http://slashdot.org/ News for nerds, stuff that matters en-us Copyright 1997-2008, SourceForge, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2008-05-16T17:10:11+00:00 SourceForge, Inc. help@slashdot.org Technology hourly 1 1970-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topicslashdot.gif http://slashdot.org/ http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291754753/article.pl mystermarque alerts us to an announcement by Honeywell, JetBlue Airways, International Aero Engines, and Airbus about a program to develop jet fuel from algae and other biomass. They hope to supply nearly 1/3 of the demand for jet fuel from these sources by 2030. A Wall Street Journal blog points out that even if this program's goals are met, we will be worse off by 2030 in terms of jet kerosene released into the atmosphere, assuming that the rapid growth in the aviation sector continues apace.<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/158206&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/158206"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/158206&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=X6QGqI"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=X6QGqI" border="0"></img></a></p> kdawson 2008-05-16T16:36:00+00:00 transportation little-animalcules-powering-bug-jets news 30 30,30,27,21,4,3,1 http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/158206&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291728026/article.pl Diomidis Spinellis writes "Earlier today I presented at the 30th International Conference on Software Engineering a research paper comparing the code quality of Linux, Windows (its research kernel distribution), OpenSolaris, and FreeBSD. For the comparison I parsed multiple configurations of these systems (more than ten million lines) and stored the results in four databases, where I could run SQL queries on them. This amounted to 8GB of data, 160 million records. (I've made the databases and the SQL queries available online.) The areas I examined were file organization, code structure, code style, preprocessing, and data organization. To my surprise there was no clear winner or loser, but there were interesting differences in specific areas. As the summary concludes: '..the structure and internal quality attributes of a working, non-trivial software artifact will represent first and foremost the engineering requirements of its construction, with the influence of process being marginal, if any.'"<p><a href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1441253&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/1441253"></a></p><p><a href="http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1441253&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=9GM8NU"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=9GM8NU" border="0"></img></a></p> kdawson 2008-05-16T15:53:00+00:00 programming tale-of-four-kernels developers 79 79,72,54,38,14,9,5 http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1441253&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291697202/article.pl atrocious cowpat passes along a call for help from symmetry magazine, the joint publication of Fermilab and SLAC, noting: "Could be just plain gibberish, it could be something like those wonderfully weird letters to the Mount Wilson observatory, or it could be a message from aliens who just happened to have gotten their hands (tentacles/exoskeleton) on a fax machine." "A little over a year ago, the Fermilab Office of Public Affairs received a curious letter in code (4.4-MB image here). It has been sitting in our files all that time and we haven't had much of a chance to look into breaking the code, nor are we particularly expert at this!"<p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/146252&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/146252"></a></p><p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/146252&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=dcuCdJ"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=dcuCdJ" border="0"></img></a></p> kdawson 2008-05-16T15:10:00+00:00 encryption finding-patterns-where-none-may-exist it 156 156,153,122,70,27,20,11 http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/146252&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291674387/article.pl An anonymous reader writes "I've recently acquired a few old P2/P3 laptops. Most either work properly but are slow, or have various problems with power supplies and/or batteries. Attempting to sell them would probably earn less than the cost of shipping, so that's out of the question. I was hoping the Slashdot crowd could give me some ideas on what to do with these old computers. As somebody who already has ~10 computers lying around the house there is certainly no need for an additional computer to 'experiment' with, so I was hoping for some more creative suggestions."<p><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1332249&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/1332249"></a></p><p><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1332249&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=7iBiJc"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=7iBiJc" border="0"></img></a></p> kdawson 2008-05-16T14:29:00+00:00 portables aside-from-warming-old-laps hardware 336 336,330,249,164,60,42,26 http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1332249&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291653015/article.pl SecureThroughObscure writes "Security blogger and researcher Nate McFeters blogged about a 0-day exploit affecting IE7 and IE8 beta on XP that was released by noted security researcher Aviv Raff. The flaw is a 'cross-zone scripting' flaw that takes advantage of the fact that printing HTML web pages occurs in the Local Machine Zone in IE rather than in the Internet Zone. Quoting McFeters's post: 'This is currently unpatched and in all of its 0-day glory, so for the time being, beware printing using the "print table of links" option when printing web pages.' McFeters and others will be presenting at Black Hat on the link between cross-site scripting and cross-zone. Rob Carter has been hitting this hard over at his blog, pointing out cross-zone weaknesses in Azureus, uTorrent, and the Eclipse platform."<p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1325211&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/1325211"></a></p><p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1325211&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=vAMWPf"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=vAMWPf" border="0"></img></a></p> kdawson 2008-05-16T13:45:00+00:00 security cross-zone-scripting it 104 104,100,87,66,29,20,12 http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1325211&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291629907/article.pl biscuitfever11 writes "Bletchley Park, the home of Station X, Britain's secret code-breaking base during World War II, barely scraping by financially, as shown in these images compiled by ZDNet this week. The site has undergone major redevelopment as an act of remembrance for the Allied efforts to break the German Enigma code, but now its future is clouded &mdash; among others, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation turned them down for financial assistance (since it doesn't have to do with the Internet). Its director estimates that Bletchley Park's funds will be exhausted in three years. Hungry land developers are circling. This is an insightful look at what's happened to Bletchley Park these days and the pain it's going through."