Sooner Boomer - Slashdot User

Submission + - Need E-Reader Recemmendations 1

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Sunday November 18, 2012 @01:01AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "Black Friday is coming on strong. The one thing I'm looking for this year is an e-reader. Actually, it doesn't need to be a dedicated e-reader like a Kindle or Nook, it could be a tablet. The requirements are: it has to read as many formats as possible (.pdf, .lit, .mobi, .txt, .etc). It should play .mp3s (audio books). It should be as inexpensive as possible, yet actually available. I don't mind jail breaking or rooting a device if that will increase the available formats. It would be nice if it had a memory card slot, or would br able to access my home nerwork (smb server). I've got terrible eyes, so it would be nice if it was backlit, but not a requirement. Suggestions?"

Submission + - Michael O'Hare Dead at 60 (hollywoodreporter.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Tuesday October 02, 2012 @08:13AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "'Babylon 5' Star Michael O'Hare Died at 60 from heart attack. O’Hare, who starred as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair on the first season of the sci-fi series Babylon 5, died Friday after suffering a heart attack five days earlier. He was 60.

“This is a terrible loss for all B5 fans, and everyone involved with the show wishes to convey their condolences to the O'Hare family,” series creator J. Michael Straczynski wrote on his Facebook page. “He was an amazing man.”

O'Hare left the show after the first season (Straczynski at the time called it a "mutual, amicable and friendly separation," with the star being ostensibly replaced by Bruce Boxleitner), but the actor came back for an episode in season two and back-to-back installments in season three to wrap up his character's storyline.

More at The Hollywood Reporter and Huffington Post.

I guess this will spark another "Kirk vs. Picard"-style squabble."

Submission + - How to share pics, text, other files for mail list?

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @06:29AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "I'm a member of a long-running mail list. We recently migrated back to it from years-long trials with efforts involving google and yahoo groups. The legacy mail list does not allow the posting of binary files, so no pictures, PDFs, or similar files can be shared. The folks are not very tech savy, and don't want to download/install programs like what are needed for dropbox and other services. Other web free sites such as Photobucket are picture and video only. What other free solutions are there to allow the list members to share files, preferably with password protection to try to limit it to only the list members?"

Submission + - Dental cavaties a thing of the past? (geek.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Wednesday July 11, 2012 @01:29AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "A scientest ib Chile has discovered a chemical that could keep us cavity-free, no matter how much sugary treats we eat. The chemical, KEEP 32, kills the bacteria, Streptococcus Mutans, that livew on our teeth, metabolizes the sugar, and produces acid (causing cavities). The inventors have a provisional patent on the molecule in the U.S. and are seeking funding to complete human trials for a period of 14 to 18 months, preparing a product for the market. "The molecule can not only be incorporated into a gum, but products like toothpastes, mouthwashes, toothpastes sheets, candies, dental night gel and other (products) who may be inside the mouth 60 seconds at least," said Erich Astudillo , CEO of Top Tech Innovations, a company that hosts this development. "In Chile we were seeking funding for two years and no one is interested in putting resources to R & D," he says. So he joined the Founder Institute (one of the largest incubators and business accelerators in the world) to better model the business and looking for capital in international networking. more at http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.df.cl%2Fcientificos-chilenos-patentan-molecula-que-elimina-las-caries%2Fprontus_df%2F2012-06-29%2F195432.html (Google translation)."

Submission + - "All Your Books Are Belong To Us!" (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Wednesday February 29, 2012 @01:52PM

