jon_anderson_ca - Slashdot User

Submission + - Internet growing too large for current hardware?

Submitted by

rkohutek

on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:30PM

rkohutek writes: "There has been a very interesting discussion happening on the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) mailling list about the scalability of today's Internet routers. A vast quantity of those routers support only 256,000 unique networks. According to the CIDR-Report, there are ~233,216 routes on the Internet, and at the current rate of 3,500 additional routes per month, we are going to be bumping into those hardware limits very quickly. Not many people are aware of the situation, and even fewer are prepared to perform the expensive upgrades. Has anybody already dealt with this and have solutions?"

Submission + - Ice Age Triggered by Proximity to Sun (geologytimes.com)

Submitted by

webdoodle

on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:30PM

webdoodle writes: "Analysis of Antarctic ice cores shows that the last four great ice age cycles began when Earth's distance from the sun during its annual orbit became great enough to prevent summertime melts of glacial ice. The absence of those melts allowed buildups of the ice over periods of time that would become characterized as glacial periods."

Submission + - How-To video on NOT hiring american workers (networkworld.com)

Submitted by on Thursday August 30, 2007 @09:24AM

An anonymous reader writes: Lawyers at a conference discuss with clients how to go about not hiring qualified american workers so they can secure a green card for their immigrant worker.

Submission + - Samba to Go GPLv3 (samba.org)

Submitted by jon_anderson_ca on Monday July 09, 2007 @02:32PM

jon_anderson_ca writes: The verdict is in: Samba will be going with the GPLv3 for versions 3.2 and on:

After internal consideration in the Samba Team we have decided to adopt the GPLv3 and LGPLv3 licences for all future releases of Samba.
...

To allow people to distinguish which Samba version is released with the new GPLv3 license, we are updating our next version release number. The next planned version release was to be 3.0.26, this will now be renumbered so the GPLv3 version release will be 3.2.0.

Since the GPLv3 was crafted to torpedo deals like the one Microsoft struck with Novell, what's going to happen to "working together on interoperability", of which Samba is an important part?

Submission + - Sprint cancels PCS wireless of over 200 soldiers (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Newer Guy on Monday July 09, 2007 @02:30PM

Newer Guy writes: Sprint has cancelled the PCS service of over 200 military members for "excessive roaming". This is on the heels of last week's news about Sprint where they were cancelling PCS service for "excessive complaining" to Customer Service. Time to cancel my Sprint PCS I guess!

Submission + - H1B holders to flood immigration office w flowers

Submitted by Vikram Pendharkar on Monday July 09, 2007 @11:41AM

Vikram Pendharkar writes: Gandhian Protest by legal skilled immigrants about the recent roller-coaster, abrupt changes in American immigration rules: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?R ef=VE9JQS8yMDA3LzA3LzA4I0FyMDA4MDA=&Mode=Gif&Local e=english-skin-custom Immigration Voice link where this is being co-ordinated: http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?p =102748#post102748 This form of protest (sending flowers) was popularized recently in India by a movie — MunnaBhai, which has helped revitalize Gandhian way of protesting the trampling of your rights.

Submission + - Protest against sex education in India

Submitted by

on Monday July 09, 2007 @09:25AM

An anonymous reader writes: Uttar Pradesh is all set to introduce sex education in its schools from Class 9, but teachers have threatened to burn the books, saying the material goes against Indian culture. The working committee of the secondary schools teachers' association had met on Sunday evening. Members are unanimous that the books published for adolescent education are not in tune with Indian culture and traditions. "The manner in which the courses have been laid out are bound to not only poison young minds but also become a source of embarrassment for teachers," Om Prakash Sharma, chief of the secondary schools teachers' association said.

Submission + - PA budget fight brings partial shutdown (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

JagsLive

on Monday July 09, 2007 @06:36AM

JagsLive writes: "AP reports, " Gov. Ed Rendell late Sunday ordered a range of state government services shut down and placed about a third of the state work force on indefinite unpaid furlough after frantic last-minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. Rendell, appearing outside his Capitol office, said the shutdown would go forward but added that he was optimistic that he and legislators could come to an agreement within a day. ""

Submission + - JackThompson.org OpenSource Insult (jackthompson.org)

Submitted by

Bradon

on Monday July 09, 2007 @03:24AM

Bradon writes: "JackThompson.org (famous for his anti-violent video games stupidity), is claiming itself as 'an open source project')."

Submission + - Dell Linux Details

Submitted by jon_anderson_ca on Monday May 21, 2007 @08:33PM

jon_anderson_ca writes: Dell, through their direct2dell website, has released some details of their soon-to-be-available Linux machines. Among the highlights:

only hardware that works with Linux is offered

open-source drivers used where possible

binary drivers for Intel wireless cards, etc.

no support for media codecs

Seems reasonable, but it's too bad that Click2Run isn't in Ubuntu 7.04 for the sake of those wanting to (legally) play DVDs, use AVI files, etc.

