turg - Slashdot User

Submission + - Building A Data Center in 60 Days - Online

Submitted by

miller60

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @09:27PM

miller60 writes: "The facilities team at Australia's Pipe Networks is down to the wire in its bid to complete a data center in 60 days. And in an era when many major data center projects are shrouded in secrecy, they're putting the entire effort online, with daily updates and photos on the company blog, a live webcam inside the facility, a countdown timer and a punch-list of key tasks left to finish. Their goal is to complete the job by Friday morning."

Submission + - SOFIA Flies to California

Submitted by

Penguinshit

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:42PM

Penguinshit writes: "NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy left Texas for Southern California to continue engineering flight tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. During its expected 20-year lifetime, SOFIA will be capable of "Great Observatory" class astronomical science, providing astronomers with access to the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter spectrum with optimized performance in the mid-infrared to sub-millimeter range. SOFIA's science and mission operations are managed jointly by the Universities Space Research Association and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut, and are based at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Jose, Calif."

Submission + - No "Puddle" Water on Surface of Mars After

Submitted by Icarus1919 on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:40PM

Icarus1919 writes: Images of puddles of water on Mars have been revealed over the weekend to have been misinterpreted. It turns out that pooled water in the images taken is impossible for an entirely different reason: it's located on the side of a crater.

'"I want to retract the claim in the paper that the smooth area we discussed was 'standing liquid water'," Levin acknowledged on Tuesday. "I am sorry that we made such a large mistake."'

Submission + - Chase Bank Online forces cookies on customers

Submitted by Alex in SD on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @08:24PM

Alex in SD writes: I like to clear my browser's cache each time I quit the application — it's one of the reasons I love Firefox and now will check out Safari. Unfortunately — Chase Bank utilizes browser cookies as part of their authentication scheme. If you don't enable cookies — you have to go through a tedious re-authentication process each time you login which includes a one-time password sent via SMS, email or voice. It's an inconvenience — but seems like a pretty secure system. I just wonder how cookies actually make your computer safer.

Submission + - A Third Series of Stargate coming soon? (scifi.com)

Submitted by Kirkex on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @07:10PM

Kirkex writes: Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he's developing a third series with the working title Stargate Universe, but remained mum on details. (The project has not yet been picked up by any network, including SCI FI Channel.)

Submission + - Venezuela launches Linux 'Bolivarian Computers' (venezuelanalysis.com)

Submitted by Voline on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:56PM

Voline writes: In the pursuit of technological independence Venezuela has begun shipping the first 'Bolivarian Computers'. Named after the hero of the South American independence struggle against Spain, they are made by VIT (Venezuela de Industria Tecnológica), which is a joint venture of the Chinese company Lang Chao and the Venezuelan government. The four desktop and single laptop models all run Gnu/Linux. VIT hopes to eventually begin distributing the inexpensive computers throughout Latin America.

Submission + - General Relativity Experimentally Confirmed!

Submitted by Anonymous Reader on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:43PM

Anonymous Reader writes: I have been watching this project for some years now, eagerly anticipating the results to incorporate them into my own theories on gravity being faster than light. I had feared the experiment was critially flawed because it was so delicate. However when I checked the site today it appears that Gravity Probe B is being hailed as a success!

"GP-B SUCCEEDED IN COLLECTING THE DATA TO TEST EINSTEIN'S PREDICTIONS ABOUT GRAVITY
Over four decades of planning, inventing, designing, developing, testing, training and rehearsing paid off handsomely for GP-B. The 17.3-month flight mission succeeded in collecting all the data needed to carry out this unprecedented, direct experimental test of Einstein's general theory of relativity — his theory of gravity.
...
THE EFFECTS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY ARE CLEARLY VISIBLE"

This is big scientific news. I have yet to peruse the detailed results myself and absorb them into my personal view of the universe, but I am curious what readers here make of the results.

Submission + - ActiveScaffold Eliminates Ruby on Rails Drudgery

Submitted by LinucksGirl on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @06:33PM

LinucksGirl writes: Save time and headaches, and create a more easily maintainable set of pages, with the Ruby on Rails ActiveScaffold plugin. ActiveScaffold handles all your CRUD (create, read, update, delete) user interface needs, leaving you more time to focus on more challenging (and interesting!) problems.

Submission + - Google to introduce privacy dashboard?

