Minecraft Dev Kills Plans for Oculus Version After Facebook Buy; How Missing Malaysian Plane Was Tracked Down

What Do You Consider Elegant Code? | Microsoft Finally Releases Source Code for MS-DOS, Word for Windows To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Minecraft Dev Kills Plans for Oculus Version After Facebook Buy How Missing Malaysian Plane Was Tracked Down What Do You Consider Elegant Code? Are DVDs Inconvenient on Purpose? Microsoft Finally Releases Source Code for MS-DOS, Word for Windows Hot Comment: "The Luddites were on to something. Not that mechanization is evil..." From the Vault: Does DRM Drive Gamers to Piracy? Watch It: Fly an Aerobatic Quadcopter with Curtis Youngblood Poll Booth: I prefer my peppers ... Sponsored Resource: Responding to and Recovering from Sophisticated Attacks Minecraft Dev Kills Plans for Oculus Version After Facebook Buy The news of Facebook acquiring Oculus wasn't even an hour old when Markus "Notch" Persson announced that he has ceased all discussions about bringing his hit game Minecraft to the Oculus Rift. "I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out," he tweeted. Sound Off>> How Missing Malaysian Plane Was Tracked Down Based on satellite data analysis from UK company Inmarsat, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that Malayian Airlines flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean and no one on board survived. Inmarsat explains how it looked at the doppler effect to help find the plane.  Sound Off>> What Do You Consider Elegant Code? lxrslh writes that since the dawn of computing, unfixed bugs, security leaks, spaghetti code and other flaws have existed in programs we use and depend on every day and asked: "Do you have an example of a compact and elegant program for which the code is publicly available?" Sound Off>> Are DVDs Inconvenient on Purpose? Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes: "Why do Netflix and a few other companies keep the DVD format alive, when streaming is more convenient for almost all users? The answer is not obvious, but my best theory is that it has to do with what economists call price discrimination." Sound Off>> Microsoft Finally Releases Source Code for MS-DOS, Word for Windows With the help of the Computer History Museum, Microsoft has posted the source code for MS-DOS 1.1 and 2.0, and Word for Windows 1.1a. It's been a long time coming -- DOS 2.0 was released for IBM PCs in 1983, and Word for Windows 1.1a came out in 1990. Sound Off>> "The Luddites ...were on to something. Not that mechanization is evil - it is progress. But what we're seeing now that we have not faced in the past is technology and automation advancing faster than society's capacity to restructure the economy so that everyone has an opportunity for some basic livelihood. Extremes of poverty and desperation are not a good alternative." --by Livius Read More>>   Does DRM Drive Gamers to Piracy? Three years ago, independent retro games retailer Good Old Games spoke out about digital rights management, saying that it can actually drive gamers to piracy, rather than acting as a deterrent. In an interview, a spokesperson for the company asked, "Would you rather spend $50 on a game that requires installing malware on your system" or "download a cracked version without all that hassle?" Read More>>  Fly an Aerobatic Quadcopter with Curtis Youngblood It goes up, it goes down, it goes upside down and keeps on flying. We're talking about the latest quadcopter prototype from Curtis Youngblood, who has been flying and competing with RC Helicopters since the early 1980s and is a Multi-time World Champion and Multi-time 3D Champion. Youngblood's creations are not your ordinary off-the-shelf kits. His are sophisticated aerial beasts that can carry still and video cameras and could easily be used as short-range drones. See one in action. Watch the Video>>   I prefer my peppers ... ... completely sweet (0 Scoville Heat Units) ... only very mild (under 1000 SHU) ... fairly spicy (1000-5000 SHU) ... very spicy (5001-30,000 SHU) ... extremely spicy (30,001-100,000 SHU) ... ludicrously spicy (over 100,000 SHU) Nothing milder than Bhut Jolokia, please. ... to be on someone else's plate. Cast Your Vote>>   Responding to and Recovering from Sophisticated Attacks We all know how major security incidents can affect a company's data, networks and corporate brand. We also know that sophisticated attacks, designed to gain continuous access to critical information or to cause damage in critical infrastructure, are becoming more severe, more frequent and more costly. Read this white paper "Responding to-and recovering from-sophisticated security attacks" to learn proactive steps that you can take now to help keep your organization safe: prioritize your business objectives and set your risk tolerance; protect your organization with a proactive security plan; prepare your response to the inevitable sophisticated attack and promote and support a culture of security awareness. 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.

