There are lots of concepts that come and go. And then they sneak back up on everyone. Take peer-to-peer and client-server concepts for instance. They pop back and forth in fashion. Virtual machines seem to come and go also. VM's were not started with Java you know.
Now, token passing is a valid idea. For networks it may not be used currently, but for systems that cannot withstand collisions of any sort token passing is a valid algorithm.
My point is that just because you cannot find a way to apply a concept does not mean that there isn't necessarily a reason to not teach it. Sometimes its much easier to teach from a lot of older hardware and such because it can be simpler, or less integrated.
Consider if you were to try and write an OS now, it would be overwhelming because of all the details that need to be supported to make it equivalent to what there is now. Many years ago protected memory, virtual memory, gui, and many other things were not even thought up yet.
NO! There is an evil conspiracy by GW Bush! Big coporations are out to get me! GW Bush must be at fault here! He has to be, he causes ever evil thing in the world!
I see your number is quite a bit lower than mine, so maybe you have been on vacation for a while, but fact and thought around here have been replaced by conspiracy and whining.
Please pick up your tinfoil hat desk, or bring your own now.
Re:Tabs should not be used in code (Right!)
on
Hyatt Discusses Tabs
·
· Score: 1
Linus disagrees with you./usr/src/linux/Documentation/CodingStyle
Search for: "Chapter 1: Indentation"
Re:Tabs should not be used in code (Wrong!)
on
Hyatt Discusses Tabs
·
· Score: 1
Wrong!
Use tabs of the width 8 spaces (still use a \t).
Code using 4 spaces, or God forbid 2 spaces, is simpley wrong. 1, Determining logical blocks of code becomes more difficult since you are unable to at a glance determine the level the code is at. 2, Determing if you really screwed the pooch on a function. If you are finding that you cannot see enough on the screen with an 80 column screen because it 80% of the code is on the right side of the page you are nested too deep. A function should only be at most two pages long, less is better. 3, Variable names. If you have pszSomeStoopidVariableName variables, its time to learn how to document. Documentation is meant to be describing the functional inputs and outputs. If your function is so long you can't document it as such, no pszSomeStoopidVariableName is going to save you.
Here I copied the text from the Children's Internet Protection Act link in the article. I'll post the others if they seem important.
Your Rights Online: CIPA Before The Supreme Court CensorshipPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 03:44PM from the right-on-schedule dept. Jim Tyre pointed out the excellent collection of links on censorware.net to coverage of yesterday's oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court about the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), as promised by this story last month. There's also a link to the place where transcripts of the oral arguments will show up about three weeks from now.
( Read More... | 4 of 10 comments | Your Rights Online ) Ask Slashdot: HDTV-DVI Protocol Interpretation? TelevisionPosted by Cliff on Thu 06 Mar 03:20PM from the figuring-out-what-it-all-REALLY-means dept. ignipotentis asks: "I have recently been looking into getting a Sony 50" Grand Wega. However, the one thing that deters me is the lack of obvious PC support. I would like to use the TV as a monitor for a living room PC as well as a TV. So I set off to do some investigation. I came across the ATI Component Adapters and then came across the reviews stating their overscan problems. Next I decided to check out the details on DVI (DVI & HDCP) and I've become rather confused. From what I gather, HDTV-DVI is nothing but DVI-D + HDCP. Now, being DVI-D, it can accept a signal from any DVI-I video card as long as a DVI-D male to male cable is used. Where I become confused is in the HDCP protocol. The way I read it, the Host (my computer) in this case, initiates the authenticity check whenever it wants. If it doesn't receive a valid reply, it can stop the stream. However, nothing is stated (that I can see) as to what would happen if no check was ever performed. If the Client (the TV) just continues to display what it receives, then all is good. If it does not, then I guess I'm back to the drawing board looking for other TVs. My question to Slashdot regards that of the protocol. I've emailed info@digital-cp.com only to getan automated response as a reply and I'm hoping that someone a bit more technically savvy than myself can interpret the HDCP protocol better than I have been able to."
( Read More... | 1 of 6 comments | Ask Slashdot ) Oregon Bill Would Require Open Source Consideration United StatesPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 02:51PM from the commonwealth dept. VeniDormi writes "I just found out that House Bill 2892 was introduced in the Oregon House of Representatives by Representative Phil Barnhart. The summary: 'Requires state government to consider using open source software when acquiring new software. Sets other requirements for acquiring software.' Rep. Barnhart has a few comments on the bill." A NewsForge story has more information, including some words from Rep. Barnhart.
( Read More... | 48 of 116 comments ) Ask Slashdot: Funny and Irrelevant Program Names? It's funny. Laugh.Posted by Cliff on Thu 06 Mar 02:15PM from the just-for-the-fun-of-it dept. dentar asks: "I got into a conversation with a peer today about funny names we've given programs in the past. I have a small program I wrote for a client called omnihurl whose purpose is to get a summary listing of their last 20 omniback backups and display them. I called it that because I couldn't think of a good name when I wrote it.. It never got renamed. That program is still used every day and is about seven years old. The guy I was talking with had written a backup script named shazbot. A few years later a friend and I wrote a program that was going to be a dynamic DNS type of client and server. I couldn't think of a name for those either, so they wound up being whale and plankton. We still laugh about it. So, how's about y'all? What's the funniest thing you ever named a program? The more irrelevant to its purpose, the better."
