Feed Taking measure of the cult of the amateur (com.com)
A provocative new book warns that society stands to lose more than it gains from the democratization of the digital world.
Submission + - Hurricane Forecasts Were Dust-Busted
SeaDour writes: "A NASA study is claiming that one of the major reasons last year's hurricane season was so tame compared to the initial forecasts may have been due to increased dust storm activity in Africa's Sahara Desert. The dust particles drifted over the Atlantic, blocking sunlight to the water below which allowed it to cool significantly. "Dust concentrations may play as big a role as other atmospheric conditions, like El Nino, and offer some predictive value, so they should be closely monitored to improve hurricane forecasts," said lead author William Lau."
Submission + - ATI Catalyst 7.3, BSOD on Vista
The Great Danton writes: Recently, Tech ARP wrote about how the ATI Radeon X1950 GT graphics card had managed to obtain Vista certification without a working driver. The first working driver for the Radeon X1950 GT finally appeared on March 28, 2007, the Catalyst 7.3. Should X1950 GT owners jump for joy? Not quite yet as ATI didn't do a pretty good job with this driver set either. This article will show you how wrong it would go if you decided to install it on your Vista system. A nightmare would be an understatement.
Submission + - Jumping from kindergarten to the 3rd grade
mountainman writes: I just got an e-mail from my brother proudly announcing that my nephew's public school is recommending that he skip the first and second grades and go from kindergarten directly into the third grade. My nephew is pretty smart but has average social skills and I think this is a perfectly horrible idea. Skipping one grade might work but, in my opinion, skipping two will do little but guarantee that he'll have no friends until a few years past college when he can start drinking legally.
Does anyone on Slashdot have experience, either personally or as a parent, on skipping two grades like this?
Does anyone on Slashdot have experience, either personally or as a parent, on skipping two grades like this?
Submission + - Possibly convert all transfusion blood Type O
UnanimousCoward writes: The BBC has an article that talks about a submission to Nature Biotechnology (not the current issue) in which scientists claim to have discovered a technique to convert all blood into Type O with the discovery of an enzyme that can strip the A and B antigens. This has implications to transform the stored blood supply into transfusable blood for all. It does not address the RH negative issue, though.
Submission + - E-Voting Bill That Works? Stop the Presses!
JeremyDuffy writes: "So they're finally going to try and do something about the e-voting disaster.
Holly Clap! There's not one thing in there that's wrong! If they actually implemented all those provisions, e-voting might actually work!HR 811 features several requirements that will warm the hearts of geek activists. It bans the use of computerized voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail. It mandates that the paper records be the authoritative source in any recounts, and requires prominent notices reminding voters to double-check the paper record before leaving the polling place. It mandates automatic audits of at least three percent of all votes cast to detect discrepancies between the paper and electronic records. It bans voting machines that contain wireless networking hardware and prohibits connecting voting machines to the Internet. Finally, it requires that the source code for e-voting machines be made publicly available.
Oh BOO HOO HOO! Cry me a freaking river. "Oh it's too HARD to implement security! We need to have less restrictions so we can do this cheaper!" Idiots. The law allows flexibility in how some of the auditing is done as long as it's NIST approved and the states always have the option of keeping the optical current methods if they decide that the regulations for e-voting are too strict or too expensive to implement at this time. Of course, this almost sounds too good to be true. I'll have to read the law later, but I'm betting it has some terrible hidden catch like it legalizes eating little puppies or provides millions of pork dollars for human RFID implantations."The proposal wasn't without its detractors, however. Several state election officials testified about the practical challenges of implementing the new requirements. Chris Nelson, South Dakota's secretary of state, warned that many of the requirements in the legislation would conflict with the states' own election procedures.
Submission + - An answer to Gates' Vista exploit dare
bl8n8r writes: "As uncrackable as Mr. Gates thinks Vista to be, it seems an answer to his exploit dare has come forth in the form of an animated cursor exploit. Alexander Sotirov of Determina Security Research has uncovered an eye-candy exploit that allows, among other things, remote code execution. "The exploitation of this vulnerability is interesting in light of the protection features built in the latest versions of Windows XP, 2003 and Vista." All this comes shortly after some OSX finger pointing and claims that "We made it way harder for guys to do exploits (in Vista)"."
Submission + - EMI lifts DRM from iTunes tracks
vaith writes: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that
The article is subscriber-only but more news is sure to emerge throughout the day."EMI Group PLC is set to announce today that it plans to sell significant amounts of its catalog without anticopying software, according to people familiar with the matter.
The London music company is to make its announcement at a London news conference featuring Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs. EMI is to sell songs without the software — known as digital rights management — through Apple's iTunes Store and possibly through other online outlets.
Journal Journal: Microsoft Rushes out patch for .ANI hack 1
In the words of Nelson "Ha! Ha!", this article in Computerworld.uk brings us news that Microsoft is pushing out patch for all windows OSes for the animated cursor exploits that have been crossing the internets this weekend. The buried lede is Microsoft had been notified of this problem back in Decemeber 20006, so there goes the commitment to security meme.
Submission + - Metasploit Framework 3.0 RELEASED!
