iantri - Slashdot User

First Definitive Higgs Result In 7 Years 197

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 05, 2008 @05:35PM from the you-want-mass-with-that dept.

PhysicsDavid writes "In a suite of new results about the Higgs boson, Fermilab presents the first new definitive evidence on the (lack of) existence of the Higgs boson since the Large Electron Positron collider shut down in 2000. Fermilab hasn't found the Higgs, but can rule out a certain range of masses for the particle that is believed to create mass for all the other particles of nature. Other Higgs news suggests a new likeliest mass range of 115 to 135 GeV for the Higgs. These results were among those presented at the ICHEP 2008 conference currently wrapping up in Philadelphia."

U.S. Attorney General Resigns 845

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 27, 2007 @09:52AM from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.

willie3204 is one of many to mention that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned. One of Gonzales' main opponents praised his decision stating that: "'For the previous six months, the Justice Department has been virtually nonfunctional and desperately needs new leadership,' said the Schumer statement. 'Democrats will not obstruct or impede a nominee who we are confident will put the rule of law above political considerations. We beseech the Administration to work with us to nominate someone whom Democrats can support and America can be proud of.'"

Security Threat In the New Wiretapping Law 167

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @03:17AM from the gateway-for-hackers dept.

The NSA wants automatic surveillance capabilities in telephone switches. But once such capabilities are built in, others could use them to intercept communications. Within 10 years this could render the US vulnerable to attacks from terrorist groups across the globe, as well as from the military establishments of other nations. "Such threats are not theoretical: In April 2004, phones belonging to members of the Greek government, including the prime minister, were spied on with wiretapping software that was misused."

10-Day Patch Guarantee Not Mozilla's Policy 125

Posted by kdawson on Monday August 06, 2007 @10:33PM from the pajama-party-policy dept.

narramissic writes "Mozilla has officially backpedaled from a pledge made at Black Hat by the company's director of ecosystem development, Mike Schaver, to fix any critical security bugs in the browser within 'Ten ****ing Days.' On Friday, Mozilla security chief Window Snyder wrote in a blog posting that the 10-day pledge is not Mozilla's policy, saying 'We do not think security is a game, nor do we issue challenges or ultimatums.' And today, the open source browser maker issued a statement retracting the pledge."

AC = Domestic Terrorists? 519

Posted by CmdrTaco on Saturday July 28, 2007 @08:30AM from the you-can't-make-this-up dept.

Miang writes "A video from a recent FOX 11 (Los Angeles) newscast has surfaced on YouTube. In the segment, reporter Phil Shuman investigates so-called "Hacker Gangs" comprised entirely of anonymous users. The segment, which focuses mainly on users at 4chan, 7chan, and 420chan, seems to confuse /b/ raids and motivational poster templates with a genuine threat to the American public. For added FUD, the FOX team inserted an unrelated video of a van blowing up — twice! Presumably, one is intended to equate anonymous posting with domestic terror. The story and video can be found on the local FOX website, so it does not appear to be simply a clever parody." Cringe as you watch this video explain terms like 'LULZ' and show inspirational poster parodies as evidence of the evils of this terrifying "Group".

MS-Funded Study Attacks GPL3 Draft Process 206

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @03:53PM from the academic-astroturf dept.

QCMBR writes "A new Microsoft-funded study by a Harvard Business School professor concludes that developers don't want extensive patent licensing requirements in the GPL3. There are significant problems with the study, however, especially given the very small sample size. 'Although 332 emails were sent to various developers, only 34 agreed to participate in the survey — an 11 percent response rate. Of the 34 developers who responded, many of them are associated with projects like Apache and PostgreSQL that don't even use the GPL.' Ars points out that the GPL3 draft editing and review process is highly transparent and inclusive 'to an extent that makes MacCormack's claims of under-representation seem difficult to accept given the small sample size of the study and the number of respondents who contribute to non-GPL projects.'"

