Comment Re:Damn... (Score 1) 602
Congratulations, you no longer have Asperger's. You're now just Autistic. Have fun with that stigma.
Comment Manipulating HFT for Fun and Profit (Score 1) 500
Everyone is asking the wrong sort of questions.
What we should be asking: How secure are these HFT systems from outside manipulation? If I wrote a HFT system to manipulate other HFT systems...
- How much money could I get away with?
- How many of those "Too Big to Fail" money-houses could I kill off along the way?
Comment It's not lava... (Score 1) 269
Sounds about right. Should pop around the end of December.
Say hi to Ryumyo for me.
Say hi to Ryumyo for me.
Comment Re:Of course they are not in the TechCrunch audien (Score 1) 265
All the COBOL programmers I know are in forced retirement, and can't even get work at $25/hr.
Really?
Send me their contact info. My employer is currently paying finder fees for new PA & SA hires.
Submission + - US CIO/CTO: Idea of Hiring COBOL Coders Laughable
theodp writes: If you're a COBOL programmer, you're apparently persona non grata in the eyes of the nation's Chief Information and Chief Technical Officers. Discussing new government technology initiatives at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel quipped, "I'm recruiting COBOL developers, any out there?," sending Federal CTO Todd Park into fits of laughter (video). Lest anyone think he was serious about hiring the old fogies, VanRoekel added: "Trust me, we still have it in the Federal government, which is quite, quite scary." So what are VanRoekel and Park looking for? 'Bad ass innovators — the baddest ass of the bad asses out there' Park explained, 'to design, create, and kick ass for America.' Within 24 hours of VanRoekel's and Park's announcement, 600 bad asses had applied to be Presidential Innovation Fellows.
Submission + - Whatever happened to technology innovation? (foxnews.com) 1
Velcroman1 writes: Aside from "disruptive," there's probably no more overused buzzword than "innovation." Every speech, every business discussion, every CEO presentation is peppered with the word. Apparently, every idea, every new business, and every startup is staggeringly "innovative." Some argue that there hasn't been much technological innovation since the personal computer and the integrated circuit. That's a dry spell of 30 to 40 years, depending upon when you think PCs really began to make a difference in scientific and industrial quarters. Some people, recalling a famous 2003 headline from the Onion — "48-Hour Internet Outage Plunges Nation Into Productivity" — blame the Web. But we could be slowly awakening from our Web slumber. There are plenty of people hard at work, struggling for long hours in research labs and "skunk works" around the world trying to solve what seem like intractable problems. Here are a few of these endeavors and technology trends that show the most promise.
Submission + - 'DDoS-as-a-Service' being picked over C&C botnets (techworld.com)
Qedward writes: Apparently cybercriminals are sidestepping the need to launch DDoS attack from large networks of malware-compromised bot PCs by using simpler server ‘booter shells’ and the cloud.
According to COO at Prolexic Neal Quinn: “For hackers, DDoS attacks have never been easier to launch, while for their victims, the power and complexity of attacks is at an all-time high. The threat of a DDoS attack has never been more likely or its potential impact more severe. We’ve entered the age of DDoS-as-a-Service."
‘Booter shells’ or plain ‘booters’ are simple PHP, .ASP or Perl script template files planted on compromised servers to direct Get/Post commanded HTTP floods to overload target servers.
According to COO at Prolexic Neal Quinn: “For hackers, DDoS attacks have never been easier to launch, while for their victims, the power and complexity of attacks is at an all-time high. The threat of a DDoS attack has never been more likely or its potential impact more severe. We’ve entered the age of DDoS-as-a-Service."
‘Booter shells’ or plain ‘booters’ are simple PHP,
Submission + - Apple blocks Dropbox-based apps (pcpro.co.uk)
Barence writes: "Apple is rejecting apps that use the new Dropbox SDK because they inadvertently allow users to buy extra online storage without Apple taking a cut.
Online storage service Dropbox is commonly used by iOS developers as a way of allowing users to share files created within their apps to other devices.
Dropbox's latest SDK has incurred the wrath of Apple, because users who don't have the Dropbox app installed on their iPhone/iPad are instead pushed to Dropbox's website via the Safari browser. Here, they can click a link to the desktop version of the service, which allows them to buy extra Dropbox storage without Apple taking its usual 30% cut.
