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IT: MS Employee Calls for No More Passwords
Security
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @08:43PM
from the wise-man-in-a-unique-position dept.
BobPaul writes "On his blog, Robert Hensing of the Microsoft PSS Security Team makes a really convincing argument for the abolishment of complicated passwords. He argues that precomputed hash tables, network sniffing, and programs like LoftCrack make passwords obsolete and dangerous in the windows environment. What does he recommend in their place? Passphrases: sentences and quotes that are easy to remember but may be more than 30 or 40 characters in length. With many companies requiring frequent password changes, (and we know exactly where that leads) this is a simple idea I'm surprised more people haven't been doing this more often."

( Read More... | 31 of 50 comments | it.slashdot.org )

Enterprise Fans Buy Full-Page Ad In LA Times
Sci-Fi
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @07:34PM
from the more-pink-skins dept.
jangobongo writes "SciFiWire.com reports that fans of Star Trek Enterprise have succeeded in placing a full-page ad in the LA Times. The ad will urge someone to pick up the show for a fifth season. According to the official fan site, a Star Trek Enterprise fan working for the LA Times has arranged a special deal for a discounted ad. Donations collected to date have covered the cost of the ad which will be located in the "A" section of the paper on Feb. 21."

( Read More... | 116 of 174 comments )

IT: Opera Claims Microsoft Has Poor Interoperability
Microsoft
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @06:30PM
from the tit-for-tat dept.
Noksagt writes "Opera CTO Hakon Lie has countered the claims that Bill Gates made regarding Microsoft's superior interoperability last week. He points out their invalid webpages, MS's unwillingness to serve the same content to different browsers, IE's poor CSS support, tardy documentation and limitations of their XML format, and more." From the article: "You say you believe in interoperability. Why then, did you terminate the Web Core Fonts initiative you started in 1996? You deserve credit for starting it, but why close down a project which could have given you yet much good will? (Verdana sucks, but Georgia is beautiful!)"

( Read More... | 109 of 179 comments | it.slashdot.org )

Intel to Market PCs as Home Entertainment Hubs
Intel
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @05:46PM
from the questionable-choices dept.
wantobe writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Intel is developing their own "new technology" to convert home computers into entertainment hubs. Does anyone even really want this?" From the article: "Analysts say the chip bundle and software will transform the PC into an all-purpose multimedia device designed to function as a CD and DVD player, digital video recorder, game console, as well as a machine for traditional data processing and Internet."

( Read More... | 93 of 126 comments )

Oakland County to go Wireless
Wireless Networking
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @04:53PM
from the yay-civics-projects dept.
y00nix writes "Oakland County, MI has plans to roll out a wireless Internet access program dubbed "Wireless Oakland" covering all 910 square miles inside the county. County Executive L. Brooks Patterson unveiled the plans at last night's State of the County address. Additional press coverage via the Oakland Press, and the The Detroit News." Similar in concept to Philadelphia's plans covered yesterday.

( Read More... | 65 of 91 comments )

Your Rights Online: Public Park Designated Copyrighted Space
Censorship
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @03:37PM
from the built-with-public-funds dept.
wiggles writes "The City of Chicago recently completed a $475 million park/civic center known as Millennium Park. One of the central features is a sculpture officially called Cloud Gate and unofficially called "The Bean". The Bean is a giant, 3 story, 110-ton hunk of highly reflective steel. Photographers taking pictures of the sculpture have been charged money by the city. The park district is claiming that pictures of the park violate the designers' and artists' copyrights. Quoth Karen Ryan, the press director for the park's project, "The copyrights for the enhancements in Millennium Park are owned by the artist who created them. As such, anyone reproducing the works, especially for commercial purposes, needs the permission of that artist." In response, Chicagoland bloggers have been posting as many pictures as they can get of The Bean."

( Read More... | 410 of 542 comments | yro.slashdot.org )

Games: John Smedley On the Future of MMOGs
Role Playing (Games)
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @02:44PM
from the quite-a-letter dept.
RosethornKB writes "John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, wrote a letter about SOE's look to the future. In it, Smedley asks some questions about virtual children, skill based combat and player created content. KillerBetties.com posts a response to his questions. From the article: "What if you could have families in MMO's? Virtual Children... What if your characters could have children and pass on the family name...This is a very vague idea and I'm not sure if he words it that way on purpose or not. The concept of Virtual Children and passing on the family name isn't new. For example, upcoming Limitless Horizons MMO Mourning has had it in their design since the game first was announced. Their system is actually very interesting in theory."" Grimwell.com has commentary on SOE's recent activities.

( Read More... | 100 of 127 comments | games.slashdot.org )

Politics: Los Angeles to Consider Open Source Software
Politics
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @01:33PM
from the penguins-in-the-valley dept.
lientz writes "According to an article at FederalComputerWeek, the city of Los Angeles is considering using Open Source software as a cost cutting measure. From the article: "...city officials could save $5.2 million by switching to OpenOffice... rather than purchasing a Microsoft Office product at $200 per license for 26,000 desktops. The savings would go to a special fund to hire more employees for the police department, a major focus for city officials right now, he added.""

( Read More... | 200 of 279 comments | politics.slashdot.org )

Developers: Should Dual Cores Require Dual Licenses?
The Almighty Buck
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 12, @12:46PM
from the symmetrical-multi-paying dept.
sebFlyte writes "The multi-core debate continues. HP and Intel have laid into Oracle and (to a lesser extent) BEA over their their treatment of multi-core processers. Oracle's argument that 'a core is a CPU and therefore you should pay us all your money' isn't a popular one, it would seem. What does Oracle's stubbornness imply for the industry as a whole, with multicore chips coming to the fore so strongly?"

