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Domain: chron.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to chron.com.

Stories · 129

  1. Top 10 Personal Computers, Revised

    Hardware · Hardware · · posted by michael · from the de-gustibus-non-est-disputandum dept. · 296 comments
    rebelcool writes "Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle has revised his Top 10 PCs of all time, mainly as a result of this Slashdot story. He addresses many of the replies written to him wondering why X system wasn't on the list in Y position, but also chose to replace the Apple Newton with the Amiga A1000."

  2. Top 10 Personal Computers, Revised

    Hardware · Hardware · · posted by michael · from the de-gustibus-non-est-disputandum dept. · 296 comments
    rebelcool writes "Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle has revised his Top 10 PCs of all time, mainly as a result of this Slashdot story. He addresses many of the replies written to him wondering why X system wasn't on the list in Y position, but also chose to replace the Apple Newton with the Amiga A1000."

  3. More on the University of Florida

    Yro · Music · · posted by michael · from the vote-with-your-tuition-dollars dept. · 341 comments
    setzman writes "According to this article, the University of Florida has implemented a software program known as ICARUS (Integrated Control Application for Restricting User Services) to monitor student activities on the campus network. If a user downloads music or videos the system deems to be illegal, they will lose their connection and be punished by being forced to watch industry propaganda, lengthy suspensions of access, or even a written reprimand. Yet the system hasn't resulted in an increase in CD sales? Hmm... Maybe they will figure out another way to improve their failing business model?" We covered this some months ago but the Associated Press is just catching on.

  4. Top 10 Personal Computers

    Hardware · Hardware · · posted by michael · from the fighting-words dept. · 387 comments
    BWJones writes "The Houston Chronicle has posted a story by Dwight Silverman on the ten most popular PC's of all time. His inclusions are for the most part accurate, but his rankings confuse me. For instance, he includes 'hobby' computers such as the Altair, but excludes the Apple I and his ranking of the Compaq portable PC at number one ahead of the Altair, Apple I and II, Apple Lisa and Macintosh. Interestingly, the author also skips other significant platforms entirely, such as the Amiga and Atari computers as well as skipping over the much more significant Tandy products, the TRS-80 line of computers which like the Apple I and II had built in BASIC which helped introduce many people to programming."

  5. Top 10 Personal Computers

    Hardware · Hardware · · posted by michael · from the fighting-words dept. · 387 comments
    BWJones writes "The Houston Chronicle has posted a story by Dwight Silverman on the ten most popular PC's of all time. His inclusions are for the most part accurate, but his rankings confuse me. For instance, he includes 'hobby' computers such as the Altair, but excludes the Apple I and his ranking of the Compaq portable PC at number one ahead of the Altair, Apple I and II, Apple Lisa and Macintosh. Interestingly, the author also skips other significant platforms entirely, such as the Amiga and Atari computers as well as skipping over the much more significant Tandy products, the TRS-80 line of computers which like the Apple I and II had built in BASIC which helped introduce many people to programming."

  6. MPAA School Propaganda Program Examined

    Yro · Education · · posted by michael · from the starving-artist-the-musical dept. · 433 comments
    Anonymous Coward copies-and-pastes: "'As part of its campaign to thwart online music and movie piracy, Hollywood is now reaching into school classrooms with a program that denounces file-sharing and offers prizes for students and teachers who spread the word about Internet theft. The Motion Picture Association of America paid $100,000 to deliver its anti-piracy message to 900,000 students nationwide in grades 5-9 over the next two years, according to Junior Achievement Inc., which is implementing the program using volunteer teachers from the business sector." Only $100,000 to advertise to 900,000 students? What a deal! We mentioned this earlier.

  7. MPAA School Propaganda Program Examined

    Yro · Education · · posted by michael · from the starving-artist-the-musical dept. · 433 comments
    Anonymous Coward copies-and-pastes: "'As part of its campaign to thwart online music and movie piracy, Hollywood is now reaching into school classrooms with a program that denounces file-sharing and offers prizes for students and teachers who spread the word about Internet theft. The Motion Picture Association of America paid $100,000 to deliver its anti-piracy message to 900,000 students nationwide in grades 5-9 over the next two years, according to Junior Achievement Inc., which is implementing the program using volunteer teachers from the business sector." Only $100,000 to advertise to 900,000 students? What a deal! We mentioned this earlier.

