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Media (Apple)

Submission + - IPOD used to ID Body (desmoinesregister.com)

Submitted by Webologist
Webologist writes: 30 year old Online TV Reviewer Adam Ray Finley (tvsquad.com) was killed after being hit by a bus last week. Only carrying a set of keys and his Ipod, his identity was discovered after investigators took the serial number from the Ipod and asked Apple to reveal it's owners name. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article ?AID=/20070908/NEWS/70908012/1001/NEWS
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Slashdot Ads - Hosting

Submitted by phil-trick
phil-trick writes: Does slashdot have an advertiser list?

I know the adverts that are displayed are from google or doubleclick, but the other day, a hosting advert caught my attention, and for the life of me, I can't get the advert to show again, no matter how much I refresh ;)

It had an offer for cheap dedicated servers, and I think the company had the letters OPC in the name. Google draws some hits, but not the one I'm looking for.

Anyone out there who happened to click on the ad?

I think the offer was dedicated server for $29 a month.

Phil
Networking

Submission + - network upgrade horror story

Submitted by stinkymountain
stinkymountain writes: ``It sounded like a no-brainer back in 2003. The idea was to replace our aging, 155Mbps ATM-over-SONET network with a new network based on 10G Ethernet over dense wavelength division multiplexing. Nobody could have imagined the glitches, snafus and legal holdups that we ran into over the past four years. We finally issued the contract for the project in May, and, needless to say, we learned a bunch of valuable lessons along the way. Here's the whole saga, from the beginning,'' writes network exec Jeff Fritz in this first-person story in Network World. http://www.networkworld.com/research/2007/072307-n etwork-upgrade.html?netht=072307dailynews2
Microsoft

Submission + - How To Crash Vista In 10 Seconds

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Despite its improved security, when Microsoft designed Vista it apparently forgot fix an old Achilles' heel that's plagued Windows for many years. According to InformationWeek blogger Alex Wolfe, Vista can be crashed in 10 seconds or so by simply holding down the "Windows" key and the letter "E." This'll open up hundreds of Windows Explorer, and eventually the system will stop responding. Do you think this is just one of those stupid oversights by normally smart people, or does it say something damning about Microsoft's approach to security?
Music

Submission + - AllofMP3.com talks to p2pnet

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "p2pnet talks to AllofMP3.com about problems it's having with the US administration, and plans for the future. In spite of criticism of AllofMP3.com, and the way it runs its business, no one from either the United States Trade Representative Office, which is behind much of the US-mounted pressure on Russian downloads site, nor music industry 'trade' organizations, has tried to talk with AllofMP3.com to find a way to reach an accord, it says."
Security

Submission + - PAM Authetication via USB storage devices

Submitted by
Tomhet
Tomhet writes: "User authentication is commonly done by verifying user/password tuples. Serious administrators shouldn't use the same password for every authentication-based service, but the increasing number of per-person-accounts finally often leads to laziness (especially when accepting the "holy rules" of passwordmanagement, where passwords should be long and cryptic).

Smartcards offer a well secured alternative to passwords, but in spite of costs, a smartcard-reader is needed everytime you'd like to get authenticated on your system.

pam_usbauth is a module for Unix PAM which allows passwordsless local authentication via ordinary USB storage devices (aka USB-dongles). USBAuth supports password hashing, internal one-time-password management and USB device ID binding to provide as much security as possible, a storage device without integrated programmable logic can offer.

The module isn't based on device mounting or USB libraries, which makes it possible to authenticate before actually logging in to mount the device(s), and can even be used with MMC-, CF- and SD memory cards (if your kernel supports them).

In addition, it uses a triggering system, which makes it possible to automatically lock sessions or unmount certain (possibly encrypted) partitions on plugin- or plugout-events.

