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Portables

Submission + - Asus announces $189-Laptop

Submitted by rustalot42684
rustalot42684 writes: Asus has revealed a reference design for a $189 laptop, called the 3ePC at Computex. The laptop is running a custom version of Linux, has 512 MB of RAM, a 2GB solid-state drive, and an unknown processor. It will also come with 'an office suite compatible with MS Office', though Asus refused to confirm if this meant OpenOffice. There will also be a $299 version, but it unclear what the difference between the two will be.
Google

Submission + - Chinese bombing range visible in Google Maps

Submitted by
kentrel
kentrel writes: "Yesterday I found this slashdot comment which links to a google map photograph of a Chinese airbase deep in the middle of the Gobi Desert with a mock airbase built nearby, obviously used for practise bombing missions. I thought it was impressive so I posted the link to a flight sim forum and a poster noticed that the mock airbase was an exact replica of a Taiwanese airbase."
Programming

Submission + - A Windows-Based Packaging Mechanism

Submitted by
FishWithAHammer
FishWithAHammer writes: "As part of my Google Summer of Code project, I'm working with WinLibre to develop a vaguely Debian-esque software download system for Free/open source software on the Windows platform. My reasoning is that open-source software suffers from poor presentation. Most computer laymen, even those aware of open source software, often don't have any idea how to go looking for it — their Google-fu is lacking — but would use it were it easier to access. What I have proposed is both a Debian-style packaging mechanism (capable of using Windows Installer MSIs or not, as the user wishes) and a software "catalog" that takes the best aspects of Synaptic and Linspire's Click-N-Run system. Seamless, simple installation and removal of programs in as straightforward a way as apt-get (there will be a command-line tool as well). I'm posting to Slashdot to get the ideas of you lot who, while you may not be the target audience, can certainly provide insights that can be of value.

There are areas that I'm personally not familiar with, and while I have done some research I would like the opinions of Slashdotters on some others. While at first I intend to set it up so that WinLibre (and I) run only one repository, I am curious as to how this sort of tool could be most useful to network administrators. Customizable repositories will be available; the code will be under the GPL, after all, so it'd be a little hard for them not to be available.

I'm also interested in the ideas of those who might be in a position to roll together packages. I intend to package a number of open-source language interpreters with the core software to allow special pre- and post-install scripts, as well as removal scripts. C#Script, Perl, and Python are definites, as is a Cygwin sh interpreter. We will have some program requirements — chief among them that no registry changes may be made by the program — but some of them, I fear, will require some flexibility; some programs really do require a way to edit the registry, for example, and I am considering offering some sort of tracked way to make registry changes so they can be rolled back on uninstallation of the program.

I'd love to hear what Slashdotters think of this. Think of it as a wishlist, but you don't get any damn ponies.

Ed Ropple (FishWithAHammer)"
Linux Business

Submission + - Tux 500 Open-source wants open-wheel exposure

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I have noted on http://lobby4linux.com/ a new article posted on the tux500 Linux Indianapolis 500 fundraiser that the project has recently hit the area media. Posted on the Indianapolis Star. From the article:

In a couple of weeks, he and colleague Ken Starks have managed to raise about $11,000 from online donations. That's enough to secure a minor associate sponsorship — or small logo on the car.
So far, Moore said 35,000 to 40,000 people have visited http://tux500.com/ where he is collecting donations. He has set a deadline of May 21.
The owner of the car, Chastain Motorsports, has a lot riding on Moore's effort.
Indianapolis electrical contractor Miller-Eads has agreed to be an associate sponsor, but the team still doesn't have a primary sponsor. That will cost $350,000 to $600,000.
"We're hoping the Linux team will come through for us," said Ted Woerner, principal of Acceleration Marketing, which represents Chastain Motorsports.

The article has also reached digg at http://digg.com/linux_unix/Indianapolis_Star_Open_ source_wants_open_wheel_exposure

time is running out.
Censorship

Submission + - Scientologists In Row With BBC

Submitted by
CmdrGravy
CmdrGravy writes: "The Church Of Scientology is currently engaged in a row with BBC over a Panorama investigation by the BBC reporter John Sweeney. John is investigating the Church Of Scientology for the program to find out if they have changed in the last few years and moved away from the questionable practices and secrecy they have employed in the past.

