pythas - Slashdot User

Comment Congrats kdawson I'm officially done with slashdot (Score 5, Insightful) 1127

by pythas on Monday February 16, 2009 @11:44PM (#26882223) Attached to: Draconian DRM Revealed In Windows 7

Kdawson always posts complete and utter bullshit, but this really is over the line. I've been reading Slashdot for a long long time, but if this is seriously what makes it on the front page these days, there's really no point in even visiting here anymore.

It's been real everyone, last one out hit the lights.

Comment We actually have the opposite problem (Score 1) 674

by pythas on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @12:56AM (#26808277) Attached to: How To Argue That Open Source Software Is Secure?

I work for a SaaS company, and when we go through the inevitable rounds of security discussions any mention of open source software can be met with grumbles and a big discussion justifying it's use with some of our larger customers. Fun times!

Run Google App Engine Apps On Amazon's Cloud 39

Posted by kdawson on Monday April 14, 2008 @07:30PM from the ionized-path-between-the-clouds dept.

jamie found a post laying to rest one potential criticism of Google's App Engine, that of the danger of lock-in to the platform. Waxy.org points out a hack called AppDrop, written by Chris Anderson, that provides a container for Google App SDK applications, running entirely on Amazon's EC2 infrastructure. Here's Anderson's AppDrop page and his blog post announcing it.

First Looks at The Gimp 2.5 446

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 14, 2008 @09:27AM from the like-a-fine-wine dept.

desmondhaynes writes "The GIMP team announced today the first release from the 2.5 development series. It is true that this version is unstable, but a little bird told me to give it a try and see what's it capable of. First of all, let me tell you that its interface is quite redesigned and I think that some users will have problems adjusting with it, but that's just my two cents. On the other hand, version 2.5.0 of The GIMP includes some hot new features, like the integration of GEGL (Generic Graphics Library) which will finally get support for higher color depths, more colorspaces and eventually non-destructive editing."

Obama Would Redirect NASA Funding to Education 357

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday April 12, 2008 @04:04AM from the perhaps-earlier-schooling-isn't-the-answer-either dept.

QuantumG writes "In a recent article on The Space Review, Greg Zsidisin reveals that Barack Obama plans to delay Project Constellation for at least five years, using the redirected funds to nationalize early-education for children under five years old to prepare them for the rigors of kindergarten and beyond, if he is elected president. It is feared that if this happens the Vision for Space Exploration will flounder and that may be the end of human spaceflight altogether."

College Board Kills AP Computer Science AB 322

Posted by Zonk on Sunday April 06, 2008 @04:32PM from the unpopular-is-a-word-for-it dept.

jhealy1024 writes "The College Board recently announced it will be getting rid of the Advanced Placement Computer Science AB examination after May 2009. The 'A'-level exam will continue to be offered, though there is no word yet on what will become of the AB-level material (e.g., if it will be merged into A or just dropped). Many teachers of AP CS are upset about the move, as it seems the decision was made without consulting members of the CS teaching community. As one teacher put it: 'this is like telling the football coach next year is the last year you have a varsity team.'"

White House Says Hard Drives Were Destroyed 411

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 23, 2008 @07:58AM from the just-in-case dept.

wanderindiana brings us an update on the White House missing emails mess, which we have discussed before. It seems the hard drives of many White House computers are gone beyond the possibility of recovery. Is it unusual in your experience for, say, a corporate IT department to destroy hard drives by policy? "Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005. The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed."

Comment Re:Troll article (Score 1) 212

by pythas on Friday March 21, 2008 @05:08PM (#22823786) Attached to: Microsoft Hyper-V Leaves Linux Out In The Cold

True, I was just lazy and bored. :)

What Happens To Bounced @Donotreply.com E-Mails 286

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday March 21, 2008 @04:30PM from the lazy-people-who-can't-configure-mail-servers-to-do-their-bidding dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post's Security Fix blog today features a funny but scary interview with a guy in Seattle who owns the domain name donotreply.com. Apparently, everyone from major US banks to the Transportation Security Administration to contractors in Iraq use some variation on the address in the "From:" field of all e-mails sent out, with the result that bounced e-mails go to the owner of donotreply.com.'With the exception of extreme cases like those mentioned above, Faliszek says he long ago stopped trying to alert companies about the e-mails he was receiving. It's just not worth it: Faliszek said he is constantly threatened with lawsuits from companies who for one reason or another have a difficult time grasping why he is in possession of their internal documents and e-mails.'"

Sony Blu-ray Under Patent Infringement Probe 160

Posted by kdawson on Friday March 21, 2008 @10:51AM from the not-your-usual-patent-troll dept.

Lucas123 writes "The US International Trade Commission said it will launch an investigation into possible patent infringements involving Sony's Blu-ray players and other technologies using laser and light-emitting diodes, such as Motorola's Razr phone and Hitachi camcorders. The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed in February by a Columbia University professor emerita who says she invented a method of using gallium nitride-based semiconductor material for producing wide band-gap semiconductors for LEDs and laser diodes in the blue/ultraviolet end of the light spectrum. Her complaint asks the ITC to block imports of LED and laser diode technology from Asia and Europe. The total market for all types of gallium nitride devices has been forecast at $7.2 billion for 2009 alone."

Inside The Twisted Mind of Bruce Schneier 208

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 21, 2008 @05:15AM from the it's-dark-in-here dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Bruce Schneier has an essay on the mind of security professionals like himself, and why it's something that can't easily be taught. Many people simply don't see security threats or the potential ways in which things can be abused because they don't intend to abuse them. But security pros, even those who don't abuse what they find, have a different way of looking at things. They always try to figure out all the angles or how someone could beat the system. In one of his examples, Bruce talks about how, after buying one of Uncle Milton's Ant Farms, he was enamored with the idea that they would mail a tube of live ants to anyone you asked them to. Schneier's article was inspired by a University of Washington course in which the professor is attempting to teach the 'security mindset.' Students taking the course have been encouraged to post security reviews on a class blog."

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