Anti_zeitgeist - Slashdot User

Submission + - Tackling The Astroturfing Problem

Submitted by Dalton Georgia on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:58PM

Dalton Georgia writes: After a reporter at Forbes.com wrote a negative review of Iolo System Mechanic 7, someone pretending to be a random user posted numerous comments on the blog post. They said they had just tried the software, loved it, and accused the reporter of being paid off by Iolo's competitors. But a little digging revealed that the comments actually came from an IP address at Iolo headquarters. This practice of faking grassroots support has its own term, astroturfing, and is increasingly common in the tech business. Can we ever trust user reviews again?

OS X Vs. Vista — In Spandex 302

Posted by Zonk on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:35PM from the sounds-like-a-normal-weekend-to-me dept.

An anonymous reader writes "CNET UK compares Vista Vs. Apple OS X in a Romeo and Juliet, spandex-wearing, Shakespearean English style. Two guys dress up as their favorite operating system and fight with swords, guns, and fists, while a third guy, dressed as a woman, awaits the winner. 'Usability - Act 3, Scene 2: Swords clash, sparks fly and men grunt, but the showdown ends in stalemate ... [Vista] has a far better user interface than XP -- the file and application search facility is vastly improved and the cascading Start menu has been banished, but it only takes a few moments of use to discover pointless idiosyncrasies. Microsoft constantly reminds us of how great Flip 3D is, but this feature doesn't help us find the right application window much faster than Alt-Tab did. It's very time consuming when you have many application windows to flip through, and it's in no way as efficient as OS X's Exposé feature ... We're calling this one a draw. They're just as good as each other, and in some cases just as bad -- a pox upon both your houses! Score: Mac OS X - 2, Windows Vista - 2'"

Submission + - Why composite projects are important for Linux?

Submitted by

ggarron

on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:22PM

ggarron writes: "Composite projects like Compiz and Beryl are doing its part in gaining users for Linux, which is really important in order to have more and more applications for us, using Linux, read the full story"

Submission + - Forensics tool for Mac OS

Submitted by

alxtoth

on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:07PM

alxtoth writes: "Somebody inserts an USB dongle into your Mac, and "..the device is able to extract OS user passwords, logins for different Apple applications, website history and passwords to different visited sites and more" . They say it's not for sale for anybody. That's their problem who they sell to, but the scary part is: how to get such data out of OS X in the first place? http://www.slipperybrick.com/2007/04/maclockpick/"

Submission + - Other's Anger Reinforced by Angry Faces

Submitted by wanax on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:07PM

wanax writes: University of Michigan researchers have found that people with high testosterone have learning reinforced by angry faces (abstract can be found here). Since facilitated reinforcement is implicated in dopamine expression, motivation and pleasure this research may give us insight about the roots of bullying behavior.

Journal Journal: Investigating Gates Charity.

Journal by Erris on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:00PM

Corpwatch looks into the effectiveness of Gates charity works and illustrates the dangers of amoral investment.

Google Deletes Rogue Ads, Dangers Persist 63

Posted by Zonk on Saturday April 28, 2007 @02:40PM from the out-out-rogue-ads dept.

An anonymous reader writes passed us a link to a PC World article about attempts by Google to curb malicious ads via their popular service. The article is somewhat bleak, though, because researchers see the fix as nothing more than temporary. "'Search engines are just too easy a target for bad guys,' says Roger Thompson of Exploit Security Labs. On April 25, Exploit Prevention Labs reported that malware distributors were using advertisements placed via Google's automated AdWords system to infect unsuspecting end-users with spyware designed to capture bank login user names and passwords."

Slashdot Top Deals