Comment Re:Good Writeup! (Score 1) 368
I think that if they had all the answers then they would be building the Space Elevator now rather than a planned finish date of around 25 years!
Submission + - Keylogger Hardware Embedded in New Dell Laptop (virus.org.ua)
kendbluze writes: "Here's an EE who was doing a simple repair to a nearly-new Dell 600m laptop when he noticed something a bit curious. Turns out he found a hardware keylogger sitting between the keyboard and ethernet controllers! See what Homeland Security didn't have to say about it."
Submission + - AntiVirus kills PCs? Have some more, Symantec says (texyt.com)
Tort reformation writes: Dubious 'compensation' settlements from companies that have done wrong are nothing new (examples: 1,2,3). But Symantec may have hit a new low. After tens of thousands of PCs in China were crippled by Symantec's Norton AntiVirus when it went beserk last month and decided Windows XP was a virus, users demanded financial compensation for lost data, days of lost business, and repair fees. Symantec's counter-offer: a further year's free use of Norton Antivirus.
Submission + - ZFS on Linux: It's alive! (linuxworld.com)
lymeca writes: LinuxWorld reports that Sun Microsystem's ZFS filesystem has been converted from its incanartion in OpenSolaris to a module capable of running in the Linux user-space filsystem project, FUSE. Because of the license incompatibilities with the Linux kernel, it has not yet been integrated for distribution within the kernel itself. This project, called ZFS on FUSE, aims to enable GNU/Linux users to use ZFS as a process in userspace, bypassing the legal barrier inherent in having the filesystem coded into the Linux kernel itself. Booting from a ZFS partition has been confirmed to work. The performance currently clocks in at about half as fast as XFS, but with all the success the NTFS-3g project has had creating a high performance FUSE implementation of the NTFS filesystem, there's hope that performance tweaking could yield a practical elimination of barriers for GNU/Linux users to make use of all that ZFS has to offer.
Submission + - Are there any good educational toys for babies?
dichotom writes: "My sister is only a few days from having her first baby and I have been scouring the internet for an advanced learning toy. I started looking recently after seeing the movie "The Last Mimzy"(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768212/) where a young girl comes into possession of a toy rabbit from the future that teaches her things. Nanotechnology aside, is there anything out there that will constantly tell random facts to a child when they interact with it? Would this kind of learning even be feasible in the respect of any information sticking with a child as they grow? In my mind I imagine this as something I could upload information to from a computer, and then in turn it would say a quote when it is shaken or picked up.
Okay slashdot, what can you imagine? And better yet how can we build it or where can we buy it?"
Submission + - Ubuntu, Red Hat reject Microsoft patent deal (zdnet.com.au)
hoyeru writes: Red Hat, the largest Linux vendor, and Ubuntu-maker Canonical have both rejected calls from Microsoft to forge a deal similar to the one the Redmond giant signed with Linux distributors Novell, Xandros, and Linspire.
Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's CEO, said in a blog posting on Saturday, that Canonical has declined to talk to Microsoft about any agreement that provides legal protection to Ubuntu users related to "unspecified patents".
"Allegations of 'infringement of unspecified patents' carry no weight whatsoever. We don't think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together," he wrote.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Ubuntu-R ed-Hat-reject-Microsoft-patent-deal/0,130061733,33 9278741,00.htm
Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's CEO, said in a blog posting on Saturday, that Canonical has declined to talk to Microsoft about any agreement that provides legal protection to Ubuntu users related to "unspecified patents".
"Allegations of 'infringement of unspecified patents' carry no weight whatsoever. We don't think they have any legal merit, and they are no incentive for us to work with Microsoft on any of the wonderful things we could do together," he wrote.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Ubuntu-
Submission + - Linux Chosen for Next-Generation Space Hardware (spacemart.com)
EraserMouseMan writes: WindRiver has been chosen by Honeywell to develop a Linux-based solution to run on top of Honeywell's next-generation Dependable Multiprocessor for spacecraft.
"Any material put into space is subject to variable accelerations, mechanical shock and vibration, harsh vacuum conditions, extreme temperatures, and often, intense particle and electromagnetic radiation. Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition, running in conjunction with GoAhead SelfReliant Software, which provides high availability middleware, and Honeywell''s Dependable Multiprocessing Middleware on Extreme Engineering Solutions'' XPedite6031 boards, will support the demonstration of high availability and high reliability operation for the ST8 Dependable Multiprocessor experiment."
The relevancy and robustness of Linux is being recognized by the biggest players in industry for their mission critical needs. Is Linux finally being recognized as suitable for everything from putting men on Mars to defending our country?
"Any material put into space is subject to variable accelerations, mechanical shock and vibration, harsh vacuum conditions, extreme temperatures, and often, intense particle and electromagnetic radiation. Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition, running in conjunction with GoAhead SelfReliant Software, which provides high availability middleware, and Honeywell''s Dependable Multiprocessing Middleware on Extreme Engineering Solutions'' XPedite6031 boards, will support the demonstration of high availability and high reliability operation for the ST8 Dependable Multiprocessor experiment."
The relevancy and robustness of Linux is being recognized by the biggest players in industry for their mission critical needs. Is Linux finally being recognized as suitable for everything from putting men on Mars to defending our country?
