24545960
submission
gclef writes:
Netflix has apparently decided that spinning off their DVD business into a separate organization was a bad idea after all, and is killing off the "Qwikster" concept.
6643627
submission
gclef writes:
Under the guise of responding to potential Internet congestion in the case of a pandemic flu, the US Government Account Office is recommending that Homeland Security should be planning to take over the Internet. Some of their recommendations include turning off high-traffic sites and telling ISPs to re-prioritize their traffic to either force everyone to slower speeds or only preferring traffic from certain users. MSNBC has a story on it but the full GAO report is where the real fun is. Of special note is the appendix where DHS basically says that this isn't their job or their problem.
3423495
submission
gclef writes:
Buried deep in the stimulus package details is an interesting provision that might go a long way to helping Open Source software break into the medical area. It says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should study the availability of open source health technology systems, compare their TCO against proprietary systems and report, no later than Oct 1, 2010 on what they find. For the actual verbage, see page 488 of the second pdf. (Slashdotters may also be interested in the language that starts on page 553 of that pdf to see just what the final package says about broadband.)
2875683
submission
gclef writes:
A method for forging trusted intermediate SSL certificates was just announced at the CCC. Apparently a few of the trusted CA's were still using MD-5 to sign issued certificates, and the attackers managed to get the CA to sign a cert with a collision. The root issuers are supposedly all moving off MD-5 for certs now...anyone else wonder how long till this all happens again with SHA-1?
117023
submission
gclef writes:
Speakeasy announced recently that they're being bought by BestBuy. Despite all the promises to the contrary, I suspect my ability to host servers in my home is going away soon. Does anyone in the Slashdot crowd have hints as to where I get reasonable co-lo space or reasonable virtual hosting? I don't want to outsource the management of my domains entirely, nor will 'webhosting' be good enough...I like having control of my own stuff (and like running my own DNS, IMAPS, etc servers). I just want somewhere that will give me a blank box with an unfiltered connection to the net. Anyone have good/bad experiences with the various places doing this?
7212
submission
gclef writes:
Following in the steps of the scientists profiled in The Eudamonic Pie, you can now buy a box in the UK that will predict the movement of the ball on a roulette wheel. The manufacturer claims this gives you a 20-100% advantage over the house. According to the gambling inspector interviewed by the Guardian, this is legal in the UK.