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Businesses

A Day In the Life of a "Booth Babe" 687

Posted by samzenpus from the a-day-in-the-life dept.
jfruh writes "Booth babes," promotional models paid to showcase products, are ubiquitous figures at tech trade shows. Ever wonder what they think of their jobs? Well, it may not surprise you to learn that standing up for eight hours in heels isn't much fun. Some enjoy the work, while others don't enjoy being the subject of stares. And one model adds that 'The industry is now moving towards making models show more skin.'"

Comment Re:Here's hoping (Score 1) 155

by Smarts (#39752593) Attached to: Australian ISP Wins Case Against Movie Studios

(...) get list of IP addresses from the swarm, match those to users via ISP."

Err no. Just because an IP is in a swarm it doesn't logically follow that someone is infringing. How much information has to be transferred for an infringement to occur?

Piatek et al in "Why My Printer Received a DMCA Takedown Notice" is also instructive.

Further, the issue of whether the person paying the ISP bill is automatically responsible for the infringement (or whether further identification is required) is also largely untested in this country.

Comment Re:Yes (Score 1) 504

But don't waste your time getting another bachelor's degree - go straight to graduate school.

Grad school can be a good option, but it's stupidly expensive.

I paid for my undergrad and two postgrad degrees in political science by working in IT helpdesk and junior sysadmin positions. You sure as hell don't need as CS degree to get a job on a helpdesk, and parlaying helpdesk experience into junior sysadmin jobs has worked for many slashdotters.

When I graduated I found I'd be taking a big pay cut to leave IT, so I stayed. I still have no relevant qualifications, not even vendor certs. Now I'm the youngest person in an in-house IT team... that I run.

I'm glad I studied, and I'm sure the alphabet after my name helped with various promotions, but I'm good at my job because of the things I learnt in helpdesk and sysadmin roles.
The Internet

Internet Not Really Dangerous For Kids After All 445

Posted by kdawson from the nevermind dept.
Thomas M Hughes writes "We're all familiar with the claim that it's horribly dangerous to allow our children on to the Internet. It's long been believed that the moment a child logs on to the Internet, he will experience a flood of inappropriate sexual advances. Turns out this isn't an accurate representation of reality at all. A high-profile task force representing 49 state attorneys general was organized to find a solution to the problem of online sexual solicitation. But instead the panel has issued a report (due to be released tomorrow) claiming that 'Social networks are very much like real-world communities that are comprised mostly of good people who are there for the right reasons.' The report concluded that 'the problem of child-on-child bullying, both online and offline, poses a far more serious challenge than the sexual solicitation of minors by adults.' Turns out the danger to our children was all just media hype and parental anxiety." Those who have aggressively pushed the issue of the dangerous Internet, such as Connecticut's attorney general Richard Blumenthal, are less than happy with the report.
The Internet

Remembering 50 Years of (and Leading Up To) the Internet 78

Posted by timothy from the let's-cut-them-some-slack-on-the-nomenclature dept.
katrina writes "Covering the infamous MafiaBoy bank hack, the launch of the first ever online newspaper — MIT's 'The Tech' — and Brewster Kahle developing the Internet Archive back in 1996, five decades of the most significant Internet developments, hacks, legal battles and innovations have been documented in a massive historical article on Cnet UK."
PC Games (Games)

GTA IV On PC Goes Exclusive With 'Games For Windows Live' 132

Posted by Soulskill from the yeah-thanks dept.
Erik J writes "Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV will exclusively use Games for Windows Live for its multiplayer mode when it hits shelves November 18th. Rockstar founder Sam Houser explained the decision: 'As we work toward the release of the PC version, Games for Windows Live affords us the opportunity to seamlessly translate the multiplayer console experience for PC gamers, the service is a natural fit for the platform and we strongly believe it will help in building a strong online community around GTA IV PC.'" Wired is running a story suggesting that this release could save the rather unpopular Microsoft PC gaming platform.
The Courts

