Submission + - Nokia 810 Revealed
saintlupus writes: Nokia has announced the N810 Internet Tablet, the successor to the N770 and N800 models. More details here and here.
Submission + - Sony cuts prices on PS3
An anonymous reader writes: Sony has announced price cuts on the high-end model, and also is introducing a new low-end model in the US($399). The new model has lost the ability to play PlayStation 2 games, a decision based on the "extensive" lineup of PlayStation 3 games. The 80GB model, which retains backward compatibility, will now retail for $499.
Submission + - Palm Foleo cancelled
garyebickford writes: "Palm has just sent out a letter to its newsletter list, announcing the cancellation of the Foleo. The notice is also posted to their Blog.
According to the email, 'Foleo II' will be based on the new platform (which I surmise is the Linux based PDA platform) They also say that this cancellation will cause a $10 million charge-off — 'a lot of money, but less than the costs of supporting two platforms', and offer both thanks and apologies to developers and potential customers.""As many of you are aware, we are in the process of building our next generation software platform. We are very excited about how this is coming together. It has a modern, flexible UI, instant performance, and an incredibly simple and elegant development environment. We are working hard on this platform and on the first smartphones that will take advantage of it. In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts. To that end, and after careful deliberation, I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration and focus all our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market. We will, of course, continue to deliver products in partnership with Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform, but from our internal platform development perspective, we will focus on only one."
Submission + - AMD 2GB R600-Based Pro Graphics Card Emerges (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: "Images have emerged of the first ATI R600-based graphics card to sport 2GB of
frame buffer memory. The
Diamond Multimedia VFX 2000 shown here is based on AMD's ATI R600 GPU, but
the card's PCB and firmware has been modified from the standard HD 2900 XT reference design
to support the workstation-class features inherent to the FireGL line of
professional graphics cards. GPU and RAM frequencies were not available, but
word is the
VFX 2000 will likely be similar to ATI's high-end FireGL V8650 only a lot
less expensive."
Submission + - Polands vote on OOXML: yes
An anonymous reader writes: According to PKN Polish decision is "approval with comments":
"approval with comments" — 17 votes
"abstain" — 3 votes
"disapprove" — 0 votes
Here's the official site (in polish):
http://www.pkn.pl/index.php?pid=dis29500&cid=1
"approval with comments" — 17 votes
"abstain" — 3 votes
"disapprove" — 0 votes
Here's the official site (in polish):
http://www.pkn.pl/index.php?pid=dis29500&cid=1
Submission + - Betcha.com beats US ban on Online Gambling? (zeropaid.com)
Jared writes: "Bills itself as the world's first "honor-based betting platform" that connects people "who like to bet" and likens the site to "gentleman's bets," calling it "betting," not "gambling. Betcha.com claims that it's a legal service under the premise that bettors are allowed to welch on their bets, meaning that there's no gambling actually taking place. Users are given an eBay-style rating based on whether or not they pay up after losing a bet.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8859/P2P+Betting%3F+B etcha.com+Exploits+Loophole+in+US+Online+Gambling+ Law"
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8859/P2P+Betting%3F+
Submission + - DARPA Urban Challenge
saldate writes: I was surprised that this was overlooked by Slashdot readers, I found it to be pretty cool and somewhat inspiring. The DARPA Urban Challenge (think of it as DARPA Grand Challenge v2.0) is pushing autonomous automotive travel to the next stage of development, the urban zone. Obviously, the initial target of the project is aimed at military application, but simultaneously paves the way for commercial use. Have a look at the video and articles below:
Video:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/ a/2007/06/15/BUROBOCARTEST15.DTL&o=0
Articles:
http://origin.mercurynews.com/news/ci_6147098?ncli ck_check=1
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/06/how_stanford s_r.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/technology/15rob ot.html?_r=1&em&ex=1182052800&en=5ff9a120cd2b0a2d& ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6191180.html
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/15/stanfords-junio r-volkswagen-passes-first-darpa-test/
http://news.com.com/2300-11394_3-6191150-1.html
Video:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c
Articles:
http://origin.mercurynews.com/news/ci_6147098?ncl
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/06/how_stanfor
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/technology/15ro
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6191180.html
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/15/stanfords-juni
http://news.com.com/2300-11394_3-6191150-1.html
Submission + - Genetically Engineered Maize Is Toxic
gandracu writes: It appears that a variety of Genetically Engineered maze produced by Monsanto is toxic for the liver and kidneys. What's worse, Monsanto knew about it, but tried to conceal the facts in its own publications. Greenpeace had to fight in court to obtain the incriminatory data and had it analyzed by a team of experts. MON863, the variety of GE maze in question, has been authorised for markets in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, the Phillipines, and USA, besides the EU. Here is a link[PDF] to Greenpeace's brief on the study, and here is their account[PDF] of how the story was unearthed.
