Well, apparently it isn't so much if Novell wants to share the documentation with Microsoft, they apparently have to share it with them (regardless of whether or not they decide to share it with the rest of the open source community).
A copy of Novell's technical collaboration agreement with Microsoft attached to the filing shows that Novell must provide Microsoft with certain documentation related to running SUSE Linux virtually -- on an exclusive basis if necessary. "If any such Novell Management Information is not publicly available, it is provided for Microsoft's internal reference use only," the agreement states.
Under the deal, Novell must provide to Microsoft documentation relating to the tools used to manage Novell's SUSE Linux operating system on virtual servers "whether or not Novell Management Interface Information is available publicly in the open source community," the document states. Seems more like Novell got the short end of the stick on that one considering Microsoft has complete access to all documentation relating to SUSE's virtual servers and the rest of the open source community can get the scraps of whatever Novell decides to give them.
I actually just googled "first they came" cause I didn't remember the exact wording and chose one of Niemoller's versions, but I guess there are actually a bunch of different variations on that poem. The translation of the original german poem (according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...) says the original order is communists, social democrats, trade unionists, me (no jews mentioned).
Although other versions mentioned are from the New England Holocaust Memorial -> communists, jews, trade unionists, catholics, me. A version in Time Magazine says Communists, Jews, Catholics, me. Apparently there have been a number of versions/ translations of this poem since it was originally made, but it seems like you're right since most of the versions seem to mention communists before jews (and some of them don't even mention jews).
Regardless of which version is used, I was just supporting the idea that often times, most people aren't motivated to take action until it's too late.
Probably worth mentioning that Michael Moore is making a sequel called Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2. It's unfortunate that he's the one making it though because everybody knows that his films are completely biased and one-sided. Fahrenheit 9/11 was more of an anti-bush propaganda film than a documentary, and that's exactly why his sequel is going to be discredited before it's even released, regardless of whether or not its actually good.
What needs to happen is that somebody reputable, well-known, and with the actual power to influence events has to come out and start actively fighting for restoring civil liberties. An Inconvenient Truth was a large success because Al Gore is known to have strong feelings on the environment and he is in a position to bring about change, especially with the help of a growing populace who support his viewpoint and believe global warming is an important issue. With Gore's success, his film has convinced a lot of people about the importance of combating global warming today or atleast supporting his viewpoint should the issue be raised when they can use their vote to help (political candidates nowadays can't just totally ignore the issue when asked about it). But the film did well and the issue is being discussed now largely because Gore made it and can use his connections to increase awareness and help institute change over time (if Moore made the film it would be immediately demonized and forgotten).
"it's not that bad - most of those laws will never negatively affect my life" I think that's the problem. People will never wake up to an issue or care to do anything about it until they are directly influenced by it. We all go about our daily lives despite the rampant deterioration of civil liberties, but until you get thrown into gitmo (at which point its probably too late anyways), you (or atleast most people) probably aren't going to take any active steps to make the situation better.
I think that poem you hear quoted more often nowadays by the German anti-nazi activist Niemöller seems appropriate:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
It's more than just efficiency, if solar energy is to be a viable energy source, you need the ability to mass-produce cheap, small, cost-efficient solar panels that have a high conversion ratio for sunlight->electricity. Just to put it in somewhat of a comparative perspective, these are the production costs and operational efficiency for different forms of energy (though they are from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) website, so take it with a grain of salt).
Production Costs:
In 2005, nuclear power had the lowest production cost of the major sources of electricity, with production cost of 1.72 cents/kWh. Coal had a cost of 2.21 cents/kWh, natural gas 7.51 cents/kWh, and petroleum 8.09 cents/kWh. Hydro had a production cost of 0.83 cents/kWh, wind 0.04 cents/kWh and solar 2.17 cents/kWh. Operational Efficiency:
Nuclear plants typically have the highest capacity factor of any generating source with capacity factors of about 90 percent. Fossil fueled plants have lower capacity factors; coal typically has around a 70 percent capacity factor, natural gas plants of different types can vary from 14 percent to 50 percent capacity factors. Many renewables have low capacity factors. Wind and solar generation typically average around 15 to 30 percent capacity factors. Given that they are from NEI's website, it's probably safe to assume it's skewed in their favor a bit, but you can get an overall idea about how much work still needs to be done with solar power. It's certainly a good breakthrough and more progress is always a good sign that the fate of the world may not be decided by who has the most oil, but solar energy still has an uphill battle to become cost effective.
