Comment Strange (Score 1) 35
It seems a lot of people voted on this story, but nobody comments. :-\
The GNOME Foundation Is Running Out of Money 693
An anonymous reader writes "The GNOME Foundation is running out of money. The foundation no longer has any cash reserves so they have voted to freeze non-essential funding for running the foundation. They are also hunting down sponsors and unpaid invoices to regain some delayed revenue. Those wishing to support the GNOME Foundation can become a friend of GNOME."
Comment With blackjack and hookers! (Score 5, Funny) 162
...in fact, forget the Youtube thing.
Microsoft Promises Not To Snoop Through Email 144
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft took some much-deserved flack last week for admitting they examined the emails of a Hotmail user who received some leaked Windows 8 code. The company defended their actions at the time. Now, after hearing the backlash, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith says they will not do so in the future. Instead, they'll refer it to law enforcement. He wrote, 'It's always uncomfortable to listen to criticism. But if one can step back a bit, it's often thought-provoking and even helpful. That was definitely the case for us over the past week. Although our terms of service, like those of others in our industry, allowed us to access lawfully the account in this case, the circumstances raised legitimate questions about the privacy interests of our customers. ...As a company we've participated actively in the public discussions about the proper balance between the privacy rights of citizens and the powers of government. We've advocated that governments should rely on formal legal processes and the rule of law for surveillance activities. While our own search was clearly within our legal rights, it seems apparent that we should apply a similar principle and rely on formal legal processes for our own investigations involving people who we suspect are stealing from us.'"
Comment google-drive-ocamlfuse (Score 1) 335
Well, there IS the unofficial google-drive-ocamlfuse project.
Comment Re:16GB SSD storage is enough for Linux (Score 1) 103
You understand X and xfce but not
wiredog means to put user directories on a USB drive due to the limited internal space.
I think you meant
Submission + - KDE Releases Calligra Suite 2.8 (calligra.org)
KDE Community writes: The Calligra team is proud and pleased to announce the release of version 2.8 of the Calligra Suite, Calligra Active and the Calligra Office Engine. Major new features in this release are comments support in Author and Words, improved Pivot tables in Sheets, improved stability and the ability to open hyperlinks in Kexi. Flow introduces SVG based stencils and as usual there are many new features in Krita including touch screens support and a wraparound painting mode for the creation of textures and tiles.
Submission + - Autodesk decided to stop developing Softimage (net4tech.net)
An anonymous reader writes: Autodesk announced that after the 2015 version of Softimage, which is scheduled for release next April, it would no longer provide software support. The publisher has confirmed the rumors last month, according to which Autodesk intends to terminate its software for 3D modeling and animation. "We regret to inform you that the next version of Softimage 2015 will be the last," can be read on the Autodesk website. "This latest version will be released around April 14, 2014. Autodesk will continue to provide support for up to 30 April 2016. "
Submission + - Iconic predator-prey study in peril (nature.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have charted the ebb and flow of moose and wolf populations on Isle Royale in Lake Superior for nearly 50 years. Ice bridges to Canada regularly supplied the genetic stocks for much of that time, but have been rare in recent years leading to inbreeding, dwindling populations and developmental deformity for the wolves that inhabit the island. Now, with the first solid freeze in six years, new wolves could join the mix ... or the remaining island dwellers could leave.
Submission + - US military begins work on brain implants that can restore lost memories (extremetech.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "DARPA, at the behest of the US Department of Defense, is developing a black box brain implant â" an implant that will be wired into a soldierâ(TM)s brain and record their memories. If the soldier then suffers memory loss due to brain injury, the implant will then be used to restore those memories. The same implant could also be used during training or in the line of duty, too â" as weâ(TM)ve reported on in the past, stimulating the right regions of the brain can improve how quickly you learn new skills, reduce your reaction times, and more."
Submission + - Google's Java Coding Standards (infoq.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google uses Java extensively to develop its products. The firm has recently released their complete definition of coding standards for Java source code. These are hard-and-fast rules that are clearly enforceable, and are followed universally within Google. It covers not only formatting, but other types of conventions and coding standards.