The row centres around a YouTube video posted by the scientologists and a DVD they have released which show Mr Sweeney losing his temper with a scientology spokesman Tom Davis in which Mr Sweeney is driven to yelling at Tom Davis at the top of his voice. Mr Sweeney has since apologised for losing his temper which he says he now realises was both wrong and stupid. In the DVD the scientologists also accuse the BBC of organising an anti scientology demonstration and yelling terrorist death threats at John Travolta, allegations which the BBC denounce as being clearly laughable and utter nonsense. John Travolta has also accused of Mr Sweeney of harbouring "personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity" against Scientology in the documentary, and accused the reporter of displaying "hatred against my religion." This despite the fact that in the UK scientology is not classed as a religion due to the financial nature of their practices.

Mr Sweeneys outburst came at the end of a tour of a scientology exhibition which attempts to portray psychiatrists as evil nazi type torturers entitled "Psychiatry: Industry of Death" which is both gruesome and utterly unconvincing. In the days previous to this Mr Sweeney and his camera team became the latest in a long line of reporters to suffer harassment at the hands of scientologists whereby he has been shouted at, spied on, denounced as a bigot by John Travolta had his hotel invaded at midnight, and had mysterious strangers visit his neighbours and family and spy on his wedding. You can begin to see why someone might lose their temper having been victim to this sort of activity.

There is an excellent article in the Telegraph and you can read about the incident in Mr Sweeneys own words here at the BBC.

The video of Mr Sweeney losing his temper is available on YouTube, the argument is about Tom Davis claiming he has said things in a previous interview with someone else at which Tom Davis was not present and therefore cannot know what he has said. During this interview with, I think, an ex scientologist Tom Davis burst in half way through to make claims that the interviewee was some kind of paedophile.

Happily it looks like the BBC is going to stand behind their reporter, judging by this interview with the programs editor and the general tone of their reporting but, really why I'm posting this on /., what can be done against an organisation so determined to prevent fair and unbiased reporting on their activities and is clearly able to utilise the power of the internet and YouTube to further their aims. The BBC is a large organisation and can survive attacks like this which would easily cause a lot more problems to individuals or smaller organisations, is there a way of levelling the playing field in favour of the general population being able to access accurate information on organisations or corporations rather than propaganda put out by the said organisations or corporations ?"
Operating Systems

Submission + - Are .tmp files necessary or just bad programming?

Submitted by planckscale
planckscale writes: After spending another hour deleting .tmp files from a bloated XP machine I started to wonder, is the .tmp file necessary when coding an application on the MS platform? Why do so many apps produce .tmp files and is it just because of bad coding or does the use of them dramatically speed up an app? Don't coders use dev/null to reduce them in linux? I can understand the use of them in case an app crashes for recovery purposes, but why don't more apps have the capacity to delete their own .tmp files once they are done with them? Is it too much to ask to at least have the option when closing an app to delete your temp files?
Math

Submission + - Proving i equals 1

Submitted by
Weirdbro
Weirdbro writes: "I was trying to solve a problem with imaginary numbers, when I noticed something strange. I was able to prove i = 1 easily, and without obvious mathematical error, even though it is clearly wrong, just like proofs proving 1 + 1 = 3.
The proof:

x^2 = -1
x^2 * x^2 = -1*-1
-1*-1 = 1
x^2*x^2 = 1
x^4 = 1
x = +-1

Now, after doing more research, I found a Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_unit#Warni ng) which says that a common trick for doing false proofs like mine was sqrt(-1) * sqrt(-1) = sqrt(-1*-1) = sqrt(1).
However, my proof has avoided the pitfall of multiplying negative radicals. Where is the flaw in my proof?"
Announcements

Submission + - Linux Marketing Campaign Seeks $350k in 40 Days

Submitted by
helios17
helios17 writes: "Lobby4Linux announced an ambitious project to raise $350,000 or more to sponsor "Team Linux" with a big logo on the side of an Indy 500 race car. The Tux 500 project combines the efforts of volunteers at Lobby4Linux, Bob Moore, a visible GNU/Linux administrator, and Acceleration Marketing to sponsor the race car. If the group raises the money in 40 days to become a primary sponsor, the Linux name stands to reach millions of households. The Team Linux effort is not about marketing Red Hat or Novell to IT professionals; it is about making GNU/Linux a household name. http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/85530/index.h tml"

Feed Did Apple junket inspire "no iPod left behind" initiative? (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Portable Audio

Michigan's much-derided initiative to give iPods to every student in the state just seems to be getting curiouser and curiouser, with word now coming out that some of the lawmakers involved in the proposal went on a junket to California that was paid for at least in part by Apple. As The Detroit Free Press reports, both Representative Matt Gillard and House Speaker Andy Dillon took part in the 2 1/2 day trip earlier this year, where they apparently discussed classroom technology and the educational benefits of iPods, sneaking in some time to discuss wine distribution and business taxes as well. While it's not clear exactly how much of an influence the junket had on their decision, it certainly doesn't seem to have hurt things, with Dillon unveiling the $36-million iPod proposal not long after he returned.

