Comment Re:Double slap! (Score 1) 1144
Anything on the noaa.gov domain is down, try it, you'll get redirected to governmentshutdown.noaa.gov
Comment Double slap! (Score 1) 1144
I work for the government half time and am a graduate student the other half. Of course I am furloughed, but on top of that, all the data for my research comes from NOAA which has shut down all its websites! Basically I am stuck doing diagnostics on data I happen to already have. Just loving my gov't right now....
Submission + - R 3.0.0 Released
DaBombDotCom writes: R, a popular software environment for statistical computing and graphics, version 3.0.0 codename "Masked Marvel" was released yesterday. From the announcement: "Major R releases have not previously marked great landslides in terms of new features. Rather, they represent that the codebase has developed to a new level of maturity. This is not going to be an exception to the rule. Version 3.0.0, as of this writing, contains only [one] really major new feature: The inclusion of long vectors (containing more than 2^31-1 elements!). More changes are likely to make it into the final release, but the main reason for having it as a new major release is that R over the last 8.5 years has reached a new level: we now have 64 bit support on all platforms, support for parallel processing, the Matrix package, and much more."
Submission + - Nintendo Power's final cover (arstechnica.com)
skade88 writes: Ars Technica has a review of the last ever Nintendo power. Its bitter sweet seeing a part of my childhood ending.
Submission + - Firefox 20 Will Finally Fix Porn Mode (ehsanakhgari.org)
darthcamaro writes: Unlike every other major browser vendor, Mozilla today does not allow users to have their private porn mode browser window open at the same time as a regular browser window. That's now set to change. This is a flaw that has been in Bugzilla since 2008 and has been the subject of heated discussion for years.
Submission + - Would you buy a Linux smartphone? (networkworld.com)
colinneagle writes: I was a huge, huge fan of Maemo – a Debian-based Linux distro focused on phones, such as the amazing Nokia N900 (the old Linux-powered one with a keyboard... you know, the one that Nokia killed off because they hate awesome things). So when Nokia stopped working on Maemo... and then stopped working on Meego (the successor to Maemo), I was, to put it mildly, bummed out.
Luckily, a rag-tag group of engineers (who seem to feel the same way about Maemo/Meego that I do) left Nokia and started their own company to continue this important work. That company, Jolla, has just introduced the first version of its OS, named "Sailfish." And, here is why all nerds should care about this: You get full, RPM-based package management. On your phone. You see, Sailfish is based on a project called "Mer." Mer is based on MeeGo. And MeeGo utilized RPM as the package management system. (There's your technological genealogy lesson for the day.)
In short, there are plenty of apps. And, from a tech-nerd perspective, it has all the right goodies.
But they've got one other thing to offer that looks, well, pretty damned slick. They call it "true multitasking."The idea is simple. Running apps can be pinned to your main home screen as small-ish tiles. So you can keep interacting with multiple apps at the same time, without needing to switch back and forth between a bunch of full-screen apps. Which, at least for a demo, sounds like something I very much want on my phone.
Luckily, a rag-tag group of engineers (who seem to feel the same way about Maemo/Meego that I do) left Nokia and started their own company to continue this important work. That company, Jolla, has just introduced the first version of its OS, named "Sailfish." And, here is why all nerds should care about this: You get full, RPM-based package management. On your phone. You see, Sailfish is based on a project called "Mer." Mer is based on MeeGo. And MeeGo utilized RPM as the package management system. (There's your technological genealogy lesson for the day.)
In short, there are plenty of apps. And, from a tech-nerd perspective, it has all the right goodies.
But they've got one other thing to offer that looks, well, pretty damned slick. They call it "true multitasking."The idea is simple. Running apps can be pinned to your main home screen as small-ish tiles. So you can keep interacting with multiple apps at the same time, without needing to switch back and forth between a bunch of full-screen apps. Which, at least for a demo, sounds like something I very much want on my phone.
Submission + - Wal-mart files a formal complaint about employee demands for fair wages (cnn.com)
ourlovecanlastforeve writes: In a delicious spout of irony Wal-Mart has filed a complaint with an unnamed federal agency claiming unfairness of actions by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and its subsidiary known as OURWalmart; that they are trying to force the store into collective bargaining.
