diretalk - Slashdot User

Submission + - Wikileaks Nominated for 2011 Nobel Peace Prize 3

Submitted by mvar on Wednesday February 02, 2011 @10:47AM

mvar writes: Whistle-blower site WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian politician who cited its role in freedom of speech, news agency NTB reported Wednesday. "WikiLeaks is one of this century's most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency," parliamentarian Snorre Valen said in his nomination. Valen cited WikiLeaks role in disclosing the assests of Tunisia's former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his nearest family, contributing to the protests that forced them into exile.

Comment And if Google is down? (Score 1) 693

by diretalk on Tuesday February 01, 2011 @02:33PM (#35070510) Attached to: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Google Search Results

What are we gonna do if Google is down then? We are doomed!!!

Submission + - Oracle drops Sun's commitment to accessibility :( (grain-of-salt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08, 2010 @04:15PM

An anonymous reader writes: What I feared became true: after buying Sun, Oracle had a look at its accessibility group and made big cuts in it by firing the most important contributors to the Linux accessibility tools. This is a very sad day for disabled people, as it means we do not really have full-time developers any more.

Submission + - Windows 7 stability fix breaks stability (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Greg on Sunday February 07, 2010 @06:17PM

Greg writes: Last week, Microsoft posted a slew of non-security updates for Windows 7, one of which was titled as follows: "An update is available to improve the stability and the reliability of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2." Unfortunately, according to a thread on Microsoft TechNet, the update (KB977074) is actually breaking the stability and reliability of the operating system.

"I [j]ust installed this update and my system hangs/freeze[s] at the windows bootup screen," the thread starter wrote. Another user went a little more in-depth: "At shutdown the PC often hangs with a message that a program is still running. Forcing program end does not work. The PC hangs for minutes until I press the PC’s power button. During one startup, a message came up indicating I needed to validate Windows 7. Therefore the PC lost the validation information. The revalidate succeeded. Shutdown problems consistently occur after running media center. Also have problems with recorded TV programs. Intermittently can't burn a recorded TV program to disc. After this failure occurs, a subsequent shutdown produces a hang 100% of the time."

Submission + - Is Oracle Trashing Your FOSS Project? 5

Submitted by WaywardGeek on Sunday February 07, 2010 @01:12PM

WaywardGeek writes: Oracle has finally started gobbling up Sun. The first casualty of consequece? Oracle has decided to decimate Linux accessibility, laying off the entire Orca team, who provides the Linux screen reader. Around the world, thousands of blind individuals now have their computer access threatened. What Oracle cuts have affected you so far? Where can users go to have their concerns heard?

Submission + - Linus Torvalds: Why I love my Google Nexus One (itwire.com) 2

Submitted by davidmwilliams on Saturday February 06, 2010 @09:20PM

davidmwilliams writes: Unexpected and unsolicited praise for the Google phone has emerged from none other than Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel.

Comment Deniers flocking to slashdot (Score 1) 3

by diretalk on Friday February 05, 2010 @04:43PM (#31039066) Attached to: Climate science dealt blow as India ditches IPCC

Once again the deniers are trying to pass the same regurgitated rubbish. These things have been discussed on http://www.realclimate.org/

Submission + - Mozilla Confirms Malware in Firefox Add-ons

Submitted by Bwizzard on Friday February 05, 2010 @03:30PM

Bwizzard writes: Mozilla says a pair of malicious Firefox add-ons slipped by its security checks and infected approximately 4,600 Windows computers over the last five months. The browser add-ons, described my Mozilla as “experimental,” contained a Trojan horse that executed when Firefox started and infected the host computer.

Submission + - Tritium Leak Grows (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by mdsolar on Friday February 05, 2010 @01:13PM

mdsolar writes: The tritium leak into ground water at Vermont Yankee http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/01/11/2054237/Another-Crumbling-Reactor-Springs-a-Tritium-Leak has now tested at 775,000 picocuries per liter, 37 times higher than the Federal drinking water standard. At what level should the NRC shut down the troubled http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9DLEQ200.htm plant?

Submission + - Saving Dave (heraldsun.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 04, 2010 @07:24PM

An anonymous reader writes: Following worldwide attention after being caught seeing pictures of Miranda Kerr at work while a coleague was being interviewed on TV, a petition to save David Kiely's job has started. Stated motives: He seems like a nice bloke, the pics weren't hardcore, he has suffered enough, and, maybe more important, there's just too much political correctness in this world anyway. Showing class and sense of humor, miss Kerr said she will sign the petition.

Submission + - Michael Mann cleared of falsifying, deleting data (newscientist.com)

Submitted by krou on Wednesday February 03, 2010 @05:33PM

krou writes: Penn State University has concluded an investigation into Michael Mann's role in the 'climategate' affair, and claims that he did not 'participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions with an intent to suppress or to falsify data', and that he did not 'delete, conceal or otherwise destroy emails, information and/or data'. However, the investigation did state that, 'After careful consideration of all the evidence and relevant materials, the inquiry committee could not make a definitive finding whether there exists any evidence to substantiate that Dr. Mann did engage in, or participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that deviated from accepted practices within the academic community'. As a result, a further investigation will take place into this matter. The full report can be found here (pdf).

Submission + - 30-year-old woman shows boobs to teen on XBox Live (kdvr.com) 1

Submitted by bluefoxlucid on Wednesday February 03, 2010 @10:18AM

bluefoxlucid writes: Penny Arcade commented today on a newscasting covering sexual predation on XBox Live. It seems getting on the Internet can result in talking to complete strangers; and some strangers may ask strange, sexual questions or--in the case of one 30-year-old woman talking to a 16-year-old boy--show you their boobs. As we all know, 16-year-old boys are severely damaged by the sight of boobs; breasts are horribly toxic to males until midnight of their 18th birthday.

Comment Yet again... (Score 1) 1

by diretalk on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @05:23PM (#31001398) Attached to: Mozilla accepts Chinese CNNIC root CA certificate

We link a slashdot story to bugzilla.mozilla.org? This is recipe for disaster and frustration at mozilla.org. The insinuation that the Chinese Academy of Sciences trusted CA root certificate, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Academy_of_Sciences may lead to trojan horses is too much of a wild allegation.

Submission + - Journal retracts original MMR vaccine-autism study (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @02:19PM

mmmscience writes: Over ten years ago, Andrew Wakefield published one of the most controversial papers in modern medicine. Today, the journal Lancet has withdrawn that article, stating in a press release that they "fully retract this paper from the published record." The article in question was the very first to suggest a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. When it was published in 1998, the number of vaccines administered in the UK sharply declined leading the inevitable increase of fatal cases of the measles. Lancet's official retraction after Britain's General Medical Council hearing that found Wakefield acted unethically.

Comment Please fix title/headline (Score 1) 3

by diretalk on Monday February 01, 2010 @10:14AM (#30980562) Attached to: Climate E-Mails Stolen by Spies, Not a 'Hacker'

The title is not good. The core of the article says that "It was carried out by a team of skilled professionals, either on behalf of a foreign government or at the behest of anti-climate change lobbyists in the United States, he said." Saying 'spies' completely rubbishes the article. A better title would be "Climate e-mails stolen, foreign government or US lobbyists".

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