infiniphonic - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Office's Pam Gets Naked for Wired

Submitted by

theodp

on Monday March 26, 2007 @12:01AM

theodp writes: "Taking a page out of SI's Swimsuit Issue playbook, Wired offers up a Get Naked Issue for April, featuring Pam from The Office (aka Jenna Fischer) as the now-she's-in-a-business-suit-now-she's-not cover girl for radical corporate transparency. Wired explains it's easier on the eyes than Dwight, but not all are amused."

Submission + - Ubuntu running on the Xbox 360

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @11:46PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Cpasjuste has managed to get Ubuntu (comunity developed Linux-based operating system) running on the Xbox 360. It contains all the standard applications such as a WEB BROWSER, spreadsheet software, instant messaging software and more. To get it running King Kong is required as well as the vulnerable kernels. Read more about it here at: http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?p=4670 13#post467013 The news stub can be found here: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=15411"

Submission + - Best OSS Systems Mgmt App You Never Heard Of

Submitted by

FLOSSisnot4Teeth

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @11:36PM

FLOSSisnot4Teeth writes: "You probably are familiar with Nagios and Webmin as two of the most widely deployed open source systems management applications. However, this month's SourceForge.net Project of the Month is probably a newcomer to open source systems and network administrators. Zenoss Core is a systems monitoring platform, released under GPL and over the last year it's become one of the most popular SF.net projects. Unlike most of these new "commercially backed" open source projects, Zenoss Core is the only version, their corporate sponsor doesn't offer a "pro version". Also their developers have been committing code back to other projects like RRDTool and Twisted. I have been playing around with Zenoss for about six months and have been totally impressed. Would be curious to see what other Slashdot readers think."

Submission + - Scientists powering batteries with soda, tree sap

Submitted by

BobB

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @11:22PM

BobB writes: "St. Louis University researchers have concocted batteries fueled by almost any kind of sugar, from tree sap to flat soda, and that could be used to power everything from computers to cellphones. Their thinking: If sugar can jack up the human body, why not electronics? http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1288 6"

Submission + - Economist Talks on Details of Software Startups

Submitted by bobdole3k on Sunday March 25, 2007 @10:55PM

bobdole3k writes: Larry Smith, a world class economist from the University of Waterloo has dedicated his career to studying software enterprises. Recently, he gave a talk on the mechanics of starting a successful software company. Through his extensive knowledge of the industry, Smith provides a detailed analysis of what worked and what didn't in software startups. A video of the talk is available on the Computer Science Club's media archive.

MS Trying To Spur Vista Sales With Discounts 329

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 25, 2007 @10:54PM from the wee-mite-desperate dept.

Ang writes "Is Microsoft having worries about selling Vista already? Ars reports that Microsoft has announced yet another 'discount program' for Vista, but these new discounts work out to only about 10% off list price — not much when you notice that retailers already sell Vista below list. To make matters worse, the discount program would still end up costing you $100 more than the older 'family' discount built around Vista Ultimate in some situations. Ars spends seven paragraphs explaining this convoluted offer. Is all of this complexity supposed to help sell Vista?" If you must buy Vista, it might be advisable to sit on your wallet for a while. The discounts are bound to get sweeter.

Submission + - Applying Art of War Principles to OSS Battle

Submitted by

mrbluze

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @10:50PM

mrbluze writes: "Openaddict has an interesting read on how to best fight the good fight against the Evil Empire, quoting Sun Tzu's famous work.

It's not enough that we're better (because we are) — we also have to out maneuver our opponent in the press and in the hearts/minds of the average user.
"

Submission + - Million Dollar Laptop

Submitted by thefekete on Sunday March 25, 2007 @10:36PM

thefekete writes: 'UK-based bespoke luxury goods creator Luvaglio has created the first million dollar laptop.'

'Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" widescreen LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery [sic] that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop and also acts as security identification.'

Story from gizmag.com

Submission + - Software Start-ups: What Worked and What Did Not

Submitted by Andareed on Sunday March 25, 2007 @09:52PM

Andareed writes: Many people have the technical talent to create a software product but lack the business knowledge needed to start a successful software company around their product. Renowned economist Larry Smith discusses what is needed to create a successful software company. Smith also gives examples of software companies that have failed and software companies that have succeeded, and explains why they were unsuccessful or successful.

