Bitcoin Exchange Mt.Gox Collapse Not a Shocker; Why 'Google Buses' Are Bad for Cities

Does Relying on an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? | Why Is U.S. Broadband So Slow? To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Bitcoin Exchange Mt.Gox Collapse Not a Shocker Does Relying on an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? Why Is U.S. Broadband So Slow? Space Elevators Are Feasible, Study Finds  Why 'Google Buses' Are Bad for Cities Hot Comment: "Germany and Japan haven't invaded anybody in seventy years. Meanwhile, Microsoft..." From the Vault: Richard Stallman Says Cell Phones Are 'Stalin's Dream' Watch It: Electric Bikes Getting More Elegant Poll Booth: Should programming be a required curriculum in public schools? Sponsored Resource: Improve Performance, Availability and Affordability in the Era of Big Data Bitcoin Exchange Mt.Gox Collapse Not a Shocker The recent closure of Mt.Gox has grabbed a lot of media attention, but people involved heavily in bitcoin have been raising alarms about business practices at Mt.Gox for quite some time now. It might be time to revisit the idea of counterparty risk in the world of irreversible cryptocurrency. Sound Off>> Does Relying on an IDE Make You a Bad Programmer? Writing about his career decisions, programming language choices, and regrets, Rob Conery says that as a .NET developer he became more reliant on an IDE than he would have with PHP. Blogger and .NET developer Matthew Mombrea picks up the thread, coming to the defense of IDEs (Visual Studio in particular). Sound Off>> Why Is U.S. Broadband So Slow? Verizon has said it will not be digging new lines any time soon. Time Warner's cash flow goes towards paying down debt, not laying down fiber. AT&T is doing everything it can to slow deployment of Google fiber. How can the situation be improved? Sound Off>> Space Elevators Are Feasible, Study Finds The space elevator can't seem to shake its image as something that's ridiculous and laughed off as the stuff of sci-fi novels, but there are plenty of scientists who take the idea quite seriously. To that end, a group of experts have recently completed a study about whether the concept is doable and a smart idea. Sound Off>> Why 'Google Buses' Are Bad for Cities The Director of Sustainability for New York's MTA calls out Google, Apple, and Yahoo for "deliberately" building campuses far away from viable public transportation. "The darkest thing about the tech buses is that they have turned their backs on communities," Projjal K. Dutta writes. Sound Off>> Seventy years "Germany and Japan haven't invaded anybody in seventy years. Meanwhile, Microsoft is, even as we speak attempting to ram home an opaque, binary blob document format, OOXML (hilariously called 'Open') as a standard over Open Document Format to cement MS Office's lock on office suite software." --by Chris Mattern Read More>>   Richard Stallman Says Cell Phones Are 'Stalin's Dream' Three years ago, free software pioneer Richard Stallman said, "Cell phones are tools of Big Brother. I'm not going to carry a tracking device that records where I go all the time, and I'm not going to carry a surveillance device that can be turned on to eavesdrop." Even the open source Android is dangerous because devices ship with proprietary executables, Stallman added. Read More>> Electric Bikes Getting More Elegant Faraday Bicycles ran a successful successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012, and 2014 is when the company is starting to ship its pre-ordered bicycles that are built to be stylish, functional, and a fun to ride. Tim Lord recently visited the shop where Faraday bikes are made to get a closer look and talk to some of the people designing and putting the machines together. Watch the Video>>   Should programming be a required curriculum in public schools? Yes - multiple classes starting in high school Yes - multiple classes starting before high school Yes - as a single class at any time No - it'll do more harm than good No - too many kids won't learn anything from it No - leave it to vocational schools I don't need more job competition, you insensitive clod! Cast Your Vote>>   Improve Performance, Availability and Affordability in the Era of Big Data Organizations around the world continue to see massive data growth in OLTP, analytics and data warehousing systems. At the same time, business users require new applications to be deployed faster and cheaper, have high availability, and provide excellent performance. Can your IT ecosystem continue to excel while embracing this growth and meeting user needs? Learn how to overcome today's data management challenges with innovative database software designed for the new era of big data. Learn More>>  Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.