Metasploit writes: "We are pleased to announce the immediate free availability of the Metasploit Framework version 3.0.
Metasploit is a development platform for creating security tools and exploits. Version 3.0 contains 177 exploits 104 payloads 17 encoders and 3 nop modules. Additionally 30 auxiliary modules are included that perform a wide range of tasks including host discovery protocol fuzzing and denial of service testing.
HD Moore also gave an interview to Securityfocus to discuss what's new in release 3.0, the new license of the framework, plans for features and exploits development, and the links among the bad guys and Metasploit and the law. Here's a quote: "In the US, exploit regulation would kill research and lead to a degrading state of security for all US companies. Vendors patch because exploits are available, without "above ground" exploits that anyone can access, there is no motivation to patch flaws.""
HD Moore also gave an interview to Securityfocus to discuss what's new in release 3.0, the new license of the framework, plans for features and exploits development, and the links among the bad guys and Metasploit and the law. Here's a quote: "In the US, exploit regulation would kill research and lead to a degrading state of security for all US companies. Vendors patch because exploits are available, without "above ground" exploits that anyone can access, there is no motivation to patch flaws.""
Submission + - Numenta - Has Artificial Intelligence Arrived?
ReadWriteWeb writes: "Jeff Hawkins is speaking at the ETech conference today about Numenta, a company dedicated to developing the algorithms and software based on the ideas put forward in his book On
Intelligence. This spring Numenta released its first product, an experimental software aimed at researchers and advanced developers.
Have Jeff Hawkins and his researchers at Numenta invented Artificial Intelligence? The answer is yes and no. It is likely that some future version of their system is going to be able to pass the famous Turing Test, but hardly anyone would mistake the Numeta creation for a human being. In fact the very beauty of this creation is that it decouples intelligence from other human qualities. Jeff and his colleagues invented an algorithm that mimics typical computation which occurs in our brains, but it is far from being a complete artificial intelligence.
However Jeff's invention has paved the road to a new, brain-like computing paradigm. It is possible that the long-awaited promise of neural networks and cellular automata is finally being delivered."
Have Jeff Hawkins and his researchers at Numenta invented Artificial Intelligence? The answer is yes and no. It is likely that some future version of their system is going to be able to pass the famous Turing Test, but hardly anyone would mistake the Numeta creation for a human being. In fact the very beauty of this creation is that it decouples intelligence from other human qualities. Jeff and his colleagues invented an algorithm that mimics typical computation which occurs in our brains, but it is far from being a complete artificial intelligence.
However Jeff's invention has paved the road to a new, brain-like computing paradigm. It is possible that the long-awaited promise of neural networks and cellular automata is finally being delivered."
Submission + - Burnout in IT: what do you do to prevent it?
Wizfinger writes: I've been a computer enthusiast since 1982 and working in IT as a systems developer for about 10 years now. Long hours and nightly sessions with pizzaboxes and Jolt are no stranger to me. But about a year ago, disaster struck. I burned out psychologically. Aches and muscular stress in my neck and head rendered me useless in front of a terminal, and I could no longer think logically, concentrate or indeed do any programming. Crying and screaming became my new daily activity. I'm 35 and I've been a useless wreck for about a year now. So I ask Slashdot: what do you do to prevent any of this and what can I do do get back behind that terminal?
Submission + - Inside Apple's Leopard Server OS
An anonymous reader writes: Mac expert John Welch, author of the widely read OS X versus Vista comparison, delves into Apple's Leopard Server OS, with a deep dive into what's known so far about OS X Server 10.5, which will be showcased at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. He weighs in on Leopard's iCal, Wiki, file, Quicktime, and mail services, along with Xgrid 2, Open Directory 4, and 64-bit capabilities. What does it all add up to? His assessment: Apple probably isn't aiming at "big" enterprises. But has says Leopard Server is shaping up to be a great SMB (small and mid-sized business) product. Welch writes: "For about a thousand bucks on existing hardware, or for the cost of an Xserve, you get a really solid server, able to support Web services, collaboration, groupware, IM, and file services. You can run it with its own directory service, or as part of an Active Directory implementation out of the box. It provides some features that due to pricing and/or setup requirements, have traditionally been reserved for "big" enterprises — in particular clustering of both email and calendaring servers." Do you agree that, with Leopard, Apple has probably has something that's unmatched in terms of bang for the buck, at least on the server front?
Submission + - Six year old girl hacks UK Parliament
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1368.html A BBC investigation shows how a six year old girl was able to circumvent security in one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the UK, the House of Commons, and hack the computer of an MP.
Submission + - Vista: more than just a pretty face
cristarol writes: Ars Technica has an in-depth look at the major changes in Vista, including API changes, the window manager, Media Foundation, WinFX, and Windows Presentation Foundation. 'Even though WPF drags Windows GUI development kicking and screaming into the 21st century, it's not the powerful features — Direct3D-accelerated vector graphics and simple programming model, for instance — that really set it apart from other APIs on other platforms. The really unusual feature is that the new API depends heavily on managed code. That is to say, the native, standard way of using it is through .NET.' It's an informative look at many of the technologies underlying Vista and goes a long way towards explaining why Microsoft made some of the choices it did with Vista.