The research that led to the discovery of the high efficiency concentrator solar cell was funded partly by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and will play a significant role in the government's Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional electricity generation by 2015.
I can see it now... A future where mankind lives in a free and secure society where we all live together in bliss running our favorite open-source customized version of the iGOOGLE operating system that checks our mail, orders our groceries, and feeds the cat without any human interaction.
I'm not really sure at this stage it's about having virtual 3d-acceletaion == native 3d-acceleration. In the same way that Linux users can use Wine or Cedega to at least play windows games on a Linux OS, Parallels 3.0 will at least allow Mac users play windows games on their OS X.
Up to now, Parallels hasn't supported 3D graphics acceleration, which has made it unsuitable for gaming. New in this release is 3D support for OpenGL and DirectX graphics software, which enables users to run Windows games from inside Parallels without having to reboot. If you want to play them in all their fully supported windows glory, you can always dual-boot, but if Parallels can provide a quality platform to play windows games on, then all the better. And with time and future releases, support for 3d gfx acceleration will only get better, hopefully reducing the insane hardware requirements that are likely needed to run more modern games. At the very least, it's the first step in the right direction so that Mac users can at least play windows games within OS X.
Yeah, this seems like a bit of an exaggeration to somehow group job cuts from 3 companies and claim that it's a bad time to be working in the tech sector.
1. We know that most of the Circuit City cuts are from management/unprofitable locations - the cuts (and the company tbh) seems like it has more to do with sales/retail sector than it does with the actual tech sector, not to mention the fact that they are opening 165 new stores in areas they hope will be more profitable.
2. We don't really know what types of jobs are being cut at Motorola, but they're being done in response to primarily increased competition from Nokia and lagging sales.
We are taking steps to ensure that, as these cost reductions are implemented, there will be no adverse impact on customer service and support, product quality and those research and development programs that are expected to contribute meaningfully to Motorola's revenues, profits and cash flow in 2008 and beyond
Seems like the tech jobs working on R&D/customer support are actually pretty safe at the moment.
3. Dell already said that the "scale of the cutbacks would vary across each region depending on current trading, and general business and legal considerations", so it's known that the job cuts will take place worldwide. They also said
"In response, it has overhauled its management team and focused on improving technical support for customers and moving into fast-growing markets like China and Brazil" Seems like they will be laying off a lot of management and probably a lot of the more useless tech support folks abroad in favor or more experienced, and more knowledgeable tech/customer support. Either way, it's a far stretch to say that it's a bad time to be working in the tech sector just because three very loosely affiliated companies announce layoffs.
I don't understand why Microsoft, Eolas, and the USPTO need to waste so much time and money defending a patent on a piece of crap like ActiveX. I think they're all conspiring together to destroy the interwebs.
It's not even a question that WoW wins. I didn't RTFA, but I don't know why it's on/. now considering this game came out back in April.
Given that WoW has been out for 2+ years now, there are a large number of both casual and "hard-core" gamers that are getting tired with the game and looking for something new. The present MMORPG competition is starting to get better, but there haven't been any alternatives to WoW that have the power to convert a large number of WoW players to a completely different game.
With the brand name power of LOTR, you would think this would be able to strongly compete, but I think WoW just has too large of a player base and too much power in the MMORPG genre to really need to deal with losing a LARGE number of players. I mean, there are a ton of WoW players who are becoming weary after 2 years and looking for something new and might move on to a different game, but LOTR Online isn't going to be the WoW killer.
With more and more MMORPG games coming into the market, and the quality of these games getting better and better, it's just a matter of time until a game comes along that will have enough appeal to give WoW some trouble. Chances are players will start leaving slowly for other games (most likely after a major patch release), rejoining the real world, etc, but Blizzard's time will come soon enough and chances are they will be their own downfall.
