40ozFreak - Slashdot User

Submission + - Man hacks 911 system, sends SWAT on bogus raid. 5

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17, 2007 @01:57AM

An anonymous reader writes: The Orange County Register reports that a 19 year old from Washington state broke into the Orange County California 911 emergency system. He randomly selected the name and address of a Lake Forest, California couple and electronically transferred false information into the 911 system. The Orange County California Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics Team was immediately sent to the couple's home. The armed officers surrounded the home.Inside the home lived a couple with two toddlers who were asleep and unsuspecting of what was going outside the home. The SWAT team handcuffed the husband and wife before deciding it was a prank.

Submission + - New scam or just a really bad work policy? 4

Submitted by greymond on Thursday September 27, 2007 @12:52PM

greymond writes: I recently received an email from a recruiting company for a Graphic Design / Desktop Publishing position. While I have my resume available online as well as pieces of my portfolio I didn't find it at all strange to receive this initial email. I hadn't responded by the afternoon when I received a call from a lady named Pyra who asked me to send her my latest resume because they were very interested in hiring me. I asked about the positions pay since the job title and position seemed like it would be a lot lower pay grade than my current Art Director position I now hold. She said she would inquire about it, but to please send my resume.

Now here is where it gets strange...I sent my resume off (note: my resume has only my name, number and email listed in it — no address) I then received this email asking for my Social Security Number. I found this to be VERY odd as no one ever has asked me for that, save the human resource manager of a company who has already hired me. When I told her I would wait until the interview to give it to them, I was then sent this email which had this letter attached to it. I responded with the same response and needless to say I haven't heard back from them.

Oh and in case my bandwidth gets blown up, the recruiting company was Agneto and the company they were hiring for was supposedly AT&T. So, is this really just a new elaborate scam or just a really bad new business policy?

Submission + - Google Hiring Thousands of European Engineers (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Matt on Thursday September 27, 2007 @07:54AM

Matt writes: Google are on the hunt for several thousand European engineers, as they try to set up more R&D centres outside the US. They have hired a new Vice President of Engineering for Europe, Nelson Mattos, who will oversee all these new staff. It seems like an odd move, after all, some people seem to think that they've already over-hired.

The Soldier of the Future 289

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @08:51PM from the phased-plasma-rifle-in-40-watt-range dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Land Warrior, the Army's wearable electronics package, was panned earlier this year by the troops who were testing it out. They were forced to take the collection of digital maps and next-gen radios to war, anyway. Now, Wired's Noah Shachtman reports from Iraq, those same soldiers are starting to warm up to their soldier suits of the future."

GameStop Manager Suspended After "Games for Grades" 539

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 17, 2007 @05:51PM from the remember-you-still-work-for-someone-else dept.

mikesd81 writes "A manager at a GameStop has been suspended for instituting a 'games for grades' policy. 'Brandon Scott says he started a unique new policy in his store to promote good grades in school but now his employer has sent him to detention for speaking out of turn. Scott says he's been suspended by GameStop in the wake of his unconventional "games for grades" policy at an Oak Cliff store.' Apparently, on his own, Scott decided to stop selling video games to any school-age customer unless an adult would vouch for the student's good grades."

Submission + - Windows Updates without users' permission/knowledg (microsoft-watch.com) 1

Submitted by

javipas

on Thursday September 13, 2007 @06:15AM

javipas writes: "A recent discovery on Windows Secrets and Microsoft Watch has revealed a new tactic used by Microsoft. The Windows Update component acts even when automatic updates are turned off, and without users' knowledge or permission. The study's conclusion: though the programs updated do not pose a risk for users, Microsoft behaviour shows a potential danger for IT professionals. But this is not the important fact. What about users rights? Windows' EULA doesn't reflect this, but Windows Update Privacy Statement gives explicit permission to such tasks."

Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act 673

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 06, 2007 @02:00PM from the but-what-about-the-terrorists dept.

Shining Celebi writes "U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled in favor of the ACLU and struck down a portion of the revised USA PATRIOT Act this morning, forcing investigators to go through the courts to obtain approval before ordering ISPs to give up information on customers, instead of just sending them a National Security Letter. In the words of Judge Marrero, this use of National Security Letters 'offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.'"

