Hawkeye05 - Slashdot User

The Real Risks of Obama's BlackBerry 273

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 12, 2009 @04:37PM from the for-certain-values-of-real dept.

An anonymous reader writes "When the mainstream media first announced Barack Obama's 'victory' in keeping his BlackBerry, the focus was on the security of the device, and keeping the US president's e-mail communications private from spies and hackers. The news coverage and analysis by armchair security experts thus far has failed to focus on the real threat: attacks against President Obama's location privacy, and the potential physical security risks that come with someone knowing the president's real-time physical location. In this article, a CNET blogger digs into the real risks associated with the President carrying around a tracking device at all times."

US House Kills Proposed Delay For Digital TV Transition 664

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 28, 2009 @03:46PM from the very-little-soup-for-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Digital TV transition delay bill has failed to pass the United States House of Representatives. By a vote 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date, the bill has failed as two-thirds of the votes are required for it to pass. The delay bill was once perceived as inevitable, [but the House] has now apparently made February 17th the date of transition once again. Now the question remains, will they attempt to pass it again by the deadline?"

The Science and Physics of Back To the Future 436

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 19, 2009 @04:26PM from the how-many-giga-which? dept.

overthinkingit writes "A scientist has tried to apply serious math and physics, including the Law of Cosines, to analyze how the DeLorean in Back to the Future travels through both Time AND Space: 'in order to pull off the kind of time travel we see in the Back To The Future trilogy — the kind where the traveler is transposed in time, but remains stationary in the same relative position to where he/she left — the DeLorean would have to be an outstanding space ship, in addition to its already laudable work as a time-ship. According to Doc Brown's stopwatch, Einstein the dog travels precisely one minute into the future on this first jump, arriving, relative to their frame of reference, at the same location he left. But how far has this reference frame itself traveled during that one minute?'"

Comment Re:I have to ask (Score 1) 640

by Hawkeye05 on Saturday January 10, 2009 @11:47AM (#26398553) Attached to: USAF Seeks Air Force One Replacement

I'd say one of These actually if you want something that looks bad-ass. Maybe not as Air Force One, but as a shorter range transport perhaps a replacement for Marine One something that's faster and still has VTOL capability.

USAF Seeks Air Force One Replacement 640

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 10, 2009 @11:19AM from the get-off-my-plane dept.

Tyketto writes "The United States Air Force has taken the first public step in the search for a replacement of the Boeing VC-25, also known as Air Force One, saying it is no longer cost effective to operate and modernize the two 19-year-old VC-25s, which are converted Boeing 747-200s. Airbus has already submitted data for the A380, and while Boeing has had the Air Force One contract for nearly 50 years, delays with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 747-8, as well as the KC-X Tanker competition, may see the USAF looking to Europe for its next presidential aircraft."

The Best Keyboards For Every Occasion 523

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 29, 2008 @04:56PM from the right-touch dept.

ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech has written an article on the best keyboards in every category, such as gaming keyboards (macro and hybrid), media center keyboards, keyboard gamepads, and so forth. Of course, the big companies like Microsoft and Logitech dominate these lists, while smaller companies like Razer, Ideazon, and others play an important role as well."

Great Games To Put On a Free PC? 634

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 15, 2008 @04:39PM from the hey-doom-just-turned-15 dept.

Lumpy writes "I am giving several new PC's to a local charity that will be giving them to needy kids this Xmas. They are not powerful, basically baseline Dells that have Intel graphics and Celeron, but more than enough to do homework and other studies on. They are going out with XP on them, an Ubuntu CD, and a bunch of OSS software like OO.o and the others. I would like to include some games for the kids. Strategy, fun, etc. Great freeware games that are fun to play. What would be the best games that a 13-16 year old will like to play that are free and legal to give away, and will run on this lower-end hardware?"

FCC Commissioner Lauds DRM, ISP Filtering 217

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 09, 2008 @10:10PM from the by-some-definition-of-"effective" dept.

snydeq writes "Ars Technica's Nate Anderson and InfoWorld's Paul Venezia provide worthwhile commentary on a recent speech by FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate (PDF), in which she praised DRM as 'very effective' and raised a flag in favor of ISP filtering. Anderson: 'Having commissioners who feel that the government has a duty to partner with and back educational classroom content from the RIAA; who really believe that ISP filtering is so unproblematic we can stop considering objections; and who think that universities worry about file-swapping because tuition might be raised to pay for the needed "expansion of storage capabilities" (huh?) isn't good for the FCC and isn't good for America.' Venezia: 'Leave the ISPs out of it — it's not their job to protect a failing business model, and a movement toward a tiered and filtered Internet will do nothing to stem the tide of piracy, but will result in great restrictions on innovation, freedoms, and the general use of the Internet. There's nothing to be gained down that path other than possibly to expand the wallets of a few companies.'"

