Comment Re:New York (Score 1) 920
My vote is for Di Fara as well. Best pizza I ever had.
Here is how its done: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2008/03/secrets-of-di-f.html
Submission + - Opera 10.0 released (opera.com) 2
neonsignal writes: Opera 10 has been released. It now supports rich text email, the 'turbo' Opera proxy server feature, some HTML 5 support, XML 'pretty printing', extra skinning features, and a 100/100 score in the Acid3 test. There has been no official announcement as yet.
Submission + - Baby monitors killing urban Wi-Fi (pcpro.co.uk) 1
Barence writes: "Baby monitors and wireless TV transmitters are responsible for slowing down Wi-Fi connections in built-up areas, according to a report commissioned by British telecoms regulator Ofcom. The research smashes the myth that overlapping Wi-Fi networks in heavily congested towns and cities are to blame for faltering connection speeds. Instead it claims that unlicensed devices operating in the 2.4GHz band are dragging down signals. "It only requires a single device, such as an analogue video sender, to severely affect Wi-Fi services within a short range, such that a single large building or cluster of houses can experience difficulties with using a single Wi-Fi channel," the report claims."
Comment List of SI derived units (Score 1) 451
Go through the list of SI units http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_derived_unit most of them are named after the guy who discovered the underlying principle. Read their books.
Submission + - Irish domain registry banning adult domains
Karate Sid writes: An Irish adult website has blogged about the Irish domain registry (IEDR) banning adult domains including porn.ie and pornography.ie. The IEDR's reasoning is both the words "porn" and "pornography" are offensive and immoral.
Of interest is how Sex.ie took legal action against the IEDR — and proved neither word is offensive — yet still lost the case as the IEDR are the highest authority in Ireland when it comes to deciding what is and isn't an offensive domain.
Of interest is how Sex.ie took legal action against the IEDR — and proved neither word is offensive — yet still lost the case as the IEDR are the highest authority in Ireland when it comes to deciding what is and isn't an offensive domain.
Submission + - New "Open Format" policy of theEuropean Pa (urszulagacek.pl) 1
Urszula Gacek, MEP writes: "The European Parliament today adopted a new policy that all computers must work with ODF format for documents and that all Parliament videos must be available in MPEG4/ISMA v2 format. I welcome this as a first step.
Cut and pasted text from internal email:
"
Brussels, 11 March 2009
Dear Member,
In order to comply with the recommendations expressed in the Cappato Report (A6-0459/2008) and the petition on "open formats" and to improve your communication outside the EP, we are pleased to inform you of two major changes:
1) The work station at your disposal was adapted at the beginning of this year in order to permit the management of ODF files (Open Document Format). It is currently possible for you to receive, read and modify files generated with the Open Office software (Open Source). It is also possible for you to save a document in this format.
2) The "Europarl" website, in its "Activities/Plenary sittings/Debates" section, provides, in addition to the text of speeches, the videos of speeches and plenary debates in the original language and interpreted languages. These videos are available in two formats (Open Format MPEG4/ISMA v2 and Microsoft Format/Windows media). When you connect to the website, you will have the option of choosing the desired format according to the type of "player" (reading software) available on your PC (the workstations of the Parliament are equipped with both formats).
For further information or support, you can contact our Helpdesk for Members (LSUMEP) by telephone: 83800 or by e-mail: lsumep@europarl.europa.eu
Kind regards,
Jean-Marc Laforest""
Cut and pasted text from internal email:
"
Brussels, 11 March 2009
Dear Member,
In order to comply with the recommendations expressed in the Cappato Report (A6-0459/2008) and the petition on "open formats" and to improve your communication outside the EP, we are pleased to inform you of two major changes:
1) The work station at your disposal was adapted at the beginning of this year in order to permit the management of ODF files (Open Document Format). It is currently possible for you to receive, read and modify files generated with the Open Office software (Open Source). It is also possible for you to save a document in this format.
2) The "Europarl" website, in its "Activities/Plenary sittings/Debates" section, provides, in addition to the text of speeches, the videos of speeches and plenary debates in the original language and interpreted languages. These videos are available in two formats (Open Format MPEG4/ISMA v2 and Microsoft Format/Windows media). When you connect to the website, you will have the option of choosing the desired format according to the type of "player" (reading software) available on your PC (the workstations of the Parliament are equipped with both formats).
For further information or support, you can contact our Helpdesk for Members (LSUMEP) by telephone: 83800 or by e-mail: lsumep@europarl.europa.eu
Kind regards,
Jean-Marc Laforest""
Submission + - NASA to launch planet-hunting telescope Friday (reuters.com)
suraj.sun writes: CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) — A NASA telescope was cleared to launch on Friday on a mission to look for Earth-like planets around other stars and determine whether there are places that could support human-like life beyond our solar system.
