Dotnaught - Slashdot User

Automate Your Way To One-Day Work Week-> 0

Submitted by

gManZboy

on Friday May 11, @03:38PM

gManZboy writes "If you discovered a way to do your job so efficiently that you could earn four times your base salary in bonuses while working only one day in five, would you tell your employer?

In a post on Reddit earlier this week, a man from the Netherlands claims to come up with a way to automate his payment processing job using a game programming framework called GameMaker and C++. For the past four years, he says, he has been collecting about 90% of the bonus share offered by his company. That has amounted to 160,000 euros each year, for the past four years, on top of his 42,000 euro salary, or almost $260,000 total annually. Neither his employer, nor his bonus-deprived colleagues, are aware of this.

As technology automates more jobs, from taxi driving to editing, interesting ethics questions arise. How would you weigh in on the ethics of the situation?"
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iPhone App Contains Secret Tethering Capability-> 0

Submitted by

gManZboy

on Friday February 03, @07:12PM

gManZboy writes "The iOS app iRandomizer Numbers contains an unexpected function: It allows users who enter undocumented codes to create a tethered Internet connection. Thereafter, other nearby computers can join an ad-hoc WiFi network and reach the Internet using the tethered iPhone's cellular data connection.

The app purports to be nothing more than a random number generation tool. But entering "1984" in the minimum field and "31337" in the maximum field--numbers of significance in the hacker community--and tapping the "generate" button reveals a tethering network configuration screen.

Nick Kramer, CEO of Shmoopi, LLC, acknowledged in an email that his app supports tethering. "Reluctantly, I will admit that my application 'iRandomizer Numbers' does have a hidden tethering feature," he wrote. "I say reluctantly because I didn't plan on the feature being released. I designed the tethering functionality for my family and close friends not thinking it would be disseminated outside that circle. ""
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Google Sued for Overtime Pay-> 0

Submitted by olsmeister on Thursday May 19 2011, @10:15AM

olsmeister writes "Google is being sued for not paying overtime to an employee at its Council Bluffs, IA data center. This particular employee claims that she was non-exempt under the and should have been paid overtime for working 50-60 hours per week."
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Google Denies Cables Targeted By Dalles Hunters-> 1

Submitted by ahier on Friday September 24 2010, @12:48AM

ahier writes "Exposed data cables, boredom, and firearms present a general risk, but Google data centers aren't under fire as reports suggest.

Google says that reports that it has been forced to start burying the fiber optic cables that connect its Oregon data center to the rest of the world misconstrue what was supposed to be a general warning about protecting data cables."
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Apple Seeking Virtual Closet Patent-> 0

Submitted by Dotnaught on Friday July 30 2010, @11:27AM

Dotnaught writes "Two Apple patent applications filed on Thursday indicate that the company is exploring technology to enhance the experience of shopping for clothing through social networking and mobile devices. One patent application that describes a Virtual Closet could help people keep track of their outfits, facilitate clothing sharing, and even indicate which items of clothing need to be washed."
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Hacker accused of video extortion-> 0

Submitted by n4t3 on Friday June 25 2010, @07:32AM

n4t3 writes "A 31 year old parapalegic, dubbed the Sex Tape Hacker has been implicated in a complicated scheme of computer espionage and blackmail. Allegedly, Luis Mijangos would compromise his victim's machines through malware delivered in downloadable songs, then search those machines for amateur porn and key log for passwords to online email or bank accounts. It is suggested that in some cases Mijangos solicited his victims to create more porn by masquerading as a victim's love interest via email which he could then use to blackmail to his victims. Can anyone here provide more technical details about his methods? Its amazing to me how he could have compromised and tricked so many people."
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iPhone Complaints To FCC, FTC Uncovered 0

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2010, @09:08AM

An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek has obtained Freedom of Information Act documents detailing FCC and FTC complaints about the iPhone. The Federal Communications Commission has received 72 complaints since 2009, mostly involving AT&T, and there are more than 450 Federal Trade Commission complaints. Many of the complaints want the government to take action against Apple for restricting its iPhone to AT&T, for refusing to allow Adobe's Flash technology on the iPhone and for refusing to approve certain iPhone applications, such as the Google Voice app. One complaint reads: "I am a Google Voice user. I am also an iPhone owner, using AT&T for my cell service. Apple/AT&T have blocked iPhone users from accessing a Google app to use Google voice effectively on the iPhone in order to allow AT&T to maximize call and SMS message fees it can charge users. I believe this is an unfair use of Apple's/AT&T's monopoly power over the iPhone market. I understand the FCC is already investigating. I want to register my dissatisfaction with the current marketing practice of Apple/AT&T in prohibiting consumers from using lawful, technologically beneficial software like Google Voice for the purpose of maximizing their own profit." Screen grabs of the FCC complaint reports are posted here."

Google Rewrites Docs To Fight Office 2010-> 0

Submitted by Dotnaught on Monday April 12 2010, @01:02PM

Dotnaught writes "For the past year and a half, Google has been rewriting and unifying the editing engines that power its Docs and Spreadsheets apps to deliver real-time collaboration, in the style of Google Wave, and to make imported Office documents look like the originals. To achieve document layout fidelity, the company's engineers had to create a new cross-browser rendering layer and a new collaborative data model. The result is a product that's far more capable of challenging Office than its predecessor. But the new Docs and Spreadsheets won't have offline functionality for several months."
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Steve Jobs Weighs In On Section 3.3.1-> 0

Submitted by Dotnaught on Saturday April 10 2010, @08:04PM

Dotnaught writes "Greg Slepak, founder of software company Tao Effect, wrote Apple CEO Steve Jobs to complain about Apple's mandate that iPhone applications be originally written in C/C++/Objective-C. Job's response was to endorse a post by John Gruber on the Daring Fireball blog. Jobs called it "very insightful," suggesting Gruber's prediction that third-party iPhone development tools are out might be right. Jobs sent a second reply that also doesn't bode well for third-party iPhone development tools: "We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.""
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Memory Management Technique Makes Apps 20% Faster-> 0

Submitted by Dotnaught on Monday April 05 2010, @05:08PM

Dotnaught writes "A paper to be presented later this month at the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, describes a new approach to memory management that allows software applications to run up to 20% faster on multicore processors. Yan Solihin, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NCSU and co-author of the paper, says that using the technique is just a matter of linking to a library in a program that makes heavy use of memory allocation."
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