Cigarra - Slashdot User

Microsoft welcomes Xbox Kinect 'hackers'-> 0

Submitted by

Cigarra

on Tuesday February 22 2011, @06:02PM

Cigarra writes "Microsoft, the evil company slashdotters love to hate, is to release a Kinect SDK for "hackers" to tinker with. BBC news reports

Microsoft is to open up its Xbox Kinect technology to allow amateur software developers to experiment with it.

The company is to release a software development kit in the spring, which will give developers access to the secrets behind the technology.

So, how does a usually hostile community like the "hackers" react to these sudden displays of generosity?"
Link to Original Source

Porno-activist ordered to wear clothes by TSA-> 0

Submitted by Cigarra on Tuesday November 23 2010, @11:48PM

Cigarra writes "Self proclaimed "pornographer, sex worker, and atheist" Furry Girl tried to make things easier to Sea-Tac Airport TSA officials by wearing as few clothes as possible (video there!) for the (now standard) enhanced pat down, but she was ordered (against TSA rules!) to put her jacket on again.

It seems the TSA can only handle so much transparency when searching for weapons and explosives."
Link to Original Source

VoIP legal status worldwide 0

Submitted by

Cigarra

on Wednesday March 11 2009, @04:06PM

Cigarra writes "There was much public debate going on during the last several months here in Paraguay, regarding the "liberation of Internet", that is, the lifting of the restriction on ISPs to connect directly to international carriers. Up until this week, they were forced to hire wholesale service from the State run telco, Copaco. During the last month, when the new regulation was almost ready, the real reason supporting the monopoly made it to the headlines: Copaco would fight for the monopoly, fearing VoIP based telephony. Finally, the regulator Conatel resolved today to end the monopoly, but a ruling on VoIP legal status was postponed for "further study". I guess this kind of "problem" arised almost everywhere else in the world, so I ask the international slashdotters' crowd: what is VoIP legal status in your country / state / region? How well did incumbent telcos adapt to it, and overall, just how disruptive was this technology to established operators?"

code_swarm project quietly "open sourced" 0

Submitted by

Cigarra

on Thursday June 26 2008, @11:39AM

Cigarra writes "Some days ago we got to know the code_swarm project, which allowed to visualize the commit history of several open source projects. It was all nice and pretty, but it was quickly attacked for the author's decission to keep the source closed.
Well, some days ago it appeared as a project in Google Code, but having downloaded it and browsed the code a little, it seems that the "open" part is only some kind of a wrapper for the core library, which remains closed.
I guess we can still start to play with it, but was just wondering: how well is this kind of openness received in the community?"

Should GWB be impeached?

Submitted by

Cigarra

on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:39AM

Cigarra writes "The New York Times published yesterday an Op-Ed explaining how the president George W. Bush broke the law by "monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
Can we expect the F.B.I. to open an investigation and name a special prosecutor, and the Congress to start talking of impeachment now that it is no longer Republican controlled?"