__NR_kill - Slashdot User

Submission + - FCC Declares FOSS Insecure for Software Radio (com.com)

Submitted by subluminal on Friday July 06, 2007 @10:39AM

subluminal writes: A new rule by the FCC taking effect today would place a greater burden on FOSS to prove its security. U.S. regulators, it seems, believe the inherently public nature of open-source code makes it more vulnerable to hackers, leaving 'a high burden to demonstrate that it is sufficiently secure'.

Submission + - How to shoot yourself in the foot the GNOME way

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 06, 2007 @10:24AM

An anonymous reader writes: If you remember the story about hot to shoot yourself in the foot in deferent computer languages. Well this will be great addition after a I've had to work in GNOME environment for several hours.

We at the GNOME project are constantly looking to improve our users experience.By doing a very complicated analysis of the procedure "shooting yourself in the foot", and taking in consideration that:
- There are variables like, angle of fire, the foot position relative to the body, the foot position relative to ground. the type of gun and ammunition used, how steady the hand of the user is, and about 42 others
We decided:
- The user cannot be trusted to perform such complex task as "shoot yourself in the foot" and achieve perfect results, because it is impossible to manage so many variables by himself and even he can become scared and never shoot himself in the foot.
Thats why by studding the output of "cat /dev/random" we found the perfect balance between the variables. And now every user will be shot in the foot on sight with our perfect hard coded implementation of the void shoot-myself-in-the-foot();

Submission + - Prince to give new album away for free

Submitted by

Bert the Turtle

on Friday July 06, 2007 @10:02AM

Bert the Turtle writes: "The artist formally known as Prince is planning to give his newest album away for free with a major British newspaper and to thousands of gig-goers. Spokespeople for the entertainment industry have suggested that this might incur sanctions. Some more details here"

Submission + - Proposed Amendment Would Ban All DVD Copying (pcmag.com)

Submitted by akkarin on Friday June 22, 2007 @05:57AM

akkarin writes: PcMag has an interesting yet worrying article about a proposed amendment, which, if passed, would ban all DVD copying — yes, even 'backups'. From the article:

The proposed amendment was made public in a letter sent by Michael Malcolm, the chief executive of Kaleidescape, a DVD jukebox company which successfully defeated a suit by the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) this past March. The proposed amendment is scheduled for a vote on Wednesday, according to Malcolm.

Is this the end of legal DVD backups?

Submission + - Firstborn Get the Brains

Submitted by

Dekortage

on Friday June 22, 2007 @05:50AM

Dekortage writes: "Eldest children have higher IQs than their siblings, according to a recent study by Norwegian researchers. The study focused on men, particularly "on teasing out the biological effects of birth order from the effects of social status," but indicates that the senior boy in a family (either by being firstborn, or if an elder brother died) has an average IQ two or three points higher than younger brothers. As noted in the New York Times coverage, "Experts say it can be a tipping point for some people — the difference between a high B average and a low A, for instance... that could mean the difference between admission to an elite private college and a less exclusive public one.""

Submission + - San Diego rolls out laptops with Linux (repair4printer.org)

Submitted by

Printer Hacker

on Friday June 22, 2007 @05:41AM

Printer Hacker writes: "Currently Dell gets all the hype about offering just one laptop pre-equipped with Linux. But silently there is a project using Linux on a bunch of laptops already, eSchool News writes: "Looking for a cost-effective way to deliver portable computing to every student, the San Diego Unified School District is installing machines with desktop Linux and other open-source software. In turning to open source, San Diego joins a growing number of school systems aiming to extend computing resources affordably to more users." And just in case you are neither a student nor want a Dell laptop, here is an international survey of companies selling laptops with Linux pre-installed."

Submission + - Final Draft of GPLv3 Allows Novell-Microsoft Deal (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by famicommie on Friday June 22, 2007 @05:28AM

famicommie writes: All of Novell's fingernail biting has been for naught. In a stunning display of forgiveness and bridge building on behalf of the FSF, zdnet reports that the final draft of the GPLv3 will close the infamous MS-Novell loophole while allowing deals made prior to continue. From the article:
'The final, "last-call" GPLv3 draft bans only future deals for what it described as "tactical" reasons in a 32-page explanation of changes. That means Novell doesn't have to worry about distributing software in SLES that's governed by the GPLv3.'

Submission + - Why isn't PHP5 migration fixed yet? (fplanque.com)

Submitted by

Francois

on Friday June 22, 2007 @04:35AM

Francois writes: "It's been 3 years since the release of PHP5. Yet PHP 4 still rules on the vast majority of web hosting platforms.

