Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Software

Company Sells Open-Source Software As Its Own-> 4

Submitted by
teknopurge
teknopurge writes "After using the software for years I was shocked to find that one of my favorite open-source projects, Zabbix, had its code stolen, rebranded and sold for profit as Firescope. Touting thier product as "revolutionary", Firescope has apparently copied the Zabbix repository and themed the interface without adhering to the GPL that Zabbix is distributed with. Is this not the worst fear of every open source project?"
Link to Original Source
Hardware Hacking

Fake LED christmas lights?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "I have small kids, so I wanted to get some LED Christmas lights this year (fewer hot/warm and glass objects the better). So I found some GE LED crystal miniature lights at my local Fred Meyer store (Kroger to the rest of you). They look nice, too nice. I was a bit suspicious because they appeared to have a filament in the bulbs, and the bulbs are glass.... I checked the box again, it definitely says 'LED'. It also states the wattage per strand of 50 bulbs is 3.2 watts, my kiliwatt meter is showing about 19watts. I took apart one of the spare bulbs and it definitely _looks_ like an incandescent bulb. Am I just not hip on the latest in LED manufacturing technology or did somebody sell me a $1.99 strand of incandescent lights for $11.95?

This particular set looks like it has licensed the GE logo and are actually from a company called 'Santas Best Craft' in B.C. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt at the moment since I've not been able to talk to anybody there and that this was a con on the part of a the contract manufacturer that drop shipped them from (you guessed it) China to my local store back in October.

Has anybody else also have so-called "LED" strands? I did purchase a single strand from Phillips last year. It for comparison draws ~5.4 watts for a stand of 70."
Sun Microsystems

Sun Releases OpenSPARC T2 to Open Source Community->

Submitted by keithjr
keithjr writes "As promised during the UltraSPARC T2 Launch, Sun has announced the release of the RTL (register transfer level) source code for the OpenSPARC T2 to the open-source community. The source code can be found a Opensparc.net. Sun also announced five Universities are official OpenSPARC Technology Centers of Excellence: the University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Texas, Austin; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Carnegie Mellon University."
Link to Original Source
Security

Batman Takes Out Hackers With Biff-Bam-Pow

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Security Researcher Chris Boyd discovered a Habbo Hotel hacking tool and traced it back to the creator, a 13 year old boy apparently well known for his wannabe hack and phish antics. He then uncovered the boys main forum, seen to be distributing professional phishing kits and hacking tools. Asking the public what to do with these kids, the verdict was unanimous — take the lot of them out. How was this achieved? By pretending to be Batman and making them cry for 14 hours — before finishing things off with the killing blow."
Microsoft

The worst consumer tech in history->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "CNet has named what they claim are the worst technology products in history. Probably the most controversial is the inclusion of Windows Vista which sits alongside the Sinclair C5, the Gizmondo and the Tamagotchi. "[Vista's] incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade, are just some examples of why this expensive operating system earns the final place in our terrible tech list.""
Link to Original Source
It's funny. Laugh.

5 Not-So-Awesome Sci-Fi Inventions->

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes "Science fiction often makes the future seem like a wonderful place, with all sorts of cool gadgets and technologies that we can only dream of. However, the folks at Cracked.com took a hard look at what your average sci-fi enthusiast would consider some of the best inventions the genre has to offer and determined the 5 that would actually suck. They are:
  1. Matter Replicators
  2. Teleporters
  3. Holodecks
  4. Jet Packs
  5. Flying Cars


It's not so much the technologies themselves, but the reasons why they would suck that are at once funny and very cogent."
Link to Original Source
Biotech

Ham Radio Operator Finds Cure For Cancer-> 5

Submitted by
CirReal
CirReal writes "John Kanzius, K3TUP, himself suffering from cancer with nine months to live, used nanotechnology and a radio transmitter to kill cancer cells. "Kanzius did not have a medical background, not even a bachelor's degree, but he knew radios. He had built and fixed them since he was a child, collecting transmitters, transceivers, antennas and amplifiers, earning an amateur radio operator license. Kanzius knew how to send radio wave signals around the world. If he could transmit them into cancer cells, he wondered, could he then direct the radio waves to destroy tumors, while leaving healthy cells intact?" Reseachers "recently killed 100% of cancer cells grown in the livers of rabbits, using Kanzius' method.""
Link to Original Source

Never have so many understood so little about so much. -- James Burke