==============================
Track & Manage Your Source Code and Digital Assets for FREE with Perforce
Discover how you can manage your source code and digital assets faster and
easier with Perforce. Perforce offers visual client interfaces for
Linux.com, Mac, Solairs,FreeBSD and Windows. Learn more and get a free two user download
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net
==============================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Best Places To Work In IT
* White House E-mail Scandal Widens
* Malware Pulls an “Italian Job”
* 99% of Australians With Broadband By 2009?
* Industry Insider Blasts Comcast
* Ancestry.com To Add DNA Test Results
* Plan 9 Running on Blue Gene
* Yahoo Co-Founder Yang Now In Charge
* W3C Bars Public From Public Conference
* Redistricting Videogame Shows Problems in the System
* Manhunt 2 Banned In Britain
* Mozilla Exec Claims Apple is Hunting OSS Browsers
* Red Hat Rejects Microsoft Deals
* ZFS On Linux - It’s Alive!
* Voice Chat Can Really Kill the Mood
* Do Patents Stop Companies From Creating ‘Perfect’ Products?
* 24-hour Test Drive of PC-BSD
* The Quest for the Car of the Future
* EU Privacy Directive - Coming to the US?
* Google Spends Money to Jump-Start Hybrid Car Development
+—————————–
| Best Places To Work In IT |
| from the good-gigs dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 18, @20:30 (Businesses) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
[0]jcatcw writes “Computerworld’s annual summary of the [1]best places to
work in IT lists companies that excel in five areas of employment: career
development, retention, benefits, diversity, and training. According to
the [2]scorecard, the top five retention methods are: competitive
benefits; competitive salaries; work/life balance; flexible work hours;
and tuition reimbursement. Of the top 100 companies, 64 expect the number
of U.S.-based IT staffers to increase in 2007, on average by 7%. Here is
[3]the whole list. The top three are Quicken Loans, University of Miami,
and Sharp HealthCare.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com
1. http://www.computerworld.com
2. http://www.computerworld.com
3. http://www.computerworld.com
+—————————–
| White House E-mail Scandal Widens |
| from the what-did-they-know-and-when dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 18, @21:44 (Republicans) |
| http://politics.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Spamicles alerts us to a [1]report just issued (PDF) by the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At least 88 White House
officials used Republican National Committee email accounts for
government business. The RNC has destroyed at least some of the emails
from 51 of those officials. Law requires emails sent by officials to be
stored or recorded. There is evidence that White House lawyers and the
(current) Attorney General knew of this but [2]did not act to stop it.
From the article: “These e-mail accounts were used by White House
officials for official purposes, such as communicating with federal
agencies about federal appointments and policies… Given the heavy
reliance by White House officials on RNC e-mail accounts, the high rank
of the White House officials involved, and the large quantity of missing
e-mails, the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be
extensive.”
Discuss this story at:
http://politics.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://paulastewart [Email address: //paulastewart #AT# gmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://oversight.house.gov
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com
+—————————–
| Malware Pulls an “Italian Job” |
| from the blame-italy dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday June 18, @23:02 (Security) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
A number of readers sent us word about a malware attack that has been
underway since Saturday that began with the compromise of more than 1,100
mostly Italian Web sites. Websense claims that [0]more than 10,000 sites
have been infected by now, 80% of them in Italy. There are indications
that most of the Italian sites are resident at the same large Italian
hosting provider. [1]Trend Micro reports on the attack, which is launched
from a malicious Iframe tag inserted into pages on compromised sites. For
visitors to these sites, this begins a cascade of “drive-by” malware
downloads if one of several targeted vulnerabilities is available and
unpatched. The first page to which visitors are redirected by the Iframe
hosts a recent version of Mpack attack software. Panda has [2]a month-old
report on Mpack (PDF) that provides copious detail about its nefarious
ways.
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. http://www.websense.com
1. http://blog.trendmicro.com
2. http://blogs.pandasoftware.com
+—————————–
| 99% of Australians With Broadband By 2009? |
| from the it’s-strine-for-”fast” dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 19, @01:59 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
Recently a study of broadband penetration rates around the world was in
the news, because the [0]US has fallen to 24th place worldwide, at 53%.