Submission + - Karl Rove uses unauthorized email server

Submitted by

JenniefromtheShire

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @09:36PM

JenniefromtheShire writes: "http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/24/172031 /681

From citizen92 at dailykos.com:

Karl Rove and GWB43.com — Huge National Security Threat?
by citizen92 [Subscribe]

Sat Mar 24, 2007 at 02:36:13 PM PDT

Over the past few days, there have been many great diaries about the recent discovery of the gwb43.com e-mail system. A story in the National Journal (only available by subcription) yesterday added an additional nugget — that Karl Rove does 95% of his e-mailing over that server. Nice. And end run around the Presidential Records Act. And a political move to hide what could be incriminating records.

What has not yet been mentioned, however, is the likely huge national security breach that might have resulted from Karl's cavalier practices.

Bear with me.

citizen92's diary :: ::
The White House is a huge target for electronic espionage by friendly and hostile foreign powers. For those of you who may have visited Washington, this may be evident when you stroll by the various embassies scattered around the city — with their unusual sculptures of antennas and wires on their roofs. The Russians have a compound just three blocks north of the White House.

The US Government spends undisclosed amounts on countermeasures to protect its critical information and its secure networks. And it has the experts to make sure that those countermeasures are working.

But, as usual, the government is focused on the foes outside — not the foes within. Government, meet Karl Rove's OpSec (operational security) program.

As you read, I would have to guess (but I have absolutely no knowlegde if this is true or not) that foreign intelligence services have already paid thorough visits to the various servers that are operated by the RNC down in Chattanooga. You know, GWB43.com. RNCHQ.COM. Bobcorker.com. Why? Well, it's been made pretty clear that Karl Rove conducts business through those domains. 95% of his business. And so do other senior White House staff. If you were a foreign spy, wouldn't you be interested? And might it be a possibility, that MAYBE the RNC servers aren't quite as secure as the government servers? MAYBE?

If I were an Information Security Officer for the White House, my system would be "flashing red." Don't forget that Karl Rove is a Deputy Chief of Staff (the number 3 position) at the White House. He likely see's PDB's and other classified information. And for him to be able to do 95% of his work from the RNC account, he would have to get some of this information flowing from the White House network. Heck, maybe he forwards his eop.gov e-mail to the RNC account.

Point being, this could represent a HUGE SECURITY BREACH. I hope that the RNC servers have been seized by someone in US Government (NSA, CIA or otherwise) to find out exactly what has happened here. And I really hope that political muscle hasn't blocked that.

There is a lot more riding on this than just Karl Rove's political future....

****UPDATE****

Commenter kck suggested that I also point out a few more relevant details.

The "private email addresses" that Rove and some unidentified quantity of White House and possibly other government officials tracks back to a company called Smartech based in Chatanooga, TN. There are some interesting observations about Smartech at Cannonfire's blog, specifically that the gwb43.com domain shares a mailserver with other domains, including:

bcorker.com
bobcorkerforsenate.com
consultmhi.com
georgewbush.com
gop.com
gop.net
gop.org
gopcontact.com
gopemail.com
gopteamleader.com
govtechsolutions.com
newt.org
ohiogop.org
republicanvictoryteam.com
republicanvictoryteam.net
republicanvictoryteam.org
rga.org
rnc.org
rnchq.org
socialsecurityblueprint.com
speakergingrich.com
speakergingrich.net
technomania.com
thehuntercompanies.com
thirdwave2.com
thirdwave2.net
winningwomen.com
wrcb.com
wrcb.net
Cannonfire also observes that the Ohio 2004 election results were tallied on systems maintained by Smartech. Curious yet?

****SUNDAY UPDATE****

Commenter Rosaura makes an excellent observation on the root of the criminality of this whole outside e-mail system.

Tonight I stumbled across the collection of Abramoff emails connected with the Indian Gaming hoo-haw, and sure enough, Susan Ralston was using SusanRalston@gwb, sralston@georgewbush.com, sralston@aol.com, and sRalston@rnchq.org.

It's not as if these crooks didn't know it was wrong. Have a look at Rosaura">this email exchange at pages 113 and 118:

From: Abramoff, Jack (Dir-DC-Gov)[/o=GTLAW/ou=WDC/cn=Recipients/cn=abra moffj] on behalf of Abramoff, Jack (Dir-DC-Gov)
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 10:25 AM
To: Ring, Kevin (Shld-DC-Gov)
Subject: RE: email on jena

Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her mc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.

