Comment Re:Oblig (Score 1) 710
And nothing of value was lost...
Nobody values sewers until they stop working.
Comparing 4Chan favorably to sewers is a fallacy. Sewers are actually useful. And they have less crap in them.
4chan Has Been DDOSed 710
An anonymous reader writes "According to the 4chan status page all of the 4chan boards have been DDOSed and are down."
Comment Re:Y'Know... Nerds Don't HAVE to be Tedious re Spo (Score 1) 177
Now we hit on the real problem: rich alumni who never really appreciated the value of an education.
Who said they didn't appreciate the value of an education? If they didn't, they obviously wouldn't donate any money to the university at large. And anyway, most people appreciate the value of an education these days. Look at all the students with outstanding student loans. They appreciate the value of an education because they know how much it's costing them. Besides, beyond the drinking, the parties and the sports, I think that most people appreciate the value of an education - that is, the money they want to make because they have a degree.
Comment Re:Why have that in colleges at all? (Score 2) 177
Because it's easier to have people rally around a football, basketball or other team than it is for basically anything else you can think of. This is especially true in universities that aren't specifically technical or liberal arts and/or aren't Ivy League schools whose primary selling point is academics. You're less likely to get thousands of people to come to a poetry slam or robotics competition than to see Michigan State trounce Ohio State on the gridiron.
Comment Re:Why use a closed-source browser? (Score 2, Interesting) 296
And I don't understand why any sensible user would discriminate between browsers solely based on the license. Unless of course, you're of the same frame of mind as Richard Stallman. The truth is, the major web browsers have differences that have little to nothing to do with the availability of their source code. Want guaranteed compatibility? Use IE (closed source). Want a large library of extensions? Use Firefox (open source). Want a simple, no frills, fast browser? Use Chromium (open source). Want a little bit of everything? Use Opera.
Oh yeah, and don't mention about an open source browser being more secure. The closed source Opera has a consistently low number of vulnerabilities according to Secunia. Mind you, I don't actually use Opera these days. The thing easily goes over 100 MB in memory usage just after two tabs and it doesn't seem as stable as it used to be.
Oh yeah, and don't mention about an open source browser being more secure. The closed source Opera has a consistently low number of vulnerabilities according to Secunia. Mind you, I don't actually use Opera these days. The thing easily goes over 100 MB in memory usage just after two tabs and it doesn't seem as stable as it used to be.
Comment Does it matter? (Score 1, Interesting) 190
Linux users already have Alien Arena, Sauerbraten, Tremulous and Nexuiz, among other FPS games. And the ID Software titles. I doubt they'll miss one more FPS game.
Comment The Dark Side (Score 3, Interesting) 565
If you don't know what Ron Paul's foreign policy views are, here is a handy summary from his book "Revolution": Leave everybody else alone. Some might call it isolationism. Not sure how well that would work, but if that was our policy, then there obviously wouldn't be much to leak about it.
Comment Equivalent (Score 1) 538
So I take it that this new site is what Citizendium is to Wikipedia. Why do you even need a website to leak documents? Just dump the contents at the doorstep of every news organization you can find. If you can't find a "mainstream" source, there's plenty of bloggers who don't know what they're talking about who would be more than willing to rattle some cages for you.
But I guess the issue here is credit. Like the fools at TMZ who want to put their stamp on their "exclusive" video of some starlet picking her nose, these sites want credit for being the first to publish all kinds of international gossip. And Julian Assange is biggest glory hog of them all.
But I guess the issue here is credit. Like the fools at TMZ who want to put their stamp on their "exclusive" video of some starlet picking her nose, these sites want credit for being the first to publish all kinds of international gossip. And Julian Assange is biggest glory hog of them all.
President Obama On Mythbusters Tonight 416
elrous0 writes "As was previously reported, President Obama mentioned back in October that he would be appearing on an upcoming episode of the popular Discovery Channel series Mythbusters. Well, the episode is finally airing tonight. In the episode, the President helps Jamie and Adam test the 'Archimedes Death Ray' myth for a 3rd time (the myth having been 'busted' the first time, and that bust surviving a challenge from MIT students the second time out). Though the President only appears in a couple of brief scripted segments, the actual test (using 500 schoolkids doubling as mirror-bearing soldiers) is purportedly pretty interesting."
Comment Floating timeline (Score 1) 92
Eh. I'd rather some philosophy or science experts blog about floating timelines, which I find particularly infuriating and confounding in comic books.
People With University Degree Fear Death Less 473
An anonymous reader writes "People with a university degree fear death less than those at a lower literacy level. In addition, fear of death is more common among women than men, which affects their children's perception of death."
Rear-View Cameras On Cars Could Become Mandatory In the US 754
According to the Los Angeles Times, "The federal government wants automakers to install back-up cameras in all new vehicles starting in late 2014. The plan, announced Friday, received a strong endorsement from insurance industry and other analysts and is likely to get some level of support from car manufacturers. ... The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that, on average, 292 fatalities and 18,000 injuries occur each year as a result of back-over crashes. The agency said children and the elderly were the most common victims. About 44% of the fatalities in such accidents are children and 33% are people over 70, it said. NHTSA said its proposal was designed to keep drivers from running over pedestrians who might be crossing behind their vehicles. It could also prevent parking-lot bumper thumpers. The camera systems show motorists what's behind them via a video display on the dashboard. They typically feature a bell or alarm that alerts the driver if an object is within the camera's field of view."
WikiLeaks Starts Mass Mirroring Effort 586
A beautiful mind writes "WikiLeaks is asking for hosting space on Unix-based servers. The replication is implemented by a rsync+ssh based push that copies static files to a known path, authenticated via the private half of this public key. The complete website is a few GB in size, making it feasible to replicate on a large scale. The mirror list will be published when the number of independent mirrors reaches 50." Note: wikileaks.ch seems to be down for the moment, but eventually the above links may require that instead of 213.251.145.96. See also this WikiLeaks address finder. And for even more news, try this Twitter search.
China Views Internet As "Controllable" 185
Radcliffe_V writes "According to a leaked cable via Wikileaks, the Chinese government views the internet as very controllable, despite western views otherwise. The New York Times article also sheds light on how involved the Chinese government is in cyber attacks against US assets and companies such as Google."
Law and the Multiverse 92
An anonymous reader writes "jwz posted a link to this intensely nerdy blog co-authored by two attorneys who write about applying real-world law to comic books. Example topics include Mutants and Anti-Discrimination Laws (a three part series!), Is Batman a State Actor?, and Federalism and the Keene Act."