The source as well as packages for Debian can be obtained from this site (building via SVN is strongly recommended)."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - 21st Century TurboBiplane

Submitted by Ektar
Ektar writes: From — http://www.turbinetoucan.com/aircraft/

The performance mission of this aircraft is to create an aerobatic biplane capable of sustaining +8/-6 G's, a greater then 300 per/sec roll rate while creating a better-than-one-to-one power-to-weight ratio. Target air show weight will be under 2000lbs with thrust targeted at 3300lbs. This will be close to a 1.65:1 ratio, unheard of in any GA aircraft. To put it in perspective, the F/A-18 Hornet (at fighter mission weight) is 36,700lbs@32,000lbs of thrust. This is about .87:1 thrust to weight ratio performance at a cost of $39.5 million dollars.

Feed Shape your traffic with trickle (newsforge.com)

From feed by nffeed
Trickle is a lightweight userspace bandwidth shaper for users with low-speed Internet connections that lets you limit the bandwidth that a specific protocol is using so that you can maintain multiple simultaneous connections and not end up in a traffic jam.
Input Devices

Submission + - Kensington Vo200 VoIP Mobile Phone Reviewed

Submitted by joggeroftoday
joggeroftoday writes: CoolTechZone.com has published a review of Kensington's Vo200 VoIP Internet phone that stores in your notebook and turns into a mobile handset when you are taking calls. The review states, "The Vo200 is PCMIA slot compatible (and incompatible with ExpressCard slots), which essentially means that all you need to do is slide it in your notebook's PCMIA slot for storage and recharging. How cool is that? Another interesting thing that we really enjoyed working with was its handset mode (for private conversations) and speakerphone mode (for more transparent calls) with the swing of the base. It was fun to sit back, turn on the speakerphone mode and talk away.
Media

Submission + - Why Web Apps Can Never Replace Desktop Apps

Submitted by
tooger
tooger writes: "Matt Hartley from MadPenguin.org writes why web apps can never replace desktop applications for a variety of reasons. These reasons include from privacy to reliability. He writes, "With services like GMail that are too anxious to give us free access to e-mail storage, the offering for file storage is still fairly laughable. And that's not even considering the sheer bandwidth that is needed to make huge file transfers. Then there is the matter of privacy. Some of you may point out that the data stored on your hard drive is not of any real consequence, but I would disagree. It is more than probable that a skilled, disgruntled employee of the company you trust with your data could run away with key data you entrust to sell off your personal information."
Space

Submission + - Space X's Falcon 1 finally launches

Submitted by Tawg
Tawg writes: Space X's Falcon 1(named after the millennium falcon) finally took off at 01:10GMT, but it was not without it's problems.

Full story here
Mission report here

SpaceX's second launch came a year after the Falcon 1 rocket suffered a major failure during its maiden flight. Investigators traced the cause of that accident to a corroded aluminum nut in the first stage propulsion system, which triggered a fuel leak that led to a premature shutdown of the Merlin engine about 30 seconds after liftoff.

This second attempt was due to launch off at 00:05GMT but computers ordered a dramatic last-second abort when the rocket's chamber pressure was slightly below normal (0.5% below the redline limit). Thankfully the mission was recycled and at 01:10GMT the rocket made it into space. Immediately after the stage 2 separation it became apparent for space X and the thousands watching via webcam that something had gone wrong when the rocket showed increasing oscillations about five minutes after liftoff. The rocket then began to roll back and the telemetry was lost.



Even so, Elon Musk, founder and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp, has this to say.

I think it's really a big step forward for SpaceX. It gives me great confidence in our upcoming launches. Another thing to bear in mind, Falcon 1 is intended as a scale model, a test vehicle of our larger rockets. As we iron things out on Falcon 1, we're really going to put that knowledge to work on Falcon 9.

I think I'll characterize this as a very good day for SpaceX. We successfully reached space and really retired almost all the risk associated with the rocket. So I feel very good about where things are."

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president of business development had this to say, moments after the telemetry was lost.

"I just wanted everybody to know that we in the Washington, D.C., office are celebrating with champagne. We don't have any information yet from the launch control center, but the Falcon clearly got to space with a successful liftoff, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing separation.

However, what happened during the second stage burn is not clear.

Regardless, we're thrilled here."

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