Liftoff of the Kepler telescope is scheduled for 10:49 p.m. EST on Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"This is a historical mission," NASA's space science chief Ed Weiler told reporters on Thursday. "It really attacks some basic human questions that have been asked since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked, 'Are we alone?'"
Once in orbit, Kepler will be aimed at a star-rich swath of sky between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra in our own Milky Way galaxy. The telescope has two main tasks on its three-year mission: Stare at the stars and stay still.
Light-collecting devices in the telescope are sensitive enough to detect slight changes in the number of photons emanating from more than 100,000 target stars in the telescope's field of view. Some of changes will be due to planets passing in front of their parent stars and temporarily blocking a bit of light.
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5247B820090305
Liftoff of the Kepler telescope is scheduled for 10:49 p.m. EST on Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"This is a historical mission," NASA's space science chief Ed Weiler told reporters on Thursday. "It really attacks some basic human questions that have been asked since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked, 'Are we alone?'"
Once in orbit, Kepler will be aimed at a star-rich swath of sky between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra in our own Milky Way galaxy. The telescope has two main tasks on its three-year mission: Stare at the stars and stay still.
Light-collecting devices in the telescope are sensitive enough to detect slight changes in the number of photons emanating from more than 100,000 target stars in the telescope's field of view. Some of changes will be due to planets passing in front of their parent stars and temporarily blocking a bit of light.
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5247B820090305
Submission + - German Constitutional Court Bans Voting Machines
Dr. Hok writes: The German Federal Constitutional Court ruled today (German, babelfish translation here) that the use of voting machines in the previous federal election was against the constitution. Voting machines are not illegal per se, but with these machines it wasn't possible to verify the results after the votes were cast. The verification procedure by the German authorities was flawed, too: only specimens were tested, not the machines actually used in the elections, and the detailed results (including the source code) were not made public. The results of the election remain legally valid, though. The ruling is here (in German).
Submission + - Parasitic WPA cracking (michalrogala.com)
Rogal writes: "A new topic to WPA-PSK password cracking emerged. An evil or compromised web page may force web browsers to compute PBKDF2 hashes and send them back to another site. This may lead to creation of a large, distributed, parasitic network aimed on generating WPA-PSK hash tables."
Submission + - What will you do if Google Mail dies? 1
jw3 writes: I can't check my google mail account for a few hours now. That made me think: what happens if it really dies? Like, for a few days? Or worse? Ever since I moved from pine a few years ago I have been using googlemail for all my accounts. Sure, I did forward e-mails from my job address to a local account somewhere... but with all that spam and no sorting, just trying to use it again is a major pain. Apart from that, there are plenty of other things that I happily handed over to gmail — and I just realized what a big chunk of my life relies on gmail working without glitches. Right now I am hitting obsesively the refresh button and thinking up all kinds of disastrous scenarios, starting with an empty inbox ("sorry, we have lost your e-mails... please accept our apologies").
Of course, gmail is just one of the many providers of web-based e-mails. When I look around, almost everyone seems to be using them nowadays. So — what do you do? Do you trust that the site of your web-based e-mail provider will never go down? Do you make backups of all your e-mails?
Of course, gmail is just one of the many providers of web-based e-mails. When I look around, almost everyone seems to be using them nowadays. So — what do you do? Do you trust that the site of your web-based e-mail provider will never go down? Do you make backups of all your e-mails?
Submission + - unknown publisher making money off my wikibook? (amazon.com)
rcragun writes: "While doing a Google vanity search (i.e., for me) after reading this Slashdot story I came across a book being published with my name on it. As an academic sociologist, publishing a book is important for tenure and promotion criteria, but I actually didn't publish THIS book. Here's what I can gather... I am the primary author of a Wikibookand it looks like some unknown publisher — Seven Treasures
Publications — has taken my work (and the work of a number of other people who have contributed to the book), put it in print, and is now making money off of it. I was never contacted about this, but the book is being marketed as though I am the primary author. I guess, in a sense, I am, but I never gave permission for anyone to sell it on Amazon.com or publish it in print. Is this in line with the GNU Free Documentation License? Is this legal? The irony here is that I may have given permission if someone asked me if they could publish the book with my name on it (depending on the terms and price), but selling a book with me as the primary author without asking me seems unethical."
Submission + - Birmingham laid bare on OpenStreetMap
80N writes: The Register reports in this article that: 'Birmingham has joined Berlin, Canberra, Paris and Vienna in falling in its entirety to the cartographical skills of locals who've "completely digitally remapped" the city — in the process elevating it to the first British location to enjoy full-fat coverage on OpenStreetMap.'
