MartinB - Slashdot User

Submission + - Secure a PC For Your Mom?

Submitted by

BoneThugND

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @05:33PM

BoneThugND writes: "ITSecurity.com has published a 20 minute guide to securing a PC. While many of the tips are solid, I am thinking I should go a bit further to protect my mom's new Windows machine. Assuming she is not a very savvy user, what should I be doing to make sure her box isn't slowed down by dozens of malware programs after three weeks of surfing?"

Submission + - Mythical Man-Month formula?

Submitted by frodpittle on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @05:20PM

frodpittle writes: We all know that doubling the number of developers doesn't halve the development time.

What rule-of-thumb formula do you use to adjust your development-time estimate based on the number of developers? For example, if a project will take 1 year with 2 developers, how long will it take with 5 developers? How dependent is the answer on the specifics of a particular project?

Submission + - No closed video drivers for next Ubuntu release

Submitted by

lisah

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @04:41PM

lisah writes: "Ubuntu's next release, Feisty Fawn, is due out in April and, according to company CTO Matt Zimmerman, proprietary video drivers failed to make the cut for the default install. Zimmerman told Linux.com that although, the software required for Composite support is not ready for prime-time and therefore will not be included in Feisty, Ubuntu hasn't given up entirely on the inclusion of video drivers in future releases. '[T]he winds aren't right yet. We will continue to track development and will revisit the decision if things change significantly.' Ambiguous or not, the decision to exclude proprietary drivers for now should satisfy at least some members of the Ubuntu Community. In other Feisty Fawn news, the Board also decided to downgrade support for Power PC due to a lack of funding."

Journal Journal: Lucas: 'Empire' Was the Worst of the Trilogy

Journal by anaesthetica on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @03:55PM

Entertainment blogger David Poland recently attended a Publicists' Guild luncheon which George Lucas attended. Lucas was present to give an award to Sid Ganis, the in-house publicist for Empire. Lucas credits Sid for creating the aura around Empire as the best of the three original Star Wars films, when, according to Lucas, "it was actually the worst one."

Submission + - How much are the new DST rules costing you?

Submitted by vanyel on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @03:19PM

vanyel writes: As the new daylight savings time change date nears, we're having to go around and make sure all our computers and routers are updated with the new changes. It seems to me to be a lot of work for no good reason, and I'm wondering just how much our Posturing Leaders are costing us?

Submission + - Is the Iranian bomb evidence real?

Submitted by

Phobos

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @02:42PM

Phobos writes: "Evidence has been presented to the world by the US purporting Iranian involvement in the Shia insurgency. Specifically that explosions contain Iranian fingerprints is hailed as an airtight case. Yet inside Zarqawi's safe house a document was found with this specifically on the list.

"4. By executing exploding operations in the west and accusing Iran by planting Iranian Shi'a fingerprints and evidence."

The letter specifically questions how to draw the US into a war with Iran in order to weaken them in Iraq.

"...The question remains, how to draw the Americans into fighting a war against Iran? ... Hence, it is necessary first to exaggerate the Iranian danger and to convince America and the west in general, of the real danger coming from Iran..."

Are we being duped into triggering war with Iran? This could call into question how sound the evidence is against Iran. The USA Today carried this letter in June of last year, but it appears to have been forgotten by the intelligence community."

Submission + - IBM CR restrict access to selected Web Sites

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @02:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: IBM CR restrict access to selected Web Sites English Version To IBM Costa Rica community To guarantee the proper usage of I/T resources according to IBM and our customers' standards, access to some websites not directly related with the IBM Costa Rica business will be restricted. This measure can include any website detected with significant usage and that is interfering with the business or activities of IBM employees supporting our accounts and not directly related with the service we deliver. Initially, the restriction covers the following websites, but more ones can be added in the future: amigos.com attach.mud.mail.yahoo.com attach.re2.mail.yahoo.com attach.re3.mail.yahoo.com by111w.bay111.mail.live.com by120fd.bay120.hotmail.msn.com by129fd.bay129.hotmail.msn.com by12fd.bay12.hotmail.msn.com by132fd.bay132.hotmail.msn.com by18fd.bay18.hotmail.msn.com by19fd.bay19.hotmail.msn.com fotolog.terra.cl hi5.com imageshack.us load.imageshack.us mail.google.com pictures.wayn.com s10.photobucket.com standupgirl.com upload.facebook.com upload.hi5.com upload.myspace.com upload.slide.com upload.tagged.com us.f276.mail.yahoo.com webmail.especialidadesjuvenilescr.com www.costarricense.cr www.enfemenino.com www.hi5.com www.ringo.com www.ticoracer.com www30.meebo.com wwwm.meebo.com No further notification about this matter or about additions to the list will be sent. Please take into consideration that Internet usage is subjected to terms and conditions stated in the ITCS300 corporate instruction. Removal of restrictions should be asked to general management stating business reasons. Please restrict Web navigation to a minimum if required and avoid it at all if you are assigned to an account that forbids or restricts contractually this activity." Unable to provide a URL, this was sent to our emails.

