Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
NASA

Start Saving To Buy Your Space Shuttle Now 197

Posted by samzenpus from the a-part-of-history dept.
stoolpigeon writes "With the retirement of the shuttle drawing near, NASA has begun to plan for museums that may want a used orbiter of their own. The Orlando Sentinel reports that NASA issued an RFI to US educational institutions, science museums and other organizations to see if they would be interested in the orbiter while also able to cover the estimated $42 million cost of 'safeing' the shuttle and transporting it."
IBM

Chicago Developing 'Suspicious Behavior' Monitoring System 294

Posted by Zonk from the i'm-just-going-to-think-really-evil-thoughts-then dept.
narramissic writes "Over the past few years, Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) has been blanketing the city with a network of thousands of video cameras in an effort to remotely keep track of emergencies in real time. Now, with the help of IBM, the network is getting some smarts. IBM software will analyze the video and ultimately 'recognize suspicious behavior,' says OEMC spokesman Kevin Smith. 'The challenge is going to be teaching computers to recognize the suspicious behavior,' said Smith. 'Once this is done this will be a very impressive city in terms of public safety.'"
The Courts

SCO Blames Linux For Bankruptcy Filing 321

Posted by Zonk from the comment-write-themselves dept.
Stony Stevenson writes "SCO Group CEO Darl McBride is now claiming that competition from Linux was behind the company's filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 'In a court filing in support of SCO's bankruptcy petition, McBride noted that SCO's sales of Unix-based products "have been declining over the past several years." The slump, McBride said, "has been primarily attributable to significant competition from alternative operating systems, including Linux." McBride listed IBM, Red Hat, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems as distributors of Linux or other software that is "aggressively taking market share away from Unix.""
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple May Track IPod Thieves & You (msn.com)

Submitted by
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway writes: "Apple may begin implementing software in its I-Tunes suite to track serial numbers of I-Pods and compare them to a stolen I-Pod database. Due to the worlds most successful and popular product being on the #1 most stolen items list. This may alert the local police to come knocking on your door, if "Your" I-Pod is in question. Weather it be stolen or legit, people are not taking this to heart kindly at all. With the right to privacy walls closing in on us ever so fast, this seems to be another push to take our privacy rights away even more, or is it? Those who have had their I-Pods stolen love the idea. Others are not so happy about the idea. Some privacy right advocates have suggested implementing I-Pods or I-Phones with owner ID verification, such as a password or other forms of verification that must be entered into the devices before they will take a charge or allow you to place songs on the device. Or offer a service that is apart of Apple iCare, which allows users who feel they may become a victim of theft, to join this database, to further protect them in the even their I-Pod is stolen."
Privacy

Submission + - Unencrypted passwords at "secure" sites 1

Submitted by linear a
linear a writes: I've noticed that quite a few web sites do *not* encrypt user passwords. I've gotten into the habit of hitting the "email me my password" from them to see what happens. So far I've found maybe 6 that must store passwords in clear since they were able to return the original password back to me. Clearly this is Bad Security Practice. Also, I've had notably bad progress when I ask them to fix this practice. Some of these are sites one would clearly expect to have better security (e.g., a software vendor and an online bank). Do you have thoughts on how to better encourage better password practice at these places? Also, is this is really as common as it seems to be for me?
Privacy

Submission + - Do Not Call Registry gets wake-up call (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If you signed up for the federal or your state's Do Not Call Registry a few years ago, you might want to thing about refreshing it. Pennsylvanians this week got a wake up call, so to speak from the state's Attorney General Tom Corbett who kicked off a public awareness campaign designed to remind people what many have forgotten or never knew — that the 2002 law set registrations to expire after five years. That is of course unless you want to start hearing from those telemarketers as you sit down to dinner. Corbett said about 2 million people signed up in the immediate aftermath of the law taking effect and those who do not act by Sept. 15 will have their numbers dropped from the registry on Nov. 1. The Pennsylvania action is a reminder that the National Do Not Call Registry has a five year life span as well. The Federal Trade Commission is set to being a nation campaign in Spring 2008 to remind all US citizens to refresh their federal Do Not Call Registry standing. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18066"
NASA

