Comment Re:Iran vs US (Score 1) 194
Absurd? Insane? I think not. Facts speak for themselves. The US killed 2 million in Vietnam, 2 million in the Korean war. Another million in the 2 wars in the gulf. And I'll leave you to count the innumerable casualties in the so many other wars the Americans have fought, and continue fighting.
To even say that "America wasnt as bad as Pol Pot" is saying something for a nation that pretends to be the champion of human rights.
You can look up Wikipedia for the references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War
Comment West cutting its nose to spite its face (Score 5, Interesting) 667
The SWIFT system was constructed by the west to manage bank transfers. You can be sure that Iran will alternatives to it - just as Iran has found alternatives to every other sanction the US has imposed ove more that 30 years. So what the west is actually doing is facilitating the deconstruction of a once universal system, and facilitating the construction of an alternative that the west does not control.
Comment We do things better than China and Iran (Score 1) 199
Do China and Iran have this much control?
Comment What happened to the Free Market? (Score 1) 507
Supply and Demand? Embrace the Free Market? Isnt this type of capitalism the reason Americans live and die (and kill others) for? So why blame Sony for being a good learner, and playing the game?
Submission + - LSE SUSE Linux proximity service smashes 100 micro (computerworlduk.com)
DMandPenfold writes: The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has dramatically slashed round trip latency times for proximity hosting, in collaboration with Colt, on its Novell SUSE Linux-based MillenniumIT matching engine.
The LSE said that as it hit a new speed milestone, it had also vastly expanded capacity and reliability for the system. UK traders using the service connect through Colt's state of the art data centre in Wapping.
Nigel Harold, head of business development technology at the LSE, told Computerworld UK: "We now have sub-100 microsecond latency on proximity hosting."
Traders who typically use a proximity hosting connection include those looking for a more managed service, whereby Colt handles their networking connections and bandwidth, and aims to ensure highly reliable uptime. Speed is highly important, but reliability and managed scalability are also vital attributes for these clients.
The speed compares to sub-30 microsecond latency cross connections on co-location, a setup in which trading firms place their kit within the stock exchange's datacentre. It is the preferred option of many of the high frequency trading firms, such as the LSE's largest client Nomura, for which speed is everything – and they have a large team of their own to manage the technology.
Harold said the proximity trading solution is preferred by those traders looking to have a powerful, fast, all-round service. "It's connectivity in-a-box. The key is to offer the managed route onto the exchange for those traders, handling scalability, reliability, capacity and functionality.
"There are all shapes and sizes of client, with diverse speed requirements, but what they have in common is the need for ease of use and reliability."
The LSE's MillenniumIT matching engine is based on Novell Suse Linux, and was developed in C++. It offers trading on the FIX and ITCH protocols. "We feel we've got the fast, reliable, secure system that the market needs," said Harold.
The LSE said that as it hit a new speed milestone, it had also vastly expanded capacity and reliability for the system. UK traders using the service connect through Colt's state of the art data centre in Wapping.
Nigel Harold, head of business development technology at the LSE, told Computerworld UK: "We now have sub-100 microsecond latency on proximity hosting."
Traders who typically use a proximity hosting connection include those looking for a more managed service, whereby Colt handles their networking connections and bandwidth, and aims to ensure highly reliable uptime. Speed is highly important, but reliability and managed scalability are also vital attributes for these clients.
The speed compares to sub-30 microsecond latency cross connections on co-location, a setup in which trading firms place their kit within the stock exchange's datacentre. It is the preferred option of many of the high frequency trading firms, such as the LSE's largest client Nomura, for which speed is everything – and they have a large team of their own to manage the technology.
Harold said the proximity trading solution is preferred by those traders looking to have a powerful, fast, all-round service. "It's connectivity in-a-box. The key is to offer the managed route onto the exchange for those traders, handling scalability, reliability, capacity and functionality.
"There are all shapes and sizes of client, with diverse speed requirements, but what they have in common is the need for ease of use and reliability."
The LSE's MillenniumIT matching engine is based on Novell Suse Linux, and was developed in C++. It offers trading on the FIX and ITCH protocols. "We feel we've got the fast, reliable, secure system that the market needs," said Harold.
Submission + - The News Site Governments don't want you to watch 3
dataxtream writes: Censorship is becoming the flavour of 2012. After PIPA, SOPA, and Megaupload, last Friday at 1400 BST, PressTV, the news channel the US and Britsh governments dont want you to watch, was removed from UK's SKY Satellite Platform in a blatant act of censorship. A Wikileak described the US government requesting the UK government to shut down PressTV — and the UK dutifully complied. Strangely, the Murdoch Media still continues to operate in the UK despite the Hacking Scandal, and multiple payoffs to celebrities for hacking into their voicemail, sometimes with the collusion of the UK Police. George Galloway, former Member of Parliament, and of Senate fame, weighs in with his characteristic bluntess. The light at the end of the censorship tunnel is that in a few years, Web TV will begin to be commonplace so that banning of channels on satellite platforms or terrestrial airwaves will be irrelevant.
