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Eggplant62 (120514)

Eggplant62
  (email not shown publicly)

Eggplant62 (120514)

  Science: Rover Accidentally Uncovers Mars Hydrothermal Vent 2008-05-24 04:04

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday May 24, @04:04AM
from the best-discoveries-by-accident dept.
The rover Spirit has been dragging one wheel around the surface of Mars for some time. One of the resulting gouges revealed a mineral deposit which was probably caused by a hydrothermal vent. This implies a large amount of water was present when the vent was active.
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 [+] story, science, space, mars, oldnews
Submitted by Eggplant62 on Sunday April 20, @09:01AM
Eggplant62 writes "Happy 4/20! NORML says there is reason to celebrate extra this weekend, as US Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and cosponsor presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced on Thursday, April 18, 2008 H.R. 5843, known as an 'Act to Remove Federal Penalties for Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults.' The new bill is the first federal decriminalization legislation introduced in 24 years.

'It's time for the politicians to catch up with the public on this [issue],' Frank said. 'The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly.'"
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7581
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 [+] submission, news, usa

  Teen drops out of school, makes a million[->] 2007-09-26 10:40 Arul John

Submitted by Arul John on Wednesday September 26 2007, @10:40AM
Arul John writes "Teen drops out of school, jumps into the myspace templates bandwagon and makes a million dollars in a year. Did she get lucky?"
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709250388
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 [+] submission, interviews, business, slownewsday, stupid, interesting

  Obama Spamming 2007-09-26 10:28 Moryath

Submitted by Moryath on Wednesday September 26 2007, @10:28AM
Moryath writes "This might deserve to be an Ask Slashdot, or somewhere else, I don't know, but recently a number of my spam-trap email addresses (addresses I keep just to compare to my normal inbox for spam filtering) have been seeing daily emails from the Obama presidential campaign asking for donations.

I tried using the unsubscribe link, which failed to operate; I sent the campaign an email directly , and received a form response thanking me for "joining" their campaign and asking me to donate. Phone calls to the campaign office have been uniformly dismissive — 90% of the time they just hang up, the other 10% they put me on hold claiming to be "getting someone who can fix this" and then drop the call.

It's obvious that they have no intentions with complying with my request to get off of their email system — and equally obvious that they have padded their supposed "record number" of supporters by purchasing bulk email lists from spammers. Why should we support politicians who behave in this way and don't respect our rights? And what would Slashdotters suggest as the next step to deal with a politician who simply refuses to follow the law?

For the record, I'm a registered independent, and so far my only intention for the campaign is to point and laugh at Ron Paul."
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 [+] submission, politics, spam, canspamallowsthis, slownewsday, interesting
Submitted by coondoggie on Wednesday September 26 2007, @10:21AM
coondoggie writes "The American Electronics Association today said that the U.S. high-tech industry added 118,500 jobs between January and June of 2007, a 2% rise, for a total of 5.94 million workers. This is slightly less than the 143,000 tech jobs added in the first half of 2006. The AEA released as employment study based on government data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows the January to June 2007 tech job growth lags that of the U.S. private sector, which rose by 3.3% over that period. The report looks at four sectors within the high-tech industry: high-tech manufacturing, communications services, software services, and engineering and tech services. This is the first year since the bursting of the high-tech bubble that all four tech sectors are experiencing job growth, the AeA said. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19933"
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19933
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 [+] submission, it, usa

  Three Arrested for Murder of Rex Farrance[->] 2007-09-26 10:19 Mark Coker

Submitted by Mark Coker on Wednesday September 26 2007, @10:19AM
Mark Coker writes "On January 9, 2006, three men broke into the home of long time PC World editor Rex Farrance and murdered him and beat his wife. Now, a year and a half later, police have arrested three suspects who, if convicted, face the death penalty. Rex Farrance was an angel to all who knew him, so let's home justice is served swiftly in this tragic and heinous case. He is missed as one of the technology industry's most respected journalists. Some of his most frequent coverage areas were computer security, storage and desktop PCs. The SF Chronicle has a story here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/26/BAOMSE4OV.DTL and NBC11 has photographs of the loser suspects here: http://www.nbc11.com/news/14205105/detail.html"
http://www.nbc11.com/news/14205105/detail.html
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 [+] submission, security

  WSU LUG Nerds to auction themselves to women[->] 2007-09-26 10:12 Mr. Slippery

Submitted by Mr. Slippery on Wednesday September 26 2007, @10:12AM
Mr. Slippery writes "Associated Press reports that Washington State University's LUG is planning to hold a "nerd auction". According to LUG president Ben Ford,"You can buy a nerd and he'll fix your computer, help you with stats homework, or if you're really adventurous, take you to dinner!" To promote the LUG (and comp sci in general) to women, the plan is that a handful of LUG members will get makeovers from a sorority. "The girls get to have their way with them and we'll document each makeover. We'll make a snazzy video and show it over dinner. After the dinner, we'll auction off the now studly nerds.""
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NERD_AUCTION
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 [+] submission, humor