Submission + - Young Students Hiding Academic Talent to Avoid Bullying
jones_supa writes: "The recent anti-bullying survey conducted by ABA brings up some interesting findings. According to it, more than 90% of the 1,000 11-16 year-olds surveyed said they had been bullied or seen someone bullied for being too intelligent or talented. Almost half of children and young people (49.5%) have played down a talent for fear of being bullied, rising to 53% among girls. One in 10 (12%) said they had played down their ability in science and almost one in five girls (18.8%) and more than one in 10 boys (11.4%) are deliberately underachieving in maths – to evade bullying. Worryingly, this means our children and young people are shying away from academic achievement for fear of victimisation."
Submission + - Quitting MacBook Pro For Chromebook (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "Simon Phipps provides an in-depth account of an ongoing shift from a MacBook Pro to a Chromebook. ' My experiences using a Chromebook for a month have been so good I believe it deserves serious consideration. ... The Chromebook line is probably the most successful Linux desktop/laptop computer we've seen to date. Most of the software on the device is open source and it relies heavily on open standards. The options for updating it yourself are openly discussed, and enterprising hackers have even loaded full GNU/Linux distributions onto it. ... It reminds me very much of the experience of adjusting to thin client computing five years ago. I can imagine it fitting easily into a corporate environment, especially using the administrative control features Google sells for business users. Businesses open to using a thin client desktop should be evaluating Chromebooks and Chromeboxes — they are today's open source equivalent of yesterday's proprietary thin clients and Sun Rays.'"
Submission + - The depraved, insane games lurking in the underworld of Steam Greenlight (redbull.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Steam Greenlight's been up and running for a few months, and there are now hundreds of pitches for games on the community site for fans to vote on. Some of them are impressive, high concept 3D games, and as this article points out, some of them are most definitely not. You can find everything from jousting dishwashers to civil war simulators where you play a fish trying to topple Gaddafi — and if enough people vote for them, Steam will actually put them up for sale.
Submission + - NetFlix caught stealing DivX subtiles (google.com)
An anonymous reader writes: NetFlix release it's service in Finland and was caught stealing movie subtitles from local DivX community site.
How were they caught? NetFlix forgot to remove endorsement to the pirate site from the subtitles ;)
How were they caught? NetFlix forgot to remove endorsement to the pirate site from the subtitles
Submission + - Kaspersky's Exploit-Proof OS Leaves Security Experts Skeptical (csoonline.com)
CWmike writes: "Eugene Kaspersky, the $800-million Russian cybersecurity tycoon, is, by his own account, out to 'save the world' with an exploit-proof operating system. Given the recent declarations from U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and others that the nation is facing a 'digital Pearl Harbor' or 'digital 9/11' from hostile nation states like Iran, this sounds like the impossible dream come true — the cyber version of a Star Wars force field. But on this side of that world in need of saving, the enthusiasm is somewhat tempered. One big worry: source. 'The real question is, do you trust the people who built your system? The answer had better be yes,' said Gary McGraw, CTO of Cigital. Kaspersky's products are among the top ranked worldwide, are used by an estimated 300 million people and are embraced by U.S. companies like Microsoft, Cisco and Juniper Networks. But while he considers himself at some level a citizen of the world, he has close ties to Russian intelligence and Vladimir Putin. Part of his education and training was sponsored by the KGB, he is a past Soviet intelligence officer (some suspect he has not completely retired from that role) and he is said have a 'deep and ongoing relationship with Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB,' the successor to the KGB and the agency that operates the Russian government's electronic surveillance network."
Submission + - Apple and Swiss Federal Railways reach agreement over iOS 6 clock design (edibleapple.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Back in late September, Apple received a lot of criticism after it was discovered that the clock design it used in iOS 6 on the iPad was essentially the same as a Hans Hilfiker design to which both the trademark and copyright were owned by the Swiss Federal Railways service. Apple had not paid for the right to use said design but rather implemented it with no permission.
Now, a few weeks later, the two sides have reportedly reached a licensing agreement.
Now, a few weeks later, the two sides have reportedly reached a licensing agreement.
Submission + - MapReduce Making Further Inroads in Academia (datanami.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Most conversations about Hadoop and MapReduce tend to filter in from enterprise quarters, but if the recent uptick in scholarly articles extolling its benefit for scientific and technical computing applications is any indication, the research world might have found its next open source darling...
Submission + - iPhone 5 to be revealed by Apple on September 12 (cnet.com)
sw_crafter writes: Apple is holding an event on September 12 in San Francisco, during which the iPhone 5 is likely to be revealed. Various rumors and/or leaks seem to indicate that the new cell phone may have 4G LTE, a larger screen, a larger battery, and a new 8-pin docking connector. Other changes to the layout of various parts of the phone are likely, such as the headphone jack position and the camera(s).
