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

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Government

State of Alaska Prints Out Palin's E-Mails; Online Distribution 'Impractical' 516

Posted by timothy from the my-power-is-inconvenience dept.
ZipK writes "Three years after numerous citizens and news organizations requested the release of Sarah Palin's gubernatorial e-mails, the State of Alaska is finally making ready to make them available. In print. In Juneau. News organizations must fly or sail to Juneau and pick up the 24,000 page disclosure in person. The state claims it impractical to release the original electronic versions of the e-mails, so the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Mother Jones, ProPublica and MSNBC each plan to turn some or all of the printouts back into searchable, easily distributed electronic data. Thanks, Alaska." Where's WikiLeaks North?
Crime

New Hampshire Man Sentenced To 7 Years For Robo-Calling Malware 160

Posted by timothy from the you-must-stay-in-this-beautiful-state dept.
alphadogg writes with this excerpt from Network World: "A New Hampshire man who made $8 million by installing unwanted dial-up software on computers and then forcing them to call expensive premium telephone numbers was handed down an 82-month sentence this week. Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2007, Asu Pala and others put together a lucrative business by setting up premium telephone numbers in Germany — similar to the 1-900 numbers used in the US — and then infecting German PCs with software that would automatically dial the numbers for short periods of time." Do that many people still have modems attached?
Math

Medical Researcher Rediscovers Integration 473

Posted by timothy from the it's-all-mathy dept.
parallel_prankster writes "I find this paper very amusing. From the abstract: 'To develop a mathematical model for the determination of total areas under curves from various metabolic studies.' Hint! If you replace phrases like 'curves from metabolic studies' with just 'curves,' then you'll note that Dr. Tai rediscovered the rectangle method of approximating an integral. (Actually, Dr. Tai rediscovered the trapezoidal rule.). Apparently this is called 'Tai's Model.'"
Input Devices

USB Is the Devil's Connection 474

Posted by CmdrTaco from the god-bless-the-loons dept.
Jamie handed us Satan's Data Connection. You see, sane and rational human being, the USB logo is actually in the shape of a trident, and the obvious action to Evangelical Christians in Brazil is to ban its use. Hopefully they don't mispronounce SCSI and find themselves lusting after their PCs.
Canada

Canada To Mandate ISP Deep Packet Inspection 313

Posted by CmdrTaco from the that's-not-cool-eh dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government has proposed new legislation that would require ISPs to install deep-packet inspection capabilities. The proposal includes a laundry list of surveillance requirements, police review of ISP employees and technologies, and the mandated disclosure of a broad range of subscriber information without any court oversight."
Security

Cracking Passwords With Amazon EC2 GPU Instances 217

Posted by CmdrTaco from the sekrit-p4ssw0rd dept.
suraj.sun writes "As of Nov. 15, 2010, Amazon EC2 is providing what they call 'Cluster GPU Instances': An instance in the Amazon cloud that provides you with the power of two NVIDIA Tesla 'Fermi' M2050 GPUs... Using the CUDA-Multiforce, I was able to crack all hashes from this file with a password length from 1-6 in only 49 Minutes (1 hour costs $2.10 by the way.). This is just another demonstration of the weakness of SHA1 — you really don't want to use it anymore."
Linux

The ~200 Line Linux Kernel Patch That Does Wonders 603

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-isn't-that-special dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There is a relatively miniscule patch to the Linux kernel scheduler being queued up for Linux 2.6.38 that is proving to have dramatic results for those multi-tasking on the desktop. Phoronix is reporting the ~200 line Linux kernel patch that does wonders with before and after videos demonstrating the much-improved responsiveness and interactivity of the Linux desktop. While compiling the Linux kernel with 64 parallel jobs, 1080p video playback was still smooth, windows could be moved fluidly, and there was not nearly as much of a slowdown compared to when this patch was applied. Linus Torvalds has shared his thoughts on this patch: So I think this is firmly one of those 'real improvement' patches. Good job. Group scheduling goes from 'useful for some specific server loads' to 'that's a killer feature.'"
Democrats

Submission + - 95 Democratic candidates back net neutrality (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: 95 Democratic candidates for Congress have signed a pledge to support net neutrality in the largest-ever attempt to turn the issue into a campaign topic. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee organized the pledge, which calls net neutrality "the First Amendment of the Internet."
Piracy

Sony Gets Nasty With PSBreak Buyers 246

Posted by Soulskill from the give-it-a-rest dept.
YokimaSun writes "The war between hackers and Sony over the PlayStation 3 has now taken an even more sinister turn, with Sony going after not just shops but actual buyers of the PSBreak dongle, threatening them with fines of many thousands of Euros and forcing them to sign cease-and-desist letters. It seems Sony will use any means necessary to thwart both homebrew and piracy on the PS3."

Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 557

by APL bigot (#33711290) Attached to: Selling Incandescent Light Bulbs As Heating Devices
Actually the Edison bulbs are used in brooders to provide warmth (as well as light) for newly hatched chicks. There are usually unforeseen uses for items then they were designed for. I still miss the pumice that used to be in Comet cleanser. Worked well to clean PC boards before applying resist to etch circuit boards.

A modification to the law that such 'heat bulbs' cannot emit light would probably be the next step to prevent wasted energy (i.e. people still using them for lighting).

Submission + - Broadcom Bluetooth driver wipes out hard drives (microsoft.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It seems that upgrading the popular Widcomm Bluetooth driver on your PC from official sources on the Broadcom website, may delete most of the files from your hard drive. There is a rather ugly growing thread on the Microsoft Windows 7 forum outlining the details, complete with screams of agony and much finger pointing at Broadcom, Microsoft, and the Antivirus firms.
Games

Submission + - Gaming at 18 watts or less on 32mn AMD processors (techreport.com)

Submitted by mykos
mykos writes: AMD's new 32nm Zacate ultra-low voltage Fusion processor, handling both graphics and CPU functions, will be heading to manufacturers at the end of 2010 destined for PCs in 2011. AMD showed off some impressive technical and practical demonstrations including video games and web browser hardware acceleration, showing off some impressive performance numbers in 3D gaming and hardware-accelerated web browsing. It looks like 2011 is shaping up to be a good year for ULV devices.
Sony

Sony Releases PS3 Firmware Update To Fight Jailbreaks 336

Posted by Soulskill from the i-think-they-just-escalated dept.
RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "Destructoid is reporting that the 3.42 firmware has been released for the PlayStation 3, and it has fixed the USB vulnerability that allows the PSJailbreak exploit to work." Sony's brief announcement of the update refers only to "additional security features," though the EU blog post acknowledges that a vulnerability was addressed. PS3-Hacks.com confirms that the patch is effective against the various jailbreak tools, and they point out a different tool for bypassing the update. Sony told the BBC, "... as we always have, we will continue to take necessary actions to both hardware and software to protect the intellectual content provided on the PlayStation 3."

Slashdot Top Deals

To do nothing is to be nothing.

Close