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Comment Re:Hardly self-destruct (Score 1) 418

by racas (#27877081) Attached to: When Hacked PCs Self-Destruct
This is why I don't watch the news: sensationalist media. The best way to get views/ratings is to scare people; wildly unnecessarily, in this case. When reporters use the word "nuclear" in a negative way, the people think Chernobyl/Three Mile Island. Explosion. People dead. Are completely unlivable for the next hundred thousand years.

This simply disables the operating system. In a very minor way, no less. Your data is intact, though you may lose some OS settings. Your brother-in-law's nephew could fix it. It's hardly the death of your family and complete irradiation of your living area. The author of this article is in need of a sense of proportion.

...HHG notwithstanding. =P
Unix

Submission + - First SCO pump and dump scam

Submitted by
BigBadBus
BigBadBus writes: "When SCO's shares crashed last week, Slashdot readers were jubilant, and some of us speculated that pump and dump scams would be imminent. After checking my gmail spam folder for false positives, I saw the following message. I wasn't surprised at the contents, but I was surprised it had taken so long (nearly a week) to appear. Have any other Slashdot readers seen a similar spam email? This looks a bit dubious, as I've only ever seen penny stocks advertised: SCO's prices is still "quite high" (ha ha)

SCOX SHARES GO SKY HIGH. WATCH OUT FOR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT MONDAY AUGUST 20 !!!!!

SCO SOFTWARE GROUP
Symbol: SCOX
Price: $0.38

SCOX THE RISING STAR, IS SET TO SKY ROCKET STATUS ON MONDAY!
CALL TO BROKER, paul, SOMEONE KNOWS SOMETHING!!!!!!"
The Internet

Submission + - 365main releases root-cause of data-center outage

Submitted by linuxwrangler
linuxwrangler writes: 365main has issued a root cause report and FAQ about the failure that took out prominent sites like Craigslist. It was not, as initially reported, a drunk employee but rather two failures. The generator failure was caused by a setting in the Detroit Diesel Electronic Controller that wasn't allowing memory to be reset correctly resulting in engine misfires and failed engine-starts. The problem has been duplicated and is reportedly now fixed. 365main has updated controllers on all its Hitec rotary UPS systems and shared its findings with other Hitec users. Meanwhile, the half-second outage in colo-7 was caused when a brief power-surge hit it's primary side causing it to attempt to switch to secondary power. Unfortunately, the secondary side was already powering three other colo-rooms so the transfer was refused and the PDU switched back to primary 490ms later.
Microsoft

Submission + - Free as in free milk (freesoftwaremagazine.com)

Submitted by
mrcgran
mrcgran writes: "FSFDaily is running a story about Microsoft's business practices in developing countries: 'A first draft of this article has been sitting for months in my hard disk. I decided to finish it after reading that Microsoft will offer its operating system and office suite for $3 per machine to developing countries. That made me think of the way the giant software company "helps" these countries by giving licenses of its proprietary software almost for free, and that in turn made me think of free milk. Let me tell you about it.'"
XBox (Games)

Submission + - XBox 360 May Not Be Adaquately Cooled 1

Submitted by Heffenfeffer
Heffenfeffer writes: Kotaku reports that Nikkei Business publication Tech-ON! has enlisted the aid of a thermal design expert to analyze the XBox 360's heat dissepation as a possible reason for the recent costly 3 year extended warranty. The expert's findings were a bit troubling:

"When designing consumer products, it is common to seek a temperature gap of around 10C between exhaust and room temperatures," the thermal design expert said. "The 22C is quite a large gap, in the first place...The heat sink on the graphics LSI is so small, I wonder if it can really cool down the board."

During testing, the heat sink on the graphics LSI reached a temprature of 80 degrees Celsius — 57 degrees above normal room temprature.
The Internet

Submission + - Pirate Bay earns 20,000 Euros a day (rixstep.com) 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: controverisal pro-piracy website the piratebay likes to portray itself as an innocent hobby site that provides a free index without censorship, but recent facts show that the site is earning up to 20,000 Euros per day from its advertising. Taking in money on this scale puts a different slant on the motives behind the Swedish filesharing site, and could open up the runners of the site to prosecution for profiting from copyright infringement.
Software

Submission + - What qualities make for a good MMORPG?