Submission + - Texas Opens the Door for Linux
whurley writes: "State Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) has filed a bill designed to decrease expenditures on computing in the Texas state government. Recognizing that the State's procurement process requires bidding which favors proprietary software, SB 1579 opens the door to cost savings through exploitation of efficient technologies unavailable in the past. Senator Carona said his practical and innovative proposal was recommended by a constituent in private industry. One of the quotes from the Senator is "Through the implementation of Open Source Software we may lower our information technology costs, increase the reliability and security of our systems, improve service to citizens and produce much needed economic opportunities." Is Texas (or the government in general) finally getting smarter about open source?"
Submission + - What do you do when you can't afford a SAN?
An anonymous reader writes: What's the next best solution to having a full SAN setup for central data storage? Setting up an enterprise level SAN is so expensive that the company I work for wants to know what other solutions there are to this situation. NAS is cool for at home, but would it work for a high trafficked website? I don't know of any self contained NAS solutions that offer data redundancy. The only way I can think of to get that would be to have an actual server with RAID set up on the disks. I have searched the web, reading white papers and other material, but I would like to hear from the horse's mouth what works best and is easiest to set up. One thing to keep in mind, and I know many /. readers will not like this but, we are in a Windows environment, and the gears that turn will not be able to change this.
Submission + - Gnome 2.18 released
Anonymous Coward writes: "Gnome 2.18 has been released on time. The new Gnome boasts "personal security integrated into the desktop", improved l10n/i18n including a full Arabic translation, and a new developer suite with Glade and Devhelp — read the full release notes for more. live demos available for those who want to try."
Submission + - Cassini Returns Amazing New Imagery from Saturn
SeaDour writes: The Cassini spacecraft has recently entered a highly-inclined orbit around Saturn, revealing some never-before-seen images of the planet's ring system as seen from above and below the planet. "Finally, here are the views that we've waited years for," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute. "Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we've never seen before. It just doesn't look like the same place. It's so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo." The spacecraft will eventually return to its standard orbit parallel to the ring plane in late June.
Submission + - Blu-Ray DVD player to be as cheap as $299?
Jake writes: "Powered by the launch of the PlayStation 3 game system, sales of Sony Blu-ray titles have surpassed Toshiba HD DVDs.
Tracking of sales on Nielsen VideoScan, as well as eproductwars.com, show Blu-ray titles are significantly outpacing the rival format.
Blu-ray DVDs accounted for a 65 percent share of the market for the week ended Feb. 18, according to data from Nielsen. That marks a reversal from late November, when HD-DVD accounted for 63 percent of sales.
Similarly, of the top 10 titles currently available in the formats on Amazon.com, Blu-ray titles averaged a sales rank of 246, while HD DVD titles averaged 763 earlier this week.
Blu-ray started outpacing HD-DVD on a few of the key eproductwars.com charts on Jan. 15, said Tony Small, founder of the site.
"By the end of January, [Blu-ray was] taking the lead consistently on nearly all of them," he said.
HD DVD players hit the market several months before their competitor last year and their titles have led sales figures throughout the year. But Sony bundled Blu-ray into its PS3 game system, which has shipped about 700,000 units in North America since its November release. Blu-ray sales surpassed HD DVD the week after Christmas, according to Nielsen, which does not break out exact sales figures of the discs.
Sony and Toshiba have been widely criticized for the format battle, which analysts say has stymied the home video market and caused consumer frustration and confusion. Sony, in particular, has been cited for overpricing its Blu-ray-bundled PS3 system.
