Ertman - Slashdot User

Submission + - Case of the great hot-site swap

Submitted by BobB on Friday August 03, 2007 @05:16PM

BobB writes: Two universities — Bowdoin in Maine and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles — have entered a unique arrangement under which they are backing up each other's web site, email and servers on different ends of the U.S. They say this could be a disaster recovery model all sorts of organizations could follow. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080307-bowdo in-lmu.html

Submission + - Australian court rules eBay auctions as binding

Submitted by

Ellis D. Tripp

on Friday August 03, 2007 @08:47AM

Ellis D. Tripp writes: "An Australian court has ruled that an eBay seller cannot back out of an auction sale once it is successfully completed. The court has ordered a seller to hand over a vintage airplane to an eBayer who bid just over the reserve price of $128,000, despite a subsequent non-eBay offer of over $200,000. More details here:

http://www.comcast.net/news/technology/index.jsp?c at=TECHNOLOGY&fn=/2007/08/03/730424.html"

Submission + - Multiformat Listening Test at 64kbps 1

Submitted by

prospective_user

on Thursday August 02, 2007 @08:09PM

prospective_user writes: "Do you think you have good ears? Think again.

The community at Hydrogenaudio has prepared a Public Listening Test for comparison of the most popular audio codecs (AAC, Vorbis, and Microsoft's WMA included) in a battle to see how they stand at compressing audio at 64kbps.

Many of the participants right now have expressed their surprise at being unable to determine which is the original and which is the compressed version of 18 samples covering a vast amount of musical styles.

The results of this test (and other that are conducted at Hydrogenaudio) will be used by the developers of the codecs to further improve the "transparency" and let this kind of test be even harder.

Everyone is invited to participate and show how good your listening is!"

Submission + - Point and click Gmail hacking at Black Hat (tgdaily.com)

Submitted by

not5150

on Thursday August 02, 2007 @04:51PM

not5150 writes: "Using Gmail or most other webmail programs over an unsecured access points just got a bit more dangerous. At Black Hat, Robert Graham, CEO of errata security, showed how to capture and clone session cookies. He even hijacked a shocked attendee's Gmail account in the middle of his Black Hat speech."

Submission + - Matching cancers and chemical treatments

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @01:17PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "When oncologists meet a new patient affected by a cancer, they have to take decisions about the best possible treatment. Now, U.S. researchers have devised an algorithm which matches tumor profiles to best treatments. They've used a panel of 60 diverse human cancer cell lines from the National Cancer Institute — called NCI-60 — to develop their "coexpression extrapolation (COXEN) system." As said one researcher, "we believe we have found an effective way to personalize cancer therapy." Preliminary results have been encouraging and clinical trials are now planned. But read more for additional references."

Submission + - Google Maps Click-to-Call Discontinued (webpronews.com) 1

Submitted by RulerOf on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @01:10PM

RulerOf writes: I went to look up a local butcher this morning that I needed place a phone order with as I usually do, by finding them on Google Maps and utilizing the "Call" feature that Google added to thier maps service back in November of last year. I've found it to be an incredibly useful tool, but I was rife with disappointment this morning when I scoured the Google Maps page, only to find that the "Call" button had gone missing.

I later confirmed my fears, ironically through a Google News search, by finding an article detailing that Google has killed its click-to-call program.

Submission + - DARPA Urban Challenge - self driving vehicles 1

Submitted by Colin Smith on Thursday July 19, 2007 @09:08AM

Colin Smith writes: The DARPA Urban Challenge L.A. to Vegas race is heating up. Qualification is due in October for the November 3rd race.

"On a quiet university campus across the water from San Francisco, an enthusiastic bunch of young computer boffins are working on what could be the car of the future."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6906162.stm

Here's a question though. If cars can drive themselves, why would I bother to own one? Why not just call one when required, like a taxi. The primary cost of a taxi ride is the driver's wage, without that a taxi ride would be cheaper than a bus or train ride. Ironically this may sound the death knell for the taxi, rail, bus and large scale car industries world wide.

Submission + - Cheap Solar Cells that can be Painted on Plastic (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by

Invisible Pink Unicorn

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @08:58AM

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. According to the lead researcher, "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations." The team combined carbon nanotubes with tiny carbon buckyballs (fullerenes) to form snake-like structures. Add sunlight to excite the polymers, and the buckyballs will grab the electrons. The article abstract is available through the Journal of Materials Chemistry, with an illustration of the technology."

