lindec - Slashdot User

Comment T-Mobile International is the Ticket (Score 3, Informative) 176

by lindec on Saturday February 07, 2009 @07:19PM (#26767647) Attached to: Keeping in Contact With Family, From Afghanistan?

My father has been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world and he brings with him a T-Mobile Quad-band phone with the International Package. He got pretty good service in Afghanistan. You can check the rates here: https://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide It looks like calls are about $4.99/minute there, so you probably won't want to chat for hours on end, but my family has used this method for several deployments and it works stellar. Thank you for your service.

"Back Door" Cheating Scandal Rocks Online Poker 427

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 30, 2008 @04:05PM from the know-when-to-hold-'em dept.

AcidAUS sends us the story of an online poker cheating ring that netted an estimated $10M for its perpetrators over almost 4 years. The article spotlights the role of an Australian player who first performed the statistical analyses that demonstrated that cheating had to be going on. "In two separate cases, Michael Josem, from Chatswood, analyzed detailed hand history data from Absolute Poker and UltimateBet and uncovered that certain player accounts won money at a rate too fast to be legitimate. His findings led to an internal investigation by the parent company that owns both sites. It found rogue employees had defrauded players over three years via a security hole that allowed the cheats to see other player's secret (or hole) cards." The (Mohawk) Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which licenses the two poker companies, has released its preliminary report. MSNBC reporting from a couple of weeks back gives deep background on the scandal.

Submission + - SPAM: ISPs experimenting with new P2P controls

Submitted by alphadogg on Thursday June 19, 2008 @06:11PM

alphadogg writes: Peer-to-peer traffic management was a hot topic at this year's NXTcomm convention in Las Vegas, as keynote speakers and telecom industry panelists highlighted new methods for handling P2P traffic crunches. ISPs' methods for managing P2P traffic have come under intense scrutiny in recent months after the Associated Press reported last year that Comcast was actively interfering with P2P users' ability to upload files by sending TCP RST packets that informed them that their connection would have to be reset. While speakers rejected that Comcast method, some said it was time to follow the lead of Comcast and begin implementing caps for individual users who are consuming disproportionately high amounts of bandwidth.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Carl Icahn Takes on Yahoo Board 1

Submitted by

narramissic

on Thursday May 15, 2008 @10:41AM

narramissic writes: "In a letter distributed this morning to the press and addressed to Yahoo's board Chairman Roy Bostock, Carl Icahn charges the board with acting irrationally and losing the faith of shareholders and Microsoft and announces he is nominating 10 candidates to replace all incumbent directors at the company's shareholders meeting in July. The move, rumored since earlier this week, is intended to ultimately reignite merger negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft.

'It is quite obvious that Microsoft's bid of $33 per share is a superior alternative to Yahoo's prospects on a standalone basis. I am perplexed by the board's actions. It is irresponsible to hide behind management's more than overly optimistic financial forecasts,' Icahn wrote.
"
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Is inexpensive video surveillance possible? 2

Submitted by timholman on Saturday April 26, 2008 @11:30PM

timholman writes: After a series of burglaries and auto break-ins in my neighborhood, I'm thinking about adding some video security cameras to my home. To me, the object isn't just deterrence — if someone tries to break into my house or my car (parked on the street in front of my house), I'd like to provide a high quality image of the perpetrator to give to the police. Inexpensive video surveillance systems are nearly useless, since the image quality is atrocious. The problem is being able to get good image quality at an affordable price. After some research, I've decided that using network cameras to FTP images to a central server over a HomePlug network is the best solution. However, good megapixel network cameras (e.g. Stardot or Axis cameras) can easily cost more than $1000 each. Has any Slashdotter dealt with a similar situation? Is there any way to get reasonable quality (preferably open source) video surveillance equipment for home use (daytime and nightime) without paying an arm and a leg? Is it better to go with a couple of expensive cameras, or a multitude of inexpensive cameras? Is paying two to three thousand dollars simply unavoidable if I want to monitor my front and back yards?

Submission + - Facebook caves to privacy protests over Beacon (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw on Wednesday December 05, 2007 @02:45PM

jcatcw writes: After weeks of privacy protests over its advertising system, Facebook CEO announced that users now can turn the system off completely. CEO Zuckerberg said "We simply did a bad job with this release." Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, called the announcement from Zuckerberg "a step in the right direction."

Journal Journal: Sony prepares to settle with FTC over rootkits 133

Journal by Anonymous McCartneyf on Tuesday January 30, 2007 @07:59PM

The FTC is about to make a deal with Sony punishing Sony for the rootkits. This settlement is exactly like the Texas and California settlements--$150 a rootkit.
Cite: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6314443.stm
The settlement isn't final yet. There will be a 30-day public consultation. American citizens who read Slashdot might want to put in their two cents.

Journal Journal: NJ Schools testing for weekend drinking. 1

Journal by vettenyy on Tuesday January 30, 2007 @05:52PM

So I came across this article on FoxNews.com. Apparently, in a New Jersey school district, they are testing student's urine for weekend drinking. From the article: "Under the program, students who test positive will not be kicked off teams or barred from extracurricular activities, Reynolds said. Instead, they will receive counseling -- and their parents will be notified." This to me is clearly a privacy issue, since the test is

Submission + - Sony and Universal Prohibit Squirting Some Artists

Submitted by ack154 on Friday January 19, 2007 @07:06PM

ack154 writes: Engadget has a story about Sony and Universal Music apparently denying Zune owners the ability to squirt songs by certain artists to other Zune users. That's right, if you've actually purchased songs from the Zune marketplace and happen to run into another Zune owner, you're prohibited from sharing certain songs. From the article: "In a non-scientific sampling of popular artists by Zunerama and Zune Thoughts, it looks like it's roughly 40-50 percent of artist that fall under this prohibited banner, and the worst news is that there's no warning that a song might be unsharable until you actually try to send it and fail."

Comment May Not Be A Bad Plan... (Score 4, Interesting) 234

by lindec on Sunday June 13, 2004 @04:32PM (#9415014) Attached to: Buy Lindows, Get Fedora and Mandrake Too?

This isn't a terrible plan if you a truly confident in your product. I think we've seen that Robertson is confident in Linspire, and although he may be controversial, I think he's done a lot to promote Linux. Promotion is not a bad thing, and from my experience, Linspire is not a bad introductory distro, so this is probably a good thing.

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