Slashdot Mirror
Newsbooster Creates P2P Newsbrowser
scubacuda writes "Newsbooster, the Danish company that got busted for deep-linking to newspaper stories, has created a new P2P version of its service to get around European law. Newsbooster's "Newsbrowser" software works like Kazaa - users download the software and it networks their computers together, instead of serving up files from a single server."
As long as I can browse newsgroups faster than SBC Pacbell's newsgroup server I'm happy. 12k a second on DSL just ins't impressive.
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
Can I use it?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Pravda deep-links into YOU!!!
see ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/5. 0-RELEASE/RELNOTES.HTM for details...
Take action to keep pipes from freezing
By the New England Water Works Association, 1/16/2003
he New England Water Works Association, the region's largest organization of water works professionals, offers these tips for preventing frozen water pipes - or thawing them if this warning is too late.
''Homeowners can take some simple precautions to prevent the inconvenience and expense of frozen water pipes,'' said Raymond J. Raposa, executive director of the association.
Turn off outside faucets, if you haven't already. Disconnect the hose. Turn off the water from inside your house, then drain the pipe. Leave the outside valve open slightly, so any water left in the pipe can flow out, and not freeze in the line.
Patch any cracks and holes in doors, windows, and walls near pipes. When temperatures drop to near zero, a high wind blowing through a small opening can freeze a nearby pipe. When patching these openings, do not block the air vents that your furnace needs for proper combustion.
Make sure heat can circulate around pipes. Pipes inside or outside walls, or in an enclosed area, can freeze, especially when the wind-chill factor is well below zero, if heat is not circulating through these areas.
Insulate pipes and faucets in unheated areas. Wrap pipes with pipe-insulating material, available at hardware and plumbing supply stores, or use insulation. Be sure to protect all pipes in unheated areas, such as crawl spaces and garages.
Avoid leaving your water running overnight. This practice should not be your first option. Not only does it not necessarily prevent pipes from freezing, it wastes water and increases your water bill.
Check with your local utility about the necessity of running water overnight under special circumstances.
Check insulation around pipes regularly. Older-model furnaces generated sufficient heat to warm basements in cold weather. Today's energy-efficient heaters, however, limit wasted heat. Homeowners with wood stoves or other heat sources often turn down the furnace, which could lower temperatures in the basement.
Never shut off your heat completely. If you are planning to leave your home for an extended period and you don't drain the pipes, lower the thermostat, but do not shut it off. The lack of heat can freeze the pipes in walls and the basement. If freezing occurs, the pipes will burst. When the house warms up, the thawing water will cause flooding and possibly damage your house.
If, despite these precautions, your pipes do freeze, it is best to call a licensed plumber, said Raposa. ''Make sure you keep the name and telephone number of your plumber handy throughout the winter.''
If you do locate the frozen section of pipe and try to thaw it yourself, be sure to take the following precautions to protect yourself and your property:
Do not use a torch with an open flame. You risk setting the entire house on fire. In addition, overheating one area can cause the pipe to burst.
Place a warm towel or rag around the pipe.
Make sure you know the location of your master water shut-off valve. The frozen pipe may be broken already and, when the water is thawed, it will leak. In this case, you will need to shut off the water in your house until the leaky pipe is fixed.
For more information, contact your local water department or the New England Water Works Association, 508-893-7979.
>I like Windows XP, And I don't like Linux. You may hate me, but at least I know from experience what I like
Care to enlighten us with a rundown of pros and cons between windows XP and Linux, or maybe a even a short paragraph on how you came to this conclusion?
It certainly should be something you at least justify/qualify in your journal, IMHO. Not that MHO is that important an an AC, but you get the picture.
I think it would be quite illuminating.
On
Indian Institute of Technology is an incredible institution, says Bill Gates
A man is known by the company he keeps, goes the adage.
And for one wonderful evening Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp., hung out with some of India's best and brightest -- the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) alumni in California
In his usually understated way, Bill Gates delivered the keynote speech at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of IIT at the Flint Center, Cupertino, CA.
Indian Institute of Technology alumni from all over the world flocked by the hundreds to attend the two-day event.
Gates looked like a bashful student when the audience gave him a standing ovation before he started his speech.
"Great honour for me, after all I am not 50 years, and I never graduated from college - yet. I don't know if I will be able to change it -- am busy right now."
The Microsoft chief said that he does not usually speak at college events, but made an exception because of the 'great things IIT folks have done.'
He mentioned that he has two IIT alumni at the vice-president level in his company. "We have graduates from different IITs. Before today I didn't understand that there was competition between the different IITs," said Gates.
Describing IIT as a 'world class institute,' 'incredible institution,' and 'a unique institution,' Gates said that the impact of IIT has been worldwide.
He said that IIT and Microsoft have lot in common and aspire for the same things -- including optimism about the future, and a belief in fundamental research.
"The computer industry has benefited greatly from the tradition of the IITs," Gates said.
Before Gates's speech there was a brief spotlight on IIT, with messages from John Chamber of Cisco and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
Chambers recognised the IIT system as one of the best in the world and said, "I want to thank you for Cisco employers that is approaching 1000," Bezos said.
"IIT is a world treasure," he said and recognised the contribution that engineers from IIT have made to his company. "IIT thank you, bless you."