Some companies recently have sought to sidestep the battle by selling dual-format DVDs and players.
On Monday, Sony Electronics President and Chief Operating Officer Stan Glasgow said the company will drop prices on its Blu-ray players significantly this year, possibly as low as $299, which could give Sony an even greater edge in the format war. Currently Blu-ray players retail for $999, compared with HD-DVD players, which retail for $499.
If the Prices do drop that low I wounder if it will have an effect on the PS3. We will just have to wait and see."
Submission + - Decryption Keys for HD-DVD found, confirmed
kad77 writes: It appears 'muslix64' was the real deal, despite skepticism. Through a riddle posted here: http://pastebin.com/853659 members on the doom9 forum identified the Title key for the HD-DVD release 'Serenity'. Volume Unique Keys and Title keys for other discs followed within hours, confirming that software HD-DVD players, like any common program, store important run-time data in memory. Round One has been won for the Fair Use crowd, how will the industry respond?
Links to decryption utility and sleuthing info in original doom9 forum thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119871
Submission + - Java Generics and Collections
andrew cooke writes: "Java Generics and Collections
Java 6 was recently released, but many programmers are still exploring the features introduced in Java 5 — probably the most significant changes in the language's twelve year history. Amongst those changes (enumerations, auto-boxing, foreach, varargs) generics was the most far-reaching, introducing generic programming in a simpler, safer way than C++ templates and, unlike generics in C#, maintaining backwards (and forwards) compatibility with existing Java code.
Given the history of Generic Java, Naftalin and Wadler's Java Generics and Collections has a distinguished pedigree. In this review I'll argue that this is a new classic. Background to Generics
If you're a Java programmer you've probably heard of generics, an extension to the type system that was introduced in Java 5. They give you, as a programmer, a way to write code even when you don't know exactly what classes will be used.
The obvious example is collections — the author of a List class has no idea what type of objects will be stored when the code is used.
Before generics, if you wanted to write code that handled unknown classes you had to use make use of inheritance: write the code as if it would get Objects, and then let the caller cast the result as necessary. Since casts happen at runtime any mistakes may cause a runtime error (a ClassCastException).
Generics fix this. They let you write code in which the classes are named (parameters) and the compiler can then check that the use of these class parameters is consistent in your program. So if you have a List of Foo instances you write List<Foo> and the compiler knows that when you read that list you will receive a Foo, not an Object. History
I'll get to the book in a moment, but first a little history. If you know any type theory — particularly as used in functional languages like ML and Haskell — then you'll recognise my quick description above as parametric polymorphism. You'll also know that it is incredibly useful, and wonder how Java programmers could ever have managed without it.
Which explains why Philip Wadler, one of the people responsible for Haskell, was part of a team that wrote GJ (Generic Java), one of the experimental Java mutations (others included PolyJ and Pizza) that, back in the day (late 90s) helped explore how parametric polymorphism could be added to Java, and which formed the basis for the generics introduced in Java 5.
So if you want to understand generics, Wadler is your man. Which, in turn, explains why I jumped at the chance to review O'Reilly's Java Generics and Collections, by Maurice Naftalin and Philip Wadler. The Book
This is a moderately slim book (just under 300 pages). It looks like any other O'Reilly work — the animal is an Alligator this time. It's well organised, easy to read, and has a decent index.
There's an odd discrepancy, though: Wadler is the generics Guru; this is going to be `the generics reference'; generics are sexy (in relative terms — we're talking Java here) and collections are not; the title has "Java Generics" in great big letters with "and Collections" in little tiny ones down in a corner. Yet very nearly half this book is dedicated to collections.
So in the next section I'll justify the `reference' comment above, and in the one after I'll take a look at the collections half of the book and ask to what extent it's padding. Part I — Generics
This is a great, practical read. It starts simply, introducing a range of new features in Java 5, and then builds rapidly.
If you are completely new to generics, you'll want to read slowly. Everything is here, and it's very clear and friendly, but there are not the chapters of simple, repeated examples you might find in a fatter book. Within just 30 pages you meet pretty much all of generics, including wildcards and constraints.
