Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Security

Submission + - The 8 most dangerous consumer technologies (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "Companies are responding to an increasing security threat from popular technologies with everything from bans and blocking to monitoring employee activity with sophisticated tracking software, according to Computerworld's Mary Brandel. "Consumerization will be a nightmare for IT departments, creating maintenance and support problems that will swiftly overwhelm IT resources, unless they embrace new approaches to managing the rogue employees," says one analyst. But end-users say their personal devices help with creativity and productivity."
Television

Submission + - From the "No-Wonder-I-Can't-Pay-Attention"

Submitted by oDDmON oUT
oDDmON oUT writes: While your mother may have told you that sitting too close to the tellie was bad for your eyes, the folks over at New Scientist have published a story relating that it's bad for your attention span:

"Watching television more than two hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, according to a large long-term study."

What distinguishes this research is its longitudinal nature:

"The team studied the long-term habits and behaviours of more than 1000 children born in Dunedin, between April 1972 and March 1973. The children aged 5 to 11 watched an average of 2.05 hours of weekday television. From age 13 to 15, time spent in front of the television rose to an average of 3.1 hours a day."

It would be nice if....uh.....what was I doing?
The Internet

Submission + - Facebook Leaves Advertisers Exposed to Hate Speech (newscloud.com) 1

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "Does Facebook believe that no publicity is bad publicity? Why else would they leave a group called, "Fuck Islam" open since July 21, 2007 despite more than 53,482 members joining an opposing group called petiton: if "f**k Islam" is not shut down..we r quitting facebook group. Furthermore, advertisers such as Sprint, Verizon, T Mobile, Target, Qwest and French's wouldn't be too happy to learn that they are paying for ads on the "Fuck Islam" group pages.

I'm not advocating a policy against free speech, just strict enforcement of Facebook's own Terms of Use. The group name is clearly vulgar and obscene. Arguably, inflammatory and hateful. Facebook has positioned itself as the darling of the social network world, without the spam, porn and the sex offender problems of MySpace. Yet, this sort of thing isn't new to Facebook (see Facing Up to Facebook Racism and Elder hate groups on facebook. There's even an active group called I hate Iraqis targeting Iraqi refugees fleeing to Jordan.
Shouldn't a startup like Facebook, worth reportedly more than a billion dollars with over a hundred employees be expected to comply with its Terms of Use in less than six weeks?"
United States

Submission + - Skilled Manufacturing Jobs: Are They Here to Stay? (manufacturingcrossing.com)

Submitted by
summerandrew
summerandrew writes: "Manufacturing has always been at the heart of the U.S. economy. Today, more and more manufacturers are moving toward acquiring skilled workforces because of intense global competition. Foreign threats such as outsourcing have taken away some manufacturing jobs, but the picture at times seems to get blown out of proportion."
Networking

Submission + - How worried should you be about metal whiskers?

Submitted by Ryan from NWW
Ryan from NWW writes: Depending on whom you ask, the data-center phenomenon of metal whiskering is either a relatively uncommon fluke or a crisis waiting to happen. These tiny filaments, which can form on zinc- or tin-plated surfaces, may cause unusual, sporadic problems, or they may cause a data center's power supplies to short out en masse. Since Network World first covered metal whiskers in 2004, new research and environmental legislation have changed how people approach metal whiskers, which have affected everyone from NASA to Swatch.
Announcements

Submission + - Oral Sex Implicated in Some Throat and Neck Cancer (usnews.com)

Submitted by JayFNG
JayFNG writes: A headline that may frighten your wife, girlfriend, or friend with benefits into never performing the act of oral gratification again. Dr. Erich Sturgis: "For now, he said, women who've had an abnormal Pap smear and their partners probably shouldn't engage in oral sex" Men everywhere can be heard saying: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Television

Submission + - US shows on iTunes cost British consumers more (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by
Zephida
Zephida writes: "After years of speculation, the iPod maker launched its UK television download service, a project that allows customers to buy a handful of American television series through the company's massively popular iTunes Store. But some experts said the service — whose offerings, for £1.89 a show, include the fictional series Lost, plus Ugly Betty, and Desperate Housewives — was much more expensive than in the US. The same purchases from the American iTunes Store, where television shows have been available for almost two years, cost just 99p ($1.99) an episode."
Businesses

Submission + - Presales, How to?

