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Submission + - Lord Brittish announces Shroud of the Avatar as a Kickstarter project (shroudoftheavatar.com)

Submitted by Thanatiel
Thanatiel writes: Award-winning game designer Richard Garriott and creator of the highly successful Ultima® series of games announced today that he plans to reinvent the fantasy RPG genre during a simultaneous live stream on Rooster Teeth and the Shroud of the Avatar website.
The game will only be funded if at least $1,000,000 is pledged by Sunday Apr 7, 10:57am EDT.

Comment Re:Freemium (Score 1) 57

by Yesfan001 (#42330069) Attached to: Pentaho and Jaspersoft: Good Alternatives To Bigger-Name Software?
Hi.

I think you meant Talend, right?

I have used the ETL functions of both Pentaho and Talend, as well as Informatica (and MS SSIS a smidgen). Right now, I am using Talend Open Studio for several production integration worfklows. It works well. The only issue I have with it is that you need to know some Java syntax, at least, to create calculations and expressions. Since I am not very fluent in Java, that makes Talend a little tougher for me to use.

The BIRT suite has always sounded impressive. If I become better skilled at Java in the future, I will certainly check it out.

I have never used Jaspersoft, so I cannot comment on it.

Pete
Security

How To Steal ATM PINs With a Thermal Camera 157

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-see-what-you-did-there dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from UCSD have demonstrated how thermal imagery cameras can be used to steal customers' PINs (PDF) when you withdraw cash from ATMs. Their paper, entitled 'Heat of the Moment: Characterizing the Efficacy of Thermal Camera-Based Attacks', (PDF) discovered that plastic PIN pads were the best for retaining heat signatures showing which numbers (and in which order) were used by bank customers. Fortunately the methodology does not appear to have been used by criminals yet, but a third of people surveyed admit that they do not check ATMs for tampering before withdrawing cash."

Comment XGameStation also provides retro-gaming hardware (Score 4, Interesting) 83

by Yesfan001 (#35417696) Attached to: Gameduino Project Aims To Game-ify the Arduino

Another option for retro-gaming hardware is Andre LaMothe's XGameStation line of DIY kits.

Looks like they now have a "Chameleon" line of kits, in both 8- and 16-bit flavors, which are similar to Arduino or BASIC Stamp systems.

I have not personally used these, but they appear to be pretty cool.

Enjoy.

- -
Pete

Comment Is this different than the VH1 Classic site? (Score 2, Interesting) 192

by Yesfan001 (#25553889) Attached to: MTV Launches Music Video Site
At http://www.vh1classic.com/browse/video/17278/featured-playlists/index.jhtml, you can play lots of videos.

These have been available on the VH1 Classic site for quite some time now, I believe.

Since MTV and VH1/VH1 Classic share the same corporate parent, maybe they've just now added the VH1 Classic video content to MTV's site.

Pete
United States

Submission + - MA Treasurer Arrested for 3 Peaches at Airport 2

Submitted by boot1780
boot1780 writes: The treasurer for the state of Massachusetts announced that he and his family arrested by US Customs officials and "treated like criminals" on their way back from Italy due to three peaches in his daughter's carry-on bag. "It felt like we were being interrogated and found guilty without any process, no explanation, no rundown of our rights," he said. He was told he had to pay a $300 fine or spend a night and jail, but wasn't told that paying the fine waived any right he had to an appeal. Well, they nabbed the girl with the three peaches. Any word on Osama yet?
Privacy

Submission + - Unencrypted passwords at "secure" sites 1

Submitted by linear a
linear a writes: I've noticed that quite a few web sites do *not* encrypt user passwords. I've gotten into the habit of hitting the "email me my password" from them to see what happens. So far I've found maybe 6 that must store passwords in clear since they were able to return the original password back to me. Clearly this is Bad Security Practice. Also, I've had notably bad progress when I ask them to fix this practice. Some of these are sites one would clearly expect to have better security (e.g., a software vendor and an online bank). Do you have thoughts on how to better encourage better password practice at these places? Also, is this is really as common as it seems to be for me?
KDE

Submission + - KDE 4.0 Beta 1 Released 1

Submitted by
mernil
mernil writes: "The KDE Community is happy to announce the immediate availability of the first Beta release for KDE 4.0. This release marks the beginning of the integration process which will bring the powerful new technologies included in the now frozen KDE 4 libraries to the applications."
Space

Submission + - New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions

Submitted by i_like_spam
i_like_spam writes: The theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact, the K-T extinction, is well known and supported by fossil and geological evidence. Asteroid impact theory does not apply to the other fluctuations in biodiversity, however, which follow an approximate 62 million-year cycle. As reported in Science news, a new theory seems to explain periodic mass extinctions. The new theory found that oscillations in the Sun relative to the plane of the Milky Way correlate with changes in biodiversity on Earth. The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalatic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions. Here is the original paper describing the finding.
Privacy

Submission + - Do Not Call Registry gets wake-up call (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If you signed up for the federal or your state's Do Not Call Registry a few years ago, you might want to thing about refreshing it. Pennsylvanians this week got a wake up call, so to speak from the state's Attorney General Tom Corbett who kicked off a public awareness campaign designed to remind people what many have forgotten or never knew — that the 2002 law set registrations to expire after five years. That is of course unless you want to start hearing from those telemarketers as you sit down to dinner. Corbett said about 2 million people signed up in the immediate aftermath of the law taking effect and those who do not act by Sept. 15 will have their numbers dropped from the registry on Nov. 1. The Pennsylvania action is a reminder that the National Do Not Call Registry has a five year life span as well. The Federal Trade Commission is set to being a nation campaign in Spring 2008 to remind all US citizens to refresh their federal Do Not Call Registry standing. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18066"
Microsoft

Submission + - Massachusetts adopts Open XML (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
willdavid
willdavid writes: "By John Fontana, NetworkWorld.com: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has added Open XML to its list of approved open documents formats. Critics of Open XML adoption, such as Andy Updegrove, a lawyer, Linux Foundation board member and Massachusetts resident, said Microsoft should not be "rewarded for launching a competing, self-serving standard as a next-best defense against erosion of its dominant position." Massachusetts officials acknowledged the criticism, but said the importance of open formats could not be denied. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080107-massa chusetts-open-xml.html?page=1"

Comment Re:First hit on a google search (Score 3, Interesting) 193

by kefoo (#18274724) Attached to: Crazy Non-Compete Contracts?
I have heard of some non-competes being tossed out because the basicly left the person without employment opertunities in their profesional market.

Here in Ohio we have a law called The Blue Pencil Rule. If a person can show that a non-compete clause is preventing them from finding employment a judge can rewrite the clause as he sees fit. There's probably something similar in many states.

Most of the non-competes I've been asked to sign have a term of about one year. They usually specify that they only apply to working for a competitor, although on one occasion I had to get the contract amended to specify what the comapny's area of business was because the clause was so sloppily (or possibly intentionally) written that taking almost any other job could run afoul of it.

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