fenodyree - Slashdot User

Submission + - Gaia Ajax Widgets goes GPL!

Submitted by

Kariem Ali

on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @10:03AM

Kariem Ali writes: "Today, Gaia Ajax widgets, the Ajax library for ASP.NET became open source. They are offering their library in a dual license, pure GPL for open source development and a commerical license for people wanting to develop closed source software ajaxwidgets.com "

Submission + - Morfik's Ajax Platform Gets Set To Launch in March

Submitted by

ReadWriteWeb

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @03:18PM

ReadWriteWeb writes: "Morfik, has mostly been flying under the radar for the past year, but their 100% Ajax platform is getting set for its 1.0 release at the end of March. In this profile and interview, Read/WriteWeb explores how Morfik is building a platform on which developers can develop complex and highly functional Ajax applications. In a nutshell, Morfik allows developers to use high-level programming languages (which give the developer more power — e.g. BASIC, C#, Pascal) to create web apps. It does this by converting apps from high level language INTO Ajax code. An example is AjaxSalesforce, described as a demonstration of "what a Salesforce.com experience could truly be like, if state-of-the-art Ajax technology is used".

Morfik's main competition may be Google. The Google Web Toolkit is a similar tool to Morfik, in that it enables developers to create sophisticated Ajax applications using Java. There was even a rumor swirling around in May last year that Google partnered with Morfik, or licensed technology from it. Morfik is tight-lipped about GWT, as they are apparently still under NDA obligations. However, they said that "despite Google's technology claims, Google does not use GWT for any of its on-line services", implying that Morfik's technology is far more sophisticated and complete than GWT."

Submission + - UN online game teaches kids about disasters

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01, 2007 @03:17PM

An anonymous reader writes: The CBC is reporting on a new downloadable game developed by the UN to teach children about disaster preparedness. From the article: "The Stop Disaster Game asks players to save lives and livelihoods by preparing for an imminent hurricane, earthquake, flood, tsunami or wildfire within a fixed budget and time. Players choose among five scenarios with three levels of difficulty; the winner is the person who saves the most."

Submission + - NYC MAFIA'S MOST WANTED CREATES INTERNET 'BLOG'

Submitted by

Frank

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @03:11PM

Frank writes: "01 March 2007

A New York man reportedly wanted dead by the powerful NYC Mafia for allegedly bilking them out of $400,000 on a failed joint business venture has created an internet blog, detailing his life on the run.

The man, under the assumed name 'Frank', claims to have been on the run since late November after been savagely attacked by Mafia enforcers after failing to make a repayment. Amazingly, he isn't under police protection or the federal Witness Protection Program, and is going it alone, vowing to raise the cash he owes to pay off the Mafia, stating: "I realize what I am doing will, to most people, seem crazy, but I have many good reasons for going this route, including legal reasons and family reasons which people can read about in more detail on my blog, including the full background story to this nightmare. I'm sure I can get myself out of this mess, I just need time."

But time is limited and running out. Despite Frank's determination to come up with the money against all odds, he is well aware that given the scale of the manhunt the Mafia have launched to find him, that he could be found at any time — particularly as he freely admits on his blog that he remains in New York City. He has therefore given himself a limit which he feels still leaves him with a fighting chance: "while the heat is on me like this they will find me, sooner or later. I have, therefore, given myself a deadline of 90 days to come up with enough money to catch up with repayments and to continue to pay these people back, providing the vig (Mafia interest) by this time isn't so far out of my reach."

The mob's intentions to impose a severe penalty should they not recover their money were made abundantly clear at a chilling meeting with several Mafia members when one warned: 'I swear to God, unless we get our money, and fast, you are a dead man walking.'

Frank — who now carries a gun with him for protection at all times — explains: "That is where I got the name for the website from, and my address which is www.deadmanwalking.net", adding: "This is not a pastime for me, this is serious. My life right now is consumed entirely by doing everything in my power to generate enough money so I can begin paying them off. I was able to utilize my past experience as a webpage designer to create my blog and I'm generating the revenue through advertising, merchandising and any other avenues I can come up with."

'Dead Man Walking' — the title of Franks blog — is predicted to take the blogging world by storm, gathering ever-growing interest not only from regular readers, but also attracting interest from federal law enforcement, who are said to be collating information to try and launch further investigations into the matter. One New York law enforcement official looking into the matter, who wished to remain anonymous, whom has visited the Dead Man Walking website and is used to working against so-called 'wiseguys' has called the man's actions 'Quite literally, suicide' and said if the Mafia do find him, and it is very probable they will, that it is highly unlikely that they will hesitate in carrying out their deadly threats and has urged the man to seek protection of law enforcement immediately.

