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The Internet

Submission + - Internet's First Registered Domain Name Sold (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Believe it or not, it wasn't iternet.com or dot.com that was purchased when the Internet was "born." Instead, it was the somewhat off-the-wall name of symbolics.com. The Symbolics company was the first to use an internet domain name to guide Internet viewers to its line of Lisp machines, which were single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. XF.com Investments, which is a Missouri-based Internet investments firm, has managed to secure the domain name from its original owner for an undisclosed sum and XF's CEO was quick to proclaim his excitement over the acquisition. It's hard to say why this domain name was the first purchased back on March 15, 1985, but for obvious reasons it holds a special place in history. There has been one original owner for nearly 25 years. Over that time, we've seen the Internet grow to the tune of 180,000,000+ registered domains, and thousands more are being added each and every day."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Hey, Linux Fanboys: Stop Giving Apple a Free Ride (pcworld.com) 3

Submitted by
Death Metal
Death Metal writes: "Yet in important ways, Apple is more closed than Microsoft. Apple controls not just software, like Microsoft does, but its hardware as well. Try to sell a non-Apple computer with Apple's OS on it, and you'll get hauled into court by Apple lawyers. Apple has also taken legal action against bloggers who report on upcoming hardware and software releases. There's a long list of ways in which Apple is far more closed than Microsoft.

Yet the Free Software Foundation, and many other open source proponents, conveniently ignore these facts, and regularly attack Microsoft, while giving Apple a free ride. Apple, after all, has the "coolness" factor in its favor, and it's fashionable and easy to attack Microsoft."
Idle

Submission + - Piranha Discovered in UK in Devon River 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "With razor-sharp teeth piranha, native to the Amazon basin, the Orinoco and the rivers of the Guyanas, are generally considered to be the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world with a voracious appetite for meat, able to strip the flesh of large animals within minutes when traveling in a shoal. So when members of the British Environment Agency were conducting a sampling trip in the East Okement tributary of the River Torridge, they were amazed to see a large tail emerge from the undercut bank on the far side of the river. "What we actually discovered was something we would not expect to find in our wildest dreams — we could hardly believe our eyes," says Eddie Stevens. "Our first thought was that a sea trout had become lodged in amongst the rocks and debris collected under the bank, but when it was removed from the river we were speechless to find it was a piranha." Tests carried out on the dead piranha revealed it had been eating sweet corn, which proved it must have been kept as a pet. The Environment Agency said it believes the piranha was alive when it was put in the river, possibly because at 35 cm it had become too big for its tank. "Whilst piranhas can't survive the colder climates of the UK, this latest find highlights a real issue — that releasing unwanted exotic pets or plants into rivers can have serious consequences for native wildlife," says spokesman Paul Gainey. "Rather than dumping things in the wild, we would urge people to seek advice about what to do with exotic species.""

Comment Re:You can shoot people, son, but don't blog! (Score 2, Insightful) 202

by gamefaces (#28961621) Attached to: US Marine Corps Bans Social Networking Sites

Sure, but if you're stationed in Iraq, you're basically "on the job" 24/7, with long periods of complete boredom. Further, you're unlikely to have your own computer equipment to use, and are totally dependent on the military to provide it for you.

I have to disagree with you on a few points. My brother is USMC and finished 2 tours in Iraq before going to Afghanistan. His M.O.S. is MP, and he got assigned to do convoy security, probably the worst job out there because of all the IEDs. First off, in Iraq he was not 'on' 24/7 and definitely never had periods of long boredom. He would pull 20 - 48 hour shifts driving from 1 end of the desert to the other. Then he would sleep for approximately 6 hours a night and continue. He rarely had any downtime but when he did he would use his own computer to access the Internet off-base in somewhere in Rhamadi, apparently one of the few places you can get Internet access. Occasionally he would be given Internet access on-base, but this was rare. When he came back, before going to Afghanistan, he told me that talking with friends online was one of the only things that kept his sanity in such a crazy place. Also some of you reading this may not like the war or why we're there, but just remember that there are people over there pulling insane shifts doing unimaginable things for next to nothing. Semper Fi.

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