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The Internet

6 Homeless People Saved By the Internet 94

Posted by samzenpus from the power-of-farmville dept.
An anonymous reader writes "With Ted Williams's story (the homeless man with the golden voice, saved by the internet) blowing up online, and in the traditional media, we figured it was time to tell the stories of 5 other homeless people who've found success, be it financial or personal, through the wonderful use of this series of tubes we call The Internet."

Comment Re:Arthur C Clarke and Doctor Who (Score 2, Insightful) 1419

by kristinester (#24113341) Attached to: Sci-Fi Books For Pre-Teens?
Well, I'm not entirely certain as to what "pre-teen" is. 9-12? But when I was around that age I wasn't really reading books for my age group. Well, except for Sweet Valley High, but it was a guilty pleasure.

If they display an interest in something, let them read it. Regardless of whether it's too advanced for them. Yes, certain themes may be a bit mature (i.e. A Clockwork Orange, American Psycho), but so long as there is no graphic violence, torture, or rape there shouldn't be an issue. Books with political messages should be fine as well, if they catch the references, it can spark an interesting conversation. It's always good when kids think and ask questions.

As far as sci-fi goes specifically, I've always been more of a fantasy chick myself. Loved Dragonlance, it's total fluff but still fun. They even have children's versions of the first trilogy now, although I'm not sure how much easier to read they can make it. It's not exactly difficult reading material to begin with.

Oh! William Gibson. I read Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero, and Neuromancer when I was about 12 and loved it, then explored his other novels. Good stuff. Orson Scott Card is great as well.

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html Top 100 Sci-Fi books.

Hell, if they're ambitious throw a copy of Cryptonomicon at them and see what happens. If they don't like it, read it yourself, great book. And it's ridiculously long, perfect for road trips or long plane rides.

Doctor Who is great sci-fi. I haven't picked up any of the books yet, but now that I have a two years or so until the next series I may start reading the novels until I can get my fix. ;)

All else fails, toss them in the sci-fi section of the library and tell them to look around and read. I suppose it all depends on how much they enjoy reading. Some kids just aren't into it. I was very happy on summer vacations when my parents dumped me at the library.
Software

Submission + - Algorithm Rates Trustworthiness of Wikipedia Pages

Submitted by paleshadows
paleshadows writes: Researchers at UCSC developed a tool that measures the trustworthiness of each wikipedia page. Roughly speaking, the algorithm analyzes the entire 7-year user-editing-history and utilzes the longevity of the content to learn which contributors are the most reliable: If your contribution lasts, you gain "reputation", whereas if it's edited out, your reputation falls. The trustworthiness of a newly inserted text is a function of the reputation of all its authors, a heuristic that turned out to be successful in identifying poor content. The interested reader can take a look at this demo (random page with white/orange background marking trusted/untrusted text, respectively; note "random page" link at the left for more demo pages), this presentation (pdf), and this paper (pdf).
Education

Submission + - Internet no longer dangerous, school boards decide (blorge.com) 1

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes: "Good news. The National School Boards Association, which represents 95,000 school board members, just released a report declaring fears of the internet are overblown. In fact, after surveying 1,277 students, "the researchers found exactly one student who reported they'd actually met a stranger from the internet without their parents' permission. (They described this as "0.08 percent of all students.") The report reminds educators that schools initially banned internet use before they'd realized how educational it was. Now instead they're urging schools to include social networks in their curriculum!"
Biotech

Submission + - Human diversity on the decline

Submitted by
jd
jd writes: "In a study covering five different periods of history, from 300 AD to the present day, and geographically spread across much of Europe, scientists have extracted the mitochondrial DNA from a sizable number of individuals in an effort to examine changes in diversity. The results, published in the Royal Society journal is intriguing to say the least. 1700 years ago, three out of every four individuals belonged to a different haplotype. In modern Europe, the number is only one in three. The researchers blame a combination of plague, selection of dominant lineages and culturally-inflicted distortions. The researchers say more work needs to be done, but are unclear if this involves archaeology or experiments involving skewing the data in the local female population."
Space

Submission + - Largest-known planet befuddles scientists (msn.com)

Submitted by
langelgjm
langelgjm writes: "As mentioned today on the BBC World Report:

The largest planet ever discovered is also one of the strangest and theoretically should not even exist, scientists say. Dubbed TrES-4, the planet is about 1.7 times the size of Jupiter and belongs to a small subclass of "puffy" planets that have extremely low densities. The finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal. "TrES-4 is way bigger than it's supposed to be," Mandushev told Space.com. "For its mass, it should be much smaller. It basically should be about the size of Jupiter and instead it's almost twice as big." "TrES-4 appears to be something of a theoretical problem," said study team member Edward Dunham, also of the Lowell Observatory. "Problems are good, though, since we learn new things by solving them."
Software

Submission + - Which is the best data compressor in the world?

Submitted by
crazyeyes
crazyeyes writes: "We all use some kind of data compression software but do you know what is the best data compressor in the world? This amazing article has detailed test results that compare 11 of the most common data compressors with 8 different filetypes.

The author covers 7-zip, ARJ32, bzip2, gzip, SBC Archiver, Squeez, StuffIt, WinAce, WinRAR, WinRK, WinZip and tests using 8 filesets — Audio Files (WAV), Audio Files (MP3), Documents, E-Books, Movies (DivX), Movies (MPEG), Pictures (PSD) and Pictures (JPEG). He tests them at different settings and even includes the aggregated results.

