The Little Hacker's Room

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times covers a report released by the National Research Council, which says the ability of the US to identify the source of a nuclear weapon used in a terrorist attack is fragile and eroding. The goals of the highly specialized detective work, known as nuclear attribution, is to clarify options for retaliation and to deter terrorists by letting them know that nuclear devices have fingerprints that atomic specialists can find and trace. 'Although US nuclear forensics capabilities are substantial and can be improved, right now they are fragile, under-resourced and, in some respects, deteriorating,' the report warns. 'Without strong leadership, careful planning and additional funds, these capabilities will decline.' The report calls on the federal government to take steps to strengthen its forensic capabilities and argues for the necessity of better planning, more robust budgets, clearer lines of authority and more realistic exercises."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F31%2F006239%2FUS-Ability-To-Identify-Source-of-Nuclear-Weapons-Decays" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=US+Ability+To+Identify+Source+of+Nuclear+Weapons+Decays%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FczrSye" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/07/31/006239/US-Ability-To-Identify-Source-of-Nuclear-Weapons-Decays?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738556amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iiY9TzFZ2Hgo1FNlcQmASNldibM/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iiY9TzFZ2Hgo1FNlcQmASNldibM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iiY9TzFZ2Hgo1FNlcQmASNldibM/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iiY9TzFZ2Hgo1FNlcQmASNldibM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/odrzbzzzWQk" height="1" width="1"/

Channard writes "While there have been occasional reports of previous PS3 firmware upgrades causing system crashes and so forth, Sony's new firmware upgrade for the system, 3.41, is apparently stopping PS3 owners from upgrading their hard disks. This problem has been encountered by many users on Sony's forums and occurs when you try to put a new hard disk into a PS3 that already has the firmware upgrade installed. The general course of action for upgrading a PS3's drive is that you download the latest PS3 firmware onto a memory stick and, after swapping the hard drive in the PS3, plug the stick in, allowing the PS3 to properly prepare the disk for use. But as of upgrade 3.41, the PS3 fails to recognize the firmware on the stick, complaining that it can't proceed until you insert the correct firmware. Repeating the process and re-downloading the firmware does not fix the problem, as I can confirm, having encountered the problem myself. Users can put the old hard disk back in, provided they've not reformatted it for some other purpose, so all is not lost. Sony have apparently told gaming website CVG that 'The information available to our Consumer Services Department does not suggest that this is a problem PlayStation owners are likely to experience when upgrading the HDD with 3.41 update.' This seems to fly in the face of the currently available information mdash; although whether or not this statement was issued by Kevin Butler is unclear. Either way, PS3 owners encountering this problem will likely have to wait a few days for a fix and use their old HDDs for now."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F2345205%2FNew-PS3-Firmware-Causing-HDD-Upgrade-Problems" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=New+PS3+Firmware+Causing+HDD+Upgrade+Problems%3F%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FaUiQvh" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/2345205/New-PS3-Firmware-Causing-HDD-Upgrade-Problems?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738550amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MT-oio5yJ8U6Wa0F71yuGKlcSyQ/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MT-oio5yJ8U6Wa0F71yuGKlcSyQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MT-oio5yJ8U6Wa0F71yuGKlcSyQ/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MT-oio5yJ8U6Wa0F71yuGKlcSyQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/Gym6d-Amivk" height="1" width="1"/

eagledck tips news that the FCC has "finally approved the first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) phone for sale in the US." The Samsung device will use MetroPCS as a carrier, but tech specs, software details and a launch timetable are still uncertain. Meanwhile, Verizon is ramping up testing of their own LTE infrastructure, hoping to launch in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year. An anonymous reader notes that LTE rollouts could be hampered by a confused and conflicted patent situation. "It is impossible to know where all the patents are but we have identified more than 60 companies holding essential patents. It is a very large landscape and fragmented. If there was one major patent pool and a handful of individual companies to deal with, that would be possible. But signing license deals with 40 plus [entities] is not. A unified patent pool is best," said a representative for one of three patent pool organizations trying to accomplish that.pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmobile.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F2338204%2FFCC-Gives-Thumbs-Up-To-First-LTE-Phone" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=FCC+Gives+Thumbs-Up+To+First+LTE+Phone%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FcZJYIQ" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/2338204/FCC-Gives-Thumbs-Up-To-First-LTE-Phone?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738548amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b1WIDUN29LcALIH6h7DZ8c4PqBM/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b1WIDUN29LcALIH6h7DZ8c4PqBM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b1WIDUN29LcALIH6h7DZ8c4PqBM/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/b1WIDUN29LcALIH6h7DZ8c4PqBM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/1cSlFkZNF08" height="1" width="1"/

