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Tue, January 01, 2008 11:51:54 PMFrom:
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Subject:
[Slashdot] Stories for 2008-01-02
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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* NASA Releases Cryptic Airline Safety Data
* Privacy International Releases 2007 Report
* Archos 605 WiFi Hacked
* Gen Y Hits the Library the Most -- But Not For Books
* Microsoft Paid Novell $356 Million in '07
* Computer Glitch Halts Seattle New Year's Fireworks
* Microsoft's Biggest Threat - Google or Open Source?
* OLPC CTO Quits to Commercialize OLPC Technology
* Dvorak Looks Back At 'Another Crappy Tech Year'
* What Did You Change Your Mind About in 2007?
* New Years Resolutions - An Engineering Approach
* Apricot Team Selected For Fully Open Source 3D Game
* 27 Billion Gigabytes to be Archived by 2010
* LANCOR v. OLPC Case Continues In Nigerian Court
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| NASA Releases Cryptic Airline Safety Data |
| from the oh-you-wanted-the-key-too dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday December 31, @19:53 (NASA) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/31/2315235 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes "NASA [0]released part of a controversial
study about air traffic safety Monday. The space agency spent $11 million
on a survey of airline pilots. Agency officials were so disturbed by the
findings that they intended to destroy the information rather than
release it. But at an October congressional hearing, NASA administrator
Michael Griffin changed tack and said the agency would release its
findings. The research shows that safety problems occur far more often
than previously recognized. NASA [1]has been criticized however for not
providing 'documentation on how to use its data, nor did it provide keys
to unlock the cryptic codes used in the [2]dataset.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/12/31/2315235
Links:
0. http://www.nasa.gov/news/reports/NAOMS.html
1. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jKO38hKOG37Omy4Iv7Bi9q_L98bQD8TSL1PG1
2. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/207225main_Master%20Flight%20Activity%20Listing%20ACR%20FINAL%20rev%201.pdf
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| Privacy International Releases 2007 Report |
| from the state-with-a-big-essssss dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday December 31, @22:03 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/0142231 |
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[0]I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Privacy International
has released their [1]report on privacy for 2007, which includes a
color-coded world map that highlights the countries with the best privacy
laws, the privacy-hostile countries being in black. While many of the
overall rankings may come as no surprise, it does highlight some of the
more obscure abuses. For example, Venezuela requires your fingerprints
just to get a phone and South Korea requires a government registration
number linked to your identity before you can post on message boards.
Makes you wonder [2]who is Number One?"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/0142231
Links:
0. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/
1. http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5B347%5D=x-347-559597
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Prisoner&oldid=181086883
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Archos 605 WiFi Hacked |
| from the open-access dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @01:19 (Hardware Hacking|
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/0131228 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Nathan Ramella writes "The [1]ARCwelder project has released a
technique dubbed 'Go Fighting Tabby!' which exploits an unquoted system()
call through the Archos UI, providing the ability to execute arbitrary
code with root access on the [2]Archos 605 WiFi. In doing so, opening the
platform up for further hacking. The Archos 605 WiFi runs embedded Linux
on an ARM processor, but employs a variety of anti-hack techniques to
keep users from modifying its firmware and operating system. Included is
a cross-compiled sshd with configuration files to allow for passwordless
ssh access to the Archos when it is connected to a WiFi connection.
Bricks ahoy!"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/0131228
Links:
0. mailto:googlecode@nym.hush.com
1. http://code.google.com/p/arcwelder/
2. http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gen Y Hits the Library the Most -- But Not For Books |
| from the checking-out-cuties dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @04:27 (Books) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/0222231 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Lucas123 writes "More than half of all Americans visited a library
this past year and, of those, most were from Generation Y, the
tech-loving young adults aged 18-30 years, [1]according to a recent
survey. The reason most cited for visiting their local public archive?
Not books. Most were seeking gaming software programs, characters in the
Second Life virtual world and online help with homework."
Another way to think about the results: about 47 percent of Americans
didn't visit a library even once last year.
