Slashback: Dataplay, XviD, PPC

Slashback's updates tonight (read on below) have more on Dataplay, background on the PowerPC that Apple and IBM have been brewing, the return (triumphant?) of XviD, Neal Stephenson's next opus, and more.

Pins and needles, pawns and bishops. s20451 writes "It looked grim earlier in the week, but following a fifth game meltdown by Kramnik and a brilliant game 6 by Fritz, the computer has tied the match 3-3. Betting on the computer in game 6 would have brought you a 7-1 return! I'll be on the phone to Vegas."

The new, new, new economy has room for camels. SwiftOne writes "According to their website, The Perl Journal has gotten enough subscriptions to begin online release (the planning of which was previously covered, along with the concerns about not reaching their goal. The first (next) issue is expected in early November."

Maybe it was the 15th-mover disadvantage. melt writes "Dataplay, the Boulder-based manufacturer of quarter-sized recordable discs and drives, finally called it quits on Friday, October 11, 2002. The remaining 120 employees (who have been on furlough for the past few weeks) have been let go and the company has closed shop. They are looking for a buyer for the remaining pieces. Full story at the Rocky Mtn News web site."

Zoom in until you see little canyons ... Twirlip of the Mists writes "IBM's chief scientist for their iSeries family of servers (a.k.a. the AS/400 family) has an article on iseriesnetwork.com describing the somewhat confusing history of the POWER4 microprocessor. In light of recent speculation about a possible relationship between IBM and Apple, this article is of particular interest. It clears up-- at least partially-- some of the complex, incestuous relationships between the PowerPC architecture, the PowerPC processor family, and the POWER4 processor. As an added bonus, there's some talk about the upcoming POWER5 and POWER6 processors near the end. The key phrase (and disclaimer): 'expected to appear in 2004.'"

Shame on Sigma. Gruturo writes "After almost 3 months the XviD project and website have reopened, though Sigma Designs has not complied yet with all their requests (they still carry their copyright on many modified sources). In these last 2 1/2 months the project still went underway, although unofficially:
B-frames are practically ready, motion estimation algorithms have been improved, work started for Qpel implementation."

Please stop teasing us. If you liked Cryptonomicon, you've probably been impatiently watching the announcements of when the next Stephenson book would appear. wka writes "Previous false starts notwithstanding, Amazon says Neal Stephenson's new novel Quicksilver will be published in January."

And next week, building box-girder bridges. scubacuda writes "Lawmeme has released Part III to their Law School in a Nutshell series (Part I and Part II were previously featured on /.)"

Comments

FP FOR THE GOAT!

[Anonymous Coward]

HEHEHEHEHE... GOAT!

h to the izzo

[Anonymous Coward]

g to the oatse
c to the izzex
fo shizzle my nizzle that Jared guy stole my bike. I would've chased him down, but now that he is thin, he can run faster than my flabby ass!

[Trolling Stones] homage

[Anonymous Coward]

It is good to see that I am so important that people are using my non-patented jay-z/goatse saying, although the jared line is off topic without a subway mention

g to the oatse
c to the izzex
fo shizzle my nizzle the real Trolling Stones

The word is "depracated"

[Anonymous Coward]

The root is "cate". So words that are based on it are "placate", "indicate", and "depracate".

The Java experts don't agree with you

[Anonymous Coward]

depr*a*cate

You ought to keep your mouth shut, you run the risk of sticking your foot in it.

Re:The Java experts don't agree with you

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Are you passingly familiar with the Roman alphabet, and how the various letters-- 26 of 'em, you know-- correspond to the sounds of the English language? When you say "dep-ruh-kate," can you picture it in letters? Excellent! You're well on your way to spelling like a pro.

Point your web browser at dict.org, and type the word as you think it should be spelled in the little box. Go ahead, type "depracate." The online dictionary is actually smarter than you are, because it can recognize when you're misspelling a word, and suggest a correct spelling. It's polite, too. It even says, "Perhaps you meant 'deprecate,'" instead of, "It's 'deprecate' you fucking illiterate idiot. Get the fuck off our web site you cocksucker." See how nice dict.org is?

There you go. Now you can look up words without knowing how to spell them. Now get out there in that big, wide world and start spelling things!

The horrible life of Stephen King !!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been reading Slashdot over the past couple of weeks and have put together a list of all of the horrible things that have happened to Stephen King! That one man should be put through so much pain and suffering is truly incomprehensible to me. It is truly awful! In the past two weeks, he has been:

• Mauled by a drunken bear
  
• Electrocuted by sticking fork in toaster
  
• Shot by armed prowler trying to steal lawn gnomes
  
• Eaten by rabid alligator, had heart attack
  
• Electrocuted by overzealous dog in shower
  
• Suffocated after being trapped in freezer
  
• Accidentally drank hydrochloric acid in refrigerator
  
• Overdosed on Freon in cheap motel
  
• Burned to death in cigarette-started house fire
  
• Run over by son with lawn tractor
  
• Parachute failed to open, crashed into barn
  
• Trampled by herd of cows
  
• Caught in the gears of a combine
  
• Killed by faulty Microsoft IV unit in Maine hospital
  
• Eaten by bloodthirsty balloon-wielding clown
  

Now that's an American icon! I'm sure that he will be missed (many times over) by the Slashdot community - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his impact on popular culture.

Re:The horrible life of Stephen King !!

[Stephen King]

Now that's an American icon!

Thanks!

I'm sure that he will be missed

I'm not dead yet.