Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Movies

Submission + - Retailers Explore Movie Download Options

Submitted by Hello7
Hello7 writes: When movies shifted from videocassettes to DVD, retailers simply cleared the tapes off the shelves to make room for discs. That's not so easy now that movies appear poised to follow music onto the Internet. The shift of music online has hurt stores such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Circuit City, and some retailers are looking to avoid a repeat with movies. Wal-Mart has launched its own movie download service, Best Buy is said to be in talks to start one, and Blockbuster explored buying movie download company Movielink earlier this year.
Software

Submission + - How to convince the boss to use open source?

Submitted by PHPNerd
PHPNerd writes: My boss is a very smart man who has been in the computing industry (mainly the software side of it) for the last twenty years. Now he's the IT Director at the company I work for where I'm a software developer (about 500 employees total). I see the value of open source, and so does my boss who frequently tests out the latest and greatest that the community has to offer. However, here at this company, we're rather entrenched into Microsoft and other companies where the users feel "safe" and "secure" using it because it's the familiar thing to them. He told me that he cannot justify moving to Open Office, Linux, and other open source movements. Effectively, it appears as though his hands are tied by the higher-ups. So, I ask the Slashdot community for help: I need a homerun, slam dunk list (to present to the vice presidents) with reasons why moving to open source will not only save money, but help the company to do better business.
Privacy

Submission + - Hacker's Case May Add to Students' Privacy Rights

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Article in Inside Higher Ed says the legal loss of a hacker in federal appeals court may result in students at public universities having MORE privacy rights. The hacker lost, but federal appeals court also said he had (generally) a right to privacy on computer in his dorm room:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/09/heck enkamp
Displays

Submission + - Samsung showcaseshighly innovative LCD monitor

Submitted by
Tsahi Levent-Levi
Tsahi Levent-Levi writes: "Samsung introduced a new LCD monitor in the last CeBIT event. This new monitor comes packed with a built-in PC and video telephony. It can either be used as a stand-alone thin client (a PC for all regular office purposes) as well as a videophone station or it can also complement as an LCD monitor for another PC.

This can really change the way enterprises work! Check out some Q&A around this new product from Samsung's VP here."

Feed Pentagon Preps Mind Fields (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
Researchers want to develop smart cockpits and control stations that can sense what soldiers are thinking and adjust to maximize efficiency. By Noah Shachtman.


It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Ribena with no Vitamin C

Submitted by astonishedelf
astonishedelf writes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2 043450,00.html Schoolgirls rumble Ribena vitamin claims NZ students find almost no vitamin C in drink GlaxoSmithKline could face up to £1.1m fine Jeevan Vasagar Tuesday March 27, 2007 The Guardian Two New Zealand schoolgirls humbled one of the world's biggest food and drugs companies after their school science experiment found that their ready-to-drink Ribena contained almost no trace of vitamin C. Students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo tested the blackcurrant cordial against rival brands to test their hypothesis that cheaper brands were less healthy. Instead, their tests found that the Ribena contained a tiny amount of vitamin C, while another brand's orange juice drink contained almost four times more. Article continues "We thought we were doing it wrong. We thought we must have made a mistake," Anna told New Zealand's Weekend Herald. The girls were both 14 and students at Pakuranga College in Auckland when they did the experiment in 2004. Given Ribena's advertising claims that "the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges", they were astonished and wrote to the manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). When they got no response, they phoned the company, but were given short shrift. "They didn't even really answer our questions. They just said it's the blackcurrants that have it, then they hung up," Jenny said. But then the girls' claims were picked up by a TV consumer affairs programme, Fair Go, which suggested they take their findings to the commerce commission, a government watchdog. GSK said the girls had tested the wrong product, and it was concentrated syrup which had four times the vitamin C of oranges. But when the commerce commission investigated, it found that although blackcurrants have more vitamin C than oranges, the same was not true of Ribena. It also said ready-to-drink Ribena contained no detectable level of vitamin C. GSK is in court in Auckland today facing 15 charges relating to misleading advertising, risking fines of up to NZ$3m (£1.1m). In Australia, GSK has admitted that its claims about Ribena may have misled consumers. The Australian competition and consumer commission said last week that claims on the nutrition information panel of Ribena's ready-to-drink cartons implied that the product had four times the vitamin C of orange juice drinks, when this was not correct. The girls have since visited GSK to be thanked "for bringing it to our attention". GSK said in a statement yesterday that concerns about vitamin C only affected some products in Australia and New Zealand."GSK has conducted thorough laboratory testing of vitamin C levels in Ribena in all other markets. This testing has confirmed that Ribena drinks in all other markets, including the UK, contain the stated levels of vitamin C, as described on product labels."
Music

