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Comment Re:Due to the many chemical additives ? (Score 2) 362

by evilb (#54605031) Attached to: E-cigarettes 'Potentially As Harmful As Tobacco Cigarettes'

Another vaper here, going on about 2 years now. I also "roll my own" juice, since the FDA made the laws a little too strict for the mom 'n' pop juice shops. PG, VG, food flavoring, nicotine is all that goes into my juice as well.

Used to smoke about a pack a day for almost 30 years. When I switched to the e-cigarettes, I found the following benefits:

- I don't smell like a stale ashtray (now just a mild hint of vanilla!)
- My skin stopped turning yellow (noticed by friends)
- My lungs no longer crackle when I exhale
- I no longer have that persistent cough
- I breathe easier when exercising
- My sense of taste and smell is better than it has been in years

Now I'm not going to say that these things are healthy. They haven't been studied enough yet to know all of the risks. Even if the carcinogenic effects of vaping are just as bad as smoking, though, it's hard to overlook all of the other benefits over smoking this has.

I'm sure it's not completely safe, but it sure beats cigarettes. The article is misleading in that they are only looking at a single effect known to cigarettes and ignoring all of the other hazards of tobacco use that just aren't there with vaping.
Handhelds

New Handheld Computer Is 100% Open Source 195

Posted by kdawson from the small-wonder dept.
metasonix writes "While the rest of the industry has been babbling on about the iPad and imitations thereof, Qi Hardware is actually shipping a product that is completely open source and copyleft. Linux News reviews the Ben NanoNote (product page), a handheld computer apparently containing no proprietary technology. It uses a 366 MHz MIPS processor, 32MB RAM, 2 GB flash, a 320x240-pixel color display, and a Qwerty keyboard. No network is built in, though it is said to accept SD-card Wi-Fi or USB Ethernet adapters. Included is a very simple Linux OS based on the OpenWrt distro installed in Linksys routers, with Busybox GUI. It's apparently intended primarily for hardware and software hackers, not as a general-audience handheld. The price is right, though: $99."
Security

State of Colorado Calls Firefox Insecure, IE6 Safe 530

Posted by timothy from the sheeps'-bladders-may-be-used-to-prevent-earthquakes dept.
linuxkrn writes "The State of Colorado's Office of Technology (OIT) has set up a work skills website. The problem is that the site says 'DO NOT use FIREFOX or other Browsers besides IE. It has been decided that Mozilla based, non-IE browsers pose a security risk.' (Original emphasis from site.) If the leading IT agency for the State is making these uneducated claims, should the people worry about their other decisions?"
Microsoft

Microsoft.com Makes IE8 Incompatibility List 358

Posted by CmdrTaco from the my-head-just-asplodered dept.
nickull writes "Microsoft is tracking incompatible Web sites for its upcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser and has posted a list that now contains about 2,400 names — including Microsoft.com. Apparently, even though Microsoft's IE8 team is doing the 'right' thing by finally making IE more standards-compliant, they are risking 'breaking the Web' because the vast majority of Web sites are still written to work correctly with previous, non-standards-compliant versions of IE."
Security

Trojan Hides In Pirated Copies of Apple iWork '09 431

Posted by timothy from the good-reason-not-to-pirate-software dept.
CWmike writes "Pirated copies of Apple's new iWork '09 suite that are now available on file-sharing sites contain a Trojan horse that hijacks Macs and leaves them open to further attack, a security company said yesterday. The 'iServices.a' Trojan hitchhikes on iWork '09's installer, said Intego, which makes Mac security software. 'The installer for the Trojan horse is launched as soon as a user begins the installation of iWork, following the installer's request of an administrator password,' Intego said in a warning. Once installed, the Trojan "phones home" to a malicious server to notify the hacker that the Mac has been compromised, and to await instructions."
Communications

Which Shared Calendar Package Would You Use? 78

Posted by Cliff from the many-fingers-in-your-datebook dept.
Bob McCown asks: "I manage several websites, both internally and externally accessible. Many of them have event calendars or schedulers. We'd like the ability to have these calendars shared, with the ability to modify them by both a web interface, and at the application level (via Sunbird, an Outlook plugin, or something similar). The web side of our system uses an Enterprise Linux distribution that runs Apache. Ideally, the web side would be written in PHP to minimize time to integrate with the rest of the sites. What's out there that can do this? What have you used before?"

Comment Re:Does this suprise anyone? (Score 1) 204

by evilb (#17692096) Attached to: Evidence Surfaces That MS Violated 2002 Judgement
For what it's worth, I just (today) finished a contract working for Microsoft on a product that is not part of the Windows OS. When I began working on the project, I was specifically instructed by my boss not to use any APIs or information from within the company that are not publicly available. So at least from that experience, it looks they're making a genuine attempt to comply.

The main issue here is whether or not Microsoft is attempting to gain an edge over the competition by using functionality in the OS that's not available to the general public. If Microsoft is developing applications that take advantage of functionality in the OS that competitors don't know about, that creates an unfair advantage for Microsoft.

Any parts of the OS they don't want to make public, they can't use in their own non-OS software.
Upgrades

Journal Journal: Troll Slaying Roundup 3

Journal by Troll Blacklist
I apologize for the time between entries, but as many of you know, CmdrTaco has now all but eliminated trolling on Slashdot - and deserves our thanks for all his hard work! However a recent upsurge in trolling over the last four months has created some changes in the Master Troll Blacklist, and I'll document some of these changes for you now.
  • Fortknox - Beloved by many, Josh Marotti recently announced that he is in fact a
User Journal

Journal Journal: Answering the Mailbag 9

Journal by Troll Blacklist


miagfmu writes:

To: TrollBlacklist HinduHome.com
Subject: Non-troll request

Hi,

I was looking at your list and am about to sign up. But, I saw a friend-of-a-friend
on the list, and thought it might not be such a great idea.

Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Curbing Slashdot Abuse 1

Journal by Troll Blacklist
Like many web based discussion boards, Slashdot has a small vocal minority of abusive and disruptive users. Many of these users spend hours online attempting to harass and provoke normal Slashdot users. CmdrTaco et al have devised a trust referral system which allows users to mark bad accounts and assign them a penalty. This account in particular has a running list of ALL of Slashdot's worst abusive users. You can leverage this account to 'block out' this i

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