( Read More... | 35 of 59 comments | Ask Slashdot ) Science: The Big Rip SciencePosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 02:03PM from the sliced-thin dept. WolfWithoutAClause writes "It's been known for decades that the universe is expanding. The current evidence points to this rate of expansion increasing, and if so, there's no obvious reason why the expansion rate couldn't continue to increase ever faster. A physicist, Simon Caldwell, has taken this to inevitable conclusion and suggested the expansion will eventually reach a point where the expansion rate is so high that any surviving people will ripped apart, followed a millisecond later by the destruction of all the atoms in the universe. Ouch. New Scientist says we may only have 22 billion years left. Almost enough time for a quick game of Everquest then."
( Read More... | 9 of 14 comments | Science ) China's 64bit Homegrown CPU HardwarePosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 02:01PM from the enter-the-dragon dept. An anonymous reader writes: "EE Times is reporting on China's BLX IC Design Corp nearing the completion of their first 64-bit CPU. Based on the MIPS instruction set the 500-MHz Godson-2 microprocessor is aimed toward distributed grid computing. To avoid MIPS patent issues, several instructions (unaligned loads and storeds in the 32 bit version) have not been implemented but with the support of over 60 software providers such as Red Flag Linux and the ability to tweak compilers to not use these instructions this should not be a problem. The Godson-1 processor (also patent free) was announced last year and was aimed at the embedded market." The Godson processor line has generally been called Dragon by the Western press.
( Read More... | 76 of 177 comments ) Ask Slashdot: Best DVD -Player- for Burned DVD Media? HardwarePosted by Cliff on Thu 06 Mar 01:30PM from the for-playing-your-own-movies dept. multiOSfreak asks: "I recently picked up a DVD-R/RW drive on the cheap, and I was wondering which component DVD players have the widest latitude of compatibility with 'burned' DVD media. I have a Toshiba SD-1600, and it's very picky about the media (so far, it will only play Princo and Verbatim DataLife +). I've looked at a ton of sites on DVD players, but none of them gave comments from actual users on how well they worked, firmware upgrades, etc. Epinions is okay, but the level of knowledge of most reviewers is nowhere near that of the Slashdot community." What DVD Players are the least picky about the media they use?
( Read More... | 10 of 12 comments | Ask Slashdot ) UT Austin Hit By Massive Security Breach PrivacyPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 01:11PM from the wonder-if-they-got-mine dept. mrpuffypants writes "Reported in the Austin-American Statesman: The University of Texas' security was compromised over the weekend, leaking out nearly 60,000 records on students, staff, and faculty. Official word from the school can be found here. Most troubling of all is that, like most schools, UT still uses SSNs for student ID numbers, and that was part of the information taken from them in the attack."
( Read More... | 153 of 383 comments ) Interviews: Ask About Proprietary vs. Open Source Code Quality ProgrammingPosted by Roblimo on Thu 06 Mar 12:20PM from the bugstomping dept. Scott Trappe is CEO of Reasoning, a company that has gained a certain amount of noteriety (and a Slashdot mention) by running its Ilumna automated inspection service on several versions of TCP/IP -- and concluding that the Linux version has fewer bugs than most proprietary ones. Why is this? Let's ask Scott, and also ask him any other question you can think of about software quality and how to achieve it since, after all, that's his business. We'll send him 10 of the highest-moderated questions and post his answers when we get them back.
( Read More... | 68 of 134 comments | Interviews ) Slashdot Subscribers Now See The Future Slashdot.orgPosted by CmdrTaco on Thu 06 Mar 11:30AM from the well-isn't-that-special dept. We're pleased to announce the newest reason for you to subscribe to Slashdot. Besides the ability to suppress banner ads, limit journal postings to friends, and a few plums, Subscribers now see stories posted on Slashdot from The Mysterious Future! These stories are recognizable by the red title bar, and the lack of a time stamp. Subscribers will be able to beat the rush and read the links before everyone else. You can hit the link below and I'll explain exactly what this means. If this appeals to you, you could read the subscriber FAQ or just go subscribe.
( Read More... | 3065 bytes in body | 393 of 742 comments ) Book Reviews: The Space Elevator SpacePosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 10:45AM from the long-cable-long-review dept. James Yonan writes "For years, the space elevator concept has been a staple of science fiction fare, popularized by Arthur C. Clark in The Fountains of Paradise, a convenient and plausibly feasible technology for building a vertical railroad of sorts, tens of thousands of kilometers tall, linking earth with geosynchronous orbit. Unsatisfied with the unquestioning consignment of the space elevator concept to science fiction status, authors Bradley C. Edwards and Eric A. Westling set out to understand why it could or couldn't be done. The result is a compelling new book, backed up by voluminous research, which concludes that space elevators are near-term-feasible. Edwards and Westling have not only convinced roomfuls of skeptics of the basic concept, but have also won serious funding from NASA for continuing their work. This book, The Space Elevator, is one of the fruits of their ongoing research." This is a long review (continued below), but the subject demands it.
