Comment Re:Ahem... it's SF (Score 1) 798
More like the District of Colombia, which is why the other name everyone calls it is "the District".
Comment Re:Ahem... it's SF (Score 1) 798
Washington, DC - everyone around here just calls it "DC". I've lived in DC's suburbs all my life, and never heard anyone call it "the city".
Comment Re:Oblig. Quote (Score 3, Informative) 163
The site's running MediaWiki, so the image description page, by necessity, is at http://theinfosphere.org/Image:Molten_Boron.jpg (also, a full size version of the image is at http://theinfosphere.org/images/7/78/Molten_Boron.jpg, but you will get another 403 if you just try clicking that link)
Comment Re:Ubuntu annoyances? (Score 1) 253
It's actually udev that sets the permissions on that device, and you can edit udev's configuration to change the permissions and/or ownership of the device file: add the line
KERNEL=="raw1394", MODE="0666"
to
Submission + - New Gmail users accounts disabled 11:30p EST
dzd-n-confused writes: At about 11:30pm yesterday Gmail locked out the accounts of new users that signed up in the last month maybe more.
Everybody affected gets a message like this " Sign in to Gmail with your
Google Account
Sorry, your account has been disabled. For more information about Google Accounts, please consult our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/. "
It appears accounts more that a few months old are not affected. The accounts are no longer able to receive messages either, they just bounce back saying no such user.
This is the link to one of the threads in the Gmail Groups
http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/530927a08717557d/2caa9f48d5878f19
Submission + - Why do games still have levels? (blogspot.com) 1
a.d.venturer writes: Elite, the Metroid series, Dungeon Siege, God of War I and II, Half-Life (but not Half-Life 2), Shadow of the Colossus, the Grand Theft Auto series; some of the best games ever (and Dungeon Siege) have done away with the level mechanic and created uninterrupted game spaces devoid of loading screens and artificial breaks between periods of play. Much like cut scenes, level loads are anathema to enjoyment of game play, and a throwback to the era of the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 when games were stored on cassette tapes, and memory was measured in kilobytes. So in this era of multi-megabyte and gigabyte memory and fast access storage devices why do we continue to have games that are dominated by the level structure, be they commercial (Portal, Team Fortress 2), independent (Darwinia) and amateur (Nethack, Angband)? Why do games still have levels?
Submission + - Strict German Computer Crime Law Now in Effect (beskerming.com)
SkiifGeek writes: "With little fanfare, section 202c of the German computer crime laws came into effect over the weekend. Worryingly for Security professionals, the laws make the mere possession of (creates, obtains or provides access to, sells, yields, distributes or otherwise allows access to) many useful tools illegal. A similar law was proposed for the UK, however it was modified prior to passing through parliament due to the outcry from the industry.
Phenoelit, KisMAC, the CCC, and the Month of PHP Bugs are just some of the relatively high profile projects and groups to have already taken measures to remove or modify content under this law."
Phenoelit, KisMAC, the CCC, and the Month of PHP Bugs are just some of the relatively high profile projects and groups to have already taken measures to remove or modify content under this law."
Submission + - LLVM 2.0 Released
MonkeyPox37 writes: "LLVM , an open source compiler that's an alternative to GCC, has released a major new version. From the release announcement:
LLVM 2.0 is done! Download it here: http://llvm.org/releases/ or view the release notes: http://llvm.org/releases/2.0/docs/ReleaseNotes.htm l
LLVM 2.0 is a great release in many ways. It includes a wide range of new features, new optimizations, better codegen, and new targets. We were also able to signficantly revise several core aspects of the LLVM IR and design (such as the type system and bytecode format) based on lessons learned in the LLVM 1.x series."
LLVM 2.0 is done! Download it here: http://llvm.org/releases/ or view the release notes: http://llvm.org/releases/2.0/docs/ReleaseNotes.ht
LLVM 2.0 is a great release in many ways. It includes a wide range of new features, new optimizations, better codegen, and new targets. We were also able to signficantly revise several core aspects of the LLVM IR and design (such as the type system and bytecode format) based on lessons learned in the LLVM 1.x series."
Submission + - Internet helps youths with personality disorders
amigoro writes: "Youths with personality disorders who would've otherwise gone friendless turn to the Internet for social contacts and creating a positive impact on their lives by reducing their social isolation, according to a paper published in Schizophrenia Research. The researchers believe that their could be potential therapeutic uses of the Internet, perhaps as a virtual step in social skills training that can be later generalized to real-life interpersonal situations."
Submission + - Another radio station offers free classical MP3s
Petrushka writes: Following a couple of years after the BBC Philharmonic did it, Radio New Zealand is also offering free downloads of live performances by the Auckland Philharmonia. The downloads go through a monthly cycle: they began in April with Dvorak's "New World" symphony; currently they're offering Beethoven's 7th symphony. Recordings are in MP3 format at 192 kb/s, though the sample rate is a disappointing 32 kHz. What other stations are out there offering freebies like this?
Submission + - Microsoft is using Linux for their Servers!
jhepoy writes: http://pinoygeek.org/2007/05/27/microsoft-is-using -linux-for-their-servers/
Yahoo.com is a consistent FreeBSD on their servers. Apple.com which is known for OSX as based in Unix is not surprising to see MacOSX and Linux running on their servers. The most surprising part is when I looked for Microsoft.com statistics and found out that they are running Linux on some of their web servers. The irony is that Microsoft is attacking Linux as an insecure OS which can be found on their Get The Facts campaign.
Submission + - President Bush Gives Himself Dictatorial Powers
Number_1_Bigg$ writes: In a May 9 National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, President Bush declared that in time of "Catastrophic Emergency", he can take control of the entire government and any business necessary to preserve "Enduring Constitutional Government". Analysis can be found on a few blogs, including right wing analysis.
Submission + - Finnish court rules CSS "ineffective"
kimmop writes: The Finnish/EU version of DMCA received a great blow today when the Helsinki District Court found two activists 'not quilty' of circumvention of "effective technological measures" of DRM. According to the court, CSS no longer achieves its protection objective. You can still expect two more rounds but its 1-0 now.
Submission + - Lost Planet: Extreme Dissapointment
mikemuch writes: "With the release of the demo for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, the public gets its first look at what DirectX 10 has to offer, and it's not pretty. Jason Cross at ExtremeTech has benchmarks that reveal shortcomings in the demo and particularly in ATI's cards/drivers. ATI claims they weren't given code early to optimize for. Nvidia doesn't fare too much better when all the eye candy is turned up. The game also needs to be re-interfaced for the PC, as opposed to a wholesale port of the Xbox version. Stick this one back in the oven, it's not done."
Submission + - Michigan Wi-Fi Freeloader Faces Felony Charge
Aaron writes: Broadband Reports has an interesting piece up about a Michigan man who was charged with felony "Unauthorized use of computer access" for using free Wi-Fi outside of a cafe. The charge comes with a maximum of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine. The interesting bit being that neither the man, the cafe, nor the police chief who chatted him up repeatedly had any idea he was committing a crime. At least not until the police officer decided to do some research and find a law he interpreted as being broken, anyway.
