Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Network

Inside the World's Largest LAN Party 199

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-bag-of-doritos dept.
MrSeb writes "Last weekend, over 12,000 LAN party goers turned up at DreamHack Winter 2011 in Jonkoping, Sweden with a PC under the arm, on their back, or packed carefully in the trunk of their car. Every single attendee is squeezed into just three massive halls — the largest holding 5,000 computers — or four days, only taking brief breaks to sleep or check out one of the many stages (including some of the largest e-sport tournaments of the year). Being the largest LAN party in the world, DreamHack's infrastructure is suitably monumental: it takes days to lay the thousands of cables, and at the heart of the network is tower of Cisco routers that interface with a 120Gbps internet connection provided by Telia."
The Internet

Submission + - Petition Calls for Making Net Access Inalienable R (whitehouse.gov)

Submitted by
CelticWhisper
CelticWhisper writes: "Targeted at stopping SOPA, a petition has been started at the White House's "We The People" page calling for a Constitutional amendment that would render internet access an inalienable right. Other countries have already adopted such classification for internet access.

Excerpt from petition text reads: "The United States Government is actively attempting to pass legislation to censor Internet. There are numerous campaigns against this Act, but we need to do more than just prevent SOPA from passing. Otherwise, future Acts of similar nature will oppress our rights."

Is calling for a Constitutional amendment to guarantee this too extreme, or is the Internet sufficiently entrenched in modern life that access to it should be guaranteed by the Constitution?"
Iphone

Submission + - Forbes about the first Tor-Enabled Browser for the (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Andy Greenberg wrote: 'Apps that enable Tor have been available at times to users of jailbroken iPhones. But Covert Browser is the first to be officially sanctioned by Apple, albeit at a price of $2.99'. I find it quite interesting that the Tor Project does not care about someone using its code and going commercial with it. Do you think another license would have been better, or do you think that without BSD things like MacOSX would not have been possible ?
Networking

An Operating System For Cities 216

Posted by Soulskill from the can't-wait-for-those-citywide-blue-screens dept.
CProgrammer98 writes "BBC News reports that cities may soon get their own operating system. From the article: 'The Urban OS works just like a PC operating system but keeps buildings, traffic and services running smoothly. The software takes in data from sensors dotted around the city to keep an eye on what is happening. In the event of a fire, the Urban OS might manage traffic lights so fire trucks can reach the blaze swiftly. The sensors monitor everything from large scale events such as traffic flows across the entire city down to more local phenomena such as temperature sensors inside individual rooms. The OS completely bypasses humans to manage communication between sensors and devices such as traffic lights, air conditioning or water pumps that influence the quality of city life."
Sci-Fi

New Book Reports Soviets Behind Roswell UFO Scare 135

Posted by samzenpus from the I-want-to-believe dept.
jalefkowit writes "A new book by Los Angeles Times Magazine investigative reporter Annie Jacobsen, titled Area 51, reports that that the famous 1947 UFO sightings in Roswell, New Mexico, were actually an attempt by the Soviet Union to demonstrate that they could panic the American population if they wished. According to the book, the UFOs were actually aircraft derived from flying-wing technology, piloted by 'child-size aviators' surgically altered by captured Nazi doctors to appear more frightening. Skeptics note that this account is based on testimony provided to Jacobsen by a single unnamed source, who she describes as one of only five engineers given full access to the crash debris at the top-secret facility in Nevada known as Area 51."
Censorship

Submission + - Baidu Sued for Aiding Chinese Censorship (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Several pro-democracy Chinese-Americans from New York are suing Baidu for aiding the PRC in censoring their writings, in violation of the US Constitution and New York civil rights laws. Baidu ADRs trade on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Why is it that China blocks American companies like Facebook and twitter from doing business in China, and yet the US allows companies to trash the rights of Americans while enjoying the benefit of the US market? Does this seem fair to you?
Crime

Submission + - Computer Records Hold Key in IMF Rape Case

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "ABA Journal reports that the chief of the International Monetary Fund may claim consent as a defense to accusations that he sexually assaulted a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in New York as defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman told the judge he believed the “forensic evidence” was “not consistent with forcible encounter.” Police have said the maid knocked on Strauss-Kahn’s door and called out, used her master keycard to open the door, and left her work cart in the doorway, a typical safety practice in hotels. According to the police account, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked, tried to attack the maid, and then shut the hotel door when she tried to escape. The NY Times explains how the key card evidence may play out: “If the defense for Mr. Strauss-Kahn maintains that the encounter was consensual, its version will have to accommodate the unambiguous computer record of her leaving the door propped open," the story says. "It will also have to explain how and when she decided that sex with Mr. Strauss-Kahn was a better use of her time than changing the linens.”"

Submission + - FBI leaves paperwork behind after raid on anti-war (stopfbi.net)

Submitted by Sprouticus
Sprouticus writes: An interesting development has occured in the case of some anti-war activists who had their house raided by the FBI. Apparently in their hurry to take the photos, computers and phones of the people involved, the FBI left their raid paperwork, including the raid plan and the interrogation questions, behind. This information has been posted oon a website put up to support the activists. It gives some real insight into the FBI mindset.
Open Source

Submission + - DHS Funds Open Source Cyber Security (pcmag.com)

Submitted by
BrandiCook
BrandiCook writes: "A PCMag article reveals the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has named Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) to lead the five-year, $10 million Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) program. HOST aims to find open approaches to handling the country's cyber security. An open solution could potentially save the government an enormous amount of money, although the primary objective is to protect the country with the best possible solutions. GTRI is leading HOST efforts in conjunction with the Open Technology Research Consortium (OTRC). OTRC members participating in the HOST program include: GTRI, University of Texas at Austin, the Open Information Security Foundation and the Open Source Software Institute."

Submission + - Comcast Helps Fix TPB's Connectivity Issues (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by
MagusSlurpy
MagusSlurpy writes: "Far from blocking The Pirate Bay, Comcast was just one of several ISPs on which TPB was unreachable today. Comcast reached out to the torrent site, and its engineers provided technical support, eventually determining that the connectivity issues stemmed from a reverse path filtering issue at an intermediate ISP, Serious Tubes Networks."

Slashdot Top Deals

Remember, UNIX spelled backwards is XINU. -- Mt.

Close