snydeq writes "A DefCon contest that invites contestants to trick employees at 30 US corporations into revealing not-so-sensitive data has rattled nerves at the FBI. Chris Hadnagy, who is organizing the contest, also noted concerns from the financial industry, which fears hackers will target personal information. The contest will run for three days, with participants attempting to unearth data from an undisclosed list of about 30 US companies. The contest will take place in a room in the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas furnished with a soundproof booth and a speaker, so an audience can hear the contestants call companies and try to weasel out what data they can get from unwitting employees." The group organizing the contest has established a strict set of rules to ensure participants don't violate any laws.pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F2230224%2FDefCon-Contest-Rattles-FBIs-Nerves" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=DefCon+Contest+Rattles+FBI's+Nerves%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9s7V1Z" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/2230224/DefCon-Contest-Rattles-FBIs-Nerves?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738508amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2WVrHvOQH3C_uQ9KhGmPy2p5fA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2WVrHvOQH3C_uQ9KhGmPy2p5fA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2WVrHvOQH3C_uQ9KhGmPy2p5fA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2WVrHvOQH3C_uQ9KhGmPy2p5fA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/hqI6nN2jjc4" height="1" width="1"/

CurtMonash writes "Nontechnical people mdash; for example marketers or small business owners mdash; increasingly get the feeling they should know more about technology. And they're right. If you can throw up a small website or do some real number-crunching, chances are those skills will help you feed your family. But how should they get started? I started a thread with the question on DBMS2, and some consistent themes emerged, including: Learn HTML + CSS early on; Learn a bit of SQL, but you needn't make that your focus; Have your first real programming language be one of the modern ones, such as PHP or Python; MySQL is a good vehicle to learn SQL; It's a great idea to start with a project you actually want to accomplish, and that can be done by modifying a starter set of sample code (e.g., a WordPress blog); Microsoft's technology stack is an interesting alternative to some of the other technology ideas. A variety of books and websites were suggested, most notably MIT's Scratch. But, frankly, it would really help to get more suggestions for sites and books that help one get started with HTML/CSS, or with MySQL, or with PHP. And so, techie studs and studdettes, I ask you mdash; how should a non-techie go about learning some basic technological skills?"pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fask.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F2150208%2FHow-Should-a-Non-Techie-Learn-Programming" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=How+Should+a+Non-Techie+Learn+Programming%3F%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9bYdjd" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://ask.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/2150208/How-Should-a-Non-Techie-Learn-Programming?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738486amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8InX0m8owSmX7Suggp8ZF7qntaw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8InX0m8owSmX7Suggp8ZF7qntaw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8InX0m8owSmX7Suggp8ZF7qntaw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8InX0m8owSmX7Suggp8ZF7qntaw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/M1FJlS4iow4" height="1" width="1"/

suraj.sun writes with news that the US Department of Justice has joined a lawsuit alleging Oracle of overcharging the federal government for its software products. Quoting: "In a nutshell, the lawsuit argues that Oracle's government customers mdash; a wide array of agencies, including the State Department, the Energy Department, and the Justice Department itself mdash; got deals 'far inferior' to those the enterprise software giant gave to its commercial clients. The allegations stem from a software deal between Oracle and the federal General Services Administration that the Justice Department says involved 'hundreds of millions of dollars in sales' and that ran from 1998 to 2006. Under the contract, Oracle was required to inform the GSA when commercial discounts improved and to offer those same discounts to government buyers. Oracle misrepresented its true commercial sales practices and thus defrauded the US, the lawsuit contends.pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F2051249%2FJustice-Department-Joins-Fraud-Lawsuit-Against-Oracle" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Justice+Department+Joins+Fraud+Lawsuit+Against+Oracle%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FcQNMQN" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/2051249/Justice-Department-Joins-Fraud-Lawsuit-Against-Oracle?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738450amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/LToBzv1TqXUOS4fH1j_hYIRSez0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/LToBzv1TqXUOS4fH1j_hYIRSez0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/LToBzv1TqXUOS4fH1j_hYIRSez0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/LToBzv1TqXUOS4fH1j_hYIRSez0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/WUDKuWM6krw" height="1" width="1"/

