======================================================================
Join rPath at WMWorld '07 & Play rPath Hold'em to Win An iPhone!
rPath is pioneering the software appliance approach for application
distribution & management. SW appliances are easier to create, deploy
& manage. Use JeOS & rPath. Learn more here:
http://ad.adlegend.com/click?spacedesc=1112196_1083394_1x1_1079861_1112196&ML_NIF=N
======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* PC Superstore Admits Linux Hinge Repair Mistake
* Are You Being Cheated by Digital Cable?
* Cleaning up the Most Toxic Pollution in the World
* Wii Uses Elliptic Curve Cryptography For Saves
* Researchers Suggest P2P As Solution To Video Domination of The Internet
* Is Apple Doing All It Can to Beat Vista?
* Attacking Multicore CPUs
* Undergrad-built Robots Play "Operation"
* Guido and Bruce Eckel Discuss Python 3000
* Dell, Lenovo Adding Solar Option for PCs
* German Police Arrest Admin of Tor Anonymity Server
* How Computers Transformed Baby Boomers
* Software Freedom Law Center vs Theo de Raadt
* Robotic Scout To Survey Arctic Ice
* Comcast Slightly Clarifies High Speed Extreme Use Policy
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PC Superstore Admits Linux Hinge Repair Mistake |
| from the there-are-some-happy-endings-after-all dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday September 15, @21:29 (Portables) |
|
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/15/2031231
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Erris writes "PC Superstore [0]says their store manager was wrong to
[1]turn away a client with a broken hinge whose [2]machine should have
been repaired. 'El Reg put a call in to the DSGi-owned retail giant to
get some clarification on PC World's Linux support policy. A spokesman
told us that there had simply been a misunderstanding at the store and
that, in fact, the normal procedure would be for the Tech Guys to provide
a fix. [PC World] will provide a full repair once the firm has made
contact with Tikka.'
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/15/2031231
Links:
0. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/13/pc_world_linux/
1. http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=283779
2. http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/RefundsReturnsPolicy/?int=right_nav
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Are You Being Cheated by Digital Cable? |
| from the every-bill dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday September 15, @23:22 (Television) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/0238245
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Lauren Weinstein writes "Even though your cable company may claim that
a channel is in a digital tier that you're paying for, they [1]may be
sending it to you in analog form, with associated negative effects.
Surprise! Are You Being Cheated by Digital Cable? 'You're paying for
digital, you should get digital. Outside of the lower video and audio
quality that can be present on many analog feeds, third-party devices
(like cableCARD TiVos) which could otherwise record a digital signal
directly, will be forced to re-digitize an analog signal, with inevitable
quality loss in the process. But how to know for sure if a channel is
digital or analog as received?'"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/0238245
Links:
0. mailto:lauren@vortex.com
1. http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000291.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cleaning up the Most Toxic Pollution in the World |
| from the top-ten-of-toxic dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @01:28 (The Almighty Buck)|
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/0242223
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Blacksmith Institute has published their list of
the [1]most polluted sites in the world compiled by comparing the
toxicity of the contamination, the likelihood of it getting into humans
and the number of people affected. For example, ninety-nine percent of
the children living in and around the poly-metallic smelter at [2]La
Oroya in Peru, owned by the Missouri-based Doe Run Corporation, have
blood lead levels that exceed acceptable limits. Scientific American says
that despite the massive pollution, it would be relatively cheap and easy
[3]to clean up the most dangerous hazards. For $15,000, the radioactive
contaminated soil from the Mayak plutonium facility on the shore of the
Techa River in the Russian town of Muslyomova could be dug up, saving an
estimated 350 lives. 'For about $200, the cost of a refrigerator, we are
able to save someone's life,' says Richard Fuller, founder of
Blacksmith."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/0242223
Links:
0. http://www.hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/ten.php
2. http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/site10f.php
3. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanId=sa003&articleId=FFFCB503-E7F2-99DF-3C67B106B2D76E59
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wii Uses Elliptic Curve Cryptography For Saves |
| from the advanced-tech dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @03:20 (Wii (Games)) |
|
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/0317204
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "A user at the Nintendo-Scene forums just
posted a lengthy post about his discovery that the Wii savegame files are
[0]signed and encrypted with NIST B 233 bit elliptic curve cryptography.
Could this be the first step for a Wii softmod the homebrew community
have waited for? From the post: 'It appears a Wii savegame file ends with
a certificate chain. The certificates contains a public keypair (the one
that is being "certified") and a signature (another number pair) from the
signing entity. The number pairs are stored as a compound 60 bit data
(first 30 bytes for the first number, and the next 30 bytes for the
second). Hence, the first and middle byte is always 00 or 01 for keys,
and 00 for signatures. One can check that the keys are indeed NIST B 233
keys using openssls EC_KEY_check_key function (code forthcoming).'"
