NichardRixon - Slashdot User

Comment This does sound like it lost something in the . . (Score 1) 322

by NichardRixon on Wednesday September 22, 2010 @09:38AM (#33661400) Attached to: MPAA Asks If ACTA Can Be Used To Block Wikileaks

. . translation. . . I don't read Spanish, but this makes little sense. What good would it do to block Wikileaks to the US? I thought the goal was to keep this material out of the hands of the enemy. RN

Comment The polygraph is not a lie detector (Score 1) 452

by NichardRixon on Monday June 14, 2010 @09:09PM (#32573582) Attached to: The Truth About the Polygraph, According To the NSA

Several people have said essentially this. The polygraph can measure your pulse and respiration rates, your blood pressure, your galvanic skin response, and from this data it can determine your pulse and respiration rates, your blood pressure and your galvanic skin response. No machine exists that can detect a lie. If a polygraph test uncovers any information at all it's because the person being tested offered it up. Anyone can "beat" a polygraph test simply by stating that they've told the truth as many times as necessary. A person's behavior during the test might raise concerns about other things, though. NR

Giant Planet Nine Times the Mass of Jupiter Found 73

Posted by Soulskill on Friday June 11, 2010 @04:05PM from the fat-planets dept.

cremeglace writes "In the late 1990s, astronomers noticed a distinct warp in the disk of dust and gas orbiting a young star some 60 light-years from Earth. Now, using new analytical tools, researchers have discovered a giant planet lurking within the dusty haze. About nine times as massive as Jupiter and composed mainly of gas, the planet is only a few million years old, proving that such enormous planetary bodies can form rapidly." What's amazing about this is that the images taken of the star clearly show the planet first on one side of the star, and then the other, several years later.

Valve Delays Portal 2, Squashes Duke Nukem Rumors 135

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday June 10, 2010 @05:54AM from the duke-is-not-still-alive-still-alive dept.

SKYMTL writes "In a tongue-in-cheek commentary, Valve has announced the delay of Portal 2 and thrown water on the rumor fires regarding its E3 'surprise.' This surprise was rumored to be either Half-Life 3 or the revival of Duke Nukem, and it looks like neither will happen anytime soon."

Why Are Video Game Movies So Awful? 385

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday June 09, 2010 @03:28AM from the not-just-uwe dept.

An article at CNN discusses why big screen interpretations of video games, even successful ones, often fail to succeed at the box office. Quoting: "The problem with successfully adapting video games into hit Hollywood spin-offs may lie in the way in which stories for both mediums are designed and implemented. Game makers chasing the dream of playing George Lucas or Steven Spielberg will always strive to coax human emotion and convincing drama from increasingly photorealistic virtual elements. The Hollywood machine, in its endless chase for big bucks, can't help but exploit the latest hit interactive outing, often failing to realize it's often a specific gameplay mechanic, psychological meme or technical feature that makes the title so compelling. Both sides may very well continue to look down in disdain on the work that the opposite is doing, which can doom any collaborative efforts. But where the two roads truly diverge is in the way stories are fundamentally told. Films offer a single, linear tale that's open to individual interpretation, whereas games are meant to be experienced differently and in a multitude of ways by every player." On a related note, reader OrangeMonkey11 points out that an 8-minute short has showed up online that appears part of a pitch for a potential Mortal Kombat reboot movie. Hit the link below to take a look.

Submission + - Australian Internet Filtering Bad, Google Too. (slashdot.org)

Submitted by NichardRixon on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @10:39PM

NichardRixon writes: These days I think many of us are finding an increasing need to be alert to the possibility of Google dust blurring our vision. We all wanted them to remain the good guys they started out to be, but more and more they resemble the wealthy corporation they really are. After reading /.'s Will Australia Follow China's Google Ban?, I was struck by a linked-in editorial by James Riley on ITwire.com (http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/the-big-house/36973-google-is-the-worlds-biggest-filter). While AFAIK I don't miss what Goggle has so far decided to censor, I have to take issue with anyone deciding for me what I may or may not know. (And besides, if they think an item's bad for me, what becomes of the poor Googlites who must review the offending content prior to deleting it?) No doubt Riley is correct in his assertion that Google already filters far more than the Australian government will, and I have to keep reminding myself that Google's decision to stop helping the Chinese government censor the Internet was retaliatory, not a moral stand. They made their peace with censorship long ago.

