drcookie - Slashdot User

Comment Re:So... (Score 1) 594

by drcookie on Saturday September 26, 2009 @07:35PM (#29551591) Attached to: Bank Goofs, and Judge Orders Gmail Account Nuked

Putting my data on the cloud has always seemed a necessary evil to me. I could throw together an email server and use that, but with all the spam filtering that needs to occur these days, it just becomes a huge mess. On the other hand you put your data on the cloud and the second an interested party with money wants to seperate you from your data (or the ability to control it), they just find an ignorant judge (seems to be a lot of these lately), and presto! no more email account.

Senate To Reconsider Wiretap Immunity 222

Posted by kdawson on Friday September 25, 2009 @08:58AM from the true-patriots dept.

bughunter passes on a report from Wired Threat Level about the effort by Democratic lawmakers to roll back some provisions of the Patriot Act. Three of its provisions expire at the end of this year, and the reform attempt is expected to be attached to legislation to renew them. "Lawmakers are considering key changes to the Patriot Act and other spy laws — proposals that could give new life to lawsuits accusing the nation's telecommunications companies of turning over Americans' electronic communications to the government without warrants. On Oct. 1, the Senate Judiciary Committee likely will consider revoking that immunity legislation as it works to revise the Patriot Act and other spy laws with radical changes that provide for more government transparency and more privacy protections." Among the other likely goals of reform efforts, according to Wired, are limiting the government's power to issue National Security Letters, and limiting "black bag" searches to cases of spying or terrorism — 65% of past searches were authorized in drug cases.

Making Safer Lithium-Ion Batteries 77

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 24, 2009 @07:39PM from the for-some-values-of-safe dept.

itwbennett writes "Exploding iPhones may be a thing of the past. Researchers at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute have developed a new polymer, STOBA (that's self-terminated oligomers with hyper-branched architecture to you and me), that is added to the cathode material inside a lithium-ion battery to keep them from overheating. 'Fires or explosions in these batteries are caused by short circuits,' said Wu Hung-chun, a researcher at ITRI, explaining that even minor mishandling such as dropping the handset could result in damage causing a short circuit. 'The technology is ready for lithium-ion batteries used in electronic devices, mobile phones, laptops,' said Wu. And ITRI has started testing STOBA on electric car batteries."

High-Tech Gadgets Can Pose Problems At Mexican Border 447

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 24, 2009 @06:46PM from the which-jail-would-you-prefer dept.

TechnologyResource writes "Going across the border will be a more 'interesting' experience since Customs and Border Protection will now be checking laptops, digital cameras, cell phones and any other electronics on your person or in your vehicle. It's not a new authority, according to Angelica De Cima, Office of Public Affairs Liaison 'They've always had the right to inspect your person, vehicle, baggage, anything on you. Nothing has changed from before,' De Cima said."

Shuttleworth Suggests 1-Way Valve For User Experience Testing 757

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 24, 2009 @04:17PM from the why-isn't-this-intuitive? dept.

darthcamaro writes "No surprise but Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth has come out swinging in favor of the Linux desktop. Speaking at Linuxcon yesterday he detailed the things that he thinks Linux requires in order to win the desktop wars. Those include: co-ordinated software releases, better quality and design, some user experience testing and oh yeah, a dose of 'shut the f*** up' too. During his keynote, he extended an invitation to any open source application to submit their software for testing by user-experience experts. The sessions would be recorded for posterity, and the developer would not be able to interact with the user. "'If the developer is in the room, they have to say nothing. It's the shut the f*** up protocol,' Shuttleworth said. 'You sit and watch someone struggle with the software that you've so lovingly produced.'"

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