"Live-plus-three" is basically an agreement between broadcasters and advertisers to agree to count viewers who watch the show within a 72 hour time period. It's pretty recent and it's being used nowadays due to the increasing number of viewers who watch shows via TiVO, DVR (I forget the exact number, but it's between 15-20% of American households now own a DVR), iPOD downloads, web broadcasts, etc.
Generally, adverstisers prefer to use "live" to determine rates (some commercials like movie releases can have less of an impact after time passes), broadcasters prefer "live-plus-seven", so I think "live-plus-three" became the compromise to include those people who do watch the show, but just aren't able to watch it live.
I'm not in that industry, but it seems like a pretty decent compromise (and I believe it's quickly becoming the new standard when negotiating ad rates) given the availability of recording devices and the significant amount of delayed viewing that occurs.
I think I've just become more of a skeptic lately, and I'm certainly hoping that there is a definitive end, but the fact that the show is confirmed to end doesn't necessarily mean that it will have that final conclusion we're all waiting for. Something that's been happening more often lately, is rather than completely killing off a series, they leave the end a bit open for a movie to end it all.
Given that when Battlestar was revived, it came back in the form of a 2hour miniseries, there is always the possibility that they could find earth in a movie to be released after the show ends. I mean, most likely the season will have a definitive end and they will find earth and ??? will happen, but there's always that possibility. I don't think it's too far-fetched considering I'm not sure even the show's producers know how the series will end at this point.
Then executive producter David Eick directly contradicts Olmos and says that Battlestar is an open-ended adventure and that Season 4 WON'T be the final season, but there is the possibility of having more seasons. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/12/124725 6
Now, David Eick (and Ronald Moore) says, Oh, JK, what I actually meant to say is that we have no idea what we're doing and we finally decided that Battlestar really is going to end after Season 4. I enjoy watching this show and the fact that its confirmed to end will hopefully make it interesting as they now have the freedom to kill off major characters and finally give the viewers the definitive end they've been waiting for, but with this kind of mis-management, who knows what will happen.
Stay tuned for more post-season drama as we discover that nobody at Battlestar Galactica knows what the hell is going on with their own show...
But why look at problems within your own distribution system or try to address the larger concern of finding ways to secure the high quality DVD screeners that magically find their way to the interwebs when you can just as easily find that the real problem stems from those evil canadian bacon eating molsen drinking bastards.
It amazes me that you've all apparently forgot those 2 magic words that should rule every aspect of both your personal and professional lives.
Student: (enters room for medical school interview)
Interviewer: So my colleagues and I were looking over your resume and were impressed with all that you've accomplished over the years. Do you think anything stands out in particular?
Student: Well, I saved hundreds of lives working as lead EMT, I performed open-heart surgery on an airplane when a man was having a heart attack, and I delivered a woman's child while I was trapped in an elevator after 2 days without food or water.
Interviewer: Wow, quite a track record. The only problem I see with your resume is that you say you were convicted of a serious felony. Was this just a mistake on your application?
Student: No, I tried to buy GTA 4 when I was only 17 and they busted me for it. They tried me as an adult and in prison I shared a room with a pedophile murderer who made me perform unspeakable acts every night for over five years. I was traumatized, but with the help of constant therapy and hard work, I've been able to rebound.
Interviewer: Get the hell out of this office. We don't want your kind at our university.
Student: But, the wh-
Interviewer: Out! Before I call security.
Student: (Later that night) Goodbye cruel world....
Spidey Sense tingles. I sense a conspiracy involving the slashdot admins posting a dupe of an old slashdot article because Intel dishes out the $$ for all those ads. Follow the example of your digg brethren and revolt! REVOLT before its too late!!!!
There's no mention of the method used to install the keylogger onto the treasurer's computer. They mention it was a laptop, but its a pretty far leap to assume that the hacker used a physical keylogger when the entire thing is just as likely, if not more so, to have been done remotely.
