Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Netflix? (Score 2) 71

Really? Are you sure?

Netflix used to serve movies using IPv6 according to our college's traffic logs (if fact, they were about the only IPv6 traffic out there at the time). They one day it stopped. Around that time, news sites starting reporting that Netflix now streams from Amazon. Amazon doesn't support IPv6.

Comment Re:hope it was worth the megan's law list (Score 4, Interesting) 434

Why are we in America so terrified of the human body?

One word: Christian Right

body hostility is an old christian tradition. Not really sure where it came from, probably as a counterpoint to the much more relaxed romans and then it just stuck.

Yet "body hostility" also exists in numerous other cultures, such as many of those in Asia, that weren't influenced by the Christian Right.

So, instead of repeating tired tropes about scapegoat groups, how about we place the blame where it really belongs: different people are different.

Comment Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score 1) 537

If the device was such that it would terrify (much more highly trained than the TSA goons) air crew, what the holy fuck was it doing on the plane in the first place, let alone in the cabin or outside of a container in cargo, with the power source disconnected?

Because robots, science fair projects, and all manner of things which this item actually qualifies as, are allowed on planes. If there was a disconnect between the TSA and the flight crew it was that the TSA apparently doesn't have a way to notify that a suspicious item was inspected yet found "legal."

Comment Re:CrashPlan (Score 1) 251

Let me +1 CrashPlan too.

I've tried a fair number of similar products, but only CrashPlan had the feature set that made me happy. With it, I can have multiple backup sets and have them going to a NAS, a friend's machine, a headless Linux box in another state that I control, and CrashPlan's own servers. With a key that I control, and a price even a cheapskate like me enjoys paying.

It is really worth checking out.

Comment Re:Would MAC address filtering counter this proble (Score 1) 584

MAC address filtering is very loose security. MAC addresses arent private things, and aren't hidden when a computer is communicating. To build a list of MAC addresses that are allowed on the network (by simply seeing the machines that are on the network), and then change your machine's MAC to match is fairly trivial.

Comment Re:Worse on Apple (Score 3, Informative) 434

I don't think you had all the things shut off that you think you did. For example, did you turn off Ping (Apple's social network wannabe, not anything ICMP related)?

http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/how-to-shut-off-ping-and-increase-battery-life-with-ios-4-3-20110321/

There's many of these first-party services, and countless third-party that could be involved. I won't pretend to like it (I don't at all, I too want my devices to fully sleep). But I also won't pretend that it is worse. Especially as a ping (ICMP this time) is unable to transmit anything remotely close to what Microsoft's HTTP method of checking network availability could.

Comment Re:Worse on Apple (Score 1) 434

But that isn't what's going on. Not even remotely. What he is describing is simply a device that automatically joins a network that you've already agreed to trust. Period. Full Stop. There's no, "trying to reach a specific Apple website, and being able to figure out if there's a portal that it needs to pass through". And as I and other's have already stated in this thread, there's easy ways to disable this automatic joining.

Further, iOS fully discloses this behavior in unmissable (save for the GP apparently) plain text in the WiFi preferences.

He's wrong. Flat out wrong. And so are all the mods that blindly modded him up to spread the ignorance.

Comment Re:Worse on Apple (Score 1) 434

I never said Mac OS X doesn't phone home. I was referring to the activity the misguided AC posted. Nothing is being transmitted to any central service in his "oh so evil" scenario. I don't know how you felt the need to bring Mac OS X into the discussion.

But, since you did bring up that OS, in today's networked world online dictionary's, network searches, widgets pulling data, and OS update checks are all expected functionality that users demand, expected behavior, and certainly not a big deal.

On the other hand, while Microsoft's behavior in TFA also isn't a big deal, it isn't expected.

Comment Re:Worse on Apple (Score 1) 434

How is that, "even worse?"

Its not phoning home to the mothership (Microsoft or Apple) unlike TFA. Nor can that be used to track your actions. You're simply connecting to discrete WiFi networks that you _already_ said you trust. Don't like it? Forget the network. And as far as the 3G connection goes, it is *gasp* a cell phone. That's how a *gasp* cell phone functions.

Idle

Submission + - Sex After a Field Trip Yields Scientific First (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: A U.S. vector biologist appears to have accidentally written virological history simply by having sex with his wife after returning from a field trip to Senegal. A study just released in Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that the researcher, Brian Foy of Colorado State University, passed to his wife the Zika virus, an obscure pathogen that causes joint pains and extreme fatigue. If so, it would be the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease. The curious case also solves a viral mystery that's been going on for years.
Government

Submission + - Interpol Wants a Global Identity Card System (net-security.org)

Orome1 writes: The head of INTERPOL has emphasized the need for a globally verifiable electronic identity card (e-ID) system for migrant workers at an international forum on citizen ID projects, e-passports, and border control management. INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said: "At a time when global migration is reaching record levels, there is a need for governments to put in place systems at the national level that would permit the identity of migrants and their documents to be verified internationally via INTERPOL." Issuing migrant workers e-ID cards in a globally verifiable format will also reduce corruption and enable cardholders to be eligible for electronic remittance schemes that will foster greater economic development and prosperity in INTERPOL member countries.

Slashdot Top Deals

Hackers are just a migratory lifeform with a tropism for computers.

Working...