Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
The Internet

Submission + - 18 Days of Egypt Revolution in Pictures (ispyce.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Check out for some of the most significant moments during the over two week movement for revolution which forces Hosni Mubarak stepped down from the presidency after 30 years.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook 'like' required for levels in angry birds (mashable.com)

Submitted by flote
flote writes: The new valentine angry birds seasons special is out with some new integration with bing, for easy-access in-game links to walkthroughs, and facebook for a bunch of sharing features. However, you have to like the game on facebook to unlock some of the new maps. Too bad for those of us who've opted out of facebook for reasons too commonly presented here on slashdot
Security

Submission + - Company offers to buy your GPU cycles (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Compute4Cash is offering to pay real money for your unwanted GPU cycles. All you have to do is download its utility program and it starts to clockup Work Units that you get paid for. It's an intriguing idea — but what does it intend to compute with your hardware? Is it paying you less than the cost of the electricity used to run the card?
What if your GPU is cracking passwords in its spare time?
Linux

Submission + - 5 of the Best Free Linux Robotics Software (linuxlinks.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Robotics is the branch of artificial intelligence concerned with the study of robots, automatically guided machines which are able to carry out tasks and functions on their own. Robotics covers a wide spectrum of areas including the design, construction, operation and manufacture of robots.

Building a robot can require considerable expertise and creativity given that it involves skills from many disciplines such as hardware design, control systems design, mechanical design, as well as embedded firmware and sensor selection. Moreover, building robots can be expensive as there are many different parts to purchase including electronics, sensors, and microcontroller parts. One important way to keep the development costs to a minimum is by using simulation environments. These provide an inexpensive way to test and measure the robotics algorithms, and at the same time encourage experimentation.

Linux has a good range of open source toolkits for building robotic control systems. To provide an insight into the open source software that is available, we have compiled a list of 5 of our favorite robotics software. Hopefully, there will be something of interest here for anyone who wants to conduct research in robot systems.

Submission + - When did cheating become "cool" ? (ffxiah.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the last several years among many different online games, I've seen a snowballing trend towards gamer communities going from being against to being very much for cheating ones ass off.Even going so far as to attack anyone who dares expect a fair playing field in their chosen game. Example url included where players of a game on a fan site discuss their cheat tool not working because of a DDoS attack.

My question is, why is this happening, and what can a developer turn this trend around or at least protect their design from rampant cheating without crushing their business model? Even ina hypothetical (unrealistic) scenario where every cheat could be detected and every offending user caught in several games on teh market this amounts to a very large portion of revenue lost of every one of them were banned.

In some cases, there even seems to be a revolving door policy of allowing the same repeat offenders who own multiple accounts to return. These are typically the players who are willing to spend the most time and money and are willing to purchase the game as many times as it takes. Very fleece-able, but can lead to having a bad reputation among developers.

The project I was working on is about to be axed, and I'm thinking the MMO market just isn't for me anymore.
HP

Submission + - HP 'Everybody On' Ad Walks on the Wild Side

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: With its new muti-hundred million dollar 'Everybody On' campaign, HP aims to show it can market its products with as much panache as Apple. To help its efforts to out-cool Steve Jobs & Co., staid HP has turned to Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side for the soundtrack of its leadoff HP Anthem TV ad, although it's opted for an HP rap ("Everybody touch, everybody tap, everybody move, everybody app") over an almost-instrumental version that avoids any mention of the song's taboo topics, which include transsexuality, drugs, male prostitutes, oral sex, and referring to African Americans as 'colored.' BTW, the HP 'Everybody On' press release includes a link to loureed.com, which is promoting Reed's Lou Zoom iPhone App.
Google

Submission + - JC Penny Promoters Gamed Google for 3-4 Months (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by imcdowell
imcdowell writes: The New York Times is running an article on a recent black hat SEO campaign for JC Penny that went undetected by Google for 3-4 months, significantly boosting traffic over the key holiday season.
Google

Submission + - The Dirty Little Secrets of Search

Submitted by Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: The NY Times has an interesting story (reg. may be required) about how J. C. Penny used link farms to become the number one google search result for such terms as "dresses," "bedding," and "samsonite carry on luggage" and what google did to them when they found out. "Actually, it’s the most ambitious attempt I’ve ever heard of,” says Doug Pierce, an expert in online search. “This whole thing just blew me away. Especially for such a major brand. You’d think they would have people around them that would know better."

Submission + - Anonymous Claims Possession Of Stuxnet Virus (forbes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last night, a member of hacker group Anonymous announced on Twitter that the group was in possession of the Stuxnet virus.

Recently, Anonymous has been in the news for its high profile attacks on software security firm HBGary, after Aaron Barr, the CEO of HBGary’s sister firm HBGary Federal, claimed to have acquired the names of senior Anonymous members and threatened to release them to the public. This is where the possibility for Anonymous getting its hands on Stuxnet increases.
Government

Submission + - Did Customs and Border Protection find nukes? (10news.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: 10News was granted access to San Diego's seaport for a firsthand look at how Customs and Border Protection officers safeguard against weapons of mass effect.
"Given the open waterways and the access to the Navy fleet here, I'd say, absolutely, San Diego is a target," said Al Hallor, who is the assistant port director and an officer with Customs and Border Protection.
10News investigative reporter Mitch Blacher asked, "Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponized device?"
"At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things," said Hallor.
Customs and Border Protection officers clear 80 percent of all cargo before it enters the United States. Congress has mandated that they clear 100 percent of cargo imports by 2012. In San Diego, every cargo container is driven through a radiation detector before leaving San Diego's seaport.
"So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device?" asked Blacher.
"Correct. Weapons of mass effect," Hallor said.
"You ever found one?" asked Blacher.
"Not at this location," Hallor said.
"But they have found them?" asked Blacher.
"Yes," said Hallor.
"You never found one in San Diego though?" Blacher asked.
"I would say at the port of San Diego we have not," Hallor said.
"Have you found one in San Diego?" Blacher asked.
The interview was interrupted before Hallor was able to answer the question.
The Internet

Submission + - Internet shut down in Algeria (blogtechnical.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just 3 weeks ago, the war raged on in Egypt but now revolution has come to Algeria as its country’s citizens also fight for freedom from President Abdelaziz Boutifleka’s rule. The government has gone ahead and shut down the Internet and even had many activists Facebook accounts deleted.

Slashdot Top Deals

"If I do not want others to quote me, I do not speak." -- Phil Wayne

Close