tilk - Slashdot User

Comment In Poland we have P.I.W.O. Project (B.E.E.R.) (Score 1) 65

by tilk on Monday April 23, 2012 @01:38PM (#39773379) Attached to: MIT Hack Turns the Green Building Into a Giant Game of Tetris

Students of the Wrocaw University of Technology turned one of the dormitory buildings into a color display. The event is called P.I.W.O. (Potezny Indeksowany Wyswietlacz Oknowy - literally Giant Indexed Display made of Windows, but the acronym means BEER) and was held for several years during the juwenalia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGU8dlvOPUY

Submission + - GPS systems could crash next year (crn.com)

Submitted by mstipe on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @12:04PM

mstipe writes: Thanks in part to a lack of oversight, a government agency Wednesday warned that unless the U.S. Air Force is able to acquire new satellites soon, the Global Positioning Systen may crash by next year, wreaking havoc with the public and military operations.

According to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), an overhaul of the 20-year-old system has been delayed until November, putting it three years behind schedule. The project is also over budget by $870 million from the original cost estimate of $729 million, for a total of approximately $1.6 billion.

"If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits ," the GAO stated in its report.

Submission + - Another History of Programming Languages

Submitted by

GaryOlson

on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @11:34AM

GaryOlson writes: "A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages is a comical historical timeline which has all the necessary content for your next development project: exploding heads, religion, movie references, and a goto loop."

Submission + - Is Everything Made of Mini Black Holes?

Submitted by Giant on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @10:07AM

Giant writes: From MIT Technology Review, by way of PhysOrg: By investigating quantum gravity at the horizons of black holes, a new model suggests that black hole evaporation might appear identical to elementary particle decay. In trying to understand how gravity behaves on the quantum scale, physicists have developed a model that has an interesting implication: mini black holes could be everywhere, and all particles might be made of various forms of black holes.

Submission + - Right-to-Repair Law to Get DRM Out of Your Car (eff.org) 2

Submitted by eldavojohn on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @09:42AM

eldavojohn writes: Ralph Nadar's back to hounding the automotive industry ... but it's not about safety this time, it's about the pesky DRM in your car. Most cars have a UART in them that allows you to read off diagnostic codes and information about what may be wrong with the vehicle so you can repair it. Late model cars have been getting increasingly complex and dependent on computers which has caused them, as with most things digital, to move towards a proprietary DRM for these tools, diagnostic codes and updated repair information. This has kept independent auto-shops out of the market for fixing your car and relegating you to depend on pricier dealers to get your automotive ailments cured. The bill still has a provision to protect trade secrets but is a step forward to open up the codes and tools necessary to keep your car running.

Submission + - Why Google is the New Pirate Bay 1

Submitted by

explosivejared

on Friday April 17, 2009 @05:33PM

explosivejared writes: "Forbes is running a story discussing the verdict in the Pirate Bay case and its implications on file sharing, specifically with regard to Google. The article points out what most on /. already realize: Google provides essentially the same service that the Pirate Bay does. The Pirate Bay case may be far from over, accounting for appeals, but the Pirate Bay's assumption of being unchallengeable was shattered. The article raises the question of whether or not Google is untouchable in the matter. The story is quick to point out how the situation resembles a futile game of cat mouse, but given how the Pirate Bay's confidence was ultimately broken, is Google untouchable?"

Submission + - Shut Down the internet !

Submitted by Anonymous on Friday April 17, 2009 @03:52PM

Anonymous writes: A recently proposed but little-noticed Senate bill would allow the federal government to shut down the Internet in times of declared emergency, and enables unprecedented federal oversight of private network administration. Read Full story http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cybersecurity_Act_seeks_broad_powers_0413.html

Submission + - Polish ISP blackholes IRC (and GIMP) (google.com)

Submitted by

tilk

on Saturday January 03, 2009 @07:40PM

tilk writes: "Telekomunikacja Polska, a popular Polish ISP, blocked access to several IP addresses, including Polish IRCnet servers — and gimp.org. The reason? Cutting the link between botnets and their masters. Also, blocking SMTP access to fight spam is planned."

Submission + - Living with paintball gun fired via Internet

Submitted by

boyko.at.netqos

on Friday May 18, 2007 @02:04PM

boyko.at.netqos writes: "I recently interviewed Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi-American who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago. He's currently part of an exhibit there called "Domestic Tension." Bilal moved his entire living room into the gallery and now spends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over 30 days in an enclosed space, and his only companion is a paintball gun hooked up to a Web cam, which can be aimed and fired by people who go to a Web page.

From the article:

What inspired this particular project? WB: I think it's a combination of things. (*bang*) One, it is understanding the culture and how people interact with each other in this digital age. But, the trigger of this project was that I was watching (*bang*) the news — in fact, ABC news, when they had an interview with an American soldier sitting in a base in Colorado, and she was firing missiles into Iraq (*bang*) after being given information by American soldiers on the ground (*bang*) in Iraq, and when asked if she had any regard of human life, she said "No, these people are bad, and I'm getting very good intelligence from people on the ground."
"

Submission + - IPRED2 Slips Through in Europe :-(

Submitted by

egnop

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @04:01AM

egnop writes: "April 25, 2007

The European Parliament has just voted to pass the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) without substantive amendment, despite growing public opposition from across the European Union. The final vote of 374 to 278 with 17 abstentions points to a margin of Parliamentary support that has been narrowing ever since the Directive left subcommittee. While we are disappointed that IPRED2 was not defeated at this stage, we can see clearly the impact of the efforts of the over 8,000 Europeans who've taken action against the Directive. We were told by the two largest political parties that they felt that the Directive had not been given enough time to be properly discussed, and that our campaign had definitely contributed to the discussion.

The fight now moves to the Council of the European Union, where it will be considered by representatives of the national governments of all EU Member States. Several states have started to mount resistance to IPRED2 in recent weeks, with the UK and Holland leading the charge. Europeans worried about their right to innovate, and their ability to live under clear, fair criminal laws must now turn to their own national governments to ensure that IPRED2 doesn't set a terrible precedent for copyright law, and the EU legal process. If the Council disagrees with EuroParl's action — which we believe is in reach — IPRED2 would be returned for a second reading. We will be tracking these developments and providing opportunities to act at CopyCrime.eu.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005219.php"

DMCA Creator Admits Failure, Blames RIAA 239

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 24, 2007 @08:45AM from the how-to-make-friends-and-influence-people dept.

An anonymous reader writes "DMCA architect Bruce Lehman has admitted that "our Clinton administration policies didn't work out very well" and "our attempts at copyright control have not been successful". Speaking at conference in Montreal (video at 11:00), Lehman lay much of the blame at the feet of the recording industry for their failure to adapt to the online marketplace in the mid-1990s."

College Demands RIAA Pay Up For Wasting Its Time 261

Posted by Zonk on Thursday March 22, 2007 @01:57PM from the me-next-me-next dept.

An anonymous reader writes "We've already seen the University of Wisconsin tell the RIAA to go away, but the University of Nebaska has gone one step further: it's asking the RIAA to pay up for wasting its time with the silly demand to push students into paying up. The spokesperson for the University also notes that since they constantly rotate IP addresses and have no need to hang onto that information for very long, they simply cannot help the RIAA. They have no clue who was attached to which IP address at the time the RIAA is complaining about."

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