"Apple should reject all web browser apps because they can take you to a page that lets you purchase stuff," writes one infuriated developer. "Go Apple! Crack down on all commerce!""
Online storage service Dropbox is commonly used by iOS developers as a way of allowing users to share files created within their apps to other devices.
Dropbox's latest SDK has incurred the wrath of Apple, because users who don't have the Dropbox app installed on their iPhone/iPad are instead pushed to Dropbox's website via the Safari browser. Here, they can click a link to the desktop version of the service, which allows them to buy extra Dropbox storage without Apple taking its usual 30% cut.
"Apple should reject all web browser apps because they can take you to a page that lets you purchase stuff," writes one infuriated developer. "Go Apple! Crack down on all commerce!""
Submission + - Microsoft Plans Waste-Powered Data Centers (datacenterknowledge.com) 1
miller60 writes: Microsoft is going off the grid with its data centers. This week the company unveiled plans for "data plants" that will be housed at landfills or water treatment plants, and harness their methane output for use in fuel cells to power their servers. “Without a bold shift in strategy, our entire industry will become more dependent on a costly, antiquated, and constricted power grid,” writes Microsoft's Christian Belady. “Independence from the power grid will allow our industry to minimize its impact and ease some of the constriction already taking place."
Submission + - iPhone, just add water droplet equals instant microscope (tech-stew.com)
techfun89 writes: Just place a drop of water on the lens and turn the phone over. The suspended drop will act like a magnifying glass.
Submission + - Happy Pi Day (piday.org)
EuNao writes: "Happy Pi Day Slashdot, today share a little mathematics with your child. Try and show the mathematics around you, bake a round cake or pie, decorate it with some geometric shapes. Teach your children the area formula for a circle by helping them write it on some sugar cookies. There are countless other things you can do with your child, use today to instill wonder in mathematics. You and your child won't regret it. Get your geek on and learn a little bit about Euler's identity and Pi Day, listen to the Mathematical Pi Song on Youtube or visit the Pi Day Official Site."
Submission + - Electric Cars Could Fill Up at the MetILs Pump (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: A flow battery is a rechargeable fuel cell that pumps a solution of charged metals dissolved in an electrolyte through a membrane to convert chemical energy into electricity. Flow batteries can be rapidly "recharged" by replacing the electrolyte liquid while simultaneously recovering the spent material for external recharging. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Defense's Sandia National Laboratories have discovered a new family of metal-based liquid salt electrolytes, for use in just such flow batteries. The electrochemically reversible Metal-based Ionic Liquids (MetILs) could lead to batteries packed with 3-10 times the energy density of other available storage technologies.
Submission + - School district sued by ACLU over student's free speech rights (startribune.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The ACLU is suing Minnewaska Area Schools and Pope County, according to this article in the StarTribune. At issue: school administrators and a sheriff's deputy forced a girl to hand over login information to her Facebook and email accounts, after she posted on Facebook that she 'hated' a school hall monitor who had been 'mean' to her, and cursed in a separate Facebook comment because someone reported her. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an order that would restrain school officials from attempts to regulate or discipline students based on speech made outside of school hours and off school property. See also this article from the West Central Tribune.
Submission + - Top LulzSec hackers arrested, group leader reportedly working for FBI (bgr.com)
zacharye writes: The laughs are reportedly over for five top members of hacker group LulzSec who were arrested on Tuesday and charged as part of a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court...
Submission + - RIAA CEO Hopes SOPA Protests Were a 'One-Time Thing' (internetevolution.com)
hapworth writes: Cary Sherman, CEO of the RIAA, is at it again. After posting a controversial op-ed in The New York Times saying Wikipedia and Google "misinformed" the public about SOPA and PIPA, Sherman said in an interview yesterday that he hopes the SOPA protests were a "one-time experience." He also said that Wikipedia and Google users were duped into thinking SOPA was a bad bill because they assume "if it comes from these sources, it must be true." In another hilarious comment, Sherman blames the Internet for making it impossible for Congress to get out its side of the story, and for not spreading information with the same "clarity and integrity" of broadcast journalists.
