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IBM

IBM Won't Open-Source OS/2 394

Posted by kdawson from the big-blue-meanies dept.
wikinerd writes "Following an online petition in November 2007 by members of an OS/2 online community to open-source OS/2, IBM answered by sending a letter via FedEx making it clear that OS/2 is going to remain closed-source, citing business, technical, and legal reasons. An earlier petition in 2005 that had attracted over 11,000 signatures met a similar response. Both petition letters to IBM Corp. can be viewed at the OS2World.com library. The End of Support period for OS/2 passed by in December 2006, and the given IBM's response the future for OS/2 doesn't look bright, unless re-implementation projects such as Voyager or osFree attract the necessary critical mass of operating system developers."
Networking

How Would You Make a Distributed Office System? 218

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the ip-over-avian-carriers dept.
Necrotica writes "I work for a financial company which went through a server consolidation project approximately six years ago, thanks to a wonderful suggestion by our outsourcing partner. Although originally hailed as an excellent cost cutting measure, management has finally realized that martyring the network performance of 1000+ employees in 100 remote field offices wasn't such a great idea afterall. We're now looking at various solutions to help optimize WAN performance. Dedicated servers for each field office is out of the question, due to the price gouging of our outsourcing partner. Wide area file services (WAFS) look like a good solution, but they don't address other problems, such as authenticating over a WAN, print queues, etc. 'Branch office in a box' appliances look ideal, but they don't implement WAFS. So what have your companies done to move the data and network services closer to the users, while keeping costs down to a minimum?"
Media

Interview with AT&T on BitTorrent Filtering 179

Posted by CmdrTaco from the please-hammer-don't-hurt-em dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Slyck is running an interview with AT&T's Vice President of Legal Affairs, Jim Cicconi. AT&T discusses the latest in their effort to filter, however one interesting point tends to show they aren't moving anywhere until they discuss this with their customers. "We hear from our customers directly and indirectly. It's a very competitive business, ravenously so. I think our company is very, very sensitive to customer attitude — we have to consider this," Jim Cicconi told Slyck.com."
Internet Explorer

Microsoft to Force IE7 Update on February 12th 480

Posted by Zonk from the they-know-best dept.
Z80xxc! writes "InfoWorld is reporting that on February 12th, Microsoft will roll out Internet Explorer 7 through Windows Server Update Services to all systems - regardless of whether or not the update had been requested previously. The piece also mentions ways to prevent the update from occurring, for sysadmins who do not want to use IE7 on their systems. Microsoft claims that the decision was made due to 'security concerns'."
Java

Submission + - Interview - James Gosling, father of Java

Submitted by Minaloush
Minaloush writes: Interesting Q&A with Sun's James Gosling on silicon.com. The father of Java field questions on the GPL, security, the role of Java in the enterprise — and even reveals his — albeit limited — views on Windows Vista ("I tend to stay away from Microsoft [software] because it tends to be so toxic").

From the article:
If you come up with a good software development tool, that makes life easier for the developers and they can get their job done quicker, then the first thing the manager says is 'oh you've got free time on your hands. Do this extra thing'.
Space

Submission + - Magnetic 'elephant trunk' sucks up lunar soil

Submitted by lunar_elephant
lunar_elephant writes: A flexible trunk with magnetic coils spaced along its length has been built to suck up moon dust by University of Tennessee researchers. It's an alternative to using conventional technology for construction or mineral mining that would throw up huge plumes of moon dust. Because lunar soil particles contain a lot of iron, the magnetic field produced by the coils will suck the soil into the tube and whisk it along its length.
Programming

Submission + - Writing Ajax applications in real Java

Submitted by
jole
jole writes: "Creating cross-browser Ajax user interfaces is tough if your application is non-trivial. Googles solution (GWT) is to write in Java, convert to javascript and run on browser. IT Mill released today their competing Toolkit that allows you to write applications in (real) Java, run them on server and use them with almost any Ajax compatible browser."
Movies

Submission + - Amateurs put Lucas to shame

Submitted by shaitand
shaitand writes: A couple of Amateurs have put together a 10 minute light saber duel that puts anything found in the movies to shame. When I heard this I didn't believe it but seeing is believing.
Wii

Submission + - Questions Raised About Wii Health Research

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: A study claiming that kids playing Wii burn 40% more calories compared to time spent gaming with conventional controls was recently announced in a Nintendo press release. Now it's been revealed that the study was commissioned by Nintendo, a fact omitted from the press release, and was actually nothing more than a feasibility study based on 45 minutes play of Wii Sports. It's a shame, because these omissions mark the card of this otherwise very interesting study.
Communications

Submission + - New Clues to E-Mail Misbehavior

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "The New York Times (should not require a log in) says there are several psychological factors that lead to online disinhibition: the anonymity of a Web pseudonym; invisibility to others; the time lag between sending an e-mail message and getting feedback; the exaggerated sense of self from being alone; and the lack of any online authority figure. Dr. Suler notes that disinhibition can be either benign — when a shy person feels free to open up online — or toxic, as in flaming. The emerging field of social neuroscience, the study of what goes on in the brains and bodies of two interacting people, offers clues into the neural mechanics behind flaming... Seen on Blue's News."
Space

Submission + - We are all going to die! (but not until 2036)

Submitted by
TurdTapper
TurdTapper writes: "April 13th, 2036 to be precise.

An asteroid, named Apophis, has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking the earth in 2036. And a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said the U.N. should assume responsibility for saving us from asteroids.

With a name like Apophis, shouldn't we be looking to SG-1 instead of the U.N.?"

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