Submission + - Transformer blows up in Manhattan
trickyrickb writes: Reuters, CNN and Fox news reporting an exploding tranformer has brought down a building in Midtown Manhatten, hopefully its not Optimus Prime, he's a goodie
Submission + - The rise of the laptop
mrbluze writes: "According to a BBC report, that laptop sales will outstrip desktop sales by 2011.
What does this imply for the future of operating system development? Do we need to place greater emphasis on instant-on systems and ergonomics than previously?"
What does this imply for the future of operating system development? Do we need to place greater emphasis on instant-on systems and ergonomics than previously?"
Submission + - Introduction to math of 3d graphics
holden writes: "Graphics programming is seen as the cool thing by a large number of people. A lot of confusion arizes when people attempt to do 3d graphics programming without the proper mathematical background in basic linear algebra. Christopher Evensen recently gave a talk covering covering the important fundamentals. The math is also accompanied by a real world programming example."
Submission + - FBI in Cohoots with Verizon, AT&T, MCI
mrbluze writes: "In the ongoing FBI probe, Wired News confirms that the FBI did enter into contracts with telephone companies to "harvest" telephone records.
I have read elsewhere that security organizations have deals with operating system and other software manufacturers to provide back-doors to PC's. How widespread is all of this privacy invasion in reality?"
"The contract essentially pays for the man hours or the personnel cost for the people who have to do the work," said FBI Assistant Director John Miller in an interview with Wired News last night. "We want dedicated people who handle our requests or do nothing else."
I have read elsewhere that security organizations have deals with operating system and other software manufacturers to provide back-doors to PC's. How widespread is all of this privacy invasion in reality?"
Submission + - RIAA caught in lose-lose legal situation
JeffreysTube writes: The RIAA's legal fight against a divorced mother has run into trouble, with the judge now telling the RIAA that its only two options are to proceed with a jury trial against Patty Santangelo or dismiss the case with prejudice. If the latter happens, Santangelo officially "wins" and could collect attorneys' fees. The judge is less than pleased with the RIAA, which is now trying to drop the case without giving Santangelo a chance to be declared guilty. "This case is two years old," wrote Judge McMahon. "There has been extensive fact discovery. After taking this discovery, either plaintiffs want to make their case that Mrs. Santangelo is guilty of contributory copyright infringement or they do not."
Submission + - Data - Do Politicians Really Understand?
EaglemanBSA writes: It's not cutting-edge news that Al Gore has been ringing the environmental 'fire-bell' (example) on what many see as a significant turn for the worse in terms of climate change. As we've seen in the past, many of our legislators don't quite understand the concepts they're formulating legislation about (see Ted Stevens).My question is this: Do you think our politicians really understand the data in the global warming case enough to make a decision that will dictate multi-billion dollar energy policy? If not, what can we do to make a difference?
Submission + - Presidential-hopefuls satirical video
David Batterson writes: OK, so the creator of the anti-Hillary, pro-Obama viral video was unmasked. And it turned out he was working for a paid consultant. Wow, what a surprise.
Take a look at this video instead. It pops the dialogue-balloons of Hillary, Obama, Giuliani, McCain and Richardson. And it's not from a political party, PAC or consultant, nor from any associates of any candidate, nor from any publication. It's independent.
See the video, "Presidential Hopefuls Offer Their BS!" at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzwrv0F3U5s
Submission + - Riding The Multi-core Revolution
holden writes: "Multi threaded programming is becoming increasing important to exploit new multi-cored CPUs & GPUs. The Multi- core revolution promises to provide unparalleled increases in performance, but it comes with a catch: traditional serial programming methods are not at all suited to programming these processors and methods such as multi-threading are cumbersome and rarely scale beyond a few cores. Stefanus Du Toit recently gave a talk on how to add data palarism to existing C/C++ using Rapid Mind toolkit."
Submission + - KDE publishes 4.0 roll out time line
elkosmas writes: "Desktop Linux reports:
On March 21, KDE e.V, the non-profit organization behind the popular KDE desktop environment, announced its schedule to complete its next version, 4.0. If all goes well, we should see a release of KDE 4.0 this Fall.
As the schedule stands now, on April 1, all KDE subsystems will be frozen. Then, on May 1, KDE will release the first Alpha in source-code only format. At the same time, the kdelibs API will be "soft-frozen." By this the developers mean that changes can be made to this cross-platform library, but only with the consent of the core developers. Presuming that no show-stopper bugs appear in these close-to-final test releases, KDE 4.0 will appear on Oct. 23, 2007."
Journal Journal: Terminal Server References? Anyone? 3
As I am looking to build or buy a new home, I started planning a home computing system for the house from scratch. What I have in my head is some beefy server and cheap workstations (graphical diskless thin-clients) throughout the house. I have read some up on the Linux Terminal Server Project and envisioned an amazing system possibly involving intercom (VoIP), home chat, controlled web access (I have kids), Myth TV, word
Submission + - American Idol offers 320Kbps MP3's
MBGMorden writes: I know that American Idol doesn't exactly garner a lot of respect from the Slashdot crowd, but I found it interesting that they are now selling (at 99 cents per track) the performances of the contestants of the various tracks they did on the show (http://downloads.americanidol.com/). Even more interesting was that they are 320kbps non-DRM'd MP3's. Perhaps the music industry is finally coming around to the idea of DRM-free media?
Submission + - Make a viral video, lose your job
Raul654 writes: "Philip de Vellis, the author of the Hilary Clinton viral video was outed today on the Huffington Post. The company he works for, Blue State Digital, has now fired him as a result. Said Vellis: "I made the 'Vote Different' ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process.""