( Read More... | 295 of 359 comments | developers.slashdot.org )

Science: Genetic Engineers Barking Up the Wrong Trees?
Biotech
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 12, @11:35AM
from the saving-soccer-moms dept.
Rick the Red writes "In a commentary titled 'Genetic engineering for better suburbia', Vincent Barnes says, 'Cures for diseases and feeding the world with genetically modified foods is well and good but the real money is in solving the problems of homeowners, the vast silent majority of Americans who toil away every spring and summer fighting pests and every fall injuring their backs and falling off ladders.' Should Monsanto bring us designer maples that don't shed leaves? Would you buy designer grass that grows two inches and stops? Even if you won't eat GM food?"

( Read More... | 210 of 281 comments | science.slashdot.org )

Apple: Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod
Music
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 12, @10:38AM
from the uphill-battles dept.
rocketjam writes "Forbes reports that Napster plans an aggressive marketing campaign against Apple's iPod as part of its subscription service full launch later this quarter. Napster's service uses Microsoft's Janus technology to enable DRM protected music files 'bought' through subscription services to be transferred from a PC to a portable music player. Napster CEO Chris Gorog said the company is betting heavily that their monthly 'all you can eat' subscription service will win the battle for online digital music services, claiming, 'It's exactly what consumers want to do. Napster To Go is very similar to the P2P experience.' He believes the best way to market the service is to emphasize its advantages over iTunes and its iPod-only compatibility. 'We're going to be communicating to people that it's stupid to buy an iPod.' Maybe I'm too old to get it, but I fail to see the attraction of paying a monthly fee for as long as I want to have access to my music." Of course, if Napster To Go supported iPod, they'd have a much larger install base to convince to use their service, instead of still pleading people to buy a portable player with compatible DRM installed.

( Read More... | 504 of 674 comments | apple.slashdot.org )

The Typo Millionaires
The Internet
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 12, @09:45AM
from the slsshdot-and-slashdit dept.
theodp writes "Slate's Paul Boutin reports on the sordid history of the oldest scam on the Internet. For almost as long as the Web has existed, there's been a thriving economy of sites, services, and software vying to grab you as soon as your mistype a URL. Studies estimate that 10-20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped, adding up to at least 20 million wrong numbers per day, helping to enrich the likes of porn purveyors, ISP's, Paxfire, Microsoft and VeriSign."

( Read More... | 189 of 266 comments )

Your Rights Online: Los Alamos Missing Disks Never Existed
The Courts
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @08:42AM
from the colossal-ooops dept.
Hal9000_sn3 writes "Turns out that the investigations carried out at Los Angeles National Laboratory over a matter of stolen research were flawed...because the missing disks never existed. Kind of hard to defend against having lost something you allegedly had access to, if the thing never existed." From the article: "Eventually, four were fired for security breaches, one chose to resign under the threat of termination and seven others received various formal reprimands."

( Read More... | 170 of 267 comments | yro.slashdot.org )

Science: NASA Prepares Discovery for Launch
Space
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @07:51AM
from the up-up-and-away dept.
eggoeater writes "Yahoo! reports that Kennedy Space Center is buzzing with excitement over the likely launch of Space Shuttle Discovery this Spring. It's been just over two years since the Columbia tragedy and the Discovery has been outfitted with many new safety features, including the removal of the foam from the external tank and pressure sensors on the wings that would detect an impact. Quote from launch director Michael D. Leinbach: 'It's all converging on what looks like May 15 to start flying the shuttle again.'"

( Read More... | 85 of 107 comments | science.slashdot.org )

Politics: Hatemongering Becoming A Problem On Orkut
Google
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @05:18AM
from the not-so-good dept.
jaquesparrow writes "Orkut is a well known beta experiment, an invite only environment based on social networks. Recently it has been reported that hate and racism is proliferating on Orkut. Besides the story in the Wilmington Star, the International Herald Tribune also has commentary on the situation." From the article: "For Google, the trouble on Orkut - which is still in beta, or test, form - could easily escalate. A prosecutor in Brazil, where the service is especially popular, has already initiated an investigation into some of the more virulent Orkut sites."

( Read More... | 287 of 508 comments | politics.slashdot.org )

Science: Simulation Explains Supermassive Black Holes
Space
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @03:38AM
from the that-sinking-feeling dept.
Spy der Mann writes "Using a new computer model of galaxy formation, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have shown that growing black holes release a blast of energy that fundamentally regulates galaxy evolution and black hole growth itself. According to its creators, 'the model explains for the first time observed phenomena and promises to deliver deeper insights into our understanding of galaxy formation and the role of black holes throughout cosmic history'. Hi res pictures and animations (divX) are also available."

( Read More... | 70 of 90 comments | science.slashdot.org )

Science: British Rail Moving Forward with Sat-Nav/GPS
Wireless Networking
Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 12, @12:43AM
from the need-that-for-my-bicycle dept.
de1orean writes "The BBC is reporting that after a successful limited trial using GPS satellite navigation to improve train safety and efficiency, British Rail is committed to instituting sat-nav throughout the system. It may be in operation as early as 2008."

( Read More... | 131 of 174 comments | science.slashdot.org )

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