Posted by
CmdrTaco
on 03-31-06 10:37 PM from the danger-cute-alert-omg-lol dept.
ToeSocks06 writes "The cutest site i've ever or youve ever seen is this
one CLICK IT NOW LOL!!! because they have the cutest pictures you will ever see
:) :) :) Like hamsters wearing SO CUTE hats and so many kittens zomg i love kitties
especially that brown one i hope they show him with hats to LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Ok I gottta go now bye!!!"
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on 03-31-06 09:19 PM from the now-thats-what-i'm-talking-about dept.
True ChAoS writes "Using the latest in microwave energy transmission technology, the Wireless Extension Cords
(WECs) 'beam' power right where you need it. Broadcasting in the 7.2GHz
range, the WECs will not interfere with wireless networks, phones, or
Bluetooth components. Be sure to heed all the warnings in the
instruction manual; the microwaves used are relatively safe, but you
don't want to cook your computer (or coworkers) by mistake." ThinkGeek is also owned by OSTG.
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on 03-31-06 08:22 PM from the older-than-you've-ever-been-and-now-you're-even-older dept.
Jeff "Hemos" Bates, who you all know and love here on Slashdot,
celebrated his 30th Birthday last Monday. The only way to properly
celebrate would be to send him belated e-congratulations to hemos at
slashdot.org. Show the love. He'd do it for you. No I'm not kidding.
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on 03-31-06 07:24 PM from the omg-i-heart-ponies-lol dept.
Our marketing department has done extensive research over
the last 3 quarters and discovered that our audience is strangely disproportionately
skewed towards males. Like, 98.3% males to be precise. To correct this
oversight, we have decided to subtly tweak Slashdot's design and content
to widen our appeal to these less active demographics. Don't worry! We'll still
continue to serve our core audience, but we hope you'll work with us as
we try to find a balance that will work for all.
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 06:41 PM from the hot-brewed-programming-language dept.
Eh-Wire writes "The Globe & Mail interviews James Gosling
after a keynote talk to Sun developers in his home town of Calgary. His
thoughts and comments regarding the 'dead end' oil industry,
disconnected Telco strategist, and unleashing 'creative weirdoes' makes
for an interesting read." From the article: "Java is evolving.
It's sort of embedded in the social experiment that is the Internet.
There's been tremendous adoption of Java for building large-scale
enterprise apps. It's worked tremendously well there. There's been all
kinds of growth lately in cellphones and more and more embedded
systems. It's all about making the environment around us more
intelligent."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 06:04 PM from the draw-sabers-and-duel dept.
Rytis writes "IBM is about to spend $300 Million dollars on a campaign to win customers and to convert them from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Notes and Domino under Linux. IBM is also said to offer resellers a bounty of $20,000
for switching customers to its Linux-based e-mail programs from
Microsoft server software. It seems that the concurrence Microsoft
Corp. is facing is getting tighter and tighter. The Penguin gets more
and more support from the two biggest rivals that Microsoft have ever
had."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 05:34 PM from the content-vs.-form dept.
sethfogie wrote to mention Informit.com's coverage of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.
Students put their skills to the test, trying to lock down systems
against intrusion from an invading hacker team. All in the name of
learning. From the article: "When the three hour grace period was
over, the Red Team slowly worked their way into attack mode. One member
started to sort through the information they gleaned from their scans
and investigated each possible exploit. Another member fired up a MySQL
database client and started to poke around the students databases
looking for sensitive data. The two others were adding/changing
accounts to routers, firewalls, and systems. However, for the most
part, the students were not being pelted with attacks. And this
continued for the next several hours."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 04:56 PM from the beware-of-pork dept.
Bob Brown writes "Companies are coping with spam, but phishing is another matter altogether, according to researchers at the annual MIT Spam Conference this week. From the article: "The
response rate for phishing e-mails is much higher than for spam, says
Paul Judge, CTO of messaging security maker CipherTrust. So while
spammers have to send more and more unsolicited e-mail these days, as
anti-spam filters get better at identifying and blocking spam, phishing
attacks are well enough disguised that a higher percentage get through
such filters, and more recipients click on them, he says."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 04:22 PM from the get-the-joke dept.
