Slashdot Mirror

You have until April 15 ... quickenman writes "I used TurboTax for many years but used TaxCut last year (2002) after they Put C-Dilla spyware into the program. TaxCut worked well (it lacked 1 form I needed) but TurboTax seemed to be a little more user friendly. I publish several free internet newsletters, "Dr M's Computer Tip List" and also "Dr M's Computer Tips"and have told my subscribers that the link to eliminate that C-Dilla spyware is still available even though Intuit no longer lists it on their web site. Go to: support.turbotax.com/kb/ViewDocument.asp?do cumentId=491&categoryId=80068"

All publicity is probably good publicity ... for Mike Rowe. bwhaley writes "Microsoft has eased is reins after the an unexpected battle from teenager Mike Rowe in defense of his "trademark infringing" domain, mikerowesoft.com. According to a Reuters article, 'Microsoft has indicated it may have overreacted to the Web site' run by Microsoft's namesake. Thanks to this Slashdot story and lots of others like it, Mike Rowe may be able to keep his domain after all."

I doubt that Mike Rowe is Microsoft's namesake ;)

Niue free wi-fi is not gone freitasm writes "In a previous Slashdot article the author said "The world's first free national wireless grid is no longer with us, after waves from Cyclone Heta swept over Niue's thirty metre cliffs, destroying everything." This turned now not to be what actually happened there. It is now known that the The Niue Internet Users Society stored everything in water proof containers before the cyclone hit the island" "Most of the equipment survived," said IUS-N technical manager, Richard St. Clair. "That's because we stored it all in a water-tight metal shipping container before the cyclone hit." "Some WiFi antennas were lost," said Emani Lui, who originally installed and tuned the antennas for the WiFi service. "But many have now been repaired or replaced and are functioning normally." Since then Telecom New Zealand has restored communications with the island."

CosmacVIP writes "The .nu domain manager says anyone who wants to help should make donations to the New Zealand Red Cross's Pacific Cyclone Relief Fund (www.redcross.org.nz), instead of registering .nu domain names, so the aid will go directly to those who need it most."

All depends on whom you ask. Greedo writes "This article at Wired contradicts earlier news that HP was working on getting WMA support built into their branded iPod. "We're not going to be supporting WMA for now," said Muffi Ghadiali, product marketing manager for HP's digital entertainment products group. However, one analyst said that between now and summer, HP may come up with a way to convert WMA to AAC, or an equivalent technical fix. I guess we wait and see."

After that, if it breaks, you get both pieces. Ieshan writes "Microsoft has just decided to resume support for Windows 98 and apparently other product lines, as mentioned in this CNN article. Well, I guess it didn't die for long. They say customers in developing countries weren't made aware of the changes. I say they probably realized that people in developing countries couldn't afford to upgrade entire networks, and might pursue alternatives."

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 ...