'According to the OpenStreetMap Foundation, the UK-spawned project has to date attracted 85,000 volunteers worldwide, who've so far "mapped almost 14 million miles of road globally". There's more info available here.
'According to the OpenStreetMap Foundation, the UK-spawned project has to date attracted 85,000 volunteers worldwide, who've so far "mapped almost 14 million miles of road globally". There's more info available here.
Submission + - How to help puzzle game players? (bubblescope.net)
Chris_Jefferson writes: "I work on a simple iPhone puzzle game, Combination. Probably the most frequent request I get from users is for an in-game hint system, to help them out on the harder problems. However, when I tried beta testing such a system, almost every user would just hammer the hint button as soon as they got stuck for longer than 30 seconds, spoiling (I believe) their enjoyment of the game.
Should games programmers decide they know what's best for users, and not give them features they are crying out for? Has anyone ever seen a good middle-ground, where users are helped, but can't just skip their way through the entire game?"
Should games programmers decide they know what's best for users, and not give them features they are crying out for? Has anyone ever seen a good middle-ground, where users are helped, but can't just skip their way through the entire game?"
Submission + - Irish Government loses data protection case
c0mpliant writes: The Irish Government has lost an appeal to the European Court of Justice over the Data Retention Directive.
It should be noted that objection was to the way the directive was put forward as apposed to the content of the directive. The Irish Government was suggesting that it should have been agreed under the EU's crime and judicial affairs pillar. Which would have allowed individual member states the option to Veto.
"Ireland has lost a case in the EU's highest court over a European directive on the retention of data by telecoms and Internet providers. The Data Retention Directive was agreed by EU member states in 2006. It required Internet providers and telecommunications companies to hold on to data relating to emails and phone calls for a period of between six months and two years." http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0210/protection.html
"Ireland has lost a case in the EU's highest court over a European directive on the retention of data by telecoms and Internet providers. The Data Retention Directive was agreed by EU member states in 2006. It required Internet providers and telecommunications companies to hold on to data relating to emails and phone calls for a period of between six months and two years." http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0210/protection.html
Submission + - Drupal 6: Ultimate Community Site Guide ebook (drupalfun.com)
Dorien Herremans writes: "Ready to make your own full featured community site? This ebook will show you how to use the Drupal 6 (or 5) open source framework to build a social networking site. Whether you are a novice, or you already have some experience with Drupal, this will save you a lot of time. The strategy of the author is to use only out-of-the-box modules and combine them in a unique way. With literally thousands of add-on modules available, building a community site can be challenging. The Ultimate Community Site Guide follows a coherent approach, carefully selecting the modules to complement each other.
Out of the hundreds of tutorials available on the internet, this book aims at combining it all to an integrated approach. The author guides you through the entire process of setting up a site. Drupalfun.com is used throughout the book as an example case study. Step by step instructions allow you to set up a site, exactly like Drupalfun.
In the first chapter, the author thouroughly explains the goal of the book. The necessary modules for Drupal 6 are finally mature enough to be used for such a big endeavour as setting up a social networking site. The case study website Drupalfun is also introduced.
Chapter 2 focusses on installing Drupal. What are the requirements, how does this work,...? In the next chapter, modules are introduced. The author dives into some invaluable basic modules, which help protect the site (such as Captcha) and help us work faster (such as DHTML menu). The process of installing and updating modules and themes are looked at in detail.
Things get really interesting in chapter 4, where the focus shifts to user profiles. The profiles form the basis of the site and are central in the author's approach. Every user will have a profile page, where all of his or her information is centralised. The Content Profile module, together with Views and Panels will empower the reader to do all of this.
Chapter 5 expands the basic profiles by adding photo galleries, video galleries and Google location pinpointing. All of these features will be added to the main profile, without any programming knowledge necessary. A few small code snippets, filled in inside the site's interface, are present throughout the book, to glue everything together. The latter part of the chapter will focus on adding user search mechanisms to the site, such as an advanced search page, user tag clouds, featuring members, new members,...
The next chapter will focus on content presentation. The Panels and Views modules are discussed in more detail. This is then put into practice by making searchable content lists, such as a showcase list. The frontpage is also completely altered to feature some of the latest activity, members and posts.
Chapter 7 focusses on bringing out some real community features. The author shows you how to implement a friends feature, community groups, messaging, shoutbox, activity lists, newsletter digests, a user point system, online status reports...
Many people will be interested in chapter 8, as it focusses on how to make some return money from the site. Existing modules to make an income from advertisement, affiliate programs and donation are discussed.
Finally, the author gives some tips on how to keep your site clean, safe, secure and how to monitor your traffic.