Realtime ASCII Goggles 331

Posted by kdawson on Thursday September 06, 2007 @11:00AM from the through-crt-colored-spectacles dept.

jabjoe writes "Russian artists from Moscow have created goggles with realtime image filtering. Among the Photoshop-like filters that can be applied is, interestingly, ASCII: you can view the world in real time as ASCII. Pointless but cool."

Submission + - After 10,000 years, farming no longer dominates (petersmagnusson.com)

Submitted by

Peter S. Magnusson

on Wednesday September 05, 2007 @02:38AM

Peter S. Magnusson writes: "As reported widely in business and mainstream press, the ILO recently reported world market employment statistics. Hidden away is a gem: for the first time since basically the invention of agriculture, farming is not the biggest sector, services is (aggregate employment numbers often divide the economy into agriculture, industry, and services)."

Xbox Live Disallows Linux, Unix As Keywords 281

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @07:26PM from the way-beyond-childish dept.

shafty023 writes "The Xbox Live online service disallows screen names like LINUXRULES, L I N U X, and other variations of these kinds. Other bloggers are reporting that variants of 'Unix' also result in the message: 'Your motto contains inappropriate language. Please try again.'" If this is an extension of Microsoft's anti-Linux campaign, perhaps it's time they gave it up.

Submission + - Scientology to be prosecuted in Belgium (ap.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @12:25PM

An anonymous reader writes: Scientology will be prosecuted as a criminal enterprise in Belgium as a result of a 10 year investigation into their behavior and finances.

Submission + - Baby Hacking 1

Submitted by LanMan04 on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @10:18AM

LanMan04 writes: My wife and I are expecting our first child to be born in about 3 months, and I wanted to ask the /. crowd for any "Baby Hacking" projects/recommendations. I'd define baby hacking as any early childhood education project that can give the baby a head start (i.e. early language acquisition, accelerated learning, etc), with an emphasis unconventional ideas. This is especially important, with recent research showing that those Baby Einstein videos are actually detrimental. Also, any really "cool" projects you wish your parents could have done from day 1 (e.g. take a picture of the baby's face every day, starting at birth, to see how it changes over the years, etc) would be appreciated as well. Thanks Slashdotters!

Submission + - Belgium prosecutes the church of Scientology

Submitted by

sheean.nl

on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @06:59AM

sheean.nl writes: "The Belgian Federal Judicial Authorities plans to prosecute the church of Scientology. The church is accused of being a criminal organisation which involves itself with extortion, fraud, unfair trading, violation of privacy laws and unlawfully practicing medicine. Both the Belgian and the European departement should be brought to court, according to the authorities. An investigation has been started in 1999 after former Scientologists complained about extortion by the church, this investigation has now been completed and the authorities want the case to be put through. The Belgians call this case a world's first. In some countries, including the US, the church of Scientology is officially recognised as a religion, with high-profile followers such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta."

Submission + - Americans removed from flight for speaking Arabic (teamtil.net)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday September 03, 2007 @12:10AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "An American Airlines flight was delayed for twelve hours because a certain American woman heard several passengers speaking Arabic and had to do whatever she could to forestall another 9-11 — it was all she could think of. "Those men she heard talking? They were Iraqi-Americans, in town to train US Marines at Camp Pendleton," explained NBC's Brian Williams. The men were removed from the plane and questioned briefly before being released. The flight was canceled and all passengers caught other flights the next day."

Submission + - Will Google lose its trademark? 1

Submitted by 140Mandak262Jamuna on Saturday September 01, 2007 @06:03PM

140Mandak262Jamuna writes: Once upon a time, Google was the new kid on the block in the search engine arena. Then it became the big kahuna of that area. There was a time when using google as a verb would have brought a smile. But now every body and his brother and even the prim and proper, stiff upper lip and what not types like the Deputy Attorney General Ronald Smetana are using it as a verb. The quotes have been dropped, the capitalization still persists as some vestigial token acknowledging it as a neologism.

Already a number of dictionaries define google as a plain English word. If OED or some such big name dictionary includes it, would Google lose its trademark? Does Google have lawyers who assiduously take steps to protect its trademark and not allow it to become a generic word to mean "search the internet"? Didn't Xerox lose its trademark or came close to losing it? Imagine a world where Microsoft Live could be branded as "Microsoft Live Google"!

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