Comment What's that saying... (Score 2) 85
Correlation is not causation... Yep that's the one.
Comment Re:Simple fix. (With disclaimer) (Score 1) 383
May want to put a fuse inline with the ground. As a lighting bolt could energize the wire.
Journal Journal: Corporate Spin: Dellbuntu or Not Dellbuntu in U.K.???
Here's a vignette that is so typical of corporate America and its marketing/spin machinery.
The Inquirer reported on Tuesday that Dell had terminated its Ubuntu Linux computer lineup in the U.K., and further noted that their reporter had placed a call to Dell and been clearly told that this was so -- no more Ubuntu Linux pre-installed and configured on Dell hardware.
DHS Ends Data-Mining Program 75
ExE122 writes "The Department of Homeland Security has "scrapped an ambitious anti-terrorism data-mining tool." The tool, called ADVISE, was being tested with live data rather than test data without having proper security in place. This program had already been under criticism by privacy advocates and members of Congress. However, according to the article, a DHS spokesman assures that the program will be restarted once the security and cost are re-evaluated."
Science Fiction Writers Write DMCA Takedowns 197
TheGreatGraySkwid writes "With an ironic lack of forward thinking, the Science Fiction Writers of America (or, more specifically, their Vice President Andrew Burt) have issued scattershot DMCA takedown notices against numerous items on the document-sharing site Scribd, many of which were not infringing on SFWA copyrights in any way. It appears that a simple keyword search for prominent science fiction names (like 'Asimov' and 'Silverburg') was used to determine which documents were to be singled out. Included in the documents was Cory Doctorow's 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,' which was released under the Creative Commons license and is freely available at any number of places. Doctorow is up in arms over at BoingBoing, with several other Science Fiction notables speaking up in the comments."
Submission + - 54% of CEOs dissastisfied with innovation (cio.com)
athloi writes: "Invention is new and clever; innovation is a process that takes knowledge and uses it to get a payback. Invention without a financial return is just an expense. Ideas are really the sexy part of innovation and there's rarely a shortage of them. If you look at the biggest problems around innovation, rarely does a lack of ideas come up as one of the top obstacles; instead, it's things like a risk-averse culture, overly lengthy development times and lack of coordination within the company. Not enough ideas, on the other hand, is an obstacle for only 17 percent. At the end of the day all that creativity and all those ideas have to show on the bottom line. The goal of innovation is to make or save money, and IT should never lose sight of that central fact.
http://www.cio.com/article/134201/"
http://www.cio.com/article/134201/"
Feed Engadget: iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity, August 24, 2007, 12:00PM EDT (engadget.com)
Filed under: Cellphones, Features
The iPhoneSIMfree.com team called us up to prove their claim that they cracked Apple's iPhone SIM lock system, and prove it they did. (No, we don't have a copy of the unlock software, so don't even ask us, ok?) The six-man team has been working non-stop since launch day, and they're officially the first to break Apple's SIM locks on the iPhone. It's done. Seriously. They wouldn't tell us when and how they would release it to the public, but you can certainly bet that they'll try to make a buck on their solution (and rightly so). We can hardly believe the iPhone's finally been cracked. No, scratch that -- we just can't believe it took this long.
Again: we can confirm with 100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US. Read on for details and links to our video, and check out the gallery of images below.
Continue reading iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity, August 24, 2007, 12:00PM EDT
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
FCC Head Supports Ala Carte Cable 295
MikeyTheK writes "PC Magazine Reports that Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC, supports ala carte cable.
In a letter to several minority groups on Wednesday, Martin said "While I believe all consumers would benefit from channels being sold in a more a la carte manner, minority consumers, especially those living in Spanish speaking homes, might benefit most of all,". He goes on to argue "Cable companies act as gatekeepers into the programming allowed by the expanded basic cable package, preventing independent content producers from reaching viewers,", citing the example of Black Family Television, which was forced to go online-only because cable operators refused to carry it, even after it reached 16 million homes."
Feed Newsforge: Comprehensive integrity verification with md5deep (linux.com)
Most of the ISO images and other software you grab off the Internet come with a message digest -- a cryptographic hash value that you can use to verify their integrity. While almost all Linux distributions come with utilities to read and generate digests using MD5 and SHA1 hash functions, the md5deep utilities can do that and more.
Submission + - Arm wrestling machine recalled for breaking arms (computerworld.com)
Lucas123 writes: "After three players broke their arms while wrestling with a Japanese arcade machine, the manufacturer promised to remove all 150 of the mechanized appendages. Said game maker Atlus' spokeswoman: "The machine isn't that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it.""
