Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Electricity, and gas (fuels) too... (Score 1) 507

by The Blue Meanie (#34476906) Attached to: Annual power consumption at your residence?

These sort of usage meters are *great*. I got one of these: http://www.egauge.net/

Pricier, sure. But mine includes up to 12 customizable channels of measurement and a 20+ year non-volatile memory for historical data.
It also runs Linux (bonus points around here, right?) and has this spiffy web interface where you can watch me go broke in real time because I'm running a server/storage farm in my basement: http://egauge614.d.egauge.net/
I'm still surprised the narcs haven't busted down my door because they THINK I have a grow op.
Idle

Submission + - Police called over 11-year-old's science project (boingboing.net) 2

Submitted by garg0yle
garg0yle writes: Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of "a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics", after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family "get counseling". Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?

Comment Re:To many shops think HA==DR (Score 2, Informative) 711

by The Blue Meanie (#26303125) Attached to: Why Mirroring Is Not a Backup Solution

People who care about their data and their business know what they mean.

Although, at my particular shop, we use the term "BC" instead of "HA".
BC = Business Continuance (HA = High Availability)
DR = Disaster Recovery

BC = "Looks like we just lost a drive in the array. Better replace that right away." or "Oops, broke one of the multiple fibers to the SAN. Where's the spare again?"
BC also applies to our load-balanced clusters of web servers and application servers that allow for the offlining or loss of entire machines without losing functionality. You need more than your data existing on media to Continue Business - you and your customers need to be able to GET to it somehow.

DR = Your building just burned to the ground, taking every single piece of furniture, equipment, paper, and magnetic media inside along with it. Now what?
Please note that the coolest, slickest, snapshotted NAS with terabytes and terabytes of awesome cheap SATA storage in it is worth exactly JACK in this scenario if it's in the same building as the source material. Offsite backups are not optional, and offsite storage of hard drives isn't exactly the easiest thing to do.
Software

Submission + - Laplink Turns 25 and Gives Everything Away! 2

Submitted by
crackerjack2008
crackerjack2008 writes: "25 years is a long time for a birthday party. And when you have a birthday party, aren't you the one who is receiving gifts? We'll Laplink has decided to do the opposite. Laplink is giving away PCmover for free for 24 hours only. This product sells for $50. PCmover transfers all of your files, applications and settings from your old PC to a new PC. Laplink Software is celebrating its 25th Anniversary on May 15th, with a free giveaway of their award winning PCmover. Just visit http://www.laplink.com/ on May 15th for your free copy of PCmover and also the chance to win many great products such as; Gateway Laptops, Targus laptop bags, Microsoft products, USB sticks and much more."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - iPod Touch screen problems - defect or design? 2

Submitted by The Blue Meanie
The Blue Meanie writes: As reported by a friend of mine, and confirmed with a thread or two elsewhere, people are noticing that a number of the new iPod Touch screens are producing really BAD video, especially in darker areas. Is this just a case of Apple picking a lousy screen for this model, or is this a manufacturing defect? They obviously didn't use the screen from the iPhone — are Touch users destined to suffer with sub-par video?
Businesses

Submission + - Comparison of Working at the 3 Big Software Giants

Submitted by
castironwok
castironwok writes: "Finally, everything you've ever wanted to know about being an employee at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Tastyresearch describes his (or her) past few years interning and working at the three companies. Things I didn't know from before: Bill Gates wears old shoes, Google's internal security watches you like a hawk, the office styles of each company, and how to fill your suitcase with Google T-shirts. He calls the few select companies the 'prestigious internship circle', noting "once you have worked at one, it's a lot easier to get into another". But what *I* really want to know now, is who has a more equal male-female ratio?"
Networking

Submission + - Charter pulls a Verisign

Submitted by _peter
_peter writes: As of sometime today, Charter internet customers, at least in the St. Louis area, got their own version of SiteFinder. I just finished talking to their tech support for about an hour, and have verified that it is intentional, and the only way to ``opt-out'' is to let them set a cookie in your browser. Obviously this doesn't work for connections that aren't browser-based. When I asked to be transferred to account services to cancel, the very nice representative begged for a day to look into the issue. Perhaps any other Charter customers might want to check to see if they've received this feature as well.
Spam

Submission + - Is there any reason to report spammers to ISP's?

