casals - Slashdot User

Submission + - Scientific Study: Brits are terrible at washing their Hands (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18, 2012 @02:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports the finding of a scientific study on the washing of hands in the UK. The result? 'Faecal bacteria are present on 26% of hands in the UK, 14% of banknotes and 10% of credit cards. 11% of hands are so 'grossly contaminated' they are carrying as many germs as a dirty toilet bowl. It's the same for 8% of cards and 6% of notes. Faecal matter can be found on one in six mobile phones. 99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did wash their hands.

99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did.

Submission + - Running a policy session for online piracy 4pm EST. Need people. Can you join? (thethinkingtank.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18, 2012 @02:43PM

An anonymous reader writes: I'm trying to see if this software (Synthetron) is useful for having meaningful and productive policy discussions. They're running a session today, 10/18, 4pm EST at my request on the topic of internet piracy legislation. I need people. Will you join in on this experiment?

Submission + - Opps! Printer releases Google earnings early, big drop (foxbusiness.com)

Submitted by ageoffri on Thursday October 18, 2012 @02:37PM

ageoffri writes: The printer filed the Google results hours before they were supposed and with the earnings not meeting expectations Google stock got hammered. Hope the printer has good business insurance, though it wouldn't surprise me to see that printer go out of business. Who will trust them now?

Submission + - Google announces $250 Samsung Chromebook (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18, 2012 @01:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: A typical Chromebook costing around $350–too close to a more fully-featured laptop with a much higher spec. But today Google is trying to rectify that stumbling block for consumers by introducing a new Chromebook with Samsung that costs just $250.

For that you get an 11.6-inch display (1366 x 768), 6.5 hours of battery life, 2GB RAM, 100GB of Google Drive Cloud Storage (for 2 years), dual band a/b/g/n WiFi, a VGA camera, HDMI port (for 1080p output), and Bluetooth 3.0. All that comes packaged in a laptop that’s just 0.8-inches thick, weighs 1.1Kg, and boots in under 10 seconds.

Submission + - Google's Profits Fall 20% Year-on-Year (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by MentalMooMan on Thursday October 18, 2012 @01:48PM

MentalMooMan writes: Google's quarterly profits fell 20% compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to a mistakenly-released draft earnings report. The report was supposed to be released after the markets closed, but was submitted earlier. Google is blaming printing firm RR Donnelley for the mistake. Google stock is down 9% and the NASDAQ has halted trading until the earnings report is finalised by Google.

Submission + - Newsweek will go all-digital in 2013 (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by

Tony Isaac

on Thursday October 18, 2012 @01:43PM

Tony Isaac writes: "Newsweek has announced that it will cease print publication at the end of the year, going all-digital. The new digital edition will still be based on a subscription model. Who will be next?"

Submission + - Should California Secede from the United States? (transhumanity.net)

Submitted by

boguspoppu

on Thursday October 18, 2012 @01:40PM

boguspoppu writes: "“Yes (sort of),” says Chris Hables Gray, a “pragmatic anarchist feminist revolutionary” who works as a lecturer of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cal State Monterey.

He believes “devolution” of large nations into smaller regions will improve democratic decision-making.

Is this a “transhumanist” topic? Indeed, it is. The Terasem survey revealed that 20.1% of H+ responders predict “Abolition of Government” in the next 100 years, with an additional 15.% foreseeing “Thousands of Small Fractured States.” California secession fits handily into the latter category.

I interviewed Dr. Gray via email last week on this controversial topic. Our e-dialogue is below:

Hank Pellissier: hi Chris — can you tell us a bit about your family background and upbringing?

Dr. Gray I was born in Bishop, California in 1953. On my mother’s side I’m a direct descendant of Jose Francisco Ortega, pathfinder of the Portola expedition, a number of other Spanish and Catalan explorers and, in two cases, of the Native California women they married. But I don’t claim any real indian heritage. These women’s real names are lost. But I did grow up thinking of myself as Spanish and Catalan (my great-grandmother who raised my mother lived in an adobe in King City), my favorites of the 23 nationalities that my parents have documented in my background.

How you define yourself politically and how did you reach that position?