 

Anti-Camera Device for Use in a Small Bus?; Jailed for Failing to Return Movie Rented 9 Years Ago

Whatever Happened to the IPv4 Address Crisis?  | Yes, Valve Is Looking for Cheaters Via DNS To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Anti-Camera Device for Use in a Small Bus? Whatever Happened to the IPv4 Address Crisis?  Yes, Valve Is Looking for Cheaters Via DNS Jailed for Failing to Return Movie Rented 9 Years Ago Is Our Universe a Simulation? Hot Comment: "All we see are the pro-Federation propaganda. All those pro-Starfleet shows..." From the Vault: The Art of The Farewell Email Watch It: Watch a FIRST Competition Robot Being Built Poll Booth: I'd prefer military fiction books that are ... Sponsored Resource: Consolidation: The Foundation for IT Business Transformation Anti-Camera Device for Use in a Small Bus? Paul server guy writes that he is building a limousine bus, and the owners want to prevent occupants from using cameras on board. (But they would like the cameras mounted on the bus to continue to operate.) EMP generators are not an option and high-power IR proved ineffective, so he asked Slashdotters for any ideas. Sound Off>> Whatever Happened to the IPv4 Crisis? When the last blocks of IPv4 address space were allocated in 2011, experts warned that unless everyone upgraded to IPv6, the world would be face a crisis that would hamper Internet connectivity for everyone. Three years later, IPv4 addresses are still being doled out. What happened?  Sound Off>> Yes, Valve Is Looking for Cheaters Via DNS Valve CEO Gabe Newell has personally responded to allegations that his company's anti-cheat system was scanning users' Internet history. And his answer is yes, Valve is scanning DNS caches with a two-tiered approach intended to find cheating users by looking for cheat servers in their histories. Sound Off>> Jailed for Failing to Return Movie Rented 9 Years Ago A 27-year-old woman was arrested last week for failing to return a movie she rented in 2005 from a now-defunct video store. According to news reports, the South Carolina woman rented "Monster-in-Law," but did not return the video within the 72-hour rental limit, leading to her arrest 9 years later. Sound Off>> Is Our Universe a Simulation? Mathematician Edward Frenkel writes in the NYT that one fanciful possibility that explains why mathematics seems to permeate our universe is that we live in a computer simulation based on the laws of mathematics -- not in what we commonly take to be the real world. Sound Off>> You've Bought Into Federation Propaganda "All we see are the pro-Federation propaganda. All those pro-Starfleet shows with their fictional "Prime Directive" and an emphasis on exploration are just propaganda to paper over the federation's relentless military buildup to support their imperialist expansionist policies. They show Starfleet and the rich nomenklatura, but never the vast backwater gulag planets where..." --by Anonymous Coward Read More>>   The Art of The Farewell Email Five years ago, there were so many people losing their jobs, the farewell email had become common. But writing a really good one, whether it be funny, sad or just plain mad is an art form. Slashdotters shared the best and worst goodbye emails they've seen. Read More>> Watch a FIRST Competition Robot Being Built We have shown clips from FIRST Robotics Competitions before on Slashdot, with a concentration on the Dexter Dreadbots because they're the "home team" for Slashdot's home office in Michigan. In this video, we hear from team mentor Jennifer Bryson and watch as the team works on its 2014 competition robot. Watch the Video>>   I'd prefer military fiction books that are ... Set in the ancient past Set in the distant but not ancient past Set in the recent past Set in the present day or near future Set in the far future Who cares, as long as it's not set on Earth! Cast Your Vote>>   Consolidation: The Foundation for IT Business Transformation This white paper explores how to consolidate legacy, redundant IT services and shows how consolidation can accelerate growth while cutting costs and reducing complexities and enhance competitiveness. Learn More>> Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.

