A-Slug - Slashdot User

Submission + - Wi-Fi Hack Aids Boarding Parties

Submitted by Kage-Yojimbo on Saturday May 26, 2007 @08:59AM

Kage-Yojimbo writes: The U.S. Navy has adapted civilian wi-fi (wireless networks) for use at sea during boarding operations. By modifying off-the-shelf wi-fi gear, the navy increased the range to over 700 meters. The main reason for all this was to speed up the transmission of passport photos and other personal data back to the ship, so that it could be run through databases to check for terrorists or criminals. This wi-fi hack cut several hours off the time required to check documents. The Expanded Maritime Interception Operations (EIMO) wireless system was developed last year, to provide several kilometers of range to the original wi-fi gear (which has been in use for over three years). Each pair of wi-fi units costs about $1400 to construct, using common parts to add more powerful antennae to standard 802.11g wi-fi equipment.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/200 70525.aspx

Submission + - NOAA Blows $4 Mil in Taxpayer Dollars on Birthday

Submitted by AbsoluteXyro on Saturday May 26, 2007 @03:50AM

AbsoluteXyro writes: The newly appointed National Hurricane Center director Director Bill Proenza has revealed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is blowing $4 million in taxpayer dollars on NOAA's 200th anniversary celebration, while at the same time cutting $700,000 from hurricane research. WeatherMatrix founder Jesse Ferrel points out in his blog some of NOAA's ridiculous birthday spending, as well as the fact that it is only NOAA's 37th anniversary.

Submission + - Where is the U.S. Pirate Party?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26, 2007 @03:42AM

An anonymous reader writes: With the Pirate Party of Sweden getting 0.63% of the vote becoming the 10th biggest Party in Sweden and the largest party not in parliament, the question arises where is the U.S. Pirate Party? Created with a sea of enthusiasm a year ago the site now lies in shambles. No updates since July 2006. The forums have more Cialis ads than posts. What makes Sweden and the European parties succeed while the American one doesn't?

Submission + - Discover Magazine Archive Made Available

Submitted by

laggist

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @03:07AM

laggist writes: "Today while I was surfing around online, I realised that Discover Magazine had made it's entire archive freely accessible since mid-March 2007. I thought it was strange that I didn't get the scoop since I read slashdot all the time, so here it is for all you Slashdotters — read away!"

Submission + - Scientists discover radiation-eating fungi

Submitted by

amigoro

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @03:06AM

amigoro writes: "Scientists have discovered that fungi are able to eat radiation, and since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts might be able to rely on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long missions or for colonizing other planets. Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum — ionizing radiation — to benefit the fungi containing it, the researchers explain."

Submission + - $16,000 Bounty for Sendmail, Apache 0Day Flaws

Submitted by Famestay on Friday May 18, 2007 @12:52PM

Famestay writes: Verisign's iDefense is putting up a $16,000 prize for any hacker who can find a remotely exploitable vulnerability in six critical Internet infrastructure applications. The bounty is for a zero-day code execution hole on the following Internet infrastructure technologies: Apache httpd, Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) daemon, Sendmail SMTP daemon, OpenSSH sshd, Microsoft Internet Information (IIS) Server and Microsoft Exchange Server.

Submission + - Google to be our Web anti virus protector ?

Submitted by cyberianpan on Friday May 11, 2007 @12:10PM

cyberianpan writes: For some time we've noticed warning on Google searches that "this site may harm your computer" when Google has tagged the site as containing malware. Now Google is further publicising the level of infection in a paper titled: The Ghost In The Browser. Google are now promising to "identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious"- Google with its powerful crawling abilities & data centres is best positioned to do this. This is potentially a very useful service but not all URLs we visit are from Google searches, some we still type in, others as links from pages. However could we soon expect a Firefox add in that will filter all http requests through Google ? So then our new overlords will indeed know everything about our web-habits ?

