Comment Re:I don't understand? (Score 1) 121
Play with DDR Pad. Purpose: amusing workout/exercise.
Comment Re:Ironic, the whole article IS an AD! (Score 1) 417
It's idiocy...a major paid-content provider, a company that with absolute certainty has innumerable inseverable ties with advertisers, would publicly advocate blocking advertisement?
Author should have just stuck to the technical aspect of ad blocking, not wildly postulate about business models he clearly has no understanding of.
Comment Re:Still not a Chrome user (Score 1) 207
As a incognito porn site surfer, I was really taken aback and worried about privacy issues.
Wait
Submission + - HS Student Isolates Polystyrene-eating Microbe (wired.com)
cmholm writes: "Although I had for years assumed that plastics eventually biodegrade, my recent reading of Weisman's The World Without Us reminded me that just because garbage has broken down into pieces that I can't see doesn't mean it isn't still polluting the biosphere. Weisman's book suggests that we're pretty much stuck with most plastics until something evolves to eat them. Perhaps we just need to introduce the diner to the dinner. A Waterloo, Ontario teen's 2008 science fair experiment found polystyrene's match in the team of the relatively uncommon Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas bacterias. At 37 degrees and optimal bacterial concentration, with a bit of sodium acetate thrown in, Burd achieved 43 per cent degradation within six weeks, rather than thousands of years."
Submission + - Train Crashes, then Rescue Train Crashes.
thaddeusthudpucker writes: A passenger train carrying tourists to the Dalmatian Coast crashes, then its rescue train crashes.
News article detailing original crash:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32123550/ns/world_news-europe/
YouTube Footage of Rescue train crashing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFKc7NfTabw
Submission + - IT support tools that bite you
An anonymous reader writes: Isn't it great when suppliers of management tools use your client sites for free advertising and interfere with sites — all without your knowledge or consent? Then, when you complain, they are nonplussed and explain that this is the software's normal behaviour.
We started using TeamViewer a few months ago for remote support. It's a great tool and we've been very happy with it. Yesterday, a client had a website hacked, which brought IIS down. Next thing, their website displayed a page of advertising for TeamViewer, stating that the machine was managed with TeamViewer and giving a link back to TeamViewer's sales site. This prevented IIS from restarting and led to an upset customer, who thought this was part of the hack. We then found that every machine that does not have a web server that grabs port 80 before TeamViewer can, displays this advertising.
TeamViewer support initially said that this is how the software works and you just have to make sure you don't release port 80. On their website, they specifically say there is only outbound traffic on two ports, and says nothing about inbound traffic.
(http://support.teamviewer.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=10&nav=0,13)
Tech support's response to our complaint was total lack of interest and certainly nothing like an apology. After a long phone call they admitted that customers who don't appreciate being used as free advertising can hack the registry, which will mean putting hands on every machine we manage.
This is the registry hack:
In HKLM\Software\TeamViewer\Version4 set GatewayAllowed to 0 and ListenHttp to 0.
Senior management were not available to speak to mere customers.
In our book this is unacceptable and unethical behaviour. It also raises trust issues, because suddenly you don't know what else these guys are doing in the background. Since TV had no interest in rectifying the situation, we thought we'd get the word out.
We started using TeamViewer a few months ago for remote support. It's a great tool and we've been very happy with it. Yesterday, a client had a website hacked, which brought IIS down. Next thing, their website displayed a page of advertising for TeamViewer, stating that the machine was managed with TeamViewer and giving a link back to TeamViewer's sales site. This prevented IIS from restarting and led to an upset customer, who thought this was part of the hack. We then found that every machine that does not have a web server that grabs port 80 before TeamViewer can, displays this advertising.
TeamViewer support initially said that this is how the software works and you just have to make sure you don't release port 80. On their website, they specifically say there is only outbound traffic on two ports, and says nothing about inbound traffic.
(http://support.teamviewer.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=10&nav=0,13)
Tech support's response to our complaint was total lack of interest and certainly nothing like an apology. After a long phone call they admitted that customers who don't appreciate being used as free advertising can hack the registry, which will mean putting hands on every machine we manage.
This is the registry hack:
In HKLM\Software\TeamViewer\Version4 set GatewayAllowed to 0 and ListenHttp to 0.
Senior management were not available to speak to mere customers.
In our book this is unacceptable and unethical behaviour. It also raises trust issues, because suddenly you don't know what else these guys are doing in the background. Since TV had no interest in rectifying the situation, we thought we'd get the word out.
