Comment Re:What is wrong with the Linux GUIs? (Score 1) 936
Spot on R.Kitten. Spot on.
3-Man Team Begins Ice-Survey Trek To the North Pole 137
Hugh Pickens writes "Satellites have shown how the Arctic sea-ice has been shrinking in recent years, but a three-man scientific team making an expedition to the North Pole should give scientists a better idea of how thin the ice is becoming. 'We're making the surface journey because that's the only way we have of gathering these direct observations of how thick the snow and the ice is,' said team leader Pen Hadow, who in 2003 became the first person to trek solo and without support from Canada to the North Pole. 'That's what the scientists really need to know.' There is more at stake for the British team than achieving some invented personal goal: 'The journey's going to be about 700 miles in distance, taking about three months,' said Hadow. 'In the earlier phases, the temperatures are about minus 50 degrees ... And we're towing sledges with our camping equipment and our survey equipment — almost twice our body weights — for most of the distance.'"
Comment Re:Wrong Premise (Score 1) 1108
That sure makes some rivetting reading. Having read a dozen or so of the bio's I started to get the feeling that some of these guys haven't put that much thought into it. Not that reading such a small and relativly random sample of the 650 is entirely representative, but after a whole series of bad links to a skeptics website, plus reading of an aging Norweigian that reckons he could do with a little warming (Norway is apparently cold), and a mathematician who admits to not understanding why the incoming solar radiation isn't absorbed by the atmosphere but the reflected radiation is; it started to detract from the credibility of the document. Anyone else taken a look at it?
Comment Worth it? (Score 1) 294
If you come away having learnt just 1 thing, then Singularity U was worth it. All they need to know is how much a "worth it" is worth.
Comment Screen Saver (Score 1) 248
but also for research into astronomy, energy, the human genome, and climate change.
So they'll be running BOINC as a screen saver then?
Comment Yup, the review nails it. (Score 1) 356
Just like the reviewer, I struggled getting through Cryptonomicon, but made it satisfied at just having made it. I totally lost it in the Baroque Cycle, thankfully early on it would seem. Now another singular novel, time to give it another shot, and once again comes the drudgery...
Oh well. It seems to me that in writing In The Beginning was the Command Line Stephenson has suckered us all in to hoping that some lighter intellectual entertainment is to be had elsewhere in his writing... eventually. With Snow Crash he sealed the deal. Now we're in for the long haul, despite everthing else. I feel a little ripped off. I must stop buying the damn books, get a library card, or something.
Oh well. It seems to me that in writing In The Beginning was the Command Line Stephenson has suckered us all in to hoping that some lighter intellectual entertainment is to be had elsewhere in his writing... eventually. With Snow Crash he sealed the deal. Now we're in for the long haul, despite everthing else. I feel a little ripped off. I must stop buying the damn books, get a library card, or something.
- Make a book about the command line to get lots of Nerds on board.
- Write and sell as much crap as you like.
- Profit.
It may not be his intention but it's how I feel.
Comment Send in the Marines (Score 1) 507
We have ourselves a bug-hunt.
Apple's New MacBooks Have Built-In Copy Protection 821
raque writes "Appleinsider is reporting that the new MacBooks/MacBookPros have built-in copy protection. Quote: 'Apple's new MacBook lines include a form of digital copy protection that will prevent protected media, such as DRM-infused iTunes movies, from playing back on devices that aren't compliant with the new priority protection measures.' Ars Technica is also reporting on the issue. Is this the deal they had to make to get NBC back? Is this a deal breaker for Apple or will fans just ignore it to get their hands on the pretty new machines? Is this a new opportunity for Linux? And what happened to Jobs not liking DRM?"
Comment CNN still waiting (Score 1) 220
CNN are still waiting for the Pocket Holographic Projector edition to come out.
Until then, they're happy to fake it.
Until then, they're happy to fake it.
Submission + - Scientists build ultrafast next-gen MRAM (itnews.com.au)
schliz writes: Scientists in Germany have developed next-generation Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) that is said to operate as fast as fundamental speed limits allow. By storing large amounts of data at high speeds and preserving stored data even when powered down, the technology could enable instant-boot computers and mobile devices, researchers say.
Submission + - SPAM: Internet Fraud: Many Complaints, Few Repercussions
narramissic writes: "Unless you're peddling child porn, there's not much chance you'll see the inside of a courtroom for Internet-related crime, according to research released Tuesday. The Center for American Progress and the Center for Democracy and Technology compared the number of complaints that state attorneys general offices receive to how many lawsuits the states bring against spammers, spyware creators and other online fraudsters. Not all states report such numbers, but the 20 that do said that they received 20,000 Internet-related complaints in 2006 and 2007. Yet during that same time period, attorneys general brought only 168 Internet-related cases to court, with 60 percent of those related to child porn, the researchers found."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Gated BSOD'd at Olympics Openning Ceremony
dazlari writes: The BSoD featured at the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony! According to this Sydney Morning Herald article "Numerous bloggers observed the cameo played by the ...BSoD.The screen was projected onto the roof of the National Stadium during the grand finale to the four-hour spectacular as veteran Chinese gymnast Li Ning, suspended 70 metres above the stadium floor, 'jogged' towards the Olympic torch."
Submission + - Mac Apps on Linux?
termdex writes: My organization's media department has many creative specialists working on Macs. Unfortunately, the downturn in the economy has meant cutbacks, and the finance department has cut our new computer budget by a third. As such the media group has gone without a Mac purchase for close to two years. To reduce licensing costs I'm advocating for the adoption of Linux and other OSS programs in my organization. For Windows applications that we can't live without Wine has made a big impression with management. However, the media group won't accept Linux desktops without a similar way to run MacOSX applications (Final Cut Pro, Aperture, iWork, iTunes, etc) on Linux.
At one point, Mac-on-Linux (MoL) allowed for running a complete MacOS9 session on PowerPC Linux, but since the switch to Intel processors the project has slowed development. However, the switch to Intel architecture should allow for Wine-like execution of MacOSX Universal Binaries on operating systems that also run on x86 processors. What projects or solutions exist that allow running MacOSX applications on Linux?
Bizarre Properties of Glass Allow Creation of "Metallic Glass" 265
VindictivePantz writes to mention that scientists have discovered some bizarre properties of glass and are already applying that knowledge to create what is being called "metallic glass." "The breakthrough involved solving the decades-old problem of just what glass is. It has been known that that despite its solid appearance, glass and gels are actually in a 'jammed' state of matter — somewhere between liquid and solid — that moves very slowly. Like cars in a traffic jam, atoms in a glass are in something like suspended animation, unable to reach their destination because the route is blocked by their neighbors. So even though glass is a hard substance, it never quite becomes a proper solid, according to chemists and materials scientists."
Submission + - Pioneer anomaly seems 70% real (planetary.org)
Tablizer writes: The so called "Pioneer Anomaly" is a slight acceleration of the now-defunct Pioneer probes that doesn't match gravity models, suggesting a mysterious force. Researchers have been subtracting out known forces, such as power-cell heat, to isolate the mysterious portion.
Pioneer Anomaly Project Director Slava Turyshev presented preliminary results of the thermal modeling efforts at a meeting of the American Physical Society....The magnitude of the Pioneer Anomaly is so very tiny that it could conceivably result from the uneven radiation of heat from the spacecraft...Turyshev reported that the [heat] model can generate an acceleration that amounts to about 30% of the Anomaly for that distance [25AU] from the Sun.