Submission + - NASA's Mars Phoenix prepared for Launch

Submitted by
StaffInfection
StaffInfection writes: "On Earth, the Phoenix lander (http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/mission.php) is a table for four — about the size of a modest dinner table. On Mars it will soft land a suite of science instruments for studying the Martian Polar regolith. Phoenix is the rekindling of the Mars Surveyor Lander, twin to the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander (MPL, http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?M Code=MPL). After a one day delay in fueling of the Delta II-7925 (http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/delta/d elta2/delta2.htm) launch vehicle due to weather, Phoenix is prepared for launch on Saturday, July 4th, at 5:26 a.m. or 6:02 a.m EDT. The science payload will analyze the martian polar soil for water and mineral content and study the surrounding morphology and atmospheric conditions. Landing (animations at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/newsArchive.php?p=4 &y=2007) will be a Viking style soft landing rather than the air bag system used on the Mars Pathfinder and Rover missions. All missions to Mars are challenging but Phoenix represents a last chance to rectify for the loss of MPL and Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999. A successful landing will present our first visit to the Martian Polar environment."
Censorship

Submission + - Pot plant pics lands MySpace teen in jail

Submitted by
paynesmanor
paynesmanor writes: "Authorities were monitoring the web for gang activity when they found a picture of a potted pot plant the lable read: "My Mary Jane thats growin in my closet right now", athorities also found, pictures of weapons, and other people showing gang signs. Athorities tracked the website creater to eighteen-year-old Moua Yang, who used his real name, and even posted a picture of himself. Athorities raided Yang's house and found the pot plant in the closet just like the photo showed. The teenage boy was arrested Monday, and has since been released. The teen faces felony charges of manufacturing marijuana and maintaining a drug trafficking place, he also faces two misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Full story, can be found here. http://www.myfoxmilwaukee.com/myfox/pages/News/Det ail?contentId=2684798&version=1&locale=EN-US&layou tCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 Or here, http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/ 2007/03/15/0703150229.php"
United States

Submission + - How would you change America?

Submitted by
isntwargreat
isntwargreat writes: "Seems like Americans love to talk about making change in America, but there are some things (such of as the constitution, or the structure of the government) that are never touched on.... How would you change America if you could change just about anything? What are the obstacles that would prevent current American society from making these changes? Can democratic movements (such as the mass organization of people via the Internet) bring about these sorts of changes? If so, How??? And most importantly, since this is Slashdot, how does technology fit into all of it?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - SCO is a penny stock

Submitted by Subm
Subm writes: SCO closed below $1.00 every day this week for the first time, accompanied by news about their case that can't be helping them out.

The stock has been stable for some time, and they can always reverse split to remain listed. Nonetheless, you have to wonder, is it time to start shorting?
Businesses

Submission + - Those eBay ratings may not mean what you think

Submitted by
El_Oscuro
El_Oscuro writes: "For those of you who buy stuff on eBay, there is a new kind of scam A seller sells lots of cheap stuff (in this case, camera memory cards) to build up a a 99.9% positive rating, then starts selling expensive items (like $700 cameras). That is when the scam starts. Once they have acquired a positive rating and the trust of buyers, they start gyping people on the expensive items.

On amazon and other sites that have reviews, somethimes the auther of a book will give his book a glowing review.

If you are buying something expensive on eBay, make sure you read the seller reviews for similar items.

<PITA>

Unfortunately, TFA makes you create an account with washingtonpost.com to read it.

</PITA>"
User Journal

Journal Journal: [Z80] I have a toast rack! 2

Journal by Alioth

Well, I put it under the 'Z80' heading, because this will be a bit of rambling JE which will cover some of that.
Software

Selling Open Source Solutions to Upper Mgmt? 34

Posted by Cliff from the making-your-case-to-PHBs dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "I am the single member of the IT department at a small nonprofit. We were looking to replace our commercial content management system with a custom combination of open source solutions (Lucene, Jackrabbit, etc). However, since I was the sole developer, progress was slow and we have little resources to recruit potential volunteers. Recently, we had a closed source, commercial vendor demo their version of a content management system, and immediately upper management was willing to go along with their proposal, even at the expense of project requirements. Although I understand and accept the decision (and am quite relieved I am not expected to deliver as the sole developer), I am interested to know if there are resources for promoting open source software in a manner like closed source, commercial software. If not, is this a challenge within the OS community? It seems that OS solutions are primarily promoted to technical implementors rather than upper management. Of course, many technical implementors do not have the marketing skills to promote open source, but are there resources to help us do so?"

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Close