Submitted by
MSH
MSH writes: "I work for an PDC[Product development Outsourcing] center, and have recently moved to the Pre-sales. Primarily the function is to assist sales team, once the sales guy gets an opportunity we need to pitch in with our capabilities, suggesting technology, estimates, timelines for the new projects. Having no prior experience on working with sales team, would like to know how does the pre-sales [as a function of techsales] go? Are there any defined process? Any books i should read on the subject?"
Nintendo

Submission + - Wii reaches 1 million units sold in the UK (pro-g.co.uk)

Submitted by
JamesO
JamesO writes: "Nintendo's console becomes the fastest selling in UK video game history.

Nintendo has announced that Wii has passed the one million sales figure in just 38 weeks, some 11 weeks quicker than was achieved with the PlayStation 2 and 22 weeks faster than the Xbox 360.

Moving into the Christmas season, momentum for Nintendo's two gaming platforms shows no signs of slowing; for sales week 33 (week ending August 18) UK console shares for Wii and Nintendo DS Lite stood at 68% and 86% of the home and handheld markets respectively."
Space

Submission + - "Dark energy" explained? (turton.co.za)

Submitted by Tijaska
Tijaska writes: In 1998 astronomers discovered to their suprise that the universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. The term "dark energy" has been coined to describe the mysterious, unknown force that is causing this acceleration. I have published a paper that claims to explain what dark energy is – plain old electrons, released from the accretion disks of black holes, while their matching protons, being heavier, get preferentially sucked into the black holes and swallowed by the singularities at their centres. Once there, the protons become sequestered, their positive charge invisible to the rest of the universe forever. Well, if not forever then at least for a very long time. The oldest galaxies, largely swallowed by the black holes at their centres by now, have released vast amounts of electrons over the ages, which have exanded into surrounding space, pushing the galaxies in these regions further away and giving rise to the huge voids that characterise the cosmos, as also described in this BBC report.
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Mini-Nose sniffs out explosives (israel21c.org)

Submitted by
dbrinn
dbrinn writes: "Mini-Nose sniffs out explosives http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Arti cles%5El1760&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDis pWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology& An Israeli company has developed a hand-held device that digitally mimics the human nose to sniff out would-be terrorists trying to sneak through an airport or port with homemade explosive devices. Funded partly by the Pentagon and Israel's Ministry of Defense, Scent Detection Technologies' Mini-Nose has won the support of former heads of the CIA and Mossad. The non-radioactive 'green' device, which is already in use at airports across Europe and the US, replaces today's cumbersome, slow and radioactive explosive detection devices, making screening fast, efficient and safe."
Software

Submission + - Microsoft admits buying Swedish OOXML votes (nyteknik.se)

Submitted by ath
ath writes: In an interview with the swedish magazine NyTeknik , a Microsoft representative admits to "recommending" business partners to vote on OOXML.
Translated quotes from the article:
-We have been informing our business partners about the process at SIS. What is going on, what the time plan is and that Microsoft thinks it is good if OOXML becomes a standard
-In a letter from Microsoft, our business partners were informed that they were 'expected' to participate in the SIS meeting and vote yes. As a compensation they would get 'market benefits' and extra support in terms of microsoft resources.
-This was a mistake and the letter was sent by a single employee on his own initiative without sanctions from Microsoft. He also quickly realised his mistake and tried to recall the letter
-I can understand the critique about coup like voting. But I claim the voters knew the issue well and had their own interest in OOXML becoming an ISO standard
(Interviewer) -Has this harmed Microsoft?
-Time will tell. But almost all customers we have been talking to thinks it would be good if OOXML became an ISO standard.

Slashdot Top Deals

"The medium is the massage." -- Crazy Nigel

Close