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Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Netbook In The Wild Confirmed (thecoffeedesk.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The rumors of a netbook being developed by Apple have been circulating the Internet quite a bit recently, and upon further investigation we have confirmed a prototype being used by key Apple software developers. The development model is said to be nine or ten inches, white, and utilizing a Verizon or AT&T network connection in the same manner as a typical PC phone card. This directly correlates with known deals made recently by Apple to manufacture both LCD screens and CPU chips, the latter rumored to be of a fast and low power ARM architecture design.
Data Storage

Submission + - Are SSDs Ready For The Data Center? (thecoffeedesk.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Solid-State Drives are recently becoming popular storage mediums in laptops, and are praised for their speed and shock resistance. However, there has been some debate over whether or not SSDs are ready for the data center, and here we aim to provide a comprehensive list of advantages and disadvantages of the usage of SSDs over conventional hard disks and RAID arrays in servers from a variety of viewpoints and scenarios.
Space

Submission + - NASA Researchers Worried About Huge Sun Flares (wired.com) 1

Submitted by resistant
resistant writes: Wired reported recently that a group of researchers assembled by NASA issued a "chilling" report expressing great concern about the potential for solar flares in 2012 to coincide with "the presence of an unusually large hole in Earth's geomagnetic shield", potentially virtually collapsing national power grids. Complicating the matter is the lack of current plans to replace the sole early warning satellite on which power grid operators rely, and the poor state of readiness in general. Full recovery from such a catastrophe might take four to ten years, and cost trillions of dollars.

The report was largely ignored at first because of the unfortunate overlap with an ancient Mayan prediction of a major "turning point" in the year 2012 (by the Western calendar).
Portables

Submission + - .NET could be key for Windows on ARM netbooks (thecoffeedesk.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With all of the recent discussion about utilizing very low-power ARM chips as an alternative to IA-32/IA-64 as a choice CPU of the rising netbook scene, Microsoft's Windows family of operating systems is sure to find a tough time fitting in thanks in part to the long-standing Wintel relationship between Windows and the IA-32 architecture. A key design decision of the .NET framework (more specifically, JIT compilation and CIL) could be the key for Windows to run on ARM-based netbooks while remaining compatible at the application level, like Windows XP on IA-32 netbooks has done.
Patents

Submission + - Microsoft 'Invents' Using a Timer to Turn Off TV

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "If you've spent any time in a Greyhound Station over the past four decades, you're probably familiar with the concept of timer-controlled TV viewing. And if not, you're certainly aware of the existence of sleep timers on clock radios. Still, this didn't stop Microsoft from claiming three of its employees have invented Time-Based Access Control For An Entertainment Console and asking the USPTO for a patent covering shutting down TV (IPTV) and music (MP3s) after a timer expires. Microsoft better not catch you Penguin-types infringing on this innovation!"

Comment Re:Dell e 6400 (Score 1) 291

by Anthony_Cargile (#27552343) Attached to: My laptop's battery generally lasts ...

and the height of my zeppelin (how else would it be portable?) is 7700m

As if the MSPaint diagram you displayed earlier wasn't enough, I can't stop laughing at the thought of a giant hamster-filled zeppelin flying through the air, and the god-awful grinding the turbines make as it flies (not to mention the discarded entrails after they pass through the motor). Then there's the Slashdot user at the very back, with a laptop connected to the contraption, laughing all the way.

Also, you must have an automated forklift system to actually deposit the hamsters into the meat grinders (they can't just pile in, since you're in the confined space of a zeppelin), and even at that where does the power supply of the forklifts themselves rely? Surely they can't power themselves just off of the hamsters since over 2,000 are needed to power the laptop.

And if you don't have an array of forklifts, what you have? Oompa-loompas? Is this the evil Willie-Wonka zeppelin flying through the air? I guess reading Slashdot can pervert even the most good of people...
Debian

Submission + - Use Apt-P2P to improve Ubuntu 9.04 upgrade (chenhow.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With Jaunty Jackalope scheduled for release in 12 days on the 23rd, this blog posting describes how to switch to apt-p2p in preparation for the upgrade. This should help reduce significantly the load on the mirrors and significantly smooth out the upgrade experience for all involved and bypass the numerous problems that have typically occured on release day in the past for Ubuntu. Remember to disable all third party repositories before-hand.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - OSI Layer 8 (thecoffeedesk.com) 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A common misconception about the Open Systems Interconnection model is that it contains only seven layers, named "Physical", "Data Link", "Network", "Transport", "Session", "Presentation" and "Application". This is inconsistent, however, as there exists an eighth layer above "Application" commonly titled "User".

This eighth layer must be considered when troubleshooting a network issue, as many times it can prove to be more of a common cause than the physical layer. Common causes for failures at the Eighth layer of the OSI model include ID10T errors, political issues, and general stupidity.

Seeing as how the eighth layer interacts directly with the seventh layer, "Application", an extreme problem at the eighth layer can cause problems at other layers at varying severity, depending on network security and privilege settings. Many layer 8 errors even cause failures at the physical layer, or layer 1, which is a fairly common occurrence.
Networking

Submission + - OSI Model's Eighth Layer (thecoffeedesk.com)

Submitted by Anthony_Cargile
Anthony_Cargile writes: A common misconception about the Open Systems Interconnection model is that it contains only seven layers. This is inconsistent, however, as there exists an eighth layer above "Application" commonly titled "User", and this article outlines the causes and steps for troubleshooting said eighth layer (in a humorous fashion, of course).
Privacy

Submission + - Judge orders message board to reveal anon names (upi.com)

Submitted by
Death Metal
Death Metal writes: "A judge in California turned down a motion by Topix.com to quash a subpoena for identifying information on 178 anonymous posters, ABC News reported. The judge ordered the Web site to discuss with the plaintiff couple which documents are relevant to the case."
Movies

Submission + - Zombie Invasion Begins (thecoffeedesk.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A New Orleans resident, Joseph Lancellotti, recently reported an attack on his person by a man whom he describes was unintelligibly shouting, and knocked Lancellotti in the head before taking a bite out of his arm. Joseph denies ever having seen the man before in his life, and furthermore the strange intruder exhibited many signs associated with the image of zombies in pop culture. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!1!!1!!1
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Zombie Attack In New Orleans (thecoffeedesk.com)

Submitted by
Anthony_Cargile
Anthony_Cargile writes: "A New Orleans resident, Joseph Lancellotti, recently reported an attack on his person by a man whom he describes was "unintelligibly shouting", and knocked Lancellotti in the head before taking a bite out of his arm and swallowing it. Joseph denies ever having seen the man before in his life, and furthermore the strange intruder exhibited many signs associated with the image of zombies in pop culture. Maybe it's time to stock up on the ammunition and canned foods, eh?"

Comment Re:Should have used PHP. (Score 1) 324

by Anthony_Cargile (#27496647) Attached to: Twitter On Scala

Never was a nail except for the Ruby community that was in denial.

The same thing I said about six months ago - look at the comments on the article. Ruby/Rails never reached the support it needed to be widely deployed, and it's less likely for an ISP/host to deploy a framework than a well-established language. Case in point: more Perl deployments by hosts than Ruby or rails, not to mention PHP/ASP.NET.

Comment Re:yay! (Score 3, Informative) 263

by Anthony_Cargile (#27473535) Attached to: EU Data-Retention Laws Stricter Than Many People Realized
For those of you whom read the parent after slashdot fixed the problem, this is the original, unmodified summary:

"A European Union directive, which Britain was instrumental in devising, comes into force which will require all internet service providers to retain a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/5105

Yeah, they forgot a few basic HTML tokens.

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