ccccc - Slashdot User

Comment Huh? (Score 5, Informative) 289

by ccccc on Thursday September 13, 2012 @08:55AM (#41322471) Attached to: QR Codes As Anti-Forgery On Currency Could Infect Banks

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode. A pretty decent way to embed a serial number. What exactly about the idea makes the poster believe the banks' scanning software would jump to some arbitrary website after the scan? Presumably, a much more sane and secure thing to do would be to look up the serial number in a database on a single, secure site.

Comment Re:Python (Score 1) 530

by ccccc on Monday May 07, 2012 @01:20PM (#39917137) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Language Should a Former Coder Dig Into?

I might be confused with another product, but I think Visual Studio Express expires after a month demo period.

It only expires if you don't do the e-mail registration.

Submission + - TSA Investigates ...People Who Complain about TSA

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens writes

on Friday April 15, 2011 @04:39PM

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "CNN has obtained a list of roughly 70 "behavioral indicators" that TSA behavior detection officers use to identify potentially "high risk" passengers at the nation's airports and report that arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator TSA officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists and when combined with other behavioral indicators, it could result in a traveler facing additional scrutiny. "Expressing your contempt about airport procedures — that's a First Amendment-protected right," says Michael German, a former FBI agent who now works as legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's circular reasoning where, you know, I'm going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that's evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it's simply inappropriate." Interestingly enough some experts say terrorists are much more likely to avoid confrontations with authorities, saying an al Qaeda training manual instructs members to blend in. "I think the idea that they would try to draw attention to themselves by being arrogant at airport security, it fails the common sense test," says CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen."

2010 Election Results Are In 1530

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 03, 2010 @09:57AM from the perpetual-yo-yo dept.

The election results are in, and there are one trillion web pages now up helping you find out what happened. The short story is that the Republicans cleaned up, although the Democrats maintain a one-seat majority in the Senate. The GOP now has 239 seats in the house, giving them a huge lead over the Dems' 183.

Meet NELL, the Computer That Learns From the Net 272

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @09:00AM from the nell-like-lolcat-pew-pew dept.

bossanovalithium writes "Carnegie Mellon University has taught a computer how to read and learn from the internet. According to Dennis Baron at the Oxford University press blog, the computer is called NELL and it is reading the internet and learning from it in much the same way that humans learn language and acquire knowledge. Basically by soaking it all up and figuring it out. NELL is short for Never Ending Language Learner and apparently it is getting brainier every day."

"Dislike" Button Scam Hits Facebook Users 179

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 16, 2010 @09:48AM from the i-dislike-this dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A message saying 'I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!' is spreading rapidly on Facebook, tempting unsuspecting users into believing that they will be able to "dislike" posts as well as "like" them. However, security researchers say that it is just the latest 'survey scam', tricking Facebook users into into giving a rogue Facebook application permission to access their profile, and posting spam messages from their account. The rogue application requires victims to complete an online survey (which makes money for the scammers) before ultimately redirecting to a Firefox browser add-on for a Facebook dislike button developed by FaceMod. "As far as we can tell, FaceMod aren't connected with the scam — their browser add-on is simply being used as bait," says Sophos security blogger Graham Cluley."

Nexus One a Failed Experiment In Online Sales 366

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 21, 2010 @01:50PM from the but-a-nice-phone dept.

shmG writes "The demise of the Google Nexus One phone is fairly straightforward: a lack of sales killed the product. While it will continue to sell through Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea and a few others, the experiment of Google indicates that selling a phone direct to consumers online is dead. 'The bottom line is people like to look at phones in the store. Google has a lot to learn about phone sales, this is one lesson they learned.'"

The State of iPad Satisfaction 443

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @11:43AM from the ya-take-the-good-ya-take-the-bad dept.

harrymcc writes "We know that the iPad is selling like hotcakes, but how satisfied are the people who buy it? Over at Technologizer, we conducted a survey of 6,000 iPad early adopters. There are a few places where they were critical — the majority, for instance, aren't happy with Apple's App Store approval process. Overall, however, they're overwhelmingly upbeat."

The Pirate Bay's Founding Organization Shuts Down 107

Posted by kdawson on Sunday June 27, 2010 @04:08PM from the mission-pretty-much-accomplished dept.

kcurtis sent the news that Piratbryån, the lobbying organization out of which The Pirate Bay sprang, has disbanded. (The torrent tracker is alive and well.) "Piratbyrån had many purposes, but could be described as a pro-piracy lobbying organization. It was founded in response to Antipiratbyrån, the local anti-piracy outfit in Sweden. The goal was to start a debate on copyright issues and how they affect society. Until then, most press in Sweden would simply take everything Antipiratbyrån said for granted. Internationally, Piratbyrån is mostly known for launching The Pirate Bay in the fall of 2003, just a few months after the group itself was founded. ... The final decision to disband the group came after Ibi Kopimi Botani, a prominent member and co-founder of the group, passed away. Without one of its greatest minds, the group would never be the same again, Piratbyrån's members felt."

