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Comment Didn't Like It (Score 1) 602

I found the first season to be really boring and when one summarizes the plot, I think that might become clear. I found the second to be unrelentingly depressing since not a single character had any substantial redeeming qualities.

The Internet

Woman's Nude Pics End Up Online After Call To Tech Support 197

Tara Fitzgerald couldn't find the nude pictures she planned on sending to her boyfriend, but instead of just taking more, she decided to see if a Dell tech support call could fix her problem. Apparently the tech support guy found them. Unfortunately, he then put them up on a site called "bitchtara."

Comment Innovation! (Score 5, Insightful) 294

I think this is a big deal. Who really believes that outsourcing technology operations to India and China does not have a long-term consequence? With time, India and China will become innovators -- if they have not already. Reportedly, China has already built the world's second-fastest supercomputer, and is fabricating its own chips (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/science/01compute.html).

Imagine, now, young people thoughout the world writing software. What platform would they choose? If I was growing up in India and had an accessible computer for $35, I probably would not want to pay a whole lot more for a Windows computer.

Maybe this tablet does not quite have it right, technologically. But it is a step forward and an indication of intention on the part of the Indian government.

Image

Prince Says Internet Is Over 450

the_arrow writes "According to the artist currently known as Prince, 'The internet's completely over.' At least that what he says in an interview with the British newspaper Mirror. Quoting Prince: 'The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you.'"
Businesses

Comcast Awarded the Golden Poo Award 286

ISoldat53 writes "The Consumerist has awarded Comcast the Golden Poo award for the worst company in America. From the article: 'After four rounds of bloody battle against some of the most publicly reviled businesses in America, Comcast can now run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and hold its hands high in victory — it has bested everyone else to earn the title of Worst Company In America for 2010.'"

Comment Fading Edge Between Software and Data (Score 1) 224

Nessus provides and interesting example. The software itself is free, but you can buy knowledge modules.

So, Suppose a particular free package supports knowledge modules. These could be simple tables, scripts, whatever. A package like Nessus could even support its own programming language, perhaps even to the extent of LISP on Emacs. One can purchase them, and when purchasing them, they can buy a susbcription for updates. (For that matter, one could even purchase anti-virus signatures that destroy computers, but that is another story.)

So, the software is free, but the data isn't. Would scripts that run within a particular package constitute software that, by imnplication, would be free, or data that one would pay for?

Comment In the meantime .... (Score 1) 112

How are cybersecurity experts really trained? In universities? Private industry is on the cutting edge of computing, not academia.

So, what about private industry? Would anyone really want their son, daughter, nephew or niece to to go into any field that would prepare them to be cybersecurity experts? Outside of jobs that require security clearances, it seems that there is a pretty good chance of getting offshored or at least oursourced. Who wants that kind of job security?

Funny, despite all the comments universities, when earning an "advanced" degree in computer science (where many of the students could not program their way out of a wet paper bag), the US government gave me no tax breaks whatsoever with the hefty tuition. In my case, I did not overly care, but in general, the incentives for earning academic credentials in computer science seem somewhat limited.

Bug

Outlook 2010 Bug Creates Monster Email Files 126

Julie188 writes with this snippet from Network World "Office 2010 is still in beta and a patch is already out. Microsoft is trying to fix a bug in the email program Outlook 2010 Beta that creates unusually large e-mail files that take up too much space. The Outlook product team has offered a bug fix for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems that fixes the problem going forward, although previous emails will remain super-sized. This could be a problem for email programs that limit message sizes, such as Gmail or BlackBerry."
Software

The Final Release of Apache HTTP Server 1.3 104

Kyle Hamilton writes "The Apache Software Foundation and the Apache HTTP Server Project are pleased to announce the release of version 1.3.42 of the Apache HTTP Server ('Apache'). This release is intended as the final release of version 1.3 of the Apache HTTP Server, which has reached end of life status There will be no more full releases of Apache HTTP Server 1.3. However, critical security updates may be made available."
Microsoft

Microsoft Facing Class-Action Suit Over Xbox Live Points 107

An anonymous reader tips news that a lawyer in Pennsylvania has filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging that the company's handling of Xbox Live transactions is, in some cases, fraudulent. "Samuel Lassoff, of Horsham, PA, said an invoice he received earlier this month from Microsoft included charges for purchases he couldn't complete due to a balky download system — and he claimed it wasn't an accident. Microsoft 'engaged in a scheme to unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling' of his account, Lassoff charged in papers filed earlier this week in US District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania. ... 'Microsoft breached that contract by collecting revenues for digital goods and services which were not provided,' Lassoff said in his lawsuit."
Open Source

Linux Kernel 2.6.32 Released 195

diegocg writes "Linus Torvalds has officially released the version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel. New features include virtualization memory de-duplication, a rewrite of the writeback code faster and more scalable, many important Btrfs improvements and speedups, ATI R600/R700 3D and KMS support and other graphic improvements, a CFQ low latency mode, tracing improvements including a 'perf timechart' tool that tries to be a better bootchart, soft limits in the memory controller, support for the S+Core architecture, support for Intel Moorestown and its new firmware interface, run-time power management support, and many other improvements and new drivers. See the full changelog for more details."
Software

Getting Through the FOSS License Minefield 96

dotancohen writes "Here's an exercise: Write a GPLed server for solving Freecell that the graphical game would communicate with using TCP/IP or a different IPC mechanism. Easy, right? Except for that pesky licensing bit. Our own Shlomi Fish gives an overview of the various options in picking up a licence for one's FOSS project, and tries to give some guidelines choosing one."

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