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Networking

Submission + - Controversy threatens 100G Ethernet work (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A debate within the IEEE threatens to stall work on a 100Gbps Ethernet standard and the very existence of the working group defining it. Participants in the Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) within the IEEE are divided on whether to include 40G Ethernet as part of their charter or stay the course with 100G. Proponents for 40G argue that it is a necessary, simple and cost-effective step that has broad market potential; opponents say it will unnecessarily bog down progress on 100G which, they claim, also has broad market potential addressing different applications — aggregation and long-haul vs. server interconnect. Seven months ago, HSSG's focus seemed like a done deal. But in January, 40G proponents became more vocal. Now, the integrity of HSSG itself is threatened by the row. The group's future hinges on a meeting next month in San Francisco where HSSG leaders will attempt to build consensus among members on the 40G/100G issue. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/061407-100g- standards-work.html"
Unix

Submission + - SDF Public Access Unix System Turns 20 (lonestar.org)

Submitted by Eileen
Eileen writes: Remember those days when you could get a free Unix shell account and learn all about the command line? You still can at the Super Dimension Fortress (SDF). SDF is celebrating its 20th birthday on June 16.

Full press release text:
The SDF Public Access UNIX System Celebrates 20 Years!
http://sdf.lonestar.org


It was on June 16th, 1987 that the SDF-1 received its first caller at 300bps. This little Apple ][e BBS of the late 80s turned into a Public Access UNIX System with the demise of "killer.dallas.tx.us" during the "Operation Sundevil" raids. Since then it has grown to become the oldest and largest continually operating PUBNIX on the planet.

Over the years SDF has been a home to 2+ million people from all over the world and has been supported by donations and membership dues. SDFers pride themselves on the fact that theirs is one of the last bastions of "the real INTERNET", out of the reach and scope of the commercialism and advertising of the DOT COM entities. It is a proponent of SMTP greylisting as opposed to content filtering and offers that as an option to its members.

While access to basic services are free to everyone, lifetime membership can be obtained for a mere onetime donation of $36. And it is the members who decide which programs and features are available. The members communicate via a web free, google inaccessible, text bulletin board ('bboard') as well as an interactive chat ('com') where users battle each other in the integrated netris matches. The interface of these programs harks back to the days when TOPS-20 CMD J-SYS ruled the ARPANET.

SDF has also become home to well known hackers such as Bill Gosper, Tom Ellard (Severed Heads), Geoff Goodfellow, Carolyn Meinel and Ezra Buchla, son of the father of the Synthesizer. From this pool of talent you might expect more than just computing, and you'd be correct. An annual music compilation is published featuring original music ranging from electronic noise to improvised piano sonatinas. Gosper's puzzles which he has cut at his favorite laser shop are frequently given away as membership perks or through fundraising raffles.

There are always classes being taught on SDF as well, where instructors and students enjoy free access to the latest teaching and programming tools. Instructors manage their own classes in such a way as not to be encumbered by their own school's outdated utilities or computer security restrictions, which can hamper the learning process.

And where else would you expect to be able to locally dialup at 1200bps from just about anywhere in the USA and Canada with a Commodore 64 and get a login prompt? SDF! As well as direct login, SDF offers PPP and PPPoE via analogue dialup (1200bps — 56kbps), ISDN and DSL. Members also have access to the SDF VPN (Virtual Private Network) and Dynamic Domain Name Service.

One of the many interesting and esoteric aspects of life on the SDF-1 is GOPHER. All users have access to their own GOPHER space and a number of them continue to find it a useful way to share text and data. And if you don't want to relive that past, SDF's 'motd.org' project offers a collaboration amongst members to share source and security tweaks for the latest wikis, web forums, photo galleries and blogs.

SDF runs NetBSD on a cluster of 12 DEC alphas with 3 BGP'ed T1s linking it to the INTERNET. It is an annual supporter of the NetBSD foundation and the Computer History Museum (CA). One of its original incarnations, an AT&T 3B2/500, is displayed annually at the Vintage Computer Festival.
Censorship

Submission + - Church of England Chastises Sony (physorg.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The game "Resistance: Fall of Man" has been called sick & sacreligious by the Church of England due to a point in the game in which rival gunmen kill hundreds inside Manchester cathedral. The Church of England said that Sony did not ask for permission to use the cathedral in their game and demanded an apology. The bishop of Manchester is quoted as saying, "It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem. For a global manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photorealistic quality and then encourage people to have gunbattles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible." A representative for Sony said a formal letter of apology will be sent Monday."
Toys

Submission + - iGoatse: The Goatse-themed iPod (gearfuse.com)

Submitted by
bob82
bob82 writes: "If you are as deep into internet culture as most people reading this, than you have probably seen the horrendous Goatse photo (let's just say it involves a man and his beloved anus). This imaginative, yet disturbing iPod case uses that cultural repulsion and creates the iGoatse. A Goatse theme for your iPod."
Linux Business

Submission + - Bank switches 12000 desktops to Linux (tectonic.co.za)

Submitted by
rpc1980
rpc1980 writes: "Following recent reports of a South African bank eyeing out Linux, Novell South Africa today issued a statement in which it said it had reached an agreement with First National Bank of South Africa to standardise the bank's 12 000 desktops in its 680 retail branches on Novell's Linux product."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Emacs 22 released (gnu.org)

Submitted by the Atomic Rabbit
the Atomic Rabbit writes: After six years of development, version 22.1 of GNU Emacs has been released. Richard Stallman's release announcement can be viewed here. The complete list of changes in this major release are documented in the NEWS file, which contains more than five thousand lines; highlights include GTK+ support, enhanced mouse support, a new keyboard macro system, improved Unicode support, and new packages including a graphical user interface to GDB, Python mode, and the Tramp remote-file editing system. As usual, the Antinews section of the Emacs manual provides information on downgrading to Emacs 21 for the benefit of "those users who live backwards in time". The Emacs 22.1 source tarball can be downloaded from the GNU FTP site, or one of its mirrors. The difficulties encountered during the development of Emacs 22 have previously been discussed on Slashdot and lwn.net.
Software

Submission + - Wiimote controlled SCM

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: So far we have seen PC games controlled by the "wiimote" (the wii remote), the wiimote emulating a PC mouse, playing drums and a huge amount of totally useless stuff.

