wiley001 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Gaming PR firm nabs Worst of 2011 (examiner.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @01:25PM

An anonymous reader writes: Ocean Marketing, in what may go down in history as the worst PR move ever, has botched a situation following the posting of an email thread between Paul Christoforo, head of the PR firm and a customer known only as Dave on Penny Arcade early this morning. The debacle, which has incensed a majority of internet outlets, has only been exacerbated by the increasing lack of support Christoforo claimed to have in the condescending emails exchanged between initially Dave, and later on Penny Arcade and PAX cofounder Mike Kraulik.

Submission + - Carrier IQ Bug Can Record Texts in Coded Format (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7 on Tuesday December 13, 2011 @12:20PM

Trailrunner7 writes: Carrier IQ, the embattled software company at the center of the controversy over alleged data collection on mobile devices, has released a new document that details the ways in which carriers deploy the software, how it works on devices and what data it is capable of collecting. The company also admitted in the document that its software has a bug that, in some specific cases, could cause the application to collect the contents of SMS messages.

In its report, released Monday, Carrier IQ says that under some limited circumstances its software will log the contents of SMS messages sent to a user's phone, but that that the contents of those messages would not be human readable. Instead, they would be in an encoded form that could not be decoded without special software and the carriers don't have access to the contents of the messages either. The company said it has worked on a fix for the bug, which affected devices running the embedded version of the Carrier IQ agent.

Submission + - FBI Admits Carrier IQ Used For Law Enforcement (muckrock.com)

Submitted by bonch on Monday December 12, 2011 @05:15PM

bonch writes: A FOIA request has revealed that the FBI is using Carrier IQ data for investigative purposes. In response to a request for documents related to accessing Carrier IQ information, the FBI replied that it did have files but could not release them due to possible interference with an ongoing investigation. This would seem to contradict earlier claims by researchers that Carrier IQ isn't logging data.

Submission + - 17-year-old wins $100K for creating cancer-killing (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08, 2011 @01:07PM

An anonymous reader writes: 17-year-old Angeloa Zhang was recently awarded the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Individual category of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Her project was entitled “Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells." The creation is the so-called “Swiss army knife of cancer treatment” which allows a nanoparticle to be delivered to a tumor where is proceeds to kills cancer stem cells.

Submission + - Senate Bill Allows Indefinite Imprisonment of Amer (blogcritics.org) 1

Submitted by Kraftwerk on Tuesday November 29, 2011 @12:28PM

Kraftwerk writes: With little public warning Democrat leaders in the Senate are attempting to rush through a National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1867) which includes controversial provisions which could open the door to authorizing the military to detain United States Citizens within the US and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial. They could even potentially face military justice instead of trial in a civilian court, with no regard for their Constitutionally protected rights.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/defense-bill-includes-authorization-for-indefinite/#ixzz1f72Bc2O4

You can see the live stream at http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/

Comment Resume Builder (Score 2) 523

by wiley001 on Monday November 28, 2011 @09:16AM (#38189360) Attached to: How Does a Self-Taught Computer Geek Get Hired?

As stated before..Take on some odd jobs (or do some demo work, not for a customer, but for building a portfolio). Once you have a decent size portfolio, showing how well you do in the field, you should be able to find an employer to 'take a risk' on you. (I say that loosely because although you could be the best programmer/designer ever, unfortunately you dont have a piece of paper backing that up). I was in a similar boat as you, only with Programming more so than design (C#, C++, AS3, etc). Once you build out a small little resume you can substitute a formal degree with work experience. I'm at my third programming job now (prior was a contract job and most recent was a game studio that shut down). All is well and the money is good, you just have to be patient and take your lumps. (Remember that youre technically 4yrs ahead of the curve. So even if you get a low(er) paying job, youre still coming out ahead.

Submission + - E-PARASITE Act Petition (whitehouse.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01, 2011 @10:39AM

An anonymous reader writes: Straight from your favorite new government petition website, Stop the E-PARASITE Act.

This Bill would allow essentially allow A Great Firewall of America and would be a shameful desecration of free speech and any sort of reasonable copyright law. The new Law would allow copyright holders to force websites which have any copyrighted material to be blocked by ISP companies around the country, without requiring that the websites be given time to take the offending material down. It would also put pressure on ISP companies to monitor their users like never before, a gross invasion of privacy. This bill is a direct assault on a free internet and a shameful attempt by copyright lobbyists to destroy net neutrality. Essentially it's a censorship law that would end the internet as we know it in America.

Submission + - Did ICE 'Pirate' Its Anti-Piracy PSA? (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 10, 2011 @02:11PM

An anonymous reader writes: You may have seen that the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security has been seizing domain names. When it eventually takes over those domain names permanently, it replaces the seizure notice with a YouTube video. Some people noticed that the YouTube video was just a recut video that New York City was using. Since the whole point of the video is that people who work on films have to get paid, Techdirt wondered how much ICE paid for the video. After asking both NYC and ICE and receiving no responses, Techdirt filed some Freedom of Information Act requests. While they turned up that the videos were actually owned by NBC Universal (though neither government entity publicly admits that it's running NBC Universal propaganda films as its own), ICE appears to have no evidence that it properly licensed the videos or that it paid anyone involved in the making of the videos. Since the original video, featuring comedian Tom Papa, claims that "there's no such thing as a free movie" to define "piracy," is it possible that the federal government "pirated" this anti-piracy video?

Submission + - Beat the Sony and EA EULAs with Gamers Opt Out (examiner.com)

Submitted by AndrewGOO9 on Thursday October 06, 2011 @11:48AM

AndrewGOO9 writes: In the wake of the issues with the Playstation Network, Sony has gone out of their way to remove any gamers ability to sue them collectively without an arbitrator chosen by the company as a result of the latest EULA, which coincidentally bars you from accessing the PSN, should you decline. Conversely, EA's Origin service is doing something similar, all the while trying to monitor what exactly you're doing on your PC, Big Brother-style. Well, that's where GamersOptOut comes in. They will send a letter on your behalf to Sony and EA to prevent just that — as long as you do so within 30 days.