penciling_in writes "ISC has made the announcement that they have developed a technology that will allow 'cooperating good guys' to provide and consume reputation information about domains names. The release of the technology, called Response Policy Zones (DNS RPZ), was announced at DEFCON. Paul Vixie explains: 'Every day lots of new names are added to the global DNS, and most of them belong to scammers, spammers, e-criminals, and speculators. The DNS industry has a lot of highly capable and competitive registrars and registries who have made it possible to reserve or create a new name in just seconds, and to create millions of them per day. ... If your recursive DNS server has a policy rule which forbids certain domain names from being resolvable, then they will not resolve. And, it's possible to either create and maintain these rules locally, or, import them from a reputation provider. ISC is not in the business of identifying good domains or bad domains. We will not be publishing any reputation data. But, we do publish technical information about protocols and formats, and we do publish source code. So our role in DNS RPZ will be to define 'the spec' whereby cooperating producers and consumers can exchange reputation data, and to publish a version of BIND that can subscribe to such reputation data feeds. This means we will create a market for DNS reputation but we will not participate directly in that market.'"pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F2031254%2FISC-Offers-Response-Policy-Zones-For-DNS" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=ISC+Offers+Response+Policy+Zones+For+DNS%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fdeo9Gs" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/2031254/ISC-Offers-Response-Policy-Zones-For-DNS?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738430amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e2V2hcYEYNkcTewg3vOGoTazPhs/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e2V2hcYEYNkcTewg3vOGoTazPhs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e2V2hcYEYNkcTewg3vOGoTazPhs/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e2V2hcYEYNkcTewg3vOGoTazPhs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/PsG84hdct98" height="1" width="1"/

eldavojohn writes "According to AfterDawn, Google has given app makers the option to use a license server as DRM to ensure the user has paid for an app before they can download it. Reportedly, the Market app will communicate with a Google license server using RSA encryption. It is important to note this is only available for non-free apps (built with SDK 1.5 and later), and it was instituted to provide a better solution to the old and widely criticized copy protection scheme that was susceptible to Android app piracy (like sideloading). For better or for worse, Android's Marketplace appears to now have an optional, phone-home form of DRM." Following news of the new licensing service, Hexage Ltd, makers of a popular Android game called Radiant, released the data they had collected on piracy of Radiant over a 10-month period beginning last October. A series of charts shows total users, paid users and the piracy rate, by region.pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1943208%2FGoogle-Adds-Licensing-Server-DRM-To-Android-Market" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Google+Adds+Licensing+Server+DRM+To+Android+Market%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FbLyIv0" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1943208/Google-Adds-Licensing-Server-DRM-To-Android-Market?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738392amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/XEE8RKzLTFCzTyxv0gj7cIi_NDU/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/XEE8RKzLTFCzTyxv0gj7cIi_NDU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/XEE8RKzLTFCzTyxv0gj7cIi_NDU/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/XEE8RKzLTFCzTyxv0gj7cIi_NDU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/7uANJgYopYw" height="1" width="1"/

climenole points out a post from Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth about internal strife in the free software community. He wrote, "Tribalism is when one group of people start to think people from another group are 'wrong by default.' It's the great-granddaddy of racism and sexism. And the most dangerous kind of tribalism is completely invisible: it has nothing to do with someone's 'birth tribe' and everything to do with their affiliations: where they work, which sports team they support, which Linux distribution they love. ... Right now, for a number of reasons, there is a fever pitch of tribalism in plain sight in the free software world. It's sad. It's not constructive. It's ultimately going to be embarrassing for the people involved, because the Internet doesn't forget. It's certainly not helping us lift free software to the forefront of public expectations of what software can be."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Flinux.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1855203%2FTribalism-Is-the-Enemy-Within-Says-Shuttleworth" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Tribalism+Is+the+Enemy+Within%2C+Says+Shuttleworth%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FcXpj7y" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1855203/Tribalism-Is-the-Enemy-Within-Says-Shuttleworth?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738364amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kwI2QtYjlghET0ZIyHDAI8AJyvk/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kwI2QtYjlghET0ZIyHDAI8AJyvk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kwI2QtYjlghET0ZIyHDAI8AJyvk/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kwI2QtYjlghET0ZIyHDAI8AJyvk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/7gkG2Jl8BKo" height="1" width="1"/

