Comment Re:Amazon referer ID (Score 1) 271
If referring to HTTP, referer is correct: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.36
Submission + - Pirate Party Pillages Private Papers (pirateparty.org.au)
David Crafti writes: "Pirate Party Australia has made the move to host the recently leaked ACTA document in order to highlight the lack of government transparency in the negotiation process. We believe that the document is not under copyright, and we are not party to any NDAs, so there should be no restriction on us posting it. We would like to see what the government (any government) tries to do about it. If it turns out that there is some reason that we have to take it down, then we will, but if this happens, it will only validate the document's authenticity."
Submission + - Viacom gets videos watched data of YouTube users (readwriteweb.com)
Pichu0102 writes: "It seems that YouTube has been required to turn over data on all users, videos watched, and their IP addresses by the court. The EFF has come out against this claiming it violates the Video Protection Act, as some people use full names on YouTube. According to ReadWriteWeb, they're restricted to using the data to only prove their claims against Google."
Submission + - Tools to analyse Google History? (google.com) 1
Black Sabbath writes: I need to tap the Slashdot hivemind. I'm faced with a distrusting spouse and want to show her my Google history. However my history goes back to 2006 — there are literally tens of thousands of entries. I've tried searching for analysis tools using the following query: +"google history" +analysis -"history of google" +statistics — to no avail. Do any slashdotters know of a tool/script that can parse the Google History output and provide some simple stats e.g. distinct sites x no. of visits — that sort of thing. I know that this is futile on one level — no amount of "evidence" (especially the kind with a "delete" function) can cure distrust. She's a non-IT, non-geek and really just doesn't understand why I spend "so much" time (an hour a day at home if I'm lucky) on the computer. Help me Slashdot, you're my only hope.
Submission + - Popular backup software Crashplan loses data (blogspot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: According to this blogger, the popular backup software Crashplan loses data. Multiple conversations with their tech support show that they are aware of the problem since more than a year but did nothing about it. Apparently they think that losing 0.004% of your files is not so bad. Since only older backups are affected, it is time to wipe your backups and do them again if you are a Crashplan users.
Have you had similar experiences with Crashplan or other backup vendors? Or is there something you'd recommend over Crashplan?
Have you had similar experiences with Crashplan or other backup vendors? Or is there something you'd recommend over Crashplan?
Submission + - Women refuse to go through Airport body scanners (bbc.co.uk) 3
Geoffrey.landis writes: Two women were stopped from boarding a plane at Manchester Airport after refusing to undergo a full body scan.
They are believed to be the first to refuse to submit to the scan since they became compulsory in February.
According to earlier reports by the BBC, the "naked" scanners are intended to detect weapons or explosives, but "the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' genitals." The scanners, made by RapiScan, are referred to by the British press as the "strip-search" scanner.
Until February, passengers had been allowed to refuse the scan and receive a "pat-down" search instead.
They are believed to be the first to refuse to submit to the scan since they became compulsory in February.
According to earlier reports by the BBC, the "naked" scanners are intended to detect weapons or explosives, but "the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' genitals." The scanners, made by RapiScan, are referred to by the British press as the "strip-search" scanner.
Until February, passengers had been allowed to refuse the scan and receive a "pat-down" search instead.
Submission + - The return of VRML? 3D graphics for Firefox (goodgearguide.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "A group of researchers plans to release a version of the Firefox browser that includes the built-in ability to view 3D graphics. They've integrated real-time ray tracing technology, called RT Fact, into Firefox and Webkit. Images are described using XML3D, and the browser can natively render the 3D scene."
Comment Re:All cars already have this system (Score 1) 690
I've had this happen twice to me, too. The first time, I cut the ignition. The second, I used neutral.
Clearly, we could have benefitted from additional training.
Comment All cars already have this system (Score 2, Insightful) 690
It's called neutral, and it's a feature of your transmission. It disconnects the engine from the wheels. Transmissions, both manual and automatic, are designed to easily select neutral, for emergencies like this.
Comment Re:Hopenchange! (Score 1) 452
Some hard evidence of the flip-a-floppin:
Biden: "I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing." Unfortunately, his prayers were not answered.
Submission + - The Grown-Up Video Game
Phaethon360 writes: More now than ever we're seeing more Mature (M+, 17+, 18) ratings being distributed by various national media regulators, but that isn't the only indicator for a game's intended audience. It doesn't take a thousand swear words, scantily clad women or gratuitous violence to differentiate a ten year old's game from a twenty year old's. The spectrum of human emotions encompass a wider palette than revenge, fear, and loss, but the ones that tend to shy away from this are often mistook for a younger audience.
Nick: "The idea of “The Grown-Up Video Game” can mean many different things to many different people. It could mean excessive violence, nudity, or difficulty. I like to believe that while examples such as those in the previous sentence make a game adult oriented it takes something a bit more to make a game “grown-up”. The human experience is one that is made up of great hardship, pain, loss, death, and a multitude of experiences seemingly designed to destroy a person. However, that same experience is also filled with joy, love, laughter, family and friends. It is from these experiences that we begin to question, “Why?”. What is the motivation behind a person’s actions? How did their life culminate in the experience that we bear witness to now? Is there a good reason to be waging war on this particular nation? Why did he just blow that guy’s head off with a shotgun? It is this sort of thinking that is beginning to make its way into our beloved interactive games, and I believe that it is a very good thing."
Nick: "The idea of “The Grown-Up Video Game” can mean many different things to many different people. It could mean excessive violence, nudity, or difficulty. I like to believe that while examples such as those in the previous sentence make a game adult oriented it takes something a bit more to make a game “grown-up”. The human experience is one that is made up of great hardship, pain, loss, death, and a multitude of experiences seemingly designed to destroy a person. However, that same experience is also filled with joy, love, laughter, family and friends. It is from these experiences that we begin to question, “Why?”. What is the motivation behind a person’s actions? How did their life culminate in the experience that we bear witness to now? Is there a good reason to be waging war on this particular nation? Why did he just blow that guy’s head off with a shotgun? It is this sort of thinking that is beginning to make its way into our beloved interactive games, and I believe that it is a very good thing."
Submission + - NGO networks in Haiti cause problems for ISPs (goodgearguide.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "While the communications networks that aid groups set up quickly following the earthquake in Haiti were surely critical to rescue efforts, the new networks have had some negative effects on the local ISP community. More than a month after the earthquake devastated the island nation, local ISPs are starting to grumble about being left out of business opportunities and about how some of the temporary equipment — using spectrum without proper authorization — is interfering with their own expensive networks, causing a degradation of their services."
Comment Bad drivers are still bad drivers? (Score 2, Insightful) 406
Could it be that bad driving causes crashes? So, eliminating cell phone usage results in people still being bad drivers?
Or how about a correlation between people more likely to obey laws and those that are good drivers? Enacting a prohibition might make the better drivers less distracted, but leave the bad drivers still bad drivers and still talking on their cell phones.
Comment Re:Use Telco data for better estimation (Score 2, Interesting) 406
Perhaps they also log which towers each call was on. If that data is available, you could look for calls which switched towers, thus indicating the phone was probably in motion. I guess you'd get confounding data from people riding the bus, though.
Comment Re:Not too surprising (Score 1) 406
Exactly. Cars are unsafe primarily because of the meat popsicle behind the wheel. I've been saying that for years.
Mr Toyota chairman - is that you?
