Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Question: Pragmatic Legal Protection--but how? (Score 3, Interesting) 114

My question for Jennifer:
I've observed in work and professional life (my job is 50% nerd whisperer, 50% energy policy and political matters) that while laws that protect "the little guy" are practically worthless unless one is willing to shell out several hundred dollars for a lawyer--and perhaps even $10K+ for a litigator.

It's also scary and disheartening to hear an experienced and successful friend say that he selected a US Government-owned patent for technology his startup is implementing--if only because he hopes the Feds will come to his defense if he's sued for patent infringement.

Could you please suggest some political and/or legislative outcomes that we need to pursue to try to make access to law more egalitarian from technology and innovation standpoints?

Linux

Linus Torvalds Considering End To Linux 2.6 Series 293

An anonymous reader writes "With the Linux 2.6 kernel set to begin its 40th development cycle and the Linux kernel nearing its 20th anniversary, Linus Torvalds has expressed interest today in moving away from the Linux 2.6.x kernel version. Instead he's looking to change things up by releasing the next kernel as Linux version 2.8 or 3.0."
PlayStation (Games)

Ask Slashdot: How Should Sony Compensate PSN Users? 386

ogar572 writes "So Sony is going to give 20 million+ PlayStation Network users (numbers vary based on what article you read) two free games and free credit protection (US only) for what happened a few weeks ago. I for one do miss playing Black Ops online, but I have made it through this outage by doing other, more productive things. What I am most frustrated about is the lack of consistent details and information via email about what is going on. Now Sony says that they are going to compensate us with two free downloadable games (more than likely I have never heard of these games before). I would have been satisfied with the free credit protection. Now that they want to offer me 2 games, why can't I pick any 2 games that I want? I mean, my personal info is now probably being sold on the black market because of Sony. What do you think Sony should do, if anything, to compensate for what has happened?"
Microsoft

WP7 Predicted To Beat iPhone By 2015 377

WrongSizeGlass writes "InformationWeek is reporting that Windows Phone 7 will overtake Apple's iPhone by 2015 according to IDC. IDC predicts 2015 will bring: Android 45.4%, WP7 & WinMobile 20.9%, iOS 15.3%, RIM 13.7%, Symbian 0.2%, and 'Others' 4.6%. These numbers would move WP7 into 2nd place and leave iOS in 3rd place with a slightly smaller piece of the smart phone pie than they current hold (15.7%). The author of the InformationWeek story isn't buying IDC's forecast, because of WP7's anemic sales to date and Microsoft's recent stumbles with its first two updates. I have to wonder if WP7 will still be Microsoft's smartphone OS in 2015 or if they'll have moved to WP8."

Comment Re:No surprise.. this is india after all (Score 1) 227

The sheer smugness, ignorance, arrogance and incredible lack of knowledge is mind boggling.

...speaks the person who is not arrogant ;-)

Seriously, why get wrapped around the axle on this? The US has 300 million people; India, one billion. It should be apparent that we've got a diversity of people in both places. RELAX, smoke a bhang, take a walk, build a another rocket, etc.

Comment Re:From what I understand (Score 3, Informative) 227

The systems I work on feed data to our SCADA systems. The entire network is completely walled off from the Internet, and even connectivity to our internal (non-operations) network is mediated by extremely secure bastion hosts.

I can understand that there may be a need for some access (e.g., system pages an operator to send a warning or emergency message), especially as this is a small town. Keep these sorts of connections absolutely to a minimum, and wrap several layers of security around it.

Comment Re:Not very exciting (Score 1) 827

Correction: they're not doing it now. Wait a few years. Just like Microsoft with its Xbox - ultimately, it will have Windows for business, and XBox for consumers. Apple will work on a similar distribution.

I think to conjecture this is FUD. Maybe Apple will, but until then, I reject your FUD and replace it with my own reality.

There are many reasons why Apple would NOT want to do this, especially considering that there are a substantial number of Apple users that would _not_ want this to be the only method of getting new apps.

Slashdot Top Deals

The flush toilet is the basis of Western civilization. -- Alan Coult

Working...