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/0222231
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&articleId=9054700&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_top
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| Microsoft Paid Novell $356 Million in '07 |
| from the mere-pocket-change dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @07:46 (Linux Business) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/0354229 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Anonymous writes "At the end of [0]this piece at Channelweb.com, it's
reported that Microsoft paid Novell $355.6 million last year as part of
their 'interoperability' deal. It's no small wonder, then, that Novell
executives are saying the deal has been a huge success so far."
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/0354229
Links:
0. http://www.crn.com/software/205205966
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Computer Glitch Halts Seattle New Year's Fireworks |
| from the probably-not-funny-for-seattle dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @08:33 (It's funny. Laugh.|
| http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1255200 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
supersat writes "At the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve, [0]Seattle's
fireworks show ground to a halt. The source of the problem is reported to
be a corrupted file that wasn't checked until the last minute. After two
reboots, the fireworks had to be detonated manually. And yes ... one blog
commenter, claiming to have worked on prior shows, [1]said that the shows
run on Windows."
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1255200
Links:
0. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/345643_fireworks01.html
1. http://blogs.king5.com/archives/2008/01/computer_glitch.html#comment-2106911
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft's Biggest Threat - Google or Open Source? |
| from the by-your-powers-combined dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @09:35 (Google) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1322244 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Glyn Moody writes "Google always plays down suggestions that there's
any looming clash of the titans between itself and Microsoft. Meanwhile,
the search giant is [1]pushing open source in every way it can. They're
contributing directly by contributing code to projects and employing top
hackers like Andrew Morton, Jeremy Allison and Guido van Rossum, and
indirectly through the $60 million fees it pays Mozilla, its Summer of
Code scheme and various open source summits held at its offices.
Google+OSS: could this be the killer combination that finally breaks
Microsoft?"
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1322244
Links:
0. http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/
1. http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?editorialsid=2395
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| OLPC CTO Quits to Commercialize OLPC Technology |
| from the there's-more-money-in-money-than-in-charity dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @10:45 (Education) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1324240 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]theodp writes "The One Laptop Per Child project suffered a blow
Monday, with CTO Mary Lou Jepsen quitting the nonprofit to [1]start a
for-profit company to commercialize technology she invented with OLPC
(the first of Jepsen's pending OLPC patents was [2]published by the USPTO
on Dec. 13). The OLPC project [3]halted consumer sales of the cheap
laptop at the end of December."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1324240
Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9054618&intsrc=hm_list
2. http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220070285428%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20070285428&RS=DN/20070285428
3. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139894-page,1-c,currentevents/article.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dvorak Looks Back At 'Another Crappy Tech Year' |
| from the so-cranky dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @11:28 (It's funny. Laugh.|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1331247 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
twitter writes "The [0]Vista Death Watch is [1]PC Magazine's most popular
column. That is just one of many items in Dvorak's review of yet another
'disappointing' year in Technology. 'I was not a fan of 2007. It was
another crappy tech year--just the latest in a string of bad years dating
back to 2000. Let's see some of the highlights and lowlights in no
particular order ... The whopper for Intel, though, was its Viiv
initiative, which was a dog from the get-go and was dropped--finally.
Somewhere along the way, Intel bought into the Silicon Valley crock that
CPUs were not important any more. What a laugh. Luckily for the company,
it refocused on processor chips and found itself in the driver's seat
once again. Of course, Intel will fall off the path again, of that you
can be sure.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1331247
Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2209837,00.asp
1. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2240652,00.asp
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| What Did You Change Your Mind About in 2007? |
| from the read-dawkins'-it's-awesome dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @12:41 (Science) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1313203 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]chrisd writes "The Edge 2008 question (with answers) is in. This year,
the question is: 'What did you change your mind about and why?'. Answers
are featured from scientists as diverse as [1]Richard Dawkins, [2]Simon
Baron-Cohen, [3]George Church, [4]David Brin, [5]J. Craig Venter and the
[6]Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, among others. Very interesting to
read. For instance, Stewart Brand writes that he now realizes that '[7]Good
old stuff sucks' and Sam Harris has decided that '[8]Mother Nature is Not
Our Friend.' What did Slashdot readers change their minds about in 2007?"
