Comment Mmm... Pizza (Score 1) 688
I may be a little scared of the recessions, but pizza is always good
Comment Re:So much for time off (Score 2, Insightful) 69
That's exactly what went through my head
Now Even Photo CAPTCHAs Have Been Cracked 340
MoonUnit writes "Technology Review has an interesting article about the way CAPTCHAS are fueling AI research. Following recent news about various textual CAPTCHAs being cracked, the article notes that a researcher at Palo Alto Research Center has now found a way crack photo-based CAPTCHAs too. Most approaches are based on statistical learning, however, so Luis von Ahn (one of the inventors of the CAPTCHA) says it is usually possible to make a CAPTCHA more difficult to break by making a few simple changes."
Submission + - Who thinks Firehose software is working right? 6
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "I find the Firehose software to be infuriating. It seems to have no 'stickiness' but constantly reverts to other views and searches than what I was looking at. I'm about ready to give up on it unless they tell me they recognize it's dumb and are doing something to make it work right. Am I the only one who feels this way?"
Submission + - Personality Types Cluster Geographically
Hugh Pickens writes: "Drawing on a database of hundreds of thousands of individual personality surveys, psychologists have mapped the distribution of personality types across the United States and interestingly, America's psychogeography lines up reasonably well with its economic geography. Greater Chicago is a center for extroverts and also a leading center for sales professionals. The Midwest has a prevalence of conscientious types who work well in a structured, rule-driven environment. The South, and particularly the I-75 corridor, where so much Japanese and German car manufacturing is located, is dominated by agreeable and conscientious types who are both dutiful and work well in teams. Regions like Silicon Valley or the high-tech Route 128 corridor around Boston are home to concentrations of open-to-experience types who are drawn to creative endeavor, innovation, and entrepreneurial start-up companies. One potential explanation is that people migrate to places where their psychological needs are easily met or perhaps a process of selective migration drains the agreeable and conscientious regions of the most driven, most creative, and most mobile — only reinforcing their psychogeographic profiles, while magnifying the innovative edge in places where open-to-experience types concentrate."
Journal SPAM: New US Law Mandates DNA Collection from All Newborns 12
It sounds like the setup for the movie Gattaca, but the United States has enacted a Federal law mandating the creation of a national "DNA Warehouse", with the President's signature on April 24, 2008. Described as a "national contingency plan", justification for the new law, S. 1858, known as Th
Submission + - Sideskirts Cut Truck Trailer Fuel Use by 15 %
Hugh Pickens writes: "Researchers in the Netherlands have created an improved aerodynamic shape for truck trailers by mounting sideskirts that can lead to a cut in fuel consumption and emissions of up to 15%. Sideskirts are plates that are mounted on the sides of trailers to reduce the air currents alongside and under the trailer reducing the air resistance. The sideskirts can be fitted to approximately half the trucks currently in use in the Netherlands and it is expected that the cost of fitting aerodynamically-shaped sideskirts will be recouped within two years. Road tests are also underway on boat tails mounted on the rear of trailers to produce a reduction in the wake, the vacuum and air currents that arise when the trailer is moving. In theory, a boat tail could also mean a cut in air resistance of 30%, with a fuel reduction of 10 — 15%."
Submission + - Orrin Hatch - Software copyright violater (fudreport.com) 2
fudreporter writes: "Wired.com has an article referring to comments Senator Orrin Hatch(R-Utah) made about downloading copyrighted material from the Internet...
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed.
But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.
The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on Hatch's website.
"It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs Milonic. "It's very unfortunate for him because of those comments he made.""
Submission + - Your Wii is now a Commodore 64 too (videogamesblogger.com) 1
Wowzer writes: "Games from the Commodore 64 home computer will soon appear on the Wii Virtual Console in Europe, with other territories no doubt to follow in 2008. Games will each be priced at 500 Wii Points. The first games set to appear are: International Karate and Uridium. From the article, a quote by Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming: "The massive impact the Commodore 64 had on video-gaming is still evident today with many gamers remembering the computer and its games with great fondness. By working with Nintendo of Europe, we are ensuring that future generations of gamers can play some of the best and most popular titles that kick-started the computer games revolution and so keep the C64 legacy in gamers hearts.""
Submission + - SPAM: The web vs. U.S. Bank
destinyland writes: "Online information is creating problems for U.S. Bancorp. A new federal law lets customers opt-out of high-fee overdraft protection. In October a consumer site published
an internal U.S. Bancorp memo, which inspired a Washington customer to confront a local manager who insisted that opting out was impossible. He ultimately received an apology from the bank's CEO — but two days later recorded the bank's tellers again wrongly advising customers that opting out was impossible. Now he's posted the audio recording online, targetting the $50 billion a year banks earn from their "courtesy" overdraft protection."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - SPAM: Giant, flying casinos poised for take off
coondoggie writes: "George Carlin once said if you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it from you. That seems to be the case this week as the gambling industry is apparently mating with the jumbo aircraft world to create giant flying casinos.
First, this week Airbus said it was holding talks with a number of customers interested in converting its superjumbo A380 — the world's biggest passenger plane — into a flying casino. Then the Las Vegas Sands Corp., this week it said it had purchased two L-1011 jet airliners and would be retrofitting to serve as private jets that will chauffeur gamblers to the company's Las Vegas casinos from Asia.
[spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Personal encryption tested in U.S. District Court 1
Senior Frac writes: A U.S. District Court is reviewing a case where a man has refused to give his encryption password over to authorities. This individual, from Vermont, is accused of having child porn on his laptop and is refusing to hand over his encryption password. His defense is one of self-incrimination. This ruling is one that is important beyond the child porn aspect into other, less onerous, cases, so I would encourage everyone to look past the scumbag defendant and at our own data.
Journal SPAM: 5-Year-Old Boy Detained as US National Security Threat 1
It's a case of a mistaken identity for a 5-year-old boy from Normandy Park. He had trouble boarding a plane because someone with the same name is wanted by the federal government. "When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dilling
Submission + - SPAM: Online cartoonist breaks publishing record?
destinyland writes: "The first collection of "Perry Bible Fellowship" comics racked up pre-sales of $300,000 due to its huge online following, and within seven weeks required a third printing. Ironically, the 25-year-old cartoonist speculates people would rather read his arty comics in a book than on a computer screen, and warns that "There's something wonderful, and soon-to-be mythic, about the printed page..." He also explains the strange anti-censorship crusade in high school that earned him an FBI record!"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Spammer gets Internet Justice! (nsxprime.com) 1
Zoltar writes: In an attempt to promote his online gambling website NSX_NICK made a post to an NSX enthusiasts web forum claiming he was able to purchase his NSX with the winnings he made from online gambling, including a link to the gambling site. Users of the forum immediately accused him of trying to promote his gambling site, which he repeatedly denied. Forum members promptly went into sleuth mode and discovered not only was the guy a spammer, but he was also a convicted sex offender who may be violating his parole by running an illegal gambling website. An epic example of Internet Justice!
