Comment Old news. (Score 3, Informative) 169
Coindesk already wrote about that almost two weeks ago!
Ask Slashdot: What Software Can You Not Live Without? 531
An anonymous reader writes "Whenever I install a fresh operating system on my computer, I immediately grab a handful of programs that I simply must have. After that, I generally wait and install other pieces of software as I need them. My list of known, useful programs has dwindled over the past few years as projects died, ownership transferred, and functionality changed. At the same time, I've begun to have use for certain types of software that I've never needed before. It can be time-consuming and risky to install and evaluate every single option. So, I'm curious: what pieces of software do you find the most useful and reliable? Don't feel the need to limit yourself by operating system, platform, or hardware. If you're so inclined, a brief description about what makes the software great would be helpful, too."
Book Review: Sudo Mastery: User Access Control For Real People 83
Saint Aardvark writes "If you're a Unix or Linux sysadmin, you know sudo: it's that command that lets you run single commands as root from your own account, rather than logging in as root. And if you're like me, here's what you know about configuring sudo:
1.) Run sudoedit and uncomment the line that says "%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL".
2.) Make sure you're in the wheel group.
3.) Profit!
If you're a sysadmin, you need to stop people from shooting themselves in the foot. There should be some way of restricting use, right? Just gotta check out the man page.... And that's where I stopped, every time. I've yet to truly understand Extended Backus-Naur Form, and my eyes would glaze over. And so I'd go back to putting some small number of people in the 'wheel' group, and letting them run sudo, and cleaning up the occasional mess afterward. Fortunately, Michael W. Lucas has written Sudo Mastery: User Access Control for Real People." Keep reading for the rest of Saint Aardvark's review.
1.) Run sudoedit and uncomment the line that says "%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL".
2.) Make sure you're in the wheel group.
3.) Profit!
If you're a sysadmin, you need to stop people from shooting themselves in the foot. There should be some way of restricting use, right? Just gotta check out the man page.... And that's where I stopped, every time. I've yet to truly understand Extended Backus-Naur Form, and my eyes would glaze over. And so I'd go back to putting some small number of people in the 'wheel' group, and letting them run sudo, and cleaning up the occasional mess afterward. Fortunately, Michael W. Lucas has written Sudo Mastery: User Access Control for Real People." Keep reading for the rest of Saint Aardvark's review.
Comment Re:Join the slashdot farewell: (Score -1, Offtopic) 526
Oh, I can burn my karma, no problem.
If you were paying attention you would know that from 10 to 17 february there is slashdot boycott (slashcott) in which people log off and can only browse anonymously to give dice holdings fewer requests from logged in users.
PS: doesn't that posting a new story exactly once per hour doesn't ring you a bell?
If you were paying attention you would know that from 10 to 17 february there is slashdot boycott (slashcott) in which people log off and can only browse anonymously to give dice holdings fewer requests from logged in users.
PS: doesn't that posting a new story exactly once per hour doesn't ring you a bell?
Comment Farewell slashdot (Score 1) 40
I'm moving with all the great community of smart people and old-timers to http://www.altslashdot.org/ (server will be up & running in few hours).
Submission + - The Individual Midnight Thread 40
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?
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?
Comment Re:Beta comment from an old-timer (Score 1) 77
This guy wants to start altSlashdot: http://slashdot.org/~Okian%20W... - check his latest comments
I hope it will have UTF-8 support as well as mathjax - the math rendering engine used on stackexchange. Imagine how wonderful comments and posts could look like, if people could embed formulas easily!
Our wiki now collects all the most important ideas: http://www.altslashdot.org/wik...
Also you are welcome on IRC ##altslashdot on freenode
BTW, I haven't changed my sig since 2002, and it will be the same on new slashdot, whatever name we pick: http://www.altslashdot.org/wik...
I hope it will have UTF-8 support as well as mathjax - the math rendering engine used on stackexchange. Imagine how wonderful comments and posts could look like, if people could embed formulas easily!
Our wiki now collects all the most important ideas: http://www.altslashdot.org/wik...
Also you are welcome on IRC ##altslashdot on freenode
BTW, I haven't changed my sig since 2002, and it will be the same on new slashdot, whatever name we pick: http://www.altslashdot.org/wik...
