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  1. Video of them putting this stuff up on Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This used to be on youtube, but it's been pulled. It's now up at a safer place. Some local people I know have actually been able to deduce locations from the video and obtain a couple of these "devices." Boston area slashdotters up for some scavenger hunting? athf-lightsnipes-boston.flv

  2. Re:This is a GREAT idea. on PayPal Launches Virtual Debit Card · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, it'll still show up on some bill (whatever account you have your paypal linked to), just as a "paypal" transaction and not as a "ccbill" or "paycom" or whatever porn-site cc processor the site uses. If you want real privacy, you would have to go to the mall and buy one of those visa gift-cards with cash. Totally untraceable and you can "assign" any address/name info to them for online merchant use. (Note: Of course I've never actually done this, but hear about it all the time from others.)

  3. This is a new idea? on PayPal Launches Virtual Debit Card · · Score: 1

    Doesn't every other major credit card bank do this already? I know my AMEX, Discover and Citibank cards already let you go online and generate a one-time-use number. It's handy not only for security purposes, but in case I don't have my wallet with me and need to buy something online. I just have to log into the website and can immediately get a usable number for the purchase.

  4. Dryer on Appliances Hog More Energy Than High-Tech Gadgets · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, that $25/month that you pay to run your dryer (even less if you spend a little more upfront and get a gas model) is just about a wash in the long run as compared to the $1.50/load that it would cost at a laundromat. We used to spend $40/month on quarters for laundry. About two-thirds of that was for drying and the rest for washing.

    But yeah, those multi-bulb units will really kill you. Once you realize how much it costs per month to operate a 100 watt incandescent light bulb, that's the real incentive for switching to compact fluorescent wherever you can (slow startup-time and all).

  5. RBL-based rejection can be a BAD thing on How To Fight Spam Using Your Postfix Configuration · · Score: 1

    Rejecting mail outright based on RBL results is an invitation for loads of false positives. If you're getting "1000s of messages per minute," chances are you are a large business or an ISP. Either way, your customers sending mail from foobaz.net (for example) won't be happy when their no longer gets through because some boneheads at spamcop or spamhaus put them on the RBL.

    If you don't have the proper setup to accept that many messages and do adequate "tag-and-forward" spam analysis, or at least reject later in the delivery cycle based on cumulative results from multiple RBLs, you need to beef-up your mail architecture. Of course, you could just set it to randomly drop 80% of all of your incoming email into /dev/null and you would likewise solve your traffic problem.

  6. Re:WTF does sendmail do? on Sendmail Hit by Data Interception Flaw · · Score: 1

    If all you're doing is "moving mail from A to B," it's not too hard. In that case you should me using postfix or qmail or whatever. If you're trying to move 50,000 messages an hour from A to B, use milter filtering, set up multiple inbound and outbound processing queues based on complex rules, and/or doing other hairy things with mail relaying, you see the situation can get quite a bit more complex.

  7. Re:Weakest Link on Massive Porn Buyer Info Leak · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dude, RTFA. They didn't get the credit card numbers. Only personal information like name, phone number, address, email. Not that that's not a big deal, but this isn't a CC number security issue.

    Of course, this isn't made clear until way at the end of the article: "Because the information didn't include Social Security, credit-card or driver's-license numbers, no U.S. laws require iBill or the companies for which they provided billing to warn victims."

  8. Rate of technology acceptance? on Nintendo DS Wireless Game Roundup · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it me, or does it seem like these nifty handheld things from (Sony and Nintendo) are not catching on very fast? I am a console owner, and plan to upgrade whenever the PS3 comes out and all that jazz, but I have felt pretty much zero interest in these new handhelds, at least among my friends and peers.

    Maybe I'm just in the wrong demographic, but I remember when the Gameboy came out oh so many years ago and we all rushed to the store to grab one. It just doesn't seem like people are that excited about having one more handheld device to carry around.


    Come see one of the world's oldest webcams: www.mitwebcam.com
  9. Re:There is no point unless... on What's the Point of IT Certifications? · · Score: 1

    Finally, as a person in a hiring position, I do not consider them at all, and am definitely prejudiced against someone who puts them on their resume.

    I would agree with this, if the candidate had limited experience, but then had a low-tier certification. This might indicate an obvious attempt to simply beef up the resume. So I'm not going to come right out and call you a complete ass, since you might have a point in this circumstance.

    However, for an already good candidate, one with several years experience, and a well-considered, higher-teir certification (like the RHCE), the certification should push them over other like-experienced candidates with no certification.


    www.mitwebcam.com: one of the oldest webcams in the world.
  10. Re:A Few Thoughts: on What's the Point of IT Certifications? · · Score: 1

    I've never worked for an employer that requires certification, and on the other side of the table, I've never required certification for any particular job I was hiring for. Furthermore I can't speak for what good an MSCE is, since I stay far far away from the windows side of things.

