. And, having seen the American Idol show a few times, I don't see that anybody who performs as a "geek" will win their contest, although, I guess, Clay Aiken started out that way, but it was bred out of him by the time he was a finalist. Are there any lawyers out there? Any advice from anyone as to how we should respond? Thanks."

Submission + - Car Rental Agency with poor Credit Card verify

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18, 2007 @01:19PM

An anonymous reader writes: In an time of increased Credit Card Fraud it's amazing that one of the worlds largest Car Rental Agencies has such poor Credit Card Verification technology leaving countless users open to Credit Card Fraud.

Rather than being a victim of Credit Card fraud, I discovered on June 14th that a car I booked and paid for on January 31st was charged to some other poor person's Credit Card. How did this happen? The other persons credit card was the same as mine with 2 digits (11th and 13th) swapped and the same expiry date. Sounds impossible, but not it's actually not that difficult to occur given that the Checksum is the same if numbers are swapped and Credit Cards are generally only issued for a period of up to 4 years (48 expiry periods). They blame me for user input error, I blame them for systems error.

You'd think that a company the size of Hertz would use proper verification technology. However, they only verify the Credit Card Number and Expiry Date. They don't verify against the Credit Card Owner Name or Address or CVC number. With chip and pin and more secure online technology such as "Verified By Visa" becoming increasingly common place, to combat fraud, this seems like absolute madness. They have the lowest form of online Credit Card verification.

In resolving the matter Hertz Ireland sent me an email containing all the details of the booking (including the Credit Card Number and Expiry Date). That gave me real confidence that they are protecting my data.

Hertz's answer to this. My fault of course. The poor owner of the credit card had to wait 4 months (mainly because they didn't contact me till the end of the dispute with her) for a refund and I had to make a new booking for next month. Thankfully, there was still availability of the convertible mustang I'm so looking forward to driving. ;-)

Submission + - I'm in Your PC, Writing Your Code (lolcode.com)

Submitted by

Samah

on Sunday June 17, 2007 @08:13PM

Samah writes: "As internet memes become increasingly prevalent in our society, sometimes a gem like this comes about. From this article: "The attack of the lolcats has spilled over to programming, with LOLCODE, a language based on the mangled grammar of lolcats...LOLCODE has no practical or educational value, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun""

Submission + - An In Depth Look Into Chinese "Gold Farming

Submitted by Henry V .009 on Sunday June 17, 2007 @09:17AM

Henry V .009 writes: The The New York Times describes the life of a Chinese World of Warcraft "Gold Farmer": At the end of each shift, Li reports the night's haul to his supervisor, and at the end of the week, he, like his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20.

Submission + - Bicycling from Alaska to Panama for Charity (cyclingforacause.com)

Submitted by

MBrichacek

on Saturday June 16, 2007 @08:18PM

MBrichacek writes: "This summer, instead of taking classes or getting a job like other college students typically do, Michal Brichacek has decided to do something radically different. He has decided instead to ride a bicycle from Anchorage, Alaska to Panama City, Panama in order to raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He plans on covering a distance of over 12,000 km in just 120 days and plans on raising $1 for every kilometer he covers. Currently in the city of San Francisco, he has already covered a distance of 5,300 km and has experienced countless adventures. You can check out daily journal updates and photos on his website or even make a donation if your feeling extra generous!"

Submission + - Finnish ISP announces 5 terabyte DVR service (saunalahti.fi)

Submitted by nlitement on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @08:54PM

nlitement writes: Saunalahti, a Finnish telecommunications subsidiary of Elisa Oyj, has announced a (Finnish) novel DVR content storage service that offers up to 5 terabytes of space per user, named SaunaVisio. The service is bundled with a dedicated DVR unit which is connected to the Internet. The service is not tied to the ISP's Internet service, although Saunalahti claims a minimal required download speed of 8 MBit/s as the content will be streamed through the Internet for the user to watch. The DVR unit itself will include HDTV support and will come with an HDMI cable. The monthly fee is 14.95€ ($19.95) for the remote storage service and the rental of the DVR unit. The unit will not upload data to Saunalahti's servers as the recording of the user's choice will be done by the servers and stored on the user's account for the DVR to download. Because of this, it'll be possible for the user to program virtually any amount of simultaneous reocrdings, and remotely through the Internet or WAP. The service will not be available until July, but preorders can already be made.

Submission + - India plans tag & release humans.

Submitted by

palewook

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @12:05PM

palewook writes: "Swadhin Kshatriya, the State Housing Department Principal Secretary, approved a plan to begin tagging residents living in the slums of Mumbai, India with a Bio-ID. The biometric identification system is based on creating an individual's unique number from the image of their eyeball and thumb impression. The Indian state of Maharashtra has yet to reveal how many of the 4.5 million people living in affected area of Mumbai will be placed into the "identification process"."

Submission + - Firefox 3.0 may block sites fingered by Google (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

bookmarkrobin

on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @07:36AM

bookmarkrobin writes: "Mozilla Corp. is considering adding a tool to Firefox 3.0 that would automatically block Web sites thought to harbor malicious downloads, but the company's security chief refused to spell out details, saying Mozilla is "not ready to talk about the feature.""

Submission + - Unpatched Symantec flaw leads to UC Boulder breach

Submitted by jcatcw on Thursday May 24, 2007 @10:27AM

jcatcw writes: An unpatched flaw in a Symantec anti-virus management console resulted in the compromise of a server containing the names and Social Security numbers of nearly 45,000 students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The students, enrolled at the university from 2002 to present, are presently being notified about a potential compromise of their information as a result of the breach.

Submission + - Mapmaker to graduate, still a "terroristic thr

Submitted by SiliconSlick on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @05:48PM

SiliconSlick writes: The student arrested for making video game map of his school will be allowed to attend graduation ceremonies with his classmates. Unfortunately for him, his school district records still label him as a "terroristic threat."

Submission + - OpenDNS says Google-Dell browser tool is spyware

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @05:48PM

PetManimal writes: "David Ulevitch, the founder of OpenDNS, claims that Google and Dell have placed 'spyware' on Dell computers. Ulevitch made the claim based on his observation of the behavior of the Google Toolbar and homepage that comes preinstalled on IE in new Dell machines. He says that a browser redirector sends users who enter nonexistent URLs to a Dell-branded page loaded with Google ads. Another observer, Danny Sullivan, says that this is a different result than what happens on PCs without the redirector. However, the original article notes that Ulevitch has a vested interest in the results of mistyped URLs:

Ulevitch's complaint also stems from the fact that the error redirector breaks some of OpenDNS's functionality. If an OpenDNS user types "digg.xom" by mistake, their browser pulls up the correct "digg.com" instead. But the redirector breaks the free service's typo correction — as well as the browser shortcut feature it unveiled last month. "Google's application breaks just about every user-benefiting feature we provide with client software that no user ever asked for," Ulevitch said.
"

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