Comment Re:Dwarf fortress fun development (Score 1) 104
LOL. Someone mod that up, please.
Submission + - Chinese boy sells kidney for iPad2 (minyanville.com)
aquabat writes: According to Shanghai Daily, the fanboy from the Anhui Province desperately wanted to buy Apple's flagship tablet but didn't have enough cash. Rather than waiting to save up the money for the Apple product when it invariably gets marked down, the lad decided to sell one of his kidneys for 22,000 yuan (roughly $3,400) so he could afford one. But, surprisingly, the scenario in which the organ was harvested wasn't in the best of conditions, and the boy isn't feeling very well.
Comment Re:I know what caused it (Score 1) 222
Couldn't agree more. How many must die before they learn!??
Nice analogy, btw.
Nice analogy, btw.
Periodic Table Etched Onto a Single Hair 59
adeelarshad82 writes "The University of Nottingham's Nanotechnology Center decided to help Professor of chemistry, Martyn Poliakoff celebrate his special day by 'etching' a copy of a Periodic Table of Elements onto a single strand of the scientist's hair using a 'very sophisticated' electron ion beam microscope. The microscope creates a very fine etching of the periodic table only a few microns across by shooting a 'focused ion beam' of gallium ions at the hair. The technology here is nothing revolutionary, but it is inspiring to see a grown man get so giddy with the prospect of seeing science in action."
Playstation 3 Code Signing Cracked For Good 534
ReportedlyWorking writes "It appears that Sony's PS3 has been fatally compromised. At the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, a team named 'fail0verflow' revealed that they had calculated the Private Keys, which would let them or anyone else generate signed software for the PS3. Additionally, they also claim to have a method of jailbreaking the PS3 without the use of a Dongle, which is the current method. If all these statements are true, this opens the door to custom firmware, and homebrew software. Assuming that Sony doesn't take radical action and invalidate their private keys, this could mean that Jailbreaking is viable on all PS3, regardless of their firmware! From the article: 'Approximately a half hour in, the team revealed their new PS3 secrets, the moment we all were waiting for. One of the major highlights here was, dongle-less jailbreaking by overflowing the bootup NOR flash, giving complete control over the system. The other major feat, was calculating the public private keys (due to botched security), giving users the ability to sign their own SELFs. Following this, the team declared Sony's security to be EPIC FAIL!'"
Submission + - Sony's PS3 Jailbroken Forever (psgroove.com) 1
ReportedlyWorking writes: It appears that Sony's PS3 has been fatally compromised. At the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, a team named "fail0verflow" revealed that they had calculated the Private Keys, which would let them or anyone else, generate signed software for the PS3. Additionally, they also claim to have a method of jailbreaking the PS3 without the use of a Dongle, which is the current method. If all these statements are true, this opens the door to custom firmware, homebrew software, and OtherOS! Assuming that Sony doesn't take radical action and invalidate their private keys, this could mean that Jailbreaking is viable on all PS3, regardless of their firmware!
"Approximately a half hour in, the team revealed their new PS3 secrets, the moment we all were waiting for. One of the major highlights here was, dongle-less jailbreaking by overflowing the bootup NOR flash, giving complete control over the system. The other major feat, was calculating the public private keys (due to botched security), giving users the ability to sign their own SELFs Following this, the team declared Sony's security to be EPIC FAIL!"
"Approximately a half hour in, the team revealed their new PS3 secrets, the moment we all were waiting for. One of the major highlights here was, dongle-less jailbreaking by overflowing the bootup NOR flash, giving complete control over the system. The other major feat, was calculating the public private keys (due to botched security), giving users the ability to sign their own SELFs Following this, the team declared Sony's security to be EPIC FAIL!"
Comment Re:This should put the US on notice (Score 1) 360
Someone mod the parent up.
Comment Fuck That (Score 1) 1348
Linux as a desktop OS is not dead, far from it. It may 'dead' to be unwashed masses; but that is only because of their laziness and fear to try something new. Their loss.
