Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Old IBM XT (Score 1) 498

by ink (#34673086) Attached to: What's the Oldest File You Can Restore?

I recently recovered my grandmother's IBM XT data. She had hundreds of WordPerfect and Personal Ancestry files -- all on an MFM 4MB hard disk. I was able to get the image off after booting it up with an old monitor, and I made a DosBox image for it so that my dad/aunt/uncles could double-click and run all her stuff. My father was upset because I sent the link out to everyone before he had a chance to go through it for "personal" data that he would then presumably keep from everyone else. I doubt she cares, though.
Open Source

Submission + - Oracle Sends Hudson Up the River (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Brian Proffitt is blogging about (yet another) stupid open source move by Oracle. The twist: Oracle is actually fighting to keep the Hudson software project hosted on Java.net. In fact, Oracle has threatened that switching the Hudson code repositories over to GitHub, as the Hudson team had planned, would be considered a fork. 'Wanting to move a project away from its hosting infrastructure doesn't in any way mean developers want to fork it' says Proffitt. 'Now the Hudson team finds themselves trying to figure out what the heck to do next.'
Censorship

Submission + - Amazon.com Evicts Wikileaks. Who's Next?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Facing pressure from Sen. Joe Lieberman in the early days of the holiday shopping season, Amazon.com has 'ceased to host' the WikiLeaks website following inquiries by Lieberman's staff. 'But why stop there?,' asks Valleywag's Ryan Tate. 'There's all kinds of controversial customers the cowardly but remarkably convenient e-tailer can flee from.' The NY Times, for example, an Amazon Kindle partner, went out of its way to get early access to the confidential diplomatic cables obtained by sometime partner Wikileaks, and published much of the info they contained, which some would argue violated the Espionage Act. So, will Amazon evict the Times from the Kindle? Or perhaps wipe the offending info remotely, George Orwell style, as Amazon has proven it's capable of doing? How about the Guardian? The Washington Post? Meanwhile, just a month ago, Amazon was content to sell 'A Pedophile's Guide,' defending that title thusly: 'Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.' Looks like the same high-minded ideals don't necessarily apply to actual relevant information about government behaving badly.
News

Submission + - TV Shack shut down, again... (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by RangerArch
RangerArch writes: The Fed has once again brought down a site for copyrighted content. TV Shack, which was taken down back in July, quickly resurfaced on some Australian servers under a .cc domain. However, the company which manages that domain is based in the USA, and once again TV Shack has been put down. How long will it last? Likely not long, TV Shack recovered within a few days the last time, rumor has it this next incarnation will be a .es domain. It is quite clear that even without a bill like COICA, many judges will sick the police on infringing websites. Lets all hope it at least stays in due process.
Linux

Submission + - Adobe Flash 10.2 Brings GPU Acceleration To Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mac OS X and Windows users have already had GPU video acceleration with Adobe's Flash plug-in, but now Linux users can have in on this support too. Adobe has released Flash 10.2 beta and it introduces Stage Video for complete video acceleration across all supported operating systems, faster Internet Explorer rendering, text improvements, and proper multi-monitor support. The Stage Video support on Linux is implemented with OpenGL and NVIDIA VDPAU. Phoronix tests of this new Flash plug-in show the CPU usage now dropping sharply when playing 1080p H.264 content on a netbook.

Submission + - Wikileaks competitor in the works (spiegel.de)

Submitted by airfoobar
airfoobar writes: From TFA "A group of former members of WikiLeaks is planning to launch its own whistleblowing platform in mid-December, according to a German newspaper. The activists criticize WikiLeaks for concentrating too much on the US and want to take a broader approach."

