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Debian

Submission + - Linux Mint Debian 201012: available

Submitted by VincenzoRomano
VincenzoRomano writes: The latest Linux Mint Debian is available for download since a few days now for both 32 and 64 bit Intel-like architectures.
From the announcement feature list:

All Mint 10 features
64-bit support
Performance boost (using cgroup, the notorious “4 lines of code better than 200 in user-space)
Installer improvements (multiple HDDs, grub install on partitions, swap allocation, btrfs support)
Better fonts (Using Ubuntu’s libcairo, fontconfig and Ubuntu Font Family) and language support (ttf-wqy-microhei, ttf-sazanami-mincho, ttf-sazanami-gothic installed by default)
Better connectivity and hardware support (pppoe, pppoeconf, gnome-ppp, pppconfig, libgl1-mesa-dri, libgl1-mesa-glx, libgl1-mesa-dev, mesa-utils installed by default)
Better sound support (addressing conflicts between Pulse Audio and Flash)
Updated software and packages

Back to September 7th we saw the very first release, rather beta indeed, of this project, the first step to switch the distribution base from Ubuntu to Debian and to a rolling release policy.
Linux Mint is scoring place #2 at Distrowatch Popularity Ranking (well, kind of), just behind Ubuntu and before Fedora, OpenSUSE and Debian itself, .
Only time will tell whether this is a winning move or not for Linux Mint. But why not giving it a run?

Bug

Why You See 'Free Public WiFi' In So Many Places 260

Posted by Soulskill from the deja-vu-all-over-again dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Almost anywhere you go these days (particularly at airports), if you check for available WiFi settings, you have a pretty good chance of seeing an ad hoc network for 'Free Public WiFi.' Of course, since it's ad hoc (computer to computer) it's not actually access to the internet. So why is this in so many places? Turns out it's due to a bug in Windows XP. Apparently, the way XP works is that if it can't find a 'favorite' WiFi hotspot, it automatically sets up the computer to broadcast itself as an ad hoc network point, using the name of the last connection the computer attempted. So... people see 'Free Public WiFi' and they try to log on. Then their own computer starts broadcasting the same thing, because it can't find a network it knows. And, like a virus, the 'Free Public WiFi' that doesn't work lives on and on and on."
News

LHC Successfully Cools To 1.9K In Lead-Up To Restart 177

Posted by Soulskill from the say-your-goodbyes-folks,-the-end-is-nigh dept.
Smelly Jeffrey writes "The BBC is reporting that the LHC has had all eight of its sectors cooled to 1.9 Kelvin. Their tagline is that it is now 'colder than deep space,' referring to the CMB. LHC engineers have spent nearly $40,000,000 USD on a new system to prevent the 'quench' condition that caused the LHC to be down for warming, repairs, and re-cooling over the last year. The LHC is now cold enough to begin colliding particles in search of the Higgs Boson. High power collisions won't be started until late December, or perhaps early January. However, a low-power beam through parts of the collider could be tested as early as next week!"
Google

Google Brings Chrome Renderer, Speedy Javascript To IE 239

Posted by kdawson from the behind-enemy-lines dept.
A month after we discussed Google's bringing SVG to IE, several readers let us know that Google is expanding the beachhead by offering Chrome's renderer and speedy Javascript execution in an IE plugin. This effort is in service of allowing IE to participate in Google Wave when that technology's preview is extended in a week's time. The plugin, currently in an early stage of development, is called Google Chrome Frame.
Google

Google Getting Into the Solar Mirror Business 139

Posted by Soulskill from the reflects-well-on-them dept.
adeelarshad82 writes with this excerpt from a Reuters report: "Google is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector, but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by [25%] or more. The company's engineers have been focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun's energy is used to heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun's rays on the heated substance. ... Google hopes to have a viable technology to show internally in a couple of months, Bill Weihl said. It will need to do accelerated testing to show the impact of decades of wear on the new mirrors in desert conditions."
Biotech

Swine Flu Genetics Suggest a Vaccine Is Possible 116

Posted by timothy from the shhh-no-one's-calling-it-that-any-more dept.
Kristina at Science News writes "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced findings May 1 from genetic studies of swine flu virus from six different countries. A strong similarity from country to country suggests all the infections are from one strain, making a vaccine a strong possibility. It will be several months at least before such a vaccine would be developed, though."
Operating Systems

Europe Funds Secure Operating System Research 376

Posted by kdawson from the software-heal-thyself dept.
narramissic writes "A Dutch university has received a $3.3 million grant from the European Research Council to fund 5 more years of work on a Unix-type operating system, called Minix, that aims to be more reliable and secure than either Linux or Windows. The latest grant will enable the three researchers and two programmers on the project to further their research into a making Minix capable of fixing itself when a bug is detected, said Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a computer science professor at Vrije Universiteit. 'It irritates me to no end when software doesn't work,' Tanenbaum said. 'Having to reboot your computer is just a pain. The question is, can you make a system that actually works very well?'"
Media

F-Secure Suggests Ditching Adobe Reader For Free PDF Viewers 249

Posted by timothy from the jane-the-sex-was-good-but-I've-had-enough-circus dept.
hweimer writes "Yesterday at RSA security conference, F-Secure's chief research officer recommended dropping Adobe Reader for viewing PDF files because of the huge amount of targeted attacks against it. Instead, he pointed to PDFreaders.org, a website maintaining a list of free and open source PDF viewers."
Space

Submission + - Stephen Hawkins seriously ill (google.se)

Submitted by
Big Nothing
Big Nothing writes: "World-famous mathematician and physicist Stephen Hawking (67) — by many concidered to be the Einstein of our time — is reported to be very ill in Camebridge hospital with a chest infection he has been fighting for several weeks."
Quickies

Submission + - What if our tech is good enough? (techradar.com)

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "TechRadar shares how "incremental improvements just don't get us excited. Perhaps Blu-ray is the canary in the coalmine. To its makers, it's a fantastic new format, the pinnacle of home entertainment technology. To the public, it's digital video/versatile disc (DVD) with a slightly better picture and double the price tag — and most people have decided to stick with what they already have. Blu-ray isn't the only recent example of this malaise. While the launch of Windows 95 saw midnight queues, Vista's release saw nothing but tumbleweed. What if this continues and Windows 7 is met with apathy, not excitement? What if iPods stay on the shelves, personal computer/PC firms can't shift their stock and internet service providers/ISPs investing in ever-faster broadband go to the wall? It all sounds extreme, but Blu-ray's problems should send the industry a message. 'Thanks, but no thanks,' we're saying. 'What we've got is good enough.' Slowing improvements: The evolution of technology over the past few decades has been incredible. In a short space of time we've advanced from blurry black-and-white television broadcasts to crisp high definition/HD programming, from unreliable mobile phones to speedy smartphones, and from computers the size of rooms to intuitive mobile devices that can it into the palm of your hand. Yet now we find ourselves in an impossible position. In almost every sphere, the technology we have is so good that any improvements can only be incremental... Seen on Digg."
Space

E-Merlin "Super-Telescope" Switched On 41

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the ip-over-avian-carrier-would-have-been-better dept.
Smivs writes to tell us that one of the world's most powerful telescope arrays has been switched on with great success. Seven radio telescopes in the UK have been linked with optical fiber, replacing the older microwave tech that connected them previously. One researcher compared the move to a broadband upgrade from dial-up. Research teams will now be able to do in one day what previously took them three years.
Sun Microsystems

Oracle Buys Sun 906

Posted by CmdrTaco from the there-can-be-only-one dept.
bruunb writes "Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt. 'We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined,' said Oracle President Safra Catz."

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