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/0317204
Links:
0. http://forums.nintendo-scene.com/index.php?topic=797.0
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Researchers Suggest P2P As Solution To Video Domination of The Inte|
| from the making-it-all-work dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @05:21 (The Internet) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/0331221
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
JPawlak writes "NewScientistTech reports that big businesses may be
[0]realizing the benefits of P2P technologies. Blizzard uses it to
distribute patches for World of Warcraft, and now researchers at
Microsoft are indicating internet users may have to use it to help
distribute online video clips. The growing cost associated with
delivering such content may be becoming prohibitive for some companies.
'The team also suggest a way to prevent Internet Service Providers' costs
jumping when their users start uploading much more data. The trick is to
allow sharing only between people with the same provider, when data
transactions are free. That restriction would cut the pool of sharers
into smaller groups, meaning MSN's servers would have to do more to fill
any gaps in the service. But costs could still fall by more than half,
simulations showed.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/0331221
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Is Apple Doing All It Can to Beat Vista? |
| from the both-barrels-double-shotgun-explosive-bullets dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @07:09 (Businesses) |
|
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/0339226
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
aalobode writes "The New York Times is running an article on the
[0]narrowing window that Apple has for beating Microsoft's Vista.
According the Times, not enough has been done to capitalize on the Mac
user experience versus the 'world of hurt that is Vista'. It also points
out that that restructuring of Apple leaves ambiguities about Apple's
exact commitment to the computer end of its business. The article calls
MS Vista's certified vendors, developers and driver writers a flywheel
that takes a while coming up to speed - and then becomes unstoppable."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/0339226
Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/technology/16digi.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Attacking Multicore CPUs |
| from the i-just-use-a-mallet dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday September 16, @09:20 (Security) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/131251
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Ant writes "The Register reports that the world of current multi-core
central processing units (CPUs) just entered is [1]facing a serious
threat. A security researcher at Cambridge disclosed a new class of
vulnerabilities that takes advantage of concurrency to bypass security
protections such as anti-virus software The attack is based on the
assumption that the software that interacts with the kernel can be used
without interference. The researcher, Robert Watson, showed that a
careful written exploit can attack in the little timeframe when this
happens, and literally change the "words" that they are exchanging. Even
if some of these dark aspects of concurrency were already known, Watson
proved that real attacks can be developed, and showed that developers
have to fix their code. Fast..."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/131251
Links:
0. http://aqfl.net/
1. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/14/system_call_sploits/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Undergrad-built Robots Play "Operation" |
| from the you're-the-doctor-having-so-much-fun dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday September 16, @10:32 (Education) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/135238
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]jnakane writes "[1]UBC Engineering Physics students [2]pit prototype
operation robots against each other for prizes and bragging rights in the
7th Annual Robot Competition. Offering solutions to handle delicate body
parts on a 6-foot long version of the playing surface resembling the
board game "Operation" (including the "shock" buzzer), the second-year
students designed and built autonomous surgical robots to remove body
organs reliably and quickly (well, most of the time). You can also [3]see
video footage."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/135238
Links:
0. mailto:jnakane@physics.ubc.ca
1. http://www.engphys.ubc.ca/
2. http://www.engphys.ubc.ca/phys253/
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGewu13yNY
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Guido and Bruce Eckel Discuss Python 3000 |
| from the guido-or-eckel-which-is-a-funnier-name-discuss dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday September 16, @11:29 (Programming) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/1431213
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Phoe6 writes "Leading author and programmer, Bruce Eckel, posted some
of his concerns on Python 3000 stating that python community is missing
to address some of the important issues with this major, backward
incompatible release. Problems he mentions are concurrency support on
multi-core cpus, easy deployment support, a standardized user interface
amongst others. He expresses his dissatisfaction at the post titled
[1]"Python 3K or Python 2.9?. Guido van Rossum, in a very pragmatic way
addresses the concerns with [1]his response to Bruce Eckel and calling
out more for developers to contribute to Python to improve it further.
