jkiol - Slashdot User

Submission + - Digg users mock Microsoft ads, note Linux servers (blorge.com)

Submitted by

destinyland

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @04:05PM

destinyland writes: "Microsoft just signed a three-year deal with Digg that goes into effect "in the coming weeks." "The ironic part is that your servers run Debian GNU/Linux," one Digg users pointed out — Microsoft will now be serving the ads, while the user content resides on Microsoft-free Unix servers. Digg's founder Kevin Rose discovered his announcement was being heckled in comments on Digg. "I might be upset," another user posted, "if it weren't for my glorious Adblock Plus that prevents me from wasting my time with those silly ads." Although another user added pragmatically: "I can't blame you if they offered you enough cash.""

Submission + - My Space Deletes 29,000 Sex Offender Accounts (technewsworld.com)

Submitted by

neorush

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @04:00PM

neorush writes: "From TFA:
"Social networking Web site MySpace Latest News about MySpace has found and purged more than 29,000 sexual predators using the site, a number described by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as an "exploding epidemic." The figure is more than quadruple the amount MySpace said it found two months ago. In May, MySpace — which allows users to create their own Web pages — said it banned from its site about 7,000 people discovered to be sex offenders."

First of all MySpace has more than 100 Million registered users (I didn't confirm that number I just remember reading it somewhere awhile back), which means that 29,000 is only .029% of the MySpace population. Sure I have a better chance of running into a sex offender on MySpace than say winning the lottery, but is this anymore dangerous than letting my child walk down the street in the suburbs? Its just describing this problem as an "exploding epidemic" seems just like another media scare tactic."

Submission + - Google Is Evil, A Full List of Privacy Concerns (lowesoftware.com)

Submitted by on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @03:30PM

An anonymous reader writes: Google has been growing and consuming information like no other entity in history. With this consolidation of public, personal, and trend data in a single searchable, cross-referenceable database there is a new threat to privacy. There are numerous Google privacy concerns that have been published and discussed over the years. Here's the formula: Google is pervasive and peddles seemingly free wares and services that only ask to record information about you; the Google privacy policy is broad in what Google will collect and what Google will do with the data; Google has proved it will violate privacy rights and use your information. Finally, there is much more possibility for abuse and therefore this is something we should be cognizent of.

Submission + - This asteroid is still coming! (associatedcontent.com) 1

Submitted by

BigBadJohnny

on Monday July 23, 2007 @05:00PM

BigBadJohnny writes: "http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/156218/as teroid_apophis_formerly_2002_ny40.html Apophis, a "near miss" on Aug. 17th and 18th, 2006, is again due in 2029 (Friday, April 13), and will pass, closer than the August 2006 pass, within the orbits of our communication satellites. Enough scientists are working on this potential cataclysmic episode to staff 1/6 of the McDonalds "fast food" restaurants in the world! More info? read the article, at Associated Content!"

Submission + - Real-Life Ninja vs Pirate War (freedom4um.com)

Submitted by ninjas_vs_pirates on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:55PM

ninjas_vs_pirates writes: Although it sounds like a bad Hollywood plot, there appears to be a major war imminent between a giant Chinese ninja army and their sworn enemies including the Skull & Bones pirate society. The ninjas claim they will target the "eye at the top of the pyramid". If true, this could be a world-changing struggle! Who's side are you on: Ninjas, or Pirates???

Submission + - Redhat reaping fallout from Novell/MSFT deal? (eweek.com)

Submitted by Ho Kooshy Fly on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:51PM

Ho Kooshy Fly writes: It seems that at least one ISV has seen the rise of Redhat over Novell users to be quite prominent as of late... is this a backlash to the patent deal? 'From March to May, for example, the rate of new members joining the Alfresco community rose by more than 130 percent month-on-month," he said. "The number of those new users with Red Hat Linux nearly tripled over that period, while the number of Novell SUSE Linux users remained relatively static...'

Submission + - Making tomorrow's computers from a pencil trace (nanowerk.com)

Submitted by hakaii on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:42PM

hakaii writes: Graphene nanoelectronics: A key discovery at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could help advance the role of graphene as a possible heir to copper and silicon in nanoelectronics. As copper interconnects get smaller, the copper's resistance increases and its ability to conduct electricity degrades. This means fewer electrons are able to pass through the copper successfully, and any lingering electrons are expressed as heat. This heat can have negative effects on both a computer chip's speed and performance. Researchers in both industry and academia are looking for alternative materials to replace copper as interconnects. Graphene could be a possible successor to copper because of metallic graphene's excellent conductivity. Even at room temperature, electrons pass effortlessly, near the speed of light and with little resistance, through metallic graphene. This would almost ensure a graphene interconnect would stay much cooler than a copper interconnect of the same size. More: http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=2262.php

Submission + - Facebook's demise eminent? (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by

JazzLad

on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:34PM

JazzLad writes: "Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook, will discover next week whether he faces legal action for claims he stole the idea for the $1bn website.