In conclusion, Drupal 6: Ultimate Community Site Guide offers the reader a real, practical manual. All aspects of community sites are discussed and a practical solution is offered to implement them with either Drupal 5 or 6.
From the backflap:
More than 100 screenshots will guide the reader through the process of setting up a community site with the Drupal 5 or 6 framework. A number of popular topics, such as profiles, picture and video galleries, maps, messaging, groups, friends etc will be discussed.
Drupal is one of the best content management systems (CMS) around. In fact, it has just won (for the second time) the Best Overall 2008 Open Source CMS Award and Best PHP Open Source CMS Award. For about 8 years now, Drupal has been providing users with one of the best and most versatile frameworks around. In this book, I will guide the reader through the different modules needed to build a solid community site. And I go even further, by looking at how to structure content and making a few $,... from your site. It is going to be an exploration of modules and their features.
The main strategy of this book it to use only out-of-the-box, user contributed modules. So anybody can make a great site. This well thought strategy offers us the following advantages:
Out of the hundreds of tutorials available on the internet, this book aims at combining it all to an integrated approach. The author guides you through the entire process of setting up a site. Drupalfun.com is used throughout the book as an example case study. Step by step instructions allow you to set up a site, exactly like Drupalfun.
In the first chapter, the author thouroughly explains the goal of the book. The necessary modules for Drupal 6 are finally mature enough to be used for such a big endeavour as setting up a social networking site. The case study website Drupalfun is also introduced.
Chapter 2 focusses on installing Drupal. What are the requirements, how does this work,...? In the next chapter, modules are introduced. The author dives into some invaluable basic modules, which help protect the site (such as Captcha) and help us work faster (such as DHTML menu). The process of installing and updating modules and themes are looked at in detail.
Things get really interesting in chapter 4, where the focus shifts to user profiles. The profiles form the basis of the site and are central in the author's approach. Every user will have a profile page, where all of his or her information is centralised. The Content Profile module, together with Views and Panels will empower the reader to do all of this.
Chapter 5 expands the basic profiles by adding photo galleries, video galleries and Google location pinpointing. All of these features will be added to the main profile, without any programming knowledge necessary. A few small code snippets, filled in inside the site's interface, are present throughout the book, to glue everything together. The latter part of the chapter will focus on adding user search mechanisms to the site, such as an advanced search page, user tag clouds, featuring members, new members,...
The next chapter will focus on content presentation. The Panels and Views modules are discussed in more detail. This is then put into practice by making searchable content lists, such as a showcase list. The frontpage is also completely altered to feature some of the latest activity, members and posts.
Chapter 7 focusses on bringing out some real community features. The author shows you how to implement a friends feature, community groups, messaging, shoutbox, activity lists, newsletter digests, a user point system, online status reports...
Many people will be interested in chapter 8, as it focusses on how to make some return money from the site. Existing modules to make an income from advertisement, affiliate programs and donation are discussed.
Finally, the author gives some tips on how to keep your site clean, safe, secure and how to monitor your traffic.
In conclusion, Drupal 6: Ultimate Community Site Guide offers the reader a real, practical manual. All aspects of community sites are discussed and a practical solution is offered to implement them with either Drupal 5 or 6.
From the backflap:
More than 100 screenshots will guide the reader through the process of setting up a community site with the Drupal 5 or 6 framework. A number of popular topics, such as profiles, picture and video galleries, maps, messaging, groups, friends etc will be discussed.
Drupal is one of the best content management systems (CMS) around. In fact, it has just won (for the second time) the Best Overall 2008 Open Source CMS Award and Best PHP Open Source CMS Award. For about 8 years now, Drupal has been providing users with one of the best and most versatile frameworks around. In this book, I will guide the reader through the different modules needed to build a solid community site. And I go even further, by looking at how to structure content and making a few $,... from your site. It is going to be an exploration of modules and their features.
The main strategy of this book it to use only out-of-the-box, user contributed modules. So anybody can make a great site. This well thought strategy offers us the following advantages:
- Easy to update.
- Anyone can do it.
- Expansive: at any time, you can install a module safely, to allow additional functionality.
Every function will be explained using the fully integrated case study Drupalfun.
Anyone can build a community site with Drupal after reading this book.
About the author
Dorien Herremans is a MSc Commercial Engineer in Management Information Systems, from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. She currently lives in the Swiss Alps where she lectured IT and 3D Computer Animation at Les Roches University of Applied Science and has her own company. Among others, she loves life and Drupal, and has set up a multitude of sites, using creative techniques to get the maximum out of this great framework.
Drupal 6: Ultimate Community Site Guide.
With notes for Drupal 5
Now everyone can set up a community.
ISBN 978-2-8399-0490-2
Author: Dorien Herremans MSc MIS
Available at book.drupalfun.com"