Submission + - Zonbu: a cheap, green PC. (nytimes.com)

Submitted by dws90 on Monday July 16, 2007 @11:10AM

dws90 writes: Two entrepreneurs and their company, Zonbu, are introducing a new twist to subscription- based computing. According to a NY Times article, they're offering a "simplified Linux-based PC for $99 and a $12.95 monthly subscription charge." The twist? The device received the highest certification possible from the Green Electronics Council, and requires only 15-watts, which they estimate will save the user $10 a month in electrical bills over a 200-watt computer. Zonbu uses a version of Gentoo Linux, and comes preloaded with software: OpenOffice, Firefox, Skype, and some games. Instead of storing of a hard drive, the device uses a 4GB CF card for storage, as well as an additional 25GB of remote storage on Zonbu's servers (their website shows that 50GB and 100GB remote storage packages are available, albeit at a higher cost). They will also sell the device for $250 without a commitment to the remote storage service, for Linux developers and people that want to use other storage methods.

Submission + - Banks Make More on Overdraft Fees than Loans (jeremyduffy.com)

Submitted by

JeremyDuffy

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @09:40AM

JeremyDuffy writes: "Research shows that banks are making far more on fees than actual loans. Worse yet, they specifically engineered their systems and policies to maximize the fees charged. For example, holding deposits long enough for your account to go negative so they can charge overdraft fees. New laws are in the works and if they pass, this kind of predation could end. In the meantime, you can use their nasty policies against them to get free loans for the cost of a single fee (see the article for details)"

Submission + - Canadian Piracy Claims Debunked (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by

Steve

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @08:44AM

Steve writes: "Law professor Michael Geist and filmmaker Daniel Albahary have just released an excellent film called "Putting Canadian 'Piracy' in Perspective." It does a great job of debunking the claims that piracy is rampant in Canada, and demonstrates that these claims are little more than scare tactics and straw-man arguments from corporate and government interests looking to change Canadian law to their benefit."

Submission + - Robot unravels mystery of walking (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday July 12, 2007 @07:42AM

Raver32 writes: "Roboticists are using the lessons of a 1930s human physiologist to build the world's fastest walking robot. Runbot is a self-learning, dynamic robot, which has been built around the theories of Nikolai Bernstein. "Getting a robot to walk like a human requires a dynamic machine," said Professor Florentin Woergoetter. Runbot is a small, biped robot which can move at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second, slightly slower than the fastest walking human."

Submission + - The Ugly Truth about Best Buy Refunds (antoniocangiano.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11, 2007 @09:32AM

An anonymous reader writes: I'd like to warn Slashdotters about Best Buy policies for defective merchandise. From the article: They didn't care. Let me rephrase that, they don't give a shit that you just spent almost a thousand dollars on something that is defective. They don't care that it's obvious that there is no abuse whatsoever but rather that it's a defective LCD which overheated or leaked on its own. They basically blamed me — the customer — for the problem and when I told them that I've worked with computers for many years and I know what I am saying, challenging them technically, they told me "we are not saying that you broke it", but that doesn't matter because they still told me that they were not going to replace it or fix it. Then I asked them, what if the unit was like this out of the box? They would still not replace it in such instances.

Submission + - Top 7 Microsoft Employee Bungles using Office (microsoft.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05, 2007 @03:02PM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft insider Philip Su (of "Broken Windows Theory" fame) has published a hilarious take on the top 7 mistakes that Microsoft employees make using Microsoft Office. The article even manages to mention Unix, Hackers (the movie), and Hootie and the Blowfish. Worth reading if not only to feel a rewarding sense of smug satisfaction that even Microsoft employees sometimes struggle with using Microsoft software.

Submission + - Credit industry opposes anti-ID theft method (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

athloi

on Tuesday July 03, 2007 @11:30AM

athloi writes: "Lawmakers across the country — pushed by consumer advocacy groups — are mounting a counterattack. They have passed laws that allow consumers to freeze their credit, a surefire way to prevent thieves from opening new accounts or obtaining a mortgage in a consumer's name. Under a freeze, a consumer cuts off all access to his credit report and score, even his own. All lenders require that information, so no one can borrow money in the consumer's name until he or she lifts the freeze. It's simple, and it works. So, of course, it's under threat from the Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents the Big Three credit bureaus. They make millions gathering and selling consumer data. Freezes cut into that business.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070703/cm_usato day/aweaponagainstidentitytheft"

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