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1313203
Links:
0. http://dibona.com/
1. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_15.html#dawkins
2. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_14.html#baroncohen
3. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_8.html#church
4. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_2.html#brin
5. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_14.html#venter
6. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_13.html#rees
7. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_8.html#brand
8. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_12.html#harriss
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| New Years Resolutions - An Engineering Approach |
| from the slashcode-should-strip-colons-when-apropos dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @14:12 (Christmas Cheer)|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1847250 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "Four out of five people who make [1]New Year's
resolutions will eventually break them and a third won't even make it to
the end of January says the NY Times. But experts say the real problem is
that people make the wrong resolutions. The typical resolution often
reflects a general desire. To engineer better behavior, it is more
productive to focus on a specific goal. '"Many clients make broad
resolutions, but I advise them to focus the goals so that they are not
overwhelmed," says Lisa R. Young. "Small and tangible one-day-at-a-time
goals work best."' Here are some resolutions that experts say can work:
To lose weight, resolve to split an entree with your dining partner when
dining out. To improve your fitness, wear a pedometer and monitor your
daily activity. To improve family life, resolve to play with your kids at
least one extra day a week. To improve your marriage, find a new activity
you and your spouse both enjoy such as taking a pottery class. On a
lighter note: What was [2]Steve Jobs' New Year's Resolution?"
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1847250
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/will-your-resolutions-last-to-february/?em&ex=1199336400&en=cdad2412e542bd75&ei=5087%0A
2. http://voices.allthingsd.com/files/2007/12/1051.gif
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apricot Team Selected For Fully Open Source 3D Game |
| from the tux-pits-cure-cancer dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @15:33 (Programming) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/1956238 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
crush writes "The Linux Game Tome notes that the [0]final team to produce
a fully Open Source 3D game using the [1]CrystalSpace engine and
[2]Blender has been chosen. The project (known as [3]Apricot) aims to
produce a cross-platform, 3D game with completely Free ([4]CCA) graphics,
music and code. An important side-effect of the project is to improve
open source tools for the professional game development industry."
I look forward to more 3D games on my desktop, even if this one [5]won't
be the first. (And where is the open-source [6]bus-driving counterpart to
the under-rated [7]FlightGear?)
Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/1956238
Links:
0. http://www.happypenguin.org/newsitem?id=7912
1. http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Main_Page
2. http://www.blender.org/
3. http://apricot.blender.org/
4. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
5. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/30/2049204&tid=204
6. http://dreamcast.ign.com/objects/013/013166.html
7. http://www.flightgear.org/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 27 Billion Gigabytes to be Archived by 2010 |
| from the if-not-sooner dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @17:02 (Data Storage) |
| http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/217212 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Lucas123 writes "According to a Computerworld survey of IT managers,
data storage projects are the No. 2 project priority for corporations in
2008, up from No. 4 in 2007. IT teams are looking into clustered
architectures and centralized storage-area networks as one way to control
capacity growth, shifting away from big-iron storage and custom
applications. The reason for the data avalanche? Archive data. In the
private sector alone [1]electronic archives will take up 27,000 petabytes
(27 billion gigabytes) by 2010. E-mail growth accounts for much of that
figure."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/217212
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/
1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&articleId=307657&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_feat
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| LANCOR v. OLPC Case Continues In Nigerian Court |
| from the get-your-passport-and-account-numbers dept. |
| posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @18:40 (The Courts) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/01/2251257 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
drewmoney writes "According to an article on Groklaw: It's begun in a
Nigerian court. LANCOR has actually done it. Guess [0]what the Nigerian
keyboard makers want from the One Laptop Per Child charitable
organization trying to make the world a better place? $20 million dollars
in 'damages,' and an injunction blocking OLPC from distribution in
Nigeria."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/01/01/2251257
Links:
0. http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071226210020415
Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.
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