  A High Resolution Handheld 3d Scanner[->] 2007-09-26 10:09 Konquest

Submitted by Konquest on Wednesday September 26 2007, @10:09AM
Konquest writes "During the TCT 2007 Conference in Coventry was unveiled a new handheld 3d laser scanner, the EXAScan. This scanner is based on the previous HandyScan3d, but features improved performances regarding to the resolution and the accuracy in the resulting model. The data acquired by the scanner is modeled in real-time and outputs directly a triangulated surface instead of relying on a point cloud. It seems like a nice advance in technology when comparing with the other scanners offered on the market right now."
http://www.handyscan3d.com/en/news/07-09-26.php
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 [+] submission, handheld, notthebest, interesting

  C.S. versus I.S. degree? 2007-09-26 09:58 minotaurcomputing

Submitted by minotaurcomputing on Wednesday September 26 2007, @09:58AM
minotaurcomputing writes "When attempting to determine the advantages of a Computer Science (C.S.) degree versus an Information Systems (I.S.) degree, what are the likely advantages of one over the other? It is a common perception that the I.S. path is the "easier" computer-related degree path requiring far less programming, but likewise worth less in the eyes of the computer job market. Is this accurate?

-m"
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 [+] submission, askslashdot, education, slownewsday, interesting
Journal by twitter on Wednesday September 26 2007, @09:54AM

The Register gleefully dismisses the utility of automobile tracking data being bought by the UK government but cautions:

a copper or a spook is investigating you and he notices that your car has SmartNav, he can - probably without a warrant from a judge or a politician - get full details of your movements from the DfT, who get them automatically from TrafficMaster. ... the location slugs are identifiable by unique vehicle number, so all the watchers need is one known time and location ... [conventional methods are more expensive and better regulated]

TrafficMaster sounds a lot like the US "OnStar" service, so people tempted to buy it should remember how the same kind of service has been abused in the US for police eavesdropping which also disabled the safety features, for speeding convictions and even in car spam. These things are always worse than people fear because honest people are never able to imagine all of the potential abuses. TrafficMaster customers might also think twice about their cell phones if they value privacy.

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 [+] journal, privacy, interesting, slownewsday

  AT&T Network Down in East Coast 2007-09-26 09:53 Vega27

Submitted by Vega27 on Wednesday September 26 2007, @09:53AM
Vega27 writes "confirmed by the AT&T support folks, there network is down (Since First Reported at 7AM EST) for all of North Carolina/South Carolina/Tennessee .
iPhones and Normal AT&T phones are unable to access the at&t voice network. No ETA on when the network will be fixed."
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 [+] submission, features, usa, slownewsday, funny, stupid

  Domain Registry of America Scam 2007-09-26 09:47 eefsee

Submitted by eefsee on Wednesday September 26 2007, @09:47AM
eefsee writes "In 2003 the Domain Registry of America was cited by the FTC for its deceptive practices. They got into similar hot water for a renewal scam in Canada. This company is still at it today, though. They send out deceptive "Domain Name Expiration Notice" up to six months before most domains expire, making it seem that the domain needs to be renewed within the month and charging four times the typical market price for this renewal. I usually just toss these "notices," but my mom almost signed her domains over to these clowns. I just got another "Domain Name Expiration Notice" from DROA today and I'm getting fed up. Who do you think I should tell? My state attorney general? The FTC? They've been down that road before and seem none the worse for wear. Any ideas of how to get these folks shut down?"
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 [+] submission, askslashdot, internet

  Turbine attempt to stifle Emulator development[->] 2007-09-26 09:45 Anonymous Coward

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26 2007, @09:45AM
Anonymous Coward writes "Turbine Entertainment are attempting to prevent the development of a server emulator based upon their game "Asheron's Call". Even though the emulator at the current time is vaporware as far as the general public can tell. Turbine have set their lawyers upon the emulators developer claiming copyright infringement, amongst other things. My questions are, How far can an EULA go in restricting a persons rights? Can an EULA be blindly updated to include software from years past? As I understand it the developer is complying with the EULA as supplied with the software client he's using, but Turbine are trying to apply an EULA which has changed drastically from the original. If you install a product then are you not bound by that products bundled EULA?"
http://asheron.game-host.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=88
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 [+] submission, games, rpg, interesting, slownewsday

  Soldier of the Future Goes to War 2007-09-26 09:34 Anonymous Coward

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26 2007, @09:34AM
Land Warrior, the Army's wearable electronics package, was panned earlier this year by the troops who were testing it out. They were forced to take the collection of digital maps and next-gen radios to war, anyway. And now, Wired's Noah Shachtman reports from Iraq, those same soldiers are starting to warm up to their soldier suits of the future.
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 [+] , hardware, usa

  FireTabs on the coals 2007-09-24 14:20 xbytor

Submitted by xbytor on Monday September 24 2007, @02:20PM
xbytor writes "FireTabs (http://www.firetabs.com) joins the list of guitar tab sites that have been getting threats from the National Music Publishers' Association recently. The entire tabs collection was pulled from the site in August. Scans of the letters threatening DMCA action were posted a few days ago. Hopefully one of these sites will have the capability of challenging the publishers in court and getting the issue of tab copyrights addressed one way or another. To the best of my knowledge, it's apparently still an open legal question. I did my bit and donated to the cause."
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 [+] submission, yro, media, interesting

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