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @01:44PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "ZDNet UK reports that Google is considering the idea of a privacy dashboard, as proposed by Wired founder John Battelle. Could this be the solution to all the privacy worries surrounding the behemoth (and other such companies) are is it a smokescreen? I guess Google might stand to lose a bit..."

Submission + - How much is skype being snooped? (billingworld.com)

Submitted by hawkeesk8 on Tuesday June 12, 2007 @01:17PM

hawkeesk8 writes: In Billing World's latest weekly e-Newsletter,, Dr. Jerry Lucas, founder of the World Lawful Intercept Conference, states in a column about CALEA, the United States controversial wire tapping law, "Outside of the NSA, most law enforcement offices have given up trying to decrypt Skype. But it is still possible to determine who called whom via Skype. Besides, even if someone is using Skype, it can't be guaranteed that someone else besides the person they are talking to isn't listening, because there are clever ways to spoof the system and get the keys." The author of the newsletter also writes, "And lastly, although Skype service is free, it is also considered a telecom service, and most Western countries require telecoms to release encryption keys upon request." With Lucas responding, "My bet is e-Bay, who owns Skype, does just that." The deadline for implementing CALEA has passed which would suggest that all big telecom carriers in the U.S. have the ability to tap your conversation. In light of that and the controversial NSA wire tapping scandal, how secure do you feel using the regular telephone vs. Skype?

Submission + - DreamHost blocks Google Bot on Shared Hosting - Ho

Submitted by jsbi on Saturday May 19, 2007 @03:14PM

jsbi writes: DreamHost is supposedly touted as one of the Best web hosting providers by some of it's users[including a few people I know personally of]. But it now seems that it is requiring users to edit the .htaccess file to block GoogleBot from indexing their pages. Are you wondering what the GoogleBot is all about — well it is the Google web crawler that indexes web pages for them to appear on a Google search. It seems that the explanation given by DreamHost is that GoogleBot is a "high memory usage and load on the server" and blocking it seems only the way out. The company has already dispatched off email's to most of it's customers, asking them to make their content unsearchable for spiders and crawlers. I guess the entire move by DreamHost is rather so STUPID!! Instead of them to upgrade its systems to make them more powerful, stable and able to support the crawl process of Googlebot — they ask you shut it down completely. http://jsbi.blogspot.com/2007/05/dreamhost-blocks- google-bot-on-shared.html

Submission + - why doesn't slashdot work?

Submitted by

cdn-programmer

on Saturday May 19, 2007 @02:36PM

cdn-programmer writes: "The main screen shows me logged in. Some stories show me logged in. Other stories show me logged out. If I try to log in all that happens is (1) it doesn't work or (2) it takes me back to the main screen where I am logged in. An example is the story about US Gasoline Prices Spur Telework I tried to post a comment. I see: Login for "cdn-programmer" has failed. Please try again. Submit"

Submission + - China shoots down weather satellite

Submitted by BunnyClaws on Thursday January 18, 2007 @11:16PM

BunnyClaws writes: U.S. officials are expressing concern over a recent missle test in space where China shot down an old weather satellite. The missile was fired from a ground based ballistic missile. The missile successfully hit and destroyed the Chinese weather satellite 537 miles above the earth. The U.S. and other nations have expressed concerns about debris being left in orbit that could interfere with other satellites in orbit. The U.S. is questioning the motivation for this action taken by China. It seems that the U.S. has anticipated this action when it revised its national space policy last October by denying access to anyone to space who would pose a threat to U.S. space interests.

Journal Journal: Rosetta Code -- Building a Programmer's Rosetta Stone 215

Journal by Short Circuit on Thursday January 18, 2007 @11:04PM

Did you ever run into the problem where you knew how to do something in one programming language, but really needed to do it in another? That's what Rosetta Code is all about. A variety of programming tasks are solved using as many languages as possible. You can examine existing tasks, or create your own.

Submission + - New Unpatented Cancer Drug

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18, 2007 @08:56PM

An anonymous reader writes: New Scientist is running a story about a new cancer drug that activates cell death in cancer tumors by activating cell apoptosis (the process in which cells die) by turning on the mitochondria normally inactive in cancer cells. Interestingly the drugs used in this treatment have been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders, so they aren't covered by any existing patents. This might slow down their development, but raises hopes about relatively cheap drugs to combat many different forms of cancer. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971?DCMP=N LC-nletter&nsref=dn10971

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