If that makes your head spin, don't worry. Read on. The next hundred or so pages don't introduce any new syntax, but instead discuss a wide range of related issues. The chapters on Comparisons and Bounds and Declarations contain more examples that will help clarify what generics do. And the following chapters on Evolution, Reification, and Reflection will explain exactly why.
So the first seven chapters introduce generics and then justify the implementation — any programmer that takes the time to understand this will have a very solid base in generics.
There are even some interesting ideas on how Java could have evolved differently — section 6.9 Arrays as a Deprecated Type presents a strong case for removing arrays from the language. It's a tribute to the clarity and depth of this book that the reader is able to follow detailed arguments about language design. Fascinating stuff.
The next two chapters, however, were my favourites. Effective Generics and Design Patterns give sensible, practical advice on using generics in your work, including the best explanation of <X extends Foo<X>> I've seen yet (so if you don't know what I am talking about here, read the book).
(A practical word of advice — if at all possible, use Java 6 with generics. Java 5 has a sneaky bug). Part II — Collections
This part of the book was more along O'Reilly's `Nutshell' lines: the different chapters explore different collection types in detail. I must admit that at first I skipped this — it looked like API docs re-hashed to extend the size of the book.
But then I felt bad, because I was supposed to be reviewing this book (full disclosure: if you review a book for Slashdot you get to keep it). And you know what? It turned out to be pretty interesting. I've programmed in Java for (too many) years, and I guess I've not been quite as dedicated to tracking how the library has changed as I should have been — I learnt a lot.
Again, a wide range of readers are welcome. This is more than a summary of the Javadocs, ranging from thumbnail sketches of trees and hashtables to a discussion of containers intended for multi-threaded programming.
The way I see it now, this part is a bonus: the first half, on generics, makes this book one of the standards; the second half is an extra treat I'm glad I stumbled across (I guess if you're some kind of weird collection-fetishist maybe it's even worth buying the book for). Conclusions
I've used generics since the first beta release of Java 5 and had experience with parametric polymorphism in functional languages before that (in other words, I can tell my co- from my contra-variance). So I guess I'm heading towards the more expert end of the spectrum and I was worried I'd find the book boring. It wasn't. After claiming to be expert I don't want to spoil things with evidence that I'm actually stupid, but reading this book cleared up a few `misunderstandings' I'd had. I wish I had read it earlier.
If you're new to generics, and you don't mind thinking, I recommend this book. If you're a Java programmer who's a bit confused by <? super Foo> then this is the book for you.
The only people who shouldn't read this are people new to Java. You need to go elsewhere first. This is not a book for complete beginners.
A great book in the classic — practical, concise and intelligent — O'Reilly mould."
Java 6 was recently released, but many programmers are still exploring the features introduced in Java 5 — probably the most significant changes in the language's twelve year history. Amongst those changes (enumerations, auto-boxing, foreach, varargs) generics was the most far-reaching, introducing generic programming in a simpler, safer way than C++ templates and, unlike generics in C#, maintaining backwards (and forwards) compatibility with existing Java code.
Given the history of Generic Java, Naftalin and Wadler's Java Generics and Collections has a distinguished pedigree. In this review I'll argue that this is a new classic. Background to Generics
If you're a Java programmer you've probably heard of generics, an extension to the type system that was introduced in Java 5. They give you, as a programmer, a way to write code even when you don't know exactly what classes will be used.
The obvious example is collections — the author of a List class has no idea what type of objects will be stored when the code is used.
Before generics, if you wanted to write code that handled unknown classes you had to use make use of inheritance: write the code as if it would get Objects, and then let the caller cast the result as necessary. Since casts happen at runtime any mistakes may cause a runtime error (a ClassCastException).
Generics fix this. They let you write code in which the classes are named (parameters) and the compiler can then check that the use of these class parameters is consistent in your program. So if you have a List of Foo instances you write List<Foo> and the compiler knows that when you read that list you will receive a Foo, not an Object. History
I'll get to the book in a moment, but first a little history. If you know any type theory — particularly as used in functional languages like ML and Haskell — then you'll recognise my quick description above as parametric polymorphism. You'll also know that it is incredibly useful, and wonder how Java programmers could ever have managed without it.
