1297217
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
I'm a systems administrator at a mid-sized college. Our users keep falling for the "Please send us your password" Webmail scam emails that are going around. At first it was only the non-English speaking grad students who would fall for it. Later, as the messages got more sophisticated, the professors began falling for it. And now even the undergraduates are sending out their passwords to the spammers. Currently we use an email intercept list that catches all messages to a small number of the scammer's reply-to addresses. We have a large message on our webmail page asking users to please not give out their passwords. Our spam filters catch many, but not all, of the incoming scam messages. And still I have to spend my weekends revoking accounts. What else can I do?
597252
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
MobileRead points out this Writer's Weekly story, calling what Amazon is doing to their print-on-demand publishers "blackmail". Amazon is trying to use their online market share to drive independent print-on-demand presses out of business, in favor of Amazon's own press: Booksurge. Use Booksurge, Amazon is telling publishers, or see your books taken off their site. Legal competition? Possibly. Good for the book business, book lovers, or Amazon's brand? Not so much (cf. this well-loved monopoly). A lot of small publishers are hoping that the "bad press" will get Amazon to drop their noxious new business practice.
197829
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
The The New York Times describes the life of a Chinese World of Warcraft "Gold Farmer": At the end of each shift, Li reports the night's haul to his supervisor, and at the end of the week, he, like his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20.
197667
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
The Times Online reports that Google's power is 'less than thought.' Google boosts of taking on Microsoft with its free web applications and comes second to none in customer loyalty. But is its vaunted online advertising presence a myth? According to the article, doubts are beginning to take hold as eBay begins its Google boycott: "Before I pulled the data, I was expecting a bigger drop given the drastic removal of sponsored listing ads by eBay," [Bill Tancer] said. He added that that the impact of eBay's advertising withdrawal was reduced by the fact that 25 per cent of users visiting the internet auctioneer from Google do so after searching for eBay, rather than by clicking on one of the "sponsored links" that appear next to other search results.
141727
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
A Ph.D. physicist friend of mine (whose research has been covered on Slashdot before), wants to know if technology didn't take a wrong turn a few decades ago. In 1950s science fiction the computers of the 21st century were as big as a building — but faster than light drives were easy. Were the imagined worlds of 1950s science fiction better than what we actually got? My friend asks, would you rather live in a world with laptop and desktop computers, or one with interstellar travel?
136121
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Federal authorities have just charged Rebecca Wulf for allowing her 3-year-old daughter to starve to death, surrounded by "cat feces, moldy food and unwashed dishes" while Rebecca played World of Warcraft. I thought Slashdoters might want an early heads up on what is likely to become a big news story. Having worked with abused children in the past, I can say that the stories I hear of WoW addiction cases are on the level of hard drug addiction stories — in my opinion at least, this can no longer be dismissed as a 'you can be addicted to anything' issue anymore.
95002
submission
Henry V .009 writes:
New Jersey scientists are claiming that children with autism are unable to metabolize key fatty acids which fight brain-damaging inflammations. They have already developed urine/blood tests to identify at risk children. A preventive cure to autism may be as simple as a 'therapeutic cocktail' of fatty acids.