 

Should Developers Fix Bugs They Caused on Their Own Time?; Weirdest Places Where Linux Is Installed

Death Coming for Swipe-and-Sign Credit Cards in the U.S.  |  Mass Surveillance: 3 Reasons to Hate It, 3 Ways to Fight It To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Should Developers Fix Bugs They Caused on Their Own Time?  Weirdest Places Where Linux Is Installed Death Coming for Swipe-and-Sign Credit Cards in the U.S. Mass Surveillance: 3 Reasons to Hate It, 3 Ways to Fight It How Russia Made It Snow in a Subtropical Beach Resort Hot Comment: "A majority of young adults are dumb as a box of rocks. And it's not their..." From the Vault: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work Watch It: Meet MOSS Modular Robots Poll Booth: Best Valentine's Day gift (as recipient) Sponsored Resource: Next-Generation Application Security Should Developers Fix Bugs They Caused on Their Own Time? If a builder builds a wall that begins to fall out from the bottom, but continues to build the wall higher, in most cases, he would have to replace the lower bricks at his own expense and on his own time. Bizzeh asked fellow Slashdotters whether that standard should be applied to developers of buggy software. Sound Off>> Weirdest Places Where Linux Is Installed From installations in North Korea and the International Space Station to a supercomputer made out of Legos and computer engineer Barbie, Bryan Lunduke recently pulled together a collection of the weirdest places he's found Linux. What other odd places have you seen Linux? Sound Off>> Death Coming for Swipe-and-Sign Credit Cards in the U.S. U.S. banks and merchants are shifting to a more secure way of authorizing credit card transactions in which customers will enter a personal identification number (PIN) at checkout instead of signing a receipt. The US is the last major market in the world using the signature system, which is part of the reason why a disproportionate amount of credit card fraud happens here. Sound Off>> Mass Surveillance: 3 Reasons to Hate It, 3 Ways to Fight It The revelations we've seen over the last year-and-change of widespread spying on U.S. citizens, the UK's use of malware against citizens, and the use of technology to oppress government protesters all over the world sparked "The Day We Fight Back." We marked the day with a look the dangers of mass survelliance and what we can do to fight it. Sound Off>> How Russia Made It Snow in a Subtropical Beach Resort Located on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, Sochi is humid and subtropical with temperatures averaging about 52 degrees Fahrenheit (12 C) in the winter, and 75 degrees (24 C) in the summer. So, it's not completely surprising that the estimated cost of staging the Olympics there has been greater than the previous three Winter Games combined. Sound Off>> Re: And in other news... A majority of young adults are dumb as a box of rocks. And it's not their fault. It's that they had horrible parents that did not teach them anything and went to public school. Education in the United States is a complete and utter joke. As an adult that went through that system..." -by Lumpy Read More>>   The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work Four years ago, much virtual ink was spilled over Ubisoft's harsh DRM system for Assassin's Creed 2. You must have a constant internet connection, and, if your connection breaks, the game exits. One article in particular explained why, as dreadful as the system is, it does have a chance of holding hackers off long enough for the game to make its money. Read More>> Meet MOSS Modular Robots The MOSS modular robot system is sort of like Lego Mindstorms, in that you assemble small blocks to make custom robots and other items. But it has some interesting tricks of its own, as product demonstrator John Moyes shows Timothy Lord. See what makes them different. Watch the Video>>   Best Valentine's Day gift (as recipient): Something edible Something jeweled Something to hang on the wall Something electronic Something not covered by this list Nothing at all Valentine's Day does not exist for me Cast Your Vote>>    Next-Generation Application Security Today's high performance applications demand clean, efficient and secure code. Regardless of whether you and your team develop in C/C++, Java or C#, your code needs to be both reliable and secure. In years past, most development teams worried about the cleanliness of their code, but they rarely worried about code security. And if they did look out for security, it was often not during the development process. Learn how software development teams are turning analysis and code review into a holistic process that combines code verification and efficiency with security and other processes into one, streamlined system. Learn how this streamlined software development process can help boost the security and reliability of your code while making the work of development easier and more efficient. Learn More>> Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.

 

Surveillance Device Helps Your Boss Keep You on a Short Leash; Verizon Using Net Neutrality Win to Throttle Netflix?