Submission + - Obscene' Devices Head for the Supreme Court

Submitted by Funky125 on Monday May 21, 2007 @04:23PM

Funky125 writes: WASHINGTON — You know a case is ripe for Supreme Court review when the retelling of its history cites lower court decisions labeled "Williams I," "Williams II," "Williams III," "Williams IV" and "Williams V." -advertisement- The "Williams," of course, is Sherri Williams, who along with eight co-petitioners is seeking to overturn Alabama's obscene device law, which in Williams' case would prevent her from selling and/or distributing any sex toy intended primarily for the stimulation of humans to orgasm in the privacy of their own homes. http://avn.com/index_cache.php?Primary_Navigation= Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=289264

Submission + - Prizes vs. Patents: a Nobel laureate's perspective

Submitted by

benesch

on Monday May 21, 2007 @02:37PM

benesch writes: "Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, points out the flaws of our patent system "The fundamental problem with the patent system is simple: it is based on restricting the use of knowledge. Because there is no extra cost associated with an additional individual enjoying the benefits of any piece of knowledge, restricting knowledge is inefficient." He goes on to suggest prizes as a more efficient alternative "Of course, the patent system is itself a prize system, albeit a peculiar one: the prize is temporary monopoly power, implying high prices and restricted access to the benefits that can be derived from the new knowledge. By contrast, the type of prize system I have in mind would rely on competitive markets to lower prices and make the fruits of the knowledge available as widely as possible. With better-directed incentives (more research dollars spent on more important diseases, less money spent on wasteful and distorted marketing), we could have better health at lower cost.""

Submission + - KDE4 Alpha Released

Submitted by jon_anderson_ca on Saturday May 12, 2007 @12:24AM

jon_anderson_ca writes: According to kde.org, the Alpha of KDE4 (codename "Knut") has been released! Packages are available for Kubuntu.

Submission + - A guide to Republican Scandals

Submitted by gkhan1 on Friday May 11, 2007 @09:02PM

gkhan1 writes: Slate Magazine has put up an illustrated guide to GOP scandals (there's also a text version) that provides a handy guide to all of the scandals that has rocked the republican party in the last few years. All in all, there is 28 of them listed, including such memorable moments as Walter Reed, Abu Ghraib, Mark Foley, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Alberto Gonzales, Halliburton, Scooter Libby, NSA wiretapping and several different permutations of the Jack Abramoff story. It's an interesting and disturbing walk down memory lane.

Submission + - Canada: No more Mr. Nice Guy

Submitted by

doggod

on Friday May 11, 2007 @03:35PM

doggod writes: "The last time you took a trip to Canada, no doubt your experience at the border was just a guy asking you a few innocuous questions like: "Where are you going?", "How long are you staying?", "Do you have any firearms?", etc. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, those were the good old days.

Now, courtesy of an interconnection to the US databases, they're checking everyone, and anyone who has ever run afoul of the law — big deal, small deal, recent past, distant past, it all doesn't matter — will be doing a u-turn at the border.

For example, people are being refused entry who engaged in fraternity pranks 30 years ago. Some of them are now jet setters who are accustomed to smooth sailing anywhere and everywhere. Not Canada. Not now. People are asking what's behind the crackdown: The Canadian border people are saying it's not a crackdown — these laws have been on the books for a long time, you just got away with your "crimes" before.

They've allowed a little loophole, though. If you've been nice for quite a while, they're willing to forgive you and let you back in so you can resume spending your greenbacks. All you need to do is fill out an "Approval of Rehabilitation" form and send it in with a non-refundable payment of C$200. They'll shuffle it across some desks for "a month to a year, depending on the circumstances", and then they'll send you a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card that you'll be able to flash at the border and sail right through.

As a former miscreant myself (I smoked marijuana in the '60s, and the cops found some on me — Oh dear!), I downloaded the form and started filling it out. That's when I discovered there was much more to it than that. I had to furnish attachments with the form, and these included a full transcript of the 1966 trial, an FBI fingerprint clearance card, and he's-a-nice-guy letters from the cops in every state in which I lived for the last ten years.

I had been planning on driving my motor home through Canada to Alaska this summer, but now I've scratched those plans. I've sent off for all those attachments (at a total additional cost of about US$70), but it seems highly unlikely that all those bureaucrats would produce all that work in short enough order for me to make the 2007 traveling season. I'm now planning on doing a US tour instead. Maybe in 2008 I'll do Alaska — assuming I get my card by then.

No word yet on whether any of the places along the Alaska Highway (or the many other popular tourist destinations) that depend on US tourists for their livelihoods are noticing a downturn in their visitor counts. I have a feeling we'll be hearing about it in the months to come, though."

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