wambaugh - Slashdot User

Journal Journal: /. and modding down 8

Journal by ak3ldama on Thursday February 08, 2007 @04:50PM

I am not sure how to state this, and have for quite a while not even been sure if to bring it up. For a few reasons i am: 1) Not many people will probably even read it. 2) It's worthy of discussion. 3) It goes against stated slashdot documents.

Apple's Windows Apps Not Ready For Vista 278

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 08, 2007 @04:44PM from the day-late dept.

narramissic writes "A new Apple technical support document confirms that none of the company's Windows Applications are compatible with Vista. Affected applications include: 'QuickTime, the iPod shuffle reset utility, Bonjour for Windows, AirPort for Windows, the iDisk utility, AppleWorks for Windows, and Apple Software Update for Windows. The stand-alone iPod updater for iTunes 6 for Windows also isn't ready for Vista.'" The article refers to an Apple tech support document dated "today" (02/08) — without providing a link — but a search turns up only this one from 02/02.

Submission + - Astro Breakdown Spells Changes for Mars Mission

Submitted by FloatsomNJetsom on Thursday February 08, 2007 @04:20PM

FloatsomNJetsom writes: Popular Mechanics has a fascinating story on what the Lisa Nowak astronaut lovetriangle/breakdown/attempted murder charges could mean for Mars Mission crew decisions: With a 30-month roundtrip, this isn't the sort of thing you'd want to happen in space. Scientists have been warning about the problems of sex on long-term spaceflight, and experts are divided as to whether you want a crew of older married couples, or a-sexual unitard-wearing eunuchs. But the big deal is that NASA's current archetype of highly-driven, task-oriented people might be precisely the wrong stuff for a Mars expedition. In addition, this is crazy, scientists might use genomics or even functional MRI in screening astronauts, in addition to facial-recognition computers to monitor mental health during the mission. "You're putting together the crew psych workup, aren't you HAL?"

Submission + - Botnet Stalkers Share Takedown Tactics at RSA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08, 2007 @04:17PM

An anonymous reader writes: From EWeek: A pair of security researchers speaking here at the ongoing RSA Conference Feb. 7 demonstrated their techniques for catching botnet operators who use secret legions of infected computers to distribute malware programs and violent political propaganda. Addressing a packed room of conference attendees, Chris Boyd, director of malware research at FaceTime Security Labs, and Wayne Porter, director of special research for the company, detailed their efforts to infiltrate the botnet community and find the people responsible for running underground networks believed to have harbored as many as 150,000 compromised computers. In the case of the other zombie net, run by a group identifying itself as the Q8Army, individuals used IM-borne adware programs to deliver malware rootkits that stole credit card information for the purpose of committing fraud. The programs also served up pop-ups that carried URLs of militant Arabic Web sites that endorse violent means for achieving "world domination," the researchers said.

Submission + - Have You Sold Your Brain?

Submitted by

Mateo_LeFou

on Thursday February 08, 2007 @04:12PM

Mateo_LeFou writes: "I've been a freelance web developer for a couple years, but got placed in a "regular" job recently by an IT staffing company. I was very disturbed by their employment agreement, as it seems to assert ownership over anything I think during the contract, and for six months afterward. Additionally, the recruiter kept saying it was all "just a bunch of legal jargon" that neither she nor I should try to understand. But I tried to understand anyway, and was shocked at what it seemed to say. Unless I'm missing something, I find it very difficult to accept these terms. What do you think?"

PS3 Oblivion Approaching PC Quality Visuals 242

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @02:49PM from the skingrad-never-looked-so-good dept.

fistfullast33l writes "After taking a beating in Gamespot's side by side Comparison of Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics, Playstation 3 owners may finally have something to hold over the 360 fans. Both Gamespot and IGN have previews posted yesterday that talk up the graphics and performance improvements over the 360 version. Load times and texture quality and draw distance have been improved, as well as 'new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces,' according to IGN. They end with the ultimate hype, 'screens from the PS3 version should approach those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.' How is this possible? Gamespot reports that 'Oblivion will make extensive use of the PS3's hard drive by caching multiple gigabytes of data, which seemed to help with load times from what we saw.' While there are no official reports of this making it into the new 360/PC expansion Shivering Isles, a rumor on the Gamespot preview says that 1up might have the scoop."

Schneier Mulls Psychology of Security 101

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @02:24PM from the idle-musings dept.

bednarz writes "Cryptography expert Bruce Schneier says security decisions often are much less rational than one would prefer. He spoke at the RSA conference about the battle that goes on in the brain when responding to security issues. Schneier explains 'The primitive portion of the brain, called the amygdala, feels fear and incites a fear-or-flight response, he pointed out. "It's very fast, faster than consciousness. But it can be overridden by higher parts of the brain." The neocortex, which in a mammalian brain is associated with consciousness, is slower but "adaptive and flexible,"'"

Bookmark Online Gambling & Terrorist Financing: America's New "Poker Threat" (dgcblog.com)

by ePanama on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @02:11PM

Jail for Selling Email Lists to Spammers 172

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @01:42PM from the losing-the-key dept.

amigoro writes "UK will start jailing the people who trade in email addresses, or any other personal data. The current Data Protection Act only fines people who do that, but the money one can make from trading in personal information was far higher than the measly GBP 5000 one had to pay if caught. The new regulations will result in a two year prison sentence for violating the Act."

Submission + - NVIDIA responds to complaints about Vista drivers

Submitted by Not Straight on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @01:35PM

Not Straight writes: NVIDIA has issued an official response to the widespread complaints about the gaming performance of their GeForce cards under Vista. They're 'aware' of and monitoring nvidiaclassaction.org, but they have no plans to remove the Designed for Vista and Ready for Vista labeling from their products as requested by the site. Furthermore, they don't have a firm timeframe for delivering fully-compatible drivers. 'Over the coming weeks NVIDIA and our partners, along with the industry will continue to update Windows Vista drivers to ensure maximum performance on 3D applications and add feature support.' Until then, it looks like most gamers with GeForce cards will be best served by sticking with Windows XP.

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