Submission + - LulzSec Arrests: A Warning to Dissidents? (owni.eu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 05, 2011 @10:20AM

An anonymous reader writes: The FBI's arrest of LulzSec hacker Cody Kretsinger was assisted by a VPN service HideMyAss handing over log details of his use of their web proxy. They claimed this was in response to a UK court order but no evidence for this has been presented and the idea that US law enforcement agencies could easily obtain a UK court order seems unlikely. HMA is a commercial company that markets its services by exploiting the idea that it is supportive of the hacker’s cause – even somewhat cynically exploiting their role in aiding Egyptian protesters in circumventing government censorship to access Twitter. The question about all of this is why the LulzSec hackers didn't use Tor and chat logs suggest that this was because it was too slow. The actions of HideMyAss however is a stark warning to anyone — including dissidents about trusting commercial services for their protection.

Submission + - PSN New Terms and Privacy Policy (sonyentertainmentnetwork.com)

Submitted by Azmodan on Thursday September 15, 2011 @08:44AM

Azmodan writes: "On September 15, 2011, Sony Network Entertainment America Inc. ("SNEA") will transfer its online services operations, including your wallet and the funds in it, to Sony Network Entertainment International LLC ("SNEI"). The first time you sign in to your PlayStation®Network account on or after September 15, 2011, you will be asked to enter into a new Terms of Service and User Agreement ("TOS") and Privacy Policy with SNEI if you wish to continue using your PlayStation®Network account. Please review all changes to the TOS and Privacy Policy carefully before indicating your agreement. In particular, please review Section 15 of the TOS, which now includes a class action waiver and requires that most disputes be resolved through arbitration. "

As IAMAL, I'ld like to ask the Slashdot folks what do you think about this? I'ld like to point out the 12 point in the TOS document : "[...] automatic updates or upgrades which may change your current operating system, cause a loss of data or content or cause a loss of functionalities or utilities".

TOS here :
http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/SEN-legal-docs/TERMS_OF_SERVICE_AGREEMENT-EN.pdf

Privacy here : http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/SEN-legal-docs/Privacy_Policy_Changes-EN.pdf

Submission + - GoDaddy deactivate domains before they expire

Submitted by

Saphati

on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @07:46AM

Saphati writes: "I have discovered that GoDaddy cancels domains before the expiration dates.
I have a .be domain that was expiring on the 30th of August. They submitted the cancelation notice to Key System in Germany on the 26th. On the 27th it was deactivated.
This was 4 days BEFORE the expiration date.
If you have paid for a term then you are due that term. GoDaddy believes otherwise.

Digging further, I discovered that the domain was tagged as 'expired' on the 20th of July.
How can a service expire before the expiration date?

Because the domain is expired on the 20th of the previous month, it is possible for someone else to purchase that domain from auction before the end of term.

GoDaddy is using the .com expiration rules on .be domains. The 2 systems do not match.

Has anyone else experienced this or similar problem with GoDaddy?"

Submission + - Fair Use bolstered by "What What (In the Butt)" (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by uigrad_2000 on Monday August 22, 2011 @03:18PM

uigrad_2000 writes: Viacom, who is known for trying to prosecute small publishers for copyright infringement, now finds itself in the odd position of using "fair use" as their own defense a case brought forward from "Brownmark", a two-person company that makes youtube videos.

Arstechinca reports that the judge's early dismissal of the case may have unintended consequences for Viacom. The threat of lawsuit against small publishers causes them to be conservative when approaching the fair use boundary, because of the costs of defending such cases, even if they are victorious, is so high. With this new precedent, defending in cases of fair use may now be much easier, and also much less costly.

Submission + - Did Netflix Streaming change again?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04, 2011 @03:11PM

An anonymous reader writes: At home we have 2 Rokus and 2 IPads, and we routinely stream Netflix to multiple devices simultaneously with our "unlimited" streaming account. Last night, however, attempted establishment of a second stream informed us that our "unlimited" plan now includes only one simultaneous stream.
If this were true it would be a much bigger deal for us then paying more for DVDs, which I frankly have expected for some time & by which I was not surprised. Concerned, this morning I called Netflix customer support, who gave me the following baffling explanation:
Netflix 'unlimited' streaming now only includes one stream. To get 2+ streams one needs to sign up for 'unlimited' streaming + 2 DVDs (does not include streaming). In other words, your selection of an option annotated with "does not include streaming" affects your streaming. As nonsensical as this is, it would be slightly less so if 'unlimited' streaming plus 1 DVD allowed 2 streams. However, as explained by customer support: # of DVDs = # of streams.
This is so bizarre I didn't believe it at first, but customer support assured me it was true. Nothing on the Netflix website mentions how many simultaneous streams is 'unlimited', but somehow I thought it would always be more than 1.

Submission + - Limits on Growth of Energy Use and Economies (ucsd.edu) 1

Submitted by

snoop.daub

on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @01:17PM

snoop.daub writes: "Dr. Tom Murphy, professor of astrophysics at UCSD, has a new blog called "Do The Math", and the first few posts are doozies. In the first, he shows the impossibility of continued exponential growth in energy use. Even if a new, "free" energy source is developed, thermodynamic limits on efficiency mean that the heat associated with converting this energy into useful work will increase the temperature of the earth to unbearable levels within 300 years. In the second, he extends the argument to economic growth. The timescales there are faster, only 50-100 years. Fascinating stuff. Time to stop breeding, folks, or to get our butts into space."

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