Submission + - Overclocking madness? (idg.com.au)
Da Massive writes: Overclockers waged a battle of ice against fire at Computex in Taipei, pushing the performance limits of Intel's CPUs to 5GHz. The hobbyists, who are becoming an increasingly common sight at IT trade shows, are perfecting the art of pushing processors to their limits. This video is both crazy and funny at the same time — http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/fp;2;fpid; 10000;o;0;id;555745332
Submission + - Videogame Unites Republicans and Democrats (gamepolitics.com)
An anonymous reader writes: This is a cool game that was launched out of the capitol building in Washington DC last week. It was created by the USC Game Innovation Lab and has been getting lots of press. It's about time someone took on a tough issue like redistricting reform using the power of the internet. The game is fun and well made.
Submission + - Plan 9 Running on Blue Gene/L (osnews.com)
os_evaluator writes: According to OS News, a team comprised of members from Bell-Labs, IBM Research, Sandia National Labs, and Vita Nuova has completed a port of Plan 9 to the Blue Gene supercomputer. Plan 9 kernels are running on both the compute nodes and the I/O nodes and the Ethernet, Torus, Collective Network, Barrier Network, and Management network are all supported." This is very good news for both Plan 9 and IBM. Hopefully now people will start taking Plan 9 as a serious operating system, and see the brilliant design of it that has been overlooked for so many years. Daily ISOs are available at the Bell-Labs website. You are encouraged to try it out and expect the unexpected.
Submission + - Homemade dvd storage / streaming server?
bingbong writes: I'm a DVD addict with a large DVD collection. I want to save space and rip all my DVDs to a storage drive, and then serve them to my various TVs around the house. Are there any suggestions for ripping, cataloging and streaming software? I might also be moving to the UK from the US in the next year. So ideally this system would be something i could use over there.
so that's my dream. Any thoughts?
so that's my dream. Any thoughts?
Submission + - 10 Reasons why you should not rely on Windows Defe (windvis.com)
Nick Zara writes: "Windows Defender is a free antispyware software (it comes with Windows XP and Vista) that is supposed to protect your pc against spyware. But why do so many people choose other third party software? Today it's time to reveal 10 reasons that make Microsoft's program not good enough to deliver effective protection."
Submission + - W3C bars public from "public" conf on tran (com.com)
cnet-declan writes: "The World Wide Web Consortium, which claims to be an "open forum" for standards discussion, held an event in DC on Monday (with a Tim Berners-Lee keynote) described as: "Conversations and results are public." But it turns out that reporters were barred from attending the event, which was, ironically, held in a federal building and titled "Toward More Transparent Government." The W3C's Danny Weiztner, an lawyer and event co-chair, told me it was necessary so government officials could speak freely — but was unable to identify any who might feel stifled. Here's our article on W3C's apparent hypocrisy."
Submission + - How to Stop Pirates: Ask Nicely
BillGatesLoveChild writes: When Trey Harrison found his music lighting software 'Salvation' had been pirated, he was taken aback. Being an Independent Software Developer, there wasn't much he could do. So he contacted the Warez Group and asked them nicely. They wrote back and said sorry, that they at least hoped more people got to see it and that in accordance with his wishes, they wouldn't release it again.
But what of the Anti-Piracy tool "Armadillo Software Passport" that was supposed to have protected Trey's Software? Unlike the Pirates who responded straight away, Trey says he never heard a peep back from Armadillo. Seems the Pirates have better "customer support" than the Anti-piracy agents!
Of course, "Ask Nicely" may not work for the RIAA who as Orson Scott Card's famous essay pointed out have perhaps irreversible ill-will due to their history of ripping off artists and consumers and buying off Congressmen. But for smaller companies and independents, perhaps it's worth a try? There's even hope for the industry heavies. Mark Ishikawa of Anti-P2P Company BayTSP says 85% of people he sends a gentle warning on behalf of the MPAA "do not come back, with no headlines and no public relations blowups."
Could a softly-softly approach work better for IP owners that heavy-handed threats and lawyers?
But what of the Anti-Piracy tool "Armadillo Software Passport" that was supposed to have protected Trey's Software? Unlike the Pirates who responded straight away, Trey says he never heard a peep back from Armadillo. Seems the Pirates have better "customer support" than the Anti-piracy agents!
Of course, "Ask Nicely" may not work for the RIAA who as Orson Scott Card's famous essay pointed out have perhaps irreversible ill-will due to their history of ripping off artists and consumers and buying off Congressmen. But for smaller companies and independents, perhaps it's worth a try? There's even hope for the industry heavies. Mark Ishikawa of Anti-P2P Company BayTSP says 85% of people he sends a gentle warning on behalf of the MPAA "do not come back, with no headlines and no public relations blowups."
Could a softly-softly approach work better for IP owners that heavy-handed threats and lawyers?
Submission + - Sand Grain sized RFID chips (popsci.com)
enderanjin writes: "The diamond ring of the future will radiate its unique beauty — quite literally — thanks to a minuscule radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip embedded in it. Scientists at Hitachi Research Labs in Japan have devised the smallest RFID tag ever, just 0.05 millimeter by 0.05 millimeter, tinier than a grain of sand."
