The Planet's Most Moronic Hacker 849

Posted by CmdrTaco from the more-31337-than-31337 dept.
RawGutts writes "This is the story of "bitchchecker" (the hacker) a user who lost it because he thought he had been kicked of an IRC channel by "Elch". The hacker comes back on the channel threatening to hack and ruin Elch's machine, and dares Elch to give his IP address. The address given was 127.0.0.1. "
Hardware Hacking

Soldering For Non-Solderers? 130

Posted by Cliff from the don't-touch-the-hot-metal-thingy dept.
DanielMarkham asks: "A few months ago I bought a 4GB USB drive from jmtek Online. I really liked the drive -- heck, 4 GBs were awesome! But over time, using it in my tablet PC, the connectors started loosening up between the USB plug and the IC. Eventually, the part that plugs into the computer came loose from the rest of the drive. So, now I've got six-hundred bucks worth of useless plastic. I don't know anything about circuit board repair, so I'm in a bit of a fix. As I understand it, the 90-day return period has timed-out, and there's not much I can do in the way of a refund. But all of my data is still on there, I just need some way to re-connect the USB plug to the circuit board. I guess that would involve soldering? Do you guys have any idea how I could get the USB drive fixed without spending a lot of time or money?"
Hardware Hacking

Measuring Acceleration/Speed for Small Vehicles? 55

Posted by Cliff from the better-than-a-cop's-speedometer dept.
stampfli_brit asks: "I am the captain of rowing at my local club, and was looking for a way to improve training. We have an NK SpeedCoach. However, I was looking for something that could measure the speed of the shell several times a second, more like this [pdf]. Any ideas on a cheap system using IC accelerometers or GPS, that could get this kind of information, log it for an hour or two, then dump it to an Apple Mac for analysis?"
The Courts

Do We Need a Sarbanes-Oxley for The Internet? 54

Posted by Cliff from the more-regulation dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "Since 2002, corporate executives have been held accountable through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) for their own internal IT security (with heavy fines and even prison terms when SOX isn't complied with) despite the fact that this level of accountability doesn't exist for some critical elements of the internet. Is it high time for industry to collaborate on a stringent security doctrine to hold organizations accountable for operating, providing and commercializing Internet service, in effect a Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the Internet?"
Security

Enforcing Crytographically Strong Passwords 429

Posted by Zonk from the nd3knsdkh238979103dsw dept.
Saqib Ali writes "The WebAppSec mailing list at SecurityFocus is currently having an interesting discussion on how to force users to use cryptographically strong passwords. The original poster suggested displaying a list of randomly generated password for the user to choose from. Two issues pointed with this concept, were Shoulder surfing and the fact that a bunch of randomly generated passwords are hard to remember. A counter proposal was to use pronounceable but randomly generated password. A full summary of this discussion is available. Any thoughts from slashdotters?"
Wireless Networking

Mid-Range Wireless Deployment for the Home User? 69

Posted by Cliff from the wireless-networking-for-estates dept.
ronin78 asks: "My father just bought a five-acre farm with multiple buildings. I am looking for a way to set up a WLAN that covers the entire property. All I have been able to find are commercial solutions from various providers, all of which are close to or above a thousand dollars and measure coverage area in miles. Do Slashdot readers know how to provide wireless access for more than one house without blanketing the entire neighborhood (hopefully for a reasonable price)? Are there single, high-powered routers that will do the job?"
Technology

'Xtreme' Equipment That You Have Borrowed? 216

Posted by Cliff from the overkill-but-fun dept.
djupedal asks: "What's the most extreme type of equipment you've used from the lab/office/university, etc. for your own projects, etc.? Have you ever taken a piece of unknown lint into work just to check it out under the nuclear microscope? Ever used the UV curing oven on the production line to make custom wheels for an R/C car? Ever used the 100,000 ton press in the lab to meld a dime into a nickel just to have a present for your gf/bf on Valentine's Day?"
AMD

How Many Desktop PCs Can One Server Replace? 107

Posted by Cliff from the true-multi-user-systems dept.
NZheretic asks: "HP has just announced that they have upgraded a four-processor server with Advanced Micro Devices' new dual-core Opteron. The amount of processing power a multi-processor multi-core system can deliver seem like a waste of processing power for most traditional servers, which are more likely to suffer from disk access bottlenecks before lack of processing power becomes a problem. But what if that power could be delivered direct to the desktop users? The HP ProLiant DL585 supports eight 64-bit PCI-X I/O Slots (Six 100MHz, two 133MHz). The ATI FireMV(TM) 2400 supports Quad DVI/VGA displays on PCI Express. Assuming that you leave one PCI-X slot for a multiport USB card, thats up to twenty eight displays with USB keyboards,mice and headsets that could theoretically replace twenty eight networked desktop PCs. Using DVI and USB extenders, not all of the user stations would have to be within the 7.5 meter cable distance imposed by the DVI cable limit. The only OS currently capable of supporting this many displays is Linux. What limits would be imposed by the hardware and PCI-X bottlenecks? Taking into account the added cost of the HP and ATI hardware, could it deliver a great reduction in the total cost of ownership over both traditional PCs and thin client systems? How many desktops is it practical for a high end server to directly replace?"

