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Submission + - Slashcott: is the Altslashdot site OK? (soylentnews.org) 3

Submitted by j_presper_eckert
j_presper_eckert writes: Hello, and my apologies for the off-topic submission.

Is anyone else who's planning on joining the (very) imminent slashcott having difficulty in reaching altslashdot.org?

I ask because, despite several careful attempts, I have not yet been able to successfully reach the new wiki this evening. (It had been fine on Friday, though.) For me, the address is now resolving as soylentnews.org and is also showing as a parked domain courtesy of some place in France.

I'm concerned about the new site still not being "ready for primetime" despite the slashcott being almost literally around the corner. Did I somehow fumble-finger the link, or are others seeing the same thing when they try to reach Altslashdot??? TIA

Submission + - You can't resell Valve games in Germany – court (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: A German court has dismissed a ‘reselling’ case in favour of Valve Software, the maker of Steam OS. German consumer group Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) had filed a complaint against Valve as Valve’s EULA (End User Licence Agreement) prohibits users from re-selling their games. What it means is that German user's can't resell their Steam Games.

Submission + - MIT Scientists Report Cold Fusion Success with "NANOR" Device (e-catworld.com) 2

Submitted by Paul Fernhout
Paul Fernhout writes: E-Cat World reports: "[A video] has been posted on Youtube by someone called ‘AlienScientist’ who attended (and filmed) the recent MIT Cold Fusion seminar and reports about what he has learned. He does a very nice job of summarizing the key points from the seminar, pointing out that Peter Hagelstein and Mitchell Swartz mention such things as how the cold fusion reactions can be enhanced by subjecting the cold fusion cell to an external magnetic heat and shining a laser on the cathodes. He also mentions that they say cracking in the metal and rapid gas loading can cause the deuterium to leak out, thus negatively affecting the amount of excess heat produced. The video also includes pointed criticism of the way the scientific community dealt with Pons and Fleischmann 25 years ago, and laments the lost opportunities that could have been realized if more care had been taken in trying to replicate the effect back then. The takeaway quote from the video (I think) is: “This is quite possibly the beginning of the largest technological breakthrough that our generation will witness.” "

Submission + - How Russia Transformed a Subtropical Beach Resort to Host the Winter Olympics 1

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Duncan Geere reports at The Verge that Russian resort as Sochi, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, is humid and subtropical with temperatures averaging about 52 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, and 75 degrees in the summer. "There is almost no snow here — at the moment it's raining," says Olga Mironova, a local resident. It's estimated that the cost of staging the Olympics in Sochi has been greater than the previous three Winter Games combined — ballooning to a whopping $51 billion including the cost of implementing an extensive system of safeguards to ensure there'll be sufficient snow in Sochi for the games including the cost of implementing one of the largest snowmaking systems in Europe. The system includes two huge water reservoirs that feed 400 snow cannons installed along the slopes that can generate snow in temperatures of up to 60 degrees fahrenheit. If that snow isn't enough, then the authorities will fall back on 710,000 cubic meters of snow collected during the winters of previous years leading up to the games. To keep it from melting in the region's hot summers, 10 separate stockpiles have been kept packed tight under insulating covers high up in the mountains, safe from the sun's rays. Down in Sochi itself the other half of the games will be held in five indoor arenas that will host figure skating, speed skating, hockey, and curling, and an additional outdoor area will host the opening and closing ceremonies. In each of these indoor arenas, underfloor cooling systems are installed so that the ice stays frozen above it using propylene glycol, which doesn't freeze until temperatures reach 8.6 F. Climatologists predict that even under a best-case scenario, almost half the venues that have hosted the Winter Olympics over the last century would be unable to do so by 2080 without resorting to extensive and expensive artificial snowmaking techniques. Renowned sites, including Squaw Valley in the U.S. Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, Vancouver in Canada and Sochi in Russia will probably no longer have climates suitable to reliably host the games by the middle of the 21st century. "It will be more problematic than ever to find suitable and snow-safe places," says Hans Linderholm, a climatologist at the University of Gothenburg. "It's likely the use of indoor arenas will become more common in the future. Then the Winter Games can be held almost anywhere — even Qatar!"

Submission + - LinkedIn ditches feature that was a 'dream for attackers' (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by angry tapir
angry tapir writes: LinkedIn is shutting down Intro, its recently launched mobile service for connecting people over email, that raised security concerns. Intro was launched last October and described at the time as a 'dream come true for hackers' The service was made for the iPhone, and was designed to grab LinkedIn profile information and insert it into emails received on phones. The service displayed that information to the recipient from the email's sender if the sender was also on LinkedIn.

Submission + - Who ate the Pear? 1

Submitted by PuceBaboon
PuceBaboon writes: Speculation is rife in the Linux community concerning the fate of Pear OS, the popular OS X lookalike distribution. The distribution disappeared a couple of weeks back, with a message implying that the project had been bought "by a very large company" appearing briefly on the web site (which is no longer available... archived courtesy of the WayBackMachine).
LinuxInsider is carrying an article with a nice round-up of the various theories and opinions as to its fate.

