yulek - Slashdot User

Submission + - PS3 Owners To Simulate Gene Folding

Submitted by

fistfullast33l

on Thursday March 15, 2007 @12:06PM

fistfullast33l writes: "According to IGN UK, the next version of Playstation firmware will include a joint venture from Stanford University and Sony called Folding@Home. Similar to the infamous SETI@Home project, Folding@Home will be an idle application that participates in a simulation that "aims to map the way that genes change shape (or 'fold'), so they can be studied by scientists and, potentially, cure illnesses such as Parkinson's or a variety of cancers." The application will download a "work unit" that it will unravel to completion, update Stanford's servers, and then download the next unit and continue. The console will not be able to do any work while Folding@Home is running. Will the heat generated by the PS3 during this process help offset the inevitable increase in my utility bill from running the console all day?"

Novell Assents To "Windows Is Cheaper Than Linux" 351

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 15, 2007 @12:04PM from the whose-side-you-on-anyway dept.

dyous87 points out a ZDNet article reporting that Novell has endorsed a customer's comment claiming that the total cost of ownership of Linux is higher then that of Windows. Novell and Microsoft jointly issued a press release quoting an IT guy for a UK-based bank, HSBC: "Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current Linux environment." The context of the comment makes it clear that HSBC's Linux environment has a mix of distros, and that a move to centralize around one distro — Novell's — will save money. Nevertheless, Novell's connection to this assertion is not likely to improve their reputation in the open source community.

Journal Journal: Slashdotters need Help with Story Submissions 7

Journal by drinkypoo on Thursday March 15, 2007 @11:59AM

While I am perhaps not the best person to talk about this as I've only had one submission accepted, my recent time spent with the Firehose has demonstrated to me that most people have a hard time crafting an acceptable story submission, in spite of the numerous examples on the front page. The following is just a list of hints and tips that might help someone assemble a story submission that makes sense.

Submission + - Science Spring Showdown - NCAA style!

Submitted by

Dave Ng

on Thursday March 15, 2007 @11:56AM

Dave Ng writes: "Imagine an NCAA tournament that pits scientific concepts against each other, and you'll get the Science Spring Showdown. It includes four divisions (life science, chemistry, physics/math, and science in society) with match-ups as heated as "high speed particle physics" vs "high speed internet", "entropy" vs "enthalpy", "caffeine" vs "ethanol", and "Darwin" vs "Jesus." Intro post and printable brackets here (At least check out the brackets, they're beautiful to look at!) Press center with information on arenas and games is here (and note that the project strongly encourages commentary from readers since we all know that fan support is part of that intangible 'X' factor)""

Submission + - How a Gun, Race Car, and 19-Lens Camera Works

Submitted by instupor on Thursday March 15, 2007 @11:32AM

instupor writes: Popular Science has a special section this month devoted to the inner workings of some of the most complex and interesting machines of the present and near future. They dissect and explain (with graphics and, in one case, a CT scan) the Wii controller, the most secure ID card, a jet fighter plane, and a phone with haptic feedback, amongst others. It's quite fascinating — both for the understandable guide to how these machines work and for the hints of what will become mainstream in a matter of years.

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