Bruce Eckel concludes with his thoughts that he wants his favorite
language to be better with [2]his reply to Guido's reply."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/1431213
Links:
0. http://uthcode.sarovar.org/
1. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=214325
2. http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=214480
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dell, Lenovo Adding Solar Option for PCs |
| from the well-not-exactly dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday September 16, @12:23 (Power) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/1438259
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "Lenovo just announced a [0]solar power option
for PCs, and Dell is about to do the same, according to Advanced Energy
Group. But the solar hardware weights 86 pounds and costs $1,300! Lenovo
officials admit they had to do this to reach the 75% mark to gain EPEAT
Gold status; Dell couldn't be reached for comment. Hopefully the
technology will get smaller and more affordable."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/1438259
Links:
0. http://www.ecnmag.com/article.aspx?id=149032&adcode=section=effzone
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| German Police Arrest Admin of Tor Anonymity Server |
| from the good-guys-never-win dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @13:36 (Security) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/1648237
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "In a recent blog posting, a German operator
of a Tor anonymous proxy server revealed that he was arrested by German
police officers at the end of July. Showing up at his house at midnight
on a Sunday night, police cuffed and arrested him in front of his wife
and seized his equipment. In a display of both bitter irony and
incompetence, [0]the police did not take or shut-down the Tor server
responsible for the traffic they were interested in, which was located in
a data center, over 500km away. In the last year, Germany has passed a
[1]draconian new anti-security research law and raided seven different
data centers to seize Tor servers. While back in 2003, A German court
[2]ordered the developers of a different anonymity network to build a
back-door into their system."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/1648237
Links:
0. http://www.cnet.com/surveillance-state/8301-13739_1-9779225-46.html?
2. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6779
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How Computers Transformed Baby Boomers |
| from the horrible-cyborgs dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @14:41 (The Internet) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/1742259
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]theodp writes "Newsweek's Steven Levy takes a look at [1]how the baby
boomer generation formed our tech landscape. Many of the realities
boomers grew up with are today's metaphors, including cut-and-paste, the
origin of which the 56-year-old Levy had to explain to 20-something
Google employees. Levy cites two texts as crucial in pushing the boomers'
vision toward power-to-the-people computing ��� Ted Nelson's [2]Computer
Lib/Dream Machines, which inspired Mitch Kapor, and the [3]January 1975
Popular Electronics, which got Bill Gates jazzed. You kids might want to
check out Dad's bookshelf ��� used copies of Computer Lib are [4]going for
$130-$225 at Amazon."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/1742259
Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20789352/site/newsweek/
2. http://www.digibarn.com/collections/books/computer-lib/
3. http://www.computermuseum.20m.com/images/popelec/Title.jpg
4. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0914845497
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Software Freedom Law Center vs Theo de Raadt |
| from the steady-now-steady dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @16:31 (Programming) |
|
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/1958252
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "In a recent public posting to the Linux
Kernel mailing list the founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, Eben
Moglen, [0]lashed back at OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt without actually
mentioning his name. 'What has happened is that people who do not have
full possession of the facts and have no legal expertise ��� people whom
from the very beginning we have been trying to help ��� have made
irresponsible charges and threatened lawsuits, thus slowing down our
efforts to help them.' Moglen pointed out that they have and continue to
help all open source projects, including OpenBSD, but [1]the process
takes time. 'The required work has been made more arduous because some
people have chosen not to cooperate in good faith. But we will complete
the work as soon as we can, and we will follow the community's practice
of complete publication, so everyone can see all the evidence.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/1958252
Links:
0. http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/9/16/261061
1. http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/SFLC_on_Atheros_Driver_Issue
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Robotic Scout To Survey Arctic Ice |
| from the here-robot-birdie dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @17:41 (Robotics) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/209257
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Roland Piquepaille writes "The Meridian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
is a single-engine research aircraft with fixed landing gear designed by
engineers at the University of Kansas. According to Technology Review, it
will be used to see [1]what happens beneath the Antarctic and Greenland
ice sheets. Two units are currently being built for a cost of about 3
U.S. million dollars. The Meridian will fly for up to 13 hours over a
distance of 1,750 kilometers. The first flight over Greenland is
forecasted next summer. And a second flight will take place over the
Antarctic later in 2008."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/209257
Links:
0. http://www.primidi.com/2007/09/16.html
1. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19375/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Comcast Slightly Clarifies High Speed Extreme Use Policy |
| from the that's-some-customer-service-right-there dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday September 16, @18:35 (The Internet) |
|
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/16/2116248
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Alien54 writes "[0]Comcast has finally clarified what 'excessive use' is
when it comes to their cable internet service. A customer is exceeding
their use limit if they: download the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000
pictures or 13 million emails in a month. '[A Comcast spokesperson] said
that Comcast's actions to cut ties with excessive users is a "great
benefit to games and helps protect gamers and their game experience" due
to their overuse of the network and thus "degrading the experience."'"
Maybe they could put that limit in terms other than 'email' or 'songs'?
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/09/16/2116248
Links:
0. http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/news/?id=17434
Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.
======================================================================
You have received this message because you subscribed to it
on Slashdot. To stop receiving this and other
messages from Slashdot, or to add more messages
or change your preferences, please go to your user page.
http://slashdot.org/my/messages
You can log in and change your preferences from there.
No comments:
Post a Comment