Submitted by marko_ramius
marko_ramius writes: For years I've been a good netizen and reported spam that I get to the appropriate contacts at ISP's. In the entire time that I've done this I've gotten (maybe) 5 or 6 responses from those ISP's informing me that they have taken action against the spammer.

In recent years, however, I haven't gotten any responses.

Are the ISP's so overwhelmed with abuse reports to respond to ANYBODY that reports spam? Do they even bother acting on the reports?

Is there any real reason to report spammers?
Google

Submission + - Turns Out Google Really Does Listen

Submitted by
SamThomp
SamThomp writes: "There's a perfect Google underdog story going on right now. It goes like this: A college student named Aaron Stanton has an idea he thinks Google will love. He tries to get in touch via phone, e-mail, and their web forms with no luck. Then, spurred by his father nearly dying of an embolism near Christmas, he takes a chance and flies to Mountain View, CA without an appointment, intending to sit in their lobby "like a spoiled child" until he gets a chance to meet with someone. He's been there about three days, now.

Here's where it gets interesting. He creates a website called CanGoogleHearMe.com, and uses Google Video to document his journey in hopes that it might be seen by someone at Google and they'll show pity. At first he's turned away (links to Google Video) at the door and doesn't get a chance to talk to anyone. Then, apparently someone in Google does notice the website and it spreads — word of mouth — inside of Google like wildfire; 600 people visit the site in two hours from inside of Google's headquarters at Mountain View.

Then, late last night — three days into his trip — the guy gets an e-mail with the subject line, "We can hear you :)" that says they're willing to listen to him. No meeting for sure yet, but a step in the right direction.

It's like "actual" reality TV. :) If you're looking for an interesting story to pay attention to for the week, it'll be interesting to see how this turns out. So far, Google seems to be living up to their image of being a large company that's open to ideas. As far as I'm concerned, best of luck to them both."
Encryption

Submission + - TSA can't figure out security certificates

Submitted by
markgo2k
markgo2k writes: "The Washington Post reports that TSA has taken a new website live that people who are wrongly on the famous "no-fly" list can protest their status. Unbelievably, the website uses a self-signed certificate (and some have reported that you can submit forms insecurely as well). Perhaps contractor (Desyne Web Services, Inc. www.desyne.com) nor whoever was managing them ever actually tested the site or figured that flashing red certificate error warnings were something that might not be okay on a site that asks for name, address, height, weight, date of birth, hair color, eye color, passport number, birth certificate, drivers license number, military id number..."
Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - Can we find a man with just a photo and a name?

Submitted by
MikeJ
MikeJ writes: "Mind Candy, the makers of Perplex City, are testing the power of the Internet by asking that very question; they have recruited one of Earth's 6 billion residents — a man named Satoshi — to participate in this experiment.

It has been suggested that we are each only five to seven people away from any target in the world. Someone, somewhere, knows Satoshi — so we must track these people, and thus Satoshi, down using word-of-mouth communication. People from over 80 countries are already participating in the hunt, with more joining every day. Can you help find Satoshi?"
Businesses

Submission + - What bad customer service have you gotten?

Submitted by Ninjaesque One
Ninjaesque One writes: In response to an AC comment in a previous Ask Slashdot story, I must ask you of the heights of the prodigious hilltops of Stupidity, New Hampshire. Does it involve work? Nepotism? Bureaucratic Doom Ninjas?

Surprisingly, this story is not a dupe. Customer service ratings site, no reports of flagrant violations of the rules of company, law, and sometimes attempts at physics.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Experience has proved that some people indeed know everything." -- Russell Baker

Close