Open source and Linux from HP
From nine consecutive years of Linux market leadership to countless
community outreach programs, HP has proven solutions you can value, on a
next generation, highly-efficient BladeSystem platform ideal for Linux,
with the approach, experience, and customer commitment you can trust.
http://showcase.linux.com/hpos.tmp
======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* NSSO on Space Based Solar Power
* Businesses Spend 20% of IT Budgets on Security
* The Evolution of Language
* Japan Moon Probe Snaps First Photos
* Ohio Official Docked Vacation Time For Stolen Tape
* AT&T Issues Formal 'Censorship' Apology
* Alienware Puts 64GB Solid-State Drives In Desktops
* Dragonfly-Sized Insect Spies Spotted, Denied
* Has Wikipedia Peaked?
* Is Video RAM a Good Swap Device?
* How Microsoft Inadvertently Helps To Fund FOSS
* IBM, Linden Labs Call For Portable Avatars
* "Wiki the Vote" Project Open-Sources Candidate Info
* FCC Weighs Net Access Charge Decision
* Mom Blasts Ballmer Over Kid's Vista Experience
* Paramount Casts New James T. Kirk
* ICANN Mulling Multilingual URLs
* Qwest Punished by NSA for Non-Cooperation
* Red Hat Vows To Stand Up To Patent Intimidation
* Electronic Arts Purchases BioWare, Pandemic
* New Telescope Array Goes Live For SETI
* Low-tech Inventions That Help Change Lives
* The Russian Mafia Doesn't Like Spam Either
* Microsoft Flip-Flops On URI Protocol Handing Flaw
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NSSO on Space Based Solar Power |
| from the it-is-always-sunny-50-miles-up dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 10, @20:12 (Space) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/10/2240226
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]apsmith writes "About a year ago some of the people at the US
[1]National Security Space Office began [2]looking into space-based solar
power (SBSP) as a technology in the near-term strategic interests of the
United States. At first the participants were skeptical, and the "phase 0
study" went along with no official funding. In a rather innovative move,
they organized the study as a series of internet-based (bulletin-board
and email) discussions, with the wordpress site open to the public, and a
closed experts-only discussion using Google Groups. Initially expecting
only a dozen or so interested parties, the discussion grew to include
over 170 people with past expertise and interest in the issues. The
[3]final report was released Wednesday morning; it provides an excellent
broad-brush review of the status of SBSP, showing immense potential, but
also a number of challenges that appear only surmountable with a strong
government commitment to the project. The big question is where it goes
from here ��� NASA? DARPA? The new ARPA-E? Or something new? I was able to
attend [4]the press conference, which included Buzz Aldrin in an
announcement of a [5]new alliance to push for implementing the
recommendations of the report."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/10/2240226
Links:
0. http://www.altenergyaction.org/
1. http://www.acq.osd.mil/nsso/
2. http://spacesolarpower.wordpress.com/
3. http://spacesolarpower.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/sbsp-interim-assessment-release-01-is-published/
4. http://www.altenergyaction.org/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=27
5. http://ssafe.wordpress.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Businesses Spend 20% of IT Budgets on Security |
| from the protect-ya-neck dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 10, @21:21 (Security) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/10/2233218
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Stony Stevenson writes "[0]Security accounted for 20 percent of
technology spending last year and it's expected to rise, according to a
report released Tuesday. The Computing Technology Industry Association
(CompTIA) surveyed 1,070 organisations and found that on average, they
spent one-fifth of their technology budgets on security-related spending
in 2006. That's up from the 15 percent of IT budgets spent on security in
2005, and the 12 percent spent in 2004."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/10/2233218
Links:
0. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/62760,businesses-spend-20-of-it-budgets-on-security-survey-shows.aspx
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Evolution of Language |
| from the everything-can-be-measured dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 10, @22:54 (Math) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/10/2250221
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]TaeKwonDood writes "We all know language has evolved but
mathematicians are trying to take how it has changed in the past to
[1]predict what it will be like in the future." From the article:
"Mathematical analysis of this linguistic evolution reveals that
irregular verb conjugations behave in an extremely regular way -- one
that can yield predictions and insights into the future stages of a
verb's evolutionary trajectory," says Lieberman, a graduate student in
applied mathematics in Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences and in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and
Technology, and an affiliate of Harvard's Program for Evolutionary
Dynamics. "We measured something no one really thought could be measured,
and got a striking and beautiful result.""