<p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1225225&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/1225225"></a></p><p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1225225&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=ShcB9I"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=ShcB9I" border="0"></img></a></p> kdawson 2008-05-16T13:04:00+00:00 encryption save-turing's-hut it 162 162,157,131,101,47,28,16 http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1225225&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291607401/article.pl An anonymous reader brings news that Verizon Wireless has announced plans to use a Linux-based software platform for phones on its network. Verizon is the first US mobile carrier to join the Linux Mobile Foundation, the goal of which is to "collaboratively develop a comprehensive Linux-based mobile software stack that can be modified easily and used at no cost on a wide range of hardware devices." Many had expected Verizon to go with Android, but according to the Register, Verizon feels Android "isn't as open as it would prefer." Continuing: "Yes, Google bills Android as open. And, yes, it's backed by the Open Handset Alliance, another industry consortium calling for the open development of mobile apps. But [Verizon spokesman Jeffrey] Nelson argues that at this point, Google is calling the shots. 'Google said "Here's the plan. Sign on the dotted line if you support." It may end up being collaborative. It may end up being collegial. But it need not be.' He actually has a point. But maybe Verizon just wants more control over the situation. It should be noted that the company made sure it has a place on the LiMo board. In any event, Verizon says that customers will be free to attach any device and any application to its network by the end of the year - provided those devices and applications met certain minimum specifications. So, in theory, you'll have free rein to attach an Android phone even if you don't buy it from Verizon."<p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/047232&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/047232"></a></p><p><a href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/047232&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=U1lxfg"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=U1lxfg" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T12:22:00+00:00 linuxbusiness progress-is-progress linux 71 71,71,63,50,21,8,6 http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/047232&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291532822/article.pl willyhill writes "I'm a Sci-Fi and Fantasy book nut, but in the last few years I've found it more and more difficult to find the time to read. Contrary to what most people would think, I actually have a hard time finding books, rather than cuddling up with them. In reality, I don't have time to mess around at my local Barnes &amp; Noble and browse books, and I find it dicey and expensive to do the same at Amazon or other online retailers. I was looking at a magazine the other day and I found an advert for the Science Fiction Book Club. While my experience with CD clubs and the like in the past has not been entirely positive, I was prepared to give it a shot given the fact that it would be less expensive than Amazon in the long run. The problem was that their selection is not exactly grand. Having read the Simmons Hyperion Cantos, for example, I was ready to give Ilium a go, but I could only find its sequel. How do other readers get their hands on Sci-Fi books? I tried Googling for book clubs and the like, but there's too much static out there, mostly caused by Oprah. Any suggestions would be appreciated!"<p><a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0428232&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/0428232"></a></p><p><a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0428232&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=4CfD5E"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=4CfD5E" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T09:18:00+00:00 scifi signal-to-noise askslashdot 290 290,285,224,139,39,22,11 http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0428232&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291622231/article.pl longacre writes "The Associated Press is reporting an indictment has been handed down in the sad case of Megan Meier, the girl who committed suicide after receiving upsetting MySpace messages from someone she perceived to be her boyfriend. It was later determined the boy, Josh Evans, was a fictitious identity created by a neighbor of Meier's family. Lori Drew, of a St. Louis suburb, has been charged with 'one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.' Interestingly, despite the alleged crime having occurred strictly in Missouri, the case was investigated by the FBI's St. Louis and Los Angeles field offices, and the trial will be held in Los Angeles, home of MySpace's servers. Wired is running a related story about the potentially 'scary' precedent this case could set."<p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0443232&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/0443232"></a></p><p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0443232&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=YapIhq"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=YapIhq" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T07:48:00+00:00 court eye-for-an-eye yro 406 406,399,343,249,78,43,26 http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0443232&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291449533/article.pl narramissic and several others have written to point out that Carl Icahn has initiated a proxy battle with Yahoo's board of directors over their rejection of Microsoft's bid for the company in February. Icahn has purchased millions of Yahoo shares over the past week and assembled a group of nine other investors (including Mark Cuban) to persuade the board to resume talks with Microsoft. Yahoo remains unimpressed. Icahn's letter to Yahoo accuses: "It is unconscionable that you have not allowed your shareholders to choose to accept an offer that represented a 72% premium over Yahoo's closing price of $19.18 on the day before the initial Microsoft