Submission + - Florida Arrests High-Dollar Bitcoin Exchangers for Money Laundering (krebsonsecurity.com)
tsu doh nimh writes: State authorities in Florida on Thursday announced criminal charges targeting three men who allegedly ran illegal businesses moving large amounts of cash in and out of the Bitcoin virtual currency. Experts say this is likely the first case in which Bitcoin vendors have been prosecuted under state anti-money laundering laws, and that prosecutions like these could shut down one of the last remaining avenues for purchasing Bitcoins anonymously.
Comment Re:How to call Bruce (Score 1) 2219
well then, check my sig :) Hasn't changed since year 2000.
Submission + - Wikipedia's donation campaign might be illegal in Finland
An anonymous reader writes: Wikipedia's donation campaign has always been rather annoying. But it seems that it might also be illegal, at least in Finland. Finnish Police Ministry has asked Wikipedia to explain how the organization should be exempt from Finland's very tight donation laws. Here's the summary in English and the original Finnish letter can be found from Wikipedia.
Comment Re:Resurrecting Technocrat.net (Score 1) 2219
Hi Bruce, I remember both times when you tried to start Technocrat.net. How about joining altslashdot ? Don't worry about bad name, we are now looking for some other name.
As much as I don't like javascript too, I like very much how http://math.stackexchange.com/ supports the math rendering engine MathJax. And along with UTF-8 support I think that we need the ability to discuss difficult topics using math to describe them.
As much as I don't like javascript too, I like very much how http://math.stackexchange.com/ supports the math rendering engine MathJax. And along with UTF-8 support I think that we need the ability to discuss difficult topics using math to describe them.
Submission + - Locked iPhone Blocks Italian Murder Probe (itworld.com) 2
itwbennett writes: The access code locking the iPhone 5 of an Italian murder victim is depriving police of information that might help them solve the crime, but Apple has so far resisted requests for help in unlocking the device, a Milan prosecutor confirmed Friday. 'We have been having difficulty in gaining access to the information held on the device,' Mauro Clerici, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation, said in a telephone interview. 'There's a problem of compatibility between our legal systems. In Italy investigative searches are ordered by the prosecutor, while in the United States they have to be ordered by a judge.' Clerici said the Italian authorities might be able to get around the obstacle by asking an Italian preliminary inquiries judge to appoint a technical expert with a mandate to access the information on the iPhone, but that process can only be undertaken when a suspect has been identified and the Milan investigation is currently against 'persons unknown.'
Comment Alternative slashdot (Score 2) 14
This guy wants to start altSlashdot: http://slashdot.org/~Okian%20W... - check his latest comments
I hope it will have UTF-8 support as well as mathjax - the math rendering engine used on stackexchange. Imagine how wonderful comments and posts could look like, if people could embed formulas easily!
I hope it will have UTF-8 support as well as mathjax - the math rendering engine used on stackexchange. Imagine how wonderful comments and posts could look like, if people could embed formulas easily!
Comment Re:altslashdot.org (Score 1) 17
Yeah, this guy wants to start altSlashdot: http://slashdot.org/~Okian%20W... - check his latest comments
I hope it will have UTF-8 support as well as mathjax - the math rendering engine used on stackexchange. Imagine how wonderful comments and posts could look like, if people could embed formulas easily!
I hope it will have UTF-8 support as well as mathjax - the math rendering engine used on stackexchange. Imagine how wonderful comments and posts could look like, if people could embed formulas easily!
Submission + - CmdrTaco: Anti-Beta Movement a "Vocal Minority" (washingtonpost.com) 30
Antipater writes: The furor over Slashdot Beta is loud enough that even outside media has begun to notice. The Washington Post's tech blog The Switch has written a piece on the issue, and the anti-Beta protesters aren't going to be happy about it. The Post questioned Slashdot founder Rob Malda, who believes the protests are the work of only a vocal minority or readers: "It's easy to forget that the vocal population of a community driven site like Slashdot might be the most important group, but they are typically also the smallest class of users." The current caretakers of Slashdot need to balance the needs of all users with their limited engineering resources, Malda argues — noting wryly, "It ain't easy."