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/10/2250221
Links:
0. mailto:perfectommy@yahoo.com
1. http://www.sciencecodex.com/harvard_scientists_predict_the_future_of_the_past_tense
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Japan Moon Probe Snaps First Photos |
| from the space-godzilla dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 11, @00:54 (Moon) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/047255
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]mrcgran writes "Space.com reports, "Almost one month after [1]Japan's
successful launch of the Kaguya lunar probe, the unmanned observatory has
begun its first major activities in orbit around the moon. In addition to
snapping [2]its first lunar images, the probe jettisoned one of two
110-pound (50-kilogram) "baby" satellites that will help create a
detailed gravity map of the moon." The major objectives of the "KAGUYA"
mission are to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution
and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration. "KAGUYA"
consists of a main orbiting satellite at about 100km altitude and two
small satellites (Relay Satellite and VRAD Satellite) in polar orbit."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/047255
Links:
0. http://mgran.blogspot.com/
1. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/071009-kaguya-update.html
2. http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/10/20071009_kaguya_e.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ohio Official Docked Vacation Time For Stolen Tape |
| from the no-beach-for-you dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 11, @05:00 (Security) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/0412230
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Lucas123 writes "The missing tape, stolen from an intern's car,
contained data on all 64,467 state employees, 19,388 former employees and
47,245 Ohio taxpayers. The state believes the incident will cost them $3
million. So after four months of deliberation, the Ohio Department of
Administrative Services [1]announced today that they decided to take a
week's vacation away from Jerry Miller, their payroll team leader and the
guy in charge of the missing data."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/0412230
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AT&T Issues Formal 'Censorship' Apology |
| from the just-kidding dept. |
| posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 11, @07:51 (The Internet)|
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/0424253
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]netbuzz writes "AT&T this evening has issued new terms of use language
that it hopes will cap a firestorm of protest over the original version
that appeared to give the company freedom to [1]pull the plug on anyone
who had the temerity to criticize AT&T or its affiliates. Whether you
believed that threat to be real or overblown, the new language would seem
to put the issue to rest."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/0424253
Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=buzzblog
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20460
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Alienware Puts 64GB Solid-State Drives In Desktops |
| from the what's-that-spinning-noise dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @08:34 (Data Storage) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1225248
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Lucas123 writes "In the face of Seagate's [1]announcement this week of
a new hybrid drive, Dell subsidiary Alienware just upped the ante by
[2]doubling the capacity of its desktop solid-state disk drives to 64 GB.
Dell has remained silent on the solid-state disk front since announcing a
32-GB solid-state option for its Latitude D420 and D629 ATG notebook
computers earlier this year. Now, Alienware seems to be telling users to
bypass hybrid drives altogether. 'Hybrid we consider to be a Band-Aid
approach to solid state,' said Marc Diana, Alienware's product marketing
manager 'Solid state pretty much puts hybrid in an obsolete class right
now.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1225248
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/08/1735209&tid=198
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dragonfly-Sized Insect Spies Spotted, Denied |
| from the shutter-bugs dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @09:15 (Privacy) |
|
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/131214
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
SRA8 sends in a Washington Post piece about work at various academic,
government, and military labs on [0]insect-sized flying spies. A number
of people reported what appeared to be flying mechanical insects, larger
than dragonflies, over an antiwar rally in Washington DC last month. The
reporter got mostly no-comments from the agencies he called trying to pin
down what it was they saw. Only the FBI said through a spokesman: "We
don't have anything like that." The article describes work on insect
cyborgs as well as purely mechanical flying spies, but quotes vice
admiral Joe Dyer, former commander of the Naval Air Systems Command now
at iRobot in Burlington, Mass., as follows: "I'll be seriously dead
before that program deploys." The article also mentions an International
Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots, held in Switzerland in August, at
which Japanese researchers demonstrated radio-controlled fliers with
four-inch wingspans that resemble hawk moths.