I don't have a single Windows box not only at home (4 desktops, 1 laptop, 1 server), but also at work (desktop/laptop, and I work in a MS shop). I've been doing this for years and have helped a lot of other people convert over (especially if they were using Vista), they just wanted some *stable* to check their email, do some surfing and maybe write a few papers. Once people see that they dont NEED Microsoft OSes/products to do day-to-day tasks (excluding gaming), they have no problem trying some more stable, secure, and solid.
End of rant, and didnt RTFA.
MM.
I don't have a single Windows box not only at home (4 desktops, 1 laptop, 1 server), but also at work (desktop/laptop, and I work in a MS shop). I've been doing this for years and have helped a lot of other people convert over (especially if they were using Vista), they just wanted some *stable* to check their email, do some surfing and maybe write a few papers. Once people see that they dont NEED Microsoft OSes/products to do day-to-day tasks (excluding gaming), they have no problem trying some more stable, secure, and solid.
End of rant, and didnt RTFA.
MM.
Comment 503. (Score 2, Informative) 228
Slashdotted already?
hmm, well it is running IIS...
hmm, well it is running IIS...
Submission + - Things to look for in a web hosting company
v1x writes: I have had an account with my current web hosting company for a few years, with 3 domains being hosted there (using: linux/php/MySQL). Recently, all three of these websites stopped functioning, and upon checking the site, all my directory structures were intact, whereas all of the files were gone. Upon contacting their technical support, I was given the run-around, and later informed by one of their administrators that none of the files could be restored. Needless to say that I am looking for a different web hosting company at this point, but I would like to make a more informed choice than I did with the current company. Do slashdotters have recommendations on what to look for when choosing a web hosting company? I have read a similar slashdot article on the topic, but the questions posed there were slightly different, and that article was posted at least 5 years ago. Thank you.
Submission + - Valve's Battle Against Cheaters (ieee.org)
wjousts writes: IEEE Spectrum has an look behind the scenes at Valve's on-going efforts to battle cheaters in online game:
"Cheating is a superserious threat," says [Steam's lead engineer, John] Cook. "Cheating is more of a serious threat than piracy."
The company combats this with its own Valve Anti-Cheat System, which a user consents to install in the Steam subscriber agreement. Cook says the software gets around antivirus programs by handling all the operations that require administrator access to the user's machine.
So how important is preventing cheating? How much privacy are you willing to sacrifice in the interests of a level playing field?
Valve also looks for changes within the player’s computer processor’s memory, which might indicate that a cheat code is running.
Submission + - Subversive Organizations Must Now Register in SC 6
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Raw Story reports that terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. The "Subversive Activities Registration Act" passed last year in South Carolina and now officially on the books states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State." While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at Islamic terrorists, it's unclear in the law's wording whether it can be applied to militias, some of whom have in the past called for the overthrow of the US government. "In the long and storied history of utterly retarded legislation in South Carolina, we may have finally found the legal statute that takes the cake for sheer stupidity, which we think you’ll agree is saying something," one unsigned blog posting scathingly commented."
Comment Re:Only 24 hours? (Score 1) 107
Amen brother. Scream it from the rooftops.
Firefox Mobile Reaches 1.0 198
Majix writes "Firefox Mobile, the mobile browser developed by Mozilla based on the same engine as in the recently released Firefox 3.6, has finally hit version 1.0. The first device to be officially supported is the Nokia N900. With a long list of features, Firefox Mobile looks to be the most complete mobile browser to date. Highlights include the familiar Awesome Bar, Weave Sync for sharing your browser state between your PC and mobile, and of course tabbed browsing and Firefox add-ons. With the Nokia 900 and Firefox Mobile 1.0, even Flash content including the normal YouTube site is working, showing that a mobile browser does not have to equal a compromised Internet experience."
Unofficial Qt Environment (and Sudoku) For the Kindle 36
An anonymous reader writes "I've just posted packages for installing a Qt-based platform on the Kindle 2 and DX devices, and a Sudoku game to go along with it. The Qt-based platform includes plugins I wrote for the e-ink display, the keyboard, and the five-way joystick thing — so it's a fully interactive and usable environment now. Soon I'll be adding a sample app with source code to go along with it."
