pAnkRat - Slashdot User

Breakpoints have now been patented 412

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 03, 2007 @01:57PM from the real-coders-just-use-printf-anyway dept.

An anonymous reader noted that apparently Breakpoints have now been patented. From the link "A method for debugging including the steps of receiving code having a software breakpoint function therein, running the code for the purpose of debugging, monitoring the code to detect the presence of the software breakpoint function, recognizing the software breakpoint function, determining an action to be performed based on the software breakpoint function, and implementing the action. The present invention also includes an apparatus for implementing the method for debugging and a medium embodying a program of instructions for execution by a device to perform the method for debugging."

Submission + - The nightmare of Xbox live DRM

Submitted by Darren on Sunday April 08, 2007 @02:59PM

Darren writes: There is a huge elephant in the room with XBox Live. If you are one of the "3 to 5%" (ha!) of XBox 360 owners who have had to have their defective console replaced, you'll suddenly find that the content you legally purchased on XBox Live is only playable by the same account that downloaded it, and only when you're connected. This is Microsoft's way of punishing you for having a defective console. 55 page (and counting) discussion here. — but no solution from Microsoft yet, just an awkward work-around. (I'm currently on console #7.) This was made all the worse by the recent 14 hour+ XBox Live outage.

Journal Journal: LedgerSMB 1.2 released, SQL-Ledger changes licenses

Journal by einhverfr on Sunday April 08, 2007 @02:13PM

SQL-Ledger changed its license away from the GPL to a license that many of us feel meets neither the FSF's definition of Free Software nor the OSI's definition of Open Source. Perhaps the reason is that DWS is afraid of the competition.

Submission + - Linux Bootlader for xbox360 - XeLL

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @02:51AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "XeLL is the Xenon Linux Loader. It's a second-stage bootloader and is usually run by an exploit. The method of booting this is not a part of this project. XeLL catches CPU threads, sets them up (basically setting HRMOR to zero), loads an ELF file from either network (tftp) or CDROM, and launches it. It also contains a flat device tree for linux. cdrom.c includes a very simple ISO9660 parser, which tries to boot the file named ""vmlinux". lwIP (http://www.sics.se/~adam/lwip/) is used for networking. Network config is currently hardcoded in network.c (and main.c). XeLL also contains a HTTP server. It is not really used. XeLL is licensed under the GPL v2, and no other version. Xenon-specific stuff of XeLL was written by Felix Domke , other parts where taken from other free sourcecodes. No non-free hardware documentation was used for developing XeLL. XeLL is in a very early stage, but is (most of the time) fully working."

Submission + - John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies

Submitted by

Brendan Killackey

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @12:18AM

Brendan Killackey writes: "John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backu s.html?hp"

Ian Murdock Joins Sun 123

Posted by kdawson on Monday March 19, 2007 @08:50PM from the long-time-admirer dept.

RLiegh sends us the second piece of news today featuring Debian founder Ian Murdock. In an entry on his blog, Murdock announced that he is joining Sun Microsystems as their chief operating platforms officer. As he put it in his opensolaris post, this "...basically means I'll be in charge of Sun's operating system strategy, spanning Solaris and Linux." In all likelihood one of his first priorities will be "closing the usability gap" between Solaris and Linux.

Submission + - The Sun, not Man, is Causing Global Warming

Submitted by

Sterling D. Allan

on Monday March 19, 2007 @05:33PM

Sterling D. Allan writes: "There are plenty good reasons to go green. Global warming isn't one of them. A 76-minute documentary produced in England and published on YouTube destroys the arguments put forward by Al Gore and other activists who lay the primary blame for Global Warming at the feet of mankind. According to the documentary, CO2 historically lags earth mean temperatures by several hundred years. The lock-step relationship is between solar activity and earth temperatures. Man's contribution is puny in comparison. The earth has seen temperatures much warmer than today in previous cyclical periods."

Submission + - Learning Assembly programming

Submitted by

intelinsight

on Monday March 19, 2007 @07:48AM

intelinsight writes: "How relevant or useful is it to learn Assembly programming language in the current era? Consider this question in the lieu of the current s/w development needs and also the claims of the Assembly lovers for it being a language giving one insights of the internal working of a computer."

Submission + - Free OpenSolaris Starter Kit

Submitted by

Linux Laptop Guy

on Sunday March 04, 2007 @04:15AM

Linux Laptop Guy writes: "The global distribution of the new OpenSolaris Starter Kit is now live. The kit contains tutorials, docs, community distributions, source code, and tools all delivered on two DVDs for free."

Submission + - Vacuum tube turns 100

Submitted by

wenko

on Sunday March 04, 2007 @04:02AM

wenko writes: "The device that heralded the beginning of the 20th century electronics industry first saw the light of day in late 1906, just over a century ago. This was the triode electron tube, or audion, as its inventor called it."

Submission + - Vista cracked thanks to Microsoft

Submitted by

Torrentex

on Sunday March 04, 2007 @12:49AM

Torrentex writes: "Following hot on the heels of the "Brute Force Keygen" for Vista which ultimately proved to be a hoax, a piracy group called Pantheon has released a full Vista crack. This one has been tested by the community and works 100% of the time. It exploits activation functionality Microsoft intentionally built in for OEM system makers churning out thousands of PCs at a time who don't have time to activate each machine individually."

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