Comment Re:Well done, the OpenBSD team. (Score 1) 338

by filterchild on Thursday March 15, 2007 @09:58AM (#18361233) Attached to: Remote Exploit Discovered for OpenBSD

This actually bring up an interesting point. If this vulnerability exists (well, existed) in OpenBSD and Microsoft stole the TCP/IP stack, doesn't Windows have the same flaw?

Comment Re:But before that, it was turtles, right? (Score 1) 1060

by iantri on Wednesday March 14, 2007 @07:51PM (#18356177) Attached to: Stephen Hawking Says Universe Created from Nothing

Turtles all the way down on wikipedia.

AMD A Ripe Target For Buyout? 108

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @09:57AM from the change-of-pace dept.

SpiceMonkey writes "AMD stock was up 6.74% on Monday on rumors that AMD is a prime buyout target. After their purchase of ATI, they've been pressed to maintain their aggressive policy of chip production increases. As a result, the AMD message board on Yahoo! is full of speculation on who has their eyes on the company. Many folks there think that IBM is the right buyer for the company. There's no firm word that AMD is even being considered for purchase, but it's certainly and interesting prospect."

Rails Cookbook 59

Posted by samzenpus on Monday February 26, 2007 @03:58PM from the get-cooking dept.

honestpuck writes "When reading the foreword of Rails Cookbook I felt a strong kinship with Zed Shaw, I too have fond memories of the first edition of Perl Cookbook and the way I relied on it once I'd taken the training wheels off. Since that one I have relied on several of the O'Reilly Cookbook series. It is only when I discard the early tutorial and dive in the deep end with a "cookbook" on my desk that I really start to learn proficiency." Read the rest of honestpuck's review.

Journal Journal: Python, Ruby or ??? 4

Journal by grub on Thursday February 22, 2007 @04:39PM

I've got some larger projects around work, mainly networkish things (SNMP trapping, {Squid|PIX|routers|switches|WLAN|VPN} log parsing, nmap, etc.) and I'm at a crossroads between what language to use. I'm most comfortable with plain ol' C but that would be overkill for these jobs

I've done a fair amount of Python and am happy with it but have read great things about Ruby.

Journal SPAM: Partial List of IP Blocks Used by US Terrorist Surveillance

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Thursday February 22, 2007 @04:33PM

Partial List of IP Blocks Used by US "Terrorist Surveillance Program"

Submission + - New Details on Xerox Inkless Printer

Submitted by

Iddo Genuth

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @02:24PM

Iddo Genuth writes: "Xerox is developing a new printing technology which does not require ink of any kind. The new technology includes reusable paper which can be printed and erased dozens of times and has the potential to revolutionize printing. New details on this upcoming technology, which was first reported on September 2006, are now revealed."

RIAA Says CDs Should Cost More 540

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @01:07AM from the when-bandersnatchii-fly dept.

EatingSteak writes "The folks over at Techdirt just put up a great story today, with the RIAA claiming the cost of a CD has gone down significantly relative to the consumer price index. The RIAA 'Key Facts' page claims that based on the 1983 price of CDs, the 1996 price should have been $33.86. So naturally, you should feel like you're getting a bargain. Sounds an awful lot like the cable companies saying cable prices are really going down even though they're going up."

Canada Responsible for 50% of Movie Piracy 459

Posted by Zonk on Friday January 26, 2007 @03:23PM from the should-we-blame-the-government-or-blame-society dept.

westcoaster004 writes "Hollywood is blaming Canada as being the source for at least 50% of of the world's pirated movies. According to an investigation by Twentieth Century Fox, most of the recording is taking place in Montreal theatres where films are released in both English and French. This has led to consideration of delaying movie releases in Canada. Their problem is that the Canadian Copyright Act, as well as the policies of local police forces, makes it difficult to come down especially hard on perpetrators. Convicting someone is apparently rather difficult, almost requiring a law officer to have a 'smoking camcorder' in the hands of the accused. Hence, the consideration of more drastic measures."

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