A US judge will decide next week whether Mark Zuckerberg should go to court after three former classmates accused him of stealing the idea, software and business plan for the social networking website.

The three former Harvard students say 23-year-old Zuckerberg stole the idea for the site while working as a programmer on their own social-networking site — called ConnectU, the UK Registar reported.

If successful, Facebook could be shut down it was suggested."

The Unforking of KDE's KHTML and Webkit Begins 104

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:28PM from the sounds-dirty dept.

Jiilik Oiolosse writes to tell us Ars Technica is reporting that after years of existing seperately, KHTML and Webkit are finally coming back together. "In open source terms, this may be as big of a deal as the gcc and egcs merger of yonder days. KHTML and Webkit are definitely coming of age. The KDE developers, responsible for the original creation of KHTML, are dedicated to seeing this unforking happen and are taking a leading role in that effort."

Submission + - Researchers create 'rubbery metal'

Submitted by Space_donkey on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:26PM

Space_donkey writes: Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a new type of metal that also has the vibration-dampening properties of rubber. That's according to a patent filing discovered by New Scientist. Ultimately, it might be used in aircraft engines and other systems that experience a lot of vibration. In the shorter-term it could also be seen in sports equipment such as tennis rackets and baseball bats.

Submission + - UK Govt to screen postgrad applicants (pressesc.com)

Submitted by

Small Brother

on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:04PM

Small Brother writes: "International students applying for postgraduate studies in science subjects including Computer Science, Chemistry, Physiscs and Biology at British Universities will need to get prior government permission under controversial new scheme formally announced by the UK Foreign Secretary on Thursday."

Submission + - The Computer Virus Turns 25 in July 1

Submitted by bl8n8r on Sunday July 15, 2007 @10:09AM

bl8n8r writes: In July of 1982, an infected Apple II propogated the first computer virus onto a 5-1/4" floppy. The virus, which did little more than annoy the user, Elk Cloner, was authored in Pittsburgh by a 15-year-old high school student, Rich Skrenta. The virus replicated by monitoring floppy disk activity and writing itself to the floppy when it was accessed. Skrenta describes the virus as "It was a practical joke combined with a hack. A wonderful hack." Remember, he was a 9th grader when he did this.

Submission + - Germany passes "Anti-Hacker" law

Submitted by RotHorseKid on Friday July 06, 2007 @10:52AM

RotHorseKid writes: German legislators have just passed the much-dreaded "Hacker Paragraph", which essentially says that all software that can potentially used as a "Hacker Tool" is outlawed. Somehow these IT-savvy legislators missed the fact that most of these tools are also used for intrusion detection. So, essentially all german Security Consultants, Network Administrators and other users of intrusion detection software are halfway in jail now.

Submission + - Russian Armoured Vehicle running on screws

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 06, 2007 @10:52AM

An anonymous reader writes: Here is Russian armored military vehicle from the seventies which runs on a pair of giant screws. It was an old russian prototype of off-road vehicle which never made it to the production line. From the video it looks to be more maneuverable than a modern tank.

Submission + - Firefox Surfers More Likely Patched Than IE Users

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @04:26PM

An anonymous reader writes: Secunia gives us some interesting statistics from some 4.9 million Windows applications scanned with its "software inspector" service, which looks at common apps for missing security updates. "Comparing browsers and looking at Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer, we found out that Firefox 2 is the least vulnerable, as only 5.19% of all Firefox 2 installations miss security updates, whereas 11.96% of all Opera 9.x installations miss security updates, and the numbers for IE6 and IE7 are 9.61% and 5.4% respectively." The Washington Post's Security Fix blog says the stats suggest two conclusions: "One, that the auto-patching component built into Firefox 2.0 is somewhat more effective than Microsoft's approach, which gives users the option to decline updates. With Firefox 2.0, new updates are automatically installed....Secondly, it appears that while Opera fans are seemingly always quick to claim that theirs is the most secure and least-attacked of the major browsers, its user base may be a bit more complacent about applying security updates."

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