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Operating Systems

Submission + - Replacing atime With relatime in the Kernel (kerneltrap.org)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Our friend Jeremy at the Kernal Trap has has dug up some interesting criticism of atime from god himself, Linus Torvalds. As Linus submitted patches to improve relatime he noted: "I cannot over-emphasize how much of a deal it is in practice. Atime updates are by far the biggest IO performance deficiency that Linux has today. Getting rid of atime updates would give us more everyday Linux performance than all the pagecache speedups of the past 10 years, _combined_." And later severely beat atime about the head with a pointed stick: "It's also perhaps the most stupid Unix design idea of all times. Unix is really nice and well done, but think about this a bit: 'For every file that is read from the disk, lets do a ... write to the disk! And, for every file that is already cached and which we read from the cache ... do a write to the disk!" Well, I guess I can expect my Linux machine to become a little bit faster!"
United States

Submission + - Vote Swapping Ruled Legal!

Submitted by cayenne8
cayenne8 writes: Way back when (2000), during that election, there were some sites set up (voteswap.com and votexchange.com) for people across the nation to agree to swap votes. This was set up mostly for Nader and Gore voters to work against Bush.

California representatives threatened to proscute these sites as criminal offenses, and many of them shut down. On Monday, the 9th US court of appeals upheld that "the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms as well as the communication and vote swaps they enabled were constitutionally protected" and California's spurious threats violated the First Amendment. The 9th Circuit also said the threats violated the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause."

See the story HERE .
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Surviving in Space Without a Spacesuit (slate.com) 1

Submitted by
Geoffrey
Geoffrey writes: "The recent movie Sunshine features a scene (echoing the famous scene in 2001: a Space Odyssey) in which two astronauts have to cross from one ship to another without spacesuits. But, can you survive in space without a spacesuit? Morgan Smith, writing in Slate, asks whether this is realistic, and concludes: "Yes, for a very short time.""
Operating Systems

Submission + - $99 open source mini from Popular Mech homepage (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by
DMCBOSTON
DMCBOSTON writes: "From the article: "The catch: You'll need to provide a mouse, keyboard and monitor, and sign a $13-per-month contract. But considering how easy it was to set up our unit, and the company's policy of overnighting a new box if yours fails, the Zonbu might be the future of hassle-free computing. — Erik Sofge" Too good to be true? It appears that PM at least tested this. But, from the FAQ "but you cannot install applications on Zonbu. We provide you 20 world-class applications , more than most people ever need. By restricting your ability to install applications, we enhance the security of Zonbu" So, what's going on? Any ideas? (I KNOW that you folks have an opinion...)"
Security

Submission + - Undercover NBC reporter outed at DEFCON (zdnet.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Undercover reporter Michelle Madigan (Associate Producer of NBC Dateline) got a little more than she bargained for when she tried to sneak in to DEFCON 2007 with hidden cameras to get someone to confess to a felony.

Madigan was apparently trying to do a shock piece for NBC Dateline to show middle America how criminal underground hackers had descended on DEFCON Las Vegas to learn tricks of the trade and how Federal Agents were tracking them down.

When DEFCON staff announced the "spot the undercover reporter" game and told the audience that an undercover reporter was taking video to catch someone confessing to a hacking crime, Madigan bolted from the conference premises followed by a pack of ~150 DEFCON attendees and reporters trying to photograph and video tape her."
Programming

Submission + - Are Industry Standards really this low?

Submitted by
segafreak
segafreak writes: "I'm a Software Engineering Student from the UK about to enter my final year. During this summer I have been on placement at a large software company (which shall remain unnamed), and while my experience hasn't been entirely negative, I'm appalled by some of the practises that seem commonplace — minimal or non-existant documentation, prototype quality code being sold to customers, lack of comments in code, and worst of all large projects coded and maintained by a single programmer! Having spoken to several of my classmates, I've discovered the situation to be similar all across the region. So fellow Slashdotters, my question is this: is our Industry really this bad? Or have my classmates and I just been shockingly unlucky?"
Data Storage

Submission + - IP rights? Server hosting site hijacks content (therangerstation.org)

Submitted by
blanchae
blanchae writes: "Over at The Ranger Station (www.therangerstation.com), there is a battle over who owns the rights to the Ranger Station's online forum. The Ranger Station owner was unhappy with the service of OnlineSolutions.org and changed server hosting. Online Solutions have hijacked The Ranger Station's forums stating that they own the databases and content and started their own Ranger Station forum under www.therangerstation.org. This doesn't seem right to me and I want to know who owns the content on a hosted server?"
Programming

Submission + - The Semantic Web: Grassroots vs. Ivory Towers (semanticfocus.com)

