Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Amiga

Submission + - Hacker does a DIY Amiga in FPGA (hetnet.nl)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Developer Dennis van Weeren recently announced completion of his from-scratch completely re-engineered Amiga chipset. His PCB design is fully operational and compatible and his verilog code has been released under GPL. Will this finally give the Amiga community a new breath of life?
Businesses

Submission + - Dell begins their largest layoff ever. 3

Submitted by cyphercell
cyphercell writes: Dell has begun their largest series of layoffs ever. This morning at about 10:00am more than two hundred employees at Dell's Roseburg Oregon Call center found out that they no longer had jobs. Sparking what appears to be the beginning of year long run of layoffs for the company. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20070802/NEWS/7 0802014

Refuting local suspicions of malice Dell spokesman David Frink states:

... the closure has nothing to do with a lawsuit filed by employees of the Roseburg center in February, claiming Dell violated federal and state wage and hour laws.
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20070213/NEWS/7 0213020

and later says

...plans to reduce employment worldwide by 10 percent at the end of May.


Their plans to reduce employment can be found here:
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business /stories/technology/06/01/1dell.html

Here are some highlights:

Dell set to shed 8,800 workers...

Dell has 82,200 permanent workers, including 18,000 in Central Texas, and 5,300 temporary workers worldwide. The layoffs are expected to affect both groups...

In its last large-scale layoffs, Dell cut more than 5,000 jobs in Austin after the high-tech bust in 2001.

...many of the layoffs could come in Central Texas, where Dell is headquartered. In a March 29 report to clients, Goldman Sachs analysts said Dell might reduce the work force at its test and assembly facilities in the U.S. and Malaysia.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - "alleged" ponzi Ginko (Second Life) out of

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Post quoted below by Desmond Shang, from a thread on the official Second Life Forums (http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=200 121), regarding Ginko Financial (https://ginkofinancial.com/) in full ponzi-esque implosion mode:

http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=161168 5&postcount=120

"So... let's see if I can get my head around this.

1. Mysterious ultra-profitable 'bank' business needs to borrow your money at 40% interest.

2. Significant, unknown amounts cashed out to real money, and now considered 'illiquid.'

3. Other significant amount 'invested' in virtual stocks, now pretty much worthless because they can't sell them.

4. Scheme to acquire more $L from new investors via "IPO" to pay off old investors (that's the very definition of a Ponzi scheme)

5. Unexamined claim of residence in a distant country

6. Theft from virtual stock exchange by same guy who allegedly won large cash prizes recently

7. Said stock exchange adds new layer of internal currency, distinct from $L ... ... ...

Ah, folks? The Resident Answer might be:

- Your money has been cashed out and spent.

- It's long, long, loooooong gone.

- The pocketful of empty promises which is 'virtual stock' is all that remains.

- Perpetrator is actually within easy reach of US Feds.

- Any new investor will be suckered into paying off the old ones.

- Scammer isn't bolting too fast because then the heat would be on in RL.

- 'Virtual stocks' were used because there never was any 40% return investment.

- If you made money unlawfully, you risk US Feds recovering it without warning.

- If you aide and abet a scam by perpetuating it you assume criminal liability.

Now, that's just one scenario... ...but before anyone else is encouraged to put money in, I'd say it would be pretty good to show that scenario is nonsense? If, in fact, it is."
Google

Submission + - Google to Mobile GMaps: No tiles for you (hacktheday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apparently Google doesn't like the idea that their maps service has become so popular. As an example, they asked MGMaps to stop using Google Maps. But since you can enter the url of any map server in MGMaps, here's the hack to get support for Google maps back in: add a custom map type and enter http://mt.google.com/mt for maps or http://kh.google.com/kh?v=20 for satellite imagery.
Google

Submission + - Google's $4.6bn wireless plan grounded

Submitted by Almir
Almir writes: Google's plans to bid for a portion of America's airwaves were dealt a blow last night when the Federal Communications Commission refused to approve two of the internet company's conditions. Google had said that it would match the $4.6 billion (£2.3 billion) reserve price set for a 700MHz licence, which could be used to provide wireless broadband internet access across the US from 2009, if the eventual winner was forced to meet four "open access" conditions. However, two more controversial provisions put forward by Google, which would require the eventual licensee to sell access to its network on a wholesale basis to rivals and allow other parties physical access to infrastructure at realistic points, were not included.
The Internet

Submission + - Authority from nothingness at Wikipedia

Submitted by
CurtMonash
CurtMonash writes: ""Everybody knows" that Wikipedia shouldn't be regarded as an authoritative source on anything. Well, Tom Relly of Register makes a compelling case, by way of anecdote, that mainstream journalists don't know actually this. And that makes for an interesting circularity:
  • Wikipedia is full of claims that are sourceable in principle, but aren't actually sourced.
  • Mainstream journalists use information from Wikipedia, even if it is not further sourced.
  • Those very articles can be viewed as authoritative for Wikipedia's own sourcing purposes.
  • Thus, unsourced information could, by virtue of having been placed in Wikipedia, grow to be regarded as authoritative by Wikipedia itself.


This phenomenon needs a name, and I am helpfully offering one: Circlesourcing. So how long will it now take for Wikipedia to have an entry of that name?"
Mars

Enormous Amount of Frozen Water Found on Mars 442

Posted by CowboyNeal from the or-at-least-way-more-than-before dept.
schweini writes "Space.com is reporting that the Mars Express probe's MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) experiment has detected and measured an enormous amount of water ice near Mars' south pole, which would be sufficient to submerge the whole planet's surface underneath approximately 10m of water on average."
Announcements

Submission + - Cingular to Refund $18.5M in California

Submitted by YogaFlame
YogaFlame writes: Cingular Wireless will refund $18.5 million to thousands of former California customers who were penalized for canceling their mobile phone service because they had trouble making and receiving calls. The settlement announced Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission ends a lengthy battle revolving around Cingular's treatment of dissatisfied subscribers from January 2000 through April 2002.

Slashdot Top Deals

Work is the crab grass in the lawn of life. -- Schulz

Close