vandon - Slashdot User

Submission + - What Larry Ellison was reading a few years ago (sun.com)

Submitted by vandon on Monday August 16, 2010 @04:05PM

vandon writes: As you know, Sun's open source software and microprocessor strategy has been, at times controversial. We've filled trade journals and chat rooms with all kinds of dialog and the occasional crackpot conspiracy theory. As many have rightly assumed from the outset, that controversy was, in fact, not a byproduct of the strategy — it was the strategy: if you're talking about Sun, you're not talking about the other guy. And then you'll buy a datacenter. But now that we've firmly established our reputation for open source leadership, I'm very worried there's no more controversy to be had. There's too much trust in the system, and too much clarity around our strategic intent. So it's getting tougher and tougher to kick up a storm — and we can't very well spend a billion dollars or change our ticker symbol every time we want to generate a headline. Now can we?

So today I'd like to unfurl the second chapter of our strategy.
We want you to give it all back. You couldn't possibly believe we'd let you keep it, did you?

Submission + - Berkeley High School to cut science labs (eastbayexpress.com)

Submitted by vandon on Monday December 28, 2009 @04:10PM

vandon writes: East Bay Express news has this rather odd news about plans for Berkeley High School to cut science labs as part of the school's measures to "address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap." Apparently white students at the school do "far better than the state average while black and Latino students [do] worse." Fair enough. That's something worth looking into, but taking away science labs? According to one of the people who helped put forth the proposal, "science labs were largely classes for white students." So, just do away with them? Why not explore why that is? Or see if there's something more proactive to be done about it? Of course, it's not even true that it's just white kids taking science labs.

Submission + - Climategate: Why it matters (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by vandon on Monday November 30, 2009 @04:21PM

vandon writes: Reading the Climategate archive is a bit like discovering that Professional Wrestling is rigged. You mean, it is? Really?

Submission + - IBM has found a new way to profit from patents (breitbart.com)

Submitted by

vandon

on Wednesday October 24, 2007 @04:48PM

vandon writes: "Breitbart.com is running a story about a new IBM patent.
From the article "IBM Corp. says it has dreamed up a new method for profiting from its vast storehouse of patents. And by the way, the company wants to patent the idea.
Beyond the circularity of the concept, IBM's application is notable because the company — the world's top patent holder — has been campaigning to improve the quality of patent filings and reduce so- called "business method" patents. "
Read the full story here."

Submission + - If you've ever wondered why Brooklyn smells...

Submitted by

vandon

on Thursday May 17, 2007 @05:00PM

vandon writes: "The Consumerist is running a story about why Brooklyn smells like urine. From the article:
A postman threw what looked like a piss-filled glove right in front of us on the street yesterday.
We were rounding the corner of 5th ave and Union and passing right by a parked USPS truck. The postman inside tossed a blue glove out the door onto the asphalt, and we glanced over to see a yellow liquid pouring out.
Read the full story and see the pics."

Submission + - The Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007

Submitted by

vandon

on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @10:14AM

vandon writes: "In a move that would only encourage more overreaction like we saw in Boston, the Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007 would let city officials sue when they mistakenly think that they have stumbled over a terrorist plot."

Submission + - GoDaddy deletes domain name for security site.

Submitted by

vandon

on Friday January 26, 2007 @05:08PM

vandon writes: "News.com.com has a story about GoDaddy deleting the domain name of a security mailing list archive site after MySpace.com complaints. This move raises a whole host of questions about corporate censorship and the rights of a domain registrar over a domain you own.
From the article "A popular computer security Web site was abruptly yanked offline this week by MySpace.com and GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar, raising questions about free speech and Internet governance. GoDaddy's Jones said that "we're not knee-jerk — we try to be responsible about verifying complaints." There's a broad spectrum of policies among domain name registrars, she acknowledged, with GoDaddy "probably the most aggressive.""
Read the whole story"

Submission + - Dell does Monty Python

Submitted by

vandon

on Monday October 30, 2006 @01:22PM

vandon writes: "WANT A GOOD laugh at the expense of Dell? No, not in the sense of laughing with them, more laughing at them. It is a marketing message in a Monty Pythonesque style of animation, well done, but oh boy. In any case, go watch it, it is well worth the 60MB download to see a 2D cutout of Larry Ellison singing, not to mention the duet between Paul Otellini and Hector Ruiz.

You can get the video here."

Submission + - Vista copy protection to be more invasive than XP

Submitted by

vandon

on Wednesday October 04, 2006 @03:23PM

vandon writes: "A Security Focus article explains the key differnces in XP and Vista licensing:
A major difference in Windows Vista, as compared to Windows XP, is that the licensing technology will continue to monitor the licensing key after the initial 30 day period. It is believed that the technology, which is expected to appear in Windows Server versions and other Microsoft products as well, will make it harder but not impossible for hackers to break Microsoft's licensing scheme.
Windows installations that are not activated or do not have a valid license will have reduced functionality, disabled Windows Aero interface, all Microsoft Office components, and Windows Defender.
A failed OS key check will also disable other Microsoft products like Office and Windows Defender. Does this mean more check-ins with the licensing servers at Microsoft? Is it a better opportunity to monitor how you use your computer and, more importantly, what you use on your computer."

Submission + - Uwe Boll beating up Lowtax

Submitted by

vandon

on Monday September 25, 2006 @04:55PM

vandon writes: "Uwe Boll is rolling on in his quest to beat up his critics. His latest victim is Lowtax of SomethingAwful.com. The fight video is fairly one sided, but it's still better than having a lawyer after you.
Read the whole story on Kotaku.com"

Submission + - Build an XBox360 Laptop

Submitted by

vandon

on Tuesday September 12, 2006 @10:22AM

vandon writes: "Have you ever wanted your XBox360 to be nicer looking and more portable? Well, Ben Heckendorn has been at it again. He has built a 14 pound, water cooled, 17 inch aluminum cased XBox 360 laptop. It's got all the outputs you could ever need. Read the build write up. And for those of you who don't like reading, there are plenty of pretty pictures."

Submission + - Patent office goes to the dogs

Submitted by on Thursday August 17, 2006 @02:52PM

vandon writes: The U.S. Patent Office has really gone to the dogs this time when they issued patent number 7090268. The patent in question is a dog waste catcher and containment system. The application image is located here. The patent gets really creative when it tries to explain how it is different from every other bag-on-a-stick invention.

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