Braille Playboy
11
You really do read it for the articles in this case.
Braille Playboy
Slashdot's Disagree Mail
354
There is an old Japanese proverb that goes, "Better than a
thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher."
This week's mail is all about teaching. Whether it is about the
seriousness of psychic ability, a short history of trolls or
explaining how much free time and malice your dad's attorney has,
these people just want to impart information. If what they sent me is any indication, they had a lot of sick days. Click on the link below to
become enlightened.
Dragonfly-Sized Insect Spies Spotted, Denied 433
SRA8 sends in a Washington Post piece about work at various academic, government, and military labs on insect-sized flying spies. A number of people reported what appeared to be flying mechanical insects, larger than dragonflies, over an antiwar rally in Washington DC last month. The reporter got mostly no-comments from the agencies he called trying to pin down what it was they saw. Only the FBI said through a spokesman: "We don't have anything like that." The article describes work on insect cyborgs as well as purely mechanical flying spies, but quotes vice admiral Joe Dyer, former commander of the Naval Air Systems Command now at iRobot in Burlington, Mass., as follows: "I'll be seriously dead before that program deploys." The article also mentions an International Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots, held in Switzerland in August, at which Japanese researchers demonstrated radio-controlled fliers with four-inch wingspans that resemble hawk moths.
Comment Re:I'm sure this is actionable! (Score 1) 605
You should feel happy that Apple creates software designed to destroy *YOUR* property? Are you forgetting its YOUR phone?
Who said the software was designed to destroy property? Isn't it possible that the unlocking tools do something they shouldn't (maybe erase a bit of currently-unused firmware that is needed in 1.1? I dunno), and Apple is just saying that they won't fix someone else's bug?
And hey, at least they warned you. If they wanted to brick phones, why announce it ahead of time? You still have the option to not update.
Submission + - What should I ask Slashdot?
TodMinuit writes: "Dearest Slashdot: Recently, I've wanted to ask Slashdot something. Unable to come up with a question myself, I thought who better to ask what I should ask Slashdot than Slashdot itself? Surely the very people answering the question are quite capable of coming up with one. So, Slashdot, what should I ask Slashdot?"
Submission + - Firefox No Longer Alternative Enough
Kelson writes: "The Alternative Browser Alliance, which promotes the use of alternative browsers over Internet Explorer, has stopped promoting Firefox after nearly two years. According to the announcement, Firefox has sold out, gone mainstream, and "is no longer an alternative web browser."
Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""
Reportedly the site will throw its weight behind iCab, as it is guaranteed to remain alternative since it will never run on Windows Vista.""
Submission + - Slashdot Announces Early End To April Fools
forkazoo writes: "A number of you have posted expressing concern about Slashdot's enthusiasm for April Fools jokes. Since Slashdot has always striven to be perceived as a legitimate news source, we have had an internal discussion, and decided to immediately end all our articles which are not fully verified for today. This site was never about just personal amusement. The point has always been to provide absolutely articulate, well edited articles to inform the IT community about new events which could effect their jobs. Because the April Fools jokes make this site look like some sort of personal blog for CmdrTaco, I am happy to announce that we declare that we will never violate the trust that you have in us ever again. For the rest of the day, you will be able to enjoy the carfully edited, duplicate-pruned, always relevant articles which you have come to know and explectr."
Submission + - OSX on AppleTV
An anonymous reader writes: As AppleTVhacks.net reports, hacker semthex, who already made AppleTV OS run on mac, now did it again and made AppleTV run OSX. The special kernel is powered with a processor emulation and allows to run full blown GUI and even iTunes.
Does this turn the little TV settop box into a third world mac-mini now?
Submission + - Picasa Web launched!
partenon writes: "I was reading my emails today when I noted a new link in the top links: "photos". When I clicked, Picasa Web appeared! It seems that Google have decided to launch a Flickr-like service. The URL is: http://picasaweb.google.com/ . You'll have 1GB of free storage. If you need more, you can buy a year of storage, ranging from 7GB (USD 25.00) to 251GB (USD 500.00). Woot !"