Sooner Boomer writes: "Ignoring the exclusive rights of authors, and particularly their moral right to release of their works, the French parliament seems prepared to seize control of the French 20th century written heritage, and grant its exploitation to commercial publishers, at the expense of the public, the libraries that preserved them, and most of their authors. Scribes have just six months to opt-out, or lose their moral rights and the ability to determine a price for their work. It's essentially a Compulsory Purchase Order for intellectual property — the author's work is no longer their own. Ownership is instead transferred to a quango answering to the French Ministry of Culture, which is authorized to make it digitally available. Publishers are the big beneficiaries. The law applies to ALL authors who have published in France, French and foreign, and superceeds international copyright treaties. Ironically France prides itself as the home of creators' rights — and pioneered moral rights — or droit d'auteur as they call them. The state, of course, is a middleman with unique characteristics: it can enforce its seizures of individual property with its monopoly on violence. Which makes it a uniquely powerful foe. And the French Free Software movement, recognising the freedoms of software libre depend on strong copyright, has called it "legalised piracy". The land grab is so brazen that even the French Pirate Party has come out fighting against it. "And they call us pirates?" asked Marcel Baptiste, secretary of the Party in a blogpost. "We are all united with the authors, artists and all those who are regularly ripped off by middlemen," he added. Comments by the French Free Software User's Association here: http://aful.org/communiques/french-senate-proposes-to-legalize-piracy-french-20th
Comments by the French Pirate Party here (Google translation): http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpartipirate.org%2Fblog%2Fcom.php%3Fid%3D1425"

Submission + - LightSquared CEO resigns (dailycaller.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Tuesday February 28, 2012 @06:38PM

Sooner Boomer writes: "Sanjiv Ahuja, the CEO of LightSquared resigned suddenly on Tuesday. Ahuja’s resignation comes after Obama’s FCC suspended conditional approval of a waiver LightSquared needed to complete its high-speed broadband network. Until two weeks ago, the company’s final approval appeared imminent. It was recently revealed that Ahuja gave the maximum allowable $30,400 contribution to the Democratic National Committee on the same day his lawyers were trying to arrange a meeting for him at the White House with top Obama technology adviser Aneesh Chopra and other officials. Emails and documents indicate political ties and numerous meetings between LightSquared and Obama administration officials as the was undergoing regulatory review. In emails between Ahuja’s lawyers and White House officials Ahuja wanted to meet with, his lawyers pointed out that he would attend an Obama fundraiser on or about the same day he wanted the meeting. In a statement accompanying the company’s announcement of Ahuja’s resignation, he made no mention of those revelations."

Submission + - Your cat (or its parasites) are controlling your brain. (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Friday February 10, 2012 @06:36PM

Sooner Boomer writes: "A Czech biologist, Jaroslav Flegr, is investigating how a common parasite found in cats (and their poop) may significantly alter human behavior. He found that women infected tended to dress nicer, be more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women. Infected men rended to be more introverted, suspicious, oblivious to other peopleâ(TM)s opinions of them, and inclined to disregard rules. My cat just tells me he needs more fresh fish. Off to the store!"

Submission + - Here's a bright idea... (washingtontimes.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Monday December 19, 2011 @07:00AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "As part of the Federal Budget deal, the Republicans have inserted a bill that overturns the upcoming incandescent light bulb ban. That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress passed on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown. It negates a 2007 law that would have set energy efficiency standards that effectively made the traditional light bulb obsolete. Some have argued that the cost of manufacturing and hazardous materials offset and energy savings from alternative lighting sources such as Compact Flourescent bulbs or LEDs."

Submission + - Biggest storm seen on Saturn (tgdaily.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Thursday July 07, 2011 @05:16AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "The Cassini space probe has been monitoring an enormous storm on Saturn since it was detected last December. The storm was first discovered by the radio signals produced by the incredible lightening strikes. The storm, dubbed "The Great White Spot", now 500 times larger than any previously seen by Cassini at Saturn, is 8 times the surface area of Earth. Observers on Earth have been able to see a bright white "smudge" in the northern half of the planet. Article with audio of storm here: http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/57070-cassini-monitors-biggest-ever-saturn-storm , great pictures here: http://www.universetoday.com/87269/the-sights-and-sounds-of-saturns-super-storm/ , NASA Cassini page here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html"

Submission + - Why you really should pay your web designer (mashable.com)

Submitted by Sooner Boomer on Saturday February 05, 2011 @08:30PM

Sooner Boomer writes: An unknown web designer and hoster had enough of not being paid by the client, Winona Chiropractic. After not being paid for more than three years, the web designer took over the site and made his complaint public. The above link at mashables shows the web site, which has since been taken down.