The Best of Verity Stob 110

Posted by timothy from the in-jokes-for-in-jokesters dept.
Alex Moskalyuk writes "For 17 years, a British programmer who calls herself Verity Stob has been entertaining the readers of Dr. Dobbs Journal, EXE and The Register with her witty humor and variety of writing styles, which has now been collected into book form. In the foreword to the book, Danny O'Brien from NTK says that before the days of Dilbert, Futurama, User Friendly and Slashdot, the market for geek humor was dangerously under-served. So Verity attempted to add a little humor." Read on for the rest of Moskalyuk's review.
Education

OpenOffice vs. MS Office for Education? 1039

Posted by Cliff from the search-for-a-red-tape-solvent dept.
dbrian asks: "I work in a large high school district where there will be some discussion on whether or not to purchase another term of 'Software Assurance' for MS Office licenses on thousands of computers. This seems to be an ideal opportunity to promote an alternative such as OpenOffice. It will not be an easy sell, even though OpenOffice should more than satisfy all curricular needs and save the district lots of money; like many other districts we have political and cultural 'challenges'. So, I ask you, have you been successful in moving your education or business organization from MS Office to OpenOffice? What were the pros and cons from your migration? What advice do you have in selling this to tech coordinators and administrators who are not enlightened by Open Source?"
Hardware Hacking

Custom Motherboards? 120

Posted by Cliff from the when-everyone-else-just-isn't-good-enough dept.
Druegan asks: "I've been rooting around on the net lately checking out all the latest and greatest in new PC parts, plotting out the design for my next build. I'm finding lots of neat stuff, but I can never seem to find a main board that has just the right combination of features. Therefore, I want to Ask Slashdot: Is there any way your esteemed readership knows as to how a person might get a main board custom made?"
Games

For Love of The Game 243

Posted by Zonk from the made-me-the-dork-i-am-today dept.
A feature from Gamespot this week is an interesting look at gaming moments that moved you as a player. Emotional moments for several of the editors are explored. From the article: "This isn't an article about violence in video games. It's a chance for us to consider some of the moments in our lives as game players that made us feel strongly about something that, in the grand scheme of things, is probably pretty trivial. These are cases in which games drove us to relative emotional extremes. This is both how and why we play." What would be a gaming moment that drove you to an emotional extreme?

Human Hibernation on the Horizon? 511

Posted by CowboyNeal from the sleep-that-sick-away dept.
Mincemeat.net writes "The BBC is reporting that scientists at University of Washington have successfully induced a state of extreme hibernation in mice. The mice suffered no ill effects. Naturally, testing in larger animals will ensue. Humans wouldn't necessarily appreciate the smell of hydrogen sulfide while being placed into suspended animation. However, the applications are numerous if the usage of similar techniques can be applied to us. Cancer treatment, delaying death from injuries, interplanetary expeditions top the lists of possibilities. While it's not a quick freeze, maybe Fry will be able to meet Bender after all."

The Second Life Future Salons 6

Posted by Zonk from the anything-mini-has-to-be-good dept.
Jerry23 writes "Next Thursday, April 28th, the Second Life Future Salon will begin holding free, monthly mini-conferences inside the digital world of Second Life. These Salons will feature invited presenters on topics exploring the future of technology, business, society, and digital worlds. The first Salon will take place in design team Bedazzle's China Town setting and feature Randal Moss from the American Cancer Society on an upcoming Relay for Life fundraising project in Second Life, and Jim Purbrick AKA Babbage Linden on his personal experience developing digital worlds as well as some emerging opportunities for paid jobs working in (not just on) digital worlds. The Salon is being started up by the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a futures research nonprofit."
GUI

One Year Later - CUPS Admin Still Lacking? 447

Posted by Cliff from the still-working-on-an-intuitive-gui dept.
DopeyDad asks: "OK, it was close to a year ago (Eric's site says July 2004, but I'd swear the original rant came earlier last year) that Eric Raymond's tirade on the unfriendly status of configuring the CUPS printing system on Linux was published. Well, I've been struggling with setting up a new laptop and getting it to talk to my print server, using Fedora Core 3, and nothing seems to have changed -- the admin items for adding a printer are exactly as Eric described them back then -- unclear, confusing, and no where near as friendly as their Win* equivalents. Definitely not something I'd expect my Aunt Ethel to be able to figure out. What's going on here? Granted, FC3 is ready to be replaced, but I don't see any CUPS updates for it. Is work being done with CUPS to address Eric's original complaints, or has this issue fallen off the radar?" For those who are still frustrated with the CUPS GUI, how would you improve it?

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