The article said they used his computer to make the changes, so I assume they had physical access (not neccessarily, but it's a pretty good bet). The suspect probably had to give them the password, or it was saved and allowed them to get in automatically. Either way, I doubt it could be called "voluntarily":)
Why shouldn't the law be based on your country of residence? The man in question created the site in Italy, in violation of Italian laws, then uploaded it to a server in the US. Why should it matter where it's hosted? He's an Italian, and he has to follow their laws, not whichever country he chooses.
On the other hand, the police seemed to act more like 15-year-old hackers than police. They "...used a suspect's computer and password to reach across the ocean and replace the offending images with the insignia of the special police unit that tracked him down." That really doesn't seem very professional to me.
Unfortunately, Linux isn't any better. I've been using Redhat about a year now, off and on, and I still have problems finding files that I don't commonly use.
For instance, where is the sendmail config file? is it in a directory called sendmail? Nope, it's in/etc. Incidentally, what kind of name is/etc? Not terribly descriptive.
Try to restart the Apache service without simply rebooting the whole machine. What's that command again? Type "?" or "help" and you get a screen full of completely useless crap. Try looking around the www directory. Not there either. Incidentally, why is the www directory located in/var? And what does var mean anyway?
Recently I started X and the menu bar crashed. I couldn't figure out how to restart the menu, so I logged out of X and restarted it. HA! The menu bar is now permanently gone. This required 10 days of searching to fix. The best part is that I started X to try to find linuxconf, which I soon find has been removed and replaced with God knows how many other utilities. I search the howto's around the web, and can't find one reference to any of this. Looks like it's time to buy another 800 page book.
I'm not saying Microsoft is any better, but anyone who thinks Linux is easy to use is nuts. Most Linux newbies out there will probably agree that trying to get things done in Linux is often very frustrating. I'm sticking with it though, because it's generally more rewarding and fun to use than any Microsoft product. I just wish someone would remember there are new users out there and give us a less archaic driectory structure, centralized service/software/user management tools and functional command line "help" (among other things).
It's more likely that the first power supply couldn't handle the power draw from the Athlon, which would cause frequent lockups as you described. Although I'm just guessing, I'd say your second power supply was larger and could handle the power needs of your new system.
The likelyhood that the location of the vents on your power supply could cause problems is low. Most cheap power supplies have only the exhaust fan, which is probably not going to drastically affect your CPU temp based on the location of the interior vents on the power supply. Usually the fan has enough problems keeping the power supply cool, let alone your CPU.
Although this is slightly off-topic, it still involves a dirty PC. A long time ago I worked in a large retail chain as a PC tech. One day a guy brings in his Packard Bell with all kinds of problems. The case was a sick yellow color, and when I opened it, it was filled with yellowish-brown colored dust. After tapping it on the workbench to get some of the tar out of it, I noticed the front of the CDROM door was burned. It took a few seconds to realize that he had used his CDROM drive as an ashtray holder, and one of his cigarettes had buned down too far, fell off the ashtray, and landed on the edge of the CDROM drive.
That was easily the most disgusting PC I've ever seen (including one that was cockroach infested). Being a retail PC tech may be low paying and sometimes boring, but you get to see things you'll never find in a corporate environment.
The investors were tricked using a VCR and lots of coax. I don't know about you, but investing hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even millions) without the chance to at least play quake over the super-fast "network" seems a little ignorant. Anyone who invested in this scam obviously let their greed get the better of them, and demonstrated that the rich are not always rich because they are extraordinarily smart.
I was under the impression that the major source of genetic sequences came from the public Human Genome Project, not from Celera or Dr. Venter. Celera has admitted that they used the public data in addition to their own to assemble their version of the human genome. It's really unfortunate that one of the major endeavors in science has come to this nonsense. This guy is driven by personal gain, not by any sense of duty to the human race. Thousands of scientists worldwide worked on the Human Genome Project, but this one individual is trying to claim HE finished first, and has the most accurate data. I feel sorry for him. He knows no shame.
Actually, the article in question states that "Computers and CCTV cameras could be used to predict and prevent crime before it happens." (emphasis mine). That means they can't do it yet, contrary to the way the article was presented here.
I don't think we have to worry yet about a computer causing the erronious arrest of someone performing thoughtcrime or attempting a mugging: "'The idea is that the computer detects a potential event and shows it to the operator, who then decides what to do - so we are still a long way off from machines replacing humans,' Dr Velastin says." It's simply a tool to help the operators sort through the huge amount of visual data they are presented with.
BTW, I don't support the idea of a Big Brother monitoring the public. However, I'm equally unsupportive of the spread of FUD like this article write-up.
