Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - Windows 10 RTM in 6 weeks (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Billly Gates
Billly Gates writes: Arstechnica has the scoop on a new build with less flat icons and a confirmation of a mid July release date. While Microsoft is in a hurry to fix the damage by the Windows 8 versions of its operating system the question next is if it is ready for prime time? On Neowin a list of problems are already mentioned by MS and its users with this latest release including wifi and sound not working without a reboot and users complaining about tiles and apps not working in the new start menu. Also the new Microsoft browser EDGE/aka Spartan will be shipping without plugin support at RTM which could damage its reputation as an IE killer as one of the disadvantages of IE compared to Firefox or Chrome was the lack of real browser extensions. Also this new build takes away color from the titlebars similiar to Office 2013 which bothers some users as well. What is not known is if Microsoft plans to have OEMs sell new computers with Windows 10 in the middle of July? Or will this mean OEM's will get the official version for testing and deployment in the middle of July too while Microsoft fixes the bugs for the next 1 — 3 months before it comes standard on all new pcs?

Submission + - Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerization? (npr.org)

Submitted by turkeydance
turkeydance writes: What job is hardest for a robot to do? Mental health and substance abuse social workers (found under community and social services). This job has a 0.3 percent chance of being automated. That's because it's ranked high in cleverness, negotiation, and helping others. The job most likely to be done by a robot? Telemarketers. No surprise; it's already happening.

The researchers admit that these estimates are rough and likely to be wrong. But consider this a snapshot of what some smart people think the future might look like. If it says your job will likely be replaced by a machine, you've been warned.

Submission + - Google Calendar Ends SMS Notifications

Submitted by LuserOnFire
LuserOnFire writes: Google has sent out an email this morning that says in part:

Starting on June 27th, 2015, SMS notifications from Google Calendar will no longer be sent. SMS notifications launched before smartphones were available. Now, in a world with smartphones and notifications, you can get richer, more reliable experience on your mobile device, even offline.

Submission + - SpamCop is stopping its webmail service

Submitted by LuserOnFire
LuserOnFire writes: Today SpamCop users received an email that says in part:

For over 12 years, Corporate Email Services has been partnering with SpamCop to provide webmail service with spam filtering via the SpamCop Email System for our users. Back then, spam filtering was rare. We heard story after story about how our service rescued people from unfiltered email. Nowadays, webmail service with spam filtering has become the norm in the general public. As such, the need for the webmail service with SpamCop filtered email has decreased. Due to these reasons, we have decided to retire the SpamCop Email System and its webmail service; while SpamCop will continue to focus on providing the World's best spam reporting platform and blacklist for the community. As of September 30, 2014 (Tuesday) 6pm ET, the current SpamCop Email service will be converted to email forwarding-only with spam filtered by SpamCop for all existing SpamCop Email users.

WOW!

Submission + - New NSA-Funded Code Rolls All Programming Languages Into One (vice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hey, web developer dudes and dudettes: What's your favorite programming language? Is it CSS? Is it JavaScript? Is it PHP, HTML5, or something else? Why choose? A new programming language developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University is all of those and moreâ"one of the world's first "polyglot" programming languages.

Sound cool? It is, except its development is partially funded by the National Security Agency, so let's look at it with a skeptical eye.

It's called Wyvernâ"named after a mythical dragon-like thing that only has two legs instead of fourâ"and it's supposed to help programmers design apps and websites without having to rely on a whole bunch of different stylesheets and different amalgamations spread across different files
Music

Submission + - CD ripper "incites law breaking" (pcpro.co.uk) 4

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "A British firm has been banned from advertising a CD ripping device because it "incites law breaking". The Brennan JB7 is “a CD player with a hard disk that stores up to 5,000 CDs”. The adverts for the Brennan highlight the convenience of ripping your entire CD collection to the device – much like we’ve all been doing for years on our PCs, iPods and other MP3 players. The Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ads after concluding "that the ad misleadingly implied it was acceptable to copy CDs, vinyl and cassettes without the permission of the copyright owner"."

Comment Re:a little tweak (Score 1) 1033

by goofyheadedpunk (#21275249) Attached to: House Narrowly Avoids Having to Debate Impeachment of Cheney
> Besides, certain terror groups didn't have rockets that could reach
> the USA from Afghanistan either and look how that turned out.

