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Comment Re:One server per service is stupid (Score 1) 330

We use Solaris zones at the University i work at, and while we dont do one service per zone, it is pritty close. It is invaluable to have his when your moving to new servers or adding more functions. You can clone a new zone from an existing, add new functions or copy it to the new server. Test it all out, then pull the plug on the old zone after the dns name has been changed. It provides a nice compartment for individuals to work in and not screw up something someone else is doing.

Comment Re:Bimonthly release cycle == overhead? (Score 1) 555

For my college (we use active directory, but the profiles are almost blank) and we use a shared network drive that we run all most of the programs from. The programs don't suffer too much in speed because Windows caches the program running. Updating the program is as easy upgrading the shared drive, and all the labs are done instantly. Also you might consider installing all the popular browsers, and have a small program that lets the user choose their browser. We implemented that and it saves a lot of time, cause people choose what they are familiar with.

Comment Interesting Concept (Score 1) 202

I like the overall idea, however according to the video, it seems like you still require librarians to sort through a bin of 100 books for the book you requested. I know that this is probably the first automated library of this scale, but if your going to spend the 81 million, you might as well make it totally automated without human interaction.

On a positive note, the library really does look like a library from the future. I would love to go there and read books on my eReader.

Comment Dedicated to: (Score 4, Interesting) 105

It isn't mentioned in the summery, but:

The 4.6.3 release is dedicated in memory of the young daughter of KDE developer Daniel Nicoletti who tragically passed away after a car crash last month. The KDE community wishes to express their deepest sympathy and support to Daniel and his family in this difficult time.

Kinda nice, I am not to familiar with the KDE release cycles, do they dedicate every release?

Comment Kinda Cool (Score 1) 220

I think I am with most slashdotters when I say this isn't for me. But its good to see people making these languages accessible for someone just starting out. My first programming language was a point-and-click drag-and-drop programming language, and I think they are really useful for teaching people the basics of computer programming. Now if someone is going to try and make their entire website like this...well good luck with that, I hope you like carpal-tunnel.

Comment Re:Welp (Score 1) 306

But probably not on servers that are storing millions of credit card numbers. That's a key difference.

Exactly! Although it is never good to leave something exposed to the Internet unprotected, if its small there is very little risk (I have always been taught to assume that your system is constantly being attacked, better to be secure than sorry). But its entirely unacceptable to be so lax on security for something having access to their credit card database. I hope other companies that store credit card data are double-checking their security. If Sony made this mistake, others have as well.

Comment Re:Welp (Score 3, Interesting) 306

From USLegal:

The civil standard of negligence is defined according to a failure to follow the standard of conduct of a reasonable person in the same situation as the defendant. To show criminal negligence, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the mental state involved in criminal negligence. Proof of that mental state requires that the failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur must be a gross deviation from the standard of a reasonable person.

Bolding by me.

IANAL, but I think this is a clear case of criminal negligence. Any IT tech would know better than to leave a unpatched HTTP server without a firewall up to the internet. If you were told on open forums that this was happening, and then loose 2 million credit card numbers? Well if that isn't criminal negligence, I don't know what is!

Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla patches Firefox 4, fixes coding bungle (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: "Mozilla patched Firefox 4 for the first time on Thursday, fixing eight flaws, including a major programming oversight that left the browser as vulnerable to attack on Windows 7 as on the 10-year-old Windows XP.The company also plugged 15 holes in the still-supported Firefox 3.6, and issued its last security update for Firefox 3, which debuted in mid-2008. The most important of the bugs: a programming lapse that left Firefox 4 open to less-sophisticated attacks. 'The WebGLES libraries in the Windows version of Firefox were compiled without ASLR protection,' stated the advisory labeled MSFA 2011-17. 'An attacker who found an exploitable memory corruption flaw could then use these libraries to bypass ASLR on Windows Vista and Windows 7, making the flaw as exploitable on those platforms as it would be on Windows XP or other platforms.'"
AI

Submission + - Ball catching robot,80% accuracy in 5 milliseconds (physorg.com)

fysdt writes: "DLR, an aerospace agency based in German, has modified its flagship robot, known as the Rollin’ Justin, in order to make it into a lean, mean, catching machine. The Rollin’ Justin's modifications allow the machine to catch balls that are thrown in its direction with an accuracy rate of about 80%. The Rollin’ Justin's robots accuracy rating is better than the average uncoordinated human. It is certainly better than this reporters accuracy rate. It is not as good as say, a Major League Baseball player, but then again most of us cannot say that we are as good as the pros either. Considering they also have near unlimited stamina, at least until the battery runs out, it may be a great partner for the standard game of catch, or for the position behind the batter."
Encryption

Submission + - PGP WDE issue with Sandy Bridge IGP

An anonymous reader writes: Symantec PGP Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) appears to be incompatible with the Intel Sandy Bridge IGP.

Those systems with IGP & discrete video have a workaround if the IGP can be disabled.

The issue presents itself after encryption and a reboot afterward. The bootloader starts to come up but has video corruption and then when it tries to load the passphrase prompt the system hangs. Disabling the IGP (e.g., in a Dell Latitude E6520 one turns off Optimus in the BIOS so it runs solely on the Nvidia discrete card).

Symantec is completely silent on the issue.

Here are 2 Symantec forum threads with many users fruitlessly discussing the issue (note that the first one discusses 2 issues — the other being an apparent incompatibility with AF drives and/or SSDs):

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/sandy-bridge-macs-unable-boot-after-encrypting-pgp-1011#comment-5502001

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/pgp-wde-boot-screen-bypassed-and-cannot-authenticate-windows-7-pro#comment-form

ps — I tried to tag this up but it only has "it" on it :-(

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