This is annoying for PHP open source developers who cannot leverage the potential of PHP 5 as long as they need to support PHP 4. This is also annoying for the PHP development group since they still need to support PHP 4 instead of focusing on PHP 6.

There would be an obvious solution: let PHP 5 behave like PHP 4 and explicitely request "PHP 5 mode" at the beginning of a script. Yet the PHP team seems to fail to recognize it... and the PHP world is still stuck in 2004."

Submission + - Web 2.0: Free Desktop Environment (media-sight.net)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday June 20, 2007 @05:03PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "A unique, powerful, and free Desktop Environment that lets you use any computer in the world as your own. You'll never be required to install any plug-ins or new software onto your computer because it all runs right inside your web browser just like going to a regular website."

Submission + - Linus on GPLv3 and ZFS

Submitted by slurpster on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @04:32AM

slurpster writes: Linus makes his views about GPLv3 and ZFS clear in his lastest posting to the Linux mailing list.

He writes

'So to Sun, a GPLv3-only release would actually let them look good, and still keep Linux from taking their interesting parts, and would allow them to take at least parts of Linux without giving anything back (ahh, the joys of license fragmentation). Of course, they know that. And yes, maybe ZFS is worthwhile enough that I'm willing to go to the effort of trying to relicense the kernel. But quite frankly, I can almost guarantee that Sun won't release ZFS under the GPLv3 even if they release other parts. Because if they did, they'd lose the patent protection.'

Submission + - Consequences of Closed Source Software in Linux (osweekly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @04:03AM

An anonymous reader writes: What is wrong with closed source apps in Linux? That's the question that Matt Hartley attempts to answer. He writes, "I believe another simple fact of life is that people are going to have to get used to the issue of Windows migrants bringing their need for specific applications along with them. This would certainly explain the explosion is WINE popularity for sure. So, if we are so quick to allow proprietary applications in WINE, why the resistance and even downright resentment with proprietary applications then? Simple, the rules of the GPL disallow it. This may not seem fair, but regardless, this is simply how it is.

Submission + - Microsoft "Surface Computer" Revealed (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by

cmulder

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @03:38AM

cmulder writes: "Popular Mechanics gets a sneak peek in this video and article of the design, features and possible uses of a future Microsoft product... a new computer design called the 'Microsoft Surface'.

"The company's unofficial Surface showman is Jeff Gattis. He's a clean-cut fellow who is obviously the veteran of a thousand marketing seminars. He spoke in sentences peppered with "application scenarios," "operational efficiencies" and "consumer pain points" while he took me through a few demonstrations of what the Surface can do. One of Gattis's consumer pain points is the frustrating mess of cables, drivers and protocols that people must use to link their peripheral devices to their personal computers. Surface has no cables or external USB ports for plugging in peripherals. For that matter, it has no keyboard, no mouse, no trackball — no obvious point of interaction except its screen."
The video demonstrates the Minority Report-like functioning of the Surface while the Microsoft spokesmen describe the technology as a 'complete new ecosystem for computers'."

Submission + - Bill Gates, Harvard dropout, gets degree

Submitted by El Lobo on Friday June 08, 2007 @06:57AM

El Lobo writes: Gates, who dropped out of Harvard and co-founded Microsoft Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) to become the world's richest person, stopped off at his former stomping grounds to collect an honorary law degree.

I've been waiting for more than 30 years to say this: Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree," Gates, 51, told the crowd, which included his father, also named Bill.

Jobs and Gates share the spotlight "I'll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume," said Gates in a reference to his plan to shift full time into philanthropy.

Submission + - Google urges US govt to raise number of H-1B visas (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

sanbro

on Friday June 08, 2007 @04:42AM

sanbro writes: "Internet search giant Google on Thursday urged the US government to raise the number of H-1B visas by highlighting the contributions of its co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist Krishna Bharat, both foreign-origin workers."

Submission + - Company aims to patent security patches (eweek.com)

Submitted by

Jonas Maebe

on Friday June 08, 2007 @04:31AM

Jonas Maebe writes: "Someone thought up another way to profiteer from the software patent system: when a security hole is discovered, they'll try to patent the fix in order to collect money when the affected vendors close the hole in their product.. The company in question is not shy about its intentions: Intellectual Weapons will only consider vulnerabilities in high profile products from vendors with deep pockets. Let's be thankful for yet another way software patents are used to promote science and the useful arts."

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