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Journal Journal: Dear Soulskill & Slashdot Kin - Farewell 5

Journal by Penurious Penguin

This is my farewell to Slashdot. I once stated after seeing my submissions disappear faster than spam -- often while RED and bearing no negative tags -- that I'd leave Slashdot out of self-respect if it happened again. Although I made an exception or two afterwards, the time has now come. I do not waste my time to have even the effort of a summary squandered so aggressively whilst spam outlives my contributions. The title of this journal is due to the tendency for this to occur under the watc
Amiga

Submission + - World of Commodore 2012 December 1st In Toronto (tpug.ca) 2

Submitted by
Leif_Bloomquist
Leif_Bloomquist writes: "The Toronto PET Users Group (TPUG) is pleased to announce the World of Commodore 2012. As a followup to last years's successful event, everyone is invited to join us for a weekend of all things Commodore. There will be information about and displays of a variety of Commodore computers, demonstrations of new hardware and software projects using Commodore equipment, screenings of Commodore related videos, vendors selling the latest hardware and software available for Commodore computers as well as classic hardware, accessories, applications, games and much more."

Submission + - How infidelity helps nieces and nephews (esciencenews.com)

Submitted by dsinc
dsinc writes: A University of Utah study produced new mathematical support for a theory that explains why men in some cultures often feed and care for their sisters' children: where extramarital sex is common and accepted, a man's genes are more likely to be passed on by their sister's kids than by their wife's kids. The theory previously was believed valid only if a man was likely to be the biological father of less than one in four of his wife's children — a number that anthropologists found improbably low.

But in the new study, University of Utah anthropology Professor Alan Rogers shows mathematically that if certain assumptions in the theory are made less stringent and more realistic, that ratio changes from one in four to one in two, so the theory works more easily.

In other words, a man's genes are more likely to be passed by his sisters' children if fewer than half of his wife's kids are biologically his — rather than the old requirement that he had to sire fewer than a quarter of his wife's kids, according to the study published online Nov. 28 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What Web Platform For A Small Municipality?

Submitted by r3dR0v3r
r3dR0v3r writes: I have the opportunity to help improve / replace the website of my small U.S. town (~6000 people). The town leaders are open to most any suggestions, and are open to the idea of having the website facilitate a more open government — by being a place at which town documents, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, legal forms, ordinances, etc. can be found in an organized way and downloaded. And of course the site should provide general info about the town, it's services, recreation opportunities, etc.. Now, we have no budget, so we'll be looking at free/open software. I've considered options such as Drupal, but I'm doing this as volunteer work so I don't want to start from scratch and spend overly much time. Thus, I'm looking for advice about any existing platforms made specifically for municipalities as a great way to get a jump start. I'm guessing there are other slashdotters that have helped their communities in this way. Your suggestions please?
Security

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Router Security Vulerability?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I am a freelance security/pentest consultant. I've discovered the modem/routers my local ISP leases out to customers are affected by a security vulnerability that would allow an attacker to (relatively easily) gain root access. The vulnerability is publicly known, and the manufacturer is aware of the issue and has since released a firmware update resolving it. However, unless you are a service provider, there is no way for an end-user to get the update individually.

After numerous failed attempts at contacting anyone at the corporate office of my ISP (customer service tech support was hopeless), I got in touch with someone from the manufacturer who notified me about the firmware update. Filing a CERT report does not seem like an option as the issue has already been addressed by the OEM, but what can I do to get my ISP to take action? How about the thousands of other customers potentially affected?
China

Submission + - Onion's Kim Jong Un "Sexiest man alive for 2012" Fools Chinese Media (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Penurious Penguin
Penurious Penguin writes: In September, Iran's FARS news agency was duped by The Onion's Gallup poll — the one where "the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. president Barack Obama."

Arguably besting the last breach of foreign media discretion, The Onion has now fooled China's The People's Daily in a hilarious nomination of Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest man alive for 2012". The article included amongst dozens of others, a featured image of Kim Jong Un proudly perched upon a speckled horse. Looking at the image, one is compelled to wonder what sort of envious subterranean tillage may be taking place on behalf of Kim Jong il. He really does look stunning!
Android

Submission + - Linux Revolution 2013 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Linux Revolution 2013

Will this be the year of GNU/Linux? If you ask a ZDNet journalist you would probably get a yes, just like every year since 2009. If you take a look at Linux news, it seems that 2013 is shaping up for Linux to finally get more then it’s 1% market share. Ubuntu’s latest release is easier then ever to install and has added some great features.

There are a number of portable devices scheduled for be released in 2013.
  PengPod is wrapping up what looks to be a successful crowdfunding effort on indiegogo. They have a line of dual booting portable devices running GNU/Linux and Android/Linux. Vivaldi is another GNU/Linux tablet that has closed its pre-orders quoted from their site: “After an overwhelming response and thousands of pre-orders, the first shipments of Vivaldis have been spoken for.” Then you have Rasberry PI making a mini computer. Ubuntu is developing Ubuntu for Android.

