Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Moore's Law, Deep Thought and 42 3

Submitted by
Stephen Gwyn
Stephen Gwyn writes: "So in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" it took the supercomputer "Deep Thought" 7.5 million years to come up with the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything right? The answer was 42 as we now know. But supposing the computational philosophers had been just a bit more clever. Suppose they actually wanted a run-time of 1 year instead of 7.5e6 years. Since, according to Moore's law, computational speed doubles every 18 months they should have just waited until computers were 7.5e6 times faster. 7.5e6 is roughly 2**23 (or 2^23,depending on your notation) so we have 23 times 18 months which is about 35 years. Add one year for the actual run time, and you have 36 years in all, which is much less than 7.5 million. Wait a little bit longer, and you can run it on your laptop as "iLife, the iUniverse and iEverything" application. Probably as a screen saver.

There is a paper written by some astronomers ("The Effects of Moore's Law and Slacking on Large Computations") which tells you exactly how long to wait to buy your computer when faced with a long runtime."
United States

Submission + - Internet Thought Police Bill Before Congress (news.com) 2

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "A new bill is before congress that is expected to approved and will establish a new federal commission tasked with investigating Americans with "extremist belief systems" and those who may engage in "ideologically based violence." The article also mentions a chilling quote from the bill that has already made it past the House of Representatives (by 404-6):

The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.
"Extremist belief systems?" <sarcasm>None of that on Slashdot!</sarcasm>"
Microsoft

Submission + - Out of memory in Vista while... copying files? (zdnet.com)

Submitted by ta bu shi da yu
ta bu shi da yu writes: It appears that, incredibly, Vista often runs out of memory while copying files. ZDNet is reporting that not only does it run out of memory after copying 16,400+ files, but "often there is little indication that file copy operations haven't completed correctly". After several billion dollars spent developing Vista, surely Microsoft could get their OS to copy files properly?
Power

Submission + - Honda Insight Battery Packs Still Going (freep.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "The Detroit Free Press is running a piece about the 8th anniversary of the US release of the Honda Insight. Honda rated the battery pack to last 8-10 years, a number that we have now reached. Many people were worried that the battery packs, which cost $3000 to replace, wouldn't last very long. "Hybrids also held up well in J.D. Power and Associates' three-year durability survey, with about 10% fewer problems than gasoline-engine cars, said Joe Ivers, Power's executive director of quality and customer satisfaction." However, the cars have lost 6% more of their value than a comparable Civic."
Privacy

Submission + - Microsoft's Ballmer: Google Reads Your Mail 5

Submitted by Anonymous
Anonymous writes: A piece of video has emerged in which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says of Google, "they read your mail and we don't." Evidently, it was part of a lengthy discussion on the future of the software business model, and whether advertising could support free consumer software. Ballmer said it doesn't work, at least when it comes to email.
Security

Submission + - Undocumented Backdoor in PGP Whole Disk Encryption (blogspot.com)

Submitted by A non-mouse Coward
A non-mouse Coward writes: PGP Corporation's widely adopted Whole Disk Encryption product apparently has an encryption bypass feature that allows an encrypted drive to be accessed without the boot-up passphrase challenge dialog, leaving data in a vulnerable state if the drive is stolen when the bypass feature is enabled. The feature is also apparently not in the documentation that ships with the PGP product, nor the publicly available documentation on their website, but only mentioned briefly in the customer knowledge base (PGP customer account required). Jon Callas, CTO and CSO of PGP Corp., responded that this feature was required by unnamed customers and that competing products have similar "dangerous" functionality. There is still no official word from PGP as to why the public documentation withheld recognition of this risky option.
Education

Submission + - Student Attacked After Dropping Cake (infowars.net) 17

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: "School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up. The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Should game reviewers penalize for excessive DRM? 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The highest rated PC game on the market, Bioshock, also happens to contain an unusually agressive implemention of Sony's Securom DRM software. The single-player only game requires internet activation with serial key entry before it can be run. It can be installed and uninstalled on a PC a maximum of 5 times, after which it will permit no further reinstalls. The game also will not run without the install DVD present in the computer's drive, despite having activated online and placed Securom on the user's computer — without the user's consent. This has created a bizarre situation where game reviewers are positively gushing about just how good Bioshock is, and ordinary gamers who have bought the PC version intensely dislike its agressive protection system even if they like the game itself. Does a game that limits basic user rights like installing and uninstalling a game as many times as is necessary deserve scores like 10/10 and 95%? Or should game reviewers base their review on the complete product experience and penalize a game for overzealous activation and anti-piracy checks while rewarding games that do not burden the buyer with troublesome DRM, online activation and disc-in-the-drive with a higher score?
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - A Bank For Geeks

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I just received a notice from my current bank indicating that they are forcing upon me a new privacy policy. The only reason that they've sent me this notice is because it is the law. And they're certainly meeting the absolute bare requirements for meeting the requirements of this law: I can opt-out, but only if I mail them a letter with all of my personal details, including my account numbers and social security number! As a geek, this is obviously the last straw and I'd like to make the switch to a legitimate bank. What are other geeks using?
Media

Submission + - MediaDefender Leaks Saga : unexpected outcomes (p2pnet.net) 4

Submitted by ShakaZ
ShakaZ writes: Following the leaks of all the internal emails and later the source code of all the anti-p2p software of MediaDefender, the boss and an employee of the company have been arrested by the LA police. They are charged for illegal uploading with intent to deceive, bandwidth theft, and grievous misrepresentation.
More handcuffs there : http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13397

Due to the released emails, ThePirateBay have proof of infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, hacking and spamming, for which they filed a complaint to the Swedish police. 10 companies of the music, movie and gaming industries are listed in the complaint.
More pirates here : http://thepiratebay.org/blog
Privacy

Submission + - 'Opt Out' soon or Verizon will sell your CPNI 1

Submitted by
Rothfuss
Rothfuss writes: "I actually opened and read one of the 'Updates to my Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions' that I received from Verizon today. I have no idea why. This one explains that they will be upgrading my service by assuming (unless I tell them otherwise) that I am willing to let them sell my Customer Proprietary Network Information or give it to anyone they choose. Apparently that will help me. However, the FCC won't let them do this without your permission — like, for example *not* calling them and opting out. If you are a Verizon customer and would like to opt out, you can do so by calling 1-800-333-9956. Ask to speak to Mr. Prosser."
Space

Submission + - French Threat to ID Secret US Satellites (beskerming.com)

Submitted by
SkiifGeek
SkiifGeek writes: "Space.com has reported that the French have identified numerous objects in orbit that do not appear in the ephemeris data reported by the US Space Surveillance Network. Since the US has claimed that if it doesn't appear in the ephemeris data, then it doesn't exist, and the French claim that at least some of the objects have solar arrays, it seems that the French have found secret US satellites.

While the French don't plan to release the information publicly, they are planning to use it as leverage to get the US to suppress reporting of sensitive French satellites in their published ephemeris.

The Graves surveillance radar (the French system) and a comparable German system may form the basis of a pan-European Space Surveillance network — another system that the Europeans don't want to rely on the US for."

Slashdot Top Deals

The optimum committee has no members. -- Norman Augustine

Close