    BUT... If there were two equivalent-on-paper candidates, and both interviewed well, but one has spent the time/effort to get certified, the certified one would definitely have the leg-up on the competition


    See one of the world's oldest webcams at: www.mitwebcam.com
  11. Fuel efficient technology/What are you getting at? on How Can Tech Help Fight Education Costs? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With the mention of fiber connected homes and broadband connectivity, I cannot help but think perhaps the poster has some sort of idea like: "well we don't need schools anymore, let's have all the kids learn at home!" That's a beast of a discussion in and of itself.

    As for the main question of how technology in general can help save money now being spent on fuel for school buses, the immediate choices are more obvious. They include things like hybridization of the vehicles, natural-gas burning buses, and other forms of making the fleet more fuel-efficient. It's only a matter of time before some of the efficiency improvements we're starting to see in the family car show up in school buses.


    Visit the oldest currently running "webcam" on the internet

  12. Perfect on Xorg and Desktop Eyecandy · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Because that's what any linux desktop really needs -- more useless eye candy. At least we can look forward to desktop variants of linux looking great well into the future, no matter how much they may suck to use!


    -ben

    Lounge webcam from c. 1997 http://www.mitwebcam.com/

  13. FlameOut Indeed on Akamai -- The Other Huge Distributed System · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fall of 1999 - Akamai is at $150 per share shortly after IPO.

    Jan 2000 - Akamai is at $325 per share.

    Now the interesting bit. If someone were to have $650 laying around and bought 2 shares of Akamai in January of 2000, they would have about $28 left now.

    If I had, instead, in January of 2000 bought 59 12 packs of rolling rock beer for $11 each w/deposit (which I assure you was around the going rate back then) in a bottle-deposit state, I could have enjoyed all of that beer and I'd have $36.40 if I turned the bottles back in.

    Moral: drink more beer, speculate on the stock market less

    visit the internet's oldest currently operating people webcam: www.mitwebcam.com

  14. plop plop plop on Pigeons' Bandwidth Advantage Quantified · · Score: 5, Funny

    Insert obligatory joke here about "dropping packets"....


  15. Re:Ha! on Study Says Massachusetts Best State For Technology · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, here is a mirror of the full 2mb, 74 page PDF. At least until they make me take it down. Oh wait, I'm the admin of that server so I'd have to make myself take it down....

    http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/benoc/mirrors/state_tech_ sci_index04.pdf

    It's especially interesting to take a look at all of the categories, and not just the overall rankings, in my opinion. And what the heck is the poster thinking, since when is open space or low cost of living important as to whether a state is "best for technology." I'd sooner assume the opposite!



    Visit the oldest operating webcam on the internet with human subjects: http://www.mitwebcam.com
  16. Re:Watch the hit counter spin on Latest Chernobyl Motorcycle Photos · · Score: 5, Informative

    Heh, looks like you made the same mistake that I almost did. The link on that first page just goes right back to angelfire. The -k option in wget is most useful for these situations

    True mirror at: http://netfiles.uiuc.edui/benoc/mirrors/www.angelf ire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/



    Visit the oldest running human webcam on the internet:
    http://www.mitwebcam.com
  17. Temporary mirror for when angelfire quota runs out on Latest Chernobyl Motorcycle Photos · · Score: 3, Informative
    https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/benoc/mirrors/www.angelf ire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/

    Those pictures are just great at showing the sense of "creepiness" of those places. I can definitely understand why folks are afraid of venturing into the dead zone, even though these aren't terribly large doses of radiation.

    Everyone should definitely take the time to look through ALL of the pages. Thanks to the author/photographer for a great photo-essay.



    Visit the oldest running human webcam on the internet:
    http://www.mitwebcam.com
  18. The Old and The New on Logitech Ships 500 Millionth Mouse · · Score: 1

    Ah yes, I too have the fond memories of old Apple mice, although my first was on an Apple IIE it did also come with "mousepaint" which -- looking back -- couldn't have been much fun on my 13" television screen and Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer.

    As for right now, both at work and at home, I use the Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman . It has neat "forward" and "back" buttons for web browsing that even work fine in Linux. But of course I've always been a bit of a trackball fan. Several case studies claim that trackballs may be slightly more ergonomic because of "hand fit" issues and "reduced arm movement." I wonder what everyone else thinks about the whole trackball vs. conventional issue?

    world's oldest currently operating college webcam

  19. LED traffic signals on Light Bulb Replacements · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I must say that Color Kinetics gear rocks. Their color-mixing LED arrays not only look cool, but are a neat toy to program for fancy light shows.

