Lallander - Slashdot User

How Did Egypt Shut Down The Entire Internet?-> 1

Submitted by BartlebyScrivener on Friday January 28 2011, @10:29PM

BartlebyScrivener writes "Because Egypt has a strong centralized government, just a few service providers, and only a handful of "fiber-optic cables and other ways for the Internet to get piped in," it wasn't hard for President Hosni Mubarak to shut it down. "It's probably a phone call that goes out to half a dozen folks who enter a line on a router configuration file and hit return," one scientist said. "It's not high-level programming." Shutting down the Web entirely prevents people from getting around site blocks by using proxy servers.

I bet there are Slashdotters with more specific knowledge about exactly how it was done."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:No. It Is Far Too Pervasive. (Score 1) 309

by wvmarle on Thursday March 18 2010, @01:28PM (#31524866) Attached to: Can You Fight DRM With Patience?

Maybe it's just me but I learnt my lesson regarding DRM (remember that R, it means Restrictions, because that's what it does) with the simplest of them all.

The humble DVD.

Remember some 10, 12 years ago, before DeCSS? Some DVD would play find under Linux, others not. Then DeCSS came, and suddenly those other DVDs would play fine.

Those stupid region codes sweetened it all up nicely.

Now that was my first experience with DRM. I suddenly found my self restricted in playing DVDs on my computer (running Linux, I didn't own a stand-alone DVD player at the time, no Windows) that I borrowed legally. Since then I avoid DRM unless I know it's so utterly and entirely cracked that it completely loses its function. The DVD is an example of that: region codes don't work, CSS is solved, there is no restriction left.

Unfortunately on my iBook I still sometimes run into it. I have PDF files that don't allow me to copy/paste some text out of it. Luckily my Linux box doesn't have that issue.

With all respect for content producers, who I believe deserve to be paid for their content, but not for anything involving DRM. Oh and I do prefer to download my anime... no need for an actual physical disk or so (too hard to find, have to go out to a shop, hoping they happen to have that one, etc)... but no way to make a small donation for a job well done. I mean is it that hard? I happily give double the $0.04 or so they make from every retail sale. Directly to the artist/studio.

Oh well I'm not a gamer, but DRM has my interest. I really feel sorry for you that you have been fucked by the content providers so badly. And I hope you will also now do your best to get your content as restriction-free as possible.

Comment: Re:It's ugly but it's the future of space explorat (Score 1) 260

by Lallander on Monday December 07 2009, @03:25PM (#30356544) Attached to: Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo

It won't be long before we are strip mining Mars, don't worry.

Comment: Unfair measurement system? (Score 1) 279

by Lallander on Thursday December 03 2009, @05:17PM (#30316312) Attached to: Offset Bad Code, With Bad Code Offsets

All lines of code are not created equal. In some languages one line could be the entire program.

Comment: Re:Hud? (Score 1) 245

by Lallander on Tuesday August 11 2009, @02:59PM (#29027509) Attached to: "Terminator Vision" Is Here For the iPhone

Here is one of the most interesting mobile AR (Augmented Reality) systems I have seen so far. It uses S.L.A.M. (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) to make up for the limitations of the GPS and compass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBI5HwitBX4 It is still in a very early stage, but it will progress quickly from here I think.

Comment: Re:Hud? (Score 5, Interesting) 245

by Lallander on Tuesday August 11 2009, @12:27PM (#29024961) Attached to: "Terminator Vision" Is Here For the iPhone

I think what you are looking for is an EyeTap. http://eyetap.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyetap

Surprisingly Few People Collect On GTA Hot Coffee 343

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 25 2008, @08:14PM
from the simulated-murder-is-fine-but-simulated-boobs-will-warp-you dept.

Relin writes "Out of the millions eligible, less than 3,000 have come forward to collect their money in the 'Hot Coffee' settlement. While the plaintiffs' lawyer is surprised by the development, Theodore Frank of the Legal Center for the Public Interest at the American Enterprise Institute seems convinced that the lawsuit was 'meritless' and will result in no payment for the legal counsel opposing Take-Two."

Wii Update 3.3 Defeats Twilight Hack, Freeloader 125

Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 18 2008, @03:51PM
from the wii-wii-wii-all-the-way-home dept.

Richter X writes "The newest update to the Nintendo Wii's Menu, version 3.3, contains code specifically designed to find and kill the popular Twilight Hack used by homebrewers to play unauthorized code on the Wii. The update also prevents the Freeloader software used to play imported games on the Wii. However, it does not seem to affect the Homebrew Channel in Wiis that already have it installed. The updated code is currently being researched in order to find what code has been changed. So far it has been confirmed that Nintendo included specific instructions to target the Twilight Hack. Work is also being done to update the Twilight Hack in order to bypass this new code."

ZFS Confirmed In Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard 178

Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 11 2008, @05:11PM
from the if-you-need-to-have-an-OS-name-tattoo dept.

number655321 writes "Apple has confirmed the inclusion of ZFS in the forthcoming OS X Server Snow Leopard. From Apple's site: 'For business-critical server deployments, Snow Leopard Server adds read and write support for the high-performance, 128-bit ZFS file system, which includes advanced features such as storage pooling, data redundancy, automatic error correction, dynamic volume expansion, and snapshots.' CTO of Storage Technologies at Sun Microsystems, Jeff Bonwick, is hosting a discussion on his blog. What does this mean for the 'client' version of OS X Snow Leopard?"