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/131214
Links:
0. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Has Wikipedia Peaked? |
| from the overworked-and-unpaid dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @09:58 (The Internet) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1346215
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "After more than a year with no [0]official
statistics, an independent analysis reported Wednesday showed that
activity in Wikipedia's community has been [1]declining over the last six
months. Editing is down 20% and new account creation is down 30%. After
six years of rapid growth and more than 2 million articles, is
Wikipedia's development now past its peak? Are Wikipedians simply running
out of things to write about, or is the community collapsing under the
weight of external vandalism and internal conflicts? A [2]new collection
of charts and graphs help to tell the tale."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1346215
Links:
0. http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaZZ.htm
1. http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082562.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dragons_flight/Log_analysis
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Is Video RAM a Good Swap Device? |
| from the it's-there-why-not-use-it dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @10:37 (Data Storage) |
|
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1424247
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
sean4u writes "I use a 'lucky' (inexplicably still working) headless
desktop PC to serve pages for a low-volume e-commerce site. I came across
[0]a gentoo-wiki.com page and [1]this linuxnews.pl page that suggested
the interesting possibility of using the Video RAM of the built-in video
adapter as a swap device or RAM disk. The instructions worked a treat,
but I'm curious as to how good a substitute this can be for swap space on
disk. In my (amateurish) test, hdparm -t tells me the Video RAM block
device is 3 times slower than the aging disk I currently use. If you've
used this technique, what performance do you get? Is the poor performance
report from hdparm a feature of the hardware, or the Memory Technology
Device driver? What do you use to measure swap performance?"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1424247
Links:
0. http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Use_memory_on_video_card_as_swap
1. http://hedera.linuxnews.pl/_news/2002/09/03/_long/1445.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| How Microsoft Inadvertently Helps To Fund FOSS |
| from the i-has-ur-monies-kthxbye dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @11:16 (Microsoft) |
|
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1446254
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]christian.einfeldt writes "The State of California sued Microsoft for
anti-trust violations, and now the proceeds of the settlement of that
case are [1]being used to fund the acquisition of computers for any
school district in California. The terms of the settlement allow every
school district in California to be reimbursed a set dollar amount for
the purchase of computers with the software of their choice. Microsoft
probably anticipated that school districts would mainly use the
settlement to buy more Microsoft products, with a few Apple purchases
sprinkled in here and there. But now that Free Open Source Software is
being commercialized by hardware vendors such as Dell, System76,
EmperorLinux, Zareason.com, and TechCollective.com, acquiring computers
powered by FOSS is straightforward. I'm a volunteer sysadmin at a
northern California public charter school and in my Slashdot journal I
[2]detail the step-by-step process for using Microsoft's money to pay for
the Linux purchases of your school's choice." And then there's the Ubuntu
team in Belgium that is raising funds by [3]auctioning off a copy of
Windows Vista Ultimate that a Microsoft rep gave them at a trade show. So
far the [4]bidding is up to 101.76 Euros, about $144.
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1446254
Links:
0. mailto:einfeldt@digitaCHICAGOltippingpoint.commin
1. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/et/st/etvfaq.asp
2. http://slashdot.org/~christian.einfeldt/journal/184265
3. http://blog.markvdb.be/2007/10/support-free-software-buy-this-copy-of.html
4. http://cgi.benl.ebay.be/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160167004568
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IBM, Linden Labs Call For Portable Avatars |
| from the door-from-sl-to-google-earth dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @11:54 (IBM) |
|
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1530206
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]destinyland writes "IBM just announced a push for [1]universal avatars
with Second Life's creator Linden Labs. Then they joined Google, Cisco,
Intel, Sony, Microsoft, and Motorola for the first planning session on
how to make it happen. There's already speculation that Google is working
on a [2]3-D social networking environment incorporating Google Earth and
Google Maps." Virtual Worlds News has up a [3]copy of the joint press
release.
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1530206
Links:
0. http://www.destinyland.org/
1. http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2007/10/11/second-life-google-ibm-open-source-avatars/
3. http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/10/ibm-and-linde-1.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Wiki the Vote" Project Open-Sources Candidate Info |
| from the should-be-interesting dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @12:33 (The Internet) |
|
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/165208
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Gabriela writes "[1]Wiki the Vote was just launched on
[2]Congresspedia.org for citizens, professional researchers, and even
candidates to collaborate on profiles for each and every candidate for
Congress in 2008. The project is non-partisan and, in true open source
fashion, is free for anyone to participate ��� even the candidates
themselves. Unlike Wikipedia, people connected to the subjects of
articles are free to add to them as long as their contributions are
rhetoric-free and comprised of fully documented, verifiable facts. The
citizen editors are assisted and fact-checked by professional editors.
The project is starting with nearly 300 basic profiles of candidates that
2008RaceTracker has identified as definitely running, and will eventually
expand to cover every candidate on the ballot in the primary and general
elections next year. When the OpenSecrets.org 2008 congressional campaign
contributions database goes online in a few weeks, the candidate profiles
will also display live feeds tracking the money race and who is funding
them."