  8. Astronauts To Repair Shuttle Tiles With Foam Brush

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the crazy-glue dept. · 66 comments
    lhouk281 writes "Repairing the space shuttle's heat shield on the fly might be easier than originally thought, thanks to a basic, inexpensive item in any painter's tool box -- the foam brush. The brush, which costs less than $1 at most hardware stores, was described by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe as the perfect instrument for applying two compounds that together form a Super Glue-like substance to patch potential holes in the shuttle's heat-resistant tiles."

  9. P2P Spam?

    It · Security · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the bend-over-and-take-it dept. · 340 comments
    Sgt York writes "In a NYT article (republished in the Houston Chronicle, no subscription required) experts at CERT, F-secure, Trusecure, and the Hall of Justice (see article) think that SoBig.F is a spam scheme in the making. They say that SoBig.F is the 6th variant in an ongoing experiment with the possible goal of setting up a distributed spam network, to be rented out to the highest bidder. If that is their goal, they are well on their way. Another disturbing note in the article is that "In the case of four of the six programs, a new version was launched immediately after the self-timed expiration date of the preceding one". SoBig.F expires in two weeks. "

  10. Space Wedding Successful

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept. · 167 comments
    The Llama King writes "Love transcends all, including gravity, the atmosphere and orbital altitudes. According to this story at the Houston Chronicle, "Yuri Malenchenko didn't let the fact that he's living aboard the international space station stop him from marrying his bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev." The bride was at Johnson Space Center near Houston, while the groom circled 240 miles above her. The honeymoon will have to wait."

  11. Predicting H.S. Dropouts With Pervasive Databases

    Yro · Privacy · · posted by timothy · from the you-want-privacy-with-that dept. · 467 comments
    rhadamanthus writes "As seen on the Houston Chronicle: 'With a new computer database available at every campus this fall, teachers can keep a virtual eye on every student and identify those at risk of leaving. For the first time, educators can look up a student's attendance, discipline, immigration status, grades, and test scores at one source and use that information to predict dropouts. ... "All students will know someone is watching them, tracking them, and is interested in their success," school board member Laurie Bricker said at a press conference today.' Hooray for surveillance in the HISD."

  12. Japanese Shuttle Crashes in Sweden

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the lawn-dart dept. · 32 comments
    spacecomputer writes "Japanese delta wing space shuttle crashes in Sweden field during high speed test. Another setback for the Hope-X program."

  13. US Cell Phone Users Discover SMS Spam

    It · Spam · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the its-only-gonna-get-worse dept. · 314 comments
    The Llama King writes "It's a bigger problem in Europe and Japan/Asia, but as SMS text messaging or "texting" becomes more popular in the United States, its users are discovering that spammers like it too, according to this Houston Chronicle story. Cell phone companies are trying to stem the spam flood before it starts, worried that users will turn off their phones, thus denying providers revenue."

  14. Shuttle Assessment Tool was Inferior

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the you-can-do-a-lot-with-a-spreadsheet dept. · 30 comments
    An anonymous reader writes " Shuttle report in Houston Chronicle: 'The computer program Boeing engineers used to predict that a debris-damaged Columbia could land safely wasn't much more than a simple chart of past foam damage, accident investigators said Tuesday.'"

  15. Are Programmers Engineers?

    Developers · Programming · · posted by timothy · from the let-the-french-academy-decide dept. · 963 comments
    The Llama King writes "The Houston Chronicle has an interesting story about a debate in the Texas Legislature over whether programmers are really engineers. A quote: " 'It's one of the silliest issues we're having to deal with this session, but it's also one of the most important,' said Steven Kester, legislative director of the American Electronics Association, an organization of computer companies." Are you really an engineer? Or just a code-monkey?"

  16. Are Programmers Engineers?

    Developers · Programming · · posted by timothy · from the let-the-french-academy-decide dept. · 963 comments
    The Llama King writes "The Houston Chronicle has an interesting story about a debate in the Texas Legislature over whether programmers are really engineers. A quote: " 'It's one of the silliest issues we're having to deal with this session, but it's also one of the most important,' said Steven Kester, legislative director of the American Electronics Association, an organization of computer companies." Are you really an engineer? Or just a code-monkey?"

