Comment Case Sensitive? (Score 1) 244
Hi,
Am I the only one concerned that this seems to be case sensitive? I definitely dont want to give out Case Sensitive shortened URLs - Seems wrong fundamentally.
Enlighten me...
Gani
Comment Disable it? Or not install it? (Score 1) 548
Should be easy enough to block or disable it if there is a privacy concern. For most installations, it is optional anyways. (only comes pre-installed with OEM) - Why is this a big news? Not much different than registration for Windows, and much less than that.
I've used Ubuntu for the past 4 years, and I believe that it is the best thing that happened to Linux. If they want to gather how many installs are out there live, I will probably give it to them.
Regards,
Ashraya
Comment Something Positive too (Score 1) 428
While everyone here seems to be quite negative about online learning experiences, I have somewhat positive experiences with the UoL Online Laureate program. I have completed 6 subjects there in pursuit of a Master's degree, and am fairly happy about it.
With 15 years of experience in in the industry, I was cynical about the 'learning' part of it too. It is true that in some of the courses, the fellow students have nothing to offer and the discussions tend to remain shallow, but it depends on the instructor also who acts as the moderator. For example, in one of the modules which was programming oriented, I was sure that I would learn nothing new about programming itself and the moderator wasnt too great either, so it was boring. However in another module about networking which is my strong suite, despite the feeling that the other students are not up to the mark to make the discussions interesting, The moderator is making the discussions interesting by posing wonderful questions and stimulating the conversation.
I have also learnt to moderate my comments and picked up soft skills of presenting an answer without being condescending, which is helping me at my work also. From being known as the blunt guy who cannot control his emotions, I was recently called as a 'voice of reason' in resolving a dispute, which is a huge improvement for me in growing in my career. It is possibly the soft skills that are more importantly learnt for the experienced guys participating in online learning. YMMV, but I am definitely better for joining this trend.
Ashraya
With 15 years of experience in in the industry, I was cynical about the 'learning' part of it too. It is true that in some of the courses, the fellow students have nothing to offer and the discussions tend to remain shallow, but it depends on the instructor also who acts as the moderator. For example, in one of the modules which was programming oriented, I was sure that I would learn nothing new about programming itself and the moderator wasnt too great either, so it was boring. However in another module about networking which is my strong suite, despite the feeling that the other students are not up to the mark to make the discussions interesting, The moderator is making the discussions interesting by posing wonderful questions and stimulating the conversation.
I have also learnt to moderate my comments and picked up soft skills of presenting an answer without being condescending, which is helping me at my work also. From being known as the blunt guy who cannot control his emotions, I was recently called as a 'voice of reason' in resolving a dispute, which is a huge improvement for me in growing in my career. It is possibly the soft skills that are more importantly learnt for the experienced guys participating in online learning. YMMV, but I am definitely better for joining this trend.
Ashraya
How a Key Enzyme Repairs Sun-Damaged DNA 97
BraveHeart writes "Researchers have long known that mammals, including humans, lack a key enzyme — one possessed by most of the animal kingdom and even plants — that reverses severe sun damage. For the first time, researchers have witnessed how this enzyme works at the atomic level to repair sun-damaged DNA. 'Normal sunscreen lotions convert UV light to heat, or reflect it away from our skin. A sunscreen containing photolyase could potentially heal some of the damage from UV rays that get through.'"
The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design 242
I'm Not There (1956) writes "Jeffrey Zeldman brings up the interesting issue of the paradox between Japan's strong cultural preference for simplicity in design, contrasted with the complexity of Japanese websites. The post invites you to study several sites, each more crowded than the last. 'It is odd that in Japan, land of world-leading minimalism in the traditional arts and design, Web users and skilled Web design practitioners believe more is more.'"
Concrete That Purifies the Air 88
fergus07 writes "Although much of the focus of pollution from automobiles centers on carbon emissions, there are other airborne nasties spewing from the tailpipes of fossil fuel-powered vehicles. These include nitrogen oxides (NOx). In the form of nitrogen dioxide it reacts with chemicals produced by sunlight to form nitric acid – a major constituent of acid rain – and also reacts with sunlight, leading to the formation of ozone and smog. Everyone is exposed to small amounts of nitrogen oxides in ambient air, but exposure to higher amounts, in areas of heavy traffic for example, can damage respiratory airways. Testing has shown that surfacing roads with air purifying concrete could make a big contribution to local air purity by reducing the concentration of nitrogen oxides by 25 to 45 percent."
A Flood of Stable Linux Kernels Released 105
Julie188 writes "Greg Kroah-Hartman has released five new stable Linux kernels, correcting minor errors of their predecessors and including improvements which are unlikely to generate new errors. As so often with kernel versions in the stable series, it remains undisclosed if the new versions contain changes which fix security vulnerabilities, although the number of changes and some of the descriptions of those changes certainly suggest that all the new versions contain security fixes."
Comment Does it run on Linux? (Score 1) 216
With a name like that, you have to wonder if its written in Java or a derivative?