I do not at all support the Australian government's Internet filtering plan, but I have little patience for Google's protests on the grounds of free expression. Does anyone have a different take on this?

And besides that, why is it that lately every time I Google via Tor I have to prove I'm not a spammer submitting automated queries? Is fighting spam really the goal in this, or could it be that Tor makes it difficult for the advertisers to follow me around?

Submission + - Rumours LHC has identified two strangelets (wbillingsley.com)

Submitted by williamhb on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @08:57PM

williamhb writes: As you may be aware, the CERN large hadron collider performed it's first high energy collisions just the other day. The official statements are that it will take many months or even years to collect and analyse the data. However, early data already suggests some interesting findings.

Not one not one but two kinds of strangelet appear to have been created. The first turns other particles into strangelets as it contacts them. This might have caused a world-ending reaction had it not been for the second kind. Once a sufficient density of the first strangelets exists in an area, a kind of anti-strangelet appears. This exerts a strong attraction force on other particles, and causes the first strangelets to revert back to normal matter. The strong attraction force suggests this might be an unexpectedly different form of the long sought-after Higgs particle, though this is yet to be confirmed.

The scientists have informally dubbed the first strangelets as "wise particles" or "cluons" as they mimic the way knowledge is passed from person to person. The opposite strangelets' flocking behaviour and cancellation effect on wise particles has led to them being dubbed "fools".

So, today April 1st, scientists can claim to have identified Higg's Bozo.

Submission + - New App Could Make All Software 'Open Source' (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @08:52PM

itwbennett writes: Researchers at the University of Washington are working on a tool called Prefab that they say could essentially make any software open source — although the tool doesn't actually change the source code of the programs. 'Microsoft and Apple aren't going to open up all their stuff. But they all create programs that put pixels on the screen. And if we can modify those pixels, then we can change the programs' apparent behavior,' said James Fogarty, a University of Washington assistant professor of computer science and engineering.

Submission + - Judge Finds NSA Wiretapping Program Illegal

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @08:00PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that a federal judge has ruled that the NSA's warrantless surveillance program was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep one of Bush's most disputed counterterrorism policies shrouded in secrecy. Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated a 1978 federal statute requiring court approval for domestic surveillance when it intercepted phone calls of Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity in Oregon, and of two lawyers who were representing it in 2004. Declaring that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” the judge said that the government was liable to pay them damages. ““Judge Walker is saying that FISA and federal statutes like it are not optional,” says Jon Eisenberg, a lawyer represented Al Haramain. “The president, just like any other citizen of the United States, is bound by the law.” In 2008, Congress overhauled FISA to bring federal statutes into closer alignment with what the Bush administration had been secretly doing legalizing certain aspects of the warrantless surveillance program but the overhauled law still requires the government to obtain a warrant if it is focusing on an individual or entity inside the United States. The surveillance of Al Haramain would still be unlawful today if no court had approved it, current and former Justice Department officials say."

Submission + - Microsoft Fuzzing Botnet Finds 1,800 Office Bugs (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @07:34PM

CWmike writes: Microsoft uncovered more than 1,800 bugs in Office 2010 by tapping into the unused computing horsepower of idling PCs, a company security engineer said on Wednesday. Office developers found the bugs by running millions of 'fuzzing' tests, a practice employed by both software developers and security researchers, that searches for flaws by inserting data into file format parsers to see where programs fail by crashing. 'We found and fixed about 1,800 bugs in Office 2010's code," said Tom Gallagher, senior security test lead with Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group, who last week co-hosted a presentation on Microsoft's fuzzing efforts at the CanSecWest security conference. 'While a large number, it's important to note that that doesn't mean we found 1,800 security issues. We also want to fix things that are not security concerns.'

