Submission + - Will The Really Real Programmers Please Stand Up? (stevenbenner.com)
Warlord88 writes: Steven Benner give his take on the question "Who is a real programmer?" What do slashdotters think of the article and the question?
Submission Summary: 0 pending, 9 declined, 0 accepted (9 total, 0.00% accepted)
Submission + - Internet access is 'a fundamental right' (bbc.co.uk)
Warlord88 writes: Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens. International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access.
The details of the poll can be found here
The details of the poll can be found here
Submission + - Bank sues Google for identity of Gmail user (theregister.co.uk) 1
Warlord88 writes: "A US bank is suing Google for the identity of a Gmail user after a bank employee accidentally sent the user a file that included the names, addresses, tax IDs, and loan info for more than 1,300 of the bank's customers.
After a failed attempt to recall the email, the employee sent a second note to that wrong address, requesting that the confidential email be deleted before it was opened. There was no response, so the bank contacted Google to determine what could be done to ensure that the confidential info remained confidential. According to the court papers, Google would not provide information on the account unless it received a subpoena or "other appropriate legal process." So the bank sued.
In recent weeks, Google has also received court orders to reveal the identities of those behind stories published in an online newspapers based in the Turks and Caicos Islands and of a blogger who castigated a model on a blog entitled "Skanks in NYC." ®"
After a failed attempt to recall the email, the employee sent a second note to that wrong address, requesting that the confidential email be deleted before it was opened. There was no response, so the bank contacted Google to determine what could be done to ensure that the confidential info remained confidential. According to the court papers, Google would not provide information on the account unless it received a subpoena or "other appropriate legal process." So the bank sued.
In recent weeks, Google has also received court orders to reveal the identities of those behind stories published in an online newspapers based in the Turks and Caicos Islands and of a blogger who castigated a model on a blog entitled "Skanks in NYC." ®"
Submission + - US Physicists Develop Thinnest Superconducting Met (india-server.com)
Warlord88 writes: The physicists at the University of Texas in Austin have developed the thinnest superconducting metal sheet of the world. The development of the thinnest superconducting sheet of lead with two atoms thick will help in the advancement of superconductor technologies. The superconductors have the unique ability to maintain an electrical current indefinitely with no power source. This technology is supposed to have wide applications and could help lead to new breakthroughs in electricity generation and computer processing speeds.
Submission + - College spammers face 10 years in prison in $4.1M (arstechnica.com)
Warlord88 writes: Four individuals were indicted by a federal grand jury in Missouri this week for spamming more than 2,000 colleges and universities across the US. The team first started on their scheme at the University of Missouri and then branched out, hitting up nearly every college and university in the country. As a result, the spammers and their company were all charged in a 51-count indictment that includes fraud in connection with computers, fraud in connection with e-mail, conspiracy, and violations of the CAN-SPAM Act.
In total, the defendants face over 50 charges stemming from their activities. The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation that would require the team to give up their $4.1 million in proceeds along with two residential properties in St. Louis, a property in Columbia, a 2001 BMW, and a 2002 Lexus.
In total, the defendants face over 50 charges stemming from their activities. The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation that would require the team to give up their $4.1 million in proceeds along with two residential properties in St. Louis, a property in Columbia, a 2001 BMW, and a 2002 Lexus.
Submission + - How Many CPU Cores Do You Need? (tomshardware.com)
Warlord88 writes: In the early years of the new millennium, with CPU clock speeds finally accelerating past the 1 GHz mark, some folks (including Intel itself) predicted that the company's new NetBurst architecture would reach speeds of 10 GHz in the future. However, physics doesn't allow for exponential increases in clock rate without exponential increases in heat, and there were a number of other challenges to consider, such as manufacturing technology. Indeed, the fastest commercial CPUs have been hovering between 3 GHz and 4 GHz for a number of years now. The trouble with parallelism is that software has to be specifically written to run in multiple threads--it doesn't offer an immediate return on investment, like clock speed. Back in 2005, when the first dual-core CPUs were seeing the light of day, they didn't offer much in the way of tangible performance increases because there was so little desktop software available properly supporting them. In fact, most dual-core CPUs were slower than single-core CPUs in a great majority of tasks because single-core CPUs were available at higher clock speeds.
Which begs the question: how many CPU cores are right for me? Is a triple-core processor good enough for gaming, or should you splurge on a quad-core chip? Is a dual-core CPU good enough for the average user, or do more cores really make a difference? Which applications are optimized for multiple cores and which ones react only to specifications like frequency or cache size? Tomshardware runs a series of benchmark tests for various applications and comes to a conclusion
Which begs the question: how many CPU cores are right for me? Is a triple-core processor good enough for gaming, or should you splurge on a quad-core chip? Is a dual-core CPU good enough for the average user, or do more cores really make a difference? Which applications are optimized for multiple cores and which ones react only to specifications like frequency or cache size? Tomshardware runs a series of benchmark tests for various applications and comes to a conclusion
Submission + - Windows 7 to have an 'XP Mode'
Warlord88 writes: Microsoft is trying to make it easier to sway users of Windows XP onto the latest version of its operating system.
For some time now, the company has been quietly building a "Windows XP mode" that uses virtualization to allow Windows 7 to easily run applications designed for Windows XP. According to sources familiar with the product, the application compatibility mode is built on the Virtual PC technology that Microsoft acquired in 2003, when it scooped up the assets of Connectix.
Late on Friday, Microsoft confirmed XP Mode in a blog posting. "Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7," Microsoft's Scott Woodgate said in the blog. "Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC."
For some time now, the company has been quietly building a "Windows XP mode" that uses virtualization to allow Windows 7 to easily run applications designed for Windows XP. According to sources familiar with the product, the application compatibility mode is built on the Virtual PC technology that Microsoft acquired in 2003, when it scooped up the assets of Connectix.
Late on Friday, Microsoft confirmed XP Mode in a blog posting. "Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7," Microsoft's Scott Woodgate said in the blog. "Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC."