Comment Re:Late nite (Score 1) 182

by Hawkeye05 on Thursday November 20, 2008 @01:33AM (#25829011) Attached to: 10 Years of Half-Life

I originally played Half Life 1 about two years ago, i never actually finished it, i got to about the third xen level and after about 30 deaths i gave up. Now about 2 months ago i bought The Orange Box off of Steam, i beat HL2 and I'm on EP1 now, i really do think 2 is better. The pacing is better, and I've never really been a fan of the dungeon shooter style that 1 had some strong elements of, I've always liked large open environments where you can move around and choose the best approach on an enemy and 2 really uses that.

Barack Obama Wins US Presidency 3709

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 05, 2008 @09:30AM from the enough-of-that-now-this dept.

Last night, around 11pm, all the major networks announced that Senator Barack Obama had won the election. Soon after, Senator McCain conceded. There were no crazy partisan court hearings, just a simple election. This is your chance to talk about it and what it means for the future of our nation.

Air Force To Rewrite the Rules of the Internet 547

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday November 03, 2008 @01:59PM from the because-they-can dept.

meridiangod writes "The Air Force is fed up with a seemingly endless barrage of attacks on its computer networks from stealthy adversaries whose motives and even locations are unclear. So now the service is looking to restore its advantage on the virtual battlefield by doing nothing less than the rewriting the 'laws of cyberspace.'" I'm sure that'll work out really well for them.

Users Rage Over Missing FireWire On New MacBooks 820

Posted by kdawson on Friday October 17, 2008 @10:58AM from the liar-liar-pants-not-wired dept.

CWmike writes "Apple customers, unhappy that the company dropped FireWire from its new MacBook (not the Pro), are venting their frustrations on the company's support forum in hundreds of messages. Within minutes of Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrapping up a launch event in Cupertino, Calif., users started several threads to vent over the omission. 'Apple really screwed up with no FireWire port,' said Russ Tolman, who inaugurated a thread that by Thursday has collected more than 300 messages and been viewed over 8,000 times. 'No MacBook with [FireWire] — no new MacBook for me,' added Simon Meyer in a message posted yesterday. Several mentioned that FireWire's disappearance means that the new MacBooks could not be connected to other Macs using Target Disk Mode, and one noted that iMovie will have no way to connect to new MacBooks. Others pointed out that the previous-generation MacBook, which Apple is still selling at a reduced price of $999, includes a FireWire port. Apple introduced FireWire into its product lines in 1999 and championed the standard."

Stardock Evaluates DRM Complaints, Updates Gamer's Bill of Rights 279

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 17, 2008 @12:25AM from the they-sense-anger dept.

Earlier this year, we discussed the Gamer's Bill of Rights, a document put forth by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell to address what he felt were the unacceptable characteristics of the gaming industry. ShackNews reports that Wardell has taken feedback from gamers, developers, and publishers, and updated the document accordingly. One particular area on which he focused was DRM. Stardock also published a customer report that examines the issue in greater detail (PDF). MTV's Multiplayer Blog fans the flames of the debate by asking if anyone is embarrassed about pirating video games.

LHC Success! 1007

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday September 10, 2008 @10:12AM from the good-news-everybody dept.

Tomahawk writes "It worked! The LHC was turned on this morning and has been shown to have worked. Engineers cheered as the proton particles completed their first circuit of the underground ring which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). (And we're all still alive, too!)" Here is a picture from the control room which I'm sure makes sense to someone that isn't me.

2 Finds Add To Giant Earthworm Science In Northwest 39

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 04, 2008 @09:47PM from the shai-hulud dept.

According to an article at Science Daily, "Native, possibly giant, earthworm science in the Pacific Northwest is advancing with the discovery of two new specimens from opposite sides of the interior Columbia River basin. University of Idaho soil scientist Jodi Johnson-Maynard, an associate professor in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, said an earthworm that was most likely a giant Palouse earthworm was found in early March near Moscow [Idaho]." I have trouble with the idea that worms of merely a foot long have trouble meeting the designation "giant" outside of Tremors or Arrakis. Update: 05/06 17:44 GMT by T : Correction: That's Moscow, Idaho, rather than Washington. Thanks to the alert reader who spotted this.

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