Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Australian Gov introduces mandatory ISP filtering (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: The Australia Government will introduce legislative amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act to require all ISPs to block Refused Classification (RC)-rated material hosted on overseas servers. The introduction of mandatory ISP-level filtering follows the release of the Enex TestLab report which trialed the viability of ISP-level filtering among nine Australian ISPs.
The Internet

Submission + - Mandatory ISP-Level Filtering report released (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: After much delay the Australian Federal Government has released the results of Enex TestLab’s test pilot into mandatory ISP-level content filtering, finding that a technically competent user could circumvent filtering technology based on ACMA’s blacklist.

The report also finds that the majority of filtering technologies, when correctly installed, enable the filtering of additional content with minimal or no performance impact.
Games

Submission + - Australian Gov considers R18+ games classification (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: Following years of lobbying by gamers and the local games industry, the Federal Government has finally released a discussion paper on the introduction of an R18+ classification for computer games in Australia.

The paper, Should The Australian National Classification Scheme Include An R18+ Classification Category For Computer Games?, asks the community to contribute its ideas on whether the categories of the National Classification Scheme (NCS) should apply to computer games in the same manner as it does for films.

Although the NCS allows for the sale of R18+ DVDs, it does not allow the sale of R18+ computer games anywhere in Australia.
Security

Submission + - Symantec CEO: "We don't employ hackers" (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: Symantec's CEO says his company has a standing policy of not hiring known hackers, yet still offers a vulnerability testing service. He won't admit that the company trains up its own white hat hackers, just that:

"We train people on the best techniques to detect vulnerabilities. That's a very clear point of view on how our job is to protect customers and data, and what you want is that no-one can compromise your websites."

He also says that he views ethical hacking as no more than quality assurance.
Windows

Submission + - VMware developing dual OS smartphone virtualisatio (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: VMware is developing virtualisation for smartphones which can run any two OSes — Windows Mobile, Android or Lunux — at once. The idea is to have your work applications and home applications all running insider their own VMs and running at the same time so you can access any app any time.

VMware says: “We don’t think dual booting will be good enough — we’ll allow you to run both profiles at the same time and be able to switch between them by clicking a button,” he said. “You’ll be able to get and make calls in either profile – work or home – as they will both be live at any given point in time.”
PHP

Submission + - Is ColdFusion still relevant? (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by benz001
benz001 writes: I just read an interview with Jeremy Allaire (co-creator of Cold Fusion) in which he claimed that this year saw its strongest revenue and growth since 2002 — yet I can only think of two companies here in Sydney that use it for their main platform (and they are mainly doing product maintenance) and I can't remember the last time I hit a .cfm url or talked to a ColdFusion developer.

Quickly scanning through Sourceforge reveals that its used on less than 1% of new web projects by the open source community — which argues against it being the "the fastest and easiest way to build great web applications". Not surprisingly it looks like PHP remains well ahead of the pack for most open source web projects with close to 70% of all new projects — nothing else even comes close (see http://twitpic.com/ouj7q for a very crude analysis).

So where is it being used? Is there any valid scenario for learning and starting a new project on this platform?
Linux

Submission + - Charity installs Ubuntu on recycled PCs (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by swandives
swandives writes: Computerworld Australia reports that an Australian not-for-profit organisation, Computerbank, is installing its own Ubuntu distro based on Jaunty Jackalope on recycled PCs and making them available to low-income earners. According to the article, the organisation has tried Karmic Koala, but is sticking with Jaunty because the boot-up time is much better.
Programming

Submission + - Interview: ColdFusion co-creator Jeremy Allaire (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by oranghutan
oranghutan writes: In this interview ColdFusion co-creator Jeremy Allaire says when he and his brother, J.J. were developing it one of the most common and frustrating challenges was the perception that ColdFusion was a 'toy' environment and programming language. Allaire also says the brothers took too long to embrace Java as a run-time platform.

"We had acquired JRun, and had planned to migrate to a J2EE-based architecture, but we delayed and it took longer than we had thought. I think that could have helped grow the momentum for ColdFusion during a critical time in the marketplace."

