Comment False dichotomy (Score 1) 59
Why would it be objectively better for people to be either specialists or generalists? Not only is there room for both but both are required to keep the world going.
Submission + - Linux 3.0 will have full Xen support (h-online.com)
LarsKurth writes: "Linux 3.0 will have everything necessary to run Xen as both as a management domain and as a Xen guest. This means that every single bit of support needed in Linux to work perfectly well with Xen is -in- the Linux mainline kernel tree. As Linux evolves, now, within that code base, the Linux/Xen portions will evolve at the same rate without separate patch trees and big chunks of code to carry along. This is great, as Linux will work with Xen out-of-the-box."
Submission + - Embed A Video... Go To Jail? (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A few weeks ago, Slashdot had a post about the new bill in Congress to make streaming infringing videos a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in jail if just 10 people watch the video. As more details come out, the bill keeps looking worse and worse, as it appears that the definitions used in the bill would mean that merely embedding or linking to an infringing YouTube video could put you on the hook for jailtime. Obviously, supporters of the bill insist that's not who will be targeted with this bill, but just the fact that they could be should be worrisome enough. We've seen other laws "misused" in the past.
Comment 2027? 2045? (Score 1) 159
It's funny because the technology will be long outdated by then.
Comment American Taliban (Score 0) 916
Always nice to see the American Taliban hard at work...
Comment Global subscriber base? (Score 1) 333
Netflix is only available in the US & Canada. How can they have a global subscriber base?
Comment Re:Them new DE's, man (Score 4, Insightful) 468
OK, you're right, KDE is by far the most useable of the three once you've disabled all the "semantic desktop" and "desktop activities" bullshit. But out of the box, it's just as jarring as the rest for me.
Of course, the mere fact that you can disable shitty features is a rarity these days. What happened to the Linux philosophy of personalization?
Of course, the mere fact that you can disable shitty features is a rarity these days. What happened to the Linux philosophy of personalization?
Comment Them new DE's, man (Score 5, Insightful) 468
I personally find all Unity, GNOME 3, and KDE 4.6 to be unuseable. What the hell went wrong? Why reinvent the motherfucking wheel as clumsily as possible over and over again?
Comment Friggin' timezones (Score 1) 32
>the best time to play Improviso is between 7 pm and 10 pm. [EST I presume]
Argh, the least convenient time for us Europeans...
Argh, the least convenient time for us Europeans...
Comment What the fuck Slashdot? (Score 1) 199
Seriously, what the fuck? The religious-relativist banter gets modded +4 INTERESTING and some of the best rational rebuttals get modded down to ONE? I hate to repeat myself, but what the fuck is going on?
Submission + - Kid kills mom after she takes his PlayStation away (tekgoblin.com) 2
tekgoblin writes: 16 year old Kendall Anderson got into some trouble and got his PlayStation taken away by his mother Rashida Anderson. After a 90 minute argument with his mother over the issue he proceeded to enter her room while she was sleeping and hit her over the head 20 times with a claw hammer.
Submission + - IBM's Watson surges to Jeopardy lead, retains tie (networkworld.com)
jbrodkin writes: IBM's Watson surged to a giant lead in the early minutes of the Jeopardy man-vs.-machine challenge, taking a $4,200 advantage into the first commercial break by dominating "Beatles People" and several other categories. But the massive supercomputer relinquished "his" lead and ended Day 1 of the three-day challenge in a tie at $5,000 with Jeopardy champion Brad Rutter. Ken Jennings finished the first day in third place at $2,000.
The first historic moment came when Watson buzzed in and said "What is shoe?" in response to a clue asking for a four-letter word describing both the iron fitting on a horse's hoof and a card-dealing box in a casino. That was Watson's first correct answer, with the computer started a major roll, taking $5,200 into the first commercial break, compared to $1,000 for Brad and $200 for Ken. But there were a few strange answers along the way. Alex Trebek called Watson "very bright, very fast, but he has some weird little moments once in a while."
The first historic moment came when Watson buzzed in and said "What is shoe?" in response to a clue asking for a four-letter word describing both the iron fitting on a horse's hoof and a card-dealing box in a casino. That was Watson's first correct answer, with the computer started a major roll, taking $5,200 into the first commercial break, compared to $1,000 for Brad and $200 for Ken. But there were a few strange answers along the way. Alex Trebek called Watson "very bright, very fast, but he has some weird little moments once in a while."
Submission + - Is Setting Up an Offshore IT Help Desk Ethical? 3
theodp writes: 'Except for a few odd jobs,' wrote an advice seeker to The Ethicist (NYT), 'I had been out of work for nine months when I was offered a job setting up an [IT] offshore help desk. Would it be ethical to accept the offer?' Randy Cohen, who pens The Ethicist column for the Times, not only advised the job seeker that it was indeed okay to help co-workers lose their jobs, but also seemed to suggest that it would be unethical for him not to offshore the jobs, saying: 'Some people feel we have a greater ethical duty to those closest to us — our neighbors — but in an era of global trade and travel, that is a recipe for tribalism and its attendant ills.' The job seeker, who noted his father's auto-industry job was outsourced, chose to ignore Cohen's ethics advice — as well as his own wife's — and declined the job out of principle. He continues to seek work. Comments?
Submission + - IPv6 Transition: Carrier-Grade NAT
caius112 writes: I've tried searching for information about the precise drawbacks of massive carrier-grade NAT-ing, which may be to come in the following months. Nothing close to exhausting comes up, so I guess it's time to Ask Slashdot.
My main concerns are: Roughly how many users are going to share one public IP? Is this going to break bittorrent, Skype, or other p2p applications? If yes, how could an ISP ever get away with it? Millions of people use these applications every day. There are privacy concerns as well: if someone sharing a public IP with me does something nasty on the internet, could I be dragged into it? Sounds scary. Also, I'm an avid gamer, and many of my online games have servers that ban hackers by IP — I assume I would get banned along with them?
Finally, if all of the above fears prove true, do you think that ISPs are still actually going to roll with massive NAT-ing?
My main concerns are: Roughly how many users are going to share one public IP? Is this going to break bittorrent, Skype, or other p2p applications? If yes, how could an ISP ever get away with it? Millions of people use these applications every day. There are privacy concerns as well: if someone sharing a public IP with me does something nasty on the internet, could I be dragged into it? Sounds scary. Also, I'm an avid gamer, and many of my online games have servers that ban hackers by IP — I assume I would get banned along with them?
Finally, if all of the above fears prove true, do you think that ISPs are still actually going to roll with massive NAT-ing?
Submission + - Water meter reading by drone (suasnews.com)
garymortimer writes: In countries where water demand is high but resource is low, every drop counts. An Israeli company, The Arad Group, has strived to prevent water leaks by perfecting manual methods of water measuring. Their recently developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a two-pound drone plane that can travel 900 feet above ground and detect water leaks.
The UAV can collect data from water meters every 11 to 30 seconds and capture readings of a whole city in less than one hour. Arad is already deploying its UAV to the UK, India and the U.S.
In the U.S. only, a 2009 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers showed that seven billion gallons of water are lost due to leaky pipes daily.
The UAV can collect data from water meters every 11 to 30 seconds and capture readings of a whole city in less than one hour. Arad is already deploying its UAV to the UK, India and the U.S.
In the U.S. only, a 2009 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers showed that seven billion gallons of water are lost due to leaky pipes daily.
