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Submission + - Mark your calendar: Pretend to be a Time Traveler (koalawallop.com)

Submitted by Iron Condor
Iron Condor writes: Dresden Codac comes up with this clever idea for a "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day" (Dec-08) on the Koala Wallop forum.

"Remember, the only real rule is staying in character and try to fit in. Never directly admit you're a time traveler, and make really, really bad attempts at keeping a low profile."
Some of the suggestions include such gems as "Show extreme ignorance in operating regular technology. Pay phones should be a complete mystery (try placing the receiver in odd places). Chuckle knowingly at cell phones." or "Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO" ".

I figured the /. crowd would be exactly the kind of folks who'd get into that kind of thing (I know that I do).
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linux vs. Mac: Should I Get a Mac? (osweekly.com) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OSWeekly.com ponders on whether or not it's better to get a Mac over Linux. The author writes, "Then again, I have to come back full circle and ask myself — do I really 'need,' or even want, OS X over a pure Linux box? Under the hood, it's basically the same thing, which is a hat tip to Apple. Incredibly secure and simple to use. Personally, the most compelling reason to use this OS would not be for iTunes. It would also be for the fantastic applications designed to make video editing a breeze. Is this something I really want to do on a notebook? If I went MacBook Pro perhaps, but it's really more of a desktop sort of a task for an iMac, I think. I don't know yet, it does seem like OS X is looking better all the time. I can hammer out scripts like I do in Linux fairly easily, and now, thanks to VMWare Fusion, I can even use my beloved Evolution PIM where Entourage is not a great replacement for me. Maybe it's time to upgrade my notebook after all?
Movies

Submission + - Dreamworks Drops the Ball on Afghani Children 1

Submitted by ThanatosMinor
ThanatosMinor writes: Dreamworks recruited school-aged children from Kabul in Afghanistan to play lead roles in the new movie release of The Kite Runner. However, the presence of a brutal rape scene has serious potential to cause problems for one of the boys and his family. 'I want to continue making films and be an actor but the rape scene upset me because my friends will watch it and I won't be able to go outside any more. They will think I was raped,' said Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada. To make matters worse, two of the boys wanted to use their money from the job to move their families to the United States, but the film company paid them less than $20,000 each.
Should Hollywood be trying a little harder to be a good ambassador to foreign nations?
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Project Alternative OpenProj Reviewed (madpenguin.org)

Submitted by sober
sober writes: MadPenguin.org has reviewed an open source alternative to Microsoft Project, OpenProj. The author concludes, "If this software is given any amount of time or support to reach full maturity, it would definitely be a solid competitor against Microsoft's Project. The only downside I have seen thus far with regard to its localized installation is that it is Java-based in design. This means instant alienation from those who do not enjoy using what Java provides. Personally, I found that the application runs great, does exactly what it advertises and costs nothing for the localized version.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - MadWifi moves away from binary-only HAL

Submitted by kizmat
kizmat writes: The Madwifi team announced their decision to move away from the binary-only HAL and change the focus of future development towards ath5k, a completely free (as in freedom) driver which will eventually become an integral part of the Linux kernel. From the article — We now see a road to move away from the binary-only HAL; it's no comfortable road, however, and thus requires full concentration of our resources to finally reach the ultimate goal of getting a free driver for Atheros devices into the Linux kernel. This free driver is called ath5k, and the work on it has already been started. We are also in contact with Atheros to encourage them to support these efforts.
Education

MIT's SAT Math Error 280

Posted by Zonk from the maybe-they-should-get-a-college-graduate-to-check-it dept.
theodp writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that for years now, MIT wasn't properly calculating the average freshmen SAT scores (reg.) used to determine U.S. News & World Report's influential annual rankings. In response to an inquiry made by The Tech regarding the school's recent drop in the rankings, MIT revealed that in past years it had excluded the test scores of foreign students as well as those who fared better on the ACT than the SAT, both violations of the U.S. News rules. MIT's reported first-quartile SAT verbal and math scores for the 2006 incoming class totaled 1380, a drop of 50 points from 2005."
Privacy

Submission + - Seven CIA Vets Challenge 9/11 Commission Report (opednews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070922_seven_cia_veterans_c.htm

Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report

September 23, 2007 — Seven CIA veterans have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and have called for a new investigation. "I think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke," said Raymond McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates during the seventies. "There are a whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they're unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions," he said. McGovern, who is also the founder of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity), is one of many signers of a petition to reinvestigate 9/11.[1]

New Version of Gmail Being Tested 227

Posted by Zonk from the every-solid-companion dept.
Keith writes "Gmail was launched on April 1, 2004, and has revolutionized the way many of us use email. The interface has remained largely untouched since it launched, but get ready, it's soon to undergo a change in what they describe as a 'New Version'. Only a select few people have access to use the new interface — mainly employees and trusted people outside the company called 'Trusted Testers'. From the ZDNet blog entry: 'Google lets every-day users who are fluent in both English and another language translate small snippets of English text into the language of their choice. This is how they can offer services in several languages without spending a dime on professional translators. Unfortunately, exposing sensitive information in this manner makes it hard to keep a secret. One of my readers, who wishes to remain anonymous, stumbled across an interesting snippet of text (which I confirmed exists) spilling the beans on a new version of Gmail that is either currently being tested, or about to be released to testing in short order.'"
The Internet