It's also probably worth mentioning that the keylogger was likely active for atleast a minimum of a day or two, likely much longer, considering it's mentioned that the keylogger tracked the treasurer's keystrokes until the hacker discovered the appropriate passwords AND the hacker stole the money over a couple days. With this longer exposure, especially if the keystrokes were being monitored remotely, there's a good chance that an anti-virus program with heuristics scanning running in the background (or atleast a decent software firewall) could have flagged the suspicious behavior and perhaps identified the keylogger program being used.
At the least, I think the poster is trying to convey that proper computer security could have helped to secure the computer and identify the problem earlier (the larger amount of 358,000 was stolen on the second day) or helped stop it outright.
Doesn't really matter if the consumer didn't sign any contracts, because they are forced to deal with whatever agreement exists between the MLB and the broadcaster. If you live in Boston and want to watch a Red Sox game, then you are forced to watch it on a TV that has a cable connection with NESN, since they have exclusive broadcasting rights for Red Sox games (once in a while if they're playing the Yankees or something you can see the games on ESPN).
If you don't have NESN, or if your cable is out, or if you want to watch it on MLB.tv, you are out of luck, because all non-NESN broadcasts are blacked out forcing you to watch the game (and the associated ads) with whatever provider the MLB has a deal with. Basically, if you have a subscription to MLB.tv or don't have NESN, don't ever return home because the MLB doesn't want you there.
I just found the receipt for their expenses breakdown:
1. $20 for the pringles can (and lunch for the day).
2. $180 for the router (batteries not included).
3. $1200 to pay off The Pirate Bay to make sure they didn't attack while they were in the open seas.
I don't think the games they come up with really have to be all innovative. I think one of the major goals is to create a lot of educational games that could have a lot of beneficial uses in a collaborative learning environment. While it might not be the most original idea, there is a lot of potential for creating different types of trivia games where you can test your own knowledge by yourself or play it in the classroom to compete with your peers.
And given the popularity of virtual worlds nowadays, I'm sure you could create games to simulate basic virtual classrooms/libraries where you might be able to quickly access fully up-to-date reading materials (god knows how outdated books are in actual schools) to have competitions in class with computer-based software that might not be readily available in actual classrooms.
You might also create virtual economies to let kids interact with each other and learn about money and mathematics in a way that will (hopefully) be more entertaining than your average math book. At younger ages, I think kids might learn a great deal about mathematics and the value of money from an educational game when combined with what they are learning from their textbooks.
Either way, the ideas for the games themselves really don't need to be that revolutionary. I would think it would be useful to just take advantage of the mesh networking/tablet mode and port existing games/ideas to help reinforce what is being taught in the classroom and find ways to get kids interested in topics like math and english that many would find boring or too difficult.
I'm going to go ahead and take a wild guess that a couple hundred University of Ohio students will be receiving some pre-litigation notices in the mail sometime next week.
Slashdot Mirror
Although other versions mentioned are from the New England Holocaust Memorial -> communists, jews, trade unionists, catholics, me. A version in Time Magazine says Communists, Jews, Catholics, me. Apparently there have been a number of versions/ translations of this poem since it was originally made, but it seems like you're right since most of the versions seem to mention communists before jews (and some of them don't even mention jews).
Regardless of which version is used, I was just supporting the idea that often times, most people aren't motivated to take action until it's too late.
What needs to happen is that somebody reputable, well-known, and with the actual power to influence events has to come out and start actively fighting for restoring civil liberties. An Inconvenient Truth was a large success because Al Gore is known to have strong feelings on the environment and he is in a position to bring about change, especially with the help of a growing populace who support his viewpoint and believe global warming is an important issue. With Gore's success, his film has convinced a lot of people about the importance of combating global warming today or atleast supporting his viewpoint should the issue be raised when they can use their vote to help (political candidates nowadays can't just totally ignore the issue when asked about it). But the film did well and the issue is being discussed now largely because Gore made it and can use his connections to increase awareness and help institute change over time (if Moore made the film it would be immediately demonized and forgotten).
correlation does not equal causation?