"I like that it's dishwasher safe. Drunk people can't be trusted to hand wash glass."
But they can be trusted to walk around the pub with the pint of beer in their hand? I hope these things aren't too expensive. The night's not complete until someone breaks a pint glass.
What's really not funny about today is how little a sense of humor most slashdot readers have. Maybe you didn't think the stories were funny, and sure, some of them weren't, but that doesn't mean you should yell and scream at Taco and the rest. If you're so worried about tech news that you can't go a whole day without it, you've got issues.
I just saw an article on CNET that said a mass email went out today to all Microsoft employees and MCSEs indicating that they *will* vote for Bill Gates, or their jobs/certs will be disposed of. That's a lot of votes; I think he'll win.
The rifle in at least one of the drawings is almost identical to the Heckler & Koch OICW that's meant to replace the aging M-16. It's nothing more than a bullpup design with an integrated grenade launcher. The technology behind it will be pretty cool if it makes it into production.
As far as I can tell, if Taco replaces the word "then" with "than" permanently, he'd be more right than wrong, and it would fix one of his most common grammar/spelling mistakes.
He may have spell checked, but he forgot that pesky grammar checker!
I love you more then I can describe within the limits of this tiny little story.
I believe "than" would be the appropriate word in this sentence. The worst part is, that grammar mistake will probably come back to haunt him when, 20 years from now, Kathleen Taco uses it against him in an argument:)
"There is nothing compelling about e-books. Nothing. As someone who has 1500+ books in my house..."
If nothing else, they're smaller. I bet that collection of 1500+ books is a real bastard to move. I did it recently with my own collection, and it wasn't fun.
There's a reason "books" have survived for over 500 years.
The first reason that came to my mind: there's never been an alternative. Even now, the hardware and distribution model for e-books still leaves something to be desired. Give it some time to mature.
"BTW, can anyone actually imagine reading Proust as an e-book? etc etc...
Yes. I like paper books as much as the next guy, but e-books are not that hard to read. I've spent a lot of time reading books one after the other on my Palm lately, and even that little thing is suffient for casual reading. A real e-book reader would be much better (especially for formal study), but I can't afford one at the moment.
As for those authors you mentioned, try Project Gutenberg for a copy of Melville's works. Faulkner's stuff hasn't made it yet, but there are many excellent authors in the list. Give it a shot before you lambast it.
Besides, when you find a place that will give you a $15 book like Melville for FREE, let me know... LOL!
This guy sells Nixie clocks as well as a really cool Oscilloscope clock. He's charging roughly $30 to assemble the kits he sells.
Re:10 baht coins look like 2 Euro (for machines)
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Most vending machines test various properties of a coin before it is accepted, which reduces the chances of accepting incorrect coins of similar size and weight:
"The key to making a vending
machine work is the mechanism that figures out the value of the money
you put in them. When you put coins into the machine, it runs a series
of tests to find out the coins' dimensions, weight, electric properties,
and magnetic properties. This enables it to figure out the denomination
of the coin, and whether it is legal tender. The machine rejects coins
that fail the tests."
I found this on a kid's site, but it does the best job of explaining the process quickly.
Actually, being from Europe, you don't really need to be in the same field as those women. You've got the sexy European accent, manerisms, clothing, habits, cigarettes, tea, sports teams and odd sayings to get you in the door with any US woman you want. One of my friends is from England. He's absolutely amazing with the opposite sex. My other friends and I make fun of the fact that his usual opening line (dripping with English accent) is "Hello. I'm not from here."
It seems a lot of people think "Working for the family business" counts as real work experience. Although they may have been paying you, and although you may have learned some valuable skills, you were still not immersed in a real workplace. I've found that one of the most important (and most overlooked) aspects of a job is the constant game of politics that must be played with coworkers and bosses. You can't get that kind of experience as a teenager working in the family business. If the original poster had figured out the politics game in his teens, he probably wouldn't be asking the Slashdot community how to same his job from an evil boss.
That said, I definitely feel for the guy, and hope he makes out alright against the stuff his boss may try to pull in the near future.
Best Buy is at least one major electronics retailer who has loads of these cards available at the registers. I bet I could find a few thousand dollars worth of stuff I would actually want to keep, not to mention sell on eBay, return, etc. for cash. It wouldn't take too many hardware purchases to cover the cost of that equipment, even if the hardware was sold at a rediculously low price. There are no margins when the merchandise is stolen to begin with.
