Submission + - Data warehouse Breaches
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2007/02/22/respon sibility-of-data-warehouses/
Submission + - Intel Could Owe $2.4 Bln in Tax Adjustment
Anonymous writes: Intel is appealing an IRS tax adjustment of $2.4 billion on export sales from 1999 through 2006. If it loses the appeal, it says there is a "possibility of a material adverse impact on the results of operations" but the issue will not affect cash flow or financial position. Meanwhile, the company also announced plans to spend up to $1.5 billion to overhaul its semiconductor production facility in New Mexico to manufacture computer chips with next-generation technology.
Submission + - Pianist's Husband Admits Faking Recordings
bugg_tb writes: Earlier this month Slashdot reported on Gramophone Magainze's article about Joyce Hatto's music not actually being recorded by her....
It turns out that this appears to be correct as the BBC is reporting that her husband William Barrington-Coupe "began faking passages because Joyce Hatto, who had ovarian cancer, could be heard groaning in pain during recordings"
It turns out that this appears to be correct as the BBC is reporting that her husband William Barrington-Coupe "began faking passages because Joyce Hatto, who had ovarian cancer, could be heard groaning in pain during recordings"
Submission + - Diamond Thermal Compound finally available
dampeal writes: Here's a review of the first available Diamond based thermal compound... Snip: They say Diamonds are a girls best friend, well that might be true but I think they may be a geeks or enthusiasts best friend as well... I'm talking of course of the thermal properties of diamonds, diamonds are the best thermally conductive substance out there, so of course having a diamond based thermal compound would be probably the best choice for a thermal compound.
Journal Journal: An Entertaining Truth 6
http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=367
Algore was quoted as saying, "You can't expect me to live like the barbarian I expect you to live like do you?"
Submission + - Enterprise Open Source List - For IT Professionals
Guy writes: "I have started a listing of Open Source projects that I think will be interesting to fellow IT professionals.
http://eoslist.com/component/option,com_bookmarks/ Itemid,30/
This is not a complete list of all the valuable projects out there, but merely an attempt to highlight some of the projects that can help us in our day to day work.
I would love to hear your comments and your help in building the list is much appreciated."
Submission + - PGP cracked?
rosydreams writes: Guys, I cannot believe that: it seems that russian hackers were able to http://software.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx ?docid=239052crack PGP !!! I'm using this program (PGP of course, not this cracker!) for years (from very old DOS version) and trusted it, so that shocked me to death :((( I'm not a crypro guru but as I understand they're using the distributed network (probably from KGB? :) and may be some advanced cracking algorithms. Btw this program is able to crack not only PGP but also Micro$oft Word, Excel, PDF, Windows logon passwords and a few others (actually, I don't care this, but really worry about PGP). Whether such software is legal? Are they allowed to distribute (sell!) password crackers?? I remember there were some Russian hackers that were jailed in the U.S. a few years ago after cracking Adobe e-books — why we cannot do the same with those ones? And after all are there any other encryption programs that are more reliable than PGP?
Submission + - Poll: Current greatest threat to the US ?
An anonymous reader writes: Survey options:
1) Terrorism
2) Asteroid Impact
3) Yellowstone Erupting
4) The Large Hadron Collider
5) Pandemic
6) Christian Evangelicals
7) Atheists
8) CowboyNeal
1) Terrorism
2) Asteroid Impact
3) Yellowstone Erupting
4) The Large Hadron Collider
5) Pandemic
6) Christian Evangelicals
7) Atheists
8) CowboyNeal
Submission + - Windows Vista worse for user efficiency than XP
erikvlie writes: "Pfeiffer Consulting released a report on User Interface Friction, comparing Windows Vista/Aero with Windows XP and Mac OS X. The report concludes Vista/Aero is worse in terms of desktop operations, menu latency and mouse precision than XP — which was and still is said to be a lot worse in those areas than Mac OS X.
The report was independently financed. The IT-Enquirer editor has read the report and summarised the most important findings."
