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Data Storage

Submission + - Hard Drive Loss

Submitted by CommiNazi
CommiNazi writes: I've run into a little bit of a curiosity. Mostly concerning the loss of hard drive space on a newly formatted internal hard-drive. On a brand new 200 GB SATA hard drive once formatted shows 188 GB's. This is to be expected. However, my secondary HD of the same make and model once formatted shows as 192 GB's. A third hard drive completely different brand, a 250GB SATA shows up 233 GB's. All are NTFS So my question is; Is there any rhyme or reason to the amount of loss on these drives? I fully understand that a hard drive never has full use of the available space because of the file system, however, why the discrepancies?
The Internet

Submission + - Net Neutrality Act Once Again on the Agenda

Submitted by
blue234
blue234 writes: "On January 9th, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and Democrat Byron Dorgan reintroduced the Internet Freedom Preservation act to the Senate. Better known as the Net Neutrality Act, the bill was killed by the Senate last year in a vote split down party lines (Democrats yea, Republicans nay), with the exception of Senator Snowe. With the Democrats having a slight majority in the Senate, the bill certainly has a better chance this time around, but it still needs 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster. url: http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Net-Neu trality-Act-Once-Again-on-the-Agenda/31886"
Democrats

Submission + - Barbara Boxer Wants Opinions on Global Warming

Submitted by
fistfullast33l
fistfullast33l writes: "Barbara Boxer(D-CA) wants to know how you would legislate environmental issues in the 110th Congress. She has posted a survey asking you to rank 9 items that Congress can do to limit the effects of Global Warming. The Congresswoman is currently Chair of Environment and Public Works Committee in the United States Senate and plans to put your input to good use."
Security

Submission + - Vista Monoculture In Our Future?

Submitted by
anorlunda
anorlunda writes: "This is pure speculation. I notice that experts seem to be increasingly concerned with zombie PCs on the web and all the damage that they can do. There will come a day when an injured party sues the zombie's host ISP claiming negligence. A natural reaction to that could be for the ISPs to insist that their PC customers use the most hacker resistant, yet ubiquitous OS around — namely Vista.

I can hear the screams of anger now from millions of users who don't want to switch. On the other hand, few or none of them would stop using the net or even switch ISPs. Most would probably grumble, then switch to Vista. Hardware and third party software vendors and congressmen would back the ISPs because it would trigger the biggest mass upgrade since Y2K and create a surge of thousands of jobs.

The security debate to be acted out before congressional committees would be entertaining. We would pit the antimonoculturalists on one side versus the ban-those-Win95-skeletons proponents on the other side. It would also make the perfect opportunity to advocate the mobile browser plus net apps as the non-PC alternative architecture.

Could a major ISP successfully refuse Mac and Linux customers? I see no legal impediment. They can argue security and simplfied support as their motives. Once again, most aggrieved Mac and Linux customers would scream, but they would rather switch than go back to dial-up. Therefore, relatively few customers would actually defect.

I hate bringing up such an ugly speculation. I can see the flames coming my way now. But, the simplicity and rationality of a Vista-only future from the point of view of the ISPs and others seems too powerful to ignore. Perhaps the question should be, what would stop it from happening?"
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Top Predictions of our Techno-Utopian Future

Submitted by
HeroicLife
HeroicLife writes: "Killer (medicine-eating) robots, nuclear apocalypse, nano goo, mass starvation, class warfare or climate hell — is this our future? Or can we look forward to a technological utopia that fulfills our every whim but bores us to death? Here's an unusually positive outlook that answers the most common doomsday scenarios and offers some things to look forward to. "The sum of all these innovations will gradually change the way we define ourselves. Our consciousness becomes the central processing unit of a complex system, with external storage and sensor facilities spread across the world and to other people. As human-computer interfaces improve, our sense of self will evolve to include our digital memories as well as those of others...""
Businesses

Submission + - Communicating with companies like Verizon?

Submitted by
chaoskitty
chaoskitty writes: "Ok — so you run a mail server or 10, and you've gotten all of the bugs ironed out. You are confident that your email delivery and reception are working perfectly — after all, you pass hundreds of thousands of legitimate email a day. Then, one of your users contacts you telling you that mail from your server is not getting delivered. You ask for a copy of the error report so you can see what's going on, and you see something like this:

(reason: 550 You are not allowed to send mail:sv25.verizon.net)

So you look in the mail logs, and it's clear that the problem is on Verizon's end:

... Jan 29 12:12:25 bigtime sm-mta[17704]: l0TJwls8005690: to=, ctladdr= (10001/10000), delay=00:13:38, xdelay=00:00:01, mailer=esmtp, pri=213168, relay=relay.verizon.net. [206.46.232.11], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: 450 Requested mail action not taken-Try later:sv18pub.verizon.net
Jan 29 12:22:41 bigtime sm-mta[6426]: l0TJwls8005690: to=, ctladdr= (10001/10000), delay=00:23:54, xdelay=00:00:12, mailer=esmtp, pri=303168, relay=relay.verizon.net. [206.46.232.11], dsn=5.0.0, stat=Service unavailable Jan 29 12:22:41 bigtime sm-mta[6426]: l0TJwls8005690: l0TKMRb4006426: DSN: Service unavailable

So you decide to contact Verizon. But email to postmaster@verizon.net and support@verizon.net aren't answered. You try to call the numbers in the WHOIS, and you get shuffled to Verizon Support, who obviously won't help you because you don't have a Verizon account regardless of how patiently you try to explain that the problem is on their end.