offer. I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0250225&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/0250225"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0250225&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=Jl7t7M"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=Jl7t7M" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T06:16:00+00:00 money ain't-over-till-it's-over news 178 178,174,147,122,46,27,16 http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0250225&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291402061/article.pl sciencehabit writes "New calculations suggest that black holes are not a one-way street. Anything that falls into them may eventually come out. The findings lend important support to quantum gravity, but fly in the face of Einsteinian relativity. They also support Stephen Hawking's reluctant admission that information couldn't be destroyed by black holes. Penn State researcher Ahbay Ashtekar was quoted saying, 'Once we realized that the notion of space-time as a continuum is only an approximation of reality, it became clear to us that singularities are merely artifacts of our insistence that space-time should be described as a continuum.' Let the physics infighting begin."<p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0138213&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/0138213"></a></p><p><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0138213&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=q5KfRa"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=q5KfRa" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T04:11:00+00:00 space duh-it-wants-to-be-free science 310 310,304,259,194,80,58,37 http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0138213&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291346607/article.pl Multiple readers have written to let us know that an experiment at the upcoming Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference will use RFID to track the movements of at least 1,500 registrants for the duration of the conference. Those movements will be transmitted onto screens which "show in real-time where people go, with whom they associate, for how long and how often." The system will also be used for games which involve manipulation of the available data. Meanwhile, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a method for testing large quantities of RFID tags, which may serve to greatly speed distribution.<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0010258&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/16/0010258"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0010258&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=1SCC3J"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=1SCC3J" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T02:06:00+00:00 security all-the-better-to-see-you-with tech 64 64,62,48,39,16,11,9 http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/0010258&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291297185/article.pl Apro+im points out a NYTimes report which states that Microsoft and the OLPC project have officially agreed to put Windows XP on the XO laptop. While Microsoft has been working toward this for some time, analysts began to think a deal was more likely after Walter Bender resigned from the project and was replaced by Charles Kane. Former OLPC security developer Ivan Krstic had a lot to say about Windows on the XO as well. From the Times: "Windows will add a bit to the price of the machines, about $3, the licensing fee Microsoft charges to some developing nations under a program called Unlimited Potential. For those nations that want dual-boot models, running both Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the cost of the machines, Mr. Negroponte said. The project's agreement with Microsoft involves no payment by the software giant, and Microsoft will not join One Laptop Per Child's board. 'We've stayed very pure,' Mr. Negroponte said.<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/2320243&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/15/2320243"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/2320243&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=t9u6Hm"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=t9u6Hm" border="0"></img></a></p> Soulskill 2008-05-16T00:13:00+00:00 microsoft sliding-down-a-slippery-slope tech 476 476,469,378,261,108,79,56 http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/2320243&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291261392/article.pl GameSpot is reporting that details for Guitar Hero 4 have been released. The biggest news seems to be that the new release will be adding drums and vocals a la Rock Band. The new drums are to offer three pressure-sensitive pads (which can tell if you are just tapping or really wailing), two elevated cymbals, and a pedal. "The details in Game Informer also clear up the mystery surrounding the 'innovation' which Activision promised was coming to the Guitar Hero series in a recent earnings report conference call. The article outlines the game's studio mode, which will give users a variety of ways to create their own songs. Players will be able to jam along with one of the game's existing tracks, record songs as they're played, or meticulously detail note charts."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/216205&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/15/216205"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/216205&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=6KBa78"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=6KBa78" border="0"></img></a></p> ScuttleMonkey 2008-05-15T23:12:00+00:00 music nothing-like-wailing-on-a-plastic-ukulele games 178 178,172,151,103,36,28,20 http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/216205&from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/291233169/article.pl Anonymous writes "With the releases of Fedora 9, Hardy Heron and OpenSuSE 11 so close together, it's looking more than ever like an evolution to a common interface for major Linux distributions. Here's a compilation of screen shots and descriptions that make it appear to be the case. Would this be a good thing or a bad thing?" There are plenty of other options out there, of course, even considering only Linux distros that are based on Gnome and KDE, and plenty of wilder (or at least less common) desktops to choose from besides.<p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/2124229&amp;from=rss"><img src="http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=08/05/15/2124229"></a></p><p><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/2124229&amp;from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?a=Gego5k"><img src="http://rss.slashdot.org/~a/slashdot/eqWf?i=Gego5k" border="0"></img></a></p> timothy 2008-05-15T22:17:00+00:00 gui everything-that-rises tech 405 405,398,310,203,71,63,43 http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/15/2124229&from=rss Search Slashdot stories query http://slashdot.org/search.pl