NASA Says Moon Has More Water Than Great Lakes 255

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 17, 2010 @03:37AM from the water-and-cheese dept.

jerryjamesstone writes "The US Great Lakes have some competition: the moon. Yes, that old thing in the sky may hold more than all of the water contained in the Great Lakes, according to a NASA-funded study. From the article: 'Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, along with other scientists across the nation, determined that the water was likely present very early in the moon's formation history as hot magma started to cool and crystallize. This finding means water is native to the moon.'"

Sprint Revealed Customer GPS Data 8 Million Times 315

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @04:01PM from the tap-o-matic dept.

An anonymous reader sends along Chris Soghoian's blog entry revealing that Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers' GPS location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. The data point comes from a closed industry conference that Soghoian attended, at which Paul Taylor, Electronic Surveillance Manager at Sprint Nextel, said: "[M]y major concern is the volume of requests. We have a lot of things that are automated but that's just scratching the surface. One of the things, like with our GPS tool. We turned it on the web interface for law enforcement about one year ago last month, and we just passed 8 million requests. So there is no way on earth my team could have handled 8 million requests from law enforcement, just for GPS alone. So the tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement. They also love that it is extremely inexpensive to operate and easy, so, just the sheer volume of requests they anticipate us automating other features, and I just don't know how we'll handle the millions and millions of requests that are going to come in." Soghoian's post details the laws around disclosure of wiretap and other interception data — one of which the Department of Justice has been violating since 2004 — and calls for more disclosure of the levels of all forms of surveillance.

Blu-ray Adoption Soft, More Still Own HD DVD 685

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 22, 2009 @09:48AM from the this-is-still-going dept.

MojoKid writes "A new study by Harris Interactive notes that currently, one in ten Americans (10%) own an HD DVD player, while just 7% own a Blu-ray player. Crazy, right? More Americans own HD DVD right now than the 'winning' format, Blu-ray. If you think about it, that statistic isn't that shocking. When HD DVD was around, it was far and away the 'budget' format for high-def. The players were cheaper, the films were cheaper. In other words, it was a format more ready to thrive in a down economy. Blu-ray was always viewed as a niche format for those absorbed in A/V, not the common man's format. The survey also found that on average, consumers purchased approximately six standard format DVDs in the last six months, compared with one in HD DVD format."

Ballmer Threatens To Pull Out of the US 1142

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 06, 2009 @09:18AM from the tax-schmax dept.

theodp writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is threatening to move Microsoft employees offshore if Congress enacts President Obama's plans to curb tax avoidance by US corporations. 'It makes US jobs more expensive,' complained billionaire Ballmer. 'We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the US as opposed to keeping them inside the US.' According to 2006 reports, Microsoft transferred $16 billion in assets to secretive Dublin subsidiaries to shave billions off its US tax bill. 'Corporate tax is part of the overall advantage of doing business in Ireland,' acknowledged Ballmer in 2005. 'It would be disingenuous to say otherwise.'"

3D Realms Sued Over Failed Duke Nukem Forever Plans 180

Posted by Soulskill on Friday May 15, 2009 @07:36AM from the ponzi-would-be-proud dept.

Take-Two Interactive has now sued 3D Realms over the cancellation of Duke Nukem Forever . Take-Two did not provide continuous funding for the game, but they did pay $12 million for the publishing rights to the game. A Bloomberg report quotes Take-Two's complaint as saying that 3D Realms "continually delayed the completion date" and "repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version" of the game. (The complaint refers to 3D Realms as part of Apogee Software, Ltd., not to be confused with Apogee Software, LLC, the publisher behind the still-forthcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy.)

Comment It can be worthwhile (Score 1) 834

by ccccc on Monday May 11, 2009 @09:37AM (#27905553) Attached to: Go For a Masters, Or Not?

In my case, going for a master's let me get a 30% increase in pay over the job I had with an undergraduate degree, and to work in a field more closely aligned with my interests. I consider this to be a good use of two years of my time, but I was also under a sizable scholarship (about 25% of the undergrad degree pay, tuition waived.)

It really depends on how research-oriented your job is going to be. If it has a lot of algorithmic work, then there are probably a lot of former academics in the company who would look highly upon a graduate degree since they have ones themselves.

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