 

Malware Attack Hijacks 25,000 Linux/UNIX Servers; Top GitHub Dev Quits Citing Harassment

Can an Old Programmer Learn New Tricks? | The Death of Flash and the Rise of OpenFL To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Malware Attack Hijacks 25,000 Linux/UNIX Servers Top GitHub Dev Quits Citing Harassment Can an Old Programmer Learn New Tricks? The Death of Flash and the Rise of OpenFL Pirate Bay Delivers on Promised 'Veronica Mars' Digital Download Hot Comment: "OMG measles is like a 1700's pirate disease. Nobody..." From the Vault: U.S. Contemplating 'Vehicle Miles Traveled' Tax Watch It: TrustyCon: The 'Rebel' Security Conference Poll Booth: What day of the week is your most productive? Sponsored Resource: Four Myths of Cloud Backup Malware Attack Hijacks 25,000 Linux/UNIX Servers Security researchers from ESET have uncovered a widespread attack campaign that has infected more than 25,000 Linux and UNIX servers around the world. Victimized systems are leveraged to steal credentials, redirected web traffic to malicious sites and send as many as 35 million spam messages a day. Sound Off>> Top GitHub Dev Quits Citing Harassment Describing a culture of sexism and intimidation, prominent engineer Julie Ann Horvath has left GitHub. Several media outlets say the situation has sparked yet another conversation concerning women in technology and startups. Sound Off>> Can an Old Programmer Learn New Tricks? An anonymous reader, who has been programming for the last 18 years, never learned to use a framework or write modular, DRY code and now can't seem to grasp the concepts and utilize them in a practical manner asks: "Am I just too old and too set in my ways to learn something new?" Sound Off>> The Death of Flash and the Rise of OpenFL lars_doucet writes "I am a 15-year Flash veteran and nobody hates to say this more than me: Flash is dying, and the killer is Adobe. Where to now? ... I'm putting my bets on OpenFL, a Haxe-based, fully open-source implementation of the Flash API that might just please both Flash refugees and longtime Flash haters alike." Sound Off>> Pirate Bay Delivers on Promised 'Veronica Mars' Digital Download Warner Bros. promised backers who contributed $35+ to the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign "a digital version of the movie within a few days of the movie's theatrical debut." But instead of providing a DRM-free download, the studio is returning original pledges to backers who complain about the format they received. Meanwhile, the download is already available on the Pirate Bay and commercial stores. Sound Off>>  Re:Dumb logic "OMG measles is like a 1700's pirate disease. Nobody catches it anymore. That's ridiculous. The government is just injecting nano-bots into your bloodstream to spy on you and make you eat fatty foods so you die before they can pay you social security and...*cough*...*dies from measles*" -- by slashmydots Read More>>    U.S. Contemplating 'Vehicle Miles Traveled' Tax Three years ago, the Congressional Budget Office released a report saying that taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenue, and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance. The proposed tax would be enforced through the use of electronic metering devices installed on all vehicles. Read More>> TrustyCon: The 'Rebel' Security Conference When news broke about RSA's reputed $10 million contract with the National Security Agency to make sure the company's encryption software had back doors the NSA could use to spy on people and companies, the backlash was swift. A number of IT security luminaries decided not to speak at this year's RSA conference. And so, TrustyCon -- the Trustworthy Technology Conference -- was born and was held a block away from the RSA gathering. Timothy Lord was able get into the sold-out TrustyCon and spoke to several people there.  Watch the Video>>   What day of the week is your most productive? Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Tomorrow Cast Your Vote>>    Four Myths of Cloud Backup Many popular myths surround cloud backup and recovery including these four: It's impossible to maintain data privacy in the cloud. It's impossible to control access to data in the cloud. The cloud and compliance don't mix. Cloud backup doesn't provide fast data recovery. Learn the truth and find out why the cloud remains not only a viable option for backup but also the best one. Read 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.