Apple's 30th Anniversary is prompting retrospective looks at the
company's last three decades. C|Net grounds their look back in the here and now, commenting on lawsuits and competition. ZDNet complains that Apple still isn't in the workplace. The BBC looks at the company's world-changing aspects in a more upbeat story. Nick Irelan wrote in to mention a Forbes piece entitled Apple's Biggest Duds, so you can image what what side that article comes down on. CNN puts the whole thing in perspective, with a balanced look at the company's good and bad points. Finally, if you want some rumourmongering, 192939495969798999 writes "Industry
sources have leaked that tomorrow, on the 30th Anniversary of Apple
Computer, Steve Jobs will announce that the new intel-based Mac laptops
will support dual-booting Windows XP and OS X 10.4."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 03:18 PM from the fat-pipes-are-still-cool dept.
halbert writes "ArsTechnica has a story about AT&T COO Randall Stephenson telling folks that there is 'no discernable difference' between AT&T's 1.5 Mbps service and Comcast's 6 Mbps,
because the backbone is slowing everything down. The main argument from
the article is that fiber to the home is not necessary. How about
letting the consumer decide that?" From the article: "This is a
direct response to the criticism that AT&T has suffered for
deploying a fiber optic network that reaches only to the local node,
not directly into a customer's home--which means that the 'last mile'
connection is still copper wire. Verizon, by contrast, is deploying
fiber directly into the home, making for much higher speeds. AT&T
argues that its model is cheaper, faster to deploy, and just as capable
as Verizon's, which currently uses much of its massive bandwidth to
distribute RF TV channels."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 02:40 PM from the nicer-than-you-might-otherwise-think dept.
The Elder Scrolls series is well known among PC gamers as the high
water mark for an open-ended RPG experience. The series, set in the
world of Tamriel, has a staggering breadth and depth thanks to the
exacting standards of the team at Bethesda Softworks. The newest title
in the line brings Tamriel to life in a manner that is renewing the
faith of even the most jaded CRPG player. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion may not be the perfect game for everyone. For those willing to give it a shot, Oblivion
treats gamers with a level of respect that is unique, uplifting, and
(hopefully) inspirational for game developers in all genres. Read on
for my impressions of a truly unique game.
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 02:20 PM from the buh-wuh-huh dept.
capt turnpike writes "Hot
on the heels of Microsoft's announcement of a 60-day period in which
Web developers will have to change their pages' architecture, the COO
of Eolas, the company whose suit forced these changes, gives an
interview to eWEEK.com in which he says these changes are a disappointment.
Confused? From the article: 'There is no court order forcing Microsoft
to do anything. Anything that is being done is of Microsoft's own
choosing,' His position is that publicizing these forced changes
strengthens MS's case."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 01:45 PM from the not-something-to-yodel-about dept.
WindBourne wrote to mention a story covered by Forbes, detailing a possible suit against Yahoo! as a result of their involvement in a Chinese Journalist's jailing. From the article: "Zhang
Yu, representing the family of Shi Tao, said they were considering
taking Yahoo Hong Kong Holdings to court either here or in the United
States. 'We believe what (Yahoo) did was illegal so we are considering
taking Yahoo to court,' Zhang told reporters, adding that Yahoo had
refused to discuss the matter with him. "
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 12:42 PM from the vhs-or-betamax dept.
An anonymous reader writes "If you live in Japan, you can get your hands on the first commercially available HD-DVD player
as of today. Toshiba has launched the HD-XA1, and hopes for sales in
the next year to exceed 600,000 units. The device is set to debut in
the states in April. From the article: "The player will sell for
110,000 yen (US$936) in Japan. In that market there will also be a
cheaper player, the HD-A1, priced at $500. Toshiba said the price in
Japan is based on its expectation that video enthusiasts will be first
to adopt the technology, while in the United States, the prices are
aimed more at average consumers who are more price conscious."Update: 03/31 18:45 GMT by Z: Quoted article updated, quote updated to match the article.
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 11:51 AM from the keep-it-clean-please dept.
Rytis writes "An article at the Financial Times is analysing the growing impact of internet pornography,
the phenomena itself and the problems that it causes to our society.
Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19
years olds have seen pornography online. From the article: 'To some
men, Haynes argues, clicking on porn is simply a way to pass the time.
It's a hobby. Once they'd idly play solitaire; now they idly click on a
porn site. Others, though, succumb to addiction: Most addictions are to
do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space, and
addiction is always destructive.'"
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 11:04 AM from the tough-day-at-the-office dept.
An anonymous reader writes "If you're in the market for a new widescreen display,
there's a group test of five models at the Bit-Tech site. The test
focuses on real world gaming and DVD watching rather than artificial
spec tests, and there's also discussion of design, ergonomics etc. An
interesting read for those making the jump to wide." From the article: "Let's
define the point of this test. We're going to make the assumption that
you've got a half-decent graphics card, and you're looking for a new
flat panel to connect to it. You want to watch movies on DVD and in
hi-def (either as Apple trailers or via BitTorrent) and you want to
play the latest games. The price range we're looking at is the
£300-£400 range. Above that, you start to get into the territory of 24"
screens from companies like Dell and Samsung. Below that, you're going
into a range occupied mostly by 19" displays at 1280x1024."
