Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Math

Submission + - New Approach for the Factorization of Integers (arxiv.org)

Submitted by rift321
rift321 writes: Looks like a clever guy at Moscow University found another way to factor integers using polynomial expansion and Fourier coefficients. Anyone have a take on whether this is more or less efficient than the methods already used?
Cellphones

Submission + - Burning Man goes open source for cell phones (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost, open source cellular network that's revolutionizing coverage in underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with existing cell phones. It has pedigreed founders. Best of all, it is part of the sex, drugs and art collectively known as Burning Man.
Earth

Submission + - Preparing for future disasters (sendtheenterprise.org)

Submitted by
nido
nido writes: "University of Georgia marine sciences professor Samantha Joye and others are in the Gulf of Mexico looking for plumes of oil. When they find them, what will the people in charge of cleaning up the Gulf be able to do?

The only practical way to accelerate decomposition of the oil is to send oxygenated water into the plumes, using compressors and pumps powered by the U.S. Navy's portable nuclear reactors. The Navy's first nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, isn't currently available, but perhaps they could send a submarine or two.

It would be helpful to have retired aircraft carriers serve as stand-by disaster response ships, as advocated at SendTheEnterprise.org. What else can we do to better prepare for the future?"

Submission + - Wikileaks to Move to Nuclear-Proof Facilities (www.idg.se)

Submitted by Buzzy_Bot
Buzzy_Bot writes: Wikileaks to Move to Nuclear-Proof Facilities

30 meters below ground, in a facility built to withstand anything but a direct hit from a nuclear warhead, that is where the servers of Wikileaks will be hosted from now on. Bahnhof, the Swedish ISP, has kept security in mind when choosing the new location of their server park. ”This rock shelter was supposed to be the heart of the defense against the Soviet Union” says Jon Karlung, CEO of Bahnhof. ”However, the most important aspects [for the clients] are the legal matters as well as the integrity”.
Google

Google Patches 10 Chrome Bugs, Pays Out $10K 95

Posted by timothy from the splat-splat-splat dept.
CWmike writes "Google patched 10 vulnerabilities in Chrome on Thursday, but it didn't award any of the researchers who reported bugs its new top-dollar reward. Google divulged no details of the vulnerabilities and, as is its custom, it blocked public access to its bug-tracking database — a practice meant to keep attackers from using the information before most users have upgraded. Some rivals, such as Mozilla, do the same; others, like Microsoft, do not. Sergey Glazunov banked $4,674 for reporting four bugs, including the previous maximum $1,337 each for two of the quartet. A researcher known as 'kuzzcc,' who has also reported flaws in Opera to that browser's Norwegian maker, took home $2,000 for uncovering a pair of Chrome vulnerabilities. But no one received Google's new biggest bounty, which the company set at $3,133.70 last month, after Mozilla had increased its maximum vulnerability payment to $3,000."
News

Ray Kurzweil Responds To PZ Myers 238

Posted by Soulskill from the dem's-fightin'-woids dept.
On Tuesday we discussed a scathing critique of Ray Kurzweil's understanding of the brain written by PZ Myers. Reader Amara notes that Kurzweil has now responded on his blog. Quoting: "Myers, who apparently based his second-hand comments on erroneous press reports (he wasn't at my talk), [claims] that my thesis is that we will reverse-engineer the brain from the genome. This is not at all what I said in my presentation to the Singularity Summit. I explicitly said that our quest to understand the principles of operation of the brain is based on many types of studies — from detailed molecular studies of individual neurons, to scans of neural connection patterns, to studies of the function of neural clusters, and many other approaches. I did not present studying the genome as even part of the strategy for reverse-engineering the brain."

Submission + - Droid 2 - pre-sale tomorrow, available Thurs (engadget.com)

Submitted by rift321
rift321 writes: From engadget: Droid 2 ships with Android 2.2, mobile hotspot (a $20 / month add-on), Flash Player 10.1 and a revised QWERTY keyboard. It also ships with Swype pre-installed, though we'd prefer Swiftkey thrown in for good measure. You already know the specs by now — a 3.7-inch multitouch display, 5 megapixel camera, DLNA streaming, 8GB of onboard memory and a 8GB microSD card — but what you haven't known is the on sale date. VZW is putting this gem up for pre-sale tomorrow at $199.99 on a 2-year contract, with in-store availability locked for Thursday.
Linux

Submission + - Droid 2 Running Android 2.2 On Tap (enterprisemobiletoday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Motorola Droid 2 sports improved keyboard, Wi-Fi hotspot functionality and more mobile app storage, plus is only the fourth smartphone to date to run Android 2.2, dubbed Froyo.

