Comment Ancient Language (Score 1) 412
If you rotate the screen 90 degrees and squint your eyes, you will see that it spells: Cthulhu Fhtagn
Submission + - WHO: Cell Phones Are "Possibly Carcinogenic" (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Whether or not cell phones cause brain cancer is a question that's been debated (but not answered) for years, and today the World Health Organization (WHO) stepped into the fray. A WHO committee that evaluates various potential cancer-causing agents concluded that radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, including cell phones, are "possibly carcinogenic" to people.
Submission + - US Alarmed Over Japan's Nuclear Crisis
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Washington Post reports that the US is urging Americans who live within 50 miles of Japan’s earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to evacuate as Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that no water remains in a deep pool used to cool spent fuel at the plant and that radiation levels there are thought to be “extremely high.” Jaczko’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee suggests that damage to the plant is worse than the Japanese government and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has acknowledged. On Tuesday, the company said water levels in the three of the site’s seven fuel pools were dropping, but did not say that the fuel rods themselves had been exposed. Left exposed to the air, the fuel rods will start to decay and release radioactivity into the air and lack of water in at least one spent-fuel pool sparked fears of a worst-case scenario: the fuel could combust. “If there’s no water in there, the spent fuel can start a fire,” says Eric Moore, a consultant to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on nuclear plant design and safety issues. “Once you have that fire, there’s a high risk of radiation getting out, spewed by the fire.” The power company says a reduced crew of 50 to 70 employees — far fewer than the 1,400 or more at the plant during normal operations — had been working in shifts to keep seawater flowing to the three reactors now in trouble. Their withdrawal on Wednesday temporarily left the plant with nobody to continue cooling operations."
Submission + - Google to add offline storage to Apps (techworld.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "Google is working to restore offline storage capabilities for its Apps productivity software and should have it done by the end of the year. Google had engineered the ability for Docs to store content on a user's desktop by using Gears, but in May 2010 Google removed this capability."
Submission + - ‘Do Not Track’ Becoming A Reality (ibtimes.com)
gabbo529 writes: "The 'Do Not Track' bandwagon has its strongest supporters to date: influential Washington, D.C. lawmakers. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation met recently to address "The State of Online Consumer Privacy." The committee's chair, senator John Kerry (D-Mass) said he is drafting a law along with Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) that will protect consumers from data mining practices. The Obama admistration, through assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence E. Strickling, has also thrown its support behind 'Do Not Track" as well."
Submission + - Evolution Of Virus
adeelarshad82 writes: This month marks the 40th birthday for the computer virus. While understandably most of us won't be wishing the virus many happy returns, it's certainly interesting to see how the virus has evolved over the past few decades and become a much greater threat simply due to more connectivity. For instance the Creeper Virus, the very first one, ran in the restricted ARPANET and did little damage, the Stuxnet virus in 2010 infected nearly a hundred thousand computers across the globe.
Comment Iram of the Pillars (Score 1) 126
Cthulhu fhtagn!
Comment Kerckhoffs's Principle (Score 1) 239
Kerckhoffs's Principle states:
A cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge.
I thought this was just common sense.
Submission + - Counterspies hunt Russian mole inside NSA (washingtontimes.com)
Barkmullz writes: The National Security Agency (NSA) is conducting a counterintelligence probe at its Fort Meade, Md., headquarters in a top-secret hunt for a Russian agent, according to a former intelligence official close to the agency. The former official said the probe grew out of the case of 10 Russian "illegals," or deep-cover spies, who were uncovered last summer and sent back to Moscow after the defection of Col. Alexander Poteyev, a former SVR foreign intelligence officer who reportedly fled to the U.S. shortly before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited here in June.
Comment Scratch (Score 3, Informative) 742
While Scratch is geared towards 6 - 16 year olds, it may be worth a look.
Comment Advanced Technology (Score 1) 642
Carlos Cotta and Álvaro Morales from the University of Malaga in Spain...suggest that using spacecraft that travel at a tenth of the speed of light, the colonization wavefront could take some 50 million years to sweep the galaxy.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Submission + - What is Your Favorite Universe?
Barkmullz writes: What is Your Favorite Universe?
- Foundation
- Star Trek
- The Land
- Half-Life
- Middle Earth
- Halo
- Star Wars
- This one
Submission + - Jericho Cancellation Reconsidered
Barkmullz writes: Fans trumpeting the cause of CBS' canceled drama "Jericho" have caught the network's ear (covered previously by Slashdot).CBS, deluged with calls, messages and shipments of nuts signifying viewer displeasure, is reconsidering its decision. A decision on whether to bring the show back, probably for a midseason run, is imminent.
Submission + - Facebook wants to collect users' email passwords
ScottSCY writes: It seems that Facebook has added a new feature that allows users to find friends in their email address books who have accounts on Facebook. The only thing you have to do is provide them your email address (they take gmail, yahoo, msn, aol, and more) and your email account password. They will then retrieve your address book. Clearly this is a huge security issue, but don't worry, Facebook says "Facebook won't email anyone without your permission, and we won't store your email or password." Well that's a relief.
Submission + - Would you fight your own software patent?
ingo23 writes: Everybody knows that the Slashdot crowd just loves the software patents. If not the patents, what would you rant about?
Now imagine this — at work you are developing a piece of some cool software. And one day your employer decides to file a patent for it naming you as an inventor. Would you gladly accept the honor or would you get on a soap box and stir up a little revolt against software patents?