Ashraya
Ashraya
Tetris Clones Pulled From Android Market 396
sbrubblesman writes "The Tetris Company, LLC has notified Google to remove all Tetris clones from Android Market. I am one of the developers of FallingBlocks, a game with the same gameplay concepts as Tetris. I have received an email warning that my game was suspended from Android Market due to a violation of the Developer Content Policy. When I received the email, I already imagined that it had something to do with it being a Tetris clone, but besides having the same gameplay as Tetris, which I believe cannot be copyrighted, the game uses its own name, graphics and sounds. There's no reference to 'Tetris' in our game. I have emailed Google asking what is the reason for the application removal. Google promptly answered that The Tetris Company, LLC notified them under the DMCA (PDF) to remove various Tetris clones from Android Market. My app was removed together with 35 other Tetris clones. I checked online at various sources, and all of them say that there's no copyright on gameplay. There could be some sort of patent. But even if they had one, it would last 20 years, so it would have been over in 2005. It's a shame that The Tetris Company, LLC uses its power to stop developers from creating good and free games for Android users. Without resources for a legal fight, our application and many others will cease to exist, even knowing that they are legit. Users will be forced to buy the paid, official version, which is worse than many of the ones available for free on the market. Users from other countries, such as Brazil in my case, won't even be able to play the official Tetris, since Google Checkout doesn't exist in Brazil; you can't buy paid applications from Android Market in these countries."
CERT Releases Basic Fuzzing Framework 51
infoLaw passes along this excerpt from Threatpost: "Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency Response Team has released a new fuzzing framework to help identify and eliminate security vulnerabilities from software products. The Basic Fuzzing Framework (BFF) is described as a simplified version of automated dumb fuzzing. It includes a Linux virtual machine that has been optimized for fuzz testing and a set of scripts to implement a software test."
A Genetically Engineered Fly That Can Smell Light 111
An anonymous reader writes "It sounds like a cool — if somewhat pointless — super-powered insect: a fly that can smell light! Researchers added a light-sensitive protein to a fruit fly's olfactory neurons, which caused the neurons to fire when the fly was exposed to a certain wavelength of blue light. Adding the protein specifically to neurons that respond to good smells, like bananas, makes for a light-seeking fly."
MythTV 0.23 Released 214
An anonymous reader writes "After six months of our new accelerated development schedule, MythTV 0.23 is now available. MythTV 0.23 brings a new event system, brand new Python bindings, the beta MythNetvision Internet video plugin, new audio code and surround sound upmixer, several new themes (Arclight and Childish), a greatly improved H.264 decoder, and fixes for analog scanning, among many others. Work towards MythTV 0.24 is in full swing, and has be progressing very well for the last several months. If all goes according to plan, MythTV 0.24 will bring a new MythUI OSD, a nearly rewritten audio subsystem capable of handling 24- and 32-bit audio and up to 8 channels of output, Blu-ray disc and disc structure playback, and various other performance, usability, and flexibility improvements."
Comment Some Answers to the questions asked here... (Score 5, Interesting) 491
A good many replies here - so I will answer a few questions that have been asked.
1. For this time, I assumed the systems were owned, and they have now been rebuild (Windows Reinstalled).
2. The Linksys is re-secured - but I hadnt thought of that being owned - so I have to now do a firmware upgrade on that - Thanks for the suggestion.
3. Other suggestions are to confirm botnet or sniff traffic - I am in the UK, and I can only do so much remotely.
4. One of the quesions was how I managed to remote into the windows hosts - No, I managed to remote into the Linksys, not the windows hosts.
5. The bizzarre situation in the Windows host before it was rebuilt was that if we did (I told the commands over the phone for my dad to execute) ping or traceroute to a destination like www.google.co.in, it would work. It would resolve the right IP. However, with any of the browsers, as soon as access to a site was attempted - We would get a message "Connection Reset" or the browsers equivalent. (Firefox, Chrome and IE tried). Has anyone seen that one before?
6. Another question asked was if the Windows in question was legit - Yes, I bought him a OEM XP the last time I was there and installed it.
Regards,
Ashraya
1. For this time, I assumed the systems were owned, and they have now been rebuild (Windows Reinstalled).
2. The Linksys is re-secured - but I hadnt thought of that being owned - so I have to now do a firmware upgrade on that - Thanks for the suggestion.
3. Other suggestions are to confirm botnet or sniff traffic - I am in the UK, and I can only do so much remotely.
4. One of the quesions was how I managed to remote into the windows hosts - No, I managed to remote into the Linksys, not the windows hosts.
5. The bizzarre situation in the Windows host before it was rebuilt was that if we did (I told the commands over the phone for my dad to execute) ping or traceroute to a destination like www.google.co.in, it would work. It would resolve the right IP. However, with any of the browsers, as soon as access to a site was attempted - We would get a message "Connection Reset" or the browsers equivalent. (Firefox, Chrome and IE tried). Has anyone seen that one before?
6. Another question asked was if the Windows in question was legit - Yes, I bought him a OEM XP the last time I was there and installed it.
Regards,
Ashraya
Comment Re:Yes... (Score 2, Interesting) 207
Yes it does (Not the crappy wine one). There is a beta native version I use regularly, and on 32-bit it even does plugins (Flash)... However, I got myself a 64-bit comp these days, and it does not run plugins on that one... It feels much faster than Firefox on Linux...
Submission + - How do I detect if I am part of a botnet
ashraya writes: My father (Not too computer literate) has a desktop and a laptop both running windows in his network back in Hyderabad, India. I set up a Linksys router for him to use with his broadband service. For some reason, he reset the config on the Linksys, and connected it up without Wireless security, and also with the default admin password for some time. As you would expect, both the windows computers got 'slow', and the desktop stopped connecting to internet completely for some reason. As I logged in remotely to 'fix' things — I noticed on the linksys log that the laptop was making seemingly random connections to high numbered ports on various IPs. I did a nslookup on the IPs to see that they were all either in Canada or US, with comcast and other ISP addresses.
Is that a sign that the computers were in a botnet? Are the other hosts part of the botnet too?
I have since rebuilt the windows hosts, and this connections are not happening now. I have also secured the Linksys.
Is that a sign that the computers were in a botnet? Are the other hosts part of the botnet too?
I have since rebuilt the windows hosts, and this connections are not happening now. I have also secured the Linksys.
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