Datacenter Robbed for the Fourth Time in Two Years 437

Posted by Zonk on Saturday November 03, 2007 @06:36PM from the that's-quite-a-router-failure dept.

mariushm writes "According to the Register, the Chicago-based colocation datacenter C I Host was attacked by armed intruders recently, making it the the fourth time in two years that armed thugs have made off with data. According to a letter C I Host officials sent customers, 'At least two masked intruders entered the suite after cutting into the reinforced walls with a power saw ... During the robbery, C I Host's night manager was repeatedly tazered and struck with a blunt instrument. After violently attacking the manager, the intruders stole equipment belonging to C I Host and its customers.' Aggravating the situation, C I Host representatives took several days to admit the most recent breach, according to several customers who said they lost equipment, all the while reporting the problems as 'router failures'."

Comment Re:monolithic. (Score 1, Insightful) 302

by MysticOne on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @08:03PM (#20231605) Attached to: Woz Details His Plans for Energy-Efficient House

Just because one form's function doesn't translate to another form doesn't mean either is necessarily flawed. Build your own furniture (or have it built), come up with different ways to use the space, and otherwise change your lifestyle so it works better with your chosen dwelling. If your point is to maximize space and efficiency, you're going to have to do this anyway.

Journal Journal: Google's crappy domain registration

Journal by chimpo13 on Thursday January 04, 2007 @12:22AM

I decided to give a friend of mine a domain name for Xmas. Instead of using my normal server provider (pair.net), I decided to try out Google. What a mistake.

Bookmark Welcome to Gravity Equivalent Atom.net | Gravity Equivalent Atom (gravityequivalentatom.net)

by DisownedSky on Thursday January 04, 2007 @12:15AM

Bluetooth Lawsuit 87

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 04, 2007 @12:13AM from the sue-everyone dept.

Krish writes "The Seattle Times reports that a local Washington state group is suing cellphone makers for patent infringement on bluetooth devices. Research conducted by a University of Washington undergraduate more than a decade ago has become the subject of a lawsuit filed against some of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world. The suit claims that consumer electronics giant Matsushita and its Panasonic unit, as well as Samsung and Nokia, are infringing on four patents sold under the 'Bluetooth' name."

Journal Journal: [house] Visitor in the yard 5

Journal by GeckoFood on Thursday January 04, 2007 @12:02AM

For the past two nights, my wife and I have seen a fox in the backyard. He comes between 10:30 pm and 11:00 pm, and he seems to be interested in the birdseed my wife tosses for the birds (I know they like blackberries, but I didn't think they liked sunflower seeds too). I lit him up with a Maglite this evening, and it didn't appear to bother him until I moved from one window to another. Then, he took off over the ridge at the edge of the backyard.

Wish I could see him during the day...

Journal Journal: Explosions & Fireworks too 12

Journal by sillypixie on Wednesday January 03, 2007 @11:57PM

It's time for the annual 'Pixie's New Years Redneck Adventures', 2006 edition.

You may remember fireworks shenanigans last year -- this year we had our explosions just a wee bit early.

In fact, it turns out that I indirectly saved several lives - including my own. I'm really, really happy about that.

Demo PS3 Units freeze on Purpose 363

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday December 27, 2006 @11:22AM from the stay-off-my-kiosks-kid dept.

AbsoluteZero writes "A Sony rep has claimed to Destructoid that demo PS3 units in kiosks across the country were built to freeze up on purpose. From the article: "We do that so that people won't play it all day long," he explained. "Specifically during Motorstorm, we made it freeze up a lot.""

'Killer' Network Card Actually Reduces Latency 292

Posted by Zonk on Saturday December 09, 2006 @06:20PM from the i'll-be-a-monkey's-uncle dept.

fatduck writes "HardOCP has published a review of the KillerNIC network card from Bigfoot Networks. The piece examines benchmarks of the product in online gaming and a number of user experiences. The product features a 'Network Processing Unit' or NPU, among other acronyms, which promise to drastically reduce latency in online games. Too good to be true? The card also sports a hefty price tag of $250." From the article: "The Killer NIC does exactly what it is advertised to do. It will lower your pings and very likely give you marginally better framerates in real world gaming scenarios. The Killer NIC is not for everyone as it is extremely expensive in this day and age of "free" onboard NICs. There are very likely other upgrades you can make to your computer for the same investment that will give you more in return. Some gamers will see a benefit while others do not. Hardcore deathmatchers are likely to feel the Killer NIC advantages while the middle-of-the road player will not be fine tuned enough to benefit from the experience. Certainly though, the hardcore online gamer is exactly who this product is targeted at."

EarthLink Is Losing a Lot of Email 291

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 08, 2006 @10:29AM from the that's-like-leaving-an-internet-cut-unhealed dept.

LandGator writes "Robert X. Cringely, doyen compu-columnist for PBS, reports on a hidden e-mail problem at Earthlink: They're losing up to 9 messages out of 10, found as a result of a friend's testing." From the article: "He sent messages from other accounts to his Earthlink address, to his aliased Blackberry address, and to his Gmail account. For every 10 messages sent, 1-2 arrived in his Earthlink mailbox, 1-2 (not necessarily the SAME 1-2) on his Blackberry, and all 10 arrived with Gmail. Swimming upstream through Earthlink customer support, my buddy finally found a technical contact who freely acknowledged the problem. Since June, he was told, Earthlink's mail system has been so overloaded that some users have been missing up to 90 percent of their incoming e-mail. It isn't bounced back to senders; it just disappears. And Earthlink hasn't mentioned the problem to these affected customers unless they complain."

Tim Bray Says RELAX 180

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 04, 2006 @11:26PM from the holy-war-schema-2.7 dept.

twofish writes to tell us that Sun's Tim Bray (co-editor of XML and the XML namespace specifications) has posted a blog entry suggesting RELAX NG be used instead of the W3C XML Schema. From the blog: "W3C XML Schemas (XSD) suck. They are hard to read, hard to write, hard to understand, have interoperability problems, and are unable to describe lots of things you want to do all the time in XML. Schemas based on Relax NG, also known as ISO Standard 19757, are easy to write, easy to read, are backed by a rigorous formalism for interoperability, and can describe immensely more different XML constructs."

The Mechanics of Motion Sensing 119

Posted by kdawson on Monday November 20, 2006 @05:19PM from the ride-that-dragon dept.

Dr. Eggman writes, "The AP has a short technology piece on the mechanics that go into the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii and PS3 controllers. It also details some of the past uses of the technology and gives a nice overview of just how far the technology has come from the earliest missile-guidance sensor equipment."

NPR Finds XM's Achilles Heel 330

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday November 01, 2006 @12:52PM from the operators-are-standing-by dept.

PreacherTom writes "In the ongoing radio wars, one only has to listen to 20 seconds of Howard Stern's language to know that the lack of regulation gives satellite radio a distinct advantage. Of all the challengers, it seems that NPR has finally found a weakness in XM, which supplements its satellite coverage with earth-bound transmitters. A recent test found that 19 of these transmitters were unlicensed and another 221 exceeded their authorized power level, giving NPR an opening to press with an apparently sympathetic FCC. It certainly doesn't help that XM's own filings support their case."