[Slashdot-mailer] Slashdot Daily Report (11/24/2000)
David Jacoby
jacoby@ecn.purdue.edu
Fri, 24 Nov 2000 11:00:02 -0500 (EST)
Slashdot Daily Report ( http://slashdot.org/ )
News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters.
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Nano Subs in your Blood
A articles article from the "damn-the-torpedoes" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/23/1357215
Noryungi writes "The BBC is reporting about
bacteria-propelled nano-subs that can be used to
deliver drugs in the bloodstream. Interesting part
is that (a) salmonella bacteria are ideal for this
and (b) that prototypes could be just one year
away. Nano-VaporWare?" Somehow, I think the
one-year estimate seems a bit optimistic.
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Spambot Poisoner
A articles article from the "have-a-great-thanksgiving" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/23/162232
halfelven writes: "Sugarplum, the anti-spambot
fighting machine, is out! Quoting from their
website: Sugarplum is an automated spam-poisoner.
Its purpose is to feed realistic and enticing, but
totally useless data to wandering spam-bots such
as EmailSiphon, Cherry Picker, etc. The idea is to
so contaminate spammers' databases as to require
that they be discarded, or at least that all data
retrieved from your site (including actual email
addresses) be removed." I've seen this sort of
thing before, but I just figured it's a fun thing
to chat about on a holiday. It would be cool to
put this on Slashdot some time: I bet I'm not the
only Slashdot reader whose email address has been
slurped.
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You Track Me, I Sue You
A articles article from the "suing-big-brother" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/23/165202
heytal writes: "Cnet has an article about
lawsuits filed against advertising companies for
allegedly tracking customers without their
permission." We're going to see a lot more of this
in the future.
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The Author of Ping is Reported Dead
A articles article from the "may-he-rest-in-peace" department
sent by CmdrTaco
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/23/1616201
Wedman writes: "This is in the Nanog Archive,
dated 2000-11-21: 'Mike Muuss, the author of the
PING program used on networks everywhere, died
last night in a traffic accident on US route 95 in
Maryland. He was an alumnus of Johns Hopkins."
Seems appropriate on Thanksgiving to thank a man
who created something that we all rely on every
day.
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Naughty Words in Domains
A yro article from the "faq" department
sent by jamie
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/23/1512232
benny_c writes "I decided to make an online
Christmas card for my friends, and the domain name
I was after has the 'F word' in it. While I am
articulate enough to speak without dropping that
bomb (most of the time), it is an integral part of
the running joke behind the site. I was somewhat
disturbed when I tried to search on nsi.com which
returned the message 'The domain name requested
was not accepted because it was inappropriate.'"
The story continues, read on. (Caution: you may
see four ascii characters in the range 97-122
which, when concatenated, offend you.)
register.com just said the site is unavailable, as
is any other domain which happens to have the
wrong string of four letters (even when surrounded
by giberish ... try searching for something like
ewqsdfuckdfd). I am sure that if I keep looking I
will find another registrar who does want my
business. I was wondering though whether anybody
else has had potential domain names censored for
something other than the 'F bomb', and what else
might be taboo amongst the registrars.' The secret
is to speak another language, or find a friend who
does, and register your domain using a registrar
based in a non-English-speaking country. I speak a
little German so I tried it, and while I didn't
actually spend the money to take the final steps,
I was told by three separate registrars that "Die
Domain fuck12065237.com ist noch frei!" If anyone
tries this, let us know how it works. If you find
any other taboo words, in English or any other
language, tell us the details! Here's the list of
accredited registrars, including many in
non-English-speaking countries.
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Successful Bionic Hand
A articles article from the "fake-toes-just-didn't-make-the-list" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/23/1720212
nerdygeek writes: "The BBC are reporting the
first successful, self-contained Bionic Hand.
They've made them small enough for children but
they plan to upgrade to adult sizes. It's
especially good for young kids since they can
adapt and learn to control it very quickly. I
thought these kind of things must have been about
for ages, but apparently not. I just wonder if
they make a Steve Austin style noise when they're
used ?" Five kids have the hands so far, about
which the article has this to say: "The unit is
operated by signals from the brain. The user sends
a signal to move a muscle in the forearm, and
electrodes detect this and pass the message on to
the motors."
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Tom's Hardware Retracts P4 Endorsement
A articles article from the "8088" department
sent by michael
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/24/0231258
Dice writes: "More benchmarks have come in and
Tom (of Tom's Hardware) is expressing doubt in
regards to the P4 in this article, "I have to
admit that I started off being a believer in
Pentium 4 and I still respect Pentium 4's future
potential. However, right now I am genuinely
disappointed. For the time being, I wouldn't let
any of my friends or family members buy a Pentium
4 system. It's simply not justifiable."" Intel is
definitely not impressing the hardware reviewers
with their new chip.
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Seeking Relief Down Under, Via Web
A articles article from the "toilet-paper-as-web-counter" department
sent by timothy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/24/0153226
HiyaPower writes: "Never let it be said that our
friends in Australia are behind the times.
According to this Wired article, an Australian
company, NGIS, will be putting the first
searchable database of the location of Australia's
13,000 public toilets on the Web. I mean there you
are, far from civilization with only your trusty
portable computer and you gotta go, well now you
can. Now if only they could do this for working
public phone booths ..." I wonder if there is a
public-toilet Web ring? If not, this deserves a
place of honor on it, as does the down-to-earth
besttoilets.com, though I would add to its New
York section the very nice restrooms at SIBL.
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The info is Rob Malda's
The code is mine
MOTD: -----------------------------------
I am no longer associated with Purdue, except for being a former
student, former employee, and active member of the Linux Users Group.
As such, I'll either be moving this service to another server or
killing it entirely. Your input is requested as to what you'd like.
Then again, when was the last time I changed the MOTD? And when was
last time it was read?