Submission + - World Trade Center Turned Into Anti-Terrorist Ship
An anonymous reader writes: Steel from the WTC has been used to create a new navy vessel. The details are here.
Getting Paid To Abandon an Open Source Project? 654
darkeye writes "I'm facing a difficult dilemma and looking for opinions. I've been contributing heavily to an open source project, making considerable changes to code organization and quality, but the work is unfinished at the moment. Now, a company is approaching me to continue my changes. They want to keep the improvements to themselves, which is possible since the project is published under the BSD license. That's fair, as they have all the rights to the work they pay for in full. However, they also want me to sign a non-competition clause, which would bar me from ever working on and publishing results for the original open source project itself, even if done separately, in my free time. How would you approach such a decision? On one side, they'd provide resources to work on an interesting project. On the other, it would make me an outcast in the project's community. Moreover, they would take ownership of not just what they paid for, but also my changes leading up to this moment, and I wouldn't be able to continue on my original codebase in an open source manner if I sign their contract."
Matching Up Hotkeys for OS X and Linux GUIs? 83
I use a MacBook Pro for my main machine, but also have a Ubuntu desktop. I get irritated about switching between command-oriented hotkeys and ctrl-oriented hotkeys (cmd-a on OSX = ctrl-a on Linux/windows). I've looked over a lot of forums and have found that Gnome doesn't seem capable of changing hotkeys, while xfce and fluxbox can. The ideal solution would be a way to change system keys in X, or at the system level — that way I can keep compiz. Does anyone have any ideas or know a trick to change system hot keys?
Comment Re:Let's get this out of the way... (Score 1) 243
OOG SMASH HEAD WITH OPEN SOURCE CD! There, fixed that for you.
PS: Man do I fucking hate the "fixed that for you" thing.
A Photo That Can Steal Your Online Credentials? 235
TedSamsonIW writes "InfoWorld reports on a new potential ploy for stealing Web user's private information: Researcher has found that by placing a new type of hybrid file on Web sites that let users upload their own images, they can circumvent security systems and take over Web surfers' accounts. 'They call this type of file a GIFAR, a contraction of GIF (graphics interchange format) and JAR (Java Archive), the two file-types that are mixed. At Black Hat, researchers will show attendees how to create the GIFAR while omitting a few key details to prevent it from being used immediately in any widespread attack.'"
Submission + - Spammers Hijacking IP Space? You be the judge 3
Ron Guilmette writes: "As Reported in this
Washington Post story a substantial hunk of IP address
space appears to have been taken over by notorious mass e-mailing company
Media Breakaway, LLC,
formerly known as OptInRealBig, via means that are at best questionable.
The block in question is the
134.17.0.0/16 IP address block, which I investigated in depth in
this
independent investigation.
(Apparently, the President of Media Breakaway has now admitted to the
Washington Post that his company has been occupying and using the
134.17.0.0/16 block and that front company
JKS Media which
provides routing to the block is actually owned by Media Breakaway.)
Remarkably, the President of Media Breakaway... who happens to be an attorney... is trying to defend his company's apparent snatching of this block based upon his own rather novel and legalistic argument that ARIN doesn't have ``jurisdiction'' over any IP address space that was handed out before ARIN was formed. Get the popcorn ready! This is bound to be entertaining."
Remarkably, the President of Media Breakaway... who happens to be an attorney... is trying to defend his company's apparent snatching of this block based upon his own rather novel and legalistic argument that ARIN doesn't have ``jurisdiction'' over any IP address space that was handed out before ARIN was formed. Get the popcorn ready! This is bound to be entertaining."
Submission + - Hans Reiser convicted of murder
Mental Maelstrom writes: Hans Reiser, the creator of the ReiserFS file system, was found quilty of murder of his 31-year-old wife, Nina Reiser, around Labor Day (1st March) of 2006. Although her body was never found, the Oakland jury convicted Hans Reiser of first-degree murder, concluding that the slaying was deliberate and premeditated. When sentenced at a later date Reiser faces 25 years to life in prison.
