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Submission + - Carl Sagan on team to nuke the moon, Dr. Evil reported jealous (cnn.com)

Submitted by novakom
novakom writes: Apparently during the cold war, one fall back position the US was looking at to ensure mutual ensured destruction was to put nukes on the moon. This would ensure that the US could retaliate against even an effective first strike by the Russians. The first step, of course, would be to detonate a nuke on the moon. And yes, Carl Sagan was on the team (and apparently leaked the info!)
Businesses

Submission + - Inside An Amazon Warehouse (ibtimes.com) 1

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "In each one of Amazon.com's 80 fulfillment centers around the globe, Amazon relies on barcodes and human hands rather than robots or automation to find and ship the proper items in a quick and efficient manner. Without robots, Amazon utilizes a system known as "chaotic storage," where products are essentially shelved at random but are tagged with barcodes to be scanned at every step of the ordering, selection and shipping process. The real advantage to chaotic storage is that it's significantly more flexible than conventional storage systems. If there are big changes in a product range, the company doesn't need to plan for more space, because the products or their sales volumes don't need to be known or planned in advance if they're simply being stored at random. Free space is also better utilized in a chaotic storage system, and it's also a major time saver to not organize products as they come in. This system is the true key to Amazon.com's success in online retail."
Apple

Submission + - iTunes 11 isn't vaporware after all (apple.com)

Submitted by
slackerfilm
slackerfilm writes: "It looks like Apple has finally made iTunes 11 available. I was afraid this was going to be Apple's Duke Nukem Forever. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but I have high hopes for this refactor. This version has been touted to not be the bloated whale that previous versions were. In my opinion, large collection support is the biggest problem with iTunes and this version is supposed to be much more efficient and sleek."

Comment Personal Experience (Score 0) 58

by slackerfilm (#41620387) Attached to: Google Wades Further Into Hardware With "Nexus Call Center"
This is actually welcome news. I had a problem with actually ordering. I accidentally put my billing address in as the shipping address. I realized my mistake the moment I clicked confirm. Not a big deal but a real fricken hassle as I live in an apartment. As I preordered the first day available, I thought this wouldn't be an issue. I could contact customer service and fix the shipping address and all would be fine. I sent several messages through their customer service page and tried calling for 3 weeks to make this change happen but it shipped to my apartment anyway. I still had not heard from Google and was using the tracking information as my guide. I paid one of my neighbors to work from home that day to receive the tablet only to find that it got yanked while on delivery. Apparently, Google contacted the shipping company without telling me and forced a change of address while it was out on delivery. This meant it had to go back to the hub and get re-routed, forcing a delay of another 48 hours.

I had something similar happen to me with Amazon (these autofill boxes are not my friend) but the results were drastically different. I sent a message to customer service and had a response within a couple hours. They verified the address I wanted it shipped to and did not delay the package at all. Then, they called me (yes, I was asked if this was ok) the day it was supposed to be delivered to make sure it was delivered and in the condition it was intended to be.

I love google and their products, software and hardware. I really wish they had customer service to back up their products though. Because of my experience, I won't try their hardware again until I see proof of a change in the way they deal with customers. This article is a sign of them moving in the right direction. As long as they have solid SLAs with this call center, I have no problem with google farming out customer service to the people that do it right every day.
Security

Submission + - How to find out if your iPhone or iPad UDID has been compromised (networkworld.com)

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: Yesterday, a hacker claiming an affiliation with AntiSec released 1 million Apple unique device identification numbers (UDIDs) from iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices. The Pastebin post with the data claims it was stolen from the FBI.

Some simple instructions emerged quickly after the hack that show users how to find out if their device was among those compromised in the attack.

First, this Innerfence post — http://www.innerfence.com/howto/find-iphone-unique-device-identifier-udid — gives pretty straightforward instructions on finding and copying an individual devices UDID. By simply plugging an iOS device into a computer equipped with iTunes, then entering the Summary tab for the device in iTunes, the user will see the serial number for his or her iOS device. Clicking on the serial number will reveal the 40-character identification number.

The Innerfence post advises copying the number with the clipboard function, which can be done by highlighting the UDID number, clicking Edit in the menu bar in iTunes and selecting Copy.

In response to the attack, Florida-based Unix developer Sean Maguire has created this tool — http://kimosabe.net/test.html — where any user can enter a UDID number to see if it was included in the pool of data leaked by AntiSec.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Tropical Storm KIRK (noaa.gov)

Submitted by JThaddeus
JThaddeus writes: Someone at the National Weather Service has a sense of humor. In reporting on the eleventh named storm of the Atlantic season, yesterday's NWS bulletin reads, "KIRK IS NOT EXPECTED TO LIVE LONG AND PROSPER."

Comment The Prometheus Project trilogy (Score 2) 726

by slackerfilm (#40388997) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Science-Fiction/Fantasy For Kids?

This series was written by Douglas E. Richards specifically because he was looking to interest his children in science. Though, the books are about an alien race visiting Earth, the science is real (at least the explanations are) and the action is fast paced. He writes in the voice of children very well.

All that said, I got hooked on this author for his Wired series and I recommend that as well.

I also think the Ender's series has been spectacular, but probably not for pre-teen.

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