sgcarter - Slashdot User

Submission + - AI learns to tell "that's what she said" jokes (newscientist.com)

Submitted by reillymj on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @01:21PM

reillymj writes: The Office's Michael Scott is replaceable after all — with a computer. A new piece of software studies the relationships between words to figure out when a sentence or phrase could be the beginning of a "that's what she said" joke. Got the word "wet", "rod", or "hard" in a sentence? Watch out: immature AI humor is bound to follow.

Submission + - US legislature demands answers after PSN attack (computerandvideogames.com)

Submitted by

rev_media

on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @01:20PM

rev_media writes: "The US Congress, the United States' legislature for the federal government, has issued a letter to Sony requesting answers for a number of unanswered questions concerning last week's "outside intrusion" of the PlayStation Network.

The two-page letter is signed by Mary Bono Mack, Republican of California, who requests a reply by May 6 (Friday). Replies are requested for 13 questions."

Submission + - Airtime Goes Automatic for the People (sourcefabric.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @01:16PM

An anonymous reader writes: Airtime, the free, open source radio software, increased its feature set significantly in April and May with three releases in thirty days. The Airtime server software runs on Ubuntu Linux, Debian, and Redhat and multiple users can use the software to schedule radio shows remotely through any web browser.

It is developed by Sourcefabric, a Czech non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting quality journalism through open source software and tools. The latest release was Airtime 1.8.1 on May 3rd.

Submission + - I think Bill was surprised by my book (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by doperative on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @01:16PM

doperative writes: Allen's profile at the forefront of the technology revolution has faded to become something of a spectre – present but only faintly visible. He has become the "other guy", the other founder of the most successful technology company in history, who shares Gates's fabulous riches but little of his recognition or standing on the world stage. And yet in Allen's telling of what happened in those first formative years, it was he, not Gates, who had all the truly visionary ideas. The title of the book alone speaks volumes: Idea Man

Submission + - Google's South Korean Offices Raided (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by

lee1

on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @01:11PM

lee1 writes: "The Seoul police raided Google’s office in Seoul, S. Korea today on suspicion that they have illegally collected users’ location data, without consent, for advertising purposes. Google claims to be cooperating with the investigation."

Submission + - New Angle on the War on Terror (yahoo.com)

Submitted by TaoPhoenix on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @12:37PM

TaoPhoenix writes: The celebrations are slowing down. But Yahoo cautiously introduces an entirely new direction for the official discourse — "Frenemies". The rumblings for years "there's no way Bin Laden lasted this long without serious help" are true. The article asks the key question: "Why can't the United States just declare Pakistan a hostile enemy?" Then it treads lightly on the answer: "...(they have) the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world and a bitter ongoing fixation on the ambitions of neighboring rival India."

However, Bin Laden was the figurehead of the US decade long theme of "The Post 9-11 World". Are the reasons given enough to justify the costs, open and hidden, of that colossally expensive "War on Terror" campaign?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenvoy/20110502/ts_yblog_theenvoy/frenemies-u-s-ally-pakistan-in-hot-seat-after-bin-laden-found-in-pakistani-army-town

Submission + - Google Allows Carriers to Ban Tethering Apps (thisismynext.com) 2

Submitted by iluvcapra on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @12:21PM

iluvcapra writes: Google, in its continuing struggle to provide phone carriers (if not its end users) with an open platform, is now banning tethering apps from the Android market. These apps haven't disappeared and can still be sideloaded, insofar as your carrier doesn't lock this functionality or snoop on your packets.

Submission + - Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series pre-order (windowstabletnews.com)

Submitted by tabletnr on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @12:00PM

tabletnr writes: Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series is one of the upcoming devices working with the latest Intel platform – Oak Trail, which is based on Intel Atom Z670. And even though Samsung has not officially revealed the release date of this model, after the last press release made by Intel, it is expected that the sale will go in May (although originally planned in March).

Submission + - PlayStation controller pilots tiny quadrocopter (gamepron.com)

Submitted by dotarray on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @10:46AM

dotarray writes: While the PlayStation Network remains down, and your thoughts keep drifting to the safety of your personal details, it’s understandable that you might be looking for something to distract you.

How about using that Bluetooth PlayStation controller to navigate a teeny tiny little quadrocopter? It’s not like you can use it for much else, these days

Submission + - Apple iMac gets Thunderbolt I/O, quad-core (gizmag.com)

Submitted by fergus07 on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @10:42AM

fergus07 writes: Apple's desktop lineup has typically pushed users requiring plenty of fast I/O towards the Mac Pro — but the latest iMac refresh has broken the tradition. Quad-core Sandy Bridge CPUs and faster ATI Radeon HD GPUs are welcomed, but it's the addition of Thunderbolt ports (one in the 21.5-inch and two in the 27-inch) that really ups the ante for a number of professional users.

Submission + - Ubuntu Unity: the great divider (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Tuesday May 03, 2011 @10:40AM

Barence writes: "Canonical's decision to impose the new Unity interface on Ubuntu 11.04 users appears to have split the Linux distro's users, according to PC Pro. Features such as a moving Launcher bar and invisible scrollbars have angered many users, with one claiming that "Ubuntu is doing a great job throwing away years of UI experience". The rush to meet the six-monthly release schedule also appears to have harmed the release, with many users reporting graphical glitches with the new user interface."

Submission + - Microsoft tool helps devs port iOS apps to WP7 (cnet.com)

Submitted by

fysdt

on Friday April 29, 2011 @03:01PM

fysdt writes: "A newly-announced service called the iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool, acts as an interchange for developers to take applications they've already written for Apple's platform, and figure out ways to get the code work with Microsoft's standards."

Submission + - Sony Says Your PSN Game Data Is Safe (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by RedEaredSlider on Friday April 29, 2011 @03:00PM

RedEaredSlider writes: For those who wanted to know about the really important data security issue, yes, your experience and rankings on Call of Duty will be saved, so you won't have to start all over again.

Submission + - Mozilla patches Firefox 4, fixes coding bungle (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

CWmike

on Friday April 29, 2011 @02:33PM

CWmike writes: "Mozilla patched Firefox 4 for the first time on Thursday, fixing eight flaws, including a major programming oversight that left the browser as vulnerable to attack on Windows 7 as on the 10-year-old Windows XP.The company also plugged 15 holes in the still-supported Firefox 3.6, and issued its last security update for Firefox 3, which debuted in mid-2008. The most important of the bugs: a programming lapse that left Firefox 4 open to less-sophisticated attacks. 'The WebGLES libraries in the Windows version of Firefox were compiled without ASLR protection,' stated the advisory labeled MSFA 2011-17. 'An attacker who found an exploitable memory corruption flaw could then use these libraries to bypass ASLR on Windows Vista and Windows 7, making the flaw as exploitable on those platforms as it would be on Windows XP or other platforms.'"

Submission + - Endeavour launch scrubbed for 48 hours

Submitted by shuz on Friday April 29, 2011 @12:22PM

shuz writes: At 10:15 am Eastern time the launch of Endeavour has been scrubbed for a minimum of 48 hours. The scrub is due to 2 failed Axillary Power Unit heaters.

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