You can buy AC (as opposed to DC, which is what your computer components use) powered fans from most fan manufacturers that will plug directly into a wall outlet. I would use 2-3 large, low RPM fans (120mm or larger) to avoid noise. You also may be able to get by with a small desk fan from Target or K-Mart that would produce the same or less noise. A cheap rheostat (just put it inline on the power cord) could be used to turn the fan down to an acceptable RPM/noise level if it's too loud. The problem is going to be getting the fan(s) to turn on when the heater does. I think the easiest solution would probably entail purchasing the cheapest home thermostat you can find (either on Ebay or try Lowes, Home Depot, etc) to regulate the fan operation. There really aren't very many small temperature sensor/fan regulators out there that would be good for AC operation. You could just find a quiet enough fan solution and leave it turned on continuously as well, as it should be almost silent anyway (it won't use enough power to really matter as far as your power bill is concerned).
The only other option I can think of would be to use a small and quiet computer power supply to drive a fan or two along with a fan regulator. It would be easiest to find an older power supply with a manual switch on it, as modern power supplies would require a hack to switch it on through the ATX connector. If you go this route, replace the old, loud power supply fan with a newer, smaller one. You may want to remove the actual power supply from its case and put it in a larger box (shoe box, wooden box, etc) that can accomidate a larger, lower RPM fan that will cool while producing little noise. The wattage rating is moot, as you'll only be using around 10 watts at the most if you're running 2-3 fans from it.
The only AC fan I have experience with is Sunon (the AC fans are on the right-hand column).
Slashdot Mirror
The article said they used his computer to make the changes, so I assume they had physical access (not neccessarily, but it's a pretty good bet). The suspect probably had to give them the password, or it was saved and allowed them to get in automatically. Either way, I doubt it could be called "voluntarily" :)
On the other hand, the police seemed to act more like 15-year-old hackers than police. They "...used a suspect's computer and password to reach across the ocean and replace the offending images with the insignia of the special police unit that tracked him down." That really doesn't seem very professional to me.
For instance, where is the sendmail config file? is it in a directory called sendmail? Nope, it's in /etc. Incidentally, what kind of name is /etc? Not terribly descriptive.
Try to restart the Apache service without simply rebooting the whole machine. What's that command again? Type "?" or "help" and you get a screen full of completely useless crap. Try looking around the www directory. Not there either. Incidentally, why is the www directory located in /var? And what does var mean anyway?
Recently I started X and the menu bar crashed. I couldn't figure out how to restart the menu, so I logged out of X and restarted it. HA! The menu bar is now permanently gone. This required 10 days of searching to fix. The best part is that I started X to try to find linuxconf, which I soon find has been removed and replaced with God knows how many other utilities. I search the howto's around the web, and can't find one reference to any of this. Looks like it's time to buy another 800 page book.
I'm not saying Microsoft is any better, but anyone who thinks Linux is easy to use is nuts. Most Linux newbies out there will probably agree that trying to get things done in Linux is often very frustrating. I'm sticking with it though, because it's generally more rewarding and fun to use than any Microsoft product. I just wish someone would remember there are new users out there and give us a less archaic driectory structure, centralized service/software/user management tools and functional command line "help" (among other things).
The likelyhood that the location of the vents on your power supply could cause problems is low. Most cheap power supplies have only the exhaust fan, which is probably not going to drastically affect your CPU temp based on the location of the interior vents on the power supply. Usually the fan has enough problems keeping the power supply cool, let alone your CPU.
That was easily the most disgusting PC I've ever seen (including one that was cockroach infested). Being a retail PC tech may be low paying and sometimes boring, but you get to see things you'll never find in a corporate environment.
The investors were tricked using a VCR and lots of coax. I don't know about you, but investing hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even millions) without the chance to at least play quake over the super-fast "network" seems a little ignorant. Anyone who invested in this scam obviously let their greed get the better of them, and demonstrated that the rich are not always rich because they are extraordinarily smart.
I was under the impression that the major source of genetic sequences came from the public Human Genome Project, not from Celera or Dr. Venter. Celera has admitted that they used the public data in addition to their own to assemble their version of the human genome. It's really unfortunate that one of the major endeavors in science has come to this nonsense. This guy is driven by personal gain, not by any sense of duty to the human race. Thousands of scientists worldwide worked on the Human Genome Project, but this one individual is trying to claim HE finished first, and has the most accurate data. I feel sorry for him. He knows no shame.
I don't think we have to worry yet about a computer causing the erronious arrest of someone performing thoughtcrime or attempting a mugging: "'The idea is that the computer detects a potential event and shows it to the operator, who then decides what to do - so we are still a long way off from machines replacing humans,' Dr Velastin says." It's simply a tool to help the operators sort through the huge amount of visual data they are presented with.
