Genral Web Comments
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Fedora Core 3 (Linux) on Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 Notebook
Fedora Core 3 (Linux) on Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 Notebook
Intel� PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux
Intel� PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux: "This project was created by Intel to enable support for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2915ABG Network Connection miniPCI adapters. This project (IPW2200) is intended to be a community effort as much as is possible given some working constraints (mainly, no HW documentation is available).
If you have a laptop with this hardware and are interested in this project, go ahead and download the latest snapshot and give it a spin. Check the CHANGES and README.ipw2200 files for information on what is supported with the snapshot.
Keep in mind that the driver is under active development and is in an experimental phase right now. This means not all of the features and functionality provided in other operating systems have been implemented yet.
At this time, the IPW2200 project will use the same mailing list as the IPW2100 project. The two drivers will eventually be using a unified driver framework. Therefore, both projects will use the single mailing list (ipw2100-devel@lists.sourceforge.net).
You can subscribe to the IPW development mailing list here. Please feel free to join the list and ask any questions you may have.
You can frequently find people on IRC channel #ipw2100 on irc.freenode.org (note the channel is ipw2100 and not ipw2200). "
Sunday, June 26, 2005
TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook
TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook: "A TiddlyWiki is like a blog because it's divided up into neat little chunks, but it encourages you to read it by hyperlinking rather than sequentially: if you like, a non-linear blog analogue that binds the individual microcontent items into a cohesive whole. I think that TiddlyWiki represents a novel medium for writing, and will promote it's own distinctive WritingStyle. This is the ThirdVersion of TiddlyWiki, which adds several NewFeatures. There are also several TiddlyWikiAdaptations by other developers based on earlier versions."
TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook
TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook: "Welcome to TiddlyWiki, an experimental MicroContent WikiWikiWeb built by JeremyRuston. It's written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript to run on any modern browser without needing any ServerSide logic. It allows anyone to create personal SelfContained hypertext documents that can be posted to any web server, sent by email or kept on a USB thumb drive to make a WikiOnAStick. This is the ThirdVersion of TiddlyWiki, and is published under an OpenSourceLicense."
Wakaba and Kareha homepage
Wakaba and Kareha homepage: "Wakaba and Kareha
Wakaba and Kareha are my attempts at implementing from scratch image and message boards of a type popular in Japan (used on sites such as 2chan and 2ch). This kind of board software is built around anonymous posting and no requirements for registration, to make the boards more suited for casual uses, and more fun overall. They are written in Perl, and are designed to be more efficient and cleanly written than the original scripts that are available, while preserving the same kind of functionality. Both scripts are in use at iichan, an English-language site built along the same lines as the Japanese 2chan, and also 4-ch, an English-language discussion BBS."
Saturday, June 25, 2005
What You'll Wish You'd Known
What You'll Wish You'd Known: "When I said I was speaking at a high school, my friends were curious. What will you say to high school students? So I asked them, what do you wish someone had told you in high school? Their answers were remarkably similar. So I'm going to tell you what we all wish someone had told us.
I'll start by telling you something you don't have to know in high school: what you want to do with your life. People are always asking you this, so you think you're supposed to have an answer. But adults ask this mainly as a conversation starter. They want to know what sort of person you are, and this question is just to get you talking. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool, to see what it does.
If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, I'd say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You don't need to be in a rush to choose your life's work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.
It might seem that nothing would be easier than deciding what you like, but it turns out to be hard, partly because it's hard to get an accurate picture of most jobs. Being a doctor is not the way it's portrayed on TV. Fortunately you can also watch real doctors, by volunteering in hospitals. [1]
"
Iraqi students say arrested for wearing jeans - Yahoo! News
Iraqi students say arrested for wearing jeans - Yahoo! News: "AJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Students in the Shi'ite Muslim religious Iraqi city of Najaf said that police recently arrested and beat several of them for wearing jeans and having long hair.
ADVERTISEMENT
'They arrested us because of our hair and because we were wearing jeans,' said student Mohammed Jasim, adding that the arrests took place two weeks ago in the city, the spiritual heart of
Iraq's newly dominant Shi'ite majority."
Man With Bong Attacks Police Dispatcher - Yahoo! News
Man With Bong Attacks Police Dispatcher - Yahoo! News: "GERMANTOWN, Wis. - A 22-year-old man was wrestled to the ground in the Germantown Police Department Friday afternoon after threatening a dispatcher with a glass bong and a shotgun, police said."
Slashdot Poll
Slashdot Poll: "Re:I write them down... (Score:4, Funny)
by hesiod (111176) Alter Relationship on Friday June 24, @02:15PM (#12902200)
(http://www.soundclick.com/nookschreier | Last Journal: Tuesday June 21, @11:38AM)
For security, I change my cat's name every quarter. Since the dog is inherently more secure, his name is only changed once a year."
Berks-Mont Newspapers - Kutztown Area Patriot - 06/23/2005 - 13 teens face felonies
Berks-Mont Newspapers - Kutztown Area Patriot - 06/23/2005 - 13 teens face felonies: "Thirteen Kutztown Area High School students are facing felony charges for tampering with district-issued laptop computers.
