55434495
submission
dp619 writes:
The Outercurve Foundation has published a defense of freeloaders as part of a blog series on how businesses can participate in open source. "...in the end, it's all about freeloaders, but from the perspective that you want as many as possible. That means you're “doing it right” in developing a broad base of users by making their experience easy, making it easy for them to contribute, and ultimately to create an ecosystem that continues to sustain itself. Freeloaders are essential to the growth and success of every FOSS project."
50585319
submission
astroengine writes:
After a 35-year, 11-billion mile journey, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft left the solar system to become the first human-made object to reach interstellar space, new evidence from a team of scientists shows. “It’s kind of like landing on the moon. It’s a milestone in history. Like all science, it’s exploration. It’s new knowledge,” long-time Voyager scientist Donald Gurnett, with the University of Iowa, told Discovery News. The first signs that the spacecraft had left the solar system's heliopause was a sudden drop in solar particles and a corresponding increase in cosmic rays in 2012, but this evidence alone wasn't conclusive. Through indirect means, scientist analyzing oscillations along the probe's 10-meter (33-foot) antennas were able to deduce that Voyager was traveling through a less dense medium — i.e. interstellar space.
47533897
submission
illiteratehack writes:
NASA has selected a 39 year old chief technology officer to become a trainee astronaut. Josh Cassada is the current chief technology officer and co-founder of Quantum Opus, a firm that specialises in photonics. Cassada is one of eight individuals selected by NASA from 6,100 applicants for astronaut training, though what their future mission may be has yet to be revealed.
47156053
submission
girlmad writes:
The UK government’s chief operating officer Stephen Kelly offered a frightening insight into the world of government IT spending this week. According to Kelly, the government spends a crazy £6,000 per year per PC just to maintain the devices, and wastes 3 days per year per person due to slow boot-up times. One PC supplier must be rubbing their hands with glee at this cushy deal.
46533081
submission
illiteratehack writes:
Last week Intel revealed details of its Silvermont microarchitecture that will power its next generation Atom processors codenamed Merrifield and Bay Trail. In the firm's presentation however, Intel took screenshots of ARM's Developer Studio 5 and presented it without appropriate credit when referencing energy efficient software development. Aside from using ARM's screenshots without credit, Developer Studio 5 does not support code profiling on Intel's architecture.
46162269
submission
carlypage3 writes:
Benefits claimants in the UK are being forced to use Microsoft's now obsolete Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 software. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) states that its online forms are not compatible with Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9 and 10, Safari, Google Chrome or Firefox. As if that wasn't unnerving enough, the Gov.UK website says that users cannot submit claims using Mac OS X or Linux operating systems, either.
46088057
submission
Jorgensen writes:
A colleague pointed me to this little gem: http://dwp.gov.uk/eservice/need.asp — so if there is anybody out there still using XP and IE6: Your backwardness and unwillingness to upgrade has finally paid off! If you're entitled to UK government benefits, you can actually claim online!
But if you're entitled to benefits and do *not* have an windows box of sufficient age: tough.
Although I'm not completely surprised by the level of standards-support in the UK, how do things look in the rest of the world? Are other nations equally out-of-touch? crazy? funny? or just weird?
46086943
submission
sweetpea86 writes:
A student at the University of Central Lancashire has created a telepresence robot which mimics human behaviour. Known as MAKIIS, the robot is inspired by the Sheldonbot from US comedy 'The Big Bang Theory'. Moving on wheels and projecting a live video of the user's face via an iPad, MAKIIS can allow an office worker in London to chat with a colleague in Paris as if they were in the same room.
46085339
submission
illiteratehack writes:
Icewarp, a company that has sold messaging software to the US Navy and the British Army, claims that getting existing Microsoft Exchange customers over to Linux is easy once it demonstrates the same features can be had without the need to licensing both the operating system and the messaging server. Given feature parity on Linux, just how long can firms justify paying Microsoft's licensing fees?
46084509
submission
DavidGilbert99 writes:
The job of a chief security officer has never been tougher. As well as an exponential increase in threats from cyber-criminals, hacktivists and nation-state cyber-espionage, the higher media profile cyber-security is getting these days means everyone knows about it and this puts even greater pressure on CSOs.
The problem is, the biggest threat is right under their noses. According to a survey of UK organisations across the government, banking, finance and defence sectors, the majority of security breaches come from employees, ex-employees and trusted partners — and yet 69% of those surveyed said protecting sensitive data from outside threats their main focus.
46071649
submission
dgharmon writes:
The world's second-richest man, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, was a major Irish bank bondholder ahead of the financial collapse that saw the taxpayer put on the hook for the €64bn bank bailout. Gates was a bondholder in Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide Building Society, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank, according to filings seen by the Sunday Independent. The filings detail investments held by Gates' Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
46062259
submission
mask.of.sanity writes:
Australia's plans for a data breach notification scheme have been revealed which will force organisations to report serious breaches to affected victims. The plans, which are still in a draft form, show that the country's privacy commissioner could force businesses to inform press if the breaches are bad enough, pursue fines of up to $1.7 million for organisations that are repeatedly breached and force businesses to adopt stronger security controls.
45721595
submission
illiteratehack writes:
10 years ago AMD released its first Opteron processor, the first 64-bit x86 processor. The firm's 64-bit 'extensions' allowed the chip to run existing 32-bit x86 code in a bid to avoid the problems faced by Intel's Itanium processor. However AMD suffered from a lack of native 64-bit software support, with Microsoft's Windows XP 64-bit edition severely hampering its adoption in the workstation market.
45519329
submission
girlmad writes:
Thousands of PCs have been crippled by a faulty update from security vendor Malwarebytes that marked legitimate system files as malware code. The update definition meant Malwarebytes' software treated essential Windows.dll and .exe files as malware, stopping them running and thus knocking IT systems and PCs offline, leaving lots of unhappy users and one firm with 80% of its servers offline.
45309651
submission
llebeel writes:
Gigabyte previewed a mini PC called Brix at a "tech tour" event in London last night, which could see the firm take on the Raspberry Pi.
Boasting what the firm claims is "the same power as a tower PC", the mini computer boasts a choice of Intel Celeron or Core processors as powerful as the Core i7 chip for "low to high power".
However, as yet specs are thin on the ground, but we do know it should launch in the UK within the next month or so..