Comment It solved many of my problems (Score 1) 350

by rift321 (#33160010) Attached to: Why Wave Failed

Planning trips, wave is invaluable. I'm an avid rock climber, and I used wave to constantly update people on trips, and used interactive maps to plan them (the map feature is arguably Wave's best gadget).

I also use wave to keep action item, backburner, and reference lists for myself and my business partner.

Lastly, I attempted to use wave instead of a forum on my website. It would've been great, but no one fucking knew what it was. In my opinion, wave's failure was a marketing one, not technical.

Lastly, it's more convenient for collaborative creative content generation than any other tool. The slashdot community, believe it or not, is the opposite of Wave's target market.

I hope Google has a replacement brewing for my purposes.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Blade Runner scribe in Ridley Scott's Forever War (sciencefictionworld.com) 1

Submitted by
bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: "With his adaptation of Joe Haldeman's 1974 novel 'The Forever War', Ridley Scott has once again teamed up with David Peoples, one of the writers responsible for 'Blade Runner'. Haldeman revealed that Peoples was onto his fourth draft. Scott's adaptation is likely to be in 3D and along with his pair of Alien prequels and Brave New World adaptation plans with Leonardo DiCaprio, confirms his full scale return to a genre he once claimed was 'as dead as westerns'."
Iphone

Submission + - Carrier unlock for iPhone 4 (cnet.com)

Submitted by AHuxley
AHuxley writes: The iPhone Dev Team released the latest hack that allows a jailbroken iPhone 4 to be unlocked and used on any wireless carrier.
The unlock "ultrasn0w" works with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS as well.
As the U.S. Copyright Office amended the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, consumers can bypass a handset manufacturer's protection mechanisms to enable "handsets to execute software applications."
Image

Dog Eats Man's Toe and Saves His Life Screenshot-sm 207

Posted by samzenpus from the yes-you-read-that-right dept.
Have you ever been so drunk that you passed out and your dog ate your toe? I haven't either, but luckily for Michigander Jerry Douthett, he has. It turns out Jerry has type 2 diabetes and a wound on his toe had becoming dangerously infected. After a night of drinking Jerry passed out in his chair and the family dog Kiko decided to do a little doggy doctoring. From the article: "'The toe was gone,' said Douthett. 'He ate it. I mean, he must have eaten it, because we couldn't find it anywhere else in the house. I look down, there's blood all over, and my toe is gone.' [Douthett's wife] Rosee, 40, rushed her husband to the hospital where she's a gerontology nurse — Spectrum Health's Blodgett Campus. Kiko had gnawed to a point below the nail-line. When tests revealed an infection to the bone, doctors amputated what was left of the toe."
Government

Submission + - Google, AT&T, and Verizon in closed meeting w/ (businessweek.com)

Submitted by
Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: " Business Week reports that:

The companies and senior FCC aides have been holding private meetings since June over the regulations, known as net neutrality rules, according to disclosure statements on the agency’s website. Issues include the extent of FCC power over Internet service providers, and whether phone and cable companies can favor some traffic, such as making their own videos run faster.

Art Brodsky says that the FCC is playing a dangerous game of "lets make a deal" If you are an Application Service Provider or sell SaaS, or are a Web 2.0 company, any threat to net neutrality is a threat to your business model. If you have an opinion about net neutrality, now is the time to make yourself heard. Note — comments to the FCC or any other regulatory agency are considered public records and will be made available to the public."

Comment Anyone know how low they got? (Score 1) 154

by rift321 (#33138682) Attached to: Coronal Mass Ejection Hits Earth

I'd like to know how low in latitude the Auroras reached - I'm around 44degrees north, and after seeing them once before, I'd travel quite a distance to view them, as long as I can make it to work tomorrow...

Damned weather systems are making things difficult, though.

Also, I'm interested in how high the Kp index needs to be for Auroras to be highly visible at my latitude. I went to school in Potsdam, NY, and was lucky enough to see a spectacular display right overhead one late fall night during finals week... spectacular enough for me to lose even more sleep while crunching for a final exam.

Slashdot Top Deals

To the systems programmer, users and applications serve only to provide a test load.

Close