The Courts

Use of Open Source Software in Legal Firms? 58

Posted by Cliff from the gnu-wave-legal-initiatives dept.
jhenkins asks: "This is a question to all of the legal beagles out there, especially practicing lawyers and advocates. Normally there are quite a number of restrictions posed on law professionals with regards to file formats by courts etc, but I would like to know whether there are some success stories out there. It would be very interesting to get some opinions in this field, because where I come from (South Africa) this is an almost *total* M$ stronghold. The only area where I saw a really big score for Open Source is the adoption of things like Kolab for groupware and scheduling. So, do you use Open Source software in your line of work? If you do, please let me know what you use and for which purpose (things like document management, knowledge bases, word processing et al). Thanks!"
Programming

Do Programmers Actually Use Assertions? 170

Posted by Cliff from the there-are-some-out-there dept.
P.Chalin queries: "Do programmers actually use assertions (like the assert statement of various programming languages)? If so, what should be done when errors or exceptions are raised during the evaluation of an assertion? I am collecting opinions and stats via a short questionnaire. Thanks."
Networking

AU Regulations on LAN Cabling? 146

Posted by Cliff from the licensed-cable-technicians!? dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "After getting a ridiculous quote for the cost of rewiring an office, I started investigating the possibility of doing all the phone/data cabling myself. About 40 RJ-45 ports all coming back to a central patch panel that would be patched into the phone or data switch as needed. My research found that doing this simple job would be illegal in Australia, according to the Australian Communications Authority's (ACA) website. According to them, they have the right to walk in at any time and demand an audit of your LAN, and if it was not installed by a registered cabler, you can be fined up to $13,000. My question is, how does this compare to legislation in other parts of the world? Also, has anyone in Australia ever been subject to one of these 'cabling audits'? Was it painful?"

Gentoo 2005.0 Released 425

Posted by Zonk from the latest-and-greatest dept.
mintshows writes "According to Gentoo Planet, the first gentoo release of the year, 2005.0, is out. You can download the 2005.0 ISOs from the torrents at http://torrents.gentoo.org/ . Of course, current Gentoo users can just emerge to the latest and greatest as always."

2005 Hugo Nominations 171

Posted by Zonk from the books-innn-spaaace dept.
COBOLgrrl writes " The 2005 Hugo Nominations have been announced. Books up for Best Novel include The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks, Iron Council by China Miéville , Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and River of Gods by Ian McDonald."

Kid Named After Everquest Character 111

Posted by Zonk from the my-precious-brain dept.
eToychest writes "Sony Online Entertainment just sent notice that some poor baby has been named after a character in EverQuest. Apparently players really, really love this game. Case in point: player Tabitha Ayers gave birth to a baby girl January 6, 2005, and promptly named her Firiona Vie Ayers, in honor of EverQuest's famous spokes-elf. The path to geekdom for this child has aready been paved in 12-sided dice and character sheets." At this point I think it's safe to say that SOE is going to be the cause of the downfall of Civilization.
The Almighty Buck

Recommendations for Website Payment Systems? 76

Posted by Cliff from the that-age-old-question-of-micropayments dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "I run a smallish website that provides stock quotes, charts, etc for a very under-reported stock market. (I won't link here due to the Slashdot Death Ray effect, and because this is a real question, not an advertisement). Over the recent weeks, many of my site members have been asking if they could make a small contribution to help off-set costs, which I am considering. 'Tip Jars' seem tacky and I know many people aren't comfortable with Paypal. So, should I roll my own, or are there any highly recommended ways of doing this that I am missing? Any suggestions?"
The Internet

BitTorrent Inherently Illegal? 857

Posted by Cliff from the what-a-misconception! dept.
Nohbdy001 asks: "Today I received a letter from my university's network administration advising me that my network access would be terminated due to 'illegal P2P activity.' The P2P activity that the e-mail cited was BitTorrent and the file being transferred was an update to the Azureus BitTorrent client. The letter stated, 'Until the courts decide that student P2P activity is permitted we will continue to block this activity on our network,' implying that BitTorrent is inherently illegal. It seems such misunderstandings are common, but it is particularly frustrating when coming from people in the IT field. How can a student respond to such an accusation in order to defend the validity of BitTorrent and continue to benefit from its legitimate uses?"
Education

