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Education

PA Laptop Spying Inspires FSF Crowdsourcing Effort 135

Posted by timothy from the inspiration-comes-from-many-places dept.
holmesfsf writes "Creeped out by the Lower Merion School District's remote monitoring of students? Check out the Free Software Foundation's response to the laptop spying scandal and help build a wiki listing of school districts that provide students with laptops, so that the FSF can campaign against mandatory, proprietary laptops."
NASA

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
NASA

NASA Tests All-Composite Prototype Crew Module 67

Posted by Soulskill from the just-don't-try-to-take-a-slap-shot-with-it dept.
coondoggie writes "With an eye toward building safer, lighter and tougher spacecraft, NASA said today its prototype space crew module made up of composite materials handled tests simulating structural stresses of launch and atmospheric reentry. The idea behind NASA's Composite Crew Module project is to test new structural materials for possible future NASA spacecraft. According to NASA, composite materials are being looked at because they are stiff and lightweight and can be formed into complex shapes that may be more structurally efficient. In space travel, where every additional pound of weight drives costs higher, any weight savings provides increased payload capacity and potentially reduces mission expense."
Communications

Pedro Matias Sets New Texting Record At Mobile World Cup 70

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the text-invalid-if-bff-appears-anywhere-in-it dept.
Pedro Matias showed off his mad txtin sklz at this year's Mobile World Cup and managed to set a new record for "fastest, most accurate" texts as determined by the event's corporate owners. "history was made when Portugal's Pedro Matias set the new World's Record for texting by typing a 264-character text in just 1 minute 59 seconds (besting the previous record by 23 seconds). Of course, each Mobile World Cup must have its share of controversy -- in this case, Engadget Mobile's very own Chris Ziegler led a silent protest during the awards ceremony. The group was reportedly upset over the use of QWERTY phones (the LG enV3 in this case) to break the record."

Comment Re:KDE 4! (Score 2, Insightful) 419

by garvon (#30101098) Attached to: GNOME 3 Delayed Until September 2010

I find I get closest to what I had on real kde running xfce with the kde backend and the kde applications. I use the new QGtkStyle which makes the kde /qt applications use gtk to draw the widgets. and compiz expose and cairo-dock (I don't like the always on top of the xfce panel). This gives me most of what I had with kde 3.5 and compiz except different wallpaper per desktop.
I just got done trying kde 4.3 for 3 weeks. It is to much of pain to get it to give me MY desktop not what they fucking want to give me.
Most of the applications are as good as the old ones (the only complaints I see are 2 i don't use konq. and amorock).
Since the kde devs. now talk about options being bad! sort of like gnome did from 1.4 ->2 i don't see kde ever going back to a useful desktop os again. I think they are going for the new name of KCE K Cellphone Environment.
Oh I was the same as you in I used gnome 1.4 and tried gnome 2 could not get used to how unfriendly it was to configuring what you want and moved to kde.

Comment Re:Too little, too late; I'm with Linus (Score 1) 432

by garvon (#28951499) Attached to: KDE 4.3 Released

Wow. Can you really? If you want a desktop that does nothing but the one or two things that you want then by all means use it. However, Xfce isn't venerated as the desktop that will answer all our prayers because it does just that. Nothing. It's a shell that launches applications and that's about it. Customisation is zilch, pretty much, and I can't fathom how you're satisfied with it in that department after KDE 3.

I know I can. (with the exception of single click desktop icons) I have almost the same desktop set up with xfce+compiz now that I had with kde 3,5+compiz. I run the kde backend ,still use krusader as my file manager and yakuake for an xterm. Most of the kde 4x Apps are fine. and the kio still works. Personally I have no problems with kde 4.x except the actual desktop part.
It is too much of a pain in the ass to try to get it to configure to give you want you want instead of what someone else decided you should have.

Xfce is fast and more stable then kde 4.2. (I have not ran 4.3 final yet)
Right click on gives my what I want. (Yes I own a regular mouse not a old macbook.) I also find that I don't have to fight the xfce panel to give me the layout and size and shape I want. Also now with qt 4.5 I can make kde apps use gtk to draw the widgets so they match my theme.

I did download the 4.3RC a few nights ago after fighting with the desktop to try to get something I could use. I decided it ain't worth it.and ctl+alt+backspace
I am afraid for kde that kde 4x is Wordstar2000 all over again. And like ws2k it will in the long run be the cause of loss of momentum and mind share for kde.

Comment Re:This is about purchase orders, not bank account (Score 1) 138

by garvon (#26860533) Attached to: Web Scam Bilks State of Utah Out of $2.5M

From TFA
"In one case investigated by Kessler's firm, thieves used computer software transmitted by e-mail to monitor financial information input by the chief financial officer of an Ohio insurance firm. Once they had the information, they diverted insurance payments to their bank account. About $1 million was stolen. "
so yes it is an it problem. ....sort of.

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