##### ENDS

— ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR SLASHDOT EDITORS —

'Frank' — who has been on the run since November 27th 2006 — is an ex-webpage designer and programmer from New York who started up a luxury car rental company in early 2005. By early 2006 the business had attracted the attention of the Mafia who unbeknownst to 'Frank' were behind a long-running campaign of sabotage on his fleet of cars in order to make him desperate to reach out for help. In March, 2006, the perfect opening they had been trying to engineer presented itself and they seized upon this, offering themselves as a 'security company' and they also became partners by injected money into the business and sourcing repairs to an auto-repair shop run by them. Frank was unaware of who they were as he was dealing with only one person (who he is yet to name), and by the time he had figured out who they were it was way too late.

The car rental company inevitably collapsed because of the greedy and illicit activities of the Mafia to try and suck money out of the business any way they could. They then demanded their money back and broke Franks arm when he missed two consecutive payments, which is the time he went on the run.

Visitors to Franks blog (www.deadmanwalking.net) can expect to see his regular blog entries, the full background story in his own words which explains his very complicated situation, as well as a merchandise store and more. Also on the blog is the ominous 90 day countdown timer he has placed on the site as an ever-present reminder both to readers and himself of the looming deadline.

For enquiries and more information contact: press@deadmanwalking.net"

Submission + - Rinbot Worm Wreaks Havoc on Business Systems

Submitted by Scott Tracy on Thursday March 01, 2007 @02:49PM

Scott Tracy writes: As reported by CNN Money, some major businesses in the U.S. are being hit by a worm that was apparently created by someone with a grudge against Symantec. This is also happening in Canada, where my company (which has hundreds of Windows PCs) has been completely off the Internet for days as IT tries to wipe the worm from every desktop and laptop.

Earth's Constant Hum Explained 336

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday February 16, 2007 @07:29AM from the global-tinnitus dept.

MattSparkes writes "It has been known for some time that there is a constant hum that emanates from the Earth, which can be heard near 10 millihertz on a seismometer. The problem was that nobody knew what caused it. It has now been shown that it is caused by waves on the bottom of the sea, and more specifically 'by the combination of two waves of the same frequency travelling in opposite directions.'"

Submission + - Judge Restricts New York Police Surveillance

Submitted by

berberine

on Friday February 16, 2007 @07:22AM

berberine writes: "In a rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled today that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there was an indication that unlawful activity may occur. Nearly four years ago, at the request of New York City, the same judge, Charles S. Haight Jr., had given the police greater authority to investigate political, social and religious groups."

Feed $82 For E-Voting Secrets (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Friday February 16, 2007 @07:12AM

Five Sequoia electronic voting machines sold at on online auction? $82. A chance for a researcher to dissect the embedded software that the company refused to make public? Priceless. By Kim Zetter.

Submission + - X.Org 7.2 Ready for Primetime

Submitted by

F-3582

on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:53AM

F-3582 writes: "After three months of getting behind the schedule the X.Org Foundation has announced the release of a new X.
From the Press Release: "X11R7.2 [...] incorporates significant stability and correctness fixes, including improved autoconfiguration heuristics, enhanced support for GL-based compositing managers such as Compiz and Beryl, and improved support for PCI systems with multiple domains. It also incorporates the new, more extensible XACE security policy framework.""

Journal Journal: PGP cracked ?

Journal by rosydreams on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:39AM

Guys, I cannot believe that: it seems that russian hackers were able to http://software.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?docid=239052crack PGP !!! I'm using this program (PGP of course, not this cracker!) for years (from very old DOS version) and trusted it, so that shocked me to death :((( I'm not a crypro guru but as I understand they're using the distributed network (probably from KGB?

Google Launches Summer of Code 2007 74

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:05AM from the back-once-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like Google has announced that it will be doing Summer of Code again this year. The program looks pretty much the same this year but they have built time into the program schedule for students to get up to speed before they start coding. Nice job, Google."

Submission + - Google Bought, Burned NC Seniors' Homes

Submitted by

theodp

on Friday February 16, 2007 @03:25AM

theodp writes: "Nicholas Carr has a nice roundup of the latest Googlegate News, including the heartwarming story of how NC government officials acting on Google's behalf hounded the elderly into selling their homes, keeping prices down by using a nonprofit front funded by Google to conceal the search giant's identity from folks like Eugene and Violet Anderson, both 86. As former homeowners took up residence in apartments and doublewides, the local fire department burned down a number of their homes to make way for Google, whose tax incentives are now being pegged at $260M."

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