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Linux Business

Shuttleworth Says Ubuntu Can't Just Be Windows 710

Posted by timothy from the bsod-screensaver-must-suffice dept.
ruphus13 writes "When Mark Shuttleworth was asked what role WINE will play in Ubuntu's success, he said that Ubuntu cannot simply be a better platform to run Windows apps. From the post, according to Shuttleworth, '[Windows and Linux] both play an important role but fundamentally, the free software ecosystem needs to thrive on its own rules. it is *different* to the proprietary software universe. We need to make a success of our own platform on our own terms. if Linux is just another way to run Windows apps, we can't win. OS/2 tried that ...' The post goes on to say, 'Linux simply isn't Windows (nor is Windows Linux) and to expect fundamentally different approaches (and I'm not just thinking closed versus open) to look, feel, and operate the same way is senseless.'"
Microsoft

Office 2007SP2 ODF Interoperability Very Bad 627

Posted by CmdrTaco from the are-you-really-surprised dept.
David Gerard writes "Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 claims support for ODF 1.1. With hard work and careful thinking, they have successfully achieved technical compliance but zero interoperability! MSO 2007sp2 won't read ODF 1.1 from any other existing application, and its ODF is only readable by the CleverAge plugin. The post goes into detail as to how it manages this so thoroughly."
The Military

Pentagon Lost Billions, Pennies At a Time 323

Posted by timothy from the different-kind-of-cuckoo's-egg dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "MSNBC reports that in 1969, Walter T. Davey, an aeronautical engineer at North American Rockwell, discovered he was being overpaid by roughly 2 cents an hour, or one-third of 1 percent of his pay. Davey submitted the discovery to his superiors and suggested a simple fix. 'It was so simple to correct,' said Davey, a 79-year-old retired Air Force colonel, 'just change a few digits in the coding software.' The Project on Government Oversight, which reviewed Davey's findings last year, estimated the change could save taxpayers $270 million a year. Multiply by 40 years — the length of time since Davey made his discovery — and the figure grows to an astounding $10.8 billion. Legislators ignored Davey's letters, federal auditors deferred to Congress, and lobbyists 'descended on it and tore it into a piece of Swiss cheese' but legislators aren't eager to challenge the powerful defense lobby about a figure that's a relative pittance in the overall defense budget — even if it exceeds $100 million annually. 'A lot of people have taken advantage of the system to reap as much in taxpayer dollars as possible,' says Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight. 'But when you're going up against the contractor lobby — whether you're an individual across the country or a public interest group or a government employee — it's a tough road.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

Let's Rename Swine Flu As "Colbert Flu" 607

Posted by kdawson from the or-maybe-a-treadmill-on-the-virus-surface dept.
Bruce Perens writes "The World Health Organization will no longer refer to Virus A(H1N1) as 'Swine Flu,' citing ethnic reactions to 'swine,' for example among middle-eastern cultures who feel that swine are unclean. Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus? WHO suggests that the public select a new name for the virus. I suggest that we all start calling it The Colbert Flu, after the comedian and fake pundit who asked his audience to stuff a NASA poll so that a Space Station module would be named after him. What can we do to make the name stick?"
Image

Tokyo Scientists Create Mobile Slime 111

Posted by samzenpus from the godzilla's-newest-foe dept.
Sockatume writes "Shingo Maeda and colleagues at Waseda University have created a polymer gel that walks under its own chemical power. The team exploited the oscillating Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction to create periodic changes in the size of the polymer, and built a tensed structure that would amplify those small movements into a horrifically potent gait. The current version only walks across a notched surface, but the team are working on a terrible new form that will cross smooth surfaces like a snail. The team say they intend to apply it in the self-assembly of small structures. Suddenly, I can't stop screaming."
The Internet

Threat To Net Neutrality In Europe 147

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the wishing-for-transparency-in-government dept.
Narcissus writes to tell us that the European Parliament is planning a vote in the Industry, Transport, Energy (ITRE) committee that could reintroduce amendment 138 (currently amendment 46) which deals with safeguards to user rights on the internet and graduated response schemes. There are several online campaigns trying to drive awareness and action already but there is limited time to act. "The Council may propose a compromise version of amendment 138/46 that is completely neutralized, or that may even become the opposite of the original by allowing the 'three strikes' scheme instead of preventing it. According to the latest negotiations, am.138/46 wouldn't anymore be an article (that must be transposed by Member States in their law) but a mere recital that has just indicative value. It is urgent to contact the members of the ITRE committee to advise them to reject compromise with the Council that failed to respect the intent of the original amendment. The best would be once again to approve the amendment."
The Courts