Researchers Infiltrate and 'Pollute' Storm Botnet 261
ancientribe writes "Dark Reading reports that a group of European researchers has found a way to disrupt the massive Storm botnet by infiltrating it and injecting "polluted" content into it to disrupt communication among the bots and their controlling hosts. Other researchers have historically shied way from this controversial method because they don't "want to mess with other peoples' PCs by injecting commands," said one botnet expert quoted in the article.
Acid3 Race In Full Swing, Opera Overtakes Safari 261
enemi writes "Just a few days after Safari released version 3.1, Opera employee David Storey writes on his blog that they've overtaken Apple's browser in the Acid3 test. In the race to be the first to reach the reference rendering, Opera's software leads now with 98%, closely following by Safari with 96% and Firefox 3 beta 4 with 71%. He also noted the implemented features will not make a public appearance in the following weeks, because they are getting close to releasing Opera 9.5. That version has been under public testing since September and the new CSS3 color modes and font rendering features might further delay this. They will probably show the score in a preview build soon and wait for a post 9.5 stable build to release the new features to the public." Update: 03/26 21:21 GMT by Z : Opera is now at 100%, apparently, with Safari close behind at 98%.
Update: 03/27 by J : Public build r31356 of WebKit (Safari's rendering engine) is at 100%.
Bill Allows Teachers to Contradict Evolution 1049
Helical writes "In an attempt to defy the newly approved state science standards, Florida Senator Rhonda Storms has proposed a bill that would allow teachers to contradict the teaching of evolution. Her bill states that 'Every public school teacher in the state's K-12 school system shall have the affirmative right and freedom to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution in connection with teaching any prescribed curriculum regarding chemical or biological origins.' The bill's main focus is on protecting teachers who want to adopt alternative teaching plans from sanction, and to allow teachers the freedom to teach whatever they wish, even if it is in opposition to current standards."
Geek Wins Copyright Lawsuit Against Corporation 616
Chris Gregerson writes "I work as a stock photographer/web developer. I saw a photo of mine used in Vilana Financial's full-page phone book ad. They wouldn't pay the licensing fee, and I wrote about it online (mirror). They sued me for defamation, producing a sales agreement signed by one ' Michael Zubitskiy' (who they said took the photo and sold the rights to them). I sued them for copyright infringement, and they added claims against me for trademark infringement, deceptive trade practices, and tortuous interference. There was a trial I'll long remember on the 5th of November, and the judge recently issued her verdict (PDF; mirror). She ruled Vilana Financial forged the sales agreement and willfully infringed my photos, and awarded me $19,462. All claims against me were denied. I represented myself during the litigation."
The Starbucks/AT&T Deal To Change Perception of Public Wi-Fi? 170
ericatcw writes "According to ComputerWorld, with two hours of free Wi-Fi soon to arrive at Starbucks consumers should expect more hotspots to go free as well as more attractive bundles from the likes of AT&T, Verizon and providers. While T-Mobile is hurting, indie coffeehouses and chains such as Caribou Coffee, Tully's and others that already offered free Wi-Fi, insist they are not, saying their ambiance and superior brew will help them retain customers."
Hardware Based OpenID Service Available 119
An anonymous reader writes "TrustBearer Labs has announced a new service that lets you use various hardware based security tokens like smartcards and biometric devices with OpenID. A hardware based connection to OpenID allows higher levels of security and makes it easier for the end-user to control their credentials. OpenID is a decentralized cross-site authentication system that has been gaining momentum for quite a while now with major supporters like AOL, Google and Microsoft already announced."
Deal Reportedly Reached In Writers' Strike 333
BlueshiftVFX writes to let us know that the writers' strike may be over. CNBC and other media are quoting former Disney CEO Michael Eisner: "It's over. They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general... A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon."
The Life of a Software Engineer 519
Jonathan Wise writes to share with us an interesting bit of prose describing life as a software engineer. "I am, in the States, known as a Software Engineer. In Canada we're not allowed to call ourselves engineers, although the discipline is no less rigorous than any other kind of engineering. But perhaps its for the best, because 'engineering' describes only a part of what I do. A software developer must be part writer and poet, part salesperson and public speaker, part artist and designer, and always equal parts logic and empathy."
