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Comment Re: How is the virus even still around? (Score 4, Informative) 254

by jstomel (#49831275) Attached to: Diphtheria Returns To Spain For Lack of Vaccination

I don't think it survives in the environment, and it doesn't seem to have any animal hosts. There are places in the world where it's endemic and somewhat common, and it can live in the pharynx of vaccinated or asymptomatic humans. So it probably comes into a country from an immigrant or traveler with some frequency, it just doesn't spread because of vaccination.

Then there's this kid.

From microbewiki (emphasis added): "C. diphtheriae is a Gram-positive, aerobic, nonmotile, toxin-producing, rod-shaped bacteria belonging to the order Actinomycetales, which are typically found in soil, but also have pathogenic members such as streptomyces and mycobacteria."

Comment Re:That's pretty much what they did (Score 1) 576

by jstomel (#38535034) Attached to: World's Worst PR Guy Gives His Side

I wonder if this Paul Cristoforo has pioneered a new PR strategy for startups though. . . hire him, or someone like him, to stir up a big pot of controversy, publicly fire him saying you had NO IDEA he was going to abuse his position, and release press releases talking about how great your products are for disabled people/kids/other sympathetic group, etc. Get the public to view your company as another victim of his abuse and try to get them to feel bad for you and good about your products, while transferring their rage to the "rogue employee/consultant".

Sort of Good Cop/Bad Cop for startups.

Well, if you read Machiavelli (or even Dune), that is exactly what is suggested. Invade a country, put a horrible despot in control of it. Let the despot kill the violent opposition and beat the populace into submission. Then, depose the despot, execute him publicly, say you had no idea what he was doing in your name, and lower taxes slightly. Even though taxes are still higher than they were before, people will still love you because you are better than the despot you deposed. Now, I don't think Christoforo the idiot is the Machiavellian genious who would come up with this plan, but wouldn't it be funny if he were?

Comment Re:I have tried a lot of them (Score 1) 254

by jstomel (#37144224) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Ebook Reader for Scientific Papers?
Another thing to consider is that the iPad has some very good apps designed specifically for scientific paper reading. "Papers" on the iPad is not only an excellent pdf reader with good coverflow options, it will sort and arrange your papers by author, year, and journal. It directly searches public repositories of articles like web of science and google scholar and will directly import both from the web and from dropbox, eliminating the need to deal with iTunes.
Network

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: convention hall WiFi interference 2

Submitted by bbowman
bbowman writes: one of my job responsibilities is to set up the small network for our company's exhibit at the trade shows we attend. the mobile demo devices we use depend upon a reliable WiFi connection to a router I have in the exhibit. in the days leading up to the opening of the trade show, WiFi connections are reliable and work as expected. however as soon as the show opens none of our devices can reliable maintain a WiFi connection to the router. The devices we use at the trade shows are Windows-based laptops, iPods/iPads, Android tablets, and a variety of WiFi enabled cell phones. I have tried using channels 1, 6, and 11 (as well as the others) and used different routers (Linksys, D-Link, Netgear) without success. I'm sure it is likely that there are poorly insulated electrical cabling, fluorescent lighting, and other issues that would contribute to WiFi interference in the convention hall. A quick scan shows dozens and dozens of discoverable WiFi networks nearby.

If I take the router back to my hotel room, I have zero connection problems. How can I overcome this so that WiFi works reliably in the convention hall?
NASA

Submission + - A Space Robot Competition for High School Kids (dailycrowdsource.com)

Submitted by null action
null action writes: Straight from the "wish I was back in high school" department, high school kids from all over the U.S. will have a chance this fall to write code that will be run on a real spacecraft inside the International Space Station as part of a space robotics competition held by DARPA, NASA, MIT, and TopCoder. The teams will write C programs for the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites), and 27 finalists will have a head-to-head battle in the space station moderated by an astronaut. The bowling-ball sized satellites were developed to "test multi-body formation flying and maneuvering in a micro-gravity environment," and now high school kids are going to get to take them out for a spin — in outer space.
Movies