ideonexus writes "The Atlantic has an excellent interview with Andrew Hacker mdash; co-author with Claudia Dreifus of a book titled Higher Education? mdash; covering everything that's wrong with the American university system. The discussion ranges from entrenched tenured professors more concerned with publishing and parking spaces than quality teaching; to 22-year-old students with unrealistic expectations that some company will put them in a management position after graduating with six-figures of debt; to football teams siphoning money away from academic programs so that student tuitions must increase to compensate. It really lays out the farce of university culture and reminds me of everything I absolutely despised about my college life. Dreifus is active in the comments section of the article as well, lending to a fantastic discussion on the subject."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1825203%2FWhats-Wrong-With-the-American-University-System" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=What's+Wrong+With+the+American+University+System%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Faqc55r" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1825203/Whats-Wrong-With-the-American-University-System?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738326amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kZfS-hvi5kYbe8P5LC96R3UOHCc/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kZfS-hvi5kYbe8P5LC96R3UOHCc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kZfS-hvi5kYbe8P5LC96R3UOHCc/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kZfS-hvi5kYbe8P5LC96R3UOHCc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/u51ae-bY9cY" height="1" width="1"/

wooferhound writes "Like proud parents savoring their baby's very first steps, mission team members gathered in a gallery above a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to watch the Mars Curiosity rover roll for the first time. Engineers and technicians wore bunny suits while guiding Curiosity through its first steps, or more precisely, its first roll on the clean room floor. The rover moved forward and backward about 1 meter (3.3 feet). Mars Science Laboratory (aka Curiosity) is scheduled to launch in fall 2011 and land on the Red Planet in August 2012. Curiosity is the largest rover ever sent to Mars. It will carry 10 instruments that will help search an intriguing region of the Red Planet for two things: environments where life might have existed, and the capacity of those environments to preserve evidence of past life."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1834216%2FNew-Mars-Rover-Rolls-For-the-First-Time" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=New+Mars+Rover+Rolls+For+the+First+Time%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FaUTRBO" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1834216/New-Mars-Rover-Rolls-For-the-First-Time?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738342amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nrBkVxOkvnf6iOp_9Whkp5BpS-4/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nrBkVxOkvnf6iOp_9Whkp5BpS-4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nrBkVxOkvnf6iOp_9Whkp5BpS-4/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nrBkVxOkvnf6iOp_9Whkp5BpS-4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/xpbTEIx2pV4" height="1" width="1"/

waderoush writes "Princeton's Ed Felten has criticized the iPhone and iPad as Disneyland-like 'walled gardens' and says there's no way the iTunes App Store can 'offer the scope and variety of apps that a less controlled environment can provide.' Now there's a central marketplace where developers can sell iPhone-optimized apps without going through Apple's gatekeepers. Launched today, it's called OpenAppMkt and it's a showcase for mobile Web apps mdash; not just the type seen back in 2007-2008, before the advent of the App Store, but also for new games and other apps developed using HTML5/CSS/JavaScript (in some cases, the same apps compiled and sold as native iPhone apps). Xconomy has a behind-the-scenes interview with OpenAppMkt's creators, who say they're not out to compete with the native App Store, but that developers deserve new ways to reach users."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fapple.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1812200%2FAn-iPhone-App-Store-That-Apple-Doesnt-Control" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=An+iPhone+App+Store+That+Apple+Doesn't+Control%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9Oe7ow" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1812200/An-iPhone-App-Store-That-Apple-Doesnt-Control?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738308amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1z_QZwgxK7lKm2ZQyBYpPkKuCFw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1z_QZwgxK7lKm2ZQyBYpPkKuCFw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1z_QZwgxK7lKm2ZQyBYpPkKuCFw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1z_QZwgxK7lKm2ZQyBYpPkKuCFw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/3wdvaoB8V4E" height="1" width="1"/

