Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Privacy

Submission + - When writing, how anonymous can you be, really? (webis.de)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Do you still think your online writing is, basically, anonymous? Think again! Research has it people put much of their personal traits into their writing, and computers may just be able to pick them up. That's at least what a recently announced competition on author identification (Given a document, who wrote it?) and author profiling (Given a document, what're its author's age and gender?) wants to find out. Alas, re-using other people's writing is no solution either; there's also a competition on plagiarism detection (Given a document, is it an original?). Wanna revisit your recent rants?

Submission + - Australia Plans to Drill 2,000-Year-Old Ice Core in Antarctica

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Australia announced Saturday a new project to drill a deep ice core in Antarctica, which may shed light on past climatic conditions in the continent. The project, Aurora Basin North project, will involve researchers drilling a 2,000-year-old ice core, in order to search for the scientific "holy grail" of the ice core.

Submission + - Huge security hole in recent Samsung devices (xda-developers.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A huge security hole has been discovered in recent Samsung devices including phones like the Galaxy S2 and S3. It is possible for every user to obtain root due to a custom faulty memory device created by Samsung.
Google

Submission + - Google+ Chief Grounded from Twitter by Larry Page 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Vic Gundotra, formerly Sr. VP of Social (and now, of Engineering) at Google, and head of the company’s social networking service Google+, hasn’t posted anything on his Twitter account since July 2011. Why? Responding to a question about his own social networking behavior at SMX 2012, Gundotra explained that he was asked by Google CEO Larry Page not to tweet anymore. 'I was asked not to tweet again.' Gundotra said (video). 'I was asked not to do that by my boss [Page]. I tweeted a tweet about two companies [Microsoft, Nokia] that went viral, went very very viral and made a lot of headline news.' So, what does it say when the Google CEO who reportedly tied all Googlers' bonuses to social networking apparently finds it too dangerous to permit the head of Google+ to participate in social networking?
Security

Submission + - Analysis of Dexter Malware Uncovers Mystery Man, And Links to Zeus (securityledger.com)

Submitted by
chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: "The newly discovered Dexter malware is one of the few examples of a malicious program that targets point of sale terminals, but also communicates, botnet-like, with a command and control infrastructure. According to an analysis by Seculert, the custom malware has infected “hundreds POS systems” including those operated by “big-name retailers, hotels, restaurants and even private parking providers.”
Now a detailed analysis by Verizon’s RISK team suggests that Dexter may be a creation of a group responsible for the ubiquitous Zeus banking Trojan.
By analyzing early variants of Dexter discovered in the wild, Verizon determined that the IP addresses used for Dexter’s command and control were also used to host Zeus related domains and several domains for Vobfus, also known as “the porn worm,” which has been used to deliver the Zeus malware.
Verizon also produced some tantalizing clues as to the identity of one individual who may be a part of the crew responsible for the malware. The RISK team linked the domain registration for a Dexter C&C server to an unusual online handle, “hgfrfv,” that was used to post a number of suggestive help requests (“need help with decrypting a table encrypted with EncryptByKey") in online technical forums, where a live.com e-mail address was also provided. The account name was also linked to a shell account on the outsourcing web site freelancer.com, which lists “hgfrfv” as an individual residing in the Russian Federation."
Piracy

Submission + - Music Industry Threatens to Bankrupt Pirate Party Members (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Music industry group the BPI has threatened legal action against six members of the UK Pirate Party, after the party refused to take its Pirate Bay proxy offline. BPI seems to want to hold the individual members of the party responsible for copyright infringements that may occurs via the proxy, which puts them at risk of personal bankruptcy.

Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye criticized the latest music industry threats and reiterated that blocking The Pirate Bay is a disproportionate measure.
Google

Submission + - Google To Shut Down Calendar Features, Google Sync, Google Calendar Sync, Punchd 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google on Friday announced it is shutting down a slew of features and services as part of its winter cleaning. Google Calendar will be losing a few features, Google Sync will be axed (on the consumer side), as will Google Calendar Sync, SyncML, the Issue Tracker Data API, and the Punchd app.
News