Submission + - ISP's Will Now be Copyright Cops (isp-services.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wendy Seltzer, Fellow at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy, talks about the new plan by ISP's and content providers to "crack down on what users can do with their internet connections" using a 6-step warning system to curb online copyright infringement.
Security

Submission + - DARPA Funds Hacking Projects to Fight Cyberthreats

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Fahmida Y. Rashid reports that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will fund new cyber-security proposals under the new Cyber-Fast Track project intended to cut red tape for hackers to apply for funding for projects that would help the Defense Department secure computer networks, says Peiter Zatko, a hacker known as Mudge who was one of the seven L0pht members who testified before a Senate committee in 1998 that they could bring down the Internet in 30 minutes and is now a program manager for the agency's information innovation office. Anything that could help the military will be considered, including bug-hunting exercises, commodity high-end computing and open software tools and projects with the potential to "reduce attack surface areas, reverse current asymmetries" are of particular interest. Under the Cyber-Fast Track initiative, DARPA will fund between 20 to 100 projects annually. Open to anybody, researchers can pitch DARPA with ideas and have a project approved and funded within 14 days of the application. Developers will retain intellectual property rights while DARPA will operate under government use rights. "It's time to start funding hacker spaces, labs and boutique security companies to make it easier to compete with large government contractors.""
Android

Submission + - Android app controls DSLRs over USB (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by SirJorgelOfBorgel
SirJorgelOfBorgel writes: TechCrunch reports that fairly well known mobile hacker Chainfire (known among other things for creating the very first "turn your phone into a hotspot" application — now commonplace in mobiles) has just released a BETA version of his DSLR Controller application on Android Market.

As you would expect from an app called DSLR Controller, it allows full control over compatible DSLRs from a compatible Android phone or tablet.

Beware though, the beta is not free, at the moment only Canon EOS DSLRs are supported, and the list of supported Android devices pretty much comes down to the Samsung Galaxy S2 and dual-core Honeycomb tablets.

Nevertheless, this is a very interesting development as it's the first mobile app to do this directly over USB — without needing an extra laptop or computer as a go-between. Root isn't required either.
Transportation

Submission + - The Revolutionary Wave Disc Generator Engine (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: The mid-term future for fuel efficient vehicles with useful range is likely a hybrid solution of electric motors powered by batteries, topped up by a fuel-burning generator. Dr. Norbert Müller at Michigan State, backed by $2.5 million from the US Government, aims to make that last part of the equation a much more compact and efficient proposition with a revolutionary new form of combustion engine.
The Courts

Submission + - Bethesda tells Minecraft creator: cease and desist (gamepron.com) 1

Submitted by dotarray
dotarray writes: While most people from Bethesda and id Software are at QuakeCon this weekend, it seems that at least one of them has stayed back at the office, buried under a pile of paperwork.

How do we know this? A tweet from Minecraft creator Notch, who has just received a message from the company’s law team, claiming his new game infringes on their upcoming game.
Sony

Submission + - Sony Crowned 'Epic Fail' at Pwnie Awards (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Hackers’ hot favourite victim Sony Corp. has won an award at the Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas this week. However, much to the embarrassment of the company, the award it nailed was in the category of the “Epic Fail” of the year. The Pwnie award, which is kind of close being an Oscar equivalent in the hackers-community, awarded this ‘honour’ to Sony following the series of hack attacks it was subjected to a few months back, which saw the company’s PlayStation and PC Gaming Networks, as well as many other services suffering heavily through the hands of cyber criminals.
Security

Submission + - Drone Plane Converted to Airborne Hacking Platform

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: A pair of security researchers have turned a U.S. Army drone plane into an airborne hacking platform that infiltrates Wi-Fi networks, intercepts cellphone calls, and even launches denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. The researchers built the plane as a proof of concept to show what criminals, terrorists and others might also soon be using for their nefarious activities.

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