Mr Hoffman - Slashdot User

Comment: DECwindows SVN, various X applications (Score 1) 183

by Mr Hoffman on Saturday July 26 2008, @01:24PM (#24349205) Attached to: Microsoft's Decade-old Patent On Tree-view Mode!

Looks reminiscent of the Structured Visual Navigation Widget from 1994, and SVN itself is older than that. And there are certainly various apparently-similar displays around various DECwindows and X Window applications.

More Diebold Failures-> 0

Submitted by

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

on Friday July 27 2007, @08:23PM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode writes "Every so often, people wonder "If Diebold can make ATMs, why can't they make voting machines?" This page offers some hints as to why, just take a peek at the name on the ATM in the last picture."
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Future of HTTP at center of debate 0

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2007, @04:04PM

An anonymous reader writes "Is the time ripe to revamp HTTP, the communications standard that underpins most of the information sharing on the Internet? That's what leading Internet engineers gathered in Chicago for one of their regular thrice-annual meetings discussed in a spirited debate on Tuesday. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/072505-futur e-of-http.html"

Pwnie Awards Make Fun of the Security Industry-> 0

Submitted by Alexander Sotirov on Thursday July 26 2007, @04:01PM

Alexander Sotirov writes "The Pwnie Awards are an award ceremony celebrating the achievements and failures of security researchers during the last year. It will take place during the BlackHat/DefCon conference in Las Vegas next week. The awards are both serious and funny, featuring categories such as Best Server-Side Bug, Mass 0wnage, Lamest Vendor Response and of course Best Song! Slashdot readers are invited to submit nominations. What is your favorite security bug?"
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Passive Optical Networks - suggestions? 0

Submitted by

who's got my nicknam

on Thursday July 26 2007, @01:42PM

who's got my nicknam writes "I have been asked to help with the replacement/upgrade of a community cablevision system in a small, remote village in Northern Canada. The existing coaxial cable plant has to be completely replaced due to corrosion and age; the headend is being replaced because the building it was in burned down. The community wants a modern infrastructure that can be used for television, Internet, and telephony (Triple-play), as well as local access to educational networks (ie, the system will need to support VLAN so customers can access a local LAN in addition to their Internet ISP's gateway).

My research leads me to believe that GPON is going to be the preferred technology, but we are having a hard time sourcing hardware. The actual glass will be easy to source and install (and where I am located, fibre optic cable is cheaper than copper anyways), but we need a reputable vendor for the headend and CPE hardware. It seems a lot of what's being talked about in press releases is still vapourware.

The community consists of about 150 homes in a tight geographical area. There is currently a high-speed microwave link providing an E10 to the local school, as well as another E10 to the local WISP, so bandwidth in and out is fine. Construction on the last 30 kilometres of fibre to reach the village will begin shortly, after which the microwave will be surplussed.

Given the small size of the community, EPON would be a viable alternative, but I am a bit concerned about its limitations regarding HDTV. Maybe that's not an issue though.

Any vendors or geeks out there who'd care to offer advice or pre-sales support on a project like this? I can be emailed at this address."

DOJ Accidentally Gives Lawyer Wiretap Transcript 0

Submitted by good soldier svejk on Friday July 06 2007, @08:08PM

good soldier svejk writes "
It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls. You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.
That is what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew. His lawsuit takes on special significance given today's Sixth Circuit Court ruling that surveillance victims can only sue the DOJ if they can prove they were affected. Also in light of that decision we can safely add Catch-22 to the list of literary references above."

Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.

Submitted by Nrbelex on Saturday June 09 2007, @03:10PM

Nrbelex writes "The New York Times is reporting that the Bush administration has repeatedly defended Microsoft against charges of anticompetitive conduct, including a recent complaint by Google. 'Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark effort to break up Microsoft, the Bush administration has sharply changed course by repeatedly defending the company both in the United States and abroad against accusations of anticompetitive conduct, including the recent rejection of a complaint by Google.'"

Tech Support's Worst Nightmare Callers->

Submitted by

d3bugg3r

on Friday June 08 2007, @08:58AM

d3bugg3r writes "Now, nobody who is elite enough to be reading this blog would fall into that category, would we? No, of course not! But, just in case you want to pass these tips along to a friend, (ahem), here is a list of callers which tech support desk workers complain about the most. Clip and save as a handy little list of what *not* to do...

Anxiety Cases: It's OK if you feel nervous around whatever device is misbehaving. That's what tech support is for, after all. But extensive groveling "I'm sorry, I'm such a dummy, I don't know anything, please forgive me, I don't know what I did but it just stopped working..." just gets on their nerves and doesn't serve any purpose. Chances are, they don't know anything, either, they just enter your problem into a database and it coughs up the steps to the solution.

Detailed Explainers: There is a fine balance between not enough and too much information. For instance, if Windows crashed, that's all you need to say. Do not read the whole "this application has performed an illegal operation..." screen out loud. Especially not the hexadecimal number after things like "general protection fault". Those arcane hex digits mean absolutely nothing to tech support, nor indeed to about 95% of the engineers at Microsoft itself.

Know-it-alls: Almost goes without saying, but tech support people really, really hate hearing from callers who think they know more than tech support does. You are, after all, calling them to ask for help. So take their word for it, follow their directions, and if it doesn't fix the problem, you are then free to point the accusing finger.

Geeks: Believe it or not, tech support also hates hearing from people who really DO know more than them. At a certain point, you have to realize that by the time you've recompiled the BSD kernel source, hooked it up to your coffee-maker, garage-door opener, and TiVo, and taught it to respond to your Cloud Nine remote, anything that stumps you will also stump the company's entire tech support department. Not to mention that you've voided the blazes out of your warranty, anyway.

Screamers: Yes, it goes without saying that blowing your temper during any service call never does any good. Believe me, when you're dealing with a broken piece of wimpy cybertrash that you paid twice what it was worth only to see how stupidly it was designed, we can all sympathize that you're angry enough to choke the idiot who sold it to you. But tech support isn't who you need to go after; they just answer the phone for very low wages. Now, if you take the company to court to sue, and post your experiences on the web so others know not to buy from that company, that's more power to you. We could all stand to do with less shoddy workmanship in the world. But don't flame tech support about it. If they have any reaction at all, they'll just think it's funny.

Continued in part two..."
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3 Game Sales and You've Got 25 to Life->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2007, @05:58PM

An anonymous reader writes "It sounds like New York's legislature hasn't really thought through some of their proposed new video game regulations. Under one such bill, selling a game could get you 25 to Life (as in a prison sentence, not the game by the same title...although both are equally bad) because of New York's 3 Strikes law. Check out the analysis here."
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Nanoglue being used to make Spidermans web-shooter->

Submitted by Stony Stevenson on Friday June 01 2007, @08:09PM

Stony Stevenson writes "A team of US researchers is using the super-adhesive properties of nanoglue to create a super-sticky web-shooting device much like the comic-book hero Spiderman's, an announcement sure to prick the ears of Peter Parker aficionados the globe over. The nanoglue is also being trialed in the production of computer chip circuitry and is expected to miniaturize the process, meaning faster and more powerful chips.

From the article: "If we can find a way to create threads and/or intertwined bundles using the molecules in a scalable fashion, while retaining the adhesive properties, then creating web-shooters similar to Spiderman's is a real possibility," Ramanath said. "There are ways in which molecular threads/bundles can be created in large quantities. The challenge will be, however, to simultaneously engineer adhesion on certain surfaces (and not others, since we want the suit only to form on the desired surface) and also with each other during the thread formation.""
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