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Comment Cape Town: 254ms (Score 2) 558

by Kelerei (#43533839) Attached to: Average latency to Slashdot.org?
Ping averages:

Ping statistics for 216.34.181.45:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 253ms, Maximum = 259ms, Average = 254ms

Traceroute (route goes from Cape Town to London and thence across the "pond"):


1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 172.27.0.1
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 196-210-170-129.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.170.129]
3 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms cdsl1-ctn-vl2173.ip.isnet.net [196.38.72.113]
4 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms 196.35.115.128
5 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms core2b-ctn-gi0-1.ip.isnet.net [168.209.2.3]
6 163 ms 163 ms 162 ms 168.209.246.66
7 161 ms 162 ms 207 ms 195.50.124.33
8 161 ms 161 ms 161 ms vl-3602-ve-226.csw2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.166.149]
9 192 ms 221 ms 203 ms ae-22-52.car2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.99]
10 161 ms 162 ms 161 ms bcr1-ge-6-1-0.londonlnx.savvis.net [206.24.169.29]
11 167 ms 162 ms 162 ms cr1-te-0-0-5-0.uk1.savvis.net [204.70.206.61]
12 254 ms 254 ms 253 ms cr1-te-0-6-0-0.chd.savvis.net [204.70.198.118]
13 254 ms 254 ms 253 ms hr1-te-12-0-1.elkgrovech3.savvis.net [204.70.198.73]
14 254 ms 254 ms 254 ms das5-v3030.ch3.savvis.net [64.37.207.150]
15 257 ms 254 ms 266 ms 64.27.160.194
16 254 ms 254 ms 254 ms slashdot.org [216.34.181.45]

Submission + - How NASA brought the Saturn-V F1 rocket engine back to life (arstechnica.com) 3

Submitted by Martin S.
Martin S. writes: How NASA Engineers have reverse engineered the F1 engine of a Saturn V launcher, because: every scrap of documentation produced during Project Apollo, including the design documents for the Saturn V and the F-1 engines, remains on file. If re-creating the F-1 engine were simply a matter of cribbing from some 1960s blueprints, NASA would have already done so. A typical design document for something like the F-1, though, was produced under intense deadline pressure and lacked even the barest forms of computerized design aids. Such a document simply cannot tell the entire story of the hardware. Each F-1 engine was uniquely built by hand, and each has its own undocumented quirks. In addition, the design process used in the 1960s was necessarily iterative: engineers would design a component, fabricate it, test it, and see how it performed. Then they would modify the design, build the new version, and test it again. This would continue until the design was "good enough."

Submission + - Should universities offer Cobol classes? (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Only about one in four schools offer Cobol classes, and then mostly as an elective, according to a recent survey by Micro Focus. For most students, this means the odds are high that they will attend a school that does not offer Cobol. There are strong opinions about this trend. "I think there are a lot of people who want to put a stake in its heart and kill it and I don't know why," said David Dischiave, an associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies. Syracuse has two required Cobol courses. But other schools says the demand for Cobol doesn't justify offering a class.

Submission + - Google rumoured to be negotiating for Whatsapp purchase (digitaltrends.com)

Submitted by Kelerei
Kelerei writes: The rumour mill has it that Google is in negotiations to acquire the Whatsapp mobile messaging application. Many have suspected that a messaging app would be "the next billion dollar acquisition deal" following Facebook's acquisition of Instagram last year. Acquiring Whatsapp could be regarded as a no-brainer, as messaging has been described as "a huge, gaping hole in Google's mobile strategy". Whatsapp is reportedly asking for a $1 billion acquisition price.

Submission + - Failure To Negotiate Salary Costs IT Pros $4,300 (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: A survey by the job search website Dice.com finds that most IT pros accept the first salary offered without negotiating — and it costs them. According to the survey, new hires stand to receive an initial increase of 5% when they negotiate. If you consider that the average national salary for tech professionals is $85,619, not negotiating costs $4,300 in year one.

Submission + - Shades of Terminator as PETMAN Tests Hazmat Suit (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Back in late 2009 Boston Dynamics revealed it was working on a humanoid robot that would test protective clothing for the military. Having already amazed the world three years earlier with the lifelike balancing capabilities of its quadruped BigDog, this would be the company's first bipedal robot. It was an ambitious project, but it appears the work has paid off. The robot's eerily realistic body movements are made all the more convincing now that its mechanical nature is hidden by a chemical protection suit.

