gittela - Slashdot User

How Do You Sync & Manage Your Home Directories? 421

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 23, 2009 @03:19PM from the kitchen-sync dept.

digitalderbs writes "A problem plaguing most people with multiple computers is the arduous task of synchronizing files between them: documents, pictures, code, or data. Everyone seems to have their own strategies, whether they involve USB drives, emailed attachments, rsync, or a distributed management system, all of which have varying degrees of success in implementing fast synchronization, interoperability, redundancy and versioning, and encryption. Myself, I've used unison for file synchronization and rsnapshot for backups between two Linux servers and a Mac OS X laptop. I've recently considered adding some sophistication by implementing a version control system like subversion, git, or bazaar, but have found some shortcomings in automating commits and pushing updates to all systems. What system do you use to manage your home directories, and how have they worked for you for managing small files (e.g. dot configs) and large (gigabyte binaries of data) together?"

The Birth and Battle of Conficker 239

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday June 12, 2009 @09:12PM from the criminals-on-the-bleeding-edge dept.

NewScientist has an interesting look back at the birth of the Conficker worm and how this sophisticated monster quickly grew to such power and infamy. "Since that flurry of activity in early April, all has been uneasily quiet on the Conficker front. In some senses, that marks a victory for the criminals. The zombie network is now established and being used for its intended purpose: to make money. Through its peer-to-peer capabilities, the worm can be updated on the infected network at any time. It is not an unprecedented situation. There are several other large networks of machines infected with malicious software. Conficker has simply joined the list. The security community will continue to fight them, but as long as the worm remains embedded in any computer there can be no quick fixes."

Comment Re:I'm a geek, but... (Score 4, Interesting) 357

by gittela on Sunday May 31, 2009 @07:29AM (#28157215) Attached to: New HDMI 1.4 Spec Set To Confuse

Now, as I work most of my time as an AV-tech, I'd have to say that this is truth with modifications.
Projectors at conferences are usually vga only. I've never encountered a DVI cable in static systems at conferences. Sure, when we set it up ourselves and go for high quality HD projectors @ 10k ansilumens we will use our nice fiberoptic dvi cables or hd-sdi, but most of the time it is vga/rgb-hv.

That means one(1) adapter, if you bring your own laptop. Even peecees come with DVI these days.
For us techs, it means 3 adapters, one dvi-vga, one minidvi-vga and one DisplayPort-vga. This will not make much of a difference in our flight cases...

Apart from that, I agree. Apple pulled a bit of a stunt with the DisplayPort. While I like the new port, I think it's way too arrogant to assume that people will ditch a 6 months old machine just like that. :-)
H

Comment Re:Dropping a big selling point! (Score 1) 455

by gittela on Wednesday April 15, 2009 @08:53AM (#27584805) Attached to: Mozilla Mulls Dropping Firefox For Win2K, Early XP

Opera is based on Qt, which already does a great job maintaining cross-platform compatibility.

Uhrrr... Nope.
The linux port was QT(i don't think I can quote the story about the reasons, but those who where there knows how hilarious the first stab at Opera for Linux was), but that has been mostly phased out, iirc.
The other platforms not QT. :-)
Best regards
Former Opera emplyee

Mexican Government To Document Cell Phone Use 232

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @11:36PM from the i'm-sure-criminals-will-oblige dept.

Alyssey writes "The Mexican government wants to have a database to track every cellphone number in the country (in Spanish, Google translation) and whom it belongs to. They want to tie in the CURP (Unique Registration Population Code in Spanish, like the Social Security Number in the US) with cellphone numbers. If Mexicans don't send in their number and CURP via SMS before April 10, 2010, their cellphone number will be blocked. The new law was published back in February and is going into effect now."

Bionic Eye Gives Blind Man Sight 203

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @07:53PM from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.

AmigaMMC writes "A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye. Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London's Moorfield's eye hospital. He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks using the bionic eye, known as Argus II. I wouldn't go as far as claiming he regained his sight, but this certainly is a biotechnological breakthrough."

USPS Server Meltdown 238

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 09, 2008 @04:23PM from the neither-snow-nor-rain-nor-storm-of-net dept.

m2pc writes "The US Postal Service is experiencing major server issues for its shipping API web services. After spending about an hour debugging my own eCommerce software for a client, I found the problem was with the USPS shipping servers being unavailable. Further research showed that message boards for OS Commerce and other e-Commerce packages are filling with posts from angry users who are experiencing crashing Web store applications and frustrated customers. Developers are scrambling to find interim solutions, from hard-coding fixed price shipping, to 'rolling their own' shipping calculation APIs based on the USPS Fixed Rate Zone Tables, to disabling the USPS option altogether. One user reported yesterday that a call to USPS yielded the response 'we expect it to be down all day.' As of 9:20 AM PST the service is still unavailable."

Comment Re:What Microsoft should really have considered (Score 1) 652

by gittela on Wednesday November 19, 2008 @01:49PM (#25820477) Attached to: Microsoft Feared Mac Vs. Vista In '05

There is also the point of ram. XP32 simply can't use 4 gigs of ram, neither can Vista32. I won't even get into XP64, as it was largely useless. Vista64 is slightly better, but not much.

Internet Co-inventor Vint Cerf Endorses Obama 713

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday October 15, 2008 @10:08AM from the time-to-play-that-game dept.

SEAActionFund writes "Vint Cerf, Google's Chief Internet Evangelist who also happens to be credited with co-founding the Internet, submitted a video to our AVoteforScience YouTube challenge. In it he discusses the importance of net neutrality and endorses Barack Obama specifically because he supports net neutrality (John McCain does not.) The AVoteForScience challenge calls upon scientists to upload videos to YouTube explaining who they are voting for and why. The first two videos were by Cerf and the 2008 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Marty Chalfie. Any Slashdotters game for explaining who they are voting for and why?" Still waiting for one of the campaigns to ask for my endorsement, which is totally available to whichever campaign offers me the better cabinet seat.

Submission + - First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02, 2007 @06:16PM

An anonymous reader writes: Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any warzone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready to a while, but safety concerns kept 'em off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already.

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