( Read More... | 13837 bytes in body | 249 of 527 comments | Book Reviews ) Science: ESA Opens Deep Space Antenna in Australia SpacePosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 09:56AM from the is-anybody-out-there dept. Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist is reporting that the European Space Agency has opened the first of its new deep space antennae. It is 35 metres across and can operate at up to 32 Ghz - able to provide a link to spacecraft up to 900 million kilometres away."
( Read More... | 4 of 11 comments | Science ) Your Rights Online: ICANN vs. ccTLDs in Geneva The InternetPosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 09:55AM from the wardrums dept. Gallowglass writes "The Register is reporting on an interesting meeting in Geneva. To quote from the article, 'Why the huge fuss? Because the meeting threatened to turn into a caucus where rising resentment against ICANN and its attempt to stamp ultimate authority over the Internet could have escalated into international agreement and action.' Didn't quite, but the natives are restless. The article has links to all presentations given at the two day meeting, and also an audio of the event at the bottom of the article. It's also a good summary of the controversy and of its history."
( Read More... | 32 of 68 comments | Your Rights Online ) Peace Corps to Wire Senegal NewsPosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 09:10AM from the goodwill-to-men dept. An anonymous submitter wrote: "Peace Corps Online is reporting on the White House's Digital Freedom Initiative that will place volunteers from the Peace Corps, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco in a pilot program in Senegal where they will leverage nearly 200 cybercafes and 10,000 telecenters to provide opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The idea isn't new - David Rothman proposed an Electronic Peace Corps in 1984, the Geek Corps has been doing this kind of work in Ghana for years, and the Peace Corps already has about 1,500 volunteers working in information technology."
( Read More... | 60 of 127 comments ) ATi Radeon 9800 Pro GraphicsPosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 08:21AM from the purty-pictures dept. ATi is bringing out their new card, the Radeon 9800 Pro, and all of the hardware review sites which depend on ATi's generosity for pre-release hardware have released their necessarily favorable reviews. Here's a few: Hothardware.com, Hexus.net, HardOCP.com, Anandtech, Tom's Hardware, Extremetech, PCWorld.
( Read More... | 117 of 265 comments ) Apple: Mac OS X 10.2.x DIsables Modifier Keys? BugPosted by pudge on Thu 06 Mar 07:23AM from the works-for-me dept. drunkToaster writes " Adobe's support pages note that Mac OS X 10.2.x fails to re-enable modifier keys after an authentication session. The keys are disabled during the user/password dance as a security measure. Adobe explains a workaround for the problem which drastically effects many of its applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc)." This makes no sense to me; I authenticate to various servers etc. all day long, and never have problems with modifier keys. The Adobe explanation seems wholly inadequate.
( Read More... | 11 of 27 comments | Apple ) Are Video Blogs Ready For Prime Time? The MediaPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 07:03AM from the be-your-own-nina-pineda dept. Markmarkmark writes "Is video blogging ready for prime-time? Can Internet talking 'blog-heads' beat the talking heads on Fox? Is the next Andy Rooney-type commentator going to be a/.er? With new technology and a little creativity, this MSNBC article today thinks so. 'The big problems have been setting up lights and a camera in my study properly, so that I don't look dead, or hung over.'" The article is about the software / hardware it takes to set up a microstudio; the author does not really explore much about the video-blogging implications -- but you can.
( Read More... | 77 of 180 comments ) Pancake Physics to Cut Batter Splatter It's funny. Laugh.Posted by chrisd on Thu 06 Mar 03:58AM from the all-hail-science dept. Anonymous Coward writes "The headline just about says it all on this one. A physics grad student in the UK has come up with the mathematical formula for how to flip a pancake and have it land correctly back in the pan. The BBC has the details."
( Read More... | 93 of 274 comments ) Your Rights Online: Australian Federal Police Raid Major ISPs PrivacyPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 01:29AM from the overzealous-or-regular-zealous dept. pflodo writes "The Australian (newspaper) has an article about Telstra the major Australian ISP and other 'declined to name' ISPs that have been raided by Australian Federal Police to 'seek the identity of particular subscribers' in relation to their activity and files stored on the ISP's servers. I imagine they will eventually raid some domestic homes and make a scapegoat of some unfortunate teenagers."
( Read More... | 142 of 302 comments | Your Rights Online ) Your Rights Online: Ashcroft v. Registrars on Domain Property Status The InternetPosted by timothy on Wed 05 Mar 11:38PM from the hey-that's-not-a-press dept. pbuxton writes "Here's a CNN story about the confiscation of domain names by law enforcement. An interesting dilemma noted in the story is that a domain name is either a mere service, which would let Verisign, et al., off the legal hook for mismanagement, or it is property which can be siezed by police and judges." This story mentions (and adds some perspective) to the recent seizure of ISOnews.com.
( Read More... | 27 of 47 comments | Your Rights Online )
In college I interned in the international systems department for a company, which has OMS (Order Management System), DMS (Distributor Management System), IMS (Inventory Management System), and another *MS, but I forget. Well, my boss had a pet project he wanted done which was to control the parameters between all the systems and be able to handle parameters between sites. Well, the parameter management system was the final name of my project as it neared completion.
Similar idea here when I worked at a place where they were implementing ISO9000 something or other...
Well, we needed to create forms for validating stuff... I was pushing for the IFW* document, hoping that it would stick. Unfortuneately I was laid off before we had a chance to really push for it.
