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Security

Submission + - What's In A Name: The State of Typo-Squatting 2007 (net-security.org)

Submitted by AliG
AliG writes: McAfee released a research report that exposes how typo-squatters register domains using common misspellings of popular brands, products and people in order to redirect consumers to alternative Web sites. These squatter-run sites generate click-through advertising revenues, lure unsuspecting consumers into scams and harvest email addresses to flood users with unwanted email. To quantify the scope of the study, McAfee reviewed 1.9 million variations of 2,771 of the most popular domain names.
Microsoft

Submission + - ISO Paralyzed by OOXML

Submitted by
Broken Standards
Broken Standards writes: "For all intents and purposes, the ISO has been completely paralyzed. The ISO is no longer able to reach an agreement on any standard because all those new members who joined just to approve OOXML cannot be bothered to vote on anything else. Per ISO rules, any standard where more than half those eligible are non-voters, not even bothering to return an "abstain" vote, fails automatically. So the ISO is completely paralyzed, unable even to amend their voting rules, until the new members eventually get kicked out for inactivity. Hopefully, they will learn from this and forbid those inactive members from rejoining later."
The Internet

Submission + - Programmer takes action against instant coffee... (tenbuckdeal.com)

Submitted by
stewiegriffinrocks
stewiegriffinrocks writes: "A programmer in Ohio is so tired of drinking instant coffee he has created a website to help him buy his dream DeLonghi ESAM3300 Espresso/Coffee Machine. The site aims to raise money for the coffee maker and a sack of coffee beans by selling downloadable products. The programmer describes himself as "not a morning person"."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Amazon launches DRM free MP3 download service (amazon.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has launched its MP3 download service today as a competitor to iTunes. Just looking at their start page, they seem to have more "popular" music available in MP3 than iTunes. Universal seems to have stuck it to Apple by adding their music in unprotected MP3 format to Amazon.com. However, they do not have a lot of older music yet. For example, I'm an Elvis Presley fan (having grown up in Tennessee), but I've never heard of either of the Elvis albums available on Amazon. In addition to using 256k unprotected MP3 format, Amazon also has a tiered pricing scheme (something which Apple has resisted so far). Will this spell the end of Apple's dominance in music downloads? Only time will tell, but Amazon seems to be off to a pretty strong start by having 2 million unprotected MP3s available for download right now.
Television

Submission + - Zap2It Replacement Scheduling Service Goes Online

Submitted by
Krondor
Krondor writes: "Schedules Direct, the TV listing service created to replace the soon to be discontinued Zap2It Labs free listings, is now accepting registrations. This comes in advance of the pending Zap2It TV Listing shutdown and is obviously excellent news for many open source projects, such as MythTV. The service, though no longer free, does intend to reduce pricing as demand increases and exists as a non-profit specifically for the purpose of providing TV listing data to "Free and Open Source Applications". Slashdot has previously covered the Zap2It Labs TV Listing Discontinuation as well as the pricing expectations for Schedules Direct."
Space

Submission + - Illuminated Smoke Plume From Phoenix Spacecraft (stormvideographer.com)

Submitted by
StormVideo
StormVideo writes: "Here is a very cool picture from the launch yesterday of the Delta II rocket that carried the Phoenix Spacecraft on it's journey to Mars. The pic is of left over's from the launch of the rocket smoke trail and gas plume. It was very cool as the gas plume was being illuminated by the sun that was still below the horizon making for a awesome scene in the dark morning Florida sky."
Graphics

Submission + - ATI releases new drivers (amd.com)

Submitted by jshriverWVU
jshriverWVU writes: ATI has released new linux drivers version 8.39.4 Some of the issues resolved are: * The kernel module build no longer fails on kernel version 2.6.22. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28556

* Starting AMD CCC-LE no longer fails with a floating-point exception when started in certain configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28557

* When playing videos in I420 color format using the Xv extension and TexturedVideo (the default on R5xx), colors are no longer displayed incorrectly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28558

* Running aticonfig — initial in X with the Vesa driver no longer segfaults resulting in the xorg.conf file not being available. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28559
Games

Submission + - Duke Nukem Forever Release Date: 12/1/07! (bestbuy.com)

Submitted by wiggles
wiggles writes: It's offical. According to this Best Buy page, Duke Nukem Forever is scheduled for release on December 1st of 2007. Talk about a solution to global warming! All we need to do is find hell, and use the sub-zero temperatures to siphon off our excess heat!
Printer

Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to Use? 119

Posted by Cliff from the easy-on-the-wallet-please dept.
Ray asks: "A year or so ago, I got my dad a new computer system that included a Canon PX-160 printer/scanner/copier to replace his aging Lexmark with similar capabilities. On my next visit, I asked him how the new printer was working and he said the ink was killing him. The cartridges are expensive, they don't have much ink in them and there are no third party or refilled carts for it or (apparently) any other Canon. It looks like HP and Lexmark are the most likely to have (relatively) inexpensive supplies but what has your experience been with inkjet All-in-Ones as far as TCO goes?"
Programming

Submission + - Reasons to close source code?

Submitted by cowens
cowens writes: The last Ask Slashdot article got me to thinking about what reasons people have (or think they have) to close source code. Are any of these reasons valid? Can you think of any other reasons?
  1. You believe that your source code is so revolutionary that closing it will act as a significant barrier to your competitors.
  2. You are embarrassed by the code's lack of quality and are afraid of ridicule.
  3. You wish to license someone else's code and they are not FOSS friendly.
  4. You are afraid someone might discover a security flaw by examining the source code and exploit the flaw rather than reporting it to you.
  5. You are afraid of losing control of the project (similar to point 1).
  6. You have not actually considered why you want to close the source; AKA you are an idiot.
  7. It is what you have always done before; AKA you are a dinosaur and see point 6.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - MacGyver Physics

Submitted by counterfriction
counterfriction writes: This month's issue of Symmetry, a magazine jointly published by SLAC and Fermilab, is featuring an article that points out the sometimes extemporaneous and unconventional solutions physicists have come up with in (and out of) the laboratory.
From TFA, 'Leon Lederman ... used a pocket knife, tape, and items on anyone's grocery list to confirm that interactions involving the weak force do now show perfect mirror symmetry, or parity, as scientists had long assumed.'
United States

Submission + - Getting out of IT, where to start?

Submitted by cavtroop
cavtroop writes: I've been doing IT for almost 12 years now, with the typical progression: pc support, server support, network support, etc. I used to love my job, and look forward to coming into work, learning something new, and surmounting challenging obstacles. After years of doing this and that in IT, I'm now an IT Generalist, and finding a job is getting tougher and tougher — most hiring managers are looking for subject matter experts. My lack of a degree (I joined the military, and went straight to work after that) is also beginning to hinder me greatly.

I've been giving some thought to getting out of IT lately. I find I no longer enjoy my work — most of the work I do provides little challenge, and I honestly don't remember the last time I learned something new and interesting. With the recent news of IBM possibly laying of 100k people plus (and the years long trend towards out-sourcing), the prospects of ever getting a meaningful IT job again are looking dim.

I think its time to hit the eject button on my IT career. But where to begin? I tried searching for a career counselor, but most of the hits were shady fly by night places, or people that just want to sell you a book.

Has anyone out there in /. land had a similar experience? What can I expect, and where can I start? Any tips, etc would be beneficial.

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