Journal Journal: 10 Reasons Why Your Website Will Never Make A Dime
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/making+money+online.html
If you've picked up any business magazines within the last year, you've undoubtedly heard the rumors that everyone is getting rich online. Yet, somehow even after you worked so hard to scrape together a website and found some fabulous widget to sell your online venture has yielded little to no money, Why? eBizMBA surveyed over 250 webmasters with sites ranked in the Al
Submission + - Is this bad advice from an IT manager?
e-scetic writes: We've secured funding for building a new website to replace our current one. My direct managers, however, not being technically inclined, are seeking input from our Manager of IT. In response, he has set down a number of dictates that he wants us to follow. Here's the part that frightens me most:
Some details: I wanted to create a development and production environment, with a development server using version control and pushing stable changes to the live production server. I wanted to isolate the databases to a separate database server, with each web server remote logging to the database server (using syslog-ng). As we'll be generating email newsletters to the tune of 60k emails per issue, I wanted a separate machine for that too (PostFix, most likely). And most importantly, I wanted to spend time early in the project hardening everything — mod_security, mod_evasive, firewalls, intrusion detection, chroot jails, OS lockdown, SSH, etc., the works, before we began development
But the IT Manager is saying to do this:
I don't believe this is good advice, given we have one year to complete the project I think my route is safest. Can the Slashdot community advise my non-technical managers as to which of us, me or the IT manager, is on the right track? Or Maybe give advice on how to deal with this IT Manager?
- 4. You should avoid security issues for now and concentrate on multiple user access for maintenance and updates login issues.
- 5. You must not worry about performance. You need to concentrate on making a workable website first. You must keep it simple.
Some details: I wanted to create a development and production environment, with a development server using version control and pushing stable changes to the live production server. I wanted to isolate the databases to a separate database server, with each web server remote logging to the database server (using syslog-ng). As we'll be generating email newsletters to the tune of 60k emails per issue, I wanted a separate machine for that too (PostFix, most likely). And most importantly, I wanted to spend time early in the project hardening everything — mod_security, mod_evasive, firewalls, intrusion detection, chroot jails, OS lockdown, SSH, etc., the works, before we began development
But the IT Manager is saying to do this:
- 10. You must design everything on one server for simplicity and design it in such a way to split the application when you need to do so (when it goes on line). I mean your database, your website, and your email server can all be developed on the same simple prototype server hardware.
- 12. Leave purchasing the actual hardware are for close to the end of the project when it needs to go on line.
I don't believe this is good advice, given we have one year to complete the project I think my route is safest. Can the Slashdot community advise my non-technical managers as to which of us, me or the IT manager, is on the right track? Or Maybe give advice on how to deal with this IT Manager?
Journal Journal: Why I don't use a Mac
I recently posted a comment about why I've switched back from Mac OS X to GNU/Linux. I've been thinking about it a lot since I did it, and I'm pretty happy with the comment, so I include it here. Slightly edited, and will likely change over time.
Submission + - Google changing history?
jrsumm writes: The investigative subcommittee of the House Science and Technology committee is investigating whether Google is "airbrushing" history on Google Maps by replacing recent New Orleans satellite imagery with older, pre-Katrina imagery. Specifically, the committee wants to know if Google was persuaded into changing its imagery by local governments eager to make the recovery effort look like its going smoother than it really is. Google says it is just using higher resolution imagery now. CNN has the story here.
Submission + - Dell Sneaking Keyloggers into their Laptops?
James Allanson writes: "Immagine that the government was listening in to your phone calls — you've heard about them bugging terrorists, but surely they wouldn't bother with you right? Wrong. This article (although old) shows that dell have been shipping laptops with keyloggers built in. Dell claim that "The intregrated service tag identifier is there for assisting customers in the event of lost or misplaced personal information." However the Department of Homeland Security says that information about the circuit is "... exempt from being disclosed under the FOIA [Freedom of Information Act]." Very fishy."
Submission + - T.J. Maxx owner: 46M card numbers stolen
Anonymous Coward writes: "NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The retailer that owns the T.J. Maxx and Marshall's clothing chains said nearly 46 million customer card numbers were stolen from its computers over an 18-month period and said the total number of stolen cards may never be known.
TJX (Charts), which also operates other store chains in North America and the U.K., also said 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers. The retailer made the disclosures in an SEC filing late Wednesday.
TJX is being sued by affected cardholders in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
Spokeswoman Sherry Lang told CNN that 45.7 million card numbers had been stolen but noted that 75 percent of those cards were either expired or had their data masked.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/29/news/companies/tjx /?postversion=2007032909"