Now comes word that the Australian Prime Minister has announced a $1.68
billion (US) plan to [1]move Australia to 99% penetration within two
years. If they accomplish this goal they will be the most-wired nation
(South Korea currently occupies the top spot with 90%). The Prime
Minister’s plan was attacked by his political opponents because it would
create a two-tier system with the country’s vast (and almost empty)
interior served by wireless at “only” 12 Mbps.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://business.guardian.co.uk
1. http://www.smh.com.au/news
+—————————–
| Industry Insider Blasts Comcast |
| from the dissected-in-the-trades dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 19, @04:54 (Television) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]gordette writes “I’m posting this because Comcast did the same thing
to me that this journalist describes — held my HD channels hostage by
insisting that I shell out for an expensive cable package. The journalist
is [1]blasting Comcast for their ’shakedown’ of consumers, and is doing
so in full view of industry insiders. She also links to an earlier blog
post describing Comcast’s Motorola DVR problems.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. mailto://gordette83 [Email address: //gordette83 #AT# gmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.multichannel.com
+—————————–
| Ancestry.com To Add DNA Test Results |
| from the who’s-yer-daddy dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 19, @07:58 (Biotech) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Spamicles writes “For less than $200 and a cheek-swiped cotton swab,
you will soon be able to [1]add DNA results to family tree Web sites.
Ancestry.com plans to launch the DNA testing product by the end of
summer, offering customers the possibility of finding DNA matches in the
site’s 24,000 genealogical databases. By taking a simple cheek-swab test
and comparing results against DNA profiles in a test-results database,
virtually anyone can uncover genealogical associations unimaginable just
a few years ago. Users can easily connect with and discover lost or
unknown relatives within a few generations, as well as gain insight into
where their families originated thousands of years ago.”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://paulastewart [Email address: //paulastewart #AT# gmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.lawbean.com/2007/06
+—————————–
| Plan 9 Running on Blue Gene |
| from the buttonfly-or-zipper dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday June 19, @08:44 (Operating Systems)|
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]gholmer writes “Eric Van Hensbergen reports that [1]Plan 9 has been
[2]successfully booted on IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputer. A [3]live demo
will be attempted during a poster session at this year’s Usenix. There is
also the obligatory [4]Space Glenda picture.”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.lyonlabs.org/
1. http://plan9.bell-labs.com
2. http://www.graverobber.org/
3. http://www.usenix.org/events
4. http://bp1.blogger.com/
+—————————–
| Yahoo Co-Founder Yang Now In Charge |
| from the psst-hey-jerry-i-got-some
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday June 19, @09:32 (Yahoo!) |
| http://it.slashdot.org/article
+—————————–
[0]Raver32 writes “Yahoo Inc. Chairman Terry Semel ended his six-year
tenure as chief executive officer today and will [1]hand over the reins
to co-founder Jerry Yang in the Internet icon’s latest attempt to regain
investor confidence. Semel, 64, will remain chairman in a non-executive
role. Besides naming Yang as its new CEO, Yahoo appointed Susan Decker as
its president. Decker, who had been recently promoted to oversee Yahoo’s
advertising operations, had widely been seen as Semel’s heir apparent.”
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comment
Links:
0. mailto://rob%2Edack [Email address: //rob%2Edack #AT# gmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.thestar.com/Busines
+—————————–
| W3C Bars Public From Public Conference |
| from the tricky-word-speak dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday June 19, @10:18 (The Internet) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
[0]xk0der writes “Danny Weitzner, one of the W3C’s policy directors and
event co-chair, repeatedly claimed in a follow up telephone conversation
that, by “public,” the W3C actually means “[1]closed to the public.”
Weitzner was the person who personally barred my colleague from entering
the conference.” The story is worth a read- it’s very strange. Personally
I think this guy is just vying to replace Tony Snow at the White House.
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://xk0der.wordpress.com/
1. http://news.com.com/8301-10784
+—————————–
| Redistricting Videogame Shows Problems in the System |
| from the see-games-are-smart-too dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday June 19, @11:09 (Games) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “This is a [0]cool redistricting game that was
launched out of the capitol building in Washington DC last week. It was
created by the USC Game Innovation Lab and has been getting lots of
press. It’s about time someone took on a tough issue like redistricting
reform using the power of the internet.” It’s crazy that gerrymandering
is actually good fodder for a video game.
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.redistrictinggame
+—————————–
| Manhunt 2 Banned In Britain |
| from the wii-controls-make-it-that-much
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @12:02 (Censorship) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]westlake writes “Rockstar’s [1] Manhunt 2 has been banned in the U.K.
for what the British Board of Film Classification calls its ‘unrelenting
focus on stalking and brutal slaying.’ ‘There is sustained and cumulative
casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and
encouraged, in the game.’ The company has six weeks to submit an appeal.
The last game to be refused classification was Carmageddon in 1997. That
decision was later overturned via the appeals process.”