  17. Slashback: Intuit, Telemetry, Meetup

    News · Slashback · · posted by timothy · from the possums-are-harmless-and-tasty dept. · 273 comments
    Slashback tonight brings you updates on TurboTax and your boot sector, NASA's plans beyond the shuttle, Barry Shein on spam, Linux telemetry, and more. Read on for the details!

    I'd prefer an apology from the IRS. Rico writes "Intuit have spoken out about the CD-protection methods of their TurboTax software. According to them, the protection is harmless to computers and does not erase data. Despite the huge negative customer feedback, Intuit are still profiting from the product."

    Train the dog, then never call the command. Mitch Wagner writes "Barry Shein, subject of this week's /. interview, proposes in "ISP Head Floats Plan To Legalize Spam" that spam is impossible to block, and so instead should be legitimized and regulated, with a central, not-for-profit company charged with collecting fees from spammers and distributing those fees to ISPs that receive the spam. Of course, there have been many other plans for charging spammers to send spam, but those plans mostly have the fees going to the ISP that sends the e-mail, or to the user that receives the mail, rather than the ISP that receives it and has to deliver it to the end-users. I'm the author of the piece I link to in this article."

    Make big money as an open source telemetrist! For anyone who missed it in the Science section, there's a great followup to the Linux-based home-brewed weather balloon we recently featured: the OpenTRAC project is looking for help in building an APRS-like protocol. If that's gibberish to you, check out their introduction to the protocol to get an idea of how it's useful. Future experimenters will thank you.

    One good deed escapes punishment. Psyiode writes with a link to this story at the Houston Chronicle which begins "Jurors needed only about 15 minutes to acquit a Houston man who was accused of hacking into the Harris County district clerk's wireless computer system in March. One juror, Helen Smith, 62, said she and the other jurors found that Stefan Puffer indeed hacked into the system but they did not believe he caused any damage as the government had alleged."

    Puffer was arrested last summer for demonstrating that the county court's wireless LAN wasn't secure, and telling them about it.

    Do we need manned spaceflight? Professor_Quail writes "The BBC has a story on NASA's plans for a successor to the Space Shuttle. From the article: Nasa has revealed its first set of mission criteria for the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) - the series of space vehicle expected to replace the space shuttle from 2012. The new spacecraft's primary function will be to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and serve as a lifeboat if the station has to be evacuated."

    Or do you have other plans? Finally, rufo writes "For those of you brave enough to weather the elements and meet your fellow geek, don't forget that the Slashdot Meetup is this Thursday at 7PM your local time zone. I've been to a couple and there's some rather interesting characters that show up, and the conversations are quite engaging. Highly recommended if you have nothing better to do on a Thursday evening." Hmmm, must check to see if there's one around Knoxville ...

  18. NASA Thaws Out 'Teacher in Space' Program

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the rolling-the-dice dept. · 59 comments
    Guppy06 writes "The Houston Chronicle reports that, seventeen years after the Challenger disaster, NASA is pushing forward its Teacher in Space program again. Christa McAuliffe's original back-up, Barbara Morgan from Idaho, is scheduled to go up this November. NASA intends to recruit more teachers in the future. Between this and rumored Mars missions, it seems new NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is keeping himself busy."

  19. Methane Clouds on Titan

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the partly-sunny dept. · 28 comments
    Catskul writes "Telescopes atop Mauna Kea have recorded for the first time clouds floating over Saturn's biggest moon. Astronomers used telescopes at the Keck and Gemini observatories atop the dormant volcano on the Big Island to photograph methane clouds near the south pole of the moon Titan."

  20. Possible Signs of Life Detected On Venus

    Science · Space · · posted by timothy · from the well-it's-gotta-be-somewhere dept. · 283 comments
    MoThugz writes "This article from the The Houston Chronicle discusses the discovery of mysterious swirling patches on the surface of the planet which may be communities of bacteria. These bacteria might be a genetically-enhanced version of the thermophiles which are known to survive in extreme temperatures. The article suggested the bacteria could be using ultraviolet light from the sun as an energy source, which would explain the presence of strange dark patches on ultraviolet images of the planet."