Thomson Reuters Sues Over Open-Source Endnote-Alike Zotero 181

Posted by timothy from the gmu-also-home-of-econtalk dept.
Noksagt writes "Thomson Reuters, the owner of the Endnote reference management software, has filed a $10 million lawsuit and a request for injunction against the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia's George Mason University develops Zotero, a free and open source plugin to Mozilla Firefox that researchers may use to manage citations. Thomson alleges that GMU's Center for History and New Media reverse engineered Endnote and that the beta version of Zotero can convert (in violation of the Endnote EULA) the proprietary style files that are used by Endnote to format citations into the open CSL file format."
Cellphones

Windows Mobile 7 Phone Release Delayed Again 131

Posted by timothy from the many-thousands-will-die-without-seeing-it dept.
jcoventry writes "Microsoft is delaying Windows Mobile 7, and it is thought new phones with the operating system are unlikely to reach the market before 2010. Microsoft partners who had expected to have a final release in their hands by early 2009 have been told that it won't be ready until the second half of 2009. Partners include companies like Verizon, Motorola and Samsung, all of which plan new phones that include the Mobile Windows 7 OS. Windows Mobile 7 is expected to have features like gesture recognition and speech input."
Networking

Japan To Get 1Gbps Home Fiber Connections 275

Posted by timothy from the yes-but-food-is-cheaper-elsewhere dept.
ashitaka writes "KDDI has announced that they will be launching a 1Gbps Internet service to single-family home and condo users in October. The service is supposedly synchronous, with 1Gbps in both directions, although the article implies that speeds will vary with location. Cost will be 5,985 yen/month (about US$56.50) for the basic Internet and IP phone service. This is intended to compete with NTT, who currently control over 70% of the Japanese FTTH market."
Music

Wal-Mart Ends DRM Support 231

Posted by Soulskill from the enjoy-your-rights dept.
An anonymous reader writes "So, you thought you did well to support the fledgling music industry by purchasing your tracks legally from the Wal-Mart store? Well, forget about moving these tracks to a new PC! Since they started selling DRM-free tracks last year, there's no money to be made in maintaining the DRM support systems, and in fact, support is being shut down. Make sure you circumvent the restrictions by burning the tracks to an old-fashioned CD before Wal-mart 'will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com.' Support ends October 9th."
Yahoo!

Security Flaw In Yahoo Mail Exposes Plaintext Authentication Info 66

Posted by Soulskill from the who-needs-encryption-anyway dept.
holdenkarau writes "Yahoo!'s acquisition of open source mail client Zimbra has apparently brought some baggage to the mail team. The new Yahoo! desktop program transmits the authentication information in plain text. The flaw was discovered during a Yahoo 'hacku' Day at the University of Waterloo (the only Canadian school part of the trip). Compared to the recent news about Gmail exposing the names associated with accounts, this seems downright scary. So, if you have friends or relatives who might have installed Yahoo! desktop and value their e-mail accounts, now would be a good time to get them to change the password and switch back to the web interface."
Google

Google Reveals Wireless Vision — Open Networks 90

Posted by Soulskill from the optimizing-the-ethertubes dept.
Anti-Globalism writes with this excerpt from CNet: "Google's vision of tomorrow's wireless network is in stark contrast to how wireless operators do business today, setting the two sides on a possible collision course. Earlier this week, the search giant filed a patent application with the US Patent Office describing its vision of an open wireless network where smartphones aren't tied to any single cell phone network. In Google's open wireless world, phones and other wireless devices would search for the strongest, fastest connection at the most competitive price. Essentially, wireless operators' networks would be reduced to 'dumb pipes.'" The full patent application is available as well. Google founder Larry Page recently asked the FCC to free up portions of the broadcast spectrum for this purpose.
Government

California Sec. of State Wants Open Source E-Voting Systems 112

Posted by Soulskill from the nowhere-to-go-but-up dept.
Lucas123 writes "California's Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, was among a group of e-voting experts at MIT yesterday who said the nation's electronic voting systems are still not secure and many run on faulty software. Among the suggestions offered to fix the problem: use open source software, stop delivering e-voting machines to polling places weeks in advance of an election, and keep a paper trail for auditing purposes. Bowen also believes that a ubiquitous Internet voting system could not work without the use of a national ID card system."

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