securitytech - Slashdot User

Dropbox 1.0 Finally Released 307

Posted by timothy on Sunday December 19, 2010 @03:00AM from the one-oh-gets-a-cigar dept.

Zack writes "Dropbox has finally released version 1.0. The new version comes with hundreds of bug fixes, including invalid file names on Windows, weird Unicode normalizations, Word and Excel file locking, abnormal symlinks hierarchies, and case sensitive file systems on Mac. It also adds TrueCrypt support, a Rainbow Shell that offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, a new installation wizard, and reduces resource usage."

First Measurement of Magnetic Field In Earth's Core 34

Posted by timothy on Friday December 17, 2010 @10:11PM from the best-place-to-try-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A University of California, Berkeley, geophysicist has made the first-ever measurement of the strength of the magnetic field inside Earth's core, 1,800 miles underground. The magnetic field strength is 25 Gauss, or 50 times stronger than the magnetic field at the surface that makes compass needles align north-south. Though this number is in the middle of the range geophysicists predict, it puts constraints on the identity of the heat sources in the core that keep the internal dynamo running to maintain this magnetic field."

UK's National Rail Shuts Down Free Timetable App 145

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 03, 2010 @07:24AM from the hey-buddy-we-said-often-not-always dept.

JHaselden points to this "sad tale of one developer's trying time with the National Rail, the owners of the UK's train timetable data, which flies in the face of the recent assertion of Chris Scoggins (Chief Executive, National Rail Enquiries) in Wired recently stating that they had 'opened up' their data, 'often free of charge.'" This is a good case for keeping your old emails handy; the app's author uses cut-and-paste to excellent effect in his correspondence with the rail system.

Comment Re:LibreOffice - please remove Java (Score 1) 500

by securitytech on Monday November 01, 2010 @05:01PM (#34094650) Attached to: 33 Developers Leave OpenOffice.org

Thank you! This is my only issue with LibreOffice. Please remove java from LibreOffice henceforth!

Facebook Adds Friend Stalker Tool 357

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 29, 2010 @10:07AM from the can't-win-for-losing dept.

nk497 writes "Facebook has added a new tool that brings together conversations and photos between friends onto a single page, but — as usual — has crossed the creepy line. Not only does clicking the See Friendship tool let users view photos, comments and events shared between themselves and their friend, it also offers a search tool to do the same between any two mutual friends, making it easy to see everything any two people have ever said to each other Facebook. As usual, the site should have tested the function out on their users first, with one saying: 'I've always wanted this! And yes, I'm a creepy stalker.' Also, as usual for Facebook, all users are automatically opted in, and there's currently no obvious way to turn it off."

All Your Stonehenge Photos Are Belong To England 347

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 21, 2010 @12:32AM from the we'll-take-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "English Heritage, the organization that runs and manages various historical sites in the UK, such as Stonehenge, has apparently sent letters to various photo sharing and stock photo sites claiming that any photo of Stonehenge that is being sold violates its rights, and only English Heritage can get commercial benefit from such photos. In fact, they're asking for all money made from such photos, stating: 'all commercial interest to sell images must be directed to English Heritage.' As one recipient noted, this seems odd, given that English Heritage has only managed Stonehenge 'for 27 of the monument's 4,500 year old history.'"

Comment Re:You Know What They Say? (Score 1) 594

by securitytech on Tuesday October 19, 2010 @04:44PM (#33952682) Attached to: 'Officer Bubbles' Sues YouTube Commenters Over Mockery

In your situation, you suggest a police officer decides to walk over and stand in front of you while you're innocently sitting on a park bench.

In the Mr. Bubbles incident, the protester gets in the police officer's faces and continues to blow bubbles directly at their faces from about a foot away after being asked to stop.

Really, the only thing common between the two scenarios is the use of bubbles. Besides that, they couldn't be more different.

I agree the police officer over reacted, but the protester blowing bubbles was trying to provoke the officer. And she was apparently successful at doing so.

Nicholas Sze of Yahoo Finds Two-Quadrillionth Digit of Pi 299

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 16, 2010 @06:40PM from the I'm-a-good-guesser-in-binary-too dept.

gregg writes "A researcher has calculated the 2,000,000,000,000,000th digit of pi — and a few digits either side of it. Nicholas Sze, of technology firm Yahoo, determined that the digit — when expressed in binary — is 0."