Advertisement
According to parent testimony and confirmed by an otherwise vaguely-worded letter from the Kutztown Police Department, students got hold of the system's secret administrative password and reconfigured their computers to achieve greater Internet and network access.
Some students used the newfound freedom to download music and inappropriate images from the Internet.
James Shrawder spoke on behalf of a group of parents of six of the accused at a June 20 school board meeting. He said the administration may have railroaded the process by not providing authorities with the whole story."
One-to-One Home
One-to-One Home: "More than 18 months ago School Board members of Kutztown Area School District began investigating the idea of a One-to-One laptop program for high school students. The study was prompted by the need to upgrade high school technology resources in the 1962 building and the 1976 addition.
In June of 2003, the then current board, although supportive of the student laptop concept, decided not to take action on the idea due to cost. Thus, in January 2004 when the budget process began for the 2004-2005 school year, the school board gathered data for the traditional technology option of upgrading the existing network infrastructure, replacing outdated lab, classroom, and teacher computers. When compared to the One-to-One program, the traditional option over a four-year implementation was initially less costly to the district. However, faced with the possibility of a high school renovation or new building in the coming years, the cost effectiveness of the traditional approach, with its associated wiring and upgraded network infrastructure, would be lost.
Thus, in the spring of 2004 when the district was presented with another proposal from Apple Computer for implementation of a high school One-to-One program, the Board compared the cost to the traditional technology option. This time the Apple proposal was significantly less costly than the one previously considered. When all financial factors were considered, the School Board chose the One-to-One laptop program for implementation at the high school."
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Why does the moon look so big now?
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Why does the moon look so big now?: "For the past few nights the moon has appeared larger than many people have seen it for almost 20 years. It is the world's largest optical illusion, and one of its most enduring mysteries.
It can put a man in space, land a probe on Mars, but Nasa can't explain why the moon appears bigger when it's on the horizon than when it's high in the night sky.
The mystery of the Moon Illusion, witnessed by millions of people this week, has puzzled great thinkers for centuries. There have even been books devoted to the matter.
Not since June 1987 has the moon been this low in the sky, accentuating the illusion even further.
But opinion differs on why there is such an apparent discrepancy in size between a moon on the horizon and one in the distant sky."
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Crypto-Gram: June 15, 1998
Crypto-Gram: June 15, 1998: "Side-Channel Attacks Against Cryptosystems
In the last few years, new kinds of cryptanalytic attack have begun to appear in the literature: attacks that target specific implementation details. The 'timing attack' made a big press splash in 1995: RSA private keys could be recovered by measuring the relative times cryptographic operations took. This attack has been successfully implemented against smart cards and other security tokens, and against electronic commerce servers across the Internet.
Researchers have generalized these methods to include attacks on a system by measuring power consumption, radiation emissions, and other 'side channels,' and have implemented them against a variety of public-key and symmetric algorithms in 'secure' tokens. Related research has looked at fault analysis: deliberately introducing faults into cryptographic processors in order to determine the secret keys. The effects of this attack can be devastating. "
komo news | 'This Is Not Right'
komo news | 'This Is Not Right': "DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist.
'This is not right,' she told us. It's not right!'
This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland. "
Outwitting the Witty worm
Outwitting the Witty worm: "Many Internet worms use pseudo-random numbers to scan the IP address-space. In this project, we reverse engineered the state of the pseudo-random number generator (pRNG) which the Witty worm used to generate packets. By combining our knowledge of Witty's code with the pRNG state, we performed a detailed recreation of the worm's spread. We were able to discover several characteristics of the infected systems, including their uptime, network access bandwidth, and number of disks. Additionally, we were able to find specific details about the worm author's deliberate targeting of a US Military base, and determine the identity of Patient 0, the system used to launch the worm. "
Monday, June 20, 2005
freshmeat.net: Project details for AdvanceCD
freshmeat.net: Project details for AdvanceCD: "About:
AdvanceCD is a bootable live CD, DVD, and USB disk that contains a minimal Linux distribution containing the AdvanceMAME emulator. You can boot it on any PC and play the contained games without any installation. "
Intel� PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux
Intel� PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux: "This project was created by Intel to enable support for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2915ABG Network Connection miniPCI adapters. This project (IPW2200) is intended to be a community effort as much as is possible given some working constraints (mainly, no HW documentation is available)."
CNN.com - Censored Japan A-bomb stories published - Jun 19, 2005
CNN.com - Censored Japan A-bomb stories published - Jun 19, 2005: "TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Censored stories written by an American journalist who sneaked into Japan soon after Nagasaki was leveled by a U.S. atomic bomb have surfaced six decades later.
They offer an unflinching account about the 'wasteland of war' and its radiation-sickened inhabitants.
The national Mainichi newspaper this month began serializing George Weller's stories and photographs from Nagasaki, about 614 miles southwest of Tokyo, for the first time since they were rejected by U.S. military censors and lost 60 years ago.
Weller's reportage about the unknown affliction he called 'disease X' appeared in the paper in Japanese and on its Web site edition in English.
By hiring a Japanese rowboat, catching trains and later posing as a U.S. Army colonel, Weller, an award-winning reporter for the now-defunct Chicago Daily News, slipped into Nagasaki in early September 1945, the paper said."