Submission + - New 'Stellarator' Design for Fusion Reactors (physorg.com)
eldavojohn writes: "The holy grail in fusion reactors has always seemed just a few years off for many decades. But a recent design enhancement termed a 'Stellarator' may change all that. The point at which a fusion reactor crashes is when particles begin escaping due to disruptions in the plasma. A NYU team has discovered that coiling specific wires to form a magnetic field to contain the plasma is a viable way to create a plasma body with axial symmetry and far better chance of remaining stable. This, of course, like other forms of containment does require energy but brings us closer to a stable fusion reactor. It may not be cold fusion or 'table top' fusion but it certainly is a step forward. The paper is up for peer review in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Submission + - Report warns against well-meaning net censorship (yahoo.com)
athloi writes: ""Governing the Internet," issued Thursday by the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, called the online policing "a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes — democracies and dictatorships alike — seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear." (Neat how they point out that democracies do it too.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070727/ap_on_hi_te/in ternet_restrictions"
Feed Techdirt: Google Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is On Open-Access Wireless (techdirt.com)
Google has been one of the leading voices in the call for the FCC to adopt "open access" rules for winners of spectrum licenses in the upcoming 700 MHz auction. The auction, slated for late this year or early 2008, is a big deal because of the huge amount of spectrum on offer, as well as its propagation characteristics, which makes it ideally suited for high-speed broadband services. Google and a number of consumer groups have put forth a four-point open access plan to the FCC, and the Commission's chairman, Kevin Martin, appears to have met them halfway. Incumbent operators were, unsurprisingly, not happy with the plan, though ATT now says it supports it. But Google and the consumer groups weren't satisfied with Martin's proposal either, mainly because it didn't include a provision that would force license winners to sell wholesale access to their networks on a non-discriminatory basis, and they see this as a crucial step in encouraging competition in the broadband space.
One of the telcos' responses to Martin's proposal was that putting restrictions and rules on license winners would hamper bidding and hold down the revenues the auction would generate. Now, in an effort to allay those fears, Google says that if the FCC adopts its four-point plan, it will commit to bidding $4.6 billion in the auction. It's been rumored for some time that Google was interested in getting its hands on some of the 700 MHz spectrum, and it's even talked about a model for real-time spectrum auctions. Still, saying the company's willing to pony up the reserve price for the auction doesn't make it certain that Google will come away with spectrum licenses, since the cost of the licenses will undoubtedly go beyond it -- nor is it even certain that Martin and the FCC will care about Google's pledge all that much. But this should be seen as a signal that Google wants to play ball, and that will cause some concern among incumbent operators. Even if Google itself doesn't come away with spectrum, it's possible it could help fund another bidder's efforts and help create a significant competitor in the wireless and broadband markets.
One of the telcos' responses to Martin's proposal was that putting restrictions and rules on license winners would hamper bidding and hold down the revenues the auction would generate. Now, in an effort to allay those fears, Google says that if the FCC adopts its four-point plan, it will commit to bidding $4.6 billion in the auction. It's been rumored for some time that Google was interested in getting its hands on some of the 700 MHz spectrum, and it's even talked about a model for real-time spectrum auctions. Still, saying the company's willing to pony up the reserve price for the auction doesn't make it certain that Google will come away with spectrum licenses, since the cost of the licenses will undoubtedly go beyond it -- nor is it even certain that Martin and the FCC will care about Google's pledge all that much. But this should be seen as a signal that Google wants to play ball, and that will cause some concern among incumbent operators. Even if Google itself doesn't come away with spectrum, it's possible it could help fund another bidder's efforts and help create a significant competitor in the wireless and broadband markets.
Former Spammer Reveals Secrets in New Book 241
StonyandCher writes "A retired spammer is looking to make money from a tell-all book rather than fleecing people dependent on pharmaceuticals and people with gambling problems. In this Computerworld article 'Ed', a retired spammer, predicts the spam problem will only get worse, aided by consumers with dependencies and faster broadband speeds. From the article: 'He sent spam to recovering gambling addicts enticing them to gambling Web sites. He used e-mail addresses of people known to have bought antianxiety medication or antidepressants and targeted them with pharmaceutical spam. Response rates to spam tend to be a fraction of 1 percent. But Ed said he once got a 30 percent response rate for a campaign. The product? A niche type of adult entertainment: photos of fully clothed women popping balloons ... "Yes, I know I'm going to hell," said Ed."
Holes Remain Open in Firefox Password Manager 191
juct writes "Although the Mozilla developers have fixed a known hole in the password manager of Firefox & Co, a door remains open for exploitation. According to an article on the heise site, hackers can still use JavaScript to steal passwords from users of the Mozilla, Firefox, and Safari browsers. However, the real problem might not be Firefox' password manager. If users can set up their own pages containing script code on a server, the JavaScript security model breaks. Heise Security demonstrates the possible password theft in a demo. 'From the users' perspective, this means that they should not entrust their passwords to the password manager on web sites that allow other users to create their own pages containing scripts. Otherwise somebody can easily create a page that steals the password as soon as the page is opened ... Users could also disable JavaScript or use add-ons such as NoScript to set up rules to provide additional protection. In the age of Web 2.0 this would, however, mean that many pages would cease to function. On the other hand it is doubtful that by not using a password manager security levels would be raised, since the resultant need to remember passwords often induces users to choose simplistic passwords and use them on multiple sites.'"
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