'Science Guy' Bill Nye Debates Creationist Ken Ham  |  Does HTTPS Everywhere Make Firefox Most Secure Mobile Browser? To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Surveillance Device Helps Your Boss Keep You on a Short Leash 'Science Guy' Bill Nye Debates Creationist Ken Ham Does HTTPS Everywhere Make Firefox Most Secure Mobile Browser? Microsoft Names Satya Nadella as New CEO Verizon Using Net Neutrality Win to Throttle Netflix? Hot Comment: "I don't see it as a 'revolt against change' but a revolt to changes for..." From the Vault: Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go? Watch It: Ditch Google Maps for OpenStreetMap? Poll Booth: At my current workplace, I've outlasted ... Sponsored Resource: Next-Generation Application Security Surveillance Device Helps Your Boss Keep You on a Short Leash Hitachi has created a "perfect virtual boss," intended to increase efficiency in the workplace. The device, which looks like a typical employee ID badge tracks everything, including how often you get up and walk around the office, where you go, who you talk to and for how long, and if you participate in meetings. Sound Off>> 'Science Guy' Bill Nye Debates Creationist Ken Ham Bill Nye and Ken Ham went head-to-head on the topic "Is creation a viable model of origins in today's modern scientific era?" at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky (of which Ham is the founder). The event was moderated by CNN's Tom Foreman. Sound Off>> Does HTTPS Everywhere Make Firefox Most Secure Mobile Browser? The Electronic Frontier Foundation just released a version of its HTTPS Everywhere extension for Firefox for Android. The organization says that Firefox on Android with HTTPS Everywhere is now by far the most secure browser against dragnet surveillance attacks like those performed by the NSA. Sound Off>> Microsoft Names Satya Nadella as New CEO As widely expected after last week's rumors, Satya Nadella has been named the new CEO of Microsoft. Nadella is Microsoft's third CEO, after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He's been with the company for more than twenty years, eventually becoming EVP of its Cloud and Enterprise division. Sound Off>> Verizon Using Net Neutrality Win to Throttle Netflix? Is Verizon already waging a war on high-bandwidth services like Netflix after the recent court decision against net neutrality? Blogger Dave Raphael thinks so and his discussion with a Verizon service representative seems to confirm this. Sound Off>> Revolt against changes? "I don't see it as a 'revolt against change' but a revolt to changes for the sake of change (enter gnome 3 and windows 8 as exhibit A and B)." --by Camel Pilot Read More>>   Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go? Three years ago, inkscapee wrote "Used to be Ubuntu was the big Linux hero, the shining knight that would drive Linux onto every desktop and kick bad old Windows to the curb. But now Ubuntu is the Bad Linux. What's going on, is it typical fanboy fickleness, or is Canonical more into serving their own interests than creating a great Linux distro?" Read More>>  Ditch Google Maps for OpenStreetMap? OpenStreetMap lets you download maps of your area, country or even the whole world--and keep your travels confidential. You can also help create accurate maps of the areas you know best, including points of interest chosen by actual users, not because they paid to have their names on a commercially produced map. Timothy Lord and informal OpenStreetMap spokesman Serge Wroclawski discuss why the world needs OpenStreetMap and whether it is really a viable alternative to Google Maps. Watch the Video>>   At my current workplace, I've outlasted ... No one: I'm a new hire. A few people, but I'm on the left of the curve. About half of my coworkers. Most of my coworkers. I'm the longest-lived employee of all. Do you count "unemployed" as a job? I'm self-employed. Cast Your Vote>>   Next-Generation Application Security Today's high performance applications demand clean, efficient and secure code. Regardless of whether you and your team develop in C/C++, Java or C#, your code needs to be both reliable and secure. In years past, most development teams worried about the cleanliness of their code, but they rarely worried about code security. And if they did look out for security, it was often not during the development process. Learn how software development teams are turning analysis and code review into a holistic process that combines code verification and efficiency with security and other processes into one, streamlined system. Learn how this streamlined software development process can help boost the security and reliability of your code while making the work of development easier and more efficient. Learn More>> Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.