Submission + - Area 51 vets break silence no space aliens or UFOs (nwsource.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @05:44PM

suraj.sun writes: Area 51 vets break silence: Sorry, but no space aliens or UFOs

After nearly five decades, guys like James Noce finally get to tell their stories about Area 51. Yes, that Area 51.

Noce, 72, and his fellow Area 51 veterans around the country now are free to talk about doing contract work for the CIA in the 1960s and '70s at the arid, isolated Southern Nevada government testing site. Their stories shed some light on a site shrouded in mystery; classified projects still are going on there. "I was sworn to secrecy for 47 years. I couldn't talk about it," he says.

Noce and Barnes say they never saw anything connected to UFOs. Barnes believes the Air Force and the "Agency" didn't mind the stories about alien spacecraft. They helped cover up the secret planes that were being tested.

Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011461015_area51vets28m.html

Submission + - Microsoft: Google Chrome steals your privacy 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @05:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is going on the offensive against Google, accusing the search giant of creating a browser that does not respect user privacy. The company posted a video, embedded below, on TechNet Edge with the following description: "Watch a demo on how Google Chrome collects every keystroke you make and how Internet Explorer 8 keeps your information private through two address bars and In Private browsing." Microsoft's first criticism is Chrome's combining the address bar and the search box into a single entry box; IE8 keeps those fields separate. "By keeping these boxes separate, your privacy is better protected and the addresses of the sites you're visiting aren't automatically shared with Microsoft, or anyone else," says IE product manager Pete LePage.

Space Exploration Needs Extraterrestrial Ethics 162

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday February 25, 2010 @02:24PM from the fly-softly-and-carry-a-big-laser dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Professor Andy Miah notes there's already international government policies taking hold on outer space — and a need for new ethical guidelines. 'For instance, what obligations do we owe to the various life forms we send there, or those we might discover? Can we develop a more considerate approach to colonizing outer space than we were able to achieve for various sectors of Earth?' And what rights do astronauts have? 'Could our inevitable public surveillance of their behavior become too much of an infringement on their personal privacy?' But more importantly, professor Miah notes that 'the goods of space exploration far exceed the symbolic value,' pointing out that 'A vast amount of research and development derives from space exploration ... For example, the United Kingdom's 2007 Space Policy inquiry indicated that the creation of space products contributes two to three times their value in GDP.'"

Mozilla Rolls Out Firefox 3.6 RC, Nears Final 145

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 12, 2010 @11:34AM from the onwards-and-upwards dept.

CWmike writes "Mozilla has shipped a release candidate build of Firefox 3.6 that, barring problems, will become the final, finished version of the upgrade. Firefox 3.6 RC1, which followed a run of betas that started in early November, features nearly 100 bug fixes from the fifth beta that Mozilla issued Dec. 17. The fixes resolved numerous crash bugs, including one that brought down the browser when it was steered to Yahoo's front page. Another fix removed a small amount of code owned by Microsoft from Firefox. The code was pointed out by a Mozilla contributor, and after digging, another developer found the original Microsoft license agreement. 'Amusingly enough, it's actually really permissive. Really the only part that's problematic is the agreement to "include the copyright notice ... on your product label and as a part of the sign-on message for your software product,"' wrote Kyle Huey on Mozilla's Bugzilla. Even so, others working on the bug said the code needed to be replaced with Mozilla's own."

Surgeon Makes Tutorial DVD For Conscious Open-Heart Surgery 170

Posted by samzenpus on Friday January 08, 2010 @01:58PM from the looks-easy-enough dept.

Lanxon writes "Swaroup Anand, 23, from Bangalore, was fully conscious as he underwent open-heart surgery. An epidural to the neck, administered at the city’s Wockhardt Hospital, numbed his body during the procedure. Dr Vivek Jawali pioneered the technique ten years ago and has recently released a tutorial on DVD, which gives a step-by-step guide to the procedure for other surgeons to watch and learn from."

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