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs - Yahoo! News
Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs - Yahoo! News: "Charlie Morgan says that if it weren't for digital photography, he wouldn't have a bustling business that specializes in publicity shots for musicians. That's because Morgan — perhaps being a bit modest — says he's not a very good photographer. He relies on Photoshop editing software to make his work look sharp.
But digital sometimes presents a puzzling problem.
When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation."
Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs - Yahoo! News
Copyright-Worried Photo Labs Spurn Jobs - Yahoo! News: "Charlie Morgan says that if it weren't for digital photography, he wouldn't have a bustling business that specializes in publicity shots for musicians. That's because Morgan — perhaps being a bit modest — says he's not a very good photographer. He relies on Photoshop editing software to make his work look sharp.
But digital sometimes presents a puzzling problem.
When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation."
Kangaroo on the Loose Near W. Va. Town - Yahoo! News
Kangaroo on the Loose Near W. Va. Town - Yahoo! News: "CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A kangaroo has been on the loose for the last several months outside Charleston, perplexing authorities who have had problems catching it.
The 3-foot kangaroo, believed to be a male, comes out mostly at night or in the early morning, officials said. He makes appearances in backyards and on the county's rural roads.
'People will call in and say, 'I swear I'm not drunk or on drugs, but I just saw a kangaroo,'' state conservation officer Clyde Armstead said Thursday."
'Saint Death' booms in border drug war - Yahoo! News
'Saint Death' booms in border drug war - Yahoo! News: "NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - A death cult that venerates a scythe-wielding skeletal figure is booming in Mexican border cities south of Texas where hundreds have died this year in all-out drug war.
ADVERTISEMENT
The centuries-old pagan cult of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, has sprung back up in Mexico in recent years and claims some 2 million faithful, ranging from elite politicians to kidnappers and gangsters.
The revival began in Mexico City. Now, roadside shrines to the ghoulish figure stud highways approaching the U.S. border around the city of Nuevo Laredo, where more than 45 people have been killed in the drug fight so far this year.
Craft stall holders and shops called 'hierberias' that sell potions and other esoteric items are stocking up on skeletal talismans and statuettes of Santa Muerte, who resembles a gaudy version of the grim reaper."
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Quick HOWTO: Linux Home Networking and Linux Forums Help
Quick HOWTO: Linux Home Networking and Linux Forums Help: "Linux Networking: A compact configuration guide for students, and IT professionals who understand the theory but need a little nudge on the command formatting. A greatly expanded version has been published by Prentice Hall as the Linux Quick Fix Notebook. Please support the site and purchase a copy.
Cisco Networking: Created for the busy professional who needs a crash course in configuring Cisco devices in the home or small office.
Data Center Relocation: Outlines the rationale for either considering hosting your own website in a data center run by a third party or for relocating your existing servers from one data center to another. It covers the cost justification for making such a decision, data center selection criteria, detailed preparation steps, and comprehensive action plans. It also includes a wide range of work sheets aimed at making the job easier.
Join the forums and pose questions to the millions of persons who visit the site every year."
Saturday, June 11, 2005
freshmeat.net: Project details for ngetdaemon
freshmeat.net: Project details for ngetdaemon: "ngetdaemon allows quick and efficient perusing and downloading from Usenet remotely. Updating and sorting of all headers is done with one click. The strongest feature is that posts are grouped together in 'file groups', meaning a post consisting of 100 files is compacted into one line and determined to be complete, incomplete, par fills, etc. There are no pretty buttons, animations, etc. Everything is designed to create as little strain on bandwidth as possible."
Friday, June 10, 2005
Companies Unable to Settle BlackBerry Suit - New York Times
Companies Unable to Settle BlackBerry Suit - New York Times: "OTTAWA, June 9 - Final talks in a patent infringement lawsuit involving the popular BlackBerry e-mail messaging device have reached an impasse, the two companies involved said Thursday, raising the possibility that the BlackBerry service could be banned from the United States market.
The two companies, Research in Motion of Waterloo, Ontario, which makes the BlackBerry, and NTP, a small patent-holding company in Arlington, Va., reached a settlement in March to end an infringement suit that is three and a half years old. R.I.M. agreed at the time to pay NTP the unusually large sum of $450 million to end the suit.
On Thursday, however, it was apparent that negotiations to reach a final settlement had failed.
Late Wednesday night, R.I.M. asked a United States federal court to enforce the settlement reached in March. Meanwhile, in court papers filed Thursday, NTP denied that the settlement was ever clear-cut, and urged the court to reject R.I.M.'s request.
In a conference call Thursday with analysts, James L. Balsillie, the chairman and co-chief executive of R.I.M., said he could not comment on the specifics of why the talks had foundered, citing a confidentiality agreement between the companies. He emphasized, though, that R.I.M. had not tried to alter the settlement's terms, and blamed NTP for the impasse.
'This is an enormous amount of money, one of the largest settlements in the history of any patent system,' Mr. Balsillie said. 'I'm at a loss to understand what in the world one would want beyond that.'"
roachfiend.com � BugMeNot
roachfiend.com � BugMeNot: "Bypass compulsory web registration via Firefox’s right-click context menu. Compatibile with Mozilla and current Firefox releases. Visit bugmenot.com for full details of their service.
