Comment It's not any fun... (Score 1) 676
...constantly playing catch-up to Microsoft.
Microsoft
Comment Re:Let's be civil and reasonable in disagreement. (Score 1) 140
I don't think nutter is a particularly harsh term. Have you heard him sing?
Java is not a trap. Never was. Something like Java could have contributed to a world in which Linux on the desktop might have been more useful to more people. Java pre-installs on Windows fizzled because of legal issues, and on Linux fizzled because of unfounded fears.
Now the only de-facto universal platform is web+flash. Stallman will tell you that's a trap too.
Comment Re:Free But Shacked - The Java Trap (Score 1) 140
RMS is a nutter.
Comment Re:It's in the hands of the vendors (Score 1) 663
You expect hardware vendors to make enormous usability investments -- enough to compete with Microsoft and Apple?
That's insane. Hardware companies are not going to be the ones that finally make a usable desktop Linux.
They would invest all that time and effort and then what would happen? Their competitor could use it for free because it's open source. Hardware vendors simply don't have the incentive to do this.
DARPA Fractionated Spacecraft Program Starts 59
An anonymous reader writes "Start buying Cold War nuclear shelters and piling up the canned food, because Boeing Advanced Systems has started System F6: 'DARPA's Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange space technology program.' In other words: multiple, networked specialized spacecraft swarms that are intelligent enough to perform a single coordinated task together, like analyzing the crops or deciding to destroy humanity, Skynet-style. Actually, it could completely change satellites for the better, according to some experts."
US Senate Votes Immunity For Telecoms 623
Ktistec Machine writes to let us know that the telecom companies are one step closer to getting off the hook for their illegal collusion with the US government. Today the US Senate passed, by a filibuster-proof majority of 67 to 31, a revised FISA bill that grants retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that helped the government illegally tap American network traffic. If passed by both houses and signed by the President, this would effectively put an end to the many lawsuits against these companies (about 40 have been filed). The House version of the bill does not presently contain an immunity provision. President Bush has said he will veto any such bill that reaches his desk without the grant of immunity. We've discussed the progress of the immunity provision repeatedly.
Internet Censorship's First Death Sentence? 475
mrogers writes "A journalism student in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death by a Sharia court for downloading and sharing a report criticizing the treatment of women in some Islamic countries. The student was accused of blasphemy and tried without representation. According to Reporters Without Borders, sixty people are currently in jail worldwide for criticizing governments online, fifty of them in China, but this may be the first time someone has been sentenced to death for using the internet. Internet censorship is on the rise worldwide, according to The OpenNet Initiative."
AIDS Drug Patent Revoked In US 357
eldavojohn writes "Doctors Without Borders is reporting that four patents for tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, a key AIDS/HIV drug, have been revoked on grounds of prior art. This is potentially good news for India & Brazil who need this drug to be cheap; if the US action leads to the patent being rejected in these countries, competition could drastically lower prices. But the ruling bad news for Gilead Sciences. The company has vowed to appeal. We discussed this drug before."
US Government Checking Up On Vista Users? 291
Paris The Pirate writes "This article at Whitedust displays some very interesting logs from Vista showing connections to the DoD Information Networking Center, United Nations Development program and the Halliburton Company; for no reason other than the machine was running Vista. From the article 'After running Vista for only a few days — with a complete love for the new platform the first sign of trouble erupted. I began noticing latency on my home network connection — so I booted my port sniffing software and networking tools to see what was happening. What I found was foundation shaking. The two images below show graphical depictions of what has and IS trying to connect to my computer even in an idle state'."
Regrowing Lost Body Parts Getting Closer All the Time 210
[TheBORG] writes "There are two stories on Yahoo! News about regrowing lost body parts. One is about regrowing lost fingers & limbs and the other one is about regrowing teeth. The story about regrowing lost fingers and limbs talks about the experimental use of powdered pig bladder to regrow fingers and eventually lost limbs for soldiers and others in need from information that Pentagon-funded scientists hopefully learn from studying the salamander. The story about regrowing teeth talks about how Japanese scientists used primitive cells and injected them into a framework of collagen. Once grown to a certain point, scientists implanted the growths into mice where the teeth developed normally."
More A's, More Pay 366
theodp writes "Little slashdotters may find teacher a tad more upset when they screw up on a test. The Dept. of Education just launched the first federal program that uses bonuses to motivate teachers who raise test scores in at-risk communities, awarding $42M this month to 16 school systems. Any fears that teachers might cook the books to score a typical $5,000 payoff? Not to worry, says Chicago's school chief, there are statistical analyses in place that spot testing irregularities, presumably better at catching Cheaters than those used in the past."
Journal Journal: Advertisers reading slashdot?
This is a screengrab of an actual advertisement in Yahoo! movies.
Coincidence?
Fluke?
I did replace my zip code with 'KGB's Soviet Russia,' but that is the only thing I altered.
Journal Journal: Sealab 2021
Sealab is beginning its second season, but the fan art just hasn't quite arrived yet, not like it has for Space Ghost and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I'm doing what I can, though, and I'm sure there are others out there.
If you do not know anything about the programs I just mentioned I highly reccomend taking a look in your favorite search engine or cable TV listings. Sealab is all I watch.