But, what I've found today really goes further. Who would ever use a wiimote in his daily job?

Well, it seems these folks think someone is going to ever use a wii remote to control their "cool" (in their words, I would say pointless) version tree.

Here is the full story
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - LOLCODE: scripting code for a new generation

Submitted by
Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed writes: " LOLCODE is a new scripting language being designed to more closely match current trends in language grammar and syntax; LOLCODE will likely appeal to a new generation of web coders.

LOLCODE features keywords like these: can-has, gimmeh, hai, i-has-a, im-in-yr, im-outta-yr, kthxbye and
visible. My favourite example:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
GIMMEH VAR
IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10 O RLY?
        YA RLY
                BTW this is true
                VISIBLE "BIG NUMBER!"
        NO WAI
                BTW this is false
                VISIBLE "LITTLE NUMBER!"
        KTHX
KTHXBYE"
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Starcraft: Ghost pre-order on BestBuy.com

Submitted by Van in SLO
Van in SLO writes: In the midst of all of the interest in the announcement of Starcraft II and the general sentiments of dissatisfaction with Best Buy, it's interesting to note that a search of the BestBuy.com website reveals that they are still taking pre-orders for Starcraft: Ghost, a console game that Blizzard put on indefinite hold (and many believe effectively cancelled) over a year ago. The most interesting thing is the listed release date of 6/15/07. Is this just a lack of effort on the part of Best Buy, or are they trying to collect on a product that may never be delivered? I leave that for you to determine.
Programming

Submission + - XBMC recruiting developers for Linux port

Submitted by
pike
pike writes: "XBMC recruiting developers for Linux port
Help wanted: As you may or may not have heard, a few developers on Team-XBMC have begun the porting of XBMC to Linux and OpenGL using the SDL toolkit. The goal is for this to become a full port of XBMC containing all the features and functions available on the Xbox version of XBMC. This is a huge task which is why we are making this public request, seeking C/C++ programmers to volunteer in assisting us with this Linux porting development project. Whether you have contributed to The XBMC Project in the past or not, please consider doing so now. Those of you who are completely unfamiliar with XBMC can get a good overview of what XBMC offers for its end-users by reading through the XBMC article on wikipedia.org.

The XBMC code structure uses a fairly modular design (with libraries and DLLs), and we think that there are enough modules/libraries to keep a wide skill-level range of developers busy in the porting of them all. So please, take a look at the source code, then with the help of our Linux port To-Do list assess where the porting stage is today and see if there's any areas you'd be willing to help out. Note that we are not abandoning the Xbox hardware — XBMC will be a cross-platform software application, supporting both the Xbox and normal computers, (the 'old' Xbox still have a good amount of years to live we hope). Developers who would like to volunteer should read the Linux porting development project article in our WIKI for more detailed information:
http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/?title=Linux_p ort_project

Note to all end-users! Please understand that this Linux port project is not yet mature enough for you as an end-user to play with, no media can even be played back yet. We can not yet give you an ETA as to when it will be useful for end-users. Respect that we can not accept any bug-reports or feature/function-requests for this Linux port yet.

XBMC-Forum developers discussion: XBMC recruiting developers for Linux port
XBMC-Forum end-user discussion on Linux port: XBMC Linux port questions...
XBMC official web-site: www.xboxmediacenter.com (wiki-manual and FAQ)"
Education

Submission + - Edutainment in the CS department?

Submitted by
rustcycle
rustcycle writes: "In a recent ArsTechnica article it was discussed that universities may be trying to make CS more sexy with hands-on experiences including robotics projects in order to maintain enrollment levels. A while back slashdot touched on the GMI (Games and Media Integration) degree my university will be offering that may bring in a more diverse (perhaps more artistic?) CS student base. Along these lines of helping students to explore creative and engaging applications for their CS theory, I've been itching to do some mixed lecture / performance events in which I would describe the 3D geometry generation, image processing, genetic algorithms, and other mechanisms behind the animated music-driven visuals created for my MS CS thesis "Aesthetic Emergence in Synesthetic Sculptures" — then "demo" the software by playing a set with my band, displaying the evolved visual ambiance on twin 42" 1080p HD LCDs. Where we once had "edutainment" games in grade school, is it now appropriate to have edutainment lectures at the university in order to keep students excited about CS?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft announces CLR will be cross-platform

Submitted by
axlrosen
axlrosen writes: "The biggest Mix '07 announcement made on opening day of this week's show was one that Microsoft didn't call out in any of its own press releases: Microsoft is making a version of its Common Language Runtime (CLR) available cross-platform. The CLR is the heart of Microsoft's .Net Framework programming model. So, by association, the .Net Framework isn't just for Windows any more.

More here."

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