I think that poem you hear quoted more often nowadays by the German anti-nazi activist Niemöller seems appropriate:
First they came for the Jewsand I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
I can see it now... A future where mankind lives in a free and secure society where we all live together in bliss running our favorite open-source customized version of the iGOOGLE operating system that checks our mail, orders our groceries, and feeds the cat without any human interaction.
1. We know that most of the Circuit City cuts are from management/unprofitable locations - the cuts (and the company tbh) seems like it has more to do with sales/retail sector than it does with the actual tech sector, not to mention the fact that they are opening 165 new stores in areas they hope will be more profitable.
2. We don't really know what types of jobs are being cut at Motorola, but they're being done in response to primarily increased competition from Nokia and lagging sales.
We are taking steps to ensure that, as these cost reductions are implemented, there will be no adverse impact on customer service and support, product quality and those research and development programs that are expected to contribute meaningfully to Motorola's revenues, profits and cash flow in 2008 and beyondSeems like the tech jobs working on R&D/customer support are actually pretty safe at the moment.
3. Dell already said that the "scale of the cutbacks would vary across each region depending on current trading, and general business and legal considerations", so it's known that the job cuts will take place worldwide. They also said
"In response, it has overhauled its management team and focused on improving technical support for customers and moving into fast-growing markets like China and Brazil" Seems like they will be laying off a lot of management and probably a lot of the more useless tech support folks abroad in favor or more experienced, and more knowledgeable tech/customer support. Either way, it's a far stretch to say that it's a bad time to be working in the tech sector just because three very loosely affiliated companies announce layoffs.I don't understand why Microsoft, Eolas, and the USPTO need to waste so much time and money defending a patent on a piece of crap like ActiveX. I think they're all conspiring together to destroy the interwebs.
With the brand name power of LOTR, you would think this would be able to strongly compete, but I think WoW just has too large of a player base and too much power in the MMORPG genre to really need to deal with losing a LARGE number of players. I mean, there are a ton of WoW players who are becoming weary after 2 years and looking for something new and might move on to a different game, but LOTR Online isn't going to be the WoW killer.
With more and more MMORPG games coming into the market, and the quality of these games getting better and better, it's just a matter of time until a game comes along that will have enough appeal to give WoW some trouble. Chances are players will start leaving slowly for other games (most likely after a major patch release), rejoining the real world, etc, but Blizzard's time will come soon enough and chances are they will be their own downfall.
Generally, adverstisers prefer to use "live" to determine rates (some commercials like movie releases can have less of an impact after time passes), broadcasters prefer "live-plus-seven", so I think "live-plus-three" became the compromise to include those people who do watch the show, but just aren't able to watch it live.
I'm not in that industry, but it seems like a pretty decent compromise (and I believe it's quickly becoming the new standard when negotiating ad rates) given the availability of recording devices and the significant amount of delayed viewing that occurs.
Now if they could just find a way to actually create the consoles to run those nifty downloaded games.
For example, Serenity http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/ was released after Firefly ended. Stargate just ended, and Stargate: The Ark of Truth http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942903/ is being made to conclude the final season's storyline with destroying the Ori, and Stargate: Continuum is also in production. Even 24 has a movie being made now http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813980/.
Given that when Battlestar was revived, it came back in the form of a 2hour miniseries, there is always the possibility that they could find earth in a movie to be released after the show ends. I mean, most likely the season will have a definitive end and they will find earth and ??? will happen, but there's always that possibility. I don't think it's too far-fetched considering I'm not sure even the show's producers know how the series will end at this point.
Then executive producter David Eick directly contradicts Olmos and says that Battlestar is an open-ended adventure and that Season 4 WON'T be the final season, but there is the possibility of having more seasons. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/12/124725 6
Now, David Eick (and Ronald Moore) says, Oh, JK, what I actually meant to say is that we have no idea what we're doing and we finally decided that Battlestar really is going to end after Season 4. I enjoy watching this show and the fact that its confirmed to end will hopefully make it interesting as they now have the freedom to kill off major characters and finally give the viewers the definitive end they've been waiting for, but with this kind of mis-management, who knows what will happen.
