haqrboi - Slashdot User

Comment Woo :P (Score 1) 339

by haqrboi on Thursday April 07, 2011 @02:08AM (#35741590) Attached to: The New Commodore 64

Oh, I would be all for a C64 remake, but this is just ridiculous. It's just a PC, and a fairly expensive one. If they ever release an OS that isn't just a built in VICE emulator, I'll be surprised. Their site looks really professional compared to how it was six months ago. Scary. But at least we have the dog on the board of directors to assure us that everything is in order. In general its obvious that they are living i their own reality in that company. Too bad the Commodore and Amiga brands had to suffer such a fate. Should've stayed dead.

Comment Re:Why not? (Score 0, Redundant) 185

by haqrboi on Wednesday June 23, 2010 @08:39AM (#32663672) Attached to: Coming Soon, Web Ads Tailored To Your Zip+4

If they're going to show you _more_ ads than before, I can see your problem. If they're just going to show you the same amount of ads, but with more local (and possibly relevant) content, I don't see much of a problem.

Comment Why not? (Score 3, Insightful) 185

by haqrboi on Wednesday June 23, 2010 @08:21AM (#32663524) Attached to: Coming Soon, Web Ads Tailored To Your Zip+4

They're going to show us ads no matter what, at least this gives a chance they might be a little more relevant.

Univ. of Wisconsin's 30-Year-Old Payroll System Needs a $40 Million Fix 418

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @07:28PM from the too-big-to-not-fail dept.

jaroslav writes "The University of Wisconsin is attempting to update a payroll system they have had in place since 1975, but spent $28.4 million in a 2004 attempt with no results, and now is experiencing new overruns in cost and time after 'not hav[ing] the full picture of how complex this project would be.' The current estimate of the redesign is $12 million and years of further work on top of the money already spent."

In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000 793

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @06:35PM from the there-go-some-hearts-and-minds dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Well the price went up from $9250 per song file to $80,000 per song file, as the jury awarded the RIAA statutory damages of $1,920,000.00 for infringement of 24 MP3s, in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. In this trial, although the defendant had an expert witness of her own, she never called him to testify, and her attorneys never challenged the technical evidence offered by the RIAA's MediaSentry and Doug Jacobson. Also, neither the special verdict form nor the jury instructions spelled out what the elements of a 'distribution' are, or what needed to be established by the plaintiffs in order to recover statutory — as opposed to actual — damages. No doubt there will now have to be a third trial, and no doubt the unreasonableness of the verdict will lend support to those arguing that the RIAA's statutory damages theory is unconstitutional." Update: 06/19 01:39 GMT by T : Lots more detail at Ars Technica, too.

Fighting For Downloaders' Hearts and Minds 325

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @05:50PM from the dude-pirate-is-not-the-prefered-nomenclature dept.

iateyourcookies writes "As opposed to enforcement which usually makes the headlines, The BBC is running an article called Inside A Downloader's Head which looks at the film and music industries' attempts to prevent copyright infringement. It details some of the campaigns, their rationale, controversy surrounding them and notes that 'there are plenty, even among the young, who can be eloquent about why they believe illegal downloading is not wrong. These can include everything from what they see as the unacceptable "control freakery" of DRM and regional coding, to overcharging and exploitation of the very artists the music industry claims to protect.' However, PR company for the industry Blue Rubicon attests that 'campaigns can change hearts and minds... If you do them right you can make a material impact on people's behaviour.'"

Proposed Canadian Law Would Allow Warrantless Searches 195

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @04:58PM from the rifling-through-america's-storage-unit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A bill introduced by Canada's Minister of Public Safety will allow police to (warrantlessly) force ISPs to provide access to any requested digital traffic records, reports News 1130. Police lobbied for the bill as means of 'combatting gangsters, pedophiles, or terrorists,' but apparently they find the legal principles of judicial review and probable cause, as well as a constitutional provision against 'unreasonable search or seizure', to be too much of a hassle, and would rather be able to search anyone's web or e-mail traffic at their own discretion and without any oversight. All in the name of public safety, of course."

iPhone 3.0 Update Delivers Prodigious Patch Batch 150

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @04:00PM from the switched-housemate's-iphone-to-danish dept.

CWmike writes "Apple patched 46 security vulnerabilities in the iPhone and iPod Touch, half of them in the Safari browser and its WebKit rendering engine, as it released iPhone OS 3.0 on Wednesday. One of the patched WebKit vulnerabilities stands out because of the attention it received in March, when a German college student, Nils, walked away with a $5,000 cash prize for hacking Safari at the Pwn2Own challenge. Nils used a bug in WebKit's handling of SVGList objects to crack Safari."

Nvidia Lauds Windows CE Over Android For Smartbooks 263

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @03:06PM from the this-is-2009-ce-after-all dept.

ericatcw writes "Google's Android may enjoy the hype, but an increasing number of key industry players say the mobile OS isn't ready for ARM netbooks, aka smartbooks. Nvidia is the most recent to declare Android unfit for duty, stating its preference for Microsoft's Windows CE, which an Nvidia exec praised for having a "low footprint" and being "rock solid." Nvidia is busy optimizing its multimedia-savvy Tegra system-on-chip for Windows CE. Such improvements won't arrive for at least a year to Android, which has an inflexible UI and poor graphics support for devices larger than a smartphone, says Nvidia. Other firms echoing similar criticism include ARM and Asustek."

US Plans To Bulldoze 50 Shrinking Cities 806

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 18, 2009 @02:45PM from the out-of-the-rubble-and-into-the-future dept.

chrb writes "Two days ago Slashdot discussed broke counties grinding their tarmac roads into gravel. Now the Telegraph reveals plans to raze huge sections of at least 50 US cities to the ground. The resulting smaller cities will be more economical to run, and the recovered land will be returned to nature."

Montana City Requires Workers' Internet Accounts 836

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @02:17PM from the are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been dept.

justinlindh writes "Bozeman, Montana is now requiring all applicants for city jobs to furnish Internet account information for 'background checking.' A portion of the application reads, "Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.' The article goes on to mention, 'There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.'"

Carnegie Researchers Say Geotech Can't Cure Ocean Acidification 248

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 18, 2009 @01:34PM from the take-it-with-a-ton-of-salt dept.

CarnegieScience writes "Plans to stop global warming by 'geoengineering' the planet by putting aerosols in the atmosphere to block sunlight are controversial, to say the least. Scientists are now pointing out that even if it keeps the planet cool, it will do almost nothing to stop another major problem — ocean acidification. The ocean will keep on absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (making carbonic acid) and the water's pH will get too low for corals and other marine life to secrete skeletons. So this is another strike against a quick fix of our climate problems."

How Do IT Guys Get Respect and Not Become BOFHs? 902

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @12:12AM from the keep-a-curled-upper-lip dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I work for a small software company (around 60 people) as the sole IT guy. It's my first time in a position like this and after about 1.5 years I'm starting to get a bit burned out. I try to be friendly, helpful, and responsive and I get no respect whatsoever. Users tend to be flat-out rude when they have a problem, violate our pretty liberal policies constantly, and expect complex projects to be finished immediately upon requesting them. My knee-jerk reaction is to be a bastard, although I've avoided it up to this point. It's getting harder. For those of you who have been doing this a lot longer, how do you get a reasonable level of respect from your users while not being a jerk?"

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