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Comment Death of an open source project (Score 1) 172

by afree87 (#21557757) Attached to: SixApart Sells LiveJournal to Russian Media Company
Here's some of the dirt on SUP:

http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads/tag/sup

This is basically going to mean that LJ, which was in a good position as an unincorporated open source project and a somewhat uncared for and misunderstood position under Six Apart, is being sold to a shoddy and inconsistent company an ocean away from half of its userbase. There is no guarantee that LiveJournal's new owners will take as good care of the seven years of information (ranging from useless to invaluable) its users have saved up.

Let this stand as a warning to new community start-ups: pick who you deal with wisely, because once you sell there's no going back.
The Internet

SixApart Sells LiveJournal to Russian Media Company 172

Posted by Zonk from the new-boss-same-as-old-boss dept.
molrak writes "SixApart tonight announced the sale of journal/blogging service Livejournal to Russia-based SUP. Original LJ founder Brad Fitzpatrick has chimed in on the situation: 'This is pretty cool because - They're ridiculously excited about LiveJournal, and have been for awhile (they previous purchased advertising rights in Russia, but ended up doing a bunch of Russia-specific LJ development as well). They want to throw a lot of resources at LiveJournal in terms of product development and engineers. "LiveJournal.com, Inc." now stands alone again, focusing on nothing but LJ. Sounds like I'll have more LJ influence (via new role as advisory board member) than I've had recently.'"
United States

Submission + - On Point On the New Anti-Americanism (onpointradio.org) 2

Submitted by
Wellington Grey
Wellington Grey writes: "On Point recently did a show on the new Anti-Americanism. While Anti-Americanism has existed since the country emerged as the world's only superpower, the program stresses the differences and dangers of the current situation.

Anti-Americanism could be brushed off in the past because it was a small, if vocal, group espousing the idea. The problem is now that Anti-American sentiment abroad is no longer countered by a general population with positive feelings toward the US. Positive thoughts, even in America's allies, are now difficult to find.

Take, for example, Turkey. Ten years ago it was one of the most pro-American countries in the world, with Turkish support of the US at over 90%. Currently, support for the US is less than 9%.

From the show's summary: You want to know about anti-Americanism in the world? Here's the unhappy conclusion of a big-time panel of Republican and Democratic heavyweights, out yesterday: "America's reputation, standing, and influence are at all-time lows, and possibly sinking further."

Never in our history, says the report, have we, as a nation, been so poorly regarded in the world. And that has consequences. When America tries to lead, who follows? And if America stands too much alone, can it possibly prosper? Can it ever be safe?"
Math

Submission + - Animation illustrates Mobius Transformations

Submitted by Tablizer
Tablizer writes: Science News describes a youtube sensation whereby Mobius transformations can be described simply as a linear projection through a sphere to a plane. The coolest transformation is the inversion, in which a rectangular image can be turned inside out. I'd like to see this transformation on actual images (but not goatse, please).
Quickies

Submission + - The birthplace of Romulus and Remus found

Submitted by
jd
jd writes: "A cave known to the Romans as the Lupercal has been found. The Lupercal (a 26' high cave) was believed by the Romans to have been the place that Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome) were rescued and suckled by a she-wolf. Now, whether these two people ever existed is another matter entirely, but even the place itself had descended into myths and legends, with no serious archaeologist believing it existed. Due to the extreme instability of Palatine Hill, where the cave exists, the archaeologists have not been inside. Instead, exploration has been by robots with cameras, endoscopes and laser scanners. These have mapped some amazing mosaics, marble artwork and an amazing white eagle."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Why do games still have levels? (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by a.d.venturer
a.d.venturer writes: Elite, the Metroid series, Dungeon Siege, God of War I and II, Half-Life (but not Half-Life 2), Shadow of the Colossus, the Grand Theft Auto series; some of the best games ever (and Dungeon Siege) have done away with the level mechanic and created uninterrupted game spaces devoid of loading screens and artificial breaks between periods of play. Much like cut scenes, level loads are anathema to enjoyment of game play, and a throwback to the era of the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 when games were stored on cassette tapes, and memory was measured in kilobytes. So in this era of multi-megabyte and gigabyte memory and fast access storage devices why do we continue to have games that are dominated by the level structure, be they commercial (Portal, Team Fortress 2), independent (Darwinia) and amateur (Nethack, Angband)? Why do games still have levels?
United States

Submission + - Climate change perspectives changing? (senate.gov) 1

Submitted by myside
myside writes: According to a write-up in the US Senate committee environment and public works blog, a re-vamped survey of published climate research papers reveals changing viewpoints over the past decade insofar as man-made climate change. 48% of papers examined refused to accept or reject the hypothesis that man is a cause of global warming. While 45% of the papers still explicitly or implicitly accept the hypothesis, the number of scientist who endorse the "consensus" view is dropping.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Apparent GPL violation in ICO for PS2 (2chan.us) 1

Submitted by
astrange
astrange writes: "While checking out Sony's PS2 game ICO, I found what looks a lot like a GPL violation in it. It's a small one, but I've never heard of any being found in a console game before. Unfortunately, I can't reach the original author — he doesn't seem to read his email, and I can't go calling his company in Japan. Can the rest of the Internet get further than I can?"
Security

U.S. Mass Declassified Documents At Midnight 131

Posted by kdawson from the seekrits dept.
Alchemist253 writes "Advocates of open government have another reason to celebrate New Year 2007: at midnight hundreds of millions of U.S. government documents that were classified more than 25 years ago got automatically declassified. Various agencies have applied for exemptions for specific documents, but nonetheless there should be a release of a number of interesting papers." From the article: "'It is going to take a generation for scholars to go through the material declassified under this process,' said Steven Aftergood, who runs a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists."
Windows

Near-Future Fords to Feature Windows Automotive 441

Posted by CowboyNeal from the clippy-is-my-copilot dept.
dpbsmith writes "The Detroit Free Press reports that a Windows Automotive software suite named Sync will be featured in some cars available Spring 2007, all 2008 Ford models, and Lincoln and Mercury models later. The software does not, apparently, run the engine or do anything directly connected with transportation. It will, rather, allow the user to 'use their vehicle as a computer in key ways, such as hands-free cell phone calls or downloading music or receiving e-mail.' Bill Ford and Bill Gates were reported as saying that having high-definition screens in vehicles, speech recognition, cameras, digital calendars and navigation equipment with directions and road conditions will set car companies apart from their competitors in the future. 'There are going to be those who have it and those who don't. And even those who get it later are going to be a generation behind,' Ford said."
Yahoo!

Yahoo! Takes Down News Message Boards 135

Posted by CowboyNeal from the broken-beyond-repair dept.
hondo77 writes "Yahoo! has taken down their news message boards. According to the message from General Manager Neil Budde, 'Over the next few months, we plan to offer new discussion forums based on topics in the news and incorporating the latest features to foster a better discussion for all of our readers.' Okay, I can understand wanting to fix the boards so they're more useful but to take them down for months before a replacement is released?"

Robots to Crawl Under the City 94

Posted by CowboyNeal from the dreaming-of-electric-sheep dept.
Johan Louwers writes "Robots will crawl tubes in a short while to investigate power cables running in the tubes to make sure they are still undamaged or in need for a repair. The Robotic Cable Inspection System is developed by Alexander Mamishev, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. Making use of infrared thermal analysis and acoustic partial discharge analysis, the robot will be checking mile after mile of cable while crawling his way in the tubes."

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