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Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 540

Excuse me but I am not going to set up my own DNS. I have a laptop that I use at many locations, all with slow DNS resolution (Videotron and Bell, anyone?) and Google provides me with a fast, easily accessible DNS that makes everything snappy and doesn't redirect to some stupid ad page when I mistype.

Space

The Lower Atmosphere of Pluto Revealed 109

Matt_dk writes "Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have gained valuable new insights about the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto. The scientists found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also discovered that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a frigid minus 180 degrees Celsius. These properties of Pluto's atmosphere may be due to the presence of pure methane patches or of a methane-rich layer covering the dwarf planet's surface."

Comment Sure about that? (Score 4, Funny) 382

I'd have guessed perl. Think about it
  1. Sounds like treasure ( pearls)
  2. Reinforces their need to hide their booty by making indecipherable maps to the treasure buried within
  3. Incomprehensible mangling of commong symbols, like their english dialect.
  4. It often requires the programmer to consume large amounts of rum as a coping mechanisim
  5. New virtual machine Parrot named after favorite pet
  6. Can use actual pirate language to program Acme::Lingua::Pirate::Perl
Education

Submission + - Funding an open source chair?

An anonymous reader writes: My family is currently setting up a multi-million dollar charity devoted to open-source related matters. Considering the local laws and the amount of management required to run such a foundation, we concluded that funding a chair in one of Québec's university was the most practical way to achieve this goal.

My question to the Slashdot community is as follow: What kind of chair is worth funding? What are the current challenges of open-source that requires such an investment? In philosophy departments, for example, there is almost no teacher versed in intellectual property, yet it is an essential subject to rejuvenate Marx, Hobbes and many others. Please share your insights and ideas!
Google

Submission + - Google Gears goes mobile, but Windows-only for now (thestandard.com)

Ian Lamont writes: "Google has ported Google Gears to mobile devices, which promises to extend Gears' offline Web apps functionality to mobile devices. While the desktop/laptop version of Gears works on IE in XP and Vista, and Firefox in XP, OS X, and Linux, the mobile version only works on Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices. A Google product manager says that Google is working to bring Gears to Android and 'other mobile platforms,' but there's no indication of whether the iPhone, Palm, BlackBerry, or other popular mobile platforms are on the list."
KDE

Submission + - Creating rich web apps on Linux with WebKit (arstechnica.com)

Augustus writes: Specialized ports of the open source WebKit HTML renderer for Qt and GTK have made it trivially easy for developers to integrate HTML content into desktop application user interfaces. Ars looks at how the GTK WebKit port and Trolltech's QWebView are opening the door for building rich Internet applications for the Linux desktop. According to the article, these open source solutions provide higher scalability than competing proprietary solutions like Adobe AIR.
Businesses

Submission + - SPAM: Over 50% of Companies Fire Workers For 'Net Abuse

narramissic writes: "Think you won't be fired for the time you spend doing "research" on Slashdot? Maybe you should re-read your company's Internet/e-mail policy. A new survey conducted by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute finds that more than 25% of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and one-third have fired workers for misusing the Internet. Granted, most firings were porn related (84%), but a surprising number of workers were fired for routine Web surfing."
Link to Original Source
Google

Submission + - Google's Iowa Data Center Takes Shape

An anonymous reader writes: On the site of a former drive-in movie theater in Council Bluffs, Iowa, new Google data center is approaching the midpoint of a two-year construction project. The data center will eventually house thousands of servers, in effect becoming Google's Midwest nerve center. InformationWeek has posted pictures of the construction operation, which is bulldozing some local landmarks to make room for Google. The Council Bluffs drive-in movie screen was the first to go. The nearby Gethsemane Presbyterian Church is slated for demolition, too. (There are also pictures of Google's emerging Oregon data center.)
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook vs. LinkedIn: The business version (computerworld.com)

bsk_cw writes: LinkedIn has always been going for the business market, but now its turf is being invaded by social networking sites such as Facebook. How effective has Facebook been in getting businesses — specifically, the IT departments of businesses — to use a service that was created for college kids? Informationweek has pitted the two against each other by coming up with six typical scenarios and asking a LinkedIn user and a Facebook fan to try to solve the problems.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Linus Denounces NDISWrapper, Denies It GPL Status (kerneltrap.org) 5

eldavojohn writes: "On message boards, Linus Torvalds was explaining why NDISWrapper is not eligible to be released under the GPL even though the project claims to be. Linus remarked, "Ndiswrapper itself is *not* compatible with the GPL. Trying to claim that ndiswrapper somehow itself is GPL'd even though it then loads modules that aren't is stupid and pointless. Clearly it just re-exports those GPLONLY functions to code that is *not* GPL'd." This all sprung up with someone restricted NDISWrapper's access to GPL-only symbols thereby breaking the utility. Linus merely replied that "If it loads non-GPL modules, it shouldn't be able to use GPLONLY symbols." As you may know, NDISWrapper implements Windows kernel API and then loads Windows binaries for a number of devices and runs them natively to avoid the cost and complication of emulation."

Feed Science Daily: Self-sabotage: Why Some People Can't Handle Success (sciencedaily.com)

New research shows that how people view their abilities in the workplace impacts how they respond to success. People who thought of their capabilities as fixed were more likely to become anxious and disoriented when faced with dramatic success, causing their subsequent performance to plummet, compared to those who thought of their abilities as changeable.

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