Intel Releases Mashups for the Masses 180

Posted by Zonk from the applying-data-to-the-situation-for-the-win dept.
News_and_info writes "Intel has released an online tool called Mash Maker with the intent of allowing anyone to create mashups. They offer some training on how to use it, but the tool is fairly easy to use out of the gate. I see it more as a rudimentary semantic browser. From the article: 'Mashups have still not really penetrated the mainstream. My mother is not using mashup sites, and she is definitely not creating them. Even if there was a mashup out there that did exactly what she wanted, the chances are that she wouldn't know it existed, and would be confused by it if she tried to use it ... With Mash Maker, mashups are part of the normal browsing experience. As you browse the web, the Mash Maker toolbar displays buttons representing mashups that Mash Maker thinks you might want to apply to your current page.'"
Technology (Apple)

Apple Platform Lock-Ins, A 3rd Party Dev's Opinion 411

Posted by CmdrTaco from the no-sir-i-don't-like-it dept.
Iftekhar writes "Wil Shipley, of Delicious Monster fame, has written a very candid essay on what he perceives as Apple's growing trend toward platform lock-ins. He writes: 'Why is the iPhone locked to a single carrier, so I can't travel internationally with it? There's really only one viable reason: Apple wanted a share of the carrier's profits, which meant giving AT&T an exclusive deal. Which meant, we get screwed so Apple can make more money. It's that simple. [...] As Apple gets more and more of its revenue from non-Mac devices, they are also getting more and more of their revenue from devices that simply exclude third parties. Consumers suffer from this. We suffer from increased prices and decreased competition and innovation. We suffer so Apple can make a few more bucks, when Apple is clearly not hurting for money.'"
Programming

Thinking about Rails? Think Again 482

Posted by CmdrTaco from the or-not-at-all dept.
wolfeon writes "In 2005, Derek Sivers of CD Baby wanted to scrap his site and perform a rewrite in Rails. He hired Jeremy Kemper, also known as bitsweat on Freenode, to help on the project. Two years later, through blood and sweat, the project was then canceled because of limitations of Rails. Rails just wasn't meant to do everything since it is very much "canned" project. Mr. Sivers has written an entry in the O'Reilly blog: 7 reasons I switched back to PHP."
The Courts

Submission + - Florida Judge OK's Claims Against Record Companies (blogspot.com)

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: A federal judge in Tampa, Florida, has ruled that an RIAA defendant's counterclaim against the record companies for conspiracy to use unlicensed investigators, access private computer records without permission, and commit extortion, may move forward. The Court also sustained claims for violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as a claim under Florida law for deceptive and unfair trade practices. The decision (pdf) by Judge Richard A. Lazzara in UMG v. DelCid rejected, in its entirety, the RIAA's assertion of "Noerr Pennington" immunity, since that defense does not apply to "sham litigations", and Ms. Del Cid alleges that the RIAA's cases are "sham".
Mozilla

Submission + - Making the Case for Firefox 1

Submitted by
TwilightSentry
TwilightSentry writes: "I'm a student in a small private high-school (~500 students) with a network of mostly Windows computers (We've got some Macs and a Linux server). Our IT administrator favors IE over Firefox, primarily because it can be controlled through Active Directory. I've shown him Firefox ADM, which allows such control of Firefox, and espoused the benefits of AdBlock Plus and Firefox's greater security (Along with the thousand-eyes, fewer bugs idea). His response has been that ads are blocked by our web-filter, and as Firefox and IE7 now pretty much have UI parity, there wouldn't be enough improvement for users to justify taking the time to implement the change.

So, I ask the Slashdot crowd: How would you justify such a switch to your IT admin., if at all?"
The Courts

Vista Makes Forensic PC Exam Easier for Lawyers 343

Posted by Zonk from the can-i-introduce-you-to-some-nice-encryption dept.
Katharine writes "Jason Krause, a legal affairs writer for the American Bar Association's 'ABA Journal' reports in the July issue that Windows Vista will be a boon for those looking for forensic evidence of wrongdoing on defendants' PC's and a nightmare for defendants who hoped their past computer activities would not be revealed. Krause quotes attorney R. Lee Barrett, 'From a [legal] defense perspective, [Vista] scares me to death. One of the things I have a hard time educating my clients on is the volume of data that's now discoverable.' This is primarily attributable to Shadow Copy, TxF and Instant Search."
Linux Business

Linux HR Management Systems? 79

Posted by Zonk from the social-penguins dept.
dgcrawford writes "A growing, 100-person company I work for is looking to integrate a Human Resources Management System into their Linux computer base. Does anyone have experience with any products that fit this need? Does it interface well with payroll, applicant tracking, maybe even finance and stock or other non-monetary compensation? I realize most of you would look at this from an IT point of view, but how did the system work across fields? And how important/useful did you find this interoperability?"

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