Making the Transition to University? 168

Posted by Cliff from the college-plans dept.
fracex asks: "I am currently finishing my last year of high school, and have some important decisions to make about next year. Pretty much all my life I have seen myself as going to university as soon as I finished high school, but recently I have been considering taking a year off from school to work and travel. Not only this, I'm not even totally sure what I want to take in university, is what I still want to take. So, taking a year off could give me time to find more direction and focus. What was your experience with your transition between high school and university, and are you glad you made the decisions you did?"
Programming

Japanese Localization Help? 102

Posted by Cliff from the I-really-think-so-think-so-think-so dept.
TwoPumpChump asks: "I'm a young engineer, with only modest programming training and experience, (Nothing to match you Gods of the code,) and I have just been assigned with the task of traveling to one of our Japanese factories to learn, then translate and localize some VB 6 code for a product line that we'll be setting up here at our American facility. The application's purpose is to run various tests using GPIB communications, with NI-DAQ hardware for instrument control and dump results into a database, all of which I'm comfortable with. My question is, before I travel half around the globe for the first time ever, is what issues can I expect when localizing Japanese code to US English and what sort of 'toolkit' should I take?"
Communications

Making the Most out of FOAF Networks? 45

Posted by Cliff from the digital-networking dept.
BFF? asks: "With the rising popularity of online FOAF (Friend of a Friend) networks such as Orkut, Friendster and Linked-In I was wondering if and how people are using these networks to help their career along. Are these social networks just for vanity's sake or are they actually useful when job-hunting?"

The Solar Death Ray 496

Posted by timothy from the for-small-values-of-death dept.
Ant writes the "Solar Death Ray is made of 112 mirrors mounted on a platform 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall. Each mirror is a square roughly 3.5 inches on edge. All these mirrors focus the sun to a single spot 5 feet, 6 inches from the mirror platform. A wooden fork extends from the mirror base to the area near the focus and serves as a mounting point for Solar Death Ray targets. The mirror platform is mounted to the support frame on a pivot that allows the platform to be angled. The whole system is mounted on a set of wheels. The goal of the Web site was to show the results of the targeted items when the solar death ray was used."
Security

Open Source AV Proxies and Network Scanners? 35

Posted by Cliff from the network-wide-virus-innoculations dept.
Zphbeeblbrox asks: "Our Company is looking to set up a central proxy/gateway for several of our Networks. We would like to investigate some of the Open Source Antivirus Proxy solutions and AntiViral Network Scanning, however the information we have on them is rather sketchy. Have any of you had experience setting up DansGuardian with the Clam-AV plugin or similar such solutions. Additionally the mail proxy with Clam-AV solutions? If you have, what advice and recommendations would you have for us. Do they work and should we consider using something like snort-inline to scan our network traffic for viruses? I have found little by way of comparisons or reviews on them so I'm hoping you will be able to share some of your experiences on their effectiveness."
The Almighty Buck

Are 'Monster' Cables Worth It? 415

Posted by Cliff from the your-cables-may-bite-you dept.
Digitarius asks: "Are "Monster" cables really better, or are they just more expensive? I'm setting up my HDTV, and I can get Component video cables made by Belkin for half the price of the Monster cable equivalents. Are there any actual stats or studies to back up Monster's claims of superiority? So far most people tell me to get the Monster cables, 'just to be sure,' but what's the real truth?"
Media

When Would You Accept DRM? 1288

Posted by Cliff from the bitter-pills-made-palatable dept.
twigles asks: "Following on the heels of Apple closing DVD Jon's end run around its DRM and a British TV station offering DRM'd downloads it seems fair to ask, what DRM would you accept as a consumer? Personally, I take the view that if a song, movie, book, etc. is DRM'd then it isn't truly mine. On the other hand, if a particular piece of digital media is priced correctly (a la' rental fee) would that be satisfactory, or do you feel that DRM in any form is ridiculous?"

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