So is 2013 the Year of Linux? Only time will, but it seems to have a good chance this time.
The Internet

Submission + - U.S Congressman Wants to Ban Internet Bills (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by
SchrodingerZ
SchrodingerZ writes: "Representative Darrell Issa, a republican congressman from California, has drafted a bill for the internet. The bill, aptly named the Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA), is, "a two-year moratorium on any new laws, rules or regulations governing the Internet." In short it hopes to deny any new government bills related to lawmaking on the internet for the next two years. The bill was first made public on the website Reddit, and is currently on the front page of Keepthewebopen.com, a website advocating internet rights. "Together we can make Washington take a break from messing w/ the Internet," Issa writes on his Reddit post. The initial response to the bill has been mixed. Users of Reddit are skeptical of the paper's motives and credibility. As of now, the bill is just a discussion draft, whether it will gain footing in the future is up in the air."

Submission + - Nokia Asks Court To Block Sale of Some RIM Products (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "The ITworld article reads: 'Nokia has asked a California court to enforce an arbitration award that would prevent Research In Motion from selling products with wireless LAN capabilities until the companies can agree on patent royalty rates. Nokia and RIM both declined to comment on Nokia's request, a copy of which was obtained by IDG News Service, but such a filing is typically made after two parties settle a dispute through arbitration but one party does not follow through on the agreement.'"

Submission + - Bluetooth used to track Traffic Times (ctvnews.ca)

Submitted by ChanukahZombie
ChanukahZombie writes: The City of Calgary, AB has introduced a new traffic congestion/timing information platform for drivers. "The system collects the publicly available data from Bluetooths to estimate the travel time and congestion between points along those roads and displays the information on overhead message boards to motorists." Currently only available on the Deerfoot Trail (the city's main highway artery) but will be "expanded in the future to include sections of Crowchild Trail and Glenmore Trail in the southwest." As for privacy concerns the city says it cannot connect the MAC address collected to the device owner.
Networking

Submission + - IPv6 deployment picking up speed (caida.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Internet's addressing authority (IANA) ran out of IPv4 Internet addresses in early 2011. The IPv6 protocol (now 15 years old) was designed exactly for this scenario, as it provides many more addresses than our foreseeable addressing needs. However, IPv6 deployment has so far been dismal, accounting for 1% of total traffic (the high-end of estimates). A recent paper by researchers at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data analysis (CAIDA) indicates that IPv6 deployment may be picking up at last. The paper, published at the Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) shows that the IPv6 network shows signs of maturing, with its properties starting to resemble the deployed IPv4 network. Deployment appears to be non-uniform, however; while the "core" of the network appears to be ready, networks at the "edges" are lacking. There are geographical differences too — Europe and the Asia Pacific region are ahead of North America.
Earth

Submission + - The Straight Poop on Microsoft's New Data Center (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: "Microsoft is planning a zero-carbon data center in Wyoming that will use biogas from an adjacent wastewater treatment plant as its power supply.

Once the R&D project is complete, Microsoft will donate the Data Plant to the City of Cheyenne and the University of Wyoming for future research.

The ultimate goal of the Data Plant program is to free data centers from having to rely on expensive and potentially unstable power grids."

Submission + - European Parliament Votes to Stop Shark Finning

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The European Parliament voted Thursday to close loopholes in European Union (EU) policy over shark finning. In 2003, the EU banned removal of shark fins but exempted those fishermen having special permits to cut off fins from sharks legally. The issuing of Special Fishing Permits (SFPs) to fishing vessels prevented the 2003 EU ban to be implemented fully and effectively.
Android

Submission + - Microsoft collects $10 royalty per device from Android vendors (bgr.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Back in 2011 it had already rumored that Microsoft was aiming to collect $10 per device from vendors who sell Android-based handsets — see http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/139819/apple-could-collect-10-for-every-android-device-sold-expert-says

Now the rumor turns out to be true.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20121122PD203.html

Approximately 70% of branded hardware vendors with Android products, including HTC, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Acer, Wistron, Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, and ViewSonic, are making royalty payments to Microsoft, with each vendor paying up to US$5-10 per device sold, the sources revealed.
Microsoft

Submission + - Hello, I'm a Mac. And I'm a $248 Win8 PC.

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: A little birdie told me which Windows 8 machines would sell out fast. 'Cheep' ones! While no official sales figures have emerged, anecdotal evidence suggests that cheap Windows 8 laptops were a big hit with Black Friday shoppers, leaving some Walmart and Best Buy bargain hunters disappointed at missing out on the sub-$250 deals. So, was the Doctor-Desktop-and-Mister-Metro dual nature of Windows 8 and lack of a touchscreen no big deal to these bargain basement 'Laptop Hunters', or did they not realize what they were buying? Or, as a GeekWire commenter suggests, perhaps they were really just looking to score an ultra-cheap Linux laptop!

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