Submission + - Python with Braces (pythonb.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Python with Braces is a variant of the Python programming language, that has one significant difference: it uses standard C style braces for defining scopes rather than the classic python indentation. This makes Python more similar to other programming languages, and can also enable the introduction of new concepts such as anonymous functions and classes to Python.

Submission + - Carriers Won't Win the War on Netflix

Submitted by Nemo the Magnificent
Nemo the Magnificent writes: A few days ago we talked over a post by David Raphael accusing Verizon of slowing down Netflix, by way of throttling Amazon AWS. Now Jonathan Feldman gives us reason to believe that the carriers won't win the war on Netflix, because tools for monitoring the performance of carriers will emerge nd we'll catch them if they try. I just now exercised one such tool, NetNeutralityTest.com from Speedchedker Ltd. My carrier is Verizon (FiOS), and the test showed my download speed at the moment to be 12 Mbps. It was the same to Linode in NJ but only 3 Mbps to AWS East. Hmm.

Submission + - Internet Surveillance - You're being watched at all times; act accordingly. (threatpost.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Kaspersky Lab’s Internet security expert Costin Raiu discussing internet surveillance claims that you should assume that you’re being watched at all times. The article reports that Raiu conducts his online activities under the assumption that his movements are being monitored by government hackers. Raiu: “I operate under the principle that my computer is owned by at least three governments” ... "this is not meant as a scare tactic, but a rather as a statement of fact that should now be the default setting for everyone.

Submission + - US Diplomats Anger EU In Leaked Phone Call (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by phmadore
phmadore writes: From Ars: 'US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, clearly thought they were speaking on a secure line when discussing the political unrest in Ukraine and how the US government should help resolve the crisis. At one point during the January 25 call, Nuland colorfully rejected recent overtures from European Union leaders by telling her colleague: "Fuck the EU."'

I thought these guys were trained in operational security... remember, these are the people in charge of our reputation abroad.

Submission + - The Individual Midnight Thread 40

Submitted by unitron
unitron writes: Trying to figure out time zones is starting to make my brain hurt, but apparently in a bit over 6 hours somewhere on the other side of globe from Greenwich the Week of Slashcott will begin, as Midnight arrives for anyone in that zone, and then it travels west, where I will encounter it in about 23 hours.

So if we can get this thread out of the Firehose, I was thinking that, as the 10th arrives for us in our respective locations, we could leave here what may be our final farewells to Slashdot.

Until Midnight, this is our meeting place, our City Hall, our town square.

(and yes, our playground)

After that I'm not sure where we can congregate to discuss how the Slashcott's going and whether it's time to move on.

I'm going to jump the gun and lay claim to "So long and thanks for all the Karma", and perhaps someone could do a Bob Hope and re-write the lyrics to "Thanks for the Memories".

In the meantime, a bit of housekeeping.

An AC beat me to the week-long boycott idea by a couple of hours, and suggested the date range of the 10th through the 17th.

As part of a group of people familiar with the concept of beginning a count with 0 instead of 1, I really should have spotted the mistake of putting 8 days into that particular week.

So, should Slashcott Week end as the 17th begins, or do we give Dice a bonus day?

Submission + - Web Admins Fight Back Against Surveillance (thedaywefightback.org)

Submitted by jlb.think
jlb.think writes: Dear Internet Users and Slashdot horde:

In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. Today we face another critical threat, one that again undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.

In celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA two years ago, and in memory of one of its leaders, Aaron Swartz, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.

Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action. Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance. Together, if we persist, we will win this fight.

Submission + - Republicans Using Fake Websites to Trick Democratic Donors 3

Submitted by AdamnSelene
AdamnSelene writes: Forbes reports on a National Republican Congressional Committee sanctioned campaign worthy of the NSA: Fake Candidate Websites that use identical or similar pictures and color schemes to solicit donations to defeat the Democratic candidate. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the NRCC initially refused to refund the contribution from a Tampa Bay doctor who caught onto the scam, and he had to contact his credit card company to challenge the charges. The National Journal reports that the NRCC-sponsored effort may run afoul of Federal Election Commission regulations, though it expects that the bipartisan FEC will be toothless when it comes to enforcement. However, I have to wonder whether this is finally a good enough reason to use the DMCA and file take-down notices against the faux websites. Perhaps the candidates could solve this themselves, and get a judgement for copyright infringement so absurdly large that it puts the NRCC out of business?
User Journal

Journal Journal: Everything that has a beginning has an end 2

Journal by Velex

Well, here we are. We'll see how the slashcott goes.

I may be back on the 17th, but I intend to use the beta exclusively. If "classic's" days are numbered, then so be it. Maybe the beta will improve. If the things that kept me coming back since I registered this UID here over a decade ago are gone for good, then it's time to move on.

I've voiced my suspicions, and well, if Dice wanted to chase me away, they've succeeded, certainly for the next week, perhaps for good.

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