Updated: version 0.6.2 now will automatically fill in the web site’s fields with the first username and password combination it finds, the BugMeNot popup will automatically close, and the information will be automatically submitted. If it isn’t a valid combination, just right-click, select BugMeNot again, and this time, the window will stay open to ensure you get a valid combination. The script will still automatically transfer the information to the web site’s fields and submit it after you close the pop-up window.
You can change various settings in the extensions’ options menu if you use Firefox. Mozilla and Netscape’s auto-fill and auto-submit are on by default. The multiple remote servers option has been disabled, as it wasn’t really put to the use in the first place, and when this site was down, it caused some problems."
Under construction
Under construction: "I work in a computer store building PCs all day. With every new case there are one or two 8cm case fans included. Most of the systems we build do not need any more cooling than is supplied by the CPU fan as most of our customers generally don't go in for all this 'overclocking malarky'.
Looking around the stock room I discovered two large boxes of unused 8cm case fans. "
New Scientist Breaking News - Astronomers criticise plans to allow cellphone use on planes
New Scientist Breaking News - Astronomers criticise plans to allow cellphone use on planes: "Using cellphones on aeroplanes could drown out faint radio signals from space, astronomers are warning. They told a US agency considering lifting in-flight restrictions on cellphones that special devices should be installed on planes to limit damage to research if the regulations change.
US law currently prohibits aeroplane passengers from using cellphones because they may interfere with critical aircraft electronics. But the dramatic use of cellphones by passengers on the planes hijacked on 11 September 2001 spurred many people to petition the government to change this policy.
'It was not the cellphones that caused those planes to crash,' says Paul Feldman, a telecommunications lawyer at the firm Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth in Arlington, Virginia, US. 'For better or worse, there's an increasing expectation that people can use their cellphones everywhere, all the time.'
Now two government agencies - which would probably both have to agree to lift the ban - are reviewing the issue. The Federal Aviation Administration may reverse its policy depending on the results of a study on how cellphones affect flight safety. The study should be finished in January 2006."
oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Test Driving Linux
oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Test Driving Linux: "For years, computer users have put up with the bugs, security holes, and viruses on Windows because they had no choice. Until recently, there has never been a good alternative to Windows. But now, Windows users can switch to Linux, the reliable, secure, and spyware free operating system. Linux is easy to use, runs on almost any PC, and enables you to perform all the tasks you can do with Windows.
Getting to know Linux has never been easier, because now there's a way to test-drive Linux without changing, installing, or configuring a thing on your computer. It's called Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in 60 Seconds.
This latest release from O'Reilly comes with a Live CD called Move, that allows Windows users to try all the features of Mandrake Linux, a popular Linux distribution without the hassle of actually installing Linux. Users simply place the Move CD into their CD drive, boot from the disc, then watch an entire Mandrake system run on the fly from the CD-ROM.
Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in 60 Seconds is a detailed step-by-step guide to the Linux operating system and several popular open source programs. With this guide you can quickly learn how to use Linux to perform the tasks you do most: surf the web, send and receive email, instant message with friends, write letters, create spreadsheets, and even how to enhance your digitial photos.
Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in 60 Seconds provides both home and business users with a hassle-free way to investigate this operating system before they purchase and install a complete Linux distribution.
Return to Test Driving Linux"
Thursday, June 09, 2005
OpenVPN - An Open Source SSL VPN Solution by James Yonan
OpenVPN - An Open Source SSL VPN Solution by James Yonan: "OpenVPN is a full-featured SSL VPN solution which can accomodate a wide range of configurations, including remote access, site-to-site VPNs, WiFi security, and enterprise-scale remote access solutions with load balancing, failover, and fine-grained access-controls (articles) (examples) (security overview) (non-english languages).
OpenVPN implements OSI layer 2 or 3 secure network extension using the industry standard SSL/TLS protocol, supports flexible client authentication methods based on certificates, smart cards, and/or 2-factor authentication, and allows user or group-specific access control policies using firewall rules applied to the VPN virtual interface. OpenVPN is not a web application proxy and does not operate through a web browser.
For a good conceptual introduction to OpenVPN, see the program notes for James Yonan's talk at Linux Fest Northwest 2004 -- Understanding the User-Space VPN: History, Conceptual Foundations, and Practical Usage. See also OpenVPN and the SSL VPN Revolution by Charlie Hosner.
OpenVPN is an Open Source project and is licensed under the GPL. Commercial licenses are also available for firms who would like to redistribute OpenVPN with their own proprietary applications. Contact info@openvpn.net for more information.
OpenVPN runs on:
Linux, Windows 2000/XP and higher, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.
With OpenVPN, you can:
* tunnel any IP subnetwork or virtual ethernet adapter over a single UDP or TCP port,
* configure a scalable, load-balanced VPN server farm using one or more machines which can handle thousands of dynamic connections from incoming VPN clients,
* use all of the encryption, authentication, and certification features of the OpenSSL library to protect your private network traffic as it transits the internet,
* use any cipher, key size, or HMAC digest (for datagram integrity checking) supported by the OpenSSL library,
* choose between static-key based conventional encryption or certificate-based public key encryption,
* use static, pre-shared keys or TLS-based dynamic key exchange,
* use real-time adaptive link compression and traffic-shaping to manage link bandwidth utilization,
* tunnel networks whose public endpoints are dynamic such as DHCP or dial-in clients,
* tunnel networks through connection-oriented stateful firewalls without having to use explicit firewall rules,
* tunnel networks over NAT,
* create secure ethernet bridges using virtual tap devices, and
* control OpenVPN using a GUI on Windows or Mac OS X."
