Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Science

Submission + - Tractor beams are getting closer, sort of (arxiv.org)

xt writes: A recently submitted paper in arXiv claims that by using Bessel beams it is theoretically possible to pull particles towards the light source, opening up new avenues for optical micromanipulation (the direction of the force is size dependent, so it could be used for particle sorting). There is also a simpler article translated in English (original article in Greek).

Submission + - Why WikiLeaks' Fundraising Deceives Supporters (thinq.co.uk)

Stoobalou writes: Thinq has an interesting piece on WikiLeaks fund-raising and how it seems that cash intended to support the whistle-blowing site's day-to-day operation is being quietly diverted to support founder Julian Assange's legal battle against rape allegations.

Submission + - Amelia Earhart search mystery continues (ibtimes.com)

Anonymous Coward writes: "Researchers have reported that analysis of a bone fragment that could conceivably be from missing pilot Amelia Earhart’s finger are, to date, inconclusive. Cecil Lewis Jr. of the University of Oklahoma's Molecular Anthropology Laboratories said "the question of whether the bone is human must remain unanswered"."
Cellphones

Submission + - Google Pulls 21 Android Apps with Trojan Rootkits (switched.com)

suraj.sun writes: Thanks to a tip-off by a redditor, and some investigation by Android Police ( http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03/01/the-mother-of-all-android-malware-has-arrived-stolen-apps-released-to-the-market-that-root-your-phone-steal-your-data-and-open-backdoor/ ), Google has pulled 21 Android Market apps that were infected with a backdoor Trojan rootkit. If you downloaded any of the infected apps, they will be automatically deleted from your phone.

The attack vector was ingenious, and plays on the Android Market's biggest weakness: the almost complete absence of app moderation. The nefarious developer crafted 21 apps that share the name of legitimate apps (such as 'Chess'), and into each of them he inserted some Trojan code. The apps then quietly report your sensitive data back to a remote server, while you play with your free app.

Download Squad: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/02/google-pulls-21-android-malware-apps-with-trojan-rootkit-over-50000-infected/

Android Police: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03/01/the-mother-of-all-android-malware-has-arrived-stolen-apps-released-to-the-market-that-root-your-phone-steal-your-data-and-open-backdoor/

Submission + - U.S. Bans Marijuana Substitute 'Fake Pot' Chemical (ibtimes.com)

Anonymous Coward writes: "The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said it has temporarily banned five chemicals used to make so-called "fake pot" products, perceived as "legal" alternatives to marijuana. According to the DEA, these substances, known as synthetic cannabinoids, are biologically similar to THC, the active chemical in marijuana."

Submission + - SCO found no source code in 2004 (groklaw.net)

doperative writes: A consultant hired by SCO in 2004 to compare UNIX and Linux, with the thought he could be used as an expert at trial, says that, after days and days, his comparison tool found "very little correlation". When he told that to SCO, it paid him and he never heard from SCO again.

Submission + - World's Most Powerful Optical Microscope (sciencedaily.com)

gamricstone writes: Scientists have produced the world's most powerful optical microscope, which could help understand the causes of many viruses and diseases. Previously, the standard optical microscope can only see items around one micrometre — 0.001 millimetres — clearly. But now, by combining an optical microscope with a transparent microsphere, dubbed the 'microsphere nanoscope', the Manchester researchers can see 20 times smaller — 50 nanometres ((5 x 10-8m) — under normal lights. This is beyond the theoretical limit of optical microscopy. "Seeing inside a cell directly without dying and seeing living viruses directly could revolutionize the way cells are studied and allow us to examine closely viruses and biomedicine for the first time."

Comment Re:The problem is people (Score 1) 409

You should have also added that they need a rule that says the passwords can't be similar so that the users can't do this for the next 20 passwords:
EasyPassword02!@
EasyPassword04!@
EasyPassword06!@ ... etc

An even better rule might be to force them to use randomly generated passwords instead of letting them decide their own passwords.

But as long as you allow them to handle usernames and passwords as their method of logging onto a network, you will all ways be vulnerable due to someone writing their passwords down where others can eventually read them.

Comment Different Services need to be split (Score 4, Insightful) 209

The different connections need to be split.

For example, Verizon needs to have:

Verizon DSL 768kbps - 1Mbps
Verizon DSL 1.5Mbps - 3Mbps
Verizon DSL 4Mbps - 7Mbps
Verizon DSL 10Mbps - 15Mbps
Verizon FIOS 15Mbps
Verizon FIOS 25Mbps
Verizon FIOS 50Mbps

Obviously a low end DSL connection is not going to be the same as those who can order the 10-15Mbps DSL connection. And it is likely that the DSL 10-15Mbps connection is going to be different from the FIOS 15Mbps.

To group all of those connections into one Verizon line is completely misleading. And if they didn't take measurements from all of those connections, then then that makes the results even more suspect as the graph doesn't specify what type of connection they chose to test with.

Comment Re-design date fault (Score 1) 2254

To whom it may concern,

I can no longer browse using "http://slashdot.org/index.pl?issue=20110122" for all of the articles on that date. This is severely irritating to say the least. If I can't have that functionality back, then I require the ability to load either 25, 50, or 100 stories at a time from recent to whenever the 100th story was posted.

Thank you for your time.

Open Source

Submission + - LibreOffice 3.3 released today (i-programmer.info)

mikejuk writes: Only four months after the formation of the Document Foundation by leading members of the OpenOffice.org community, it has launched LibreOffice 3.3, the first stable release of its alternative Open Source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
Since the fork was announced at the end of September the number of developers "hacking" LibreOffice has gone from fewer than twenty to well over one hundred, allowing the Document Foundation to make its first release ahead of schedule.
The split of a large open source office suite comes at a time when it isn't even clear if there is a long term future for office suites at all. What is more puzzling is what the existence of two camps creating such huge codebases for a fundamental application type says about the whole state of open source development at this time. It clearly isn't the idealistic world it tries to present itself as.

Comment Re:Todo: Get your granny's AOL login (Score 2) 301

I typically follow the guideline that the right and center lanes are for slow people or those needing to turn off soon and the left lane is for passing/speeding; however, there are a few roads I break this guideline myself if the following applies:

- the road has a few left exits and I need to take one of those left exits myself
- heavy traffic where people (such as myself) with horrible depth perception can cause accidents
- traffic is moving between the right, center, and exit lanes frequently

To remedy the situation where I may not be moving fast enough for the person behind me, I will attempt to speed up or slow down to where the person has a gap to pass me on the right. I will match my speed to the gap in hopes they get the idea this is where they should pass me if they wish to move quicker than I am willing.

Driving exclusively in the left lane was a taboo I was uncomfortable with until after a series of close incidents that I didn't wish to repeat. I have since found peace with driving in the left lane on these particular roads and leave the dangers of the center and right lanes to those wishing to pass me.

Slashdot Top Deals

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken

Working...