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/165208
Links:
0. http://sunlightfoundation.com/
1. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=2008_elections
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FCC Weighs Net Access Charge Decision |
| from the i-suggest-you-decide-no dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @13:13 (The Internet) |
|
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1633203
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "The FCC is considering a request from AT&T to
[0]lift restrictions on the types of charges they can level against
competitors that use their infrastructure. The organization had
previously allowed that for Verizon by virtue of a deadlock, and Ma Bell
now hopes to see similar treatment. 'All the requests have been strongly
opposed by smaller rivals such as Sprint Nextel, Time Warner
Telecommunications and XO Communications. These competitors argue that
they have few alternatives to get access to the high-speed lines they
need, and are being charged more and more by the dominant carriers.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1633203
Links:
0. http://www.news.com/FCC-weighs-decision-on-Net-access-charges/2100-1034_3-6212892.html?tag=nefd.top
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Mom Blasts Ballmer Over Kid's Vista Experience |
| from the i-know-bill-gates-i-call-him-money-for-short dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @13:55 (Microsoft) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1727205
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Lucas123 writes "While on stage at a Gartner's ITxpo conference today,
[1]Ballmer got an ear-full from the mother of a 13-year-old girl who said
after installing Vista on her daughter's computer she decided only two
days later to switch back to XP because Vista was so difficult. Ballmer
defended Vista saying: 'Your daughter saw a lot of value'; to which the
mother replied: 'She's 13.' Ballmer said that Vista is bigger than XP,
and 'for some people that's an issue, and it's not going to get smaller
in any significant way in SP1. But machines are constantly getting
bigger, and [it's] probably important to remember that as well.' Says the
mother: 'Good, I'll let you come in and install it for me.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1727205
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Paramount Casts New James T. Kirk |
| from the finally dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @14:30 (Sci-Fi) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1640238
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that Paramount is [1]in talks
with 27-year old actor Chris Pine to play the role of Captain Kirk in the
new 'Star Trek' film. Pine is almost completely unknown, but he's also
being courted to star opposite George Clooney in 'White Jazz,' so he's
being called "the hottest new actor in town." In addition, 'Hulk' actor
Eric Bana [2]was cast today as Nero, the main villain of Trek XI."
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1640238
Links:
0. mailto:tycoon_guy20@hotmail.com
1. http://www.trektoday.com/news/101007_01.shtml
2. http://www.trektoday.com/news/101007_02.shtml
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ICANN Mulling Multilingual URLs |
| from the so-many-ways-to-say-google dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @15:12 (The Internet) |
|
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1837232
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]griffjon writes "The Washington Post is reporting that [1]ICANN is
testing out fully multilingual domain names. These won't just be
[non-western-language].com, but would have TLDs translated into other
scripts, fixing annoyances for non-English speaking audiences. An
example: 'Speakers of Hebrew, Arabic and any other language written from
right to left must type half of the URL in one direction and the other
half ��� the .com, .net or .org postscript ��� the opposite way.' Let's hope
it goes better this time around: 'Next week's experiments use the domain
name "example.test" translated into 11 languages. A previous model,
however, used "hippopotamus" instead of "test." These plans went awry
when an Israeli registrar realized the Hebrew word ICANN thought meant
"hippopotamus" was an expletive and threatened to involve the Israeli
government.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1837232
Links:
0. http://griffjonathotmail.com/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR2007101002642_pf.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Qwest Punished by NSA for Non-Cooperation |
| from the tit-for-tat dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @15:58 (Privacy) |
|
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1932207
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
nightcats writes "According to a story from the Rocky Mountain news,
[0]Qwest has received retaliatory action from the NSA for refusing to
cooperate in the Bush administration's domestic data-mining activity
(i.e., spying on Americans). 'The [just-released government] documents
indicate that likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe
Nacchio's so-called "classified information" defense at his insider
trading trial, had he been allowed to present it. The secret contracts -
worth hundreds of millions of dollars - made Nacchio optimistic about
Qwest's future, even as his staff was warning him the company might not
make its numbers, Nacchio's defense attorneys have maintained. But
Nacchio didn't present that argument at trial. '"
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1932207
Links:
0. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_5719566,00.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Red Hat Vows To Stand Up To Patent Intimidation |
| from the stiff-upper-lip dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @16:36 (Linux Business) |
|
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1934218
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]mrcgran writes "Eweek is reporting on Red Hat's assurances that can
continue to [1]deploy Linux without fear of legal retribution from
Microsoft. This, despite the [2]increasingly vocal threats emanating from
Redmond. 'In a scathing response to Ballmer's remarks, Red Hat's IP team