Submission + - People are living longer, with more disabilities than ever (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: Worldwide people are living longer. Their lives are starting to look more like the lives of Americans, too much food is the problem, death in childhood is becoming less common etc... Yet with a population that lives through what would once have killed us, disabilities are starting to become the norm. The research has a good glimpse into the new emerging world we find ourselves in.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Automation is making unions irrelevant (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Michigan lawmakers just approved a right-to-work law in an effort to dismantle union power, but unions are already becoming irrelevant. The problem with unions is they can’t protect jobs. They can’t stop a company from moving jobs overseas, closing offices, or replacing workers with machines. Indeed, improvements in automation is making the nation attractive again for manufacturing, according to U.S. intelligence Global Trends 2030 report. The trends are clear. Amazon spent $775 million this year to acquire a company, Kiva Systems that makes robots used in warehouses. Automation will replace warehouse workers, assembly-line and even retail workers. In time, Google’s driverless cars will replace drivers in the trucking industry. Unions sometimes get blamed for creating uncompetitive environments and pushing jobs overseas. But the tech industry, which isn’t unionized, is a counterpoint. Tech has been steadily moving jobs overseas to lower costs.
Toys

Submission + - World's First Fully Functioning Missle Shooting Robotic Transformer

Submitted by
Readycharged
Readycharged writes: "A generations' childhood dreams have come true with the creation of a working "robot in disguise" Transformer which, when operated by remote control, morphs from a luxury sports car to a missile hurling robot in seconds. Japanese inventor, Kenji Ishida, is planning to make 10 lucky (and undoubtedly rich) purchasers owners of these toys in the run up to Christmas, having first displayed them at the Maker Faire in Tokyo during the first week of December. For those willing to wait a few years, Ishida plans to have created a life size, drivable model by 2030."

Comment Common Practice On Aggregate Sites (Score 0) 369

by Readycharged (#38567456) Attached to: Customers Gleefully Mock Best Buy's $1,095.99 HDMI
Changing the price from a competitive one to a hugely disproportionate one when a product is sold out is a common practice on sites like Ebay and Amazon - and now presumably Bestbuy.

You see the products on these sites are subject to a 'best match' algorithim which is based on the amount of clicks the product . If the product listing is withdrawn (due to it being sold out or unavailable), it receives no clicks and is consequently demoted in ranking when it is relisted (as the automated system assumes that rival, similar products are more popular).

The longer it is unavailable, the further it is demoted. This can lead to a loss of premium visibility when it does come into stock, for the reasons given above.

It seems weird, but it is sometimes better to keep the item listed at a ridiculously prohibitive price, than to remove it from search (particularly if the item was popular when it was available) so that it does not lose its ranking when it comes back into stock. As previously mentioned, this practice happens a lot on eBay and Amazon.

Comment An unashamed Firefox fan (Score 0) 507

by Readycharged (#38413266) Attached to: Chrome 15 Overtakes IE 8 For Top Browser Spot
Gotta love Firefox, I leave tabs open as a reminder of stuff I gotta do (even hibernating my PC with them still open), and the last time and the last time I had to do a proper PC shut down Firefox asked, "Are you sure you want to close 108 tabs?" I didn't realise I had that many open. There's no way any version of IE or Chrome could have coped with that quantity of open tabs. The CPU would have gone haywire. I guess it helps that I don't overload Firefox with lots of add-ons
Firefox

Submission + - Adblock No Longer Filtering All Ads (adblockplus.org) 2

Submitted by SharkLaser
SharkLaser writes: Adblock developers have made a radical change to their addon. From the newest version forward, Adblock will only filter the most irritating advertisements. This includes advertisement with sounds, flashy pictures or animations. This means, for example, that Adblock is no longer filtering Google's text ads and any other advertisements that isn't irritating to most users. The developers are saying that this change should push website owners to change to less irritating ads, for example Google's AdSense.
Patents

Submission + - Garman injunction issued against iPhone & iPad (techworld.com.au) 3

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "A German court has ruled that Apple's iPhone and iPad devices infringe a Motorola patent and issued an injunction against sales of the products in Germany, in the latest move in a long series of legal battles between the companies. It's the latest stage in the international patent conflict that's been raging over mobile devices, which has included the recent Samsung victory over Apple in an Australian court and a defeat for Samsung in a Dutch court."

Slashdot Top Deals

When you don't know what you are doing, do it neatly.

Close