Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - World of Warcraft Expansion Bypasses Retail Stores

Submitted by Wanker
Wanker writes: In a move that has been frequently requested by customers but often denied, Blizzard has decided to risk alienating their retail channels and offer a recent expansion for download:

https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/bc-splash.htm

In the past for online role-playing games such as Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark age of Camelot, and others the publishers have decided not to make expansions available, citing concerns that their retail partners would be unhappy about the potential lost revenue. Is Warcraft simply so big they can ignore these concerns? Have the fears of the retailers been largely unfounded? Does this bode well for easily available future upgrades?
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Orange, Smelly Snow Falling in Siberia

Submitted by
Khakionion
Khakionion writes: "According to the BBC, Russia's flying in scientists to determine why western Siberia has been getting smelly, orange snow. From the article: "Chemical tests were under way to determine the cause...residents have been advised not to use the snow for household tasks or let animals graze on it.""
Linux Business

Submission + - Help with Linux Backup and Archive Solutions

Submitted by
earlshaw03
earlshaw03 writes: "I work for a small independent phone company and have a few questions regarding one of our Linux boxes that is our customer email server. We are running Debian and are having some issues backing up every users email. We had about 90GB worth of mail on the server, so we deceided to implement a new policy that all email that was not popped would be deleted after 90 days. We scoured sourceforge, freshmeat, and google to find a good archiving program that would allow us to accomplish this. The only one we could find was archivemail, which worked somewhat well, but we keep getting an error that stops the program about half way through, on the same user. It also stalls on other users as well. We have managed to work around these accounts and get the size down to 55GB worth of email. We are currently using Vembu Technologies StoreGrid product to backup this server. The backup usually took anywhere from 3-4 days for a full backup. So finally I am asking the Slashdot Community what do you use to Backup and archive/delete mail?"
The Courts

Submission + - Can I be sued for quitting?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I work at a large hosting company in Texas and recently decided to go work for a smaller competitor. I had a great relationship with my employer and wanted to leave on good terms. I felt the new company had just gotten too large and I didn't like working there anymore, I gave them two weeks notice in writing. They were really upset when I insisted on leaving and one week into my last two weeks the V.P. of Sales told me the company was suing me for leaving and suing my new employer for hiring me. They then escorted me out of the building. I was shocked. Should I hire an attorney? Has anybody ever heard of this happening? Do they have any legal basis for suing me? I never signed any non-compete or employment agreement.
Education

Submission + - Microsoft Applies to Patent BlueJ

Submitted by Vultan
Vultan writes: Slashdot readers may be familiar with BlueJ, a popular free (as in beer) IDE used for teaching Java. One of BlueJ's key strengths is its object bench (see screen shot), which lets students interact with objects in a point-and-click manner. Microsoft has stolen this same idea, without attribution or citation, for inclusion in Visual Studio 2005. Screen shots of the new Visual Studio functionality show it to be nearly identical to that of BlueJ (compare with screen shots in pages 11 and 12 of this BlueJ tutorial. This is unethical on its own, but the matter is considerably worse: Microsoft has applied to patent this "object test bench" functionality. If this patent succeeds and Microsoft chooses to enforce it, BlueJ could be shut down. Of course, BlueJ counts as prior art, but the BlueJ project is a small academic operation and may not have the resources to challenge.

I've used BlueJ myself in educating students, and it is a wonderful tool. The team building it has spent many years working really hard on it. What can be done?
Intel

Submission + - Intel, IBM make independent silicon breakthrough

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: IBM, Intel independently announced they have made a breakthough in transistor design which allows futher shrinkage of silicon technologies. Intel said the 65nm process can be now reduced to 45nm, later this year. IBM made a same announcement, and its parnters including AMD may enjoy this new technology as well. This is considered the biggest breakthrough in transistor technology since the 60's, and one must wonder: how come two different companies announce the same thing on the same Friday??
Security

Web Honeynet Project IDs Attackers 70

Posted by Zonk from the they-can-see-youuuu dept.
narramissic writes "The Web Honeynet Project, an independent group of Honeynet researchers from Securiteam and the ITOSF, is putting a new twist on Web application honeynets by naming not only the attack details, but the IP addresses and other tracking information about the attackers as well. As security consultant Brent Huston notes, 'This approach is not unheard of, as lists of known high-volume attackers have been circulating through the Net for several years, but this is the first time someone has applied the honeynet concept to making attacker IP data publicly known.'"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft patents BlueJ

Submitted by
Yremogtnom
Yremogtnom writes: "From Michael Kölling's Blog: "This is my attempt at catchy headline writing. But the truth isn't far off. It really should have said: Microsoft applies for patent for core BlueJ functionality. And that's really true. After blatantly copying BlueJ (without reference or attribution), Microsoft have now filed for patent for the functionality they knowingly copied from us. Why? To sue us out of the market? To make us pay? Who knows. Sad fact is that this could destroy BlueJ."

If you don't know, BlueJ is an Interactive Environment for teaching Java."

Slashdot Top Deals

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny. -- Frank Hubbard

Close