We should ravage life now to make it better for the future for those who were not tested on. It totally sucks that we have all these damn conservatives trying to protect the sanctity of human life. I mean, they are dead, who cares that what we do to their bodies now. Or maybe, they are retarded and don't enjoy life as much as we do, lets test on them.
Save the bunnies and rats, test on humans! Its inhuman to test on animals.
</sarcasm>
Sometimes the ends do not justify the means. Sometimes they do.
Sweet! I bet something like this will make national news when a bunch of guys from Belview get blown away from in some AC's back yard. You won't even have to (or likely be able to since you'll be behind bars or in Belview) post pictures, I'm sure every major news source will post them for you.
Of all the "she is the coldest place in the universe" this has got to be the worst. One, this is way late in the game, the joke has been beat to death. Two, the woman you made a commitment to love and take care of is now the butt of a over done joke.
I hope you have enough love for your wife to pick her up some flowers on your way home from for being so stupid. Maybe then you won't find the your bedroom is so cold. Good luck, and treat your spouse with the love you promised the day you married her.
*preview*...
Now that I rethink your message, maybe you meant her feet. My wife's feet are terribley cold and she likes to use my back to warm them. *brrr*
Once I had it setup I could completely forget about it. Setting up the Amavis with sendmail was a trick, but I had a homebrew sendmail.cf file because of some complications with our mail setup. Once that was done, I signed up for sophos email alerts. From that mail I setup a script to be run when ever one of those mails came through to go out to sophos' website and get the update.
All in all, we never got an email virus coming into our network after that through this box.
I haven't RTFA yet, but I have glanced at the page.
I think that if you work through this you could come up with a workable solution. Perhaps this would work, though not the most efficient, but should be stable.
When you check something in, it is checked into an unstable tree. You set the build process runnig then. If it builds and validation tests work, it checks the changes into the nightly tree. If the unstable build/tests fail it email the developer of the issue. The nightly tree is built after all the unstable checkins from the day are either rejected or submitted. Then the nightly build is compiled and tested, if this fails then the project manager is notified who then tries to figure out why and bust some nuts, er has the developer(s) responsible for the failure fix it. If there were no issues nightly build is put into a stable tree.
In theory the this should yeild a "last stable build" on a regular basis unless there is major overhaul/development currently in process, in which case the build probably isnt a good idea to ship to a customer anyways.
Huh? Since you are a freak of my anyways, not a big deal.
Go here and then try the link Der Bau. You will see this ugly as sin ad roll down your screen covering content of the page. Then after like 20 seconds or so it will roll away. Granted, that might mean you need to actually read one of the links.
Okey, with that frame of reference. Re-read my post, I've even included it here for you to save you time.
Ack! What the hell is with those stoopid ads? They are worse then pop ups (well on par with them, much worse since mozilla blocks them for me). I feel like ripping the nuts of the bastard that made them and shoving them down the throats of the idiots that uses the hosting service that puts them on their pages.
Other than that, the concept looks pretty cool, since I can't read german.
Now, if you "get it" you can stop reading. If you don't "get it", let me explain, using very small words.
Ack!: exclaimation of distaste.
What the hell is with those stoopid ads?: Here I questions the taste of the ads and personally decide that they are quite stupid (stupid == stoopid, its an old warcraft joke some friends and I have).
They are worse then pop ups (well on par with them, much worse since mozilla blocks them for me).: Here's the tricky part that seemed to throw you for a loop. The ads on the above page are worse than pop ups (ads). You see pop up ads open a seperate window that can be closed (or if you are using Mozilla be blocked all together). This form of ad actaully blocks you from reading parts of the page. See, that isn't so tough, or maybe your handle should be changed to "ThatMadeNoSenseCauseIHaveASingleDigitIQ".
I feel like ripping the nuts of the bastard that made them and shoving them down the throats of the idiots that uses the hosting service that puts them on their pages.: Here I exaggerate my distaste for the ads. I could have thrown in any random stuff here, but decided this should cover my feelings of the ads more than enough.
Other than that, the concept looks pretty cool, since I can't read german.: Here I comment on the idea and the pictures of the sub shown on this page. Since I cannot read german (sort of like you and english) I mention in this sentence that I cannot read german.
Ack! What the hell is with those stoopid ads? They are worse then pop ups (well on par with them, much worse since mozilla blocks them for me). I feel like ripping the nuts of the bastard that made them and shoving them down the throats of the idiots that uses the hosting service that puts them on their pages.
Other than that, the concept looks pretty cool, since I can't read german.
The 64 processor Inthefuturanium by Intel? I would loathe to ever think you would abuse a machine with more than one copy of windows at a time, but I think you might need a little more hardware to try and run 50+ copies of windows.
Slashdot Mirror
There are lots of concepts that come and go. And then they sneak back up on everyone. Take peer-to-peer and client-server concepts for instance. They pop back and forth in fashion. Virtual machines seem to come and go also. VM's were not started with Java you know.
Now, token passing is a valid idea. For networks it may not be used currently, but for systems that cannot withstand collisions of any sort token passing is a valid algorithm.
My point is that just because you cannot find a way to apply a concept does not mean that there isn't necessarily a reason to not teach it. Sometimes its much easier to teach from a lot of older hardware and such because it can be simpler, or less integrated.