Pirate Bay Trial Ends In Jail Sentences 1870

Posted by timothy from the even-non-commercial-use dept.
myvirtualid writes "The Globe and Mail reports that the Pirate Bay defendants were each sentenced Friday to one year in jail. According to the article, 'Judge Tomas Norstrom told reporters that the court took into account that the site was "commercially driven" when it made the ruling. The defendants have denied any commercial motives behind the site.' The defendants said before the verdict that they would appeal if they were found guilty. 'Stay calm — Nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing whatsoever. This is just a theater for the media,' Mr. Sunde said Friday in a posting on social networking site Twitter." Update: 04/17 12:16 GMT by T : Several updates, below.
Image

Cutting Steel With Flaming Bacon Weapons 73

Posted by samzenpus from the Kingdom-of-Loathing-gets-a-little-more-real dept.
Ed Pegg writes "Theo Gray demonstrates the Bacon Lance, a flaming meatsword that can cut through steel. Yes, with some ordinary bacon, and some pure oxygen, it's possible to cut through security doors. Form the article, 'I recently committed myself to the goal, before the weekend was out, of creating a device entirely from bacon and using it to cut a steel pan in half. My initial attempts were failures, but I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.' This comes out right after his profusely illustrated book of science experiments, Mad Science."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Duke Nukem Forever Reaches Development Milestone 1

Submitted by
mlauzon
mlauzon writes: "If you told your spouse that the two of you would be together until Duke Nukem Forever hit shelves in an attempt to be absolutely precious, it might be time to start sweating. According to a tweet by 3D Realms man George Broussard, Duke Nukem Forever's unending development cycle may soon be leaving the death-and-taxes consistency club.

"Closing out a milestone this week. 71 more tasks to do and we started with probably 800-900. Been a good push. Next one starts Monday," he tweeted.

After some rudimentary math, we've determined that — assuming development continues at a nice clip — Duke will be back in business sometime next year. Guess the Mayans were a little off with their apocalypse calculations.

Maximum PC"
Government

Submission + - MIT's SENSEable City (oreilly.com)

Submitted by
blackbearnh
blackbearnh writes: "Usually, the way that governments and city planners get their information about how cities are being used is through expensive, time consuming studies. At MIT's SENSEable City Lab, they're found ways to get the same kind of information by mining data sources like aggregated cell phone records and geotagged Flickr pictures. Research Andrea Vaccari talked to O'Reilly Radar about the work that the Lab is doing, and how it can be used to plan the next generation of cities. Among the things they can infer from their data is such information as how foreign tourists travel differently in Italy than native vacationers, which locations in New York are visited first by overseas sightseers, and how the World Cup shut down activity in Rome for a day."
Graphics

Submission + - ATI vs. Nvidia on Linux - The State of Play Today (hexus.net)

Submitted by
Steve K
Steve K writes: "Historically, Nvidia has been regarded as the better candidate for providing 3D acceleration in Linux. But with more people than ever dipping their feet into the desktop Linux pool, AMD/ATI has responded by increasing its Linux driver efforts. HEXUS's Jo Shields takes a look at a pair of beefy graphics cards, one Nvidia, the other ATI, taking a look not just at 3D performance, but also at accelerated video playback and their control panels. FTA:

So who is the winner of this heated battle then? You are — the consumer. Whilst NVIDIA still came out on top, it did so with only the smallest of margins in most cases — and you can feel confident that owning a Radeon is no longer a blocker to a decent experience in Linux.

Hooray for consumer wins."
Earth

Curved Laser Beams Could Help Tame Lightning 184

Posted by Soulskill from the do-they-come-with-curved-sharks dept.
Urchin writes "Laser beams just gained a new property — they can curve through space. That's what happens when ultrashort laser pulses pass through a phase pattern mask and a lens, which together shift the most intense region of the beam from the center to the right-hand side. The asymmetry in the pulse causes it to drift progressively further to the right along an arc as it travels. The laser beam is so intense that it ionizes the air it passes through to create a curved plasma channel. Those kinds of channels can be up to 100 meters long — direct them at thunderclouds and they could first trigger lightning to spark and then act as a convenient but short-lived lightning rod to guide it safely to the ground, according to some researchers."

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