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Power

Submission + - Europe's First Solar Thermal Power Online

Submitted by
rohar
rohar writes: "According to BBC News, Solucar, a division of Abengoa has brought Europe's first commercial solar thermal power station online. It is generating 11MW using a heliostat flat mirror and central tower solar steam system. A video of the system is available from BBC.

The system design would integrate very well with the SHPEGS concepts and combining this type of CSP plant with seasonal thermal storage and a massive air-coupled solar heat pump has a very strong potential for high summer insolation/cold winter climates like Canada and the Northern US and Europe."
Television

Submission + - Comcast Gives Free Porno To Children!

Submitted by
JimmyMcGee
JimmyMcGee writes: "In a bizarre freak "glitch" Comcast customers received free pornography on their Disney Channel. Comcast stated they have called this accidental and isolated. In the USA Today Article one parent vows to Cancel her cable service, well not until after Hockey Season is over. She must really be outraged."
Networking

Submission + - Least-worst network arrangement?

Submitted by
CPUsInHotPlaces
CPUsInHotPlaces writes: "Dear Slashdotters,

I have the (un)enviable task of running a small (3 laptops) network in a small West African country. We have a (slow) broadband internet connection, which is shared through an ethernet router/ firewall. Two of the laptops can connect directly (via an Ethernet cable) to the router, but the other one, and an additional computer need to be connected from about 40m away, via a different ethernet network (that doesn't have internet access — it's used for sharing a printer). ASCII topology: /-LaptopA
                                              /
THE WORLD — ROUTER / — LaptopB
                                            |
                                            |
    Other network — > |
                                            | — LaptopC
                                            |
                                            | — Foreign Computer D-Z

The additional complication is that while I have admin rights on Laptops A-C, the other computers are virus-ridden, malware-spewing windows boxes (mostly running Windows '98) which I have no control over. However, I have to connect one of them to the internet....(this is non-negotiable for political reasons).

I can make sure that I only connect Laptop C and Foreign Computer D, rather than all 20, using MAC address filtering, but I'm still worried about having them all on the same subnet. I'd like to be able to have some shared disk space (using NFS or Samba), but don't want to expose it to the computers I can't control. I had thought about putting a second route/firewall between the first router and the other network cable, but then Laptop C can't access it either.

So, my options seem to be:
* All one subnet — simple, but then we have an infected computer behind the firewall
* Two subnets — more expense, one of the laptops can't access the shared drive, and it is still on the same subnet as an infected computer

Anyone got any better ideas?

Matt"
Security

Submission + - Protecting the $100 Laptop

Submitted by
celcxo
celcxo writes: "The $100 laptop designed for the children of the developing world poses challenging computer security problems. These laptops will be widely deployed to children who have no training in computer security or computer use. They will belong to the children, go home with children and be customized by the children. And the laptops will provide Internet access using a new mesh network design that turns the systems into wireless routers, allowing hundreds of children spread across a village to share a single Internet connection. Such a proposal would spell a security nightmare if these laptops were all running a stock copy of Windows, MacOS or even Linux. Hackers could steal a laptop, find a vulnerability and then write a worm to wirelessly hop from laptop to laptop, turning them all into the largest botnet that the world had ever seen. CSO has posted a story describing the security ramifications and noting some of the solutions the designers built into the inexpensive systems."
Movies

Submission + - HD-DVD - Codes on a shirt

Submitted by futuremanbob
futuremanbob writes: Shirtaday is doing a one-day sale of hd-dvd code shirts. The shirt price started at $13.00 but moves down a bit as each shirt is sold. Currently, it's at $9.25. Pretty cool deal for a bit of pop-culture history.
Privacy

Submission + - Network Solutions' New Service: AboutUs.org

Submitted by fractalus
fractalus writes: Network Solutions is pushing a new "service" with their WHOIS results called "AboutUs", which is a wiki where people can comment on web sites. While the virtues of such a space are debatable (now a site owner has to maintain not only their own content, but battle the hordes of nay-sayers who will vandalize a wiki) they also "helpfully" extract addresses and phone numbers from the site and publish the WHOIS information in a convenient-for-crawlers web page. Is this really a good idea?
Emulation (Games)

Submission + - World Without Oil online game sounds damn scary

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "So the world is running out of oil — fast. What would you do about it? That's the notion behind an online interactive reality game called World Without Oil, posted this week.At the website, people will learn the particulars of the crisis, such as the current price of a gallon of gas or how widespread shortages are. Players will fill in the details, by creating Web documents that express their own perspectives from within the crisis. People of any age or Web ability can participate in the free online game. Individuals are getting involved across the nation, and over 400 people have signed up to play, says PBS' Independent Lens and its Electric Shadows Web programming group who is producing the game. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1481 9"
Education

Submission + - University Run computer Games Company

Submitted by
EdTheDuck
EdTheDuck writes: "Huddersfield University was the 1st in the UK to create its own Computer Games Company to be run by Students.

The company started work in September of 2006 and has 8 full time staff of students on a placement year working at it. All members of staff are Programmers but there are a large team of Designers who volunteer their time to the project.

The University found it hard placing its students in computer games companies and so created this venture to give its students chance to work in a real company and gain some invaluable experience of the industry.

They are currently working on 3 major projects, 1 of which has recently been released as a Beta on their website (http://www.canalsidestudios.com/games/index.php?p age=downloads).

They have been using the newly created game framework release by Microsoft late last year, XNA.

Stay tuned for their later releases as more info is placed on the website."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Cheapest way to setup 150 computers temporarily?

Submitted by justanotheritguy
justanotheritguy writes: We need to provide a web-browser, keyboard, and mouse to 150 people at a convention every so often. Currently we rent laptops and set each one up on a wireless network and they all run IE and access a webserver running on the internal network. Renting all the laptops is expensive and not very reliable.

With all the new technology out there, I'm guessing there are new options for doing something like this we're unaware of. What alternatives are there to getting a webbrowser in front of several hundred people for just a few days before everything's torn down? I'm figuring some smart slashdot reader will have a really clever idea we haven't considered.
Mozilla

Submission + - Dell OKs Ubuntu, silent on Firefox, Opera unlikely

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Dell's announcement that it will preinstall Ubuntu Linux on some of its desktops and laptops was based in part on feedback from its new ideastorm website, which lets members of the public and customers express the features they'd like to see in Dell computers. Computerworld has also noted that the website includes more than 70,000 votes for the company to preinstall Firefox as well. This is partially related to the Mozilla spread Firefox campaign, apparently, but Dell isn't commenting on it, says Computerworld. By comparison, under 7,000 votes have been made on the Dell site for preinstalling Opera, and there are negative 440 votes for preinstalling Epiphany."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Dell to go Ubuntu in May

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Dell is going to Ubuntu 7.04 in May. More info can be found at desktoplinux.com. From the article, "Officially, Dell Inc. hasn't said a word yet about which Linux it will be preloading on its desktops and laptops. Several sources within Dell, however, have told DesktopLinux.com that Dell's desktop Linux pick is going to be Ubuntu."
Businesses

Submission + - DHL gets the gold in the wacky Great Package Race

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Kind of funny to imagine UPS, FedEx and DHL vans hurtling down some small backwater dirt road, bobbing an weaving NASCAR-style all in the effort to make sure they deliver a package first. But that's the scenario those companies faced recently in the Great Package Race put on by the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. DHL won this year, delivering first to three of the five locations and second to the remaining two. FedEx managed to deliver to three locations, and UPS delivered parcels to two. The remaining packages from FedEx and UPS went undelivered for a variety of reasons. In past races, the carriers traded wins in different locales. http://slashdot.org/submit.pl"

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