Some Netflix Users Have Rated 50,000 Shows 134

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 16, 2010 @05:59PM from the suckling-at-the-boob-tube dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Netflix has released some statistics about its users, showing that more than one percent of its customer base has rated 5,000 shows or more, and a few hundred users have rated over 50,000. A reporter for The Atlantic tracked down a few of those extreme users to find out why they do it. Mike Reilly, a producer, heard about the Netflix prize, and wanted to test the limits of the movie recommendation algorithm. Lorraine Hopping Egan has rated about 6,500 movies, but she still uses word of mouth when trying to decide what to watch."

Microsoft's Chief Exec For Latin America Says 'Open' Means 'Incompetent' 340

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 16, 2010 @05:13PM from the deseo-suscribirme-a-su-boletan-de-noticias dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The President of Microsoft Latin America, in criticizing the Brazilian government for its support of open source software, claimed that declaring something open is how you 'mask incompetence.' That seems especially funny coming from Microsoft, who has used 'closed' to mask incompetence for years. I thought 'open' meant that people could find and fix (or ignore) incompetence, whereas closed meant you were stuck with the incompetence."

Broadcom Releases Source Code For Drivers 350

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 09, 2010 @03:40PM from the they-sure-get-my-goodwill dept.

I'm Not There (1956) writes "Broadcom, the world's largest manufacturer of Wi-Fi transceivers, open sources its Linux device drivers. This is a big win for Linux users, as there are a lot of users that face Wi-Fi problems when they use Linux on their laptops. With these device drivers now open source, distributions can ship them out-of-the-box, and that means no Linux Wi-Fi problems for new devices and upcoming distributions at all."

AT&T Says Net Rules Must Allow 'Paid Prioritization' 390

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @09:50AM from the also-grilled-cheese dept.

suraj.sun writes "AT&T said Tuesday that any Net neutrality plan restricting its ability to engage in 'paid prioritization' of network traffic would be harmful and contrary to the fundamental principles of the Internet."

UVB-76 Broadcasts New Voice Message 560

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday August 24, 2010 @06:54PM from the you-can't-handle-the-truth dept.

Doug52392 writes "Following days of increased activity, the Russian numbers station UVB-76 has sent out a new voice transmission. The transmission, sent out on August 23, 2010 at 9:35AM PST, recited the following in Russian: 'UVB-76, UVB-76 — 93 882 naimina 74 14 35 74 — 9 3 8 8 2 nikolai, anna, ivan, michail, ivan, nikolai, anna, 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 4' The station, believed to be a part of the former Soviet Union's dead man's switch system, has been continually broadcasting for over twenty years, and its purpose has never been fully explained."

San Francisco Just As Guilty In Terry Childs Case 330

Posted by Soulskill on Monday August 16, 2010 @03:44PM from the does-it-get-4-years-too dept.

snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia follows up on the Terry Childs sentencing, stating that the City of San Francisco is as much at fault in this case as Childs is. 'The way that the San Francisco IT department has been run is nothing short of abysmal, and that has been pointed out time and again by anyone paying attention to this case,' Venezia writes. 'Plenty of dirty laundry was aired out in court as well, yet through it all, the city has had a full-court press on Childs, and being both the plaintiff and the prosecution it spared no expense to drill Childs into the ground.' Worse, perhaps, is the disproportion of the sentence, when compared with recent convictions for intended malfeasance on the part of several notable rogue IT admins."

Geek Squad Sends Cease-and-Desist Letter To God Squad 357

Posted by samzenpus on Monday August 16, 2010 @10:16AM from the who-would-jesus-sue dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A Wisconsin priest has God on his car but Best Buy's lawyers on his back. Father Luke Strand at the Holy Family Parish in Fond Du Lac says he has received a cease-and-desist letter from the electronics retailer. From the article: 'At issue is Strand's black Volkswagen Beetle with door stickers bearing the name "God Squad" in a logo similar to that of Best Buy's Geek Squad, a group of electronics troubleshooters. Strand told the Fond du Lac Reporter that the car is a creative way to spur discussion and bring his faith to others. Best Buy Co. tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it appreciates what Strand is trying to do, but it's bad precedent to let groups violate its trademarks.'"

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