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
QDB: Quote #371960
QDB: Quote #371960: "#371960 (1562)- [X]
<@Lerou> Lag makes baby Jesus cry.
<@TempusRob> pssh
<@TempusRob> talk about lag
<@TempusRob> it took him 3 days to respawn"
QDB: Quote #16204
QDB: Quote #16204: "#16204 (140)- [X]
*** jamez5 was kicked by guard (-< Auto kick, three strikes and you'r out. >-)
*** jamez5 has joined #****
* jamez5 kick this damn excursion script non stop in the balls
QDB: Quote #22999
QDB: Quote #22999: "#22999 (309)- [X]
QDB: Quote #43902
QDB: Quote #43902: "#43902 (346)- [X]
* gregor5678 (~quickchat@*.ipt.aol.com) has joined #support
* Quits: gregor5678 (~quickchat@*.ipt.aol.com) (QUIT: )"
QDB: Random >0 Quotes
QDB: Random >0 Quotes: "#17923 (60)- [X]
QDB: Quote #14582
QDB: Quote #14582: "#14582 (249)- [X]
<@dos622> apple told his parents he was gay
<@dos622> so he could go on a overnight type trip with a girl"
QDB: Random >0 Quotes: "#17923 (60)- [X]
Monday, June 06, 2005
QDB: Quote #3976
QDB: Quote #3976: "#3976 (54)- [X]
QDB: Quote #406373
QDB: Quote #406373: "#406373 (4283)- [X]
<[TN]FBMachine> i got kicked out of barnes and noble once for moving all the bibles into the fiction section"
QDB: Quote #281780
QDB: Quote #281780: "#281780 (829)- [X]
QDB: Quote #215638
QDB: Quote #215638: "#215638 (688)- [X]
QDB: Quote #5823
QDB: Quote #5823: "#5823 (88)- [X]
QDB: Quote #53478
QDB: Quote #53478: "#53478 (119)- [X]
Slashdot Poll
Slashdot Poll: "I don't have a colored motherf***ing board. . . (Score:5, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 06, @09:04AM (#12734945)
you racially-insensitive clod!
But, I do have a smokin' hot daughtercard! Keep your filthy hands off her, too!"
Slashdot Poll
Slashdot Poll: "Re:Black... (Score:4, Funny)
by Silentnite (815125) <`jbontr02' `at' `gmail.com'> on Monday June 06, @10:13AM (#12735636)
God that reminded me of the first computer I built.
I felt so geeky because I modded it with a window, and put in blue fans, and blue lights, and all the gizmos and such that you first do when your just starting out...
So I have it on my desk, facing my TV, and I'm playing a game and watching TV. Now I have my room jury-rigged so that everything is surround sound(can't get enough speakers!)But back then I made the mistake of running both the PC and my TV into the same input jack on the reciever. It was fine as I usually only played on the computer or watched TV.
But on this fateful day I had decided to do both, and LO and BEHOLD! On the screen of the TV as I glance over I see reflections of my Blue computer! Blue Blue Blue Blue Orange Blue... sounds goo, wait, orange????!?! I leap to my feet to figure out whats wrong and I look in to see my motherboard bursting into flames! Couldn't exactly throw water on an electrical fire(I had already screwed up once..)So I pulled the plug.
My poor computer. The TV had caused Feedback into the motherboard and burst a capacitor. The flames crawled up and were licking at my video card but I got to it in time.
My parents thought it was ok for me to be sad, but they thought the funeral for the Motherboard was a little too much."
Slashdot Poll
Slashdot Poll: "Assumes we all know... (Score:4, Funny)
by meringuoid (568297) on Monday June 06, @08:59AM (#12734903)
... it's quite possible that there are Slashdotters who bought a prebuilt system and have never opened it.
OK, it's a little outlandish, but it could happen!"
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "BERLIN (Reuters) - German police, alerted to a potential kidnapping, 'freed' a man from a car boot only to discover the would-be victim was actually a willing sex slave, authorities said on Thursday.
Police stopped the car after a concerned caller told them he had seen a woman locking someone in the boot. However, on opening it, they were greeted by the sight of the 39-year-old man wearing nothing but a leather thong and a collar.
'It turned out they were a couple from the S&M scene. The 'mistress' was driving, with the slave in the boot,' said a police spokesman in the southern town of Bayreuth.
Deciding the rear of the car was not safe for the man, officers told him to sit inside the car and sent the pair on their way. "
Friday, June 03, 2005
New Scientist Breaking News - New hack cracks 'secure' Bluetooth devices
New Scientist Breaking News - New hack cracks 'secure' Bluetooth devices: "Cryptographers have discovered a way to hack Bluetooth-enabled devices even when security features are switched on. The discovery may make it even easier for hackers to eavesdrop on conversations and charge their own calls to someone else’s cellphone.