Consider if you were to try and write an OS now, it would be overwhelming because of all the details that need to be supported to make it equivalent to what there is now. Many years ago protected memory, virtual memory, gui, and many other things were not even thought up yet.
(+5 Insightful) should have been (+5 Inciteful)
Troll.
Don't ever use the word "ethics" on slashdot unless ofcourse it is prefixed with "lack of".
NO! There is an evil conspiracy by GW Bush! Big coporations are out to get me! GW Bush must be at fault here! He has to be, he causes ever evil thing in the world!
I see your number is quite a bit lower than mine, so maybe you have been on vacation for a while, but fact and thought around here have been replaced by conspiracy and whining.
Please pick up your tinfoil hat desk, or bring your own now.
You are missing me on your freak list.
Linus disagrees with you. /usr/src/linux/Documentation/CodingStyle
Search for: "Chapter 1: Indentation"
Wrong!
Use tabs of the width 8 spaces (still use a \t).
Code using 4 spaces, or God forbid 2 spaces, is simpley wrong. 1, Determining logical blocks of code becomes more difficult since you are unable to at a glance determine the level the code is at.
2, Determing if you really screwed the pooch on a function. If you are finding that you cannot see enough on the screen with an 80 column screen because it 80% of the code is on the right side of the page you are nested too deep. A function should only be at most two pages long, less is better.
3, Variable names. If you have pszSomeStoopidVariableName variables, its time to learn how to document. Documentation is meant to be describing the functional inputs and outputs. If your function is so long you can't document it as such, no pszSomeStoopidVariableName is going to save you.
Yeah, shut up cause evilmonkey doesn't want you to hear it.
Whether intentional or hypocritical you still look like an idiot.
Here I copied the text from the Children's Internet Protection Act link in the article. I'll post the others if they seem important.
/.er? With new technology and a little creativity, this MSNBC article today thinks so. 'The big problems have been setting up lights and a camera in my study properly, so that I don't look dead, or hung over.'" The article is about the software / hardware it takes to set up a microstudio; the author does not really explore much about the video-blogging implications -- but you can.
Your Rights Online: CIPA Before The Supreme Court
CensorshipPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 03:44PM
from the right-on-schedule dept.
Jim Tyre pointed out the excellent collection of links on censorware.net to coverage of yesterday's oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court about the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), as promised by this story last month. There's also a link to the place where transcripts of the oral arguments will show up about three weeks from now.
( Read More... | 4 of 10 comments | Your Rights Online )
Ask Slashdot: HDTV-DVI Protocol Interpretation?
TelevisionPosted by Cliff on Thu 06 Mar 03:20PM
from the figuring-out-what-it-all-REALLY-means dept.
ignipotentis asks: "I have recently been looking into getting a Sony 50" Grand Wega. However, the one thing that deters me is the lack of obvious PC support. I would like to use the TV as a monitor for a living room PC as well as a TV. So I set off to do some investigation. I came across the ATI Component Adapters and then came across the reviews stating their overscan problems. Next I decided to check out the details on DVI (DVI & HDCP) and I've become rather confused. From what I gather, HDTV-DVI is nothing but DVI-D + HDCP. Now, being DVI-D, it can accept a signal from any DVI-I video card as long as a DVI-D male to male cable is used. Where I become confused is in the HDCP protocol. The way I read it, the Host (my computer) in this case, initiates the authenticity check whenever it wants. If it doesn't receive a valid reply, it can stop the stream. However, nothing is stated (that I can see) as to what would happen if no check was ever performed. If the Client (the TV) just continues to display what it receives, then all is good. If it does not, then I guess I'm back to the drawing board looking for other TVs. My question to Slashdot regards that of the protocol. I've emailed info@digital-cp.com only to getan automated response as a reply and I'm hoping that someone a bit more technically savvy than myself can interpret the HDCP protocol better than I have been able to."
( Read More... | 1 of 6 comments | Ask Slashdot )
Oregon Bill Would Require Open Source Consideration
United StatesPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 02:51PM
from the commonwealth dept.
VeniDormi writes "I just found out that House Bill 2892 was introduced in the Oregon House of Representatives by Representative Phil Barnhart. The summary: 'Requires state government to consider using open source software when acquiring new software. Sets other requirements for acquiring software.' Rep. Barnhart has a few comments on the bill." A NewsForge story has more information, including some words from Rep. Barnhart.
( Read More... | 48 of 116 comments )
Ask Slashdot: Funny and Irrelevant Program Names?
It's funny. Laugh.Posted by Cliff on Thu 06 Mar 02:15PM
from the just-for-the-fun-of-it dept.
dentar asks: "I got into a conversation with a peer today about funny names we've given programs in the past. I have a small program I wrote for a client called omnihurl whose purpose is to get a summary listing of their last 20 omniback backups and display them. I called it that because I couldn't think of a good name when I wrote it.. It never got renamed. That program is still used every day and is about seven years old. The guy I was talking with had written a backup script named shazbot. A few years later a friend and I wrote a program that was going to be a dynamic DNS type of client and server. I couldn't think of a name for those either, so they wound up being whale and plankton. We still laugh about it. So, how's about y'all? What's the funniest thing you ever named a program? The more irrelevant to its purpose, the better."