BTW, I don't support the idea of a Big Brother monitoring the public. However, I'm equally unsupportive of the spread of FUD like this article write-up.
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has an excellent page dedicated to the Intel QX3, including a cool QX3 digital image photo gallery. Definitely worth a look if you're interested in what these little toys can do.
If this statement is true, you probably aren't reading it on Slashdot.
WOOHOO!!! Now we can end our dependency on that pesky Oxygen!
But they can be trusted to walk around the pub with the pint of beer in their hand? I hope these things aren't too expensive. The night's not complete until someone breaks a pint glass.
What's really not funny about today is how little a sense of humor most slashdot readers have. Maybe you didn't think the stories were funny, and sure, some of them weren't, but that doesn't mean you should yell and scream at Taco and the rest. If you're so worried about tech news that you can't go a whole day without it, you've got issues.
The story came straight from the Register, so it must be true!
I just saw an article on CNET that said a mass email went out today to all Microsoft employees and MCSEs indicating that they *will* vote for Bill Gates, or their jobs/certs will be disposed of. That's a lot of votes; I think he'll win.
The rifle in at least one of the drawings is almost identical to the Heckler & Koch OICW that's meant to replace the aging M-16. It's nothing more than a bullpup design with an integrated grenade launcher. The technology behind it will be pretty cool if it makes it into production.
As far as I can tell, if Taco replaces the word "then" with "than" permanently, he'd be more right than wrong, and it would fix one of his most common grammar/spelling mistakes.
I love you more then I can describe within the limits of this tiny little story.
I believe "than" would be the appropriate word in this sentence. The worst part is, that grammar mistake will probably come back to haunt him when, 20 years from now, Kathleen Taco uses it against him in an argument :)
If nothing else, they're smaller. I bet that collection of 1500+ books is a real bastard to move. I did it recently with my own collection, and it wasn't fun.
There's a reason "books" have survived for over 500 years.
The first reason that came to my mind: there's never been an alternative. Even now, the hardware and distribution model for e-books still leaves something to be desired. Give it some time to mature.
"BTW, can anyone actually imagine reading Proust as an e-book? etc etc...
Yes. I like paper books as much as the next guy, but e-books are not that hard to read. I've spent a lot of time reading books one after the other on my Palm lately, and even that little thing is suffient for casual reading. A real e-book reader would be much better (especially for formal study), but I can't afford one at the moment.
As for those authors you mentioned, try Project Gutenberg for a copy of Melville's works. Faulkner's stuff hasn't made it yet, but there are many excellent authors in the list. Give it a shot before you lambast it.
Besides, when you find a place that will give you a $15 book like Melville for FREE, let me know... LOL!
This guy sells Nixie clocks as well as a really cool Oscilloscope clock. He's charging roughly $30 to assemble the kits he sells.
"The key to making a vending machine work is the mechanism that figures out the value of the money you put in them. When you put coins into the machine, it runs a series of tests to find out the coins' dimensions, weight, electric properties, and magnetic properties. This enables it to figure out the denomination of the coin, and whether it is legal tender. The machine rejects coins that fail the tests."
I found this on a kid's site, but it does the best job of explaining the process quickly.
Actually, being from Europe, you don't really need to be in the same field as those women. You've got the sexy European accent, manerisms, clothing, habits, cigarettes, tea, sports teams and odd sayings to get you in the door with any US woman you want. One of my friends is from England. He's absolutely amazing with the opposite sex. My other friends and I make fun of the fact that his usual opening line (dripping with English accent) is "Hello. I'm not from here."
That said, I definitely feel for the guy, and hope he makes out alright against the stuff his boss may try to pull in the near future.
Best Buy is at least one major electronics retailer who has loads of these cards available at the registers. I bet I could find a few thousand dollars worth of stuff I would actually want to keep, not to mention sell on eBay, return, etc. for cash. It wouldn't take too many hardware purchases to cover the cost of that equipment, even if the hardware was sold at a rediculously low price. There are no margins when the merchandise is stolen to begin with.
The only other option I can think of would be to use a small and quiet computer power supply to drive a fan or two along with a fan regulator. It would be easiest to find an older power supply with a manual switch on it, as modern power supplies would require a hack to switch it on through the ATX connector. If you go this route, replace the old, loud power supply fan with a newer, smaller one. You may want to remove the actual power supply from its case and put it in a larger box (shoe box, wooden box, etc) that can accomidate a larger, lower RPM fan that will cool while producing little noise. The wattage rating is moot, as you'll only be using around 10 watts at the most if you're running 2-3 fans from it.
The only AC fan I have experience with is Sunon (the AC fans are on the right-hand column).
Hope some of this helps...
e