adam - Slashdot User

Submission + - Big brother tracking (and taxing) on UK roads

Submitted by Thanster on Sunday January 14, 2007 @06:09PM

Thanster writes: The British government is working on plans to introduce pay per mile with GPS trackers in your car, this has massive big brother implications. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6160877.stm The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working Mum who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month. On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit you can expect a For any concerned UK slashdotters, a petition has been raised here: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

Submission + - Image Spam Becoming a Growing Challenge

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: Image spam is a serious and growing problem, not least because of its ability to circumvent traditional email spam filters to clog servers and inboxes. In just half a year, the problem of image spam has become general enough to be representative of 35 per cent of all junk mail. Not only this, but image spam is taking up 70 per cent of the bandwidth bulge on account of the large file sizes every single one represents.

Submission + - Open source Flickr-like app?

Submitted by Zanguinar on Friday January 05, 2007 @05:57PM

Zanguinar writes: I've been a Gallery user for years now. I have a ton of photos, organized by albums, mainly just for use by my family and close friends. However, some of my friends have begun using Flickr. I can't say I blame them. It's got a great design, and I love the tagging concept. However, I'm not eager to store my photos on somebody else's server, and don't want to pay for the privilege, especially since I already run my own web server. But I can't find any Flickr-like software to run on my home LAMP setup. All I want is to be able to tag my photos like Flickr and be able to display them by tag, tag intersection, date, etc. Why hasn't anybody published some OSS to do this yet?

Journal Journal: Japanese Instant Ramen Inventor died at age 96 1

Journal by oddmake on Friday January 05, 2007 @12:37PM

Accoding to Yomiuri Online(Japanese article), inventor of modern instant noodle,one of the best frineds of nerds, Momofuku Ando died of myocardial infarction ,on January 5. Ando claimed "chicken ramen" instant noodle was everyday diet of his own and largely contributed his healthy ,long life.Try another cup noodle for your hea

Submission + - Google drop tips service

Submitted by

Koninklijke

on Friday January 05, 2007 @12:36PM

Koninklijke writes: "Google have decided to remove the Google tips feature after some prominent bloggers questioned their impartiality. These tips were a way of promoting other services that Google offered by placing a notice above the search results whenever certain search terms were entered. Although most people admitted that the tips weren't a reason to distrust Google they believed it was a step in the wrong direction as Google as set high standards for itself in the past."

Submission + - Diet Pills

Submitted by Nitack on Friday January 05, 2007 @12:35PM

Nitack writes: Diet pill makers just got spanked by the Federal Trade Comission today. The FTC levied a $25 million fine for false advertising on four diet pill makers. Apparently psudo-science and testimonials are not considered scientific proof any more! FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras asserted that "They not only didn't have studies to support the claim, they actually had a study that went the other way." The fines are targeted against marketers of Xenadrine EFX, One A Day Weight Smart, CortiSlim and TrimSpa. Looks like Anna Nicole may be out of a job.

Submission + - EMI "experiments" with DRM-free MP3's

Submitted by trifster on Thursday December 07, 2006 @08:34AM

trifster writes: Several news outlets are carring the story about EMI selling DRM-free MP3's through Yahoo Music's US online store. Ars Technica has an article on this trial. It should be noted that this trial is an attempt to increase sales and competition with online music that is not necessarilary available on iTunes.

From the article: "Why the sudden interest in non-DRMed formats? It appears that the record labels are slowly beginning to realize that they can't have DRMed music and complete control over the online music market at the same time.... There are signs that consumers might be growing irritated by the Balkanization of the online music scene. Nielsen SoundScan reports that online music sales dropped during the second and third quarters of the year."

Submission + - MySpace Attempting to Block Sex Offenders

Submitted by TitusC3v5 on Thursday December 07, 2006 @06:41AM

TitusC3v5 writes: According to BBC News, MySpace is attempting to block sex offenders by way a custom database that utilizes state sex offender registries. Sentinel Safe will let MySpace search US state and federal databases to seek out and delete MySpace profiles of registered sex offenders.

Submission + - Silly String goes to war against IEDs

Submitted by Luban Doyle on Thursday December 07, 2006 @05:52AM

Luban Doyle writes: In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq. American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16079446/

Submission + - Seeing the Earth almost live

Submitted by arobic on Thursday December 07, 2006 @05:39AM

arobic writes: European Space Agency (ESA) is putting recent pictures of the Earth (taken 2 hours before) online using Envisat. To avoid filling up their disks too quickly, only the bmp of the last 30 days are available but jpg are kept. Also, only region receiving light can be seen, which explains why no recent pictures of Scandinavia are available.

Submission + - Better security with hardware encryption?

Submitted by Adam J Stone on Friday November 24, 2006 @10:48AM

Adam J Stone writes: This idea may or may not be original. Could network adapters be equipped with hardware encryption devices and routed through a proxy server operated by the adapter's manufacturer? Each device could be given unique (and possibly alternating) encryption keys known only by the manufacturer, set to encrypt every outgoing packet and only accept incoming packets (which would also be encrypted) from the proxy server. The proxy servers would act as centrally controlled firewalls that could be quickly and efficiently updated by the manufacturer. Thoughts, comments, snide remarks?

Submission + - All Swedes' income details made available online

Submitted by paulraps on Friday November 24, 2006 @08:26AM

paulraps writes: How would you like to have a quick look at your neighbor's income? Or your buddy's? Or more importantly, your boss's? Well, that's what Swedes can do now, according to The Local, thanks to Ratsit, a controversial new web site that gives instant access to everyone's income details. All you need is a name. Unsurprisingly, the site was so popular that it crashed within a day of launching.

Submission + - The Truth of The Atari Landfill Revealed

Submitted by on Friday November 24, 2006 @06:29AM

An anonymous reader writes: I found a interesting research article confirming the Atari Landfill urban legend.
FTA: "As insignificant as this event may have seemed to the people of Alamogordo, it is of major significance to an entire generation of gamers and game companies. Most people and professionals have little idea this event even took place, but it changed an entire market.... What now has become stuff of urban legend, Atari Inc. sent a reported 10 to 20 semi trucks loaded to brim with unsold/returned Atari game carts, unsold Atari consoles, and countless other related hardware from it's El Paso warehouse. Where was it's destination? The answer, Alamogordo, New Mexico. Where the trucks were emptied into the local landfill and the Atari materials had concrete poured on top of them. Where they remain buried to this day."

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