( Read More... | 35 of 59 comments | Ask Slashdot )
Science: The Big Rip
SciencePosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 02:03PM
from the sliced-thin dept.
WolfWithoutAClause writes "It's been known for decades that the universe is expanding. The current evidence points to this rate of expansion increasing, and if so, there's no obvious reason why the expansion rate couldn't continue to increase ever faster. A physicist, Simon Caldwell, has taken this to inevitable conclusion and suggested the expansion will eventually reach a point where the expansion rate is so high that any surviving people will ripped apart, followed a millisecond later by the destruction of all the atoms in the universe. Ouch. New Scientist says we may only have 22 billion years left. Almost enough time for a quick game of Everquest then."
( Read More... | 9 of 14 comments | Science )
China's 64bit Homegrown CPU
HardwarePosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 02:01PM
from the enter-the-dragon dept.
An anonymous reader writes: "EE Times is reporting on China's BLX IC Design Corp nearing the completion of their first 64-bit CPU. Based on the MIPS instruction set the 500-MHz Godson-2 microprocessor is aimed toward distributed grid computing. To avoid MIPS patent issues, several instructions (unaligned loads and storeds in the 32 bit version) have not been implemented but with the support of over 60 software providers such as Red Flag Linux and the ability to tweak compilers to not use these instructions this should not be a problem. The Godson-1 processor (also patent free) was announced last year and was aimed at the embedded market." The Godson processor line has generally been called Dragon by the Western press.
( Read More... | 76 of 177 comments )
Ask Slashdot: Best DVD -Player- for Burned DVD Media?
HardwarePosted by Cliff on Thu 06 Mar 01:30PM
from the for-playing-your-own-movies dept.
multiOSfreak asks: "I recently picked up a DVD-R/RW drive on the cheap, and I was wondering which component DVD players have the widest latitude of compatibility with 'burned' DVD media. I have a Toshiba SD-1600, and it's very picky about the media (so far, it will only play Princo and Verbatim DataLife +). I've looked at a ton of sites on DVD players, but none of them gave comments from actual users on how well they worked, firmware upgrades, etc. Epinions is okay, but the level of knowledge of most reviewers is nowhere near that of the Slashdot community." What DVD Players are the least picky about the media they use?
( Read More... | 10 of 12 comments | Ask Slashdot )
UT Austin Hit By Massive Security Breach
PrivacyPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 01:11PM
from the wonder-if-they-got-mine dept.
mrpuffypants writes "Reported in the Austin-American Statesman: The University of Texas' security was compromised over the weekend, leaking out nearly 60,000 records on students, staff, and faculty. Official word from the school can be found here. Most troubling of all is that, like most schools, UT still uses SSNs for student ID numbers, and that was part of the information taken from them in the attack."
( Read More... | 153 of 383 comments )
Interviews: Ask About Proprietary vs. Open Source Code Quality
ProgrammingPosted by Roblimo on Thu 06 Mar 12:20PM
from the bugstomping dept.
Scott Trappe is CEO of Reasoning, a company that has gained a certain amount of noteriety (and a Slashdot mention) by running its Ilumna automated inspection service on several versions of TCP/IP -- and concluding that the Linux version has fewer bugs than most proprietary ones. Why is this? Let's ask Scott, and also ask him any other question you can think of about software quality and how to achieve it since, after all, that's his business. We'll send him 10 of the highest-moderated questions and post his answers when we get them back.
( Read More... | 68 of 134 comments | Interviews )
Slashdot Subscribers Now See The Future
Slashdot.orgPosted by CmdrTaco on Thu 06 Mar 11:30AM
from the well-isn't-that-special dept.
We're pleased to announce the newest reason for you to subscribe to Slashdot. Besides the ability to suppress banner ads, limit journal postings to friends, and a few plums, Subscribers now see stories posted on Slashdot from The Mysterious Future! These stories are recognizable by the red title bar, and the lack of a time stamp. Subscribers will be able to beat the rush and read the links before everyone else. You can hit the link below and I'll explain exactly what this means. If this appeals to you, you could read the subscriber FAQ or just go subscribe.
( Read More... | 3065 bytes in body | 393 of 742 comments )
Book Reviews: The Space Elevator
SpacePosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 10:45AM
from the long-cable-long-review dept.
James Yonan writes "For years, the space elevator concept has been a staple of science fiction fare, popularized by Arthur C. Clark in The Fountains of Paradise, a convenient and plausibly feasible technology for building a vertical railroad of sorts, tens of thousands of kilometers tall, linking earth with geosynchronous orbit. Unsatisfied with the unquestioning consignment of the space elevator concept to science fiction status, authors Bradley C. Edwards and Eric A. Westling set out to understand why it could or couldn't be done. The result is a compelling new book, backed up by voluminous research, which concludes that space elevators are near-term-feasible. Edwards and Westling have not only convinced roomfuls of skeptics of the basic concept, but have also won serious funding from NASA for continuing their work. This book, The Space Elevator, is one of the fruits of their ongoing research." This is a long review (continued below), but the subject demands it.
( Read More... | 13837 bytes in body | 249 of 527 comments | Book Reviews )
Science: ESA Opens Deep Space Antenna in Australia
SpacePosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 09:56AM
from the is-anybody-out-there dept.
Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist is reporting that the European Space Agency has opened the first of its new deep space antennae. It is 35 metres across and can operate at up to 32 Ghz - able to provide a link to spacecraft up to 900 million kilometres away."
( Read More... | 4 of 11 comments | Science )
Your Rights Online: ICANN vs. ccTLDs in Geneva
The InternetPosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 09:55AM
from the wardrums dept.
Gallowglass writes "The Register is reporting on an interesting meeting in Geneva. To quote from the article, 'Why the huge fuss? Because the meeting threatened to turn into a caucus where rising resentment against ICANN and its attempt to stamp ultimate authority over the Internet could have escalated into international agreement and action.' Didn't quite, but the natives are restless. The article has links to all presentations given at the two day meeting, and also an audio of the event at the bottom of the article. It's also a good summary of the controversy and of its history."
( Read More... | 32 of 68 comments | Your Rights Online )
Peace Corps to Wire Senegal
NewsPosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 09:10AM
from the goodwill-to-men dept.
An anonymous submitter wrote: "Peace Corps Online is reporting on the White House's Digital Freedom Initiative that will place volunteers from the Peace Corps, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco in a pilot program in Senegal where they will leverage nearly 200 cybercafes and 10,000 telecenters to provide opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The idea isn't new - David Rothman proposed an Electronic Peace Corps in 1984, the Geek Corps has been doing this kind of work in Ghana for years, and the Peace Corps already has about 1,500 volunteers working in information technology."
( Read More... | 60 of 127 comments )
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
GraphicsPosted by michael on Thu 06 Mar 08:21AM
from the purty-pictures dept.
ATi is bringing out their new card, the Radeon 9800 Pro, and all of the hardware review sites which depend on ATi's generosity for pre-release hardware have released their necessarily favorable reviews. Here's a few: Hothardware.com, Hexus.net, HardOCP.com, Anandtech, Tom's Hardware, Extremetech, PCWorld.
( Read More... | 117 of 265 comments )
Apple: Mac OS X 10.2.x DIsables Modifier Keys?
BugPosted by pudge on Thu 06 Mar 07:23AM
from the works-for-me dept.
drunkToaster writes " Adobe's support pages note that Mac OS X 10.2.x fails to re-enable modifier keys after an authentication session. The keys are disabled during the user/password dance as a security measure. Adobe explains a workaround for the problem which drastically effects many of its applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc)." This makes no sense to me; I authenticate to various servers etc. all day long, and never have problems with modifier keys. The Adobe explanation seems wholly inadequate.
( Read More... | 11 of 27 comments | Apple )
Are Video Blogs Ready For Prime Time?
The MediaPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 07:03AM
from the be-your-own-nina-pineda dept.
Markmarkmark writes "Is video blogging ready for prime-time? Can Internet talking 'blog-heads' beat the talking heads on Fox? Is the next Andy Rooney-type commentator going to be a
( Read More... | 77 of 180 comments )
Pancake Physics to Cut Batter Splatter
It's funny. Laugh.Posted by chrisd on Thu 06 Mar 03:58AM
from the all-hail-science dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "The headline just about says it all on this one. A physics grad student in the UK has come up with the mathematical formula for how to flip a pancake and have it land correctly back in the pan. The BBC has the details."
( Read More... | 93 of 274 comments )
Your Rights Online: Australian Federal Police Raid Major ISPs
PrivacyPosted by timothy on Thu 06 Mar 01:29AM
from the overzealous-or-regular-zealous dept.
pflodo writes "The Australian (newspaper) has an article about Telstra the major Australian ISP and other 'declined to name' ISPs that have been raided by Australian Federal Police to 'seek the identity of particular subscribers' in relation to their activity and files stored on the ISP's servers. I imagine they will eventually raid some domestic homes and make a scapegoat of some unfortunate teenagers."
( Read More... | 142 of 302 comments | Your Rights Online )
Your Rights Online: Ashcroft v. Registrars on Domain Property Status
The InternetPosted by timothy on Wed 05 Mar 11:38PM
from the hey-that's-not-a-press dept.
pbuxton writes "Here's a CNN story about the confiscation of domain names by law enforcement. An interesting dilemma noted in the story is that a domain name is either a mere service, which would let Verisign, et al., off the legal hook for mismanagement, or it is property which can be siezed by police and judges." This story mentions (and adds some perspective) to the recent seizure of ISOnews.com.
( Read More... | 27 of 47 comments | Your Rights Online )
In college I interned in the international systems department for a company, which has OMS (Order Management System), DMS (Distributor Management System), IMS (Inventory Management System), and another *MS, but I forget. Well, my boss had a pet project he wanted done which was to control the parameters between all the systems and be able to handle parameters between sites. Well, the parameter management system was the final name of my project as it neared completion.
Similar idea here when I worked at a place where they were implementing ISO9000 something or other...
Well, we needed to create forms for validating stuff... I was pushing for the IFW* document, hoping that it would stick. Unfortuneately I was laid off before we had a chance to really push for it.
*IFW: It F!cking Works
Damn human rights!
