Eddi3 - Slashdot User

Submission + - ClamWin AntiVirus is going .NET (clamwin.com)

Submitted by

tuaris

on Friday August 10, 2007 @01:06AM

tuaris writes: "I've been a long time fan of ClamWin, a free ClamAV antivirus client for Microsoft Windows. One of the major selling points of this open source product was it's lack of bloat. Unlike many commercial AntiVirus products, ClamWin has a simple and fast user interface. For the next version, the authors plan to improve the user interface and give ClamWin a real-time scanner. They'll achieve this be separating the program into two components:

A "ClamWin service & real-time scanning driver which will be loaded into memory at all times on normal use", will be written in C++.
Then "the ClamWin GUI, to monitor and control the behavior of the service component.", this will written in .NET.

I very disappointed to learn about ClamWin using .NET to power it's GUI. Even though the current one is seen as being very limited, using .NET will not make it any better. I submit this to Slashdot to gather enough attention to try and have the authors rethink their decision.
http://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?p=5534#553 4"

Submission + - Nano-boric acid improves fuel ecomony by 4-5 % (anl.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07, 2007 @12:11AM

An anonymous reader writes: Ali Erdemir, senior scientist in Argonne's Energy Systems Division, has spent nearly 20 years investigating the lubricious properties of boric acid. In 1991, he received an R&D 100 award — widely considered the "Oscar of technology" — for showing that microscopic particles of boric acid could dramatically reduce friction between automobile engine parts. Metals covered with a boric acid film exhibited coefficients of friction lower than that of Teflon, making Erdemir's films the slickest solids in existence at that time.

In laboratory tests, these new boric acid suspensions have reduced by as much as two-thirds the energy lost through friction as heat. The implications for fuel economy are not hard to imagine, Erdemir said. "You're easily talking about a four or five percent reduction in fuel consumption," he said. "In a given day, we consume so many millions of barrels of oil, and if you can reduce that number by even one percent, that will have a huge economic impact."

The substitution of liquid boric acid for sulfur-containing additives preserves the health of the car as well as that of the environment. Sulfur exhaust gradually coats the surface of a car's catalytic converter, the part that helps to reduce the toxicity of a car's emissions. Eventually, the converter becomes so choked with sulfur that it is no longer able to process any more exhaust.

Even though he has just begun to unleash the potential of boric acid, Erdemir believes that nanoscale synthetic compounds may prove to be even more effective lubricants. "The next step is to use the basic knowledge that we have gained out of this particular compound to come up with more exotic compounds that will work even better," he said.

Submission + - Microsoft Censored domain...possibly because... (scrizzle.com)

Submitted by

endun

on Sunday August 05, 2007 @06:20PM

endun writes: "A few months ago Micro$oft made an offer for my domain "Scrizzle.com" (the one I use on this site). First I was quite shocked and dismissed it. I thought it was a Nigerian scammer, but thought it was too well written (no offence). But I ended up laughing it off, why would Micro$oft want to buy my domain!? This was months ago... Yesterday after writing the Verizon post, I decide to give the link to a few friends on my msn. Here is a chat log I copied... New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: Alright dude!? New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: Hate Verizon dont you:P new post up, they got owned :D New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: http://www.scrizzle.com/ Joomix.com! says: Yes F*ck? Link me! New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: I just did. Did you not get it? Joomix.com! says: no.. New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: http://www.scrizzle.com/ New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: Got that? Joomix.com! says: stop playing, just send the link! New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: I'm not, I've sent it twice. New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: www.scrizzle.com ... Joomix.com! says: Your MSN's f*ck dude. New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: scrizzl e .com Joomix.com! says: Why send it like that? New Verizon Post @ Blog! says: It's the only way thats working :S I tested it and tested it with an old MSN messenger account I had, seems they have filtered my domain. I guess they did make an offer the domain, but because I rejected it, they turned evil."

Submission + - Top tech blogs duped by 16-year-old Aussie kid

Submitted by thefickler on Sunday August 05, 2007 @05:59PM

thefickler writes: A number of top tech blogs have been duped by a margarine-loving Aussie kid who passed himself off as a top Google executive spreading Apple rumors. He was eventually found out when someone bothered to google his name.

Submission + - My freakin' flying car's almost here (msbpodcast.com)

Submitted by

crovira

on Sunday August 05, 2007 @09:42AM

crovira writes: "C:Net is heading down, through I might say they're just setting flaps' down, to the journalistic toilet with this latest "Flying Car" story. Check it out at http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6200744.html?tag=ne.v ideo.6200186"

Submission + - Senate website withholding wiretap law roll call (pressesc.com)

Submitted by

amigoro

on Sunday August 05, 2007 @09:22AM

amigoro writes: "The US Senate website is not publishing the roll call of votes by Senators on the bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act making President George W. Bush's illegal wiretapping order retroactively legal."