Submission + - Heavy metal 'a comfort for the bright child'

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Daily Telegraph is reporting that intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research. Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent "metalheads" are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.
United States

Submission + - Gore and NOAA attack "planetary emergency"

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "While Al Gore was on Capital Hill today pressing Congress to cut pollution and in general save the world from itself, scientists from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory announced a tool to more effectively monitor changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The tool, called CarbonTracker, will let its users evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts to reduce or store carbon emissions. CarbonTracker is an online system that calculates carbon dioxide uptake and release at the Earth's surface from a system of sensors all over the world over time.Meanwhile Gore, in testimony before a congressional committee, warned that human- caused global warming constituted a "planetary emergency" requiring an aggressive federal response. Gore rejected complaints by Republican lawmakers that he was waging an alarmist war on the use of coal and oil. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1274 3"
Microsoft

Submission + - Free Linux CD in Windows Vista Day!

Submitted by thaidn
thaidn writes: Tomorrow 22/03/2007, Microsoft will hold something called Vietnam Windows Vista Day in Ho Chi Minh City. We think this is a very good chance to promote Linux so that we decide to deliver free Linux CD and documentation at that very fair. 300 "Gift from the Penguine" packages, each containing a free Ubuntu Linux and a quickstart manual in Vietnamese, will be delivered to students, programmers, developers and anyone else interested in Linux.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - How is the Slashdot tagging beta performing?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Since the introduction of the tagging beta, a number of tags have appeared that would seem to have little or marginal use. In particular, 'haha' and 'defectivebydesign' seem to pop up regularly. What does the submission of such tags say about the readership of slashdot? Don't you think think that the usefulness of the tagging system can be compromised somewhat by readers' attempts to be humorous? By example, what are the more interesting (and possibly useless) tags that have been observed since the pilot started?
Security

The Student vs Hacker Security Showdown Rematch 83

Posted by Zonk from the i'm-rooting-for-the-nerds dept.
monkeyboy44 writes "Following up on last year's entertaining hacker vs. student showdown, InformIT.com once again covered the annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition where college students are put to the test. During the three day event, small teams from eight of the areas colleges are handed insecure networks that they have to lockdown and keep running — all while a team of hackers attempt to gain access any way they can. To keep it interesting, the teams also had to perform various tasks, such as program web applications, install IDS systems and more — and if hacked, the US Secret Service was on hand to determine if there was enough data to start an investigation. Once again, the hackers dominated — but not without a few surprises."
Businesses

How to Stop the Dilbertization of IT? 412

Posted by Zonk from the some-sort-of-anti-phb-spray dept.
Alien54 writes "In the simplest terms: too many IT workplaces have become Dilbertized -- micromanaged, bureaucratic and stifled creatively. It's become an environment where busy work is praised and morale is low. How is it possible to bring IT's appeal back? 'IT professionals that have worked in the field for a long time often speak about a shift in their work where they have gone from tossing ideas back and forth to make for better technology solutions to fighting fires all day. "There's less emphasis on creativity, and more on maintenance. Tweak this, work on this ... In being reactive not proactive, everything is a crisis. Something has to be done right now, putting out fire after fire, going a long way to making IT a less pleasant environment," said Skaistis. Beyond making for a unpleasant work environment for the techies already in-house, this firefighting serves as a warning to potential recruits: you will not like this job.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe

Close