 

Best Way to Back Up 20TB of Data?; How Can You Prepare for the Theft of Your Android Phone?

U.S. Officials' Technological Ignorance Exposed | The $100,000 Device That Could Have Solved Missing Plane Mystery To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Best Way to Back Up 20TB of Data? Websites Inaccessible on Comcast, Crowdsourcing Confirms How Can You Prepare for the Theft of Your Android Phone? U.S. Officials' Technological Ignorance Exposed The $100,000 Device That Could Have Solved Missing Plane Mystery Hot Comment: "XP is over 12 years old, that's one hell of a *free* long term..." From the Vault: Are Quirky Developers Brilliant or Dangerous? Watch It: Pwnie Express Rides Again Poll Booth: Recent news events re: Bitcoin ... Sponsored Resource: The Bot Threat Best Way to Back Up 20TB of Data? Sean0michael writes about a friend who lost their entire 20TB electronic collection of music and movies. He never backed up much of that data because he never found a good way to do it. So, he asked Slashdotters, "For a home user, how do you backup 20TB of data?" Sound Off>> Websites Inaccessible on Comcast, Crowdsourcing Confirms With a bit of online detective work done with a little help from some (Internet-distributed) friends, Bennett Haselton reports that the issue of not being able to access some websites with a Comcast Internet connection could potentially be widespread. Sound Off>> How Can You Prepare for the Theft of Your Android Phone? Losing a fully configured Android phone is a big deal as it provides ready access to all kinds of accounts, including the owner's Google account. This could potentially allow the thief to engage in all kinds of malicious behavior, some of which could have major implications beyond the scope of the theft. So, are there any serious solutions out there for Android that secure against theft? Sound Off>> U.S. Officials' Technological Ignorance Exposed Speaking at the SXSW Conference recently, Dr. Peter W. Singer, director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, shared many disturbing stories of the lack of awareness, including how an official who was about to negotiate cybersecurity with China did not know what "ISP" stood for. Sound Off>> The $100,000 Device That Could Have Solved Missing Plane Mystery The case of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 begs the question, "How can an airliner simply disappear, leaving no clues?" There's no good reason that flight data needs to go down with the plane, because the technology to transmit "black box" flight data in real time is already available. Sound Off>> Re: Yes and No "XP is over 12 years old, that's one hell of a *free* long term support package. Is there any other OS available that has a 12 year support lifecycle? Ubuntu's LTS releases have a 5 year support cycle, Apple doesn't have a published official policy for OSX but it's about 4 years on average. RHEL comes the closest I can find at between 10 & 13 years depending on the version, but you have to pay for that so it's not directly comparable. XP has had a pretty good run of it, all things considered and if Windows 8 wasn't such a PR mess, this 'forced' upgrade would probably a lot less contentious." --by Spad Read More>>   Are Quirky Developers Brilliant Or Dangerous? Three years ago, Eric Spiegel at Datamation told the story of a brilliant developer named "Josh," who wore T-shirts with offensive slogans, insulted female co-workers and, when asked about documentation, smirked, "What documentation?" Sure, he was whipsmart and could churn out code that saved the company millions, but, in the end, are developers like Josh worth it? Read More>>  Pwnie Express Rides Again "Founder and CEO and everything else" of Pwnie Express, Dave Porcello back in 2012 described his company as "a cute name for this tiny (and easily hidden) group of Pen Test devices." It has more tools now and is working with Kali Linux, a distro built especially for penetration testing. Timothy Lord caught up with Porcello at RSA 2014. Watch the Video>>   Recent news events re: Bitcoin ... Have changed my view of it for the worse Have failed to change my negative view of it Haven't swayed me from basic neutrality Have failed to change my positive view of it Have changed my view of it for the better The ones under my mattress are safe as ever! Cast Your Vote>>   The Bot Threat Some of the most serious threats networks face today are "bots," remotely controlled robotic programs that strike in many different ways and deliver destructive payloads, self-propagating to infect more and more systems and eventually forming a "botnet." Download this whitepaper and learn how bots work and how, by adopting the right strategy, you can use a defense-in-depth strategy to effectively prevent direct attacks against your critical systems. 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.