Submitted by James
James writes: The Semantic Web hasn't yet gained strong traction from the development community. Grassroots is initiative of people like you and I to create the Semantic Web from the bottom-up. The ivory towers is the W3C and their initiative to create the Semantic Web. Both groups are pivotal to the acceptance and adoption of new standards and technologies. Without grassroots initiatives we would not have adoption and without the W3C we would not have standards!
The Internet

Web 2.0 Bubble May Be Worst Burst Yet 417

Posted by Zonk from the not-the-bubble dept.
athloi writes with a link to an editorial by John Dvorak over at the PC Magazine site. Rather than his usual tilting at windmills, Dvorak turns his attention to possibility of another big internet economy 'pop': "Every single person working in the media today who experienced the dot-com bubble in 1999 to 2000 believes that we are going through the exact same process and can expect the exact same results — a bust. It's déjà vu all over again. Each succeeding bubble has been worse than its predecessor. Thus nobody is actually able to spot the cycle, since it just looks like a continuum. I can assure you that after this next collapse, nobody will think of the dot-com bubble as anything other than a prelude." It certainly seems like another burst is imminent; will this one be worse than the original, or have less of an impact?
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - ICE cracks down on mod chips (ice.gov) 1

Submitted by rifter
rifter writes: Today US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led a massive raid over 16 states in order to arrest people who were allegedly engaged in the importation, installation, sale, and distribution of mod chips and swap discs for Sony's Playstation 2, Microsoft's XBOX and XBOX 360, and Nintendo's Wii.

I did not find a link to the CNN story but the talking heads there were claiming that just having or installing a mod chip was a felony punishable by 5 years in jail and a $500,000 fine, presumably due to the claim that these activities violate the DMCA, as stated on ICE's site. The best news of all is that there is more to come. ICE says this is part of an expanding program of IP enforcement. As they say:

"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."

Obviously the many legitimate reasons for using the MOD chips (backups, foreign titles, etc.) are ignored here. So remember, kids, when you mod your Xbox the terrorists win! I guess it's a good thing for the US arm of Hezbollah they focus on fake Viagra and cigarettes. Dealing in modchips might get them caught more often.
The Internet

Submission + - Sticking a fork in Web 2.0 (whattofix.com)

Submitted by
DanielMarkham
DanielMarkham writes: "John Dvorak has an interesting post on PC Magazine regarding a coming bubble in Web 2.0

While many prognosticators have made predictions about a burst bubble about to appear, and the end of Web 2.0, nobody has made a plea for the small-time developers to think before they leap into this arena. After all, the true losers of a Web 2.0 bubble, if there is one, will be the mom-and-pop internet shops working on a shoestring.

Daniel Markham, a technology strategist, takes apart the finances behind the Web 2.0 world. While everybody knows you can start a web business with a quarter and a smile, most technologists have no idea what's involved actually making the thing work. Markham goes through the numbers, pulling information from a lot of VC blogs where most technical types don't go.

Some of his conclusions are biting:

People are tired of ads. They hate them on TV, they hate them on the web. They're tired of those stupid customer loyalty cards that every business has nowadays. They're not stupid: they know those cards help the businesses a lot more than they do the consumers. And they're going to get tired of digging, moderating, boinking, slapping, skirting, poking, winking, and whatever other synonyms websites can come up with to try to get folks to participate. Right now, there's a headlong push to get people involved in these Web 2.0 sites, but for every true convert, there are a hundred folks that just drop by to see what everybody else is doing. They're there because of habit, not because of bells and whistles.


Aside from the boom-or-bust articles, which are rather predictable, is there a greater social damage that will occur by busting lots of little guys, instead of investors with deep pockets?"
Privacy

Submission + - Website Age-Verification Based on Public Records

Submitted by csw
csw writes: I was checking out the website for the new movie "Superbad" (http://www.areyousuperbad.com) and when I tried to enter the restricted area which requires age verification I entered face data as usual. This site however would not work with fake data. I entered me real information and it let me in. I then tried my real information and changed spelling of my name to make it wrong and again it would not let me in. After a little research I found that some websites are basing verification on public records now (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/movies/13yell.h tml?ex=1339387200&en=5c292ac80cc2b0b2&ei=5088&part ner=rssnyt&emc=rss). What is everyones thoughts on this and how does one gain access to these records for verification of thier own?
Power

Submission + - Record Cost/watt for Solar Panels

Submitted by
Twinbee
Twinbee writes: "We've just had a Slashdot story which reports the efficiency of solar panels has increased yet again, this time from 40.7 to 42.8%. However, what's surely more important is the price per watt statistic. It's the benchmark which more than anything else, will help propel us into a cleaner energy age.

So, Slashdot readers, what is the current record? From a quick Google, I find a few results to get us started: $26.60 per watt (Maplins). $4.40 per watt (the-green-company) $4.16 per watt (GE Energy GEPV-173 Solar Panels)

I have zero affiliation with the above companies, and no, I have no idea why Maplins panels are so expensive.

Can anyone find anything better $4.16 per watt?"

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