Comment LOST Star Wars Scene (Score 1) 294
Darn. I was hoping this was a LOST Star Wars scene... that is, Hurley's 1977 remake (before George Lucas' original) of The Empire Strikes Back.
History Repeats Itself — Mac & the iPad 514
Keith found an interesting story telling a bit about how Steve Jobs operates. It involves small teams of young engineers willing to work 90-hour weeks in total secrecy, and a complete willingness to throw away bad ideas without flowery language. The iPad is surprisingly similar to the Mac."
YouTube's Bandwidth Bill May be Zero 188
MrShaggy writes "Credit Suisse made headlines this summer when it estimated that YouTube was costing Google a half a billion dollars in 2009 as it streamed 75 billion videos. But a new report from Arbor Networks suggests that even though Google is approaching 10 percent of the net's traffic, it's got so much fiber optic cable it is simply trading traffic, with no payment involved, with the net's largest ISPs. 'I think Google's transit costs are close to zero,' said Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist for Arbor Networks and a longtime internet researcher. Arbor Networks, which sells network monitoring equipment used by about 70 percent of the net's ISPs, likely knows more about the net's ebbs and flows than anyone outside of the National Security Agency."
Comment *NOT* Related to "Web of Trust" Web Safety Add-on (Score 2, Informative) 127
Although I'm familiar with Thawte, I hadn't heard of its "Web of Trust" prior to this article. However, there's a popular browser add-on with the same name, so I thought I should point that out to avoid any confusion, especially since both products are related to Internet security in some way.
Web of Trust is also the name of a Firefox and Internet Explorer plug-in from a company called WOT Services Ltd. (until recently known as Against Intuition Inc.). It helps protect users from harmful Web sites and puts safety rating badges in search results on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines, similar to McAfee SiteAdvisor and Symantec's Norton Safe Web (although in my experience, WOT is much more effective). This completely unrelated Web of Trust is not being killed off.
I hope that clears up any potential confusion.
Submission + - Microsoft Escalated Support Rep Trusts Scam Site (thejoshmeister.com)
the JoshMeister writes: "Non-savvy Web users are often tricked by fake security alerts and fake antivirus scams. But surely a more seasoned individual, say for example a Microsoft escalated support representative, wouldn't be fooled by such a scheme. Or would they?"
Comment OmniWeb - Re:Tabs on top, do it NOW! (Score 2, Informative) 556
Tabs should be down the side. [...] I don't understand how this basic mistake can have stayed with us for what, 10 years+ of tabbed browsing...
OmniWeb has been doing preview tabs on the side since 2004. Unfortunately, it's a Mac-only browser and has never really caught on.
Submission + - Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Include Antivirus? (thejoshmeister.com)
the JoshMeister writes: "Mac antivirus company Intego broke the story this morning that Apple is apparently including antivirus functionality in its upcoming operating system, Snow Leopard. But which antivirus engine is Apple using? Security researcher Joshua Long discusses the likely candidates."
Comment Re:World improves (Score 1) 921
It would appear that the parent poster has never heard of meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). Apparently, in 5 to 20 percent of all births, meconium passes into the amniotic fluid (meconium is the tar-like, sterile stool that an infant passes prior to passing feces). So neither the grandparent poster nor the parent poster were entirely correct; non-sterile feces doesn't float around in the womb for 3 months, but sterile meconium does often pass in utero and can be harmful to the infant if inhaled (or even fatal, in one case I'm aware of).
And now back to my usual role of computer geek.
Comment Re:Mung (Score 1) 288
Thanks for the grammar lesson, but in this case your argument is moot. Munging has reference to the word mung while mungeing has reference to the very different word munge.
See the correct usage at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munge and, if you wish, take a look at the article's history and note that the usage portion was written a long time before this Slashdot article.
See the correct usage at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munge and, if you wish, take a look at the article's history and note that the usage portion was written a long time before this Slashdot article.