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://dtower [Email address: //dtower #AT# roadrunner.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk
+—————————–
| Mozilla Exec Claims Apple is Hunting OSS Browsers |
| from the firefox-has-always-been-the
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @13:06 (Mozilla) |
| http://apple.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Rob writes with a link to a Computer Business Review article on the
negative impact Mozilla COO John Lilly sees Apple is having on Open
Source. Lilly claims that Jobs’ recent discussion of Safari on Windows
[0]is an attempt to create a duopoly of browsers (IE and Safari), with
Firefox and the rest on the outside looking in. “The graph ‘betrays the
way that Apple, so often looks at the world,’ Lilly said. ‘But make no
mistake: this wasn’t a careless presentation, or an accidental omission
of all the other browsers out there, or even a crummy marketing trick,’
he said. ‘Lots of words describe Steve and his Stevenotes, but ‘careless’
and ‘accidental’ do not. This is, essentially, the way they’re thinking
about the problem, and shows the users they want to pick up.’” We
discussed [1]an analyst’s opinion on this subject this past Friday.
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.cbronline.com
1. http://apple.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Red Hat Rejects Microsoft Deals |
| from the don’t-tread-on-this-penguin dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @14:05 (Microsoft) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Kurtz’sKompund passed us an article detailing another loss in
Microsoft’s licensing push: [1]Red Hat has summarily rejected Redmond’s
offer of an alliance. The article also touches on [2]Ubuntu’s rejection
of the same offer, which we discussed this past weekend. ZDNet reports on
comments from Mark Shuttleworth and the Red Hat organization, with
Shuttleworth stating “Allegations of ‘infringement of unspecified
patents’ carry no weight whatsoever. We don’t think they have any legal
merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of
the wonderful things we could do together.” Red Hat was even more blunt,
stating the organization refused to pay an “innovation tax” to the
Microsoft. “Red Hat said there would be no such deal. Referring to
previous statements distancing itself from Microsoft, the company
insisted: ‘Red Hat’s standpoint has not changed.’ The company referenced
a statement written when Microsoft revealed it was partnering with
Novell, saying that its position remained unaltered. Red Hat director of
corporate communications Leigh Day added: ‘We continue to believe that
open source and the innovation it represents should not be subject to an
unsubstantiated tax that lacks transparency.’ Many open-source followers
argue that Red Hat, as the largest Linux vendor, would have a lot to lose
from partnering with Microsoft.”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://kurtz.vnunetblogs.com/
1. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news
2. http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| ZFS On Linux - It’s Alive! |
| from the insert-mad-science-laugh-here dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @14:47 (Sun Microsystems) |
| http://linux.slashdot.org
+—————————–
lymeca writes “LinuxWorld reports that Sun Microsystem’s ZFS filesystem
has been converted from its incarnation in OpenSolaris to [0]a module
capable of running in the Linux user-space filsystem project, FUSE.
Because of the license incompatibilities with the Linux kernel, it has
not yet been integrated for distribution within the kernel itself. This
project, called [1]ZFS on FUSE, aims to enable GNU/Linux users to use ZFS
as a process in userspace, bypassing the legal barrier inherent in having
the filesystem coded into the Linux kernel itself. Booting from a ZFS
partition has been confirmed to work. The performance currently clocks in
at about half as fast as XFS, but with all the success [2]the NTFS-3g
project has had creating a high performance FUSE implementation of the
NTFS filesystem, there’s hope that performance tweaking could yield a
practical elimination of barriers for GNU/Linux users to make use of all
that ZFS has to offer.”
Discuss this story at:
http://linux.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://www.linuxworld.com/news
1. http://zfs-on-fuse.blogspot
2. http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
+—————————–
| Voice Chat Can Really Kill the Mood |
| from the get-your-squeak-out-of-my
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @15:21 (Games) |
| http://games.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Raver32 writes with Wired article about the strange juxtaposition of
[1]real life identities intruding on virtual world bliss. Voice chat is
becoming a very common component of online games, from MMOGs to FPS
titles. Many even bundle a voice chat service into the game client now.
That’s useful, tactically, but socially it can be downright frustrating,
confusing, or awkward. “Recently I logged into World of Warcraft and I
wound up questing alongside a mage and two dwarf warriors. I was the
lowest-level newbie in the group, and the mage was the de-facto leader.
He coached me on the details of each new quest, took the point position
in dangerous fights and suggested tactics. He seemed like your classic
virtual-world group leader: Confident, bold and streetsmart. But after a
few hours he said he was getting tired of using text chat — and asked me
to switch over to Ventrilo, an app that lets gamers chat using
microphones and voice. I downloaded Ventrilo, logged in, dialed him up
and … realized he was an 11-year-old boy.”
