makellan - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Not enough, (Score 5, Insightful) 415

by makellan on Monday December 23, 2013 @06:42PM (#45770329) Attached to: Alan Turing Pardoned

To be fair to the Queen, he was guilty of something that was illegal at the time so a pardon is appropriate. The fact that it should never have been an issue, much less a criminal one, is, technically, not her fault. What she should do is pardon everyone who was ever convicted of being gay.

Comment Important to pass, not to understand or use (Score 1) 656

by makellan on Friday May 31, 2013 @01:58PM (#43875451) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree?

Getting your BSc or even your BSe (Software Engineering) will require calculus. You're unlikely to ever use it again since you won't pick a job that requires a deep understanding of the subject. You can even look up anything that you need to know and/or use libraries written by those with that deep understanding. Just get through the courses.

Submission + - US Patent Office teams with Google on database (nextgov.com)

Submitted by PatPending on Tuesday June 08, 2010 @06:09PM

PatPending writes: From the article:

The Patent and Trademark Office announced today it has reached a two-year "no-cost" agreement with Google to make patent and trademark data electronically available for free to the public in bulk form.

Saying it lacks the technical capacity to offer such a service, PTO said the two-year agreement with Google is a temporary solution while the agency seeks a contractor to build a database that would allow the public to access such information in electronic machine-readable bulk form.

Submission + - Olympus digital camera ships with computer worm (sophos.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2010 @05:00PM

An anonymous reader writes: Olympus Japan has issued a warning to customers who have bought its Stylus Tough 6010 digital compact camera that it comes with an unexpected extra — a virus on its internal memory card.

The Autorun worm cannot infect the camera itself, but if it is plugged into a Windows computer USB port it can copy itself onto the PC, and then subsequently infect any attached USB device. Olympus says it "humbly apologises" for the incident which is believed to have affected some 1700 units, and that it will make every effort to improve its quality control procedures in future.

Security company Sophos says that more companies need to wake up to the need for better quality control to ensure that they don't ship virus-infected gadgets. At the same time, consumers should learn to always ensure Autorun is disabled, and scan any device for malware, before they use it on their computer.

Submission + - Violent Videogames Only Affect Some People (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2010 @04:24PM

An anonymous reader writes: The media would have you believe that violent videogames will be the downfall of our civilization and the cause of moral decline in young people. A recent study suggests that most people aren't so easily influenced by the violence; instead, just a few bad apples are likely to react poorly, with everyone else showing little or no effect from playing these games.

Submission + - Stem Cell Tourists Take Costa Rica off the Agenda (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2010 @02:16PM

An anonymous reader writes: Stem cell tourism is a booming and troubling industry, in which clinics in places like Mexico, China, and India offer rich tourists experimental stem cell-based treatments, none of which have been approved by the FDA here in the U.S. (Check out some of these creepy sites that offer treatments for everything from autism to MS, and even the "very common ailment called aging.") But in one positive development, Costa Rica just shut down its top stem cell clinic. Said the country's health minister: “This isn’t allowed in any serious country in the world.”

Submission + - Crackers Cause Pentagon to Put Computers Offline (time.com)

Submitted by

Anarchysoft

on Thursday June 21, 2007 @07:34PM

Anarchysoft writes: "As many as 1500 pentagon computers were brought offline on Wednesday in response to a cyber attack. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reported of the fallout both that the attack had 'no adverse impact on department operations' and that 'there will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences.' When asked whether his own e-mail had been compromised, Gates responded, 'I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person.' There was no word whether the pony express was affected by the 'cyberattackers.'"

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