Vista To XP Upgrade Triples In Price, Now $150 907
ozmanjusri writes "Dell has tripled the charge to upgrade Vista PCs to XP. Under current licensing 'downgrade' agreements, system builders can install XP Pro instead of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate; however, Dell has opted for a surcharge of $150 over the price of Vista for the older but more popular XP Professional operating system. Rob Enderle says the downgrade fees could potentially be disastrous for Microsoft: 'The fix for this should be to focus like lasers on demand generation for Vista but instead Microsoft is focusing aggressively on financial penalties," says Enderle. 'Forcing customers to go someplace they don't want to go by raising prices is a Christmas present for Apple and those that are positioning Linux on the desktop.'"
Comment Security Now, MacBreak Tech, Security Bites, etc. (Score 1) 205
There are several TWiT podcasts, and some of them only partially meet the criteria of the person who submitted the question. Let's review the criteria: "entertaining, informative, and, most importantly, thorough," not dumbed down, "dive deep into projects and discussions instead of simply skimming the surface."
The two TWiT podcasts that meet all the criteria that come immediately to mind are Security Now and the (unfortunately now defunct) MacBreak Tech. Security Now is very technical and educational, and it doesn't dumb things down, but instead it manages to explain very technical topics in ways that make them easy to comprehend. It's mostly about computer and information security (naturally) but it also gets into networking and other related topics as well. MacBreak Tech was mainly focused on Macs as the name implies, but I learned a lot of things from the podcast that don't just apply to Macs specifically. I think all the old episodes are still available, so browse through the titles and descriptions and download anything that looks remotely interesting.
Other TWiT podcasts that the asker might enjoy: This Week in Law and FLOSS Weekly. This Week in Law gets in depth about the legal aspects of computer technology and the computer industry. FLOSS Weekly is all about Free (Libre) Open Source Software and consists largely of interviews with lead developers of major open source software projects.
Another decent computer security podcast is Security Bites from CNET. Security Bites is not nearly as in-depth as Security Now as the episodes are very short and more focused, but the show is worth listening to as well.
If you don't mind the shameless self-promotion, I'm one of the hosts of MacMod Live, which deals with Mac modding and peripherally-related topics. MacMod Live doesn't always get super technical, but MacMod.com has a lot of interesting stuff too if you're interested in computer modding.
All of the above are audio shows (sorry if you're looking for video content specifically). Occasionally we do videos on MacMod Live, and those get posted in the same podcast feed as our audio shows.
Americans Refusing To Wait For Mainstream EVs 779
hazehead writes "The growing trend of folks refusing to wait for big-car manufacturers to deliver mainstream electric vehicles is starting to get some press. From DIY tinkerers in Atlanta trying to keep money from going overseas (or simply from leaving their wallets) to a guy in Oregon building an open source Civic conversion kit, Americans are taking energy policy in their own grease-stained hands."
Ghostly Ring Found Circling Dead Star 207
Roland Piquepaille writes "An international team of scientists has found a strange ring around a dead star by using images taken by NASA's Spitzer space telescope. This star, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. According to NASA, a magnetar is 'a highly magnetized neutron star and the remnant of a brilliant supernova explosion signaling the death throes of a massive star.' So far, about a dozen magnetars have been found. An amazing thing about these stellar objects is their magnetic field. One of the researchers said that 'magnetars possess magnetic fields a million billion times stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth.'
MediaDefender's BitTorrent-Based DOS Takes Down Revision3 426
Sandman1971 writes "Over the long Memorial Day weekend, Revision3 was the target of a malicious Denial Of Service Attack which brought R3 to its knees. After investigating the matter, it was discovered that the source of the attacks came from MediaDefender, the famed company hired by the MPAA and RIAA to try and stop the spread of illegal file sharing. The kicker? Revision3 was taken down for running a bittorent tracker to distribute its own legal content."
Submission + - Does Mac Security Suck? (blogspot.com)
the JoshMeister writes: Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign takes aim at Windows security, but how does Windows really stack up against the Mac? Recently on the Tech Pulse podcast, the state of Mac OS X security was discussed, including comparisons between Leopard and Vista and a look at where Mac security excels and where it falls short.
