435432
submission
KlaymenDK writes:
My father has been thinking about retiring from the (lumbering behemoth of a) company he's been working at, and I've teased him by saying that he can always find an open source project that needs his kind of skills.
A few days ago he actually did retire (well, was retired) but he's got plenty of energy left in him, and also more than 35 years of IT experience. So how, specifically, would one go about determining the best project to dedicate one's effort to?
He's a civil engineer, has done a ton of wizardy mainframe programming "back in the day", and has spent the last 15-20 years doing product presentations and educating the sales force about the technical side of the product lines. He's an avid promoter of "green" technology (that is, energy-efficiency and recyclability), and has never been afraid to go against management if he had a better plan. However, he's not entirely up to speed on the open source movement and free operating systems, though I do my best to educate him.
I'm sure he would make an excellent spokesperson for the OpenMoko, except they don't have any openings. So where else could you suggest, where would you start looking?
435372
submission
RenHoek writes:
With heat death, the big crunch and quite a few other nasty ways in which the universe could see its demise, we can now add "running out of time" to the list. A team of scientists came up with a new theory that would solve the problem of the elusive dark energy that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. They figure that the universe is not speeding up but we are, in relation to the outer regions of space, slowing down. Tests with the upcoming Large Hadron Collider will give more insight if we're going to end up frozen in time.
435326
submission
mojo writes:
The Republic of Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science will deploy more than 180,000 workstations running Canonical's Edubuntu 7.04 as part of its "Computer for Every Child" project.
The Republic of Macedonia "Computer for Every Child" project is one of the largest known thin client and desktop Linux eployments ever undertaken.
435270
submission
00_NOP writes:
The $100 laptop project seems to be running into difficulty in Nigeria where, on the one hand the education minister says: "What is the sense of introducing One Laptop per Child when they don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?" and yet is also revealed to be examining alternatives from Microsoft and Intel, well known for their dislike of the project.
The BBC's report also has some video from Nicholas Negroponte.
Clearly both companies see the little green box as a big threat — either because of its use of Linux or it's use of AMD hardware. With deep pockets maybe they'll be offering the Nigerians some sweeteners to look at the alternatives?
435250
submission
Kurtz'sKompund writes:
Samba developers are to be offered access to Windows protocols thanks to an agreement with Microsoft.
http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=10991
435166
submission
siDDis writes:
Earlier this year Slashdot mentioned that Norway moves towards mandatory use of ODF and PDF. Now it's confirmed that the Norwegian government has mandated the use of open document formats from January 1st, 2009.
There are three formats that have been mandated for all documentation between authorities, users and partners. HTML for all public information on the Web, PDF for all documents where layout needs to be preserved and ODF for all documents that the recipient is supposed to be able to edit. Documents may also be published in other formats, but they must always be available in either ODF or PDF.
435140
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
You may have heard some of the hype last month when California-based Aptera let out first word of its allegedly super fuel-efficient (and cheap) Typ-1 electric vehicle. Well this video test drive and gee-whiz specs breakdown proves that this thing is for real: 120 miles on a single lithium-phosphate pack charge for 2008, with a 300-mpg model to follow by 2009. Aptera is also mentioned in Wired's new cover story as one of several early front-runners for the Automotive X Prize.
433742
submission
Windrip writes:
The database used in Diebold Gems software during Pima County, Arizona elections is not a computer program
The result?
433238
submission
Thwomp writes:
Over at Coding Horror Jeff Atwood has an interesting write up on the performance of JavaScript in the big four browsers. He has used WebKit's newly announced SunSpider to produce the results. He's also benchmarked the lasted Firefox Beta here. Overall the results seem surprising.
433132
submission
indigor writes:
First flat screen technology was Liquid Crystal Display technology (LCD), then plasma, then Surface-conduction Electron-emitter (SED) and now Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED).
Scientists at the Fraunhofer succeeded in constructing transparent OLED displays. They used light-emitting polymers. When Fraunhofer Institute made them transparent they have opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Now it is possible to make display panels in laminated glass.