Bluetooth is a protocol that allows different devices including phones, laptops, headsets and printers to communicate wirelessly over short ranges - typically between 10 and 100 metres.
Over the past few years security experts have devised many ways of hacking into Bluetooth communications, but most require the Bluetooth security features to be switched off.
In April 2004, UK-based Ollie Whitehouse, at that time working for security firm @Stake, showed that even Bluetooth devices in secure mode could be attacked. His method allowed someone to hijack the phone, giving them the power to make calls as if it were in their own hands."
BBC NEWS | Health | 'Artificial heart saved my life'
BBC NEWS | Health | 'Artificial heart saved my life': "'Artificial heart saved my life'
By Jane Elliott
BBC News health reporter
Mr Houghton didn't expect to be alive now
Peter Houghton was just weeks away from certain death when doctors offered him a radical new treatment - would he like the world's first permanent mechanical heart?
His own was failing fast. Each day was such agony that Peter had become reconciled to the prospect of death.
'They told me I had just three weeks to live,' he said.
'I was breathless, I had gout in three limbs and I had weeping sores all over my body and I was huge with water
retention.
'It was too painful to live. I had too much difficulty sleeping and I was too itchy.
'I did not want to die, but I had reconciled myself to it. I had said my 'thank yous' to all the people I should and I had got my affairs in order. I was ready for dying.'"
BBC NEWS | Health | Toxins may pass down generations
BBC NEWS | Health | Toxins may pass down generations: "oxins may pass down generations
Chemicals can change the way genes work
Toxic chemicals that poisoned your great-grandparents may also damage your health, research suggests.
A team from Washington State University has produced evidence that some inherited diseases may be caused by poisons polluting the womb.
Research on rats suggests man-made environmental toxins may alter genetic activity, giving rise to diseases that pass down at least four generations.
The research is published in the journal Science.
It is a new way to think about disease
Dr Michael Skinner
The scientists exposed pregnant rats to two agricultural chemicals during the period that the sex of their offspring was being determined.
"
BBC NEWS | Health | Aircraft noise 'affects learning'
BBC NEWS | Health | Aircraft noise 'affects learning': "Aircraft noise 'affects learning'
Many children were also exposed to aircraft noise at home
Exposure to high levels of aircraft noise may affect children's reading skills, researchers claim.
A team from Barts and the London NHS Trust looked at data on more than 2,800 children living near Heathrow and other airports in Spain and the Netherlands.
The Lancet study found each five decibel increase in noise level was linked to children being up to two months behind in their reading age.
A US expert said the study supported previous research findings.
The children, all aged nine or 10, attended schools near to London's Heathrow Airport, Schiphol in the Netherlands and Barajas in Spain.
Aircraft noise might only have a small effect on the development of reading, but the effect of long-term exposure remains unknown
Professor Stephen Stansfeld, Barts and the London NHS Trust
But the researchers said their findings applied to the area around any airport."
BBC NEWS | Health | Scientists create 'trust potion'
BBC NEWS | Health | Scientists create 'trust potion': "Scientists create 'trust potion'
The study looked at monetary exchanges
A key hormone helps determine whether we will trust lovers, friends or business contacts, scientists claim.
Exposure to an oxytocin 'potion' led people to be more trusting, tests by University of Zurich researchers found.
They report in the journal Nature that the finding could help people with conditions such as autism, where relating to others can be a problem.
But one expert warned it could be misused by politicians who want to persuade more people to back them.
Some may worry about the prospect that political operators will generously spray the crowd with oxytocin at rallies of their candidates
Dr Antonio Damasio, University of Iowa College of Medicine
Oxytocin is a molecule produced naturally in the hypothalamus area of the brain which regulates a variety of physiological processes, including emotion.
It also acts on other brain regions whose function is associated with emotional and social behaviours, such as the amygdala.
And animal studies have shown oxytocin is linked to bonding between males and females and mother-infant bonding.
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BBC NEWS | UK | England | Leicestershire | Hospitals defend MRSA Bible move
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Leicestershire | Hospitals defend MRSA Bible move: "Hospitals defend MRSA Bible move
There are concerns bedside books could help spread infection
Hospitals in Leicester have denied they are preparing to remove copies of the Bible from their wards.
NHS trust spokesperson Anne McGregor said they were considering where to store the books and would consult staff on the possible risk of MRSA infection.
But Gideons International, which distributes Bibles, said claims of a possible health risk were 'nonsense'.
Ms McGregor denied reports that the move was prompted by concerns the Bibles might offend non-Christians."
New Scientist Breaking News - New hack cracks 'secure' Bluetooth devices
New Scientist Breaking News - New hack cracks 'secure' Bluetooth devices: "Cryptographers have discovered a way to hack Bluetooth-enabled devices even when security features are switched on. The discovery may make it even easier for hackers to eavesdrop on conversations and charge their own calls to someone else’s cellphone.
Bluetooth is a protocol that allows different devices including phones, laptops, headsets and printers to communicate wirelessly over short ranges - typically between 10 and 100 metres.
Over the past few years security experts have devised many ways of hacking into Bluetooth communications, but most require the Bluetooth security features to be switched off.
In April 2004, UK-based Ollie Whitehouse, at that time working for security firm @Stake, showed that even Bluetooth devices in secure mode could be attacked. His method allowed someone to hijack the phone, giving them the power to make calls as if it were in their own hands."