Submission + - BPI Forces YouTube to Remove Musician's Own Music (arstechnica.com) 2
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "British musician Calvin Harris is upset with the British Phonographic Industry for sending a copyright complaint to YouTube forcing YouTube to take down music he put there himself. Mr. Harris was upset enough over the affair to say that, 'The BPI are the worst organisation to ever walk the earth and their setup is shambolic,' while employing a few colorful metaphors most publications are loathe to repeat. Mr. Harris appealed to the House of Lords to file a formal complaint against the BPI, but was turned down and, to date, the BPI has yet to explain its actions to anyone seeking comment on the affair. No doubt they had some noble reason, such as trying to protect the artist from exposure to YouTube comments."
Submission + - Small East Texas Companies Targeted by Patentees
An anonymous reader writes: In a sign that patent trolls are getting desperate to keep their cases in East Texas, some have taken to suing tiny, no-name companies that are run by East Texas residents. The hope is that the judge will keep the entire case in East Texas if at least one defendant is located there. Nate Neel, a Longview, Texas resident with a small open source software company called CitiWare, was sued by Bedrock Computer Technologies in June despite (he claims) having no customers or other meaningful operations of any kind. In response, Mr. Neel has posted a strongly worded letter to Bedrock's attorneys on his website. It will be interesting to see how East Texas judges respond to this abuse of process perpetrated against their own residents.
Submission + - USPTO Gives Microsoft Credit for Lotus' Homework
theodp writes: "On Tuesday, the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent for 'Email Emotiflags' despite ample evidence of a circa-1996 Lotus Notes precedent called Mood Stamps, sender-chosen emoticons that appear next to inbox messages. Among those seemingly aware of the existence of Mood Stamps is Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, who appears to have fielded questions about the feature while at Lotus. While simply Googling for 'Email Emotiflags' would have turned up evidence of this prior art (including a /. discussion), the USPTO came up empty after instead going with the more-upscale Google Scholar and patent databases for its search effort. Can we count on Ozzie to do-the-right-thing and give the USPTO a heads-up?"
Submission + - Shoud I go back and finish my CS degree?
ShiftingBits writes: I dropped out of school 12 years ago because work was more interesting (and paid too darned well). I eventually rode that wave to a director level position at a mid-sized company, managing over 20 people, and making over $150,000 per year. Nine months ago I was down-sized. I've been doing well working as a contract programmer, but the last month has been almost completely dry. I apply for contracts that I'm completely qualified for, but rarely get any type of response. I don't really want an actual employee-type job, but I've been applying to things just to keep my options open — again, only things that I've got the resume and portfolio to back up. And still I can't even get an interview. Now maybe it is the economy or maybe I'm suddenly a lousy resume writer but I'm thinking about going back to finish my degree — maybe get an MS or MBA while I'm at it.
The question I pose to you, oh great slashdot community, is: Do you think it is likely to pay off in the long run, or am I just delaying the inevitable? Meaning if I can't get a job with all of the experience I already have, will a degree actually make any difference?
Submission + - Hacking Nuclear Command And Control
The Walking Dude writes: "The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) has released an unclassified report exploring the possibility of cyber terrorists launching nuclear weapons. Ominous exploits include unreliable early warning sensors, unsecure nuclear weapons storage, transportation blunders, breaches in the chain of command, and the use of Windows on nuclear submarines. A traditional large-scale terrorist attack, such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks, could be combined with computer network operations in an attempt to start a nuclear war. Amidst the confusion of the traditional attack, communications could be disrupted, false declarations of war could be issued on both sides, and early warning sensors could be spoofed. Adding to this is the short time frame in which a retaliatory nuclear response must be decided upon, in some cases as little as 15 minutes. The amount of firepower that could be unleashed in these 15 minutes would be equivalent to approximately 100,000 Hiroshima bombs."
Submission + - PDF exploit in the wild (networkworld.com)
carusoj writes: "Symantec Security Response is warning that it has found an Adobe Acrobat PDF file that exploits a known vulnerability. When a user opens the file, it drops malicious code onto the user's system and executes it. Symantec says it is working with Adobe on the issue and encourages users to make sure their antivirus definitions are up to date."
Comment Re:Repeat (Score 1) 298
Why spend the time to watch it yourself? Pay a few bucks to a dozen people to watch it for you so you can get to the end faster.
Submission + - Mobile company sends spyware to BlackBerry users (calgaryherald.com)
SpaceAdmiral writes: "Research in Motion has confirmed that Etisalat, a cellular service company based in the United Arab Emirates, forced a performance update on their Blackberry customers that was actually spyware. The software could covertly record e-mails, text messages, and instant messages. RIM has released a removal tool for those affected."
