Rural - Slashdot User

Submission + - Favourite input peripheral

Submitted by Cougem on Tuesday August 04, 2009 @04:48AM

Cougem writes: Favourite input peripheral?

Keyboard
Mouse
Microphone
Tablet
Trackball
Touchscreen
Light pen
Cowboy Neal's punchards
Breasts

Submission + - A short history of Btrfs

Submitted by

diegocgteleline.es

on Friday July 31, 2009 @11:45AM

diegocgteleline.es writes: "Valerie Aurora, a linux filesystem developer and ex-ZFS designer, gives in this article a great insight on how Btrfs, the filesystem that will replace Ext4, was created and how it works: "You probably have heard of the cool new kid on the file system block, btrfs. But you might not know much about it beyond a few high-level keywords — copy-on-write, checksums, writable snapshots — and a few sensational rumors and stories — the Phoronix benchmarks, btrfs is a ZFS ripoff, btrfs is a secret plan for Oracle domination of Linux, etc [...] In this article, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look at the design and development of btrfs on many levels — technical, political, personal — and trace it from its origins at a workshop to its current position as Linus's root file system"

Submission + - emacs 23 has been released (blogspot.com)

Submitted by djcb on Thursday July 30, 2009 @05:38AM

djcb writes: After only 2 years since the previous version, now emacs 23 (.1) is available. It brings many new features, of which the support for anti-aliased fonts on X may be the most visible. Also, there is support for starting emacs in the background, so you can pop up new emacs windows in the blink of an eye. There are many other bigger and smaller improvements, including support for D-Bus, Xembed, and viewing PDFs inside emacs. And not to forget, M-x butterfly. You can get emacs 23 from ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/ or one of its mirrors; alternatively, there are binary packages available, for example from Ubuntu PPA.

Submission + - Is $250K-a-Year for a Computer Consultant Normal? 1

Submitted by

theodp

on Thursday July 30, 2009 @04:14AM

theodp writes: "After expressing astonishment that little-known consulting firm Future Technology Associates — which has no offices and not much of a website — was on the verge of being handed a new $95 million contract by the New York City Department of Education, the NY Daily News' Juan Gonzalez follows up with a report that taxpayers shelled out an average of $250,000 last year for each of FTA's 63 computer geeks, which is equal to the salary of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the city's highest-paid executive. Several company employees received considerably more than Klein — state records indicate FTA's not-to-exceed-hourly-rates range from $104.90 to $409.11. DOE officials defended the price of FTA's consultants. 'Their rates are better than competitive,' said Photeine Anagnostopoulos, the DOE's chief operating officer, adding that in corporate America, a quarter million a year for a computer consultant is normal. Ms. Anagnostopoulos may not be concerned, but NYC taxpayers might find it interesting to know that in 2008, FTA declared fair wages for the 12 H-1B consultants it sought to place in Brooklyn would be somewhere between $48,152 and $69,576."

Submission + - CentOS Project Administrator Goes AWOL

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30, 2009 @04:12AM

An anonymous reader writes: Lance Davis, the main project administrator for CentOS, a popular free "rebuild" of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux, appears to have gone AWOL. In an open letter from his fellow CentOS developers, they describe the precarious situation the project has been put in. There have been attempts to contact him for some time now, as he's the sole administrator for the centos.org domain, the IRC channels, and apparently, CentOS funds. One can only hope that Lance gets in contact with them and gets things sorted out.

Submission + - Civil rights activists champion Google book deal (idg.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Thursday July 30, 2009 @01:19AM

angry tapir writes: "A proposed settlement allowing Google to digitize millions of books will have huge benefits for minority populations and their access to valuable information, according to a group of civil rights leaders and educators, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the National Federation of the Blind. (Previously: EFF Urges Pressure On Google Over Book Search.)"

Submission + - Apple: iPhone Jailbreaking Could Hurt Cell Towers (wired.com) 1

Submitted by AHuxley on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @08:51AM

AHuxley writes: Apple notes nation's cellphone networks could be open to "potentially catastrophic" cyberattacks by iPhone-using hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their wireless devices.
The Copyright Office is considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the widespread practice of jailbreaking.
Apple feels that if the "baseband processor" software, which enables a connection to cell phone towers is exposed then a user could crash the tower software, or use the Exclusive Chip Identification number to make anonymously calls.
Apple feels its closed business model is what made the iPhone a success.
Costas Tsalikidis, the Greek telco (Vodafone) whistleblower did show what could be done within the Greek telco network but that was from within and he was later found hung.
What do slashdot readers think? Is Apple playing the "evil genius" hacker card or can "anyone" with a smartphone and a genius friend pop a US cell tower?