[Via The Inquirer, photo courtesy of Anti iPod]

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Feed US Air Force Aims High With Bluespam (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
It seems that more and more brands and companies are trying to market themselves via Bluespamming -- sending out unsolicited messages and requests for connections to nearby mobile phones via Bluetooth. Marketers that use the practice, of course, don't call it Bluespam, and see it as a wonderful mechanism to use, even though the vast majority of people that receive the messages aren't interested in them. Now, it's the US Air Force that's turning to Bluespamming, as it plans to use the method to harass mobile phone users at a NASCAR race this weekend. A rep says Bluespamming will help prove the Air Force's high-tech chops to impressionable kids, while somebody from its ad agency says that it will help attract "tech savvy" recruits. Would they say the same things about email spam? Probably not. It's hard to see how annoying just about anybody with a Bluetooth phone in a particular area is a good way to market yourself, and never mind the horrific user experience of delivering content via mobile marketing. Needless to say, it's great to see the US government getting into the spamming business.
Media

Submission + - The real Tux Racer!

Submitted by
Vinicius Cordeiro
Vinicius Cordeiro writes: "'Marketing Linux has always been a tricky proposition. As a community, we have relied on corporations who have a stake in the Linux operating system to market Linux to the world at large. Today, we have an opportunity to change that, and make Linux marketing as much a community effort as Linux development. That effort begins with the Tux 500 project.

Our goal is simple: we want to collect community donations to enter a Linux sponsored car in the 2007 Indianapolis 500. We need your help!'

That's just the WOW effect that Linux need.

From: http://www.tux500.com/"
NASA

Submission + - Did NASA Accidentally "Nuke" Jupiter?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Title: Did NASA Accidentally "Nuke" Jupiter? Source: Enterprise URL Source: http://www.enterprisemission.com//NukingJupiter.ht ml Published: Apr 11, 2007 NASA's decision to finally terminate Galileo in September 2003 via a fiery plunge into Jupiter, was designed to prevent any possible biological contamination of Europa from a future random collision with the spacecraft, once its fuel was exhausted. An engineer named Jacco van der Worp claimed that, plunging into Jupiter's deep and increasingly dense atmosphere, the on-board Galileo electrical power supply — a set of 144 plutonium-238 fuel pellets — would ultimately "implode"; that the plutonium Galileo carried would ultimately collapse in upon itself under the enormous pressures of Jupiter's overwhelming atmosphere and go critical. Noone listened. One month later ... October 19, 2003 — an amateur astronomer in Belgium, Olivier Meeckers, secured a remarkable image, a dark black "splotch" showing up on the southern edge of Jupiter's well-known "North Equatorial Belt," trailing a fainter "tail" southwest (image center). Richard Hoagland http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=183496 has now calculated that, given the slow fall through a highly pressurised atmosphere, it is possible that the splotch is the result of about 50lb of plutonium going critical 700 miles below. Way to go, NASA!
Handhelds

Palm to go Linux 253

Posted by CmdrTaco from the will-change-precisely-nothing dept.
jetkins writes "The Melbourne Age reports that company officials announced Tuesday that Palm will move to a new Linux-based platform 'to help the company compete better.' The move was announced 'during a meeting with analysts in New York, where they also discussed the company's business strategy and refused to talk about recent rumors of a possible buyout.'"
Displays

Submission + - Nearly transparent, electrically conductive cement

Submitted by zero_offset
zero_offset writes: The Tokyo Institute of Technology has announced a process for creating an inexpensive, nearly transparent, electrically conductive alumina cement, reports Pink Tentacle, a blog that focuses on a broad range of interesting news from Japan. Conductivity is comparable to metal, and the transparency should be adequate for use in display panels. The process relies upon commonplace and inexpensive metals compared to the rare metals such as iridium currently used in display panels. (This is probably useful in many other ways, but slashdot's section/topic choices for articles are somewhat arbitrary and limited.) The blog links to several Japanese-language articles which have defied all my attempts to translate them.
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Will Game Creators Take Another Look At Linux?

Submitted by
tinkertim
tinkertim writes: "I'm curious to hear the opinions of other Slashdotters regarding the future of Linux and Gaming. With core developers offering to write device drivers for free, major PC makers offering Linux as an installed OS and thousands of would be game authors trying to get noticed — do you think Linux users can realistically hope for more games? Why or why not?"

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