Slashdot Mirror
Domain: austin360.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to austin360.com.
Stories · 8
-
UT Austin Hit By Massive Security Breach
mrpuffypants writes "Reported in the Austin-American Statesman: The University of Texas' security was compromised over the weekend, leaking out nearly 60,000 records on students, staff, and faculty. Official word from the school can be found here. Most troubling of all is that, like most schools, UT still uses SSNs for student ID numbers, and that was part of the information taken from them in the attack." -
NASA Contractor Fraud
Punk Walrus writes "AP New is reporting that NASA has been defrauded dozens of times with things like faulty parts for the International Space Station or even the theft of moon rocks. Just in the last year, NASA contractors and even some of its own employees (more than 50 individuals and nearly three dozen instances) have cost NASA a small chunk out of their $14.8 billion budget. In one case, a NASA contract worker pleaded guilty to accepting $27,000 worth of collect telephone calls from prison inmates, and her company billed the cost to the Hubble Space Telescope program. Remember when Opus on Bloom County wanted to build a satellite Shield of dollar bills around the earth's orbit? Now it doesn't seem so funny anymore." -
Slashback: IEEE, Liquid, Swings
Slashback this evening brings you updates on silly patents, closer-to-mainstream watercooling for your desktop, the IEEE's publication rules, and more. Read on below for the details.IEEE v. DMCA. Reacting to the IEEE's changing publication rules, Boone^ writes: "The IEEE has backed away from their stance that all papers submitted must comply with the DMCA. Their reason? 'The IEEE, publisher of nearly one-third of all computer science journals, said it is removing the requirement because it turned out to be more contentious than expected.' Personally I'd have preferred their reason to be based on the law instead of popular backlash, but maybe that's a step in the right direction to eventually bring about new legislation."
Many readers also pointed out this New Scientist story on the reversal.
Free as in Blender? tinus writes: "Ton Roosendaal, creator of Blender, submitted an update to Elysiun.com about finding solutions for continueing activities of the Blender projects. He describes the way Blender has been split up into smaller projects to make it both profitable as public domain software. Also, he gives us a preview of his setup for his new community plan, which even mentions 'Blender sources will be opened for members.'
Seems like there is a very promising future for Blender after all. Read the full story here."
Water meets your processor. Foss writes "You may remember this story about the dodgy-yet-extremely-cheap DIY water cooling block. Well, thanks to all your emails, Rob's getting better. It's still extremely cheap (under £10), but it's now pretty stable too, running a P3 933@1.1GHz for a few hours at a very stable 28 degrees. No dental floss this time round either!"
But don't worry, all the other patents issued were A-OK. Worried about getting slapped with a lawsuit for swinging different? f00zbll writes: "Cnet is running an follow up article on the patent posted earlier in the week. Apparently, the kid doesn't plan on suing anyone over swinging side ways."
We're here to save you money, Ma'am. Now, where do you keep it? guttentag writes "The NYTimes (reg req'd) is reporting on a MS and Mexico plan to develop digital community centers as part of a broader 'eMexico' initiative meant to bring the entire nation online by 2006. Microsoft will license its Windows, Office and Encarta software on the same terms that colleges and universities use. Some background: Microsoft's licensing deal with the University System of Maryland resulted in a mandatory $14 Microsoft tax imposed on all 130,000 students. Apparently, if you want to attend one of MD's taxpayer-funded university, you must pay MS. Is eMexico Microsoft's plan to tax Mexican citizens?" Hope they keep their licenses up -- Virginia Beach's taxpayers got to foot a city-size bill. The tab in Texas wasn't low either. What would it look like for all of Mexico?
-
Drug Testing For Olympic Chess Players?
Lawrence Person writes: "According to this AP wire story, they're thinking of adding chess as an Olympic sport. The downside? Mandatory drug testing. 'He's using steroids to move that pawn!'" -
Garriott Brothers Return to Gaming
rhaig writes: "According to the Austin American Statesman, The Garriott brothers, Richard and Robert, the creators of Austin's Origin Systems Inc., are back in the gaming business. The pair scooped up about 30 recently laid-off Origin employees to staff their new Austin-based online game company, Destination Games." -
Tweezers Of Light
jasonripp writes: "Seems those wacky scientists have discovered a method to use light to easily move tiny particles of matter with a high degree of precision. This has applications in biotech, computers and more. The article is here." It's one of those cool low-tech inspirations, too -- the "light tweezers" these scientists have devised were inspired by cheap laser-pointer accessories. Update: 03/06 10:00 PM by T : We have compensated for the Dark Side moving that URL around. -
K7 Renamed "Athlon"
rippy writes "It seems like AMD is following in Intel's footsteps and giving a goofy name to their processors. Insted of K7, the name is now changed to "Athlon". I saw it on Ars. " I'm still waiting for chips to have model years just like Operating Systems (cough) -
Girl Games: Girl-friendly computing
Luyseyal writes "GirlGames is an Austin, TX, based company specializing in fun software for--you guessed it--girls. It's teenage girl-stuff mostly.(Why anyone would like this I'll never know... maybe that's why I could never get a date way back in middle school). "