Submission + - The Continuing Failure of Government IT Projects

Submitted by stewwy on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @02:17PM

stewwy writes: The register Is carrying the story of an amazing attack on the U.K. governments Flagship IT project, the compiling of a national patient database
Fugitsu the lead contractor have an £895 million stake in the project for the southern region alone. The writer describes the project as " a camel in a field of racecourses " critiques include civil liberties groups doctors and computer experts
What makes this amazing is that the writer is a senior healthcare consultant.........at Fugitsu

Submission + - Age of Quantum Computing Arrived today???

Submitted by

SUPER JOHNC

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @02:11PM

SUPER JOHNC writes: "Dwavesys claims to have demonstrated the world's first quantum computer. If true this would usher in a new age of computing, as big a change as the car replacing the horse and buggy. http://www.dwavesys.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt0 1,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=4&cntnt01origid=15&cnt nt01returnid=21"

Submission + - IT world must tackle an inconvenient truth

Submitted by

glamb

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @01:56PM

glamb writes: "The Age is running a story, IT world must tackle an inconvenient truth, Computer conservation needs to be taken more seriously in Australia, writes Brad Howarth.

POWER consumption through corporate IT use accounts for 0.75 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, according to research group Gartner. That's nearly half the contribution made by the airline industry, a high-profile greenhouse ogre. And the figure does not include the cost of keeping data centres cool enough to operate, an ever-increasing problem as processors get faster and hotter.

Now the fact that humans have caused global warming is irrefutable shouldn’t we, the IT industry, be doing something?

How many PC’s are doing nothing but wasting power and running screen savers because IT departments require desktops run 24x7 and there is no “wake-up mechanism”? How many people leave their PC’s running because Windows does not come back 100% of the time from a hibernation or sleeping?"

Submission + - More on Google maps and war

Submitted by Assassin bug on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @01:34PM

Assassin bug writes: From the BBC — Google is playing an unlikely role in the Iraq war. Its online satellite map of the world, Google Earth, is being used to help people survive sectarian violence in Baghdad. The use of Google Maps has been submitted on /. before regarding the location of tagets. This report offers information on another interesting use of online mapping technology in war.

Submission + - Ten predictions for XML in 2007

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @01:30PM

An anonymous reader writes: 2007 is shaping up to be the most exciting year since the community drove off the XML highway into the Web services swamp half a decade ago. XQuery, Atom, Atom Publishing Protocol (APP), XProc, and GRRDL are all promising new power. Some slightly older technologies like XForms and XSLT are having new life breathed into them. 2007 will be a very good year to work with XML. See what's in store for XML this year

Submission + - Hackers further expose HD-DVD, Blu-Ray DRM

Submitted by RootWind on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @01:26PM

RootWind writes: Two months after the initial finding of the "volume keys" by muslix64, Engadget reports that arnezami also of Doom9 forums has discovered the "processing keys." This discovery allows the full unlocking, decryption, and backup of all currently released HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies (at least AACS-wise), instead of decrypting each individually through "volume keys." It seems the DRM arms battle is in full swing.

Submission + - Blind Pedestrians Say Hybrids Pose Safety Threat

Submitted by Radon360 on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @01:04PM

Radon360 writes: From the WSJ:

For blind people, crossing the street is becoming even more of a challenge. Michael Osborn, a blind marketing consultant from Laguna Beach, Calif., and his guide dog, Hastings, were in the middle of an intersection one morning last April when the yellow Lab stopped short. Mr. Osborn took the cue and halted — just in time to feel the breeze from a car passing right in front of them. "Half an inch and it would have hit us ... it wasn't making any noise," says Mr. Osborn, 50, who has been blind for 12 years. Witnesses say the car was a Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle.

Auditors Report FBI Fails in Tracking Lost Laptops 76

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @12:52PM from the keep-your-eye-on-the-prize dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General is reporting that the FBI has lackluster performance when it comes to tracking data lost on missing laptops. In a recent 44-month audit (ending in Sept. 2005), the FBI reported 160 lost or stolen machines. Of those, ten were confirmed to have sensitive info. A startling 51 of these machines had unknown information — in other words the FBI never knew what they lost. Some of these machines likely contained some of the most sensitive security information the FBI has, as there were several in the bunch that belonged to members of the Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Divisions. But the FBI was never able to properly respond to these losses because someone didn't fill out the right paperwork. The OIG has a copy of the audit (pdf) for public consumption."

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