Submission + - Microsoft's browser ballot hits Vista and XP (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @06:42AM

Barence writes: "Microsoft is planning to extend its "browser ballot" screen beyond Windows 7 to all European Vista and XP owners running Internet Explorer. According to Microsoft's submission to the EU, between three and six months after its "browser ballot" proposal has been approved, the screen will be rolled out to Vista and XP users through Windows Update. The update will be labelled either "high priority" or "important" and those users who choose to install it will be presented with a screen offering them a choice of "up to ten browsers". At the screen, users will be able to install a new browser, stick with Internet Explorer or defer the choice — with Windows offering user-defined reminders. Windows 7 owners will be hit with the update on the 22 October, or within two weeks of the EC's decision, depending on which arrives later."

Submission + - Buffalo: 802.11n saga is far from over (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @06:19AM

Barence writes: "The Wi-Fi Alliance last week claimed that the 802.11n standard was set for final approval by the IEEE in September. But Buffalo's pre-sales engineer, Jorg Andreas, isn't so sure — he expects there to be a third draft of the standard this autumn. "From our perspective, we are still far away from having a standard available," Andreas said. "It looks like there will be no standardisation [in September]. The next upcoming step would be a 450Mbits/sec or 600Mbits/sec draft 3 [specification] instead of having a standard." Andreas claims Buffalo and other manufacturers will launch products based on the third draft this autumn, although he admits few customers are likely to upgrade their existing 802.11n equipment. "I can't see any big impact except for the geeks and the freaks in this market," he said."

Submission + - @sshole Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams (physicscentral.com) 3

Submitted by

BuzzSkyline

on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @01:20AM

BuzzSkyline writes: "Traffic jams are minimized if a significant fraction of drivers break the rules by doing things like passing on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to an intersection. The insight comes from a cellular automata study published this month in the journal Physical Review E. In effect, people who disregard the rules help to break up the groups that form as rule-followers clump together. The risk of jamming is lower if all people obey the rules than if they all disobey them, according to the analysis, but jamming risk is lowest when about 40 percent of people drive like jerks."

Submission + - Barnes and Noble Offers FREE WiFi (barnesandnoble.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @12:01AM

suraj.sun writes: Now at Barnes and Noble, complimentary Wi-Fi. No fees. No Charges. Just Log on.

We have always wanted our stores to feel like home--a place where people can relax, explore and connect with ideas and each other at their leisure. So it is only natural that, in today's world, we want our customers to enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi. You can explore the world the way connects us to the world today.

Barnes and Noble : http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Wi-fi-at-Barnes-and-Noble/379001240/?cds2Pid=16444

Submission + - Northern Sea Route through Artic Becomes a Reality 1

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @07:27PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "Andrew Revkin writes in the NY Times that since 1553, when Sir Hugh Willoughby led an expedition north in search of a sea passage over Russia to the Far East, mariners have dreamed of a Northern Sea Route through Russia's Arctic ocean that could cut thousands of miles compared with alternate routes. A voyage between Hamburg and Yokohama is only 6,600 nm. via the Northern Sea Route — less than 60% of the 11,400 nm. Suez route. Now in part because of warming and the retreat and thinning of Arctic sea ice in summer, this northern sea route is becoming a reality with the 12,700-ton "Beluga Fraternity," designed for a mix of ice and open seas, poised to make what appears to be the first such trip. The German ship picked up equipment in Ulsan, South Korea, on July 23 and arrived in Vladivostok on the 25th with a final destination at the docks in Novyy Port, a Siberian outpost. After that, if conditions permit, it will head to Antwerp or Rotterdam, marking what company officials say would be the first time a vessel has crossed from Asia to Europe through the Arctic on a commercial passage."

Comment Re:Apple's pulling a Sony (Score 1) 541

by Rural on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @05:12PM (#28859073) Attached to: Apple Kills Google Voice Apps On the iPhone

I know many people who like both Apple's and Google's products and I suppose the tensions between the two companies do not bode well for them.

Comment Re:i am glad... (Score 1) 711

by Rural on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @05:10PM (#28859053) Attached to: Favorite type of electical wall socket?

There is, the IEC 60906-1. But only Brazil is actually using it.

Submission + - MS Windows Marketplace for Mobile Contest (mobilethisdeveloper.com)

Submitted by

pat26

on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @09:52AM

pat26 writes: "MS has announced a contest to develop Windows Mobile applications, http://www.mobilethisdeveloper.com/general_rules.aspx. I decided to sign up and when I started to fill out the application, I was shocked. The developer must not only provide their name, email, ... but also a bank account number and even a credit card number!!!!"

Slashdot Top Deals