Submission + - My neighbours hate me because I'm a programmer (lycos.co.uk) 1

Submitted by

mcrodgers

on Sunday August 05, 2007 @09:00AM

mcrodgers writes: "I'm a programmer in the UK with high-functioning autism (Asburgers) and I'm very sensitive to noise. My neighbours make a lot of noise and one of them, in the flat directly above me, only sleeps for a few hours a night, so he keeps me awake most of the night. All my attempts to complain have been met with hostility, shouting, insults and threats. My landlord doesn't want to get involved and my tennency agreement is about to end. Does anyone else have this kind of problem? How do you deal with it? What can you do when even your other neighbours turn against you because they believe the noisy neighbours are nice people and you're not nice because you complain? Online flaming is bad enough, but what can you do with real life disagreements that can make you homeless?"

Submission + - Hackers Extract Main Key to iPhone Unlocking (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05, 2007 @07:39AM

An anonymous reader writes: After reverse-engineering Nucleus, the iPhone's radio/multimedia chip RTOS, the iPhone Dev Team has achieved the next big milestone to free the iPhone from the AT&T network: they have extracted the full content of the S-Gold2 chip's NOR memory. Bluntly put, these are the plans for the damn Death Star and "is the main key to achieve true unlocking." They are also calling for donations to help them keep their efforts.

Submission + - iPhone Dev Team's call for donation at final step (fiveforty.net)

Submitted by

Tech.Luver

on Sunday August 05, 2007 @07:19AM

Tech.Luver writes: "Call for Donation from iPhone Dev Team at final step. " Just a couple of days ago we managed to extract the full content of the NOR memory (from the S-Gold2), which is the main key to achieving a true unlock. We're going to release the NOR Dumper binary to enable everyone else to continue working on the iPhone's unlocking. DOWNLOAD: http://www.deadbeef.cn/NORDumper.tar.bz2 We hope you'll all enjoy this important step and we of course welcome any donations to encourage or to help us achieving the final goal. Please be assured that any donations are wisely spent, otherwise you can slap us :P ""

Submission + - Automatix Activly Dangerous to Ubuntu

Submitted by exeme on Saturday August 04, 2007 @06:21AM

exeme writes: Ubuntu developer Matthew Garrett has recently analysed famed Ubuntu illegal software installer Automatix and found it to be actively dangerous to Ubuntu desktop systems. In a detailed report which only took Garrett a couple of hours he found many serious, show-stopper bugs and concluded that Ubuntu could not officially support Automatix in its current state. Garrett also goes on to say that simple Debian packages could provide all of the functionality of Automatix without any of the problems it exhibits.

Submission + - WD's New Caviar SE16 750G Hard Drive, Huge, Fast (hothardware.com)

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Saturday August 04, 2007 @06:18AM

MojoKid writes: "Western Digital took a bit longer than expected to finally release a desktop drive larger than 500 Gig, but their first release, the Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS looks to be an impressive rendition of new advancements in hard disk perpendicular recording technology. This new 750G WD drive gave Seagate's 7200.10 equivalent a run for its money and beat it in every performance test shown at HotHardware. Also, with storage prices so low right now, the 750G monster weighs in at a svelte $0.33/GB or better, with current street prices falling below the $250 range.""

Submission + - Chinese piracy claims overstated (jgoguen.net)

Submitted by

jgoguen

on Friday August 03, 2007 @11:56AM

jgoguen writes: "Last week, the New York Times posted an article proudly proclaiming "F.B.I. and Chinese Seize $500 Million of Counterfeit Software". $500 million is a lot of money, that must be a huge victory. The problem is, those numbers don't quite add up.

http://jgoguen.net/archives/2007/08/03/chinese-pir acy-claims-overstated/"

Submission + - Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray data available online (utah.edu)

Submitted by dork on Friday August 03, 2007 @11:55AM

dork writes: The Pierre Auger Collaboration, finishing its southern hemisphere detector in province of Mendoza, Argentina, agreed on making 1% of its data available to the public. The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory is studying ultra-high energy cosmic rays, the most energetic particles in the universe, up to 100,000,000 times more energetic than particles ever produced by accelerators here at Earth. When these rare particles strike the earth's atmosphere, they produce extensive air showers made of billions of particles. While cosmic rays with low to moderate energies are well understood, those with extremely high energies remain mysterious. This web site allows browsing over the events collected since 2004, and is updated daily.

Submission + - NY Times "Free" trial is a trap (nytimesee.com)

Submitted by LiquidCoooled on Thursday August 02, 2007 @06:58PM

LiquidCoooled writes: The New York Times have recently begun offering an exact digital replica of the daily newspaper.
However to get a look at this nifty sounding site, you must signup and leave your credit card details.
The only thing which concerns me is the following:

Page Headline: Free: Try The New York Times Electronic Edition For 7 Days

Clause lower down: The first charge will be on the 5th day of your 7-day free trial.

My question then, how do I get a free 7 day trial?

Journal Journal: Teaching Programming to Kids? 2

Journal by PresidentEnder on Tuesday July 31, 2007 @01:06PM

I'm an undergrad Math/CS student. One of my cousins, an exceptionally bright 11-year-old, is interested in learning to program. I'd like to give him some kind of direction; at least, more than I got: to teach him to avoid bad habits, use design patterns (OO vs procedural, especially) properly, and make sure that he stays interested. I'd like to see what Slashdot thinks: what are appropriate resources to use? Which language should I try to teach him? Are there any good books out there?

Slashdot Top Deals