Journal Journal: I want to personally thank
Lib. for her kindness in giving me an employment reference. I had to refresh her memory but she was a professional of the utmost. As a reciprocated thank you, my husband and I bought extra life insurance from that respected company even though I disliked the way they now outsource their customer service calls. In an imperfect world, we can only try to do our best. It is sad when intentional sub-mediocrity is rewarded and the law is violated. Thank God for our veterans and police and firefig
Submission + - Getting out of tech support
An anonymous reader writes: For the last year or so I've been working in 1st line tech support at a small call centre that's part of a much larger outsourcing company and to be honest it's sucking the life out of me, I want change but I don't know what direction to take in order to get out and I really need some advice from others who have made the jump.
I'm in my mid-twenties and I've taken a number of college-level courses, a couple of those being computer engineering courses, some math and a few others that I found interesting, in the process I also managed to procure a fairly large amount of debt in the form of student loans, nothing I can't handle but I don't really want more debt although going back to get a degree is one possibility. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do except that I want to do something a bit more "real", to actually fix problems instead of just talking to customer after customer and then submitting tickets for someone else to fix the problem. From what I've understood from older acquaintances moving from tech support to other positions was actually a good way to go back when a lot of companies handled their own tech support, but for me there isn't much of a career path at this company as we only handle 1st line support, 2nd line and all above is done by the client companies themselves.
I'd really like to get more into sysadmin type work, or at least something where you spend more time solving problems and managing systems than you do arguing with irrate customers over how they have to call customer service for billing questions as technical support can't handle those problems. I suppose what I'd like to know is what kind of jobs one should be looking for coming from technical support with decent knowledge of UNIX, networking, scripting and "light coding". Is there any hope for me or will I have to go back to school in order to even have employers look at my resume?
I'm in my mid-twenties and I've taken a number of college-level courses, a couple of those being computer engineering courses, some math and a few others that I found interesting, in the process I also managed to procure a fairly large amount of debt in the form of student loans, nothing I can't handle but I don't really want more debt although going back to get a degree is one possibility. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do except that I want to do something a bit more "real", to actually fix problems instead of just talking to customer after customer and then submitting tickets for someone else to fix the problem. From what I've understood from older acquaintances moving from tech support to other positions was actually a good way to go back when a lot of companies handled their own tech support, but for me there isn't much of a career path at this company as we only handle 1st line support, 2nd line and all above is done by the client companies themselves.
I'd really like to get more into sysadmin type work, or at least something where you spend more time solving problems and managing systems than you do arguing with irrate customers over how they have to call customer service for billing questions as technical support can't handle those problems. I suppose what I'd like to know is what kind of jobs one should be looking for coming from technical support with decent knowledge of UNIX, networking, scripting and "light coding". Is there any hope for me or will I have to go back to school in order to even have employers look at my resume?
IBM Refuses To Certify Oracle Linux 124
Andrew writes "IBM has thrown a spanner in the Oracle Linux works by refusing to certify that IBM's software portfolio will run and be supported on Oracle Unbreakable Linux. If IBM applications turn out to be incompatible with Oracle Linux, then it will be up to Oracle to resolve any issues. This conservative stance of IBM's is unlikely to help Oracle sell Linux subscriptions to businesses that use any of IBM's large software portfolio."
Submission + - Dell responds to demands for desktop Linux
Rob writes: Dell has announced that it is the process of certifying Novell's Linux desktop
operating system for use on its corporate desktop and laptop products following an
overwhelming demand for Linux on its IdeaStorm site. The site was set up in mid-February
to help the hardware vendor keep tabs on customer feedback. Early
results indicate that there is massive pent up demand for Linux on the desktop.
Submission + - UK government will not enforce US software patents
VJ42 writes: I recently signed a online petition on software patents, but instead of dismissing it the UK government sent me a reply confirming it's position against software patents.
The Government remains committed to its policy that no patents should exist for inventions which make advances lying solely in the field of software. Although certain jurisdictions, such as the US, allow more liberal patenting of software-based inventions, these patents cannot be enforced in the UK.
They also remain committed to implementing the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property which means that The Government will implement those recommendations for which it is responsible, and will therefore continue to exclude patents from areas where they may hinder innovation: including patents which are too broad, speculative, or obvious, or where the advance they make lies in an excluded area such as software.
After all the bad press they've had, this is a welcome bit of good news for us techies.