Google's long memory stirs privacy concerns - Yahoo! News
Google's long memory stirs privacy concerns - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Google Inc.'s 19 million daily users look up a long-lost classmate, send e-mail or bounce around the Web more quickly with its new Web Accelerator, records of that activity don't go away.
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In an era of increased government surveillance, privacy watchdogs worry that Google's vast archive of Internet activity could prove a tempting target for abuse.
Like many other online businesses, Google (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) tracks how its search engine and other services are used, and who uses them. Unlike many other businesses, Google holds onto that information for years.
Some privacy experts who otherwise give Google high marks say the company's records could become a handy data bank for government investigators who rely on business records to circumvent Watergate-era laws that limit their own ability to track U.S. residents.
At a time when libraries delete lending records as soon as a book is returned, Google should purge its records after a certain point to protect users, they say.
'What if someone comes up to them and says, 'We want to know whenever this key word comes up'? All the capability is there and it becomes a one-stop shopping center for all these kinds of things,' said Lauren Weinstein, an engineer who co-founded People for Internet Responsibility, a forum for online issues."
Serial Impersonator Arrested Again - Yahoo! News
Serial Impersonator Arrested Again - Yahoo! News: "GODFREY, Ill. - A serial impersonator of law enforcement officials and others has been arrested again — this time for posing as an appliance repairman.
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click here
James A. Ross, 23, has served time in jail for false impersonation of a police officer and again for posing as a paramedic. He also has been charged with posing as a firefighter and a mortician."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "SOUTHPORT (Reuters) - Brian Radam is mad about lawnmowers -- he loves their smell, their sound, the way they look and the way they're built. And he's not the only one.
Lawnmower-lovers gather in the tiny rooms above his shop hidden away in the back streets of the genteel English seaside town of Southport, overjoyed to share their passion with others.
'There are lots of keen collectors, but they don't tell anybody about it. If you went to the pub and you said 'do you want to see the dozen lawnmowers that I've got at home?', they'd think you were nuts,' Radam said.
Apparently plenty of people are 'nuts' in gardening-obsessed Britain, a country with a reputation for eccentricity where pursuits such as cheese-rolling, train-spotting and bog-snorkelling barely raise an eyebrow."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst.
Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch 'bible belt' of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes.
But the caveat that swearing is not banned when it is an expression of the constitutional freedom of speech may make it difficult to punish offenders.
'A ban on swearing can be seen as a signal,' the council's proposal said, adding a change in moral values was needed to address the underlying problem."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - People who solicit prostitutes in Oakland, California, could find their faces plastered on billboards under a new shaming program that one civil rights group calls bad public policy.
The city of 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco started putting up billboards on Wednesday showing men arrested for soliciting sex. Other signs invite prostitutes to quit by calling a help line.
'This idea came out of just thinking about new ideas, doing something to deal with this increasing problem, especially with the exploitation of underage women,' said Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who champions the approach.
The photos on the billboards were partially blurred so the men are not easily identifiable. But in the future photos might be displayed unaltered, an aide to De La Fuente said."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "LONDON (Reuters) - Driving badly? then ditch the pastry and reach for the mints.
Different odours affect the way motorists drive, with fast food scents likely to increase road rage potential and other smells -- like peppermint -- deemed to improve concentration, the RAC Foundation motoring organisation said on Friday.
'More than any other sense, the sense of smell circumnavigates the logical part of the brain,' the RAC Foundation's consultant psychologist, Conrad King, said."
UW IMAP software--IMAP Information Center
UW IMAP software--IMAP Information Center: "IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a method of accessing electronic messages kept on a (possibly shared) mail server. This site provides information about and links to the University of Washington IMAP toolkit (IMAP-supporting software developed by the UW) and two IMAP-related mailing lists hosted by the UW. For more information about IMAP, see the IMAP Connection, a clearinghouse of IMAP information including an overview of IMAP, an inventory of IMAP products and documents describing and evaluating IMAP."
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "MANILA (Reuters) - A dozen college students stripped near the presidential palace in the Philippines on Wednesday to protest the deteriorating state of the education system.
The students, all young men who did nothing to cover their faces or bodies, waved placards as they paraded for about 15 minutes at a busy intersection in Manila before police shooed them away.
'The naked truth is that the government never treats education as a basic right,' they said in a statement."
Secret of longest marriage is saying 'sorry' - Yahoo! News
Secret of longest marriage is saying 'sorry' - Yahoo! News: "LONDON (Reuters) - A British couple who hold the world record for the longest marriage said Wednesday their success was down to a glass of whisky, a glass of sherry and the word 'sorry.'
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Percy and Florence Arrowsmith married on June 1, 1925 and will celebrate their 80th anniversary Wednesday.
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Here's something you don't expect to see... - Yahoo! News
Here's something you don't expect to see... - Yahoo! News: "BANGKOK (Reuters) - Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said Tuesday.