You look up 550 errors and Verizon in Google, and you see that LOTS of other people are having the same problems. But nobody knows why Verizon is randomly rejecting email. It's not even consistent, as your user corresponds with the same Verizon accounts all the time.

What do you do now? Is there a way to get a company like Verizon to respond to seemingly ongoing mail server problems on their end? How do you get someone at Yahoo to read the email you send them to tell them that they're registering and hosting phishing sites and phishing-collecting email addresses?

What do YOU do when that huge company offers no way to communicate? Is it time to start advising people to AVOID email accounts from large providers?"
OS X

Submission + - Should Apple license their OS to Dell?

Submitted by
feranick
feranick writes: "The Inquirer is running an editorial suggesting Apple to license OSX. It's not the first time this topic is brought up. However the Inquirer is picking Dell as the perfect candidate as the licensee. From the article:

"Why Dell? Dell is one of the few companies that could actually make the marriage work. They make quality hardware, know how to squeeze every last penny out of manufacturing, and wouldn’t/shouldn’t break a sweat supporting Mac OS. If anything, Mac OS should actually CUT their support costs because they won't get so many odd-ball calls about Windows XP/Vista issues.
Apple could position the move as "Dell is so cool, we had to do a deal with them." Underlying that is "Let's face facts, with the exception of a pretty case, and a couple of hardware features, we're an Intel box all the same." (I know I'm going to get foaming rabid Mac owners that say the bits under the hood of their machines are especially selected by Zen Master Craftsmen and assembled by virgins in a far off land with blessed incense burning on a 24x7 basis, but it just ain't so).
What has Apple got to lose? Zero.
What does Apple have to gain? More market share, shaking/breaking the monopoly of Microsoft on the desktop for "The Rest of Us" (Enough with the Linux already, too many steps to make it work for The Rest of Us)".

What do you (honestly) think?"
Editorial

Submission + - Why Microsoft Really Wants PC Gaming to Revive

Submitted by thegamebiz
thegamebiz writes: Amped News has an interesting article reflecting on the current state of PC gaming and how Games for Windows is meant to not only boost PC gaming, but help Microsoft set up dominance for the Xbox 360 in the console space. From the article: ""Mark your calendars: January 30th 2007 will be the most significant day in gaming for the next several years.' It's difficult to know if he's right. Taking history into consideration, the launch of new operating systems has caused gamers more pain than pleasure, at least initially. Anyone playing PC games during the transition from MS-DOS to Windows 95 can testify to that...The foundation must be laid with care, no matter what the initial inconvenience. Because Microsoft knows this, January 30th, 2007 is a day that not only marks a rebirth of sorts for the PC gaming industry, it will also be known in history books as the day Microsoft launches a surprise attack for console dominance."
Security

Submission + - New Cisco Vulnerability Announced

Submitted by cybrzndane
cybrzndane writes: There is a new Cisco IOS vulnerability out which allows remote code execution. All devices running Cisco IOS are affected. For the full Cisco Security Advisory, go to http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_secur ity_advisory09186a00807cb157.shtml

A total of 3 advisories were released today. For a full list of security advisories, go to

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_secur ity_advisories_listing.html
Businesses

Submission + - Relocation Package Bait and Switch

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I got a R&D job offer with a large company in Philadelphia area last week. It includes a relocation package that they told me was standard for my position.

After I accepted the offer and made plans to terminate my current job, the recruiter handed me off to their relocation department, where I was told that my relocation package is significantly less than what I was promised. The relocation manager tells me that whenever there is conflict between their relocation policy and the offer, their internal relocation policy supersedes.

What I want to know from my fellow Geeks are : 1) Is this type of switch-and-bait common practice in corporate America? 2) If you have gone through this nightmare before, any advice on how to respond to it?
Security

Submission + - Microsoft study finds EV SSL Certs are ineffective

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Stanford University and Microsoft Research published a study [PDF] that concludes that Extended Validation Certificates do not help users to detect phishing attacks. Without training, most users in the study did not notice the new EV indicators in IE7. Training only increased their vulnerability- reading the IE7 help file made users more likeley to classify phishing sites as legitimate. This study arrives just as the first EV certificates are being rolled out. The authors will present their results at Usable Security 2007 in February.
Handhelds

Submission + - Switzerland bans the use of GPS units in cars.

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: If you're traveling with a GPS in your car to Switzerland, be very careful! As of January 10th, the Swiss authorities (ASTRA) have forbid the use of GPS systems in cars. They also banned the selling of car GPS units throughout the country.
The reason is that the software running on these devices reveal the location of traffic radars, through which less people have been fined in the recent years and thus Swiss authorities miss a lot of money. The controversial ban has been created a large commotion inside and outside the country, forcing the authorities to put an official document online [pdf — in Germans], with answers to most frequently asked questions.
GPS devices such as TomTom, Garmin, Mio, Navman, Medion, Route 66, Packard stand Ring, Sony and ViaMichelin are all in the banned list.

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