Tara Fitzgerald couldn't find the nude pictures she planned on sending to her boyfriend, but instead of just taking more, she decided to see if a Dell tech support call could fix her problem. Apparently the tech support guy found them. Unfortunately, he then put them up on a site called "bitchtara."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fidle.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1741239%2FWomans-Nude-Pics-End-Up-Online-After-Call-To-Tech-Support" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Woman's+Nude+Pics+End+Up+Online+After+Call+To+Tech+Support%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fbxzp7j" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1741239/Womans-Nude-Pics-End-Up-Online-After-Call-To-Tech-Support?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738280amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Pg5bve-h7nD6UeWxBKK4oSHa66I/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Pg5bve-h7nD6UeWxBKK4oSHa66I/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Pg5bve-h7nD6UeWxBKK4oSHa66I/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Pg5bve-h7nD6UeWxBKK4oSHa66I/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/b6FDuYsOWPE" height="1" width="1"/

angry tapir writes "Oracle has announced that rival hardware vendors Dell and Hewlett-Packard intend to certify and resell its Solaris and Enterprise Linux operating systems as well as Oracle VM on their x86 servers. The announcement 'demonstrates Oracle's commitment to openness,' company co-president Charles Phillips said in a statement."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdevelopers.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1730259%2FDell-and-HP-To-Sell-Oracle-Operating-Systems" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Dell+and+HP+To+Sell+Oracle+Operating+Systems%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9DRgua" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1730259/Dell-and-HP-To-Sell-Oracle-Operating-Systems?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738260amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/62RuDA_ZBSZ3aTWxIujbyEsnDl8/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/62RuDA_ZBSZ3aTWxIujbyEsnDl8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/62RuDA_ZBSZ3aTWxIujbyEsnDl8/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/62RuDA_ZBSZ3aTWxIujbyEsnDl8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/Vna-ccbAmhE" height="1" width="1"/

astroengine writes "Thirty years after the release of the cult classic comedy Caddyshack, Discovery News has geeked out and gone on the hunt for any trace amount of science they can find in the movie (video). From gopher territoriality to seismic deformation, from pool poop bacteria to the color of lightning, it turns out there's quite a lot of science to talk about..."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fentertainment.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1643230%2FThe-Science-of-Caddyshack" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=The+Science+of+Caddyshack%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FdcfG74" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1643230/The-Science-of-emCaddyshackem?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738226amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Wc-5R5w2Sg57cdPVmP9gwDpDzHY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Wc-5R5w2Sg57cdPVmP9gwDpDzHY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Wc-5R5w2Sg57cdPVmP9gwDpDzHY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Wc-5R5w2Sg57cdPVmP9gwDpDzHY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/ulamAfgoGmY" height="1" width="1"/

omarlittle writes "The US Copyright Group mdash; a company owned by intellectual property lawyers, which has been in the news for threatening downloaders of the movie Hurt Locker mdash; has apparently stolen their site from a competitor. At one point, even the competitor's phone number and copyright statement were copied word for word on USCG's 'settlement' website. The competitor is reportedly going to send a Cease amp; Desist."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1458200%2FCopyright-Troll-USCG-Violates-Copyright" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Copyright+Troll+USCG+Violates+Copyright%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FbMAgZf" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1458200/Copyright-Troll-USCG-Violates-Copyright?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738086amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q24TA2Bx2fP8YHCFM7JNPzXd6cA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q24TA2Bx2fP8YHCFM7JNPzXd6cA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q24TA2Bx2fP8YHCFM7JNPzXd6cA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q24TA2Bx2fP8YHCFM7JNPzXd6cA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/zRT5HhfrPNY" height="1" width="1"/

