peet - Slashdot User

Facebook Master Password Was "Chuck Norris" 319

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 21, 2010 @03:56PM from the ad-nauseum-roundhouse dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A Facebook employee has given a tell-all interview with some very interesting things about Facebook's internals. Especially interesting are all the things relating to Facebook privacy. Basically, you don't have any. Nearly everything you've ever done on the site is recorded into a database. While they fire employees for snooping, more than a few have done it. There's an internal system to let them log into anyone's profile, though they have to be able to defend their reason for doing so. And they used to have a master password that could log into any Facebook profile: 'Chuck Norris.' Bruce Schneier might be jealous of that one."

Submission + - First quantum computer demoed, plays sudoku

Submitted by

prostoalex

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @12:46AM

prostoalex writes: "Canadian company D-Wave Systems is getting some technology press buzz after successfully demonstrating their quantum computer that the company plans to rent out. Scientific American has more of technical description of how the quantum computer works as well as possible areas of application: "The quantum computer was given three problems to solve: searching for molecular structures that match a target molecule, creating a complicated seating plan, and filling in Sudoku puzzles." There are also some videos from the demo."

P2P Virtual Currency Exchange Launches 128

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @11:36PM from the buy-your-money dept.

miller60 writes "In the wake of eBay's decision to halt auctions of virtual property, new companies are entering the market to fill the void, including one allowing gamers to trade game currency directly with one another rather than buying from IGE or other exchanges. The company, Sparter, says this eBay-like "peer-to-peer" approach will result in lower prices as sellers compete. It incorporates a reputation system and escrow for gold delivery. Sparter received venture funding from Bessemer Capital, signaling that VCs still see opportunity in the virtual economy, even if eBay doesn't."

VeriChip Implants 222 People With RFID 306

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @11:43AM from the i-trust-my-ass-chip-to-linux dept.

cnet-declan writes "Anyone remember VeriChip, a company that came up with the idea of implanting chips in humans for tracking them? They've been behind ideas like RFID tagging immigrant and guest workers at the border, and they've persuaded a former Bush Health Secretary to get himself chipped. In this CNET News.com article, we offer an update on how successful the idea has been. It turns out that, according to IPO documents, 222 people have been implanted, with sales revenue of $100,000."

Yahoo Music Chief Comes Out Against DRM 304

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @11:00AM from the getting-on-the-bandwagon dept.

waired writes "It seem that a trend has begun in the music industry after Steve Jobs essay. Now a senior Yahoo chief has spoken out in favor of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' call for major labels to abandon digital rights technology (DRM). It points out that consumers are getting confused and that the Microsoft DRM "doesn't work half the time"."

Google News Found Guilty of Copyright Violation 223

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @10:19AM from the de-index-belgium-in-retaliation dept.

schmiddy writes "A court in Brussels, Belgium, has just found Google guilty of violating copyright law with its Google News aggregator. According to the ruling, Google News' links and brief summaries of news sources violates copyright law. Google will be forced to pay $32,600 for each day it displayed the links of the plaintiffs. Although Google plans to appeal, this ruling could have chilling effects on fair use rights on the web in the rest of Europe as well if other countries follow suit."

Is Wikipedia Failing? 478

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @09:43AM from the everybody-successful-is-failing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A growing number of people are concerned about where Wikipedia is heading. Some have left Wikipedia for Citizendium, while others are trying to change the culture of Wikipedia from within. A recent essay called Wikipedia is failing points out many of the problems which must be solved with Wikipedia for it to succeed in its aim of becoming a reputable, reliable reference work. How would you go about solving these problems?"

Comment Uh huh, sure. (Score 1) 360

by peet on Sunday November 28, 1999 @09:21AM (#1499613) Attached to: License to Surf

This entire thing just smacks of a half-hearted attempt for W3C to get their hands on some of the money thats pouring through the web right now. Also, Cailliau really contradicts himself: he wants to track down racist websites and perverts, but at the same time, he wants things to be free of content governing rules? Make up your mind, buddy.

It's arguable that licensing people to use the internet would probably increase the level of clue out there among all the Joe Sixpacks on AOL. But I really doubt that any sort of licensing or registration will help in combatting stuff like warez, kiddie porn, or whatever the media is whipping the public into a frenzy about. And I'm certain that advertising companies are not going to go out of their way to make sure that these 'licensed' users see less ads while surfing, or get less spam in their mailbox.

Besides, with all the ways to be anonymous nowadays (remailers, Freedom, etc.) I seriously doubt that this would be easy to implement, so that it covers every person, anywhere. If this was thought about a few years ago, maybe it wouldn't sound so farfetched. But right now, its a case of closing the barn door after the horse has ran off.

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