2000-Jul-10: SlashDot

SlashDot: http://slashdot.org/index.pl?light=1&noboxes=1&noicons=1
[^^][>>]
]

Hacking Insurance For Net Businesses
The Internet | Posted by emmett on Monday July 10, @12:07PM
from the lloyds-of-london dept.
Spasemunki writes: "ZDNet is carrying a story today on the new partnership between Lloyd's of London and Counterpane to offer 'hacking insurance' to businesses with big, expensive net presence. Is this a good-for-business acknowledgement that even the best security framework has flaws, or companies stepping back from protecting their customers in favor of covering themselves? According to the CTO of Counterpane, e-commerce businesses 'don't have to prevent hacking; they have to manage their risks.' Interesting perspective from a security wonk." Of course, I'd rather have cracker insurance.
( Read More... | 5 comments )

Apache: IIS Vs. Apache and Netcraft Results
Apache | Posted by Hemos on Monday July 10, @11:37AM
from the what-to-make-of-this? dept.
ant banks wrote to us with an article that takes issue with the Netcraft results regarding Apache's continued domination of web servers. This server looked at Fortune 500 companies and their deployment, with some differing results.
( Read More... | 96 of 117 comments | Apache )

Chris McKinstry Replies: Telecopes, AI And More
News | Posted by timothy on Monday July 10, @11:00AM
from the international-man-of-mystery dept.
A few weeks ago you asked the multi-talented Chris McKinstry questions, about the telescope projects he's involved with (ESO's Very Large Telescope -- VLT -- and the OverWhelmingly Large telescope -- OWL), about his project to synthesize AI by collecting a database of answers to questions common and obscure, and about the possibilities of discovering extraterrestrial life. Read what he has to say on everything from humans leaving the solar system to telescopes staying here on Earth.
( Read More... | 24667 bytes in body | 25 of 37 comments )

Fling:Anonymous Protocol Suite
Encryption | Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 10, @10:23AM
from the who-said-that? dept.
_endgame writes "Fling is a new suite of internet protocols that perform the function of DNS, TCP, and UDP in a manner that's both untraceable and untappable. Fling protects clients from servers, servers from clients, and both from an eavesdropper in-between. The result is that anyone can serve or retrieve any data, without fear of censure."
( Read More... | 105 of 137 comments )

Apple, Pixar And Disney To Merge?
News | Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 10, @08:56AM
from the sources-less-reliable-than-slashdot- dept.
Master Bait sent in the freakiest merger rumor: Apple + Pixar + Disney, with Steve Jobs as the chairman... you can read more at the ever untrustworthy Drudge Report, so take this whole thing with a grain of salt the size of a Ford Taurus.
( Read More... | 140 of 231 comments )

Ask Slashdot: Cross-Platform Internet Telephony?
The Internet | Posted by Cliff on Monday July 10, @08:21AM
from the now-this-would-be-cool dept.
the . Silicon . Dragon writes: "The company I work for is creating a product that we hope to launch on Linux. One of the key features of our product is Internet Telephony where a user can not only call other users on the Internet, but also make and receive calls from standard telephones. We've investigated a number of possible solutions, but they all have shortcomings. The most sour part of the situation is we may have to move our launch platform to Windows if we cannot find an acceptable Internet telephony solution. It'd be highly disagreeable with myself and several others in the company as well if we have to do this, but we can't drop a key product feature and we don't have the time or the resources to develop the technology in-house. Suggestions for Java (preferrably) or C/C++ solutions, and/or references to companies that provide said technology would be extremely helpful." The 'key feature' in question is interface customization. You can find out more in the article.
( Read More... | 413 bytes in body | 46 of 82 comments | Ask Slashdot )

Walk-By DNA Testing
Patents | Posted by Hemos on Monday July 10, @08:20AM
from the scary-stuff dept.
Scott_Marks writes "The New York Times today has an article on a newly-patented device which may make it practical to perform DNA testing (or drug testing, or explosives testing) on anyone walking underneath. This "portal" sucks up some of the millions of skin flakes each of us sheds each day and whips them into your choice of privacy-invading analysis equipment "for detecting the presence of molecules of interest"."
( Read More... | 96 of 114 comments )

Warwick Allison Of QT And KDE Fame
KDE | Posted by timothy on Monday July 10, @03:38AM
from the telecommuting dept.
Konqi the Dragon points to this BeOpen interview with Warrick Allison of Troll Tech's Qt Library, writing: "Warrwick is also a longtime KDE contributor with interesting things to say about GPL, QT Embedded, KDE, The Mythical Man Month, Distributed Development and scaling projects." If Warrick's words make you say "hmmm" (for whatever reason), you might also want to revisit earlier Slashdot stories about Embedded QT and Trolltech. [Updated noon GMT 10 July 2000 by timothy] Thanks to jdfox, who pointed out that I had perpetuated the misspelling of "Warwick" in the headline. Sorry, Warwick!

( Read More... | 59 of 116 comments )

Science: Cities Influence Their Own Weather

Science | Posted by jamie on Monday July 10, @01:45AM
from the low-pressure-tactics dept.
CalamityJones writes "In the 'Well, DUH!' department, this story from the AP shrieks 'Cities May Make Their Own Weather.' As if anyone with half a brain could possibly have missed this point." Not having a weather supercomputer to crunch the numbers, it wasn't quite that obvious to me, but then what do I know. Living in Michigan I'm used to the lake effect - if I lived east of some major asphalt, I guess I'd get the L.A. effect.

( Read More... | 87 of 120 comments | Science )

Intel Tests Show PC133 SDRAM Bests RDRAM

Intel | Posted by timothy on Sunday July 09, @10:54PM
from the obligatory-note-benchmarks-=/=-real-world dept.
SteveM wrote citing an Semiconductor Business News article which begins: "SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Here's a surprise. Benchmark test results from Intel Corp. show its new 815E chip set with PC133 SDRAMs beating the performance of its 820 chip set with Direct Rambus memories. Moreover, Intel has posted those unexpected test results on its Web site, not intending to show PC133 SDRAMs beating the Direct Rambus memory format, which is favored by the Santa Clara chip giant." The results actually show some fairly unspectacular differences, but those differences lean overwhelmingly in favor of the SDRAM. Surely someone will come up with a benchmark that always makes RDRAM look better.

( Read More... | 89 of 175 comments )

(End of snarf - copyright retained by original providers. Downloaded and converted by sitescooper; see http://sitescooper.cx )