Submission + - Samsung preparing Context keylogger, spyware in upcoming Galaxy S phones 1
jmcbain writes: According to the technology blog The Verge, Samsung is preparing new smartphone software that acts as a keylogger and spyware in their future phones, like the upcoming Galaxy S 5. "Samsung has been developing a service called Context that would collect what a person types, what apps they use, and what data their phone's sensors pick up, and then allow developers to tap into that pool of data to enrich their apps." The article suggests a scenario where "by using Context a video service might be able to automatically display sports videos to someone who frequently searches for sports." Looks similar to the Google Now service, but still scary stuff in the age of the NSA.
Submission + - Majority of Young American Adults Think Astrology is a Science 2
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Americans have always had a strange fascination with astrology. First Lady Nancy Reagan famously employed the services of an astrologer after the assassination attempt on her husband. Now UPI reports that according to a new survey by the National Science Foundation, nearly half of all Americans say astrology is either "very scientific" or "sort of scientific." Younger respondents, in particular, were the least likely to regard astrology as unscientific, with 58% of the youngest group (18 — 24) saying that astrology is either "very scientific" or "sort of scientific" (PDF). What's most alarming is that American attitudes about science are moving in the wrong direction. Skepticism of astrology hit an all-time high in 2004, when 66 percent of Americans said astrology was total nonsense. But each year, fewer and fewer respondents have dismissed the connections between star alignment and personality as bunk. Among respondents in the 25 — 44 age group 49% of respondents in the 2012 survey said astrology is either "very scientific" or "sort of scientific," up from 36% in 2010. So what's behind this data? The lead author of the report chapter in question, public opinion specialist John Besley of Michigan State University, cautions that we should probably wait for further data "to see if it's a real change" before speculating. But, he admits, the apparent increase in astrology belief "popped out to me when I saw it."
Submission + - Is Earth Weighed Down by Dark Matter? (slashdot.org) 1
Nerval's Lobster writes: There may be a giant ring of dark matter invisibly encircling the Earth, increasing its mass and pulling much harder on orbiting satellites than anything invisible should pull, according to preliminary research from a scientist specializing the physics of GPS signaling and satellite engineering. The dark-matter belt around the Earth could represent the beginning of a radically new understanding of how dark matter works and how it affects the human universe, or it could be something perfectly valid but less exciting despite having been written up by New Scientist and spreading to the rest of the geek universe on the basis of a single oral presentation of preliminary research at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December. The presentation came from telecom- and GPS satellite expert Ben Harris, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Texas- Arlington, who based his conclusion on nine months’ worth of data that could indicate Earth’s gravity was pulling harder on its ring of geostationary GPS satellites than the accepted mass of the Earth would normally allow. Since planets can’t gain weight over the holidays like the rest of us, Harris’ conclusion was that something else was adding to the mass and gravitational power of Earth – something that would have to be pretty massive but almost completely undetectable, which would sound crazy if predominant theories about the composition of the universe didn’t assume 80 percent of it was made up of invisible dark matter. Harris calculated that the increase in gravity could have come from dark matter, but would have had to be an unexpectedly thick collection of it – one ringing the earth in a band 120 miles thick and 45,000 miles wide. Making elaborate claims in oral presentations, without nailing down all the variables that could keep a set of results from being twisted into something more interesting than the truth is a red flag for any scientific presentation, let alone one making audacious claims about the way dark matter behaves or weight of the Earth, according to an exasperated counterargument from Matthew R. Francis, who earned a Ph.D. in physics and astronomy from Rutgers in 2005, held visiting and assistant professorships at several Northeastern universities and whose science writing has appeared in Ars Technica, The New Yorker, Nautilus, BBC Future and others including his own science blog at Galileo’s Pendulum.
Comment Re:Documentation is King (Score 5, Informative) 225
Yeah, on Intel processors. What about AMD and other x86 processors? Don't ever forget that ICC was once caught red-handed disabling important features when the CPUID did not return GenuineIntel...