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 10:26 AM from the still-like-my-tivo dept.
An anonymous reader wrote to mention a C|Net article about a possible replacement for the DVR. Called RS-DVR, it allows customers to record shows on centrally located business-owned servers. From the article: "One
uncertainty is reaction to Cablevision's service by programming
networks, which have bristled at some of the cable industry's previous
attempts to record shows on their systems before negotiating new
broadcasting rights. Cablevision argues nothing will be recorded on its
network unless the viewer orders it from the remote control--an
important difference from other failed experiments. Earlier
controversies had centered on Time Warner Cable's aborted Maestro
service, which had proposed to automatically store programs on its
network so viewers could order up just about any show that had been
previously broadcasted." There are a number of possible media
ownership issues here, I think. Personally, I'm happy having the shows
right here on a hard drive in my home.
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 09:33 AM from the fighting-the-man dept.
seanonymous writes "The Justice Department, in their continued effort to revive questionable legislation, has subpoenaed dozens of ISPs
for files. Considering that ISPs generally host their users' mail, this
seems like it could be a larger issue than their fight with Google over
search queries. Some, like Verizon, even resisted the call for
information." From the article: "Representatives for McAfee and
Symantec confirmed that the companies had received and complied with
the subpoenas. A spokeswoman at LookSmart did not immediately return a
phone call. Many of the subpoenas asked for information related to
products that can be used to filter out adult content for underage
Internet users. Symantec's subpoena, dated June 29, asked for a wide
range of information about the price and popularity of the Internet
filtering products it sells and how the products are used by customers.
" Information Week has a number of the documents involved, including the letter of objection from Verizon.
Politics: Microsoft turns to U.S. for EU Antitrust Help
Posted by
Zonk
on 03-31-06 08:55 AM from the but-daaaaaaaaaaad dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The NY times reports that Microsoft has asked U.S. goverment officials to intervene on their behalf in the EU antitrust case. The US (through diplomatic channels) has asked the court to be 'fair'." From the article: "Microsoft
has complained frequently in recent months that it has been denied the
right to a fair defense in the continuing antitrust case with the
European Commission. It has also accused the commission of
collaborating with its rivals in the software industry and denying it
access to what it contends are vital documents it needs to prepare its
defense. A memo written by unidentified government officials in
Washington stated that Microsoft's complaints raise 'substantial
concerns' about the way Microsoft is being treated, according to a
person close to the commission who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to discuss the memo."
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on 03-31-06 07:37 AM from the or-at-least-apple-users dept.
realtorperson writes "Why, at least the Apple users, love Apple? According to a recent article, the pure and simple reason is customer service and overall experience.
The author writes, 'When Apple competitors are focused on cost
reduction to increase profitability, Apple is investing resources to
enhance its relationship with its customers. To me, that's impressive.
Unfortunately, there are too many companies in the market that could
care less about their customers, but Apple is determined and committed
in delivering the experience and not just the product.
It's regrettably amusing that Apple competitors are working hastily to
develop iPod clones to reap in success, but what many of them fail to
comprehend is that it's not necessarily the iPod that makes Apple
successful, but rather its customer service.'"
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on 03-31-06 05:08 AM from the worm-in-the-apple dept.
Iran Contra writes "Security researchers at F-Secure in Finland have discovered a rootkit component in the Bagle worm
that loads a kernel-mode driver to hide the processes and registry keys
of itself and other Bagle-related malware from security scanners. Bagle
started out as a simple e-mail borne executable and the addition of
rootkit capabilities show how far ahead of the cat-and-mouse game the
attackers are."
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on 03-31-06 02:47 AM from the and-nintendo-too dept.
DesertBlade writes "Forrester Research examined the trust that American households place
in PC and consumer electronics. Sony, Dell and Bose all recieved a
ranking of A+ while Microsoft recieved a C (I know most of you would
say it is closer to a F). "Microsoft faces big consumer defection risk.
One measure of consumers' dissatisfaction with Microsoft is seen in the
5.4 million households that give it a brand trust score of 1 [distrust
a lot] or 2 [distrust a bit]. Compared with all Microsoft users, these
at-risk users have higher income, are much more likely to be male, and
are bigger online spenders.(see endnote 7) These households know they
run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind --
if they could." Does Microsoft face that big of a risk?"
