Comment Re:Hollywood learned the same lesson long ago (Score 1) 763
Keep in mind that most movies make back some or all of their production cost before going to DVD. Video is icing, not the cake.
Comment Definitely (Score 1) 763
The $60 price point has really turned me off from gaming. Alone the $60 game might not be a killer. But combined with the game industry's obsession with pleasing hard-core gamers you have a recipe for me walking away from gaming. Why would I pay $60 for a game that requires me to unlock most of the content? Or for a game that requires lots of trial-and-error? Or for a game that was released unfinished with showstopping bugs? I'd rather stick with $10 downloads.
Comment How it really works (Score 1) 1055
The 9/80 work schedule is a scam. Youâ(TM)ll have worked the 80 hours, but on Friday there will be a big meeting and youâ(TM)ll need to work. The next off Friday some important maintenance task will come up and youâ(TM)ll need to work. After that there will be a client interaction and youâ(TM)ll need to work. Your company will not pay you overtime for any of these extra Fridays because youâ(TM)re a salaried professional.
Itâ(TM)s a trap!
Comment Take what you can get! (Score 1) 372
Right now is a terrible time to be looking for an entry-level niche position. Those jobs are being filled by mid and senior level workers who just got laid off and will work for an entry level salary to keep their family fed. And if you do get a niche job, youâ(TM)re likely to become the new senior technician when the more expensive hackers get laid off and their jobs are dumped on youâ"which is not a fun situation to be in.
What you need to do is get into a whatever IT job you can, keep working on security stuff at home or in test labs at work, and ride the recession out. Make connections. If you have security people on staff get to know them and show interest so that you might get promoted when something opens up. But whatever you do, donâ(TM)t sit around unemployed and hoping that the perfect niche job pops up, because in this economy thatâ(TM)s not likely to happen.
Comment No thanks. (Score 2, Informative) 668
I tried Songbird, and noticed it was using up about 3 times the RAM iTunes uses. And for what? A bunch of extra crap I wonâ(TM)t use. Itâ(TM)s like these guys took notes from the OpenOffice team on how to make a crappy interface that loads slowly and then goes on a RAM eating rampage.
Submission + - CIA claims power grid hacked (pcworld.com)
supabeast! writes: PC world reports that the CIA claims hackers have successfully intruded, via the internet, into computers controlling the American power grid. The hackers then attempted to extort money from their victims, and have even caused power blackouts, on at least on occasion affecting multiple American cities.
Submission + - VM-based rootkits proved easily detectable (stanford.edu)
paleshadows writes: A year and a half has passed since
SubVirt, the first VMM (virtual machine monitor) based rootkit, was introduced.
The idea spawned two lively slashdot discussions:
the first, which followed
the initial report about SubVirt,
and
the second, which was conducted after
Joanna Rutkowska
has
recycled the idea (apparently without giving credit to the initial authors).
Conversely, in this year's HotOS workshop,
researchers from Stanford, CMU, VMware, and XenSource have published a paper titled
"
Compatibility Is Not Transparency: VMM Detection Myths and Realities"
which shows that VMM-based rootkits are actually easily detectable.
The introduction of the paper explains that
"While commodity VMMs conform to the PC architecture, virtual implementations of this architecture differ substantially from physical implementations. These differences are not incidental: performance demands and practical engineering limitations necessitate divergences (sometimes radical ones) from native hardware, both in semantics and performance. Consequently, we believe the potential for preventing VMM detection under close scrutiny is illusory — and fundamentally in conflict with the technical limitations of virtualized platforms."
The paper concludes by saying that
"Perhaps the most concise argument against the utility of VMBRs (VM-based rootkits) is: "Why bother?" VMBRs change the malware defender's problem from a very difficult one (discovering whether the trusted computing base of a system has been compromised), to the much easier problem of detecting a VMM."
"While commodity VMMs conform to the PC architecture, virtual implementations of this architecture differ substantially from physical implementations. These differences are not incidental: performance demands and practical engineering limitations necessitate divergences (sometimes radical ones) from native hardware, both in semantics and performance. Consequently, we believe the potential for preventing VMM detection under close scrutiny is illusory — and fundamentally in conflict with the technical limitations of virtualized platforms."