Which explains why Philip Wadler, one of the people responsible for Haskell, was part of a team that wrote GJ (Generic Java), one of the experimental Java mutations (others included PolyJ and Pizza) that, back in the day (late 90s) helped explore how parametric polymorphism could be added to Java, and which formed the basis for the generics introduced in Java 5.
So if you want to understand generics, Wadler is your man. Which, in turn, explains why I jumped at the chance to review O'Reilly's Java Generics and Collections, by Maurice Naftalin and Philip Wadler. The Book
This is a moderately slim book (just under 300 pages). It looks like any other O'Reilly work — the animal is an Alligator this time. It's well organised, easy to read, and has a decent index.
There's an odd discrepancy, though: Wadler is the generics Guru; this is going to be `the generics reference'; generics are sexy (in relative terms — we're talking Java here) and collections are not; the title has "Java Generics" in great big letters with "and Collections" in little tiny ones down in a corner. Yet very nearly half this book is dedicated to collections.
So in the next section I'll justify the `reference' comment above, and in the one after I'll take a look at the collections half of the book and ask to what extent it's padding. Part I — Generics
This is a great, practical read. It starts simply, introducing a range of new features in Java 5, and then builds rapidly.
If you are completely new to generics, you'll want to read slowly. Everything is here, and it's very clear and friendly, but there are not the chapters of simple, repeated examples you might find in a fatter book. Within just 30 pages you meet pretty much all of generics, including wildcards and constraints.
If that makes your head spin, don't worry. Read on. The next hundred or so pages don't introduce any new syntax, but instead discuss a wide range of related issues. The chapters on Comparisons and Bounds and Declarations contain more examples that will help clarify what generics do. And the following chapters on Evolution, Reification, and Reflection will explain exactly why.
So the first seven chapters introduce generics and then justify the implementation — any programmer that takes the time to understand this will have a very solid base in generics.
There are even some interesting ideas on how Java could have evolved differently — section 6.9 Arrays as a Deprecated Type presents a strong case for removing arrays from the language. It's a tribute to the clarity and depth of this book that the reader is able to follow detailed arguments about language design. Fascinating stuff.
The next two chapters, however, were my favourites. Effective Generics and Design Patterns give sensible, practical advice on using generics in your work, including the best explanation of <X extends Foo<X>> I've seen yet (so if you don't know what I am talking about here, read the book).
(A practical word of advice — if at all possible, use Java 6 with generics. Java 5 has a sneaky bug). Part II — Collections
This part of the book was more along O'Reilly's `Nutshell' lines: the different chapters explore different collection types in detail. I must admit that at first I skipped this — it looked like API docs re-hashed to extend the size of the book.
But then I felt bad, because I was supposed to be reviewing this book (full disclosure: if you review a book for Slashdot you get to keep it). And you know what? It turned out to be pretty interesting. I've programmed in Java for (too many) years, and I guess I've not been quite as dedicated to tracking how the library has changed as I should have been — I learnt a lot.
Again, a wide range of readers are welcome. This is more than a summary of the Javadocs, ranging from thumbnail sketches of trees and hashtables to a discussion of containers intended for multi-threaded programming.
The way I see it now, this part is a bonus: the first half, on generics, makes this book one of the standards; the second half is an extra treat I'm glad I stumbled across (I guess if you're some kind of weird collection-fetishist maybe it's even worth buying the book for). Conclusions
I've used generics since the first beta release of Java 5 and had experience with parametric polymorphism in functional languages before that (in other words, I can tell my co- from my contra-variance). So I guess I'm heading towards the more expert end of the spectrum and I was worried I'd find the book boring. It wasn't. After claiming to be expert I don't want to spoil things with evidence that I'm actually stupid, but reading this book cleared up a few `misunderstandings' I'd had. I wish I had read it earlier.
If you're new to generics, and you don't mind thinking, I recommend this book. If you're a Java programmer who's a bit confused by <? super Foo> then this is the book for you.
The only people who shouldn't read this are people new to Java. You need to go elsewhere first. This is not a book for complete beginners.
A great book in the classic — practical, concise and intelligent — O'Reilly mould."
