diogenesx - Slashdot User

Submission + - Sysadmins advised to block Office docs

Submitted by

Kurtz'sKompund

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @07:30AM

Kurtz'sKompund writes: "Microsoft is recommending IT administrators block users opening Office documents as a way to prevent attacks, tacitly acknowledging that Office cannot be completely secured. http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?n ewsid=8906"

Submission + - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator

Submitted by

pile0nades

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @06:58AM

pile0nades writes: "Orbiter is a Free As In Beer space flight sim. Ever wanted a game where you can fly to LEO, the Moon, Mars or whereever else you want? This is it, and it's done with realistic physics too. You can rendezvous and dock with ISS, reenter and land at Cape Canaveral. You can plot a course for Mars or any other planet using the TransX display. And there's no load screen between planets either. What's cool about this though, is if you go to Mars, you don't have to sit there for 6 months. There's a time acceleration feature that speeds up time by up to 100,000 x realtime (1 day goes by in less than a second), reducing the trip time to just a few minutes. It includes the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the futuristic DeltaGlider space plane, and the powerful cargo ship Shuttle-A (no relation to the Space Shuttle) as flyable ships, plus the tiny ShuttlePB (small personal ship) and the Dragonfly (for moving cargo and space station parts). Orbiter also has a huge number of addon ships and mods. Popular addons include the DeltaGliderIV, an advanced version of the stock DeltaGlider; OrbiterSound, which provides background and engine sounds; the Firefly from the movie Serenity; OuterPlanets, which adds many small moons of the outer planets not included in the base install. And yes, there's a Pluto addon too. For managing addon installs, I use the simple JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler."

Submission + - Microsoft and Novell, the real deal

Submitted by

polterguy

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @06:49AM

polterguy writes: "Microsoft's first objective about the deal was probably to divide the Open Source Community into smaller easier managenable fractions just like the British did in Africa and India a couple of decades ago. It's imperative that we don't fall for this strategy and remains as a united force instead of starting debates about semantics and details. Don't let Microsoft play Divide and Conquer with us and victimize us down to to history lessons! Be the message not the messenger! Read the rest at Microsoft and Novell, the real deal!"

Submission + - Intel strips the lead from its chips

Submitted by

Kurtz'sKompund

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @06:32AM

Kurtz'sKompund writes: "Intel will stop using lead in its new microprocessors, eliminating one of the most toxic components used in semiconductors. http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/hardware /processors/news/index.cfm?RSS"

Submission + - Virtual police investigations haunt Second Life

Submitted by

destinyland

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @05:18AM

destinyland writes: "Police in three countries are considering sexual assault investigations into the virtual worlds of Second Life. But today its undaunted developers released "Sculpted Prims," which allow even more realistic shapes and textures in-world using both Quicktime and Flash. This article about complaints shows the press keeps finding bad news to report ("Virtual bombs launched on ABC, Reebok") even while virtual communities continue to grow. (The Maldive Islands and Sweden are even opening official embassies in the virtual world.) The real bad news is the gameworld will be offline for six hours Wednesday while they try to repair bugs."

Submission + - The Political Battle Between Intel and OLPC

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @03:48AM

An anonymous reader writes: CoolTechZone.com's Gundeep Hora publishes his frustration about the political hoopla and bickering between Intel and OLPC and questions their intentions. "I can understand Intel's back-and-forth stance for OLPC. It's a company stuffed with ironies and typical corporate behavior. Can you blame them? What about Negroponte, though? He appears to be a little too obsessed with the project and his fame with the way he's lashing out at Intel. It's evident from the comments he has made how clueless he is about business and the way companies work, especially in a cutthroat industry. Surprisingly enough, Intel is eerily calm about his public outcries.

Submission + - How Low Cost PCs Are Harming Linux

Submitted by toms on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @03:36AM

toms writes: An article on MadPenguin.org discusses why low cost PCs are harming Linux and its reputation with beginners. From the article, "As much as I hate to say it, in some cases, yes. Low end PCs built with decent distribution did give some users ill feelings about Linux as a whole because they attributed their hardware woes to the unknown. Perhaps the saddest part of all of this is that many vendors are still doing this. To be kind, I'm not going to name names. I will allow pricing to prove my point instead. Again, I have no issues with PC sellers who wish to distribute Linux to those interested in using it, I'm just concerned about the sensitive branding that Linux (all distributions collectively) receives when someone runs out to purchase a really cheap machine.

Submission + - Discover Magazine Archive Made Available

Submitted by

laggist

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @03:07AM

laggist writes: "Today while I was surfing around online, I realised that Discover Magazine had made it's entire archive freely accessible since mid-March 2007. I thought it was strange that I didn't get the scoop since I read slashdot all the time, so here it is for all you Slashdotters — read away!"

Submission + - Scientists discover radiation-eating fungi

Submitted by

amigoro

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @03:06AM

amigoro writes: "Scientists have discovered that fungi are able to eat radiation, and since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts might be able to rely on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long missions or for colonizing other planets. Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum — ionizing radiation — to benefit the fungi containing it, the researchers explain."

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