In a capitalist world, competition makes perfect.
Ubuntu

Submission + - Preview: Ubuntu's Unity Interface (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: In late October we learned that starting with the next release (11.04), Ubuntu would use Unity instead of GNOME as its default desktop interface. Now we know a bit more about what that will (and won't) mean for users. The move to Unity doesn't mean that Ubuntu is abandoning GNOME. It also doesn't mean that users will be forced to use Unity; they'll still be able to revert to the old GNOME interface. What it does mean, mainly, is that users will be presented with a simple interface — probably too simple for nuts and bolts types. The more 'radical shift' will be switching Ubuntu's base graphics system from the X Window System to Wayland. There users can expect that it will take some time before things are in working order. 'In other words,' says Steven Vaughan-Nichols who reviewed Unity for ITworld, 'Wayland will be an option, and one that only people who don't mind having their desktops blow up on a regular basis should fool with, in Ubuntu 11.04. By Ubuntu 11.10, it will be workable, and come the spring release two years from now, Ubuntu 12.04, we should, if all goes well, see a stable Wayland-based Unity desktop.'

Submission + - Samuel T. Cohen, Neutron Bomb Inventor, Dead at 89

Submitted by
bgood
bgood writes: "Samuel T. Cohen, inventor of the neutron bomb, a small tactical nuclear weapon, died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 89. The neutron bomb was controversial due to its design, which was meant to kill enemy troops with subatomic particles but leave battlefields and cities relatively intact. From the NYTimes.com article:

While doubters questioned the usefulness, logic and ethics of killing people and sparing property, Mr. Cohen called his bomb a “sane” and “moral” weapon that could limit death, destruction and radioactive contamination, killing combatants while leaving civilians and towns unscathed. He insisted that many critics misunderstood or purposely misrepresented his ideas for political, economic or mercenary reasons.

"

Submission + - What is a good "Personal" Version Control system? 1

Submitted by StonyCreekBare
StonyCreekBare writes: I maintain a number of documents, spreadsheets, and some small programs for personal use. Years ago I used a version control software system to track such things in my professional world. Lately I have been itching to move to some sort of a version control system to keep the various files better organized and track my changes in my personal world. I started looking at various systems available such as Subversion, and while it would definitely do the job, it seems a bit like using an elephant gun to swat a fly. I want something simpler, with less of a learning curb, that is suited for a single user, with a small number of files, in various formats. I mainly mean Spreadsheets, Doc files, and text files. Do Slashdot users have a smaller simpler solution they recommend?

Submission + - Moscow's bid to blow up Wikileaks (thedailybeast.com) 1

Submitted by mark72005
mark72005 writes: National-security officials say that the National Security Agency, the U.S. government's eavesdropping agency, has already picked up tell-tale electronic evidence that WikiLeaks is under close surveillance by the Russian FSB, that country's domestic spy network, out of fear in Moscow that WikiLeaks is prepared to release damaging personal information about Kremlin leaders. "We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far, and it's been frustrating," a U.S. law-enforcement official tells The Daily Beast. "The Russians play by different rules."
Science

Submission + - Super-Earth with a Steam Atmosphere? (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Last year, astronomers discovered a remarkable planet orbiting another star: it has a mass and radius that puts it in the "super-Earth" category — meaning it’s more like the Earth than a giant Jupiter-like planet. Today, it has been announced that astronomers have been able to analyze the atmosphere of the planet (the very first time this has ever been accomplished for a super-Earth), and what they found is astonishing: the air of the planet is either shrouded in thick haze, or it’s loaded with water vapor in other words, steam!"
Space

Submission + - Scientists Find 200 Sextillion More Stars (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: A study suggests the universe could have triple the number of stars scientists previously calculated. For those of you counting at home, the new estimate is 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's 300 sextillion. The study questions a key assumption that astronomers often use: that most galaxies have the same properties as our Milky Way. And that's creating a bit of a stink among astronomers who want a more orderly cosmos, said astronomer Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology. Van Dokkum's paper challenges the assumption of "a more orderly universe" and gives credence to "the idea that the universe is more complicated than we think," Ellis said. "It's a little alarmist." Ellis said it is too early to tell if van Dokkum is right or wrong, but it is shaking up the field "like a cat among pigeons." Van Dokkum agreed, saying, "Frankly, it's a big pain."

Slashdot Top Deals

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. -- Thomas Jefferson

Close