SirClicksalot - Slashdot User

Submission + - Hacker blackmails ISP for unlimited Bandwitdh (adsl-bc.org)

Submitted by abelchemoul on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @06:18AM

abelchemoul writes: In Belgium, the biggest ISP (Belgacom/Skynet) is still capping the traffic on most of their offer (mine is 25Go a month), and most of other ISP do the same. Not for long? A hacker named Vendetta has published today login data from 1000 users. Apparently abusing an exploit from the router Skynet give to their clients, he threatens to release 1000 account data a week until end of november if the quotas aren't abolished.
From his post : "Be warned shitty ISPs, if you don\'t want me to share the exploit along with over 285.000 ADSL logins just stop this shitty bandwidth capping"

Submission + - Myelin, An Explanation for Human Intelligence (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Tuesday October 20, 2009 @08:49AM

eldavojohn writes: "What makes a homo sapien more intelligent than any other species? New research is suggesting that it's not just particular regions that give us a superior intellect nor is it the number of neurons. Instead, scientists are shifting attention away from the gray matter and focusing more on myelin, the white matter. Humans have a uniquely high ratio of myelin to gray matter. George Bartzokis, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, suspects it's not neurons that matter so much as the quality of their connections--which theoretically is increased by myelin. From the article, 'Thanks to their layer of insulation, which prevents leakage of electrical impulses, myelinated nerve fibers can send signals about 100 times as fast as unmyelinated ones. The myelin also allows more information to be sent per second by reducing the waiting time between signals. The result is that neurons can process 3,000 times as much information as would otherwise be possible. That capacity, Bartzokis believes, is crucial for speaking and processing language.' Unfortunately myelin's quality is estimated to be 95 percent dependent on genetics although rats raised in a stimulating environment do have more white matter. This would, however, explain why children that are breast fed instead of bottle fed have on average a higher IQ as breast milk contains more omega-3 fatty acids that are used in the development of myelin. While this may not spell immediate improvement for people with normally functioning brains, it may be great news for treating/preventing Alzheimer's patients or even schizophrenics. The Technology Review is also running a pictorial overview of the last 100 years of modern neuroscience if you'd like to see how far science has come recently."

Submission + - UK Public Opposes Internet ban for Filesharers

Submitted by SirClicksalot on Monday October 19, 2009 @08:05AM

SirClicksalot writes: In a recent UK poll 70 percent of the people surveyed said they oppose plans to force ISPs to disconnect suspected filesharers. Only 16 percent spoke out in favor of automatic measures based on the accusation of copyright holders. Moreover, 30 percent indicated that they would be less likely to vote for a party that supports disconnection proposals.

Submission + - Did giant Indian impact kill the dinosaurs? (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 19, 2009 @01:53AM

An anonymous reader writes: Move aside Chicxulub; an even bigger asteroid impact in the Shiva basin, off the coast of India, may have been ground zero for the dinosaurs, a team of U.S. and Indian scientists say in a guaranteed-to-be-controversial finding.

Comment Re:Well, (Score 3, Insightful) 241

by SirClicksalot on Thursday October 08, 2009 @04:45AM (#29678419) Attached to: <em>Dragon Age: Origins</em> To Get Paid DLC Expansion — On Launch Day

they could have just raised the price of the game and stuck it in. Would make me feel less of a sucker

But it still wouldn't change the fact that they are trying to charge extra for what should just be in the game from the start.
This isn't an expansion, this is just a side quest that has been ripped out of the game and is now sold separately.
If EA gets their way we'll soon be paying for our RPGs on a per quest basis.

Not that any of this will stop me from buying Dragon Age (although I don't think I ll buy any DLC).
Which is of course the main problem. Dragon Age already has a strong following of BG/bioware fans.
EA knows they can get away with this, the game will still be a guaranteed hit.

Comment Re:And why should they care? (Score 0, Flamebait) 441

by SirClicksalot on Wednesday October 07, 2009 @03:26AM (#29667175) Attached to: MIT Axes the 500-Word Application Essay

The grandparent post said that identical scores mean identical potential, and that is utter bollocks. Two people might both be intelligent and perform well with tests. One of these might get on well with others, have good listening skills while the other is only interested in their own opinion. One may may be liked and respected by his team the other resented and ridiculed. How are these two even remotely identical?

Very True. But what makes you so sure that the person who is good at making up 500 words of bullshit is the one that will be liked and respected by his team? (especially a team composed of engineers)

Nintendo, Sony Take Big Financial Hits 119

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 01, 2009 @03:21AM from the can-we-call-it-a-bubble-yet dept.

The Installer writes with news that Nintendo is seeing a significant financial downturn to match the general slowdown in the rest of the industry. "Sales of the once unstoppable Wii console have tumbled for the first time since its launch three years ago, sending the gaming giant's quarterly profit down 61 percent." Meanwhile, Sony is feeling the pain as well; the company sold 500,000 fewer PS3 consoles than in the previous quarter, and PSP sales saw an even bigger drop. Interestingly, Sony also revealed that the manufacturing cost of the PS3 has now dropped 70% since it was released. The drop in sales has caused the resurgence of rumors about console price cuts.

Comment Re:I beg your pardon? (Score 2, Informative) 951

by SirClicksalot on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @05:44AM (#26795025) Attached to: Darwinism Must Die So Evolution Can Live

So "Darwinian evolution" raises a question: What's the other evolution?

Other evolutionary systems have been proposed. Before Darwin came along Lamarck formulated his own theory of evolution. The main difference with Darwinian evolution is that Lamarckian evolution supposes inheritance of characteristics acquired during the life time of the organisms. See wikipedia

Comment Re:Small Orbital Device Kills Everyone (Score 1) 769

by SirClicksalot on Saturday January 20, 2007 @01:57PM (#17695666) Attached to: What is your favorite superweapon

Species migrating is natural. Viruses, bacteria, and other diseases are natural. Unless the OP is suggesting we held the Indians down and injected them with smallpox, the analogy holds.

Well they didn't injected it, but close. It also seems the British were responsible and not the U.S. From wikipedia:

Smallpox was probably first used as a biological weapon during the French and Indian Wars of 1754-1767 when British forces in North America distributed blankets that had been used by smallpox patients among them to Native Americans collaborating with the French.

This was only a single instance though. Most Native American deaths due to smallpox seem to have been unintentional.

This method also wasn't as rare as the OP seems to think. Catapulting the bodies of plague victims over the city walls during a siege was a known tactic during the middle ages.

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