Submission + - The Rise of Everyday Hackers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Research suggests there will be a rise in everyday hackers. A simple Google search for “SQL injection hack” provides 1.74 million results, including videos with explicit instructions on how to exploit SQL injection vulnerabilities. The ready availability of this information makes it possible for less technically skilled hackers to take advantage of this common flaw. Although SQL injection flaws are easy to identify and fix, Veracode found that 32 percent of web applications are still affected by SQL injection vulnerabilities. As a result, as many as 30 percent of breaches in 2013 will be from SQL injection attacks. The research also concluded that the leading cause of security breaches and data loss for organizations is insecure software. The report found that 70 percent of software failed to comply with enterprise security policies on their first submission for security testing.

Submission + - There's a new bear in the clouds: OpenStack releases Grizzly (csc.com)

Submitted by carusoj
carusoj writes: If you like open source in your cloud, you have to be happy that the OpenStack Foundation has just released the latest version of its popular open-source Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud, Grizzly. OpenStack, the so-called Linux of cloud computing, was founded by NASA and Rackspace software developers. Today, it's supported by numerous companies and organizations. With Grizzly, Rackspace no longer dominates code changes. Red Hat, IBM, Nebula, and HP are also now major contributors.

Submission + - Why Does Facebook Still Run Scam And Spam Ads? (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: The Facebook promise to invesors is that users' social graph will make it possible to target them with ads with unprecedented precision. Innovations like Facebook Home for Android will bring those ads to previously untouchable territory like users' phones' lock screens. But the real ads that appear on the site, like those for "0akley" knockoff sunglasses, tell a different story: either Facebook's ad serving system is so naive that it can't spot obvious fakes, or Facebook needs revenue so badly that it'll take the scammers' money.

Comment Re:It works both ways... (Score 1) 572

by Kelerei (#43368393) Attached to: Microsoft Creative Director 'Doesn't Get' Always-On DRM Concerns

I will bet there are many people within M$ who disagree with the "Always On" requirement, and this is ammunition for their counter-argument. If it wasn't for this twitter-gaff, you might see Always-On, but because it happened, we will probably see this requirement removed.

In an ideal world, this would happen. Sadly, the world we live in is far from ideal, and, if past history with Microsoft is anything to go by, their stance will be a "my way or the highway" one. I have no doubt that there are indeed people within Microsoft who disagree with "always on", but I have serious doubts as to whether their counter-argument will be listened to, or even heard.

If one is looking for an example, the Metro interface (or whatever its official name is) in Windows 8 is a perfectly good one. User feedback regarding Metro was generally negative; Microsoft had a "suck it up" attitude and rammed it down our throats anyway, and one need only see how Windows 8 is shunned in these parts to see how that turned out. (Personal opinion: Microsoft really missed the boat with the Metro interface. They had a really nice idea, but the execution of said idea leaves a lot to be desired.)

The thing is: users are becoming more aware and more vocal regarding what they perceive as abuse of their freedoms, and alternatives to Microsoft and their products are far more viable to those who relied on the Microsoft ecosystem than they were in times gone by -- so Microsoft users, when faced with that "my way or the highway" stance, are now far more likely to take the latter where they would have previously taken the former. If anything, Microsoft seems to be making the same mistakes as the previous "Evil Empire" (IBM): unable and/or unwilling to react to shifts in the market until it becomes too late. They won't disappear entirely, but if they continue down the path they seem to be taking, they could well be a niche option in the not too distant future.

Comment It works both ways... (Score 5, Insightful) 572

by Kelerei (#43367713) Attached to: Microsoft Creative Director 'Doesn't Get' Always-On DRM Concerns
To turn the article title around: "Gaming Console Users 'Doesn't Get' Always-On DRM Requirements". And based on the SimCity launch (there's been other examples, but this one is, in my opinion, the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back), this has been the reality for a long time.

Adam Orth has quite possibly done a fair bit of irreversible damage for the next-gen XBox's prospects.

Comment Re:Poor judgement in TFA (Score 1) 204

Even poorer judgment, in fact, as his probability calculation relies on an actual rate of infection of 1 in 500. For such a highly contagious disease the rate of infection will grow (well, duh!) So if 1 in 500 gives about 83% false positives, when the infection rate reaches 1 in 50 the false positive chance drops to 33% and for 1 in 5 to 4%.

That said, one could argue that then the infection rate reaches those levels, it would be too late for the cure.

In fact, it may be able to prove (or disprove) this with the equations of motion that we learned back in elementary physics (here's a refresher if you've forgotten them). Substitute velocity with rate of infection, acceleration with how the rate of infection grows, and displacement with number of people infected (obviously, time stays as is), and you'd have a pretty decent starting point. Now, we just need to get Randall Munroe on this.

(Disclaimer: the "too late for cure" statement above obviously excludes Will Smith.)

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