The article also has Allaire hitting back at those who claim ColdFusion is on the way out, saying "ColdFusion has had its strongest revenue and growth year since 2001-2002, and that for two straight years the ColdFusion developer community has grown. It's still the fastest and easiest way to build great web applications."

The interview also covers off on why he believes tag-based languages have been validated and his advice for up and coming developers.

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/325172/an_interview_coldfusion_co-creator_jeremy_allaire?pp=1
Music

Submission + - How YouTube can save the music industry (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: The recent live stream of U2’s Rose Bowl concert on YouTube is notable not only for the 10 million viewers who tuned in, and that fact that many people actually tuned in to a band of accelerating decrepitude, but for the fact that the event may well have sewn the seeds for a reflowering of the music industry.

Submission + - Pirate Bay appeals postponed until next year (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The appeals of those convicted in April in the high-profile Pirate Bay copyright violations trial won't be heard until next year, the court said on Monday. The delay is due to allegations of bias directed at two of the judges, Ulrika Ihrfelt and Katarina Boutz , which must be resolved before the appeal can take place. This won't happen until next year, according to Ihrfelt. The appeal was originally scheduled to start on Nov. 13.

Submission + - Virgin America offers free onboard Wi-Fi (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For the next three months, citizens will be able to access Google services services from above Earth. Holiday travelers flying with Virgin America from Nov. 10 through Jan. 15 will get free in-flight Wi-Fi, thanks to a promotional deal with Google. Virgin's entire fleet of planes has Wi-Fi, supplied by Gogo, a company that also provides wireless Internet access to airlines including American, Delta, United, Air Canada and AirTran.
Apple

Submission + - Apple's profit rises despite drop in iPod shipment (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apple on Monday posted an increase in net profit and sales for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2009 despite a year-over-year decline in iPod shipments. The company reported a profit of US$1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Sept. 26, an improvement from the net profit of $1.14 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008. The earnings per share beat expectations of $1.42 based on estimates polled by analysts at Thomson Reuters.

Submission + - A-Z of Programming Languages - Arduino (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by oranghutan
oranghutan writes: In the latest installment of the A-Z of programming languages series, Computerworld spoke with Arduino's Tom Igoe. The series has covered a number of different languages and personalities in the IT space, most recently Bell Lab's icon Brian Kernighan.

This interview covers Igoe's views on a comparison of Arduino to BASIC Stamp, PICs, et. al. — the group's decision to open source its hardware designs — the reasons 'wiring' and 'processing' were chosen as the basis for the Arduino programming language and environment — and overcoming the cultural problems in development among others.

Igoe also outlines the roles each of the team members played and said, in general he wanted "a tool to teach physical computing, specifically microcontroller programming, to artists and designers, who we teach".

And his advice for up and coming programmers: "Patience. Persistence. And frequent showers. I get my best problem solving done in the shower."

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/321749/-z_programming_languages_arduino_tom_igoe?pp=1
Programming

Submission + - Brian Kernighan, co-developer of AWK and AMPL (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: Computerworld has done an in-depth interview with Brian Kernighan — a figure who helped popularise C with his book, co-written with the creator Dennis Ritchie, The C Programming Language and contributed to the development of AWK and AMPL. The interview looks at his advice for young programmers and suggests that Google, Facebook, and Twitter's success relies not so much on a good idea but on access to infrastructure: open source software like Unix/Linux and GNU tools and web libraries, dirt-cheap hardware, and essentially free communications.

Submission + - Taliban winning the new media War 2.0? (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by Sharky2009
Sharky2009 writes: The skilful use of old and new media technologies by terrorist organisations threaten to undermine the efforts of Coalition armed forces in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a researcher. Internet video, Jihadi rap songs, mobile shortwave and FM radio are all problems but mobile phones, which are a radio, a camera, a phone, GPS, and listening device all in one are the major challenge for the Coalition — "The challenge is now that everyone is potentially a source of pictures and information, but you don't know where it has come from and how accurate it is. The more of these sources point a finger at the Coalition and provide a video to prove it, the more the Coalition has its back to the wall," the researcher argues.

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Close