ChodeMaster - Slashdot User

Comment: Re:Senator Conroy's handiwork (Score 1) 158

by ChodeMaster on Monday December 15 2008, @05:30AM (#26117807) Attached to: Telstra Kicked Out of $15bn Broadband Project

I'm not trying to defend Conroy or anything here (I dislike him, his policies and the way he acts politically as much as any sensible Australian nerd with a love of uncensored internet), but are you actually trying to imply that Conroy had something to do with iinet being sued by film companies? p

Huge Credit Fraud Ring Sends Europeans' Data To Pakistan 166

Posted by timothy on Saturday October 11 2008, @04:32PM
from the we-keep-our-biggest-credit-thieves-in-d.c. dept.

marshotel excerpts from a story at the Wall Street Journal: "European law-enforcement officials uncovered a highly sophisticated credit-card fraud ring that funnels account data to Pakistan from hundreds of grocery-store card machines across Europe, according to U.S. intelligence officials and other people familiar with the case. Specialists say the theft technology is the most advanced they have seen, and a person close to British law enforcement said it has affected big retailers including a British unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tesco Ltd."

CNET: Your MP3 bit rate says you're a pirate

Submitted by haley.mills on Tuesday May 08 2007, @05:59PM

haley.mills writes "In an odd article, CNET tells us what your choice of MP3 encoding quality says about you, and describes the typical traits of digital music lovers from the childish Limewire freaks to the middle-aged audiophile fanatics, and includes the notion that most people with 128kbps MP3's in their libraries are music pirates."

Ceiling height affects problem-solving skills

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2007, @05:45PM

An anonymous reader writes "A recent study at the University of Minnesota suggests that ceiling height affects problem-solving skills and behavior by priming concepts that encourage certain kinds of brain processing. According to researcher Joan Meyers-Levy, "When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom. In a low-ceilinged room, they activate more constrained, confined concepts." The concept of freedom promotes information processing that encourages greater variation in the kinds of thoughts one has, while the concept of confinement promotes more detail-oriented processing. From the article: "Managers should want noticeably higher ceilings for thinking of bold initiatives. The technicians and accountants might want low ceilings." There could be consequences in the world of health care as well, she said. "If you're having surgery done, you would want the operating room to encourage item-specific processing.""

Jack Thompson Attacks Wendy's for Wii Promotion

Submitted by

Riley Munoz

on Tuesday May 08 2007, @05:11PM

Riley Munoz writes "Hey Slashdot, Our balmy friend, Jack Thompson, continues his "heroic" crusade against violent video games by attacking Wendy's upcoming kids meal promotion for the Nintendo Wii version of Manhunt 2. Game Almighty received a copy of the letter today written by Thompson to the CEO of Wendy's pleading for the promotion to be cancelled. Sample paragraph: "A dear friend of mine worked for Wendy's and with Dave Thomas closely for years. From that I know that Dave Thomas never would have tolerated the use of Wendy's good name to promote Nintendo's Wii, not with this game available on the Wii platform. " http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story /Jack_Thompson_Targets_Wendys_Due_to_Wii_Promotion / Thanks for any links! Riley Munoz -Community Manager riley@gamealmighty.com www.GameAlmighty.com"

Videogames Really Are Linked to Violence 204

Posted by Zonk on Monday April 30 2007, @06:41PM
from the much-like-your-average-poet-is-linked-to-black-clothing dept.

ahoehn writes "Amanda Schaffer has written a refreshingly balanced piece about the connection between video games and violence. Instead of regurgitating the typical reactionary voices in this debate, she looks at what scientific studies suggest about the issue. From the article: 'Pathological acts of course have multiple, complex causes and are terribly hard to predict. And clearly, millions of people play Counter-Strike, Halo, and Doom and never commit crimes. But the subtler question is whether exposure to video-game violence is one risk factor for increased aggression: Is it associated with shifts in attitudes or responses that may predispose kids to act out? A large body of evidence suggests that this may be so ... Given this, it makes sense to be specific about which games may be linked to harmful effects and which to neutral or good ones. Better research is also needed to understand whether some kids are more vulnerable to video-game violence, and how exposure interacts with other risk factors for aggression like poverty, psychological disorders, and a history of abuse.'"

A pill that makes women slimmer and hornier

Submitted by The Great Pretender on Monday April 30 2007, @06:40PM

The Great Pretender writes "The BBC reports that scientists are developing a pill which could boost women's libido and reduce their appetite. The hormone-releasing pill has so far only been given to female monkeys and shrews who displayed more mating behavior and ate less. The team from the Medical Research Council's Human Reproduction Unit in Edinburgh believe a human version could be available within a decade. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6606927.stm. I was married to a shrew once..."

Breast cancer portrait banned from group art showh

Submitted by

Daddy Rhon

on Monday April 30 2007, @06:38PM

Daddy Rhon writes "http://www.daddyrhon.com/?p=741 A portrait of a breast cancer survivor was deemed indecent, banned and removed from an art show. The piece is a simple figure study of a woman with a scar. Why was this piece considered morally offensive? Because the model is older? Disfigured by disease? Or are there implied subtexts to this piece simply because the artist is a dyke?"

U. of Nebraska escapes Microsoft for JasperSoft

Submitted by

CoolAcid

on Wednesday March 07 2007, @04:52PM

CoolAcid writes "University of Nebraska's data warehousing expert, Amy Stephen, reports on how they made the switch from Microsoft's MSSql and Windows NT systems to The Open Source JasperSoft, coupled with a Joomla! front-end.

"Every step further into Microsoft necessitates removing freedom. By "freedom" I'm not talking about GPL freedom, but rather about freedom to use the best and breed reporting tool (JasperSoft, in this case, coupled with a Joomla! front-end), the best operating system, the best database, etc. It may well be that Microsoft has the best fit for some (perhaps many) of these needs in a given enterprise. But the odds of it offering the best solution for every need are long indeed.

Read more here at http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/ 2007/03/university_of_n.html"

Sun Opens the Source to Project Darkstar

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Wednesday March 07 2007, @04:41PM

eldavojohn writes "Sun at the Game Developers Conference that it is open sourcing it's Java based online game Project Darkstar. From an announcement, "In conjunction with the latest release of Project Darkstar, Sun also initiated the Darkstar Playground which will allow approved developers to gain access to server resources-provided and operated by Sun-to start developing their online games. Developers interested in participating in the Darkstar Playground are encouraged to visit Sun's booth or http://www.projectdarkstar.com/ to apply and learn more about the program. The playground will be live at JavaOne '07 in May.""