Yeah, they killed a few thousand people, we went batshit insane, promptly cluster fucked ourselves and directly caused the death of nearly a million individuals.

I don't see your point.
Spam

Appeals Court Tosses $11M Spamhaus Judgement 134

Posted by kdawson from the still-say-you're-a-spammer dept.
Panaqqa writes "In a not unexpected move, the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the $11 million awarded to e360 Insight and vacated a permanent injunction against Spamhaus requiring them to stop listing e360 Insight as a spammer. However, the ruling (PDF) does not set aside the default judgement, meaning that Spamhaus has still lost its opportunity to argue the case. The original judge could still impose a monetary judgement, after taking evidence from the spammer as to how much Spamhaus's block had cost them. This is unfortunate considering the legal leverage the recent ruling concerning spyware might have provided for Spamhaus."
Graphics

AMD Launches New ATI Linux Driver 262

Posted by kdawson from the soon-it-will-all-be-faster dept.
Michael Larabel writes "AMD has issued a press release announcing 'significant graphics performance and compatibility enhancements' on Linux. AMD will be delivering new ATI Linux drivers this year that offer ATI Radeon HD 2000 series support, AIGLX support (Beryl and Compiz), and major performance improvements. At Phoronix we have been testing these new drivers internally for the past few weeks and have a number of articles looking at this new driver. The ATI 8.41 Linux driver delivers Linux gaming improvements from the R300/400 series and the R500 series. The inaugural Radeon HD 2900XT series support also can be found in the new ATI Linux driver with 'the best price/performance ratio of any high-end graphics card under Linux.' While this new driver cannot be downloaded yet, in their press release AMD also alludes to accelerating efforts with the open-source community."
The Courts

Judge Says, Record DNA of Everyone In the UK 403

Posted by kdawson from the all-in-it-together dept.
Many readers informed us about the opinion of Lord Justice Sedley, a senior UK Appeal Court judge, who said that everyone in the UK should have their DNA recorded in the national database — including visitors. Reader ChiefGeneralManager writes, "Sedley calls the current database 'indefensible' because it contains a hodge-podge mix of people, including children and those who have been in contact with the police. His view is that we should make it compulsory for all DNA to be recorded to remove this anomaly. The UK Information Commissioner has expressed some concerns, but not dismissed the idea outright." And reader john.wingfield adds, "Just under two weeks ago, the Independent reported that the Government has admitted that an eighth of all records on the DNA database are false, misspelled, or incorrect — over half a million records. This raises the possibility of a breach of the 4th data protection principle of the Data Protection Act 1998: 'Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.'"
The Media

Why Myths Persist 988

Posted by kdawson from the say-it-first-and-say-it-loud dept.
lottameez recommends an article in the Washington Post about recent research into the persistence of myths. In short: once a myth has been put out there (e.g., "Saddam Hussein plotted the 9/11 attacks"), denying it can paradoxically reinforce its staying power. Ignoring it doesn't work either — a claim that is unchallenged gains the ring of truth. Over time, "negation tags" fall out of memory: "Saddam didn't plan 9/11" becomes "Saddam planned 9/11." From the article: "The conventional response to myths and urban legends is to counter bad information with accurate information. But the new psychological studies show that denials and clarifications, for all their intuitive appeal, can paradoxically contribute to the resiliency of popular myths... The research is painting a broad new understanding of how the mind works. Contrary to the conventional notion that people absorb information in a deliberate manner, the studies show that the brain uses subconscious 'rules of thumb' that can bias it into thinking that false information is true. Clever manipulators can take advantage of this tendency."
Privacy

A Network Sniffer On Steroids 129

Posted by kdawson from the data-seepage dept.
QuantumCrypto writes "Errata has developed a new network sniffer, dubbed 'Ferret,' that looks for traffic using 25 protocols, including those for the popular instant message clients as well as DHCP, SNMP, DNS and HTTP. This means the sniffer will capture requests for network addresses, network management tools, Web sites queries, Web traffic and more. 'You don't realize how much you're making public, so I wrote a tool that tells you,' said Robert Graham, Errata's chief executive. Errata has released the source code to this version 1.0, 'feature-poor and buggy' tool on its site. Anyone with a wireless card will be able to run it, Graham said."

Slashdot Top Deals

Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

Close