Submitted by
Anonymous Gamer
Anonymous Gamer writes: "I am a long time RPG gamer. I've played pen and paper games for over 20 years, from Palladium Games, to Star Wars, to classic D&D. I have also been playing computer RPGs for a long time, all the way back to Legacy Of The Ancients (1987) and before.

Today's MMO's often leave a lot to be desired. I do not play WoW. I do not play Everquest. I've tried them all, and the "grind" just didn't appeal.

What makes a _good_ MMORPG, in the minds of Slashdot's crowd?

I like factions. I think EVERY world should be full PVP. The user-generated content of games like NeverWinter Nights has kept it going for years now.

My ideal MMO would have a "Elder Scrolls" style of progression in levels. You get better at the things you practice most.
Factions would be blended together, with guildmasters able to declare hostility to others, allowing for the "tags" of others to change colors based on that. User created drama can bring a great deal of fun to a game. Limiting the population somewhat will bring more of a family feel to the world. Limiting the resources to gain money and power quickly will keep the competitiveness high between factions.

There should be laws, and the world should be able to change. For example, if Reynard the thief decides to burn down the pawnshop because he got a bad deal on a gem he stole. The AI of the game should not only allow him to do it, but punish him by causing the guards to target him on sight. Perhaps his name would get a symbol next to it, allowing for players to hunt him down for the bounty. Bottom line, if you're a bad guy, you should eventually be driven out of civilized lands altogether. Good guys and newbie players should be wary of journeying alone in the wilds, because bad things happen to good people.. and good games. Perhaps people on a development team will read our ideas and run with it."
Privacy

Submission + - Unencrypted passwords at "secure" sites 1

Submitted by linear a
linear a writes: I've noticed that quite a few web sites do *not* encrypt user passwords. I've gotten into the habit of hitting the "email me my password" from them to see what happens. So far I've found maybe 6 that must store passwords in clear since they were able to return the original password back to me. Clearly this is Bad Security Practice. Also, I've had notably bad progress when I ask them to fix this practice. Some of these are sites one would clearly expect to have better security (e.g., a software vendor and an online bank). Do you have thoughts on how to better encourage better password practice at these places? Also, is this is really as common as it seems to be for me?
Businesses

Submission + - What is the job path to CTO?

Submitted by
Mavenj
Mavenj writes: "I have been working in IT for over 10 years, and have worked most everything where you have to be technical and work with the customer, from support to implementation. Recently I finally finished my Master in Information Systems, and would like to put that oh so expensive degree to work for me. The job I am looking for would be something that requires technical ability, but is also focused on the business end, and managing the technology in the business (think CTO) What kind of jobs do people start out in to end up as CTO? Does Business Analyst set a good framework of skills and experience or should I be looking at other job titles? How have other people gotten there?"
Businesses

Submission + - The Internet "Bubble" Is NOT About to Burs (secondcityceo.com)

Submitted by
thingyamabob
thingyamabob writes: "There will not be a repeat of the previous dot-com bubble burst any time in the next few years, no matter what internet pundits like John Dvorak have to say. Articles like John's are written for those who know the internet only as "that thing where I check my email". Personally, I rely on PC Magazine for my cutting edge internet news as much as I rely on Good Housekeeping for my cutting edge internet news. His "brave" attempt to go against the mainstream and warn us poor common folk of our pending doom has so many flaws and baseless claims, that John's motives are obvious."
Power

Submission + - Cooling Your House With Solar Heat

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The German Fraunhofer research institute has created the spin-off company SorTech, which plans to produce air conditioning systems that are run by solar heat. This mind-boggling feat is achieved by a thermo-chemical process called sorption. The technology could help to satisfy the increasing energy consumption used for air conditioning. It seems to be a perfect application for using solar energy: Good efficiency is possible by avoiding a conversion from heat into electricity and back to cooling energy. It also does not need a long term energy storage system, because the energy needed for cooling spikes exactly at the time, when most solar energy is available.

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