Comment Source is clearly stated. (Score 1) 3
The original source is listed on the article - it comes from an international newsdesk from the same media organisation as the one you cite. The author is also different.
Submission + - Salesforce.com buys Ruby cloud-app platform Heroku (cio.com.au) 3
swandives writes: Salesforce.com will acquire Heroku, which specializes in hosting applications based on the Ruby programming language, for US$212 million. With the acquisition, online customer relationship management (CRM) specialist Salesforce.com said it will gain access to a large community of Ruby developers who are now using Heroku's multitenant platform. Heroku hosts some 105,000 applications, including those from companies such as Best Buy and Comcast.
Submission + - 5 open source groupware suites to watch (cio.com.au)
swandives writes: The big names like Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Google Apps are generally found in organisations, but there are also viable open source alternatives. The latest in this '5 open source technologies to watch' series looks at open source Groupware, including Bongo, Citadel and Horde, for business applications.
Earth's Water Didn't Come From Outer Space 181
sciencehabit writes "Where did Earth's oceans come from? Astronomers have long contended that icy comets and asteroids delivered the water for them during an epoch of heavy bombardment that ended about 3.9 billion years ago. But a new study suggests that Earth supplied its own water, leaching it from the rocks that formed the planet. The finding may help explain why life on Earth appeared so early, and it may indicate that other rocky worlds are also awash in vast seas."
Submission + - 60 years of Hamming codes (cio.com.au)
swandives writes: In 1950 Bell Labs researcher Richard W. Hamming made a discovery that would lay an important foundation for the modern computing and communications industries — coming up with a method for performing computing operations on a large scale without errors. Hamming wrote about how self-checking circuits help eliminate errors in telephone central offices. He speculated the “special codes” he proposed — which became known as Hamming codes — would only need to be applied to systems requiring unattended operation for long periods or “extremely large and tightly integrated” systems where a single failure would incapacitate the entire installation.
Hamming code was the first discovery in an immense field called coding theory. This article looks back on the history of Hamming codes, their applications, and includes interviews with Todd Moon, Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Utah State University and David MacKay, Professor of natural philosophy in the department of Physics at the University of Cambridge and chief scientific adviser to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. An interesting read, about a little-known but fundamental element of information theory.
Hamming code was the first discovery in an immense field called coding theory. This article looks back on the history of Hamming codes, their applications, and includes interviews with Todd Moon, Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Utah State University and David MacKay, Professor of natural philosophy in the department of Physics at the University of Cambridge and chief scientific adviser to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. An interesting read, about a little-known but fundamental element of information theory.
Submission + - On the ground with the NBN rollout: Brunswick (arnnet.com.au)
splitenz writes: Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) has been all but lost in a sea of politicking. For the first time a journalist goes out where the NBN is being laid, talks to the project managers, workers, people whose streets are being ripped up, and paints an on-the-ground picture. This is the real National Broadband Network — complete with 27 photos.
Submission + - My GPL code has been... patented! 4
ttsiod writes: Back in 2001, I coded HeapCheck, a GPL library for Windows (inspired by ElectricFence) that detected invalid read/write accesses on any heap allocations at runtime — thus greatly helping my debugging sessions. I published it on my site, and got a few users who were kind enough to thank me — a Serbian programmer even sent me 250$ as a thank you (I still have his mails). After a few years, Microsoft included very similar technology in the operating system itself, calling it PageHeap. I had more or less forgotten these stuff, since for the last 7 years I've been coding for UNIX/Linux, where valgrind superseeded Efence/dmalloc/etc. Imagine my surprise, when yesterday, Googling for references to my site, I found out that the technology I implemented, of runtime detection of invalid heap accesses, has been patented in the States, and to add insult to injury, even mentions my site (via a non-working link to an old version of my page) in the patent references! After the necessary "WTFs" and "bloody hells" I thought this merrits (a) a Slashdotting, and (b) a set of honest questions: what should I do about this? I am not an American citizen, but the "inventors" of this technology (see their names in the top of the patent) have apparently succeeded in passing this ludicrous patent in the States. If my code doesn't count as prior art, Bruce Perens's Efence (which I clearly state my code was inspired from) is at least 12 years prior! Suggestions/cursing patent trolls most welcome.
Submission + - Cobol skills drought amid mainframe migrations (cio.com.au)
swandives writes: COBOL has been around for more than 50 years, but companies are struggling to fill demand for skills. Some are even recruiting developers out of retirement to fulfil demand. According to CIO in Australia, they should instead consider an application modernization program which could also pave the way for migration off the mainframe to an open system. COBOL skills remain in demand among banks and govnerment departments, but the traditional mainframe platform is under pressure from modern Unix, Windows and Linux systems.
Submission + - Tim Berners-Lee on Net Neutrality (scientificamerican.com)
ideonexus writes: An extensive essay in Scientific American by one of the founders of the Internet challenges the "walled gardens" of itunes and Facebook, and argues against allowing companies to descriminate against network traffic. From the article:
Protecting this concept [net neutrality] would prevent a big ISP from sending you video from a media company it may own at 300 Mbps but sending video from a competing media company at a slower rate. That amounts to commercial discrimination. Other complications could arise. What if your ISP made it easier for you to connect to a particular online shoe store and harder to reach others? That would be powerful control. What if the ISP made it difficult for you to go to Web sites about certain political parties, or religions, or sites about evolution?
Submission + - CSIRO's supercomputer Australia's "greenest" (computerworld.com.au)
Submission + - No Wii 2 for 2011, maybe 2012
An anonymous reader writes: As discussed on Slashdot earlier this year, lack of a next-generation Wii may be hurting Nintendo. That doesn't seem to concern the company's US chief Reggie Fils-Aime who said this week Wii 2 might not appear until 2012. He wants to sell a few million more consoles before a successor is launched. So no Wii 2 for 2010 or 2011 meanwhile the PS3 and Xbox consoles get motion control support and other content enhancements. What does that mean for the success of Nintendo's gaming console business. Has the innovator been out-innovated due to a sluggish product roadmap?
Submission + - CERN Physicists Trap Antimatter Atoms
mernilio writes: A research group at CERN, the European lab for particle physics in Geneva, has managed for the first time to confine atoms of the stuff. Fleeting antimatter atoms have been produced in the lab for years, but until now the ability to trap the elusive atoms for detailed study has been out of reach.
Submission + - Apple kills Xserve server line (cio.com.au)
CapricaStar writes: Apple has said it will stop selling its Xserve rack servers early next year, killing a product that has traditionally sold in low quantities.
Submission + - Ubuntu Linux dumps X.org for Unity on Wayland (cio.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu will move away from the traditional X.org display environment to Wayland — a more modern alternative. The move means there is now little reason for GNOME developers to recommend Ubuntu as an operating system.
Submission + - Wireless broadband over TV spectrum advancing (cio.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: Great slideshow of the CSIRO's prototype Ngara symetrical 12mbps wireless over analogue TV spectrum technology ahead of field trials in December. The CSIRO is also seeking millions in networking vendor funding to commercialize the technology, which could help deliver Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN).
