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Submission + - University Students Made a Working Model Hyperloop (vice.com)

derekmead writes: Elon Musk's Hyperloop gets people excited. Promise the ability to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than an hour, and you're going to get people salivating. But for as much as we've heard about it, we've had scarcely little to see—until a team of students at the University of Illinois decided to build their very own miniature hyperloop.

Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a “fourth mode of transportation” that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source white paper published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Is security-related slowness inevitable?

An anonymous reader writes: Our organization's PC's are growing ever slower, with direct hard-drive encryption in place, and with anti-malware scans running ever more frequently. The security team says that SSD's are the only solution, but the org won't approve SSD purchases. It seems most disk scanning could take place after hours and/or under a lower CPU priority, but the security team doesn't care about optimization, summarily blaming sluggishness on lack of SSD's. Are they blowing smoke?

Submission + - It just got a whole lot easier to switch broadband provider (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson writes: Moving from one broadband provider to another has long been something of a chore. Starting this weekend (June 20), switchers in the UK will no longer have to go through the hassle of requesting a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) from their current supplier, as their new ISP will be able to handle the entire process from start to finish.

This should not only help to speed up the process of switching provider, but also eliminate the pestering from ISPs to stay with them. The new rules do not cover all ISPs, just those that use the Openreach network — this includes major players such as BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, and Sky — but it should still make life easier for a lot of people.

Submission + - Finnaly, ReactOS as a second OS in Russian government's software freedom effort (reactos.org)

jeditobe writes: The Russian Federation along with the BRICS nations are pursuing measures to rid vendor lock-in of strategically important software (http://minsvyaz.ru/en/events/33237/) and substitute such software with free/open software (http://minsvyaz.ru/en/events/32967/).

As such an initiative would provide considerable benefits beyond that of any singular agenda, Aleksey Bragin decided to take part in that on behalf of ReactOS Foundation. Since October 2014 he has been a member of the Operating Systems workgroup formed by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications (so-called "IT Ministry") and actively participating in its discussions.

The IT Ministry issued a request for proposals this April to find and help develop independent technologies in different categories (mobile, desktop, server operating systems, databases, office software, virtualization and cloud infrastructure). The ReactOS Foundation submitted two projects: ReactOS desktop operating system and RosServer — ReactOS-based server operating system.

After evaluations, various meetings and Aleksey's presentation to the CIO of several large Russian companies the results were published last week (http://minsvyaz.ru/ru/documents/4662/ — in Russian only) with ReactOS-based projects receiving second place in the OS category, with first place taken by ROSA Lab and ALT Linux consortium.

The selection process was pretty tough, full of meetings, filters, and time-pressure, but that was worth the effort. The skills and work of the ReactOS team made the whole process easier. Many other awesome projects couldn't make it in this and other categories, but the ReactOS Foundation is willing to help them by opening as many collaboration agreements as possible in order to create nice synergies.

We knew, when we submitted the two ReactOS-based projects, how difficult it would be to get a place among the selected projects, and we're very proud to announce this achievement as a sort of reward for the ReactOS Community, and to all the Developers and Testers who have contributed to making ReactOS what it is now: The best open source Windows alternative up to date.

We do not have details about what happens after these evaluations, but rest assured, we will keep you informed of any updates. Stay tuned!

Submission + - Intel-Powered Asus ZenFone 2 Review: A Solid, Affordable, Unlocked Android Phone (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: Asus recently launched their Android Lollipop-driven ZenFone 2 and with its Intel Atom Z3580 SoC with PowerVR graphics and 4GB of RAM. It's an interesting low cost alternative to the major flagship smartphones on the market. Its 5.5-inch Full HD display looks great and build quality is surprisingly high with minimalistic styling and a rear-mounted volume rocker and power button setup much like the LG G4. It also supports dual SIM functionality and handles surprisingly well in the benchmarks and general use. Though its Atom chip doesn't break any records, it offers middle of the pack graphics performance, solid standard compute throughput but feels nimble and responsive with 4GB of RAM minimizing lag. For the price of a 16GB model at $199 and a 64GB variant at $299, it's definitely one to consider, especially for those looking for an unlocked, contract commitment-free Android smartphone.

Submission + - Rick Santorum Wants Pope to 'Leave Science to Scientists'

HughPickens.com writes: Ed Mazza writes that Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum says he loves Pope Francis, but he wants the pontiff to stop talking about climate change and "leave science to the scientists." Santorum's comments come as the pope, who holds a degree as a chemical technician and worked as a chemist before turning to the priesthood, has become increasingly vocal about climate change. “The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists," says Santorum, "and focusing on what we're really good at, which is theology and morality, When we get involved with political and controversial scientific theories, I think the church is not as forceful and credible."

"I guess the question would be, if he shouldn’t talk about it, should you?" asked Chris Wallace of Fox News. “Politicians, whether we like it or not, people in government have to make decision with regard to public policy that affect American workers,” answered Santorum, adding that while “the pope can talk about whatever he wants to talk about,” he questions the Pope’s use of his moral authority to combat the issue of climate change.. Santorum — a devout Catholic — disagrees with the Pope’s stance that climate change is a man-made and has often called climate science “political science,” arguing that a scientific consensus on climate change underscores this point. “All of this certainty, which is what bothers me about the debate, the idea that science is settled,” says Santorum. “Any time you hear a scientist say science is settled, that’s political science, not real science.”

Submission + - Mesosphere introduces free data center OS (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Mesosphere has launched its new data center operating system (DCOS) as it pushes further for a fully visualized industry. The company is delivering a free version of the software over the cloud, as well as an enterprise edition that can be deployed anywhere. The Mesosphere DCOS was released as a cloud-based public beta last year across Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The software has been designed as a unified operating system combining Apache Mesos with a selection of open source tool and some custom features. The DCOS moves away from typical visualization models to deliver a centralized provision of resources, which looks more like a consumer model rather than a traditional data center device. The Mesosphere system is described as cloud-based infrastructure for managing clustered data center workloads, with resources found at a local data center, a public cloud or in a hybrid setup.

Comment Re: Does El Capitan Fix Major Problems? (Score 1) 415

The price for the OS is included in the price of a Mac computer, so you pay for it somehow. However, your comment makes me remember how things are different in different countries. In Brazil, the Macs are so more expensive that no one would ever say that anything that comes in it is free.

Comment Re:Does El Capitan Fix Major Problems? (Score 0) 415

Microsoft, Apple, what's the difference? Both want to steal money from devs and control users with walled gardens.

Or you can use Linux and have more annoyances for free.

Frankly, I can't get how so many people still want to pay so much for an OS, when you can just download one for free and pay as much as you consider reasonable, if you feel uneasy with the free of charge thing.

In the end they all look the same, until you hit into problems.

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