The paper concludes by saying that
"Perhaps the most concise argument against the utility of VMBRs (VM-based rootkits) is: "Why bother?" VMBRs change the malware defender's problem from a very difficult one (discovering whether the trusted computing base of a system has been compromised), to the much easier problem of detecting a VMM."
Submission + - Radiohead lets you choose the price of music (the-anti-spam-program.com)
tehnoir writes: Apparently Trent Reznor isn't the only one getting away from the standard music industry mentality. Radiohead currently has their upcoming album available for pre-order. Currently you can order a box set for the album, or you can order a digital download of the album for whatever you think you should pay. While you must fill in an actual value, 0 is acceptable.
Hopefully as more and more artists start exploring new avenues for release, the rest of the industry will catch on; though I'm not holding my breath yet.
Submission + - Whats the best platform for mobile development? (blogspot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: For a hobbyist programmer what should be the the target platform iPhone, Java ME, Windows Mobile, Linux, Palm, Brew, Symbian or Blackberry. Who provides the best tools and sdk's for development on these platforms?
Stallman Convinces Cuba to Switch to Open Source 582
prostoalex writes "It's a big victory for Richard Stallman in North America, as Cuba decided to adopt open source software on the national level. Both Cuba and Venezuela are currently working on switching the entire government infrastructure to GNU/Linux operating system and applications, the Associated Press reports from Havana: 'Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code.' The AP article doesn't mention the distro used for government workers, but says that the students are working on a Gentoo-based distro."
Global Warming Only a Theory, Says School Board 1089
BendingSpoons writes "A Seattle school board has placed a moratorium on screenings of 'An Inconvenient Truth', having found its subject matter too controversial. Echoing the language of the evolution debate, the school board found that students must be told that global warming is only a theory and presented with an opposing viewpoint. The ban was prompted by the complaints of a parent: '"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."'"
Lucas, Ford to Start Filming New Indiana Jones Film 477
Alchemist253 writes "George Lucas has announced that the script for the long-rumored fourth Indiana Jones film has been finalized and is to begin filming this year, with Harrison Ford once again in front of the camera. From the article: 'In a statement, the 64-year-old Ford said he was ready for another turn as the globe-trotting archaeologist. "I'm delighted to be back in business with my old friends," he said. "I don't know if the pants still fit, but I know the hat will."' All three of the earlier movies were shot in the 80s. How well do you think this character is going to translate into a movie made today?
Demo PS3 Units freeze on Purpose 363
AbsoluteZero writes "A Sony rep has claimed to Destructoid that demo PS3 units in kiosks across the country were built to freeze up on purpose. From the article: "We do that so that people won't play it all day long," he explained. "Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot.""
Give an Internet Freedom Disk 342
An anonymous reader, perhaps the blogger himself, writes to tell us about a new blog aimed at getting non-techies excited over the idea of running from a Live CD. The blogger doesn't call it that, preferring instead "Internet Freedom Disk"; Linux is never mentioned. The submitter adds: "This is just a great gift to drop on your non-geek friends and potentially wake up a sleeping giant." Cheap, last-minute, and you can make them yourself. The blogger isn't selling anything; he provides links to Ubuntu and Knoppix Live CDs. Or pick your favorite.
Boston Globe to Blogger — "Stop Using Opera" 465
PetManimal writes "Mac Daniels of the Boston Globe weighed in on a prickly debate involving the updated local mass transit website. The Globe's advice to one complainer named 'derspatchel': Stop using Opera. Derspatchel's response is to go medieval on Daniels' ass, and ask the question: Why should Opera users give up their browser? Quoting: 'I don't give two whoops about the "percentage of the Internet population" or whatever. I don't care if a website works on someone else's choice of browser; I care if it works or not on my choice of browser. It's a modern browser, it's in active development, and it's free. Once dev stops on the Opera browser and the last version becomes outdated and unable to support newer Web innovations, then I'll "stop using it." How's that, Chuckles?'" After a day the transit authority took the new site offline to "improve performance," reverting to the old version.