eldavojohn writes "Massive confusion occurred last night for Google's Chinese search engine and ad services when Google's automated reporting system claimed that everything was blocked in China. The problem was that most users experienced no outage despite Google's reports and Google has backpedaled on those reports. Google explained that their tool for detecting blockage is not 'real-time': 'Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it's possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage. That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.' The WSJ blogger notes, 'Beijing may not need to cancel Google's license. Death by a thousand disruptions could be just as effective.'"pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fyro.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1421249%2FChinas-Firewall-Stymies-Google-Users-Confused" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=China's+Firewall+Stymies+Google%3B+Users+Confused%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9Ejx2g" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1421249/Chinas-Firewall-Stymies-Google-Users-Confused?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738048amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-dyyTfoRun7jjRDDSfYyZgjy2fI/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-dyyTfoRun7jjRDDSfYyZgjy2fI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-dyyTfoRun7jjRDDSfYyZgjy2fI/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/-dyyTfoRun7jjRDDSfYyZgjy2fI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/4_s7zY1BGrA" height="1" width="1"/

kkleiner writes "BlindType has created a new touchscreen keyboard program of the same name that changes size, orientation, and position to match your wandering fingers as they type. BlindType also features some of the most impressive typing correction software I've ever seen. The result is a practical touchscreen interface that knows what you meant to type, even if you make mistakes. Lots of them. In fact, you can type without looking at the screen at all."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhardware.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F161240%2FBlindType-mdash-the-Amazing-Keyboard-of-the-Future" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=BlindType+%26mdash%3B+the+Amazing+Keyboard+of+the+Future%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9yo2zr" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/161240/BlindType-mdash-the-Amazing-Keyboard-of-the-Future?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1738184amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GWJVB6tZ_DAUdy8syUFaA_QbwEA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GWJVB6tZ_DAUdy8syUFaA_QbwEA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GWJVB6tZ_DAUdy8syUFaA_QbwEA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GWJVB6tZ_DAUdy8syUFaA_QbwEA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/5jMxO0uegBE" height="1" width="1"/

ArbiterOne writes "The 11th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day is today. Celebrated worldwide on the last Friday of July, this day honors those who fight in the digital trenches to keep the Net alive. OpenDNS offers a way to remind your boss about the holiday, while another blogger shares war stories. The startup Ksplice has created an homage to these heroes in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure." Reader Netbuzz submits a sobering look at the profession from Network World, which notes, "In the past year, [sysadmins'] pay has dropped, and more of their positions are being farmed out to temporary workers."pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fit.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1316236%2FHappy-System-Administrator-Appreciation-Day" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Happy+System+Administrator+Appreciation+Day%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F9GYzLX" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1316236/Happy-System-Administrator-Appreciation-Day?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1737978amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oXaC-rdFAGkIUym8aASpBGMjQV4/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oXaC-rdFAGkIUym8aASpBGMjQV4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oXaC-rdFAGkIUym8aASpBGMjQV4/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/oXaC-rdFAGkIUym8aASpBGMjQV4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/2MHYnAQnRcE" height="1" width="1"/

Barence writes "Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has vented his frustration at the success of the iPad and said developing a Windows alternative is 'job one urgency.' 'Apple has done an interesting job of putting together a synthesis and putting a product out, and in which they've... they sold certainly more than I'd like them to sell, let me just be clear about that,' Ballmer told analysts. The Microsoft boss said the company plans to deliver a range of tablet formats in the next year, some based on Intel's next-gen Oak Trail processor. 'It is job one urgency around here. Nobody is sleeping at the switch. And so we are working with those partners, not just to deliver something, but to deliver products that people really want to go buy.'" In Microsoft's vision, slates will run a derivative of Windows 7.pa href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftech.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F10%2F07%2F30%2F1257201%2FTo-Ballmer-Grabbing-iPads-Market-Is-Job-One-Urgency" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png"/a a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=To+Ballmer%2C+Grabbing+iPad's+Market+Is+'Job+One+Urgency'%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FcJ7uL0" target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter"img src="http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/07/30/1257201/To-Ballmer-Grabbing-iPads-Market-Is-Job-One-Urgency?from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./piframe src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?op=discussamp;id=1737958amp;smallembed=1" style="height: 300px; width: 100%; border: none;"/iframe pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vGBJw6aQ2t7LEbS4JFp6RACHuaA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vGBJw6aQ2t7LEbS4JFp6RACHuaA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vGBJw6aQ2t7LEbS4JFp6RACHuaA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vGBJw6aQ2t7LEbS4JFp6RACHuaA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/O6XzycTwx2A" height="1" width="1"/