This is easily the best article I've seen on data compression. If you want to know if the data compression software you use is good enough, read this article and compare its performance against the other compressors. You will be surprised with the results. Slashdotters will enjoy arguing over them!"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Screwed Via Small Print 3

Journal by gbulmash
Seems that EULA's aren't the only places companies try to screw you. A big source of consumer losses are sites that autorenew subscriptions. They get you signed up and then a month or a year later, after you've forgotten about them, the charge shows up on your credit card or PayPal account. This isn't just porn sites, but sites that seem otherwise legitimate. Some understand that the fight over the refund and the angry ex-customer aren't worth the hassle and will process the cancellation of
The Internet

Submission + - Google's data-storing feature fuels privacy fears

Submitted by
taoman1
taoman1 writes: "Facing worries about its tracking Web surfers' every move, Google Inc. is now offering a feature to track Web surfers' every move. Its free Web History service is strictly voluntary — Google users can sign up to have the Internet giant keep detailed records of every website they visit so they can easily find them again later. Web History's quiet debut this week came as privacy advocates continued to raise alarms about the prospect of Google combining its collection of information on individuals with that of DoubleClick Inc. Google has agreed to acquire the New York-based company, which distributes Web ads and tracks where the majority of people go on the Internet, for $3.1 billion."
Music

Safeguards For RIAA Hard Drive Inspection 276

Posted by kdawson from the under-watchful-eyes dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In SONY v. Arellanes, an RIAA case in Sherman, Texas, the Court entered a protective order (PDF) that spells out the following procedure for the RIAA's examination of the defendant's hard drive: (1) RIAA imaging specialist makes mirror image of hard drive; (2) mutually acceptable computer forensics expert makes make two verified bit images, and creates an MD5 or equivalent hash code; (3) one mirror image is held in escrow by the expert, the other given to defendant's lawyer for a 'privilege review'; (4) defendant's lawyer provides plaintiffs' lawyer with a 'privilege log' (list of privileged files); (5) after privilege questions are resolved, the escrowed image — with privileged files deleted — will be turned over to RIAA lawyers, to be held for 'lawyers' eyes only.' The order differs from the earlier order (PDF) entered in the case, in that it (a) permits the RIAA's own imaging person to make the initial mirror image and (b) spells out the details of the method for safeguarding privilege and privacy."

Feed The flipside: RDS-TMC hack helps you avoid traffic jams, accidents (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: GPS

There's nothing quite like taking a slightly frightening message and flipping into something positive, but for security mastermind Andrea Barisani, that's precisely what he's done. Just weeks after pointing out all the potential dangers surrounding RDS-TMC hacks on your GPS, the Inverse Path researcher set out to CanSecWest aiming to boast about its utility. By procuring a relatively inexpensive ($40) RDS encoder, an FM transmitter, and a handheld antenna, hackers can reportedly track down the codes used "to denote a particular event," and then pipe the information into the navigation system in order to create automatic re-routing for avoiding upcoming accidents and traffic jams. By injecting the "spoofed alerts," the driver's NAV will then be able to recalculate routes on the fly without badgering you, and all that saved time could certainly end up paying dividends. Sure, this same technology is available in much less vulnerable forms, but who's down with paying a monthly premium if you can (legally) snag it from thin air?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Role Playing (Games)

Operation Dice Drop for Zigggurat Con in Iraq 45

Posted by Zonk from the i-suggest-the-shackled-city-guys dept.
LandGator wrote with some information about the upcoming Ziggurat Con. Their catch phrase: "Where RPG isn't just a Rocket Propelled Grenade." This very special tabletop gaming event will be held on June 9th of this year ... at Camp Adder /Talil Airbase in Iraq. For nine hours on that day, gamers currently deployed to Iraq will be able to forget about the conflict by rolling dice and playing games. The con organizers are looking for willing folks to donate games and dice to the soldiers, as well as a little recognition for the d20-rolleres in harms way this year. "The Con's historical landmark 'mascot' -- the Ziggurat -- can be found on the post, and hails from the ancient city of Ur. Nearby is the house where it is believed that Abraham (a large figure in the Bible, the Koran and the Torah) was born. Cool digs for a Con -- if not for the fact that there's a war going on. [Convention organizer David] Amberson, however, emphasized the need for soldiers to relax and kick back with enjoyable activities from time to time."
Power

Submission + - S3 Standby State Done Right

Submitted by
Cameron Butterfield
Cameron Butterfield writes: "Because of increasing awareness in the general public about energy conservation, the ability to utilize low power states on desktop PCs is incredibly underdocumented and widely unused. My goal with this article is to change all that, to help computer users everywhere utilize these low power states without losing any original functionality of their network drives or remote applications. Heck, if you follow this guide, you may even be able to save a buck or two in the process. This article will attempt to answer the following:
  • Why bother? Why do I even want to waste my time on this?
  • My computer won't cooperate! How can I enable a S3 standby state which uses a fraction of the power vs. an Always on or a S1 standby state?
  • Now that I have enabled a S3 Standby state, how can I get my computer to wake up without issues?
  • I use my computer as an always on a file server / remote desktop / vnc machine. Can I actually take advantage of low power sleep states? I need access to my files at all times!

The link to this article is here: http://www.exoid.com/?p=29

Please give it a read and please consider posting the link on slashdot.
Thank you.
-Cameron Butterfield"

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