    Also on the LED front, the city where I currently reside (champaign, IL) recently passed funding and a proposal to replace all of the old incandescent traffic signals with LED arrays. Should cost a lot of money originally, but will save big on electricity bills in the long run. Here is an interesing EPA EnergyStar paper talking about the potential energy savings that cities can get from this technology -- 1 Million kWh and nearly $70,000 per year per 100 intersections! Also, LED based traffic signals are (IMHO) easier to see both at night and during the day.

    One complaint from a study is that the green traffic lights are actually too bright.

    worlds oldest currently operating college webcam
  20. Re:PocketPC on Handspring Delays Treo, Plans To Drop Organizer Line · · Score: 1

    I think what you just said leads to an interesting illustration. In order to actually do all these things (play videos, read MSR books, play MP3s, open word and excel files) You can either:

    Get a palmOS handheld, plus a rio600, plus a portable DVD player, plus additional software to edit word files (suuuure it works just as nice as actually having word), and you'd still have to hunt around for e-books in non MSR format, since of course anything you'd want to read is in another format (suuure it is).

    or...

    Get a windows CE / PocketPC handheld


    And as for your "Color? Don't need it, and if I did, it would still be cheaper on a Palm machine" argument -- on amazon.com a Palm color m505 is $399. A cassiopeia em500 is $279. A shiny new HP Jornada 548 is $299. So where's the price advantage???

  21. University Policy on Intellectual Property and a Censored Slash Site? · · Score: 1

    The university of Utah's "Information Resources Policy" is here:

    http://www.admin.utah.edu/ppmanual/1/1-15.html

    Since the site in question was hosted on a university server, or at least was using the university's network the first ammendment is not a valid argument here.

    The university owns the equimpent and resources and can give and take away what they want. From the policy:

    The University of Utah makes available Information Resources which may be used by University students, faculty, staff and others. These resources are intended to be used for educational purposes and the legitimate business of the University and in a manner consistent with the public trust. Appropriate use of the resources includes instruction, independent study, authorized research, independent research and the official work of the offices, departments, recognized student and campus organizations of the University.

    Access to computer systems and/or networks owned or operated by the University of Utah imposes responsibilities and obligations on its Users. Access is granted subject to University and Board of Regents policies, and local, state, and federal laws. Appropriate use is ethical, reflects academic honesty, and shows restraint in the utilization of shared resources. Appropriate use is consistent with intellectual property rights, ownership of data, system security mechanisms, and rights to privacy and to freedom from intimidation, harassment, and annoyance.

    This does seem a bit harsh though, and although I've read some of the google cache, I can't help but feel that perhaps we're missing part of the story, and the univeristy has it out for this guy for other reasons as well.....

  22. College on Software Tracks Kids At School · · Score: 1

    Back at school we thought it would be cool to set up a webcam in a lounge at our dorm. It's still there, at webcam.mit.edu. But it became instantly less cool when the parents found out about it and used it to keep an eye on their kids away at school. "Damn, hide those bottles -- my parents might be watching"

  23. March 14th? or April 31st? on Pi Day, VoiceXML And Albert Einstein · · Score: 1

    Oh wait.....there is no April 31st. I guess we'll have to avoid all of the fun "USian-centric" date format comments.
    But anyways, It's interesting that the post was actually posted at 3-14, 1:59. Just makes it that much more special, I suppose.
    And while were on the subject of "date numerology" I seem to remember some time back in 1987 where the time and date matched up in some kind of whacky sequence -- something like: October 9th 1987, at 6:54 pm.
    -ben
    http://www.mitwebcam.com

  24. Re:Price dumping? on The Future of Consumer Electronics · · Score: 2

    Applying this logic would make virtually all console/game manufacturers suspect of what you call "price dumping." Sega, Nintendo and Sony included.
    It's just the way the business works, for every console sold, they expect to sell potentially dozens of games.
    DC, PS, and PS2 are all being sold at a loss. As long as the platform catches on (which can be paritally assured by dumping lots of these consoles on people) they could give the consoles away and still expect wide profit margins on the games.

    http://www.mitwebcam.com

  25. Thank god this isn't the only option for me.... on DirecPC USB Satellite Modems Available for Linux · · Score: 3

    Ick!

    When I was first looking into broadband solutions for my apartment, the DirectPC solution was among those that interested me -- if nothing else just for the coolness factor of having a satellite link.
    But damn, the time-based charges and the lack of an uplink (except via ~30k on modem) makes me quite glad that I'm in an area with cable modem availability (via AT&T). Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe we just hear the horror stories, but I was hooked up within three weeks of placing my order and get excellent bandwidth -- both up and downstream. And I sure as hell didn't need to pay for any such fancy overpriced router/modem equipment like this -- my linksys broadband router does just fine for $150!

    http://www.mitwebcam.com