Submission + - Scientists create artificial 'plastic' blood

Submitted by on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:50AM

An anonymous reader writes: An artificial plastic blood has been developed that can substitute for real blood. The plastic molecules contain an iron atom to carry oxygen through the body. Its advantages include being easier to store and having a longer shelf-life.

Submission + - "Libertarians are Terrorists" says Alabama

Submitted by on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:21AM

An anonymous reader writes: In a surprise move, the Alabama Department of Homeland Security (ALDHS) has seen fit to redefine terrorists as those who oppose a strong and dominant government, which includes Libertarians.

The original article at www.homelandsecurity.alabama.gov/tap/anti-gov_grps .htm [404] has been removed but an archived copy can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20060421160851/www.home landsecurity.alabama.gov/tap/anti-gov_grps.htm .

A disturbing sign of things to come or a hilarious display of government incompetence? Only time will tell.

Submission + - The Pirate Bay, Hacked.

Submitted by axelsson on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:04AM

axelsson writes: A group of hackers has stolen a list of all 1.6 million usernames and passwords for registered users of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. Computer Sweden reports that the sensitive information was accessed by a group calling itself Angry Young Hackers (Arga Unga Hackare — AUH). You can read the whole story in english here: http://www.thelocal.se/7280/20070511/

Submission + - Direct Observation on Dissapearance of Bees

Submitted by

rhinokitty

on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @12:05AM

rhinokitty writes: "I was on vacation at the beach in Moss Landing, California on Sunday May 6th and I discovered about 50 bees and around 50 ladybugs that were waterlogged and nearly dead. It seemed that the sandpipers on the beach were eating them.

It came to me that this could possibly explain the news reports of the mysterious disappearance of all the bees, if they went into the ocean there would be no evidence of them on land. I was walking at a brisk pace for about an hour, and every couple of minutes I would find another bee or another ladybug. I do not want to speculate on what this means — I will leave it to the experts — but I think this information is important.

Has anyone else observed a similar phenomenon where they are?"

Submission + - Searching through biological images

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Monday May 07, 2007 @01:20PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "Researchers at the Arizona State University (ASU) are working on software tools to analyze databases of biological images. One of these projects is using machine learning technology to compare the expression patterns captured in the images. So far, the software was used to explore a database of embryonic fruit flies images to see if the genes share the same spatial patterns. This would indicate that these genes also share similar functions. The goal of the developers is to build a tool able to search biological image databases as fast as Internet search engines are doing. Read more for additional references and a collage of fruit fly gene expression images."

Submission + - IP Law Versus Moore's Law

Submitted by DebNY on Monday May 07, 2007 @01:11PM

DebNY writes: Larry Downes, a fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, says that in the digital age, there's no such thing as intellectual property. "The very idea of intellectual property, which covers the laws of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, is a fiction. Intellectual creations — ideas, techniques, characters, stories, methods — are not tangibles like parcels of land or barrels of oil. But these products of the mind are very valuable, and to encourage us to spend our time creating them, the law pretends they are a form of property, with the same kinds of rights, responsibilities and protections as physical property."

This approach, says Downes, may have worked well at the dawn of capitalism, "but only because stealing information was difficult." Since the Industrial Revolution, however, "technology has made the spread of information faster and cheaper, leading to sometimes vicious struggles over who gets to benefit financially from the new value technology makes possible...The cause of nearly all of today's intellectual property conflicts is information technology — it's IP law vs. Moore's Law."

Unfortunately, Downes concludes, "As technology advances and the law stays rooted firmly in the past, expect more billion dollar lawsuits."

Submission + - 3D Printers a Reality

Submitted by mikepl on Monday May 07, 2007 @12:26PM

mikepl writes: Though slashdot had a recent article on 3D printers , this article from the NY Times shows other technologies, possible uses, and the possibility of a home/consumer model within a couple of years. I can't wait to make my own army men!

Submission + - Cyber Homeless People

Submitted by

alberion

on Monday May 07, 2007 @11:33AM

alberion writes: "In Japan a new social class has emerged. People who are not unemployed, but can no longer afford a place to live. Their solution? Living on cyber cafes."

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