Submission + - Google Updates Algorithm to Punish Websites with E (itproportal.com) 2
hypnosec writes: Google has decided to take punitive actions against those websites that flood the top of their web pages with ads due to which the visitors have to scroll down to finally view the relevant contents on the page. According to Google, this type of layouts annoys the users and thus the web search company will be penalizing those websites through search results. The company disclosed this on its blog. According to Google over the top ads is not good for user experience and thus such websites might not get high ranking on Google web search.
Submission + - Israeli Group Distorting Wikipedia Info (guardian.co.uk)
dataxtream writes: The Guardian reports, "Since the earliest days of the worldwide web, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has seen its rhetorical counterpart fought out on the talkboards and chatrooms of the internet. Now two Israeli groups seeking to gain the upper hand in the online debate have launched a course in "Zionist editing" for Wikipedia, the online reference site." Salem News and PressTV also have articles.
Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn 819
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. 'We've got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,' said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. 'It's just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,' says Quan Ha."
Using Infrared Cameras To Find Tastiness of Beef 108
JoshuaInNippon writes "Might we one day be able to use our cell phone cameras to pick out the best piece of meat on display at the market? Some Japanese researchers seem to hope so. A team of scientists is using infrared camera technology to try and determine the tastiest slices of high-grade Japanese beef. The researchers believe that the levels of Oleic acid found within the beef strongly affect the beef's tenderness, smell, and overall taste. The infrared camera can be tuned to pick out the Oleic acid levels through a whole slab, a process that would be impossible to do with the human eye. While the accuracy is still relatively low — a taste test this month resulted in only 60% of participants preferring beef that was believed to have had a higher level of Oleic acid — the researchers hope to fine tune the process for market testing by next year."
Newzbin.com Usenet Indexing Trial Set To Begin Next Week 76
An anonymous reader writes "Only a few weeks after a jury acquitted Alan Ellis, the owner of the BitTorrent site 'OinK's Pink Palace,' of copyright infringement, another high profile case is about to start next week, this time for the newsgroup side of things. The MPA (Motion Picture Association) trial against Newzbin.com, a website that indexes NZB files and content on the newsgroups, will begin in London on Monday. Will lightning strike twice in favor of website indexing?"
Torrentfreak points out one major difference between the cases: "Ellis’s charge was one of fraud, allegedly conducted by an individual and dealt with under criminal law, while that leveled against Newzbin is one of allowing and inducing illegal copying, i.e copyright infringement, but carried out by a bona fide company under civil law."
Chemistry Tasks For the Computer Lab? 154
soupman55 writes "I teach Chemistry to students completing their last two years of high school. Basically it's a 'teach and test' course with a few experiments thrown in. I want to jazz up the course using computer and internet resources. For instance, I could set some tasks that require Excel spreadsheet calculations. Or I could set some web quests where students search for information online. One of the decisions to be made is: Do I use computer/internet tasks to help the students grasp the material that is already in the course, or do I help them become aware of ideas that are extensions to their course? Also, when I compare Chemistry classes with Accounting classes, it strikes me that unlike Accounting where learning to use software like Quick Books is an integral part of the course, that there is no particular software that a chemistry student must learn to use. Or is there? What in terms of chemistry and computers worked for you? Or what is there computer-wise that wasn't in your high school chemistry course but should have been?"
7 of the Best Free Linux Calculators 289
An anonymous reader writes "One of the basic utilities supplied with any operating system is a desktop calculator. These are often simple utilities that are perfectly adequate for basic use. They typically include trigonometric functions, logarithms, factorials, parentheses and a memory function. However, the calculators featured in this article are significantly more sophisticated with the ability to process difficult mathematical functions, to plot graphs in 2D and 3D, and much more. Occasionally, the calculator tool provided with an operating system did not engender any confidence. The classic example being the calculator shipped with Windows 3.1 which could not even reliably subtract two numbers. Rest assured, the calculators listed below are of precision quality."
Astronomers Discover the Coolest Known Sub-Stellar Body 60
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports that using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, astronomers have discovered what may be the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside our own solar system. Too small to be stars and with insufficient mass to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, 'brown dwarfs' have masses smaller than stars but larger than gas giant planets like Jupiter, with an upper limit in between 75 and 80 Jupiter masses. 'This looks like the fourth time in three years that the UKIRT has made a record breaking discovery of the coolest known brown dwarf, with an estimated temperature not far above 200 degrees Celsius,' says Dr. Philip Lucas at the University of Hertfordshire. Due to their low temperature these objects are very faint in visible light, and are detected by their glow at infrared wavelengths. The object known as SDSS1416+13B is in a wide orbit around a somewhat brighter and warmer brown dwarf, SDSS1416+13A, and the pair is located between 15 and 50 light years from the solar system, which is quite close in astronomical terms."