— Original Message —
From: Ring, Kevin (Shld-DC-Gov)
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 10:26 AM
To: Abramoff, Jack (Dir-DC-Gov)
Subject email on jena

Your email to Susan was forwarded to Ruben Barrales and on to Jen Farley, who read it to me last night. I don't know what to think about this, but she said is better not to put this stuff in writing in their email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc. Who knows? Just letting you know what she said, Anyway, I had called her to talk about Jena. She has not heard from anyone on the other side of this issue.

— Original Message —
From: abramoff
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 4:24 PM
To: Susan Ralston
Subject: Louisiana

I don't want to bother you guys with a meeting request, so I was hoping you could pass on to Karl that Interior is about to approve a gaming compact and land in trust for a tribe which is an anathema to .....
Two things we learn here.

1/Abramoff was aware of the need to lob e-mails outside of the White House e-mail system. And Abramoff is a crook.

2/Jennifer Farley, the was aware of the need to send e-mails outside of the system, and she told Abramoff co-conspirator Kevin Ring as such.

Farley was not the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Nor was she the Deputy Director. Nor was she the Assistant Director. She was the Deputy Assistant Director. That's a low level staff position. A $35,000 year job.

Point being, if low-level staffer Jennifer Farley knew about the e-mail couching, then there had to be a policy mandating these procedures at the White House. And policies are set from the top."

RIAA Says Accused Students Are Settling 345

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 25, 2007 @09:34PM from the cheap-at-half-the-price dept.

As we've been reporting, the RIAA has been offering settlements to college students suspected of sharing music online. Reader Weather Storm notes that more than a quarter of the alleged music pirates have accepted the RIAA's offer. Quoting: "...an attorney Ohio University arranged to meet with its students... said $3,000 is the standard settlement offer, though cases have settled for as much as $5,000."

Submission + - New Orleans levee report blames Army Corps

Submitted by

LazyEmc2

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @09:19PM

LazyEmc2 writes: "I am submitting a story I saw at Dr. Jeff Masters' blog at Weather Underground.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comme nt.html?entrynum=639&tstamp=200703

It points to a report released by Louisiana state Department of Transportation and Development.
http://www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/TeamLA.h tm

"The Army Corps yesterday issued a press release defending themselves, saying that all levels of government were involved in the poor decision making for New Orleans' levees, and the Corps should not be singled out for their failures. Regardless, the release of the Team Louisiana report will bolster the legal efforts to sue the Army Corps for damages from Katrina. These claims are currently at $400 billion and growing, including a claim of $77 billion from the city of New Orleans, and $200 billion from the state of Louisiana."

The Army Corps have fired back:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/natio n/4653257.html
Story about suits filed against them already:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/ base/news-7/117462801734580.xml&coll=1

Sorry for the lack of HTML."

Journal Journal: leopard's upshot: there's real value there, any way you look 1

Journal by izzo nizzo on Sunday March 25, 2007 @08:50PM

Apple has some pretty cool things planned for Leopard on the user side, like the ability to see and operate your buddy's desktop through ichat, and their revolutionary backup system. The leopard server is dramatically improved, with a wiki server, a calendar server, podcast server, network search with spotlight, and generally polished power.

Submission + - Synthetic Snail Slime for Climbing Robots

Submitted by Frumious Wombat on Sunday March 25, 2007 @08:45PM

Frumious Wombat writes: A team of engineers have set a small robot climbing walls in order to compare how natural and artificial snail slimes work. Co-worker Randy Ewoldt, of MIT, said: "An important result is that snail mucus per se is not required for robots to climb walls. We can make our own adhesive locomotion material with commercial products (instead) of harvesting slime from a snail farm." The real article is here for the technically (or gastropodically) inclined.

I, for one, welcome our ubiquitious, wall-climbing, robot overlords.

Submission + - The math of Graphics

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 25, 2007 @08:44PM

An anonymous reader writes: A lot of confusion arises when people attempt to do 3d graphics programming without the proper mathematical background in basic linear algebra. Christopher Evensen recently gave a talk covering covering the important fundamentals. The math is also accompanied by a real world programming example. The talk doesn't have anything ground breaking in it, but the format its presented in clearly shows how to apply the math to real world problems.

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