Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Disclaimer: IAAMB (Score 1) 245

by cibyr (#26232653) Attached to: Amateurs Are Trying Genetic Engineering At Home

No, but anyone who's that interested CAN have one of these in their garage (or on their desk, more likely), and get their design fabbed by these guys fairly cheaply.

Sure, it's not quite as easy as hacking on open source, but hobbyist CPU design is definitely possible. Especially when you consider there ARE open source CPU designs out there.
The Courts

Submission + - SPAM: Internet Fraud: Many Complaints, Few Repercussions

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "Unless you're peddling child porn, there's not much chance you'll see the inside of a courtroom for Internet-related crime, according to research released Tuesday. The Center for American Progress and the Center for Democracy and Technology compared the number of complaints that state attorneys general offices receive to how many lawsuits the states bring against spammers, spyware creators and other online fraudsters. Not all states report such numbers, but the 20 that do said that they received 20,000 Internet-related complaints in 2006 and 2007. Yet during that same time period, attorneys general brought only 168 Internet-related cases to court, with 60 percent of those related to child porn, the researchers found."
Link to Original Source
Security

Submission + - Hackers Exploit SafeDisc DRM in Windows XP

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: InfoWorld has a story on how hackers are taking advantage of a privilege escalation bug in the SafeDisc DRM that ships with Windows XP and Server 2003. What I wonder is why did Microsoft include this more subtle DRM at all, and can't users simply remove the secdrv.sys file and avoid what could be a slimy patch/secret DRM upgrade?

Read: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/11/06/Hackers-exploiting-bug-in-DRM-shipped-with-Windows_1.html
Google

Submission + - WSJ spreads FUD on open source and Google Phone (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ben Worthen at the Wall Street Journal shows a laughable grasp of what "open source" means: 'Here's the first thing that will happen when a phone with Google's operating system hits the market: Information-technology departments will ban employees from connecting phones that run Google's operating system to their computers or the corporate network. The reason is that Google's operating system is open, meaning anyone can write software for it. That includes bad guys, who will doubtlessly develop viruses and other malicious code for these phones, which unsuspecting Google phones owners will download. Employees could spread the malicious code to the rest of the company when they synch their phones to their computers or use it to check email. The way to combat this is to develop anti-virus and anti-malware software for phones and to develop security procedures similar to those that have evolved for PCs over the last several years. But that's going to take time and money — neither of which the average IT department has. So until then, expect Google phones to be persona non grata at companies.'
Microsoft

Driver Update Can Cause Vista Deactivation 875

Posted by CmdrTaco from the thank-god-we're-all-safe-from-pirates dept.
KrispySausage writes "After weeks of grueling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA — something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation. Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour."
Privacy

Submission + - School taking action against Network freedom 1

Submitted by
Tristan Stillwell
Tristan Stillwell writes: "I am a teenage high school student in the municipality of Bunn, North Carolina.
Today I found out I was suspended from school for ten days for possessing programs that were "capable of doing damage to the private school network". The programs were Firefox Portable and VNC viewer, and BlueJ Java Development Environment. I, an 18 year old high school student, was informed through my aunt, who was called about this disciplinary problem ( Isn't this private information?). I have no chance to appeal this suspension and are being forcefully and permanently removed from my Java(c) Computer Science and US government and Politics courses which I was taking through the state. I will most likely receive grades of ZERO (0) for both classes, thus destroying any chance I ever have of getting into a decent college. I am initially receiving a 10 day suspension, and then possibly a longer suspension pending investigation. Note- the school has found nothing I might have done to potentially cause damage to the network, I was suspended for having the programs- nothing else. I plan to contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation for help with this clearly unfair oppression. The only (thought) crime I have committed is one arousing suspicion, not arriving from action. I will provide further information after I officially receive the suspension."
Education

Submission + - Schools Placing at 99th Percentile for Cheating 3

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Time reports that sometimes No-Child-Left-Behind really means No-Test-Scores-Left-Behind, creating opportunities for data forensics firms like Caveon (check out their Ten Most Wanted Cheaters poster). Take Houston's Forest Brook H.S., which was a shining example of school reform. In 2005, after years of rock-bottom test scores, 95% of its 11th graders passed the state science test. Teachers were praised and the school was awarded a $165,000 grant by the governor. But an investigation found a host of irregularities and last year's testing was monitored by an outside agency. Test scores plunged and only 39% passed science."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA's Sherman Attacks NewYorkCountryLawyer 4

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "When questioned by a journalist on the viability of the RIAA's "making available" theory of copyright law, Cary Sherman, the organization's Chairman and CEO, responded by saying "It basically comes down to, who ya gonna believe, Ray Beckerman, or the Register of Copyrights?". Beckerman (alias NewYorkCountryLawyer on Slashdot) replied on his blog "I'm sure my readers know what the correct answer to the question is. Question: Who are you going to believe, Ray Beckerman, or the Register of Copyrights? Answer: Neither. I'm going to read the statute and believe what the statute says"."
Music

Submission + - RIAA loses counterclaim lawsuit (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This is the case in which the Court had sustained 5 of the 6 counterclaims interposed by Ms. Del Cid.

The court sustained defendant's counterclaims for

-trespass to defendant's personal property based on the RIAA's having accessed files on Ms. Del Cid's computer without her permission,
-violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act based on the RIAA's unauthorized intrusion into defendant's computer,
-violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act,
-a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, and
-conspiracy to commit extortion, since defendant sufficiently alleged "a peculiar power of coercion possessed by Plaintiffs [by] virtue of their combination, which an individual alone would not possess".
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Minister: Games less important than TV and Film (on.net)

Submitted by
UgLyPuNk
UgLyPuNk writes: "It's often been an Australian complaint that while we seem to pride ourselves in supporting "the arts", video games never seem to get the same attention. This has come to the forefront again today, following news that the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, The Hon. Helen Coonan, has dismissed a call from the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) for a 40% rebate to assist game developers and promote the growth of the industry in this country.

The recent budget outlined a Screen Media Support Package, which "has the potential" to support screen content producers of all kinds — seemingly as long as the screen is of the television or movie variety."
Robotics

Submission + - US NSF funds 'mind-reading' technology (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by
StonyandCher
StonyandCher writes: "The US National Science Foundation is funding research that could enable computers to respond to your levels of frustration or boredom, via mind-reading technology. Tufts University researchers are exploiting near-infrared spectroscopy technology that uses light to pick up on your emotional cues by monitoring brain blood flow. Of course, for now you need to wear a funky headband to make it work (the headband "uses laser diodes to send near-infrared light through the forehead at a relatively shallow depth — only two to three centimeters — to interact with the brain's frontal lobe," according to Tufts.)"

Slashdot Top Deals

Those who can, do; those who can't, write. Those who can't write work for the Bell Labs Record.

Close