Stay tuned for more post-season drama as we discover that nobody at Battlestar Galactica knows what the hell is going on with their own show...
But why look at problems within your own distribution system or try to address the larger concern of finding ways to secure the high quality DVD screeners that magically find their way to the interwebs when you can just as easily find that the real problem stems from those evil canadian bacon eating molsen drinking bastards.
It amazes me that you've all apparently forgot those 2 magic words that should rule every aspect of both your personal and professional lives.
BLAME CANADA!
Student: (enters room for medical school interview)
Interviewer: So my colleagues and I were looking over your resume and were impressed with all that you've accomplished over the years. Do you think anything stands out in particular?
Student: Well, I saved hundreds of lives working as lead EMT, I performed open-heart surgery on an airplane when a man was having a heart attack, and I delivered a woman's child while I was trapped in an elevator after 2 days without food or water.
Interviewer: Wow, quite a track record. The only problem I see with your resume is that you say you were convicted of a serious felony. Was this just a mistake on your application?
Student: No, I tried to buy GTA 4 when I was only 17 and they busted me for it. They tried me as an adult and in prison I shared a room with a pedophile murderer who made me perform unspeakable acts every night for over five years. I was traumatized, but with the help of constant therapy and hard work, I've been able to rebound.
Interviewer: Get the hell out of this office. We don't want your kind at our university.
Student: But, the wh-
Interviewer: Out! Before I call security.
Student: (Later that night) Goodbye cruel world....
Spidey Sense tingles. I sense a conspiracy involving the slashdot admins posting a dupe of an old slashdot article because Intel dishes out the $$ for all those ads. Follow the example of your digg brethren and revolt! REVOLT before its too late!!!!
It's also probably worth mentioning that the keylogger was likely active for atleast a minimum of a day or two, likely much longer, considering it's mentioned that the keylogger tracked the treasurer's keystrokes until the hacker discovered the appropriate passwords AND the hacker stole the money over a couple days. With this longer exposure, especially if the keystrokes were being monitored remotely, there's a good chance that an anti-virus program with heuristics scanning running in the background (or atleast a decent software firewall) could have flagged the suspicious behavior and perhaps identified the keylogger program being used.
At the least, I think the poster is trying to convey that proper computer security could have helped to secure the computer and identify the problem earlier (the larger amount of 358,000 was stolen on the second day) or helped stop it outright.
The other 1/3... well... when I read their thoughts all that was coming through was "deny, deny, deny."
If you don't have NESN, or if your cable is out, or if you want to watch it on MLB.tv, you are out of luck, because all non-NESN broadcasts are blacked out forcing you to watch the game (and the associated ads) with whatever provider the MLB has a deal with. Basically, if you have a subscription to MLB.tv or don't have NESN, don't ever return home because the MLB doesn't want you there.
I just found the receipt for their expenses breakdown: 1. $20 for the pringles can (and lunch for the day). 2. $180 for the router (batteries not included). 3. $1200 to pay off The Pirate Bay to make sure they didn't attack while they were in the open seas.
And given the popularity of virtual worlds nowadays, I'm sure you could create games to simulate basic virtual classrooms/libraries where you might be able to quickly access fully up-to-date reading materials (god knows how outdated books are in actual schools) to have competitions in class with computer-based software that might not be readily available in actual classrooms.
You might also create virtual economies to let kids interact with each other and learn about money and mathematics in a way that will (hopefully) be more entertaining than your average math book. At younger ages, I think kids might learn a great deal about mathematics and the value of money from an educational game when combined with what they are learning from their textbooks.
Either way, the ideas for the games themselves really don't need to be that revolutionary. I would think it would be useful to just take advantage of the mesh networking/tablet mode and port existing games/ideas to help reinforce what is being taught in the classroom and find ways to get kids interested in topics like math and english that many would find boring or too difficult.
I'm going to go ahead and take a wild guess that a couple hundred University of Ohio students will be receiving some pre-litigation notices in the mail sometime next week.