Dr. Gray I’ve been an anarchist since I was 14 and a revolutionary feminist since I was 18. As a frosh at Stanford in 1971 I was arrested and beaten (not for the last time) during an anti-war protest and as I became an organizer"

Submission + - Dolphins can sleep one-half of their brain at a time say researchers (slashgear.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18, 2012 @12:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: Looks like the evolution in multi-core computing is something nature has already figured out. Dolphins will sleep one core while the other remains vigilant, running background tasks necessary for survival

Submission + - SD card survives real-life disaster test (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18, 2012 @12:27PM

An anonymous reader writes: A newly-wed couple lost their digital camera and SD card in the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011. The SD card survived flooding with silt and exposure to the weather for 20 months embedded in a gravel driveway. Amazingly, all 2.5 Gb of photos have recently been recovered. Sadly the digital camera did not fare so well. Even more interesting is that the SD card was from by a budget supplier, kudos to Adata!

Submission + - Oracle Leaves Fix for Critical Java SE Zero Day Until February (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7 on Thursday October 18, 2012 @10:01AM

Trailrunner7 writes: Oracle will not patch a critical sandbox escape vulnerability in Java SE versions 5, 6 and 7 until its February Critical Patch Update, according to the researcher who discovered the flaw. Adam Gowdiak of Polish security firm Security Explorations told Threatpost via email that Oracle said it was deep into testing of another Java patch for the October CPU released yesterday and that it was too late to include the sandbox fix.

Gowdiak said he plans to present technical details on the flaw Nov. 14 at the Devoxx Java Community Conference in Belguim. His team did share a technical description of the issue and source and binary codes of proof-of-concept exploit code.

The vulnerability and exploit were announced in late September. Gowdiak’s exploit successfully beat a fully patched Windows 7 computer running Firefox 15.0.1, Chrome 21, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 12 and Safari 5.1.7. The exploit relies on a user landing on a site hosting the exploit; an attacker would use a malicious Java applet or banner ad to drop the malware and ultimately have full remote control of a compromised machine.

Submission + - Microsoft Starts Rolling Out New Xbox 360 Dashboard (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @01:34PM

hypnosec writes: Microsoft has started rolling out the new Xbox 360 dashboard today with some new features such as Internet Explorer, a Xbox Music app among others. The 7 years old Xbox dashboard didn’t receive a redesign or an update for quite a long time and this is the reason Microsoft rolled one out today. Some of the major changes include recommendations and ratings, pinning, Xbox video, enhanced search on top of the IE browser and new music app. Some of the minor changes include resizing of fonts and more tiles on the screen.

Submission + - Is India UNCIVILIZED for your girl child? (firstpost.com)

Submitted by

NewYork

on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @01:30PM

NewYork writes: "As per National Crime Records Bureau, every 22 minutes a rape is committed in India and out of which 30% are against minors.
The conviction rate is below 25%, police refuse to register the complaint, rapist relatives visit victim's house to show off their hegemony and Indian politicians are saying gang-rape is consensual sex."

Submission + - FARK users attempt to bring an article from The Onion to life with. (indiegogo.com)

Submitted by UncHellMatt on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @12:59PM

UncHellMatt writes: What started out as a joke within FARK's "TotalFark Discussion" referencing The Onion article about Joe Biden washing his TransAM has blossomed into a full fledged fund drive to give Joe Biden a TransAm. "Now, Uncle Joe won't be able to accept this behemoth of steely American grace and power. He has these pesky laws and regulations and political-y things to deal with," the page reads. "Take into consideration his magnanimity and power of personality, he probably wouldn't be able to drive the Trans AM without causing a mass outpouring of Conservative Tears."

The original FARK thread can be found here.

Submission + - Intellectual property Huawei's last line of defense (patexia.com)

Submitted by

ericjones12398

on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @12:51PM

ericjones12398 writes: "Huawei’s sordid intellectual property past has caught up to them. After nearly a decade of IP property theft accusations from networking gear rivals, last week’s House Intelligence Committee’s report labeled Huawei a security threat and urged U.S. companies to steer clear of the Chinese telecom giant. Now a champion of Chinese patent reform, Huawei may not just be banished from U.S. soil, but forever victimized by its nation’s dirty IP reputation."

Submission + - GOG Responds To Linux Request (gog.com)

Submitted by FutureSuture on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @12:41PM

FutureSuture writes: We've seen a lot more of you guys voting on this wish recently and I thought it was only fair for me to update you. Linux is a great platform, and we love how much passion you guys are showing for it here on our wishlist. We definitely know that it's one of the top things our community wants from us, but it's also really difficult to bring the GOG.com level of support and ease-of-use to the wide variety of distros that are commonly used by Linux users. If we're able to bring GOG.com games to Linux--and we're constantly evaluating ways that we can do this--we want to make sure that we're doing it the GOG.com way: simple, easy, and it "just works." I'm not telling you guys to give up hope--we know how much you want this--but what I am saying is that this is harder to support than it might seem initially, and we're not ready to move to support Linux officially just yet.

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