Rajat Gupta, managing director of McKinsey, and IIT Delhi alumnus, started the program with an ancient inaugural invocation -- a Sanskrit shloka from the Upanishads.
"There is no other educational institution that has accomplished so much in its first 50 years...and developed a brand image consistent with the achievements," said Gupta.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates said that Microsoft supports and sponsors research at IIT. IIT is one of the two institutions that Microsoft funds research. The other institution is Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
Gates then spoke on his pet subject -- digital lifestyle. He dubbed this decade as the digital decade one that will 'transform our lifestyle.'
He cautioned that digital transforming requires patience, and that infrastructure needs to be in place before changes take place to a digital lifestyle.
Digital infrastructure should be available as reliably as water or electricity, he said. Web services will be the standardised protocol that will help devices talk to each other, said Gates.
"Today's systems were not designed bottom-up. and deep research is required," he said. There is an opportunity for the IITs to contribute in this research, he added.
One of the themes that Gates touched upon was giving back to the community and he spoke about the work the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation is doing in India.
Gates summed up his speech on an optimistic note.
"Where do we go from here? The theme is 'working together.' US working with India, commercial organisations working with IIT, and Microsoft working with IIT."
In the question and answer session Gupta asked Gates questions that were sent by the audience via e-mail.
Gates was asked what advise he would give to entrepreneurs of struggling start-ups, to which he replied that a start-up has to do something unique with a barrier to entry and keep their costs low.
He also said that it was not necessary to have a big sales and marketing team. "We never ran an ad in the early days," he said.
To a question on what is the future of the education institutions, he answered: "If there is one thing that IIT has done -- it is the merit-based approach and I won't tamper with it."
What challenges does India face? Gates said that overall he was optimistic about India's future. He struck a cautionary note and said that when you compare India and China, India is ahead of China in IT services, but in manufacturing China was in a league of its own, and nobody is paying attention to it.
"I was told not to compare the two countries," acknowledged Gates as an aside.
The last question was, "What really motivates you now? What are your passions?" Gates replied, "I am still dreaming of a PC that works very well."
while reading the news listen to some hard
9
rap skate russian style
Turn it up
www.illmitch.com
http://wolf.cyberstreet.net/index.php?ref=32736
I'm responding to comments on my Sig line?
However, I'm more than willing to respond, being a chatty bastard and all.
Well, I came to the decision because it's about what I like, and not about what is "better." It's just an opinion.
I run Windows XP at home. I've run SuSE, Mandrake, RedHat, Corel, and Debian before, and there are things that I really like about Linux. The availability of applications and extensions is nice, and things like GLTron had me in there quite a bit.
What I use my computer for the most is Word Processing, Digital Art, and Playing Games. My program of choice for digital art is Bryce 5 from Corel. I was waiting, when they had a Linux Distro, for a port, but they dropped linux and a port never came. There is no comparable application in Linux for it, for either ease of use or interaction. Blender is great, if you've got a lifetime to devote to using it, but I do not. I've been using Bryce for years, and have not found a program I like more than it.
I also prefer Photoshop over Gimp, but that is mostly personal preference as well. I don't run a server, I don't have any use for distributed security models, and I don't do anything that would require any of the other features of Linux. As a programmer, I have never truly meshed with the Open Source Model, though I do see the benefit of it. That mostly comes from the almost religious air that it gets, and that nothing about software makes it so it should be free. If some people decide to do that, more power to them. I've shared code before, and that's okay.
I also play games, and WineX is not the answer. Porting is all well and good, when it works, and like it or not, DirectX is a nice API. OpenGL was great, but the lack of industry support has crippled it, and the 2.0 itteration of the technology has not yet convinced me that it is the better model. It was better, until about DX7. If Microsoft made the smart move, and opened the source of that completely so it could be ported to linux, along with Media Player, I would be very close to switching.
The word processing thing is also a big deal, because I do a lot of creative writing. I have been using word forever, and have never liked what StarOffice or OpenOffice have offered. Clippy is annoying, but a lot of other features in MS Office are useful. Outlook is my mail program of choice, and I have used others. What I would like from linux is the Window Manager format, since the ability to customize an interface based on need without cracking the shell is nice.
The argument of Linux being more stable than Windows is dependant entirely on the conditions the two systems operating under. Most people like to think it's the fault of the OS when it's in fact crappy hardware, or crappy software. Windows didn't break, KaZaA/AOL/PC Friendly/Norton etc. did. Sure, things like Me sucked, but I never ran it. I ran 98 for a year-and-a-half without lockup or crash issues. I was not running a server, so uptime was not an issue. I switched to 2000 when I upgraded my system, and had lockup issues. It was an error with the KT133 chipset on my Athlon board, and never a problem with the OS. Incedently, Windows delt with it better than Linux, which would lock whenever the 3D modes of the video card were accessed. It helped me diagnose the problem, since it was something on the AGPSet, but beyond that, Linux wasn't much use to me.
Since then, I could count on one hand the number of times I've had an error in XP that wasn't caused by me. Linux and I had issues with my Radeon and support for OpenGL, which were later fixed, but was still shaky in most apps. I could run similar things in Windows, and didn't have to worry about it.
And that's what it comes down to. I've tried Linux, in depth, so it's not a matter of me being an uneducated Windows user. I just happen to know what I like, and stick with it. Will I try Linux again? Most likely. But for now, I like XP more.