 

Another Bitcoin Exchange Bites the Dust After Theft; Google Won't Enable Chrome Video Acceleration, Cites Linux GPU Bugs

Microsoft's Attempt to Convert Users From Windows XP Backfires | Does Your Company Perform HTTPS MITM Attacks on Employees? To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Another Bitcoin Exchange Bites the Dust After Theft New Keurig Uses DRM to Lock Out Competitors Does Your Company Perform HTTPS MITM Attacks on Employees? Microsoft's Attempt to Convert Users From Windows XP Backfires Google Won't Enable Chrome Video Acceleration, Cites Linux GPU Bugs Hot Comment: "People don't like being recorded, or even the possibility of being..." From the Vault: Living Free With Linux, Round 2 Watch It: 'Unbreakable' Laser-Based Quantum Crypto?  Poll Booth: Time sucked into Netflix or similar, weekly... Sponsored Resource: DevOps for Dummies Another Bitcoin Exchange Bites the Dust After Theft Joining MtGox, Flexcoin announced that hackers wiped out its vault to the tune of some 896 BTC (about $615,000). The theft dealt a fatal blow that forced the self-described "world's first Bitcoin bank," to shut its doors immediately. Sound Off>> New Keurig Uses DRM to Lock Out Competitors Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, maker of the popular Keurig coffee-brewing system, said it will make its new machines work with licensed pods only. GMCR's CEO said to ensure consistent quality, "we use interactive technology to help us perfectly brew all Keurig brew packs." Sound Off>> Does Your Company Perform HTTPS MITM Attacks on Employees? Matt.Battey writes that while recently working on-site with a client, he noticed that the company performed Man-In-The-Middle attacks on employees, interrupting HTTPS communications via a network coordinated reverse-proxy with false certificate generation. Is this a common practice? Sound Off>> Microsoft's Attempt to Convert Users From Windows XP Backfires Microsoft has attempted to make it widely known that all support and service for Windows XP and Office 2003 shuts down on April 8. But since the company actually saw a slight uptick in users on the old OS, it launched an effort to recruit tech-savvy friends and family to tell old holdouts to get off XP. It did not go well. Sound Off>> Google Won't Enable Chrome Video Acceleration, Cites Linux GPU Bugs Citing "code we consider to be permanently 'experimental' or 'beta,' Google Chrome engineers have no plans to enable video acceleration in the Chrome/Chromium web browser. Code has been written but is permanently disabled by default because "supporting GPU features on Linux is a nightmare." Sound Off>> There won't BE any 'general acceptance' "People don't like being recorded, or even the possibility of being recorded, without their express permission. That's not going to change, therefore there isn't going to be any 'general acceptance' of technology like this." --by kheldan Read More>>   Living Free With Linux, Round 2 Five years ago, Preston Gralla wrote about what life was like for a long-time Windows user trying to live with Linux. His main problems came when he tried to install or update software. Loads of people responded with advice -- so he went back and tried again. Here's what he learned, and what did and didn't work for him. Read More>> 'Unbreakable' Laser-Based Quantum Crypto? According to the QuintessenceLabs website, the firm is "The world's first company to harness the quantum properties of lasers to herald a new generation of data security." Tim Lord caught up with QuintessenceLabs CTO John Leiseboer at RSA to discuss the technology. Watch the Video>>   Time sucked into Netflix or similar, weekly: None - pure abstinence. Less than 5 hours 5-9 hours 10-19 hours 20-39 hours 40 or more hours I never turn it off Oh, you mean of *my* time? Cast Your Vote>>   DevOps for Dummies Today's fast-moving world makes DevOps essential for any business aspiring to be agile and lean in order to respond rapidly to changing customer and marketplace demands. This book helps you understand DevOps and how your organization can gain real business benefits from it. You'll also discover how a holistic view of DevOps that encompasses the entire software delivery life cycle - from ideation and the conception of new business capabilities to implementation in production - can bring competitive advantage in a continuous delivery world. 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.