parc - Slashdot User

Submission + - Speaking Linuxski (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by

s31523

on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @09:05AM

s31523 writes: "In an effort to cut the cost of teaching information technology, Russian schools have adopted a plan to have all computers running Linux by 2009. According to Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux, schools formerly tended to run illegal copies of Microsoft operating systems, but after Russia entered the WTO, the laws became much stricter and schools began to be prosecuted for doing so. Some have criticized the plan, saying students will have trouble finding jobs later due to a lack of familiarity with the Windows OS."

Submission + - Monitoring Users on your home network?

Submitted by prowdtobebrown on Friday August 17, 2007 @08:28AM

prowdtobebrown writes: Is there any way to monitor the network usage of users on your home wireless network? I'm living in a house with a bunch of guys (9 of us in total) so bandwidth sharing over a normal comcast cable line is a major issue. If someones hogging bandwidth downloading movies (which we don't want them to do for potential legal reasons as well) it would definitely help to know.

Submission + - Major Skype outage "not caused by a crash"

Submitted by dhollist on Friday August 17, 2007 @07:36AM

dhollist writes: According to Skype's website their system "has not crashed or been victim of a cyber attack. We love our customers too much to let that happen. This problem occurred because of a deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software. This controls the interaction between the user's own Skype client and the rest of the Skype network."

What is the difference between an outage where nobody can access the system and a crash? If my desktop computer locks up, but I don't get a BSOD, did it really crash, or is it an "outage" since I am merely unable to do anything? Is there truly a difference, or is it just semantics? An article in The Sydney Morning Herald provides additional information.

Submission + - Auto-Telescope Nets Unprecedented Observation (space.com)

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Wednesday June 13, 2007 @11:15AM

eldavojohn writes: "NASA's Swift Satellite is raising some eyebrows. Why is it called Swift? Well, this automatic satellite will detect explosions in the distance and swing around to begin rapid image collection on them. Oftentimes we see something happen and then days or weeks later we start to record data from it. It took this satellite 40 seconds to react to two events. The result is two observations showing explosions with a Lorentz factor of 400 which is an unprecedented recording until now. One of the researchers is quoted as saying, "While single particles ... can be accelerated to still larger velocities, the present cases are the equivalent of about 200 times the mass of the Earth acquiring this incredible speed." And like a good X-Files episode, answering questions of the beginning of these explosions only leads to more questions — "what kind of 'engine' can accelerate matter to such enormous speeds?""

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