  21. 80% Of Incoming E-mail At Hotmail Is Spam

    Yro · Spam · · posted by timothy · from the conservative-estimates dept. · 367 comments
    The Llama King writes: "According to this AP story at The Houston Chronicle, 80 percent of the e-mail that makes its way into Hotmail's user inboxes is spam. And that does not include the UCE caught by Hotmail's filters. This is the first of a three-part series the Associated Press is doing on spam."

  22. FBI Arrests 4 College Interns For Stealing Lunar Materials

    Science · Space · · posted by Hemos · from the striking-a-blow-for-profits dept. · 289 comments
    An anonymous reader "Today, the fourth member of a group of college interns working at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston turned herself in after being charged with conspiracy to steal government property. Click2Houston.com has an article with a video feed covering many details of the case. Apparently, three of the alleged theives went to Florida and tried to sell, online, the 5 oz. of moon rocks and meteorite material they lugged out of the JSC in a 600lb case. Here's another article from the Houston Chronicle."

  23. FBI Arrests 4 College Interns For Stealing Lunar Materials

    Science · Space · · posted by Hemos · from the striking-a-blow-for-profits dept. · 289 comments
    An anonymous reader "Today, the fourth member of a group of college interns working at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston turned herself in after being charged with conspiracy to steal government property. Click2Houston.com has an article with a video feed covering many details of the case. Apparently, three of the alleged theives went to Florida and tried to sell, online, the 5 oz. of moon rocks and meteorite material they lugged out of the JSC in a 600lb case. Here's another article from the Houston Chronicle."

  24. Fake Light Sabers Making Real Cash

    News · Starwars · · posted by michael · from the enlarge-your-schwartz-now dept. · 240 comments
    jdedman4 writes "The fanfare over Episode II brings with it absurdist prequel theories as well as this article from the Houston Chronicle detailing one fan-enterpreneur's success. In eight years, Forney, Texas resident Jeff Parks has made himself a millionaire by making customized light sabers for collectors. "My goal is to be the best light saber designer in the world," quips Parks."

  25. Fun with Fingerprint Readers

    It · Security · · posted by michael · from the black-forest-or-haribo dept. · 298 comments
    Two pieces of news that came in today make a fun counterpoint to each other. First, a grocery chain is trying out a biometric checkout system. Bring your groceries, pay with a fingerprint. Unfortunately, a story in Bruce Schneier's monthly newsletter notes that fingerprint scanners can be fooled with a bit of gelatin.

  26. Lucas Restricts Fan-Made Films To Documentaries, Parodies

    News · Starwars · · posted by timothy · from the he'd-frown-on-fansmut dept. · 235 comments
    garagekubrick writes: "A great piece at the Houston Chronicle discusses how the community of fan made Star Wars films received a boon in December when Lucasfilm loaned their sponsorship to the event, and George Lucas himself would be a judge. Unfortunately, they've limited the contest to parodies and documentaries, thereby shutting out hundreds of entries. As a Lucas rep says, 'if in fact somebody is using our characters to create a story unto itself, that's not in the spirit of what we think fandom is about. Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.' Pretty rich coming from the filmmaker who constantly cites greed as being the root of the dark side, and who keeps discussing the liberating values of digital filmmaking. Guess as long as it doesn't hurt his Empire..."

  27. Space Tourism

    Science · Space · · posted by michael · from the you-must-be-this-high-to-ride-the-rocket dept. · 71 comments
    Nevyan writes: "A conglomeration of Japanese firms plan on making space flight available to the general public. Cost: $26,000. Duration: 3 hours. Training: even a monkey (or a politician) could do it..."

  28. The Invisible Man? Kinda.

    Science · Science · · posted by Hemos · from the i'm-going-to-be-the-hollow-man dept. · 183 comments
    A lot of people have written in regarding the announcement from scientists at the University of Texas @ Austin discovering "invisibilty". Well, sort of. What it does do is make small areas of skin (humans have not been tested) transparent for a short amount of time. By transparent, I mean 2 mm of transparency - not exactly enough to make me Inside Out Boy. Yet.

  29. Quake 3 article with Linux

    Games · Quake · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the second-class-no-more dept. · 73 comments
    doobman writes "I found an article here that is a summary of the upcoming Quake III and all the multiplayer only hype. But the kicker is, in the middle it says that "Quake 3 will be on shelves for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems". " Now if I can get good 3d support, I'll be content. Course I'll still suck, but I don't think any port will solve that problem.