said the reality is that the community development approach of free and
open-source code represents a healthy development paradigm, which, when
viewed from the perspective of pending lawsuits related to intellectual
property, is at least as safe as proprietary software. "We are also aware
of no patent lawsuit against Linux. Ever. Anywhere," the team said in a
[3]blog posting.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1934218
Links:
0. http://mgran.blogspot.com/
1. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2193713,00.asp
2. http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/09/1221223&tid=155
3. http://www.press.redhat.com/2007/05/14/deploy-with-confidence/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Electronic Arts Purchases BioWare, Pandemic |
| from the depths-of-horror dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @16:55 (Games) |
|
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/2053228
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Kotaku is reporting that [0]EA has purchased BioWare and Pandemic Studios,
having offered some $620 million in cash to the Elevation Partners group
to buy up VG Holding Corp. From the press release: "'We are truly excited
by John Riccitiello's new vision for EA,' said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and
CEO of BioWare Corp. 'This vision is consistent with BioWare's focus on
crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will
enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard
working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/2053228
Links:
0. http://kotaku.com/gaming/ea/ea-buys-bioware-pandemic-309937.php
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| New Telescope Array Goes Live For SETI |
| from the hello-is-there-anybody-out-there dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @17:16 (Space) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/2059250
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]The Skinny writes "Today is a historic day for the SETI program. The
New York Times reports that astronomers are flipping the switch today on
the Allen Telescope Array ��� 350 antennas, each 20 feet in diameter ���
which will, among other things, [1]extend the search for extraterrestrial
life a thousandfold. From the article: ' There are some 200 billion stars
in the galaxy, and a significant fraction of them have planets. Estimates
of the number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy have ranged from
one (or none, if you are particularly discouraged about human affairs)
into the millions. Dr. Shostak calculated that the full Allen array would
be able to detect a signal from as far as 500 light years that is only a
few times more powerful than what can now be sent by the Arecibo radio
telescope, a 1,000-foot-diameter dish in Puerto Rico that is the world's
largest (although it is in danger of being shut down to save money). That
translates to about a million stars, which he said was getting into a
promising number. Dr. Shostak described the expanded search as looking
for the needle in the proverbial haystack with a shovel instead of a
spoon.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/2059250
Links:
0. http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/the_skinny/main501
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/science/11seti.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Low-tech Inventions That Help Change Lives |
| from the best-thing-since-the-shoelace dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Thursday October 11, @17:53 (Science) |
|
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/212243
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]angelaelle writes "The current issue of Popular Mechanics is featuring
their [1]Breakthrough Awards program for inventors. Some of the winning
inventions help improve the living conditions for people in third world
countries using low-tech materials and assembly methods. Technologies
like this [2]cookstove for people in Darfur, and in the case of this
[3]Windbelt developed by Shawn Frayne, could be used to provide cheap,
clean energy alternatives. The website features fascinating, inspiring
videos talking about the inventor's 'eureka moment', focusing on the
inventor as well as the technology."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/212243
Links:
0. mailto:angelaelle@aol.com
1. http://www.popularmechanics.com/breakthrough07
2. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4224765.html?series=37
3. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4224763.html?series=37
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The Russian Mafia Doesn't Like Spam Either |
| from the think-twice-before-sending dept. |
| posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday October 11, @18:51 (Spam) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/2157244
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]wattrlz writes "Apparently the current champion of v1*gr4 spamming
solicited some of the wrong email boxes. Alexy Tolstokozhev was
[1]recently found murdered in his palatial spam-bought estate near
Moscow. The implications of this hands on method of system administration
are staggering."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/2157244
Links:
0. mailto:wattrlz@hotmail.com
1. http://www.rlslog.net/real-punishment-russian-viagra-spammer-murdered/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Flip-Flops On URI Protocol Handing Flaw |
| from the so-it's-a-bug dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Thursday October 11, @19:46 (Security) |
|
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/1636241
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
a-twitter writes "After months of insisting there is nothing to patch,
[0]Microsoft has done a complete 180 on the URI protocol handling
vulnerability, announcing in a [1]security advisory that a Windows update
will be released to revise URI handling code within ShellExecute() to be
more strict. The MSRC blog [2]explains the background and offers more
details on this issue."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/10/11/1636241
Links:
0. http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=577
1. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/943521.mspx
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