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://rob%2Edack [Email address: //rob%2Edack #AT# gmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.wired.com/gaming
+—————————–
| Do Patents Stop Companies From Creating ‘Perfect’ Products? |
| from the would-have-gotten-away-with-it
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @15:31 (Patents) |
| http://ask.slashdot.org
+—————————–
Chris M writes “In a recent CNET article, the mobile phone editor writes
about what [0]he thinks would make a perfect phone. Unfortunately, as
someone in the comments section points out, much of the technology that
is used in this concept phone belongs to separate companies. ‘I’m sorry
to be the Devil’s Advocate here, but most of those feautres are patented
to separate companies. It would require almost all the major
manufacturers [working together] to do this, which is highly unlikely.’
Do you think patents are stopping companies from creating ‘perfect’
devices, or are there other factors at work?”
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://crave.cnet.co.uk
+—————————–
| 24-hour Test Drive of PC-BSD |
| from the might-get-a-few-reluctant-IT
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @16:11 (Operating Systems) |
| http://bsd.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “Ars Technica has [0]a concise introduction to
PC-BSD, a FreeBSD derivative that emphasizes ease of use and aims to
convert Windows users. The review describes the installation process,
articulates the advantages of PC-BSD,and reveal some of the challenges
that the reviewer faced along the way. From the article: ‘In the end, I
would suggest this distribution to new users provided they had someone to
call in case of a driver malfunction during installation. I would also
recommend PC-BSD to seasoned Unix users that have never tried using
FreeBSD before and would prefer a shallower learning curve before getting
down to business.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://bsd.slashdot.org
Links:
0. http://arstechnica.com/reviews
+—————————–
| The Quest for the Car of the Future |
| from the zippy-go-fast dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @17:10 (Science) |
| http://science.slashdot.org
+—————————–
[0]Lux writes “Where will the car of the future come from? It’s unlikely
to come from anywhere you’d expect it to. Wired’s money is on [1]the car
of the future coming from NASA. ‘New technology that promises to
revolutionize the automobile as we know it is emerging from research
institutions and startups — and these innovations won’t set you back
$100,000 like a Tesla will… One experiment involves small electric
motors located in the wheels of the CityCar, a tiny, nimble and
practically silent vehicle with wheels that turn 360 degrees, enabling it
to slip neatly into tight urban parking spaces. Others are looking to
revolutionize the automobile’s engine, not replace it.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org
Links:
0. mailto://sloth_mar [Email address: //sloth_mar #AT# hotmail.com/ - replace #AT# with @ ]
1. http://www.wired.com/cars
+—————————–
| EU Privacy Directive - Coming to the US? |
| from the enjoy-your-privacy-citizen-it
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @18:18 (Privacy) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
An anonymous reader writes “An article over at ComputerWorld implies that
the EU Privacy Directive, or something like it, will soon be signed into
law here in the USA. The author [0]seems to think this is a good thing,
but I’m not so sure. From the article: ‘We’ve finally come to realize
that self-regulation by industry hasn’t worked. The states have stepped
in, creating the same situation of conflicting regulation that led to the
creation of the EU privacy directive. The only question now is if the law
that comes out of Congress will be a small step strictly focused on
breaches, such as S.239, or whether we take the bigger step of forming a
permanent committee under the FTC to monitor privacy as outlined by
S.1178. Either way, the U.S. is finally moving away from the fractured
environment of the past and toward a comprehensive privacy strategy.’ Is
it time for a national privacy law or ‘Privacy Czar’, or are we better
off letting things be?”
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org
+—————————–
| Google Spends Money to Jump-Start Hybrid Car Development |
| from the to-the-googmobile dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, @19:44 (Google) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl
+—————————–
slugo writes “Internet search giant Google (GOOG) hopes to [0]speed the
development of plug-in hybrid cars by giving away millions of dollars to
people and companies that have what appear to be practical ways to get
plug-in hybrid automobiles to market faster. ‘While many people don’t
associate Google with energy, analysts say the fit isn’t all that
unnatural. Renewable energy, unlike coal or nuclear, will likely come
from thousands or tens of thousands of different locations. Analysts have
long said that one of the big challenges will be managing that flow into
and out of the nation’s electric grid, and that companies that manage the
flow of information are well placed to handle that task.’”
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments
Links:
0. http://www.usatoday.com/tech
Copyright 1997-2006 OSTG. All rights reserved.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Listen to this podcast
Print This Post
Entries (RSS)