Submission + - US military now preapred to help with "cyber attac (defensenews.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Thursday October 21, 2010 @03:04PM

Sooner Boomer writes: "The US DoD is prepared to provide cyber expertise to other government agencies and to certain private companies to counter attacks on their computer networks, the Pentagon's cyber policy chief, Robert Butler, said Oct. 20. An agreement signed this month with the Department of Homeland Security and an earlier initiative to protect companies in the defense industrial base make it likely that the military will be a key part of any response to a cyber attack. Homeland security will still perform the lead in cyber defense, but, the two agencies — Defense and Homeland Security — "will help each other in more tangible ways then they have in the past," Butler told a group of defense reporters.

Unfortunately, this does not mean the beginning of Predator drone attacks against spammers and malware authors..."

Submission + - Bob Guccione dies at 79 (google.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Thursday October 21, 2010 @10:34AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "Many of us remember Bob Guccione for the magazines he published. Some remember him for Penthouse, others for Omni. Both were groundbreaking when they came out. Guccione passed away Wednesday in Plano, Tx, at the age of 79 from cancer. Make your own jokes about him being a stiffie now.

And, BTW, this new dynamic insexing SUCKS. I cannot read Slashdot like this and your system will not save cchanges back yo the original style"

Submission + - Possible Hint to origin of Stuxnet Worm (cnbc.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:34PM

Sooner Boomer writes: "There is a possible hint to the origin of the Stuxnet Worm which has been reported as running in the wild in Iran. Several of the teams of computer security researchers who have been dissecting the software found a text string that suggests that the attackers named their project Myrtus. The guava fruit is part of the Myrtus family, and one of the code modules is identified as Guava. FromTFA:
"Deep inside the computer worm that some specialists suspect is aimed at slowing Iran’s race for a nuclear weapon lies what could be a fleeting reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them. "
But,
"Ralph Langner, a German computer security consultant who was the first independent expert to assert that the malware had been “weaponized” and designed to attack the Iranian centrifuge array, argues that the Stuxnet worm could have been brought into the Iranian nuclear complex by Russian contractors.

“It would be an absolute no-brainer to leave an infected USB stick near one of these guys,” he said, “and there would be more than a 50 percent chance of having him pick it up and infect his computer.”

So — put on your tinfoil hat (or yarmulke...), but watch out for unknown USB keys..."

Submission + - Computer worm found in industrial control systems (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Friday September 17, 2010 @02:16AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "In the Sept. 14th Computer World is an article about a sophisticated worm designed to steal industrial secrets and disrupt operations has infected at least 14 plants, according to Siemens.

Called Stuxnet, the worm was discovered in July when researchers at VirusBlokAda found it on computers in Iran. It is one of the most sophisticated and unusual pieces of malicious software ever created — the worm leveraged a previously unknown Windows vulnerability (now patched) that allowed it to spread from computer to computer, typically via USB sticks. Stuxnet has infected systems in the U.K., North America and Korea, however the largest number of infections, by far, have been in Iran.

Once installed on a PC, Stuxnet uses Siemens' default passwords to seek out and try to gain access to systems that run the WinCC and PCS 7 programs — so-called PLC (programmable logic controller) programs that are used to manage large-scale industrial systems on factory floors and in military installations and chemical and power plants.

If the worm were to be used to mess up systems at a chemical or power plant, the results could be devastating."

Submission + - Flying car approved by FAA (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Tuesday June 29, 2010 @06:50PM

Sooner Boomer writes: "The Terrafugia Transition, a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile, is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Aviation Administration. This "car" is about to go into production, with about 70 people putting down $10K each (into an escrow account) for a deposit, towards $200K final cost. Still no word on the Moller flying car (...any day now...)."

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