We should ravage life now to make it better for the future for those who were not tested on. It totally sucks that we have all these damn conservatives trying to protect the sanctity of human life. I mean, they are dead, who cares that what we do to their bodies now. Or maybe, they are retarded and don't enjoy life as much as we do, lets test on them.
Save the bunnies and rats, test on humans! Its inhuman to test on animals.
</sarcasm>
Sometimes the ends do not justify the means. Sometimes they do.
/cry
no mod points
Sweet! I bet something like this will make national news when a bunch of guys from Belview get blown away from in some AC's back yard. You won't even have to (or likely be able to since you'll be behind bars or in Belview) post pictures, I'm sure every major news source will post them for you.
You don't vote in the programmer type polls do you?
Everyone seems to use "$n years more than a rapist" argument. Maybe rapists need to spend more time in prison?
Of all the "she is the coldest place in the universe" this has got to be the worst. One, this is way late in the game, the joke has been beat to death. Two, the woman you made a commitment to love and take care of is now the butt of a over done joke.
I hope you have enough love for your wife to pick her up some flowers on your way home from for being so stupid. Maybe then you won't find the your bedroom is so cold. Good luck, and treat your spouse with the love you promised the day you married her.
*preview*...
Now that I rethink your message, maybe you meant her feet. My wife's feet are terribley cold and she likes to use my back to warm them. *brrr*
At one of my last jobs I used this setup:
Linux + Sendmail + Amavis + Sophos
Once I had it setup I could completely forget about it. Setting up the Amavis with sendmail was a trick, but I had a homebrew sendmail.cf file because of some complications with our mail setup. Once that was done, I signed up for sophos email alerts. From that mail I setup a script to be run when ever one of those mails came through to go out to sophos' website and get the update.
All in all, we never got an email virus coming into our network after that through this box.
I haven't RTFA yet, but I have glanced at the page.
I think that if you work through this you could come up with a workable solution. Perhaps this would work, though not the most efficient, but should be stable.
When you check something in, it is checked into an unstable tree. You set the build process runnig then. If it builds and validation tests work, it checks the changes into the nightly tree. If the unstable build/tests fail it email the developer of the issue. The nightly tree is built after all the unstable checkins from the day are either rejected or submitted. Then the nightly build is compiled and tested, if this fails then the project manager is notified who then tries to figure out why and bust some nuts, er has the developer(s) responsible for the failure fix it. If there were no issues nightly build is put into a stable tree.
In theory the this should yeild a "last stable build" on a regular basis unless there is major overhaul/development currently in process, in which case the build probably isnt a good idea to ship to a customer anyways.
Huh? Since you are a freak of my anyways, not a big deal.
Go here and then try the link Der Bau. You will see this ugly as sin ad roll down your screen covering content of the page. Then after like 20 seconds or so it will roll away. Granted, that might mean you need to actually read one of the links.
Okey, with that frame of reference. Re-read my post, I've even included it here for you to save you time.
Ack! What the hell is with those stoopid ads? They are worse then pop ups (well on par with them, much worse since mozilla blocks them for me). I feel like ripping the nuts of the bastard that made them and shoving them down the throats of the idiots that uses the hosting service that puts them on their pages.
Other than that, the concept looks pretty cool, since I can't read german.
Now, if you "get it" you can stop reading. If you don't "get it", let me explain, using very small words.
Ack!: exclaimation of distaste.
What the hell is with those stoopid ads?: Here I questions the taste of the ads and personally decide that they are quite stupid (stupid == stoopid, its an old warcraft joke some friends and I have).
They are worse then pop ups (well on par with them, much worse since mozilla blocks them for me).: Here's the tricky part that seemed to throw you for a loop. The ads on the above page are worse than pop ups (ads). You see pop up ads open a seperate window that can be closed (or if you are using Mozilla be blocked all together). This form of ad actaully blocks you from reading parts of the page. See, that isn't so tough, or maybe your handle should be changed to "ThatMadeNoSenseCauseIHaveASingleDigitIQ".
I feel like ripping the nuts of the bastard that made them and shoving them down the throats of the idiots that uses the hosting service that puts them on their pages.: Here I exaggerate my distaste for the ads. I could have thrown in any random stuff here, but decided this should cover my feelings of the ads more than enough.
Other than that, the concept looks pretty cool, since I can't read german.: Here I comment on the idea and the pictures of the sub shown on this page. Since I cannot read german (sort of like you and english) I mention in this sentence that I cannot read german.
Ack! What the hell is with those stoopid ads? They are worse then pop ups (well on par with them, much worse since mozilla blocks them for me). I feel like ripping the nuts of the bastard that made them and shoving them down the throats of the idiots that uses the hosting service that puts them on their pages.
Other than that, the concept looks pretty cool, since I can't read german.
Used it, it sucks. People complain about using X across a network, terminal services is a joke. And not a terribley funny one when working with it.
What are you running this idea on?
The 64 processor Inthefuturanium by Intel? I would loathe to ever think you would abuse a machine with more than one copy of windows at a time, but I think you might need a little more hardware to try and run 50+ copies of windows.
I already have one of these computers made of living cells. Too bad links haven't evolved yet though.
Obviously axxackall is having a slow email day and wants to have folks ask him about this great link he has. Well, its a hunch.
Or maybe timothy simpley didn't cut and paste correctly...
Either way, I'm sures its an exciting story.