Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Internet

Submission + - The Net According To Akamai (gizmag.com) 1

The Installer writes: From the article: "Akamai might not be a household name but between 15 to 30 percent of the world's Web traffic is carried on the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company's internet platform at any given time. Using data gathered by software constantly monitoring internet conditions via the company's nearly 100,000 servers deployed in 72 countries and spanning most of the networks within the internet, Akamai creates its quarterly State of the internet report. The report provides some interesting facts and figures, such as regions with the slowest and fastest connection speeds, broadband adoption rates and the origins of attack traffic."

Submission + - LinkedIn Is Linking People With Money (komonews.com)

The Installer writes: Linked in went public yesterday, and the craze for the stock offering is being likened to the boom of the dot com era of online businesses making many people very rich.

LinkedIn's stock opened at $45/share, peaked at over $122, and closed at $94.20/share.

From the article:

There was an unmistakable echo of the dot-com boom Thursday on Wall Street.

LinkedIn, a trailblazer in the online networking craze, went public with a roaring stock offering. Within minutes, shares were trading at twice the value set by the company.

Buyers crowded the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and financial news networks flashed LinkedIn's stock price urgently all day. By the closing bell, the company had a market value of $9 billion, the highest for any Internet company since Google had its initial public offering seven years ago. Millionaires and even one billionaire were made, at least on paper.

The stock, issued at $45, went as high as $122.70 just before noon and closed at $94.25 on a trading volume of 30 million shares. All this for a company that skeptics say amounts to an online Rolodex, a place on the Internet for professionals to post resumes and connect with one another and potential employers.

Idle

Submission + - Mac Lovers Unite! ....literally. (komonews.com) 1

The Installer writes: An article on Komo's website talks about a new website to help Mac lovers find love. From the article:

Apple Inc.'s ads used to challenge consumers to "think different." Now a website wants to help fans of the iPhone and Mac computer maker date different, too.

Called Cupidtino, an homage to Apple's home base in Cupertino, Calif., the site aims to connect Apple aficionados with like-minded "Machearts." The idea is that if you love the iPhone and Mac maker's products you might be best suited to date a fellow Apple fan.

Profile pages on the site reveal such intimate details as earliest Apple product purchases and lists of favorite iPhone apps.

Cupidtino is the brainchild of Mel Sampat, a former Microsoft employee, who came up with the idea during an argument with his girlfriend over whether he should use his iPad during dinner. Sampat told her that if they ever broke up he would date someone who likes Apple products. That got him thinking about creating a site to help connect those who do.

"The more I thought about it, the more I realized people that are true Apple fans might actually have a lot more in common than they realize," he said.

Image

Doctor Slams Hospital's "Please" Policy 572

Administrators at England's Worthing Hospital are insisting that doctors say the magic word when writing orders for blood tests on weekends. If a doctor refuses to write "please" on the order, the test will be refused. From the article: "However, a doctor at the hospital said on condition of anonymity that he sees the policy as a money-saving measure that could prove dangerous for patients. 'I was shocked to come in on Sunday and find none of my bloods had been done from the night before because I'd not written "please,"' the doctor said. 'I had no results to guide treatment of patients. Myself and a senior nurse had to take the bloods ourselves, which added hours to our 12-hour shifts. This system puts patients' lives at risk. Doctors are wasting time doing the job of the technicians.'"
Image

ACLU Sues To Protect Your Right To Swear 698

The ACLU is suing the police in Pennsylvania for issuing tickets to people who swear. They argue that it is every American's constitutional right to drop an F-bomb. From the article: "'Unfortunately, many police departments in the commonwealth do not seem to be getting the message that swearing is not a crime,' said Marieke Tuthill of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. 'The courts have repeatedly found that profanity, unlike obscenity, is protected speech.'" This is a big f*cking deal.
Software

Submission + - Hacking without Hackin (gizmag.com)

The Installer writes: Researchers from the University of Washington have managed to add customization and accessibility options to proprietary software without even touching the source code. Rather than alter program code, Prefab looks for the pixels associated with the blocks of code used to paint applications to a screen, grabs hold of them and then alters them according to whatever enhancements the user has chosen to apply. Any user input is then fed back to the original software, still running behind the enhanced interface.

Although open source software is playing an increasingly important part in our digital lives, most of still use commercial applications where the code running them is locked down tight and rarely caters for too much uncontrolled tinkering. But what if you want to control an MP3 player from within Microsoft Word or view lots of different possible Photoshop renderings all at the same time? Proprietary code will undoubtedly prevent you from doing such things.

Robotics

Submission + - Imperial Walkers On The Horizon? (gizmag.com)

The Installer writes: Walking quadrupeds are being cast to play a major role in the rapidly unfolding age of robotics. The platform promises versatility far beyond that of wheeled-vehicles and will undoubtedly find applications in a wide variety of fields. Not surprisingly, the development of quadrupeds is being driven by the military and DARPA has recently boosted its efforts by awarding Boston Dynamics $32 million for the prototype phase of its Legged Squad Support System (LS3) program.

Boston Dynamics, an early leader in the quadruped field with its Big Dog project, has been engaged to deliver trade studies, detailed design work, and initial prototypes of the LS3 over a 30 month period.

LC3 is conceived as an autonomous support pack-robot for ground troops that can carry 400 pounds or more of payload, sustain itself for 24 hours and cover 20 miles in almost any kind of terrain.

Government

Submission + - Government delays new ban on Internet gambling (komonews.com)

The Installer writes: Frank's legislation would allow the Treasury Department to license and regulate online gambling companies that service American customers. Frank argues that online gambling should be legal as a matter of personal liberty and that the federal government could collect increased tax revenues if Internet gambling is regulated.

In September, a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia upheld the 2006 law, rejecting a challenge from an association of offshore bookies that the federal prohibition was too vague and violated privacy rights.

U.S. bettors have been estimated to supply at least half the revenue of the $16 billion Internet gambling industry, which is largely hosted overseas.

Submission + - Group: Founder of Tibetan Web site gets 15 years (komonews.com)

The Installer writes: The founder of a Tibetan literary Web site was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of disclosing state secrets, an overseas monitoring group said Tuesday.

Kunchok Tsephel, 39, was convicted and sentenced Nov. 12 after a closed-door trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Gannan prefecture in southwestern Gansu province, according to reports from Tibet received by Tibetan exiles, said the International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group.

Some of the charges are believed to be related to content posted on his influential Web site, Chodme, or Butter-Lamp, which promotes Tibetan culture, and also for passing on information about last year's anti-government protests.

Submission + - Want A Date? Get A Cheek Swab! (komonews.com)

The Installer writes: A couple of genetic testing companies are promising to match couples based on the DNA testing, touting the benefits of biological compatibility.

The companies claim that a better biological match will mean better sex, less cheating, longer-lasting love and perhaps even healthier children.

"How many dating services can you think of where they can suggest you might have better children?" said Eric Holzle, founder of ScientificMatch.com, one of the first online dating sites to use DNA.

Holzle wouldn't reveal membership numbers, but GenePartner, a Swiss company that works with matchmakers and dating sites, has tested more than 1,000 people, according to chief scientific officer Tamara Brown. Some were already coupled and took the test out of curiosity.

The GenePartner Test is $99, and will be offered at the dating site sense2love.com when it relaunches next month.

Slashdot Top Deals

The use of anthropomorphic terminology when dealing with computing systems is a symptom of professional immaturity. -- Edsger Dijkstra

Working...