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The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's post office is threatening to stop mail deliveries to a woman in Ottawa because her doorstep is 10 centimetres (three inches) too high, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Christine Charbonneau said that when she went to check her mail last Friday she found a Canada Post employee measuring her front doorstep. He told her it was 30 cm high, 10 cm more than the maximum limit specified by building regulations."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "TOKYO (Reuters) - Persuading Japanese bureaucrats and businessmen to loosen their collars and shed their cravats may prove tough if the first day of a government 'Cool Biz' campaign to save energy and fight global warming is anything to go by.
Already known for his 'no necktie' diplomacy, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi looked casual and comfy as he showed up at his office in a blue linen shirt hanging out over white slacks.
'It's so comfortable without a tie,' Koizumi told reporters."
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk
Oddly Enough Article | Reuters.co.uk: "TOKYO (Reuters) - Persuading Japanese bureaucrats and businessmen to loosen their collars and shed their cravats may prove tough if the first day of a government 'Cool Biz' campaign to save energy and fight global warming is anything to go by.
Already known for his 'no necktie' diplomacy, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi looked casual and comfy as he showed up at his office in a blue linen shirt hanging out over white slacks.
'It's so comfortable without a tie,' Koizumi told reporters."
Bad manners in KFC ad spark record complaints - Yahoo! News
Bad manners in KFC ad spark record complaints - Yahoo! News: "LONDON (Reuters) - Call centre workers shown on TV singing with their mouths full have prompted a flood of complaints from those concerned over the depiction of bad manners.
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The commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken became Britain's most complained about ad, with 1,671 members of the public contacting the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Offended viewers said it encouraged bad manners in children by making it appear funny to sing or speak while eating and 41 of those who complained said their children had aped the ad.
But the ASA rejected all complaints and dismissed fears of an epidemic of children eating open-mouthed.
'As teaching good table manners is an ongoing process needing frequent reminders at meal times, we do not agree that the advertisement would have a detrimental effect,' the authority said in its ruling."
Bush denies losing clout, promises to consult - Yahoo! News
Bush denies losing clout, promises to consult - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President Bush on Tuesday rejected talk he was losing political clout early in his second term, insisted 'things don't happen instantly in Washington' and vowed to fight on for his top priorities.
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Bush also promised to consult U.S. senators about potential Supreme Court choices as he held a news conference in the White House Rose Garden amid doubts about his agenda given Democratic opposition to his major goals and some Republican defections.
'Things don't happen instantly in Washington, D.C.,' he insisted. Asked if he was concerned he was losing momentum, Bush said: 'I don't worry about anything here in Washington, D.C. I mean, I feel comfortable in my role as the president, and my role as the president is to push for reform.'
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Identity of 'Deep Throat' Source Confirmed - Yahoo! News
Identity of 'Deep Throat' Source Confirmed - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON - Breaking a silence of 30 years, former
FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward Tuesday as Deep Throat, the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Within hours, the paper ratified his claim.
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'It's the last secret' of the story, said Ben Bradlee, the paper's top editor at the time the riveting political drama played out three decades ago.
It tumbled out in stages during the day — first when a lawyer quoted Felt in a magazine article as having said he was the source; then when the former FBI man's family issued a statement hailing him as a 'great American hero,' and finally when the Post posted a story on its Web site confirming him as the secret leaker of long ago.
'I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat,' Felt, the former No. 2 man at the FBI, was quoted as saying in Vanity Fair."
Wired News: State Win for Stem Cells
Wired News: State Win for Stem Cells: "Massachusetts lawmakers have easily overridden the state governor's veto of a bill aimed at encouraging embryonic stem cell research.
The new law bans cloning for reproductive purposes, but allows so-called 'therapeutic cloning' of human embryos to extract stem cells. It was this provision that led to Governor Mitt Romney's veto."
Doctor: 'Mermaid' Baby Ready for Surgery - Yahoo! News
Doctor: 'Mermaid' Baby Ready for Surgery - Yahoo! News: "LIMA, Peru - Peru's bright-eyed 'little mermaid' — a baby born with legs fused from her thighs to her ankles — giggled and played on her hospital bed Tuesday, ahead of a delicate operation to begin repairing her rare birth defect.
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Thirteen-month-old Milagros Cerron was in prime condition for the surgery, which was to last four to six hours, said Dr. Luis Rubio, leader of the team of 11 surgeons who were to perform the operation.
'Today is the big day awaited by the entire world, by her parents, by her and by us. We have prepared an entire hospital for her,' Rubio said in an interview with The Associated Press, adding that he was 'tremendously optimistic' the surgery would be successful."
News from Spain: Spanish scientists use maths to cure terminal liver cancer
News from Spain: Spanish scientists use maths to cure terminal liver cancer: "By using a mathematical formula formula designed to strengthen the immune system, a team of scientists in Spain have succeeded in curing a patient who was in the last stage of terminal liver cancer.
The team of researchers from the Complutense University in Madrid believe that this discovery could open new doors for the treatment of solid cancerous tumours."
Too much homework can be counterproductive
Too much homework can be counterproductive: "Instead of improving educational achievement in countries around the world, increases in homework may actually undercut teaching effectiveness and worsen disparities in student learning, according to two Penn State researchers.
Most teachers worldwide are not making efficient use of homework, said David P. Baker, professor of education and sociology. They assign homework mostly as drill, to improve memorization of material either in math, science or the humanities. While drills and repetitive exercises have their place in schooling, homework may not be that place."
